February 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
BEA Systems has published a white paper intended to encourage migrations from the JBoss open source application server to BEA's WebLogic Server application server.
JBoss last year, of course, started a program intended to move BEA users onto the JBoss platform. BEA, however, claims its effort is not in response to what JBoss is doing.
The white paper says why users would want to migrate and tells them how to do it.
"The purpose of the white paper is to demystify what it would take to actually perform a migration from JBoss to WebLogic Server," said BEA's Gary McBride, senior product marketing manager for WebLogic Server.
Interested persons must register with BEA first to access the white paper.
BEA executive Bill Roth, who serves as vice president of the BEA Workshop business unit, recently said BEA had an opportunity to acquire JBoss but declined.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 28, 2006 12:08 PM
February 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
With a lot of hype surrounding Microsoft's upcoming launch of the Origami ultraportable Windows PC and the introduction of the origamiproject.com website without much info to go with it, Tech Watch thought it right to fill the void with what info can be had on the Net.
Kevin 2.0 has posted pictures of what it says appears to be authentic video of the Origami, which could be a boon to the mobile-savvy enterprise. (Update: The video has apparently been taken down.)
The device would not be without competition from the likes of the OQO, which sells as the world's smallest Windows XP computer.
So what is going to set it apart other than Microsoft flexing its market muscle? The world could know this week, or maybe a little bit more of what all the hype is about.
It may be smaller than a tablet, and actually add life to that market segment, but will the form factor be small enough -- with ever-smarter smart phones out there -- to get people to commit to a new box?
Let the speculation continue...
And, if so, let TW know why you care by leaving a comment below.
Posted by Mike Barton on February 28, 2006 11:47 AM
February 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The notion that cybercrooks might be stealing your password as you type might seem more fiction than science, but in Brazil federal police arrested 55 people for just that crime. And, in fact, The New York Times reports that "among cybercriminals there is evidence that phishing may already be passe," because keylogging is a more effective tactic.
The fraud ring in Brazil, the article explains, stole approximately $4.7 million from some 200 accounts at 6 banks since last May. And the one in Brazil is not an isolated incident, either. Another group broken up by Russian authorities was robbing personal accounts in France.
From the Times story:
"It's the wave of the future," said Peter Cassidy, the secretary general of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a consortium of industry and law enforcement partners that fights online fraud and identity theft. "All this stuff is becoming more and more automated and more and more opaque."
Indeed, the SANS Institute pointed out that last fall as many 9.9 million PCs in the U.S. were infected with keyloggers.
The full story is here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on February 28, 2006 05:43 AM
February 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Google's push last week into credit card transaction processing for its free classifieds service Base is a worry for eBay/PayPal, which is not going to sit idly by.
AuctionBytes.com reports sellers on eBay are concerned the auction site's new "Safe Payments" policy it rolled out last fall, could be used to block Google's payment method, making for a less universal world of online auctions.
The report says unless eBay specifically states in its policy that it accepts Google's payment service, sellers will be violating the eBay policy if they include any mention of it.
But there's no turning back from the rivers of transactional gold, and financial analysts are glowing with the possibilities for Google's bottom line.
But the move is not without risk to Google's do-no-evil image if it was to experience the onslaught of phishing emails that have tarnished the PayPal and eBay brands with consumers.
And auction watchers note there is a lot of work to be done to Base's bare-bones front end before it can challenge eBay.
Keeping the beta feel going as long as possible, Google said it was allowing sellers to register their interest.
Techcrunch has some photos of a real checkout using the new service for those who want to see what some Web sites are calling the "eBay killer".
Posted by Mike Barton on February 27, 2006 03:52 PM
February 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft comfirmed on Monday an early leak that six versions of Windows Vista were slated for later this year.
The company noted on its website there were five versions of XP, which were designed around specific types of PC hardware. With Vista's smorgasbord they are aligned with the different ways people (and businesses) use their PCs, Microsoft says.
