ATG being one of the prominent and expensive eCommerce platform in the market may be seeing its sunset soon. New, cheaper and more extensible java based eCommerce platforms may soon give Oracle's ATG a run for its money!
Here are top 4 reasons why ATG may not last:
1. Complexity: Let's face it. Beginners have a hard time grasping it. Experienced developers have a hard time figuring it out. On top of that, sometimes the code does not work as expected and nobody has a clue why. After an eternity of debugging and no luck, some ATG veteran in the team points out a simple configuration change in one of the components. Bummer!
2. The Oracle Monoply: The only source of reliable information for ATG is the official documentation (and this blog of course 😉). Some clients require complex customization and you can find no clue in the official documentation OR there may some super-complex issue which you cannot resolve in-spite of having tremendous experience and supposedly year-long documentation searching. After everything, you have just one option - to ask Oracle Support. ATG & Endeca production licenses being extravagantly expensive, along with the limitations of the official documentation makes up for a sure-shot formula for contacting paid oracle support.
3. The "Brainy" Client: A Service based company always lives by the motto "Client is always right", but a smarter perception is accepting the fact that client is also smart. With google on your fingertips, anyone can look-up for different eCommerce platforms to build a website on. Some clients hire their own consultants to guide them of the most suitable platform, before outsourcing the project to a company. In this scenario, ATG may not be worth the money or complexity.
4. Promising Platforms: A lot of new platforms with new-age capabilities like in-built search engine configuration, payment-integration, social-integration, google analytics configuration are gliding around the eCommerce market, some of which are even open-source, which means NO Licensing Cost. Hybris, Demandware, Broadleaf Commerce are some promising Java-based platforms in the sphere of eCommerce.
Does this mean you(the ATG Developer) will lose your job?
Yes & No.
Heraclitus, a Greek Philosopher once said "The only thing constant in this world is change". Darwin put forward a theory of evolution where he mentioned "survival of the fittest" in the context of those who adapt, survive.
Since ATG may not survive the fall, now is a good time to adapt to the changing environment and learn new technologies. The experience of ATG teaches us the value of OOTB components and design patterns, and the very same knowledge can be applied to other eCommerce platforms as well. Learning new eCommerce technologies may not be tough after-all, considering the complexity of other platforms may even be less than that of ATG.
Another question is, why restrict yourself to just eCommerce or java-based eCommerce? Why not explore other opportunities? If you have a look at various job postings around the world, a lot of organizations now ask for full-stack developers. Developers who have extensive experience in front-end, back-end, mobile & infrastructure technologies, integration specialists, analytics specialist etc.
Restricting yourself to only one platform means you are forcing yourself from not adapting, which might make you lose your job OR prevent you from getting a better one.
ATG may now be your comfort zone, but remember this:
Here are top 4 reasons why ATG may not last:
1. Complexity: Let's face it. Beginners have a hard time grasping it. Experienced developers have a hard time figuring it out. On top of that, sometimes the code does not work as expected and nobody has a clue why. After an eternity of debugging and no luck, some ATG veteran in the team points out a simple configuration change in one of the components. Bummer!
2. The Oracle Monoply: The only source of reliable information for ATG is the official documentation (and this blog of course 😉). Some clients require complex customization and you can find no clue in the official documentation OR there may some super-complex issue which you cannot resolve in-spite of having tremendous experience and supposedly year-long documentation searching. After everything, you have just one option - to ask Oracle Support. ATG & Endeca production licenses being extravagantly expensive, along with the limitations of the official documentation makes up for a sure-shot formula for contacting paid oracle support.
4. Promising Platforms: A lot of new platforms with new-age capabilities like in-built search engine configuration, payment-integration, social-integration, google analytics configuration are gliding around the eCommerce market, some of which are even open-source, which means NO Licensing Cost. Hybris, Demandware, Broadleaf Commerce are some promising Java-based platforms in the sphere of eCommerce.
Does this mean you(the ATG Developer) will lose your job?
Yes & No.
Heraclitus, a Greek Philosopher once said "The only thing constant in this world is change". Darwin put forward a theory of evolution where he mentioned "survival of the fittest" in the context of those who adapt, survive.
Since ATG may not survive the fall, now is a good time to adapt to the changing environment and learn new technologies. The experience of ATG teaches us the value of OOTB components and design patterns, and the very same knowledge can be applied to other eCommerce platforms as well. Learning new eCommerce technologies may not be tough after-all, considering the complexity of other platforms may even be less than that of ATG.
Another question is, why restrict yourself to just eCommerce or java-based eCommerce? Why not explore other opportunities? If you have a look at various job postings around the world, a lot of organizations now ask for full-stack developers. Developers who have extensive experience in front-end, back-end, mobile & infrastructure technologies, integration specialists, analytics specialist etc.
Restricting yourself to only one platform means you are forcing yourself from not adapting, which might make you lose your job OR prevent you from getting a better one.
ATG may now be your comfort zone, but remember this:
Great article.
ReplyDeleteThanks man. Great article.
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