http://www4.gartner.com/displayDocument?ref=g_search&id=376064
Application Platform Suites: The Shape of Things To COME
31 OCTOBER 2002
Yefim V. Natis
Early marketing efforts of application platform suite technology have come mostly from application server vendors, but the trend toward modularity will sweep across all software infrastructure product categories and vendors.
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What Is an Application Platform Suite (APS) The APS is an assembly of essential software infrastructure products sufficient to enable, at runtime, the fundamentals of modern e-business applications Gartner defines minimal APS infrastructure as consisting of?.:
An enterprise application server A portal product An enterprise integration suite The APS is not a vendor invention. Thousands of enterprises already deploy APS technology, though most did not buy it as a single assembled product or from a single vendor. A good APS will include other product categories, such as an integrating development framework and integrated systems management. In fact, these added product types will probably become the key features to attract future users to the vendors' APS offerings. colloquially, an APS is also referred to as an "e -business platform. "A user can assemble an APS from different vendors' component parts, but, increasingly, leading software vendors offer an all-in-one," one-stop shopping "APS assembled from their own products. (For more details SEE "Application Platform Suites: an Emerging Software Market.") The Configuration of An Aps Reflects The Central Importance of Component Architecture, Service-Oriented Architecture, Web Services, Portal-S tyle user interaction and application integration to most modern business applications. Users facing the job of developing and deploying increasingly complex e-business applications look for solutions that offer simpler procurement of tools, more-productive development of software, and more-effective maintenance and management of applications. Vendors have targeted their APS products at meeting these essential requirements of modern enterprise computing. Gartner defines the APS market, which is targeted at meeting these requirements, in "The Application Platform Suite Magic Quadrant"
The APS Now The APS Repesents The Direction of The Evolution That Has Been Occurring In Most Infrastructure Products Individally:
Application servers, because they are the platform for new software components, have been gradually extended to support elements of application integration and user interaction. In "Application Server or Application Platform Suite?" We ask when an APS may be a better choice than an enterprise application server, since enterprise application servers can perform many of the functions of an APS Integration suites have remained relatively isolated;.. even so, most already support some component programming and, in some cases, advanced user interaction Roy Schulte and others examine the tension between the integration suites, application servers and application platform suites in "Integration Brokers, Application Servers and APSs." Portal products all support component programming and elements of application integration. in "Portals Play a Key Role in Application Platform Suites," Gene Phifer describes How, Over Time, Portal Products Will Increasingly BE Integrated Into Aps Offers. Web S ervices have become a feature of most of the application infrastructure products. Multichannel access support, initially offered by specialist vendors as an add-on to larger infrastructure products, is being incorporated into some portal products and application servers. Simon Hayward, in "Multichannel APS :? Beyond Commodity, ". describes how the APS will enable multichannel support in the future APS," APS-Lite "or No APS As the result of this ongoing functional growth, the leading enterprise application servers and portal products have a certain amount of Support for APS-Style Applications. Indeed, As Massimo PEZZINI POINTS OUT IN "APSS CAN BE USEful for Composit Applications,"
we can call these server and portal products "APS-lite." Not all application projects require the full, high-end set of APS technology. Some projects will start with one of the component products and evolve into the full APS over time, as application requirements grow. Other applications will never use the full APS. Still, by 2007, most midsize and large enterprises will use APS technology in some of their projects or across their multiple projects (0.8 probability). The majority of the APS purchases will be incremental, starting with one component part and evolving into the whole suite over time A simple bundling of the three independent products -. an application server, a portal product and an integration suite - into an APS suite is not a sufficient long-term strategy for Vendors or Users from Specialist Vendors Challenge The Suite Vendors 'Objective Of Offering A Single E-Business Platform. The customer'
