Research
Publication Date: 29 December 2008
ID Number: G00164266
MarketScope for Ajax Technology and RIA Platforms
Ray Valdes
Despite having appeared as early as 1999, Ajax technologies and rich Internet
application platforms are still in a dynamic and early adopter phase of market evolution,
with respect to enterprise-level adoption.
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form
without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to
be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although
Gartner's research may discuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal
advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors,
omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein
are subject to change without notice.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
•
Ajax is as much know-how and technique as it is a technology. It is a way of building
applications that leverage the capabilities already built into every modern browser.
•
Rich Internet application (RIA) technology can be a stand-alone platform that is usually
integrated with existing application development platforms, or an extension to an
existing server-centric platform.
•
Ajax is pervasive in the consumer space of public, high-end Web sites, but its adoption
in a strategic manner by the enterprise sector is still low, limited to the most
technologically aggressive early adopter organizations.
•
Most enterprises are not early adopters, and remain in the wait-and-see stage, holding
off until technologies mature and until their preferred large IT vendor (be it Microsoft,
IBM, Oracle, SAP or Sun Microsystems) delivers a technology that is “digestible” (that is,
able to be absorbed by the current IT staff, skill set and technology environment).
•
Success in Ajax and RIA deployments depends more on a user-centered
design/development process than on the choice of technology.
MARKETSCOPE
Defining the Ajax and RIA Market
The Ajax/RIA sector, broadly speaking, is a set of technology offerings oriented to meeting the
needs of application development teams to build systems that deliver a rich and responsive user
experience. The focus of buyers in this market is on technology, despite Gartner’s long-standing
advice that success in presentation-oriented development projects results more from a usercentered design process than from adding a new layer of technology. In the Ajax/RIA sector, the
focus of buyers is not just technology, but technology that is different from the server-centric
platforms to which they are accustomed. The need, as perceived by prospective buyers in this
market, is often not precisely articulated, but is generally for a tool, technology or platform that
delivers a “better” user experience. In this context, “better” refers to an experience that is visibly
different than what’s produced by the existing platforms, which have resulted in legacy
applications that are perceived to be drab and difficult to use.
What the typical organization seeks to replace is a legacy platform — either client/server (such as
PowerBuilder, Visual Basic or Oracle Forms) or Web (plain HTML with “islands of interactivity”
based on Flash, Java or ActiveX). Unfortunately, all too often, adding new technology to an
organization that has a dysfunctional process results in a degraded, rather than improved, user
experience. The eventual result is often not known, because having an immature process means
that appropriate metrics are not collected. Therefore, the organization cannot determine whether
there is an improvement in the effectiveness of the user experience. The case can be made that
organizations would get better results by focusing on a better design process or on more-effective
use of the presentation capabilities already included in mainstream server-side platforms, which
have evolved to include Ajax and RIA features. That is beyond the scope of this research, which
focuses on an emerging, but cohesive, set of buyers and sellers that comprises the Ajax/RIA
market.
As is characteristic of any emerging markets, there are often diverse groups of players and
approaches, and plenty of "apples vs. oranges" comparisons possible because of a lack of
consensus on features and approaches. The argument has been made by some vendors with
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2 of 28
products in this space that the notion of a cohesive Ajax/RIA market is an illusion, and that this is
not a market anymore than there is an HTML market or an XML market. The proposition is that all
of these (HTML, XML, Ajax and RIA technologies) are enabling technologies for one or more
distinct markets.
Although this perspective has a certain validity, Gartner has chosen to do a MarketScope in this
area, because this situation meets two key aspects of a market:
•
A community of buyers that is willing and able to buy, and that may reference each other
(or, alternatively, third-party advisors) in making a buying decision
•
A community of sellers that competes with each other for buyers’ attention and
commitment
The market is at the stage where there is a high degree of fragmentation and diversity. Not all
sellers compete with each other, and not all buyers have identical needs. Nevertheless, Gartner
has received enough inquiries for guidance in product/technology selection, and has seen
enough competitive face-offs (such as Adobe Flex vs. Microsoft Silverlight, or Backbase vs.
Nexaweb Technologies, or IBM Lotus Expeditor vs. JavaFX, or Adobe AIR vs. Microsoft Windows
Presentation Foundation [WPF] and .NET), that the broad outlines of the market are visible.
Within this market are segments, such as the fissure between enterprise RIA and consumeroriented Ajax. But this fragmentation is no different than in other early stage markets (for
example, the portal market, where, initially, vendors were strong in external-facing or internalfacing deployments, but not both). Although there are fissures in the market landscape, there are
enough cross-category competitive face-offs (such as a RIA platform vs. an Ajax technology) that
the market can be considered as cohesive as any other early stage market.
As the market matures and consolidates, a small number of large vendors will grow even larger
by encompassing broad-based approaches, acquiring smaller vendors and/or taking market
share away from second-tier choices. As that happens, the fault lines that fragment the Ajax/RIA
sector will fade.
Market/Market Segment Description
The Ajax/RIA sector can be segmented in two ways: in terms of buyers and in terms of sellers.
Looking at the market in terms of buyers, the following categories emerge:
•
Enterprise legacy platform replacement: Enterprises seeking a presentation-centric
development platform and toolset that will replace aging or obsolete legacy applications
built with earlier generations of tools, such as Oracle Forms, PowerBuilder and Visual
Basic. The needs of this class of buyer center on developer productivity, platform
compatibility, skills compatibility, vendor support and vendor longevity.
•
Public-facing enterprise sites: These sites represent the external Web presence for
Global 1000 organizations. The need for this class of buyer is for broad reach to a mass
audience. This is best achieved through browser-independent implementations, serverneutral client-side technologies, a small client footprint, easy update and so on. Beyond
these core requirements, there are also the enterprise requirements listed above,
•
Stand-alone, consumer-oriented Web sites: The top 100 Web sites and smaller
stand-alone Web properties that aspire to be the next Facebook or Google. Buyers in
this class have strong technical staff, and many have built their own Ajax frameworks
and RIA tools. Their needs are for broad reach and browser independence, similar to
high-end enterprise sites. A key difference is the need for compatibility with server-side
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3 of 28
frameworks — often neither .NET nor Java, but instead LAMP-based PHP, Python or
Ruby (none of which are prevalent in enterprise-scale deployments).
•
Independent software vendor (ISV) differentiators: ISVs have followed the
technology shift in the 1990s from client/server to the Web, and are now seeking to
differentiate their offerings from similar Web-based competitors. Compared with the
average enterprise, the buyers in the ISV class have strong in-house engineering staff
and mature user-experience design teams and processes. These buyers can more
easily absorb and exploit Ajax and RIA technology offerings, whether open-source Ajax
or broad-scope RIA platforms.
To meet the needs of these different market segments or classes of buyers, there is a diverse
collection of sellers: technology vendors, quasi vendors and open-source toolkits (not affiliated
with a conventional vendor). The offerings are as follows:
•
Community-oriented, open-source Ajax toolkits: These noncommercial, free and
open-source toolkits include Dojo, Prototype/Scriptaculous and jQuery. They have seen
wide adoption, primarily outside the enterprise (with a significant minority of the top 100
Web sites now using one or more of these, often as a supplement to custom-built Ajax).
•
Vendor-centered, open-source Ajax and RIA technologies: Open-source toolkits
affiliated with a small commercial vendor (such as Ext, Bindows or Laszlo Systems). The
vendor is usually targeting the enterprise sector because the top 100 Web sites rely on
custom-built technologies or open source.
