saved byGary Edwards on 2008-04-17
Actually Microsoft is the missing piece to any SOA-Cloud computing effort aimed at transitioning legacy client/server systems to emerging cloud ready "client/ Web-Stack /server" systems.
With ISO approval of MSOffice-OOXML, Microsoft is now in position to begin the great transition. The MSOffice desktop is the universal "client side" anchor of near all client/server equations. ISO approval of OOXML paves the way for MSOffice to be repositioned as a standards base "cloud editor" with one exceptional characteristic; The integration between the specific MSOffice <> MS Web-Stack connection is based on proprietary protocols, formats and components.
The conversion component of greatest inport can be found in the MSOffice SDK OOXML <> XAML component. The MS Web-Stack speaks proprietary WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is where we find proprieatry alternatives to all of the W3C "Open Web" technologies.
XAML "fixed/flow" is an alternative to XHTML-CSS, CDF and Adobe PDF. Silverlight-DrawingML is an alternative to SVG and Adobe Flash (SWF). WinForms is an alternative to XForms. And perhaps most importantly, Smart Tags - LINQ is an alternative to RDF, RDFa and SPARQL.
The MS Web-Stack core is comprised of Exchange, SharePoint, MS SQL Server, and Windows Server. To this core they will add MS Dynamics, MS Live, MS Mobil and MS Universal Communications Server. The MS Cloud is forming right before our very eyes, with a massive data center in Chicago to prove it.
No wonder Google and SalesForce.com finally came to terms. The race is on, MS is ready to begin the monopolist transition, and they have no means of cracking into the MSOffice desktop lock on exisitng cleint/server systems.
~ge~
The point is to separate data from application on the server side of the client/ Web-Stack /server system equation and enable end users and line of business developers to combine that data with applicaiton logic AS NEEDED - WHERE NEEDED- WHEN NEEDED!
Moving app control of data from the backend transaction and relational databases to Web-Stack SaaS applications is a very shortsighted approach. These "XML" provisioned data streams served up by back end black boxes must remain fluid and repurposeable, with end/edge users applying the logic where needed.
True. But what Dana continues to miss is the importance of strucutred and portable XML documents as the primary container of data bits. The portable XML document replaces end user applications as the primary knowledge worker interface into information systems; the cascading and entangled information systems that characterize emerging client/ Web-Stack /server architectures.
