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Business PerspectiveSalesforce.com to Deliver Back-End Integration Tools You know the argument: SaaS applications are great for green field deployments but difficult or risky to integrate with those legacy applications where all the really important data lives.
With its announcement of ApexConnect an integration tool to connect on-demand applications to back-end systems analysts claim Salesforce.com has moved to stuff that bogeyman back in the closet and has given SaaS enterprise-level capabilities.
The company said its ApexConnect integration services would be built on Salesforce's Apex programming language for multitenant applications announced last month. The new tool would allow about 400 third-party applications on the company's AppExchange platform to work with legacy applications Web services and other on-demand applications.
Apex uses a syntax that most Java programmers will find familiar and allows any component or application created in it to be shared with any other application on the AppExchange.
BEA Open-Sources Java Persistence Technology
BEA Systems announced that it will open-source a significant portion of BEA Kodo its persistence engine under the name Open JPA. BEA which acquired Kodo as part of its purchase of SolarMetric in November 2005 will open-source the portion of Kodo that supports EJB3 (Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0). Kodo also supports the JDO (Java Data Objects) API. Open JPA is a set of Java persistence APIs that are based on the upcoming EJB3 standard. A key element of the draft EJB 3.0 specification focuses on persisting in-memory objects in relational databases BEA officials said. This means that transient objects like the contents of an online shopper's cart or airline ticket reservations can be stored permanently in a relational database and retrieved the company said. The plan is to have it [Open JPA] governed by an Apache license said Neelan Choksi former president of SolarMetric now senior director of product marketing at BEA.
Salesforce.com Takes Aim at Java .Net with AppExchange
Salesforce.com began its campaign to turn its on-demand customer relationship management service into a development platform for Web applications with the official introduction of AppExchange here Tuesday. The company rolled out AppExchange along with the Winter '06 edition of its core CRM application at the type of event that has become Saleforce.com's hallmark; it invited several hundred people to a small venue where guests are chest-to-chest packed six deep into corridors and hallways. This time it was at the St. Regis San Francisco's newest and trendiest hotel. With his usual evangelistic fervor Marc Benioff chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com talked about his company's plan for providing a common access point and development platform for many different kinds of Web applications. Our vision is to take killer applications on the Internet and transform that into a platform just as our predecessors did with the PC Benioff said during his keynote address. To do that we need a platform [where developers can] create and publish applications that are secure and scalable in global implementations with local [functionality] like currency. Also we want mash-ups like Craigslist integrated with Google. We want to have those mash-ups but a lot of them automating business. So we've been working on AppExchange.
Java Development Gets Web 2.0 Treatment Addressing the issue of bringing Java development more in line with the needs of Web 2.0 developers an open-source project has emerged to deliver Java support for the Representational State Transfer architectural style. Jerome Louvel a developer based in Levallois-Perret France has established a project known as the Restlet project to create a REST framework on top of the Java Servlet API. Louvel who serves as an independent consultant specializing in Java development and business process integration as the founder of Noelios Consulting said his mission with the Restlet project is to bring the simplicity and efficiency of the REST architectural style to Java developers. However Louvel said he does not want to revive the debate of SOAP (Simple Object Application Protocol) versus REST as it has been discussed too many times already. The Servlet API has been around since 1998 and has been widely adopted as a way to generate dynamic content on HTTP servers. The Servlet API basically tries to represent a HTTP request/response cycle in an object-oriented model Louvel said in a paper describing his Restlet project. Along with Java Server Pages its sister specification it [Servlet API] became part of a larger effort to bring Java technologies inside companies.
Sun Releases Open-Source Java Database
Sun Microsystems Inc. Tuesday announced a move into the database world with the release of Java DB a distribution of the Apache Derby open-source database technology. During a keynote at the Apache Software Foundation's ApacheCon in San Diego Tim Bray director of Web Technologies at Sun and XML specification co-editor said Sun was incorporating the open-source Java DB into the Sun Java Enterprise System and providing additional support for the database with the NetBeans IDE (integrated development environment) 5.0 plug-in. Simon Phipps Sun's chief open-source officer who was seated in the audience during Bray's keynote Weblogged the event. Phipps wrote He [Bray] announced that Sun will be including a distribution of Apache Derby in future releases of Solaris Enterprise System and that Sun's distribution will be called Java DB (IBM's is called Cloudscape). Phipps added There was a cool demo that showed Java DB running in a Web browser allowing temporarily disconnected use of a database by a browser-based application. This could be just what Ajax [Asynchronous JavaScript and XML] is waiting for.
Compuware in Tune with Microsoft Java Community
With a renewed focus on modernizing and maintaining the integrity of mainframe and legacy systems as well as providing deep support for distributed .Net and Java-based systems Compuware Corp. is making a concerted effort to shed its old-line image and show it can be closely allied with both Microsoft Corp. and the Java community without short-changing customers.At its recent OJ.X annual user conference here Detroit-based Compuware offered numerous examples of how it supports applications on a variety of platforms throughout the life cycle from inception of the idea through development testing deployment and maintenance.According to Mike Burba director of Compuware Application Development Solutions development groups need tighter alignment with the business goals of their organization which can be achieved through agility applications development methodologies testing and tools.Compuware is delivering that for .Net and Java developers Burba said. In fact Tommi White chief operating officer at Compuware said the company will offer a suite of products that spans both platforms for organizations that have .Net and Java Enterprise Edition environments.
