OAuth A win-win situation !!

Every web page we browse now a days invariably has a Face Book / Twitter connect and now a days even others such as RSS Feed and Blogs. A Live example would me our FLORES MBA homepage

Till now all these application were using their own set of API's for allowing them to authenticate and sign in the user. But now a new trend is emerging with a standardized token called the OAuth being used. Recently Twitter made this mandatory [though previously OAuth was one of the possible options]. Also, Face book had its own customized API, but now even are moving to the OAuth token. And we can see Google is also catching up in this race : Google Adds OAuth Support to Google Apps

The possible conclusion we can draw is; Since connecting using Socialization/ networking Website apps is growing, the top players want to be accessible and available. Hence, many of them are moving to a standard for connecting to thier apps!!! So this would be an ideal example of Supply Push where customers are buying the OAuth!!!

On the other hand, previous version of the OAuth token had many data and security issues. Such as the data of a logged in user was passed from one page to another page in the URL!!! Now we see due to the pressure of maintaining high security of users data OAuth Tokens have been modified to meet the customer requirements. This would be an ideal example of Demand Pull where the supplier changes as per the customer requirements.

Hence, by establishing a harmony between the supply push and demand pull we can attain a state of win-win situation the supplier and the customers!!

EU Targets to invest in IT

We are witnessing a new trend emerging, with respect to investments made by Governments. Usually, Governments invest on Infrastructure, Production and such tangible commodities. But lately it is investing in IT!!! For example Radio Frequencies to Be Reallocated for Broadband in EU.

We can conclude a lot from this investment plan by EU:

1. They have the maximum Broad Band (BB) penetration currently. But, the internet is accessible to only 25%!!! Also, services which rely on radio spectrum account to around 2-2.5% GDP. So by exploring the option of investing in IT, they will increase the speed and depth of BB penetration. This in turn might result in increase in GDP :-)

2. With many 3 world countries in Asia, having faster and broader BB access, EU have realized that IT is indeed needed to be competitive. Hence, they are taking stringent actions to make their plan work!

3. Apart from having economic development with IT and gaining an edge over other countries, EU might be concentrating on the larger business. By having a faster BB connection, they could attract a lot of local and global companies who would approach them for creating or maintaining IT systems for themselves. They could attract a lot of organization who would invests for Research & Development in IT field.


Hence, it comes as no surprise as more and more public institutions, have started investing on IT.

Mergers & Acquisitions impact on the e-World

Its been close to a year since I attend a session in my previous organization about "EAI - Enterprise Application Integration". The lady who conducted the session gave an insight on the upcoming trends in the IT world. Now after knowing about emerging trends in IT, I can appreciate the session even more.

With over decades of software development and with astronomical amount of data been transacted, stored, analyzed, data-warehoused and data-mined, the IT industry has almost stagnated with respect to development of new software. The ones which are new ; basically provide out of box features to the existing software. There is nothing much left to newly invent in software. So the next challenge IT is facing is the Integration of these applications. This is because the business world is now all about Mergers & Acquisitions.

Hence, the true challenge lies in the fact that how IT can enable smooth transition and integration of various business process across different organization merging. This would reflect the potential role IT plays in any organization.

I wouldn't be surprised if SAP ( leader in proving tools and apps for this purpose) emerging as the biggest entity overtaking giants such as Microsoft and Sun-MircoSystems!!

Why Oracle concentrating on new bee "Techies" ?!

As we all know Oracle is a huge organization in the world of hardware and software. And it is a known fact that they are always open minded in terms of expanding their business not only geographically but also with respect to technologies. So it was no surprise when they bought Sun Microsystems. In continuation to this, they are providing a Student Coders Free Access to JavaOne.

This comes as a surprise for many, who know that oracle was a customer oriented company; their main focus is to generate maximum profits from their in house tools. Hence, the very fact that Oracle is trying to access students with its technologies is an eyebrow raising topic. My view point on this is:

The e- world market is very competent. In fact when Google is pressurized with competition then none are spared :-). Hence to stay in market and to be popular just like many other companies such as Microsoft, Oracle needs a good marketing strategy.

Microsoft does its bit of advertising by giving free Beta version software’s to students and programmers who belong to the category of perspective employees & customers. I am also one amongst the beneficiaries who not only got to know about the latest offerings of Microsoft but also ended up developing web application using their tools and technologies. I also am a customer for life time with them, just because I am accustomed to their products. I believe, oracle is taking its first baby step towards exploring this idea of marketing!!

Well, the next thought is, why advertise it to students? Why not do it within corporate employees, customers etc. It is most unlikely that once a person is well versed and familiar with a certain tool or technology, he/ she would opt for a switch. Hence, by educating the students and providing them with hands on experience Oracle might be trying to add Dedicated Users / Customers into its list.

And the next reason might be, there is amplification of advertising their products, by exposing it to students. Since, students are very active in their social networks, and through word of mouth the amount of information spread is astronomical!!

Last but not the least; I guess Oracle wants to remove the idea from people's mind that it is not "developer friendly". So this might be their first attempt toward breaking the taboo.

P.S : I would like to dedicate this post to all my friends who work as oracle :

1. Abhijith Jain

2. Sindhuja S

3. Sachin H. B

4. Apeksha Mahesh