RE: Correction - Future - IBM connects its software layers - Xperanto

John,

Your goooooood...:D !  Yet another OUTSTANDING "CATCH"...!  This article was
fascinating...

Some I understand, some I don't understand, and some makes absolutely NO
SENSE (to me anyway)...



Things I don't understand:

The part about "IBM is taking a slightly different tack in its integration
strategy than are its rivals."  I guess I didn't catch how the "different
tacks" could be categorized.  So don't understand exactly how IBM's approach
differs from the others.

I don't understand much about the CrossWorlds software.  But I saw a
headline, in InfoWorld search "CrossWorlds Web services kit sidesteps
coding".  Given today's discussion around the issue of security, and
different platforms:  I'm not sure that it's advantageous to take extremely
complex and sensitive business transactions, and putting the capability of
designing these into the hands of someone who knows a scant little bit about
Visio...  Need to follow-up on that article, though...

Also per today's discussion, don't understand the need to build this on
J2EE.  This also falls into the next section.



Things that don't make any sense (to me anyway):

Once again attempting my Peter Falk impression (as Detective Columbo):
"I don't understand this ONE thing..."
(while turning away from interviewee) "...It's probably nuthin'..."
(turning back.. scratches eyebrow) "Maybe you can explain this ONE thing..."
"WHY is it...  I mean.. Why WOULD they bet the farm on a technology owned by
SUN...?"

$129M cash, for Crossworlds; $40M donation to OSS community; $"x" thousands
for iNation...

>From the article:  "'The challenge for us is more process than
implementation. It's relatively painless for us to build and deploy a Web
service. The biggest pain is in the business process,' Onnen said."  (Onnen
is Paul Onnen, CTO of Nordstorm.com)  AFAIK, the biggest portion of this
problem is the same as in EDI...  The coordination of the business partners.
The EDI software I've seen doesn't remove that part of the problem.  Nor do
I think this software will remove the MAJOR obstacle to this stuff actually
getting implemented properly:  takes people to implement it, people to
coordinate the thing, and people to keep it running smoothly...  All the
whirly-gigs in the world do little, in this regard (and probably get in the
way).

All the hype on X-this and X-that, starting with XML.  Don't mind
cross-platform, if it doesn't water down the strengths of the iSeries.  I do
VEHEMENTLY OBJECT to one of the basic premises behind XML:  that all the
stuff needs to be human-readable.  This is one of it's reasons for existing,
but this makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE, in this day and age.  Actually NEVER DID
make sense, and is just a hangover from the *nix world, AFAIK.  Does ANYBODY
on the 38/400/i platform have SERIOUS difficulties with PACKED FIELDS...?!?
I mean, over the last 20 years, has this REALLY been a problem...?!?  (Not
if you have DFU and/or DBU and/or WRKDBF and/or Surveyor/400 and/or...  So
where, PRECISELY, is this problem...?!?)  Best thing I liked about Xperanto
is that it was described as "a critical piece of IBM's long-term vision to
marry structured and unstructured data."  (As you know, I don't much cotton
to this bogus term "vision", when it's simply a long-range goal that may, or
may not, happen.  And I'm sure IBM can make this happen...)



But my MAIN disappointment with this initiative is summed up in the last two
paragraphs: "Some analysts caution that it will take IBM some time to pull
together the far-flung pieces that are part of this initiative."  And per
Massimo Pezzini, vice president and research director of application
integration and middleware strategies at Gartner in Milan, Italy. "This is a
very ambitious and complex thing to achieve and implement."

First thing I noticed was the dates on the deliverables.  Q1 2002,
acquisition of CrossWorlds complete.  Q2 2002, Phase 2 of W3C initiatives
(This seems optimistic, to me.  There's still a lot of pushback on WSDL.
Doesn't matter when the W3C ratifies it.. matters when the developers adopt
it, learn it, and use it day in and day out...  ie Qx 200y.)  Q4 2002,
Xperanto put into Websphere and DB2.  Problem is:  the worlds gonna be a
whole different place, by the time these are rolled out.  Not saying it
can't be done, and successful to a large extent.  But IBM's shooting at a
fast moving target here, no doubt.



Sorry to sound like a broken record.  But is Ed McVaney a member of the
iNation???  Is ANYBODY at JDE?  Or of these other ERP vendors?  JDE
obviously knows how to collaborate (co-branded iSeries).  But can they learn
to collaborate with their competitors WITHOUT the backing of the iNation?
The easier way to approach this problem is for the ISVs to ENHANCE an
existing methodology THAT WORKS, and HAS WORKED FOR YEARS.  (Rather than
re-invent wheels upon wheels, which are invariably missing half their
spokes.)

The need exists to enhance EDI, IMV.  Don't particularly care HOW it gets
done, but just can't help but believe the iNation can grease those wheels.
(Doesn't need to be done under the iNation flag, at all, which is why these
comments pertain to this list, and not that one.)


JMNSHO.

jt

| -----Original Message-----
| From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
| [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On Behalf Of jpcarr@tredegar.com
| Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2001 7:24 PM
| To: midrange-l@midrange.com
| Subject: Correction - Future - IBM connects its software layers -
| Xperanto
|
|
|
|
| >| But which one?  "Blade vendors rush to slice up servers"...?
| >|
| >| I'm seeing five article titles (but can't access any of them?!?).  Can
| you
| >| email it to the list, or is it too long (or copyright issues)?
| >|
| >| jt
|
|
|
| Sorry that was the wrong link.   This is the correct one.
|
| A good read to see their strategy.
|
| http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/12/17/011217hnintegration.xml
|
| John C arr
|
|
|
| | | Interesting Article about the future of IBM's software strategy.
| | |
| | | John Carr
| | | ----------------------------------------------
| | |
| | | IBM connects its software layers