Creating an open web is at the heart of the Mozilla project. And you’re a part of that. As one of thousands of people in the project, you have worked tirelessly to keep the Internet open, participatory and full of life.

The question is: why? Why do you participate? Why does the open web matter so much to you?

As we work to grow the Mozilla community, we want to explain what you’re feeling to everyone — your neighbours, your co-workers, your grandparents. We want them to understand the open web.

I just shared my definition of what an Open Web means to me. Why don’t you share yours?

http://mozilla.org/open
#mozopen

Click read more to see my response

I’m a software architect, specializing in business web apps. Years ago, when the web was young, I attended a technical seminar at which the speaker spoke excitedly about how the web would change the world through freedom of information. It has. Knowledge is indeed power. Never before in human history has so much knowledge been available to many at so little cost. An open web means freedom from those who would control access to information. An open web can literally change and even save lives.

Related posts:

1. Choosing Between Java and .Net
2. Why Just Enough Technology?
3. Craftsmanship and Software Development

PDC Video on Cloud Computing with Azure

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With a Just Enough Technology approach, a company evaluates technology against its core problem or objectives. I work with business and technology leaders within a company to define their true objectives and then weigh the technology decisions with their business objectives as the main criteria. Read through this article on choosing between the Java and Microsoft platforms. Both technologies have evolved quite a bit since this was first published, but some of the core arguments remain to this day.

The article:
A user asks Dave, “Assume that we have a new mission critical Web application that we need to develop over the next six months. How would you recommend we compare & contrast the pros/cons of J2EE vs. .NET as the platform (assuming we have the proper skills)?”

There are many, many factors that come into play when deciding between J2EE and .NET. As a foundational statement, let me state that I personally believe you can build (and I have built) mission critical Web applications on both platforms. Sun Microsystems commissioned a white paper (see links at the end of this post) that states the theoretical scalability of each platform is unlimited. I say this because your decision should not based on whether or not you *can* build a more robust application in one or the other. It can be done.

As far as developing Web services, either platform offers a great foundation. Of course there are intrinsic advantages to each platform which I’ll list later. Web services and .NET are tightly integrated. It is *very* easy to create a basic Web service in .NET. It is simply a matter of placing a directive on each method you want exposed as a Web method. The compiler does the rest for you. Deployment is also a breeze. For the most part, you simply copy your files to the server and you’re done. Visual Studio .NET is also a development environment that has no peers, in my opinion. I still believe Microsoft has the edge in getting a project out the door as fast as possible.

J2EE on the other hand also has some good tools for creating Web services. IBM’s WebSphere Studio Application Developer 4 offers some great work-saving features for creating Web services. Basically you choose a Java bean or other object to “WebServicefy” and step through the wizard. When you are done, WebSphere Studio has created a wrapper for your object and all the SOAP, WSDL, etc. code needed. It also has created a JSP application to test your new Web service. It works and it is straightforward. I was able to create a simple Web service within 30 minutes of opening the environment for the first time. Pretty impressive for a Java IDE.

If you have developers skilled in one or the other platforms, then lean strongly toward that platform. The cost of training is high. Leveraging existing skills should be a priority.

That said then, what are the decision points one would consider when choosing between J2EE and .NET? Here are a few considerations and who I think has the advantage in each:

Multi-Platform: J2EE
———————-
Currently if you need to create applications that run on more than one platform, Java is your only choice. This may change in future as .NET is ported to other platforms – we’ll see.

Legacy Integration: J2EE?
———————-
If you need to integrate legacy systems you may have an easier time in J2EE. IBM for example, provided the iron for many of these systems and has very workable solutions to connect to mainframes through WebSphere. On the other hand, you *could* create a Web service on the legacy platform, making this point moot.

Multi-Language: .NET
———————-
If you have developers in VB, C++, Java and want a unified environment for them to work in, .NET is your choice. All languages are created equal and work together, including cross-language inheritance.

Choice of Vendors: J2EE
———————-
Is a choice of vendors important to you? There are advantages to a multi-vendor solution – you can choose the best-of-breed for each component of your system. There are also advantages to a single vendor solution, which include better interoperability between components. For example, .NET and SQL Server 2000 working together are a powerful, easy to use (relatively) combination.

Vertical Scalability: J2EE
———————-
If scaling up by buying bigger iron is your organizations preferred method, than lean toward J2EE.

Horizontal Scalability: .NET
———————-
If your organization likes the idea of a greater number of cheaper servers than there is probably an edge with .NET.

Finally, after all is said and done, many decisions are in reality based on shall we say, non-scientific criteria such as:

Like Microsoft: .NET
Don’t: J2EE

I say this only partly tongue-in-cheek. Prejudice against Microsoft and the underlying technology goes deep with many technical folks and some business folks. It is a real factor in making this decision. There is also a prejudice in the Microsoft community against Java that is also based on less than scientific findings.

