Cloud computing has reduced deployment times and the ability to try out new ideas without significant investments in hardware and software. Cloud supports business agility and Cloud projects may have a quicker turnaround time for releases. Many programs have declared victory as being Agile since they are using the rapid deployment capabilities of Cloud and Big Data. The myth is "I use Cloud" hence I'm Agile". However this is only the business agility aspect in terms of using the "pay as you go" model of Cloud to have quicker provisioning and deployments. Agile management and development is a focus on Agile techniques throughout the development lifecycle. On some projects, in an attempt to get products out using Cloud, Big Data Business Intelligence tools quickly, the magnificent capabilities of Agile management and development have been forgotten. Agile processes do... (more)

Cloud Expo Show Prospectus Reaches 10,000 IT Marketing Managers

Cloud Expo on Ulitzer SYS-CON Events (http://events.sys-con.com) announced today that the "show prospectus" for the 5th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com) is now shipping. 5th International Cloud Expo will take place April 19-21, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City with more than 5,000 delegates and over 100 sponsors and exhibitors participating in the conference. Cloud Expo is the world's leading Cloud-focused event and is held five times a year, in New York, Silicon Valley, Europe, Japan, and Brazil. Over 200 corporate sponsors and 10,000 industry professionals became part of Cloud Expo since its inception, more than all other Cloud-related events put together worldwide. "Cloud Expo was announced on February 24, 2007, the day the term ‘cloud computing' was coined," said Fuat Kircaali, founder and C... (more)

Cloud Expo New York Preview: The Economic Impact of GovCloud on IT

Cloud Expo 2011 New York $500 Savings here! In December 2010, the U.S. Federal government awarded cloud computing contracts that totaled over $2B in value. It also announced a mandatory "cloud first" policy, requiring every agency to deploy at least three of its services to the cloud. This transition represents a monumental change in Federal IT strategy. It may also threaten the business model of some of the world's largest IT providers. In his session at the 8th International Cloud Expo, Kevin Jackson, Engineering Fellow with NJVC, will explore the economic impact of GovCloud from the position of the information technology and professional services industries. He will also explore the new business strategies for this new environment. Speaker Bio: Kevin Jackson is an Engineering Fellow with NJVC, one of the largest information technology solutions providers suppor... (more)

From the SYS-CON Archives: If Sun Gets Bought, Who Gets Java?

"It's not easy to see why IBM would want to buy Sun," writes Javalobby founder Rick Ross in his latest discussion of the vexed question: who, if Sun were bought, would get Java? The discussion has been fueled both by last week's Kodak decision which has found Java to be in breach of certain copyrights held by Eastman Kodak Co., and this week's Oracle-PeopleSoft shenanigans, with a takeover of the latter by the former looking increasingly likely by the day.   But if not IBM, then who? "A more likely name that often surfaces would be Japanese giant, Fujitsu, which is already Sun's largest reseller," Ross continues, then adds: "A far-fetched, but interesting and exciting, scenario could be one in which a third party would partner with Fujitsu to acquire Sun." Ross's reasoning behind discounting IBM as a potential "white knight" for Java is as follows. He argues that IBM... (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)

Five Reasons Why Web 2.0 Matters

Five Reasons Why Web 2.0 Matters I've been spending a lot of time lately with folks around the mid-Atlantic region and talking to them about Web 2.0.  I get the expected full spectrum of responses ranging from genuine interest and active enthusiasm to some outright hostility.  Part of it is where the Web 2.0 space is still: an elite niche of technologists with a growing wider awareness that's just beginning. Most of us know that the technology industry and the Web are often far out ahead of the mainstream.  The fact is that the general public is still struggling with blogs and wikis, much less full blown architectures of participation and software as a service (to name just two aspects of Web 2.0).  Not sure about this?  Try sampling a few people at random and ask them what a blog is.  You will probably be surprised with the answers.  Nevertheless, I'm extremely san... (more)

Data Services World : Mark Hapner's WADL, URIs as Database Types, Tricks of the Architect's Trade Session

URIs are the lingua franca of the web. They are in every web page and every HTTP request. In a practical sense, they represent the realization of the web. Without them, the web would cease to exist. The situation is very different in the world of the RDBMS. Here, URIs are interlopers. Some RDBMS have provided basic support for URIs via their object extension facilities; however, URIs are still not considered a formal part of RDBMS schema design. This talk explores how URI could evolve to become as important to RDBMS Schemas as it is to the web. One aspect of URI 'types' this presentation will cover is the use of Web Application Description Language (WADL). WADL has been described as SQL Schema meets REST. WADL is metadata describes the functional and structural aspects of a URI 'type' that a web site or other provider offers through HTTP. Speaker Bio: Mark Hapne... (more)

SYS-CON.TV: Cloud Computing Expo Power Panel

SYS-CON's 4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo takes place November 2-4, 2009, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. View the Conference Main Page Here ! With an ever-increasing number of companies now buying computing, storage, and networking power as they need it from the cloud, SYS-CON.TV recently invited four leading industry thought leaders to discuss how Cloud Computing brings the economics of the Web to Enterprise IT and where the move to the cloud will take the industry overall. The participants are Amazon.com VP & CTO, Werner Vogels; Rackspace CTO, John Engates; Booz Allen Hamilton Principal, Rod Fontecilla; and Sun's CTO of Global Sales & Services, Hal Stern. View SYS-CON.TV's Cloud Computing Power Panel Live from Times Square here. The participants were (left to right, after SYS-CON.TV Host Jeremy Geelan): WERNER VOGELS - VP &... (more)

PaaS & ETL in the Application Ecosystem

Our conversation continues about the optimal mix of technology to support business process.  In "Living IT, QuickBase Leads The Way", we discussed the concept of Living IT and why organizations should plan for changing and dynamic technology.  To elaborate further on this topic we want to introduce some ideas around what we refer to as the the Application Ecosystem and how technologies such as PaaS and ETL fit in. Core Systems The Application Ecosystem of an organization is a broad way to refer to the various technology tools that the organization uses.  This applies to government, for-profit and non-profit organizations.  At the center of the Application Ecosystem is what we refer to as Core Systems.  These tools are typically associated with basic organizational functions required for accounting and transactional purposes.  For smaller businesses, tools like Quic... (more)

Rich Internet Applications in the Cloud

This session will provide an overview of enabling Rich Internet Applications to run in the Cloud. It will review available technologies providing runtime infrastructure for connecting rich client interfaces with the cloud-enabled server-side applications. Mark Piller will additionally discuss the demonstration of using a Cloud for conducting stress testing of online RIAs. The 4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo is co-located with the 7th International Virtualization Conference & Expo and will be taking place November 2-4, 2009 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA. Register Today and Save! Sponsor and/or Exhibit Today View Full Conference Schedule In this session, learn from the founder and Chief Architect of Midnight Coders, about the specifics of RIA deployments into a Cloud infrastructure to enable connectivity with Flex, Flash, Sil... (more)

Cisco To Buy Skype?

As Dell and HP slug it out to capture 3PAR, Cisco may be adopting a quieter acquisition style and attempting - according to TechCrunch anyway - to acquire Skype. Citing someone he refers to only as "one of our more reliable sources," the Silicon Valley-based site's senior editor Michael Arrington claims Cisco has already made an offer before Skype has time to complete its recently announced IPO. It is five years now since eBay famously acquired Skype for $1.9 billion. Such an acquisition by Cisco, if it were confirmed, would mark a new scale for the current round of M&A activity, which has seen Intel acquiring McAfee, HP acquiring Palm and 3Com, EMC acquiring Data Domain, and so on. Not to mention Oracle's acquisition of Sun, or Dell's of Perot Systems. Speculation is rife that Google and Microsoft are both now in search of a major quarry. And certainly IBM is hoovering u... (more)