Latest News from ZapThink on Ulitzer

Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 and SOA

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:30:00 EST

Our topic this week centers on how to define, track and influence how people actually adapt to and adopt technology. Any new information technology might be the best thing since sliced bread, but if people don’t understand the value or how to access it properly -- or if adoption is spotty, or held up by sub-groups, agendas, or politics -- then the value proposition is left in the dust. Perceptions count ... a lot.

Cloud Computing Was the Big News of 2009

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:15:00 EST

The big news in IT this year has to be Cloud Computing. Like the result of a Gremlin fed after midnight, Cloud Computing turned into the Stripe of the IT world. As pundits and vendors raced to gain mindshare as a means of priming the economy-dulled sales pipeline, IT buyers were caught trying to figure out, "is this the next great frontier, or am I going to look like an ass for recommending yet another useless acquisition?" Interestingly, cost is not the major driver behind these offerings, but instead access to compute resources on demand that don't require up-front capital expenditure.

Media Alert: WebLayers and ZapThink to Discuss the Effectiveness of Governance in Federal Enterprise Architectures in Free, Live Webinar

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:15:16 EDT

As part of its on-going educational webinar series, WebLayers and ZapThink will host, "Boosting the Effectiveness of Federal Enterprise Architectures." This free, live webinar is designed specifically for IT managers, architects and developers in the federal government that are interested in learning more about the role of governance within their agency infrastructure.

Are Services Nouns or Verbs?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:45:00 EDT

Should Services be nouns or verbs? It's possible to design Services either way, as Entity Services, which predictably represent business entities, or as Task Services, that represent specific actions that implement some step in a process, in other words, verbs. Which approach is better?

Private Clouds: A Valuable Concept or Buzzword Bingo?

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EDT

To attempt to gain some clarity around this issue, ZapThink reached out to a number of pundits and opinion-leaders in the space to get their thoughts and definitions on Private Cloud, and to no surprise, the definitions all varied significantly. Let's explore these definitions and see what additional value (if any) they contribute to the Cloud Computing discussion.

The Critical Link between SOA and BPM: Process Isomorphism

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:45:00 EDT

There are plenty of Enterprise Architects who see the connection between Business Process Management and Service-Oriented Architecture initiatives, and who have pulled them together into "BPM enabled by SOA" efforts. This synergy, however, is not automatic, and requires some hard work both among the people focusing on optimizing business processes to better meet changing business needs as well as the team looking to build composable Business Services that support the business agility and business empowerment drivers for their SOA initiatives. ZapThink has worked with many such organizations, and over time a distinct best practice pattern has emerged, one that is both fundamental as well as subtle, and as a result, has fallen through the cracks of compendia of SOA patterns: the Process Isomorphism pattern. Understanding this pattern and how to apply it can help organizations pull their BPM and SOA efforts together, and even more importantly, improve the alignment of their SOA initiatives with core business drivers.

Analyst Firm Launches "ZapThink on Ulitzer"

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EDT

SOA Industry Analysis and Advisory Firm ZapThink launched a topic site on Ulitzer. ZapThink is an IT advisory and analysis firm that provides trusted advice and critical insight into the architectural and organizational changes brought about by the movement to XML, Web Services, and Service Orientation.We provide our three target audiences of IT vendors, service providers and end-users a clear roadmap for standards-based, loosely coupled distributed computing - a vision of IT meeting the needs of the agile business.

Service-Oriented Process: Thinking About Processes Before Services

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:04:00 EDT

Instead of thinking of Web Services as a collection of interfaces to software functionality that must somehow be made to connect to other such interfaces, enterprises should approach Web Services as enabling a fundamentally process-driven architecture that leverages distributed processes in addition to distributed services. We all understand distributed services-it's distributed computing based on the notion that service interfaces should be standardized and service descriptors and registries should be used to allow for runtime binding. However, distributed processes are all about the creation of business processes that in turn depend on other business processes that may be defined anywhere in the organization. Those business processes then at some point depend on atomic services to fulfill the activities required by their process flow.

Omaha: a new region for SOA & EA training and certification

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:48:29 EDT

ZapThink today announces the opening of registration for its four-day Licensed ZapThink Architect (LZA) Boot Camp, providing in-depth, hands-on training and certification on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and taught by notable SOA expert Jason Bloomberg. The LZA SOA Boot Camp will run from October 5-8, 2009 in Omaha, NE.