One analyst says in a report consumers are expected to drive Vista sales at first and the pitch of enhanced security and lower resources needed for business version would push enterprises and SMBs to upgrade but about a year after conumers at least.
Harsh opinion is starting to flow. A ZDNet UK commentary, Vista versions are so last century, says : "Microsoft's six versions of Vista show a lack of imagination and awareness that could critically limit the usefulness of the operating system."
But some kudos are flowing from security-minded IT folk. This post from SearchWinIT, Will Vista mean victory in the war on rootkits?, has one security analyst praising Vista's use of digital signatures on all kernel mode software.
"Vista is really trying hard to address this," the analyst told SearchWinIT. "They are going to be cryptographically signing everything in the core of the OS."
The (near full) press release from Microsoft:
The Windows Vista product lineup consists of six versions, two for businesses, three for consumers, and one for emerging markets: Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Starter. The number of offerings is the same as the number of offerings currently available for Windows® XP. More important, the lineup is designed to deliver clear value to a broad range of customers, each product tailored to meet specific needs of various segments of customers — home PC users, small and medium-sized businesses and the largest enterprises — and is aimed at bringing 64-bit, Media Center and Tablet PC functionality into the mainstream....
Windows Vista: Designed for Businesses of All Sizes
Business customers can choose from two versions that are designed to meet their needs, based on the size and scale of their organizations:
--Windows Vista Business. Windows Vista Business is the operating system designed for organizations of all sizes. For small businesses, Windows Vista Business will help keep PCs running smoothly and more securely so they are less reliant on dedicated IT support. For larger organizations, Windows Vista Business will provide dramatic new infrastructure improvements that will enable IT staff to spend less time focused on day-to-day maintenance of PCs and more time on adding strategic value to the organization. These are some of the specific features of Windows Vista Business:
--A new user interface, named Windows Aero, is designed to deliver the most productive, highest-performing desktop experience possible. Windows Aero will provide a professional-looking, transparent glass design, with subtle effects such as dynamic reflections and smooth animations, along with Windows Flip and Flip 3D desktop navigation features.
--In addition to these navigation improvements, Windows Vista Business makes it easier than ever to manage huge volumes of business documents. By integrating search throughout the operating system and providing new ways to organize files, Windows Vista Business helps business users quickly find exactly what they are looking for.
--Windows Tablet PC technology provides built-in handwriting recognition and enables interaction with the PC with a digital pen or fingertip instead of a keyboard.
--Windows Vista Enterprise. To better address the needs of large global organizations and those with highly complex IT infrastructures, Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to significantly lower IT costs and risk. In addition to all the features available in Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to provide higher levels of data protection using hardware-based encryption technology. It will also include tools to improve application compatibility and will enable organizations to standardize on a single worldwide deployment image with the inclusion of all Windows user-interface languages. Windows Vista Enterprise will be available only to customers who have PCs covered by Microsoft Software Assurance or a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. These are some of the specific Windows Vista Enterprise features:--Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption helps prevent sensitive data and intellectual property from falling into the wrong hands if a computer is lost or stolen.
--Virtual PC Express is one of several built-in tools that improve application compatibility with previous versions of Microsoft operating systems. Virtual PC Express enables a legacy application to run unchanged on a legacy Windows operating system in a virtual environment on top of Windows Vista Enterprise.
--Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications enables users to run UNIX applications unchanged on a Windows Vista Enterprise-based PC.
The new user interface Windows Aero is also available in this edition of Windows Vista.Windows Vista: Incredible New Experiences and Choices for the Home PC User
Consumers can choose from three versions that deliver exciting new experiences for the home PC user:
--Windows Vista Home Basic. Windows Vista Home Basic is a great choice for homes with basic computing needs. For consumers who want to simply use the PC to browse the Internet, correspond with friends and family through e-mail or perform basic document creation and editing tasks, Windows Vista Home Basic will deliver a safer, more reliable and more productive computing environment. It will provide new tools and technologies for making the PC more secure and enjoyable, including features such as a new Search Explorer, Sidebar and Parental Controls.
