Enterprise

Linux Virtualization and Tired Open Source Myths

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:15:00 EST

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That is certainly true of anti-open source virtualization FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Linux virtualization is robust and enterprise-worthy, and is evolving rapidly. It is a threat to the established giants of virtualization. And, so the same old FUD is spread around: Open source virtualization software is free, like a free puppy. It's unpolished and lacking important features. It's communists and hippies. It is only for elite hackers who can code in a dozen languages and who love the command line. Linux virtualization admins are expensive and scarce. Licenses are complex, scary, and viral, and will infect all of your code and force you to give it away.

Xen, KVM and the Linux Choice

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EDT

There has been a significant amount of derision heaped on Xen after its successful integration into the Linux kernel last month. One wouldn’t think such criticism is warranted, since the inclusion of Xen in the Linux kernel puts it on equal footing with KVM. Yet, when Oracle's Wim Coekaerts announced the inclusion of Xen code for DomO and DomU support in Linux, many industry observers took the opportunity to lambaste Xen for being too-little-too-late. True, KVM has been more successful in the briefer time it has existed. Xen has had plenty of opportunity to be the go-to virtualization platform for Linux. KVM, however, exploded in popularity and was fully integrated into the Linux kernel by the time Linux 2.6.20 was released. It’s now the virtualization platform of choice for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Canonical's Ubuntu Server, and SUSE Enterprise Server Linux (though SLES also supports Xen as well). The fact that Xen is now in the Linux kernel is a cause for celebration. Customers who want to work with a virtualization solution now have a choice of not one but two solid virtualization tools for Linux. This proves once and for all that Linux is not only a viable cloud virtualization platform; it’s in reality the most desirable platform for use in the cloud.

zLAMP: Web's Most Popular Software Stack on IBM System z

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EDT

In recent years, web development and deployment has become extremely fast and easy with the usage of open source software development tools and frameworks. The usage of open source software has reduced capital and operating expenses for web startups to a greater extend that there is a significant increase in the volume of new internet startups with applications developed using open source software. One of the widely used open source stack for web application development is LAMP. As the expansion implies, LAMP stack consists of a web server (Apache), a database server (MySQL) and a set of scripting languages (PHP/Perl/Python) that can run on any flavor of Linux. In general it is described as an open source operating system, open source web server, open source database server and open source programming languages. The Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack can provide an efficient and cost effective open source architecture to build and run web applications. This article introduces LAMP software stack on zLinux (Linux on IBM System z). Let's call it zLAMP. We will delve into configuring and starting up individual components of zLAMP and then downloading, installing and testing few LAMP based off the shelf open source applications.

Ubuntu, the Cloud OS

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:15:00 EST

We made a small flurry of announcements last week, all of which were related to cloud computing. I think it is worthwhile to put some context around Ubuntu and the cloud and explain a little more about where we are with this critical strategic strand for our beloved OS. First of all, the announcements. We announced the release of Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud on Dell servers. This is a hugely significant advance in the realm of internal cloud provision. It's essentially formalising a lot of the bespoke work that Dell has done in huge data centres (based on a variety of OSes) and making similar technology available for smaller deployments. We attended the Dell sales summit in Las Vegas and we were very encouraged to meet with many of the Dell salespeople whose job it will be to deliver this to their customers. This is a big company, backing a leading technology and encouraging businesses to start their investigations of cloud computing in a very real way.

Release of RESERVOIR Cloud Stack

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:00:00 EDT

RESERVOIR, flagship of European projects in cloud computing technology coordinated by IBM, has just announced the release of its cloud stack featuring Claudia Service Manager (Telefonica’s tool for automatic management of service scalability), OpenNebula Cloud Toolkit and security services for cloud federation. The RESERVOIR Cloud Stack supports the delivery of services on an on-demand basis, across countries, at competitive costs and without requiring a large capital investment in infrastructure. RESERVOIR enables the migration of resources across distributed administrative domains, maximizing resource exploitation, and minimizing costs to the end-user with guaranteed quality of service. RESERVOIR defines an open federated infrastructure cloud architecture and delivers a framework of open source components you can download from the RESERVOIR website and integrate to build your own open source cloud infrastructure.

