Beyond providing a lower-cost infrastructure for application integration, the advent of web services lays the foundation for a slew of changes in enterprise computing that will manifest themselves during the next several years.
Most of the time it takes to gather all the resources to manufacture something into a finished good is wasted. Most of the time the finished good spends travelling from the place where it was made to the place where it is ultimately sold is wasted. Most of the time that the finished good sits on a shelf waiting to be bought is wasted. And most of the time spent resolving the transaction once the goods are sold is wasted. This means that, most of the time, business is wasting time.
For most of us, 2001 has been an odyssey we would just as soon forget, but what most people don't recognise is that 2002 is the beginning of an odyssey we can't afford to ignore.
The problem with adopting any suite of applications from a single vendor is that the decision to go with a suite means embracing a series of trade-offs. Simply put, because it's impossible for one vendor to be the best at all things, any suite of applications is likely to include elements that are second-rate compared to the best-of-breed application in any given category.
If you listen very closely you can hear the seismic rumblings across the entire enterprise software category. In order to make any suite of software work, most of these vendors built their own implementation of an application server to integrate their applications under a common set of interfaces. In terms of making applications work well together this was a very good thing, but all good things are subject to change.
In good times or bad times, it's always about innovation. In flush times, we are struggling to keep up with the rate of growth in the business. We can't find enough qualified people to service all the demands created by the business. As a result, tools or applications that might help expand the business get our undivided attention.
As a technology, web services is little understood because it is primarily an application development phenomenon. But like most fundamental changes to a key set of enabling technologies, the impact web services will have will be profound.
Freedom is taken, not given. In the wake of the settlement between Microsoft and the Department of Justice, understanding this simple statement is more important than ever for IT organisations concerned about being too dependent on any one vendor.
As an industry and a community we have lost our way.
Although, during the course of the year, systems integration and consulting has proved recession-proof, this is not likely to be the case a year from now.
The argument between centralised and distributed computing architectures has always come down to manageability versus flexibility.
One of the persistent knocks against IT is that, depending on who you ask, as much as US$7 out of every $10 dollars spent on software goes into installing and integrating the software once it's purchased. This always leaves the people who buy the software feeling a little burned, and frankly, gives the industry a bad reputation among businesspeople who typically fund these projects.
The entire process of ordering, buying and receiving computer equipment has always been fraught with misadventure and economic inefficiency. But given the current state of the economy, this is becoming a more pressing matter.
Everyone knows the pen is mightier than the sword, but few people contemplate what is mightier than the pen. When you think about it, the one thing that can mobilise people instantly is the voice, especially when the words being spoken are filled with intonations brought forth by a skilled orator.
Some things in this world are just too horrific to think about until they actually happen. Even then, it is only our enduring need to put events into some larger context that eventually forces us to make the attempt.