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Has Microsoft lost its way on desktop computing? | The Apple Core | ZDNet.com

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:08:38 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

OM MALIK: You outlined Microsoft’s software-plus-services strategy, but what I want to know about is the changing role of the desktop in this service’s future.

RAY OZZIE: I think the real question is (that) if you were going to design an OS today, what would it look like? The OS that we’re using today is kind of in the model of a ’70s or ’80s vintage workstation. It was designed for a LAN, it’s got this great display, and a mouse, and all this stuff, but it’s not inherently designed for the Internet. The Internet is this resource in the back end that you can design things to take advantage of. You can use it to synchronize stuff, and communicate stuff amongst these devices at the edge.

A student today or a web startup, they don’t actually start at the desktop. They start at the web, they start building web solutions, and immediately deploy that to a browser. So from that perspective, what programming models can I give these folks that they can extend that functionality out to the edge? In the cases where they want mobility, where they want a rich dynamic experience as a piece of their solution, how can I make it incremental for them to extend those things, as opposed to learning the desktop world from scratch?

Tags: msoffice ooxml saas soa xaml

Posted by: garyedwards

XML-Empowered Documents Extend SOA’s Connection to People and Processes | BriefingsDirect Transcripts

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:28:46 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

We're going to talk about dynamic documents. That is to say, documents that have form and structure and that are things end-users are very familiar with and have been using for generations, but with a twist. That's the ability to bring content and data, on a dynamic lifecycle basis, in and out of these documents in a managed way. That’s one area.

The second area is service-oriented architecture (SOA), the means to automate and reuse assets across multiple application sets and data sets in a large complex organization.

We're seeing these two areas come together. Structured documents and the lifecycle around structured authoring tools come together to provide an end-point for the assets and resources managed through an SOA, but also providing a two-way street, where the information and data that comes in through end-users can be reused back in the SOA to combine with other assets for business process benefits.

"various line of business applications and composite applications" is exactly where ODF failed in Massachusetts! Think of client/server, with many business processes bound to MSOffice on the client side. The big ODF vendors tried to convince Massachusetts to "rip out and replace" MSOffice. Which proved to be terribly disruptive and costly. These bound "client side" processes would have to be rewritten, and none of the ODF applications were the equivalent of MSOffice as a developers platform (even if the cost was something MASS was willing to pay for - which they were not!). MASS came up with an alternative idea to save ODF, the idea of cloning the OOXML plug-in for MSOffice to create an ODF plug-in. The problem was that MASS did not have an IT budget thanks to Microsoft's political mucking. So MASS CIO Louis Gutierrez turned to the big vendors askign them to support something they seriously opposed. An ODF plug-in would leave MSOffice in place. posted by garyedwards

Thus far we’ve been talking about the notion of unstructured content as a target source to SOA-based applications, but you can also think about this from the perspective of the end application itself -- the document as the endpoint, providing a framework for bringing together structured data, transactional data, relational data, as well as unstructured content, into a single document that comes to life.

Let me back up and give you a little context on this. You mentioned the various documents that line workers, for example, need to utilize and consume as the basis for their jobs. Documents have unique value. Documents are portable. You can download a document locally, attach it to an email, associate it with a workflow, and share it into a team room. Documents are persistent. They exist over a period of time, and they provide very rich context. They're how you bring together disparate pieces of information into a cohesive context that people can understand.

This paragraph says it all. The portable document is an essential frame for moving information thoughout the emerging client/ Web Stack /server information infrastructure model. The key is that the portable docuemnts are interactive and "live". The data and media streams bound to objects within the documents are attached to their original sources using XML connecting streams like XMLHTTPRequest or P2P Jabber XML routers. In 2003 we used Jabber to hot wire Comcast documents (docs, spreadsheet cells and presentations) to backend transactional blackboxes and web service rich data resources. The productivity gain from this approach is that end users are no longer required to verify and manage data. The "system" manages the data, freeing the end user to concentrate on the task of presentation, analysis and explanation. posted by garyedwards

What? The key to client/ Web Stack /server design (advanced SOA) is to have a desktop "editor" that writes highly strucutred XML docuemnts that are universally portable across a wide range of Web Stacks. The W3C provides CDF as a very advanced docuemnt container for the purpose of porting complex documents across a wide range of "editors", servers, and devices. (X)HTML 2.0 - CSS3, SVG, XForms and RDF are the core components of the open web future where complex documents and business processes will move to client/ Web Stack /server models. The problem is that there are NO desktop "editors" capable of producing CDF. ISO approval of MS-OOXML stamps MSOffice as a standards compliant "editor". The problem is that it is very difficult to convert MS-OOXML documents to CDF - XHTML-CDF-SVG-RDF!!! The MSOffice SDK does provide an easy to implement MS-OOXML <> XAML conversion component. XAML itself is part of the proprietary WPF set of technologies, joining Silverlight, Smart Tags, and WinForms as a complete MS-Web ready alternative to advanced W3C technolgoies: XHTML, CSS, SVG, XForms, and RDF. XAML "fixed/flow" replaces XHTML-CSS. Silverlight replaces SVG and SWF (Flash). Smart Tags is a porprietary alternative to RDF-RDFa. And WinForms is of course an alternative to XForms. The MS Web STack core s comprised of Exchange, SharePoint and MS SQL Server. The core is joined by Windows Server, MS Dynamics, and MS Live (among so many). ISO approval of MS-OOXML provides the MS Cloud with a standards compliant "editor" that currently ownes OVER 95% of the desktop marketshare when it comes to bound business processes. With ISO approval, an entire generation of client/server processes can now transition to client/ Web Stack /server models, where they can take full advantage of the advanced SOA model where portable XML documents move structured data and media through a highly distributed but end user controlled web model. posted by garyedwards