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.

The Dissolution of the Rich Internet Application (RIA) Market

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:15:00 EDT

As the line between browser-based and desktop-based applications blurs, and as approaches for abstracting functionality and information from user interfaces develop, other markets will eventually merge with the currently separately identifiable RIA market. Furthermore, as the Internet continues to penetrate every aspect of our lives, both business and personal, the distinction between "Internet application" and "application" will disappear, rich or not.

Business Agility as an Emergent Property of SOA

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:00:00 EDT

In the SOA context, we focus on building and maintaining the Business Service abstraction, which supports inherently unpredictable behavior as the business composes Services to support fundamentally dynamic business processes. Essentially, with SOA we're building for change, while with Traditional Systems Engineering, we're building for stability. The problem with stability, of course, is it only takes the business so far -- if the organization requires business agility, then they're much better off implementing SOA.

Content as Services

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:47:00 EDT

Content is information that is intended for human consumption, as opposed to "data," which are information intended for machine or system use. At times, we use other words such as knowledge, semantics, and intellectual assets to describe content. What differentiates human-oriented content from machine-oriented data is that people must create, manage, publish, and distribute content so that it can be represented in a variety of different ways, all the while maintaining the same overall meaning.

ZapThink Announces SOA Training

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:57:00 EDT

Understanding the Real Costs of Integration

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:45:00 EDT

Are implementations of Web Services simply "old wine in new bottles," with interfaces every bit as brittle and tightly-coupled as in the past, or are they really implementing Service-Oriented Integration among Services at many levels of granularity? Clearly, "Web Services Integration" does not equal "Service-Oriented Integration." We are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, as long as we understand the appropriate use of Service-Oriented Integration.

ZapThink Announces SOA Training in Chicago

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:15:00 EDT

US Government & Federal Agencies Keen on Enterprise Architecture & SOA

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:15:00 EDT

Over the past two years, governments around the world have caught the enterprise architecture and SOA fever. This is especially the case in the US Federal Government, where a number of regulations, EA frameworks, and major spending initiatives are all pointing towards continued and lasting expenditure and investment in the area of EA. One can also notice this trend based on the number of EA and SOA events now focused on the US Federal Government, or at least taking place in the Washington, DC area. For example, ZapThink’s Practical SOA event in DC on October 2, 2009 is focused on cost-effective legacy enablement and data management, while its 4-day licensed ZapThink Architect (LZA) boot camp running from September 21-24, 2009 provides SOA certification and credentialing to government and other DC-area firms. ZapThink’s SOA & Cloud governance certification and training class in DC sold out earlier this month (August) and was so popular the company is running it again, in DC, September 30-October 1.

Service Semiotics and the SOA Illusion

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:15:00 EDT

Visual representations of Services, as well as the composition and consumption of those Services, are becoming the key to many SOA success stories. Without a visual component you can show business users, SOA becomes abstruse; furthermore, as organizations leverage Web 2.0 principles to build mashups, the visualization aspect of the Web 2.0 value proposition becomes a driving force for SOA. Understanding how Services look, therefore, is a critical part of understanding how they provide value.

ZapThink Announces Release of Online, Computer-Based SOA Training

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EDT

ZapThink today announces the availability of its online, computer-based Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Licensed ZapThink Architect (LZA) training and credentialing course. In this first-of-its-kind offering, attendees can get access to over 20 hours of self-paced video instruction and slides, online testing and evaluation, and opportunity to submit architectural exercises to ZapThink master architects for grading and assessment. Upon completion of the online course, attendees will receive the same LZA Credential that they would receive if they attended one of ZapThink’s popular in-person training events.

Why Current Network Protocol-Based Firewalls and Routers Can't Handle XML

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:15:00 EDT

Look in the network closet in any good-sized company today and you’ll find a wide assortment of network gear: firewalls, switches, gateways, routers, hubs, bridges, the list goes on and on. Each of these devices essentially either directs or secures the packets that form the automobiles on the streets and freeways of today’s networks. All data networks -- including the mother of all data networks, the Internet -- are built from these packet-directing and packet-securing devices. All this equipment works pretty well, as long as they don’t care what is actually inside the packets. And there’s the rub. The amount of traffic going over the network that is XML formatted -- in particular, Web Services messages -- is set to explode, and all that equipment in the closet is completely unprepared to direct or secure that XML traffic.

Understanding the Value of Reference Architectures

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:30:00 EDT

There’s nothing more that architects love to do than argue about definitions. If you ever find yourself with idle time in a room of architects, try asking for a definition of “Service” or “architecture” and see what sort of creative melee you can start. That being said, definitions are indeed very important so that we can have a common language to communicate the intent and benefit of the very things we are trying to convince business to invest in. From that perspective, a number of concepts have emerged in the past decade or so that have become top of mind for self-styled enterprise architects: architecture frameworks and reference architectures. In previous ZapFlashes, we discussed architecture frameworks, which leaves the topic of reference architectures left untouched by ZapThink. Since we can’t leave a good argument behind, we’re going to use this ZapFlash to explore what reference architectures are all about and what value they have to add to the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) story.

The Buckaroo Banzai Effect: Location Independence, SOA, and the Cloud

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:45:00 EDT

Now that Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is finally becoming mainstream, an increasing number of people are asking us what comes after SOA. If SOA is one step in the evolution of distributed computing, the reasoning goes, then something is bound to be next in line. Furthermore, just as SOA built upon Web architectures, client/server, and the rest of what are now today's legacy technologies, so too will this "Next Big Thing" (for want of a name) build upon, rather than replace SOA.

SOA Is For Small Business Too

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:30:00 EDT

ZapThink frequently talks about how Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides significant benefits to enterprises by virtue of the ability to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of integration and enable business agility. It is apparent that companies in many industries are realizing the promise of SOA by implementing a variety of SOA initiatives. However, much of the short-term promise of SOA applies to companies where the integration cost and complexity is high because their IT infrastructure is heterogeneous – that is, consisting of a wide range of disparate technologies that are difficult to interoperate. Certainly, a heterogeneous IT environment is the norm in companies of any significant size, but the smaller a company gets, the more homogeneous its IT infrastructure becomes. And so, what does SOA offer the small or medium-sized company that has, until now, simplified its IT universe by standardizing on a single platform or environment?

ZapThink Expands Its Footprint Into South Africa

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:45:00 EDT

ZapThink today announces the availability of a series of SOA training and certification courses in Johannesburg, South Africa, run in conjunction with realIRM. ZapThink will run its four-day Licensed ZapThink Architect (LZA) Boot Camp, providing in-depth, hands-on training and certification on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and taught by notable SOA expert Jason Bloomberg as well as a one-day LZA renewal course and ZapThink's popular SOA Governance Training & Certification courses.

Avoid Getting Lost on the (Enterprise Service) Bus

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EDT

While purchasing an ESB too early in a SOA project does substantially increase your risk of failure, all is not lost. After all, you're not alone; this mistake is one of the most prevalent SOA snafus in IT shops around the world today, and not all of those projects end up as failures. Many of today's ESBs are now mature products, and can be an important part of a fully functional SOA implementation. Understanding the risks that buying an ESB too early in a SOA initiative presents, and dealing with those risks proactively, can turn a bad situation around and get your SOA initiative back on the right track.

Breaking XML to Optimize Performance

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:30:00 EDT

As XML becomes ubiquitous throughout the enterprise, it increasingly taxes the systems that must deal with it. Even though there are a wide range of hardware and software solutions coming to market that aim to alleviate XML's performance bottlenecks (See ZapThink's XML Proxies Report), many developers are nevertheless resorting to a variety of tactics to improve the performance of XML processing and transmission that are… well… creative. Many of these creative approaches simplify certain aspects of XML in order to squeeze document size, improve parser performance, and speed the mapping of XML document components to application objects.

Model First, Service-Enable Next

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:45:00 EDT

Reducing the cost of IT management is one of the primary pressures for most organizations. One of the most common ways to reduce such costs is to enable the reuse of applications that developers have already created and configured for the enterprise. In the past decade, especially in the past 3-5 years, companies have spent millions of dollars on enterprise software applications of all sorts: CRM, ERP, and other operational applications. The next few years will be less about new application development, and more about existing application integration and reuse.

The SOA Marketing Paradox and the Wizard of Oz

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:15:00 EDT

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) presents a challenge to software marketing people like none other in recent history. On the one hand, SOA has been the top enterprise software bandwagon to jump on for the last four years or so, but on the other hand, many vendors have struggled to tell the proper SOA story for their products in a way that leads to increased sales and happy customers. The reason SOA presents such a formidable challenge is at once both subtle and obvious. After all, SOA is architecture -- it is a set of best practices enterprises follow to organize their IT resources to meet the needs of the business. SOA, however, is not, and never will be, a set of product features. And therein lies the rub. How do you position your product as a SOA product when SOA consists of best practices, not product features?

Is Your SOA Hammer Looking for a Nail?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:30:00 EDT

ZapThink considers the SOA business case as an essential SOA artifact. Architects must have a clear picture of the business motivations for SOA, not only at the beginning of the initiative, but also as the architecture rolls out. Nevertheless, there is still frequently a disconnect between the business problems and the SOA approach. The challenge here is that the architects -- or more broadly, the entire SOA team -- are only one part of the bigger picture, especially in large organizations. In the enterprise context, how the business asks for IT capabilities in the broad sense is often at the root of the issue.

SOA Zombies Gathering in Boston: July 23, 2009

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:45:00 EDT

Is SOA Dead? If so, then watch out, because SOA zombies are getting together to network at ZapThink's ZapForum Boston "Night of the Living SOA Dead" on Thursday, July 23, 2009 at MJ O'Connor's Bar in Boston, Massachusetts. At the event, a few dozen SOA pundits, peers, colleagues, competitors, and will join in a panel on SOA's future all the while encouraging networking, drinks, food, and a hearty debate on the topic of SOA's long life ahead with a panel of distinguished guests on the topic of SOA. Guests, Experts, and Pundits in attendance include Anne Thomas Manes, Jason Bloomberg, Dana Gardner, Brenda Michelson, Sandy Rogers, David Chappell, Thomas C. Burns, and Ronald Schmelzer. Cost is $29 to attend, network, and drink and eat as much as you can -- although eating brains is discouraged.

The Concrete Abstraction of the Business Service

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:00:00 EDT

Loose coupling presents architectural challenges that are at the heart of planning and implementing the SOA infrastructure. Building the Service abstraction presents a simplified representation to the business but requires additional efforts under the covers to make that abstraction a concrete reality. This is the work of SOA: implementing and maintaining loosely coupled business Services that are at the core of any successful SOA implementation.

Cloud Governance Awakens

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EDT

As we predicted earlier in the year, cloud computing is starting to take hold, especially if you believe the marketing literature of vendors and consulting firms. Yet, we are seeing an increasing number of Cloud success stories, ranging from simplistic consumption of utility Services and offloading of compute resources to the sort of application and process clouds we discussed in a previous ZapFlash. Perhaps the reason why usage of the Cloud is still nascent in the enterprise is because of an increasing chorus of concerns being voiced about the usage of Cloud resources:

Cloud Governance: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed…

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:15:00 EDT

Cloud availability. Cloud security. Erosion of data integrity. Data replication and consistency issues. Potential loss of privacy. Lack of auditing and logging visibility. Potential for regulatory violations. Application sprawl & dependencies. Inappropriate usage of Services. Difficulty in managing intra-Cloud, inter-Cloud, and Cloud and non-Cloud interactions and resources. Do any of these issues sound familiar? To address these concerns, we have to return to governance. The above issues are primarily, if not exclusively, governance concerns. Thankfully, in many ways, we can apply what we’ve already learned, implemented, and invested in SOA Governance directly to issues of Cloud Governance. However, SOA and Cloud, while complementary, are not equivalent concepts. There are a wide range of patterns and usage considerations that are either new to the SOA Governance picture or ones that we were able to gloss over. To make Cloud computing a success, we need to make Cloud governance a success. So, what can we apply from our existing SOA governance knowledge, and what new things do companies need to consider?

CSC Becomes Azure Provider

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:45:00 EDT

Expanding further on its recent cloud services announcements, CSC (NYSE: CSC) today announced a collaboration with Microsoft Corp. to utilize the Windows Azure platform. The platform provides a wide range of Internet services that can be accessed from on-premises or in the cloud. In recognition of this global agreement, CSC is announcing the formation of a dedicated CSC Global Competency Center located in Vietnam specializing in Windows Azure. Microsoft and CSC will be engaged in joint marketing and sales initiatives to independent software vendor (ISV) and enterprise customers to take advantage of the Windows Azure platform.

