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by Joshua Greenbaum, Contributing Editor   | Abstract: | This will be the year that vendors begin to offer a robust portfolio of composite applications as well as the tools to make them. |
One of the missing ingredients in every vendor's push toward a service-oriented architecture has been sufficient proof that the concept really works. That proof could take many forms, but one of the most compelling would be a critical mass of composite applications that leverage the integration technology and plug-and-play features of service architectures. There are lots of definitions of what quantity constitutes a critical mass. Yet it's clear that by any definition there just haven't been enough composite applications -- packaged or customized -- to make the SOA dream a reality. There's a lot more that needs to take place before the collective visions of SOA, composites, and the process-driven enterprise now being promulgated by the leading enterprise software vendors really take hold. (For more on these issues, see Dave Brousell's Take 1 column) That said, I'm happy to report that 2006 will be the year of the composite application -- or at least the year when software vendors start to offer a lot of new applications that are either packaged composite applications or the tools to make them a reality. Whether customers line up to buy these applications will depend on many factors, from how functionally compelling they are to how well developed the supporting service architectures are. But, at a minimum, there's now going to be something to line up for. [Click to continue] |