The recent post on Dashboards By Example on creating WebSphere Portal Dashboard Mashups using Google Gadgets triggered a few discussions on whether or not the public APIs (Google Maps, etc) consumed by mashup dashboards and applicaitons will really be embraced by Enterprise IT. The hesitation expressed concerned the lack of ownership and control of the data.

For those of you that didn’t see the post, I basically ran through some of the impact that Web 2.0 has had on enterprise dashboards. In particular, I discussed how the availability of APIs from Amazon, Google, Yahoo, etc has allowed a surge of Dashboard Mashups – or dashboards that consume both data and behavior from many difference sources. Think of it as web services and SOA come true in its most user-centric way.

There was no doubt among the Dashboard Spy readership that the user experience will benefit, but some dashboarders with a traditional IT mindset seemed a little “scared” of the fact that their applications would be exposing both data and behavior that they did not own.

I point out the very informative InfoWorld article from July 28, 2006 called Enterprise Mashups: Web 2.0 Style Integration at the Browser Isn’t Just for Consumer Apps Anymore and Businesses Are Starting to Take Notice.

Enterprise mashups cover page Info World magazine

I took the liberty of “borrowing” a couple of key graphics from the article (Once a Dashboard Spy, always a Dashboard Spy, I suppose!).

First, let’s have a look at what they call “The beautiful simplicity of mashups”.

Diagram of How Enterprise Mashups Work

Here is a listing of what they identified as enterprise mashup best practices:

Best Practices of Enterprise Mashups

You’ll have to read the article to get the bulk of their message, but here are a couple of snippets:

If you are concerned about the risks, read this.

Managing sources and services

The end result may be attractive, but the relative ease with which mashups can be created carries a certain degree of inherent risk. Typically, little more than JavaScript skills are required, and toolkits that ease the development process such as Tibco General Interface Builder and Backbase are proliferating. “That’s why you’d better have a way for IT management and control,” advises Joe Kraus, CEO of JotSpot, which hosts wikis for business users.

ZapThink’s Bloomberg agrees. “The last thing a manager wants is for employees to assemble composite applications willy-nilly, with no controls in place or visibility by management. That’s an accident waiting to happen.”

If you are a big mashup cheerleader, as I am, you’ll want to focus on this:

SOA made sexy

With the widespread adoption of Web standards, “information access has become that much easier,” says Dan Gisolfi, an IBM IT architect who’s evangelizing mashups to enterprise customers. “Not only does it use the Web 2.0 tools, but it brings together disparate services and behaviors.”

Newer, more complex technologies from the SOA and Web services worlds — such as SOAP, WSDL, and REST (Representational State Transfer) — can also be part of mashups, Gisolfi argues. In a sense, mashups are the simplest form of SOA-based application. “Mashups fit very nicely around the concept of a service-oriented enterprise,” concurs Shane Pearson, vice president of marketing at BEA Systems.

Or as Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at consultancy ZapThink, puts it: “They’re the sexy part of SOA.”

“Look around. You probably already have some mashups in place,” even if you don’t use that label, says BEA’s Pearson.

 Tags: Enterprise Dashboards and Enterprise Mashups, Web 2.0 Dashboard Design, Business Intelligence Reporting