Where is Microsoft going with Silverlight? There is no ambiguity in Microsoft’s intentions to contend with AJAX and Adobe Flash in the RIA space; Friday’s Silverlight 4 release includes me-too features such as enhanced video streaming capabilities aimed at internet broadcasters, better device handling including web-cam, microphone, mouse wheel and right-click support, together with enhanced animation capabilities such as hardware accelerated transforms and rotations.
Yet the capital markets want more than a Microsoft version of Flash, and fulfilling their additional business requirements is where Silverlight 4 looks to shine.
When banks build single-dealer portals they need an application framework that leverages existing skills so that client offerings can be created quickly, deployed easily, and rolled out to clients en masse. The integration and functional requirements on application frameworks across pre-trade, deal-capture and post-trade are varied and not usually completely solved by any single vendor implementation or framework.
