Jon Udell blogs from CTO Forum: Adam Bosworth paints the big picture, with some interesting thoughts. Not surprising (after all, Bosworth is CTO in BEA), a key component is imagined to be a message broker that sits in the middle of everything. In my view, that was an unnecessary sales plug, because that is exactly where the vendor takes over from the visionary, as I see it. I don’t see a broker (at least not a traditional such) as something central to service-oriented thinking. The idea of an XML repository, on the other hand, is not only central, but essential, but IMO a repository is not necessarily a broker.
Phil Windley picks up on another, and more interesting, point:
Thinking of data proactively and attempting to build data models independent of applications is difficult not just technically, but politically as well. I think we can make some progress toward independent data by adhering to some fairly simple priniciples about making data more usable outside an application. That doesn’t solve some of the thorniest problems however. Its time to break up the one-to-one relationships between applications and data. But the only way this will happen is if CIOs make it an issue, take a stand, and play a leadership role. CIOs by nature should have a longer term vision than the operational folks and this is a perfect example of where that principal ought to have an impact.
For those who haven’t seen Phil’s priniciples, read them. For those who’ve seen them before, revisit them.
