Enterprise

What to Expect in 2012: Cloud Computing and Open Source Software

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST

In 2011, the cloud computing market continued to mature, driven by the development of enterprise-class cloud virtualization infrastructure and a strong focus on security, stability and scalability of cloud solutions. We also began to see growth in new categories of value-added cloud services such as analytics, mobile, media, and finance. Based on these 2011 findings, in 2012 we can expect the following to emerge as industry-changing trends: An increasing number of enterprises will use public cloud infrastructure for disaster recovery planning. The ongoing economic downturn will intensify enterprises’ drive to find ways to conserve in-house IT resources. Enterprises will also cut costs by improving the efficiency of their server and application infrastructures. Disaster recovery planning places a heavy cost burden on corporations because of the need to maintain a fully redundant server infrastructure, which typically involves setting up secondary data centers at one or more geographically dispersed locations. A number of established cloud service providers including Amazon AWS and Rackspace are starting to offer disaster recovery services.

Apache Hadoop and WebSphere eXtreme Scale

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:45:00 EDT

WebSphere eXtreme Scale can be used in different ways. It can be used as a very powerful cache or as a form of an in-memory database processing space to manage application state or as a platform for building powerful Extreme Transaction Processing (XTP) applications.

Making Sense of Large and Growing Data Volumes

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:30:00 EDT

Is MapReduce the Holy Grail answer to the pressing problem of processing, analyzing and making sense of large and growing data volumes? Certainly it has potential in this arena, but there is a distressing gap between the amount of hype this technology – and its spinoffs – has received and the number of professionals who actually know how to integrate and make best use of it. Industry watchers say it’s just a matter of time before MapReduce sweeps through the enterprise data warehouse (EDW) market the same way open source technologies like Linux have done. In fact, in a recent blog post, Forrester’s James Kobielus proclaimed that most EDW vendors will incorporate support for MapReduce’s open source cousin Hadoop into the heart of their architectures to enable open, standards-based data analytics on massive amounts of data. So, no more databases, just MapReduce? I’m not so sure. But don’t misunderstand. It’s not that MapReduce isn’t an effective way to analyze data in some cases. The big names in Internet business are all using it – Facebook, Google, Amazon, eBay et al – so it must be good, right? But it’s worth taking a more measured view based both on the technical and the practical business merits. I believe that the two technologies are not so mutually exclusive; that they will work hand-in-hand and, in some cases, MapReduce will be integrated into the relational database (RDBMS).

Federating Multiple Cloud Instances with OpenNebula Zones

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:45:00 EDT

This is the second article covering the functionality provided by the new OpenNebula Zones (oZones) component available in the third major release of OpenNebula. In a previous article, we described its Virtual Data Center (VDC) functionality that is helping many IT organizations make the transition toward the next generation of cloud infrastructures supporting multiple fully-isolated VDCs with advanced multi-tenancy. This article elaborates on its support for building multi-tier cloud architectures consisting of multiple OpenNebula Zones.

Cloud + Open Source = OpenSaaS

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:45:00 EDT

One of Cloud’s little secrets is the lack of portability for applications delivered using the “Software as a Service” (SaaS) model. Many companies sign up for SaaS applications with the belief that it’ll be easy for them to migrate to another if they need to. But that runs against the plans of the SaaS vendors, who look for long-term agreements to lock customers in by providing no exit strategy. A new model, called OpenSaas, is the answer. OpenSaaS is software delivered as a service, with open source principles at its core. There’s no lock in. When you want to leave, you export a copy of your application – code, database, and design – and move it to wherever you want.

Cloud Foundry and Windows Azure Myths Dispelled

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Enterprises are looking for Cloud to move their Development and Testing activities which deviates the core goals of the enterprise towards setting up middle ware and configuring servers. PaaS (Platform As A Service) grows into popularity mainly from the fact that Developers can concentrate more on the functionality rather than the infrastructure aspects. New PaaS offering called Cloud Foundry from VMware is exiting, however there are some feeling about how Cloud Foundry would be a Windows Azure Killer and game changer. We tried to analyze those points against Windows Azure and found them to be not true and these platforms together can serve enterprises depending how the existing landscape of enterprises are laid.

Open Source - Community-Inspired Software Development

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:15:00 EDT

Open source developers and communities operate in a similar fashion as venture capitalists and technologists in Silicon Valley. Open source communities share the same merits: participation, collaboration, communication, interaction, and innovation. The World Is Flat author Thomas Friedman said that "the most disruptive force of all" is that of the increased ability for people anywhere in the world to collaborate. In his book, he re-told the story of how Behlendorf had founded the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), a big self-organizing community of software developers. Apparently Behlendorf wasn't the only one working on the project he was working with so he started to collaborate with the other programmers to -- simply put it -- get things done faster. This collaboration eventually gave birth to ASF.

TOGAF Foundation Level Certification – Practice Test

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EDT

If you plan to appear for a TOGAF foundation level certification or part 1 exam, one of the difficulties you will face is a lack of free sample questions. Some questions are provided as a part of the study guide, but if you want to more practice then you will have tough time locating anything freely available on the net. This lack of practice multiple choice questions prompted me to create my own set. I have gone by the advice of Chris Eaton to create this paper before I take the test to avoid any issue that these questions copy the official exam questions.

Enterprise Architecture’s Quest for Its Proper Identity

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 09:45:00 EDT

Enterprise architecture ought to be about the entire enterprise, because that’s what the name implies. If it’s really about IT, it ought to be called enterprise IT architecture. It is my impression, from what I read and hear in many enterprise and business architecture blogs and forums, that the enterprise architecture (EA) community comprises multiple factions, and which faction you are part of depends on how you answer two questions. These are fundamental questions that I suspect many in the EA community (present company excepted, of course) have not asked themselves explicitly, or, if they have, considered why they would answer them one way or the other.

OpenNebula 2010: A Year of Innovation in Cloud Computing

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:30:00 EST

This year has seen some great progress for the OpenNebula project, with the release of the most advanced and flexible enterprise-ready cloud management tool, and the continued growth of an active and engaged open-source community. As 2010 draws to and end, we'd like to review what this year has meant for the OpenNebula project and give you a peek at what you can expect from us in 2011. Orion Release After a first Beta release in July, the stable version of OpenNebula 2.0 was available for download in October. OpenNebula 2.0 marked the end of a large and laborious release cycle and an important milestone for the project in terms of functionality, maturity and community engagement. Besides many exciting new features for your Cloud and an improved scalability and robustness, this release also marked the start of a new add-on section for high-quality, third-party open-source components. OpenNebula 2.0 is targeted at production environments, including integration, management, scalability, security and accounting features that many enterprise IT shops need for private and hybrid cloud adoption. We're delighted with the response from our community. Besides the huge spike in downloads, we have received many congratulations over email and Twitter from many of our users, specially those who are deploying OpenNebula in very large infrastructures

Top Ten Reasons for Using OpenNebula

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 05:00:00 EDT

The OpenNebula Project has published the top ten reasons for using OpenNebula to build a cloud infrastructure. These reasons reflect the design principles of OpenNebula as technology designed to address the requirements of business use cases from leading companies. This is the summarized list of reasons. Most advanced and innovative functionality. Unique functionality for building hybrid cloud deployments. Hypervisor independence. Production-ready, highly scalable and efficient back-end, security and accounting. Unique capabilities for integration. Powerful interfaces. Cloud interoperability and portability. Adopt and implement standards. Fully open source. Stable and robust technology.

Business Trends in Global IT Markets

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:54:14 EDT

The learning that has occurred in the Western markets have produced a body of knowledge in TOGAF that can accelerate for other companies the way they adopt and improve their ability to deliver on strategy, planning, and execution. We've assembled a panel to examine the key market trends impacting enterprise architecture (EA) in different regions of the world. We'll evaluate how the use and value of EA is emerging and progressing worldwide, and how the expanding use of EA offers a unique window into global business trends as well.

Get Greater Business Insights and Relieve IT Cost Pressure?

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

With heightened pressure on today’s businesses from the current global economic woes, figuring out what to do next on many business and technology decision-making levels, and making sure they are the right moves, can make or break your business. Take a moment to consider the following questions.

Open is a Four-Letter Word

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EDT

The past decade certainly been boom years for the IT industry. Not necessarily from an economic perspective, but rather in the growth of the number and variety of standards that have been proposed. One of the key properties of Web Services and the Service-oriented architectures built upon them is the fact that they are based upon open standards. After all, standards are an essential element of the maturation of any technology. In the case of distributed computing, open standards promise to increase interoperability, reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), widen the base of skilled developers, and increase vendor choice. With so much riding on the power of open standards, you would think that there would be broad agreement as to just what "open" and "standard" mean. Unfortunately, there is still plenty of confusion about the meanings of these two terms.

Cloud Balancing, Cloud Bursting, and Intercloud

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:30:00 EDT

One of the things that’s frustrating about new technology and concepts is that terminology often confuses the discussion. We periodically still see discussions – and debates – around the definition of cloud computing, after all, so that shouldn’t be surprising at all. Intercloud is another one of those terms that is going to cause some contention because it sounds like a technology, but apparently it’s not. According to the folks who started using it (like James) it’s more akin to the Internet in that it’s a description of what will grow out of interoperability and portability standards once they’re applied to actual implementations. Not to get all Euclidian, but the intercloud is a lot like the set of all clouds connected via standards-based mechanisms. What those mechanisms are may be up for discussion and there are certainly groups devoted to defining those mechanisms but suffice to say that right now the “intercloud” does not exist. It (probably) will but we’re a ways off from that.

Thoughts on How to Select Between COTS and Open Source

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Organizations continue to wrestle with the COTS vs. Open Source question and continually look for guidance on how to select one vs. the other. Many organizations make the frequent mistake of basing the decision on the capital investment cost or up front investment with no thought to any other criteria. While cost is an important factor, there are other areas that organizations should consider as part of their selection process. These include:

The Future of Enterprise Software

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST

It's no secret that open source has turned into a market force, which is giving enterprise software some tough competition. The same can be said for SaaS businesses, which are steadily eating into the market share of the established on-premise players. While it could easily be assumed that ultimately SaaS and open source will battle each other for dominance of the software business, I don’t think that’s likely.

Open Source and Cloud Computing Take on Enterprise Software

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:50:00 EST

Enterprise software is under attack. Traditional infrastructure players like BEA are seeing their core products replaced with free open source projects, while traditional application vendors like Oracle/Siebel are being displaced by SaaS. But is this a slugfest with only one winner? Will SaaS and open source ultimately turn against each other for dominance of the software business model – WWF Smack Down style – where the once united tag team, after conquering their opponent, starts to fight between themselves?

The Role of Event-Driven Architecture in Business Applications

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:45:00 EDT

Three-letter acronyms (TLAs) are hardly new in Information Technology: EAI, ESB, SOA, BPM, BAM, ETL, MDM; the list goes on and on. This article is about yet another three-letter acronym, EDA, which stands for Event-Driven Architecture. EDA is not a brand new technology, but rather a proven paradigm in system-level programs, war and military simulator applications, gaming, and other areas. EDA has started to shape how general-purpose business applications are architected.

Software Appliances: Delivering Open Source

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:45:00 EDT

Appliances. The very word is emblematic of stability and strength. Think of the appliances in your kitchen. Unless you're particularly unlucky, 99.9% of the time your refrigerator, stove and dishwasher just work. You don't have to give it a second thought. When we talk about software appliances, we're talking about a similar stability.

Service Management and Enterprise Architecture

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:00:00 EST

Governance is currently a key topic for many IT functions. Its definition varies, but its key themes are true for all companies: effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability. Business value and risk mitigation are also at its center and represent a significant part of enterprise governance overall.

