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Thoughts on Open Source, Data Services, and Integration
Cloud Computing is just Computing….
Posted 30 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Uncategorized
1 Comment
As Mike mentioned in the previous post, we’re going to Cloud Camp tonight. We’re sponsoring tonight’s event as well as the ones scheduled for Chicago, Toronto, London and Germany.
Related to this, the interview in the Guardian with Richard Stallman has lot of people talking. In it he says:
‘It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign…Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true’
In a curious bit of irony, Larry Ellison has a similar perspective:
“The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?
It’s true that noise surrounding Cloud Computing is deafening and that and the very definition morphs into whatever anyone needs it to be. Its important to realize that that’s what Larry and Richard are calling stupid.
Regardless of what you call it, the underlying trend toward Cloud Computing and the motivations behind it is not stupidity or idiocy. Its the inevitable, relentless, progression of computing that we’ve experienced for decades: Better, faster and cheaper.
See you at Cloud Camp.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=231
Cloud Camp
Posted 30 September, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Cloud, integration
No Comments
I’m heading over to CloudCamp this evening in Menlo Park. The San Francisco
CloudCamp event back in June was really good, and I expect this one to be of
the same caliber. This even will be a little smaller, but it’s still a capacity crowd.
I’m still focused on connecting clouds, which is an ongoing problem as we we
transition to cloud computing. Most cloud events focus on infrastructure and
applications, while integration is in that hazy region between the two. It will
be interesting to hear what others are thinking about this, and whether the
integration problem will end up on the application side, the infrastructure
side, or in an emerging category between the two.
See you there !
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=232
We’re back from Web 2.0
Posted 22 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Uncategorized
No Comments
We went to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York yesterday and it was a big success. John, Bob and Sarah (from MindTouch) handled the event for us. We just announced Deki CRM and it was a huge hit. We kicked off our partnership with MindTouch and got lots of great press coverage . The reaction was pretty universal: Why hasn’t anyone done that before?
Well, the reason is that it’s hard. CRM is hard all by itself. It’s unlikely that a best of breed CRM solution will also be a best of breed colloboration platform. Likewise, colloboration and enterprise integration are different areas as well, so you know when you bring together best of breed CRM, colloboration and integration the results is going to be pretty impressive.
You can see Deki for CRM in action here.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=230
Enhancing SaaS applications through data integration with SnapLogic
Posted 12 September, 2008 by
mikeyp in
SaaS, SnapLogic, SugarCRM, enterprise2.0
No Comments
For anyone in the Bay Area, I’ll be speaking next Tuesday, September 16th at the SDForum Business Intelligence SIG.
This will be my first chance to speak about some of the work I’ve been doing since we released our solution packs for SugarCRM and SalesForce.com. SDForum audiences tend be be very interactive, so it should be a fun evening.
The talk will begin with an introduction to the SnapLogic architecture and the capabilities available, including extending the system. I will then review some simple transformation pipelines that access a basic orders system. Finally, I will demonstrate an application that uses these pipelines to implement a collaborative account management system on top of SugarCRM combining data from multiple applications to improve account intelligence.
Hope to see you there.
Update: Slides from the talk are now available.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=227
CRM rapidly becoming the hub of enterprise info…
Posted 8 September, 2008 by
Chris in
SugarCRM
No Comments
There’s lots of evidence that CRM systems are rapidly becoming the focal point for enterprise information that everyone throughout an organization needs. How are you going to get data in and out quickly, reliably, and securely?
Well, that’s a data integration problem, for sure.
Here’s what SugarCRM says about it in their recent Sugar 60 Second Snippet about SnapLogic (.mp3)
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=226
Google Chrome is Open Source. EULA Hubbub misses the point.
Posted 3 September, 2008 by
Chris in
GPL, Open Source
No Comments
Lots of chatter around the blogosphere today about the Chrome End User License Agreement (EULA). Good reason to be concerned about intimidating, privacy-challenged language like this:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
Or, this:
“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”
Google has since backed off and is claiming that this was all a big mistake. Which is nice, but in reality there wasn’t any reason to get all tied up in knots over this.
Chrome is all open source. You can download the source right here.
If you don’t like the license, grab the source compile it and use it unrestricted. Distribute binaries if you like.
I’m not surprised that there are still lot of people that don’t fully understand open source. Although I was a little surprised that Matt didn’t mention this….
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=225
SnapLogic: Open Source Company to Watch…
Posted 2 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 30 September, 2008 by Chris in Uncategorized
1 Comment
As Mike mentioned in the previous post, we’re going to Cloud Camp tonight. We’re sponsoring tonight’s event as well as the ones scheduled for Chicago, Toronto, London and Germany.
Related to this, the interview in the Guardian with Richard Stallman has lot of people talking. In it he says:
‘It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign…Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true’
In a curious bit of irony, Larry Ellison has a similar perspective:
“The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?
It’s true that noise surrounding Cloud Computing is deafening and that and the very definition morphs into whatever anyone needs it to be. Its important to realize that that’s what Larry and Richard are calling stupid.
Regardless of what you call it, the underlying trend toward Cloud Computing and the motivations behind it is not stupidity or idiocy. Its the inevitable, relentless, progression of computing that we’ve experienced for decades: Better, faster and cheaper.
See you at Cloud Camp.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=231
Cloud Camp
Posted 30 September, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Cloud, integration
No Comments
I’m heading over to CloudCamp this evening in Menlo Park. The San Francisco
CloudCamp event back in June was really good, and I expect this one to be of
the same caliber. This even will be a little smaller, but it’s still a capacity crowd.
I’m still focused on connecting clouds, which is an ongoing problem as we we
transition to cloud computing. Most cloud events focus on infrastructure and
applications, while integration is in that hazy region between the two. It will
be interesting to hear what others are thinking about this, and whether the
integration problem will end up on the application side, the infrastructure
side, or in an emerging category between the two.
See you there !
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=232
We’re back from Web 2.0
Posted 22 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Uncategorized
No Comments
We went to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York yesterday and it was a big success. John, Bob and Sarah (from MindTouch) handled the event for us. We just announced Deki CRM and it was a huge hit. We kicked off our partnership with MindTouch and got lots of great press coverage . The reaction was pretty universal: Why hasn’t anyone done that before?
Well, the reason is that it’s hard. CRM is hard all by itself. It’s unlikely that a best of breed CRM solution will also be a best of breed colloboration platform. Likewise, colloboration and enterprise integration are different areas as well, so you know when you bring together best of breed CRM, colloboration and integration the results is going to be pretty impressive.
You can see Deki for CRM in action here.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=230
Enhancing SaaS applications through data integration with SnapLogic
Posted 12 September, 2008 by
mikeyp in
SaaS, SnapLogic, SugarCRM, enterprise2.0
No Comments
For anyone in the Bay Area, I’ll be speaking next Tuesday, September 16th at the SDForum Business Intelligence SIG.
This will be my first chance to speak about some of the work I’ve been doing since we released our solution packs for SugarCRM and SalesForce.com. SDForum audiences tend be be very interactive, so it should be a fun evening.
The talk will begin with an introduction to the SnapLogic architecture and the capabilities available, including extending the system. I will then review some simple transformation pipelines that access a basic orders system. Finally, I will demonstrate an application that uses these pipelines to implement a collaborative account management system on top of SugarCRM combining data from multiple applications to improve account intelligence.
Hope to see you there.
Update: Slides from the talk are now available.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=227
CRM rapidly becoming the hub of enterprise info…
Posted 8 September, 2008 by
Chris in
SugarCRM
No Comments
There’s lots of evidence that CRM systems are rapidly becoming the focal point for enterprise information that everyone throughout an organization needs. How are you going to get data in and out quickly, reliably, and securely?
Well, that’s a data integration problem, for sure.
Here’s what SugarCRM says about it in their recent Sugar 60 Second Snippet about SnapLogic (.mp3)
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=226
Google Chrome is Open Source. EULA Hubbub misses the point.
Posted 3 September, 2008 by
Chris in
GPL, Open Source
No Comments
Lots of chatter around the blogosphere today about the Chrome End User License Agreement (EULA). Good reason to be concerned about intimidating, privacy-challenged language like this:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
Or, this:
“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”
Google has since backed off and is claiming that this was all a big mistake. Which is nice, but in reality there wasn’t any reason to get all tied up in knots over this.
Chrome is all open source. You can download the source right here.
If you don’t like the license, grab the source compile it and use it unrestricted. Distribute binaries if you like.