•
Commercial Ajax and RIA product offerings: These started out as closed-source
packages targeted toward the enterprise market. They often still remain that way, but
some have since become open source, at least in part. Tibco General Interface (GI) is a
prime example; Laszlo is one of the earliest. Adobe is a more recent entrant, in that it
has open-sourced its Flex SDK (but not its Flex Builder tool). Microsoft has opensourced its Ajax library and Silverlight Toolkit.
•
Broad-scope RIA platform plays: Offerings from Adobe, Microsoft, IBM, Sun, and to a
lesser extent, Nexaweb, Software AG and Tibco Software. These enterprise-oriented
vendors offer industrial-strength platforms and tools that go beyond basic Ajax
capability. Market adoption of RIA frameworks has been low due to the emerging stage
of market evolution, as well as, in some cases, to the immaturity of the technology.
•
Nonproduct offerings from commercial vendors: Technology packages from
commercial vendors that are released as open-source or free software, not as a product
(and no plans to productize) — such as Adobe Spry, Yahoo User Interface (YUI),
Google Web Toolkit (GWT), and Microsoft Ajax Library (formerly codenamed "Atlas").
•
Collections of visual components morphing into frameworks: These come from a
group of small, but long-lived, vendors of aftermarket components. Offerings may be
delivered with source code, but the licenses are not open source. Vendors include
Infragistics, DevExpress, ComponentArt, Dundas Data Visualization, ComponentOne,
SoftwareFX and others. These vendors offer a mix of horizontal infrastructure
enhancements (add-on components for WPF and Java), stand-alone frameworks
(competing directly with Ajax and RIA frameworks) and vertical microproducts
(geographic information system [GIS] and charting components).
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 4 of 28
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
A MarketScope is intended to address the needs of Gartner customers in evaluating product
offerings and vendor relationships in an early to midstage market. A market, as stated earlier, is a
community of buyers and sellers. An implication of the term “community” is that many of the
participants (although by no means all of the participants, or even necessarily a majority) are
aware of each other, and often use that knowledge in formulating buy-side decisions, as well as
sell-side competitive strategies. The aspects of a market, therefore, include buyers, sellers,
decisions, information about products and services, and, ultimately, transactions that have an
economic aspect (where economic value is used in the broadest sense of an incentive, reward or
medium of exchange).
Markets that have a significant mix of open-source offerings function not just through the
mechanism of monetary exchange, but also through the economics of recognition, trust and
nonmonetary incentives.
Because of the mix of Ajax and RIA products and technologies, this MarketScope includes many
offerings that are not commercial products, so there are alternative inclusion criteria that reflect
the reality of market decisions that prospective organizations are choosing from among:
•
RIA platforms, such as Adobe Flash/Flex, Microsoft Silverlight or IBM Expeditor
•
Free nonproduct offerings from commercial Web giants, such as GWT, YUI, Microsoft
Ajax Library or Adobe Spry
•
Community-based, open-source packages, such as jQuery or Prototype
•
Vendor-centric, open source, such as Ext
•
Commercial products from RIA specialist vendors, such as Backbase or Nexaweb
The criteria must be a mix of traditional and nontraditional attributes, which include:
•
Revenue: Ajax or RIA-related annual revenue of at least $5 million
•
Geographic presence: Offices in more than one region, such as North America, Asia or
Europe
•
Vendor presence: Stability and longevity
•
Market acceptance: In one more of the following sectors: top 100 Web sites, Global
1000 companies, Web 2.0 startup ventures, ISVs and system integrators
•
Ecosystem activity: As evidenced by marketplaces, aftermarket offerings, community
forums, books, seminars, and partner and channel activity (IT services firms, system
integrators, distributors, Web interactive agencies and advisory firms)
•
Gartner client interest: Indicators of interest by Gartner end-user clients include the
number of inquiries to analysts via the Gartner call center or at Gartner conferences via
one-on-ones
These criteria allow “apples and oranges” to be included, such as commercial products from
enterprise-oriented vendors, as well as nonproduct offerings and community-based open source.
The MarketScope, therefore, includes packages such as:
•
Backbase, which is a company with more than $10 million in revenue, market
acceptance in enterprise deployments and partners
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 5 of 28
•
jQuery, which is a community-based open source in use by the top 100 Web sites, and
the subject of technical books available in mainstream bookstores
•
Infragistics and Magic Software, which are enterprise-oriented vendors with more than
10 years in the market, and about which Gartner clients have posted inquiries
The inclusion criteria were analyzed in a spreadsheet with a dozen attributes — such as vendor
strength (RIA-related revenue, vendor longevity and partners), market share (among enterprises,
ISVs, high-end Web sites and Web 2.0 ventures), and product attributes (Gartner client interest,
product features and ecosystem activity). Points were allotted based on strength in these
attributes, and vendors or offerings that exceeded a composite threshold value were included.
There are numerous vendors that did not meet the inclusion ranking threshold. Appendix A
provides a comprehensive list of vendors in this space. Examples of vendors and offerings that
are not included in this MarketScope analysis include Bindows, jMaki, SoftwareFX, Dundas, AJS,
Echo2 and MooTools.
Rating for Overall Market/Market Segment
Overall Market Rating: Promising
Although the market has been around since the first commercial products were introduced in
2002 and 2003, it is still in the relatively early stages of evolution, especially with regard to the
market segment relating to enterprise RIA platforms. This enterprise RIA segment is a key aspect
of this MarketScope because it is of primary interest to Gartner clients, and because it has strong
economic implications that will drive the rest of the market over time.
Therefore, it is important to understand what is meant by "enterprise RIA platform market
segment." A key aspect of defining this segment is the idea of "significant platform commitment"
— as opposed to pilot projects or "one of a kind" tactical projects. Tactical projects are much
more numerous than the strategic platform commitments.
The market has gone through various phases, which Gartner identifies as follows:
•
1998 through 2002 (embryonic phase): Demonstrations of technology, such as
Desktop.com, but no commercial products
•
2002 through 2004 (nascent phase): A handful of products introduced by pioneering
vendors, such as Backbase, General Interface, JackBe, Laszlo Systems and
Macromedia
•
2004 through 2008 (the early adopter phase), which can be broken down further:
•
•
2004 through 2006 — The “Year of Ajax” (which turns out to be about 24 months in
length), in which more than 100 open-source toolkits proliferate
•
2007 through 2008 — The “Year of Adobe Flex” (about 18 months in length), in
which Flex gains dominant share among early adopters in the enterprise RIA
segment
2009 through 2012 (the early majority phase): Enterprises make strategic
commitments to Ajax and RIA technologies, mostly through extensions to server-side
platforms, such as .NET, Java, LAMP and cloud-based platforms
Gartner estimates that the majority of Global 1000 companies have experimented with Ajax or
RIA technologies, from more than one vendor. These include technologies such as Ajax on the
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 6 of 28
one hand, and WPF on the other, and Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight in the middle. There
are about 150 or more vendors and toolkits covering the broad spectrum of technology choices,
which range from lightweight Ajax to extended-browser (Flash, Java and Silverlight) to outsidethe-browser (AIR, WPF, Expeditor and JavaFX). However, in terms of market adoption, very few
organizations have made a strategic platform commitment. Note that a platform commitment does
not have to be an enterprisewide monoculture; it just has to go beyond a single isolated project.
Most large enterprises have more than one platform in place (that is, both Java EE and .NET),
even for nonlegacy projects. Also note that the depth of technology use can vary within an
implementation, from a superficial "coat of Ajax paint" to bone-deep, rip-and-replace with RIA.
A MarketScope is a lens intended to provide as clear a view as possible of a market landscape to
the "average" Gartner client. However, the nature of the task is such that, to the extent that an
organization differs from the norm, the lens will represent a distorted view (or alternatively, one
can say that each organization needs its own level of astigmatic correction to reflect its priorities).
