The answer, say analysts, is yes, even though it might be a bit slow in coming. Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst with ZapThink, says that eventually Ajax applications will take the place of enterprise portals that now bind together Web services and SOAs.

“People will replace Web-based portals with rich clients built in Ajax,” he says, “because they offer richer functionality. You’ll find it both within the enterprise as well as when enterprises interact with customers.”

Schmelzer also sees Ajax use growing because of a trend he’s noticed. He says that in SOAs, he is seeing “an emerging class of applications that is a hybrid – it’s not a Web browser and not a desktop application. They combine the two and they consume distributed applications with all the benefits of user interactivity, but they’re distributed over the Web, so they’re easy to deploy.”

“Ajax is still very much a developer story, and has to be elevated to the business level,” Schmelzer says.

Read more at: SearchWebServices