FedEx Deploys an Appistry Cloud

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:30:00 EDT

FedEx has built a private cloud using Appistry, an early pioneer in cloud computing, and its CloudIQ application platform. Like most folks, FedEx integrated the cloud into its development and testing environment first to shorten test and deployment times and save money. According to FedEx senior technical architect Mike Rains, the company wanted to escape HP's pricey HP-UX-based Superdome machines for a more distributed, horizontally scalable architecture.

Public API for Cloud Computing Servers

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:45:00 EDT

Rackspace Hosting has announced the availability of the public beta of its Cloud Servers API. Cloud Servers, part of the company’s portfolio of cloud services, is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering that provides inexpensive compute capacity that can be instantly sized allowing businesses to pay only for what it uses—as needed. Through the open, standards-based API, Rackspace Cloud customers can now manage their cloud infrastructure with greater control and flexibility. The API, for example, enables elastic scenarios as users can write code that programmatically detects load and scales the number of server instances up and down.

SOA: Integration vs. Business Process?

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:15:00 EDT

Ever since ZapThink coined the term "Service Oriented Integration" (SOI) back in 2002, there's been unceasing confusion on just how Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and integration relate to one another. Several recent blog posts have refocused attention on this confusion, including ones from Anne Manes, Todd Biske and Loraine Lawson. Perhaps some of the confusion is over the definition of the SOI term, and what distinguishes SOI from Web Services-based integration, if anything. But the bigger controversy is over the larger question as to SOA's fundamental purpose: is SOA's purpose to solve integration problems, or is it more of a business transformation approach centered on implementing agile business processes?

Fast Track to Cloud Storage

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:15:00 EDT

At Mezeo Software, we're pleased with the rapid adoption of our platform in the service provider market across three continents. Our success is validating our strategy that there is a significant margin opportunity in cloud storage, and that service providers will want to provide their own storage services.

IBM & Cloud Computing: How "SOA in the Cloud" Can Produce Real Change

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:00:00 EDT

“SOA serves as the foundation for the move into the cloud,” stated Dr. Kareem Yusuf, Director Product Management, WebSphere Software, IBM in his keynote at SOA World Conference & Expo in NYC Tuesday. “What are the characteristics of the cloud?” Dr Yusuf then asked. Shared infrastructure, self-service capabilities, and the fact that it will be virtualized are several that he mentioned. He also noted that two things stand out about the cloud – self-service access and management, and elastic scaling.

Architecture Frameworks Dont Make Architects

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:17:56 EDT

So, I was about to blog on this topic when up comes a Tweet from Ron Schmelzer (@rschmelzer) over at ZapThink, Question for the tweeple: do Federal EA Frameworks matter? And how do they stack up against non-Federal EA Frameworks? Do Frameworks matter? Talk about synergies! Obviously, the value of EA frameworks is being questioned by many individuals.

This morning I posted the following comment on the CAEAP website

I see there are work tracks that focus on Enterprise Architecture Professional Learning Framework, value to the practitioner. I think it would be interesting to consider here a move away from a focus on frameworks and a move toward apprenticeship. My personal experience is that frameworks don't help individuals become architects, it just provides a tools for organization of artifacts. Yet, I believe the industry believes that these frameworks (DoDAF, TOGAF, FEAF, PEAF, Zachman) help non-architects do an architect's job.

In my experience, all these frameworks provide a way to think about and organize the artifacts that are part of enterprise architecture, but a framework cannot make you an architect. Additionally, these frameworks provide a means of breaking down the work effort to collect these artifacts, which can be done by non-architects. But, in the end, all these artifacts need to be analyzed against a set of business goals, which then leads to the production of a design that aligns technological direction with the mission of the business.

Which brings up an interesting question, who is using the framework? In some cases, the framework has become a bureaucratic milestone on the way to approval. It doesnt tell anyone who isnt an EA anything more than whats been collected about the current environment. There certainly is no way to ensure that the entire current environment is even fully represented by way of the artifacts that are represented. Its merely a checkmark on some bean counters checklist before releasing funds.

