Application Platform Strategies Blog

Spring-ing past Java EE?

Blogger: Joe Niski

SpringSource has been busy this month, just as I put the finishing touches on Burton Group's first in-depth look at the flexible Spring Framework (It's a lightweight container! It's a data access tool! It's a web framework! It may not wash your car, but you could extend it . . .)

For many developers tired of the grunt work involved in Java EE programming, Spring has made life easier for over four years. Today's announcement of the SpringSource Application Platform just might free developers from ever touching a Java EE server or deployment descriptor ever again. (Well, maybe eventually . . .)

Built on the Apache Tomcat servlet container, the innovative and proven OSGi service framework, and Spring, SpringSource Application Platform offers functionality comparable to a Java EE server but with a more modular service infrastructure and a more developer-friendly programming model than Java EE. It has tremendous potential to live up to its “next-generation application platform” label.

The combination of SpringSource Application Platform and the Spring Enterprise Edition bundle of support, software, and tooling constitutes a full stack for enterprise software development, deployment, and management. It may seriously disrupt the server market currently dominated by IBM, BEA, Oracle, and RedHat in the next two to four years.

BEA is now officially Oracle

Blogger: Anne Thomas Manes

Late breaking news: Oracle completed its acquisition of BEA. Details regarding product roadmaps are not yet available.

Consolidating SOA stories

Blogger: Chris Haddad

During the past three months, we have been collecting SOA stories. Even though Anne and I have talked with hundreds of IT professionals over the past four years, we felt obtaining a fresh perspective to the SOA conundrum would be beneficial. Burton Group's SOA research team met in Florida last week to consolidate several client interviews, identify trends, and divine insights. We reviewed client interviews spanning banking, insurance, investment, government, systems integrator, telecommunications, hospitality, and retail organizations. In many organizations, we captured data points across multiple stakeholders. During the consolidation process, we used a manual, low-tech approach to view and consolidate the information. Data points were printed out on 3X3 papers and literally thrown on the walls. Setting appropriate SOA expectations requires  listening and analysis skills to understand the rich context surrounding SOA success factors and success killers. Over a period of three days, our team of seven experts (with representatives from Identity, Security, Application, Executive Advisory, and Consulting teams) analyzed and arranged data points.

At the end of the week, all four walls and the entry hallway were papered with information. Our war room delivered an immersing experience reminiscent of Spielberg's Minority Report, but without dazzling special effects. Patterns quickly emerged and the team crafted high level topics, categories, and section headings. 

The analysis also generated key insights and relationships. Information flowed into twelve different topic areas:

• Lessons learned
• Roadmap
• Goals
• Advocacy
• Sponsorship
• Sphere of influence
• Adoption
• Funding
• Business case
• Culture and collaboration
• People relationships and roles
• Organization
• Education
• Governance guiding SOA implementation
• Service portfolio planning
• Infrastructure
• Projects

Surprisingly, interviewees talked more about culture and people  instead of technology. Stay tuned for deep insights as we continue to normalize SOA CR information, rethink success factors, and tune our  recommendations.

Spanning the layers...

Blogger: Chris Haddad

Does thinking about business and IT alignment trigger brain buffer overflow? During  Burton Group Institute Service Oriented Architecture Workshop sessions this week, we presented a list of activities and metrics that can be used to solve perennial questions that block SOA initiatives; "How do I sell SOA to the business?" and "What is the business benefit of SOA?"   The audience was quiet when the discussion focused on how to measure business value. When the conversation segued into activities that can be used define linkages between business capabilities, application assets, and services, we found few organizations prepared to start strategic projects.  In contrast,  discussions about Enterprise Service Bus products and SOA security strategies were more animated and directly correlated with the attendee's focus.

When Anne and I talked today about the reasons behind the perceived difference in engagement activity and interest, we thought underlying reasons may go beyond sugar crashes from the excellent snacks served by  Boston's Four Seasons Hotel staff.  Maybe we are asking technologists to come out of their comfort zone and span business and technology layers.  Our view of key  design and planning layers is presented  in the following illustration:

Alien terms such as  demand portfolio management, application portfolio management, application rationalization, capability modeling, and business process improvement exist above the technology line. During our SOA Contextual Research project, we have found a direct correlation between business value and a cross-organizational focus on business transformation and/or optimization projects. Is IT expected to be taken away from their main job and participate in these business-oriented activities? Aren't IT teams already too busy fulfilling their standard job description?   We all want to demonstrate business value, but sometimes we either don't know where to start or relegate the activity to the 'nice to have, but it's too hard' bucket. 

Burton Group Consulting Services can help you overcome resource and skill hurdles, we have recently announced a new set of engagement areas focused on application development cost control. The initiatives will not only improve IT efficiency and productivity, but can serve as the supporting context for your SOA initiative and justifying business value.