o XML - is platform independent way to communicate: transfer
inbound/outbound streams of information. This is the sign of future coexistence
and it is simple in reading and understanding by human being
While in 1990th they saw
fierce fighting between Microsoft Windows and Apple Computer PowerMac for the
workstations market, when systems were practically not compatible and didn't
have designs to understand each other, and all the blends of Unix/Linux were
trying to step in and take workstation market over, the next decade in our view
will be the decade of coexistence, integration, cross-platform heterogeneous
information distribution and querying. Nice example would be this - imagine you
are freight forwarder and your company has Microsoft Business Solutions Great
Plains implemented as accounting and partly distribution application and on the
other hand you have Oracle based cargo delivery / tracking method. You do not
must phase out or the other - you make them coexist: in the event you need
Great Plains user to lookup shipment status - you use heterogeneous query from
MS SQL Server (Great Plains) to Oracle by linked server and have instant result
set on the screen. Similar heterogeneous query you can have from Oracle side to
MS SQL Server. Let's look at the trends:
o The sundown of proprietary languages. Nice example is Great
Plains Dexterity - this is the core of recent Microsoft Great Plains, former
Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity had the history of evolution, and now it is
using SQL Stored procs to do all of database querying and updating, Microsoft
designs to phase it slowly out and replace with the future .Net language of
choice (not positive which will win: C# or VB.Net - but this is not important
at this moment). In the close future SQL with XML inbound/outbound will be the
language of integrations
o IT Budget. Evolution versus Revolution: the elderly days of
restructuring your company business operation around new computer method are
probably over. Nowadays IT budget is limited and corporate management considers
IT as regular (not elite) internal services department. Customer relationship management So - you, as IT manager or director has limited
resources to revolutionize the company, so you follow the step-by-step
evolution
They are already doing
cross platform integrations from Microsoft Business Solutions products:
Microsoft CRM, Great Plains to Oracle, DB2, Lotus and other databases, and
Microsoft CRM electronic mail messaging through Lotus Domino to start recognize
the strategy
o The finish of heavy custom programming. At least in the US
- majority of the project will be outsourced. In the USA they will be mostly
dealing with project management and specifications writing, and physical
hardware support. Even in the event you are dealing with, say Microsoft
Business Solutions partner in San Francisco - partner itself will be using either
abroad facility or basically contractors over there. When all of us will become
project managers, thinking about business logic, not the way of realizing it in
the code - they will cease heating the opposite platform -no more Microsoft
VB.Net programmer hatred toward Java/EJB/J2EE programmer