Archive for SOA
by Joe McKendrick
November 25, 2009 at 1:12 pm · Filed under
Cloud Computing, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, SOA, Web 2.0
I recently was talking with David Linthicum, author of a recently published work entitled Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence in Your Enterprise: A Step-by-Step Guide, which discusses the business case for considering cloud. In talking about cloud computing, our chat moved to Web 2.0, to which Dave made the observation that many in Web 2.0 circles do not see cloud computing as part of that paradigm. Why not? Dave says to some degree there are political/turf reasons, as some Web 2.0 proponents see cloud as a threat to their established order.
Add to that the fact that cloud and Enterprise2.0/Web 2.0 (I’ll address them as one in the same for this post) address problems at different levels. Namely, cloud addresses access to IT-centric services, such as storage capacity on demand, processing capacity on demand, and infrastructure on demand. For example, one of the key business values seen with cloud is the ability to scale up applications by adding off-site processors. The “private clouds” that are now being discussed arise out of virtualization solutions deployed on top of IT systems.
In the Enterprise/Web 2.0 view of the world, this is all behind-the-scenes stuff that the IT guys worry about. Enterprise/Web 2.0 proponents talk about building communities, collaboration, and moving information more openly and efficiently across networks.
What is happening, unfortunately, is that Enterprise/Web 2.0 and cloud are becoming two separate initiatives within enterprises, when they should be very closely linked. Because the essential value that Enterprise/Web 2.0 is bringing into organizations is the ability to conduct business, connect all essential parties in transactions, and open up formerly clogged information channels is through technology services that may be once, twice, or three times removed. In other words, delivered from the cloud. Facebook and Twitter are clouds, clear and simple.
As companies move to increase social networking and collaboration across their enterprises with internal and external tools and applications, the success of Enterprise 2.0 rests on their simplicity, accessibility and usability. In other words, complexity and technology issues are abstracted away from end-users. This is also the goal of cloud computing. Perhaps, on some level, cloud computing is actually “Enterprise 2.0″ for IT managers?
by Joe McKendrick
July 3, 2009 at 4:36 pm · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, SOA, Social Computing, andrew mcafee
When Harvard’s Andrew McAfee, the spiritual leader of the Enterprise 2.0 movement, first heard the term “Web 2.0″ back in the early part of the decade, he metaphorically rolled his eyes. After all, the much-hyped dot-com economy had just imploded, and the Y2K scare turned out to be a lot of fear-mongering.
As he recounts in his new book, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization’s Toughest Challenges, his initial reaction to Web 2.0 talk was “Oh, give it a rest, would you?” He confessed that he ” wanted to spend as little time as possible investigating Web 2.0 because I was so convinced that it was nothing more than a new marketing buzzphrase invented by a vendor or member of one of the helper industries, and that it was yet another example of the tech sector’s tendency to put old wine in new bottles.”
However, exploring Wikipedia in 2005, he discovered that 2.0 was a phenomenon that had legs — and vast, untapped potential for the enterprise. McAfee states that the real opportunity behind Enterprise 2.0 isn’t the Internet, nor what the technology offers to entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, coders, or CIOs. Instead, Enterprise 2.0 holds profound promise for operational or line managers — who “have frequently been left out of IT discussions, which in my view is a serious mistake.”
The promises of Enterprise 2.0 include “significant improvements, not just incremental ones, in areas such as generating, capturing, and sharing knowledge; letting people find helpful colleagues; tapping into new sources of innovation and expertise; and harnessing the ‘wisdom of crowds,’” McAfee writes.
However, getting to Enterprise 2.0 and making it work for organizations requires high levels of commitment from management. As McAfee also points out in the book, “the benefits of Enterprise 2.0 are available to any organization. These benefits, however, are not automatic. Experience shows that it’s surprisingly difficult for people and organizations to move away from their current collaborative tools and habits and adopt new ones. Managers must involve themselves in this transition if they want it to be successful.” Many organizations, he adds, “feel that they’re currently stumbling rather than excelling” at Enterprise 2.0.”
Perhaps even the most complicated challenges — such as unraveling years of bad management decisions — could be tackled with greater collaboration, bringing all the minds of the business together.
(The first chapter Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization’s Toughest Challenges is available for free download here, with registration.)
by Joe McKendrick
June 3, 2009 at 11:02 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, SOA
We’re clearly moving to a service-oriented way of doing business. And the services businesses will increasingly rely on will originate from a number of places — they could be SOAP-based services, but they may also be mashups or REST-based services, or they may be coming from the cloud.
There are four forces converging that are changing the way services are being delivered. There’s SOA. And cloud. There’s virtualization. And Enterprise 2.0. These forces are all interrelated, and all leading to the same thing.
