Thispiece from SD
Times that I simply do not agree with!Lead me to the
question: Are you a "google" away from being "amazoned".
Here is the excerpt in SD times that
irked me so much:
Eric Newcomer, CTO of Iona Technologies PLC,
argues that avoiding vendor lock-in is not the most important
role played by standards. "We hear a lot about the importance
of standards. And the standards argument usually centers on
guarding against vendor lock-in, since lock-in can be an expensive
prospect. You will even find that most vendors readily acknowledge
this benefit. While I do not dispute that avoiding vendor lock-in
is of some importance, I do argue that of far more significance is
the role industry standards play in reducing the overall cost of
developing software and increasing developer productivity,
especially for enterprise applications. What's needed is a common
way of programming to any language or operating system, and a
common way of communicating between any two or more programs.
Heterogeneous hardware, operating- system and software environments
are the main problems that businesses have, and will continue to
have into the foreseeable future.
The benefit of standards is to prevent
Lock-in, this might be vendor or technology lock-in.There is
a lot of hype aroundReal-Time Enterprise vision, and most
technology vendors (OpenLink included) have realization of this
vision as part of their value proposition. Any enterprise that is
locked into a technology or vendor is simplyabdicating a
timeless responsibility to attain the enterprise agility levels
espoused by the Real-Time Enterprise vision.
The real cost of engaging any
technology or vendor is all about the long term impact on the
customers ability; the abilityto respond to market
inflectionsvia existing and future IT
infrastructure.
A standards based IT infrastructure
enables a company to dispose of thosecomponents that impede
its ability to sustain desired agilitiy levels. Put differently,
standards enable companies to assemble IT infrastructurefrom
an increasingly heterogeneous pool of vendors. Thus, a company
should be able to mix and match "best of class" IT infrastructure
componentsin line withEnterprise Agilitygoals
-something that is only attainable via a commitment to standards
based infrastructure components in the first place.
An enterprisecannot be locked
into a database, operating system, programming language, or
technolgy religion, and expect to be agile. Failure to engage
standards ultimately implies that you are a "google" away from
being "amazoned" in your chosen market place. Be
forewarned!