2007-06-01 Friday

I'm working with a client this week that needs to integrate a couple of different systems...

System-A:
A mainframe application running under the Java 1.4.2 JVM with Websphere (as the available application server) - hitting against a DB2 database.


System-B:
An ASP 3.0 web-based application running on a Microsoft Windows IIS Web Servere - hitting against a SQL Server 2000 database.

Challenges:
A few interesting problems involve how to manage units of work that span the two systems; working out a strategy to integrate the two databases - and ensuring that they do not get out of synch; and being sensitive to the need to achieve the best performance for the end-users of each system.

Strategy:
Some of the technologies / approaches to consider in solving these objecives will include: possible database replication to off-load potential reporting performance issues; Web Services to bridge the heterogenous application processing environments; and possibly using some type of Message Queue technologies to ensure delivery of events / transactions.

2007-05-28 Monday - some links...

I read an interesting article in the Seattle-pi.com today about price-optimization efforts in the retail sector.

From IBM, PHP and Apache Optimization articles:

Tuning LAMP systems, Part 1: Understanding the LAMP architecture - (How LAMP systems work, how to measure their performance, and how to tune the underlying operating system)

Tuning LAMP systems, Part 2: Optimizing Apache and PHP - (What slows Apache down, and how to get the most out of PHP)

2007-05-24 Thursday

I'm back in the Paciic Northwest. Three months aboard sailing vessel Renaissance - and I feel recharged.

This week I'm helping a client develop Detail Design Documents for one of their projects.

A quick google search yielded a few useful links to help direct the team toward some helpful articles on developing Click-Action-Response tables.

I think it is also useful for a team to familiarize themselves with the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM) - for example: CMMI for Development, Version 1.2 - there are many good ideas that can be culled from CMMI to help an organization improve their processes for software development. However, there is a bit of subtle art to knowing when and how to integate such practices into a production development team environment. I once taught CMMI to management at AT&T Labs in the late 1990's - and found it to be very helpful in providing a framework from which to begin process improvements. It certainly isn't a silver bullet - but it is better than no process discipline.

2007-03-29 Thursday - OS Vulnerabilities

I'm currently reading O'Reilly's Network Security Assessment book:

Seriously - you need to read that book if you are involved in developing software - or managing IT infrastructure.

Today I came across a very interesting write-up: 2006 Operating System Vulnerability Summary. Of particular note are the findings relative to FreeBSD 6.2 - relative to all the other operating systems.

2007-02-11 Traveling...

I'm flying out of Seattle this morning for a 4-5 month sabbatical - and a little bit of sailing.

I'm planning on using this time to do a couple of things:

- research application and architecture security threats / defenses / trends / developments

- an intensive period of Visual Studio 2005 development

- an intensive period of Java / Open Source development

When I return later in the spring / early summer - I will be re-charged, and with a much sharper edge.

2007 is going to be a great year.