August 9, 1999

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XML's Legacy

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Christopher Carfi, director of product marketing for Extricity Software Inc., says multiple versions of XML will be a natural and healthy evolution of the technology. He says proprietary development of XML formats will be an effective way for trading partners to gain a competitive advantage, while industry standards will help facilitate the general exchange of information, such as for electronic catalogs.

Problems For Developers
But that's of little comfort to companies trying to use XML today. Bernie Hogan, chief technology officer for the Uniform Code Council, an independent organization for setting standards for the exchange of supply-chain information, is frustrated by the shifting sands of XML standards as his group tries to develop an E-commerce trading community spanning all industries and companies, called UCCnet. "There may be some throwaway effort on our part," Hogan says, explaining that it's difficult for his group to decide on a design for its XML system because everyone wants to create their own standards for XML data exchange.

More vendors are building-or are planning to build-XML support into their applications. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 supports XML, as will the next version of Netscape's browser. Oracle has already added XML functionality to its database. IBM, Informix, Microsoft, and Sybase will offer native XML support in their database engines by 2000. And ERP vendors such as Baan, Oracle, and SAP are expected to bundle XML translators into products next year.

But the confusion surrounding XML standards has prevented vendors from developing XML editing tools and deployment-support technologies. As a result, developing XML Web-to-legacy interfaces can be challenging. Phillip Merick, the CEO at WebMethods Inc., says integration projects using XML are best tackled by large companies with the resources to grapple with a new technology lacking widespread vendor support. But a few companies, such as Bluestone Software Inc. and Object Design Inc., now offer XML servers that handle app-to-app and business-to-business data exchanges.

Despite the confusion, many IT managers agree that it's only a matter of time before XML takes its place among other Internet technologies reshaping business computing-especially if the experience of early adopters is any indication. Says Dun & Bradstreet's Gwydir, "We gained a huge benefit just from putting our toe in the water."

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