Articles by Jeremy Geelan

Top Cloud Computing Providers in 2008: The Cloud Crowd

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Anyone allowing their search engine of choice to filter through the googols of bytes of data on the Web relating to "cloud computing" has during 2008 been rewarded with an exponentially increasing number of hits. But who are the companies currently most involved and what are their current offerings? SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Journal zeroes in on the facts and the faces behind this white-hot Enterprise IT technology trend.

From Amazon EC2 to Virtualization and Walled Gardens: An A to Z of Cloud Computing

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:00:00 EDT

From Amazon EC2 and App Engine from Google to Utility Computing, Virtualization, and Walled Gardens - there's no aspect of Cloud Computing that hasn't already been addressed at some level of detail in SYS-CON Media's Cloud Computing Journal (http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com). Here's a round-up of the world of Delivering Scalable IT as a Service, seen through the lens of the many contributors whose thoughts and ideas have already appeared there since it first appeared in June 2008 as the world's first journal devoted exclusively to the delivery of massively scalable IT resources as a service using Internet technologies.

Cloud Computing: Keynote Systems Exec Foresees Web Apps Being Built in the Cloud

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:40:00 EDT

In this Exclusive Q&A with SYS-CON's Jeremy Geelan, Rajeev Kutty of Keynote Systems speaks of the factors currently driving companies to increase their effort in monitoring the performance of their Web and mobile applications, and about how Keynote foresees an enormous increase in the number of Web applications being built in the cloud and programmers using cloud computing platforms like Apps Engine, Force.com., Microsoft Mesh, Bungee Connect – all Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) providers.

SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo 2009 East: Call for Papers Now Open

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:05:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events, producer of Cloud Computing Expo 2009 East, to be held March 22-24, 2009, in New York City, announces that its Call for Papers is now open. Topics include all aspects of providing or using massively scalable IT-related capabilities as a service using Internet technologies. Merrill Lynch analysts estimate that by 2011 the volume of Cloud Computing market opportunity will amount to $160BN, including $95N in business and productivity apps (e-mail, office, CRM, etc.) and $65BN in online advertising. Help plant your flag in the fast-expanding business opportunity that is The Cloud: submit your speaking proposal today!

Twenty-One Experts Define Cloud Computing

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EDT

It is the infrastructural paradigm shift that is sweeping across the Enterprise IT world, but how is it best defined? I refer of course to 'Cloud Computing' - the phenomenon that has as many definitions as there are squares on a chess-board. To try and narrow it down we bring here a round-up of some recent attempts to bring welcome precision where there risks being unnecessary vagueness.

AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo Attracts Top Faculty

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT

RIAs offer the potential to fundamentally change the user experience and in doing so, yield significant business benefits. The theme of this October's AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2008 West is 'Beyond AJAX to the RIA Era' and the Call for Papers, which is currently still open, specifically encourages submissions from exceptional speakers with high-quality use cases of the fast-emerging RIA alternatives.

6th International AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo News: An A to Z for the RIA Era

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:45:00 EDT

From AIR to ZK, this is an alphabetical round-up of the fast moving-world of application development tools and frameworks spawned ever since the appearance of Google Maps, the canonical early RIA. The list includes AIR, Appcelerator, ATF, Curl, Dojo, Echo, Eclipse RCP, Ext JS, Flex, Grails, GWT, JavaFX, Kabuki, Nexaweb Enterprise Web 2.0 platform, Novulu, OpenLaszlo, Prototype, Rico, Ruby on Rails, Seam, Silverlight, ThinWire, TIBCO GI, ULC, WaveMaker, Yahoo! User Interface Library, Zend Framework, and ZK.

AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo - Rich Internet Applications or Rich Interactive Experiences?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:50:00 EDT

'Enough with the new words already.' That was how Sean Voisen recently ended a discussion about the burgeoning technology lexicon, which he thinks can only be explained as 'a ploy to keep Merriam-Webster in business.' Voisen, who designs and builds Rich Internet Applications, web applications, data visualizations and what he calls 'other fun pieces of Internet-enabled software' for a living, is not a fan of 'RIA' as a term.

"Virtualization Is Now a Key Strategic Theme for Every IT Department," Says Citrix CTO

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:05:00 EDT

'Virtualization is already widely used, but primarily for the first-order benefit, namely server consolidation,' notes Citrix CTO Simon Crosby, in this Exclusive Q&A with Virtualization Journal. 'The second-order benefits of agility, availability and manageability of the IT stack are now becoming better understood,' Crosby continues, 'and as a consequence virtualization has moved from a tactical tool for gaining immediate savings, to become a key strategic theme for every IT department.'

