Latest News from XML Journal

HP Claims to Have the Only Purpose-Built Big Data Servers

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:00:00 EST

HP Thursday put out an x86 server it claims is purpose-built for Big Data. It says existing architectures aren’t designed to handle the specific needs of Big Data workloads such as Hadoop, MPP data warehouses, Big Data analytics and object stores, and that early deployments have returned suboptimal results in terms of performance and cost. It claims its new wonder will save the user up to $1 million over three years. As the kind of ultra-dense solution required by these workloads, the new HP ProLiant SL4500 server series is supposed to provide maximum performance, productivity and cost-effectiveness. It’s said to consume up to 50% less space and 61% less power for 31% less money while using 63% fewer cables.

Liquid XML Studio 2012 Provides Better Support for C#

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:02:09 EDT

Following from the launch of Service Pack 1 (SP1), Liquid Technologies Ltd, a private software supplier, based in the UK, have announced that Liquid XML Studio 2012, their flagship xml software, right now features better XML C# code generation functionality. The most up-to-date 2012 version containing SP1, has considerable C code generation upgrades plus general performance and stability enhancements. A few of these new C# capabilities include Liquid Runtime support for Linux gcc 4.3.3 32bit C# as well as Linux gcc 4.3.3 64bit C# - and plenty of some other new features and also advancements. The produced C# code is basically platform independent and may also be used on Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, Mac, embedded computers along with more lesser known systems.

Liquid XML 2012 Service Pack 1 Launched

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:17:48 EDT

Right after the successful release of Liquid XML Studio 2012, a sophisticated xml editor and all-inclusive XML toolkit and IDE, Liquid Technologies are delighted to declare the launch of Service Pack 1, containing a host of extra features along with general functionality and stability improvements. Some of the Liquid XML Studio 2012 latest features include a completely new xml datamapper, Silverlight 5 code generation and Liquid runtime, improved WSDL 2.0 validation, an even better Large File Editor, Liquid Runtime support for Linux gcc 4.3.3 32bit C - and a lot of other new features and enhancements.

Resara Launches OfficeBox Appliances

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:18:00 EST

NAS devices offer an affordable compromise to investing in more expensive server solutions for small businesses. "Every small business with a network needs a server to share and secure data. NAS devices are an easy solution, but they don't provide the powerful features that would make them an ideal replacement to a server," says Warren Luebkeman, CEO of Resara LLC. "We wanted to develop a solution that would bridge the gap between NAS products and small business servers. A simple appliance that shares data, and also has advanced features like a domain controller for network management." Earlier this year, Resara LLC launched its line of OfficeBox server appliances, which offer the simplicity of a NAS solution, but pack the powerful features of a traditional small business server. "With this product, a business can configure a network with an Active Directory compatible domain controller, add users, setup DNS and DHCP, and create file shares and drive maps in just a few minutes," says Mr. Luebkeman, "There is nothing else like it on the market."

Computer Inventory Software

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:35:00 EST

Sooner or later, every organization faces with necessity of creating computer inventory reports on hardware and software installed. Creating dozens of reports manually is very time consuming and requires a lot of patience. Imagine a network with hundreds of computers and other network devices. The manual computer inventory procedure would take a few weeks or even longer. In this case, the dedicated network computer inventory software for automatic data gathering and creating reports has a lot of advantages over the standard manual inventory process.

The Specific ElementFormDefault Schema Attribute

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:15:00 EDT

Here is my 'five-minute XML' series where by I give you scheduled byte size guides. Today's issue is good for those people that happen to be starting out with XML. In "XML Schema - Overview" (5 Minute XML #7), I reported the need for a schema definition language. I defined principle syntax for the purpose of indicating the namespace from the schema document and W3C URI (for referencing components and attributes not defined from the targetNamespace). In conclusion I referred to the following schema attribute: . Here, I am hoping to explain precisely why and how this attribute is used and additionally precisely what influences it brings to bear.

Building Next-Generation Tech Leaders

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:55:00 EDT

In the software development services industry -- people are the software company's #1 asset. With pressure to deliver faster with fewer resources, increasingly distributed teams, and savvy customers -- software companies need to find ways to build capable leaders within their organizations. But how are next-generation tech leaders built? I spoke to Mike Lim, VP for Engineering at Exist, who by the way is currently enrolled at the prestigious Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA program, about this and here's my non-verbatim summary of our short exchange.

Troubleshooting Response Time Problems

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:12:00 EDT

Production Monitoring is about ensuring the stability and health of our system, that also includes the application. A lot of times we encounter production systems that concentrate on System Monitoring, under the assumption that a stable system leads to stable and healthy applications. So let’s see what System Monitoring can tell us about our Application. Let’s take a very simple two tier Web Application:

Another Mainframe ISV Has Trouble with IBM

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:36:00 EST

Data Base solutions AG (DBS) in Switzerland calculates that European mainframe sites pay IBM 500 million euros – that’s $650 million – more than they have to every year because of a gimmick that has ironically been dubbed IBM’s “generosity factor.” That, it figures, is two euros or $2.70 out of the pocket of every man, woman and child in the European Union since consumers ultimately wind up paying the price of IBM’s generosity. DBS came to make the calculation in case it decides to complain to the European Commission about IBM. The EC opened a monopoly maintenance investigation of IBM last summer on complaints from other ISVs. The Justice Department is also conducting a similar probe.

Hitachi Consulting Acquires Sierra Atlantic

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:21:00 EST

Hitachi Consulting, a recognized leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions, announced today it has acquired Sierra Atlantic, a leader in offshore enterprise applications and outsourced product development. The acquisition will significantly expand Hitachi Consulting's footprint with the addition of offshore Global Development Centres in Hyderabad, India, and Guangzhou, China, along with a best-in-class global delivery model. It will also bring expanded capabilities to Hitachi Consulting's Oracle business. Founded in 1993, Sierra Atlantic is a leader in offshore IT outsourcing with approximately 2400 employees worldwide. The company's headquarters is located in Newark, California, and it maintains operations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. With approximately 200 customers across the Fortune 1000 and Small Medium Enterprise (SME) segments, Sierra Atlantic specialises in providing a full portfolio of enterprise application implementation and management services to customers - using Oracle, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Microsoft and Agile - in the discrete and process manufacturing, life sciences, financial services and retail industries. It also provides software development, testing and support services to world-class software companies.

[Update] Supreme Court to Hear Microsoft’s i4i Appeal

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:45:00 EST

The United States Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear Microsoft’s long-shot appeal of the i4i decision that dunned Microsoft $290 million for willfully infringing the little Canadian company’s custom XML patent and forced Microsoft to change Word under threat of injunction. “A decision by the court to take the case could lead to a historic realignment in the patent litigation arena,” Corporate Counsel Online wrote back at the end of September. Microsoft is asking the Supremes to change the newfangled “clear and convincing” standard of evidence for proving a patent invalid in favor of what is called a “preponderance of the evidence,” which is supposed to make it easier to get a patent declared invalid. “Preponderance of the evidence” is the standard a patent holder uses to prove infringement.

Third Galleon Culprit Draws Jail Time

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST

Former IBM server chief Robert Moffat must have just passed his first week in prison since his six-month sentence for whispering the wrong sweet nothings in the wrong ear was due to start November 5. Former Atheros Communications VP Ali Hariri, another one of the extended Galleon hedge fund gang caught trading on insider information, was sentenced to 18 month in the slammer Monday. He’s the third of the lot to draw jail time after Moffat and New Castle Fund chief Mark Kirland, who drew 27 months. Hariri, who admitted divulging market-moving information on Atheros’ financials, was also fined $50,000.

China Outsourcing Offers Cheaper Alternative to India

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:57:00 EST

For the last ten to twenty years, outsourcing to India has long dominated the outsourcing landscape. But that appears to be changing with recent emerging players raising their heads to take advantage of the outsourcing game. Although there are some good options for outsourcing to Latin America, Eastern Europe and Russia, Mexico and other Asian counterparts like Vietnam and the Philippines, China is touted take the lead in the next few years as the leading outsourcing country. Despite worries that the Philippines might become the biggest business process outsourcer in a decade or so, China is closing in on the gap within the industry. The clear advantage that China brings to the table is the six billion people or more that populate the mainland. With more and more engineers graduating from Chinese universities, there is scope for more work to come their way.

SmartBear Launches Software Development Management Tool, DevComplete

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 11:09:36 EST

SmartBear Software (SmartBear) today released DevComplete. A complete project management, requirements management, and defect tracking tool, DevComplete is squarely focused on helping development teams organize, manage, and track project tasks and their artifacts throughout an Agile or Waterfall software development lifecycle. At a high level, DevComplete increases a team’s visibility, tracks project progress, burn downs, slipping tasks, and variances through an array of sophisticated reports and dashboards. DevComplete gives project managers a tool to create project plans and decompose requirements into project tasks and deliverables. Teams can easily track daily project status, organize and track requirements, and link any defects discovered back to the original requirement and project task providing end-to-end traceability.

Intel to Spend Bundle on U.S. Plants

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:00:00 EDT

Waving the American flag, Intel said it’s going to spend $6 billion–$8 billion upgrading four manufacturing plants in Arizona and Oregon equipping them for state-of-the-art 22nm chip production – which starts late next year with Ivy Bridge – and building a new fab called D1X in Oregon scheduled for R&D start-up in 2013. It’s building that plant in the states although it complains that it can cost a billion dollars more to build it here rather than overseas because of the lack of tax credits and incentives, not labor costs. Intel wants that fixed.

Replacing the ACE - The Cisco ACE XML Gateway Replacement Program

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:22:00 EDT

Cisco recently announced the end-of-life for the Cisco ACE XML Gateway. Customers using this product now have to replace it with another XML Gateway, and Vordel has stepped into the breach with the Cisco ACE Gateway replacement program. Artifacts used by the Cisco ACE Gateway (WSDLs, Schemas, certificates, etc) can be imported into the Vordel Gateway, so that customers get up and running quickly with their replacement gateway. In addition, customers can take advantage of Web Service usage reporting which was not provided with the Cisco ACE Gateway.

Ex-CA Sales Chief Draws ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:00:00 EDT

Three-and-a-half years after being sent up the river, CA’s former sales chief Stephen Richards, 45, is going to get sprung early. His seven-year sentence for his part in inflating CA’s revenues by backdating sales contracts in the company’s multibillion-dollar security fraud has been reduced to time served. A U.S. appeals court decided that the sentencing judge didn’t give Richards enough claim for accepting responsibility for what happened. The New Zealander, whose lawyers only asked for a two-year reduction in his sentence, was supposed to be deported once he did his time and that still stands. He’s supposed to rejoin his family in Australia, presuming Australia will have him. His old boss, former CEO Sanjay Kumar, on the other hand, is condemned to serve out his full 12-year sentence unless another appeal attempt succeeds, having failed to accept responsibility.

Dayton Parts Simplifies Data Distribution with Automated File Transfer

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:05:00 EDT

The customized prices lists that Dayton Parts was creating and emailing to their customers was time-consuming and costly. With GoAnywhere Director they were able to use XML to translate IBM DB2 data to Excel and then email those attachments without user interaction. It now takes a minute for an operator to start the full process or create an ad-hoc run for just a few customers. Dayton Parts is extremely happy with GoAnywhere Director, the support staff at Linoma Software and the ROI was almost immediate.

Enterprise Software Good for $232b: Gartner

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EDT

After being down 2.9% last year Gartner says worldwide enterprise software revenue is meeting its expectation of topping $232 billion this year, up 4.5%, pushed by aging systems and the demand for security. Next year the number should be $246.6 billion, reaching $297 billion by 2014, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6%, but not across the board. Some places will see more growth than others. Western Europe 2.7%, Asia Pacific 11.5%. Spending in North America, front-end loaded to the first half, should be good for $110.8 billion this year, up 8.5%, hitting better than $143.6 billion in ’14. Despite the second-half softening, Gartner still expects key markets like virtualization, operating systems and security to finish the year with double-digit growth.

Mark Hurd and Steve Mills

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:45:00 EDT

I was 25-26 years old when I worked at IBM. Steve was not much older. IBM, like many companies, plots a career path for every new employee it hires. It moves them from job to job grooming them from their first day on the job until their retirement. Whenever I took an elevator with Mills, people would whisper behind his back that he would one day be CEO of IBM. That was the rumor that followed Mills everywhere he went. Well, we heard the same rumor about Mike Armstrong, another big IBM name at 44 South Broadway. Armstrong was Steve's boss then but that next job didn't come through for him after successfully running IBM Europe. So he left and became the CEO of AT&T for a while, but that's a different story.

