First MWD FM SOA interview: David Clarke, Cape Clear

We interviewed David yesterday and asked him our standard SOA vendor questions. Considering it was the first interview, we think it went OK...

There were a couple of interesting things to come out of the interview:

• Cape Clear markets itself as an ESB vendor, but its view of what is "in" an ESB is much broader than that of most other vendors - David in particular calls out BPEL-based service orchestration


• the sweet spot for the company is really a "mainstream", "mid-market" company which may not have much in the way of deep in-house web services or SOA technology skills


• the company is currently working quite a lot in software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other commercial service delivery scenarios - helping companies in the digital service delivery business create more sophisticated and valuable services


• David also specifically calls out the need for potential SOA "customers" to make clear distinctions between management of SOA-related technology, and management of the automated processes supported by that technology. These are two separate problems with different solution needs, and they should be evaluated as such


• it's pretty obvious from the conversation, we think, that Cape Clear is very firmly a technology company selling its capability as a standards-based middleware solution to integration problems. This makes it quite different from many of the other SOA players, which position themselves almost as business change agents.

The interview lasts 32'55". The audio file containing the interview with David Clarke is here - or alternatively you can subscribe to the podcast feed.

Labels: Cape Clear, MWD, podcast, SOA

posted by Neil Ward-Dutton @ 10:47 AM 0 comments permalink

MWD FM kicks off interviews with SOA vendors

We let our podcasting get a little bit behind (well actually 3 months or so behind...) recently, and so we're trying to make up for it now. We have two initiatives underway, and this is the first (you'll find about the second one soon).

We've just recorded the first of a series of interviews with senior representatives from IT vendors working to provide SOA-related offerings - the first is with David Clarke, EVP of Products at Cape Clear.

The aim is to have a go at using the podcast medium to create a set of interviews which people considering or embarking on SOA initiatives can use as an additional reference in their selection process - kind of like an (albeit high level) set of comparable assessments in audio format... if that makes sense!

In order to make these interviews as useful as possible we're doing three particular things.

First, these are not sponsored podcasts. No-one is paying anyone for taking part in these interviews.

Second, we're keeping each interview to around 30 minutes, so everyone gets the same amount of time to talk about what they're doing.

Third, we're asking each interviewee to address the same four questions:
1) What are the commonly-occurring customer scenarios where your products and services get used?
2) How do you ensure that you "play well" with customers' existing investments - and where is this particularly important in your experience?
3) What are the main challenges that you help customers with - are you primarily helping them with service design, creation, assembly, management, etc?
4) How do you ensure that your technology is easy to deploy and manage?

Obviously there are many more questions we could ask, but given the level of confusion and FUD that currently surrounds SOA and related technologies we think these ones are pretty useful.

We've got a couple of other interviews lined up for the coming weeks, but if you've got particular vendors or groups that you'd like us to interview, please let us know!

Labels: MWD, podcast, SOA

posted by Neil Ward-Dutton @ 10:27 AM 0 comments permalink

TIBCO's ActiveMatrix and 4GL for SOA

We've been meaning to blog about TIBCO's ActiveMatrix product family for a few weeks now, since we were briefed on it in December. However it took a while for us to get to a point where we felt we had something particularly "aha" to say about it.

What makes ActiveMatrix so potentially valuable is also what makes it a challenge. As TIBCOer Rourke McNamara said in a blog entry from Gartner's Application Integration and Web Services Summit: "Explaining what ActiveMatrix does in 90 seconds isn’t easy." Actually explaining it's value is more challenging, because it's not what you might expect from TIBCO.

TIBCO talks about "service virtualisation" and describes the core element of ActiveMatrix - the ServiceGrid product - as a "network of service containers" with "embedded policy management for service governance" and "JBI and SCA support for service deployment and provisioning".

These things are all true, and they're all cool.

But what does that really *mean*, in really straightforward terms? After talking to numerous journalists and clients about ActiveMatrix over the past weeks, we've evolved our introductory explanation to this one, when talking to non-expert IT audiences:

Back in the day, a big challenge faced by large organisations trying to develop and deploy systems was how to create systems relatively quickly, that were quick to change, in complex multiplatform environments. In those days the multiplatform issues was one of 16- and 32-bit Windows, Mac and OS/2 clients; Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, OpenVMS servers; and various kinds of databases and network protocols (this was when IPX/SPX and SNA were as interesting as TCP/IP).

A whole range of "second generation 4GL" environments were created which aimed to help. They married a high-level abstract programming language (the 4GL) to a virtual machine which was ported to all the major platforms and which hid the details of the operating environment - client, server, database, network.

Now let's fast-forward to today. Java and JEE and web-based application designs helped with some of that old multiplatform nightmare, but it's not the only game in town. What's more, now we're looking at SOA, the challenge today isn't so much about building discrete systems; it's about finding a consistent way to build and integrate system elements that can talk to each other within various parts of our companies, and also across different companies and whole supply chains.

