"If you thought it would be some time before Ajax moved from the realm of Google and Yahoo into the enterprise IT fabric, you’d be mistaken", writes Jason Stamper over at Computer Business Review Online. It's becoming clear that the new rich thin client technology Ajax will make it into enterprise IT sooner rather than later, he says.
Ajax seems to be gaining ground by the minute; software firm ILOG released an upgrade to its JViews graphical tools suite that includes Ajax-based dynamic charting capabilities, to help users more easily visualize large rules sets. Ajax’s tools are maturing as well. Tibco announced last month that its Ajax development framework, General Interface, is adding support for open source and commercial third-party Ajax components. Cenzic, an enterprise application security company, also recently unveiled its automated vulnerability assessment solutions offering full support for testing web applications using Ajax software development technology. According to the company, Ajax support in Cenzic Hailstorm and ClickToSecure will enable customers to take advantage of this emerging application development technique to develop more responsive and intuitive applications.
As it seems, Google no longer enjoys monopoly over Ajax. Jason points out the features that Google and other Ajax toolsets have in common. "They take higher-level approaches that eliminate or reduce the need to write JavaScript, which is used by developers who focus on user interface, rather than business logic." They differ from each other as well; Google's new Web Toolkit varies by incorporating an engine that directly translates Java code to JavaScript. That's a sharply different tack from most Java Ajax toolkit providers, who instead rely on Java Server Faces (JSF) to generate Ajax components.
"With Ajax seeping into enterprise software and the tools maturing rapidly too, now might be a good time make sure you or your organization’s developers are up to speed on this exciting new technology", Jason advises. Jonathan Boutelle agrees and adds, "There has never been a better time to be an enterprise UI developer. For the first time in their careers, they are positioned to be developing applications that have cutting-edge UI, way better than what is currently being developed for the consumer market. Vendors are targeting enterprise developers with tools to make doing this as easy as possible. Business models are also falling into place: hosted business models like salesforce.com have been proven in the enterprise space, and are a perfect fit for zero-deployment rich applications."
According to David Boloker, CTO for Emerging Internet Technology at IBM and one of the spearheads behind the OpenAjax Alliance, two notable holdouts to OpenAjax are Microsoft and Sun. Thirteen new members have joined OpenAjax, an open industry collaboration dedicated to developing and expanding Ajax, expanding its participation to 28 companies. The members intend to promote Ajax’s promise of universal compatibility with any computer device, application, desktop or operating system, and easy incorporation into new and existing software programs as well as foster Ajax's growth. Created February 2006, OpenAjax is a collaboration among technology and software businesses to expand Ajax adoption and evolve tools and runtimes that will significantly reduce the development costs and skills required to incorporate Ajax Technology into Web Applications. At that time, Gartner called it a tactical move that tries to exploit the rapidly growing momentum in Ajax. It began modestly, but it was also a well-conceived maneuver that meets a real need for leadership in this space, according to Gartner analysts. The rank of OpenAjax continues to swell, with original signatories including well-known industry notables such as IBM, Adobe, and Oracle. The new members include Adobe, Backbase, Fair Isaac, ICEsoft, Innoopract, Intel, JackBe, Opera, SAP, Scalix, Software AG, Tibco and XML11. These companies join the initial members including BEA, Borland, the Dojo Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, Google, IBM, Laszlo Systems, Mozilla Corporation, Novell, Openwave Systems, Oracle, Red Hat, Yahoo!, Zend and Zimbra.
Ajax has grown from a simple pattern for developing web applications into an increasingly well defined and industry supported platform model. "Fortunately, Ajax really does seem to be a grassroots phenomenon and I continue to talk to large organizations on a regular basis that are rapidly taking their internal and external applications to a zero-footprint Ajax model to support SaaS and Web 2.0 software goals", David said.
On the other hand, Ben Christen is skeptical about the transition Ajax is making from open source to the commercial forefront. Ben draws our attention to how it was dragged from the background to the forefront via Google when 'HTTPXMLRequest' was rebranded Ajax. He also voices his concern over what he calls the 'Enterprise Abduction', and hopes that it will be in fact 'Enterprise Adoption' rather than 'Abduction.'
Opposed to Ben's viewpoint, Cliff Reeves nurses a rather optimistic opinion about the enterprise angle. Investors were known to be bearish on Enterprise software but that is going to change drastically, Cliff said. "They will allow enterprises to refactor and integrate business processes inside and outside the firewall. There's good precedent for the notion that consumer trends and technologies have often led the enterprise."
The exact direction Ajax takes from here on is anyone's guess, although it's a safe bet to say that frameworks and tools will rapidly mature and diversify. Microsoft, for instance, is working to release a set of integrated tools called Atlas next year that will combine Ajax with elements of the Visual Studio and ASP.Net toolset (the company is promising that it will maintain cross-platform compatibility on the browser side). Whether all the new development options create a scenario where users revolt against overused Ajax widgets, much as they did the "blink" tag remains to be seen. For now, however, commercial applications such as the Zimbra and Scalix e-mail systems are showing Ajax to good effect and helping pave the way for enterprise-class development frameworks Christopher Lindquist over at CIO said. |
