WOA or SOA or SO-A-WOT

Thought this was a neat snippet entitled;

WOA wins hand-down over SOA in popularity contest

I replied to the blog but upon reflection felt it was worth while adding a link here to see if anyone is inclined to comment further. I did.

To me, the aged ol' problem with SOA is not that there's anything wrong with it, but more, it really is nothing new. If anything, many people still fail to understand that SOA, like EDI or any "distance" API is really hard to implement and benefit from wide reuse. Heck, even a simple  subroutine in a piece of code on the same system is hard to reuse and more often, is copied and modified. Welcome to "legacy" application support. SOA does not change that. IMHO.

If anyone tries to convince themselves that an SOA is not going to be a legacy problem a few months or years from now, perhaps they need to re-read the techno history books. The problem has never been how hard it is to write re-usable components, the problem always is, the legacy code needed to bring those components together. There's always something else someone wants to do with a component but you can't risk breaking it so you copy it instead. And/or as soon as you break this compatibility (which is  a no-no), your break re-use.

So, is WOA any different? I think so as it really reminds me of the difference between solving the problem for the business or waiting forever for IT. You can have something that works right now or get in the back of the queue (read years) until I (maybe) write perfection. Businesses cannot wait, especially today.

At OpenSpan, we can quite literally turn any business user process into a Service and consume it from anywhere else - RIGHT NOW. It also helps IT, because they get time to do it right whilst not sacrificing what business needs - RIGHT NOW. Is that WOA?

Web 2.0 - "near its dreaded Trough of Disillusionment"

I found this article, it's implications and comments very interesting.  Good News, Bad news for Web 2.0 (Gartner's Hype Cycle). In relation to enterprise Web 2.0 I have a few points of note;

You see, I had Web 2.0 down really as primarily asynchronous communications between browser and something else ( real time events). The Web 1.0 as was, led to mostly uninteresting web pages based on the mainframe synchronous concept (fill in a form, submit and get another form (page) of results). After the mainframe came the unix/dec mid-range systems that supported asynchronous applications - Enter a field, see real-time results/validation/events - All sounds like Web 2.0 to me ;)

I love all asynchronous applications, emulation, client server or web (2.0). The concept of instant event based communications is not only great, it's for the most part, the only right way. I remember building asynchronous web applications in 1998 (using a legacy host to activex as the "broker"). It was really cool and now it's Web 2.0. What's missing now, is how to take enterprise applications to the next level with it.

 Sure with CSS/XML/DHMTL/JSCRIPT/VBSCRIPT (Ajax), you can get a web page (Web 2.0) looking good but it's a real lot of work. Did I hear someone say legacy applications were hard to support - good luck supporting web 2.0!

I can say I saw this coming - because I did - the hype description around web 2.0 is hardly surprising because it's wrapped around old thinking (The Browser legacy). New mash-up vendors are out there, competing to be the next 4GL (power builder) for the web and in my view, whomever REALLY gets that right, will have the killer Web 2.0 IDE on their hands. I can't wait, I feel someone is really really close. Will it be Adobe (Flex) or Microsoft (SilverLight).. Jackbe.. Wavemaker... We shall see. Let the fun begin.

OpenSpan has a new CEO

I am excited to announce the appointed of Eric Musser to CEO of OpenSpan. After an extensive search, we found an awesome candidate who is now at the helm to take OpenSpan to the next level. After 3 - 1/2 years as CEO of OpenSpan with an awesome team by my side, I am excited to now have Eric here. He shares the same passion as myself in the OpenSpan technology, it's customers and partners and the  markets in which we serve. His track record (see Press release to the left) is second to none and there could be no more of a perfect match for his talents here. Welcome Eric.

I am very pleased to announce also, I will be moving into the role of Chief Evangelist, where I can continue to play a major role, well yes, continuing to Evangelize our unique approach to integration. The technology over the last 3 - 1/2 years has progressed beyond even my own expectations. The real problems we are solving right now for large customers, whom have been strangled by integration problems for many years, is personally rewarding to see. There's a clear reason OpenSpan saw 440% plus growth in 2007 and already exceeding that revenue in the first half of 2008 - the product solves real pain points and the product works. That my friends, is proof beyond doubt.

So, I am very excited about the future, as now with Eric on board, I'll have more time to devote to the technology and working with our customers, prospects and partners to share our joint visions for the future of the product and the company. I look forward to blogging more too.

Virtualization - bursting the bubbles

Today apparently is the dawn of the end of XP. Microsoft no longer sells it from tomorrow.