SSO, Open Source and the 'Modern' Enterprise

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:00:00 EST

Efforts to modernize enterprise infrastructure have never been more complex. While the need is certainly there on multiple fronts - competitive edge, cost savings and new business initiatives, to name just a few - new hurdles seem to pop up no matter where an IT administrator might look. That includes not just management issues such as cap/ex costs and user resistance, but also an increasing pancake stack of integration layers within and among applications.

Selecting an Open Source Content Management Solution

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:15:00 EST

When it comes to Content Management Solutions (CMS), 'one size' does not fit all. When considering open source CMS for a real-world client experience, it's necessary to focus on the project needs, evaluate various CMS solutions in the context of these project needs, and to explore experiences with the strengths and weaknesses of the solutions.

Enterprise Open Source Is Not Just the Code

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:00:00 EDT

Within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), many companies have enjoyed a blossoming of open source software. By harnessing the collective wisdom, experiences, expertise, and requirements, the model has ensured that needs have been rapidly met while the open source code has provided the wanted flexibility and low cost. Everything made possible through the Internet, which has enabled easy zero-cost distribution and improved global collaboration. By leveraging large user communities the software products have grown fast and made it possible for open source companies to challenge major proprietary vendors.

Making Sense of Virtualization

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:15:00 EST

Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to manage their enterprise data centers as they become highly complex, expensive to build out, and difficult to reconfigure as needs change. In an effort to address these challenges, many IT professionals are turning to virtualization technologies.

Adopting an Open Source Approach to Software Development, Distribution, and Licensing

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:15:00 EST

Since the beginning of the software industry, nearly every software company in the world has followed the same business model: its own employees develop the software, which is closely held intellectual property, the software is delivered to clients in binary form, and users run the licensed software on their own computers. Today, this model has been challenged by a new paradigm: open source. Developed and maintained by volunteers across the world, distributed to users at no cost, and available as source code, open source software is radically different from its proprietary counterpart. Each of the new characteristics of open source software forces organizations to develop new ways of thinking about how they procure, implement, test, and deploy it.

Opening Up the Enterprise

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 13:00:00 EDT

A quick Google search of 'enterprise Open Source' returns over 1.5 million results. There are Web sites devoted to the topic; there are dedicated conferences and trade shows, and even a fairly large number of books. There's even a magazine - the one now in your hands! - devoted entirely to the subject of enterprise Open Source. Most of these sources discuss using Open Source applications and infrastructure in one's business, and tacitly assume that this defines enterprise Open Source. This implied definition falls short of what I think of when envisioning an 'Open Source enterprise application' however.

Aha! What Your Refrigerator Can Teach You About Selling Software

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 14:30:00 EDT

Great ideas often come from the most commonplace occurrences. Take the story of Sir Issac Newton's 'discovery' of gravity. According to the legend, he was sitting under an apple tree minding his own business when - bonk! - an apple dropped onto his head, and suddenly all the complex mathematical formulae he'd been considering became crystal clear. It's what's known as an 'Aha!' moment.

The High Cost of Independence

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 13:00:00 EDT

The acronym ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor. Historically, independence was important to protect customers from the proprietary lock-in associated with third-party components such as hardware or system software. A greater choice of interoperable components gave customers greater flexibility to procure and assemble a system that met their needs. Microsoft alleviated some of this concern with the Windows platform because customers could always choose multiple hardware providers when selecting applications that ran on Windows. Of course, an application that only runs on Windows isn't exactly an 'independent' application, but customers seem to accept hardware independence as sufficient freedom. (More on Microsoft and Windows later.)

Selling Software in China

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 13:00:00 EDT

Technology companies have been taking a beating lately because of their efforts in China. Google and Yahoo are torn between the evil of government censorship and the prospect of doing business with the world's fastest-growing economy. Microsoft, Adobe, and content providers like the American movie studios face serious problems with piracy. A recent report by the China-Britain Business Council stated that only one in four people in China has purchased software legally.