Development

Get Answers from Your Peers

Dave Oliver — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:23:53 GMT

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 to C9 Tech Off for that but for everything else try ITKE first rather than relying on the randomness of Google and then wondering if whether to subscribe to Experts Exchange to get the darn answer to a question because they always end-up somewhere near the top.

OK so why do I like ITKE?

1) It's not like a forum, no wading through pages and pages of stuff to get to the answer. If you can improve on the answer given, you are allowed to using a Wiki-style interface.

2) For asking, answering or discussing questions, you can earn points which then can be use to purchase items, like gadgets. You get more point the better your rating. And they have a competition to win prizes for points.

I recently discovered that they also have a whole bunch of very active bloggers that are experts in a particular field, Anton Venter has just started his blog on Enterprise Architecture and is promising a no-nonsense approach so I'll be watching this with interest.

So, all in all, a good IT community that isn't married to a vender where the content is easy to access that has a unique approach to improving the quality of answers all of which are from peers.

Can Developers Work Inside Virtual Environments?

Dave Oliver — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:35:14 GMT

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 with companies wishing their employees to travel less to reduce carbon footprint or to offshore work. But as development environments are resource intensive it has always been felt that they wouldn't make a reasonable virtualisation candidates.

Also, by moving development operations off local desktop means that developers do not have to carry around the weighty desktop replacement laptops, they have far more options from, a large screen, thin client, keyboard, mouse and network access or sitting in the local coffee shop on their Wifi with the trusty Asus Eee or any combination in between.

After some investigation I've determined that normal code writing isn't very resource intensive at all! Infact the only part that is, is compilations. Even with the wealth of utilities and tools at a developers disposal, the modern day processor handles it with some aplomb. Candidacy looks even better when realised that most development environments are running under 32bit operating systems on typical desktops and laptops with up to 4GB RAM and this is the exception rather than the rule, the average being 1-2GB RAM. This puts things into perspective when the modern day virtual server spec is 4 x quad core with 64GB RAM, so you can see there is potential.

In the Lab

On the flip side of the coin, virtual environments can give the developer access to more options than they currently have! No reason now not to run both Linux, Windows and Solaris, Java and .Net! SQL Server and Oracle! All at once! Or an IDE with as many tools and utils running as possible. Why not the whole darn multi-server application! Why not the Testing and pre-prod environments as well! All of which can be replicated as many times as you wish so you can kit out your team, your division, your company! To a certain point the limit is the imagination! And this is exactly where tools like VMware Lab Manager come in!

Lab Manager has been specifically written for the developer and tester in-mind where whole environments can be built and teared down again quickly. You can even have multiple copies of the same environment running at the same time so no need to fight over servers.

Cutting it with a blade

Dave Caddick pointed out to me that where virtualisation environment like VMware and Citrix still suck is graphically intensive operations.

Citrix has a few more years of experience over the marturist of virtual server and software virtualisation technologies that are still using RDP which doesn't perform as well graphically as ICA.

Dave offers an alternative solution to virtualised environments that still offer many of the savings in power, HVAC and TCO that servers have and that is the concept of the Blade PC's.

Blade PC , is a computer that is entirely contained in a thin, modular circuit card placed in a centralised, secure location such as a server rack. A cable connects the card to the user's display, keyboard and mouse. Vendors of blade PCs include ClearCube and HP .

A blade PC, in contrast to a thin client as it is a complete computer that includes all the components normally found in a desktop PC including the microprocessor, memory chips, hard drive, video card and network card. The blade PC concept is similar to the blade server paradigm, except that the ratio of cards to end-users is one-to-one rather than one-to-many.

Blade PCs are initially more expensive to deploy than the conventional arrangement, in which each station has its own computer box, because associated infrastructure, cards and cabling must be installed. Once installed, however, the blade PC offers a number of advantages over the traditional approach and they are,

Lower administrative, operational and maintenance resource demands
Space savings at the workstation
Ease of adding and relocating end users
Reduced workstation noise caused by fans and hard drives
Reduced work area heat generation
Sharing of certain accessories such as uninterruptible power supplies
Improved physical security by placing critical hardware in a central, locked location.

Be Brief

Amazingly, some software companies do not offer licensing for virtual environments which is pants! And very often virtual environment don't support specialised hardware so do your homework.

So you can see there is a number of different avenues open to the developer which are easy to justify. There is no point in trying to stuff everything into that 'paving slab' of a laptop as there is no longer any need, I believe once you get over the fear of giving up a bit of control you will feel the liberation! However it's not like going commando as virtual environments offer amazing support, eventually you'll hardly notice the difference and wonder what all the fuss was about!

Technorati tags: VMware, Blade PC, Lab Manager

Who Will Write Tomorrows Code?

Dave Oliver — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:54:17 GMT

The BBC's Bill Thompson in his recent blog post about the state of IT development in the UK has hit the nail on the head

"Universities have seen applications for computer science degrees fall off, schools do not encourage students to do computing at GCSE and A Level and primary school children are trained as users not as programmers."

Recent reports from the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and CEBR (Centre for Economics and Business Research) indicate that skilled migration workers, specifically in IT and Telco sectors, will significantly contribute to the UK economy and be instrumental in its future growth. So why isn't this capability grown here? It's almost like government and business has actually given up as the direct labour cost is cheaper else where. What I find fascinating is the in-direct costs such as longer lead-times aren't measured so we have no idea how much of an impact that is having or how much of a competitive advantage we are giving away. E-Petition on the Number 10 UK Government website about providing better support for out of work software developers and IT workers adequately demonstrates the lack of interest for issues effecting developers by the lack of signatories where some more inconsequential petitions have a significant amount more. The diminishing amount of UK developers is just not seen as an issue of national concern when it is pretty clear that our economy utterly relies on technology.

I feel this is a narrow sighted view not because I'm a complete xenophobe but as recent evidence suggests the cost of living is going up in the countries we are typically out-sourcing to, with rising inflation meaning wages will rise as a consequence. So as a prediction, cheaper offshore workforces are only going to be true for a period of time. Perhaps in as little as 10 years, wages will rise to a comparable rate between here and aboard nullifying the advantage of having an offshore but will we have sufficient development capability left in the UK to meet our economic needs or let it dwindle leaving us little choice.

So if we want to avoid this future wouldn't it seem prudent to incourage our young to take up carrers in computing now as protection for our future or as another option encourage IT workers from outside to settle here? Whatever option we chose, I believe we cannot afford to allow our development capability to diminish as it is a core skill which our economy does and will continue to depend.

Book Review: SOA Approach to Integration: by Ramesh Loganathan, Poornachandra Sarang, Frank Jennings, Matjaz Juric : Published by Packt Publishing

Dave Oliver — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:44:12 GMT

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 needs to take place across technological boundaries. Seems pretty obvious but I have a whole host of SOA books gathering dust because they lean heavily towards one technology and one approach. This book refreshingly avoids that, even avoid tasty new SOA areas such as composite applications and REST.

The book takes the reader through the basic principles using patterns to demonstrate many classic integration techniques. Sample code in Java and .Net and takes you through the interoperability story between these two mainstream development environments. Sadly this is where I found my first real criticism of the book, the book does not cover Microsoft .Net 3.0 and WCF or indeed any of the work performed by the Open SOA group such as SCA and SDO. I know that both technology frameworks are on version 1 but developers will be keen to use these frameworks and will feel license to do so as they aren't in beta.

One of the major problems with writing highly technical books is communicating complex points, this isn't very easy without diagrams. The book excels here because it's stuffed full of them, 92 diagrams (or there about's) and many a point sails across because of them.

Most of my list of key SOA points are covered but the books core strengths are BPEL, XML Schema's, Web Services and establishing an ESB, subjects it deals with a high degree of expertise second to none. However specific applications are not mentioned much but one of the clear aims of this book is to stay tech-neutral and keep to the keys points and I would like to thank the authors for that. It is a rare treat to see advice separate from opinion.

So would I use this book to advise me on my next SOA project? Most certainly yes! I can see it being my companion to many a design meeting and delving into it's pages for nuggets of advice. However comprehensive this book is not, thankfully it would therefore become a huge unwieldy tome and no use to man nor beast so I thank the authors that they keep things brief and to the point and at 351 pages not something that is going to weigh your brief-case down.

One very small point, I have been reading this book over Christmas and not one person thought to pick me up for reading a 'techie book' I suspect this is down to rather delightful butterfly on the cover. I wonder how many times that saved me from washing up?

Book: SOA Approach to Integration

Authors: Poornachandra Sarang, Frank Jennings, Matjaz Juric, Ramesh Loganathan

Publisher: Packt Publishing

Here from Amazon UK , Barnes and Noble & Packt

Technorati tags: SOA, Integration, BPEL, XML Schemas, Web Services, ESB, PackT Publishing

Codename "Oslo", Microsoft's next generation SOA thinking.

Dave Oliver — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:51:49 GMT

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 to a few years timeframe.

Microsoft in the past has been strongly criticised for it's SOA initiative for many different reasons which are,

Not having a comparable product range with most other vendors, making vendor selection harder.
Not adopting the same standards as other vendors, specifically in BPEL. For my mind this is a mute point as most vendors implement different versions of BPEL support in their products. The same cannot be said of WS-I WS-* standards for web services as Microsoft have supported their development using WSE extensions to .Net 2.0 and later on with WCF with .Net 3.0.

Reading the Oslo website my main concern is I'm seeing little emphasis on common standards and interoperability which for me are the main reasons why organisations decide to implement a SOA policy. So the question I'm asking is, is it really all about designing, building, scaling and managing .Net applications better which in the past has not been the strong suite of Microsoft which has made organisation go to third parties for products and advice to solve these problems.

The reason why we know about Oslo at all is that Microsoft want to have a conversation with us which is something they are getting better at however there is no blog to link to, no entry on a forum or C9 so I'm looking for somewhere where I can have that dialogue with Microsoft, hence the blog post!

Technorati tags: SOA, Oslo, Microsoft, .Net, Biztalk

Is the Open Source debate important to Enterprise Architecture?

Dave Oliver — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:46:03 GMT

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 than an appreciation of what code can do and the only way to find that out is to code something. Sadly that argument doesn't wash with Enterprise Architecture because it's not about designing software solutions at all, not at any level. Hence why a person from a business back-ground can happily be a very good Enterprise Architect, technical skills are not a primary requirement, an appreciation is fine and the ability to find out and ask the person who would know best is better.

So do I miss coding? No, to be frank. I have done my time and now I want the new challenge. However, being an Enterprise Architect means that I have to put the benefit of the business before vendor elegance's. Infact I find yourself having to take a position of complete neutrality to allow yourself to get to a place to see the big picture. So being a coder in .Net, being an advocate of .Net to suddenly realising that I can no-longer do that as now technology choices aren't mine to make, infact benefiting the business means that I can end up eventually promoting solutions written by the other team and if it fulfills requirement, then that's what it's all about. As you can imagine a weird position to be in for someone who spent so long being a Microsoft evangelist because it kept my boys and girls in work!

One of the big debates in development these days is to write, contribute and use Open Source software, the pro's and con's of the debate I'm not going to dwell on here as many people have done it so much better than me. I agree that half the battle with Open Source is mind-set and whether you can get your head round it. The assumption is that if you develop code in .Net you must be into close source and this is actually far from the truth. Being a contributor to Open Source projects in the past, I get it and I love it! It is a bit more that really cool software for zero price but boy is that a killer reason. I got a kick out of watching the download count go up and realising that people were using my code.

Now I find myself in a place where this debate must have no bearing on my role as an Enterprise Architect for the same reason as I can't advocate .Net as the result could cloud my judgement. Yep, I get I'm allowed preferences but not if they get in the way.

Ultimately Enterprise Architecture is about knowing where you are now, knowing where you want to get to and giving a guide on which type of roads to take and whether the vehicle needs to be big or small, but whether its a Ford truck or a Honda bike driving down the M3 then the M25, that's not your call anymore.

Do you agree? Post a comment, I would love to hear your opinion.

Technorati tags: Enterprise Architecture, Open Source

Enterprise Architecture: Microsoft Architecture Journal Reader

Dave Oliver — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:56:13 GMT

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 to have some issues. Also .Net 3.0 is a pre-requistite and will attempt to install if you wish. if not present on your system.

The download is here.

DDD6 (DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper) Day registration is now open ... so be quick!

Dave Oliver — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:24:14 GMT

I look forward to seeing you there.

Silly ...

Dave Oliver — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:11:44 GMT

Don't bet the farm on AJAX if you don't have to.

Dave Oliver — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:50:49 GMT

The post is a cautionary tail of the latest episode of common sense versus cool.

AJAX is a great technology that allows webpages to have much richer content. Google Maps was the turning point for this technology as it brought the technology to the attention of the Technorati that has enjoyed a superficial level of hype ever since because it is encompassed as the lynch-pin of Web 2.0.

The key part of AJAX is Javascript which is a language that all mainstream browsers, no matter what operating system, have installed by default, no need for additional plug-ins. The issue I have with Javascript is that it isn't a compiled language, it's interpreted so will not work any where as fast as compiled code. Javascript does not multi-thread, so adding more Cores to your machine is not going to make an applications written in Javascript run any faster. A good example of this is that now many webpages are taking a great deal more processor power than they would have say 12 months ago and this is the reason why I do not recommend a low-spec machine for surfing the web these days and perhaps not hardly surprising with the additional burden of video adverts, remember when only high-spec machines could only run video?

I believe that Javascript will re-ignite the GHz arms-race between Intel and AMD and will again become centre stage topic as Javascript doesn't run in multiple threads. Yes, I'm sure that having 2,4,8,12,16,32, etc cores is high on the agenda but the amount of core will eventually out-run it's usefulness. Developers are fully aware that writing applications that use multiple thread isn't child's-play to create so instances were this is used often require an extra level of justification for the additional time it takes to code them and this fact isn't changing anytime soon. I'm sure that operating systems of the future will even dedicate cores to a particular function such as one for the UI, two to look after security for example, but you can see from this example what is going to be the serious advantage of have 64 over 128? You are just going to have more spare cores idle for most of the time wasting electricity.

Whoever, inside most business today you are running Windows, most likely XP on a machine with a 1+ GHz processor and 512Mb of RAM, am I right? I bet that most of those machines have IE6 and are moving slowly to IE7, I would even hazard a guess that they may even have .Net 1.1 or even .Net 2.0 installed? Perhaps even the latest JVM?

If this is the case then why the hell are businesses worrying about writing stuff in Javascript?

Are businesses likely to migrate to Mac OS or Linux anytime soon? Well what would be the point? It doesn't take a genius to work out that this wouldn't make a great deal of sense right now. Hey, I think I'm safe in not having to do an ROI on this one, it's that obvious, remember the OS change from 98 or even ME to XP and that was just an OS upgrade, can you imagine a platform change? And just like any OS change what would be the justification? Well I know first hand about expensive migration projects, one that was going to save £250,000 ended up costing £1.2 million. Just adds weight to the saying, No free lunches in business. So for my mind, it's got to be a slam-dunk or a twisted arm to make me recommend that kind of change again.

Ok, so if your business is the web or is very important to your business that having the people that use your website have the best possible experience this is of paramount importance but lets be perfectly clear here most businesses do not make their money from the web so making a better investment in what the already have makes far more sense then jumping ship and following the trend. Lets not beat about the bush here, Window Forms applications make rich experiences now, with little development effort, compiled and can happily run quickly on many machines now not some uber-beast of the future. Technologies such as SMS and Smart-Clients have made deploying Windows Forms applications a piece of cake for years over 1000's of desktop all over the world.

The disadvantage is with a Windows Form application that it's first language isn't the web, and the Internet does create many a hurdle, but again lets be realistic here? Exactly how many applications are going to see the cold light of day outside a LAN or WAN? I guess that it's going to be the majority. Software as a service isn't here yet and we are going to have to wait till .Net 3.5 and Orcas before WCF and WWF get all of it's teeth into WS-* that's going to be simple enough for the average Joe developer to string together and that's just the Microsoft world. Java world is going to have to wait for OSOA.

So, being an Architect at a Developers party doesn't mean I'm a kill-joy but it's clear that IT does have to reduce it's run-away costs to regain trust with the business who after all come up with the cash that pays for everything. So be pragmatic and invest in what you have rather than be a cool kid. Lets be honest spending the extra time learning Web 2.0 and AJAX and fighting with the new tools, then spending all the budget building new kit to run it all on and the project is finished sometime in the next few years never over getting the project finished in the next 12 months and the kudos from delivering. Boring? Yes but then 80% of all IT projects fail to deliver on time and to budget and one of the reason is because we in IT just LOVE to chase rainbows that the next big thing brings, the next version will solve all our problems! Can you imagine Isimbard Kingdom Brunel waiting till Bill-Bob's widgets & Co brought out rivet 2.0, remember his involutions came from what he finished. So the moral is, don't wait for BIll, Steve or Eric to come and save you, they have their own agendas and us hankering for Rivet 2.0 is only aiding them, egged on unwittingly by the Technorati who, lets face it, haven't got to stand up in front of your boss and tell them why the projects late. A healthy dose of realism and pragmatism means you sitting on the beach with a pay rise perhaps to sitting in an office wrestling with the next broken promise. Lets just stop beating ourselves up. </rant>