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At our last AOE Conference, AOE’s CTO Daniel Pötzinger gave insights and a preview into the now-released 2nd AOE Tech Radar. In this blog post, we provide background information about the AOE Tech Radar, the motivation behind why we developed the AOE Tech Radar and an overview of the news in this Tech Radar version.
AOE is a technology-driven company with a strong focus on Open Source technologies. In order to be a pioneer in software development and to be able to offer state-of-the-art digital platform solutions, it is important for us to continuously develop ourselves technologically and regarding methodologies. This plays an important role in promoting innovation, especially in a rapidly changing technical environment. We see technology as an enabler for companies, and it can be dangerous for companies to miss opportunities.
In the following video AOE’s CTO Daniel Pötzinger explains the background of the AOE Tech Radar at the AOE Conference. The presentation of his talk can be found here.
When working on software solutions, some far-reaching decisions must be made. Among other things, the technologies on which the platforms are developed must be selected. The selected technologies are usually used over a longer period of time and are not easy to replace. Therefore, it is important to select the appropriate technologies that guarantee a long-term functionality of the software.
Technologies go through different phases in their development. Two models are particularly suitable for assessing technologies and their current development phases: The Hype Curve and the Technology Life Cycle.
The Hype Curve shows how technologies are developing in the market. The introductory phase is followed by high, sometimes unrealistic expectations of the technology, followed by a phase of disillusionment and enlightment until the technology finally settles in on the so-called productivity plateau. The shape of the curve naturally varies depending on the success of the technology; the technology can flop or reach the productivity plateau earlier. The chart shows that when choosing technologies, carefully evaluated decisions should be made to ideally select emerging technologies and minimize flops.
The Technology Life Cycle shows the life cycle of technologies. After a cost-intensive research & development (R&D) phase, technologies reach a vital, profitable phase before they are eventually replaced due to changing requirements and alternative technologies.
The introduction of new technologies costs money (R&D phase), both the introduction in a company’s own software projects as well as possible contributions to the community. As a result, smart decisions and an appropriate choice should be made when introducing new technologies. The selected technologies should be developed as quickly and systematically as possible to reach the Vital Life Phase.
The goal of the AOE Tech Radar is to assist in the selection of technologies for the development of software solutions. It is the result of experiments, evaluations, experiences and discussions of our AOE teams, which we would like to share. The Tech Radar is intended to provide an overview of technologies, assess the current development stage of the technologies and evaluate them from our point of view. The focus is particularly on the evaluation of new and noteworthy technologies on the market.
The following points should be fulfilled by the Tech Radar:
In the second version of the AOE Tech Radar, 20 technologies have changed their position (C as changed), an additional 20 technologies are new in Tech Radar (N as New).
We see a significant boost in all container-related technologies that we consider very useful. Technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes have been moved to Adopt, as we are already actively using them in various projects. Related tools in this container ecosystem have also been switched to trial, such as Helm for Deploying, Terraform and Google Container Engine.
We moved the following technologies to Adopt because we are convinced of these technologies, have a lot of experience with them and can clearly recommend them:
Find out more about how to use the AOE Tech Radar. Further interesting links lead to the AOE Toolbox – a toolbox with useful tools – and to the contributions of AOE on GitHub.
We look forward to receiving your feedback on AOE Tech Radar #2: aoe.com/techradar
