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Follow UsBy Evan Stone
The Web has emerged today, particularly the Java platform. The Web has opened up dramatic new possibilities and challenges for the software development community, and the scalability and portability of the Java platform is ideally suited for web development.
Additionally, the combination of the Web with advances in wireless, through the impending introduction worldwide of high speed 3G networks, further multiplies the alternatives for Java developers. Portable, lightweight Java applications will allow mobile professionals to crunch freshly downloaded data on the run, organize their daily lives and play games.
The Web and Java were surely a dramatic turn, as the floodgates that for years held back the creativity and energy of the developer community dramatically burst open. But it gets better. Now nearly every major corporation and service provider have Linux platform initiatives underway. Who can blame them: the open Linux operating system gives companies greater performance, stability and speed at 1/10th the cost of alternatives.
The advantages of Linux are compelling. Using sophisticated development products, developers are able to create new applications for the Linux platform, as well as conveniently recompile their existing legacy Windows applications for deployment to Linux. The major market research firms are all projecting significant Linux growth in the immediate future.
The final event that has truly changed things for developers is the emergence of Web Services. Web Services, as you probably know by now, are applications or application components that can be shared over the Internet. Web Services imply a new paradigm in software development, as the very act of development moves beyond the four walls of the enterprise to the network.
The web’s infrastructure becomes the platform to seamlessly connect applications, business processes, customers and suppliers anywhere using standardized language and machine-independent Internet protocols.
The excitement about Web Services is palpable. We recently conducted a survey of our user base at our annual BorCon user conference in Anaheim, and results indicate that an unprecedented 80 percent of respondents across industries are either currently using Web Services or are planning to use them in the very near future. This isn’t surprising: Web Services dramatically increase productivity and give IT managers significant platform flexibility.
The availability of interoperable Web Services components increases developers’ options exponentially as they look to the Web to build and enhance applications. Gartner, furthermore, has said that by 2003--next year--40% of all Internet transactions will leverage Web components.
Web Services are possible, in part, because next-generation data networks are now in place. The 1996 Telecom Act--a monumental piece of U.S. commercial legislation that affects the software industry more than many people appreciate–encouraged the infrastructure investment necessary to deliver increased Internet bandwidth and speed to business customers. Web services are an important part of what will be delivered over these fat new pipes.
Fulfilling the true potential for Web Services also requires, however, nuts-and-bolts technology to help integrate disparate applications from a variety of platforms–Windows, .Net, Linux, Solaris, or whatever platform. Development products now come with built-in Web Services capabilities that enable developers to both consume and publish applications and application components compliant with Web Services standards, XML and SOAP. Development products will be vital in a heterogeneous, constantly evolving network-centric world.
The structure of the network itself opens up a range of new problems and challenges--including ways to eliminate bottlenecks, provision services, and mediate between systems–that can only be addressed with software. In other words, software developers will be crucial to both creating productivity-enhancing applications that drive global commerce as well as making the network–the conduit for many such applications–operate smoothly and effectively.
Clear business benefits result from remaining neutral in the on-going platform battles. Platform-agnostic suppliers benefit from whatever platform decisions customers make, as well as help to optimize customers’ choices with technologies that facilitate interoperability between platforms.
As an example, Borland supplies critical technologies to accelerate software development on all major platforms and to deploy and integrate those applications across platforms and systems. Borland also partners closely with nearly all major vendors.
Most important of all, customers benefit from the availability of technology for different platforms. One major platform–whether it be Java, .Net, Linux or another–can make better business sense than the others for specific customers, depending on particular needs and changing business environments. In 1990s, customers were locked into one platform and one supplier and couldn’t economically justify investing in a competing platform.
Now, the availability of interoperable, standards-based technologies give customers the ability to choose from a far broader range of vendor solutions. Today IT departments can smoothly migrate to different and more optimal platforms, integrate their legacy IT with new solutions and re-deploy existing applications, saving significant time and money. This time and money can be channeled to places that will improve the fundamentals of our customers’ businesses.
The networked economy, it should be added, also forces enterprises to consider and adopt flexible new technologies that seamlessly plug them into other systems, without concern for how diverse and ostensibly incompatible they are. In the networked world, IT lock-in is a significant handicap; interoperability and flexibility, on the other hand, can ensure survival and competitiveness. For this reason, software companies with cross platform expertise are in demand.
Web services tools support will require all types of enabling components, including application servers and databases. This is especially true for mixed Java and .NET environments. No one will solidify on one standard
Interoperability and choice are also good for the software industry as a whole. Whether it be in the form of strong platform alternatives for our customers or perhaps inherent in Java’s "write once, run anywhere" portability, diversity and choice in the marketplace, the ability to interoperate among a number of platforms ultimately gives all software and technology companies an opportunity to be relevant and competitive.
Competition drives innovation, which further helps business customers as they seek new and better solutions to drive business and improve efficiency. The key to such web services projects is the availability of tools based on the needs of the developer's special case, goal and experience. Borland will continue to focus on XML transformation and compatibility, support for CORBA and other legacy environments, and in bridging capability between dissimilar environments (Java, Microsoft, Linux, etc.),
It’s an exciting time to be in the software development technology business. Even while many investment professionals, pundits and venture capitalists--looking through the lens of the 1990’s–continue to write off the software development products business, a number fail to appreciate that the winds of change–Java, Linux and now Web Services–make being a dominant supplier of development products truly relevant again in the 21st Century.
(The author is Vice President-Corporate Development with Borland.)