Netrics HD

“One of the bigger trends to come down the pike lately,” explained Jim Ericson in his recent Information Management blog post The API is the New Network, “is the proliferation of Web-based application programming interfaces, or APIs, and how network traffic is growing exponentially through APIs.”

More and more organizations continue to look to innovations in cloud computing, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and information as a service, as a new paradigm for enterprise applications.  In a recent press release, Gartner Research identified the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010 and the list includes both cloud computing and client computing.

This is an almost stark contrast to the traditional approach taken by large technology vendors, who tend to innovate via acquisition in order to offer consolidated enterprise application development platforms with seamlessly integrated components for data quality, data integration, master data management and business intelligence.  This allows the large technology vendors to offer end-to-end solutions and the convenience of one-vendor information technology shopping.

However, does buying everything from one large vendor guarantee a best of breed solution for each individual component?

An API-oriented approach enables a plug-and-play enterprise application strategy.  Under this model, enterprise applications are assembled from best of breed individual components that are loosely coupled via a network of API calls.

Historically, many of the most powerful new trends in technology originated from small entrepreneurial ventures.  Small technology vendors tend to be specialists with a narrow focus that can provide a great source of rapid innovation.

Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of the reversal of the recent trend of vendor consolidation, and a return to the earlier industry landscape where smaller vendors remained focused on enhancing and improving their highly specialized components.

If the API is indeed the new network, then the innovation of enterprise applications is to be found in collaboration and not consolidation.

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