Latest News from JAVA Developer's Journal

Cloud Computing – The Perfect Match for Big Data

Sat, 25 May 2013 13:00:00 EDT

“Social, mobile, analytics and cloud can’t be looked at as distinct technology trends; they are facets of the same movement and an everyday reality for consumers and businesses alike,” said Craig Sowell, IBM VP of SmartCloud Marketing, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This means that businesses need to start looking at trends as one: cloud is the delivery, analytics is the unique insight, social is a shareable service, and mobile is the ubiquitous access.” Cloud Computing Journal: The move to cloud isn't about saving money, it is about saving time. – Agree or disagree? Craig Sowell: Cloud computing is a transformative technology, going well beyond money or time savings. We believe the most important driver for cloud computing is how profoundly the technology can transform business and even entire industries. By offering enterprises scalable and on-demand access to computing power, while delivering broader access to apps and data for partners and customers, cloud computing can help transform an existing business, jump-start a new one, or re-imagine product and service design.

On-the-Go Big Data Requires a Different Approach: Four Guidelines

Sat, 25 May 2013 12:00:00 EDT

By the end of 2013, 1.4 billion smartphones will be in use by consumers from around the world. Around 2015, Gartner predicts that more tablets will be sold than PCs worldwide and in 2017 1.75 tablets will be sold for every PC. The growth of smartphones is not only in the Western world. Seventy-five percent of all new smartphones will be sold in Africa and Asia. The mobile era is upon us and this will require a different approach by organizations. What is the effect on Big Data and how can on-the-go Big Data add value to your organization? Mobile devices, meaning tablets, smartphones, smart watches and smart glasses, seem to have different guidelines than desktop computers. Although it is difficult to predict the behavior on smart watches and smart glasses, the behavior on tablets and smartphones is a good example.

Focus on Business, Not Infrastructure

Sat, 25 May 2013 12:00:00 EDT

Join us for an exclusive briefing with Gartner where they will talk about how IT Executives are modernizing data centers and transforming operations to focus resources on business value. During the session they will discuss how innovative IT solutions are needed to help IT deliver against rapidly changing business expectations, where the converged infrastructure market is heading and how it can establish a foundation for organizations to capitalise on new revenue opportunities. Engage with other industry executives as well as leaders from Cisco, EMC and VCE at this invitation-only event and consider how you can focus on your business, not your infrastructure.

Big Data Good, Fast Big Data Better

Sat, 25 May 2013 10:00:00 EDT

The IT industry is nothing if not a breeding ground for an infinite variety of acronyms and neologisms. Alongside cloud computing today sits the term Big Data, which of course we understand to mean “that amount” of data which a traditional database would find hard to compute and process as a normal matter of job processing. But what is a neologism if you can’t turn it into a neo-neologism? Big Data in its own right is a term that we are just about getting used to, but the sooner we move towards an appreciation of ‘fast Big Data’ the better.

Why Global ICT Spending Will Reach $3.7 Trillion in 2013

Sat, 25 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

Economic uncertainty surrounding the U.S. government sequester, European debt crisis and weakening GDP in China has resulted in volatile spending patterns across most segments of the market. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), as a result of the current economic climate, business technology spending was slightly below expectations in the second half of 2012 and first quarter of 2013.

IDC now projects worldwide IT spending growth of 4.9 percent this year in constant currency, down from the previous forecast of 5.5 percent growth -- and representing a slowdown from the 5.6 percent growth recorded in 2012. As a result, IT spending will reach $2.06 trillion in 2013. Including telecom services, ICT spending will increase by 4.5 percent to $3.7 trillion.

So, what are the key trends that are shaping the updated global forecasts?

Deteriorating PC Shipments

The reduction in IDC’s overall forecast for 2013 is largely driven by rapidly deteriorating PC shipments since the second half of 2012. IDC now expects PC spending to decline by 3 percent in constant currency this year, representing a third successive year of declining PC revenues.

The shift to mobile devices remains a key driver for overall tech spending growth. Excluding mobile phones and tablets, worldwide IT spending increased by only 2.8 percent in 2012 and is forecast to grow by just 2.6 percent this year.

Worldwide spending on smartphones will increase by 17 percent in 2013 while tablet spending will grow by 32 percent. The combined growth rate for PCs and tablets, meanwhile, will remain stable in the range of 4-5 percent.

Cloud Services Cannibalizes Software and IT Services

Just as tablets are cannibalizing PC spending, so the growth of managed cloud services continues to cannibalize commercial software and IT services. Software spending in the U.S. grew slightly slower than forecast in 2012, and IDC has consequently reduced the U.S. software forecast to 6 percent growth for 2013 (from 7 percent).

