Articles by Andrew Astor

Top Five Mistakes to Avoid in Migrating to Open Source

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 09:00:00 EST

This session will detail a best-practices approach to enterprise adoption of open source software, focusing on five common migration mistakes and recommendations for successfully avoiding them. We will cover the characteristics of open source offerings that make them especially suitable for enterprise adoption, including licensing structure, feature equivalency with commercial counterparts, enterprise-class feature sets, the origin of the open source code, and compatibility with the existing engineering skillset and IT infrastructure.

LAMP's Dark Side

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:00:00 EDT

In 1998, Michael Kunze wrote an article for c't, a biweekly German computing magazine, hoping to demonstrate that free software could be an effective substitute for its commercial counterparts. In the article, he coined the acronym 'LAMP' to describe an illustrative collection of available software - the Linux operating system; the Apache Web server; the MySQL relational database management system; and the Perl, Python, and/or PHP scripting languages - that could provide an end-to-end free computing environment. Kunze hoped that the acronym-loving IT community would remember LAMP in connection with the proposition that free software deserved serious consideration as an alternative to commercial software.

Sarbanes-Oxley and Web Services

Mon, 05 Apr 2004 00:00:00 EDT

This article makes the case that Web services provide a significant benefit to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance projects, and that they will therefore be used extensively on these projects. We begin with a very brief primer on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, then describe the connection between SOX and Web services, including an outline of how most Sarbanes-Oxley projects are conducted, and where Web services fit in.

The WS* Standards - A Primer

Mon, 08 Mar 2004 00:00:00 EST

Over the past couple of years, several technology vendors have defined a comprehensive set of specifications that, when complete, will provide an infrastructure for enterprise-class Web services interoperability. The names of these specifications generally begin with 'WS-', so the group of them is sometimes referred to as WS* (pronounced 'WS Splat').

Sarbanes-Oxley and Web Services

Mon, 08 Mar 2004 00:00:00 EST

Sarbanes-Oxley Will Change Your Life

Fri, 03 Oct 2003 11:05:06 EDT

This column may require a little patience on your part, but I think it will be worth it in the end. Let's start with a simple premise: within a year, nearly everyone reading these words will be deeply impacted by Sarbanes-Oxley, yet many have never heard of it.

A Natural Progression

Mon, 18 Nov 2002 00:00:00 EST

We're at a major inflection point in the development of Web services; one that can be paralleled against the evolution of previous infrastructure technologies, including databases and programming environments. The next year will see certain vendors step forward to offer value-added components that will help fill in many of the gaps that currently exist with Web services, generating even more corporate interest than is seen today.

From Subroutines toWeb Services AnEvolutionary View-Beyond client/server computing: The next generation of life on the

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 00:00:00 EST

In many respects, Web services are nothing new. They are just a natural evolution of an approach to building systems that dates back 40 years. On the other hand, they hold the promise of truly transforming computing in the same way that client/server computing did over the past 15 years. This article tries to address the question, 'What's all the excitement about?'