I’m not surprised that there are still lot of people that don’t fully understand open source. Although I was a little surprised that Matt didn’t mention this….
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=225
SnapLogic: Open Source Company to Watch…
Posted 2 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 30 September, 2008 by mikeyp in Cloud, integration
No Comments
I’m heading over to CloudCamp this evening in Menlo Park. The San Francisco CloudCamp event back in June was really good, and I expect this one to be of the same caliber. This even will be a little smaller, but it’s still a capacity crowd.
I’m still focused on connecting clouds, which is an ongoing problem as we we transition to cloud computing. Most cloud events focus on infrastructure and applications, while integration is in that hazy region between the two. It will be interesting to hear what others are thinking about this, and whether the integration problem will end up on the application side, the infrastructure side, or in an emerging category between the two.
See you there !
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=232
We’re back from Web 2.0
Posted 22 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Uncategorized
No Comments
We went to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York yesterday and it was a big success. John, Bob and Sarah (from MindTouch) handled the event for us. We just announced Deki CRM and it was a huge hit. We kicked off our partnership with MindTouch and got lots of great press coverage . The reaction was pretty universal: Why hasn’t anyone done that before?
Well, the reason is that it’s hard. CRM is hard all by itself. It’s unlikely that a best of breed CRM solution will also be a best of breed colloboration platform. Likewise, colloboration and enterprise integration are different areas as well, so you know when you bring together best of breed CRM, colloboration and integration the results is going to be pretty impressive.
You can see Deki for CRM in action here.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=230
Enhancing SaaS applications through data integration with SnapLogic
Posted 12 September, 2008 by
mikeyp in
SaaS, SnapLogic, SugarCRM, enterprise2.0
No Comments
For anyone in the Bay Area, I’ll be speaking next Tuesday, September 16th at the SDForum Business Intelligence SIG.
This will be my first chance to speak about some of the work I’ve been doing since we released our solution packs for SugarCRM and SalesForce.com. SDForum audiences tend be be very interactive, so it should be a fun evening.
The talk will begin with an introduction to the SnapLogic architecture and the capabilities available, including extending the system. I will then review some simple transformation pipelines that access a basic orders system. Finally, I will demonstrate an application that uses these pipelines to implement a collaborative account management system on top of SugarCRM combining data from multiple applications to improve account intelligence.
Hope to see you there.
Update: Slides from the talk are now available.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=227
CRM rapidly becoming the hub of enterprise info…
Posted 8 September, 2008 by
Chris in
SugarCRM
No Comments
There’s lots of evidence that CRM systems are rapidly becoming the focal point for enterprise information that everyone throughout an organization needs. How are you going to get data in and out quickly, reliably, and securely?
Well, that’s a data integration problem, for sure.
Here’s what SugarCRM says about it in their recent Sugar 60 Second Snippet about SnapLogic (.mp3)
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=226
Google Chrome is Open Source. EULA Hubbub misses the point.
Posted 3 September, 2008 by
Chris in
GPL, Open Source
No Comments
Lots of chatter around the blogosphere today about the Chrome End User License Agreement (EULA). Good reason to be concerned about intimidating, privacy-challenged language like this:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
Or, this:
“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”
Google has since backed off and is claiming that this was all a big mistake. Which is nice, but in reality there wasn’t any reason to get all tied up in knots over this.
Chrome is all open source. You can download the source right here.
If you don’t like the license, grab the source compile it and use it unrestricted. Distribute binaries if you like.
I’m not surprised that there are still lot of people that don’t fully understand open source. Although I was a little surprised that Matt didn’t mention this….
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=225
SnapLogic: Open Source Company to Watch…
Posted 2 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 22 September, 2008 by Chris in Uncategorized
No Comments
We went to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York yesterday and it was a big success. John, Bob and Sarah (from MindTouch) handled the event for us. We just announced Deki CRM and it was a huge hit. We kicked off our partnership with MindTouch and got lots of great press coverage . The reaction was pretty universal: Why hasn’t anyone done that before?
Well, the reason is that it’s hard. CRM is hard all by itself. It’s unlikely that a best of breed CRM solution will also be a best of breed colloboration platform. Likewise, colloboration and enterprise integration are different areas as well, so you know when you bring together best of breed CRM, colloboration and integration the results is going to be pretty impressive.
