This was the first time that I attended a Microsoft TechEd event. While the sessions were interesting, there was a lot of emphasis on WCF ( Windows Communication Foundation ), and understandably so I guess - its essentially a platform(WCF extensions) on a platform (.NET) and I say that because of the swooping changes that are brought to the .NET platform by adding the WCF implementation to it. At the core, WCF implements WS-* standards for web services, however there are very few vendors (if any other) that have implemented WS-* to this degree and simplicity. I think that right there should be a wakeup call for Java folks. I was pretty impressed with what I saw of WCF and look forward to playing with it.
Microsoft's codename "Oslo" project could also potentially be another knee-jerker for the Java camp. "Oslo" sounds interesting as a concept and is essentially a broad set of innovations touching many aspects of the application lifecycle, including languages, development tools, integration, application management, and more. The whole concept of "Oslo" is based around models. One would jump to the conclusion that this is Microsoft's MDD (Model Driven Design) methodology. However, its not really that. "Oslo" consists of 3 parts : Repository, Lifecycle manager, and schema language. The repository maintains the various model artifacts, and so models in the case of "Oslo" are anything in IT that has a representation through the schema and is maintained in the repository (eg. things like applications, computers, processes, services,SLAs). The schema extensions help to formalize definitions of basic entities (infrastructure and business based) in a software's life-cycle. What is really cool is the lifecycle manager uses the repository and the schema extensions to manage the entities represented. So for example, if a component is deployed on a certain platform/environment, on multiple machines, lifecycle manager will know about this profile and deploy the component accordingly onto the defined platform/environment.
All this occurs through sophisticated visual integration with tools like Visual Studio, Visio and Oslo's own visual editor - as a way to provide the same information to tools that people typically use in different roles ( analyst, developer etc). So Oslo really seems to me like a tool from the software development lifecycle perspective - modeling a component/service/process, building it, and then moving it and deploying it to an environment.
The key here is that there are so many bits and pieces to this colossal, that only a company like Microsoft could pull this feat through - the Open space world will probably have a hard time replicating such an effort and collaborate effectively. That would invariably give Microsoft a competitive edge. Another scary thought for the Java folks.
From what I saw at TechEd, Microsoft has some interesting technologies that have a lot of potential. C# as a language is evolving better and more rapidly than Java and so is the declarative language F# over something like Groovy on the Java side. In a services world too, WCF's ease of use and WS-* richness also place Microsoft very well in that space. "Oslo" still is a mystery, but if it comes close to what Microsoft is talking about, I think the Java space could find itself in troubled waters very soon :(.
Microsoft's codename "Oslo" project could also potentially be another knee-jerker for the Java camp. "Oslo" sounds interesting as a concept and is essentially a broad set of innovations touching many aspects of the application lifecycle, including languages, development tools, integration, application management, and more. The whole concept of "Oslo" is based around models. One would jump to the conclusion that this is Microsoft's MDD (Model Driven Design) methodology. However, its not really that. "Oslo" consists of 3 parts : Repository, Lifecycle manager, and schema language. The repository maintains the various model artifacts, and so models in the case of "Oslo" are anything in IT that has a representation through the schema and is maintained in the repository (eg. things like applications, computers, processes, services,SLAs). The schema extensions help to formalize definitions of basic entities (infrastructure and business based) in a software's life-cycle. What is really cool is the lifecycle manager uses the repository and the schema extensions to manage the entities represented. So for example, if a component is deployed on a certain platform/environment, on multiple machines, lifecycle manager will know about this profile and deploy the component accordingly onto the defined platform/environment.
All this occurs through sophisticated visual integration with tools like Visual Studio, Visio and Oslo's own visual editor - as a way to provide the same information to tools that people typically use in different roles ( analyst, developer etc). So Oslo really seems to me like a tool from the software development lifecycle perspective - modeling a component/service/process, building it, and then moving it and deploying it to an environment.The key here is that there are so many bits and pieces to this colossal, that only a company like Microsoft could pull this feat through - the Open space world will probably have a hard time replicating such an effort and collaborate effectively. That would invariably give Microsoft a competitive edge. Another scary thought for the Java folks.
From what I saw at TechEd, Microsoft has some interesting technologies that have a lot of potential. C# as a language is evolving better and more rapidly than Java and so is the declarative language F# over something like Groovy on the Java side. In a services world too, WCF's ease of use and WS-* richness also place Microsoft very well in that space. "Oslo" still is a mystery, but if it comes close to what Microsoft is talking about, I think the Java space could find itself in troubled waters very soon :(.
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