More specifically, an organization that is heavily aligned with one vendor or another will view the
market through a lens that is Microsoft-centric, IBM-centric or Oracle-centric, and so on. Gartner
has observed that, in practice, large organizations tend to have multiple vendor alignments,
despite nominal allegiance to one primary vendor.
A second challenge in this process is that the MarketScope lens is focused on vendors, not on
products. For the case of smaller vendors, the vendor-centric view aligns perfectly with a
perspective centered on products. However, larger vendors offer more than one product.
Microsoft is the extreme example here, with many significant choices of products and
technologies that relate to the presentation aspects of an application: from WPF to ASP.NET Ajax
to Silverlight, plus a half-dozen other choices. Adobe also has multiple offerings, ranging from
open-source Spry to Flex to AIR. Other vendors, such as Oracle and IBM, are in a similar
situation. There are also vendors that started out with Ajax or RIA offerings but have since shifted
market emphasis to some other product category (for example, JackBe and Laszlo), but still
market their original products.
This MarketScope only has single entries for each vendor. In the case of multiple products, the
evaluation aggregates the product mix, and gives proportionately greater emphasis to the
package that is of core interest to Gartner clients that are end-user organizations.
Gartner clients that are accustomed to Magic Quadrants (and not MarketScopes) should note that
MarketScopes present results in a coarse-grained, one-dimensional ranking (Level 1 through
Level 5, which are labeled Strong Negative, Caution, Promising, Positive and Strong Positive).
This is different than the high-resolution, two-dimensional positioning in a Magic Quadrant. The
MarketScope labels may not capture the nuance of a vendor's ranking, including the important
notion of directional movement. To illustrate, two hypothetical vendors ranked at the midpoint in
the scale (Level 3) both carry the label Promising, but in one case, the vendor has declined from
Level 5, and the other has ascended from Level 1. Also, the coarse-grained ladder consists of
only five steps, which might obscure the fact that a vendor near the top of one level may have
more in common with vendors at the next level than with lower-ranked vendors in the same level,
due to truncating, high-resolution numerical analysis to fit low-resolution "buckets." Therefore, it is
important to consider all aspects of a vendor’s evaluation:
•
The written description and analysis of each vendor
•
The bulleted items listing positive and negative attributes
•
The ranking level
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 7 of 28
Evaluation Criteria
Table 1. Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria
Comment
Weighting
Product/Service
Core goods and services offered
by the vendor that compete
in/serve the defined market. This
includes current product/service
capabilities, quality, feature sets
and skills, whether offered
natively or through OEM
agreements/partnerships.
high
Offering (Product) Strategy
The vendor's approach to product
development and delivery that
emphasizes differentiation,
functionality, methodology and
feature sets as they map to
current and future requirements.
standard
Overall Viability (Business Unit,
Financial, Strategy, Organization)
Viability includes an assessment
of the overall organization's
financial health, the financial and
practical success of the business
unit, and the likelihood that the
individual business unit will
continue investing in the product,
will continue offering the product
and will advance the state of the
art within the organization's
portfolio of products.
standard
Sales Execution/Pricing
The vendor's capabilities in all
presales activities and the
structure that supports them. This
includes deal management,
pricing and negotiation, presales
support and the overall
effectiveness of the sales
channel.
low
Market Responsiveness and
Track Record
Ability to respond, change
direction, be flexible and achieve
competitive success as
opportunities develop,
competitors act, customer needs
evolve and market dynamics
change. This criterion also
considers the vendor's history of
responsiveness.
standard
Market Understanding
Resonance with the market in key
segments, such as enterprise, top
100 Web sites, Web 2.0 ventures
and ISVs, as well as ecosystem
activity and market interest.
high
Source: Gartner (December 2008)
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 8 of 28
Under the category of "market understanding" are some subordinate criteria, which are outlined in
Table 2.
Table 2. Additional Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria
Comment
Weighting
Market Adoption
Market presence and market
traction in key segments, such as
enterprise sectors, top 100 Web
sites, Web 2.0 startup ventures
and ISVs
High
Ecosystem Activity
Developer community, resources
for support and training,
marketplaces for goods and
services, books published by
mainstream trade press, blog
commentary and so on
High
Market Interest
Inquiries posted to Gartner by
end-user organizations,
references and positioning by
competitors
Standard
Technology Architecture and
Road Map
Direction should align with
Gartner's view of evolving market
requirements, including areas
such as declarative specification
of layout and behavior, code
refactoring and maintenance
tools, designer/developer
workflow, integration with serverside platforms, interoperability
with tools and platforms, and so
on
Standard
Source: Gartner (December 2008)
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 9 of 28
Figure 1. MarketScope for Ajax Technology and RIA Platforms
RATING
Strong
Caution Promising
Negative
Positive
x
Adobe
x
Backbase
Curl
DevExpress
x
x
x
Dojo
Ext
Google
IBM
Infragistics
JackBe
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
jQuery
Laszlo Systems
Magic Software Enterprises
x
x
x
Microsoft
Nexaweb Technologies
Oracle
x
x
Prototype
Sun Microsystems
Tibco Software
Yahoo
Strong
Positive
x
x
x
As of 23 December 2008
Source: Gartner (December 2008)
Vendor Product/Service Analysis
Adobe
Adobe has multiple presentation-related technologies, tools and platforms that Gartner clients
consider and evaluate, including Adobe Flash (which can be used by itself and underlies Adobe's
Flex platform), Adobe Spry (lightweight open-source Ajax toolkit), Adobe Flex (inside-the-browser
RIA built on a Flash platform), Adobe AIR (outside-the-browser RIA that also leverages Flash), as
well as complementary server-side technologies (such as LiveCycle Data Services). Adobe's
rating in this MarketScope incorporates all of these to varying degrees, but largely centers on the
core Flex product line.
Based in San Jose, CA, with $3.5 billion in revenue and 6,000 employees, Adobe is best known
for its products (Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere and Illustrator) that focus on the needs of
creative and multimedia professionals. Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, and incorporated its
flagship products and technologies (such as Flash, Dreamweaver and Flex) into the Adobe line.
Adobe Flex, released initially in 2004, represents the evolution of the Flash platform into the
enterprise and ISV sector. Flex 3 is the third generation of this RIA platform, released in February
2008, along with Adobe’s outside-the-browser technology known as AIR. Adobe has announced
that Flex 4 (codenamed “Gumbo”), now in beta, is scheduled for release in 2009.
Positives
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 10 of 28
•
Adobe's Flex product line is modern (new technology), as well as mature (it has a track
record of successful deployments in enterprises, public sites and ISV product offerings).
•
Adobe is not too small (that is, it's not vulnerable to downturns in a single product line),
but not too large (it's still agile enough to meet dynamic market requirements).
•
The technology is not too heavy (it still fits inside a browser, with a small footprint), but
not too light (it is more powerful than Ajax).
•
Adobe has dominant market share in the emerging category of enterprise-oriented RIA
frameworks, as well as a strong presence among the ISV and top 100 Web sectors.
Partnerships with ISVs include large powerhouse vendors, such as SAP, as well as
smaller, more vertically focused vendors.
•
Adobe's technology is largely independent of server-side platforms (this aspect can also
be a negative, depending on the context).
•
Adobe has a recognized brand name and a good reputation in the Web and design
fields (although not so much in enterprise-class software).
Negatives
•
Although Adobe is not a small vendor, it is smaller in capitalization, resources and
channels than Web giants (such as Google) and IT giants (such as Microsoft, IBM,
Oracle and SAP). It is, therefore, vulnerable to direct competition and possible
acquisition.