You can see Deki for CRM in action here.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=230
Enhancing SaaS applications through data integration with SnapLogic
Posted 12 September, 2008 by
mikeyp in
SaaS, SnapLogic, SugarCRM, enterprise2.0
No Comments
For anyone in the Bay Area, I’ll be speaking next Tuesday, September 16th at the SDForum Business Intelligence SIG.
This will be my first chance to speak about some of the work I’ve been doing since we released our solution packs for SugarCRM and SalesForce.com. SDForum audiences tend be be very interactive, so it should be a fun evening.
The talk will begin with an introduction to the SnapLogic architecture and the capabilities available, including extending the system. I will then review some simple transformation pipelines that access a basic orders system. Finally, I will demonstrate an application that uses these pipelines to implement a collaborative account management system on top of SugarCRM combining data from multiple applications to improve account intelligence.
Hope to see you there.
Update: Slides from the talk are now available.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=227
CRM rapidly becoming the hub of enterprise info…
Posted 8 September, 2008 by
Chris in
SugarCRM
No Comments
There’s lots of evidence that CRM systems are rapidly becoming the focal point for enterprise information that everyone throughout an organization needs. How are you going to get data in and out quickly, reliably, and securely?
Well, that’s a data integration problem, for sure.
Here’s what SugarCRM says about it in their recent Sugar 60 Second Snippet about SnapLogic (.mp3)
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=226
Google Chrome is Open Source. EULA Hubbub misses the point.
Posted 3 September, 2008 by
Chris in
GPL, Open Source
No Comments
Lots of chatter around the blogosphere today about the Chrome End User License Agreement (EULA). Good reason to be concerned about intimidating, privacy-challenged language like this:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
Or, this:
“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”
Google has since backed off and is claiming that this was all a big mistake. Which is nice, but in reality there wasn’t any reason to get all tied up in knots over this.
Chrome is all open source. You can download the source right here.
If you don’t like the license, grab the source compile it and use it unrestricted. Distribute binaries if you like.
I’m not surprised that there are still lot of people that don’t fully understand open source. Although I was a little surprised that Matt didn’t mention this….
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=225
SnapLogic: Open Source Company to Watch…
Posted 2 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 12 September, 2008 by mikeyp in SaaS, SnapLogic, SugarCRM, enterprise2.0
No Comments
For anyone in the Bay Area, I’ll be speaking next Tuesday, September 16th at the SDForum Business Intelligence SIG.
This will be my first chance to speak about some of the work I’ve been doing since we released our solution packs for SugarCRM and SalesForce.com. SDForum audiences tend be be very interactive, so it should be a fun evening.
The talk will begin with an introduction to the SnapLogic architecture and the capabilities available, including extending the system. I will then review some simple transformation pipelines that access a basic orders system. Finally, I will demonstrate an application that uses these pipelines to implement a collaborative account management system on top of SugarCRM combining data from multiple applications to improve account intelligence.
Hope to see you there.
Update: Slides from the talk are now available.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=227
CRM rapidly becoming the hub of enterprise info…
Posted 8 September, 2008 by
Chris in
SugarCRM
No Comments
There’s lots of evidence that CRM systems are rapidly becoming the focal point for enterprise information that everyone throughout an organization needs. How are you going to get data in and out quickly, reliably, and securely?
Well, that’s a data integration problem, for sure.
Here’s what SugarCRM says about it in their recent Sugar 60 Second Snippet about SnapLogic (.mp3)
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=226
Google Chrome is Open Source. EULA Hubbub misses the point.
Posted 3 September, 2008 by
Chris in
GPL, Open Source
No Comments
Lots of chatter around the blogosphere today about the Chrome End User License Agreement (EULA). Good reason to be concerned about intimidating, privacy-challenged language like this:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
Or, this:
“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”
Google has since backed off and is claiming that this was all a big mistake. Which is nice, but in reality there wasn’t any reason to get all tied up in knots over this.
Chrome is all open source. You can download the source right here.
If you don’t like the license, grab the source compile it and use it unrestricted. Distribute binaries if you like.
I’m not surprised that there are still lot of people that don’t fully understand open source. Although I was a little surprised that Matt didn’t mention this….
