Intelligent Enterprise

It seems obvious that enterprise IT shops take Rich Internet Applications and Web 2.0 with a large grain of salt. It isn't that managers don't listen to enthusiastic developers or ignore the industry hype. However, most of them are in the business of insuring the cart stays behind the horse – the horse being the enterprise's existing servers, data systems, and applications. Most of the big players in Web 2.0 for the enterprise get this. They carefully position their enterprise RIA/Web 2.0 technologies and products near the margin – an add-on, a pilot for a new direction, nothing too radical. That's essentially what IBM is doing with mashups, Microsoft is doing with Silverlight, and Adobe is doing with its newest release of LiveCycle ES – Update 1.

Adobe LiveCycle ES (Enterprise Suite) is Adobe's entry in the enterprise workflow, content management sweepstakes. It shares functional similarities with IBM Lotus Notes, IBM ECM (FileNet) and Microsoft SharePoint. The original product, an SOA quilt of acquired and native products, was released a little over a year ago. This is the first major update, which adds a content management application, LiveCycle Content Services ES (based on Alfresco Software open source content management), and a new LiveCycle PDF Generator 3 ES module. It also improves the links to Adobe Flex 3 and AIR for Live Cycle application enhancement.

This addresses an important scenario: The mechanics of workflow and document management are fundamental. The system must work reliably. It has to be secure. However, it has to be a system that people will actually use, preferably without coercion. That's where Web 2.0 and RIA techniques come in – the UI counts for a lot in this kind of system. After all, the employees of enterprise companies know about Facebook, Digg, youTube and their kin. A stodgy enterprise doesn't-work-like version of these programs isn't going to find much enthusiasm.

When it comes to RIA/Web 2.0, Adobe has a formidable line-up: world-class graphical content creation tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Professional), the ubiquitous Flash Player for running client RIA programs, and somewhat lesser known but RIA oriented Adobe Flex 3 and Adobe A.I.R. for application developers. The links to Flash, Flex, and AIR in LiveCycle open the possibilities for better (or at least trendier) RIA user interfaces.

Adobe has also made a smart move by providing what it calls LiveCycle Solution Accelerators. These are prepackaged application templates including starter code, best practice methodologies, technical documentation, and demo material. The Accelerators are free, although they, of course, require LiveCycle ES, and implementation leans toward Adobe partners or consulting to help out.

With the update to LiveCycle, Adobe is (among other things) urging customers toward integration of Flash, Flex, and AIR programming to 'improve the user experience' (build a better UI), while leaving the focus of LiveCycle where it must be – with the features and mechanics of its J2EE server system.