Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here Flip the Switch to Container Clouds Modern software design has fundamentally changed how we manage applications, causing many to turn to containers as the new virtual machine for resource management. As container adoption grows beyond stateless applications to stateful workloads, the need for persistent storage is foundational - something customers routinely cite as a top pain point. Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 21st Cloud Expo, Bill Borsari, Head of Systems Engineering at Datera, explored how organizations can reap the benefits of the cloud without losing performance as containers become the new paradigm. Topics included: How containerized stateful applications can be automated to scale Options to manage persistent data Container storage and deployment models that deliver ... (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)

Cloud Computing Expo 2009 West: Call for Papers Deadline July 15

With an ever-increasing number of companies now buying computing, storage, and networking power as they need it from the cloud, it is hardly surprising that SYS-CON's industry-leading International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series is going from strength to strength. Now held three times a year, in New York, Prague, and Silicon Valley, the organizing principle of each International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo remains the same: our aim is to ensure, through an intense and carefully chosen program of technical and strategic breakout sessions, that attending delegates leave each Conference with abundant resources, ideas and examples they can apply immediately to leveraging the Cloud, helping them to maximize performance, minimize cost and improve the scalability of their Enterprise IT endeavors. The Call for Papers for the 4th International Cloud Computing... (more)

Moving to the Cloud – Benefits and Concerns

A recent survey from the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) found two-thirds of outsourcing customers currently do utilize or have plans to implement cloud computing solutions. Eighty percent of those surveyed indicated their organization intended to deploy more outsourcing services in the next year. In a recent Forrester report titled "Sizing the Cloud," it estimates a move from $40.7 billion spent on the global market for cloud computing in 2011 to more than $241 billion in 2020. The public cloud, which is under considerable scrutiny for security risks, will account for more than 66 percent of the total in 2020. For many enterprises, moving data and applications is really a question of "when" instead of "if." The cloud is a sea change in business, and is moving well beyond a fad stage. Security breaches and large-scale outages might pr... (more)

Now's the Time to Take the Leap into Data Virtualization

Financial services IT generally leads any new technology wave. Large telecoms, pharmaceuticals, and energy firms follow quickly, with retail, government and smaller enterprises typically adopting as new technologies move to mainstream. Given that data virtualization has now reached mainstream, how is small and mid-sized organization adoption of data virtualization proceeding?  And how are these firms benefiting? What Is Data Virtualization? Data virtualization is a data integration approach and technology organizations use to provide users with a business view of data, improve business agility and reduce IT costs. Data virtualization technology is a form of data integration middleware that leverages high-performance software and an advanced computing architecture to provide business information from multiple sources in a loosely coupled, logically-federated manner. ... (more)

Identity CrisisPassport may not fill the need for a global identity service

Do you have a .NET Passport identity? You may not realize it, but chances are reasonably high that you do. If you have a HotMail or MSN account, Microsoft assigned a Passport identity to you automatically. Microsoft claims to have more than 160 million users registered in the Passport identity service. Pretty soon you'll need a Passport ID to have any interaction with Microsoft. In December 2001, quite a few gamesters were surprised to discover that their old accounts at the Microsoft Zone gaming site wouldn't work without a Passport ID. Microsoft also requires a Passport ID to join MSDN, to register for a Microsoft seminar, or to access Microsoft's node in the UDDI public registry. The new Windows XP Product Activation (WPA) system uses Passport by default. You can also use your Passport ID to log in to your XP system. So just what does a Passport identity do for you... (more)

Microsoft's Ballmer: "I See Nothing But Opportunity"

Steve Ballmer presented a lengthy keynote and partner session at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis. Below is the complete transcript of the session. Steve Ballmer It is my honor, privilege, excitement, to be here with you today. For all the things I do -- and many of you have had a chance to hear this many times as I travel the world -- but everything I get to do working for Microsoft, there's one thing that's most energizing for me -- one thing, one thing -- meeting with our partners. And you say, this guy gives this line to every audience he meets with. Nooo. What's special about this group? What gets me particularly pumped up? What is particularly exciting? Our partners are a unique blend, you are, of two elements. Number one, you've made a bet on us. You believe in us, you want us to win, you need us to win. You're kind of like employees... (more)

XML Binding Frameworks in the Context of Service-Oriented Architecture

This article critically evaluates the role of XML binding frameworks play in the context of service-oriented architecture (SOA) platforms, and it also provides an objective evaluation of the popular XML binding frameworks in a J2EE environment. XML binding refers to the mapping of XML documents to/from any suitable internal representation (e.g., object-based representation) that is understandable by the underlying system, and in the process facilitating easy and intuitive access to the data in XML documents. In a J2EE context, this translates to an easier and logically meaningful way of accessing the data in XML documents, rather than using the low-level DOM/SAX parsers. To illustrate, in Listing 1, an order-processing application would find it easy to access Order, Item, and Customer objects rather than using the XML-specific data elements listing each element, its... (more)

Jeremy Allaire's Triple Whammy: Brightcove Snags $16M, Major AOL Support, and Barry Diller

"We are thrilled to get both the backing of such a strong group of strategic investors and a major distribution agreement with AOL," said the "Father of ColdFusion," Jeremy Allaire (pictured), now Chairman and CEO of Internet TV start-up Brightcove. Allaire was referring to the 'Triple Whammy' announcement yesterday that Brightcove had completed a major ($16M) strategic financing round, forged a groundbreaking video content distribution partnership with AOL, and appointed Barry Diller, Chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Chairman of Expedia, Inc., to the Brightcove Board of Directors. Brightcove's offering is a complete Internet TV service for video publishers – ranging from small independent producers to major media companies – who want to build their businesses by distributing and monetizing their video programming through a variety of broadband channels ... (more)

Zeus And Egenera Offer A Fully Agile Service Oriented Infrastructure

Zeus Technology, provider of  application traffic management software, and Egenera, pioneer in datacenter virtualization architecture, announced an alliance to offer a fully agile application infrastructure by combining Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) and the Egenera BladeFrame system. The Egenera BladeFrame system and its Processing Area Network (PAN) architecture deliver a new approach to computing by virtualizing datacenter components, and simplifying the allocation and secure management of processing capacity. ZXTM improves the performance, capacity and security of hosted services, reducing downtime and facilitating routine maintenance. As a software application, it can be deployed on the very same compute fabric that is used for the applications it is managing. Combining ZXTM’s open and flexible software architecture with Egenera PAN Manager software... (more)

Where's i-Technology Headed in 2007?

At the end of each year, when SYS-CON informally polls its globe-girdling network of software developers, industry executives, commentators, investors, writers, and editors, our question is always the same: where's the industry going next year? Every time, the answers are surprisingly different from the year before, and of course throw light not just on where the industry is going but also how it's going to get there, why, because of who, within what kind of time-scale - all that good stuff. Enjoy! Ruby on Rails . JRuby . AJAX . Rules-Based Programming JASON BELL Enterprise Developer, Editorial Board Member, Java Developer's Journal My predictions for 2006.... 1.  Incremental mainstream adoption of Ruby on Rails It's going to happen, isn't it? Keep an eye out for Sun's offering of JRuby. Whether this is the death of other open source scripting languages like Groovy ... (more)