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=225
SnapLogic: Open Source Company to Watch…
Posted 2 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 8 September, 2008 by Chris in SugarCRM
No Comments
There’s lots of evidence that CRM systems are rapidly becoming the focal point for enterprise information that everyone throughout an organization needs. How are you going to get data in and out quickly, reliably, and securely?
Well, that’s a data integration problem, for sure.
Here’s what SugarCRM says about it in their recent Sugar 60 Second Snippet about SnapLogic (.mp3)
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=226
Google Chrome is Open Source. EULA Hubbub misses the point.
Posted 3 September, 2008 by
Chris in
GPL, Open Source
No Comments
Lots of chatter around the blogosphere today about the Chrome End User License Agreement (EULA). Good reason to be concerned about intimidating, privacy-challenged language like this:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
Or, this:
“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”
Google has since backed off and is claiming that this was all a big mistake. Which is nice, but in reality there wasn’t any reason to get all tied up in knots over this.
Chrome is all open source. You can download the source right here.
If you don’t like the license, grab the source compile it and use it unrestricted. Distribute binaries if you like.
I’m not surprised that there are still lot of people that don’t fully understand open source. Although I was a little surprised that Matt didn’t mention this….
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=225
SnapLogic: Open Source Company to Watch…
Posted 2 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 3 September, 2008 by Chris in GPL, Open Source
No Comments
Lots of chatter around the blogosphere today about the Chrome End User License Agreement (EULA). Good reason to be concerned about intimidating, privacy-challenged language like this:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
Or, this:
“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”
Google has since backed off and is claiming that this was all a big mistake. Which is nice, but in reality there wasn’t any reason to get all tied up in knots over this.
Chrome is all open source. You can download the source right here.
If you don’t like the license, grab the source compile it and use it unrestricted. Distribute binaries if you like.
I’m not surprised that there are still lot of people that don’t fully understand open source. Although I was a little surprised that Matt didn’t mention this….
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=225
SnapLogic: Open Source Company to Watch…
Posted 2 September, 2008 by
Chris in
Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 2 September, 2008 by Chris in Open Source
No Comments
Happy to say that Network World’s list of 10 Open Source Company’s to Watch was released today and we made the list….
Here’s the entire list:
- Kickfire
- Marketcera
- Vyatta
- Sonatype
- Untangle
- Qumranet
- Xaware
- SnapLogic
- Aquia
- OpenMoko
Check it out.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=224
Dinosaur not worried by pesky little mammals…..
Posted 28 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 28 August, 2008 by Chris in SaaS
1 Comment
I read ‘SaaS market will ‘collapse’ in two years‘, an interview with Lawson CEO Harry Debes and was stunned by it’s sweeping ignorance. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that some of this was taken out of context or that it was edited for maximum controversy, but still, what he says here is utter nonsense.
He cherry picks historical evidence on prior variations of outsourcing software services and ignores new macro forces. The result is that he simply looks foolish:
Q: All the other big players are going “on demand”. Is cloud computing the next big thing? Debes: This “on demand”, SaaS phenomenon is something I’ve lived through three times in my career now. The first time, it was called “service bureaus”. The second time, it was “application service providers”, and now it’s called SaaS.
But it’s pretty much the same thing. And my prediction is that it’ll go the same way as the other two have gone–nowhere.
SaaS is not God’s gift to the software industry or customer community. The hype is based on one company in the software industry having modest success. Salesforce.com just has average to below-average profitability.
People will realize the hype about SaaS companies has been overblown within the next two years.
An industry has to have more than just one poster child to overhaul the system. One day Salesforce.com will not deliver its growth projections, and its stock price will tumble in a big hurry. Then, the rest of the [SaaS] industry will collapse.
Won’t people avoid the mistakes of “previous” SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
People are Stupid? Could he really have said that? Unbelievable. Harry, I can think of at least one case where we agree.
He goes on to cite Larry Ellison’s point that ‘There’s no money is SaaS’ and that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ that offers ‘exactly the same [experience] as SaaS’
I will admit that there are legitimate issues with the SaaS model. Specifically, customer acquisition costs can be prohibitive (which I wrote about here), and the payback is often measured in years. However, this conveniently ignores the fundamental demand issue that customers want low cost, low maintenance, easy to use solutions as well as the revolutionary changes taking place on the production and service deliver side.
