Making the Web Your Business Platform – Part II

In the second of a two-part series, Jim McHugh furthers Curtis Sasaki's discussion on the Web as a business platform by sharing his thoughts about the software technologies that are driving this evolution — and how executives can make the most of them.

Q: Is the Web as a platform replacing traditional business platforms?

McHugh: Yes, slowly. I think the real question is why the Web as a platform replacing traditional business platforms. It's because the "web" enables broader access. It gives people access to more information in more locations on more devices than ever before. No longer are geographies or time zones a communication barrier. Prior to the prevalence of the network and new technologies, people had to drive to get the information they needed, or they could try to email the information. Both of these methods of information exchange had inherent security risks and latency issues.

In today's world, we can control who the information goes to (whether that's one-to-one or one-to-many). And we can control it differently depending on which device people are using to transmit and receive the information.

Q: How does the evolution of software technology allow the Web to become a business platform?

McHugh: About 12 years ago, people accessed the Web via 800 and 1200 baud modems. You could get to the information, but you had to be patient so it couldn't be business critical. Going into the late 90s, we started seeing technologies around web servers, application servers, and portals that made it easier to organize and deliver information. That's when people started having relationships with business partners and restricting access to information, but it was still early and not very robust. Today, we have access control management, broader and more numerous access points, and high-bandwidth across the world. the Web not only continues to evolve but at accelerated rates.

Q: What technologies do companies need to make their web site a business platform?

McHugh: The key is security. Again, it boils down to giving access to more information, to more people, on more devices. While there are many business gains to giving access to information and business processes across the network, a single mistake will set you backwards. That's where identity and security come in. If you have a strong identity infrastructure, you can allow and deny access to individuals based on who they are.

In the second stage, you need to give customers, partners, and employees access to applications and information on which they can base business decisions. For this you need a strong business integration solution. If you access information on your handheld or notebook, take action on it, and it flows back into the business system, you need to make sure the action actually integrates into the correct business processes and applications securely every time.

Another key area people are looking at is the idea of multiple views. Using myself as an example, when I interact with my bank, I might set up my account as Jim McHugh even though my official name is James McHugh. Or if I set up accounts with online companies, I may find that my name is taken so I go with McHugh Jim or J McHugh. Millions of people like me are creating multiple views of themselves. Integration technologies, sometimes referred to as unified data integration, offer the ability to develop a single customer view to determine if all of these different profiles are the same person.

Q: How do companies ensure stability and build confidence with their customer base in a Web 2.0 world?

McHugh: The key thing is to ensure that the people who need access to information are getting it in a secure way. Availability of the systems and information is assumed. Once we start putting applications into a web services environment, it becomes critical that the information be made readily available. It's a big problem if people can't get access to their information in a timely fashion because the service-level expectation is that what people want to see will be accessible real-time, not in 10 minutes, certainly not in an hour.

A lot of innovation is taking place on the consumer side. If you think of MySpace, or some of the mashups that people are doing with Google maps, etc., there is a great deal more flexibility in terms of how services can be used and combined. Consumers' lives won't end or businesses won't tank if they are unable to post their latest video to a YouTube account. But if a customer cannot access information to check his or her order status or a broker cannot process a stock purchase in a short amount of time because of lack of availability, customers will lose trust and confidence in the business.

Although the consumer area is driving a lot of the innovation in the Web 2.0 space and we are learning a lot about interface approaches to serving customers, in the world of business platforms, enterprise availability requirements need to exceed the levels considered acceptable in the consumer space.

Q: What's your advice to companies to ensure that's there?

McHugh: Look into what's going on in the consumer space (MySpace, YouTube, Google) and become an adopter of those technologies once they mature to a point that they can solve business problems. Right now, if you talk to developers building in this space, they'll mention Ajax. They'll say, "Do it on Ajax" because it makes things more flexible. The Ajax phenomenon is just one technology entry point into making the Web a business platform.

Another key is to make sure that anything you do is standards-based. Make sure you look at technologies that will integrate with other applications and follow sound principles for a Service-Oriented Architecture. A lot of companies made decisions in the 90's to go with non-standards-based web server portals, and now they have an anchor tied to their ankles that won't let them scale.

Q: Do you have any cautions for executives who are creating a web platform to generate revenue?

McHugh: We are in an uncertainty gap. Pretty much everyone has accepted the conventional wisdom that the network will only become more prevalent in the next five years, and bandwidth and access will only increase. To take advantage of that, companies need to make sure they don't have technology or business model anchors that will prevent them from taking advantage of this growth. These anchors were typically created with the best time-saving intentions, but now they cost more and more as businesses grow. Anchors can come in the form of proprietary applications, special hooks, or even expensive maintenance agreements. A service-oriented approach based on open and freely accessible software is a great remedy for the anchors of the past.

Q: What are the pros and cons to external hosting versus being built and managed internally?

McHugh: Some companies don't want to be in the business of running data centers — it's not their forte. Many companies are moving to a model where they'll run some of their IP assets internally and some externally. If something is back-office and not directly creating shareholder value, they may choose to run it externally. This shows again the importance of being able to access and control your information, whether you run a particular application internally or host or subscribe to a service externally. Being able to integrate the service into your other systems and control who in your company can access the service is still important no matter where it lives.

Q: How do companies ensure that their investment in legacy technology is leveraged?

McHugh: First you need to ask, is your legacy technology a burden to maintain? Is it no longer positively influencing your business? Certain applications will probably continue to run for many years. Other applications will get to a point where they slow down business growth. In order to leverage legacy applications, things like Service Oriented Architectures can interface with legacy systems and reach into legacy databases to grab information. The extent to which those are standards-based determines how easy the process will be. Another option is the use of composite applications that can incorporate legacy technology into new applications. Everyone needs to have a plan of how they will migrate off legacy technology.

Q: How can executives keep their options open in terms of flexibility and portability when choosing a web service provider?

McHugh: It boils down to standardization of components. If you want flexibility and portability, the number one question you should ask is how easy is it for me to migrate off of this vendor? Vendors who strive for lock-in will find it only works temporarily. But as we move toward software as a service, people will have more flexibility to move to the next software service provider. Customers should look for how much flexibility they can get in the customization of the interface, how easy it is to integrate their data with their systems, how standards-based the infrastructure and applications are that vendors offer, and how well the systems scale.

Q: To what extent do companies need to engage the developer network to ensure success of their web businesses?

McHugh: Everything starts with the developer. It's getting much easier for line-of-business people to do next generation web activities, business process management, and components of integration. The developer, however, is the person who will play with the tools and technologies to see what is possible. Companies should look at software and tools that allow them to build prototypes as quickly as possible to go to production. The lifecycle from building a prototype through rolling out a service to customers is going to shorten greatly.

Developers like things that are open-sourced and standards-based, that allow them access at no cost, and that they can then pay for once they see value. Developers will continue to bring the tools and software they like into the back door of corporations.

About Jim McHugh
Jim McHugh, Vice President of Software Infrastructure Marketing at Sun, is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the company's software organization. He has overall management responsibility for Java Enterprise System, Identity Management and SOA/BI product lines. Prior to joining Sun, McHugh co-founded and ran Rightscenter, Inc. a software and rights management services company that offers solutions for the entertainment and publishing industries.