Microsoft Backs Open Source In Its Competition With IBM
When will Microsoft stake some of its resources on open-source software? When the product in question helps Windows sales and takes market share from IBM. That was the impetus behind a technical deal struck last week in which Microsoft will fly engineers from software company JBoss Inc. to Redmond Wash. to make sure JBoss' open-source Java-based middleware runs well on Windows SQL Server and other Microsoft products. JBoss sells its products under an open-source GNU Public License that Microsoft has criticized as a threat to intellectual-property ownership and its technology is based on the Java 2 Enterprise standard that competes with Windows as a development platform. But Microsoft said the deal is meant to help a small software company that influences sales of Windows server software. JBoss is an alternative business model and finding great financial success building on Windows says Bill Hilf Microsoft's platform-technology strategy director. JBoss' application server a crucial middle layer between databases and software programs claimed 34% of the app-server market at the end of last year says Shaun Connolly JBoss' VP of product management. IBM's WebSphere application server had 33% market share. Nearly half of JBoss' customers run its software on Windows he says.
Java Ranks as Leading Enterprise Development Language Forrester Says Analyst firm Forrester Research reports that Java is the most widely used strategic programming language claiming 66 percent market penetration. Visual Basic 6 (VB6) and C/C++ are hot on Java's tails Forrester says but VB6 is past mainstream support and C/C++ has a comparatively limited ecosystem. The Forrester report does not mention RPG. Cobol claims more than 30 percent penetration. As a group scripting languages and 4GLs also claim more than 30 percent.Microsoft's .NET languages are a bit slow to take off judging by their market penetration. Forrester estimates that VB.NET can claim 34 percent penetration and C# can claim 15 percent penetration. Forrester reports that enterprises view Java VB.NET and C# as their most strategic languages for future development.
At 10 Java Is Aging Well
Case Study: This year's JavaOne conference illustrated platform's maturity continued growth. Few would dispute that Java was a great idea but it takes years for even the biggest brainstorm to evolve into a technology ecosystem. A decade is none too long. Sun Microsystems Inc.'s 10th annual JavaOne conference held in San Francisco at the end of last month combined that level of maturity with a surprising vigor of continuing growth.This year's JavaOne showed off an impressive array of robust products—not just technology demos—attesting to the leverage that technology providers have gained from Java's original core design decisions.
Do Your Homework: Know Your Offshore Options One of the biggest challenges for small and midsize businesses that want to place IT work offshore is finding a reputable provider. While large companies typically have entire departments dedicated to identifying and vetting contractors most smaller companies don't have such in-house expertise. Vendor selection can be a discipline in and of itself EquaTerra analyst Stan Lepeak says. And simply doing a Google search doesn't help much. The search engine yields more than 700 000 results for offshore programming. But managers at small and midsize businesses looking to find IT help in say India or China do have some resources at their disposal. Participating in user groups at small-business associations and listening to word of mouth are among the best ways to zero in on potential contractors Gartner analyst Frances Karamouzis says. Informal networking is going to be one of the biggest drivers of offshoring in the small-business community Karamouzis says.
Oracle Puts on a JavaServer Face - Company to lead Eclipse JSF tooling project give away JDeveloper
Oracle at the JavaOne conference detailed a three-pronged effort to promote the JavaServer Faces framework which is designed to make it possible to quickly build Web applications by assembling user interface components in a page connecting those components to a data source and tying client-generated events to server-side event handlers. Those efforts include giving away its JDeveloper 10g integrated development environment leading a JSF tooling development within the Eclipse community and submitting software to the Apache MyFaces project. Java Users More Open-Minded about Open Source Java users are more likely to use open-source software than non-Java users according to research by Evans Data Corporation. The study reveals that 80 percent of heavy Java users (using Java more than 50 percent of the time) and 73 percent of light Java users (using Java less than 50 percent of the time) use open-source software for development. Less than 45 percent of non-Java developers use open source. In addition 80 percent of Java users have more confidence in Linux for mission-critical applications compared to less than 50 percent of non-Java users.
Open-Source Future For Java Enterprise System?
Sun announced Monday that it has distributed more than a million registered licenses for the Solaris 10 operating system since Jan. 31 when the software became available for free on Sun's Web site. Now it plans to follow up that move by making Java Enterprise System available as an open-source product as well. That will define us as a company truly committed to open source Jonathan Schwartz president and chief operating officer of Sun told InformationWeek. The company aims to cement itself as a long-term industry-cornerstone provider of operating-system software increasing its overall position in mainstream computing environments. Schwartz sees an epic battle ahead among Microsoft Sun and Red Hat. Going forward the dominate operating systems will be Microsoft Windows Sun Solaris and Red Hat Linux Schwartz says. Those are certainly
U.S. Army Deploys Signature Java Applet For Financial Disclosure Management
Approximately 40 000 U.S. Army personnel worldwide can now submit their updated financial information online along with a legally binding digital signature using Infomosaic's SecureXML Java Applet. The SecureXML Java Applet allows them to access their common access card (CAC) based PKI certificates to create cryptographically secure W3C standard compliant XML signatures.
Sun pours two shots of Java
JBoss and Sun said on Monday Feb. 7 they have signed a new multi-year agreement for JBoss to support the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform. The agreement is the latest agreement between the two companies. At a time when large proprietary vendors are moving to lock in users JBoss is more committed than ever to J2EE the Java community and standards that will ease development and use of Java technology said Marc Fleury chairman and CEO JBoss. Sun saddles up 'Mustang' for early access
Aiming to get more developers outside the company involved in the process of refining the Java platform Sun Microsystems last week posted an early-release of version 6.0 of its Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) code-named Mustang. Java developers can now go to java.net to download build 12 of the next version of J2SE source code--a prerelease snapshot version--and participate in developer forums. Sun says that it will turn to java.net in the future to enable a streamlined process for patch submissions. Sun is still working out the details of how these bug fixes and other non-JSR code from the community will be managed. Java and .Net are boosted
BEA and Enerjy Software this week are expanding Java tools efforts while MKS is focusing on boosting Microsoft’s Visual Studio .Net development platform. BEA is unveiling an enhanced version of its BEA dev2dev site for Java developers adding a collaborative development tool called dev2dev CodeShare. Based on the CollabNet Enterprise Edition development offering CodeShare is a bi-directional collaborative workspace designed to help developers share code and discuss issues.
IBM WebSphere 6.0 adds J2EE 1.4 but users risk “lock-in”
IBM’s new release improves performance and implements the latest version of Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE). But customers risk “lock-in ” due to the array of programming model extensions now available.
Akamai offers on-demand J2EE business applications
For businesses that want J2EE Web applications without going through the development lifecycle Akamai Technologies this week announced the availability of on-demand Web applications. Akamai is providing customers including electronics retailer Best Buy with IBM WebSphere-based applications on a pay-per-use basis running on Akamai infrastructure including hardware and software says Kieran Taylor director of product marketing. It’s sort of service oriented architecture on an easy payment plan as he explains it. 'We believe there are three key components to SOA ' Taylor tells JDT. 'The app infrastructure then you need component applications and then you need those applications assembled together into a business service.'
Gartner: Corporate IT to Compete for Skilled Engineers
Enterprises aren't going to need more coders but they are going to need services of skilled engineers capable of quickly turning business requirements into efficient applications according to two Gartner Inc. analysts. These engineers will have to overcome the real challenge in enterprise corporate software development—delivering effective applications in the face of overstated vendor promises and negative perception of internal development resources. One approach that could help speed up the development cycle is the heavy reuse of existing code and application components. But IT managers should not regard J2EE as a technology that will simplify software development. It is a complex technology that requires the knowledge of skilled developers he said. Defections Rattle Java Alliance
An alliance supporting a key Java specification has frayed as the standard approaches final draft status opening the possibility of a standards war over Web services integration. Sun Microsystems Inc. and BEA Systems Inc. formed the expert group in March 2003 to develop JSR (Java Specification Request)-208 also known as the JBI (Java Business Integration) specification. But as JSR-208 entered early-draft status this month BEA pulled its support. IBM which also initially supported the initiative pulled out earlier this month in favor of BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) which IBM created with Microsoft Corp.
The Cost Of Ideas
The software industry ended its latest intellectual-property crisis last week when Sun Microsystems agreed to pay Eastman Kodak Co. $92 million to settle a 2-year-old patent dispute that if carried to its bitter end posed worrisome ramifications for the widely used Java programming language. Last week's agreement appears to head off that calamity. Yet given the way things are going it's only a matter of time before there's another intellectual-property clash like it. The software industry seems destined for more altercations as developers look to protect their inventions through a patenting process that's still learning how to cope with claims to originality contained in arcane programming languages.
Striving For Cohesiveness
Financial institutions are tearing down outdated tech infrastructures to leverage I.T. architectures across departments. Many business-technology managers--particularly at financial institutions in acquisition mode or those trying to connect global business initiatives--are breaking down traditional operating silos to build IT architectures that leverage systems across departments. When RBC's architectural review committee develops guidelines such as for the use of Java 2 Enterprise Edition it gets feedback from IT personnel across the company until it reaches agreement.
What's new with Big Blue
Special Report: Inside IBM’s software plans
IBM has managed to tough out the turbulence that drastically changed the software business. IBM leveraged a mix of hardware software and services to improve its results in the industry sectors such as the public financial service and industrial segments it considers key. The company followed its ramp-up of Java with a big push on standards-based Web services and has been a very successful player in the new Linux OS segment. Coming up on the agenda are wider pushes into autonomic computing to ease deployment headaches as well as into pervasive computing to expand the notion of computer clients that cover more of the world.
ATG integrating e-commerce technology for WebSphere and Eclipse
Art Technology Group's Adam Belmont has spent the past year working to make it easier for Java developers to build customer-facing Web applications on IBM's WebSphere Studio platform. In July 2003 IBM and ATG announced an agreement to integrate WebSphere with ATG's technology for managing a customer's relationship with an e-commerce Web site. Since then Belmont has been working to make that happen. Building Java Business Processes Without Java Skills
Building new business processes that can be invoked over the Web gets complicated if the need is for more than a few new HTML pages. To make legacy systems supply services it's often necessary to use Java but not every company has a stable of Java programmers available for the work. Unify Corp.'s new release of its business-process-management system NXJ 10.5 is designed to supply the Java without the Java programmers.
SOA: From Pattern to Production - Sonic Webinar Series
With the flexibility to keep IT and business in close alignment service-oriented architecture (SOA) is the foundation of an agile IT infrastructure. How does the SOA vision make tactical change easier? What are your options for deploying an enterprise SOA now? Who has succeeded and what was achieved? Join this 3-Part webinar series to learn about SOA understand the requirements for an enterprise service bus (ESB) and understand how customers are benefiting from operational SOAs today.
Open Source Stress
Customers brace for the future as the intellectual-property agendas of the biggest tech companies seem ready to collide
CA IBM Databases Join Open-Source Parade
IBM and Computer Associates International Inc. are handing over parts of their respective relational database technologies to the open-source developer community. As a result customers will get a better insight into how to clear integration hurdles when connecting the DBMSes to third-party software.
IBM Not Threatened by Sun's Novell Gambit
IBM officials scoffed at Sun Microsystems Inc.'s intimations last week that it would buy Novell Inc. calling the rhetoric nothing more than an attempt to disrupt IBM and its customers
Mono 1.0 Brings Linux .Net-Style Development
Novell Inc.'s Mono 1.0 is an open-source implementation of Microsoft Corp.'s .Net development platform that provides companies with the opportunity to pursue the latest Microsoft development technologies while leaving open the door to cross-platform support.
Special Report: Inside IBM’s software plans
The IT industry is at the crossroads again. Yet some things are familiar. No one knows what “next big thing” is lurking around the corner and corporate buyers are more selective than ever -- but Big Blue is the player ahead on most lists. If it is not growing by leaps and bounds it is surely on top. And at least one primary IBM planner seems to relish the role.
CA Offers Cash For Database Converters
Software vendor launches a $1 million contest to help its Ingres database which it's turning over to the open-source community.
Paving The Way For Web Services
Service-oriented architectures let companies lay the foundation for software that is fast to write easy to integrate and runs on a range of platforms.
EXP Pharmaceutical Services Corp. is in the business of collecting drugs that have exhausted their shelf lives at hospitals doctors' offices or drugstores--and destroying them. That way potent drugs don't find their way onto the black market. EXP also ships drugs back to manufacturers for a refund or credit to the purchasers who eagerly await word of their reimbursements.
Business Technology: Stay Ahead Of The Curve With Us
We're making a lot of enhancements to our online products and services to help you keep up with the maddening rush of news trends undercurrents and other developments in the world of business technology Bob Evans says.
New Face Of E-Commerce
For Amazon and eBay to grow these hubs of E-commerce need to open their Web sites to a community of developers who will give their customers the tools they demand.
Software Revival
Software vendors hand aging products to open-source community giving customers more control
Students faculty and staff returning to Golden Gate University this fall will have remote access to database printing and E-mail functions from any Web browser no longer having to connect through the school's network. The reason for this newfound freedom: open-source software
Yet Another Thin-Client Scheme Is Launched
IBM has updated its Workplace application sparking renewed interest in the idea of centralized computing. Cost savings and better security are seen as big draws.
JavaOne notebook: Java community tension and reconciliation
There will always be some tension in the Java Community Process (JCP) observed James Gosling Sun's distinguished fellow and the software engineer credited with creating Java.
IBM adds new Java technologies to alphaWorks menu
Java developers who are not frequent visitors to IBM's alphaWorks Web site might want to give it a try as the firm has been adding as many as 10 new technologies -- many of them Java-based -- a month for free trial download in recent days.
BEA Takes An Open Approach
The company hopes to broaden the appeal of its Workshop visual-development tools by releasing some code under an open-source software license
AmberPoint Adds Web Services Management To Visual Studio
Express version of the software is in beta one of Microsoft's new Team System product
IBM Building Software-Quality Tools On Hyades Framework It says the move demonstrates its continued effort to use open source as the foundation of its developer tools.
McNealy Rejects Idea Of Open-Source Java Sun can nurture Java; McNealy challenges IBM to open its code and end its 'Java envy'
Sun Microsystems spent last week fending off new calls that it contribute Java as open-source code. Previous requests came from open-source programmers critical of Sun's grip on the language; now they're coming from two of Sun's largest Java business partners.
Business Technology: Nagging Questions Cloud Oracle's Vision The Oracle antitrust trial offers some extraordinary peeks into the workings of major software players Bob Evans says. Will customers perceive the proposed value of PeopleSoft-enhanced Oracle apps or will they respond by chosing other options?
Sun’s Schwartz boosts Java ubiquity at JavaOne Java ubiquity leading to developer creativity and business opportunity was the keynote theme as Jonathan Schwartz president and COO of Sun Microsystems addressed the opening session of JavaOne in San Francisco on Monday
Apple Readies Search Technology For Macs CEO Steve Jobs says the technology called Spotlight will be part of next year's Mac OS X upgrade and will let users easily search the contents of their computers.
News from JavaOne: Ilog JViews support BPMN JavaServer Faces
Ilog has announced a new version of its Ilog JViews 6.0 component family that allows customers to separately buy some family members. As well JViews 6.0 features new specialized components to support business process management (BPM) on the Java platform. The announcement was made at the JavaOne Worldwide Developers Conference being held this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
News from JavaOne: Borland joins JTC On the first day of JavaOne 2004 Borland Software is announcing that it is joining Sun Oracle BEA and other vendors of the Java Tools Community (JTC).
Sun launches Java Studio Creator
At JavaOne in San Francisco this week Sun Microsystems will formally launch Sun Java Studio Creator a new visual environment for Java developers.
J2SE - now Java Platform Standard Edition 5.0. - updated at JavaOne Details that point to a more mature Java are in store this week as Sun Microsystems features a new version of the Java 2 Platform at JavaOne in San Francisco. Known at one time as Project Tiger and dubbed J2SE 1.5 while in beta the latest version of the basic Java platform takes a big leap up in version numbering as it is being called Java Platform Standard Edition 5.0.
Eclipse rocks open source world Eclipse board names Mike Milinkovich executive director Mike Milinkovich is the first executive director of the newly independent Eclipse Foundation. Starting his new job at the beginning of June Milinkovich's first task will be the launch of Eclipse 3.0 which is set for June 21.
Eclipse 3.0 released On June 21 the Eclipse Foundation announced the availability of the latest version of the Eclipse Platform -- Eclipse 3.0 -- which adds an enhanced version of its Java IDE a new rich-client platform and the integration of Java Swing with the Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit.
Ada joins Java as Aonix joins Eclipse While many Java toolmakers are members of Eclipse which bills itself as 'a community committed to the implementation of a universal platform for tools integration ' the newest member is also bringing Ada.
Study: Impact Of Offshore Outsourcing Is 'Exaggerated' The furor over offshore outsourcing is overblown and key IT jobs are staying in the United States according to a Meta Group report on IT staffing and pay issued last week. Outsourcing is a little bit of a myth Meta Group senior program director Maria Schafer says. In point of fact outsourcing had been happening for some time. While the best and most valuable IT positions generally are staying put a slowly improving economy hasn't yet been strong enough to overcome relatively stagnant hiring. It's going to be another six months before we see any real [hiring] vigor she says. The Meta study shows that employers pay IT staffers as much as 20% more than nontechnical personnel. Forty-five percent of the 600 corporate respondents say they pay premium salaries for critical skills particularly in the wireless security and data-management fields. Experience continues to sell. Internet-related specialists are in short supply particularly those with expertise in application development Java-application management and networking. However demand for E-commerce skills dropped slightly in this year's survey--15% versus 22% last year.
Quest unveils server-side Java components Aiming at the Java components market Quest Software Inc. has released Quest JClass ServerViews 5.0 a set of server-side Java components for adding charts and reports to servlet JSP and J2EE applications.
Red Oak Software Offers Free Version of Web Integrator; Full-Featured Enterprise-Class Solution Now Red Oak Software Inc. (www.redoaksw.com) announces that the development version of its Web Integrator(TM) product is now available at no charge. Web Integrator facilitates the easy and efficient programmatic integration of any internal Intranet or external Internet application transaction with any other application in the enterprise.
Adobe Unveils Document Process-Management Apps The new applications and software are designed to help manage document policies and security.
Adobe Systems Inc. is making good on its strategy to develop a comprehensive set of enterprise document-management applications built on a common platform. The company on Tuesday unveiled new document process-management applications and software for managing document policies and security.
Sun Teams With Fujitsu For High-End Computing Vendors will market each other's products; Sun also launching variable-pricing effort
Sun Microsystems last week revealed the missing piece in its corporate turnaround strategy that analysts believe provides a clearer road map to how Sun will address the spectrum of enterprise-server demand.
At JavaOne: Project Kitty Hawk kicks off Sun SOA strategy Sun Microsystems unveiled details of its plans to support Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) in its Java Enterprise System server software suite and Java Studio programming tools at last week's JavaOne conference. Enhancements to these products under Project Kitty Hawk will make it easier for developers to write a new breed of enterprise software around Java-based Web services company officials said.
JCP: A watched pot never boils The Java Community Process (JCP) is the group that shepherds all Java technology improvements specs reference implementations and so on. It has been around since 1998 and today has more than 700 individual and corporate members.
BEA To Emphasize Software As Architected Services
BEA Systems this week launched what it's calling its Liquid Computing product strategy which is aimed at getting business processes to flow through a company without regard for boundaries previously set by the IT infrastructure
Technology At The Top Business technology was a low priority at Safeco Insurance Corp. prior to 2001. CEO Mike McGavick brought in that year to turn around a slide in profits recalls that the top technology executive was far removed from the executive suite. The CIO reported to the head of marketing who reported to the president who reported to the CEO he says.
The Gospel According To Information Builders' Gerry Cohen Talk about a tough act to follow. Gerald Cohen CEO and president of Information Builders the business-intelligence software vendor employed a local gospel choir singing This Little Light Of Mine to introduce his keynote address at the company's 25th annual user-group conference in New Orleans. Unfazed Cohen proceeded to make his case for Information Builders as the preeminent--and potentially standard--vendor of business-intelligence software and tools.
Service Gets A Boost Bobcat Inc. Executives hope that determining the best method to fix an ailing kid-steer loader or hydraulic excavator will soon get easier and faster. The maker of heavy machinery is giving service technicians at dealerships free access to a product encyclopedia consisting of service parts and diagnostic information via the Web and DVD.
Business Drives Developer Trends
The push toward simplified development and the desire to get software developers working more closely with employees from business units are behind several important trends in software programming.
Sun’s Project Rave draws raves Java Studio Creator the purported easy-to-use Java development tool due from Sun Microsystems this summer drew raves from some early users Wednesday morning albeit with reservations about the availability of components.
TeraCloud Introduces SpaceFinder Workbench v4.3 with New Java-based TCP/IP GUI
TeraCloud Corp. a provider of storage resource management solutions for mainframe and distributed environments has introduced SpaceFinder Workbench v.4.3 which includes a new Java-based TCP/IP compliant graphic user interface for storage data that extends graphic views of pool utilization down to detailed volume and dataset information. The added functionality is intended to help customers monitor and manage their mainframe storage inventory more efficiently to reduce costs and improve productivity across the data center.
IBM Upgrades Java Tools
With simplified development and broad platform support as key goals IBM Corp. Tuesday announced new versions of its Java development tools and its Rational suite of application lifecycle tools.
Sun rivals celebrate J2EE 1.4
Sun Microsystems marked the advent of Version 1.4 of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) last week at a press event in San Francisco that featured most of the big names in Java tools and application servers who gathered to discuss the impact of J2EE 1.4 on their products and markets. The app server panel included representatives from BEA IBM Oracle and Sun; open-source vendor JBoss Group; and two pure-play vendors: India's Pramati Technologies and Denmark's Trifork.
Free Help For J2EE And Web-Services Developers
Skyway Software is giving away Skyway Builder Personal Edition to offer a simplified interface for building Web apps and services. Skyway Software Inc. is giving away its software. Company executives want users to know they can download Skyway Builder Personal Edition from the company's Web site for free. The software which includes Skyway Builder Server and Skyway Builder Client is used to create Java 2 Enterprise Edition Web applications and Web services.
Software Vendors See Growth In Data Analysis
Data analysis and reporting are fast becoming critical components of operational and database software providing companies with alternatives to conventional business-intelligence applications from vendors such as Cognos Inc. and Business Objects SA.
Wily 5 application manager supports JBoss
By the time Lewis Cirne founded Wily Technology in 1998 it was already clear that there were too many Java application servers on the market. What was less clear was that these servers were beginning to spread in corporations and none of them came with much onboard manageability.
Where The Opportunity Is
The offshore-outsourcing debate often centers on how to save all IT jobs in the United States. But what about safeguarding your own career? The safest career move is to assume offshore outsourcing is a global megatrend that the politicians can at best slow not stop. So how do you make yourself indispensable?
In Short: Monitoring Java Apps On IBM WebSphere
Wily Technology Inc. has introduced seven extensions for IBM WebSphere to its flagship Introscope 5.0 software which monitors the performance of a running Java application. The extensions called PowerPacks can reveal whether an adapter from the IBM WebSphere Business Integration set of middleware is acting as a bottleneck.
Sybase Gets Into Real Time
Sybase Inc. has assembled a package of database software for collecting and disseminating real-time data. Sybase Real-Time Data Services captures data events or changes in a data set such as a bank customer making a large deposit and immediately propagates that information to a messaging system such as IBM's WebSphere MQ. The package available in May and priced starting at $29 995 per CPU includes a new release of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise database Sybase Replication Server Sybase RepConnector and a Java Message Service message bus.
BEA IBM offer business process add-on for Java
They compete heatedly in application servers but BEA Systems and IBM Corp. agree on at least one thing. They want to link Java with the Business Process Execution Language (BPEPL) for Web Services. The resulting combination which they call BPELJ would enable the two programming languages to work together. BPEL was originally authored by BEA IBM and Microsoft as a mechanism for orchestrating business processes in Web services environments. The three companies submitted BPEL to the OASIS standards organization which currently has it under review.
Cut The Complexity
Compuware's OptimalJ 3.1 simplifies Java development freeing programmers from having to code app infrastructure.
Sybase Software Captures Real-Time Data Sybase Inc. Monday debuted a package of database software for capturing and disseminating real-time data. The suite which includes a new release of Sybase's core database software eliminates delays caused by batch and polling data-management processes.
Oracle releases JDeveloper 10g
Oracle Corp. last week unveiled the first production release of the latest version of its Java and Web services development environment Oracle JDeveloper 10g. The new version previewed at last June's JavaOne conference and was later issued as a developer preview dubbed Version 9.0.5.
Where The Money Is The Web was supposed to kill bank branches. Instead banks are spending billions on them as a cornerstone of customer service.
Microsoft-Sun: The Feud Is Over Microsoft Corp. built its empire on domination of the computer desktop while Sun Microsystems Inc. made its name at the other end of the computing world in high-powered workstations and servers.
IBM looks to boost Java apps analysis IBM on Monday will preview technology for structural analysis of Java application development projects. To be posted on the company's alphaWorks site Structural Analysis for Java (SA4J) is intended for software architects and developers to assess the architectural integrity of Java applications. The software can be used to locate root causes of potential architectural problems and provides for measurement of application stability; detection of structural antipatterns which are bad architectural practices; and visualization and browsing of the dependency web according to IBM. The dependency web function provides a schematic of relationships in software development. Impact analysis is also featured.
LexisNexis finds one world one platform
LexisNexis Miamisburg Ohio provides legal news public records tax and business information to legal government corporate and academic markets in online print and CD-ROM formats. The legal publishing arm of Reed Elsevier plc the firm has a strong presence in North America Latin America the United Kingdom and continental Europe.
Telling It Like It Is
Jerry McElhatton MasterCard International Inc.'s senior executive VP of global technology and operations produces snippets of home-spun wisdom so regularly that they've earned a special moniker at the company: Jerryisms.
Apache Co-Founder Never Considered Commercial Open-Source Company
Brian Behlendorf co-founder of the Apache Web-server project says he never considered building a commercial company around what has become the single most successful piece of open-source code. Apache powers 68% of active Web sites up from 54% two years ago according to Netcraft a company that surveys software used on Web sites. Apache has consistently captured market share at the expense of two formidable commercial competitors Microsoft with its Internet Information Server and Sun Microsystems with its SunOne Web server.
New speech technologies making noise
A key standard for building speech-based telephony applications VoiceXML 2.0 received a final nod of approval from the World Wide Web Consortium last week. The standard's official graduation comes just days before Microsoft is expected to formally launch its Speech Server products - which adhere to a competing standards effort - at the SpeechTEK conference this week in San Francisco.
Sun executives sound off on Java OS plans
Sun is planning a number of announcements in coming weeks to redouble efforts to use aggressive pricing and technological innovation to win customers from competitors but is downplaying rumors about talks with IBM to create an open-source version of Sun's Java technology.
Bringing Web Services Down to Mobile Java; Sun adds XML SOAP to J2ME HotSpot wireless developer to
With the releases in February of new versions of its HotSpot JVM and Java Wireless Toolkit and the launch of the Java Verified application certification program Sun Microsystems Inc. claims to bring Web services to J2ME and to accelerate not only Java applications themselves but also the process of verifying compatibility with devices and carrier networks.
JavaServer Faces (JSF) spec wins approval
The Java Community Process is refreshingly low-key compared to much of the software industry so it was probably not surprising that there was very little hoopla this past week when JavaServer Faces (JSF) specification 1.0 won approval from its members.
Open-Source Advocates Applaud Open Java
Eric S. Raymond president of the Open Source Initiative started it; IBM pursued it; and now Sun Microsystems Inc. is offering to talk with IBM about open-sourcing Java. And open-source analysts and leaders are delighted by this move.
Update: Oracle Sun BEA head list of vendors forming Java Tools
Oracle Corp. Sun Microsystems Inc. and BEA Systems Inc. head a list of 10 Java tools vendors that today are announcing the formation of a community that they say will create and promote standards-based efforts to ease the building of tools that easily interoperate. By doing so the Java Tools Community (JTC) also hopes to ultimately ease development for users of the technology.
IBM offers sneak peek at J2EE 1.4 app server
IBM on Thursday made available a technology preview of the upcoming version of its WebSphere Application Server 6.0 due later this year.
The preview version available as a free download at IBM's developerWorks site affords developers a chance to work with the J2EE standard using the WebSphere Application Server code base. Company officials said Version 6.0 of the WebSphere Application Server will also serve as the foundation for several other IBM software packages designed for business integration portal and collaboration.
Will Sun's Java Studio Creator Earn Raves?
Sun's push into software development under Executive Vice President Jonathan Schwartz has been met with varying degrees of suspicion by analysts the trade press and of course competitors. In a nutshell the critics fall into two main buckets: those who deride Sun as a hardware vendor with no software skills and those who don't think anyone will displace Microsoft.
But as Sun methodically attacks Microsoft
BEA Compuware partner on Java development
Tapping a familiar theme of late BEA Systems and Compuware on Thursday will forge an alliance intended to make it easier to develop Java applications. The companies plan to integrate the Compuware OptimalJ model-driven J2EE development environment with BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 an integrated visual development and runtime framework for Java. According to the companies the initiative provides a model-driven environment that allows developers of all skill levels to build and deploy J2EE applications.
In search of a gentler Java
Corporate managers bought into J2EE technology and tools in a big way. Now faced with the difficult task of building complex enterprise Java applications they worry if they can find enough skilled Java programmers. For their part Java tool vendors are trying to bring out tools that make J2EE much easier to use.
Java skills market a complex picture
If gentler RAD-style Java tools arrive and as Sun's VP of Product Marketing Joe Keller says the tools give CIOs the ability to apply people with other programming skills to generate things using Java will more Java jobs remain on U.S. shores? That is a hard question to answer. J2EE skills have remained expensive and necessary in recent years. As a result overseas software shops have continually tried to enter the Java market with upgraded skills.
From the Editor: Java vs. Microsoft act II
The Java revolution brought some very good times to IT organizations looking to build applications that can run on multiple platforms -- long an unfulfilled dream despite long-ago promises of technologies like CORBA and messaging. In the mid-1990s the Java programming language became the hot technology for the world's top programmers and the Java 2 Extended Edition (J2EE) promised to let corporate developers build even the most complex applications to gain their companies a competitive edge. At first top suppliers like Sun and IBM looked at Java and J2EE as ammunition to take on and perhaps beat Microsoft in the battle for everyman developers.
Sun still pondering Eclipse move
Sun Microsystems is pondering joining the IBM-led Eclipse open source development tools project for Java but still has some concerns a Sun official said on Thursday. The company believes it is good to have communities of Java developers thus it may be a good idea to join said Joe Keller vice president of Java Web Service & Tools Marketing at Sun. The invitation came to us from the Eclipse group. We're still considering it. We're still waiting for them to figure out what the invitation really looks like for us Keller said.
.NET Progress Worries Java
Eighteen months ago many analysts (including me) felt that .NET and C# would face a daunting challenge in the quest for acceptance and adoption. We felt that if Microsoft would ever enjoy a success with these products it would be through the same method with which it established Windows: initial limited adoption followed by a continuous stream of releases that tweaked the product until it was adoptable. Meanwhile the company would lubricate the product’s growth and acceptance with a pipeline of marketing cash.
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The 2003 Java Pro Technology Roundtable
A day before the curtain rose on this year's JavaOne conference in San Francisco a panel of Java industry technologists sat down for the third annual Java Pro Technology Roundtable. For the next two and a half hours they debated the big issues facing the Java community—how to attract more developers to the platform integration and interoperability standards and innovation the importance of open source and managing the application life cycle.
Microsoft to extend Java in Windows to Sept 2004
Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it would carry Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java programming language in the Windows operating system nine months longer than first planned to give customers more time to transition between the software platforms. Originally Microsoft had said it would only carry Java in Windows until the end of 2003 under an agreement that allows programs written in the Java programming language to run on top of Windows. Microsoft and Sun said in a joint statement that they would extend that by 10 months to Sept. 30 2004.
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Microsoft And Sun Agree On Java Support Deal
Under terms of the agreement Microsoft will support the programming language through next September nine months longer than previously planned. Microsoft Corp. will offer technical support for its version of Sun Microsystems' Java programming language through September 2004 nine months longer than previously planned under an agreement being announced Tuesday. The agreement is between Microsoft and longtime rival Sun Microsystems. In the past Microsoft has provided security fixes and other support for its version of Java but Microsoft agreed to stop using the language as part of a 2001 court settlement.
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Java panel pondering Web services portal proposals Proposals to boost Web services and portal capabilities in Java are up for imminent votes by stewards of the programming language according to an official at Java inventor Sun Microsystems. Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 which adds Web services support and backing for the Web Services Interoperability Organization’s Basic Profile for Web services is up for a vote by an executive committee of the Java Community Process (JCP) in the next couple of weeks said Onno Kluyt director of the JCP program office at Sun. J2EE 1.4 will be voted on by the JCP Standard Edition Enterprise Edition Executive Committee (SE/EE) with results expected by the end of the year. Tough Choices Ahead For Java Council The shape of Java-based business applications and perhaps Java itself may have a new face as early as next week according to Java Community Process (JCP) officials. The non-partisan community that oversees the programming language is holding its annual elections between now and November. The group is also considering changes to its operating procedures via the JCP 2.6 proposal and deciding on final revisions of the highly anticipated J2EE v1.4 standard which is the basis of Java-based Web services and championed by Sun Microsystems. Fall Conference: CIOs Say Legacy Systems Are Useful But Costly Legacy systems are an asset but a troubling one that consumes too much of the IT budget a group of CIOs at the InformationWeek Fall Conference in Tucson Ariz. said during a panel discussion Tuesday. During “Legacy Systems: Assets Or Anchors?” Griffin Macy VP of enterprise system development for Waste Management Inc. said any system more than 3 years old including Web applications is considered a legacy system at his company. Java On The Desktop: An Idea Whose Time Has Come ... And Gone (Column Sun once again is trying to convince us that Java belongs on the desktop. At this week's SunNetwork conference we are treated to the delightful wit and wisdom of Scott McNealy poking fun at our industry and making a case for getting rid of the rat's nest of code called Windows that most of us continue to use. I have only one piece of advice for Scott: If you really want an alternative to Windows buy a Mac. It runs Unix just fine has a great and stable graphical desktop environment that for the most part is Redmond-free and isn't infected every 10 minutes when some kid in eastern Europe figures out the latest vulnerability in RPC. Q&A: World Book CTO calls using Sun's Java Enterprise System 'a no-brainer' One of the first users to sign a contract under Sun Microsystems Inc.'s new per-employee pricing model was Chicago-based publishing house World Book Inc. With 300 employees the company is paying $30 000 a year for the Java Enterprise System. World Book Chief Technology Officer Tim Hardy spoke with Computerworld today about why he signed up. 7 Keys to Secure Java Software Despite regular announcements of security vulnerabilities in software products many programmers still tend to view security as a discipline that is separate from software engineering. For decades the situation has been best summed up by a half-serious comment a professor who teaches software engineering shared with me recently: Secure software? Now there's a contradiction in terms. With industry pacemakers like Microsoft launching software security initiatives and secure programming boot camps the situation may gradually improve. Even though Java incorporated some security features from the start it is still relatively easy to write unintentionally insecure Java programs. What can we do to keep our Java applications from appearing in today's steady stream of security vulnerability reports? Will Longhorn outflank Java rivals? IBM Sun Microsystems and BEA Systems are each courting developers to help ensure that their server software is the preferred choice for implementing business applications. But the folks at Microsoft are again working hard on a plan to outflank their Java rivals. This time it's a software tool that will supposedly ease the creation of heavy-duty Web services applications. The product which in some way shape or function has been in the works for the better part of two-plus years will provide a sticky middleware layer specially created to work with Microsoft products. Sun Mulls Joining Java Eclipse Effort In an about-face that could have a dramatic impact in the Java tools space Sun Microsystems Inc. has indicated it might be willing to join the IBM-sponsored Eclipse open-source development platform effort—but only if momentum to spin off the effort into an independent organization continues. Q&A: SOAP gains traction SOAP message processing and interop and that goes across the board. Actually it’s more than just IBM and Microsoft it’s the Java world as well as other worlds that exist out there. There are Lisp implementations for instance that are finding interop as well as WSDL and the WS-I basic profile they’ve defined. There are about a 100 partners if not more collectively collaborating on profiling how you do interoperability of SOAP WSDL and the basic Web services protocol. There are also numerous implementations deployed based on that interoperability. Two emerging Web-services standards are expected to improve users’ online experiences Two Web-services standards are emerging at the same time and are expected to radically improve the user experience on the Web through better interactions with Web servers and higher speeds. The little-known Java Server Faces will provide a standard way to build user interfaces for Java Web applications and open the way for highly customized and specialized components to be plugged into applications. Java Server Faces is still being hammered out and its first specification is expected “late this year or early in 2004 ” says Ed Burns Sun Microsystems staff engineer and co-chair of the Java Server Faces expert group of the Java Community Process. The Java Community Process is an industry consortium for extending the Java platform organized by Sun. Adding a build process In the early days of Java application development life was pretty simple. You would write your classes compile them put them in a package and send them off. Then came JAR files an easier way of packaging shipping and locating class files and their resources. However generating an application today is far more than just compilation and packaging. You have to write the code compile it generate documentation gather statistics test package deploy and sometimes generate more source code to feed the previous steps. Life is getting so much busier for the average developer. There is just much more to deal with. Linux rises to every challenge Despite the high-profile problems Linux has faced recently it is still the fastest-growing operating system. What is it that makes users flock to use it when they are threatened by costly licencing measures and doubts over security standards? Candice Goodwin discovers why Linux continues to gain popularity in the enterprise. Complicated legal wranglings and concerns about lack of user support and security have failed to dampen enterprise users’ enthusiasm for Linux. Once an outsider in the server operating system race Linux is now “a mainstream choice for many infrastructure workloads” according to research firm IDC. It has also predicted annual growth rates of 28% for Linux over the next three years. |
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