It has been a long while before I can find a bit time to write something on my blog. Working in an enterprise does not seem too easy for me. Maybe I am a bit over-committed to my work. :)
Monday, 2008-12-15, Copenhagen
Are big companies reducing offshore workers to save the domestic employees? Well, in the financial crisis time, this may happen in certain cases. Offshore software development has been proved to be working well by many cases. And people are aware of all the possible issues and problems to do offshore. Once the benefit is reducing too much, it will be for countries like China, India to re-think their strategy of gaining economy growth on IT development. Well, maybe oursource their work to USA?
Do you like Google Books? Well, it is a good tool based on great ideas. But there are still copyright issues. Recently Google has settled several such issues with Association of American Publishers in order to clear out the way for itself to provide online access to copyrighted books.
Microsoft is releasing parts of its Oslo modeling initiative in its recent Professional Developers Conferences. Seems that IBM rational tools will face more challenges in the near future. MS is quite good at providing friendly toos for developers. Hopefully the Oslo tools will bring more impressive experiences than the IBM tools.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
What's new in week 44, 2008
Wednesday, 2008-10-29, Copenhagen
A few key words on establishing a SOA portfolio in an enterprise. First one needs to have SOA service enablement and orchestration. And there should be police and performance management, esp. the run-time management. And a proper governance model is also compulsory.
The European Parliament has adopted a series of new measures designed to increase the competition in the EU telecoms market and provide consumers with a wide choice of services.The EU assembly voted in favor of a proposal to force telecoms companies to split their network and retail services and run them as separate businesses that will provide competitors easier access to networks. This can be a great news to those small retail-based business that has more brilliant ideas on mobile-based services.
A few key words on establishing a SOA portfolio in an enterprise. First one needs to have SOA service enablement and orchestration. And there should be police and performance management, esp. the run-time management. And a proper governance model is also compulsory.
The European Parliament has adopted a series of new measures designed to increase the competition in the EU telecoms market and provide consumers with a wide choice of services.The EU assembly voted in favor of a proposal to force telecoms companies to split their network and retail services and run them as separate businesses that will provide competitors easier access to networks. This can be a great news to those small retail-based business that has more brilliant ideas on mobile-based services.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
What's new in week 41, 2008
Sunday, 2008-10-12, Copenhagen
It seems that Microsoft and HP are very confident on their business. Both giant IT vendors have announced buying-back large amount of their stocks. In this economy down time, these two are trying to boost their investor confidence.
After years of efforts, MicroStrategy is now recognized by Gartner in the leaders' quadrant in business intelligence platform. The wonderful idea of using Magic Quadrant has made Gartner the leading consulting firm of the IT market. But how can they be sure about these quadrants? It's just a business company, even not as responsible as CNN (which is already well-known for selling lies to fool people)
Here I found something very interesting: The 9 biggest cloud storage vendors.
1. Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition is a file storage and backup service that's priced starting at $2 per month per user, plus $0.15 per GB per month of storage used, $0.10 per GB of data uploaded and $0.17 per GB of data downloaded. For more on Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition, see Jason Brooks' review "Jungle Disk Aids Amazon Storage."
2. Box.net Enterprise is a file sharing and storage service that's priced starting at $15 per user for 15GB. For more on Box.net Enterprise, see Chris Preimesberger's story "Symantec Acquires Online Backup Service."
3. MozyPro is an online backup service that's priced starting at $3.95 plus $0.50 per GB per month for desktop licenses, or $6.95 plus $0.50 per GB per month for server licenses. For more on MozyPro, see Chris Preimesberger's story "EMC Upping Prices for MozyPro Online Backup."
4. Carbonite is an online backup service that's priced starting at $49.95 for a one-year, unlimited subscription. For more on Carbonite, see Larry Seltzer's column "Backup Becomes a Standard PC Feature."
5. Egnyte is an online backup and file sharing service that's priced starting at $15 per user per month, with unlimited storage for accounts with three or more users.
6. Swapdrive is an online backup service that's priced starting at $36 per month or $360 per year for 1GB. For more on Swapdrive, see Chris Preimesberger's story "Symantec Acquires Online Backup Service."
7. Evault is an online backup service whose Web site doesn't disclose pricing information. For more on Evault, see Chris Preimesberger's story "Why We're Starting to Trust Storage in the Cloud."