If running your enterprise applications on Vista is giving you problems, you can always run them in a (win 2k or XP) Virtual Machine on Vista. The problem with that alone however, is that you would then have your enterprise applications running in a “Virtual bubble” and all you’d have integration wise is copy and paste (at best). Virtual bubbles are not good for inter-application communication. Not good at all.

Until now that is. OpenSpan can bridge XP and Vista environments and integrate the applications that run in each easily. Use OpenSpan to create a web service API to any of your desktop applications (including office) and from there, use OpenSpan to integrate these applications, across whatever virtual machine they run in, easily.

OpenSpan can even if you so desire, enable you to integrate Apple and Microsoft applications together using the same technique.  We have examples of Apple Mac machines directly integrating with Microsoft applications running in a virtual session on the same Mac. Pretty cool. I'll post some screen shots soon of all the above examples.

Virtualization – in my view – is game changing. And with OpenSpan… even more so.

OpenSpan Enterprise Edition 4.0

There is a revolution here now in the integration space. I promised to update you all on some dramatic new functionality in the OpenSpan platform and now it is here. Sorry for the long post, but this is one of the most important ones for me today because I am proud of what the team here has built and we are already seeing high demand for it!

We all know the vast majority of enterprise users have to have way too many applications running and visible on their desktop. The goal has always been to try and move these applications off of the desktop and out of the users view but that has not happened, it’s just too difficult because all the applications have some process/information a user needs to do their job. A recent survey sponsored by OpenSpan in fact shows that the problem is getting worse, not better. Even virtualization of client applications only moves where the application physically runs and the users themselves see no real benefits because they still have to be trained to use all aspects of the applications.

That is about to change my friends. The OpenSpan technology, as you already know has been hugely successful in breaking up and exposing desktop applications as usable services for powerful integration and automation of user workflows on the desktop. However, what is new, is that now you can take those same desktop applications, move them off of the desktop to a virtualized server (farm or grid) and expose those automations as services to any other application in the mid-tier or client architecture. The journey towards moving the multitude of applications off the desktop and out of the users view altogether, whilst providing all of the same rich functionality to the user, has finally begun.

A simple example. Imagine just one of the many workflows a user has to run through uses just 2 applications (we know there’s usually a lot more). A CRM and a provisioning application to do a password reset for a customer when they phone into customer care. Today, every user who answers the phone in the customer care center has to have those application installed, running and logged in (and be trained in) to drive to the screens/security checks to do the password reset. 

What the new OpenSpan 4.0 enterprise edition enables is for those desktop applications (and probably a lot less of them) to be installed and running on virtual machines in the enterprise, known as a Grid or Fabric or Farm of Virtual Clients (Citrix, VMware, Virtual PC). OpenSpan integrates these same desktop applications and exposes the automated business processes (in this case, the password reset) as methods through web services to be consumed by any technology that can consume a web service. 1 instance of a desktop application running on a server, could now also serve 10, 100 or more physical internal or external users depending upon load balancing and scalability. The ROI and other benefits are huge as you can imagine.

The original applications needed (CRM/Provisioning) for the password reset never need to run on the desktop again for this purpose. The user never needs to even see the applications if not necesary as the automation of that business process in now simply driven through a Web Service. That same web service could be called by a new portal application, a simple button say in a dashboard on the users desktop, or even be integrated directly into the PBX switch to enable the caller to do the reset themselves. Take the same password reset web service and call it from a consumer side web page, phone device or trigger by an automated text message. It’s the same application that’s running in all cases so you know it works, it’s just the new automated version of the business process is available to the enterprise architecture as a web service. Imagine doing this with the 5, 10 , 20 or even 100’s of business processes your users have to run today through lots of installed and running desktop applications. I think this is revolutionary. I don’t think there are many other companies doing this, if any, and certainly not with the breath of Technologies OpenSpan can integrate and automate, in an extremely robust manner. This includes Java Applications, Web Applications (with embedded Java and ActiveX or DHTML or AJAX), Lotus, Green Screen emulators, Windows Applications and yes, even DOS (and a mix of any and all of the above). If it run’s on the desktop, its highly likely OpenSpan will integrate with it out of the box and then it can be moved off of the desktop by simply and rapidly creating the integrations, automations and web services as you need them. The OpenSpan 4.0 Enterprise edition, with it’s virtual broker to manage the desktop applications in this server environment becomes the “new mainframe” of desktop applications, serving up the business functionality of robust desktop applications, as powerful web services.

Let me know what you think, we have 1000’s of use cases, what are yours? Questions? Fire away.

What float? What Bloat?