Will Skype IPO be the Biggest IPO Since Google?

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:18:00 EDT

Skype, now 70% controlled by private equity house Silver Lake which valued the joint at $2.7 billion when it bought in, wants to go public and raise $100 million. The Internet phone service has 8.1 million customers who pay to make calls to conventional or mobile phones, up from 6.6 million 12 months ago. Otherwise 124 users a month avail themselves of its free service.

Swiss Post Tries Skirting RPost Patents

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:30:00 EDT

The government-owned Swiss Post, forced out of the American registered e-mail market when RPost sued it for patent and trademark infringement, says it’s going to try to re-architect its IncaMail service so it doesn’t step on RPost’s toes anymore. Basically it’s the only way the post can salvage its European IncaMail business because RPost has European patents that it hasn’t played yet. Swiss Post is hoping to have the remade IncaMail 3.0 ready this fall. In the meantime, it continues to talk to RPost about the European market but it’s unclear if they’ll come to an amicable settlement. RPost could sue for infringement in Europe based merely on the fact that Swiss Post continues to service existing IncaMail customers like the Federal Court of Switzerland although it has ceased to sign new customers anywhere.

Xiotech ISE Analyzer

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:24:00 EDT

In April 2010 Xiotech launched our CorteX (RESTful) architecture and one of the first things we rolled out to show the power of RESTful was our iPhone/iPad monitoring app. It was a great success and really spoke to the power of a simple, easy to write to, open architecture. We then took it to [...]

Intel Antitrust Settlement Waits on FTC Commissioners

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EDT

Intel has come to a preliminary antitrust settlement with the Federal Trade Commission’s lawyers. It arrived there a few days ahead of a July 22 deadline, but there’s no deal until it’s approved by the agency’s five commissioners and apparently it didn’t look like they were going to say yea or nay by the 22nd so Intel has gotten a deadline extension until August 1. The deadline puts the FTC’s litigation against the company on hold. Anyway, the deal would reportedly regulate the giant’s use of discounts on both processors and graphics chips, but what that means exactly nobody is saying.

Neon to Complain About IBM to the EC

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:00:00 EDT

The European Commission may not know it yet but another formal complaint about IBM and its mainframe monopoly is about to land with a resounding thud on its desk. Neon Enterprise Software LLC, the Texas company with the IBM-outlawed widgetry to slash the notoriously crippling mainframe licensing fees that IBM charges, said Thursday that it’s going to complain to the EC about IBM’s “on-going anticompetitive and abusive conduct.” The company’s already lodged a private antitrust suit against IBM in Texas but it won’t come to trial until March of 2012. The suit also accuses IBM of disparaging Neon and its zPrime product and unlawfully interfering with and threatening customers purchasing zPrime.

Intel’s Negotiating a Consent Decree with the FTC

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Intel is doing whatever it must to head off what it has called a “misguided,” poorly investigated monopoly maintenance trial by the Federal Trade Commission. The only thing we don’t know yet is whatever it is but Intel said late Monday that the pair had filed a joint standstill motion to suspend the proceedings set for September while they “consider potential settlement of the case” that the FTC filed in December charging Intel with messing with the chip sales of AMD and Nvidia. Settlements talks were already well advanced in December when the FTC got a burr under its saddle about Intel’s treatment of Nvidia and wanted to impose two dozen remedies on Intel including pricing controls that Intel called “unprecedented.”

RainStor Revs Its ‘Big Data’ Mojo

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:15:00 EDT

RainStor, the British infrastructure software company born Clearpace before it moved to the US late last year, has gotten itself a $7.5 million B round from Informatica and Storm Ventures to go along with its new headquarters. It’s also got what it thinks is a game-changing update of its “Big Data” mojo, stuff it reckons is a new class of data repository providing cost-efficient historical data retention and on-demand retrieval for massive amounts of structured data in the cloud as well as on-site. It claims modern data warehouses aren’t built for online queries and long-term retention of large data volumes that must remain immutable – in some places for more than a decade for ongoing analysis and fraud detection – because they can’t compress the data enough or suck it up fast enough. It claims it can and in the process reduce the cost of owning massive quantities of historical data by an order of magnitude compared to traditional databases.

Secure File Transfer Saves Taxpayer Dollars in the State of Maryland

Sat, 29 May 2010 16:38:00 EDT

The Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation for the state of Maryland needed a better way to complete their data transfer and XML translation tasks on the IBM i. GoAnywhere Director met all their requirements and continues to overcome every challenge as Federal and State Laws and requirements change. The main challenge for DLLR was transferring sensitive data in a secure and reliable fashion. In addition, each DLLR “trading partner” required different file formats such as fixed width, Excel, CSV or the increasingly popular XML format.

More SAML: Validating a SAML 2.0 Assertion

Fri, 21 May 2010 11:25:00 EDT

It's simple to setup the validation of a signed SAML 2.0 assertion in a Vordel XML Gateway. In a circuit, chain together (1) an "XML Signature Verification" filter (which you can find in the

NComputing Fields $200 ‘Thin Client’

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:45:00 EDT

NComputing, the share-a-PC outfit, launched what it calls a full-fledged $200 Windows PC for the enterprise Monday. The L300 multimedia thin client, the latest in a series of models, is a little box that connects to a standard Windows computer and uses that PC as a server so a bunch of users can share it through NComputing’s distributed computing software. The box, in turn, is connected to a keyboard, mouse and monitor. The Ethernet-based widget shares the excess power of standard PCs just like old terminals shared a slice of the computing power of a mainframe way back when. NComputing says that with the L300 as many as eight clients can share a $700 PC and each one of those clients can simultaneously run a 1080p high-definition video.

XML Translation Results in Improved Revenues for PVP

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:55:00 EDT

Although a good problem to have - business growth at Professional Veterinary Products (PVP) presented new challenges, especially in a dynamic supply-chain environment that requires secure and fast data exchange with thousands of suppliers and clients. New requests for different data formats and ad-hoc reports were dramatically increasing from their trading partners, requiring PVP to either hire more development resources or find a commercial off-the-shelf solution.

PCs Up 27% in Q1, Saith Gartner

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EDT

Worldwide PC shipments were up 27.4% year-over-year in Q1 to 84.3 million units, Gartner says, exceeding its 22% forecast. IDC puts the surge at 24% based on 79.1 million units. Either way it explains Intel’s sterling financial results Tuesday. Gartner gives a lot of the credit to EMEA, up 24.8% to 27.1 million units, the biggest first-quarter volume on record, heavy on mobile consumer market demand. The researcher said, “All other regions recorded double-digit growth rates, although the U.S. and Latin America were slightly lower than what we had expected.” Gartner backs Intel’s testimony that the corporate PC market is gradually picking up, driven by PC replacements in mature markets and like Intel crossing its fingers expects major replacement demand driven by Windows 7 in the second half of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, provided the sky doesn’t fall again. In EMEA, it notes business demand is coming from small businesses rather than large, but “the pipeline is positive with large tenders for major hardware refreshes coinciding with Windows 7 deployments.”

Cloud Expo Announces CloudStorm @CloudExpo To Be Held April 19, 2010

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EDT

The latest Special Event to be announced in conjunction with next month's Cloud Expo in New York, of the several that are being held in conjunction with the main Conference & Expo, is CloudStorm - an event that is well known in Europe but has not yet held an event across the Atlantic. The idea with CloudStorm, as the name suggests, is that participants receive in just 100 minutes a whirlwind update of the latest trends and products in Cloud Computing, based on "lightning talks" of just five minutes for each vendor. It is being held on April 19, 2010, the morning before Cloud Expo proper opens its doors. "CloudStorm is an event where the real products are shown," says Arvid Fossen, the Belgian behind CloudStorm. "To make it interesting for everybody, our two-hour April 19 event event will feature only one vendor in each cloud type solution. This ensures a much broader view and allows you to select the technology solution that best suits your needs!" It has so far enjoyed three successful editions in London, Paris and Brussels, Fossen notes. But CloudStorm @ Cloud Expo marks its debut outside of Europe.

Berners-Lee Gets New Institute

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:15:00 EDT

No sooner did W3C hire itself a new CEO to run day-to-day operations than Tim Berners-Lee, who is still supposed to be director of W3C, turns up running a new research center that the British government is putting around $45 million (£30 million) into called the Institute for Web Science. It’s supposed to develop, maybe even commercialize, Berners-Lee’s quixotic next-generation notions of a Semantic Web and put the UK on the cutting edge of emerging Internet technologies, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who also wants every home in the UK to have super-fast broadband by 2020. The institute will be jointly based at the Universities of Oxford and Southampton, the latter a hot bed of Semantic Web research where Berners-Lee has had a part-time post since 2004.

