Sean Rhody

(San Francisco, January 17, 2002) WSJ traveled to the West coast, to cover the Next Generation Web Services Conference sponsored by InfoWorld Media, which was held in San Francisco. Web services was the topic on everyone’s mind at this well-attended show, and the two-day event was packed with information and opinions from some of the leaders in this space. Keynotes from several industry figures, such as James Gosling, Adam Bosworth, Barry Morris, and Eric Rudder, set the pace for Web services, one which could best be described as “It’s already here, but there’s a lot more coming.” Each of the speakers highlighted some of the unique perspectives of their respective companies, and reinforced the reality of Web services as the next paradigm for computing. During the course of the event, a development contest sponsored by WebGain Corporation took place, as three teams of... (more)

Portal to the World

One of the more interesting conversations I have with IT organizations is over what constitutes a portal. While issues vary, it is clear that there is a business definition of a portal that is distinctly different from the technology definition of a portal. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as you can separate the two and clearly make the transition between one definition and the other. When that doesn't happen, a bit of chaos can result. Most businesses see a portal as a means of consolidating the way the Internet "views" their company. As such, it's used to standardi... (more)

SOA World Editorial — Getting on the Grid

One of the most interesting aspects of being a consultant is that I get exposed to any number of different facets of system design in the course of an assignment. While I tend to focus more on application and integration work, I find it fascinating to deal with the concepts of services in the context of infrastructure. In the past, I've been called upon to design Service-Oriented Infrastructures (SOI) - the hardware and platform software, along with customizations for the needs of the actual deployment environment - instead of creating an application architecture. SOI is really ... (more)

The Last Mile in SOA - Taming the User Interface

Last month I wrote about the future, what might be ahead for SOA and beyond, focusing significantly on user interfaces. This month I'm still thinking about user interfaces and the impact they have on the final judge of any SOA project - the end user. If you've read my editorials over the past few years, you're aware I'm an absolute opponent of the browser as a means of delivering applications. I think it's terrific at what it's made for - delivering content - and has been extended in ways that make it something its original inventors never dreamed of, but at the end of the day, ... (more)

Who Will Be King of J2001?

Lately I've received a number of e-mails and had conversations regarding J2EE compliance and what it means to the industry. Each conversation or message has a slightly different slant depending on whether the person on the other end is a vendor or a reader or a colleague. What almost everyone seems to agree on is that the J2EE standard has done more to create a basic parity among vendors than any other event in the short but colorful history of Java. Parity excites end users (in this case developers or IT departments) and depresses vendors. IT departments love the portability of J... (more)