The IT Services Delivery Revolution

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:35:00 EDT

Need a pair of shoes, an airline ticket, or a book? Looking for 100 servers to get you through an online sales rush? No problem. Go online and your needs are (nearly) instantaneously fulfilled. Instant gratification may be the single greatest driver in the revolution that is fueled by virtualization and the delivery of software and services from the cloud. The impact is only beginning to be understood. Some obvious advantages are driving cloud-based development, such as eliminating the expense and endless cycle of procurement and upgrading of a long list of IT solutions, and the never-ending fight for priority with IT to move an innovation forward. The cloud provides a world in which the end user has complete control over their client/server, web-based, and computing solutions – allowing them to choose what they use, where they use it, and where they get solutions from. It is the culmination of a 25-year end-user computing revolution that began with the introduction of the PC. Each phase of this revolution has created terrific efficiency gains and cost reductions for businesses, moving from the mainframe to the PC, from the PC to client/server, to the web and now to the cloud.

Is This the End of Enterprise Software?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:45:00 EDT

The future of enterprise software is the platform. No software company has all the smart people in the world on its payroll. Apple recognized this and created the App Store. Google are now doing the same. These new cloud platforms will unleash unprecedented innovation and creativity throughout all areas of business and the web, with thousands of new apps being created that will revolutionize IT.

John Wilbanks on Making Science Generative

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:02:00 EST

John Wilbanks of Creative Commons (and head of Science Commons) is giving a Berkman lunchtime talk about the threats to science’s generativity. He takes Jonathan Zittrain’s definition of generativity: “a system’s capacity to produced unanticipated change through unfiltered contributions from broad and varied audiences.” NOTE: Live-blogging. Getting things wrong. Missing points. Omitting key information. Introducing artificial [...]

How PowerBuilder Got Its Groove Back

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:00:00 EST

One of the main issues that PowerBuilder and PowerBuilder developers have been facing for the last few years is the lack of mind share for the product. All that seems to have changed with Sybase’s announcement of the beta of PowerBuilder 12.0. Articles on the release appeared in a large number of IT-related news outlets, including Darryl K Taft in eWeek (http://xrl.us/eweek), Sam M Fulton III in BetaNews (http://xrl.us/betanews), David Worthington in Software Development Times (http://xrl.us/sdtimes), Eric J Bruno in Doctor Dobbs (http://xrl.us/dobbs), John K Waters in both Visual Studio Magazine (http://xrl.us/visualstudio) and Application Development Trends (http://xrl.us/apdevtrends) and Paul Krill in ComputerWorld (http://xrl.us/compworld),

Enterprise Cloud Computing Requires Service-Level Discipline

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST

The Enterprise Cloud Requires a real time infrastructure and a management discipline that understands and can enforce service level discipline. Organizations have become increasingly dependent on technical infrastructure to enable customer interactions. As such, the business has a vested interest in making sure its technology partners understand what constitutes good customer experience so that it’s prepared for projected volumes and rapidly knows how to resolve any impediments.

Mozilla Thunderbird Connector for Open-Xchange Now Available

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST

Open-Xchange, which provides business-class open source collaboration software, has introduced a free connector for Mozilla Thunderbird, the cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The "Community OXtender for Thunderbird" software connector gives users full access to appointments and contacts stored in the Open-Xchange Server and enables them to use Thunderbird as a rich PIM (Personal Information Management) client to access data online and offline. The software packages and documentation are available at www.open-xchange.com/oxpedia#ThunderbirdOXtender.

Managed IT Enhances JetBlue Business Model

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:45:00 EST

New York-based JetBlue Airways created an airline focused on value, service and style. They've proven to be a trailblazer in the U.S. airline industry. They're also a communication technology early-adopter. JetBlue introduced complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services on their aircraft -- a first among U.S. domestic airlines. However, their core competency is centered upon air travel. They out-task the rest to service providers, wherever possible.

Cloud Analytics

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:30:00 EDT

Business analytics is a major established sector of the IT industry, but it's one that's ripe for disruption. Cloud analytics is hot. Gartner's top two strategic technologies for the enterprise in 2010 are cloud computing and advanced analytics. Venture capitalist Ann Winblad, in a recent video, points out that the coming era of realtime cloud analytics will have a revolutionary impact on the enterprise, creating a radically new "innovation palette" for businesses of all kinds.

Join Me at the 1st Government IT Conference & Expo 6 Oct

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EDT

I hope to see you at the SYS-CON sponsored GovIT Conference and Expo 6 Oct 2009. I’ll also spend time during the day attending the day thinking through everything I’ve ever written and learned about Cloud Computing and Federal IT and hope to bring that to bear in my interactions with Jeremy Geelan, Terry Woloszyn and Barry X Lynn at the end of conference panel on Cloud Computing and Federal IT. Jeremy will focus this panel on the future and I’m sure this action-oriented panel will help bring clarity to this fast moving subject. Related posts:

A Three-Step Process to Getting Started on Twitter…

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:00:00 EDT

Because Chris had reviewed “Collapse of Distinction,” he and I have shared a dialogue. He’s interesting, smart, funny, and profound. In other words, an extraordinarily cool guy. I noticed that he was having a Tweet-up…an in-person “get-together” for people who follow one another on Twitter…for those who had been a part of a conference where Chris was speaking. I sent him a Tweet, asking if it would be appropriate for me to come by, even though I was not attending the meeting he was addressing — as I had a speech of my own that same time. Being the nice guy he is, he immediately told me to come by, and he’d buy a drink.

Cloud Gets Endorsement From Events

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:45:00 EDT

Many of the concepts first proposed and extolled during the Internet hype curve in the mid-1990s are now bearing fruit. Perhaps we should think of cloud computing as less than a separate hype curve, and more as the realization of the original Internet value curve , now some 15 years into its mainstream maturity.

Twitter 101 Guide for Business

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EDT

Twitter is a communication platform that helps businesses stay connected to their customers. As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company. As an individual user, you can use Twitter to tell a company (or anyone else) that you've had a great—or disappointing—experience with their business, offer product ideas, and learn about great offers.

Groupware Meets Social Networks

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:45:00 EDT

With its latest software update, open source groupware innovator Open-Xchange is previewing the ability to integrate social network information. For example, adding LinkedIn contacts into the Open-Xchange address book.

How Virtualization is Changing the Way We Think About Availability

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EDT

Analyst firm The 451 Group has just released some very interesting findings about virtualization and availability in a recent report by Chief Analyst John Abbott. Some of the key take-aways include:

• Virtual infrastructure can form the basis of fully automated availability processes. Availability becomes a default property of the virtual machine.

• ‘Dial up’ levels of availability can be implemented, depending on the requirements of specific applications or departments.

• If a system restore is required after a disaster, it’s usually much easier and much quicker to restore a virtual machine than a physical machine.

• Virtualization infrastructure is already a core component in datacenter automation, unified computing (the bringing together of servers, storage and networking) and cloud computing. Availability services based on top of a virtualization layer will slot right into any of these longer-term initiatives that customers may be working toward.

• Industrial-strength storage networks, currently a best-practice requirement for virtual availability, will lose ground to alternatives, which are maturing.

• The worlds of high availability and disaster recovery are coming together as virtualization is added to the mix.

• Tools more friendly to end users are likely to emerge, reducing the load on enterprise IT support staff, but requiring sophisticated underlay technology.

The 451 Group hosted a webinar a few days ago on this topic, which is available to download for free here: http://www.451group.com/report_view/report_view.php?entity_id=58563

SOASTA Announces Cloud-Based Performance Certification Program

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:45:00 EDT

SOASTA, the leader in cloud testing, today announced a Performance Certification Program designed to enable companies deploying software in the Cloud, at hosted data centers, or behind corporate firewalls to certify that their website has been tested and has met or exceeded industry benchmarks for performance at peak levels of user traffic. Whether due to cost, complexity or lack of resources, the vast majority of web applications and sites have not been tested at normal user volumes, much less for unexpected spikes in traffic. The user community has become the testers for most Web 2.0 sites, a risk that has proven very costly time and again.

