JP Morgenthal

At first glance, Scott Seely's book looks like it might answer a lot of questions that a developer might have with regard to building SOAP applications. However, once inside I believe most readers will have a split experience. Scott hits the basics as most engineers would, but drills down directly into the minutiae without first setting up context for the reader. To start with, the cover does a great job of attracting the reader by listing the key points that any developer would be interested in, such as multiple programming language support (C#, Visual Basic, C++, Perl, Java) and multi-platform support. Also, the bottom of the cover has some strong credentials for technical reviewers: Yves LaFon (Chair W3C SOAP Committee) and Kent Sharkey (.NET Frameworks Technical Evangelist, Microsoft). Scott's first chapter gives a brief introduction to the history of distribute... (more)

Notes from the Field: Inside a Real World Large-Scale Cloud Deployment

I’ve been granted an incredible opportunity. Over the past three and a half months I have gotten to lead a real world large-scale delivery of a cloud solution. The final solution will be delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to the customer via an on-premise managed service. While I have developed SaaS/PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) solutions in the past, I was fortunate enough to have been able to build those on public cloud infrastructures. This has been a rare glimpse into the “making of the sausage” having to orchestrate everything from delivery of the hardware into the d... (more)

Vivek Kundra, Cash-for-Clunkers & Cloud Architecture

In reading Vivek Kundra’s “25 Point Implementation Plan To Reform Federal Information”, I was struck by the anecdote regarding how the lack of scalability was the cause for outages and, ultimately, delays in processing transactions on the Car Allowance and Rebate System (CARS) or as it was more commonly known as Cash-for-Clunkers.  According to this document the overwhelming response overwhelmed the system leading to outages and service disruptions.  However, a multimedia company offering users the ability to create professional-quality TV-like videos and share them over the Inte... (more)

The Java-tization of CORBA

Leading members of the Object Management Group are colluding to ensure the ongoing success of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). On May 25, 1997, the gang-of-four ... IBM, Netscape, Oracle, and SunSoft ... submitted a statement of direction to the Object Management Group to provide missing Java-like functionality to the Object Management Architecture (OMA), of which CORBA is the key component. This proposal highlights three key elements of the distributed object computing marketplace: Java offers advanced functionality for developing distributed applications. Th... (more)

Building End-to-End Palm Applications Using Java

In the past, mobile warriors were the only ones who relied on portable information technology. Since PalmOS, RIM, and WindowsCE devices penetrated corporate walls, it’s no longer unusual to have over 60% of corporate employees using PDAs and handheld devices for time management. Indeed, Franklin-Covey, one of the world’s largest providers of time-management tools, adopted the medium and made it a large part of their overall toolkit. As with all great technologies that improve productivity, it’s taken the enterprise quite a bit of time to catch up and analyze what’s happening ri... (more)