The StarPound Vision

StarPound takes advantage of three key macro industry trends: convergence, composite applications (SOA), and open-source software. This section of our site provides our view on these trends, and why each is critical to the mission of StarPound.

Convergence

Congergence is happening at all levels of the enterprise — and StarPound is there.

Converged networks have given users the ability to receive all forms of communications using a variety of end-user devices. Laptops can become phones. Users can send instant messages from workstations to a mobile device. But many organizations, particularly those with a service component, must closely manage the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery or risk customer dissatisfaction.

As networks converge, new converged devices are appearing. Phones, browsers, and new "browser phones" deliver voice, web, email, video, and related data to users wherever they are. Converged devices need a new kind of application to drive them — a converged application that combines voice and data technology. StarPound CORE™ provides the framework to build this new breed of enterprise application: composite or converged applications.

But convergence is happening at all levels in the enterprise, not just at the network level. From unified communications to web services & SOA architectures, to Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and Enterprise 2.0 mashups, the concept of convergence is driving the technology landscape across the board.

Composite Applications via SOA

A converged application platform offers a common scalable architecture that supports things such as telephony, video and data services through a single device.

Composite applications are a new breed of software application. These applications are built by combining multiple services. A composite application consists of functionality drawn from several different sources within a service oriented architecture (SOA). The components may be individual web services, selected functions from within other applications, or entire systems whose outputs have been packaged as web services (often legacy systems).

Composite applications offer a long-sought-after business nirvana whereby empowered technical business users can stitch together componentized business capabilities. In many ways, composite applications are the business users' equivalent of Web 2.0 and "mash-ups." While there has been a lot of hype around composites, many vendors have been slow to deliver real value in this area. Technologies are emerging, however, that will change this game, and composition will become an increasingly important aspect of constructing business logic.

— Chris Keyser, The Architecture Journal

StarPound Technologies built StarPound CORE™, an open source development platform for creating converged, composite applications. StarPound applications provide more ways to access application data through convergence, and these applications orchestrate data from multiple systems using services-oriented architectures (SOA).

It is through converged applications that companies will truly optimize and integrate service delivery channels to help increase revenue, capture customer value and differentiate successfully. These benefits should be the driving force behind a migration to converged networks. Cost savings should be reinvested in the development of converged applications that encourage cooperation and integration between business units and enable businesses to differentiate themselves by supporting their customers with new services and functionality.

— Fred Winegust, Lisa Schmidt, Skip Wentzel, IBM

The future is here: Total convergence.

Open-Source Software

The proliferation of open source software has been perhaps the single, biggest driver of change in the world of IT over the past decade. It has been a revolution that has fundamentally disrupted and permanently altered the landscape of enterprise software — from technology startups to massive enterprises; from small software companies to industry giants such as IBM, Oracle, and Sun. The Open-source software revolution has evolved into a thriving $60B global industry. Open source software is moving up the food chain as well, displacing proprietary software in many instances, rather than simply providing a foundation for it.

We are moving aggressively into open source. We're embracing it, we're not going to fight this trend.

— Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle

The use of open source beyond Linux is pervasive, used by almost three-quarters of organizations and spanning hundreds of thousands of projects."

— Dr. Anthony Picardi, SVP of Global Software Research at IDC

StarPound fully embraces the open-source movement, for all the right reasons. We believe, fundamentally, that "software" is, and should be, a services business.

The Next-Generation Business Ecosystem

Ultimately, StarPound aims to provide the open-source platform for anyone desiring to automate business processes. With process automation comes the unqiue opportunity for integration between these processes. Using a platform such as StarPound, integration between vendors, buyers, sellers, and partners evolves from a pipe dream to reality.

For More Information

For more information on how your enterprise can leverage our open-source platform to gain a competetive advantage, contact us today!