Developer portals: Life just got a little easier

You don't have to be an IT pro who started your career tinkering with Lego and Meccano to realise developer portals make perfect sense. These sites have managed to survive the dot-com shake out but will they be ravaged by the competition? Achim Killer takes a look...

These days few programs are written from scratch. They are increasingly likely to be made up from pre-prepared modules. And with these modules there is a need for clearly defined interfaces, as offered by existing object technologies. The most prominent include Microsoft's COM (component object model), Sun's Java and Corba (common object request broker architecture) from the industry consortium Object Management Group.

Anyone who sticks to these interfaces can deliver software modules. Developer portals, such as Flashline.com, have emerged as the trading points for these chunks of code.

Componentsource.com is another such portal. It offers over 6,500 modules from several hundred developers, who program in Java as well as Microsoft languages.

The portals host components in the form of source code. Developers can chat on the bulletin boards and customers can use them as a very efficient platform for enquiries in the development community.

These portals are ecommerce par excellence, as opposed to, say, book sales. That's because ordering as well as fulfilment of the goods is 100 per cent internet-based.

Component technology is gaining strength. Gartner analyst Michael Blechar estimates that it is used to create about half of all applications. "The figure will be as high as three quarters by 2005," he predicted.

In the meantime, there is the opportunity for independent component traders. Portals will benefit from the fact that - in the medium term - neither Microsoft nor Sun seem likely to dominate the scene.

At the present time the trade is still Redmond-orientated. Flashline boss Charles Stack talks about an 80:20 relationship in favour of COM. "But in 2005 the ratio could be 50:50," said Gartner analyst Blechar. "Microsoft will mainly be installed in the lower range - from desktop up to mid-range server, and Java from the midframe up to the enterprise server."

However, Blechar doesn't see the portals as the driving force of this changing ratio. "Service providers like EDS, CSC or Accenture are bringing much more life to the field of component technology," he said.

Their future business models will closely resemble that of the manufacturers of standard software, going to customers with solutions that are already 80 per cent thought-out. The method of component construction will allow systems to be adapted to clients' specific requirements.

Long-established companies such as Borland will play a further key role. "The manufacturers of development tools are the more significant component suppliers," Blechar said.

In spite of the boom, the market for software modules is still very restricted to a small number of players. Flashline CEO Stack estimates that half a dozen companies share 90 per cent of the business. He counts BEA, IBM, Borland, Iona and Sun among the big players.

At least module dealers have now created a solid technical basis on which they can do business. Interfaces for the important object technologies are stable. In the early years, building the components in software development alone often failed because the connection points for the modules were constantly changing.

Even the latest variations of the competing systems are still in a state of flux. Many pundits predict it will be another two years before Microsoft's C# and .NET are ready for use by the average company.

With regard to the basic technology, however, Gartner's Blechar said: "When it comes to middleware and connectivity, COM/DCOM is extremely stable. This is also true of the standard edition Java."

Which is the good news those developer portals want to hear.

By Achim Killer, silicon.de