WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Locked in by open services? [WebTech]

We need to be constantly cautious as we engage with Web services. They offer a fast-path to lock-in unless we stay aware. For example (and without any criticism of Amazon intended), if I create a program that relies on the new Amazon.com web service interface, I may be using an open technology in the form of SOAP, but the data flowing through the service is in a format used only by Amazon and reflects their business model and world-view - indeed, it is their proprietary property. If, in the future, I wanted to use multiple or different suppliers, I would have to rewrite all my code to use the data format they preferred (presumably using their world-view).

The openness of SOAP does not prevent me from being locked-in to the vendor's business model, object model and data formats. Indeed, web services can provide a hyperdermic needle through which the foreign DNA can be injected into my systems. As an industry, we need more initiatives like UBL if we are to be free of vendor lock-in.
[Originally written on the front page on September 25, 2002]

posted at 4:45 PM (UK) | |