I had dinner last night with some folks from Skywire Software - we use one of their products, Insbridge.
What I like most about them is that they aren't a vendor-pires and aren't trying to be. They are SOA based and stay out of your way. I wish there were more vendors like this - that just offered service based software.
Instead, every vendor seems to want to invade your whole stack. I met with a couple of these vendors yesterday and told them straight - "I would never buy this - it will lock me in and make me miserable". Most of these vendors have crazy GUIs and scary proprietary scripties that are intended to make your life easier. "Easier" sadly also = lock in and esoteric skills that few developers want to acquire.
IMHO, SOA strategies that rely on lots of extensive clickie tool support are doomed to failure. Or at least lots of bites from various vendor-pires. I'm all for tool support - just not invasive tool support. As long as the tool isn't generating files with weird file extensions and isn't required to build a service, you are probably ok.
Insbridge. does have a clicky tool, but the way you call it at runtime is via a service. So the clicky is useful and contained - that works for me.
Update 17-JUL-06 - Now that it is possible to determine my employer by reviewing my blog posts, I must follow my employer's blog policy.
This is not an endorsement by Liberty Mutual, but my personal view. Vendors are NOT free to quote with attribution.
1 comment:
If a vendor is actually good, they can build a tool that doesn't require proprietary extensions or clicky tools and that is good enough to make money without sneaky lock-in. Superior products are always the best lock-in because your customers love you, not hate you, for them. (cough) Apple (cough)
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