Internet Enterprise

Larry Geisel is the former CIO of Netscape, currently CEO of NexaWeb, and a well-known Internet networking guru. Geisel vision is of a world that is anxious for deeper business-to-business connections via the Internet, but is hindered by some basic architectural problems:

Businesses greatly want to deploy more Internet-based services, but the Web metaphor is limited. Network connections are unreliable, slow, and HTML is just barely adequate for individual users, and too often inadequate for enterprise applications to be deployed in an Inescapable Data way.

Geisel's view is that serious enterprise applications cannot move to a pure Web-based model because, at the moment, Web-based applications cannot provide the requisite always-connected and rich application experience. Changes need to be made to the overall model that describes how Web-based applications work. Web-based applications need to move away from a page-download-and-connect mentality to one that gives users a "live" and fully interactive experience, in spite of the fact that the reality of pervasive endpoints is that they do not have 100 percent reliable connections to the Internet.

To make matters more difficult, as Web-based applications move toward the inclusion of more pervasive endpoints that are connected wirelessly, they must also contend, at least initially, with slower connection speeds The development of customer relationship management (CRM) applications, for example, that could really leverage wireless Inescapable Data devices for great added value, are currently being held back by such challenges. NexaWeb is one such company using newer Internet models that use current bandwidth availability in more efficient ways yet without compromising application richness, evidence that Web-based technologies are starting to appear that solve some of the inherent limitations to a more pervasive business deployment of endpoint devices.

Applications built around this new Internet computing model are being dubbed "rich internet applications" (RIA). They key critical components of RIA include the following:

• Rich Web experience. We take for granted such things as the ability to "drag-and-drop" when using normal workstation applications are notably missing from the current Web-based ones. These features are added back in.

• Live data. To be used pervasively, business application endpoints need to have "screens" and panels that show live data (live inventory, collaboration messages, etc.). In the existing world of Internet/HTML applications, such views are typically impossible.

• Zero-install clients. Users are relieved of the need to install applications and application upgrades on their computing devices. This need becomes more acute as the number of endpoint devices soars.

Today, a few companies offer RIA development environments for businesses to build rich pervasive Internet applications. Likely, we will see an escalation in the deployment of these business tools and, with that, perhaps some changes to underlying business models as businesses users discover new ways to deploy RIA.

"When data gets truly portable via XML and applications get truly portable via Web services, you will see opportunities to create expanded enterprises that are far more loosely coupled than they have ever been before," says Geisel. We may see a new type of company emerge: the momentary enterprise. For a relatively short period of time, an opportunistic business model is activated, loosely coupling existing businesses that, heretofore, were not associated with each other. The momentary enterprise takes advantage of an opportunity that may only exist for months. When it has been fully exploited, the momentary enterprise is reconfiguredLego-liketo pursue another opportunity. A "pop-up" business model is born, changing the competitive balance, and leveraging Inescapable Data.