Mashups, a key category of the Web 2.0 revolution, were envisioned several years ago as a relatively quick and easy way to build simple yet useful applications, some of which would serve as prototypes of future enterprise-scale applications. The thinking was that these mashups would be dreamed up, built, and quickly deployed by business users to meet immediate needs, but that they would be built using IT-approved components to ensure that governance and security policies were still being adhered to.
These Mashups, or "hybrid Web applications" use pre-built components that are typically in the form of XML-based Web services, API's, and data sources. New functionality then emerges utilizing two or more of these external components that typically go beyond the original intended use of those components. Sometimes these mashup applications have short shelf-lives, but a major benefit is that they can be built quickly, as soon as a need emerges.
This envisioned wave of mashups would ideally enable applications to be built with minimal interaction with the I.T. organization, decreasing the backlog of applications I.T. had to focus on while simultaneously providing the knowledge workers with more control over functionality of the applications they would ultimately be the users of, all the while living within the framework governed by the I.T. organization. This would ultimately be more beneficial for I.T. organizations as they could get more done faster.
However, the concept of "mashups" have taken awhile to become mainstream, largely because some of the mashup tools initially available to users were frail and light on capabilities, especially in the areas of adhering to governance and general usability. It was also fairly difficult to bring in to a mashup the various shapes and sizes different external components could exist in. These factors have caused slower than envisioned adoption rates of mashup technology over the years.
Meanwhile, recognizing the advantages these concepts can bring an organization, IBM with its Mashup Center offering has quietly been solving many of these issues to make the concept of the mashup and all of its benefits a reality in today's enterprise.
To demonstrate this, IBM's jStart Emerging Technologies Team recently built a mashup application that utilizes several StrikeIron Web services. It demonstrates the kinds of creative applications that can rapidly be built with IBM's Mashup Center product, especially when utilizing external Web services like those that StrikeIron provides.
To walk through it step by step, you can visit John Feller's blog (of IBM) here: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/etech/entry/call_center_mashup_using_ibm_mashup_center_and_strikeiron_services7?lang=en
With IBM Mashup Center, organizations can unlock and transform enterprise, Web, personal, and departmental information into Mashup-ready, reusable building blocks, including information feeds and widgets. These assets can then be dynamically assembled, at-the-glass, into new applications that address daily business challenges. Speed of development is the key with mashups, and with Mashup Center you have the agility and flexibility to respond to changes in the business and new requirements that typically emerge. This agility in turn helps organizations reduce their application backlog and improve productivity by increasing the speed of application development and encourage reuse of existing assets, whether internal or external to the organization.
Also, if you would like to see a video of the demo application, you can see it here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh-_7BqNKts
These Mashups, or "hybrid Web applications" use pre-built components that are typically in the form of XML-based Web services, API's, and data sources. New functionality then emerges utilizing two or more of these external components that typically go beyond the original intended use of those components. Sometimes these mashup applications have short shelf-lives, but a major benefit is that they can be built quickly, as soon as a need emerges.
This envisioned wave of mashups would ideally enable applications to be built with minimal interaction with the I.T. organization, decreasing the backlog of applications I.T. had to focus on while simultaneously providing the knowledge workers with more control over functionality of the applications they would ultimately be the users of, all the while living within the framework governed by the I.T. organization. This would ultimately be more beneficial for I.T. organizations as they could get more done faster.
However, the concept of "mashups" have taken awhile to become mainstream, largely because some of the mashup tools initially available to users were frail and light on capabilities, especially in the areas of adhering to governance and general usability. It was also fairly difficult to bring in to a mashup the various shapes and sizes different external components could exist in. These factors have caused slower than envisioned adoption rates of mashup technology over the years.
Meanwhile, recognizing the advantages these concepts can bring an organization, IBM with its Mashup Center offering has quietly been solving many of these issues to make the concept of the mashup and all of its benefits a reality in today's enterprise.
To demonstrate this, IBM's jStart Emerging Technologies Team recently built a mashup application that utilizes several StrikeIron Web services. It demonstrates the kinds of creative applications that can rapidly be built with IBM's Mashup Center product, especially when utilizing external Web services like those that StrikeIron provides.
The application enables a call center representative to capture a sales lead from an incoming call and adds additional data about the lead by calling several data enrichment Web services provided by StrikeIron. It then sends the lead to the nearest sales representative or business partner for immediate action using either SMS Text Messaging or IVR Text-to-Voice call notification, also both provided by StrikeIron.
Because of the consistency of usage and behavior across all of StrikeIron's various Web services, they become an ideal collection of services to be used when building mashups, ultimately reducing service-related complexity from the mashup building process.
To walk through it step by step, you can visit John Feller's blog (of IBM) here: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/etech/entry/call_center_mashup_using_ibm_mashup_center_and_strikeiron_services7?lang=en
With IBM Mashup Center, organizations can unlock and transform enterprise, Web, personal, and departmental information into Mashup-ready, reusable building blocks, including information feeds and widgets. These assets can then be dynamically assembled, at-the-glass, into new applications that address daily business challenges. Speed of development is the key with mashups, and with Mashup Center you have the agility and flexibility to respond to changes in the business and new requirements that typically emerge. This agility in turn helps organizations reduce their application backlog and improve productivity by increasing the speed of application development and encourage reuse of existing assets, whether internal or external to the organization.
Also, if you would like to see a video of the demo application, you can see it here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh-_7BqNKts
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