Dennis Byron (Research 2.0)

Users Lose Middleware Choice in Oracle Acquisition of BEA

Did BEA "pretty much launch" the independent middleware market?

In addition to the comment above questioning my middleware history analysis, I've received a few emails and a phone call on the subject. So here goes:

The key word in my analysis is "market." Prior to BEA, most of the independent software vendors that made middleware positioned themselves as tools suppliers. I believe BEA led the way in turning the value proposition on its head, saying "here's the tools, pay us for the number of instances of the resulting run-time code you deploy." That's what makes a market: the value proposition behind the buying and selling in the bazaar, not just making the product.

As I said in the post, Iona predated BEA as did Netwise, Transarc and a few others. But they didn't really push the deployment value proposition. And since IBM funded Camelot at CMU and quickly bought Transarc after it was founded, I would argue Transarc was not "independent."

Independent is another key word in the analysis. Most of the early middleware was part of the leading systems suppliers' stacks (to which it has returned, which is the real point I was trying to make in the post).

So whether you agree with my analysis or not, raise a glass of your favorite libation this weekend to Actional, Allaire, Antares, Ascential, Bluestone, Crossworlds (and the woman in the red dress), Haht, Mercator, Oberon, Persistence, SeeBeyond, Silverstream, Staffware, WebMethods, etc and all the other middleware memories.

[By the way, lest you think I just fell of the turnip truck, I fell of the turnip truck a long time ago.

I started researching "middleware" when Chris Stone was forming the Object Management Group in the late 1980s while still physically located in the Data General facilities on Computer Drive in Westboro.

I was the primary "middleware" analyst for the Datapro division of McGraw Hill from 1991 to 1997 and wrote monthly articles for Application Development Trends during the same time period. I put the term "middleware" in quotes because I don't actually remember using the term "middleware" regularly until 1995 doing some consulting for Noblenet (later part of RogueWave, later aquired by Quovadx).

After a hiatus doing ERP research, I was the IDC "middleware" analyst from 2003 to 2006. Again I put the term in quotes because by then it was called application deployment software :) ]