EMC pushes xCP platform with Designer's Challenge

Earlier this year, EMC introduced xCP [1], a new development platform as part of its Documentum content management product. It  established a Designer's Challenge last May as a way to show off the capabilities of the platform and it is now down to five finalists.

xCP builds on the earlier versions of Documentum, which exposed various parts of the software stack as services. This enabled companies to connect to these services and use Documentum content and services with other enterprise applications.

The xCP development component takes this a step further, by providing a graphical environment that makes it easier for companies to develop these connectors and applications, lowering development time from months to days, according to Karin Ondricek, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Content Management and Archiving Division, EMC. In one example, from the Designer's Challenge, Booze Allen Hamilton was able to build an xCP application called Roadpulse in just eight days using a combination of xCP tools and Microsoft's mapping tool. "Booze Allen Hamilton used xCP to build a tool to let citizens communicate with government officials to let know that there were [infrastructure] problems," Ondricek said. They integrated the application with Microsoft Live Maps [2] (now called Bing Maps) so whenever a problem was reported through the website, it would be registered on the map on the website. Officials monitoring this information could see where there were major problems and react to them as needed.

EMC is hoping that the community will review the five finalists and vote for the best one. You can review the candidates and vote online at the EMC Developer Community [3]. Ondricek says they also hope that a community develops around xCP where people can share, not only tips and tricks for using the tools, as they do now in the Developer Community, but also share applications they have been built using xCP with the community at large.

Whatever happens, EMC is making it easier for its customers to build custom applications and connectors to other applications without help from consultants and that's should be good for customers.

For more information:
- see the EMC press release [4]

Related Articles:
EMC pulls trigger and buys Kazeon [5]
One on One with Whitney Tidmarsh of EMC [6]
EMC: Rapid app development and cloud computing key to future of CM [7]