8. Windows Live SkyDrive is an online file storage service that's priced starting at nothing for 5GB of file storage. For more on Windows Live SkyDrive, see Frank Ohlhorst's story "Microsoft's Pie in the Sky Play with SkyDrive."
9. Symantec Online Backup is an online backup service that's priced starting at $9.99 for 10GB of storage. For more on Symantec Online Backup, see Brian Prince's story "Symantec Builds Out SAAS Business with Remote Access Control.
It seems that Microsoft and HP are very confident on their business. Both giant IT vendors have announced buying-back large amount of their stocks. In this economy down time, these two are trying to boost their investor confidence.
After years of efforts, MicroStrategy is now recognized by Gartner in the leaders' quadrant in business intelligence platform. The wonderful idea of using Magic Quadrant has made Gartner the leading consulting firm of the IT market. But how can they be sure about these quadrants? It's just a business company, even not as responsible as CNN (which is already well-known for selling lies to fool people)
Here I found something very interesting: The 9 biggest cloud storage vendors.
1. Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition is a file storage and backup service that's priced starting at $2 per month per user, plus $0.15 per GB per month of storage used, $0.10 per GB of data uploaded and $0.17 per GB of data downloaded. For more on Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition, see Jason Brooks' review "Jungle Disk Aids Amazon Storage."
2. Box.net Enterprise is a file sharing and storage service that's priced starting at $15 per user for 15GB. For more on Box.net Enterprise, see Chris Preimesberger's story "Symantec Acquires Online Backup Service."
3. MozyPro is an online backup service that's priced starting at $3.95 plus $0.50 per GB per month for desktop licenses, or $6.95 plus $0.50 per GB per month for server licenses. For more on MozyPro, see Chris Preimesberger's story "EMC Upping Prices for MozyPro Online Backup."
4. Carbonite is an online backup service that's priced starting at $49.95 for a one-year, unlimited subscription. For more on Carbonite, see Larry Seltzer's column "Backup Becomes a Standard PC Feature."
5. Egnyte is an online backup and file sharing service that's priced starting at $15 per user per month, with unlimited storage for accounts with three or more users.
6. Swapdrive is an online backup service that's priced starting at $36 per month or $360 per year for 1GB. For more on Swapdrive, see Chris Preimesberger's story "Symantec Acquires Online Backup Service."
7. Evault is an online backup service whose Web site doesn't disclose pricing information. For more on Evault, see Chris Preimesberger's story "Why We're Starting to Trust Storage in the Cloud."
8. Windows Live SkyDrive is an online file storage service that's priced starting at nothing for 5GB of file storage. For more on Windows Live SkyDrive, see Frank Ohlhorst's story "Microsoft's Pie in the Sky Play with SkyDrive."
9. Symantec Online Backup is an online backup service that's priced starting at $9.99 for 10GB of storage. For more on Symantec Online Backup, see Brian Prince's story "Symantec Builds Out SAAS Business with Remote Access Control.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
What's new in week 40, 2008
Sunday, 2008-10-05, Copenhagen
For most companies in US and western and northern EU countries, where are the best-fit outsourcing places? Well, there can be a few in the list. India, Canada, China, Philippines, Ireland, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania. Even though India has been topping the list for the past years, one can start observing that countries like Canada, Ireland, and those in the eastern European area are able to start attracting more focuses.
The power of social computing is exploding. IBM recentlt opened its social software research center in Boston area. After so many years of focus on top IT solutions, many people in the industry are now thinking in improving the social ways of IT life.
How should we reflect from the technology's role in the Wall Stree crisis? Well, of course there are more business or economic reasons for the crisis, technology still takes certain responsibility as there are many risk-management systems used by these financial institutions. Even though we can blame the algorithms or methodologies used inside these software, the quality of information fed into these systems is also one of the biggest problems. As the old programmer saying has it, Garbage In, Garbage Out.
For most companies in US and western and northern EU countries, where are the best-fit outsourcing places? Well, there can be a few in the list. India, Canada, China, Philippines, Ireland, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania. Even though India has been topping the list for the past years, one can start observing that countries like Canada, Ireland, and those in the eastern European area are able to start attracting more focuses.
The power of social computing is exploding. IBM recentlt opened its social software research center in Boston area. After so many years of focus on top IT solutions, many people in the industry are now thinking in improving the social ways of IT life.