In short we have another version of the same problem, only this time the multiplatform aspect is at a higher level - and the scope and scale of the operational environment are much bigger. Now we struggle to get "plain Java", JEE, .NET and other modern application containers to talk to each other, as well as other "legacy" application platforms - and Web Services protocols and standards are only a partial answer here at best. Even if protocol interoperability gets working better we're now looking at an environment which is widely distributed, and which may not be 100% under any one party's control.

So if we're to try and address today's challenge for SOA - to enable people building and integrating services to just concentrate on the core logic of what they're doing rather than getting stuck in the weeds of environment-specifics - we need something like the old 4GL virtual machine, but with lots of extra capabilities - like service provisioning (think about telecoms service provisioning if you know that industry) , and policy-based operational and lifecycle management of services.

That's what ActiveMatrix does. It provides a virtual machine environment for the SOA age.

As an aside: Why is ESB not the answer, and why is ActiveMatrix not an ESB? Because ESBs concentrate on solving just one part of this conundrum - the operational communication between services. From the developer's perspective the ESB is pretty much invisible (intentionally), and doesn't offer any "virtual machine" facilities to that audience. ActiveMatrix works on top of, around, and underneath ESBs.

Of course there's a proprietary element - although ActiveMatrix is built around JBI / JSR 208 and elements of the SCA specification, the container design itself is unique to ActiveMatrix. Interoperability is standards-based through JBI, but of course interoperability with something else is not the same as "swappability".

So here's a couple of interesting questions. Do companies pursuing SOA know they need this, and does TIBCO have the credibility to provide it? And is there enough momentum in the SOA movement to get the mainstream of companies to the point where they need ActiveMatrix, or something like it?

The credibility question is a good one, because it certainly took me a while to work out what TIBCO was doing with ActiveMatrix. I saw it completely as an integration vendor moving into SOA, and was completely unprepared for what TIBCO was trying to tell me - for a while it just didn't compute. We're going to need some excellent customer examples, well-explained, to really help people get in the right frame of mind to hear what TIBCO's trying to say here.

The second question is concerning to me as a student of IT industry history. The truth is that the history of the industry is littered with examples of situations where "movements" were cynically abandoned by vendors in favour of newer, shinier things, just as they got to a tipping point. If you can dupe your customers well enough, you can sell them A, wait until they get familiar with it, and then tell them that A is last year's model, and sell them the virtue of A'. Example: the demoralising arrival of SOA 2.0.

Many say that SOA itself is one of these cynical reinventions, and there is a grain of truth in that (but only a grain, I'd say). I believe that SOA has real value - and that in the context of achieving that value companies will need facilities like they can get from ActiveMatrix - but my concern is that we'll get derailed by the "next big thing" before we can all realise that value.

Lastly, a disclaimer: TIBCO is an occasional client and we provided some input to help them refine their ActiveMatrix communications.

Labels: 4GL redux, SOA, TIBCO

posted by Neil Ward-Dutton @ 12:35 PM 1 comments permalink

Internet-scale identity systems

If you're interested in what's happening (and there's a lot) in the world of user-centric and federated identity you'll want to know about Microsoft's CardSpace, OASIS' SAML, OpenID and the Liberty Alliance's ID-Web Services Framework (ID-WSF), all of which I have discussed here in one way or another. Given recent developments, it's also important to understand the interplay between these different systems.

Ping Identity (who is not a client) has recently published a very useful white paper, which goes into these issues in some detail. The paper uses the interactions between a user, a service provider/relying party and identity provider to define a framework which considers the pros and cons of the different systems in terms of the identifiers they support; how they deal with attributes; authentication mechanisms; the flow of identity data and the involvement of the user; trust models and discovery mecahnisms. It concludes with a number of use cases which highlight how the systems can be used to together in a way which exploits their mutual strengths.

Definitely worth a read.

Labels: identity

posted by Neil Macehiter @ 2:54 PM 1 comments permalink

EMC strikes while the virtualisation iron is hot

So EMC has announced that it plans to sell off 10% of VMware via an IPO. I may not be a financial analyst but this seems like a pretty smart move by Joe Tucci et al. Virtualisation is hot, as VMware's 86% revenue growth in 2006 clearly shows, and EMC sees an opportunity to exploit the rising temperature to provide shareholders with a return without relinquishing control of this revenue generating machine.

Comments from Tucci and Diane Greene (founder and President of VMware) in the press release highlight a key reason for the IPO in my opinion:

We expect the IPO to unlock more of VMware’s value for EMC shareholders while also strengthening its ability to retain and attract the software industry’s top talent

and

It should enable us to accelerate our ability to find and attract great people

In an almost invisible software IPO market, stock options in a fast-growing company such as VMware should certainly help with recruitment.

Greene expanded on the press release here, explaing how the IPO:

Further reinforces our commitment to running VMware with an open platform strategy that benefits customers and the broader IT industry. Open and equal access has been important to our partners and benefited our customers because of the full and free choice it provides.

Greatly strengthens our ability to execute on all of our promises and continue to deliver on the rich roadmap that we see for virtualization software both through our own products and through open and standards based virtual infrastructure.