--Windows Vista Home Premium. Windows Vista Home Premium will help consumers use mobile or desktop PC functionality more effectively while enabling the enjoyment of new, exciting digital entertainment experiences. Windows Vista Home Premium improves every aspect of digital entertainment experiences, including photos, video, TV, movies, music and games. Windows Vista Home Premium includes everything in Windows Vista Home Basic, along with additional features and enhancements such as the following:--The new user interface Windows Aero is also available in this edition of Windows Vista.
--Windows Vista Home Premium integrates search throughout the operating system, helping customers easily organize and quickly find large collections of documents, pictures, movies, videos and music.
--Windows Media Center capabilities turn the PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center. Consumers can use Media Center to record and watch TV shows (even high-definition TV) and access new kinds of online entertainment content. It also provides the ability to connect Windows Vista Home Premium to Xbox 360™, extending the Media Center experience to multiple rooms in the home.
--Windows Tablet PC technology, which enables interaction with the PC with a digital pen or fingertip instead of a keyboard, is also available in this edition of Windows Vista.
--Integrated DVD burning and authoring allows users to seamlessly burn personal videos photos and files to video or data DVDs, and easily create professional-looking DVDs from home movies that can be shared with family and friends.
--Windows Vista Ultimate. Windows Vista Ultimate is the edition of Windows Vista that has it all. It is the first operating system that brings together all the entertainment features, mobility features and business-oriented features available in Windows Vista.
All new versions are available for either 32-bit or 64-bit systems, depending on the needs of the customer. Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate and Business will be available as a full-packaged product at retail and on new PCs. Windows Vista Enterprise will be offered only to business customers participating in Microsoft’s Software Assurance program.
Microsoft also will offer Windows Vista Starter in emerging markets. Windows Vista Starter is designed to empower families and entry-level PC users in these markets to experience the world of social and educational benefits that personal computer technology and the Internet makes possible. A 32-bit operating system designed specifically for lower-cost computers, Windows Vista Starter enables popular beginner PC activities and provides an easy-to-use and more affordable entry point to the Windows Vista family of products.
"Windows Vista is going to be a significant release for all Windows customers — including enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses as well as consumers," said Al Gillen, research director for System Software at IDC. "Microsoft’s strategy to address different customer segments with versions of Windows Vista optimized for their needs should be well received by these diverse user segments."
All versions of Windows Vista are scheduled to be broadly available in the second half of 2006.
Posted by Mike Barton on February 27, 2006 11:23 AM
February 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
A judge stopped short on Friday of ordering an immediate shutdown of millions of BlackBerry portable e-mail devices made by Research In Motion (RIM), reports say.
But U.S. District Judge James Spencer said there was no escaping that RIM had been found to be infringing on NTP's patents and he would issue a decision on an injunction "as soon as reasonably possible."
Meanwhile, the BlackBerry brigade is reportedly not fussed with many options such as Palm's Treo.
Bloomberg reports Treo leads the BlackBerry in a customer-satisfaction survey, and its sales are closing the gap.
It said Palm sold 602,000 Treos last quarter, almost as many as Research In Motion's 645,000 BlackBerrys. In the prior quarter, there was a 150,000-unit gap.
Posted by Mike Barton on February 24, 2006 12:39 PM
February 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
JetBrains holds firm with commercial Java IDE
While it might seem like everyone is conceding the Java IDE market to the free, open source Eclipse platform, that is not the case with JetBrains.
The company has no plans to offer its IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE in an open source format and believes its product is strong enough to keep a price tag, instead of being given away.
"It's productivity," that gives IntelliJ IDEA an advantage, said Alex Tkachman, director of marketing at JetBrains.
Asked if JetBrains has any plans to offer up its IDE to open source, Tkachman answered, "Definitely not soon."
"We have to pay our bills," Tkachman said.
"We are not Sun or IBM, [able] to give stuff for free and make money on services," he said.
JetBrains on Monday will announce it has certified the JProfiler application profiler from ej-technologies as a companion product that will work with IntelliJ IDEA.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 23, 2006 03:03 PM
February 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
'WiFiber' challenges optic cables
Just as 3G cell cards begin to challenge WiFi for speed and NTT DoCoMo hit 2.5Gbps in a 4G trial, wireless networking has set its sights on fiber.
MIT Technology Review reports a wireless service from GigaBeam dubbed "WiFiber" is one-upping WiMax to rival fiber optic networks in some applications with speed of more than one gigabit per second.
Wireless networking in the gigabit per second range is an advance but fiber is still faster, as readers of the story pointed out and the Technology Review website corrected.
Gigabeam said its point-to-point wireless technology could be a strong contender where digging to lay fiber-optic trenches was too expensive or not feasible.
LightPointe and Proxim Wireless provide similar services, but GigaBeam's technology uses at terahertz frequencies to overcome limits on data transmission from poor weather.
Posted by Mike Barton on February 23, 2006 12:14 PM
February 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Munich, Germany-based MicroDoc has joined the Eclipse Foundation as an Add-in Provider member, according to a posting on the open source tools organization's Web site on Wednesday.
Specializing in object-oriented development technologies, MicroDoc will participate in the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) effort, lending expertise in custom graphics plug-in development, J2EE/mainframe integration and embedded RCP design and development.
"We are delighted to be joining the Eclipse Foundation and to be able to be able to support this strategic organization driving a unifying architectural approach for RCP deployment across both embedded and enterprise sectors," said Hendrik Hoefer, managing director at MicroDoc, in a prepared statement.
"This endorsement of Eclipse by MicroDoc will propogate Eclipse awareness and use in the wider development community,and ensure that RCP grows in importance as a solution for enterprise and embedded applications," said Eclipse Executive Director Mike Milinkovich, also in a prepared statement.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 22, 2006 12:04 PM
February 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
What is Google up to? The rumors continue...
According to my sources Google is making a move on three different fronts that when put together point to a couple of interesting possibilities.
First, according to published reports they are buying up a great deal of dark fiber around the country.
Second, if you check out their career site for job openings you'll see a lot of positions for hardware engineers.
Here's a sample:
Telecom Engineer - New York
... Working knowledge of TCP/IP and VoIP networking. Working knowledge of Copper and Fiber Cable Standards. Avaya programming a must. ...
Project Manager - Network Acquisition - Mountain View
... Skills: A strong understanding of Layer 1 through Layer 3 network services and technologies including dark fiber, DWDM, SONET/SDH, Ethernet, and IP. ...
Strategic Negotiator, Global Infrastructure - Mountain View
... Identification, selection, and negotiation of dark fiber contracts both in metropolitan areas and over long distances as part of development of a global ...
Telecom Engineer - Santa Monica
... Working knowledge of TCP/IP and VoIP networking. Working knowledge of Copper and Fiber Cable Standards. Avaya programming a must. ...
Telecom Engineer - Phoenix
... Working knowledge of TCP/IP and VoIP networking. Working knowledge of Copper and Fiber Cable Standards. Avaya programming a must. ...
Finally, according to my source they have been delivering thousands of server blades to so-called Peering Centers, aka, data centers on steroids where all the networks come together, in order to optimize their network connectivity.
Rumors abound. See iCringley and Wade Roush, at MIT.
Here's my take.
One of two possibilities.
Google is getting so big both in terms of revenue and in number of hits, and making so much money that the telecoms are getting jealous. They want to call it QoS, quality of service, and squeeze more money out of Google by charging for better performance across their networks.
The second possibility is a bit more of a stretch. In this scenario Google is planning on streaming software, on demand, to the desktops of individual consumers.
You could go to the Google site and if you need Word, or perhaps word processing, presentation software, spreadsheets, or software to schedule Little League games they will stream it to your desktop.
