Mike Wagner - Perpetual beta

Nine ideas for IT managers considering Enterprise 2.0 Posted by Dion Hinchcliffe @ 11:44 pm As browser-based software, SaaS, and Web 2.0 continue to make some inroads in the enterprise, it's the lack of useful pioneer reports that hampers the early adoptors. Sure, many of us witness the often amazing trends taking place out on the Web in the form of mountains of user generated content and communication and collaboration occuring en masse via blogs and spaces. But the big question is still with us: Can the motivations and context that makes the latest generation of software on the Web so compelling, and hence popular, be made just as meaningful in the enterprise? As we get deeper into the second decade of the Web , we've been inundated with the 2.0 generation of everything, hopefully all learning from the mistakes of the 1.0 generation. In addition to Web 2.0 itself however, we have two more important enterprise software trends: Office 2.0 and Enterpris...

JackBe Like any new web technology there is sometimes the misconception that it can be used and implemented within the enterprise the same as with public consumer web applications. This is natural because these consumer-facing applications often are constrained the way enterprises are and can act on new technologies and approaches faster. This is true with Ajax. Think of a car analogy. If you put a fancy Ferrari body on top of a Pinto frame and engine what do you have? From a distance you can say you have a Ferrari but to those who have to get up-close, interact with, and maybe even drive it; its still run’s like a Pinto. Now consider enterprise web applications. With the coming out party of open-source Ajax widgets enterprises believe that by ‘bolting’ some of these free snippets (little Ajax eye candy pieces to make a site look and feel better to the user) onto existing apps is all that is needed to say “Yes, we’re doing Ajax.” But think about it. All that is being done is si...

http://www.jackbe.com/blogs/index.php/2006/10/09/tacit-interactions/ Many have been talking about a recent issue of the McKinsey Quarterly that speaks of what they call “Tacit Interactions”. When people consider Enterprise 2.0 / Web 2.0 / Office 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis, they need to consider these tools in the context of these tacit interactions. Tacit being ad hoc or on the fly and this represents 40% of a typical business day time according to McKinsey. Dion Hinchcliffe and Tony DiRomualdo do a good job explaining this in more detail as does the blog Enterprise Web 2.0 . These are not the routine transactional activities but rather the interactions are complex and ambiguous, requiring high levels of judgment and problem-solving. People involved in tacit interactions must often draw on deep experience and combine with available data, and the output of integrated data. Over the years companies have boosted their productivity by improving the efficiency of transformational...

AJAX issues debated Filed under: Application Development Multiple issues around AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) were raised at the AJAXWorld Conference and Expo on Wednesday, including debate over lightweight vs. heavy development frameworks. Lightweight frameworks are those considered to be AJAX-based, while heavy frameworks include those needing desktop-based technologies such as plug-ins, said conference panelists during an evening session. "I would have to say, of course, the end user experience needs to be totally lightweight," said Chris Schalk, a product manager and JavaServer Faces evangelist at Oracle. Lightweight technology is needed for interacting with legacy systems, he said. "AJAX compared to other RIA (rich Internet application) technologies definitely could be defined as lightweight," said Jouk Pleiter, general manager of Backbase. "With AJAX itself, I think there is a little confusion in the market," over the use of JavaS...

Ebizq JackBe, a Rich Enterprise Application (REA) software company, today announced its Presto REA platform, a comprehensive solution for delivering enterprise Ajax applications based on SOA and Web services. ebizQ received the following details: Applications built on the Presto platform gain business-class reliability, scalability, and service governance. The results are highly interactive browser–based applications that help users to optimize both their regular and ad hoc activities. Enterprises are making significant investments to create SOA infrastructures that produce SOA and Web services. The focus is now shifting to “putting a face on SOA” by enabling distributed business units to easily consume these services and thus accelerate SOA benefits and ROI. JackBe’s Presto will enable enterprises to fully realize their SOA vision through Rich Enterprise Applications deployed at the forefront of business. The Presto REA platform offers an enterprise-grade architecture based o...

MikeWagner JackBe coined the term Rich Enterprise Applications (REA) as an evolution of Rich Internet Applications (RIA). RIA is to Web-grade applications as REA is to Enterprise-grade applications. The side pic. is my personal attempt to illustrate this visually. Some like it; some don’t, so comments are more than welcomed. So What is Enterprise Grade? Enterprises require tighter control, security, and reliability. In short they require a degree of governance that the average user building a Google Maps Mashup while sitting at their kitchen table doesn’t need. This should be no surprise to anyone who has worked for large organizations. People have heard a lot about Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 lately. I can see a similarity here that I think might help to distinguish between these two, and REA and RIA. Most of the talk surrounding Web 2.0 has been focused on the social collaborative aspects that it brings to users. I agree with this. Now take all of this (Web 2.0) and enable governan...

http://www.jackbe.com/blogs/ We’re very excited at JackBe to be announcing Presto , our Rich Enterprise Application (REA) Platform. Presto helps organizations optimize business activity, leveraging existing SOA investments and facilitating the development of rich, interactive Ajax-based applications. I blogged recently about some different architectural approaches to combining SOA and Ajax and pointed out that a server-side proxy approach is key to supporting many of the the non-functional requirements so common in today’s Enterprise service infrastructure. Additionally, this approach allows for optimization over the wire between the browser and server (as opposed to focusing on SOAP from the browser) and supporting strong governance of the service infrastructure on the back end. Presto is focused on just this sort of approach, supporting the creation of highly interactive and responsive applications, built on a governed service infrastructure and reliable and scalable web connect...

JackBe has developed a new development and deployment platform that takes advantage of the strengths of both Asynchronous JavaScript and XML-style development and service-oriented architecture. At the AJAXWorld conference in Santa Clara, Calif., the week of Oct. 2, JackBe, of Chevy Chase, Md., will launch Presto, its new REA (Rich Enterprise Application) platform, which will leverage the strengths of both SOA and AJAX to enable enterprises to tap into underlying business services to create rich Internet applications. Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, RIA, SaaS, Office 2.0 John Crupi, chief technology officer at JackBe, said that AJAX helps to put a face on SOA, and the new Presto platform enables typical business users to become developers and to address their own application needs by building what Crupi refers to as "situational applications." However, unlike other so-called Web 2.0 technologies that tend to leave governance to the browser, JackBe's solution presents a secur...