SOA Advisor
Productivity Boom
LINQ, the Language Integrated Query, is emerging as one of the most important new tools of Microsoft development.
- By Dana Gardner
- 06/15/2007
Don't look now, but development productivity could get a big boost. First, we're seeing a major increase in the number and types of people who can actively participate in software development, and, second, we're seeing a rapid compression in the effort, cost and risk of taking applications and services from concept into full production.
Put these trends together and we enter a fertile era of diverse applications and services creation-one that offers developers more choice on how to build, and offers architects more choice on how to deploy their software. These are promising trends for both entrepreneurs and enterprises to innovatively enter and define markets via the Internet.
Lesson from Web 2.0 Expo
The recent Web 2.0 Expo offered a glimpse of what's to come. The upcoming IBM Jazz application lifecycle management (ALM) ecology framework and Borland Software Open ALM initiative promise to improve the development process and quell software project misfires.
In the consumer-centric Web 2.0 arena, start-ups are taking a tinker-to-success approach. Low upfront costs and flexible technology let them work an idea until it can gain wide use and broad appeal. Google is a prime example of this mentality.
Other factors are helping ease development, including adoption of open source tools, the shift to rich Internet applications (RIAs), and proliferation of APIs for e-commerce and social networking Web services such as Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, Salesforce.com and Microsoft.
New automated development workflows and requirements-gathering approaches bring non-developers into the act. Tools such as OneTeam, provided by a Chicago-based start-up that walks non-geeks through a series of menus and choices, close the gap between process efficiency knowledge and IT implementation. Now talented non-developers can exploit IT for their business goals.
These tools can help drive business expertise deep into the design of database-driven, potentially mission-critical applications. I'd like to see venture capitalists use this technology and approach to incubate even more innovative start-ups, and create more business process-focused applications that can be delivered quickly to dynamic enterprises and markets.
Bungee Jump
Start-ups and Web 2.0 greenfield innovators seem to have the most to gain, but SMBs and enterprises can expect good things as well. Through Software as a Service (SaaS) and on-demand delivery of applications and services, companies can mash-up and use services provided from communities of functional interest and vertical industry niches. Hosting organizations that provide on-demand applications will increasingly deliver the tooling to expand the appeal of these applications.
The road from application service innovation to full production, as I mentioned, is already rapidly compressing. A great example of this compression effect comes from Bungee Labs' new Bungee Connect offering, which debuted at Web 2.0 Expo. Bungee Connect is software development and deployment as a service (SDDS). It combines the virtues of online Web application development with a near real-time test and debug capability and with a click-to-host service that-now here's the rub-costs the developer next to nothing to get into full production.
Here's an offering that recognizes that new business models that vastly expand the universe of Web services players is what the Web is all about. The Bungee Connect service began allowing beta use access on May 1. Developers may register to participate in the early-access beta program at www.bungeelabs.com.
Bungee Connect gives developers WSYWIG, drag-and-drop and rich AJAX interface creation tools online. Those familiar with scripting and Web applications development can begin creating Web applications from a library of Bungee functions, or create their own services, or mash-up ones from a core of providers: Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, Real Networks, Windows Live, PayPal and eBay.
The tools, testing and hosting are free, and the subscription cost for the at-scale hosting only kicks in based on the use of the application by end users. Low use means low costs, and high use means a predictable measure of the proceeds goes to the development and hosting service. The hosting business stays with Bungee as the grid services provider while the applications ramp up into a sustainable business. Bungee collects rent -- so to speak-based on use of the underlying infrastructure: Pay as you grow.
The net effect is that the time, cost and risk of going from design to full production are deeply compressed. Microsoft's upcoming Silverlight Streaming service, through which the company will host and deliver up to 4GB of video in Silverlight format to Web pages for free, will provide similar benefits for RIA development.
We're entering a period of unmatched applications, services and media creativity. Shouldn't you and your company be a part of it?
About the Author
Dana Gardner is president and principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, an enterprise IT analysis, market research and consulting firm. Gardner tracks and analyzes Web services, application-development tools and application optimization techniques. He is also the producer of the podcast series, BriefingsDirect.