A new direction for ColdFusion?

Ryan Stewart comes back from MAX with an article discussing ColdFusion's future. In particular, he talks about how ColdFusion now falls under the Platform Business Unit, which puts it in the same organizational unit at Adobe as Flex, Flash Player and AIR.

One of the key results, he explains, is that now ColdFusion should have an "even closer integration with Adobe’s products." But is that really such a good thing? Ryan obviously seems to believe so, but I'm not so sure. Here's why.

You see, with that integration in mind ColdFusion seems to be positioned more and more as the best server-side platform to use if you're doing Flash and Flex development. In fact, they've said as much in the press.

For another example of this tighter integration, let's not forget the additions in CF8 for PDF generation and manipulation, or the server-side binding capabilities in AIR, more Adobe technologies.

So in other words, ColdFusion is the best Adobe product to use when you use other Adobe products... which assumes that a given developer WANTS to use those products and technologies in the first place. It's singular view of the web in particular, and the desktop in general, that to my mind is more than a little self-reinforcing.

Especially when it's one of your core differentiating features.

And there's the kicker. Adobe needs to remember that there's more to the web than just Flash and Flex, and ColdFusion needs to support other platforms and technologies and standards just as hard.

Otherwise, it could eventually find itself stuck in a very, very deep niche.

Ryan's article can be found here. He also talks more about RIA's, and about expanding the base for ColdFusion.

More on those later.

Comments

[James R.Taylor]

I agree. It's self-perpetuating. Moreover, Adobe might LIKE to position CF as the best Flash/Flex/AIR (FFA) platform, but they're going to have to provide equal, if not better support for PHP, Python, C#, and all the other languages out there.

Why? Because FFA is MUCH more strategic to Adobe's future than CF, and they can't afford to have all of those other developers NOT supporting it.