IT services demand remains stable, but the pass-through from capital spending and software deployment remains tepid by historical standards. IDC now forecasts growth of 5.6 percent in worldwide software spending in 2013 (constant currency), and 3.8 percent in IT services.

Decline in Server Revenues

IDC's assessment also suggests a decline in overall server revenues while storage infrastructure spending will cool somewhat after the major spending cycle of 2011/2012. IDC now projects 2.4 percent growth in worldwide storage hardware revenues this year, down from 6.1 percent growth in 2012.

Network infrastructure investment was strong in 2012, as many carriers invested in the deployment of LTE networks, but this will also cool in 2013. Service provider spending on network equipment will increase by 1.1 percent this year, compared to 5.8 percent in 2012. Enterprise network spending should remain more stable, projected to post growth of 6.8 percent.

The Global Networked Economy

Emerging markets are still the engines of growth for Worldwide IT spending, with strong trends continuing in markets such as India and Brazil in recent months. The weakest-performing geographies will be Western Europe and Japan, where slow economic growth is inhibiting IT spending while the U.S. market remains fragile in the context of political uncertainty.

"It's all about the economy," said Stephen Minton, Vice President at IDC. "Our surveys confirm that underlying demand for IT products and services remains strong, but that businesses are once again being forced to delay new projects or investments in the face of longer decision-making cycles and a lack of short-term visibility. This storm could pass quickly, if governments in the U.S., Europe, China and Japan succeed in steering their ships towards calm waters in the second half of the year."

That being said, it's the savvy forward-looking executive leaders who continue to invest heavily in business technology adoption. They see a window of opportunity to deploy productivity-enhancing applications and thereby make a quantum leap ahead of their conservative competitors that lack the strategic foresight to act boldly. This is the fundamental reason why ICT spending will reach significant levels in 2013.

From Phones, to Data Centers, to Cars and Arenas: Ethernet Is Everywhere!

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:45:00 EDT

On May 22, Ethernet – Robert Metcalfe’s ingenious invention –celebrated its 40th anniversary. As the global tech community celebrates this milestone for one of the world’s most transformative technologies, we take a look at its evolution from a printer-to-printer communication system at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), to a system that is underpinning everything from how we access and leverage data to how we drive our cars. From its origins at Xerox, over the last 40 years Ethernet has become the quintessential and standard network solution for an increasingly diverse array of applications. Highly scalable and adaptable, in recent years Ethernet has evolved from its enterprise roots, infiltrating today’s high performance data centers and Metro network rings at 10 GbE speeds and now 40 and 100 GbE speeds, offering predictable performance with quality of service, improved latency and seamless access to a wide array of applications and services.

Intel’s New CEO Shakes Up the Joint

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:00:00 EDT

Intel’s new broom has begun to sweep, meaning its new CEO Brian Krzanich, in office four days, started reorganizing the place reportedly to make the old girl more focused and spry. The one-time plant manager has taken direct control of the company’s chip design unit, its fabled Architecture Group, which includes its PC client group, mobile communications operation and data center unit, giving its old boss Dadi Perlmutter the job of leading a so-called management transition effort whose point is unclear.

Book Review: The Modern Web

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:44:06 EDT

Although I started with ColdFusion for application development, I did plenty brochureware sites with HTML. I believe the version was HTML 2.0 for IE 2.0. I lived in the browser world for years doing ColdFusion, ASP, and HTML sites. When winforms and Smart Client with web services emerged I changed my religion. Since then I have been avoiding the browser whenever possible since. For the past couple of years I have used HTML/JavaScript/CSS a lot as a byproduct of building ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC applications for public consumption. Internal enterprise applications I will still push for using WPF and web services over ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC, but I lose that battle a lot, especially when the developers have never learned WPF (XAML) and have no interest in learning anything new. When it comes to Mobile Apps my first choice will always be native applications using Objective-C, XAML with C# or C++, and Java using the ASP.NET Web API for the services. The problem is I am going to end up fighting the same battle with the web developers that don't like learning anything new. They are going to turn to HTML/JavaScript/CSS to build their mobile applications as a mobile web site or hybrid application.