Cloud Computing: Do Google's Servers Dream At Night?

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Do Google's servers dream at night? That's a question raised by a fascinating short story just published by George Dyson, the author of "Darwin Among the Machines" and a well-known futurist. The story just appeared online in Edge, having not found a publisher in a fiction venue because it's too technical, and technical publications (including Wired) won't run it because it's fiction.

SYS-CON's Virtualization Conference & Expo: Themes & Topics

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:30:00 EDT

From Application Virtualization to Xen, a round-up of the virtualization themes & topics being discussed in NYC June 23-24, 2008 by the world-class speaker faculty at the 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held by SYS-CON Events in The Roosevelt Hotel, in midtown Manhattan.

AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo: 2009 Will Be "The Year of RIA" for Enterprises

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:30:00 EDT

The industry has been debating the meaning of 'Enterprise 2.0' (how to bring Web 2.0 technology to the enterprise). Andrew McAfee has talked about the SLATES mnemonic (search, linking, tagging, authoring, extensions, and signals). Many companies have developed Wikis, Blogs, Tag clouds, Mashups, but the ROI is unclear. Jnan Dash, Chief Strategy Officer of Curl, Inc., feels the low hanging fruit for Web 2.0 deployment in the enterprise is called 'RIA' - 'Improve the user interface of old client-server applications and delight your users while reducing the TCO,' says Dash.

Exclusive Q&A with Jeremy Chone, CTO of Nexaweb

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT

'While the last decade was focused on the Web, the next phase in the evolution of our industry will be on the convergence of Web, mobile and desktop applications and the ability to extend existing applications with these new technologies for a consistent user experience regardless of how and where the information is viewed,' says newly appointed Nexaweb CTO Jeremy Chone in this Exclusive Q&A with SYS-CON Media's Jeremy Geelan.

Exclusive Q&A with Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:45:00 EDT

'We continue to struggle a bit with what developers think 'Eclipse' means. They have heard of it, but they believe that we are entirely focused on Java tools when in fact we are doing so much more,' says Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation, in this exclusive Q&A with Jeremy Geelan. 'Our goals at Eclipse are to create an industrial-strength open source development platform that spans extensible tools, frameworks and runtimes,' Milinkovich adds.

Appcelerator Building Out the RIA Open Source Community

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

'We're dedicated to building the largest open-source community dedicated to RIAs, breaking down the barriers between traditional preferred languages, programming models and solutions,' says the co-founder & CEO of Appcelerator, Jeff Haynie, in this Exclusive Q&A with Jeremy Geelan. To date Appcelerator has seen the strongest amount of interest from Java and PHP developers, Haynie notes, but he says the company has continued to see steady growth across Ruby, Python, Perl and .NET programmers as well.

SYS-CON's Virtualization Conference & Expo: Themes & Topics

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:30:00 EDT

SOA World Conference & Expo in NYC: Themes & Topics

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:15:00 EDT

A round-up of the Service Oriented Architecture related themes & topics being discussed in NYC June 23-24, 2008 by the world-class speaker faculty at the 13th International Conference & Expo being held by SYS-CON Events in The Roosevelt Hotel, in midtown Manhattan.

SOA World Conference & Expo in NYC: Themes & Topics

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:15:00 EDT

Web 2.0 and RIAs Will Drive the Growth of SOA Middleware: Gordon Van Huizen

Sun, 25 May 2008 09:45:00 EDT

'When we speak of enterprise mash-ups, composite applications and software as a service (SaaS), it's easy to forget that you actually need infrastructure behind the user experience to make it happen,' says Gordon Van Huizen in this exclusive Q&A with Jeremy Geelan. SOA middleware is among the fastest growing segments of the software industry, Van Huizen notes, adding: 'I believe that the increased interest in Web 2.0 and Rich Internet Applications will drive the growth of middleware faster than EAI did.'

SOA World - Exclusive Q&A with David Linthicum, CEO of StrikeIron

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:15:00 EDT

In this wide-ranging interview with SYS-CON.com David Linthicum, CEO of StrikeIron, addresses the hot new Data Services trend and the all-important notion of enterprise mashups, which he pinpoints as the defining technology of the year ahead. 'I'm surprised people are paying me for this work, I'm having a blast,' quips Linthicum.

The Ever-Rising Value and Power of Virtualization

Mon, 19 May 2008 11:45:00 EDT

Virtualization is a no-brainer for medium to large companies. In today's world server sprawl has become a major problem and costs companies a lot of money not only on server hardware, but power, cooling, support, and square footage. Virtualization potentially addresses all those issues.