Whatever you want, it would be like changing channels on your television. Just click and it's there.
Your PC becomes another appliance, like the phone or the television. You still need a processor but they can stream everything including the operating system, or different operating systems as you like.
There's a company called Ardence that does this now for the enterprise.
Is this what Google is really up to? Only time will tell.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on February 17, 2006 02:30 PM
February 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft ALM component looks set for mid-March debut
The official word on the release of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server still is that it will be available in March.
But a peek at a preview of the upcoming SD West trade show in Santa Clara, Calif. appears to give us a more precise date: March 16.
According to the show guide, Microsoft executive Rick LaPLante on March 16 "will officially launch the much-anticipated Team Foundation Server, rounding out Microsoft's latest software development lifecycle solution." LaPlante, director of business development for Microsoft's Developer and .Net platform businesses, is a keynote speaker at the conference.
Team Foundation Server provides the collaboration server component to work with Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 Team System application lifecycle management (ALM) platform.
A Microsoft representative on Thursday said the company would use the show to highlight the product and that she did not have a specific release date.
Microsoft does plan to release a Visual Studio 2005 service pack in the third quarter of 2006 and one for Visual Studio 2003 in the second quarter. Visual Studio 2005 was released in November.
The company on Wednesday released a new beta of IronPython, which features the Python programming language running on .Net.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 16, 2006 04:10 PM
February 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
3G data cards will be tough competition for Wi-Fi
In an interview with a Cingular executive, Laura Johnson, senior director of Enterprise Solutions, announcing their new global, 3G tri-band data card to be launched next month, Johnson responded in the affirmative to my question if she thought Wi-Fi hotspots will decline as 3G rolls out.
I agree.
I also believe that the wireless carriers would like to see Wi-Fi disappear. It stands to reason they want a return on the
multi-million dollar investments they've made for spectrum and roll outs.
Nevertheless, Wi-Fi won't disappear completely, especially because of VoIP which will become the killer application for Wi-Fi and WiMax.
However, it is a mistake to believe that a monthly fee of $140 for a cellular data card is too high and cannot compete with Wi-Fi.
A 700Kbps data card in a notebook used by a mobile
enterprise-level sales force to download sales information in real time could be the clincher that helps close a lot of deals.
From an enterprise point of view where sales can be in the ten if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, suddenly $140 per month, $1,600 per year, per sales person seems like an awfully low price.
Wi-Fi and WiMax may become the standard way to place calls in the office and at hot spots, but, look for wide area cellular cards for accessing data to become the smart way to go.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on February 16, 2006 11:47 AM
February 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
OASIS on Wednesday announced the approval of the WS-Security 1.1 specification as an OASIS Standard.
The approval gives the specification OASIS's highest level of ratification. WS-Security is always mentioned as one of the more high-profile Web services specifications, among the many that are out there. WS-Security provides functions such as integrity and confidentiality in messages implementing higher level Web services applications, according to OASIS.
Included in version 1.1 are extra profiles for Kerberos, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), SOAP with Attachments and Rights Expression Language.
OASIS listed vendors collaborating on the specification, which reads like a Who's Who of computer vendors. The list includes: Actional, Adobe, AmberPoint, BEA Systems, BMC Software, Computer Associates, EMC, Forum Systems, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Neustar, Nokia, Oracle, Reactivity, RSA Security, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Tibco, VeriSign, and others.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 15, 2006 08:42 AM
February 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Did we pay the computing bill this month?
Will enterprises one day pay a monthly computing utility bill like they do with electricity now?
While all the elements are not yet in place, utility computing is the direction where IT shops need to go, argued author Nicholas Carr, at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Currently, companies spend lots of money on wasted computing and storage resources, said Carr, who is perhaps best known for his Harvard Business Review article, "IT Doesn't Matter." Utility computing is the answer, according to Carr.
Reflecting on the rise of the electric power plant, Carr told the story of Samuel Insull, an early-20th century industrialist who promoted the concept of large power facilities and the electric utility.
