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| Middleware Rides the Storm |
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In today's stormy seas, one sector of the software market that seems well positioned to ride the waves better than many others is middleware.
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According to Webopedia, the term "middleware" is used to describe a range of products that serve as the "glue" between two discrete applications. It is, therefore, distinct from import and export features or functions that may be built into one of the applications. Middleware is sometimes referred to as "plumbing" because it connects two sides of an application and passes data between them. Webopedia adds:
There are a number of middleware products that link a database system to a Web server. This allows users to request data from the database using forms displayed on a Web browser, and it enables the Web server to return dynamic Web pages based on the user's requests and profile. Advanced middleware products can mine data from many database sources and analyze and display it on a Web browser.
Although Gartner, one of the leading global consulting groups in the field of information technology, forecasts that the worldwide middleware market will reach $10.7 billion by 2005, some industry experts such as Rick Duris, president of Business Technology Group, a national systems integration company, are suggesting that developing technologies, such as Web service applications that condense 20 years of expertise in messaging and middleware into their most basic and simple form, will render some middleware obsolete.
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| The Local Angle |
Common Middleware Categories
- TP (transaction processing) monitors transactions as they pass from one stage in a process to another and ensures that they process completely.
- DCE (distributed computing environments) is a suite of technology services developed by The Open Group (international consortium of computer and software manufacturers and users dedicated to advancing multi-vendor technologies) for creating distributed applications that run on different platforms. DCE services include:
- Remote procedure calls (RPC)
- Security service
- Directory service
- Time service
- Threads service
- Distributed file service
- RPC systems are a type of protocol that allow a program on one computer to execute a program on a server computer.
- ORBs (object request brokers) are components in the CORBA (architecture that enables pieces of programs — objects — to communicate with one another regardless of what programming language they were written in or what operating system they're running on) programming model that acts as the middleware between clients and servers.
- Database access systems
- Message passing
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Uri Benyamini, president and CEO of the western Galilee start-up AppSwing, however, believes that "middleware is an attractive intermediate solution for enterprises looking to advance in a depressed economical climate." He agrees with the analysts who assert that middleware provides an appealing solution for many large and medium companies for at least the next five years.
AppSwing provides a Web-enabling solution that takes legacy Windows applications to the Web or mobile devices (cell phones or PDAs) or integrates them with other applications without any recoding. Whereas at one time, companies may have been quick to invest in expensive, comprehensive Web systems to replace their Windows legacy applications, the economic slowdown has made them think harder about using middleware solutions to connect their legacy applications with other, newer technologies, thereby enabling them to take advantage of cutting-edge mobile and voice-activated applications in a more cost-effective manner.
In many large enterprises, in-house IT professionals have produced solutions for their company's system. These solutions are often limited to the company's current applications and require further development when new applications are adopted by the company. Often these solutions are costly, unsuccessful, and unfeasible for smaller companies. That's where companies like Attunity (Israel) Ltd. come in. Menachem Brouk, the company's managing director, explained that the company's proprietary platform, Attunity Connect, which is designed to provide real-time connections to data sources and legacy platform-specific applications across 12 different operating systems.
While Attunity forms partnerships with companies such as HP/Compaq to provide native platform support across the company's product line, it also provides solutions that are more efficient, inclusive, flexible, and less costly than in-house solutions to individual enterprises.
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| Marketing in the Middle |
Israeli middleware companies are still not out of the storm. Their products need ongoing development and most sales involve customization and integration. Their biggest ongoing expense, however, involves marketing their products and reaching their prospective clients. Zeev Kotzer, general manager of PassCall, a company that develops comprehensive content transformation and optimization solutions for voice and mobile portals, believes that the current economic situation is beneficial to his company because their solution is inexpensive and implementable. He explained that initially PassCall approached end-users through its own sales force, but soon found that a more efficient approach was to enter into partnerships with large companies already "in the door" with PassCall's current and prospective customers. The company currently has marketing partnerships with companies such as Comverse, Ness, and IBM.
Attunity's Brouk points out that cooperation with a prospective customer's IT personnel is critical to successful selling, although the decision makers at the executive level must also be targeted and involved, since it is they who ultimately make the purchasing decisions. From his experience, Brouk feels that timing is the single most important factor to a successful sale. "You need to reach the decision makers just when they are tackling a specific integration problem (for example, the need to connect one application with another or to retrieve data from an incompatible source). Sometimes this happens quickly, but more often it takes up to a year of intense courting."
Brouk also notes that selling middleware products poses some difficulty because it is hard for the client to visualize the product; once it is incorporated into the company's network, it becomes invisible.
So, will Israeli middleware companies ride out the current economic storm? The window of opportunity certainly exists. By managing their resources carefully, minimizing expenditures, and concentrating on marketing, Israeli middleware companies should be able to sail their ships to calmer seas. But by then middleware solutions may be obsolete, as new technologies with built-in solutions become more popular. As is typical in all sectors of the software industry, the trick is to remain vigilant to forecasts for stormy weather.
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The Trendletter team welcomes your comments.
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Naomi Alper,
Senior Project Manager
Kippy Flur, Consultant
The Trendlines Group
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