Part 3 | Component Models in Java

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:00:00 EDT

Service Component Architecture (shortly referred as SCA) is a technology for creating services from components. SCA is a set of OASIS standards and part of it is developed with the collaboration of vendors from open source community, referred as “OSOA” Open SOA. SCA helps to build systems as a collection of interconnected components. The components created in SCA communicate through the services. The advantage of SCA is its neutral component model. It allows services to be built by any language component like Java, C++, BPEL, JavaScript, Ruby, Python etc. SCA addresses two important needs of component world: Complexity Reusability

Java Certifications

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:03:13 EDT

Welcome to Java Certification Path. If you are reading this article, it means that you are thinking or have decided to take Java Certification. Let me start off by congratulating you on this decision to boost your career strength. To become a successful Java professional it is good to acquire Java certification to show their evidence. Java certifications adds more confidence to your job responsibilities as well as improves your career potential, of-course you can get higher salary than others. Oracle’s Java certifications are designed to be focused on particular roles in the software development cycle and, therefore, are more useful than all-in-one certifications. Oracle currently offers the following Java certifications, which are classified by level and specialization. Most of the certifications require you to pass a multiple choice exam, but some require you to complete an assignment plus an essay exam.

Fix Memory Leaks in Java Production Applications

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:45:00 EDT

Adding more memory to your JVMs (Java Virtual Machines) might be a temporary solution to fixing memory leaks in Java applications, but it for sure won’t fix the root cause of the issue. Instead of crashing once per day it may just crash every other day. “Preventive” restarts are also just another desperate measure to minimize downtime, but, let’s be frank: this is not how production issues should be solved. One of our customers – a large online retail store – ran into such an issue. They run one of their online gift card self-service interfaces on two JVMs. During peak holiday seasons when users are activating their gift cards or checking the balance, crashes due to OOM (Out Of Memory) were more frequent, which caused bad user experience. The first “measure” they took was to double the JVM Heap Size. This didn’t solve the problem as JVMs were still crashing, so they followed the memory diagnostics approach for production as explained in Java Memory Leaks to identify and fix the root cause of the problem. Before we walk through the individual steps, let’s look at the memory graph that shows the problems they had in December during the peak of the holiday season. The problem persisted even after increasing the memory. They could fix the problem after identifying the real root cause and applying specific configuration changes to a third-party software component.

Browser Zoom Effect Using WebRenderer

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:24:06 EDT

We are often asked how our clients use WebRenderer in their projects. There are thousands of different use cases our ingenious clients have come up with that have both delighted and surprised us. WebRenderer is more than just an embeddable Java Swing browser. WebRenderer also gives you, the developer, complete access and control of the browser. We thought we would put together an example that demonstrates some of the in-browser functionality. In this example we use WebRenderer Swing Edition to create a special “Zoom” effect when a click action is selected.

Book Review: Core Java (9th Edition), Volume I and Volume II

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:30:00 EDT

This review covers both Core Java Volume I--Fundamentals (9th Edition) and Core Java, Volume II--Advanced Features (9th Edition). Both books are part of the Prentice Hall Core Series. I actually got Volume II first and liked it so much I ordered Volume I. I felt like I was missing the first half of the story. Especially when I downloaded the code and both volumes were included. These two books take you on quite a journey. The first volume starts off with a great overview and history of Java. It then goes into how to download, install, and configure both the JDK and Eclipse. The authors uses Eclipse throughout both volumes. The rest of Volume I is dedicate to covering the fundamental concepts of the Java language and the basics of user-interface programming. I have listed the chapters in Volume I below.

Product Review: qTest by QASymphony

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:00:00 EDT

QASymphony is the company behind qTest, a new test management tool that’s aiming to empower test teams. As software development has increasingly moved towards Agile methodology, with its focus on fast delivery, thorough documentation has fallen by the wayside and test cycles have shortened. Test teams have less time to identify and document defects, but expectations for bug-free software remain high. The flexibility to adopt feedback and accelerated build cycles offer real benefits for software development, but they require careful thinking from QA departments. These are the challenges that qTest is trying to address by equipping testers with a fast, intuitive tool capable of handling complex projects. It’s designed to be easy-to-use, it’s fully customizable, it can plug into existing bug tracking software, and it creates a chain of transparency that lays bare the entire life cycle of each defect. It should be a tool that’s appealing to teams trying to save time by implementing agile testing. Like so many new releases nowadays, it is a SaaS solution, based in the cloud and it’s offered at $20 per month per user. The 30-day free trial gives you five licenses, so you can test it out for yourself. How does it measure up?

Book Review: The Java Tutorial (5th Edition)

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:55:14 EDT

If you are interested in getting started with Java, or just object oriented programming, this is a great book to start with. The book starts off with a high level overview of the Java platform and goes straight into an example of creating a hello world application. While creating the hello world application the authors take you on a tour of the NetBeans IDE. It then covers the basics of 0bject-oriented programming and the Java programming language. The authors cover objects, classes, inheritance, interfaces, packages, variables, operators, expressions, statements, blocks, and control flow statements. After the introduction chapter the chapters begin to go into detail about each of the topics that were introduced, and many more. I have listed the chapters below.

Introducing a New Look for Traces

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EDT

Our fundamental unit of performance data is the trace, an incredibly rich view into the performance of an individual request moving through your web application. Given all this data and the diversity of the contents of any individual trace, it’s important to have an interface for understanding what exactly was going on when a request was served. How did it get handled? What parts were slow, and what parts were anomalous? Over the past year, the TraceView team has been listening to your thoughts on this topic as well as hatching some of our own. Today we get to share the fruit of our labors: Trace Details, redesigned!

Component Models in Java | Part 2

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EDT

OSGi is the latest component model to join the bandwagon of component models, which provides a platform for component oriented development and assembly. OSGi framework is a standards based platform whose specifications are provided by the OSGi Alliance (www.osgi.org, formerly OSGi was referred as Open Services Gateway Initiative). OSGi Alliance is an industry backed nonprofit organization which was founded in March 1999. The OSGi specification has gone through many releases and the current major version in use is 4 and version 5 has been introduced recently. The OSGi defines a dynamic module system for Java. This comes as a rescue for Java’s modularity problems by giving better control to the code structure, manage the lifecycle of the code and a completely loosely coupled approach which is much needed for component oriented development.

Dodge Hibernate Coding Mistakes with Code Analysis

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EDT

Hibernate is one of the most used ORM Java frameworks out there. It is really simple to use, just add few annotations and you’re ready to go. However, it is also really easy to experience strange behaviors and bugs if you don’t respect Hibernate’s best practices. That’s why at Tocea we developed rules to detect coding mistakes and to make sure that your experience with Hibernate will be painless. Our Hibernate repository currently contains 30 rules. Some of them are related to the detection of possible bugs, other treat of maintainability or performance. In this article, we're going to present 4 rules that deal with a famous Hibernate's usage problem : the implementation of equals() and hashCode() methods.

Caching: Up and Down the Stack

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:02:00 EDT

Last week, I presented Caching Up and Down the Stack at the Boston Web Performance meetup. It was great to get the chance to present to the 60+ people who came out for the talk. Unsurprisingly, many of the people there knew a lot about caching in all of the different levels I touched on, and some great conversation developed. I covered six of the major areas of caching available to web devs today. On the HTML / JS / CSS side, you can use client asset caches, full-page HTTP caches (like Varnish) and partial template caches. On the back end, you can use generated code caches, manually cache objects in memory or nearby services or even enable your database’s query cache (though, as the audience reminded me, if you’re using MySQL, just don’t. See below for why). Caching at each layer has advantages and disadvantages, and throughout, you’ll only be effective if you know what you’re caching, why you’re caching it and if you measure the improvement of doing so.

JBoss App Server Project Renamed WildFly

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:45:00 EDT

The JBoss Application Server project has been succeeded by widgetry called WildFly described as both a brand refresh and a renewal of Red Hat’s determination to drive the next generation of application server technologies. The name was chosen by members of the open source community on JBoss.org during a special election late last year. Red Hat says it’s supposed to address some of the key forces shaping middleware today, including the shift toward more flexible and modern approaches to application development, open hybrid cloud enablement and Java Enterprise Edition 7 (Java EE 7). It’s also supposed to be a significant opportunity for wider community adoption and involvement.

Evolving an APM Strategy for the 21st Century

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:00:00 EDT

I started in the web performance industry – well before Application Performance Management (APM) existed – during a time when external, single page measurement ruled the land. In an ecosystem where no other solutions existed, it was the top of the data chain to support the rapidly evolving world of web applications. This was an effective approach to APM, as most online applications were self-contained and, compared to the modern era, relatively simple in their design. Soon, a new solution rose to the top of the ecosystem – the synthetic, multi-step business process, played back either in a browser or a browser simulator. By evolving beyond the single-page measurement, this more complex data collection methodology was able to provide a view into the most critical business processes, delivering repeatable baseline and benchmark data that could be used by operations and business teams to track the health of the applications and identify when and where issues occurred.

IBM Reportedly Wants Out of x86 Server Hardware

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:30:00 EDT

IBM reportedly wants to dump its x86 server business and, according to CRN, Lenovo, the Chinese company that bought its PC operation in 2004 and now wants to grow its server interests, is likely to buy it since it’s the only company in active acquisition negotiations. Big Blue will supposedly only deal with companies it doesn’t consider a threat to any part of its business. Later Thursday the Wall Street Journal jumped on the story saying it heard the companies were in advanced discussions, but of course there’s no way of knowing if a deal will be clinched. It noted that it would be CEO Ginni Rometty’s first major divestiture.

