As surely as winter follows autumn, the software industry continually presents us with new programming models. The latest is rich Internet applications (RIA), which have been around for quite a few years waiting for an architecture on which it can be deployed. One of the problems with this name is that whenever the words ‘rich’ and ‘Internet’ appear next to each other, it is commonly taken to assume that they mean multimedia, music and video, not data and business applications. A better description for these classes of applications is ‘rich interactive client applications. ‘Rich’ suggests that they offer more than a simple browser-based application and ‘interactive’ indicates that these are more than simply presentation layers. Rich interactive applications (RIA) are at the centre of the drive to make the experience of a user's interaction with software applications matter more. It is a mix of technologies and approaches that take the strengths of both browser-based clients and standalone desktop applications, while liberating the user from their constraints. This report poses the question of whether we are still in the hype cycle where promises are made whether or not the technology is able to back them up – or have we reached a point where the technology and costs make this a feasible benefit for the business?

Table of contents

Key messages

• More than a pretty picture
• Multifaceted and complex convergence
• Ready and here to stay
• Not every application makes a good RIA
• RIAs should not be an afterthought, they need architecture
• RIA skills are common, but do you have them?
• Technologies – old, borrowed, new, but few standards

Introduction to RIA

• The need for RIA
• RIA convergence
• The Ovum definition
• Existing applications
• Rich interactive applications
• Leading approaches
• No new methodology – but existing ones need to evolve

Benefits of RIAs

• Solving the graphical user interface
• Help is at hand from known quarters

Technology base for RIAs

• Browser-based technologies
• Rich clients

Implementing RIAs

• Smart interactions make more money
• Suitability test
• Finding the right RIA
• Short, sharp iterations for quick gains and greater acceptance
• Address your skills to understand the role and value of outsourced solutions

RIA roadmap

• RIA penetration
• RIA services