X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/eb0ad84cc9e4987d108fc9bfb26fa7480fee2838..60bf8a3f215da8c82ec727e3045793dea8edd5a8:/blog/archive/2009/03/03.rss diff --git a/blog/archive/2009/03/03.rss b/blog/archive/2009/03/03.rss index 3366171903..fb3ed32434 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2009/03/03.rss +++ b/blog/archive/2009/03/03.rss @@ -486,5 +486,39 @@ now. :)</p> + + Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications + ../../../Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html + ../../../Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html + Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:50:00 +0200 + +<p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a +very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure. It is the +simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on +open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications. +Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and +thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while +avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or +application.</p> + +<p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications +independently of the server applications. One can even allow users to +use several different applications as long as they handle the selected +protocol and format. In the normal case, only one client application +is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this +application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not +blocked from doing so.</p> + +<p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the +users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the +best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce +requirements change.</p> + +<p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and +open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single +application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p> + + +