If anybody was wondering what Microsoft's take was on delivering software as a service, Bill gates made is clear in this leaked e-mail to his employees. Not a surprise to anybody, really. Well, perhaps some of the vendors who have been dismissing Microsoft in order to clear the way for their technology.
Truth-be-told, the support by Microsoft in this space is very important, and will actually enable SOAs going forward. Microsoft does a good job at marketing notions, as well as technology. Thus, as they move further into this world they will bring along many of those who are reluctant to enter unless the technology is bundled behind a very nice installation wizard. Much in the same way Windows enabled many new types of technology to enter the game, again riding on the Microsoft platform.
I always get a kick out of those that look down on Microsoft, and their technology, yet pull out their laptops and boot Windows XP, get their e-mail via Outlook, surf the Web using Internet Explorer, and show me their non-Microsoft technology using PowerPoint.
I'm not sure Microsoft is going to dominate the SOA marketplace, they seem more interested in selling a million of something than a few sophisticated products. However, their presence in the space will legitimize this technology, and I'm sure many innovative vendors will find a way to grow crops where Microsoft has plowed.
"...bundled behind a very nice installation wizard".
I thought this phrase summed up very nicely everything that SOA is supposed NOT to be. How could you - even hypothetically and schematically - have an installation wizard for an SOA? I thought SOA wasn't just technology, and wasn't anything you could buy from a single vendor.
Btw, Dave, you say that Microsoft can "enable SOAs going forward". What do you mean by "going forward"? Is that as opposed to going backward, sideways, or just down? Or do you mean "in future"? But even Gates can hardly hope to change the past (except perhaps in his books). I'm afraid "going forward" sounds dangerously like meaningless PHB-speak.
Hi David,
Although I have read and enjoyed many of your postings and respect your opinion, I think you miss the point on this one. At least, I don't see an obvious link between software as a service delivered via the internet as Bill describes and SOA.
Will Microsoft have an offering in the SOA space? Sure, but that is not what Bill is talking about.
The point he makes is about more agressively adopting the "salesforce.com model" more agressively. That can be done with as well as without an SOA.
Will there be Web Services exposed by these apps? Primarily there will be browser based interfaces, extended with some web services. But again, that is not key part of an SOA.
I thought for a while that people had figured out what web services and SOA are about, but when I see your posting, it looks like it is getting blurred again!