WEB 2.0 - So What is an Enterprise Mashup, Anyway?
Service-level agreements are becoming more common too. Last week Amazon rolled out two levels of paid support for its hosted storage and developer services, and Google offers paid support options for its Maps API. A service ecosystem is also emerging around mashups, including data feeds from companies like Xignite and StrikeIron, and services for monitoring a Web API's performance, like one offered by WebMetrics. And big companies like BT Group, Orange and FedEx increasingly offer Web APIs.
Mashups can address the "long tail" of demand for internal IT projects, or the small projects that can be done quickly on an ad hoc basis, according to Musser. Just as business users have learned to customize Excel to meet their productivity needs, easy-to-use composer tools could make mashups "the Excel of the future," he said.
Duane Nason, lead Web engineer with Gap, came to the Web 2.0 conference to learn what role mashups might play at the clothing retailer. He said he can imagine a useful tool that plots Gap stores or distribution centers on Google Maps, although he also wondered whether third parties usually charge to use their APIs. (Some do, some don't.)
Mashups are closely related to the SOA (service oriented architecture) model, which promotes building loosely coupled applications that can be combined and reused. Some see mashups as a way for companies to get more return on the big investments they made in SOA.
The iPhone, with its full Web browser, is driving mashups to the mobile world, said Rod Smith, an IBM vice president for emerging Internet technologies. He showed a mashup on an iPhone here that displays property foreclosures in the U.S. by zip code, along with their for-sale prices. It uses APIs from StrikeIron, Trulia and Google Maps, he said, and took three weeks to create.
But he also noted a problem for enterprises that may require a cultural change to embrace mashups: IT departments that for years have been asked to protect corporate data may be unwilling to suddenly offer it as a service that can be consumed by anyone.