OK. Nice summary! posted by garyedwards

Uh oh. Does Mr. Sorofman understand the importance of MSOffice-OOXML-XAML-Smart Tags as an alternative to W3C RDF? This split in the Web will result in a nightmare for Google. Think of it as though Google owns the consumer side of the web, and Microsoft owns the business process side. Such is the importance of ISO approval of MS-OOXML! Google will be unable to match the search advantages of either RDF or Smart Tags. With Smart Tagged docuemnts though, Google won't even get the chance to compete. They will be locked out of the document processing chain that begins with MSOffice-OOXML and extends through a proprietary MS Web STack rich with XAML, Silverlight, WinForms and Smart Tag semantics! Although hindsight is 20-20, we can look back at 2006 in Massachusetts and see that the failure of ODF there is going to result in huge losses to Google and Oracle. Google will find themselves locked into a consumer web box, unable to branch out to business. Oracle will find themselves on the wrong side of a Microsoft dominated client/ Web Stack /server based transition of legacy client/server systems. posted by garyedwards

Great idea Mr. Sorofman, but Microsoft owns the "editor" in this equation. posted by garyedwards

Another good summary statement. Convergence however is very much tied to interoperability across the emerging client/ Web-Stack /server model that represents advanced SOA, SaaS, Web 2.0 and emerging Cloud Computing models. posted by garyedwards

What we found at Comcast in 2002-2003 was many spreadsheet "templates" that the sales staff used to keep track of inventory, pricing, and client accounts. By P2P enabling the cells in these templates, we were able to connect in transactional database information in real time ( or web connect time :). Every template, whether it was a writer document,-form, spreadsheet template, or presentation deck was P2P Jabber wired at the object level wherever an external information source was invloved. Which seemed to be everywhere! The hard work is getting the XML connectors in place, setting up an information stream between the Web Stack (Apache Tomcat - MySQL-XUL Server), and the backend transational black boxes. With Comcast this was done through a 24 hour dump cycle with each black box dumping and uploading from the Web Stack. For sales, marketing and management, the Web Stack did the heavy business of serving up Jabber data and resolving order conflicts. The "system" took over the management and verification of data, releasing the sales force to concentrate on their primary task. posted by garyedwards

In Massachusetts, they were using eMail to shuttle spreadsheet templates around. This is about as brittle and unproductive a method as there is, but it was all they had. Rather than focusing on keeping their client side business processes operating, MASS might have been better off focusing on building a client/ Web-Stack /server model they could gradually transition these desktop bound processes to. Establish an open Web-Stack design, and work back towards the desktop client. Instead, MASS fell into the trap of trying to replace MSOffice on the desktop with ODF OpenOffice based alternatives, while simultaneously purchasing Exchange-SharePoint Web-Stack components! The MS Web-Stack is designed for MSOffice-OOXML business processes, not ODF!!!!! posted by garyedwards

Tags: cloud-computing collaborative-computing paas saas soa woa

Posted by: garyedwards

IT set to 'take their heads out of the sand' and embrace Web 2.0

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:33:15 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

IT managers and CIOs in large companies who have actively resisted embracing Web 2.0 technologies like wikis, RSS, blogs and social networks will likely begin adding them to their priority lists in 2008, according to a report released Friday by Forrester Research Inc.

Tags: interop interoperability open soa standards xml

Posted by: garyedwards

Taking an incremental approach to SOA | Avoiding costly "rip out an dreplace"

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:04:16 -0000

Comments:

Excellent article from NetManage's Archie Roboostoff. He lays out all the difficulties and mistakes experienced with SOA efforts.
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Current implementation issues
One of the biggest hurdles to implementing a realistic SOA is understanding what the business units and end users are doing today. This understanding is critical to the success of any SOA project since the new services must match exactly what each business unit is doing today. Neglecting these business processes and replacing them with individual services will most likely lead to hundreds of non-used services and frustrated business units.

Tags: cdf convergence davinci interoperability soa

Posted by: garyedwards

SynOA What? Syndicated Application Architectures Come of Age - O'Reilly XML Blog

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:27:57 -0000

Comments:

Excellent explanation of syndication oriented architectures and the concepts possible impact on the web's future. posted by garyedwards

Tags: atom cdf html json soa syndication synoa xml

Posted by: garyedwards

The Merging of SOA and Web 2.0: 2

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:00:48 -0000

Comments:

Great article series from eWeek. A must read. But it all comes down to interoperability across two stack models: The Microsoft Vista Stack, and an alternative Open Stack model that does not yet exist!

