Some have been arguing that Web 2.0 is little more than AJAX. But if you attended the conference or check the Wiki on Web 2.0 ,there is certainly a broader scope including some intimations of what Web 3.0 brings. But despite these reservations there can be no doubt that a watershed has been reached in Web development. Here are some of the major trends:
1)Web Services are starting to gain greater traction in organizations large and small. The action is primarily internal and/or read primarily. But SOA-Service Oriented Architectures using ESB designs are starting to proliferate as organizations attempt to get greater interperability, integration with stakeholders and reuse;
2)SaaS – Software as a Service has also started to take hold as GMail, Flickr, Writely, Kiko, Miboo, Office Live and other Web centric applications scramble for eyeballs, presence, mindshare and workspace commitment among users collaborating, communicating, and otherwise interacting across the Web. These are the bottom uppers. Salesforce.com and Cognos BI are the top-downers;
3)All three layers of applications – Presentation Layer, Storage/Persistence Layer, and Communication Layer are undergoing profound change:
– presentation layer – how to deliver the 6As of n-tier systems has cast out PC centric and re-opened Any Client-Server as the highest priority design pattern in contemporary development;
– persistence layer – how to deal securely and yet efficiently with ever longer in duration transactions plus hugely fluctuating data storage and archiving requirements is clearly being grappled with;
– network or communication layer – again the trade-off is security/risks versus convenience/usability versus costs versus speed/bandwidth has never really been settled. Especially given that smarts about the nature of traffic (and the inherent opportunities and dangers) is just being explored in network hardware and software.
4)IT organizations appear to have reached a tipping point – and have chosen open standards, integration, and interoperability over a proprietary and monopolistic monoculture.
However, Redmond will be moving, heaven, earth, and pehaps $40Billion to change that latter statement. So it will be worth the readers while to take a look at our coverage of AJAX Directions and AJAX Tools. See if the tipping point is indeed tipping.
(c)JBSurveyer 2005