IT industry cycles and good ideas are like the changing seasons. You liked spring this time – just wait ‘till next year it’ll be here again. You liked centralized computing last time (beards & sandals) – don’t worry it’ll come back (different beards and the sandals are made by Diesel).
Likewise it’s the time of the stack again. Everyone’s talking about “stacks” and “platforms”. Even Larry Ellison is talking stacks – Oracle has decided they’re missing an operating system. http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-6061701.html So, Larry’s looking for an OS. That OS is likely to be Linux – an acquisition or a partnership.
The only people not talking about “the stack” right now are those without anything close to a stack at all – like the guy who says “cars are out dated” when all he’s got is a pair of roller skates!
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9593_22-6062557.html
To make this whole idea of a “stack” work really well you need to have a high degree of cohesion between the layers.
Over the past few years the maturity and breadth of applications provided by the major software vendors has given rise to emergence of what is commonly being termed “The Superplatform”. The Burton Group does an excellent analysis of the Superplatform (or stack) vendors in their “Application Platform Strategies Report” - http://www.burtongroup.com/research_consulting/doc.aspx?cid=699 Burton talks of this tight cohesion between layers of the stack as one of the key differentiators of the Superplatform vendors.
Superplatforms are the realization of a long term vision: To provide a total software solutions stack which is feature rich, tightly integrated, manageable, highly available and secure.
This sounds very much like the goal of Microsoft’s vision termed “Integrated Innovation”.
Microsoft is one of few major vendors who are able to offer a Superplatform today.
There is significant commonality of functionality across the Superplatform vendors. Almost all Superplatforms consist of the following core components:
1) Core infrastructure servers and services.
2) Integration and information brokers.
3) Tightly coupled integrated development environments (IDEs).
4) Advanced web services.
5) Powerful portal and reporting technologies.
Where the Microsoft Superplatform differs is the level of tight integration between the application platform and the underlying operating system – delivering a foundation for security, manageability, administration and development. This tight integration provides a single consistent environment on which to innovate in the business applications space; whilst also allowing a flexible approach to coupling with other systems via a service oriented architecture (SOA) model and a highly collaborative integration model.
In particular relevance to the Microsoft Dynamics platform; Microsoft has invested considerable resources in bringing the Microsoft Dynamics applications closer to the Integrated Innovation vision. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 delivers a tightly integrated, flexible application platform which fits the Superplatform vision closely. ISVs that choose to develop applications and solutions on CRM 3.0 will be able to leverage many years of product development and design – such as a dynamic powerful web services which are available and integrated into the IDE Visual Studio.NET.
The Microsoft Superplatform consists of the Windows Server System, the Visual Studio .net IDE, the Microsoft Dynamics product suite, Office and approximately eighteen complimentary infrastructure software products. (This list is growing – and we are at the cusp of many new releases to these technologies too).
The foundation for the Windows Server System portfolio of integrated server software products is the Windows Server 2003 operating system, which delivers the core infrastructure and common services across the following categories:
• The underlying security model as the foundation for the Security Infrastructure.
• The core directory services and operations and management services to support the IT Operations Infrastructure.
• The core application definition and programming model as the foundation for the Application Infrastructure.
• The core data and collaboration services that support the Collaboration Infrastructure.
For more information regarding the Windows Server System visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/overview/overview.mspx
So taking this back to the context of Dynamics CRM 3.0 and what this really means to our partners and ISVs who choose to develop applications and solutions on top of our “stack”… By taking the Dynamics CRM platform as your base you are effectively letting Microsoft do the heavy lifting in the engineering department. Your team of developers can focus on what is core to differentiating your business – defining, designing and building solutions to meet the needs of your customers. Let Microsoft engineer the infrastructure, provide the cohesion between the layers and deliver the development environment.
Microsoft CRM lets you focus on your solutions by providing the following features out of the box:
· Robust security architecture linked to Active Directory. Role-based security privileges with low-level security and the ability to share objects offers similar security features to what you would find on files in Windows.
· Extensible object model that allows you to add new objects to the Microsoft CRM object model. Existing objects can be extended with new properties, and relationships can be defined between new and existing objects allowing ISVs to build almost any application on Microsoft CRM.
· Easy to customize forms, data views, and UI layouts using simple Web-based tools.
· Import/export feature that lets ISVs export all objects, properties and customizations and then import them into customers' CRM implementations.
· Web service API’s allow ISVs to automate this process to build simple setup applications.
· Offline synchronization for Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook users. All custom objects can be marked to allow users to take data offline.
· A robust SDK with detailed examples on the Microsoft CRM platform as well as tips for ISVs building on the platform.
Visual Studio 2005, ASP.NET, SQL Server 2005, the .NET Framework--these are some of the technologies that Microsoft CRM is built on. With the rise in Web-based applications and Web-services usage, many developers are increasingly expressing a strong desire to be working with these technologies.
So, if it’s time to talk stacks again – you'll find that we’ve got stacks of stack!