IT Architecture Is Not Enterprise Architecture

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:15:00 EDT

For many years I have observed lots of confusion with some basic definitions such as IT and Enterprise Architecture among other terms. I will not try to define the meaning of Enterprise Architecture by myself (despite I have my own view on this) as this is something being right now redefined by the Open Group (which by the way used to call their events “IT Architecture Practitioner Conference” and changed only recently to “Enterprise Architecture Practitioner Conference”).

The Value is in Ideas and Distributed Contribution

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:00:00 EDT

No individual wants to believe they are under control, but society needs to have a sense of order which means we exchanged control along the way with our institutions. With that control being exchanged, we gave power and influence to a centralized few. I feel there is a collective yearning to splinter control and to no longer allow for the gross centralization of control. A belief that the risk of that power being used against us in some way goes down dramatically if that power is distributed among the many. A sense of order is more guided by the mores associated with a community which is upheld by the participants. If an individual ignores these guidelines, they are in essence, cast out of the community. Admittedly, this doesn't work well for areas that are life-threatening, but I'm pretty safe in assuming that most businesses aren't involved in life and death situations.

Why People Like Open Source Software

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:15:00 EDT

Why developers want the software to be open sourced? I like quotes by great minds. Here's my favorite quote by Henry Ford: If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. Some of these chapters of our upcoming O'Reilly book "Enterprise Development with Flex" had opening software-related quotes. Our editor suggested that for consistency, it should be done in every chapter, which makes sense. Chapter 6 of the book is titled "Open Source Networking Solutions", which begs for a specific quote on open source software, but I'm not aware of any pundit who said something short and catchy in this field.

Red Hat Named "Platinum Sponsor" of Virtualization Conference & Expo

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Red Hat is a trusted open source provider. Red Hat offers enterprise customers a long-term plan for building infrastructures on the quality and innovation of open source. Combining open source operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management, and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite.

How RIA - AJAX Technology Can Help Linux Seize the Enterprise Desktop

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:00:00 EST

Despite its success in the mid-tier, Linux has not been widely adopted on enterprise desktops - primarily because there is currently very little in the way of standards-based support for developing platform-neutral, enterprise-class GUI applications for Linux. Enterprises will not undertake the major effort required to move applications off of Windows unless they know those applications will be portable - a lesson learned the hard way in the move to Windows over the past decade.

Enterprise Open Source: Where Are You Going, OSS? Supply and Demand

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 12:15:00 EST

Bob Young recently spoke at the TriLUG Linux Users Group in Raleigh, North Carolina. His talk covered several topics, from why he founded Red Hat, to his latest online publishing venture, Lulu (www.lulu.com), to the need for greater public debate about copyright and patent law. In response to a question from the audience about where he thinks Open Source Software (OSS) will dominate and where Proprietary, Closed Source software will excel, Mr. Young offered a very useful commentary.

Taking Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL, and PHP to Their Logical Extreme

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 15:15:00 EDT

Let's play word association. I say 'Web Hosting.' I bet 'fat margins' didn't jump into your head. More likely, you thought of some of the 'where are they nows' of the bubble, like Exodus and PSINet. Let's do another round - I say 'New York City,' and I'd wager that 'cheap rent' wasn't the first thing you thought of, either. So it may surprise you to learn that one hosting company that's been around since 1993 and that's actually making money, Logicworks (www.logicworks.net), just happens to be based in New York City.

Migrate and Consolidate by Leveraging Linux With Lower Costs

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 15:45:00 EDT

In an all too familiar saga taking place in small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) everywhere, file/print, Web, e-mail, and application servers are multiplying at an alarming rate in response to ever-increasing demands for processing power. Initially, the decision to bolster capacity-constrained servers by adding more seems like a reasonable remedy for managing aggressive growth. However, when two-to-three additional servers grows to 10-to-20 over time while being provisioned for extra cycles to accommodate peak loads, this quick-fix solution mushrooms into a major IT problem, leading to accelerated operating costs, increasingly complex administration, and ineffective resource utilization.

Enterprise Linux Systems Management Headaches

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:00:00 EDT

One of the obvious driving factors around enterprise Linux adoption has been the significant cost savings on software and hardware. Quite simply, the hardware is cheaper and the OS is cheaper. By taking advantage of the explosion of commodity Linux boxes - and by going the Linux route to get around costly licensing issues on the software side - enterprises are finding the economics around Linux to be quite attractive.

