In-Depth Features


Can Borland ride the life cycle?

Acquisitions fuel latest move to gain a foothold in enterprise IT with tools for each phase of the development life cycle; CEO promises the firm won’t forget developer roots this time.

Outsourcing: An IT fact of life

As pressure grows to do more with less, IT managers turn to an expanding outsourcing industry that promises to build better software at lower costs.

Should you hire an outsourcing advisor?

For organizations that are nervous about making the right outsourcing choice, there are outsourcing advisory firms available to help.

Book excerpt: The business case for accurate data

Most managers agree that data quality is important, but little is done about it at many sites; our expert offers tips for convincing management to invest in quality.

Two-headed analyst tour

While Inprise/Borland was a two-headed company that confused much of the software world, the original Borland name still stood for something.

Microsoft resigns from W3C group

Microsoft officials withdraw from group due to a disagreement over the direction of the W3C debate.

Orchestration promise meets reality

Business process flows face mounting roadblocks as standards fights escalate; but emerging tools and business demands could force a resolution.

Use Caching to Enhance Performance

Robust Web apps must provide fast response times. Learn how to use the Cache object to place commonly requested resources into an area in memory where they can be accessed quickly.

Dashboards come into view

Dashboards depicting time-series analysis allow managers to spot trends and, in turn, manage operations for ROI. Business intelligence benefits seem limited only by IT’s creativity.

A sampling of business process flow software vendors

Business process flow software vendors and their wares.

J2EE and .NET servers weigh in

One or the other may hold an advantage here or there, but the divergence between the two prime app server platforms should not be oversold. Some say over time they are becoming more comparable.

Pepsi Bottling Group has a thirst for rich data

The Pepsi Bottling Group recently deployed a new system that enables its sales force to access route management information, real-time demand forecasting, inventory management, promotional info and authorized products from a handheld device.

Blueprinting Your Database Landscape

Crafting a map of your database servers can help you build better systems, from increased security to solid disaster-recovery plans. Take these steps to get your server network in order.

Book excerpt: Architectures for integration, extension

Developers look for an edge by integrating and extending systems; a look at the resulting business consequences.

Java environment focuses on up-front modeling

Compuware’s OptimalJ employs the so-called Model Driven Architecture (MDA) to generate working J2EE code from various descriptions.

Windows Server 2003 ships

Microsoft hopes release will field a stellar platform for integrating applications.

Web Services Reflections: Q&A with Eric Newcomer

ADT's Jack Vaughan recently sat down with Iona CTO Eric Newcomer to discuss SOAP, CORBA and more.

Extending Eclipse

Want to know where to start to extend Eclipse? Dwight explains how to add a menu button to Eclipse's Workbench toolbar.

Objects keep track of County addresses

When Jefferson County, Colo., upgraded its County Address Management System (Cams), it decided to re-architect Cams in a component-based Java architecture running in a Linux environment.

Smalltalk lives on at St. Paul

When St. Paul wanted to re-architect its fat-client, object-oriented Smalltalk application as a distributed system hosting a fully Web-enabled interface, it created Extended Policy writing Online (ExPO), a browser-based application that generates and issues quotes in real-time.