The Taming of the Queue

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EDT

A few weeks back webserver request queueing came under heightened scrutiny as rapgenius blasted Heroku for not using as much autotune as promised in their “intelligent load balancing”. If you somehow missed the write-up (or response), check it out for its great simulations of load balancing strategies on Heroku. What if you’re not running on Heroku? Well, the same wisdom still applies – know your application’s load balancing and concurrency and measure its performance. Let’s explore how request queueing affects applications in the non-PaaS world and what you can do about it.

Cloud Expo New York: Evolving Cloud Computing Models

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EDT

Private clouds are a great way to provide real-time service delivery of IT resources with a single-tenant, customized, secure environment. However, the challenge of scaling and managing physical resources still exists. The solution may be to leverage an Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider to build an off-premise Private Cloud to add scalability to your current private cloud. In his general session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Duke Skarda, CTO of SoftLayer, will discuss: How to achieve scalability at Internet speed Why it makes technical and business sense to host the cloud off-premises What hosting options are available

The Accessibility of the Cloud

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:45:00 EDT

“Cloud made Big Data what it is today,” stated Scott Morrison, CTO at Layer 7 Technologies, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “Cloud gave us the massively scalable infrastructure necessary to practically do Big Data,” Morrison continued, “as well as the engineering mindset that made it a front-of-mind solution for organizations that may not have considered it before.” Cloud Computing Journal: The move to cloud isn't about saving money, it is about saving time. – Agree or disagree? Scott Morrison: It's about both, but one or the other may be the driving motivator depending on the organization.

Java Method Size

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:45:00 EDT

The Java Virtual Machine specification limits the size of generated Java byte code for each method in a class to the maximum of 64K bytes. This limitation will cause the JVM throw java.lang.VerifyError at runtime when the method size exceeds this limit. This method size restriction of the JVM seems to be too stringent. A bug is open with the Oracle Java development team. This bug is taken as an enhancement request which is likely to be fixed in the future java versions. That said, the fix for this issue is rather supportive. Application/Container developers need to consider few factors and apply good programming/refactoring techniques to get around this problem. While future versions of JVM might increase the method size limit to a considerable extent, a the size will always be a finite value.

Lessons to Learn from the Hibernate Core Implementation

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EDT

Hibernate is an open source Java persistence framework project. Perform powerful object relational mapping and query databases using HQL and SQL. In general the widely used libraries are well designed and implemented, and it's very interesting to learn from them some coding best practices. Let's take a look inside the hibernate core library and discover some of its design keys.

What CIOs Need to Know About Enterprise Virtualization

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 08:00:00 EDT

As a CIO, it’s your responsibility to chart the technological course for your organization and to do so in a way that meets business needs while fitting inside a budget. Virtualization is one of the most significant advancements to hit the enterprise, and it can be a tremendous boon for the CIO who understands the technology and is willing to implement it across the enterprise.

There are four key areas related to virtualization that CIOs need to understand and keep on top of:

Managing your enterprise virtualization approach. Implementing virtualization isn’t something that should be rushed. While it’s tempting to try to keep up with other organizations and earn bragging rights for being “in the cloud” or “75% virtualized,” the fact of the matter is that the approach must be cautious. Your virtualization strategy will touch every aspect of the enterprise, including desktop machines, applications, servers and other infrastructure.
Monitoring the enterprise virtualization environment. The monitoring tools used by IT in the past aren’t quite sufficient in a virtualized environment. There are newer tools that have been used to establish what your users’ typical use patterns are throughout the day, week, month and year. These monitoring tools are essential to provisioning – making sure that every application gets the resources it needs at the right time.
Desktop virtualization isn’t always a viable option. There was a time that enterprises were so enthralled with how effective server virtualization had been that they concluded, incorrectly, that desktop virtualization must necessarily provide the same benefits. That’s not always the case. In fact, desktop virtualization can create its own bag of problems for your business. We’re not saying to take desktop virtualization off the table, but think long and hard about how to do it. And, don’t forget the BYOD trend, which throws a whole other concern into the desktop virtualization mix.
Supporting disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Virtualization technologies, when properly deployed, offer benefits for your disaster recovery planning. Because disaster recover rarely gets its own line item in the budget, you need to find creative ways to make your systems able to survive major catastrophes and keep business running. Virtualization offers you an opportunity to do just that.

Today’s CIO is forced to deal with virtualization, like it or not. If you want your organization to come out on top, include these principles in your virtualization decision-making processes.

OpenXava 4.7: Rapid Java Web Development

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:30:57 EDT

OpenXava is a framework for Rapid Java Web Development, well-suited for business and database oriented applications. OpenXava allows you to develop applications just by writing simple domain classes with Java or Groovy. The user interface is generated automatically in runtime, without code generation. OpenXava 4.7 has some new interesting features. OpenXava 4.7 supports WebSphere 8 and WebSphere Portal 8. An OpenXava portlet deployed in WebSphere Portal adapts its style to the portal style.

So You Think You're Enterprise Class?

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:00:00 EDT

We’ve all known the person that believed they knew everything there was to know about topic X. In IT this person is so commonplace that I have wondered if there isn’t an advanced cloning device that spits them out on a daily basis. While this self confidence (or bravado, whichever) in the right individual, at the right time, has done some amazing things in world history and specifically in the history of computer science, most of the time it is merely annoying. When any attempt is made to explain even what the individual doesn’t know, they tend to walk away thinking you’re too dumb to understand. That passes annoying and enters dangerous. Not dangerous in the sense that someone is going to get hurt, but dangerous in the sense that this person with incomplete knowledge and overweening arrogance is working on your IT systems. Without the complete picture.

Oracle Buys Tekelec

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EDT

Oracle said Monday that it’s buying Tekelec, which makes mobile broadband software that service providers use to manage and monetize multimedia applications and the increased mobile data traffic they’re seeing. Tekelec claims 300 SP clients in 100 countries. Terms were not disclosed. Seeking Alpha speculates that because Oracle has suddenly turned to the telecom sector – signaled by its recent deal to buy Acme Packet – that maybe its SaaS interests – distinguished by, say, Taleo and Rightnow – aren’t going too well – given the lack of growth in its licensing. It thinks SaaS rivals are getting away with rustling Oracle’s enterprise customer base.

Learn How To Use Google Apps Script

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 06:30:00 EDT

Google Apps Script is a cloud based JavaScript environment which allows you to write powerful applications and workflows around Google Apps such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Sheets and more. The development is entirely within a browser and it's free and easy to get started. At this session, Cloud Expo delegates have the opportunity to learn all the capabilities of Google Apps Script. Walk away being able to write your first script!

Achmea Holding Runs IT Like a Business

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 10:15:00 EDT

Achmea Holding, one of the largest providers of financial services and insurance in the Netherlands, has made large strides in running their IT operations like an efficient business itself by rearchitecting its IT operations based on clear metrics. Gardner: Why is running IT more like a business important? Why does this make sense now? Aarnink: Over the last year, whenever a customer asked us questions, we delivered what he asked. We came to the conclusion that delivery of every request that we got was an intensive process for which we created projects. It was very difficult to make sure that it was not a one-time hero effect, but that we could deliver to the customer what he asked every time, on scope, on specs, on budget, and on time. We looked at it and said, "Well, it is actually like running a normal business, and therefore why should we be different? We should be predictive as well."

Component Models in Java | Part 1

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:00:00 EDT

A component is a reusable software entity. A component is a deployable piece of software that can be independently developed and maintained. In the previous article –Componentizing a Monolithic Application in Java, we discussed the need for componentizing applications to get the benefits of reusability and modularity. We also looked at how an E-Store application can be componentized using a simple component model developed by the authors using a factory whiteboard pattern and a simple repository. In Part 1 of this article we will try to understand various component models in Java and provide a brief comparison of the features provided by them. Traditionally to explain component-based software engineering (CBSE) principles, popular component frameworks like CORBA, DCOM and JavaBeans are used. Instead of this traditional approach, this article will focus on the latest and widely adopted component models and frameworks specific to Java platform such as Enterprise JavaBeans Component Model (EJB), OSGi Component Model (OSGi), Spring Component Model (spring) and Component Model using Service Component Architecture (SCA).

Oracle Blows Q3; Blames Sales Execution; Stock Sinks

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:00:00 EDT

Oracle, which was promising growth in its third fiscal quarter, missed across most product categories and all regions except, perversely, EMEA. Its stock dropped close to 8% after-hours to $35.76. It blamed its salesforce for its poor showing. Co-president Mark Hurd, the former CEO of HP, has hired 4,000 new sales people in the last 18 months and Oracle says they’re not acculturated yet and displayed little urgency about the quarter, transferring their ambitions to Q4, historically Oracle’s biggest quarter.

Let's Not Play Blame Games

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:00:00 EDT

When the operations team gets an alert about potential performance problems that users might be experiencing, it is usually either the infrastructure or the actual application that is causing those problems. Things get interesting when neither the ISP nor the application provider is willing to admit fault. Can we tell who is to blame? Could it be that it is neither the ISP nor the application provider? The IT department of our customer, SerciaFood, a food production company from Sercia (names changed for commercial reasons), received complaints about the performance of one of its applications. The IT department suspected network problems while the local ISP stood firmly behind its infrastructure and blamed the solution provider.

NoSQL and Partition Tolerance

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:00:00 EDT

I came across an article discussing NoSQL and partition tolerance - The NoSQL Partition Tolerance Myth. I may not entirely agree with the author. But what most NoSQL systems offer is a peculiar behavior that is not partition tolerant, but partition oblivious instead. No argument here. While NoSQL implementations are aware that nodes have left, they are not aware that said nodes have formed a separate partition. In this case, we would want failure detection and carry out those transfers where the accounts are both on the same side of the partition, while denying or deferring transfers that cross the chasm. The author is assuming that the account is only on one side of the partition. If that is that is case, is doesn’t matter whether the NoSQL implementation is eventually consistent or not. If the account is on both sides of the partition, the solution the author provides still results in an inconsistent state.

Cloud Expo New York: Why Big Data Is Really About Small Data

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:15:00 EDT

Everyone is talking about Big Data but what does that really mean for companies trying to understand how to make data meaningful for decision making. To leverage Big Data, you have to be able to take the key results and use those patterns or anomalies in context with historical data to make decisions. In their upcoming session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Judith S. Hurwitz, President and CEO of Hurwitz & Associates, Inc., and Alan Nugent, Co-Founder of the Boston CTO Group, will provide a pragmatic guide to leveraging Big Data in the right way to impact business decision making.

Red Hat Reinforces Java Commitment

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:13:00 EDT

Red Hat has transitioned into a leadership role for the OpenJDK 6 project, effectively extending support for the technology and its users. The move reinforces Red Hat’s commitment to the broader Java community and its future as a leading platform for mission-critical enterprise applications. In addition to taking on leadership of the OpenJDK 6 community, Red Hat maintains its role in setting the future direction for the OpenJDK project as an active board member, represented by Red Hat’s long-time Java technical lead, Andrew Haley, enabling the company to continue to help drive the future of Java and of OpenJDK. Red Hat’s vision includes better overall performance and manageability while enabling greater functionality around dynamic scalability and cloud computing. “To say that Java plays an important role in today’s enterprise IT would be an understatement,” said Craig Muzilla, vice president and general manager, Middleware, Red Hat. “It has had a profound impact on the creation and integration of technologies that have ushered us into the 21st century, shaping everything from banking and retail to transportation and research, and Red Hat is leading the charge. We want to see that continue, not only for the thousands of organizations running OpenJDK 6 and Java SE 6, but for users of future versions as well.”

The Future of Programming?

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EST

It is often the case that when you look at things a certain way, they become filtered over time, and you see what you expected to see. This happens to everyone, and while a wonderful adaptation to help handle all of the various inputs in our lives, has caused just about everyone to jump to conclusions because they think they know what they see. Neville Chamberlain did that. He (and his advisors) was certain that Hitler would keep the peace after he was given what the German people wanted. He saw Hitler as the same as other European leaders, and that was definitely not what Hitler was. There is no definitive proof that things would have gone differently had the allied powers put their foot down on Czechoslovakia. But the Munich accords, and the statement quoted above, definitively did put an end to Chamberlain’s career.

Componentizing Applications with Layered Architecture

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 14:15:00 EST

A component is a reusable software entity that is developed and deployed independently. Component based software development has many architectural advantages. In the previous article Componentizing a Monolithic Application in Java, we learnt the need for componentizing applications for getting the benefits of reusability and modularity. In this article let us look at how multi layered application can be componentized. We take the example of a multi-layered POS (Point-Of-Sale) application and understand how the application can be componentized at various layers like presentation, business and persistence layers. Consider a Point-of-Sale (POS) application meant for tracking orders and payments in a restaurant. The POS is used to track the tables being occupied by the guests, orders being made from various tables, and to print bills. Apart from these operational features, the POS application can also be used for restaurant administration. Total number of tables in the restaurant, list of foods sold in the restaurant, their prices, and the associated tax rates can be managed.

The Key to Effective Demonstrations of a Technology Solution

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:53:33 EST

Have you ever been invited to present a product solution and within a few minutes the audience is thumbing on their mobile devices? Have you ever presented to a remote audience and asked the end "any questions?" and there are none? Here are some tips for giving a great demo. (Credit to this material goes to Peter Cohan of The Second Derivative who presented this material at a workshop I attended and have me permission to write a summary.) "Let me show this awesome product and all its cool features."

Building Windows 8 Apps with JavaScript

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:15:00 EST

Although I started with ColdFusion for application development, I did plenty brochureware sites with HTML. I believe the version was HTML 2.0 for IE 2.0. I lived in the browser world for years doing Cold Fusion, ASP, and HTML sites. When winforms and Smart Client with web services emerged I changed my religion. Since then I have been avoiding the browser whenever possible since. For the past couple of years my extent of using simple HTML has been limited to writing blogs and book reviews. Simple HTML means no ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC. I have used HTML/JavaScript/CSS a lot as a byproduct of building ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC applications for public consumption. Internal enterprise applications I will still push for using WPF and web services over ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC, but I lose that battle a lot, especially when the developers have never learned WPF (XAML) and have no interest in learning anything new.

Technical Evangelists in IT

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:30:00 EST

If you’ll ask me what would be a job that you always wanted but never got, I’d answered a Technical Evangelist for a large corporation. I know how to do it, I like travel, I like meeting new people, and I can convince that the software I believe in is good for you. But. I [...]

Book Review: The Essence of Software Engineering

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:00:00 EST

I have had the opportunity to lead dozens of software development projects which I love doing. I have also had the opportunity to watch dozens of software development project from the sidelines, while working on my own project, or in place as a consultant to accomplish something other than run the development process. From the sidelines I have seen some succeed, some crash and burn, and the rest get close enough to success that the team can sell it as a success. Sometimes the later takes a heck of a sales job. I would say in my book 80% of those sold as successes failed. They either came in well over budget, well beyond their projected delivery date, or delivered such buggy software that the maintenance effort was as big as the development effort. Success to the team simply meant they considered the project over. You will find of those project teams run as fast as they can instead of doing a retrospective study.

Cavalry Rides into Oracle’s Java Suit

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:30:00 EST

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has evidently called in a few markers and persuaded some of his friends to stand up with him in his legal battle over Java against Google and its Android operating system. On Tuesday, the last day to file amicus briefs supporting Oracle’s appeal of the district court decision flaying Oracle’s infringement case, the Federal Circuit of Appeals was flooded with paper (figuratively speaking) backing Oracle’s position on the copyrightability of APIs and Android’s infringement of Java. District Court Judge Alsup found that “So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API.”

Java Cryptography | Part 3

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:00:00 EST

After you have secured your private electronic information using encryption and learned how to encrypt and digitally sign files for others, how do you extract the information and determine who encrypted the file? Asymmetric public/private key encryption allows you to decipher the information and verify the accompanying digital signature if it exists. This article illustrates how to decrypt and verify the digital signature on files encrypted using a hybrid combination of asymmetric public/private key encryption and symmetric encryption. A symmetric key is used to encrypt the file and the asymmetric public key encrypts the symmetric key. The asymmetric private key decrypts the symmetric key which in turn is used to decrypt the encrypted file.

Book Excerpt: jQuery Essentials | Part 1

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:30:00 EST

Now that you have the JavaScript skills that you need for using jQuery, you’re ready to learn jQuery. So, in this excerpt, you’ll learn a working subset of jQuery that will get you off to a fast start. When you complete this section, you’ll have all the jQuery skills that you need for developing professional web pages. You can also go on to any of the three sections that follow because they are written as independent modules. If, for example, you want to learn how to use Ajax next, skip to section 4. In this chapter, you’ll quickly see how jQuery makes JavaScript programming easier. Then, you’ll learn a working subset of jQuery that will get you off to a fast start. Along the way, you’ll study four complete applications that will show you how to apply jQuery.

Development Testing for Java Applications

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:00:00 EST

More. Better. Faster. Those are common themes development teams hear on a daily basis. In the rush to get new products out to market quickly, companies expose themselves to the risk of software failure. Java developers often turn to open source solutions to help protect themselves from risk. While helpful for finding coding style and best practice issues, they are often not sufficient to protect the enterprise. Learn how the Coverity® Development Testing Platform can be used in conjunction with open source solutions to help you fix more of the quality and security issues in your Java code that matter, with your existing resources and a unified process across the enterprise.

Cloud Expo NY: Calculating the True Value of Industry-Specific Clouds

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:15:00 EST

Industry-specific clouds are those PaaS, IaaS, and PaaS services that are tailored for a specific vertical, such as transportation, retail, finance, and health care. IDC sees a $65 billion market in these industry solutions for 2013, rising to $100 billion in 2016. The value of industry-specific clouds is that businesses within a vertical can connect to applications, processes, and databases that are pre-defined for that vertical within a public or private cloud. They can extend processes and databases into the business domain, versus defining the data and processes within a generic cloud-based platform. So, are industry specific clouds right for your business? What options are out there? How do you figure out the ROI?