"We're still waiting for the new Insull to come along on the supply-side model and really invent the IT utility, the IT power plant of the future," Carr said.
Will enterprises yield control of their IT to a large, faceless utility? I suspect this will go on to a limited degree. But companies still will want to keep their most critical systems and prized data in-house.
So I'm willing to meet Carr halfway.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 14, 2006 01:40 PM
February 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Having already acquired Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft of late, reports are floating that Oracle has set its sights on open source application server vendor JBoss.
Representatives of both Oracle and JBoss have not responded to inquiries about this matter, which is standard procedure when no deal has been announced.
While I'm reluctant to write about rumors, this deal would be interesting if it were to occur. JBoss has been gaining a lot of steam in the Java application server arena lately while Oracle seems intent on buying up all kinds of technologies. Buying JBoss would definitely boost Oracle's presence in the application server market.
Meanwhile, rival Java application server vendor BEA Systems turned down a chance to buy JBoss for around $100 million last year, said Bill Roth, vice president of the BEA Workshop business unit, on Friday. BEA did not like the price tag or JBoss's business model, Roth said.
BEA is not sweating the possibility of Oracle buying JBoss because BEA already has been competing with Oracle in the application server market, Roth said.
Stay tuned for more on this one.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 10, 2006 04:36 PM
February 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Blogs reshaping content management tools
Blogs and editable Web pages called wikis are gaining popularity with enterprise users, introducing to these organizations a new level of content contribution and participation.
ECM (enterprise content management) apps, which over the past few years have been gathering a variety of collaboration tools under their wing, are still figuring out what to with these easy to use and highly accessible newcomers.
Unlike collaboration tools that came before, the deep and broad participation that blogs and wikis enable are forcing ECM vendors to address new security and access control challenges.
Because blogs allow corporate content to come from a wide spectrum of users, both inside and outside the organization, the personal publishing tools have created a new level of participant. It's no longer just the company's Content Editor or Senior Marketing Writer who is funneling content to the Web site, applications, and systems. Your customers, for instance, could become blog contributors, adding corporate-branded content right alongside the blog posts from the CEO.
ECM systems weren't designed to handle this democratization of information creation and sharing.
"While the majority of ECM products enable various levels of workflow and third-party integration, they are not yet good at managing the participatory nature of blogs and, particularly, wikis," said Maurene Caplan Grey, founder and principal analyst at Grey Consulting.
ECM vendors should look to partner with companies that understand how to exploit participatory media, she added.
Some of content management products and services are starting to change with the times.
Robin Hopper, CEO of SaaS content management company iUpload, sees blogs as another level of corporate content that needs to be managed with the same platform used to manage more traditional content. Although many companies are testing the blog waters with a blogging platform that is detached from the ECM system, in the long run that approach doesn't make the most sense, he said.
"We've seen a trend [of] companies needing to manage more discrete bits of information. [You] can't do that with traditional content management. Companies need a different way to mange those bits of information from another level of author. We think an integrated approach in important," he said.
iUpload recently launched its Customer Conversation System, which brings blogs and wikis into the content management fold with workflow, compliance, security, and integration functions. .
The idea is to have one platform that can harvest content from a level of participation that wasn't possible before, according to Hopper.
Furthermore, increased flexibility is needed so valuable blog content, for instance, isn't stuck in that one format.
"Blogs are an authoring metaphor. The content can be presented in different ways: a group blog, an individual blog, it could be wikified, can be edited. It doesn't even have to look like a blog. Our suite can bubble up pieces of blogs," to be used elsewhere in the organization, he said.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on February 10, 2006 01:41 PM
February 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Open source claims Borland's Java tool business
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that Borland is exiting the Java tools market, given the dominance that the Eclipse open source tools arsenal is gaining in this space.
Eclipse is offering free tools, and that's a tough price to beat. Commercial development tools vendors, including Borland itself, have begun standardizing their products around Eclipse. Borland will seek a buyer for its Java tools business. It could be a tough sell.
