Application mashups have
spearheaded the drive of
Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise.
Mashups are nothing to do with potatoes; rather they are the
integration of data from different sources to create new - and
often visual - content, most commonly on the
internet.
Gartner has positioned mashups as a key
medium-term trend for IT in the enterprise, and a number of
heavyweight suppliers are throwing their weight behind them -
IBM, Microsoft and Oracle included - while organisations such as
BT, Ordnance Survey and Salesforce.com are also advocates.
So what are mashups and what benefits do they offer business?
What are the key technologies involved and what issues arise when
implementing them?
Mashups gain their name from the music DJ practice of taking two
or more tunes and merging them to make a new mix. Similarly, mashup
developers take data from two or more sources and combine them to
provide a new way of rendering the information.
Currently, most mashups are based on adding data to mapping
information. An example of this type of mashup is
flickrmap.com, which combines Google Maps with
galleries of photos from flickr.com taken at specific
locations.
Similarly, Housingmaps.com takes real-estate listings from
Craigslist.com and merges it with Google Maps to show houses for
sale in North America in a graphical format.
Product search mashups are another prominent application of the
technology. Launched last year in the US,
Cooqy.com uses
free eBay
application programming interfaces (APIs) to
deliver auction information in new ways, such as listing items
by shipping cost and allowing 48 items to be viewed on a
page.
In other examples business listings are combined with
Skype's voice over IP services to allow
calls to be placed from your browser, while the availability of
Fedex tracking codes has enabled businesses to allow customers
to click through to delivery information on goods ordered.
Elsewhere, news feeds such as RSS and Atom have allowed users to
combine sources according to their interests.
These mashups are relatively simple web-based examples, and
there are a number of approaches to generating a business model
around them.
You can develop a mashup to present information in a way that
helps your business to combine other people's data and provide a
service while gaining advertising revenue. Or, like Amazon and
eBay, you can allow access to your APIs for a fee or simply as a
method of driving business your way.
So far the bulk of examples are from across the Atlantic, but
Ordnance Survey has begun beta testing APIs with developers so they
can build mapping-based mashups.
It recently completed a trial named Project OpenSpace, in which
12 volunteer software developers were granted access to APIs to
create Google Maps-style mashups. The organisation is set to make a
final decision on releasing the code later this year following
evaluation of the trial.
The aim of Project OpenSpace is to encourage new and innovative
mashup-style uses of Ordnance Survey's data in the hope of finding
revenue-generating commercial applications, such as combining
extremely detailed rural mapping with other data to provide a
resource for outdoors enthusiasts.
John Abbott, a technical consultant at Ordnance Survey, says,
"For businesses that want to mashup-enable their data there are
three rules. Make your API as easy to use as possible, get it out
there as soon as possible - this is a fast changing, market and if
you do not get your data out there, your competitors will - and
listen to your users.
"Build a community around the developers using your APIs and
listen to them. Add the features they request and drop those they
do not."
Another model is typified by Salesforce.com. It provides
web-based business software and is a keen advocate of mashups. It
offers users the ability to customise its applications to develop
new features. Late last year it launched a beta of Apex, a
Java-like programming language and server infrastructure that lets
users build extensions to Salesforce.com's applications or entire
free-standing programmes.
Mashups are used extensively by the supplier in its core
customer relationship management applications and in applications
that third parties create and share via its Appexchange directory.
These mashups come from a variety of sources including Google and
Yahoo Maps, Skype conferencing and analytical services from
software supplier Business Objects.
Adam Gross, vice-president of developer marketing at
Salesforce.com, says, "By using mashups business users can easily
enhance their productivity. Services like Skype can be incorporated
into their work day and integrated directly into the data and
applications they already use. In the case of Salesforce.com and
Skype the mashup lets users create conference calls with contacts
and customers."
In theory it is possible for any business to start using mashups
to merge internal data in new ways, says Ian Moulster, product
manager for Microsoft's .net platform. "While many mashups use
public APIs and public information sources, it is perfectly
possible to build and deliver mashups based on information and APIs
that are internal to an enterprise," he says.
"Many enterprises have for years been aggregating content from
across their business and delivering it to users via portals or
similar front-ends. Typically the focus of these efforts has been
on the technical integration-related issues rather than actual
delivery to the end-user. However, as the technology improves we
are likely to see an increasing focus on the value to the user and
the user experience."
Web-based mashups are based on an architecture that comprises
content generated via APIs, or in some cases by screen scrapes that
are delivered to the mashup site. Delivery can be via server-side
or client-side scripting, or a combination of the two.
Javascript is commonly used, especially in conjunction with a
family of technologies that minimise traffic between client and
server, namely Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript and XML).
Fundamentally, mashups are a form of data integration, and in
that there is a clue as to the direction the technology will head.
Analysts are talking about combining data in user interfaces using
web services technologies such as Simple Object Access Protocol
(Soap) and the service oriented architecture framework. Here the
web-based mashup is transformed into a different beast, and merges
into the sphere of enterprise application integration and the
"enterprise mashup".
Michael Azoff, senior research analyst at Butler Group, says,
"For enterprises there are tremendous opportunities when you can
expose processes from different parts of the business as a web
service and combine them in the browser or written
applications.
"You need to look at business processes and determine where you
could create efficiencies and business possibilities by exposing
and combining web services, all of which depends on how far you are
down the SOA route."
Currently, however, most people are getting to grips with the
HTML/Javascript incarnation of mashups. If that includes you, what
should you be doing with mashups and what are the key concerns when
implementing them?
Most analysts recommend businesses begin to understand the
concept now, not least because of the expectation that they will at
some point merge into wider service-oriented concepts of
application development.
Clive Longbottom, service director at analyst firm Quocirca,
recommends IT departments start with easy wins. "At this stage I
would recommend using mashups in a small way - trying them out,
rather than using them as full-blown solutions," he says.
"I would also recommend only using internal functions wherever
possible and only using public ones where the source is well known
and is nominally trusted.
"The key thing here is to understand the technology and its
opportunities, while getting to understand the pitfalls. Once you
fully understand the individual mashups being trialled, roll them
out further, but with control mechanisms in place."
Key issues in developing mashups are the availability and
reliability of information. If you expect someone to pay for the
information you are providing, you need to be certain that the data
you source from third-party sources is reliable.
In some cases, such as with Microsoft's Virtual Earth service,
it is possible to stipulate service levels if you pay for APIs.
"Any business that relies on external data sources or APIs needs
to consider the implications of the reliability of the service and
of the information being provided. You need to ask, do you trust
the source, is there a service level agreement in place and what
are the implications to your business if the service becomes
unavailable?" says Moulster.
So, where is mashup technology heading? It seems we are still at
the early stages and that the future direction will be towards
enterprise and more sophisticated approaches.
Gene Phifer, vice-president and distinguished analyst at
Gartner, says, "We will see more of the web approach, but we are
moving towards more complex mashups
with the use
of things like Soap.
"Mashups started out on the internet outside the enterprise,
using relatively simple web technologies. Now it is moving towards
the enterprise and high-end web services."
In fact, it is possible to imagine that today's mashup and its
relatively simple form of combining data will one day be subsumed
into a landscape of development where the creation of applications
from many data sources is the norm.
Wise up to mashups, says Gartner >>
Microsoft and BT mashup competition
>>
Salesforce.com mashup customisation
>>
Cliff Saran's fear, uncertainty and doubt blog
>>
Computer Weekly's managing technology editor Cliff Saran writes on
the highs and lows of the IT industry, looking at the technology
trends that matter to corporate IT, and those that don't.
Comment on this article:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk