Enterprise Technology Thought Leadership in a FTSE 100
Servers are the backbone of enterprise computing today, most websites for example run on either Apache or IIS and will be running on a server of some description. Perhaps because of servers ubiquity it is easy to become complacent about them especially as they are rarely seen but understanding what a server can offer you and it's limitations will definitely help with software development. Servers on the whole are built more of the practicality side than for the esthetics, there is no need to make ......
Live Mesh seems like a simple thing, perhaps that is the point? But what 'Mesh offers me is of great personal value in that it gives me is a little part of my day back and one less complication in my life. So what is so great about it? Well I can work on documents, blog posts, spreadsheets, any file, from work or working from home, seamlessly without having to transport them via USB key or emailing them to a home or work account and run the gauntlet of quotas and cumbersome filters. Live Mesh is ......
Last funny for today!
The word on the mean streets of Rumoursville town is that Microsoft is going to lift the licensing restriction where currently software is licensed to a physical device. Why? With technologies such as VMotion and XenMotion, a VM is moved around a farm automatically to where it can make the best use of available resources such as CPU and memory. With Microsoft products you are required to license all the physical machines that the software is likely to run on, this isn't just Windows but SQL Server, ......
There is a bewildering array of Enterprise Architecture methodologies so it will be of great interest to me to find out which one people are actually using, if at all. So to find out, I have put together a pick poll so please take the two minutes and leave your choice. You get a chance to select up to 3 options because I suspect that people are using a combination of more than once approach, rather than following one prescriptively. This is purely for interest purposes, I'm not going to use this ......
Need I say more? And to save time here is the link to MSDN Subscriptions Pages ......
Vmware currently is going through the wars. A change of CEO, a plunging share-price and a competitor getting alot of attention with their new product, that being Microsoft with Hyper-V. However, I just don't get it!? ESX Enterprise is still out in front in terms of features and pricing is very competitive. Any organisation performing their own unbiased product comparison evaluations is going to be hard pushed to discount Vmware's flagship product. The killer feature for many is ofcourse Vmotion that ......
The question being asked today is do you prefer Internet Explorer or Firefox? to mark the launch of Firefox v3. Well I have both installed on this machine, both patched and uptodate but shockingly I'm not in-love with either program. I don't find browsers sexy. OK, so I liked tab's that for me is the single biggest innovation in the last few years but I was using those in IE before Firefox went mainstream. What about security, what about compatibility and adherence to standards? Security is important ......
I have this belief that understanding how to manage time is an essential task of Enterprise Architecture but oddly this is a principle that isn't spoken about much, if at all. Oddly some Enterprise Architecture software tools only seem to provide time management tools for software support life cycles. Hence a previous post that went in some way to start the debate with a mindmap to capture and categorise the elements that Enterprise Architecture would be interested in. After reviewing this mindmap ......
John Wu is a good guy. Out of respect for Fenix Theuerkorn and his work on Lightweight Enterprise Architecture, John has decided to rename his EA Methodology from LiteEA To Coherent EA. Coherent EA is a actually a better, more descriptive name for John’s work IMHO and as a regular contributor to the ITToolbox conversations his methodology has the benefit of faster development from genuine experience than most of the others I could mention. I certainly have benefited from Coherent EA in the past and ......
Today I managed to sneak into the Farnborough Airshow under a trade pass to sample the delights of this bi-annual event without the public crowds of the great unwashed in my continuing search for innovation. After all, the defences, aviation and IT industries are joined at their respective hips as innovations in one are keenly felt in the others. Take for example the Eurofighter Typhoon Cockpit, it is pretty uncomplicated and has far fewer switches and buttons than most jet fighters. Pretty amazing ......
The Open Group has recently released a draft version of a SOA ontology. The Open Group has always had a mandate to help boundaryless information flow and the ontology (specification of conceptualisation) for SOA is a demonstration of just that. The ontology is written in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) defined by the World-Wide Web Consortium and this for me is what makes it a hurdle to learn as it's not an intuitive meta-language but then is any? Perhaps if it wasn't for the graphical tools we would ......
VMLogix LabManager is in same space as VMware Lab Manager what I reviewed recently. However, its key differentiators is around automation – enabling developers, testers and IT Pro staff to entirely automate the process of setting up synchronized multi-machine deployment (including the software stacks in the virtual machines) no matter what virtualisation technology. Yes, VMLogix LabManager is virtualisation platform agnostic! So if you decided on VMware, Hyper-V or Citrix you will still be able to ......
