In-Depth Features


ESB vs. BizTalk Debate Heats Up in Barcelona

At his Enterprise Architect Summit Barcelona session this month, conference speaker Dave Chappell got into a heated debate with a couple Microsoft guys over core architectural fundamentals.

What's New With VS and Data

Roger Jennings discusses the new data features that made it into Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005, and a couple features that were dropped late in the process.

First Look: Leveraging Open Source in the Enterprise

Mergere gives businesses access to commercially supported open source solutions.

Integrate SOA Portals With WSE

Effective policymaking with WS-Policy improves your architecture's adaptability with minimal development when external service interfaces evolve and business needs change.

Sneaky, Sinister, Swindling Software

Spyware steals identities, invades privacy, compromises enterprise info-security, alters and destroys data, and replicates to a point where systems collapse under the weight. And that's just for starters.

Put Your Apps to the Test

Rapidly increasing user loads, wildly complex software and distributed development that includes worldwide outsourcing all ratchet up the need for better application testing processes and tools.

The Leap from Illusion to Fusion

Following its acquisitions of PeopleSoft and Siebel, Oracle is touting a strategy it calls Project Fusion that it says will bring its products together. Meanwhile, detractors point out fusion can also blow things apart.

Middleware is in the Open, Finally

Until recently, middleware for the open-source community meant app servers, and open-source app servers usually meant JBoss. Today, there are more options.

Services by Design

In the most radical articulation of service enablement, traditional software development will be almost entirely supplanted by a virtual paradigm which disparate Web services are orchestrated dynamically to power composite applications.

On the Road With Mobile Middleware

Although imperfect, the mobile application development environment is an area of keen interest to a growing number of enterprises.

Special Report: Enterprise Service Bus, Synchronicity in the Enterprise

The enterprise service bus is the newest solution-and buzzword-for IT and vendors touting enterprise architecture integration.

Tailor-Made for Applications Development

Personal Software Process and Team Software Process are intertwined methodologies that offer formal processes for improving software quality and managing schedules.

Software Configuration Management Undergoes a Restoration

SCM has put on more muscle to meet IT's need to better manage widely dispersed development teams and to comply with regulatory mandates.

Take Control of Business Services

There's a lot of hype about BSM, the new three-letter approach to IT/business alignment. Business services management vendors promise to correlate the performance of business services with IT infrastructure components. However, analysts warn automation is only part of the answer.

Primary Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Vista

Peter O'Kelly summarizes the daunting amount of Windows Vista information presented at PDC 2005 last week. Find out what''s changing between Longhorn and Vista, what aspects of Vista are being ported and more.

MS Advances in Collaboration, Content Management

Microsoft is poised to make major strides in its collaboration portfolio with SharePoint V3, Office 12, and other offerings. Here''s a review and analysis of the collaboration-related updates from PDC 2005.