Software application development
This blog is intended to provoke discussion and exchange between like minded software application developers, engineers, architects, project managers - and keen hobbyists too.
Tuesday 19 February 2008, 9:14 PM
SP1 compatibility issues still prevalent
To bandy about claims that SP1 will be a problem-free deal for all, with little or no compatibility issues to vex us, seems a little too upbeat for most. But Microsoft and its partners everywhere have nothing but good feelings to share on the subject haven’t they?
For a view from the other side of the fence, application-testing company AppDNA has carried out an “extensive” test of 100 core enterprise applications for compatibility changes under SP1. It says that there is no determinable difference (over and above the initial release of Windows Vista) for application compatibility under Vista SP1 - with 18 per cent of applications still failing the test and requiring remedial action to run.
If you’re still feeling upbeat by this point – you might like to stay positive and remember that there hasn’t been an actual INCREASE reported here for compatibility - but that might be asking too much of you.
AppDNA used its automated application compatibility-testing tool AppTitude to conduct the testing. AppTitude provides a detailed testing report, which we’re told enables the IT team to immediately and easily address the problem areas, with detailed technical information highlighting the necessary 'fixes' and best practices they need to implement to ensure an application installs and runs correctly under
Vista.
So has AppDNA sent its reports to Microsoft to help chisel down that 18 per cent figure? They didn’t say.
Thursday 14 February 2008, 3:41 PM
Red Hat puts its pedal to the metal
Red Hat’s latest push to woo large-scale corporate buy-in to open source middleware architecture based on JBoss Enterprise Middleware is energetically called “Enterprise Acceleration". This initiative wraps up a partner ecosystem (presumably that means a partner programme) and a new set of resources focused on enterprise-class performance and interoperability.
Although corporate adoption of open source has already gained widespread acceptance, Red Hat appears to be somewhat on the back foot and focused on increasing corporate belief and assurance in the technology’s robustness. “We are now focused on expanding further into the enterprise with a comprehensive, open source middleware portfolio and programmes to ensure confidence and success of mission-critical applications," said Craig Muzilla, vice president, Middleware Business at Red Hat.
Great stuff if you’re a corporate business manager no doubt – but what if you are a techie? Here’s what they plan to make available:
A performance tuning lab for benchmarking, testing and developing best practice guides. This will go along with an interoperability lab designed for testing with other environments and products.
There are plans for a live certification centre for ISVs and customers so they can test their applications on JBoss Enterprise Middleware and adapt to new releases. Finally, there’s a migration lab where processes, partners, services and best practices can be tuned to transition over from other software.
Although boardroom corporate “suits” may not know the internal workings of their company’s middleware from a hole in the ground – if a large proportion of IT expenditure has been pumped into low-value proprietary middleware offerings it’s likely that they’ll at least know about it. So this announcement may be a nod to the business bosses as much as it is to IT managers – a kind of ‘comfort factor’ thing all round perhaps?
Thursday 14 February 2008, 11:26 AM
Seven reasons to love developers on Valentine’s Day
This Valentine’s day I thought I’d make it clear that there are many reasons to love software engineers – and that this is probably why I devote my work life to writing about the industry and, maybe, just maybe, why I ended up marrying a Java developer.
1 - Perfection is not optional: this is the developer’s creed and they live by it. After all, it’s always nice to be playing in the major league and hanging with the best of the best.
2 - Attention to detail: at Christmas it goes without saying that your developer buddy will be the one to find the burnt-out bulb in the fairy lights string. How could you not love someone who is methodically careful about everything they do? This is one thoughtful person that is comfortable with their place in the universe.
3 – Pessimism is a virtue: no one can possibly try to anticipate a cataclysmic system failure by taking a “bottle’s half full” approach, so the best developers are the ones that can adopt a forward thinking approach to solve problems before they even arise. NB this may help in a successful marriage!
4 – Attention to detail and organisation: do you have developer friends who have six different sizes of sandwich bags in their kitchen drawer at home? Do you have developer friends who print out exact route maps for car journeys and refuse to accept the help of people along the way (to ask for directions) because their information could be “flawed”? You get the point right?
5 – Logical rationality: a deeply held desire for solving problems from a logical and mathematical viewpoint is what drives developers forward… they need, in their day-to-day roles, to be able to form real world solutions to real world problems. Life in general is not perfect of course and the world is not logical, this is why programmers need non-programmer buddies if they plan to backpack across India. Oh sorry, I forgot chaos theory! Silly me.
6 – Impatience to the nth degree: if something is worth doing it’s worth doing now. Don’t walk when you can run. This is what makes developers different, special and gifted. Problem is, mostly, they know it. Ah well, I refer to the above examples to re-state my devotion to the cause.
7 – Reliability: developers are creature of habit. What’s not to love about that?
Tuesday 12 February 2008, 10:55 AM
Business Service Management: veneer or vital component?
Given the swathe of acronyms and branded technology terms we constantly find ourselves enveloped by, it’s sometimes tough to see through the mists of marketing that may cloud our focus. With this in mind, you might be forgiven for interpreting the term Business Service Management (BSM) as another layer of veneer over an already heavily managed set of applications in a typical installation.
BSM vendors on the other hand would have us accept that these processes are essential if businesses are to effectively monitor and manage their applications and the services they deliver. Instead of monitoring individual components like applications, servers and routers, BSM sets out to dynamically link these components to the services delivered to the business.
Large vendors such as IBM have themed their user conferences (for Rational) for the last few years around the constantly re-stated message that IT must align with business objectives if it is to contribute to the bottom line. This is where BSM tools sit; they are supposed to give IT management the tools to deal with downtime more efficiently.
If you’re thinking around the subject of application management at this point you might be about to liken this to ‘event’ management. But BSM specialists such as Managed Objects (along with larger players that have BSM offerings within their arsenal such as HP and CA) will venture to distinguish this technology and say that BSM translates event data - that is, data about the status of an individual component - into impact.
“IT operations staff managing sophisticated technology environments often find themselves swimming in event alerts. Since event data about individual components - a sea of red - lacks a business context, it’s no wonder that many IT operations struggle to prioritise issues,” said Sean Larner, EMEA president of Managed Objects.
IT management new to BSM principles may find that projects are best brought online by starting with a few critical services – in this way, it’s a little less like “boiling the ocean” and taking on too much at once. If the IT team is successful with its BSM project, the business function will surely buy into an extended programme more quickly.
Perhaps the reason we don’t hear more about BSM’s popularity is that it is at too granular a level to make big news in the application development press. But given the fact that many companies will have bought in multiple tools from a wide variety of sources, a vendor-agnostic event alert solution – certainly on paper – seems to make sense. Putting it to good use is another matter of course.
Saturday 9 February 2008, 8:28 PM
Trading places
We’ve come a long way since the days of Eddie Murphy in the movie Trading Places shouting “buy frozen orange juice” down the line to his trader on the stock exchange floor; things are clearly far more automated these days. Actually, I used to work in one of those Regus offices in London’s City area that had lots of little five-man companies beavering away making millions - and I would often look in on the financial whiz-kids tapping away at their funky three-screen terminals using what I guessed were analytical models to let them know when to “buy pork bellies”… and the like.
With these thoughts in mind I took a passing interest this weekend in some news left over in my inbox from a company called TIBCO Software who has sold its low latency-messaging platform to UniCredit Group's Banking Division to “underpin” its European Index Arbitrage Trading business. Now, I’m no financial expert and I need a calculator to work out the football scores – but apparently, the trick these days is to maximise the effectiveness of your trading algorithms and strategies by maximising the speed with which systems receive prices and related data from the markets.
Here’s the official blurb –
Employing complex high frequency trading strategies, the European Index Arbitrage Trading Group takes advantage of temporary discrepancies between the prices of securities comprising an index and the price of a futures contract on that index. Tibco’s Rendezvous product has been implemented for low latency and scalable distribution of market and pricing data between the program trading systems underpinning the business’ strategy.
I have to admit, it makes me wonder why we need the trader now in the first place. If algorithmic power exists as we know it does – why can’t we simply point our systems at the stock market and sit back and have a cigar? Perhaps there is, a need for human intuition after all.
Phew! That’s a relief.
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