Rich and Smart Clients for Service-Oriented Architectures

Key Points:

  • Rich clients will supplant portals as the primary interface to Web Services and Service-oriented functionality in the enterprise by the end of 2007.
  • The total opportunity for rich clients for SOAs is over $923 million by 2010 realized by new entrant and incumbent vendors.
  • The window of opportunity for new rich client entrants will start to wane when Microsoft makes the Longhorn wave of OS improvements generally available in 2006, at the earliest
  • The increasing adoption of devices, mobile computing, and sometimes-connected systems, movement to asynchronous computing, and adoption of e-Forms will mandate widespread and rapid adoption of rich clients.

Table of Contents:

  • I. Report Scope 4
  • II. The Evolution of the Presentation Layer 5
    • 2.1. The Need for the Rich Client 6
    • 2.2. Why the Portal is Not Enough 8
    • 2.3. Will Applications Deliver their own UI in the future? 9
    • 2.4. Understanding the Presentation Layer Requirements of SOAs 10
  • III. Implementing Rich User Interactivity on SOAs 11
    • 3.1. The Evolving Desktop Operating System 11
    • 3.2. Rich Client-focused Technologies 13
    • 3.3. The Emerging Smart Client 21
    • 3.4. Building More Robust Presentation Layers 22
    • 3.5. Emerging Standards for Rich Clients 24
  • IV. Market Trends 27
    • 4.1. Growth of the Rich Clients for SOAs Opportunity 27
    • 4.2. Growth Drivers for Market Adoption of Rich Clients for SOAs 32
    • 4.3. Potential Barriers to Adoption of Rich Clients for SOAs 33
  • V. Conclusions 33
    • 5.1. Key Notes 34
    • 5.2. Decision Points 35
    • 5.3. Figures 35
    • 5.4. Tables 35

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