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Serena Treads New Ground with Mashups
Serena Software launches beta of hosted enterprise mashup service.
An emerging class of enterprise-level mashup tools is aimed at business users with the skills to develop such apps-aka "power users" who are already creating Excel macros and the like -- but still have to go through IT.
Longtime ALM vendor Serena Software Inc. joined the space in September, launching a beta of a hosted enterprise mashup service it says reflects the familiar look and feel of Microsoft Office.
Serena's new service consists of two main components: Mashup Composer and Mashup Server. Mashup Composer will be available for free. Users will pay Serena when they deploy their mashups for commercial use on the Mashup Server.
The Mashup Server will handle all of the orchestrations, transformations and security to make the apps work, says Renลฝ Bonvanie, Serena Software's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, partner programs and online services.
"We've chosen the Office look and feel for the Composer because most of the people who work on the business side work in Excel, PowerPoint and Visio," he says.
Serena is also readying a repository of mashup blueprints called the Mashup Exchange, Bonvanie says. Each publisher can make the IP available under an open source or Creative Commons license.
IT departments have little to worry about in the way of security and governance as far as Serena's offerings go, Bonvanie asserts.
"From a governance perspective, this architecture is as governable as any other application that is going to be developed by IT or someone else," Bonvanie said.
The Mashup Composer service will be generally available in November. Serena is also planning a Mashup Server beta. The company plans to go live with its Mashup Exchange service in February.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.