•
Adobe technology is largely server-independent, which is a negative for some
organizations that want a homogeneous platform (that is, a more tightly integrated blend
of server and client-side technology). There is sufficient affinity with the Java platform,
however, which tempers this negative in that context.
•
Despite broad market acceptance for Adobe flagship products and technologies (such
as Adobe Reader and Flash), the company lacks a significant market presence in "big
IT" (that is, centralized IT infrastructures).
•
Although Flash is pervasive, and Flex leverages standards such as JavaScript (the
standardized version known as ECMAScript), enterprise developers with skills in the
aggregate Flex and Flash platform are not numerous.
Rating: Strong Positive
Backbase
Backbase is one of the pioneering vendors in the commercial Ajax sector, founded in 2003. The
company has, over the years, evolved a mature and powerful Ajax framework that includes a
library of client-side controls, a visual development tool and server-side integration. On top of this,
Backbase offers add-on products for portal-centric solutions, rich Web forms and collaborative
scenarios. The company’s marketing emphasis is on external-facing scenarios, such as selfservice and e-commerce Web sites that need to have a broad reach and a high user experience
impact.
Positives
•
Backbase has a well-designed, full-featured, closed-source product range targeted for
the enterprise sector and for public sites (online self-service and e-commerce).
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 11 of 28
•
It's a small, agile vendor that understands the market.
•
Backbase has achieved a certain track record and market penetration in the enterprise
sector, as well as among public sites, compared with other closed-source alternatives.
Negatives
•
Backbase's commercial product is at a disadvantage in certain scenarios when
competing with free, open-source commodity packages, especially those with
commercial support available.
•
It's a small vendor with limited resources and limited brand recognition.
Rating: Positive
Curl
Founded in 1998 in Cambridge, MA, Curl was acquired by Japan-based Sumisho Computer
Systems. The Curl RIA platform was released in 2002, and has been marketed mostly in Japan,
until 2007 when the RIA product was launched in North America. The technology approach was
initially based on a browser plug-in for the company’s Lisp-like proprietary language and
framework (analogous to Adobe Flash, Sun Java, and Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-ins).
Early in 2008, the company announced Curl Nitro — an outside-the-browser RIA platform
analogous to Adobe AIR, Sun JavaFX and Microsoft WPF. Curl applications can be compiled to
the native hardware, and can then communicate with a browser via plug-in or directly to native
windows. The client-side runtime is cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux). It supports secure
access to client-side data and Web service protocols for server-side data access, as well as
offline operation. Curl applications are written in a Lisp-like language, enhanced with HTML
presentation and object-oriented structure. Curl offers a stand-alone integrated development
environment and a plug-in for the Eclipse developer environment.
Positives
•
Curl goes beyond the limitations of Ajax through a browser extension and desktopbased runtime.
•
It leverages the powerful and dynamic Lisp-like language.
•
Curl is a subsidiary of a major vendor.
•
It's deployed in 400 enterprises.
Negatives
•
Curl has little market penetration outside the Japanese market.
•
The company's proprietary language and environment are barriers for the average
developer.
•
Curl has limited visibility, as compared with large players, such as Microsoft, Adobe,
IBM, Oracle and Sun.
Rating: Promising
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 12 of 28
DevExpress
DevExpress was founded in 1998 to serve the Borland Delphi and C++ aftermarket. It has since
become a key player in a cluster of aftermarket vendors that sell visual and business components
for Microsoft-related presentation platforms, such as WPF, ASP.NET and Windows Forms.
DevExpress competes directly with Infragistics (a vendor that is also covered in this
MarketScope), as well as with other vendors in this market niche (such as ComponentOne,
Dundas, Telerik, Janus, SoftwareFX, Xceed, Data Dynamics, Sharp Library, Component Art,
DivElements, SpringSource and SyncFusion). Many of these companies play a complementary
role to their host platforms by filling in the gaps in the control sets for Silverlight, Windows Forms
and others.
DevExpress differentiates itself from competitors in that it provides XAF, which is a cross-platform
application framework that can target Windows Forms and ASP.NET (and in the future WPF), as
well as CodeRush, an IDE productivity and code refactoring tool that improves developer
efficiency inside Microsoft’s Visual Studio. Although XAF competes with Microsoft, the bulk of the
product line is complementary — DevExpress is in the process of porting its entire range of
business presentation controls to the Silverlight platform, including its Rich Text Editor and user
interface layout and management component.
Positives
•
DevExpress has a solid line of components, and a framework that allows developers to
develop browser-based and outside-the-browser applications.
•
It is a small vendor that has survived for a long time in the shadow of Microsoft.
•
DevExpress has a loyal customer base that adopts component products on a tactical
basis.
Negatives
•
DevExpress is a small company in a crowded aftermarket sector, and its frameworklevel product now competes more directly with Microsoft.
•
Customers view the company’s products as tactical and complementary, rather than
strategic and self-contained.
Rating: Promising
Dojo
Dojo is a pioneer in the category of community-based, open-source Ajax toolkits. It was created in
2004 by a collection of individuals associated with Informatica, JotSpot and Renkoo. The toolkit is
available under a Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) or an AFL license, and is the most
influential Ajax package, by virtue of its early entrance into the sector, the community that rose
around it, and by the support of major vendors such as IBM. Oracle, BEA Systems (when it was
independent), Sun and Laszlo Systems.
The Dojo toolkit now consists of a layered portfolio of technologies, starting with a 26-kilobyte
core that provides an event model and object model, and facilities for animation, communication
and debugging. On this core is Dijit, a component framework and library of user controls (menus,
trees and calendars). Lastly is DojoX, an extensibility mechanism that supports server push
(Comet), offline mode (Google Gears), a unified vector drawing model and third-party extensions
(such as dojo.E from Nexaweb). The Dojo portfolio includes support for accessibility,
internationalization and some performance management capabilities.
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 13 of 28
Dojo’s most direct “competitors” are other leading community-based, open-source packages,
such as Prototype/Scriptaculous, jQuery and YUI. An important differentiator for Dojo is its
package system and build tools, which support large-scale teams (as in enterprise development
projects) building voluminous code bases over time.
Positives
•
Dojo has an early position, a strong influence and high visibility in the category of opensource Ajax.
•
Support from major vendors, including IBM and Oracle, is a plus for Dojo, and the
company is a corporatewide standard at IBM, supported across 30 products.
•
Dojo's early adoption among and good track record with some major sites, such as AOL
Mail and MapQuest, as well as among some Web 2.0 ventures, are positives.
•
Dojo's package system enables code bases to scale in size.
•
Dojo Foundation also supports other projects, such as Cometd, Open Record and Direct
Web Remoting (DWR).
Negatives
•
An early perception among some developers that Dojo 0.4 was undocumented, complex
and slow still lingers, despite refactoring and optimization in version 1.2.
•
There is no single vendor that is strategically committed to the success of this project
(an attribute that can also be viewed as a positive). However, IBM is a strategic player
that can sustain Dojo during the short term and midterm.
•
There is a perception of slowed momentum relative to newer toolkits (such as jQuery
and MooTools).
Rating: Positive
Ext
ExtJS is a JavaScript library that began as an extension to YUI toolkit and was initially named
YUI-Ext, then simply Ext, and now ExtJS. The author of ExtJS, Jack Slocum, is chief architect at
the company — a commercial venture founded in 2006 around this JavaScript library. The
package is available under a commercial license or under the GPL v.3 license. The package has
seen strong growth in adoption since its release in 2006, and has made inroads in the enterprise
sector. The ExtJS site has close to 60,000 registered members (which has roughly doubled
during the past six months), and the company says it has 6,000 customers. Ext recently
introduced ExtGWT, a separate product that adds on to the capabilities in GWT.
Positives
•
Ext's library has a good reputation for the quality of its widgets, which were initially a
supplement to YUI, but are now self-contained and can optionally interoperate with other
Ajax frameworks.
•
Ext is a commercial vendor with awareness of enterprise needs and an application life
cycle that is gaining visibility and market traction in the enterprise sector.
Negatives
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 14 of 28
•
Ext is a small vendor competing with commoditized open-source toolkits that have
thriving communities.
•
Thus far, adoption is mostly centered on the enterprise sector (which can also be viewed
as a positive).
•
The company has been criticized for multiple changes to its license, from BSD to GNU
Lesser General Public License (LGPL) to modified LGPL to GNU General Public
License, version 3 (GPL3), which some observers think is too restrictive and results in
unwanted “viral” effect. However, there are enterprises that won’t choose open source in
any form, and instead prefer a commercial license.
Rating: Promising
Google
Google is one of the Web’s largest and best-known companies, with more than 20,000
employees and $20 billion in annual revenue. In the Ajax/RIA space, Google offers Google Web
Toolkit (GWT) — a tool intended to leverage the skills of server-side Java programmers who don't
know JavaScript (a very different language than Java). Developers write code in Java, which gets
translated by the system to JavaScript for client-side deployment. Google has built sophisticated
technology to allow developers to debug and profile at the Java source level, without having to
descend to inspecting machine-generated JavaScript code. GWT is mostly server- and IDEneutral, allowing Java developers to work with their favorite integrated development environment.
GWT does not leverage user interface libraries, such as Swing, Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)
or JavaServer Faces (JSF).
Positives
•
This is a well-crafted Ajax toolkit for the Java-centric developer.
•
It leverages the Google brand and ecosystem, as well as perceived vendor stability and
longevity.
•
The Google toolkit has matured in scope and power since its release in 2006.
Negatives
•
The company's Java focus is neutral (not compelling) to Web 2.0 developers.
•
Google itself does not use GWT for major products (Maps, Mail and Apps), partly
because they predate GWT, and also because they are written in non-Java languages.
•
The Google brand is positive, but not compelling, to enterprise developers.
•
GWT sidesteps major trends in the Java platform, such as JSF.
Rating: Promising
IBM
IBM, along with Microsoft, is one of the largest and most influential vendors in the broad IT sector.
Like Microsoft, IBM has been projecting a marketing message for years around the concept of
“rich client” or “smart client.” Like Microsoft, IBM has a range of presentation-related technologies
and platforms, although the choices, as packaged for the Ajax/RIA buyer, are not as numerous as
those from Microsoft. IBM was an early force behind Ajax, Dojo and the OpenAjax alliance.
Likewise, IBM has adopted Ajax techniques in its WebSphere portal and WebSphere Commerce
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 15 of 28
Server (using Dojo and OpenLaszlo), and in many other products. The case can be made that no
other company is promoting, delivering and exploiting Ajax technology other than IBM, which has
made extensive use of this technology in multiple product lines. However, using the technology
within a product is different than packaging and selling the technology in a way that meets
Ajax/RIA buyers’ expectations and requirements. Although IBM is using Dojo in a widespread and
strategic manner, in terms of the market of Ajax/RIA buyers, the perception of a strong linkage
between Dojo and IBM is not widespread, and it appears that most early adopters of Dojo as a
development tool use it directly, rather than through intermediaries. With regard to IBM developer
tools, these have become Ajax/RIA-enabled as well, so that Notes developers and WebSphere
developers can enhance the user experience of existing and new applications, including
mashups.
IBM’s strategic RIA platform is Lotus Expeditor, which is a “full stack,” outside-the-browser
environment based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP), along with additional capabilities
for offline storage (scaled down DB2 relational database management system [RDMS]), system
management, provisioning and others. All these capabilities add up to a 200Mb footprint, which
can be compared (albeit in apples-to-oranges fashion) with Ajax toolkits (including IBM-backed
Dojo) that are 20Kb in size.
Lotus Expeditor’s main competitors are outside-the-browser technologies from Microsoft (WPF)
and Adobe (AIR). All these desktop-environment offerings have been burdened by the perception
of cost (hardware resource utilization) and complexity — although Adobe AIR has gained more
market traction than the others. All have seen slow market uptake relative to the meteoric growth
in lightweight Ajax technologies, and the more modest, but still strong, growth in middleware
inside-the-browser approaches, such as Adobe Flex.
Positives
•
IBM has historically been a major force behind Ajax in general and Dojo in particular,
and makes extensive use of Ajax and RIA in its product lines, including its server-centric
developer platforms. These leave the company well-positioned if and when the market
evolves to a perspective that values comprehensive, server-centric approaches (which
Gartner expects to occur as mainstream cohorts adopt).
•
Expeditor is a powerful RIA framework with comprehensive subsystems to support
enterprise-scale initiatives.
•
Expeditor leverages Eclipse (widely used developer tool) and Java (dominant enterprise
language and platform), and allows interoperability with Ajax.
•
Eclipse is used as the technology foundation for the revamped Lotus Notes client, which
can result in synergy and accelerated maturity of the technology.
•
Although Expeditor is a late entrant in the competitive arena, IBM has a track record of
prevailing over time through persistent investment and through alignment with partners.
Negatives
•
IBM’s success in using Dojo and incorporating Ajax technology into tools is not the same
as selling RIA platforms to buyers in the Ajax/RIA market.
•
The “full stack” approach used in Expeditor means a large footprint and a complex
environment for developers.
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 16 of 28
•
Applications for the Expeditor platform must be designed as Eclipse plug-ins, which
represents a departure from the method to which application developers are
accustomed.
•
Although Eclipse has an extensive track record as a developer tool, it has a much more
limited history as an application deployment platform (which is the way it is used in
Expeditor).
•
IBM's marketing message has changed (along with the Expeditor product name)
multiple times, resulting in a slow rate of adoption.
Rating: Promising
Infragistics
Infragistics is a company formed in 2001 through the merger of a Microsoft-focused, aftermarket
vendor (Sheridan Software) with a Java-oriented vendor (ProtoView). The company has become
a key player in a cluster of aftermarket vendors that sell visual and business components for
Microsoft-related presentation platforms, such as WPF, ASP.NET Windows Forms and
Silverlight. Infragistics competes directly with DevExpress (a vendor that is also covered in this
MarketScope), as well as with other vendors in this market niche (ComponentOne, Dundas,
Telerik, Janus, SoftwareFX, Xceed, Data Dynamics, Component Art, Divelements, SpringSource
and Syncfusion). Many of these companies are complementary to their host platform by filling in
the gaps through visual controls (data grids), as well as report-oriented components.
Infragistics differentiates itself from DevExpress in that it supports a wider range of platforms,
including JSF. Infragistics has been slightly behind DevExpress in producing a comprehensive
framework, rather than a loosely connected set of large components. In March 2008, Infragistics
introduced Aikido, which is built on Microsoft ASP.NET Ajax library and provides a layer of
additional components.
Positives
•
Infragistics provides a solid line of components, and a recently released a component
framework that leverages Microsoft ASP.NET Ajax technology.
•
It's a small vendor that has survived for a long time in the shadow of Microsoft.
•
The company has a loyal customer base that adopts component products on a tactical
basis.
Negatives
•
Infragistics is a small company in a crowded aftermarket sector.
•
Customers view the company’s products as tactical, not strategic.
Rating: Promising
jQuery
One of the most prominent, community-based, open-source Ajax libraries is jQuery, initially
authored by John Ressig in January 2006, and with version 1.0 released in August of that year.