First, completely off topic (not like me eh?). Before any flight take-off, we’ve all sat and listened to the important rules of what to do in an emergency landing on water. Has anyone noticed this statement?;

“most seat cushions can be used as a floatation device”…

Shouldn’t it be “ALL seat cushions can be used as a floatation device…”. There’s only one way of knowing if you grabbed one that doesn’t float eh? Glug Glug !!

OK, so back on topic. I love my job. I get to meet some really interesting people and just as equally, I get to work with some awesome talent. For the last 3+ years (and longer in past lives), we the team at OpenSpan, have been striving to help companies solve a problem that really hasn’t been solved before.

Now there is a bold claim, OpenSpan having a unique technology that once and for all fixes a long overdue problem that effects almost every computer user. I know it’s true simply because enterprises would not put up with this huge problem if they didn’t have to. The idea that almost all users in all enterprises (Financial Services, telecommunications, Healthcare, Government the whole gambit), have to manually integrate the desktop applications they use is incredible. Billions of $dollars$ a year are wasted through users having to manually navigate through hoards of legacy application screens on their desktop. Rather than getting better, it’s actually getting worse. A new Web application is often un-integrated too and adds to the manual tasks a user has to deal with. When I first talk to enterprises, they often think they are the only organizations with 5, 10, 20 or more bloated applications that users have to deal with in any one day. Time for a wake-up call Ladies and Gentlemen – almost EVERY enterprise we talk to has the same problem. I think just maybe 2 in 100 companies we meet do not believe they have this problem. It’s an epidemic of massive proportions, of copy and paste, alt-tab, guesswork, over-training and manual processes around old and new unintegrated desktop applications.

So I say, ENOUGH. It's 2008. Let’s nail this 20+ year old problem once and for all. I love the fact that a quick demo of OpenSpan technology makes it clear to CIO’s, Business, IT, just about anyone, how easy it is to fix this problem. Your not alone, don’t be shy, the solution is here today, it works and it works fast.

Now if that sounds like an infomercial then so be it. If that’s what it takes to get people to understand that they do not have to put up with un-integrated applications any longer, then so be it. You are going to hear more loudly from me here, and in the press. We are taking a stand, to let people know, we are here with the solution, and our customers are really glad we are.

OpenSpan, Apple Mac, Virtualization and SOA (together in Harmony)

I am just about to set off on a weeks vacation and then to Europe so I thought I'd leave you with some of my musings.

So, my Apple Mac I got a couple of weeks back - I love it.

Running VMWARE on a mac is sweet. I have multiple VM machines and it truly creates a discipline of keeping "machines" loaded with software specific for those purposes so they are fast. I can honestly say, my VMWare sessions on my Mac are 2-3 times faster than my standalone Dell PC (My PC was probably more cluttered than it should have been but even so, it's incredibly responsive on the Mac).

Now what is really cool, is I have written a little Mac application that calls a Web Service that OpenSpan exposes in a VMWARE session running on the same machine. This means my "legacy" applications services can now be accessed by building portals/apps on the MAC as well as the PC - inside the same machine. Integrating virtualized applications together this way has been hard, to near impossible and this is no longer the case with OpenSpan. I'll post some screen shots in a few weeks so you can see. It's lightening fast and what it really demonstrates is that any Legacy Application is no longer tied to just one presentation interface and can be mashed up virtually anywhere. We released our OpenSpan SOA addition just a few weeks ago and the power of it in the enterprise is readily apparent. We have lived for years with limited or mostly in fact, zero API's for our desktop applications. No more. It's like legacy applications can finally come alive and participate in the new world of technologies (SOA, Web 2/3.0, Mashups, portals, virtualization). Combine that with the speed in which OpenSpan enables you to build integrations into virtually any legacy application and expose that as service, and what you have is pretty incredible. When we say our customers can be in production with solutions in weeks, we can really demonstrate it.

It's hard to get the stats but I'm willing to bet that OpenSpan now has more licensed customers than all of the desktop integration vendors combined. The number of new clients we are signing up each quarter is amazing. Well I guess it's not really amazing, we have a great product :)

We will also be announcing relationships with some of the core mash-up vendors shortly, so watch this space for that too.

On another important note before I depart on my cruise around the Caribbean in a few hours. Damon Lockwood, our VP of Development and one of the OpenSpan founders (btw - he really is a smart cookie and I have really enjoyed the pleasure of working with him now for 3+ years), has just started his own Blog at DO IT ON THE DESKTOP - The term "Do it on the Desktop" was always a funny term we bantered around now and again for Marketing but it never quite made it to the outside world - I wonder why ;) I can see the tee shirts now :)