The idea of a "pure" application development continues to lose meaning in an enterprise IT world that continues to try to integrate legacy systems with server networks, local-area networks, increasing varieties of wireless networks and devices, and the latest new kids on the block who want to join the game.

Thus, the idea of an "open" environment seems intuitively obvious, as it has for many years. Yet "open" to a lot of people seems to mean "free," as if all cool things should be available to anyone who wants them, gratis, because...well, just because.

Large technology companies are not immune to trying to have it both ways. Most major IT vendors tout their commitment to an open-source approach, yet wish to do so under their own strict, proprietary way of doing so.

The old saying that "standards are wonderful, that's why everyone wants one," has a corollary today in that "the only correct approach is the open approach, and here's how our open approach works."

But this column is not going to be a tedious rehash of the various political arrows being slung around the enterprise IT world today. Rather, it's going to be an exciting rehash of what you will find in this issue of WebSphere Journal. The issue has a truly eclectic variety of articles this month, reflecting the inherent tension between the use of a rock-solid, highly sophisticated environment such as WebSphere and the more messy, sometimes bewildering demands of real-world application development.

The continuing evolution of Service-Oriented Architectures is tackled by Praveen K. Chhangani, for example.

The reality of WAS is given three different, specific looks this month. Pooja Gupta handles the complex task of outlining Memory Caching in WAS. Ade Rixon finishes off his series on Putting WAS on UNIX. And Linfeng Yu continues his series on z/OS with an article about WAS for z/OS. (Look for more z/OS articles from him in the future.)

Meanwhile, we've also addressed WebSphere Commerce Design Patterns with an examination of the topic by Bhadri Madapusi.

Two emerging topics, Mobile to Multi-Modal and Inter-Portlet Communications, are covered by Les Wilson and Asim Saddal, respectively. And we go out on a limb a bit to describe not only WebSphere, but potentially alternative approaches to legacy integration with an article by Mike Marlowe.

Do you want to read about BPEL while you're at it? You can, by viewing BJ Grau's article. And the general topic of IBM Software Integration is handled by Reid Gerson in this issue.

From the specific to the general, from "pure" WebSphere to integrated approaches to alternative approaches. It's all here, put together by a truly international cast of characters. There is no unifying theme in this issue of WebSphere Journal, and that's the point we are making. Political arguments tend to oversimplify matters, especially in this sound-bite age. They tend to latch onto a single aspect of an overall approach or philosophy, cast that aspect as 100% right and anyone who varies from it, even slightly, as 100% wrong.

We all know the world is a more complex place than that. And we know that the world of enterprise IT application development and management is hardly a simple world. There are no absolutes, except the absolute necessity to get too much work done in too little time under too strict parameters. Isn't life wonderful?

Happy reading, and please send your praise and other comments to me at roger@sys-con.com. We value your input even more than our own!