What's Your RIA Strategy - Ajax or Flex

When it comes to Rich Internet Application (RIA) technologies, application development professionals must choose between two paths: AJAX or Adobe Flex.

AJAX is the best bet for experienced web development shops looking to incrementally evolve existing web applications. AJAX is considered the fast lane to a better user experience. Selecting AJAX also raises the question of whether to go with a homegrown, open source, or commercial AJAX framework.

In contrast, Adobe is best for shops looking to completely transform their Web experiences. But to do so, firms must acquire the skills necessary to use Flex, which is the development framework for the Flash runtime environment. Early adopters with time-to-market concerns and comfort with either smaller vendors or open source can select AJAX with confidence. But firms that require support from a larger vendor and full-featured development tools will do better with Adobe.App dev professionals should make the selection based on their time-to-market requirements, whether they're looking to evolve or revolutionize their user experience, and whether they prefer tools from large established vendors. More>>