Once a year, industry analyst firm Gartner publishes wide sweeping set of reports they call Hype Cycles. Each one of these reports takes a typical area of IT investment, for example Big Data, and provides commentary on that topic, as well as the various technologies, IT methodologies and management disciplines that comprise that topic. Hype Cycles highlight overhyped areas and estimate how long technologies and trends will take to reach maturity. The “hype” in hype cycle largely refers to the media’s short attention span – the majority of IT press is focused on new and emerging technologies while tried and true technologies are deemed passé (as a news story). It’s the same reason that Justin Bieber gets more headlines than Neil Diamond.
In this year’s edition of these reports, Solace is listed as a sample vendor for two important technology trends:
- Event-driven architecture – Event-driven architecture (EDA) is a design paradigm in which a software component executes in response to receiving one or more event notifications. EDA is more loosely coupled than the client/server paradigm because the component that sends the notification doesn’t know the identity of the receiving components at the time of compiling. Sources: Hype Cycle for Application Architecture, 2012, Hype Cycle for Operational Technology, 2012Hype Cycle for Utility Industry Operational Technologies, 2012, Hype Cycle for Smart Grid Technologies, 2012
- High-performance message infrastructure – High-performance message infrastructure products leverage innovative design paradigms to support higher throughput (in messages per second), lower latency (in milliseconds for end-to-end delivery time) and more message producers (senders) and consumers (receivers) than traditional message-oriented middleware (MOM) products. Sources: Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2012 Hype Cycle for In-Memory Computing Technology, 2012 Hype Cycle for Application Infrastructure, 2012
Source: Understanding Gartner’s Hype Cycles, 2011, July 2011
What I find especially interesting is that Solace’s technology falls into these buckets at two very different stages of their evolution. Event-driven architecture is a concept that Gartner has been recommending for more than a decade. It largely centers around architecture around traditional message-oriented middleware. On the hype cycle, event-driven architecture is in the “slope of enlightenment”, which means it is accepted technology that is proven and being widely adopted. Makes sense right?
But at the same time, Solace is listed as a sample vendor as part of High-Performance Message Infrastructure, a newer category that Gartner is just writing about this year for the first time. This is the category that Gartner foresees powering the next generation of distribution applications driven by the “internet of things” and other future needs. For this application of technology, Gartner places it in the “technology trigger” stage, climbing towards the “peak of inflated expectations”, in other words, just getting started.
Very interesting that depending on the context, a solution like the one Solace provides is both proven and mature, at the same time that it is innovative and emerging!
Hype Cycle reports persist because they have stood the test of time. They have many layers of implications when applied to the evolution of technology trends. The more time you spend with them, the more applicability you find. If you are a Gartner client, I recommend that you check out some of these reports.
Gartner Disclaimer re the Hype Cycle
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose