All change here at the mothership!
I've been a little quiet of late and for good reason ... I've moved to a new group and a new role!
I am now a Product Manager within our Web Services Strategy group, with responsibility for managing Microsoft's message around SO (Service Orientation), SOA (Service Oriented A_______ whatever that means), ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) and EDA (Event Driven Architectures). So, rather than wading into the many (heated, passionate, confused) discussions around these and related subjects in my "spare time" as I have been doing up until now, it's now my job to do so!! :D
I am really looking forward to helping rectify the mess the industry finds itself in because of the half-cocked way that it has jumped on these terms with little thought as to what they actually mean and the completely uncoordinated and proprietary definitions that many vendors are providing. The problem with doing this is that customers are confused. Few people really understand what these terms mean and what benefits and values the ideologies behind these terms espouse.
My goals are to provide clear, accurate, unambiguous guidance around these (and related) terms and concepts in a completely technology-abstract way, illustrating that these notions are applicable across any transport, technology and platform. We will also illustrate how Microsoft views these concepts and provide a map between these concepts and our current and future products and technologies. The vehicles through which this information will be disseminated will be many, and will (of course) include this Blog, MSDN & PAG whitepapers, Channel9 movies and vignettes, presentations at conferences, engagements with Microsoft's Executive Briefing Center (EBC) and other on-campus meetings, user-group tours (keep your eyes peeled - we'll be publishing our itinerary in the next few days) and other venues. We will also be working on creating a collection of materials to help our field personnel (sales & consulting) understand our viewpoints and provide a consistent, clearly articulated and valuable guidance no these matters.
All in all, there's a great deal to do and not a lot of time. If you have any suggestions/requests/ideas/flames, as ever, post a follow-up-comment or mail me if you'd like to be assured a reply! ;)
Ciao.