The package has since grown rapidly in visibility and influence, through a mix of elegant coding
techniques, well-written documentation and, most recently, industry support from heavyweight
vendors, such as Microsoft and Nokia.
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 17 of 28
The package is about 100kb uncompressed (30kb packed), available from jquery.com under the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or the GPL2 license.
Positives
•
jQuery has an elegant architecture with well-written documentation and a small footprint.
•
The company receives support from Microsoft and Nokia.
•
jQuery has been adopted in high-visibility Web sites, such as Fandango, Twitter, Bank
of America, Amazon, Netflix and Dell.
•
It has the ability to coexist with other toolkits, such as Prototype.
•
jQuery is starting to gain traction in the enterprise sector.
Negatives
•
jQuery competes in a dynamic space with other evolving toolkits (Dojo, MooTools and
Prototype).
•
It is not as full-featured as other (larger) Ajax libraries.
Rating: Positive
JackBe
JackBe, along with Backbase, General Interface (acquired by Tibco) and Laszlo Systems, is one
of the pioneering vendors in the commercial Ajax toolkit category. As do the other vendors,
JackBe offers a comprehensive Ajax framework and toolset for building rich Web applications.
Unlike the others, JackBe has, in recent years, repositioned itself as a vendor of enterprise
mashup technology. Although it continues to maintain the Ajax product, its marketing efforts are
directed at the mashup sector. In that respect, JackBe has collaborated with erstwhile
competitors Backbase and Ext as mashup interface partners. JackBe’s mashup technology
supports RIA frameworks based on Flex, Flash and .NET.
Positives
•
JackBe has a well-designed, full-featured, closed-source Ajax library and framework
targeted to the enterprise sector
•
It is a small vendor that has demonstrated that it can respond quickly to changing
market conditions.
•
JackBe has a growing network of system integration partners and other vendor
relationships.
Negatives
•
In the Ajax category, the company has a closed-source product competing with
commoditized, open-source technologies.
•
JackBe is a small vendor with limited resources and brand recognition.
•
The company’s primary focus is no longer Ajax and RIA, but instead mashups.
Rating: Promising
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 18 of 28
Laszlo Systems
Laszlo Systems is perhaps the earliest commercial entrant in the Ajax/RIA sector, having been
founded in 2000 and releasing its Laszlo Presentation Server product in 2002. Along with
Backbase, General Interface (acquired by Tibco), JackBe and Nexaweb, Laszlo helped shape the
contours of the Ajax and RIA category, starting out as a commercial closed-source package, then
moving to open source in 2004 (under the name OpenLaszlo). There have been 500,000
downloads of OpenLaszlo since that time. The company’s original product initially ran on a Flashenabled browser, but the architecture is general enough that an application built with Laszlo can
be deployed to Ajax and Java ME runtime environments. This multiplatform targeting is possible
through the use of declarative XML as a mechanism for specifying the layout and behavior of an
application.
The company’s product resembles Adobe Flex in architecture (because of its use of declarative
XML, its reliance on a Flash-enabled browser and its server-side compilation). The company has
achieved some success in the enterprise sector, with use at Allstate and Sears, and a partnership
with IBM, incorporated into products such as WebSphere application server and Commerce
Management Center. The company also has some market presence in top 100 consumer Web
sites, such as Pandora.com, and the customer-facing Web presence of Wal-Mart and Verizon.
Laszlo has recently shifted its market focus to service providers and broadened its product line to
include a Webtop environment that integrates Web-based applications, such as mail, instant
messaging, photo-sharing and contacts.
Positives
•
Laszlo has a broad-scope architecture driven by declarative XML.
•
Multiplatform targeting is one of Laszlo's focuses.
•
It is one of longest-lived vendors in the category.
•
The company's recently added vertical focus may provide stability.
Negatives
•
Laszlo is a small company with limited resources competing against large organizations.
•
Its recent repositioning may affect Ajax/RIA market momentum.
Rating: Positive
Magic Software Enterprises
Magic Software Enterprises is based in Israel and has been in existence for more than two
decades. In the 1990s, its main product was a 4GL system that won awards for its high
productivity. The company's focus is now an application-platform-as-a-service (APaaS) offering
called uniPaaS, with version 1.5 released in October 2008. This is a Web-based, multitenant RIA
that uses a declarative rule engine to deploy to a range of targets, including pure HTML, as well
as Java-based and .NET-based clients. The primary adopters have been small to midsize
enterprises.
Positives
•
The vendor has been a longtime player in application development sector.
•
It supports multiple client targets, including .NET, Java and HTML.
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 19 of 28
•
Magic Software also supports on-premises and multitenant hosted deployments.
Negatives
•
Magic Software is a small vendor with little penetration in the enterprise sector.
•
It is a commercial vendor competing with rapidly evolving open source.
Rating: Promising
Microsoft
Microsoft has been articulating a message to developers about “smart client” and rich user
interface technology for much of the past decade. The company has many different technology
offerings in this category, including WPF, Windows Forms, Silverlight version 1 and version 2
(which can be evaluated separately), Composite UI Application Block, the Microsoft Ajax library
(which has a client-side aspect as well as an ASP.NET-server-centric aspect), SharePoint Web
Parts and Microsoft Office as a developer platform. This list does not include legacy presentation
technologies and platforms that are still in production, (such as Visual Basic and Win32 GDI).
Microsoft Silverlight version 2 is the most recent entry from Microsoft in the area of user interface
and presentation-oriented technologies and platforms. Silverlight v.2 is the Microsoft offering that
Gartner clients ask about most frequently, and it forms the core of this MarketScope evaluation. It
has rapidly growing "mind share" that Gartner expects will translate into strong market share over
time. Although customer interest is centered on Silverlight, it is worth noting that many Microsoftcentric organizations already have a capable platform for enterprise Web applications in the form
of ASP.NET, which offers the Microsoft Atlas library as a way of delivering an enhanced user
experience. For many organizations considering Silverlight for straightforward enterprise
applications, building on ASP.NET might be a more pragmatic and cost-effective choice. Of
course, these are not mutually exclusive, and hybrid scenarios may represent the optimum way to
balance priorities.
Although Silverlight v.1 and v.2 share the product name, they are different technologies.
Silverlight v.1 was released in mid-2007, and is essentially a media-player component that is
scriptable with JavaScript. It is targeted at consumer-facing Web sites and achieved little market
penetration. Silverlight v.2 was released in September 2008, and is a significant step forward in
technology and tooling. It packages the powerful features of .NET-based WPF into a lighterweight, cross-platform offering. It can be used for external-facing Web sites or internal-facing
applications. Gartner expects strong market growth, primarily among enterprises that are
committed to .NET. Some notable sites using Silverlight are Blockbuster, Toyota, Yahoo Japan,
AOL, BBC, HardRock and Netflix (which is now using Silverlight to deliver streamed movie
rentals).
Positives
•
Microsoft brings .NET technology to the browser, leveraging the skills of an estimated 4
million .NET developers.
•
Silverlight is supported by the broad ecosystem of Microsoft service providers, system
integrators and ISVs, including some companies listed in this MarketScope (such as
DevExpress and Infragistics).
•
Silverlight supports multiple programming languages, including dynamic languages
•
Microsoft is a systematic and diligent competitor, and the upcoming Silverlight v.3 will
likely continue the trajectory begun with v.1 and v.2.
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 20 of 28
Negatives
•
Linkage to the .NET platform and tools is perceived as a negative by some nonMicrosoft-centric organizations, although Silverlight has cross-platform attributes on the
development side and the delivery side.
•
Silverlight v.2 has only recently been released, although its use by 40 million viewers
during the NBC broadcast of the summer Olympics in August 2008 can be viewed as a
production release.
Rating: Positive
Nexaweb Technologies
Nexaweb, along with vendors such as Backbase, General Interface (acquired by Tibco), JackBe
and Laszlo Systems, forms the contingent of pioneering commercial vendors in the Ajax and RIA
sector. Nexaweb was founded in 2000, and shipped its first product in 2001. Although Backbase,
JackBe and General Interface approached the space from the Ajax direction, and Laszlo from a
Flash-based browser, Nexaweb took a Java-based approach. Like some of the others, Nexaweb
relies on a declarative XML representation of layout and behavior. This approach enables the
Nexaweb system to evolve to its Universal Client Framework, which can target Ajax, Java or
desktop environments. Nexaweb's declarative language is called extensible Ajax platform (XAP),
which was an open-source project at the Apache Foundation's incubator, and was adapted to
support the Dojo Toolkit from the Dojo foundation in early 2008 in the form of dojo.E. Nexaweb’s
recent market focus has shifted to emphasize modernization of legacy enterprise applications
(written in PowerBuilder, Visual Basic and Oracle Forms).
Positives
•
Nexaweb is a pioneering participant in the Ajax/RIA sector.
•
It has a general architecture using declarative XML, which allows multiplatform targeting.
•
The company has achieved some penetration into the enterprise sector, in part due to
the product's emphasis on Java.
Negatives
•
Nexaweb is a small company with limited resources competing against large
organizations and open-source alternatives.
•
Its recent focus on legacy modernization may change product priorities.
Rating: Positive
Oracle
Oracle is one of the four large IT powerhouse vendors, along with IBM, SAP and Microsoft.
Oracle is no stranger to Ajax techniques, having used partial page rendering (PPR) as far back as
2003. However, Oracle has not marketed its Ajax/RIA technology until recently. Recent initiatives
include a showcase for what Oracle has termed Rich Enterprise Applications (REA) at
http://rea.oracle.com. There are also developer campaigns tied to the Oracle Fusion project.
Oracle’s rich client strategy revolves around its implementation of JSF, called ADF Faces. JSF
started out as a server-side user interface framework that can optionally use client-side rendering
for an enhanced, more-responsive user experience. In addition to ADF Faces, Oracle has
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 21 of 28
another major technology initiative with a presentation-related aspect: its WebCenter portal
platform.
Oracle has donated 150 Ajax-enabled JSF components to the open-source Apache MyFaces
project — a technology that is also used in Oracle E-Business Suite.
Positives
•
Oracle is a large, established vendor with significant resources, product portfolios and
ecosystems.
•
It's building on the industry standard JSF.
•
Oracle is cultivating an open-source community around ADF Faces.
Negatives
•
The value proposition for non-Oracle customers is not compelling, thus far. (Although,
as the market evolves in a server-centric direction, the situation will improve.)
•
Oracle's focus remains mostly server-centric.
Rating: Promising
Prototype
Prototype is a foundation-level Ajax technology that is often used in conjunction with the
Scriptaculous user interface library. Both are open source, pure JavaScript and have distinct
identities, but overlapping communities. Version 1.6.0.3 of Prototype is the current version, first
available in September 2008. It is open source under the MIT license and is available as a single
source file (about 4,200 lines of JavaScript code, which weighs in at 128kb uncompressed) at
http://prototypejs.org/assets/2008/1/25/prototype-1.6.0.2.js.
Scriptaculous builds on the core Prototype framework by adding an animation engine, drag-anddrop effects, sliders, fades, autocompletion and so on. The package has Prototype embedded
inside, and is available as a 194Kbyte compressed JavaScript collection from
http://script.aculo.us/downloads.
Major “competitors” are open-source packages, such as Dojo, jQuery and YUI. One differentiator
is that Prototype is geared to the “write your own widgets” developer, who is looking for a solid
but lightweight technology foundation upon which to build custom components. High-profile,
public-facing Web sites that want to have a distinct look and feel have chosen the
Prototype/Scriptaculous combination (sites such as Apple, CNN, Ikea and Gucci).
Positives
•
Prototype was one of the early toolkits to package Ajax know-how into an open-source
offering.
•
It has strong adoption among high-traffic sites.
•
Its multilayer modular structure makes adoption possible in stages.
•
The company has an emerging ecosystem of training and support resources (books and
communities).
Negatives
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 22 of 28
•
No single vendor has become strategically committed to the success of this project.
•
Prototype is not as full-featured as other larger toolkits.
Rating: Positive
Sun Microsystems
As with any large platform vendor, Sun Microsystems has a range of presentation-oriented
technologies and platforms, going back to the mid-1990s and the days of venerable Java applets.
Early success in client-side user interface technology was slowed due to inconsistent
implementations and discontinuous transitions with user interface libraries (from AWT to Swing).
For the past decade, Sun’s Java has found success in strategic, server-side, enterprise-scale
platforms (such as Java EE), but it has not been a visible participant in the client-side competitive
arena, ceding the ground to Ajax toolkits and Flash-based RIA approaches.
Sun recently introduced JavaFX version 1, which represents the company's attempt to catch-up
in rich-client technologies. JavaFX is a layer on top of the standard Java runtime. It adds
multimedia capabilities, a declarative scripting language, and a runtime environment that supports
inside-the-browser, outside-the-browser and mobile deployments.
Positives
•
Sun’s Java technology has been a mainstay of the Web for more than a decade.
•
The company has a broad ecosystem built around Java, including platform vendors
(BIM), ISVs (Oracle), and many system integrators and global IT services firms.
Negatives
•
Sun had a late entry into market territory inhabited by Adobe, Microsoft and others.
•
Core parts of the value proposition (mobile, designer/developer integration tools) won’t
be released until 2009.
Rating: Promising
Tibco Software
The GI toolkit from Tibco has been one of the earliest-developed Ajax toolkits, dating back to
2002, from a small startup vendor of the same name that was acquired by Tibco in 2004. Tibco is
the well-known enterprise middleware vendor that also markets a portal. With GI, it has made a
foray into user-facing technology. The package initially was a closed-source, enterprise-oriented
product that only supported the Internet Explorer browser. More recently, it has become open
source and cross-browser, supporting Firefox 3 and Safari 3. The current version of GI is v.3.6.1,
and the 10.1Mb download is available at www.tibco.com/devnet/gi/.
In February 2008, the company saw the departure of key GI staff member, Kevin Hakman, to go
to Aptana, a vendor of server-side JavaScript and client-side Ajax. The number of inquiries
received by Gartner about Tibco GI has declined during the past year.
Positives
•
Tibco has a well-designed, full-featured product targeted for the enterprise sector.
•
The company has a good track record and market presence in the enterprise sector for
its middleware product line.
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 23 of 28
Negatives
•
The vendor's middleware-centric message about user experience has not resonated
with its target market.
•
A presentation-oriented product is not visible among a broader mix of the company's
products and priorities.
Rating: Promising
Yahoo
Yahoo is a major player in the consumer Web sector, and operates such properties as the My
Yahoo portal, Flickr photo-sharing, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Store e-commerce storefront. The YUI
toolkit is a free and open-source Ajax toolkit written in pure JavaScript. The package contains not
just a framework and widgets, but also utilities (logger, compressor), cascading style sheet (CSS)
tools and design patterns. The current version of YUI is 2.60, and it is available under the BSD
license as a 10.5MB zip file, which includes substantial documentation, 250 working examples
and tutorials. The core portion of the YUI library is 31Kb minified JavaScript (and, in compressed
format, about 11Kb). The core loads the rest of the library on demand. YUI has a full complement
of widgets, and many of these support the ARIA plug-in to enable accessibility. YUI leverages
CSS heavily, to the extent that some Web designers find value in using the CSS portion of YUI
(such as CSS Grid) independently from the Ajax part. The YUI Compressor, YUI Test framework
and YUI Doc tools support more-robust development processes.
Positives
•
Yahoo has a full-featured Ajax toolkit for Web 2.0 developers.
•
It leverages the Yahoo brand and ecosystem, including the Yahoo design pattern library.
•
The company will have multiple releases over time, and production use on MyYahoo
and the Yahoo start page has been in effect since mid-2005.
•
Yahoo has good adoption among the top 100 Web sites, and was one of the top three
Ajax libraries in the broad-scope site survey conducted by Opera in December 2008 (1
million Web sites surveyed via crawler).
Negatives
•
The Yahoo brand has lost some luster in recent months, and the company has seen
some staff departures and layoffs, resulting in perceptions of an uncertain future.
Rating: Positive
RECOMMENDED READING
“Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes: How Gartner Evaluates Vendors Within a Market”
Note 1
Full List of Ajax and RIA Packages
•
ActiveWidgets — http://www.activewidgets.com/
•
Adobe Spry — http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 24 of 28
•
Adobe Flex — http://www.adobe.com/products/flex
•
Aflax — http://www.aflax.org/
•
Ajax Tags — http://ajaxtags.sourceforge.net/
•
Ajax.NET— http://www.ajaxpro.info/
•
AjaxAC — http://ajax.zervaas.com.au/
•
Ajile — http://ajile.iskitz.com/
•
AJForm — http://projects.aphexcreations.net/ajform/
•
AJS — http://orangoo.com/labs/AJS/
•
Aspects — http://ajaxaspects.blogspot.com/
•
Backbase — http://www.backbase.com/
•
Bindows — http://www.bindows.net
•
Cappuccino — http://cappuccino.org/
•
ComponentOne — http://www.componentone.com/
•
Canoo ULC — http://www.canoo.com
•
Clean Ajax — http://clean-ajax.sourceforge.net/
•
CNET CiUI — http://www.clientcide.com/cnet-js-standards/ciui-cnet-iphone-ui/
•
Curl — http://curl.com/
•
DevExpress — http://devexpress.com/
•
Dojo — http://dojotoolkit.org/
•
Dundas Data Visualization — http://dundas.com/
•
DWR — http://getahead.org/dwr
•
Echo2 — http://www.nextapp.com/platform/echo2/echo/
•
Ext JS — http://extjs.com/
•
Facebook Animation JavaScript library — http://developer.facebook.com/animation/
•
GWT — http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/
•
HTML_AJAX — http://pear.php.net/package/HTML_AJAX/
•
IBM Lotus Expeditor — http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/expeditor/
•
Icesoft Technologies Icefaces — http://icesoft.com/
•
Infragistics — http://www.infragistics.com/
•
JackBe — http://www.jackbe.com
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 25 of 28
•
Java BluePrints — https://blueprints.dev.java.net/
•
jQuery — http://jquery.com/
•
JPSpan — http://sourceforge.net/projects/jpspan
•
Laszlo Systems — http://www.openlaszlo.org/
•
Microsoft Atlas Ajax — http://ajax.asp.net
•
Microsoft Silverlight — http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight
•
Midori — http://www.midorijs.com/
•
MochiKit — http://www.mochikit.com/
•
Moo.fx — http://moofx.mad4milk.net/
•
MooTools — http://mootools.net
•
Nexaweb — http://www.nexaweb.com
•
OpenLink Ajax — http://oat.openlinksw.com/
•
Nitobi — http://www.nitobi.com/
•
Prototype — http://www.prototypejs.org/
•
Qooxdoo — http://qooxdoo.org/
•
Rialto — http://rialto.improve-technologies.com/wiki/rialto
•
Rico — http://www.openrico.org/
•
Sajax — http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/
•
Scriptaculous — http://script.aculo.us/
•
SmartClient — http://www.smartclient.com/
•
Software FX — http://softwarefx.com/
•
SproutCore — http://www.sproutcore.com/
•
Spry — http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Spry
•
Sun JavaFX — http://www.sun.com/javafx
•
Telerik — http://www.telerik.com/
•
Tibco GI — http://www.tibco.com/devnet/gi/default.jsp
•
Tibet — http://www.technicalpursuit.com/ajax_indepth.htm
•
TurboGears — http://www.turbogears.org/
•
Visual WebGUI — http://www.visualwebgui.com/
•
WebORB — http://www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 26 of 28
•
WebWork — http://www.opensymphony.com/webwork/
•
Xajax — http://www.xajaxproject.org/
•
YUI — http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/
•
Zimbra Kabuki — http://www.zimbra.com/community/kabuki_ajax_toolkit_download.html
Vendors Added or Dropped
We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets
change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or
MarketScope may change over time. A vendor appearing in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope
one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that
vendor. This may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation
criteria, or a change of focus by a vendor.
Gartner MarketScope Defined
Gartner's MarketScope provides specific guidance for users who are deploying, or have
deployed, products or services. A Gartner MarketScope rating does not imply that the vendor
meets all, few or none of the evaluation criteria. The Gartner MarketScope evaluation is based on
a weighted evaluation of a vendor's products in comparison with the evaluation criteria. Consider
Gartner's criteria as they apply to your specific requirements. Contact Gartner to discuss how this
evaluation may affect your specific needs.
In the below table, the various ratings are defined:
MarketScope Rating Framework
Strong Positive
Is viewed as a provider of strategic products, services or solutions:
•
Customers: Continue with planned investments.
•
Potential customers: Consider this vendor a strong choice for strategic investments.
Positive
Demonstrates strength in specific areas, but execution in one or more areas may still be
developing or inconsistent with other areas of performance:
•
Customers: Continue planned investments.
•
Potential customers: Consider this vendor a viable choice for strategic or tactical
investments, while planning for known limitations.
Promising
Shows potential in specific areas; however, execution is inconsistent:
•
Customers: Consider the short- and long-term impact of possible changes in status.
•
Potential customers: Plan for and be aware of issues and opportunities related to the
evolution and maturity of this vendor.
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 27 of 28
Caution
Faces challenges in one or more areas.
•
Customers: Understand challenges in relevant areas, and develop contingency plans
based on risk tolerance and possible business impact.
•
Potential customers: Account for the vendor's challenges as part of due diligence.
Strong Negative
Has difficulty responding to problems in multiple areas.
•
Customers: Execute risk mitigation plans and contingency options.
•
Potential customers: Consider this vendor only for tactical investment with short-term,
rapid payback.
REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS
Corporate Headquarters
56 Top Gallant Road
Stamford, CT 06902-7700
U.S.A.
+1 203 964 0096
European Headquarters
Tamesis
The Glanty
Egham
Surrey, TW20 9AW
UNITED KINGDOM
+44 1784 431611
Asia/Pacific Headquarters
Gartner Australasia Pty. Ltd.
Level 9, 141 Walker Street
North Sydney
New South Wales 2060
AUSTRALIA
+61 2 9459 4600
Japan Headquarters
Gartner Japan Ltd.
Aobadai Hills, 6F
7-7, Aobadai, 4-chome
Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0042
JAPAN
+81 3 3481 3670
Latin America Headquarters
Gartner do Brazil
Av. das Nações Unidas, 12551
9° andar—World Trade Center
04578-903—São Paulo SP
BRAZIL
+55 11 3443 1509
Publication Date: 29 December 2008/ID Number: G00164266
© 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 28 of 28