From the Editors: Microsoft could democratize SOA

By Alan Zeichick

May 15, 2008 —

Grandiose initiatives and Microsoft rarely mesh. The resulting products often ship late and underwhelm—or they never progress far beyond the whiteboard. “Oslo” may prove the exception, because SOA software makers have successfully integrated services and modeling.

More important, Microsoft can do something that others have failed to do so far: Bring composite applications into the development mainstream.

If Microsoft meets its objectives—the Oslo wave of products arrives on schedule, delivered as promised—the “what ifs” become compelling. An enterprise does not necessarily need deep pockets to buy the Microsoft software, and lowering the bar to SOA adoption would benefit customers.

Much of the SOA infrastructure software on the market today targets large enterprises and verticals. The huge, expensive solutions offered by the big players are robust and powerful. However, not every customer needs that kind of power.

When it comes to the midtier, Microsoft understands the market quite well. Indeed, Redmond has succeeded, even though its products are not the most elegant, nor are they always the best. But Microsoft excels at removing barriers to adoption and, arguably, democratizes IT. A reasonably priced solution that a department can get to work quickly is better than one that costs too much or takes too long to implement.

Microsoft could be an 800-pound gorilla in the SOA room that would force existing players to stay a step ahead of it and differentiate to improve the state of the art. Essentially, it would force “innovate or die.”

Microsoft’s entrance into the market for SOA and model-driven development tools might even inspire open-source technology donations, contributing useful technology that would advance interoperability and provide for other low-cost, bootstrapped solutions.

That scenario is a big win for customers, especially resource-constrained enterprises that might be tightening the belt on their development budgets.

However, Microsoft first must pull itself up by its own bootstraps and finish its work. So far, the signs are encouraging. It is releasing Configuration Service 2.0 under its Prescriptive Architectural Guidance support policy, standing behind its work.

In so doing, a successful pattern emerges: Microsoft released early alphas of Silverlight and ASP.NET AJAX, engaging the development community and accepting its feedback. Both products shipped on time and pleased customers.

So, maybe Microsoft has learned its lesson about overarching initiatives, but the company’s track record on big initiatives is not encouraging. We are still waiting on WinFS.

Moving beyond ringtones and games
Handset makers are no longer content to let wireless carriers be the gatekeepers for what mobile applications can run on their phones on the carriers’ networks. As evidenced by the array of widgets and other mobile applications seen at last month’s Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, the development community is actively seeking the next killer mobile application. And it is a movement that is upending the conventional business model.

In the U.S. during the past decade or more, carriers chose which applications handset makers could offer on their phones, usually with the aim of getting the user to burn more minutes on their wireless plan. Now, with more-robust phone platforms, faster networks and a strong dose of entrepreneurship, the mobile application community is expanding.

Handset makers, like Nokia and Sony Ericsson, are nurturing developer communities and opening over-the-air marketplaces for users to download such applications as a GPS locater that finds a preferred restaurant close to where you’re walking, or a widget that plays the fight song of your favorite team to alert you when it has just scored.

The market will determine whether a subscription or advertising model works best for these new applications and how much they enhance the “stickiness” of a customer to their brand of phone.

That way, wireless carriers can concentrate on not dropping calls. Wouldn’t that be a pleasant change?

Related Search Term(s): Microsoft, mobile development, SOA & SaaS

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