john devadoss' blog

We shipped the Microsoft ESB Toolkit 2.0 this Summer. This product was formerly known as the ESB Guidance 2.0, and has been renamed as part of the transition over to the BizTalk product team. You can download the Microsoft ESB Toolkit here.

For those that are not familiar with the ESB Toolkit, it is a collection of libraries and tools that extends the capabilities of BizTalk Server 2009 by supporting a loosely coupled and dynamic messaging architecture, and functioning as middleware that provides tools for mediation between services and their consumers. Enabling flexibility at run time, the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 simplifies loosely-coupled composition of service endpoints and management of service interactions. Dmitri Ossipov, the lead PM and architect of the ESB Toolkit gave a talk at PDC that is good introduction to the Toolkit and usage scenarios.

why the belated post? For me this is a classic case study of how an emerging pattern, driven by community input and feedback, becomes mainstream in the box product over the course of 18-24 months. We in the patterns & practices team worked on version 1 of the ESB Toolkit, based primarily on requirements from our customers; we were able to follow-up and enhance the capabilities with version 2, and transition to the BizTalk product team.

we have made available the printed version of the Application Architecture Guide 2nd Edition - you can download from here - and also from here.

now, this is a fun one IMHO. It is my opinion that the cloud as plumbing will continue to over-shadow the cloud as the application platform, for the short-term and for the medium-term - and most certainly through 2010.

However, I do believe that in the longer-term the cloud as application platform will overtake and be the dominant viewpoint. IMHO through 2010, the focus will be on re-platforming to the cloud i.e. 'cloud as plumbing'.

Obviously, these are my opinions - all speculation here is mine and mine only - not those of my employer.

part of the rationale for working with my friends at Sogeti on the Collaboration in the Cloud book was my belief that the front office (email, collaboration, communications, crm and its ilk) are the early sweet spot for the cloud. I think 2010 will continue to accelerate that trend - and something to certainly watch...

Obviously, these are my opinions - all speculation here is mine and mine only - not those of my employer.

I continue to be convinced that the rich client thrives, and in fact that the rich client model will continue to grow in strength.

In spite of the cloud, and actually because of the cloud, I argue that the rich client model is here to stay. The edge (PC, phone etc) continues to grow in terms of power and capabilities - and the applications will continue to exploit this power at the edge, especially given the connectivity catalyst. Yes, thin client devices will thrive in niches, but the mainstream model IMHO will continue to be one of a rich client. I am unabashedly a rich client fan...

Obviously, these are my opinions - all speculation here is mine and mine only - not those of my employer.

just about two years back I had called out the 'my cloud' pattern -

Essentially, large enterprise organizations that are interested in the business and technology model advantages of moving to a software + services model, but are asking their IT organization to become a service provider, as opposed to out sourcing their IT portfolio to the sky.

whilst I still see value in this, the economics of the private cloud (which may be a semantic-free concept, however, at this time) do not convince me of the long-term viability of this approach. Granted, there will always be the top echelon of IT, the public sector, defense, and the top of the pyramid for the Fortune 100 etc - for whom this approach will continue to be of interest; but, I am not convinced of the economics for mainstream enterprise IT.

Obviously, these are my opinions - all speculation here is mine and mine only - not those of my employer.

Almost three years back I had called out a trend, that of 'bringing your own PC' (or device for that matter). I think that this continues to gather momentum; and am keen to see what 2010 brings in this context.

as a reminder, here is what I had called out -

With the second half of 2009 winding down, we wanted to share an update on our backlog here at patterns & practices - what have we been upto in these last six months - and ask you for your continued feedback. As always, I want to ask you to share with us your input and perspectives, and opinions on how we can better help you.

It continues to amaze me that in calendar year 2009, people still continue to conflate SOA with WS-* on one hand, and with REST on the other. 

SOA has nothing to with either WS-* or REST, period.

And btw, if you are naive enough to believe that you can do 'everything' with REST, then I am afraid you are sorely mistaken. Now, before you put me in the WS-DeathStar camp - rest assured, that I am no die-hard fan of WS-* (WS-Transactions yuck) - but, there is a time and a place for REST and for WS-* - and it is our job as architects and as developers to be able to apply the trade-offs and make the distinction.