If an EA is using these tools, more often than not they are stymied by the lack of support for emerging architectural approaches. As an exercise, try to find a standard way to capture an SOA design using one of the various EA framework approaches. Sure, people are hard at work trying to retrofit these standards to support emerging architectural methodologies, but these approaches take time and are often years behind the industry.

Most importantly is that enterprise architecture frameworks are designed to be tools. A chisel in the hand of a sculptor will yield a work of art, but in the hands of an amateur yields a pile of rubble. The same is true for any of these frameworks. We need to focus on the creation of architects. I believe the IT industry has been remiss in this effort. Sure, they pay for a few conferences, but architecture is something that is culled over time and based on seeing mass of systems being designed and built. I believe instead of certifications, we should focus on apprenticeships. The resume of an architect should read,

Studied under XYZ from 2004-2006. XYZ has been responsible for at While studying under XYZ I was subject to delivery of the following types of systems.

While Im on the subject, I believe the same is true for cybersecurity experts.

Apprenticeship is a lost art in the world, which is a shame. Our desperate need for resources today has limited our long term vision of what the IT industry needs to thrive 20, 40 or 100 years from now. Business believes systems can be designed like a McDonalds hamburger and that developers and architects are nothing more than the lettuce station and the fry station.

Why do we consistently see headlines, such as SOA Is Dead, EAI Is Dead? Its simple, because all these things are really complex and you cant approach them with an assembly line mentality. Forget Henry Ford already, look at Detroit, learn a lesson people! Focus on developing quality, which means selecting those individuals capable of being architects and supporting them through apprenticeship programs. Moreover, support the creation and execution of apprenticeship programs in your organization.

Architecture Frameworks Don’t Make Architects

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:17:56 EDT

So, I was about to blog on this topic when up comes a Tweet from Ron Schmelzer (@rschmelzer) over at ZapThink, “Question for the tweeple: do Federal EA Frameworks matter? And how do they stack up against non-Federal EA Frameworks? Do Frameworks matter?” Talk about synergies! Obviously, the value of EA frameworks is [...]

Oracle Reportedly Kills Virtual Iron Product Line

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EDT

Virtual Iron reportedly had 2,000-3,000 customers worldwide, according to what the Register's heard - including the FBI and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and of course it's promising continued support from the support staff it's retained with the acquisition. It's legally obligated to but it's oddly hazy on migration and seemingly abrupt in canceling the product line without having a replacement handy, making it seem like it doesn't care whether VI's customers drift away.

IBM's Social Networking Through Cloud Computing

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:15:00 EDT

LotusLive Connections simplifies working together, making it easy to identify and work with experts from any company online with the flexibility, convenience and affordable pricing associated with multi-tenant cloud services. Instant messaging, file sharing and activities are all instantly accessible for use with LotusLive networks.

VMLogix Mounts a Virtual Lab on EC2

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:30:00 EDT

VMLogix, which manages VMs, is beta testing LabManager- Cloud Edition, a new hypervisor-agnostic, policy-based product that lets software teams run virtual labs in the cloud, a low-risk environment that will let companies experiment with the platform. The start-up says it’s got the only widgetry to support a public cloud like Amazon EC2.

Private Cloud Management

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:30:00 EDT

Platform Computing has announced a new software product for managing private cloud environments. Platform ISF is an end-to-end cloud management product for enterprises to build and run their private clouds. It is the centerpiece of Platform's cloud strategy and will be made available for beta in June with general availability planned for the Fall.

Secret to Advancing "SOA in the Cloud"

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:30:00 EDT

At the 15th International SOA World Conference & Expo 2009 East, which opened Monday in New York City, Sean Valcamp discussed how in today’s business world, measuring your success is a must especially in our current economic climate. It’s something we do as individuals, teams, and companies. But, with the drive to advance SOA, tying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to your SOA strategy can get lost in the complexity and rush to move your projects forward.

Who's Architecting the Cloud?

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:45:00 EDT

Will the cloud succumb to the same short-sighted, market pressure that doomed the ASP model and still plagues SaaS approaches? It’s not up to vendors to answer this question. It’s up to you … the enterprise architect.

Cloud Computing Unleashes the Potential of SOA - Mezeo Chairman

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:30:00 EDT

The concept of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been around for a long time, and some people believe it has not fulfilled its promise. To the contrary, SOA is well on its way to fulfilling its promise and the rise of cloud computing infrastructure is an important step in this process. In fact, cloud computing is already beginning to unleash the potential of SOA and much more is on the way.

Layer 7 Technologies to Present at SOA World Conference in NYC

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:00:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that K. Scott Morrison, Chief Architect of Layer 7 Technologies, will be presenting at the upcoming SOA World Conference & Expo 2009 East (www.soaworld2009.com) June 22-23, 2009, in New York City. His session will be entitled “How to Fail at SOA." K. Scott Morrison is the Chief Architect at Layer 7 Technologies, where he works to scale, simplify and secure Web applications. He has extensive IT and scientific experience in a number of industries, was previously Director of Technology at Infowave Software, and has also held senior architect positions at IBM.

Maxworks To Exhibit at SOA World Conference & Expo, June 22-23, New York

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:45:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that Maxworks to exhibit at the upcoming SOA World Conference & Expo 2009 East. The 15th International SOA World Conference will take place June 22-23, 2009, in New York City. Maxworks is a leading opensource SOA Solutions Provider. Maxworks combines Java, opensource technologies, service oriented architecture (SOA) and Incremental delivery methods to produce solutions for our clients.The company's SOA solutions realize high value business synergies that run on license free Opensource middleware. Incremental delivery of SOA solutions reduces software development risks. Maxworks' SOA Road Map, Training, and Software Development services used in concert, can help clients overcome the overhead caused by SOA.

Latest News from ZapThink on Ulitzer

Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 and SOA

Cloud Computing Was the Big News of 2009

Media Alert: WebLayers and ZapThink to Discuss the Effectiveness of Governance in Federal Enterprise Architectures in Free, Live Webinar

Are Services Nouns or Verbs?

Private Clouds: A Valuable Concept or Buzzword Bingo?

The Critical Link between SOA and BPM: Process Isomorphism

Analyst Firm Launches "ZapThink on Ulitzer"

Service-Oriented Process: Thinking About Processes Before Services

Omaha: a new region for SOA & EA training and certification

Open is a Four-Letter Word

The Dissolution of the Rich Internet Application (RIA) Market

Business Agility as an Emergent Property of SOA

Content as Services

ZapThink Announces SOA Training

Understanding the Real Costs of Integration

ZapThink Announces SOA Training in Chicago

US Government & Federal Agencies Keen on Enterprise Architecture & SOA

Service Semiotics and the SOA Illusion

ZapThink Announces Release of Online, Computer-Based SOA Training

Why Current Network Protocol-Based Firewalls and Routers Can't Handle XML

Understanding the Value of Reference Architectures

The Buckaroo Banzai Effect: Location Independence, SOA, and the Cloud

SOA Is For Small Business Too

ZapThink Expands Its Footprint Into South Africa

Avoid Getting Lost on the (Enterprise Service) Bus

Breaking XML to Optimize Performance

Model First, Service-Enable Next

The SOA Marketing Paradox and the Wizard of Oz

Is Your SOA Hammer Looking for a Nail?

SOA Zombies Gathering in Boston: July 23, 2009

The Concrete Abstraction of the Business Service

Cloud Governance Awakens

Cloud Governance: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed…

CSC Becomes Azure Provider

FedEx Deploys an Appistry Cloud

Public API for Cloud Computing Servers

SOA: Integration vs. Business Process?

Fast Track to Cloud Storage

IBM & Cloud Computing: How "SOA in the Cloud" Can Produce Real Change

Architecture Frameworks Dont Make Architects

Architecture Frameworks Don’t Make Architects

Oracle Reportedly Kills Virtual Iron Product Line

IBM's Social Networking Through Cloud Computing

VMLogix Mounts a Virtual Lab on EC2

Private Cloud Management

Secret to Advancing "SOA in the Cloud"

Who's Architecting the Cloud?

Cloud Computing Unleashes the Potential of SOA - Mezeo Chairman

Layer 7 Technologies to Present at SOA World Conference in NYC

Maxworks To Exhibit at SOA World Conference & Expo, June 22-23, New York

Architecture Frameworks Dont Make Architects