BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) makes business processes and composite Web services first-class citizens of the Java and .NET platforms, while preventing vendor lock-in. The result is a drastic reduction in the complexity, delivery time, and cost associated with implementing workflow, BPM (business process management), and related business integration projects. BPEL is a new standard for implementing business processes in an emerging service-oriented architecture world. As such, applying BPEL introduces new considerations, challenges, and pitfalls for delivering process-aware applications based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The Rise of BPEL There has been a continuous need in the enterprise to integrate systems and applications into end-to-end business processes. Traditional integration solutions are arcane, proprietary, and expensive, and have ... (more)

Application Performance Management Done Right

What is Application Performance Management (APM)? Like a lot of good questions, it depends on your business needs.  What is the goal of an ideal APM?  Does it mean 99.999% availability?  Perhaps it is a favorable overall end user experience when using the application but, as compared to what? My point is that Application Performance Management / Monitoring means different things to different businesses and it can even depend on the application involved. What is the Goal of APM “Begin with the goal in mind.” I wish I could take credit for that quote.  What is the goal of the APM? Have you listed out the objectives you hope to obtain from your APM strategy?  This approach will help your team ensure satisfaction with the final solution chosen.  Here are some examples. Minimum of 99.999% availability with lower Mean Time To Know (MTTK) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) Less ... (more)

The Future of Cloud Computing: Industry Predictions for 2012

With 9th Cloud Expo - Cloud Expo Silicon Valley - still in full swing at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California, what is being said about the future landscape of cloud computing? In this round-up we asked a variety of members of the cloud computing ecosystem, from CIOs to independent consultants to marketeers. We asked in each case for their top five predictions. Here are their views on what's in store in 2012: Santa Clara Convention Center is getting ready for Cloud Expo Silicon Valley DIY Service Provision | Cloud of Devices | Security Breach Looms | Personalized SPs | African Growth Lauren C. States | @lauren_states VP & CTO, Cloud Computing & Growth Initiatives, IBM Lauren is responsible at IBM for the technology strategy for the company's growth initiatives, including cloud computing, Smarter Planet, business analytics and emerging markets. Previously she... (more)

Future-Proofing Solutions with Coarse-Grained Service Oriented Architecture

Web services and service-oriented architectures are transforming application construction. The ubiquity of Web services support by all leading platform venders brings the promise of a flexible application environment with simplified interface techniques, location transparency, and platform-neutral interoperability. This dynamic infrastructure brings about a new implementation approach, the service-oriented architecture. However, to date most Web services projects have really only created simplified communication mechanisms for the invocation of those same old complicated legacy interfaces that we have always had. To truly realize the creation of service-based components, a new design approach is needed, one that produces simple, straightforward coarse-grained service interfaces that conceal the ugliness of the legacy low-level interfaces. Designing coarse-grained i... (more)

Why WSDL Is Not Yet Another Object IDL

There has been much debate lately on what exactly WSDL's purpose is, and much of that debate has focused on whether WSDL is an interface definition language (IDL), or whether WSDL is better used to specify message-level contracts (without any associated operational semantics). In this article we present an argument that dealing with WSDL as a message-level contract description language is the right way to go for building loosely coupled Web services. Interfaces and Contracts Before we delve into the specifics of how WSDL should be used, we need to understand the difference between a classic interface and a contract. By understanding the different problems that each solve we can begin to form a picture of when it is appropriate to use one or the other. Let's start by briefly recalling exactly what is meant by an interface. In an object-oriented view of the world, appli... (more)

The i-Technology Right Stuff

Related Links: Wanted: 19 More of the Top Software People in the World Sung and Unsung i-Technology Heroes Who's Missing from SYS-CON's i-Technology Top Twenty?" Our search for the Twenty Top Software People in the World is nearing completion. In the SYS-CON tradition of empowering readers, we are leaving the final "cut" to you, so here are the top 40 nominations in alphabetical order. Our aim this time round is to whittle this 40 down to our final twenty, not (yet) to arrange those twenty in any order of preference. All you need to do to vote is to go to the Further Details page of any nominee you'd like to see end up in the top half of the poll when we close voting on Christmas Eve, December 24, and cast your vote or votes. To access the Further Details of each nominee just click on their name. Happy voting!   In alphabetical order the nominees are:   Tim Berner... (more)

i-Technology Viewpoint: Is Web 2.0 the Global SOA?

