Piero Campanelli has written a blog post on the benefits of using OSGi as an architectural asset to promote component oriented software development in organizations. Recent InfoQ coverage has talked about using OSGi with Spring and OSGi as a base for the next generation of application servers.
Among the benefits he details are:
Among the benefits he details are:
- True Component Development - While simple in concept, componentized software can be difficult in practice. The structure of OSGi addresses issues such as dependency tracking, version tracking, and service binding.
- Secure Development Across Teams - The OSGi microkernel style inforces rules to keep components and extensions isolated and controlled.
- Standard Management of Company Projects - If all projects are broken down into OSGi components they are easily reused. The example of the the Eclipse repository is given.
- Version Tracking - OSGi provides versioning support to address the question of Can I integrate with this library? Does it conflict with this version of another library?
- Architect Designer Assistance - The rules in OSGi allow architects to easily determine if build dependencies are broken without having to run the entire build.