Sunday, May 14, 2006
Why Flex Data SERVICES but Flash Media SERVER?
I can understand why Adobe wanted to find a wider market for Flex Enterprise Services and choose a new name as part of that rebranding. I don't understand however why one product is called Flash Media Server and the another product is called Flex Data Services. That seems inconsistent to me. To tell you the truth I've never been keen on the name Flex Data Services, not least because FES had a subcomponent called Data Services. What's that subcomponent called now I wonder? What's wrong with Flex Server as a name for the server product?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
It makes sense to me. Flex Data Services is a server that provides data services enabled advanced data operations to Flex applications, such as data synchronization.
This isn't an official reason but Flash Media Server is a standalone server product while Flex Data Services are meant to be integrated into an existing server infrastructure. If you don't have that infrastructure already you can set it up solely for FDS, but many folks already have servers that just need additional service support for integration with Flex apps.
As my wife always says, FDS? Feminine Deodorant Spray?
My thought would be not to confuse anyone thinking Flex still required a [previous expensive] Server part, so they just never use the word "server" and Flex together for a while.
Also, yes, it's a component, so Services fits there.
Both arguments for and against calling it a server make sense. The bigger challenge is positioning the technology in the marketplace. Something titled as server would appear more cohesive, well-integrated, designed-to-scale, etc, etc. And the fact that it can be easily integrated as a service into any other existing server product would just be an additional feature on the list.
As for the name, I think changing it to Flex Data Services from Flex Enterprise Service is a bad move. First off, FDS has a subsystem called Data Management Services, and these two sound very similar. The term Flex Enterprise Services seems to be more generic and would scale better if any other non-data related services were to be added to the system at a later date.
Btw, have you seen the Flex/.NET integration work we have been doing? Our goal is to provide a full-blown FDS implementation for .NET. Currently we have the RPC subsystem implemented and will be releasing support for the Data Management subsystem as well. Here's a brief overview: http://www.themidnightcoders.com/articles/flextodotnet.htm
Graeme,
Do you have stock in Macromedia?
Joe.
Post a Comment