Architectural Consideration for Building Cloud Applications

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:30:00 EDT

Though it is generally believed that biggest challenge of architecting a cloud application is security and reliability, there is another major dimension which is generally overlooked which is cost optimization. Traditionally, actual cost of deployment has never directly been considered as a parameter of architectural trade-off. What is driving a CIO to take a serious look as cloud computing is primarily the promise of cost reduction. Pay for what you use implies don’t pay for unutilized resources and if you consume less resource you pay less. So, for any cloud application, there will always be an incentive to build and optimize applications to consume lesser resources. Not only is there a paucity of available benchmarks and guidelines, but also the cloud scenario itself is constantly changing. To top that, major cloud platforms differ from each other and the right approach for one may be ineffective and even wrong for another. The best practices will evolve over a period of time but in the mean time, what does an architect do?

Microsoft Loses Second i4i Appeal

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EST

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Wednesday dashed Microsoft’s hopes of overturning the Texas decision ordering it to pay the tiny Canadian company i4i $290 million for infringing its custom XML editor patent. The court also upheld the injunction that the district court had slapped on Word 2003 and 2007. The appeals court however may give Microsoft an en banc hearing on the pricey charge of willful infringement – as it is now the willfulness charge stands. The court said, “A reasonable jury could have concluded that Microsoft ‘willfully’ infringed the ‘449 patent based on the evidence presented at trial….Similarly, there is no evidence that Microsoft made a good faith effort to avoid infringement; internal e-mails show that Microsoft intended to render i4i’s product ‘obsolete’ and assure ‘there won’t be a need for [i4i’s] product.’”

The Value of Cloud Computing to Enterprises

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:45:00 EST

A panel of industry analysts, practitioners, and HP experts outlined the value proposition of moving to the cloud, the danger of inaction, and how companies can get started on their cloud journey. One of the biggest questions facing companies today is what to make of cloud computing. Does it signal a major shift in how we approach IT -- and the business -- or is it just another ride on the hype wave that will disappear if we just wait it out? HP tackled this question this month with a series of virtual conferences, "Cloud: Practical Advice for Taking the Next Steps," whose aim was to cut through the fog and to try and point business leaders and IT executives in the value-oriented direction. A panel of industry analysts, practitioners, and HP experts outlined the value proposition of moving to the cloud, the danger of inaction, and how companies can get started on their cloud journey. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

A Golden Key To The Cloud - For You!

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:00:00 EST

The coming years will be both exciting and challenging as we collectively migrate to integrated enterprise cloud computing. Speaking of enterprises, I owe all of you an article on preparing your enterprise for the cloud. I continue to work on it, but it's not quite ready yet. This week, I have the pleasure of meeting with a world class, cloud computing leader, and I hope to glean some insights that will help shed light on the future of your enterprise. In the meantime, to show my appreciation for your loyal readership, I am including a Special Offer for you. The key to the cloud is - knowledge - so to help you acquire that knowledge, I am extending a special invitation to attend the 5th International Cloud Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center (April 19-21, 2010).

Injecting Intelligence into PDFs with XMP (Part 2)

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:51:21 EST

In a previous article, we reviewed the benefits and uses of PDF metadata. Specifically, we looked at the emergence of XMP metadata as a potential standardization for metadata frameworks and at how it can help PDF developers store, exchange, track, and retrieve information. In this article we will explore the injection of custom XMP metadata tags into existing PDF/A documents.

Scriptable Command-Line Testing of Web Services

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:22:00 EST

Did you know that with the free SOAPbox tool and with Vordel's XML Gateway you get a command-line tool which will send traffic to a Web Service and simulate load? Check it out yourself. The tool is called "SR" (Service Request)). With its parameter options it allows you to perform a load test, to send an attachment, and to perform SSL. After it runs its test, it presents you with statistics about the response times from the Web Service. It's a good part of any SOA or Cloud API practitioner's tool-belt.

