Industry Research

« December 2005 | Main | February 2006 »

January 27, 2006

Information Fabric: Enterprise Data Virtualization

Enterprises are facing the growing challenges of using disparate sources of data managed by different applications, including problems with data integration, security, performance, availability, and quality. Business users want fast, real-time, and reliable information to make business decisions, while IT wants to lower costs, minimize complexity, and improve operational efficiency. New technology is emerging that Forrester has coined "information fabric," a term defined as a virtualized data layer that integrates heterogeneous data and content repositories in real time. This technology is provided via middleware components that deliver quality information — "the truth" — when and where it's needed. Products from several major vendors like BEA Systems, IBM, and Oracle — as well as others from small innovators like Tangosol — are evolving to provide information fabric, but today custom integration is required to weave them together. The potential benefits of this technology are so great that enterprises should develop a strategy to leverage information fabric technology as it becomes more widely available.

For additional information click here

Share:

January 26, 2006

Too Much Portal, Not Enough Portal Strategy

First-generation corporate portals aspired to be enterprisewide solutions to a broad and diverse set of departmental problems. Initially, IT stared down a fire hose of features and back-end integrations offered by portal vendors. But it quickly found that "out of the box" meant six-to-12-month implementations, leading to questionable economic return and unmet expectations. It's difficult to make portals and even harder to justify them. To avoid the painful lessons of first-generation portals, enterprises should follow five steps in defining a portal strategy that focuses on what counts: the right leadership, business context, user needs, prioritization, and actively managing change.

For additional information click here

Share:

January 24, 2006

The State Of SOA In Financial Services

A recent European survey has revealed that European financial services firms are well on track with their move toward service-oriented architecture (SOA): Four-fifths will use it by the end of 2008. However, a huge gap exists between the current state of SOA and the envisioned deployment of SOA within the application landscape. Financial services companies should adopt some key rules to ease the process of bridging this gap.

For additional information click here

Share: