17.4. The Ecosystem

It’s easy find holes in this idea. To explain why it cannot work. Yet, it’s happening elsewhere, so why not on the server . . . in the enterprise? Certainly, there are a variety of different ways such an ecosystem could manifest itself. Possibly multiple ecosystems emerge like what we see in the mobile market today.

But for a moment, imagine the world where you have the ability to easily assemble a platform from prebuilt infrastructure modules that exactly meet the demands of your application. You might purchase these modules, you might choose to use open source modules, or you might build them yourself. Those you don’t build you obtain from a module marketplace, possibly deploying them to your (cloud) environment.

When you choose to use a module, it’s dynamically deployed to your environment. The modules it depends upon? You’re given the option to purchase and deploy them. You develop your software modules using the sound principles and patterns of modular design to ensure loose coupling and high cohesion. As you roll out your business solution modules, you simultaneously deploy the additional infrastructure modules that are needed.