You might be able to credibly argue the timing of the Big Switch, but to say it’s not going to happening, or that SaaS is simply a ‘finance option’ is dinosaur thinking, pure and simple.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=223
SnapLogic featured on Information Week Startup City…
Posted 27 August, 2008 by
Chris in
SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=222
REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 27 August, 2008 by Chris in SaaS, SnapLogic
No Comments
I sat down with Michael Singer from Information Week and we talked about SnapLogic.
Check it out…..
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REST and Integration
Posted 24 August, 2008 by
mikeyp in
Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for
REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well
versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get
into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The
slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change.
Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the
permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In
short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems
are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I
believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to
discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already
doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply
describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity
in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building
a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was
based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at
auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available
list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage,
and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from
WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database,
containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to
expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make /
model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built
the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed
suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is
about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching
a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We
see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to
application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their
experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe
this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the
enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’
requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even
understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard
to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server
development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with
minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of
alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative
approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely
some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by
Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud
computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in
Redwood Shores.
[1]
Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer.
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221
« Previous
Posted 24 August, 2008 by mikeyp in Data Services, REST, SnapLogic
No Comments
As Chris noted in his post, I gave a presentation about using SnapLogic for REST integration at the Oracle REST Symposium back on July 29th.
This was an interesting audience. The group was both very technical, and well versed in the issues of enterprise integration and API’s , so I was able to get into the internals of SnapLogic somewhat more that I typically would. (The slides from the talk are on our wiki for reference.)
Whatever technology stack is used, the core issues of integration don’t change. Dealing with integration opens up significant complexity because of the permutation of interface protocols, data formats, application semantics. In short, integration is dealing with distributed systems, and distributed systems are hard. There are three main abstractions in use for distributed systems:
- Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Message Queuing
Everyone in the audience had experience with 1 or more of these models (and I believe everyone had RPC experience.) This wasn’t the appropriate forum to discuss the relative merits of the alternative approaches; others are already doing that. [1] Instead, the general outline of my talk was based on simply describing how we map REST to the integration problem, and minimize complexity in the process.
I went through a SnapLogic overview, and then we took a look at building a mashup-style application using SnapLogic and Google Mashup Editor.
The ‘business scenario’ for for the example was quite straightforward. It was based on a simple problem - For body shops considering purchasing a vehicle at auction, is repairing a damaged car worthwhile ?
There are two data sources. The first is a publicly available list of crashed cars available at auction, including information about the damage, and pictures of the vehicles. This data set is available as an XML feed from WebLogic Portal.
The second data set is a ‘prorietary’ reference data set from a local database, containing information about book value and scrap value. We used SnapLogic to expose this as a feed so it could be used in a mashup.
The processing logic was straightforward; join these two on year / make / model, and enable the bidder to decide if the repair is profitable. We built the processing logic in SnapLogic, and exposed the end result as an Atom feed suitable for consumption by Google Mahsup editor.
The final interface was built in Google Mashup Editor. The application is about 60 lines of code, plus 20 lines of css to make it look pretty.
I chose this example because it describes a pattern we commonly see - enriching a proprietary data set by adding information from another public data set. We see this pattern in both mashup scenarios, as well as application to application scenarios.
Overall, the symposium was interesting, especially to hear others relate their experiences. REST is often interpreted as being all about URL’s, and I believe this event increased awareness of the deeper issues in REST architecture.
It’s also easy to understand the momentum RPC style interfaces have in the enterprise landscape. A number of standards have become ‘checklist’ requirements on customer shopping lists, where the customer may not even understand the implications of what they are requesting. As a vendor, it’s hard to push an alternative when license revenue is on the line. And on the server development side, it’s easy to expose RPC versions of internal API’s with minimal effort. All of this momentum combines to slow down adoption of alternatives, despite the proven long term benefits of taking an alternative approach.
This was a great event, and I’m glad Peter organized it. There are definitely some REST practitioners at Oracle, and given the recent REST initiatives by Microsoft (Astoria) and IBM (Info 2.0 / sMash), as well as the shift to cloud computing, we might see some interesting new approaches from the towers in Redwood Shores.
| [1] | Refer to Steve Vinoski’s recent Internet Computing articles for a primer. |
Trackback URL : http://blog.snaplogic.org/wp-trackback.php?p=221