Latest i-technology news, articles, editorials and blog entries, including industry opinions written by the most respected experts. Subscribe to the world's most powerful i-technology newsletters.
From Application
Virtualization to Xen, a
round-up of the
virtualization themes &
topics being discussed in
NYC June 23-24, 2008 by
the world-class speaker
faculty at the 3rd
International
Virtualization Conference
& Expo being held by
SYS-CON Events in The
Roosevelt Hotel, in
midtown
'RIA' is slowly fading in
terms of its definition.
When I first started the
RIA Evangelism role in
Microsoft, I had this
nagging feeling that the
term RIA was just all
over the place. Depending
on which technology you
are backing and which
stream of alliance you
uphold, the truth is th
The ever-increasing
movement towards
implementing complex
SOA-based applications
has triggered a direct
attention of leading
industry researchers and
practitioners to the
subject of layering in
such applications, in
general, and the
relationship between the
fields of database
engineeri
While the next-generation
data center has begun to
take shape, the promise
of true dynamic computing
has so far eluded today's
resource, bandwidth and
power constrained
enterprises. Now however,
key advancements in
network and processor
technologies are
converging to lift the
remaining
This is the story of a
Mac application developer
(okay - it's about two of
them) who set out on a
quest to find an
application development
tool based on Java so his
boss would let him
develop on the Mac
platform, which he loved.
There was only one catch
- he had to find a tool
that was
As virtualization
platform vendors
strengthen and expand the
feature sets of their
respective offerings, it
is almost a certainty
that the data center in
the future will include a
heterogeneous mix of
virtualization platforms
as well as physical
platforms. For
organizations that are mo
Back in the 90s I was on
a big project to
standardize enterprise
software. We wrote a few
papers about it, and a
chapter in a book. We
often used the 'Henry
Ford' analogy, which
relates to the impact
standards for
interchangeable parts had
on hard goods
manufacturing. The Henry
Ford an
In this wide-ranging
interview with
SYS-CON.com David
Linthicum, CEO of
StrikeIron, addresses the
hot new Data Services
trend and the
all-important notion of
enterprise mashups, which
he pinpoints as the
defining technology of
the year ahead. 'I'm
surprised people are
paying me for thi
Virtualization is quickly
becoming a staple
technology for enterprise
IT. The theme of this
November's 4th
International
Virtualization Conference
& Expo is 'The Next
Generation of
Virtualization.' The Call
for Papers, which is now
open, welcomes
submissions from
exceptional speakers w
It seems as though
whenever I bring up PNRP
and its benefits, I am
immediately inundated
with a list of questions
or comments indicating
that Microsoft is
re-inventing the wheel
and that PNRP has already
been implemented before
in the form of ZeroConf
and, more specifically,
Apple's im
Once upon a time data
modeling played a central
role in the process of
developing applications.
Thus far in the SOA era,
there has been a heavy
emphasis on process, and
data has all-too-often
been lost in the SOA
shuffle. In this talk, we
present a data model for
SOA - i.e., a service-
The last 10 years has
seen a remarkable
evolution in
virtualization. First
generation virtualization
centered on Development &
Testing and was largely
confined to desktop
computers and test
servers. Second
generation technology
focused on Server
Consolidation to lower
hardware costs an
The Microsoft Distributed
File System (DFS) has
provided virtualization
at the file share level
for years but with file
virtualization solutions
entering the data center,
the managed target
shrinks from a share that
may contain thousands of
files, to a single file.
We discuss DFS and i
Both Reuters and the Wall
Street Journal are
reporting that Carl Icahn
- the greatest
stockholder activist of
our generation - is going
to pull the pin to try to
force Yahoo into
negotiating a deal with
Microsoft. It's unclear
whether Yahoo's two
biggest shareholders
Capital Research &
DreamFace DataWidgets
have gotten a lot of
press lately, but what
are Woodgets? DreamFace
Interactive CEO, Olivier
Poupeney gets specific
about woodgets while
presenting key
differentiators of
DreamFace's Web 2.0 Open
Source Framework in his
interview with Jeremy
Geelan for SYS-CON.TV
Data center architects
naturally seek to employ
server virtualization to
maximize the use of their
hardware systems. An
often overlooked factor
that can undermine this
goal is data
connectivity. 75 to 95
percent of the response
time now associated with
database access can often
be attr
Depending on your
perspective, SOA and
virtualization are either
synergistic or threaten
increased complexity.
This session will explain
how implementing the
right network
architecture can make the
most of both, promoting
agility and reducing
complexity. 'Service
virtualization' takes
As data growth rates
continue to climb and
business requirements
further evolve, customers
are feeling the pressure
to realign their storage
infrastructure to better
meet the needs of their
business. Mr. Yoshida
will discuss how storage
virtualization is the key
enabler towards the sto
Does virtualization
matter? Can virtual
desktops go beyond the
sum of the virtual parts?
What is the business
value and at what price?
As server virtualization
continues to gain deeper
traction and provide
benefits beyond server
consolidation, desktop
virtualization is widely
expected
I am curious about
something - how many
organizations are using a
single physical host with
VMs across different
security zones? See, this
is something that I would
never recommend, and to
me it seems like
physically segregating
your security zones into
different virtualization
environ
Service orientation is
one of the most popular
trends of these recent
years, but there are not
any metrics on it. Hence
you can not consume SOA
in a project with a
specific measuring. On
the other side, Unified
Process (especially RUP)
has powerful abilities on
such developments. In ou
Corporate raider Carl
Icahn started his proxy
fight for control of
Yahoo this morning,
beginning with the
classic Icahn opening,
the letter of reproach to
the Yahoo board telling
them they have acted
'irrationally and lost
the faith of shareholders
and Microsoft.'
Even though 'Service'
comes first in SCA
(Service Component
Architecture), SCA is a
distributed component
model. It's about
designing components (and
composites) rather than
designing services. It
doesn't feel like it was
designed to build a SOA.
It feels like its main
goal was to defi
Brocade announced a
series of data center
fabric switches and
server HBAs that deliver
a new level of end-to-end
data center networking
performance. In addition,
the Company announced
advanced networking
capabilities across both
switches and HBAs that
simplifies the end-to-end
manageme
It seems that Service
Oriented Architecture
(SOA) continues to be
this year's hot buzzword,
rather than a
well-defined, meaningful
and valuable part of the
Enterprise Architecture
landscape. Before the
term fades away
completely, perhaps we
should agree what's
valuable about the move t
What is BPEL? What is
XPDL? How are they
different? What is the
best use for each? What
is BPMN, and why should I
care? Which of these are
primarily designed to
help IT at a technical
level, and which help an
organization at a
business level? Amongst
the flurry of BPM and Web
services
ColumbiaSoft announced
that it has developed a
new package for its
Document Locator software
that makes it easy to
deploy document
management services
across application
virtualization networks
such as those offered by
Citrix Systems.
Application
virtualization networks
allow IT depart
Boston Interactive
announced the launch of
the redesigned website
for Virtual Iron
Software. Virtual Iron
provides comprehensive
software solutions for
server virtualization and
virtual infrastructure.
Based in Lowell,
Massachusetts, the
company competes in the
fast-growing server virt
Satori Group announced an
expanded partnership with
Citrix Systems. The
broader agreement will
supply a virtual
appliance of the Business
Performance Management
solution offered by
Satori. The newly
expanded partnership
includes streamlining
application delivery to
provide customers wi
Late Thursday Yahoo
released the text of the
letter it sent to Carl
Icahn telling him he's
misguided and that the
current Yahoo board knows
better what good for the
company. It repeats what
Yahoo has said before -
that it is willing to
sell for the right price,
which lately has been $3
This session will
investigate what is
happening out there in
the world of Mobility
that uses Services, some
are calling this MOA
(Mobile Oriented
Architecture). We will
also discuss
architectures,
application design &
considerations for
mobility
Adoption of federated
identity technology has
been slower than the hype
might indicate, despite
the maturity of standards
such as SAML 2.0 and Web
Services Security. This
presentation examines the
distinct business and
technical identity
management issues in both
the commercial and use
Many organizations make
the faulty assumption
that SOA is a panacea
that can, and should be,
applied to every
situation. The reality is
that service orientation
is not the right answer
for every scenario. The
expense of service
orientation cannot always
be recouped and, in some
cases,
The need for a way to
more effectively manage
and reduce the complexity
of end points has never
been greater. While
virtualization
technologies offer a
breakthrough approach to
reduce the complexities
of managing end points,
there are different ways
organizations are
leveraging this te
Payless Car Rental has
launched an iPhone and
iPod Touch optimized
website. Payless Car
Rental is a car rental
agency that built a
customized version of its
website for the iPhone
and iPod Touch. The
homepage of Payless'
iPhone interface also
features a 'Call to Book'
button that, when
One aspect of the debate
over software
productivity and assembly
is whether or not visual
tools can help. I think
that they do - visual
abstractions can be very
meaningful - but I do not
know of any visual system
that actually solves the
complete problem (i.e
none have solved the
custo
AMD has kissed Mario
Rivas good-bye and turned
processor development
over to Randy Allan, the
head of its star-crossed
server and workstation
business, reporting to
president and COO Dirk
Meyer. Allan is now the
new head of AMD's
Computing Solutions
Group, responsible for
the bulk of t
Virtualization is the
future of IT management,
but what exactly does
that mean to your
organization? CIOs around
the world recognize that
virtualization could be
the answer to combating
skyrocketing costs
associated with managing
their IT infrastructure;
however, many are still
left wo
Open source has made
significant inroads into
middleware deployments in
the enterprise. More and
more, open source is
being used to deliver the
benefits of SOA and open
source to the enterprise.
There are many custom
Enterprise Service Bus
deployments waiting to be
upgraded to a simple
Businesses that
virtualize can increase
efficiency and reduce
costs by eliminating low-
performance/low-efficienc
y servers. Less
well-known, but equally
important, is the
parallel advantage of
streamlining the legacy
power and cooling systems
that support virtualized
environments. This