Aduva Helps Companies Deploy Linux Across All IBM eServer Platforms

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 15:45:00 EDT

'This is excellent news for IBM customers who want to manage their mission-critical applications and make price/performance decisions incorporating the unique features of different hardware platforms to the optimal needs of enterprise applications,' said Zev Laderman, CEO of Aduva, as Aduva announced today that its OnStage product provides single console management of all IBM eServer brands: zSeries, xSeries, and OPEN POWER architectures of pSeries, iSeries, and BladeCenter JS20.

IBM Workplace Managed Client

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 16:00:00 EDT

What if your desktop applications didn't care what operating system was running on your computer? If IBM's Workplace group delivers on the vision they laid out for me in a recent demo of their Workplace Managed Client (WMC), IT departments will have exactly this degree of freedom in their desktop OS selection.

OSDL - Promoting Linux Enterprise Servers

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 16:00:00 EDT

This article provides a brief introduction to the Data Center Linux (DCL) initiative sponsored by the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). I'll describe our goals, show how we achieve those goals though our committees and working groups, and provide some examples of some DCL-driven activities and challenges.

Linux-Based Groupware

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 16:00:00 EDT

In the IT world today, there are many reasons why Linux and other Open Source solutions can replace closed source products from Microsoft and other vendors. When it comes right down to it though, the software that's chosen in business is the software that provides the most value to the business.

Small Business Linux Management

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 10:00:00 EDT

With Linux now officially 'mainstream' in the enterprise, the industry pundits are starting to pay a little more attention to Linux penetration figures further down the food chain. Early stats show that we still have a ways to go before Linux penetration in SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises, or companies with 100-249 employees) and SMBs (small to medium-sized businesses that have 1-100 employees) hits the levels we're seeing in the enterprise.

Inside View: Parasoft Insure++ 7.0 for Linux

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EDT

My first encounter with Parasoft Insure++ and Parasoft Corporation was in the mid-'90s when I was working for a small company developing parsers and translators for languages used in semiconductor chip design. Like developers on almost any development project, we ran into a 'runaway' memory situation -typically called 'leaks,' ours was more like a 'flood' - that took quite a bit of time, effort, and frank conversations to debug by hand.

Data Warehouse Adoption of the Linux-Based Platform

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST

Data warehouse implementations represent one of the most challenging types of deployments for the enterprise. Several factors contribute to the challenge of deploying a successful data warehouse. Among these are large-scale and complex system configurations, sophisticated data modeling and analysis tools, and high visibility in a broad range of important business functions within the company.

Data Center Linux

Mon, 27 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT

In recent years, the adoption of Linux in the data center has progressed beyond infrastructure services such as e-mail and file, print, and Web serving. Today, Linux is widely used as a business application server and is moving deeper into the data center as a database and content server.

SAS: World's Largest Privately Held Software Company...

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EDT

SAS (www.sas.com) is the world's largest privately held software company and a global leader in business intelligence software. SAS, founded in 1976 and headquartered in Cary, N.C., has taken a different path than many of the 'Johnny-come-lately' software vendors, starting from modest beginnings and spanning 27 years of continued revenue growth to $1.34 billion in 2003. This accomplishment is not only a testimony to the value of its products and the execution of its business, but also to its knowledge of good business practices. Ninety-six of the top 100 companies on the 2003 FORTUNE Global 500 use SAS products to analyze data and make decisions about their enterprises through data warehousing, intelligence storage, analytics, and business intelligence.

Emulex First Company to Gain Red Hat and SUSE Certification for HBA Boards

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Costa Mesa, CA, based Emulex Corp., announced that future version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 will support the networking company's drivers for its host bus adapter (HBA) boards.

Linux.SYS-CON.com Analysis: Red Hat Sales - How Do They Do It?

Mon, 26 Jul 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Former Aberdeen Group analyst Bill Claybrook shares his thoughts on how it is that just 50 sales staff at Red Hat were able to generate some 98,000 subscriptions to RH Enterprise Enterprise Linux in the quarter it just reported on.