On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 7:31 AM, Anne Thomas Manes <[email protected]> wrote: > > Tell me how you should sell REST to an executive. As I've said, trying > to sell an architectural concept is a bad idea.
You don't sell REST to an executive, you sell the Web. It sound's like that's what Bechtel<http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi?pagetosend=/export/home/httpd/htdocs/news/2008/102908-bechtel.html&pagename=/news/2008/102908-bechtel.html&pageurl=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/102908-bechtel.html&site=software>did in the article you cite in your blog post: - If you could build your IT systems and operation from scratch today, would you recreate what you have? ... The question-- and the industry benchmarking exercise that followed -- prompted Bechtel to transform its IT department and model it after Internet front-runners YouTube, Google, Amazon.com and Salesforce.com. - With its benchmarking data in hand, Bechtel decided to revamp its IS&T operations to model itself as closely as possible after the SaaS model pioneered by these four Internet leaders. - Bechtel's employees are demanding business software that is as intuitive as popular Web sites. - Ramleth likens Bechtel's security strategy to Amazon.com's approach. With Amazon.com, users can browse freely and security is applied when a purchase is made. Similarly, Bechtel is trying to create Web applications that apply security only when needed. - Bechtel started its transformation by trying to figure out how to revamp its software applications to operate more like leading Web sites. But what Bechtel discovered is that it had to fix the underlying IT infrastructure -- including data centers and networks -- before it could change its applications. "Not only do you have to solve the IT architecture and the way you operate it, but you have to make sure that IT is accommodating Web applications that can operate more in an Internet mode than in an intranet mode," Ramleth explains. -- Nick
