Let me try to explain what I’m talking about. You want an API without having to write a line of code? It’s called curl, and it ships with your MacBook. And just look at how simple the APIs are in your favorite language.
The wins go deeper than APIs, though. Think about what it would take to add load-balancing to CouchDB. I’ll give you a hint: perlbal. Or what about adding a transparent caching layer? Try Squid.
HTTP is the lingua franca of our age; if you speak HTTP, it opens up all sorts of doors. There’s something almost subversive about CouchDB; it’s completely language-, platform-, and OS-agnostic.
Look, CouchDB may succeeded, and it may fail; who knows. I’m sure of one thing, though — this is what the software of the future looks like.
Patrick and I were talking about this a bit yesterday. It is tough for some in the middleware world to get this. It will come with time. It is a bit nuts that your integration architecture really is just the judicious use of HTTP, well designed URIs, and data formats. How that architecture is realized (CouchDB, Squid, perlbal, etc. etc.) really won't matter over time.
If you can't answer yes, yes, and yes to: completely language-, platform-, and OS-agnostic when it comes to your integration architecture, you are doing something very wrong.
1 comment:
Specialization is a competitive advantage. It seems that those choices will always be engineering trade-offs. Whilst avoiding lock-in is itself a benefit, it may also come with the cost of decreased fitness for a particular purpose.
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