In-Depth Features


Tips for buying hosted software

For software decision makers and others charged with purchasing business software, SaaS will be both novel and familiar. The fundamental principles of contract negotiation haven’t changed just because a new buzzword has been added to the lexicon. You’ll still need to determine how many seats you need for a given app, then determine the term of the contract, and finally seek the deepest discounts.

IBM crosses signals: Domino or Workplace?

While IBM touts Workplace, Domino/Notes customers wonder whether they should stick with a potentially obsolete platform or migrate to the new messaging and collaboration environment.

Managing unstructured information

Most of the information companies generate—more than 80 percent, according to experts—won’t fit into the neat-and-tidy cells of a traditional relational database.

Open-source users find rewards in collaborative development

IT shops discover that sharing code outside the corporation can result in better software.

For every little patch you make

A comprehensive patch-management approach needs to start with a complete IT inventory assessment, which can be the most time-consuming piece of the job.

On patch patrol, armed with third-party tools

If you're ready to go shopping for patch management tools, here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin.

It’s all about J2EE and Web services

One important attraction of Workplace, says Jim Russell, director of application development tools for Lotus, is the ability to retrofit Domino applications to participate fully in next-generation application architectures.

Managing to Cope with Patches

Keeping up with a steady stream of patches to close security loopholes and upgrade apps has become time consuming and costly.

It works when a developer gets stuck

According to open-source development veterans, the collaboration model offers several technical advantages, but by no means guarantees success.

Shaping the Next-Gen SOA-Enabled UI

We're on the brink of the next major UI revolution, which will stoke the fire under SOA, says Jeff Tash. Plus, are you modeling all four pillars that define EA?

The enterprise gets on the bus

The enterprise service bus promises to enable a service-oriented architecture and drive down the costs of enterprise application integration.

Offshoring pays off but not as much as you think

Process efficiency, management challenges, the nature of the projects and other factors have a lot to do with the success of offshoring and whether it provides financial benefits. Conversely, offshore providers and the infrastructure that support them are maturing, making offshoring less complex and risky than it was even a few years ago.

The world’s best coders are...

With burgeoning international competition for software work, there’s increasing interest among coders and those who hire them in figuring out which nation, if any, tends to provide superior skills. Subjective opinions abound...

Evaluation criteria for dashboards and scorecards

Many vendors offer ADEs for building dashboards and scorecards. Some solutions are more canned than others, each prescribing a certain look and feel. However, others present developers with a flexible portal interface that they can populate and paint with substantial flexibility.

ESB requires a whole new style

The major challenge in moving to ESBs is to change the existing programming paradigm. In addition to training programmers how to use the tools for ESBs, organizations must demonstrate the benefits of changing the way they deploy programs and manage them.

Top 10 Factors for Successful Outsourcing

What leads to successful outsourcing?

Integration’s dividends make for a tough sell

Does anyone doubt the value of integrating applications? Once you have experienced the delay of re-entering information from one application into another, and the errors that typically result, you’re likely to be convinced about the payback from enterprise application integration (EAI) even though you probably can’t easily put a number to it. Still, if you’re a development manager and you’re proposing the purchase of an EAI tool, you can be sure management will demand an ROI analysis.

TDWI Survey Methodology

TDWI contacted data warehousing and business intelligence professionals in its database and 101communications’ database. (TDWI is a business unit of 101communications.) Of the 496 respondents, 473 were qualified to complete the survey.

Analytic apps add new logic to dashboards

A new report suggests analytic development environments will become the predominant method for building dashboards.

Offshoring from the other side

Sivakumar, a Sri Lankan who now works in the U.S., recently published a book that attempts to provide a lighthearted but thought-provoking analysis of the global programming business. In Dude, Did I Steal Your Job? Debugging Indian Computer Programmers, Sivakumar recounts his experiences living and working in the U.S., and in which he offers a defense of Indian programmers.