LINKS:

Original Article:
( http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid26_gci819020,00.html )

J2EE vs. Microsoft .NET: (Copyright2001 The Middleware Company Prepared for Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Transaction Processing Performance Council
Roger Sessions’ comparison of .NET to J2EE
Software Dev Magazine article
O’Reilly article comparing J2EE and .NET

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1. Choosing Between Java and .Net
2. Craftsmanship and Software Development
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Here’s how to do it:

1. Create a new folder.
2. Rename the folder to GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}(note that you can change the “GodMode” text, but the following period and code number are essential).
3. The folder icon will change to  — double click it to show the GodMode window.
   

The image below shows what you see in the GodMode window. There a host of links to utilities and settings. Having them all in one place is extremely convenient. This secret trick appears to work in Windows 7 32 and 64 bit, Windows Server 2008 32 bit and Vista 32 bit. BUT, it seems to crash Vista 64 bit. You have been warned

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Hundreds of thousands of BlueCross customers are in for a scare. This week, the insurance company is sending out notifications to its customers fessing up to a significant data breach that saw a thief make off with 57 hard drives from a call center in Tennessee.

The hard drives contained encoded — but not encrypted – records of phone calls and video files containing sensitive patient information. eSecurity Planet has the details on the breach.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) – it drives companies crazy. We need to obtain it to provide services, but if we mishandle it, we are in for big trouble. This latest case shows that security is an integrated problem. Often we concentrate on having strong passwords and software controls to limit access and guarantee that data only goes to the users who should have access. Yet we leave the front door open by not protecting physical access to servers and thereby the data that is on them. Think of the laptops that were misplaced a while ago. Had they been encrypted, the exposure would have been under control but the company’s reputation would still have been damaged. People don’t believe encrypted data is safe. If a thief can get the laptops or the drives in this case, the average person fears that the data is compromised.

In software and system design we need to pay attention to every aspect of loss prevention and that includes non-technical preventative security measures. I once had a client who spent a large sum of money on a hand reader for the data center main door, but left their database exposed to direct TCP access with the default system admin user name and password still set. Ouch. It is easy to get caught up finding technical solutions to problems like data security and forget to lock the front door at night. In this latest case encrypted drives would go a long way in preventing actual data loss, but once the data physically leaves the control of the company, the company cannot prove that the data was not compromised.

Lesson to be learned: Do not forget the real issues. Address the whole problem homogenously, taking all aspects into account.

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Starting today, customers and partners in countries across the globe will be able to launch their Windows Azure and SQL Azure production applications and services with the support of the full Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The Windows Azure platform AppFabric Service Bus and Access Control will continue to be free until April 2010 for those that sign up for a commercial subscription. Additionally Microsoft codename “Dallas” will continue to be in a free CTP.

Read more on the Azure team blog.

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2. Good Azure Video from PDC09
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Just Enough Technology means providing the right technology to solve the right problem at the right cost. Not too much, not too little. The objectives of the business must be prioritized and kept in mind from concept to design to implementation to maintenance. Every decision made along the way must map to a business objective. Every software requirement must map to a business objective. This is the foundation of Just Enough Technology – clear and concise business objectives. Those objectives drive the requirements, and the requirements drive the design and implementation.

This is how I ended a short article about Just Enough Technology a while back. I’ve reproduced here for your reading pleasure. Differing opinions are invited

I’ve worked with many Fortune 500 and 100 clients, as well as small and mid-size companies. While there are many differences between the big guys and the smaller guys, they share one thing in common: the bottom line is their bottom line. Any business is in business ultimately to do one thing: make a profit. True, there are other drivers that individual companies may have, whether it is being a market leader or providing a service for the betterment of humanity. No business can stay in business unless they achieve a positive bottom line. I’m sure everyone understands this basic truth and yet, when it comes to creating, purchasing and maintaining software and perhaps to a lesser extent, hardware, this principle is often left by the wayside. One case in point I’m reminded of was a project for a national company (a household name you would recognize). This company undertook an integration project several years ago and engaged a large consulting firm to create a design and to do the implementation. The project began and the company spent over $20M over a period of perhaps one year. During this time, the company’s major web site was having daily stability issues and was going down frequently. No code was yet written to address these pressing problems. After a year, the only artifact from the project was a mountain of documentation, which included an architectural design. I was brought in to analyze the technical issues with the web site and servers, which I did in about 1 week of effort. At the end of the week, I produced an 18 point recommendation which included a rewrite of the application. Shortly thereafter, I was retained to lead the rebuilding effort and was shown the design that had been produced by the previous $20M effort. Frankly I was shocked. First of all, it was extremely complicated and over-architected and used bleeding edge (for then) technologies that no one at the company knew how to use. Second, the effort the design  must have actually taken was minuscule compared to the mountain of paper it took to produce. I could not believe that they had spent such a large sum of money (lost profit) on what amounted to nothing. Had they implemented the design, it would have been a failure. It would likely have had serious performance issues.. We put a team together consisting of consultants from various firms and paired with employees, and produced our own design. We concentrated on solving the business problem in an efficient manner using technology the company could maintain once the development team was gone. The first thing we did was to shore up the current application so they could function properly. Only then did we begin work on the redesign. The project was completed – design and implementation – in much less than one year, with 1/4 of the price tag of the previous effort. The project was a great success and remained in production until it was upgraded to new technology. I can’t say who the client was, but if you are an IT professional, it is likely you have used the product at one time or another. That story illustrates the need for Just Enough Technology. Technology should drive business, it should enable business. Technology can provide savings or it can provide opportunities that would be difficult to take advantage of without it. That is, if it is used appropriately. When misused it can become an enormous profit-sink that consumes vast amounts of money with little to show for the cost and effort. Software can’t be seen or touched and it can be difficult to appraise a project’s real value or its real cost. Well-meaning tech-types convince business people that they need “the latest and greatest” or bad things will happen. To be fair, most of time I do think their intentions are good, but the truth is the average software architect or developer doesn’t know a thing about the bottom line. They know what is best in a pure sense, but they struggle with what is Good Enough. Since technology seems like witchcraft to many business people, they are hard-pressed to make decisions about how much is too much in regard to software and technology. The outcome many times is overspending and under-delivering. The wrong problem is solved and it is solved in a highly complex manner. Just Enough Technology means providing the right technology to solve the right problem at the right cost. Not too much, not too little. The objectives of the business must be prioritized and kept in mind from concept to design to implementation to maintenance. Every decision made along the way must map to a business objective. Every software requirement must map to a business objective. This is the foundation of Just Enough Technology – clear and concise business objectives. Those objectives drive the requirements, and the requirements drive the design and implementation. Too often this process is short-circuited and a company jumps right to design, resulting in an application that does not provide maximum benefit and probably is over-priced for the needs of the business.