Sun Microsystems to Present at World's Largest Cloud Event

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:15:00 EST

What are the essential concerns, best practices and techniques to help better maximize the security posture of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) deployments? In his session at the 5th International Cloud Expo, Glenn Brunette, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Security Architect at Sun Microsystems, will discuss the specific architectural models, configuration ideas, and deployment techniques that will help reinforce your services from attack. Glenn Brunette is a Distinguished Engineer and Chief Security Architect at Sun Microsystems. For over 15 years, Glenn has delivered security architectures and solutions for a wide range of global customers and industries. Currently, as a member of Sun's Chief Architect's Office, Glenn leads Sun's security initiatives for Cloud Computing. Glenn develops architectures, patterns, best practices, and tools enabling improved security for Cloud Computing and other highly-scalable, dynamic environments.

CloudShare to Exhibit at Cloud Expo April 19-21 New York City

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that CloudShare, a provider of cloud-based SaaS, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 5th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on April 19-21, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. Cloud Expo is the world's leading Cloud-focused event since 2007, and is held five times a year, in New York City, Silicon Valley, Prague, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Going beyond basic webinar or "virtual lab" offerings, CloudShare's solutions enables users' extended interaction in dedicated "hands on" production-grade replicas of their existing IT, delivered as cloud-based SaaS - while centrally monitoring and managing it all. VMware, Cisco, SAP and others have adopted CloudShare as their vendor of choice to extend access to their virtual infrastructure from the Enterprise to the Cloud.

Eating Our Own Dog Food: dynaTrace Does Continuous APM

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:00:00 EST

Obviously dynaTrace takes performance very seriously as we preach to our clients that Continuous Application Performance Management is critical across the Application Lifecycle. The earlier in the Lifecycle you manage and get your performance under control the less you have to worry about actual problems later on when you ship your product. In the discussion I had with dynaTrace Test Automation Lead Stefan Frandl, he talked about how dynaTrace transitioned from traditional performance management to where we are now – which means: “eat our own dog food” and “live the dynaTrace Continuous APM message”.

Windows 7 Migration Is Here

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:30:00 EST

By all accounts, 2010-2011 is going to be the time when organizations migrate off of Windows XP and onto Windows 7. But how to migrate thousands of users spread all over the globe? Desktop virtualization provides capabilities that can simplify this process. The migration to the new operating system was a challenge. We had a mass of people going to each user's desktop to copy their data and rebuild the operating system.

Three XML Gateway Myths

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:15:00 EST

There are some common XML Gateway myths that this post would like to dispel. These myths are a manifestation of vendors overwhelming the customers with the latest bells and whistles of their product without explaining to the user fundamental basic

What Does 2010 Hold for Desktop Virtualization?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

At the end of last year I made some predictions for how I think desktop virtualization will develop in 2010. People who have listened to Brian Madden TV's prediction show will have heard references to some of them and I think the time is right to share the whole list with our broader readership. I am interested in your thoughts too, feel free to comment whether you agree or disagree.

Science Discovery: The Next Computing Landscape

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:45:00 EST

Computational science is the field of study concerned with constructing mathematical models and numerical techniques that represent scientific, social scientific or engineering problems and employing these models on computers, or clusters of computers, to analyze, explore or solve these models. Numerical simulation enables the study of complex phenomena that would be too expensive or dangerous to study by direct experimentation.

Start Being Visible and Valuable in One Minute

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:52:00 EST

Time is a scarcity. We’re moving, receiving, listening, answering and engaging at speeds faster than ever before. Have you ever watched a video longer than one minute and become impatient? Proof positive that we must accelerate to even participate! The...

Audi Embraces KonaKart in New eCommerce Venture

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:08:00 EST

Prestige auto-maker Audi have just launched the "Audi Tradition Shop" which allows Audi enthusiasts to purchase spare parts on the web for their treasured vintage vehicles.

Looking Back to 2009, and Brokering the Cloud for 2010

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:45:00 EST

I'm pleased to report that Vordel today announced "a record increase in annual revenues and net income for 2009 with overall revenues up almost 80% on the previous year. Vordel added an additional 32 enterprise customers to its global user base validating Vordel's position as the premier provider of SOA and Cloud Governance products". If you read down through the news details, you can see that a key offering for Vordel in 2010 is the Cloud Service Broker. We are now seeing the category of the Cloud Service Broker begin to emerge, and it is as exciting as the early days of the XML Gateway.