News Desk

Intel to EC: 'We Left Our Kid Gloves Home'

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:44:00 EST

Thanks to a sketchy notice in the Official Journal of the European Union we now know a tad more about why Intel has taken the European Commission to court. Seems Intel is accusing the EC of making it the butt of a "discriminatory and partial" antitrust investigation because the EC won't go and get certain documents from AMD that Intel believes are exculpatory evidence.

SOA World Focuses on Enterprise-Wide SOA and Cloud Computing Solutions

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:36:00 EST

If you've been following me on Twitter, or through my other blogs, you already know that I made it to the SOA World Conference & Expo in San Jose, CA, which was collocated with Cloud Computing Conference & Expo. I did the keynote on Wednesday and then stayed around for some of the sessions and some networking. Overall, SOA World was well attended and the expo hall was full of SOA vendors.

ActiveVOS 6.0.2 Reduces Bottlenecks in Process Performance

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:40:00 EST

Active Endpoints has announced the general availability of ActiveVOS 6.0.2, in response to ever increasing demands for improved process performance and efficiencies. ActiveVOS is an all-in-one, 100% standards-based orchestration and business process management system (BPM) that permits developers, business analysts and enterprises to develop and manage true services-oriented architecture (SOA)-based applications.

Cloud Computing Giant and Facebook Collaborate: Force.com for Facebook Is Born

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:50:00 EST

"This is the premier social graph fully integrating with the premier enterprise cloud computing company - this is the true power of Internet," gushed Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, as he today launched a new offering called Force.com for Facebook – designed to foster a global development community for Facebook’s 120 million users and salesforce.com’s 100,000 developers.

SOA and the Rise of WOA

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:00:00 EST

How does SOA work, how can it be used? And what is WOA? With the use of a real-world example,this article describes why a properly planned and implemented Service Oriented Architecture can create a flexible way of aligning business and IT.

SAP Presented at SYS-CON's 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:15:00 EST

In his virtualization session on Nov. 21 at the 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo in San Jose, CA, Roland Wartenberg, SAP's director of virtualization strategy, discussed the supported virtualization solutions provided by partners of SAP's virtualization ecosystem. Simply running an SAP solution in a virtualized environment is not enough.

Lighthouse Computer Services Launches WebSphere Services Practice

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:40:00 EST

Lighthouse Computer Services has expanded its software-related services with the formation of a new group devoted to IBM WebSphere application infrastructure and integration solutions. Lighthouse's WebSphere Services Practice offers extensive capabilities surrounding application integration, service-oriented architecture (SOA), business process management, and Web-enablement.

Cloud Computing Thought Leader David S. Linthicum Launches Free Cloud Computing Webinar Series

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:22:00 EST

David S. Linthicum, a well-known pioneer in the worlds of cloud computing and service-oriented architecture, is launching a free cloud computing Webinar series sponsored by Blue Mountain Labs. The first Webinar will be held on December 17 at 2:00 p.m. EST, and is entitled "Where SOA Meets Cloud Computing." While SOA provides a framework for approaching architecture for the enterprise, the use of cloud computing resources, in the context of SOA, provides additional value.

Icahn Buys Still More Yahoo Stock

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:45:00 EST

Carl Icahn, the activist stockholder – and champion of the apparently futile “Microsoft Buys Yahoo” plan – who pushed his way onto the Yahoo board by dint of a threatened proxy fight, bought roughly 6.7 million shares of Yahoo the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

SYS-CON's 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo: Show Report

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:35:00 EST

Overall, very exciting times, and a great event put together by the folks at SYS-CON! There was a lot of excitement and optimism throughout the event. As someone put it: cloud computing is about 700 days old. That means that there are a lot of arguments about definitions, and where things are going, and so on. And that also gives a lot of vibe and a lot of fresh community spirit.

HP Weathers the Economic Apocalypse

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:55:00 EST

HP, which lifted its skirt and showed everybody its panties last week, officially released its better-than-expected fiscal Q4 results Monday and repeated its relatively aggressive guidance for the current quarter. In a conference call Monday CEO Mark Hurd said he was confident the company could weather the economic apocalypse, “gain share, expand earnings and emerge from the current environment in a meaningfully stronger position.”

Red Hat's Brian Stevens Explores the Evolution of the Cloud at 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:00:00 EST

"The days of Cloud 1.0 are here," stated Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens in his session this morning at SYS-CON’s Virtualization Conference & Expo, in San Jose. He discussed the evolution of the cloud, and how to build a cloud. Over the last five years, the open source community has turned its attention to virtualization, and Stevens discussed what has been achieved so far, and what is under development.

Software Patents: Start-up Sells Troll Insurance

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:35:00 EST

There’s been Open Invention Network and Allied Security Trust, and now there’s RPX Corporation promising protection against the so-called patent troll. RPX, amusingly enough, was started by two refugees from what is widely perceived to be one of the biggest patent trolls around, ex-Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures.

Cloud Power Panel at SYS-CON's 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:00:00 EST

The future of cloud computing is all about lowering costs and getting the ability to easily move between service providers. At the Cloud Power Panel on Friday at the 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo in San Jose, CA, the power panelists – Songnian Zhou, CEO of Platform Computing; Thorsten von Eicken, CTO of RightScale; Peter Nickolov, President & CTO of 3tera; Erik Carlin, Sr. Cloud Architect, Mosso/Rackspace, and Steve Herrod, CTO, VMware – examined the risks and rewards of Cloud Computing for the enterprise.

Photo Album of the 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:45:00 EST

SYS-CON's 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo attracted more than 40 sponsors and exhibitors with over 1,200 preregistered delegates. The three content-packed days emphasized value with a rich array of sessions led by exceptional speakers about the business and technical value of cloud computing.

Cloud Computing Pioneer David Linthicum Launches Blue Mountain Labs

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:30:00 EST

David S. Linthicum, a well-known pioneer in the worlds of cloud computing and service-oriented architecture, has launched Blue Mountain Labs, a company equipped to take enterprises and technology vendors into the emerging world of cloud computing. Blue Mountain Labs uses a unique methodology called Cloudsizing to analyze their clients' business needs — thoroughly examining who they are and what they do—before they define a cloud computing solution or strategy that will work for their clients’ enterprises, large or small.

Using Mule as the Foundation for New SOA Infrastructure

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:45:00 EST

Over the course of the past few decades, the consumer media industry has evolved from a slow-moving oligopoly dominated by a handful of vertically integrated networks to a highly fragmented and competitive marketplace of content creation, publication, and distribution players. This disaggregation of the industry value chain, in combination with the proliferation of content sources, channels, and media formats has created a daunting logistical challenge for anyone attempting to deliver content to the consumer in the right format, at the right time.

Resolving RIA-SOA Conflict

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST

From the first days of Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology, many enthusiasts found an analogy between RIA and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Some of them talked about the benefits of a would-be-wonderful use of SOA in RIA; others saw RIA as a SOA face. Nonetheless, there are experts who see a discrepancy between RIA and SOA concepts.

How to Sell an SOA

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time speaking to people about service-oriented architecture (and its variants for infrastructure and enterprise) and about how best to create a true implementation (or at least, an effective one). There is a great deal of detail in creating such an artifact – design yes, but also implementation, operational details, governance, and a myriad of other tasks that can easily take up a chief architect’s entire day.

Building the Open SOA Platform

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:45:00 EST

The open source community includes many early advocates of the recent wave of emerging SOA-related technology projects. Historically, however, open source has sometimes been considered a "late follower," with commercial products first to hit the market, and then followed by "me-too" open source alternatives. One reason frequently cited by critics of open source is that open source projects are often not innovators, but imitators (of course, some might argue Microsoft has done very well by following the imitation model).

Apple and IBM Compete in Microprocessors for iPod and iPhones: District Court Judge

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:05:00 EST

The reason why ex-IBM executive Mark Papermaster can’t work for Apple is because Apple and IBM compete in microprocessors for iPod and iPhones. That’s what the judge deciding where Papermaster can work – in view of his non-compete – said in his 28-page opinion explaining why IBM was able to get the preliminary injunction that yanked him out of Apple five days after he started there as head of iPod and iPhone hardware development.

Amazon CTO Keynotes at Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:15:00 EST

In his Cloud Computing Keynote in San Jose, CA, on November 20th – entitled "A Head in the Cloud - The Power of Infrastructure as a Service" – the CTO of Amazon.com, Werner Vogels, discussed the many challenges when building a reliable, flexible architecture that can manage unpredictable behaviors of today's Internet business.

Getting a Handle on SOA Risk

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST

Services have a lot of potential for providing value to the enterprise, but their use also brings a level of risk. Some of these risks are financial, while others are operational. Fortunately, all of this risk can be satisfactorily mitigated through appropriate governance activities. Simply put, governance is the process of risk management. Without proper governance, services may be built that are missing the basic functionality required, that only satisfy one use (a waste of the cost and resources involved in creating a service), or that require costly modifications to be reused.

HP's Director of Virtualization at SYS-CON's 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo in Silicon Valley

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:15:00 EST

Nick van der Sweep, HP's Director of Virtualization and Insight Software ESS Infrastructure Software, gave an information-packed breakout session at SYS-CON's 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo last week in San Jose, California. He explained to delegates how to develop a virtualization strategy that will enable the transformation of a datacenter into a cost-effective, energy efficient and responsive IT environment that can dynamically adapt to the changing business requirements.

Microsoft’s Mike Neil Keynotes at SYS-CON's 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:15:00 EST

"Virtualization will help our customers be more agile and efficient," noted Mike Neil at SYS-CON’s Virtualization Conference & Expo, in San Jose, CA, "and there are three areas these companies are focused on." These areas are to drive costs down, increase efficiency, and using virtualization to provide new capabilities.

Clerity Introduces New Legacy Modernization and SOA Solutions

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:30:00 EST

Clerity Solutions has introduced new software and services that enable legacy mainframe applications and rehosted workloads to play strategic roles in SOA and Web Services initiatives. Building on a heritage of maximizing the value of core IT assets while lowering total cost of ownership, Clerity Service Builder and Clerity Web Connect allow organizations to easily expose legacy assets as secure Web Services and rapidly transform inflexible screen-based applications into modern, user-friendly Web applications.

Symantec and Intel Present General Session at SYS-CON's 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST

With an ever increasing variety of physical and virtual endpoints, companies are rapidly facing the next big challenge – manageability. So stated Symantec's Brian Duckering and Intel's Chuck Brown in their general session on Friday at SYS-CON’s 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo held in San Jose, CA. In order to manage hybrid types of models, companies need to balance the datacenter with the needs of the users.

Mind Mapping in the Cloud

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:15:00 EST

Apple’s not the only one telling people to "Think Different." So is an outfit called Mindjet. It's into mind mapping, which isn't as chilling as it sounds. It's merely a way of brainstorming and diagramming non-linear thinking that actually goes back to Porphyry of Tyros in the third century. He used the technique to visualize the concept categories of Aristotle, which of course makes it alright then. But we digress.

Approaching Cloudsizing

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST

You’ve heard of downsizing and rightsizing, so how about Cloudsizing? As properly defined, Cloudsizing is: The improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of an organization through the selective use of computing resources that are delivered over the Internet. Simple but powerful, and fairly obvious, considering all that’s been written about Cloud Computing recently.

Intel’s New Chip is Here

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:15:00 EST

Intel’s most complex x86 desktop chip ever, a tiny part loaded with an incredible 731 million transistors that’s been five years in the making, has been released to the most dubious demand environment ever, especially for desktops – dubious enough for Intel to have cut its guidance last week. We’re talking here about the first of the company’s long-expected new-microarchitecture Nehalem chips, officially called Core i7, its first AMD-like “true” quad with all four cores on a single sliver of silicon and – also AMD-like – no front-side bus.

SOA Innovation Applied

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:15:00 EST

Are you a victim of outdated call center design syndrome? Symptoms include chaotic agent desktops, frustrated agents, miserable first-contact resolution rates, and angry customers calling back again and again. If you recognize these symptoms, then you're most likely a victim. This article will offer a service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based cure for outdated call center syndrome.

Intel Presents General Session at SYS-CON’s SOA World Conference & Expo

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:30:00 EST

"SOA evolves in a set of micro domains," stated Intel's Joshua Painter, as he examined the state of SOA practices at SOA World Conference & Expo, in San Jose, CA. Despite the many instances of SOA that are emerging within the global 2000 today, the ability to leverage common services and a common metadata layer in a secure and scalable manner is paramount, but rarely addressed.

OpenSpan and TIBCO Team on Desktop Integration for SOA and BPM

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:15:00 EST

OpenSpan and TIBCO have announced a technology and business partnership designed to extend TIBCO solutions to desktop environments. The partnership will enable TIBCO Service-Oriented Architecture, Business Process Management and Business Optimization solutions to more rapidly integrate with desktop applications without requiring changes to those desktop applications. “The OpenSpan technology helps our joint customers service and event enable any desktop application without changing the code and with nearly zero impact to that application,” said Tom Laffey, executive vice president, products & technology at TIBCO.

Microsoft Says No to Yahoo Acquisition – Again

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:15:00 EST

Microsoft is open to a collaborative search deal with Yahoo, “very open” apparently, but CEO Steve Ballmer again nixed the thought of revisiting an acquisition, according to both the AP and Reuters. The AP quotes him as saying, “Let me be clear. We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo.”

SOA World Conference & Expo Session to Discuss How Social Governance Brings Viability to Web 2.0

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST

SOA brings together people, not just software. That’s why integrating Web 2.0 concepts into a SOA—such as comments, feeds, ratings, tags, and automatic search alerts—holds so much promise for breaking down business silos and enabling many people to work together for the first time. However, the unfettered communications associated with consumer Web 2.0 also need to be more controlled once they move into an enterprise SOA. IT professionals require social governance that balances the agility enabled by Web 2.0 capabilities with adherence to policies, visibility into changes, security, and access control.

XAware to Speak at SOA World Conference & Expo

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:45:00 EST

XAware has announced that Kirstan Vandersluis, founder and chief scientist, will be a featured speaker at the 14th International SOA World Conference & Expo 2008 West to be held November 19-21, 2008 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Calif. Mixing and mashing multiple data sources, all of different formats, into something that makes sense is a headache for software architects.

SOA World: The Road to SOA Performance

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST

Focusing your service-oriented architecture (SOA) performance management efforts on the application testing stage or attempting to manage production SOA applications solely with traditional point solutions and network management tools is a recipe for disaster, putting your customer's satisfaction and your company reputation on the line. Production SOA Performance and Service Level Agreement (SLA) management must be built into the overall SOA strategy.

CA & VMware to Integrate Management Solutions

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:00:00 EST

CA and VMware are going to jointly develop a management solution and, to start, have signed a deal to make CA Data Center Automation Manager interoperate with VMware Stage Manager. The joint solution is designed so enterprises and cloud service providers can seamlessly provision applications and resources from both corporate datacenter and service provider clouds.

Appistry to Conduct Cloud Survey at SYS-CON's 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:45:00 EST

Appistry announced findings from the first in a series of surveys the two organizations are conducting among CloudCamp participants. The inaugural Appistry/CloudCamp "Inside the Cloud" survey showed Amazon besting Google by a nearly two-to-one margin as the company expected to play the largest role in the future of cloud computing.

HP: Economic Contrarian

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:15:00 EST

HP jumped the gun Tuesday and told the worried multitudes a week ahead of when it’s supposed to release its latest numbers that it more than just survived the volatile quarter it just ended in October when the bottom fell out of the economy. Not only that but, unlike the panicky Cisco and Intel, it forecast a relatively unscathed future.