The company's Windows tools, including Delphi, also are being sold off. These tools should garner a lot of interest from potential buyers.
Borland instead will focus on application lifecycle management, where it must take on giants such as IBM Rational and Microsoft, a newcomer to the market.
Open source is a fact of life. Commercial software vendors must leverage it to their benefit. In Borland's case, the company simply is embarking on a different business plan, which looks like a good idea given the growing interest in managing software development processes.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 9, 2006 10:10 AM
February 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Offshoring helps, rather than hurts, Americans, a BEA official said on Tuesday.
Speaking on the topic of building a developer ecosystem, Bill Roth, vice president of the BEA Workshop business unit, said offshoring - the hiring of IT persons overseas - has helped to preserve and grow existing businesses, which benefits American workers.
"Everytime I've seen offshoring work, it has been to preserve American jobs," Roth said at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference.
Additionally, offshoring is necessary because most developers worldwide do not speak English. It is even the moral thing to do, since it assists the developing world, Roth said.
Sun Microsystems Chairman/CEO Scott McNealy flew a similar flag last month during an event at the Computer History Museum, when he protested restrictions on hiring of foreign-born workers in the United States.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 7, 2006 03:00 PM
February 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Eclipse: It's all about community
The Eclipse Foundation will defer to the developer community to determine what paths it should take with its open source tools, an Eclipse official said at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference on Monday afternoon.
Eclipse is seeking community feedback on what to include in the 3.2 version of the Eclipse platform, due in June, said Donald Smith, director of ecosystems development at Eclipse.
"The community is deciding what's cool," Smith said.
Blogging has made it really easy to participate in Eclipse, which also looks to Bugzilla to help refine its offerings. Anyone can submit a bug, he said.
"We want anybody, even competitors, to come and look and see what's going on," Smith said.
To build community, Eclipse has made a decision not to trademark the Eclipse brand. This has resulted in the Eclipse name and logo showing up in unrelated ventures in areas such as real estate and a courier service, Smith said.
Eclipse, though, is not alone in promoting community participation. The rival Netbeans.org preaches a similar message, even encouraging users to submit bug reports like Eclipse does.
"In essence, when it comes to NetBeans, you are in the driver's seat - without people using the software, there wouldn't be a reason for any of this," according to the NetBeans Web site.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 6, 2006 03:17 PM
February 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Worried about a BlackBerry blackout? Might as well laugh about it
RIM's ongoing legal tussle is again in the news, and things are looking a little brighter for BlackBerry users. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday swatted down an NTP patent that it previously awarded and that is a key piece in the litigation against RIM.
In spite of this small ray of sunshine, the threat of a BlackBerry shutdown later this month still looms and waves of fear continue to hit BlackBerry power users. Case in point, the DOJ on Wednesday filed a legal brief asking the judge to exempt government agencies from the potential shutdown of the BlackBerry service.
So as we all wait for both the patent claims and lawsuit to play out, worried BlackBerry users can enjoy a little comic relief, courtesy of The Onion. The satirical news outlet published a creative graphic showing how BlackBerry addicts might respond to a shutdown.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on February 2, 2006 02:01 PM
February 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Moving to service-based architectures certainly has its roadblocks, including convincing higher-ups of the benefits, panelists said at the Software Architecture Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday evening.
But IT persons need to partner with those responsible for the business itself.
"Architects should be partnering with the business side of things," rather than working in isolation, said Jerry Shaughnessy, senior director of architecture at Nexxus Partners.
IT shops should get started on building services, he said. Following on a famous line from the movie, "Field of Dreams," Shaughnessy stressed,"If you build it, they will come."
Shaughnessy said he has written Java interfaces and classes to spur service-oriented deployments. "Once that process gets past a tipping point, we find that the developer is eager to embrace those things, but it's hard to get over that initial hump," he said.
He cited as one benefit of SOA the ability to modify systems without breaking anything, through provision of an abstraction layer.
