From time to time in training sessions, work engagements, and social settings I refer to us as Applicationists. Not developers per se, not architects either. But people dedicated to building high-quality applications as the cornerstones of proper Event- and Service-enabled Architecture and Design.
It’s a principle of ours that all great integration starts from excellent applications. It’s not possible with naked databases, non-existent API, or sorry security. Back in “the day” creating applications was admittedly difficult to do for RDBMS-based systems. Today, however, is a different time. Grails, Ruby-on-Rails, .Net… these provide some of the fastest frameworks around to rapidly create high quality centres of application excellent to support SOA and EDA goals.
Applications have taken hold of our culture with the advent of iOS and Android apps of course. But they’ve never left the stage as core functions on the desktop. So while the latest way to refer to applications is “Apps”, what is spoken of here is to the larger “Application”.
An Applicationist Value Set
Applications are the center of excellent business and integration design.
An Application is how data-at-rest becomes data-in-flight.
Any application that can expose a high-quality API (e.g., HTTP/REST) must do so. Any application that cannot (e.g., Active Directory DS,, Oracle RDBMS, Microsoft RDBMS, etc.) must have an application written around it to expose a high-quality API.
Any application that is authoritative for information has the obligation to “event out” said information.
Applications are designed using design tenets of Messaging, Monitoring, and Security.
Applications are supported by the bureaucratic tenets of Design (Architecture), Process (Governance), and Construction (Development).