s need to streamline the management of complex e-business infrastructures is not met by merely bundling products under a common name Vendors understand this and are working to evolve their APS offerings into integrated platform products Integrated Systems Management:.. Creating a Common View One of the key methods of suite integration is through a common shared middleware that all component parts of the APS use. Another is building a common systems management environment that enables users to monitor, deploy, administer and control the entire application environment via a common interface. Systems . management is complex, involving many disciplines and requiring cooperation of many participating products APS vendors are adding some of this capability, but users will probably remain dependent on third-party products in this area for some time in "APS Integrated Systems Management:. Not Here Yet, "Cameron Haight Explores the State of Aps Integrated Systems Management in More Detail. Servi ce-Oriented Development A key to productive APS use is an APS-aware development model. In fact, APS integration via an integrative development framework is most APS vendors' primary objective. Independent development tool vendors also have been developing products to offer a unified view of the development process for the modern e-business application styles. Services-oriented development of applications (SODA) is emerging as the central theme of these tools. The integrated SODA environment (ISE) will be available from the APS vendors and from independent vendors . In "SODA Environments Support The Application Platform Suite,"
Daryl Plummer and Mark Driver discuss how the ISE will affect application developers when used with an APS. By 2005, an integrated and dedicated development framework will represent the key differentiation and value proposition of most APSs (0.7 probability). The independent ISE vendors will compete by offering advanced features and by supporting best-of-breed assemblies of APSs from component parts of independent specialist vendors. Integrating Data Resources A database is another shared infrastructure resource, common to all activities in an APS. It stores an application's business data and data warehousing, but it is also used for the increasingly important metadata and message warehouses. APS vendors will increasingly look to add integration value to their offerings by providing an integrated view of enterprise data resources that are shared across the component parts of the APS. Ted Friedman Explores The Database Management System's (DBMS'S) Supporting Role in APS in "The DBMS's Supporting Role in Application Platform Suites. "Leading DBMS vendors also offer an APS, but the integrating data view layer is not really centered in the DBMS itself. The integration of the APS through shared heterogeneous data management is likely to come through a new data interface layer, designed to process data of multiple formats and sources. By 2006, most APS vendors will offer an integrative interface to heterogeneous back-end data sources (0.7 probability). The APS Market The business opportunity of the APS market is the subject of Joanne Correia's "APS WILL Take One-Third of Aim Market By 2006."
APS topology will establish over time the best practices for architecture of modern applications. However, no technology will force all projects into a common pattern. One suite architecture will not meet all needs. As today, in 2007 there will be systematic and opportunistic application projects (see "Systematic vs. Opportunistic: Useful Heterogeneity") As today, there will be projects that are focused primarily on user interaction, while others will focus on integration of applications Still others will focus on engineering, or re-engineering, new.. business processes. Inevitably, specialist APSs will emerge, offering unique strengths in focused areas. Low-end, "APS-lite" products will be essential and will differ from the high-end, full-featured APS. Opportunistic projects will favor APS development , exposing the soda features and masking the underlying middleware. Systematic Projects Will Look for APSS That Offer Direct Access To The Middleware and Its High-End FunctionAryness. What the Future Holds By 2007, most software infrastructure products on the market will be modular integrated suites of specialist infrastructure components (0.8 probability) Some will be ambitious, all-encompassing e-business platforms:.. a new, business-semantic operating system But . most will be focused on particular project styles, application categories and vertical industries A suite of specialist runtime technologies, assembled and integrated to meet the requirements of a category of projects or users, is the shape of next-generation, modular software infrastructure products - The Shape of Things To come. Features "The Application Platform Suite Magic Quadrant"
- Enterprises will continue to have a choice between best-of-breed assemblies and "one-stop" APS shopping through 2005. By Yefim Natis, Massimo Pezzini, Daryl Plummer, Roy Schulte, Gene Phifer, Cameron Haight and Mark Driver "Application Server or Application Platform Suite? "- Enterprises must assess their project requirements realistically and acquire APS technology as needed -. without being swayed by price by Yefim Natis" Integration Brokers, Application Servers and APSs "- Where application servers are heterogeneous, integration technology should be . server-neutral By Roy Schulte, Benoit Lheureux, Yefim Natis, Massimo Pezzini and Jess Thompson "Portals Play a Key Role in Application Platform Suites" - Within the next few years, enterprises will not buy a portal product; they'll buy An APS That Includes a Portal. by Gene Pife "Multichannel" - APS Have The Potential To Deliver An Entire New Generation of Multichannel Applications. by Simon Hayward "APS CAN BE Useful for Composite Applications "- APSs and composite software go hand in hand only in certain circumstances By Massimo Pezzini." APS Integrated Systems Management: Not Here Yet "- Enterprises will have to wait or look to third-party vendors for integrated systems management. By Cameron Haight "SODA Environments Support the Application Platform Suite" - Enterprises that want an end-to-end, holistic development solution should adopt an integrated SODA environment By Daryl Plummer and Mark Driver "The DBMS's Supporting Role in Application Platform Suites". - Enterprises Must Consider The Vendors'