The subject of Web 2.0 has become profoundly important over the last year. Web 2.0 describes the next generation of the Web as an application platform where most of a user's software experience resides. The subject is somewhat controversial, but it's becoming ever more apparent as the successor to monolithic system architecture, prepackaged software, and traditional Web applications. Software as a Service (SAAS) and Web as Platform are only two of the larger mantras of Web 2.0 that most of the major software vendors have begun to embrace recently. Yet not only is Web 2.0 still very misunderstood, it's actually part of an even larger way of thinking about software in a fully service-oriented manner. This includes building composite applications, remixing data, building ad hoc supply chains, harnessing user involvement, aggregating knowledge, and more. Web 2.0 is bec... (more)

Moderro to Announce "Turnkey Cloud Computer" This Week at 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Moderro Technologies www.moderro.com will debut its Xpack Internet Computer – an integrated (hardware, operating system and web management) solution for the Web 2.0 desktop SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, November 19-21, in San Jose, CA. The Xpack features a clean and friendly user interface and operating system that was written by Moderro specifically for interacting with Web 2.0 applications. This functionality, combined with simplicity, security, a small footprint, energy efficiency, and backward compatibility make the Moderro Xpack a perfect choice for Web 2.0 office. “Web applications are an afterthought with operating systems confining them to a single-window browser, virtually pushing them into the background,” said Dan Itkis Moderro Vice President. “We decided to develop our own operating system, which makes web applications easier to use while ... (more)

A Multi-Core Optimized Software Appliance

In the enterprise IT environment today, modern middleware technologies make it easier to expose existing or new business applications as sets of services. However, with the mashup of cloud-based services and enterprise data center services, the visibility of how a service created today will be used in the future gets murkier. This is because it's difficult to predict how a service will be consumed over long periods of time and by which consumers, and further how the service may be integrated with other services or legacy applications to create new composite services. It also remains a challenge to architect services in such a way that service upgrades don't affect consumers unpredictably. The hype of "just create services with an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and you'll have the benefits of a service architecture such as lower costs and software reuse" typically lea... (more)

Don’t Get Stuck in a Cloud

Mysterious, comforting, scary, and attractive are all possible adjectives to describe a cloud. Interestingly enough, this is true of all kinds of clouds, from the meteorological to the computing. During the last few years, we have a seen a proliferation of clouds forming from every corner of the Internet. Nowadays, it is very rare to see any Internet technology presentation without at least a few clouds. So is cloud computing simply vaporware, or something tangible? While the name might be “buzzy”, cloud computing is in fact a real phenomenon and does create great technological and business value. In fact, cloud computing is another step in the evolution of computing abstraction. First, hardware got abstracted with operating systems, then the user interface with the browser, and now, with cloud computing, the network is abstracted. Simply put, cloud computing allow... (more)

Yahoo Reportedly Puts Zimbra Up For Sale

Yahoo has evidently been rummaging through its closet looking for stuff it can sell off, especially now that it’s decided it’s a consumer company and will put $100 million into promoting that image starting Tuesday. Anyway, that business construction reportedly means it doesn’t need Zimbra and its online, cross-platform Collaboration Suite, the open source-cum-commercial e-mail-shared calendar-instant messaging-and-document authoring widgetry it paid $350 million for it almost exactly two years ago. It’s been peddling the thing around, according to Boomtown’s Kara Swisher, the Yahoo familiar. Yahoo’s reportedly not harboring any delusions that it’ll get anywhere near what it paid for the thing. Swisher thinks it could go to rival Google or maybe Comcast, a Zimbra client, or maybe a private equity firm, maybe even Redpoint Ventures, one of Zimbra’s original investors... (more)