Oslo, mejores aproximaciones

Aunque todavía se trata de afirmaciones o anuncios con cronograma a mediano futuro, de a poco se van precisando los alcances del proyecto Oslo. Aaron Skonnard escribió el 3 de noviembre una buena introducción, recomendable de leer.
Hablando del significado de "modelado", dice Skonnard:

The term “model” often comes with negative connotations. This is because the promise of “model-driven” architectures has long been touted but never fully-realized. The various attempts always seem to start with some great hype, but that hype quickly fizzles away once organizations try putting it to use.

(algo que podría discutirse es qué promesas han sido plenamente realizadas entre las varias ofrecidas en en contraposición, particularmente las Software Factories sostenidas hasta ayer).
Oslo, que comienza a prometer, continúa con la tradición de las fechas futuras. No es la mejor vía de criticar "otros intentos anteriores", con anticipaciones tales como estas:

Microsoft hasn’t yet provided official dates for when these various “Oslo”-related pieces will be released. All we know is that first they’ll release .NET Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010, and then at some point after they’ll release the “Oslo” modeling platform and the first version of “Dublin”. PDC attendees received an initial “Oslo” CTP – they handed out at VPC at the show – for everyone else, keep your eyes on MSDN and the Microsoft Connect site. There will be a public Visual Studio 2010 CTP at some point but unfortunately, it may not contain the WCF and WF 4.0 bits according to my sources. It’s still unclear at what point WCF and WF 4.0, “Oslo”, and “Dublin” will be made publicly available.

Sin embargo, tanto antes con las Software Factories, como ahora, con el proyecto Oslo, los teóricos de Microsoft tienen en vista la visión global del problema, lo que sigue abriendo líneas de pensamiento de máximo interés. Que todavía no haya fructificado quizá no sea tan importante como el hecho de presentar la magnitud del problema:

A typical distributed application is a complex beast. Part of this complexity stems from the fact that there are many moving parts – different types of data, different servers and environments, and different line-of-business applications running on different platforms – creating a complex heterogeneous environment to manage. In addition, there are numerous stakeholders involved in a typical distributed application – business analysts, enterprise architects, developers, and IT professionals – all of whom must work together to accomplish the goals of the system. Unfortunately different stakeholders have different concerns and priorities. This makes it difficult for the business to move forward towards common goals, especially when the technology is fighting against the business each step of the way.

For example, when someone notices that a key SLA isn’t being met, how does one go about tracking down the problem within a large distributed application? Which business process is it related to? Who is the business analyst responsible for that particular business process? What application actually supports the business process and what server is it running on? And more specifically, what component or service within that application is ultimately responsible for the problem preventing the business from meeting the SLA? Given today’s technologies, situations like this can be extremely difficult to resolve – yet they’re all too common – welcome to the wonderful world of distributed applications.

What many organizations need is a platform that addresses the complexities of distributed applications head-on. They need a platform that allows analysts to model business data and processes, architects to design the system, and developers to implement system components, while collaborating effectively with one another along the way. And perhaps more importantly, they need a platform that provides visibility into the applications and tools that make it easy to manage the system especially when problems arise. It should facilitate identifying problems, tracking down the cause, and resolving things quickly. They need a platform for managing the distributed application lifecycle more effectively.

This is precisely the type of support that the “Oslo” modeling platform promises to provide. “Oslo” provides the technical foundation for designing, building, and managing distributed applications while improving collaboration across the various stakeholders. Ultimately, the full “Oslo” vision will be realized by the various products that build on the “Oslo” platform like Windows Application Server (“Dublin”), Microsoft System Center (Operations Manager), Team Foundation Server (TFS), and potentially BizTalk Server. If successful, “Oslo” may radically change the face of distributed applications in the years ahead.