How should we reflect from the technology's role in the Wall Stree crisis? Well, of course there are more business or economic reasons for the crisis, technology still takes certain responsibility as there are many risk-management systems used by these financial institutions. Even though we can blame the algorithms or methodologies used inside these software, the quality of information fed into these systems is also one of the biggest problems. As the old programmer saying has it, Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
What's new in week 37, 2008
Wednesday, 2008-09-10, Copenhagen
HP is quite serious about its competition with IBM and MS on all types of software and hardware systems. It has recently launched project and portfolio management tools into its business product suite. Seems that enterprises now have quite a few (more than 3) choices to go when only giant vendors are considered.
Seems that Google is becoming a place where people meet and discuss their ambitions and leave and create their own company and sell their company with a big number. One example is the new engine called Cuil ("cool" as it is pronounced) which is designed by former Google members. This new search engine is claimed to provide even more information with less hardware spending. Let's see how this start-up goes and when Google will acquire it.
Friday, 2008-09-12, Copenhagen
Sun is definitely joining the cloud computing team. It recently annouced the preview release of JavaFX, which is its rich client platform for building rich internet applications (RIAs). After Microsoft and Adobe, Sun is becoming another vendor that provides the basic programming facilities for building cloud computing applications.
Look out! Amazon is crazy about getting people to use its cloud computing web services. Long after its Elastic Cloud and Simple Storage Service offers, it launches the Mechanical Turk, which is a website that let non-programmers to create basic tasks of certain web services with requirements and let other people (such as a part-time programmer) to finish the rest of the work.
Sunday, 2008-09-14, Copenhagen
When enterprises grow bigger, it become more and more important to have better understanding of its IT architecture and assets. Meta recently annouced a road-mapping tool, called "Mega IT Planning," to help enterprises to manage IT architecture. Looks like that many architects will be interested in the tool.
The Web-collaboration-tool market is far away from being mature. Google and Microsoft SharePoint are among the leading ones. Central Desktop is another software provider who tries to compete with the giants in this market. As claimed by its CEO, Central Desktop provides more collaboration functionalities than Google Apps while requires less resource than SharePoint. It seems that Central Desktop is trying to find a balance between the "thin" functionalities of Google App and the "fat" requirements of SharePoint.
HP is quite serious about its competition with IBM and MS on all types of software and hardware systems. It has recently launched project and portfolio management tools into its business product suite. Seems that enterprises now have quite a few (more than 3) choices to go when only giant vendors are considered.
Seems that Google is becoming a place where people meet and discuss their ambitions and leave and create their own company and sell their company with a big number. One example is the new engine called Cuil ("cool" as it is pronounced) which is designed by former Google members. This new search engine is claimed to provide even more information with less hardware spending. Let's see how this start-up goes and when Google will acquire it.
Friday, 2008-09-12, Copenhagen
Sun is definitely joining the cloud computing team. It recently annouced the preview release of JavaFX, which is its rich client platform for building rich internet applications (RIAs). After Microsoft and Adobe, Sun is becoming another vendor that provides the basic programming facilities for building cloud computing applications.
Look out! Amazon is crazy about getting people to use its cloud computing web services. Long after its Elastic Cloud and Simple Storage Service offers, it launches the Mechanical Turk, which is a website that let non-programmers to create basic tasks of certain web services with requirements and let other people (such as a part-time programmer) to finish the rest of the work.
Sunday, 2008-09-14, Copenhagen
When enterprises grow bigger, it become more and more important to have better understanding of its IT architecture and assets. Meta recently annouced a road-mapping tool, called "Mega IT Planning," to help enterprises to manage IT architecture. Looks like that many architects will be interested in the tool.
The Web-collaboration-tool market is far away from being mature. Google and Microsoft SharePoint are among the leading ones. Central Desktop is another software provider who tries to compete with the giants in this market. As claimed by its CEO, Central Desktop provides more collaboration functionalities than Google Apps while requires less resource than SharePoint. It seems that Central Desktop is trying to find a balance between the "thin" functionalities of Google App and the "fat" requirements of SharePoint.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Notes for Chapter 5 of "Beyond Software Architecture"
Chapter 5 "Technology in-licensing"
This chapter talks about how different technologies can be integrated into a software architecture by licensing. A general point is that using code or components by licensing can save the energy and time of the key technical employees. On the other hand, it is important to have lawyers to clarify the relevant issues when licenses are involved.