I just wrapped up the keynote address for ebizQ’s latest Cloud QCamp, exploring the growing convergence of SOA with cloud computing, Enterprise 2.0 and virtualization. Listen to the Webcast here.
David Bressler of Progress Software joined me in the second half of the session for his take on SOA=cloud, followed by a rousing audience Q&A session.
What’s a good word for this convergence? Dion Hinchcliffe coined a good term for it — Web Oriented Architecture. Perhaps the path to agility is through WOA, enabled by these cloud and Enterprise 2.0 services.
To wrap up the session, I proposed 10 HBIs — half-baked ideas — for the year ahead, and beyond:
- HBI #1: Less talk about “service oriented architecture” in the market — but this doesn’t mean SOA will have gone away.
- HBI #2: The new economy emerging from the downturn will drive SOA, WOA, and cloud computing in new directions — as vehicles for new business growth.
- HBI #3: The rise of the Intelligent Web — SOA, WOA and the cloud are turning business intelligence into “collaborative intelligence.”
- HBI #4: The rise of the “Loosely Coupled Business,” built on brokered or aggregated services.
- HBI #5: Computing Power “Too Cheap to Meter?” Thanks to SOA, WOA and the cloud, massive data center power is available for literally pennies.
- HBI #6: Made to order: Application vendors may begin to look more like “Dells” than “IBMs” as they become assemblers of made-to-order, pre-built software components.
- HBI #7: Opportunity knocks: Companies will seek services from third parties, providing new opportunities for smaller microbusinesses — as well as large “cloud combines.”
- HBI #8: Integration, light and simple: Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 is becoming the “Global SOA.”
- HBI #9: SOA, WOA and cloud will increase outsourcing, but outsourcing will take a new form — fewer mega-deals, more micro-outsourcing.
- HBI # 10: More business users will be building their own applications. More IT people will be involved in the business.
by Joe McKendrick
April 5, 2009 at 3:20 pm · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, Messy World, SOA, Social Computing, Social Media, User Revolution
As social media has grown within and outside of enterprises, the question of legal and regulatory liabilities for content has remained in the background. However, we may start seeing more policing by regulators and intrusion by legal departments.
According to a new report in the Financial Times, “revised guidelines on endorsements and testimonials by the Federal Trade Commission, now under review and expected to be adopted, would hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and users of social networking sites who receive samples of their products. The guidelines would also hold bloggers liable for the statements they make about products.”
A counter-argument by Richard O’Brien, vice-president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said it was premature to regulate blogs or other forms of new media. According to FT, O’Brien rote to the FTC that “regulating these developing media too soon may have a chilling effect on blogs and other forms of viral marketing, as bloggers and other viral marketers will be discouraged from publishing content for fear of being held liable for any potentially misleading claim.”
Over the past decade or so, the legal system caught up to email, which must now be managed and is treated as any other corporate record or statement. That is, companies are liable for the statements made by company representatives within email communications. Even more recently, instant messaging has fallen under the same scrutiny. Both email and IM, in fact, are construed as electronic communication. In fact, the United Nations Commission on International Trade (UNICTRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce — which serves as the basis for many national laws — defines a “data message” as “information generated, sent, received, or stored by electronic, optical, or similar means including, but not limited to, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail, telegram, telex, or telecopy.”
The UNICTRAL definition was drafted earlier in the decade, but certainly can be extended to social media. How liable will organizations be for any and all statements made by employees or representatives in blogs or social media sites? That is a question that inevitably will be hashed out — and hopefully, we can keep the lawyers from quashing the potential of the social media sphere.
In fact, a survey out of the University of Southern California last year found almost of half of organizations may be holding back on social media inittaives due to liability and legal concerns.
by Joe McKendrick
November 3, 2008 at 9:25 pm · Filed under
Blogging, Enterprise 2.0, Microsoft, SOA, SharePoint, Wikinomics, Wikis
One of the advantages Enterprise 2.0 approaches offer in many situations is the relatively low or incremental prices at which technology is made available to organizations. It looks like things will even get more affordable.
A recent report from Forrester Research predicts the Enterprise 2.0 market is about to see impending “price drops” on tools ranging from blogs to wikis to social networks. Forrester analysts cite three specific reasons for the price drops:
“Commoditization, bundling, and subsumption. Increased competition and slowing innovation means that there is less differentiation between blogging solutions. Further, many vendors, from Microsoft to Six Apart, now offer a complete, enterprise-oriented suites that bundle a mature set of essential tools, which drives down prices for individual tools and specialized solutions.”
The increasing ubiquity of SharePoint — which supports many Enterprise 2.0 features — also may help to drive down prices from many other vendors, Forrester predicts.
The only area that may see price increases is software for handling mashups, Forrester predicts. “IT departments will prioritize mashup technology as part of portal, business intelligence, and business process management software investments as well as a major component of SOA implementations.”
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