Allows VMware to invest in providing you the best customer service, support and experience on a global basis

Will bring even more focus and enthusiasm and innovation to an already thriving marketplace.

I am not so sure about the first point. The fact that EMC will only control 90%(!) of the company post-IPO won't make it any more open than it is now. The IPO should certainly provide funds for investment and expose VMware to the scutiny of the public market to focus the (what already seem pretty focused to me) minds of the company's management.

Ultimately, I don't see any downside for VMware's customers. Their supplier has more money to invest and the risks inherent in an IPO should be contained by virtue of EMC's continued controlling stake.

Labels: virtualisation

posted by Neil Macehiter @ 9:03 AM 0 comments permalink

Bill Gates says goodbye to the RSA conference - and announces ILM

Bill Gates' keynote yesterday at the RSA Conference was his last. He is handing over to chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, with whom he shared the stage yesterday. Gates marked his departure with a couple of significant identity-related announcements: one primarily focussed at the consumer, the other at the enterprise.

The first concerned a collaboration with the OpenID community, which has been comprehensively and effectively covered by those involved, including Microsoft's Kim Cameron, NetMesh's Johannes Ernst, SXIP's Dick Hardt, JanRain's Scott Kveton as well as OpenID's inventor, Six Apart's Brad Fitzpatrick. In a nutshell, the collaboration focusses on harnessing the benefits of both technologies, allowing individuals to control their own identity through the use of OpenID whilst exploiting the anti-phishing benefits of the CardSpace identity selector technology. The announcement doesn't come as a total surprise since there has been some fairly intensive and constructive debate regarding OpenID and anti-phishing with some valuable contributions from Kim Cameron regarding how CardSpace could help out. I do wonder when and if the Liberty Alliance will join the party.

The second announcement concerned ILM. No, not Information Lifecycle Management - Identity Lifecycle Manager. Microsoft announced the planned availability in May this year of its identity data synchronisation, user provisioning and credential management offering, building on the capabilities of Microsoft Identity Integration Server (based on technology acquired - together with Kim Cameron - from Zoomit). The announcement came as a bit of a surprise to me but is much needed in Microsoft's portfolio of identity management offerings. ILM is pretty comprehensive and will appeal particularly to organisations for whom Active Directory is a key identity data repository. That being said, Microsoft also plans to support directories from the likes of IBM, Novell and Sun (as well as mainframe security systems from IBM and CA and SAP business applications - but somewhat surprisingly Microsoft Dynamics is not listed!). Identity lifecycle and credential management are important capabilities but, as we discuss in our model for assessing vendors' identity management offerings, they are a subset of what is required if organisations are to maximise the business value of their identity management initiatives. It is therefore important that Microsoft extends its positioning of ILM to explain how it fits with its other identity management capabilities. Organisations considering ILM should therefore seek clarification from Microsoft how it fits with its other identity management solutions, as well as those from other vendors.

So although did not go out with a big bang, Gates did leave the RSA audience with something tangible.

Labels: identity

posted by Neil Macehiter @ 3:36 PM 0 comments permalink

A couple of interesting CardSpace snippets

A couple of interesting CardSpace items of note.

The first comes via Kim Cameron, Microsoft's Identity Architect, and highlights how Otto (a German online retailer) is using CardSpace for its rich client shopping application. The post should of interest to any organisations considering CardSpace-based authentication since it explains the process through which individuals get a branded card for authentication.

The second comes from Ashish Jain at Ping Identity announcing availability for download of an Apache module to enable CardSpace authentication of Apache-based applications. This should certainly ease the job of organisations using the dominant web server.

With Vista (which bundles CardSpace as part of the .NET Framework) now out of the gate from consumers and enterprises alike, I am sure these are only early examples of what will be an ever increasing amount of CardSpace related news.

Labels: identity

posted by Neil Macehiter @ 8:25 AM 0 comments permalink

Symantec's Norton gets all user-centric

I highlighted (with more than a little cynicism) Symantec's Security 2.0 vision back in October. Yesterday, at the DEMO conference, the company announced one element of that vision - its Identity Initiative - and demonstrated the Norton Identity Client.

This is good news for those promoting user-centric identity, given Symantec's solid footprint in the consumer space. Symantec claims there will be support for sites enabled for OpenID and CardSpace and I find myself agreeing with Johannes Ernst's analysis:

This is great news for OpenID. Not having seen the product, I'm not sure how great news it is for CardSpace: the press release can be read to say that Symantec's Norton Identity Client will compete with CardSpace for the same place on users' PCs

A quote from Enrique Salem, Group President, Symantec Consumer Business Unit in the press release:

We have a strong base to build from, with almost half of our active Norton user base already enrolled in a basic Norton Account. We’ll enable our millions of customers to extend the functionality of their Norton Account to manage all their information, all in one place.

raises another question in my mind. Is Symantec creating another identity silo? If all of the user information resides in the Nortan Account how does that relate to other identity providers? Hopefully that will come to light as the Identity Initiative rolls out in the next 12-24 months.

Labels: identity

posted by Neil Macehiter @ 1:16 PM 0 comments permalink