Designs and Strategies for using Mashups in Enterprise Environments
My joint presentation w/ IBM jStart is now up
Earlier this month, I co-presented at an IBM web conference on the subject, "Mashup patterns for your business". This talk was interesting because it included frequent demos of IBM's Mashup Center product in addition to my regular blathering about "the patterns". The talk just came online here.
Clearly, IBM brings a level of credibility to the mashup arena, not just because of this most recent tooling but also their groundbreaking QEDwiki work over at alphaWorks. It's interesting to see how they have moved to commercialize the mashup space.
This presentation was one of several I have given along with the firms that contributed case studies to Mashup Patterns (for example, this one from JackBe). While some mashup products have a degree of functional overlap, they also have their unique strengths. You'll have to judge each based on your specific use cases but I hope that doing these talks brings some of these facets to light.
I had a great time working with John Gerken both on IBM's contributions to the book and on this demo. I hope you'll find it worth the time to watch.
Clearly, IBM brings a level of credibility to the mashup arena, not just because of this most recent tooling but also their groundbreaking QEDwiki work over at alphaWorks. It's interesting to see how they have moved to commercialize the mashup space.
This presentation was one of several I have given along with the firms that contributed case studies to Mashup Patterns (for example, this one from JackBe). While some mashup products have a degree of functional overlap, they also have their unique strengths. You'll have to judge each based on your specific use cases but I hope that doing these talks brings some of these facets to light.
I had a great time working with John Gerken both on IBM's contributions to the book and on this demo. I hope you'll find it worth the time to watch.
Comment
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Comment by Michael Ogrinz on June 2, 2009 at 11:48pm -
Hi Eric,
The mapping of the patterns to specific tools has a few challenges at this point. First, the specific way in which you wish to apply the patterns may automatically eliminate a particular tool that might work fine for someone else. For example, if you need to hit an external site that already offers a rich API, then yes, IBM can definitely support Infinite Monkeys and Leading Indicator. Or if it's an internal facing site where you can get developers in IT to create that API - you'd still be OK. But if you needed to impose that API yourself (using the API Enabler, as you mention) then you'd be stuck. In fact, IBM frequently partners with Kapow to provide exactly this functionality.
I haven't written a lot about particular products in the public blogs on this site, but since you've opened the door with your question, let me make some comments aimed at your specific situation.
Both IBM and JackBe have trial versions that are essentially free. If your firm already has adopted the IBM stack (Websphere, etc) then you might find the integration comfortable on both technical and personal levels (I assume you already have corp contacts in place). However, if you need a more platform-agnostic stack, you should take a look at JackBe, too. I've worked with both firms and I can say their tools are on nearly equal footing, especially if you're just testing the waters.
While IBM and JackBe provide great environments for assembling mashups, you're also going to need a tool that makes any closed resources you want to hit mashup-ready. This is where that crucial API Enabler pattern comes into play. IBM and JackBe won't do much here. JackBe is expanding their ability in this area, but they still have a long way to go to catch up to what companies like Kapow and Twinsoft (Convertigo) are doing. Since Twinsoft doesn't have a good US presence yet, I'm going to recommend you look at Kapow. Kapow is definitely not an end-user tool. It's what your IT team will use to create the APIs that power IBM or JackBe. Kapow also recently released a new version which includes a built-in scheduler, a feature it was sorely lacking previously.
Once final note concerning tool capabilities is “Clipping” functionality, crucial to patterns like Field Medic and Usability Enhancer. To my knowledge, only Kapow and Convertigo currently offer this ability at the level described in my book, though JackBe is making good strides in this area.
With the combination of a mashup enabler like Kapow and mashup assembler like IBM or Presto (JackBe), you should be able to implement every pattern in the book.
Feel free to PM me with specific details about the pilot you want to spin up.
Regards,
Mike
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Comment by Eric Weinstein on May 29, 2009 at 4:51pm -
Michael,
I just finished reading your book "Mashup Patterns" and really enjoyed it. I will certainly be recommending it to my co-workers. I work for a Fortune 500 company as an Enterprise Architect. We are currently in the initial stages of exploring mashup technologies for our SOA. I am considering exploring IBM Mashup Center only because they have put up a "developer" addition as an Amazon AMI that I can easily run and experiment with for 10 cents an hour. I was wondering - have you made any attempts of mapping each Mashup pattern in your book to the top mashup vendors? Specifically, do you know if IBM Mashup center offers the infinite monkeys leading indicator, and API enabler patterns?
Thank you,
Eric
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