Shai Agassi, executive board member of SAP, takes The Gang's hot
seat in an all-SAP show this week.
The Gang points to SAP's reputation of being less than fully open,
and Shai makes his case for the company's SAP NetWeaver: Enterprise
Services Architecture of componentized applications. SAP's current
goals are to deliver a unified system with an integrated application
server in a single box with what Forrester
Research has referred to as applicstructure: the increased usage
of prebuilt business processes is resulting in a blurring of the
boundary between application software and infrastructure middleware
and creating a new class of software.
The discussion covers the commoditization of applications versus
interfaces via web services, the true value of outsourcing -- is
it price savings or greater flexibility? -- grid computing, SAP
for mid-sized businesses, and Shai's take on Oracle's attempted
takeover of PeopleSoft. And don't miss The Gang's wrap-up after
Shai leaves.
[You can also hear other editions of The Gillmor Gang.]
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