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http://blogs.msdn.com/jnak/archive/2009/11/19/videos-of-the-windows-azure-sessions-at-pdc09.aspx

In preparation for some discussion on Cloud Computing and Windows Azure in particular, here is a link to a set of videos on Azure from PDC09.

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Definition

The definition of Cloud Computing can sometimes seem rather, well, nebulous. Some have characterized it as “everything we are doing now”. While I agree that there are aspects of what we have been doing that relate to “the cloud”, Cloud Computing is much more. In the broadest sense, Cloud Computing involves abstracting various components of software systems so that the business and development team need not be concerned with the details. These components can include hardware, infrastructure, services and integration points. You can divide Cloud Computing into 3 broad categories:

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

There are other offerings such as Managed Service Providers (MSP), but for this introduction, we’ll concentrate on the 3 main components.

Components of Cloud Computing

Basic Characteristics

Cloud Computing customers do not own the physical infrastructure or in many cases the software utilized. Instead these resources are “rented”. This model is similar to the Utility Provider model upon which we purchase electricity and other services. Computing services are “consumed” in a like manner to electricity and the customer is charged a consumption fee. For example, Cloud Servers customers can be charged a usage fee based on actual computing cycles used instead of a flat server rental fee. Since there is no single server on which a company’s application is installed, redundancy is built in, as is scalability.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is probably the component with the broadest market appeal. The SaaS provider allows its clients to use its applications, but not directly interact with its services or hardware. A simple example of SaaS might be web-based email services or something like Twitter. This component of Cloud Computing is in wide use today and is rapidly increasing in adoption. For example, some businesses are moving to Gmail from internally hosted mail solutions.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS provides things like block storage or virtual servers. This area has a high potential for savings for many companies. Like SaaS, companies are weighing the benefits of foregoing the cost and headache of self-managed hardware for buying a piece of the cloud.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS is where the provider offers a platform upon which developers or end-users can create applications using the provider’s APIs. An example today would be Google Apps.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing has many potential benefits including better scalability, better availability, lower overall cost and TCO. Companies may be able to save on Capital Expenditures by not having to purchase and maintain hardware. This can result in significant savings over time. The general idea is for the company to concentrate on the things that directly affect their bottom line such as product development and marketing, while allowing a service provider to deal with things that do not directly affect income. Of course, it must be economical for the company to “rent” hardware and software services and in many cases Cloud Computing can result in real savings. But like most technologies, the applicability of Cloud Computing must be evaluated on a case by case basis. There are obviously other factors, such as data security’, that must be addressed.

Should We Adopt Cloud Computing?

There are many factors involve in answering this question and each company’s answer will be unique to their needs and situation. Before undertaking any technological change, especially on as fundamental as adopting Cloud Computing, all important options and factors should be carefully considered. The objectives of the company must be clear and factored into the equation. Technology is a tool and it must fit the job. My advice? Get some advice when making a decision about Cloud Computing. Don’t be afraid to adopt Cloud Computing, but weigh the benefits carefully against the cost and your company’s objectives.

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2. Good Azure Video from PDC09
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From the FAQ on the WebSiteSpark partner site:

The program helps Web Pros drive new business opportunities through increased visibility and connections with partners (including Web Hosters) and customers around the world; WebsiteSpark also provides Web Pros with Microsoft tools and hosting solutions, as well as support and training.

WebSiteSpark gives Enable access to emerging technologies from Microsoft and a network of complementary professional service companies in the web space. This program and our nomination for participation provides a strong foundation on Microsoft technologies for our clients.

Related posts:

1. Choosing Between Java and .Net
2. Java vs. .Net – Another Blast From the Past
3. Craftsmanship and Software Development