Incompatible formats become a nightmare for the kind of integration any kind of SOA implementation depends on, let alone the Web 2.0 AJAX MashUps this article focuses on.

I wonder why eWEEK didn't include the Joe Wilcox Micrsoft Watch Article, "Obla De OBA Da". Joe hit hard on the connection between OOXML and the Vista Stack. He missed the implications this will have on MS SOA solutions. Open Source SOA solutions will be locked out of the Vista Stack. And with 98% or more of existing desktop business processes bound to MSOffice, the transition of these business processes to the Vista Stack will no doubt have a dramatic impact on the marketplace. Before the year is out, we'll see Redmond let loose with a torrent of MS SOA solutions. The only reason they've held back is that they need to first have all the Vista Stack pieces in place.

I don't think Microsoft is being held back by OOXML approval at ISO either. ISO approval might have made a difference in Europe in 2006, but even there, the EU IDABC has dropped the ISO requirement. For sure ISO approval means nothing in the US, as California and Massachusetts have demonstrated.

All that matters to State CIO's is that they can migrate exisiting docuemnts and business processes to XML. The only question is, "Which XML? OOXML, ODF or XHTML+".

The high fidelity conversion ratio and non disruptive OOXML plugin for MSOffice has certainly provided OOXML with the edge in this process.

Because of ODF vendor in fighting in Massachusetts, and the subsequent failure of ODF, the hapless file format arrived in California and other states with a hardened reprutation as "great file format, but impossible to implement".

The next question people have to start askign is what impact will OOXML and the Vista Stack have on SOA? Will open source and non Micrsoft vendor SOA solutions be locked out of the Vista STack?

Of course. If ever there was a no brainer this is it. Microsoft is goign to eXtend their desktop monopoly to servers, devices and the web using the highly proprietary Vista STack to lock in business process customers for years to come.

~ge~
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

In many cases, the mashups' data or information sources have incompatible formats so integration becomes a problem.

Tags: 2.0 ajax mashup odf ooxml soa web

Posted by: garyedwards

Bringing Open Source to SOAs

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 16:37:39 -0000

Comments:

An eWEEK must read. I think the recent aquisition is having a positive impact on the eWEEK journalist and reporters. What a great series they've put together on SOA. SaaS and the Web 2.0
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Vendors such as Iona Technologies, Red Hat, MuleSource, WSO2, Sun Microsystems and even IBM are pushing open-source components as key pieces of service-oriented architecture implementations.

Iona is heading the Eclipse Foundation's SOA Tools Platform Project, which is building frameworks and tools that enable the design, configuration, assembly, deployment, monitoring and management of software designed around a service-oriented architecture.

This is certainly a big win for IBM hardware and Services. I wonder how IONA plans to compete against IBM when IBM hardware and services can combine a one tow enterprise punch usign IONA open source efforts?

I hope the IONA guys know what they're doing. Or this could get ughly.

posted by garyedwards

MuleSource CEO Dave Rosenberg, in San Francisco, agreed. "One of the key goals of SOA is to free up your IT environment from burdensome proprietary standards and vendor stacks that lock you in," he said. "In order to truly control your environment, open source is the only answer." MuleSource maintains the open-source Mule ESB.

1

A big 1 posted by garyedwards

Shaun Connolly, vice president of JBoss, said that the company's "application platform, Web apps, Web services, portal and the overall SOA platform provides more service bus integration for a more open and integrated platform."

This is sad. Red Hat does not yet understand how important the portable XML dcoument/data file format wars are to the future of SOA. The Microsoft Vista Stack, based on OOXML-Smart Documents as the inter application stack transport, will effectively lock Red Hat out of any enterprise transitioning from MSOffice bound business processes.

I guess it's because open source vendors don't see the MSOffice <> MS Exchange/SharePoint Hub as part of a SOA solution, that they don't see the importance of OOXML-SmartDocs.

Red Hat Servers are under assault throughout the USA as Exchange/SharePoint Hub server system move in. The E/S Hubs have an extraordinary connectivity to existing MSOffice desktops, with OOXML-Smart Docs as the transport connecting the two.

The only way Red Hat could ever hope to crack that Vista Stack is by using ODF plugins at the head point; MSOffice bound business processes.

The idea being to let the plugin convert existing documents and business processes to ODF in much the same way that the OOXML plugin for MSOffice carries out the non disruptive conversion to OOXML.

posted by garyedwards

Tags: apache eclipse opensource oss soa

Posted by: garyedwards

The Merging of SOA and Web 2.0: 3

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 16:19:59 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

the SOA world is we're reaching the services tipping point—from a focus on building services to consuming services. This has given rise to the mashup. A mashup is a flexible composition of services within a rich user interface environment."

Bloomberg is on fire here! posted by garyedwards

"This is where the information assets and people productivity issues come together,"

But does IBM have a stategy for SOA that includes Lotus Notes? Or will the MS Exchange/SharePoint OOXML juggernaut knock out the enterprise collaboration king? posted by garyedwards

Tags: odf ooxml soa web-2.0

Posted by: garyedwards