Dave Chappell, chief technology evangelist at Sonic Software, which makes enterprise service bus (ESB) technology, said organizations need a vision for SOA.
"There's an education and a continual reinforcement that has to occur in order to get your own folks to adopt what you’re trying to do," Chappell said.
An IT official at Uniprise Technologies, which is part of UnitedHealth Group, concurred. "Developers will start to follow if you can show that you're actually improving the environment," said Rod Jardine, director of Enterprise Application Architecture at Uniprise.
IT architects must gauge the financial benefits and performance boosts, Shaughnessy said. "We probably spend about 30 percent of our time identifying how do you prove what you're doing is more cost-efficient in the long run," Shaughnessy said.
Buzzwords are not necessarily helpful, said Shaughnessy. "We get caught in buzzwords and people don't necessarily understand what the buzzwards are," he said.
At Wells Fargo, the company uses special documents to show how the overall architecture is intended to perform. "One of the ways that we address overall change in terms of pattern and usage in our enterprise is we've developed a series of documents called living target architectures," said Jody Kerr, a systems architect at Wells Fargo.
Loose coupling is a critical feature of SOA, according to Chappell.
"The modern approach to SOA has to be based on creating loose coupling between the applications and services that you're connecting together," Chappell said.
But there are potential issues. "I think that the extreme with loose coupling is you're migrating so far away from tightly coupled RPC-style interfaces that you've built one big message-based exchange," he said.
"No matter what you do, you're never going to get it right the first time," said Chappell.
Goverance is crucial, Jardine said. "You've got to train your people to follow the governance," and have a tool to enforce it, he said.
But building an SOA takes time, Jardine stressed.
"We have thousands of services that are still point to point and it's going to get us years to get to an SOA architecture," he said. He added he did not know if his company would ever fully have an SOA.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 2, 2006 08:24 AM
February 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Mercury Interactive completes Systinet acquisition
Mercury Interactive said on Wednesday that it had completed its acquisition of SOA governance and lifecycle vendor Systinet.
The $105 million deal was announced on January 9.
"Mercury plans to leverage Systinet products to help customers mitigate the risk to business outcomes of SOA initiatives," Mercury said in a prepared statement. "Customers will be able to use Mercury and Systinet offerings to deliver predictable, consistent business results from SOA initiatives; provide the control and visibility required to ensure the reuse of business services; and optimize the quality, performance and availability of SOA applications."
Posted by Paul Krill on February 1, 2006 04:32 PM
February 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Congress lambastes high tech firms over China policies
When I wrote about human rights violations in China back in September in my column "Can Business and Ethics Coexist?" and how major high tech companies were caving in to the Chinese government anti-democratic demands I wasn't sure anyone was listening.
But I suppose that kind of bad behavior on the part of our largest technology companies has a way of bubbling up to the surface eventually.
So I was very heartened by today's news that Congress is up in arms over high tech firms like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft caving in to anti-human rights demands being placed on them in order to do business in China. It is good news for anyone interested in human rights.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on February 1, 2006 01:45 PM
February 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft official: "Put the user back into SOA."
SOA development should focus on the user, not on techies, according to a Microsoft official at the Software Architecture Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.
The user of services should be at the center of the equation, argued John deVaDoss, director of Architecture Strategy at Microsoft.
"I would say, put the user back into SOA," deVaDoss said.
"You put the user back into SOA, it changes the way we think about services," he said. Users need to be focused on at the design level, said deVaDoss.
Reflecting on computing models of the past, including batch processing, time-sharing and client-server, deVaDoss offered up a new-era model.
"I'm proposing that we're at the cusp of spawning a new model, a model that's based on users and experiences," he stressed.
SOA, he said, is about agility and leveraging new business opportunities and requirements. This needs to be recognized when building architectures, according to deVaDoss.
"Architecture is not the end goal; it is a means to an end," he said.
Posted by Paul Krill on February 1, 2006 01:44 PM
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