... is the latest short film from PES who are the makers of the excellent film Game Over! which I very much enjoyed and I hope you will to.
Many of us did it, made one New Year Resolutions to many at the Millennium and didn’t managed to succeed in any of them. I tried to give up smoking, losing a bit of weight, drinking less beer, save up to buy a house and learning to drive. A lot of change there, to much infact, so unsurprisingly I failed. A common story. 8 years later, all those things on the list are (more or less) achieved and how I did that was by concentrating on fixing one thing at a time. Again unsurprisingly, psychologists ......
Microsoft have release a really cool tool for downloading and reading the Architecture Journal magazine offline. The new reader is a locally installed application that enables you to read every issue of the Journal into a searchable and easy-to-read form. The application synchronizes with our content management services so that you'll automatically have access to the latest Journal issues without needing to download PDF files or checking online. Please note the tool is still in Beta so there is bound ......
Analysts, vendors and end users alike appear united in their enthusiasm for SOA. Recently the Butler Group tells us that only 3% of organisations have rejected SOA. In a recent survey by systems integrator Griffiths Waite found that 2008 is a critical year for SOA implementation, with 15% of organisations already running SOA but a much larger 38% progressing towards it. Of the 47% still “contemplating” it, Giffiths Waite says “evidence suggests these will [start to] move into strategising and planning”. ......
Gaston Milano and friends have been busy writing some handy little tools for Visual Studio 2005.
Blog entry here, download here.
The IBM Software Architect Kit is a nice set of goodies that introduces the world of software architecture. Grady Booch takes you through a series of podcasts that explains the past, present and future with a set of documentation that covers the world of software architecture according to IBM at reasonable high level. As I've said before I'm not really a raving fan of Grady Booch but I respect his massive contribution to the discipline. You will require an IBM ID to access the kit ......
MSN Search has made some changes to it's interface and it's search algorithm. I have to admit that I prefer MSN simply because when I type in Dave Oliver into MSN Search this blog comes out on top when I type Dave Oliver into Google, this blog doesn't. A good way to choose your search engine, well it's as good as any other way I say! :-) Whilst I'm on the subject of search engines, I've been watching Robert Scobles Brrreeeport report experiment with some interest. It has highlighted that search engines ......
Recently, I was involved in a SOA review for an organisation (obviously, I do not wish to name names) It was pretty clear that they hadn’t actually adhered to many of the key SOA Design Principles that are, Standardized Service Contracts Service Loose Coupling Service Abstraction Service Reusability Service Autonomy Service Statelessness Service Discoverability Service Composability Service-Orientation and Interoperability Much of the SOA was built using a single vendors technologies many corners ......
I have been subscribing to TechTarget emails for sometime because of the low signal to noise ratio covering a broad technology spectrum that is important to me as I'm keen to hear from more than just a few vendors so it comes as no surprise that IT Knowledge Exchange (ITKE) was recently voted one of the 10 Great Media Web Sites. ITKE is on of those dead-handy site that I keep in the 'Favourites' when I want to find an answer. It's not so good for Microsoft .Net Development questions, better off going ......
Job titles are often effortless in their descriptiveness. Project Manager, Business Analyst, System Tester and .Net Developer are good examples because the subject is concise and the predicate modifies successfully, all meaning some semblance of what a person does can be derived from it. However with 'Enterprise Architecture' and 'Enterprise Architect' it’s not entirely obvious what the position is and what someone holding that position does, inevitably leading to the need for further description ......
IBM are offering $25,000 for 20,000 users to have unlimited remote support for a year, the product itself is free just like OpenOffice which Symphony grew from, that's $1.25 per user. According to Directions, Microsoft Office costs, licence and support, $151per user for 20,000 users, however Microsoft will discount depending on what else is purchased. I don't have to do the sums for you, the difference between the pricing could pay for a migration project which could be tempting for companies looking ......
I just had to post this video as I was so impressed! My Wii is looking old and crude.
According to James McGovern, I probably am! Why? Because I don’t code … very often. I don’t sit in an Ivory tower either making up my dictions via, Visio & Powerpoint. I think the key to being a good Architect is taking responsibility for designing a technical solution for business requirement with those who are going to built it, implement it, look after it and use it. Making good technical decisions often means getting your hands dirty and trying afew things out, if that is writing code or ......