What Drives Successful Technology CEOs? An Informal SYS-CON Survey

Mon, 19 May 2008 07:30:00 EDT

What drives a technology CEO or CTO to success in today's constantly changing technology ecosystem? We look at the question through the lens of the many interviews and articles we have published at SYS-CON.com which deal, sometimes only in passing, with exactly this issue. Executives quoted include Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie, Nexaweb Co-Founder & CTO Coach Wei, the founder of Internet.com Alan Meckler, and the Chairman & CEO of Parasoft Dr Adam Kolawa.

DataServices World: How Data Services Are the New Frontier for Data Integration

Sun, 18 May 2008 15:15:00 EDT

'Data services apply the same philosophy of reuse and flexibility that SOA offers, but to the data tier,' explains John Goodson, executive leader of DataDirect Technologies, in this Exclusive Q&A in the run-up to the inuaugural DataServices World on June 24th in New York City, of which Data Direct is the Diamond Sponsor. 'Data services,' Goodson continues, 'provide a level of abstraction that frees developers from concerning themselves with the physical location or format of the underlying data.'

SOA World - Exclusive Q&A with Dr Adam Kolawa, Co-founder & CEO of Parasoft

Sat, 17 May 2008 06:15:00 EDT

'Developers need to realize that Automated Defect Prevention benefits them,' says Parasoft co-founder & CEO Dr Adam Kolawa in this Exclusive Q&A with Java Developer's Journal. 'But they won't start recognizing this until they see that they have less work,' Kolawa continues. The key to success, he adds, is to have an infrastructure handle as much work as possible. 'This way, developers have time to focus on the creative tasks they enjoy most...the ones that truly require human intelligence.'

DataServices World: Data is the Primary Component of Architecture

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:15:00 EDT

An increasing number of verticals are using Data Services - services that deal with the production or consumption of data - to solve real business problems and deliver key information...all completely transparent to the user. Data is after all the primary component of architecture, including SOA, as StrikeIron CEO David Linthicum recently underlined in an exclusive Q&A with SYS-CON.com.

How To Launch a Successful Technology Start-Up

Tue, 13 May 2008 09:00:00 EDT

'Ten years ago,' Coach Wei tells Jeremy Geelan in this exclusive interview with AJAXWorld Magazine, 'I was as a poor graduate student naive enough to start a company at the bottom of the 'dot-bomb' burst. I learned so much coping with the 'nuclear winter,' raising $18M in financing, working through all the challenges associated with the market, dealing with investors and everything else. I only wish that I had known all this before I got started.'

V is for Venture...and for Virtualization

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:45:00 EDT

When back in 2005 we asked our globe-girdling network of industry executives, enterprise architects, software engineers, technology evangelists, analysts, and VCs to pinpoint what they thought the Next Big Thing would be, only one respondent singled out Virtualization and that was software industry legend Mitchell Kertzman, of San Francisco-based VC firm Hummer Winblad.

Web 2.0 Is Fundamentally About Empowering People

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:00:00 EDT

'Unlocking content to be remixed into new business value' is the driver of Web 2.0 in the enterprise, says Rod Smith, IBM VP of Emerging Internet Technologies, in this Exclusive Q&A with Jeremy Geelan on the occasion of IBM's release of a new technology created by IBM researchers, codenamed 'SMash' - short for Secure Mashup.

Where's i-Technology Headed in 2008?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:00:00 EDT

2007 was undoubtedly the year of Social Networking, but what of 2008? Will '08 be the year of 'Unified Communications' or the year when CMS comes to stand for 'Community Management System' - or even 'Collaboration Management System'? Or will it be the year of the giga-merger, to beat the mere mega-mergers of 2007?

RIA Themes & Topics at AJAXWorld 2008 East: Complete Round-Up

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:15:00 EDT

A round-up of the overall themes and topics being presented at AJAXWorld 2008 East at The Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, March 18-20, 2008 - including Enterprise Mashups, Rich Internet Applications, Security, Enterprise AJAX, Silverlight, GWT, Reverse AJAX/'AJAX Push', AIR/Flash/Flex, JavaFX, ASP.NET AJAX, Seam, JSF, iPhone, Social Applications, YUI, jMaki, Appcelerator, Curl and more...

The Business Value of RIAs: An Informal, Virtual Round Table

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:15:00 EDT

'The experience that web application users expect has changed profoundly as 'RIA' style application design has become prevalent,' says Microsoft's Joe Stagner. 'Companies developing web applications can't wait any longer to solidify their Rich Internet Application strategy.' Stagner was talking with SYS-CON.com as part of an informal, virtual round table on The Business Value of RIAs.

