CodeFutures News & Industry Commentary Blog

In what is a rare move, one industry analyst, CBDI, has called out another industry analyst.

I like the conclusion:

To reiterate, we should not be disillusioned, even with sub-optimal SOA deliveries, they are probably important learning exercises and will allow the enterprise to move to a more manageable, repeatable SOA environment.

PJ Murray
CodeFutures Software

The JavaOne 2007 call for papers is out. If you are considering submitting a paper, then you could do worse than read the long discussion by RockStarApps.

JavaOne used to be held near the end of June, but it's getting earlier now and in 2007 it's at the start of May. If you want to respond to the JavaOne 2007 call for papers, you should start here.

PJ Murray
CodeFutures Software

Will there be a Microsoft ESB? Joe McKendrick is speculating that Microsoft has changed its position on ESBs. The current position is to completely ignore them. Microsoft is now openly talking about ESBs - which is completely different to its previous tactic of completely ignoring them. In the same article, Joe McKendrick points to Loek Bakker's weblog, which has some very negative things to say about the future of ESBs.

So are things going well for the ESB market or not? Does it have a future or is it a transitionary technology?

That probably all depends on how ESBs fit in with Service Component Architecture. And it's looking good, considering how many ESB vendors are also support the OSOA collaboration.

It is very interesting that the comments about ESBs and Microsoft come at the same time that JBoss has announced support for ESBs. However, what is more interesting is that JBoss has also said that it's hoping to implement Service Component Architecure in the longer term - which sort of indicates that it considers ESBs to be a transitionary technology.

PJ Murray
CodeFutures Software

The Code Generation Network, the premier site for articles and information about code generators, is organizing an international conference called Code Generation 2007.

The full details of the event have yet to be worked out and the organizers are looking for suggestions:

The event programme is under development and we are actively seeking session proposals. To maximise the benefits to participants we aim to run a variety of session types with an emphasis on participant interaction. Visit our Run a session page to find out more about making a session proposal. Session proposals must reach us by Friday January 12th 2007.

The organizers are also looking for sponsors.

CodeFutures would have almost certainly have participated if there was not a timing conflict with JavaOne, which is happening in May as well.

PJ Murray
CodeFutures Software

I recently had a long conversation with a senior IT executive from a very large investment bank - the type with an annual IT budget measured in hundreds of millions and a small army of application developers. It is one of those rare organizations that actually uses IT for competitive advantage (whereas most companies are just happy for things to just work). When the topic moved on to application performance, he revealed internal research had found very few areas where it might be appropriate to use grid computing - the types of application that require massively parallel mathematical computations. However, initial experiments with projects revealed that grid computing turns out to add little value for typical business applications that involve lots of small steps and the occasional bottleneck. It also turns out that grid computing is very difficult to use with typical business applications to take advantage of mutli core processors. There is just a technology mismatch.

It seems word is spreading about the bad experiences with grid computing. A recent report by of IT executives by technology integration company Morse (a leading provider to the London financial services market) indicates that only eight percent of UK organizations have adopted or even planning to adopt grid computing. It goes on to say "opponents voiced concerns such as cost, complexity and security as the main reasons for not getting into Grid." Even worse, an amazing 88 percent "said their board of directors didn't feel that Grid computing was worth putting time and energy into."

So yet another technology that got hyped but they did not live up to expectations.

PJ Murray
CodeFutures Software