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").
This article identifies the important WS* standards, briefly defines those
that have not yet achieved mass-market acceptance, and describes the current
state of development for each. At the end, we offer our view of each
specification's relative market importance.
We will use Figure 1 to structure the discussion. Note: "Composable" means
that items are independent, and can be plugged together (or not) with
relative ease. "Composable Service Elements" means that developers can add
security, reliable messaging, and transa... (more)
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. Then Andy Astor will cover the
characterist... (more)
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. Finally, I offer some specific
actions you can take today to get yourself ready for Sarbanes-Oxley
A Sarbanes-Oxley Primer
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which applies to all compa... (more)
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... (more)
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. The purpose of this note is
to offer you a preview of what's to come. In other words, a wake-up call.
First of all, who or what is Sarbanes-Oxley? Simply put, the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act (SOA) is the federal law that was put in place last year in response to
the scandals at Enron, MCI, and other large public corporations. The la... (more)
Andy Astor is co-founder, president and CEO of EnterpriseDB. Prior to EDB, he was a vice president at webMethods, Inc., where he was responsible for technical marketing, corporate acquisition integration and standards leadership and evangelism. While at webMethods, he was elected twice to the Board of Directors of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), and he served as that organization's Marketing Chair. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Andy is also on the International Advisory Board for SOA Web Services Journal.
Sue Poremba
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
Niki Acosta
Jereme Hancock
Oren Michels
Marvin Wheeler
Douglas Kim
