RDN Directions
Changing Course for 'Oslo'
Microsoft's Dynamic IT -- a broad outline for the next versions of several key developer and IT products.
As part of its continuing effort to promote its Dynamic IT concept, Microsoft has announced the "Oslo" project -- a broad outline for the next versions of several key developer and IT products, including a major rewrite to BizTalk Server, a new version of the .NET Framework and updates to Microsoft's management and development tools. The details, although sketchy, seem to indicate Microsoft is rethinking its approach to modeling.
Oslo won't be a single product. Instead, it will ship as updates to a number of Microsoft products, with code names such as BizTalk Server "6," Visual Studio "10," .NET Framework "4" and System Center "5." Details are foggy, but what is known is that BizTalk Server is going to undergo significant changes.
BizTalk Server 6 will see that product's current workflow engine replaced with the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and its communication engine replaced with the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). Moving to a new workflow engine could help improve the quality of tools available for BizTalk by increasing the ties to Visual Studio. Changing to the WCF will help BizTalk keep up with the evolving Web services standards.
In addition to the updates to current products, a brand-new component -- known as the Repository -- will be the central warehouse for all the models and workflows used by the various pieces of Oslo.
Even under Microsoft's often rosy scheduling, the components of Oslo won't ship until 2009 at the earliest. But coordinating the various products may prove more complex than Microsoft expects. In addition, getting the full benefit of Oslo will require organizations to bite off purchases of new versions of BizTalk, Visual Studio and Systems Center, making Oslo a potentially very expensive upgrade.
Refinement or Reboot?
Oslo also signals a change in Microsoft's approach to modeling. Microsoft's previous approach to modeling was characterized by what it called Domain Specific Languages -- a series of modeling languages, each tuned for specific tasks, such as describing a data center configuration or an application's security requirements -- in contrast with market leader IBM/Rational's support for the ISO standard Unified Modeling Language (UML).
With Oslo, Microsoft appears to be embracing the idea of some kind of unified modeling language, but almost certainly not UML. In a video accompanying the announcement, Robert Wahbe, the corporate VP for Microsoft's connected systems division, said that IT faces the problem of too many modeling languages with models "trapped in silos"-and all those languages and tools create complexity. He said Microsoft "is building a general-purpose modeling language, tools and a repository" to connect across the various types of models.
Although Microsoft says that Oslo is an extension of its existing approach to modeling, to my eyes it's more reboot than refinement. Microsoft has spent the last three years telling developers that UML -- despite its extensibility -- isn't rich enough, and that developers and business managers needed different languages and tools for different types of modeling.
Now, the problem appears to be that IT organizations followed that advice and have too many distinct models, languages and tools that are difficult to manage and coordinate. Sounds like the old story that defines "chutzpah" as a boy, having just been convicted of murdering his parents, who begs the judge for mercy because he's an orphan.
Why Now?
But why is Microsoft making this announcement now when delivery of the products won't happen until 2009, if at all? There are two reasons: One is technical, and the other has to do with marketing.
Technically, moving BizTalk Server from its current workflow and communications engines to the WF and WCF won't happen easily. BizTalk 10 may continue to ship the current engines as an option, but they'll get little to no improvements and developers will need to migrate their applications to the new engines to get any benefit from the product. The announcement serves as a heads up to IT planners that big changes are coming.
IT managers who are paying attention will want to evaluate their BizTalk development plans in light of the fact that those applications may need to be rewritten when BizTalk 10 ships.
From a marketing perspective, Microsoft is using a classic tactic. When you're seen as being behind your competition, broaden the definition of the problem so customers focus on your "vision" instead of the current state of products. To be fair, Microsoft is far from alone in using this tactic; but in this case, IBM/Rational is the clear leader in modeling and Microsoft has made precious little headway since the announcement of its Systems Definition Model strategy. With Oslo, Microsoft is broadening the definition of modeling to encompass application-to-application integration and systems management.
My advice for IT managers? Keep a close watch on Oslo as it develops. Just keep in mind that visions are great, but shipping code is important, too.
About the Author
Greg DeMichillie analyzes and writes about Microsoft's development platform and tools for Directions on Microsoft, a research firm dedicated to tracking Microsoft. He was previously the group program manager at Microsoft responsible for the overall design and feature set for Visual C# and C++. A founding member of the C# language team, DeMichillie was a key contributor to the initial design and development of .NET.