There are many risks/rewards for using licensed technologies. One should keep all these in mind when being at the front of such decisions. Actually this is not only about component-based software. An OS can be a licensed technology to an enterprise. Such considerations of risks/rewards still apply here.
Another thing to be careful with is the software itself may have a different pricing model that conflicts with the licensed technologies. Here the software architecture matters. It should be designed to solve the conflict.
Open source technology is always a good consideration, but one has to bear in mind the pros and cons behind it. Every open source software license is different.
This chapter talks about how different technologies can be integrated into a software architecture by licensing. A general point is that using code or components by licensing can save the energy and time of the key technical employees. On the other hand, it is important to have lawyers to clarify the relevant issues when licenses are involved.
There are many risks/rewards for using licensed technologies. One should keep all these in mind when being at the front of such decisions. Actually this is not only about component-based software. An OS can be a licensed technology to an enterprise. Such considerations of risks/rewards still apply here.
Another thing to be careful with is the software itself may have a different pricing model that conflicts with the licensed technologies. Here the software architecture matters. It should be designed to solve the conflict.
Open source technology is always a good consideration, but one has to bear in mind the pros and cons behind it. Every open source software license is different.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
What's new in week 35, 2008
Tuesday, 2008-08-26, Copenhagen
Open source tools have been evolving to the era that enterprises are starting to use them in mission-critical tasks. Open source community has started working on three emerging areas, VOIP, CRM, and mobility, which brings more challenges to the commercial vendors. Linux is another striking example against Windows system.
Intel recently launched its new Centrino 2 platform which offers better performance at a low power consumption. Well, let’s wait and see what AMD says about it.
Cloud computing is also coming into the security market. In addition to all existing online virus –detection services, vendors are looking into the online-backup market. To put your files into the cloud may be the only safe thing if one cannot trust her/his own computer system. Companies like Webroot, HP Upline, and SOS Online Backup are in this field.
Open source tools have been evolving to the era that enterprises are starting to use them in mission-critical tasks. Open source community has started working on three emerging areas, VOIP, CRM, and mobility, which brings more challenges to the commercial vendors. Linux is another striking example against Windows system.
Intel recently launched its new Centrino 2 platform which offers better performance at a low power consumption. Well, let’s wait and see what AMD says about it.
Cloud computing is also coming into the security market. In addition to all existing online virus –detection services, vendors are looking into the online-backup market. To put your files into the cloud may be the only safe thing if one cannot trust her/his own computer system. Companies like Webroot, HP Upline, and SOS Online Backup are in this field.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
What's new in week 32, 2008
Sunday, 2008-08-10, Copenhagen
Seagate has recently released 1.5 TB desktop hard drive and a 0.5 TB drive for laptop. With the great growth of information in different enterprises. Hard drive technology seems to be always important in terms of both technology and business.
Many enterprises have been realizing the importance and benefit of collaborative intelligence. A lot of collaboration tools are coming into the business world. Despite the big vendors, cloud computing sites, such as SocialText, are bring the concpets to SMBs and private customers.
One of the major IT services companies, InfoSys has reported a strong increase in net income in Q1 of 2008. It seems that, despite the economy down in the western world, the big asia countries are still benfiting from the low service prices. Well, when economy is down, every western enterprise is searching for ways of saving the budget. To go to the eastern world is one of the solutions.
Big enterprises to start using open source databases? Well, maybe not for mission-critical applications. But if we look at the price lists from the giant vendors, why not throw away the vendors' offer and hire a few talent guys who know the open source tools much better?
Seagate has recently released 1.5 TB desktop hard drive and a 0.5 TB drive for laptop. With the great growth of information in different enterprises. Hard drive technology seems to be always important in terms of both technology and business.
Many enterprises have been realizing the importance and benefit of collaborative intelligence. A lot of collaboration tools are coming into the business world. Despite the big vendors, cloud computing sites, such as SocialText, are bring the concpets to SMBs and private customers.
One of the major IT services companies, InfoSys has reported a strong increase in net income in Q1 of 2008. It seems that, despite the economy down in the western world, the big asia countries are still benfiting from the low service prices. Well, when economy is down, every western enterprise is searching for ways of saving the budget. To go to the eastern world is one of the solutions.
Big enterprises to start using open source databases? Well, maybe not for mission-critical applications. But if we look at the price lists from the giant vendors, why not throw away the vendors' offer and hire a few talent guys who know the open source tools much better?
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