April 10, 2008

Relativity moves modernization from the desktop to the server

Relativity Technologies announced a significant addition to its product family -- the Modernization Workbench Enterprise Edition, a server-based solution that will enable teams of distributed developers to work in concert. Benefits for organizations could be shortened development time, improved code quality, and reduced modernization costs. For Relativity, its primary challenges include ensuring the product meets the needs of its clients, selling to CIOs, having clients use it effectively, and convincing developers that it is in their best interest to support the offering.

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Posted by TomR at 10:23 AM |

March 31, 2008

iPhone 2.0: Answering the call of the enterprise

Earlier this month, Apple announced that the next revision of the iPhone software would support "enterprise features," including a direct link to Exchange, a software development kit, and IT-friendly management capabilities. While the free update is not due for three months, it's clear that the consumer-centric iPod maker will find its iPhone is much more accepted, if not embraced, by usually anti-Apple IT departments.

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Posted by TomR at 10:15 PM |

January 16, 2008

MuleSource expands its SOA lineup

This week, MuleSource, known for its open source enterprise service bus (ESB) offering, announced a trio of product updates and new offerings. In addition to enhancing the Enterprise version of the company's namesake Mule Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), the vendor debuted a tool for monitoring transactions and a registry. The enhanced lineup now enables MuleSource to embed itself deeper into service-oriented architecture (SOA) deployments.

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Posted by TomR at 10:04 AM |

December 01, 2006

Microsoft launches Vista and Office upgrades for businesses

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the "business launch" of several of its most prominent software offerings, including Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office, and Exchange Server 2007. However, the individual organizational jury is still out on whether the new features and capabilities of these products outweigh the cost of their adoption, deployment, and support. The biggest hurdle for Microsoft to overcome will be trying to convince its existing customer base to upgrade.

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Posted by TomR at 12:08 PM |

November 14, 2006

Sun recharges the Java community with open source announcement

Yesterday, Sun Microsystems made official what company executives had promised to do: open source Java. Specifically, Sun is releasing "Java platform implementations" under the GPL open source license. This effort will help recharge the Java community and provide renewed energy to improve the Java platform in order to take on competitive offerings, particularly Microsoft's .NET Framework.

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Posted by TomR at 10:56 AM |

July 10, 2006

Shoring up SOAs by improving underlying software code

Organizations, vendors, and the trade media have embraced the concept of service-oriented architecture (SOA). In an SOA environment industry standards like the XML markup language and various Web service technologies are used to expose software as "services." By exposing software as services, organizations can more easily access these systems, as well as tie multiple services together with their own business logic to create "composite applications." SOA investment is compelling for so many IT departments because...

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Posted by TomR at 01:46 AM |

May 10, 2006

With AJAX and SOA, RIA is even more compelling and less risky

Vendors have struggled for years to sell thin-client, interactive user interface (UI) technology. These rich Internet applications (RIA) solutions rarely caught on with organizations despite the drawbacks of standard Web interfaces and client-server solutions, such as constant page loads and the high cost of deploying and maintaining thick client applications.Even though RIA offerings appeared compelling in terms of increased interactivity and lower costs, organizations largely ignored them. Why? Because the RIA market was a confusing...

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Posted by TomR at 08:11 AM |

March 21, 2006

All things Vista: Keeping tabs on the next Microsoft operating system

It's hard to keep the details straight when discussing Microsoft's next version of its client operating system (OS). But given some recent announcements, we thought we'd give an update of the current landscape for anyone who hasn't updated their Vista fact and trivia spreadsheet.You should know that:Longhorn is Vista and Vista is the new XP. The history of Vista is really the history of Longhorn, the former code-name for the operating system update. But last...

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Posted by TomR at 04:11 PM |

December 20, 2005

Cape Clear's SOA ecosystem

Building off a new release of its software, Cape Clear plans to build a multivendor SOA ecosystem to challenge vertically integrated SOA solution providers like IBM.Building a multivendor SOA ecosystem: The Cape Clear strategy [PDF]...

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Posted by TomR at 04:34 PM |

December 14, 2004

Three flavors of process automation solutions

There's a confusing part of the software market that deals with automating business processes, such as the hiring and firing of employees (e.g., creating or deleting application access, activating or deactivating email accounts, etc.), creating a magazine (e.g., authoring text, editing articles, designing layouts, proofing the output, etc.), or developing a new drug (e.g., analyzing molecule data, implementing the required manufacturing process, etc.). The software industry provides solutions for these challenges with business process management...

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Posted by TomR at 01:23 AM |

November 30, 2004

Using a data service layer to create a single view of your customers

Knowing as much as you can about your customers, such as what products they have purchased, past service calls, and their financial history, is critical to delivering the right product at the right price and meeting customer service expectations. The problem is that customer data is locked into separate systems, scattered throughout the enterprise and isolated in hundreds of databases and files. As a result, companies lack a single, all-inclusive view of their customers. The...

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Posted by TomR at 10:50 AM |

May 01, 2004

New Rowley Report: The need for SOA infrastructure

To realize the business and IT benefits of XML, Web services, and service-oriented architecture (SOA), organizations will inevitably have to invest in SOA infrastructure. This infrastructure – lightweight, distributed, and rolled out incrementally – performs tasks like routing messages; enforcing security, privacy, and other policies; and orchestrating multiservice solutions. The challenge for organizations will be to: 1) realize that they need SOA infrastructure; 2) choose the best solution from two SOA infrastructure designs; and 3)...

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Posted by TomR at 01:27 AM |