Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Jon Udell: Superplatform politics

Jon Udell: Superplatform politics: "In her Catalyst keynote, Anne Thomas Manes identifies IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and BEA as 'superplatform' vendors and expects all (with the possible exception of BEA) to grow more dominant over time, not less, because of the massive resources required to sustain and enhance a superplatform. If she's right, we'll be seeing the same familiar movie again.
Consider workflow. Microsoft's new Windows Workflow Framework (WWF) isn't a product, it's a chunk of the .NET Framework intended to enable that platform -- which is only artificially bound to the Windows family of operating systems, by the way -- to weave workflow into everything from intermittently-connected handhelds to desktops to collaboration servers to orchestration servers. Will WWF-to-WWF workflow run more smoothly than WWF-to-WS-*? Sure. Will this tend to lock you in to the WWF? Sure. "

Check the full post for Anne's keynote and some timely/important interviews with Roger Sessions.

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