Firsts, apologies for taking so long to reply — just saw this today.

While I agree with you, in principle, in the standard behavior for the vendors mentioned, I may be a bit more hopeful this time around. If what you say were to carry some weight, then Microsoft Azure would have already become the de-facto platform for cloud projects — which has not. I still believe we can, this time, begin to see some inter-platform operations using standards and methods we can all agree on.

I actually don’t see Google as the exception, but rather SFDC as the exception to this. Force.com is the most advanced platform I have yet seen and the one that truly adheres to “open standards” as much as we have them right now. If the continued development follows along the current lines, I am hopeful we can see some progress in the next 2-3 years.

I do totally agree on the years of wars, but I am hoping that a simple, open way to interconnect shows up soon.

thanks for the read!

You’re correct that the platform layer of the cloud will see much development in the near future. I fear that competitive pressures will create a world we’ve seen before… Several major platforms that don’t play nicely together – i.e. Windows vs. Mac

Microsoft, Salesforce, Google and Oracle are all creating their own platforms are compete head to head in core areas.

The idea of open standards to allow cross platform connections is nice but, the players in this game have a history of wanting to control their platform to gain competitive advantage.

Google is the exception obviously but, their market is the small business, not the enterprise.

Its likely that we’ll have a few years of platform wars and then, when the next big thing comes along and the players need new users so badly that they’re willing to cannibalize their cloud revenue by connecting platforms with competitors, we’ll all get integrated.

I suppose that in this particular game there is the opportunity that application layer (software) vendors can drive the issue. All platform competitors will want to play with the killer apps.
.-= Craig Klein´s last blog ..3 Ways to Measure Advertising and Marketing Return Easily =-.

Thanks for a great comment. Here is my position on the issue of database (I have been trying to raise this issue for a very long time now, few understand the issue of data storage and data management, and how complex it gets really quickly): I do believe we are at least 2-3 years from seeing the incipient ideas I highlighted above make it into the market somehow. I have began to see some changes in data storage and data management (including your new venture — congrats, btw) that are likely to deliver value in the near future. If that is the case, while I agree with you from today’s perspective of what data do — but i am going to take a different perspective in 3-4 years.

I think that Venky talking about security, and you talking about data management in the cloud — are the issues we need to raise now. Alas, I want ot make sure we do more than talk and we get the proper elements in place for everyone to leverage. Possible? Hope so.

Thanks for an excellent comment, as usual.

Thanks for the read and comment. I am not sure how the industries will react — but i’d prefer not to ask them I’d prefer to do what needs to be done and if someone needs to use stronger security or better collaboration tools they can find it. The main message I had was about leveraging the platforms instead of re-inventing the wheels each time. I sure hope ti happens, as it will make a considerable difference.

Esteban

Great post, but I never expect less from you. I have mentioned to people multiple times that without forethought, what is happening in the cloud looks EXACTLY like what happened in the early 2000′s: customers bought PeopleSoft for HR, Siebel for CRM, SAP for ERP, and none of it worked together, so then they used duct tapes and band-aids to try to turn the point-to-point mess into a more manageable hub-and-spoke pattern. The cloud in some ways EXACERBATES this problem, because the number one constraint in the cloud environment is network bandwidth, so data integration, let alone process integration, is even more difficult to execute due to limitations in the size of the pipes between clouds.

Best Regards,

Nenshad
.-= Nenshad Bardoliwalla´s last blog ..The Unified Performance, Risk, and Compliance Model – Part IV – Model and Optimize =-.

In all the scary thought of security on the cloud, the open source app call is well thought. I really wonder how the different industries that this platform will have to serve really react. Businesses need to understand the pains of IT but will IT be able to live up to business expectations vis-avis its painpoints? That remains to be seen.

Though SFDC – as rightly mentioned in one of the comments – is upto it, vendors moving in the direction you suggest will benefit.
.-= venkataramanr´s last blog ..Infosys at the SAPinsider event =-.

Been working on that “simple chart” for about 4 months now It is part of a report called “The cloud for CRM Dummies” (working title, be glad to change it).

Problem is time available… will see if i can take one of those charts and make a post out of it quickly.

Stay tuned! (thanks for the twitter follow and the read here)

Interesting post. In a follow up, any chance that you can provide a diagram that lays all of these out? Just curious.

Thanks. I’m following you on Twitter now.

Yes, absolutely, 100% you cannot just say web services. Actually, you can — as long as you have the proper infrastructure (the three layers of the cloud) leveraging them in an open, dynamic, and flexible model to develop against.

Thanks for the kudos, but more important for validating my point that this is something that others are seeing / experiencing.

Thanks for the read, and welcome…

First, when you say “I hope other are vendors have been doing their homework in this area” in regards to integration, all I can say — that is my most sincere hope. Without the easy, open integration provided by leveraging the three layers of the cloud, there is not much benefit of using a cloud (other than marketing prowess of not having to call it on-demand). I think that this is the critical aspect to understand — and why I wanted to highlight it ever so.

Second, if this comes to be a huge opportunity — I am going to go back and claim some royalties on that work I am hoping we don’t end up with that model, since the applications and platforms will be developed to leverage the other layers in the best way possible and the role of the SIs won’t be building point-to-point integration adapters like they do now.

Thanks for the read.