SMB - BEA looks to tap Web 2.0 for Enterprise

18.09.2006
Long a player in the geeky world of enterprise middleware, BEA will soon be diving into a frothy Web 2.0 space as it tries to tap into the genius of Web sites such as del.icio.us, Wikipedia, and YouTube, according to Mark Carges, executive vice president of business interaction at BEA.

In an exclusive interview with InfoWorld, Carges said that he will use his keynote address at BEA World 2006 to trumpet the company's successes and to outline the company's vision for the future, including three projects -- Graffiti, Runner, and Builder -- that will add social bookmarking to BEA's portals and will give non-IT staff the tools to create blogs, wikis, and other lightweight applications that tap into BEA's service infrastructure.

Calling 2006 a "year of innovation," Carges will tell BEA World attendees that BEA now has more than 1,000 customers using the company's products to create SOA solutions.

"I thought it would take three to five years for most of the people we're working with to build out their SOA," Carges said. "I was wrong."

Business process tools such as those BEA acquired with Fuego in March, now AquaLogic Business Process Management, have spurred SOA adoption, Carges said. "BPM really is a business driver for SOA inside IT organizations," he added.

Looking ahead, Carges sees the convergence of SOAs, BPM, and the Web 2.0 development model that is fueling Web sites such as YouTube and MySpace.