Building 21st century applications

Reg Tech Panel Delivering IT services has always been about striking a balance between what needs to be built from scratch and what can be bought off the shelf.

While we know there’s still plenty of custom software development going on (take that, packaged application vendors), we also know that the majority of projects involve integrating home-grown software with bought-in capabilities.

As for the latter, these are themselves becoming commoditised and standardised, as we’ve seen only too clearly with technologies such as workflow, content management, business intelligence and the like.

Against this background, it can be tough to make decisions about how the IT architecture should look, and how applications should be built. It is increasingly expected that certain capabilities should be provided as part of a technology stack or application platform, which can be used across applications – but what capabilities should be included? Where are the benefits of adopting a platform-oriented approach, and what new challenges are thrown up? Does the use of an application platform make things more or less straightforward for IT to deliver new services?

As is customary, rather than try to think up empty platitudes, glib statements and other such motherhood, we’ve been distilling the view from the coal face, via the illustrious Reg readership. So, if you’re interested in learning what we have found out (and indeed, participating in the debate) tune into our Webcast. ®