The possible purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft is purely about taking on Google. I have to say with all the privacy concerns around Google and their lack of real success outside their core business this could be a serious challenge to them. Google's advertising model works by shear mass of subscribers paying very small amounts and this is how they have made their money. If this allows Microsoft to challenge the Google brand then I think that is good for the consumer and industry. However all Search ......
For all those supporters of the Waterfall methodology here is the conference just for you!http://www.waterfall200... Register for Waterfall 2006 We're sorry but registration is not yet ready. Our software developers have a really wonderful design. They're almost done entering it into it a UML tool. They've told us not to worry and that finishing it will be "trivial" because "all that's left is the coding." We're not sure what features will be on the registration pages because the developers haven't ......
"Oracle will continue to recognize each core as a separate processor; however, the processor definition has been amended as it relates to counting multi-core chips to determine the total number of processor licenses required. For the purposes of counting the number of processors that require licensing, the number of cores in a multi-core chip now shall be multiplied by a factor of .75. Previously, each core was counted as a full processor." Source: here I think this is rubbish! A processor is a processor ......
Look guys, I would rather be 4, then 35 or 40! (link) Sarah and Barry apparently went though a lot of both to arrange special surprises for me. (link) Gosh I'm such an ungrateful git! Tomorrow is the C9 Geek and Greet, (Still places if you're interested) I wonder what 'tom foolery' I can expect from the resident practical jokers in the usual Geek suspects ......
Recently I've squirreled myself away working on a project that had an utterly predictable answer leaving me feeling, why on earth did I bother!? What am I talking about? Migrating from Microsoft Office to an alternative product like Google, Lotus Symphony, Zoho, OpenOffice or Ability. Microsoft Office has long been a mighty cash-cow in the Microsoft farm-yard for many a year now but it has a singular big weakness, the chink in the armour and that is the licensing cost. On face value it's price is ......
Recently, I installed Vista SP1 RC Public Availability Programme (here) and I was initially disappointed as on inspection it was business as usual I couldn't find any differences and I was left wondering what was all that about then? I even took the time to do timings to do a before and after on times that was important to me such as timings in a DirectX games and none of them have changed, I even re-run them again and not one difference. So what I wanted from Vista SP1 was better performance in ......
Selling the theory for SOA is pretty easy, the execution is harder because technically it isn't actually a very simple thing to do, let alone the changing of the structure of your IT organisation to house-keep. The book SOA Approach to Integration is aimed fairly and squarely at the Architect and Senior Developer who has the job of designing and implementing SOA technical level. The book is very resolute in keeping a strong focus on the technology and pleasantly realises that successful integration ......
I would just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Dave
I watched lastnights BBC Money Programme on Facebook which you can watch on iPlayer again in the UK from here. The section of the show I found most revealing was on 1000heads who are 'digital dialogue experts' which basically means they read online conversations which can be between you and your friends to build up a picture of likes and dislikes. This information is then used in marketing. This happens across blogs and information sources were this information can be read publicly. This is why Facebook ......
Recently I have had the pleasure to work with Paul Homan and benefit from his wealth of experience in Enterprise Architecture which is considerable. His CV is impressive having held the role of Enterprise Architect for seven years in the wild, sat on the Open Group Architecture Executive Forum and had a hand in shaping TOGAF since version 2. He *may* even be the reason why we have the infamous TOGAF crop circles. So Paul is without doubt a thought leader in the EA space. Paul has decided that it's ......
Over the last few weeks I've been off the radar knuckling down to complete the first release of our Enterprise Architecture. We decided that the as our group was small what it would take a great deal of time to produce a full blown EA, so we decided to deliver very small parts frequently and often each new increment coming every 4-6 weeks. The initial release contains only the Charter and a Release Schedule, the intended audience was the IT Director and the direct reports, the purpose was to put ......
Oslo is the codename for technical thinking aimed specifically at simplifying designing, building, managing and scaling of service-oriented and composite applications that can span from the enterprise to the Internet. It is thought the first version of Oslo will be delivered through the next versions of our application platform products such as Microsoft Visual Studio 10, Microsoft System Center 5, BizTalk Server 6, BizTalk Services 1 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4. So, we are talking a 18 months ......
I first started coding at the age of 10 on a Commodore Vic 20. Last week I finally un-installed Visual Studio 2003 on my laptop because I need the space and I never touch it. It was sad admitting that I don't code and my role does not require me to. If I did find myself coding then I probably shouldn't because there is so much else to do and we have more than a few guys and girls that will happily do the job and only a couple doing EA. Yep, I get the argument that a good architect should have more ......
It’s pretty clear that ‘Enterprise Architecture’ and ‘Enterprise Architect’ is considerably more than one role. As such the practice of EA isn’t very efficient because it is a ‘jack of multiple disciplines and master of none’. Naturally specialisms will occur to make up for inefficiencies and will then continue to adapt and evolve. During this process I can also see a consensus on what these new roles will be called and a broad definition and responsibilities, this will occur as we try to find people ......
Microsoft's Nick Malik has written a thought provoking piece on understanding the customer and how EA should rise to the challenge of aligning Business and IT be focusing on the customer needs. Essentially, I agree with the sentiment whoever i disagree on a couple of huge monster key points ... 1) I don't believe that the average customer is that tech-savvy! Yep, they dabble and it's enough to get by, but code up mash-ups ... are you joking? Seriously? I can see how Microsoft's vision of the world ......
It comes as no surprise to me but swearing at work is good according to a study by researcher at the University of East Anglia, UK (UAE) "The study found regular use of profanity to express and reinforce solidarity among staff, enabling them to express their feelings, such as frustration, and develop social relationships. The results of the study, Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: when anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable, are published in the current issue of ......
I've just caught up the latest installment in the " 'To Process' or 'Not To Process' " debate that has become a blogger slanging match between James McGovern, Robert McIlree and James Robertson played out in the comments sections and blog posts. To summarise the debate has moved on from whether EA is just a set of processes or whether it's a practice. My pitch was that it's actually both and applied appropriately. So a debate about direction and ethos. So a pointless opportunity for procrastination? ......
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I look forward to seeing you there.
As I've been helping out with VMware I wanted to consider the old question of whether developers really could work inside virtual environments? As we know virtual environments can help maximise under utilised resources, CPU, RAM, diskspace and save on space, power, HVAC and TCO with centralised support and maintenance. Another main advantage of virtualised environments that is particularly attract to many developers is the ability to remote work which is a requirement that has become far more common ......
Ask almost any Enterprise Architect and more seriously anyone who has to work with Enterprise Architects, what Enterprise Architecture is? and I guarantee you will get a great number of differing responses. Yes, obviously you will get a number that that only describe their individual relationship and won't fully encompass the role but then again will they know the rest of what an Enterprise Architect can do? ... and if they don't know and they are a manager could they make a mistake and create another ......
Roles in Perth, Scotland Business Analyst Support Analyst/Programmers for Home Services systems Roles in Basingstoke, England Analyst/Programmers for Energy Sales systems with C#.Net or PL/SQL skills Roles in Havant, England Project Managers Business Analysts Senior Analyst/Programmers with ORACLE skills Analyst/Programmers with ORACLE skills Analyst/Programmers with ORACLE E Business Suite skills Lead Systems Designers IT Security Engineers Database Administrators (DBAs) ORACLE or SQL Server skills ......
A few weeks ago 'Fluffy' was just an egg sitting in a make-shift nest behind my satellite TV dish. I checked this morning to find the egg had hatched and Fluffy the chick happily squeaking for his/her breakfast. OK, you can go Ahhhh now ......
Every now and again you come across a real gem of a find and www.liteEA.com is one of them! It's pretty obvious that John Chi-Zong Wu has spent quite a considerable amount of time putting together this amazing EA resource! The book section is the most impressive, it literally is a 'how-to' on EA and I've only scratched the surface and it's already been very useful! Do you know what I find surprising? The site counter has only 2369 visits! Which means this is pretty much an undiscovered resource that ......
Jeff Schneider over at Momentumsi has stirred up some EA’s with his post Why Enterprise Architecture is a Joke in particular John McGovern with this post which Jeff Schneider replied to with this. In Jeff's post, point 3 hit home the most ... "3. Silo Organizations promote Silo Funding. Many EA's never had a chance. They live in organizations that fund everything according to business silo's. Then, the EA is expected to bridge the silos with nickle and dime funding. Their inability to perform Herculean ......
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