OK, this OOW is in the books. So what did the technology crowd (DBAs, developers, architects) learn, IMHO?
1. Standards are no longer a risky bet. Once upon a time, betting on so-called "standards" (CORBA, anyone?) was one of the riskiest things you could do. Today, the WS* stack has gained sufficient traction such that SOA, grounded on an enterprise service bus, is truly plausible. SOA really could be "the last architecture." Oracle is counting on it, in fact.
2. "Easier" is part of the journey, not the destination. The progress toward making development, deployment, and management of enterprise infrastructure and applications less complex, even drag-and-drop in some cases, is truly impressive. But that doesn't mean best practices are no longer useful - the opposite, in fact. It's as important to understand what's going on under the covers than ever, even if you want to stay above them.
3. Security technology and process are now inseparable. Consolidation and integration, both powered by grid and SOA infrastructure, are driving the need for security policy as well as function. The typical large organization may have thousands of users, applications, and servers, which adds up to a stunningly large number of conceivable policies--one security policy "size" does not fit all. Identity management is going to be a big deal in the next few years, as are database features like Project Data Vault, which allows the creation of secure "realms" (comprising specified database tables) with policy-based access requirements.
What did you learn? Comments appreciated....