An A to Z of Speakers at AJAXWorld 2008 East in New York City

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:30:00 EST

90+ speakers - March 18-20, 2008 - from Danny Allan, Jean-Francois Arcand, Roland Barcia, Robb Beal, David Boloker, Jeff Brown, Shane Bryzak, Bob Buffone, Robert Boedigheimer, Kurt Cagle, Kord Campbell, Marco Casario, Lauren Cooney, Douglas Crockford...to Scott Regan, David Schlesinger, Ric Smith, Joe Stagner, Shashank Tiwari, Ian Tomlin, Geoff Tudor, Coach Wei, Matthias Wessendorf, Chris Williams, Dev Worah.

There's No Boundary Between "Web 1.0" and "Web 2.0" - Just a Blurry Verge

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:45:00 EST

'Web 2.0' is an example of what the historian Daniel Boorstin would have called 'the Fertile Verge.' Web 2.0 is also a Boom Town, and - as Virginia Postrel points out - 'Boom towns break down barriers; they mix together talent from everywhere; they challenge complacency and overturn assumptions. They are sometimes ugly and almost always stressful, but they foster invention, progress, and learning. And they let people chase their dreams.'

Where Are RIA Technologies Headed in 2008?

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 02:45:00 EST

I am always being told off by i-technologists for quoting Picasso as having said that computers are useless. But I still love his reasoning: 'Because they can only give you answers.' Picasso, like AJAXWorld Magazine, liked questions. So we thought we would share with you what some of the world's leading rich Internet application pioneers are thinking may be the next questions that we need to see answered. From that, readers can themselves infer: where is AJAX headed next?

Moving Beyond AJAX: 2008 Is the Decision Year For RIAs

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:30:00 EST

Is AJAX fit to serve as spear carrier for next-generation Web technology? That question, asked by the San Diego Business Journal in March 2007, was answered by the sheer scale of the last two AJAXWorld Conference & Expos, in March (New York) and September (Santa Clara). The undisputed answer is 'Yes!' So many companies have jumped aboard the AJAX train that when we wanted to do an informal survey the other day on upcoming Web and Internet technology trends, I was able to quickly compile a list of 800 different companies that are leaving the station.

MySQL's Mårten Mickos on Sun: "We Feel Like We Have Joined a Giant Startup"

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:30:00 EST

MySQL's Mårten Mickos has been speaking out on the deep background to his company's decision, instead of pursuing an IPO, to allowing Sun to acquire it. 'We feel like we have joined a giant startup,' Mickos gushes, before singling out Jonathan Schwartz's 'brilliant' CEO charisma as one of the chief tipping-points: 'Who wouldn't want to work for him?'

Google's Competitive Advantage: It Leverages "The Power of Free"

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:30:00 EST

Would Microsoft be able to use its acquisition of Yahoo! to 'shake its obsession with catching Google and instead look to the next generation of the Internet,' asked John Markoff in The New York Times yesterday. Writing in his popular 'Silicon Valley Memo,' Markoff nailed the one thing that Google 'gets' that Microsoft doesn't (yet): how to leverage 'The Power of Free.'

Virtualization is the Future of Enterprise Computing

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:00:00 EST

Virtualization Journal thought it was time to go in search of industry insights into this fast-growing new IT market, and so we asked some of its new and up-and-coming executives for their thoughts on some of the trends emerging already in 2008. First, in view of the memo released recently by the SVP of its Server and Tools Business, Bob Muglia, we asked about what Microsoft's intentions might be. Is it going to try and play catch-up with VMware in 2008 by acquiring Citrix, for example?

"Oracle is the Only Winner In the Sun-MySQL Deal," Claims Dvorak

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:30:00 EST

'I'm close to being convinced that Oracle wanted to buy MySQL to kill the product, but knew it couldn't pull off the stunt itself. So it sent in a stooge to do the job.' That, in a nutshell, is John Dvorak's (unqualified?) opinion on the $1BN deal last week. But his allegations of conspiracy are not cutting much mustard in the wider technology community, many of whom who regard his arguments as flawed.

i-Technology 2008 Predictions: Where's RIAs, AJAX, SOA and Virtualization Headed in 2008?

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:00:00 EST

2007 was the undoubtedly the year of Social Networking, but what of 2008? Will '08 be the year of 'Unified Communications' or the year when CMS comes to stand for 'Community Management System' - or even 'Collaboration Management System'? Or will it be the year of a giga-merger, to beat the mere mega-mergers of 2007? As usual at the end of each year, SYS-CON has been informally polling its globe-girdling network of software developers, industry executives, commentators, investors, writers, and editors. As always, the range and depth of their answers is fascinating, throwing light not just on where the industry is going but also how it's going to get there, why, because of who, within what kind of time-scale. Enjoy!