Application Development Trends' News


Microsoft Turns the Screw on Rival Mobile OS Vendors

With Windows Mobile 5.0, Microsoft's strategy is to break down the distinction between smart phones and Pocket PC devices, says Mike Hall, technical product manager in Microsoft’s mobile and embedded devices group.

Service Tracks Wireless Plans, Devices

Like it or not, your company is teeming with wireless devices, from cell phones to smart phones, PDAs to BlackBerrys, and plenty of wireless laptops.

The SQL Server 2005 Paradigm Shift

Skeptics who question Microsoft’s decision to integrate its .NET CLR with SQL Server 2005 tend to use the language of doomsayers such as Jeremiah or Cassandra to make their points. They believe in-process CLR is an insanely bad idea that could jeopardize the scalability and reliability of SQL Server.

Mobile Manager Breaks Cover

PalmOne unveiled its much-anticipated LifeDrive, a mobile device the company says is the first in a newly created category of devices it calls the mobile manager. The PDA-plus drew considerable attention after Amazon.com inadvertently offered it for sale in its Web catalog earlier this month.

Will Microsoft’s Maestro Leave Developers Behind?

It’s a good bet a market is on the verge of going mainstream when Microsoft starts paying attention to it. So when the software giant last week announced its first business performance management offering, code-named Maestro, some folks took that as confirmation that BPM as a mainstream technology practice has arrived.

Oracle and Zend to Provide Easy Integration for PHP Developers

Oracle and Zend Technologies are jointly developing a PHP 5.0 distribution that includes integration with the Oracle database client library. The new Zend Core for Oracle is a pre-built stack for PHP developers designed to make it easier to develop and deploy applications with the Oracle database.

IBM plans Eclipse-based Data Integration Toolset

There’s been a lot of talk about what IBM’s billion-dollar acquisition of data integration specialist Ascential Software Corp. might mean for customers, but little speculation about what’s in store for programmers.

Legacy Models of Software Licensing Hindering Grid Computing Deployments

Enterprise licensing models are “throttling grid computing deployments,” so software companies need to develop new models if grid is to continue to grow in commercial markets.

Building the Well-intentioned SOA

Infravio has released a white paper with guideless for building what it describes as an “intentional SOA.” The papers describes architectural requirements and standards for building out an SOA, including SOA design-time and runtime components.

OASIS to Develop SOA Reference Model

A core reference model to guide the creation of specific SOAs is in the works, thanks to a new committee by international standards consortium OASIS. Driven by a need for continuity across the industry, the SOA Reference Model (SOA-RM) Technical Committee will strive to deliver a normative SOA reference model by the end of the year.

AOL Adds Free E-mail to IM Service

AOL Instant Messenger users got a freebie this week: Web-based e-mail.

IBM and Lawson Team to Market Solutions for SOAs in Vertical Markets

IBM and Lawson Software announced yesterday that Lawson will optimize and standardize its business apps portfolio on IBM WebSphere--a move intended to help clients move to a J2EE compliant SOA and mitigate application complexity by reducing the source coding required. Apps and Web services will share the same data repository as clients' existing Lawson applications, enabling clients to perform only an upgrade, not a migration or new implementation, to take advantage of them, Lawson says.

Regulatory Compliance Skewing Security Budgets

Between 30 to 60 percent of the security budget increases in the last two years can be tied directly to compliance, according to analysts at Nemertes Research.

Equal Footing is Key Feature of Microsoft SQL Server 2005

The Common Language Runtime is at the heart of Microsoft’s .NET vision. It promises to co-opt the benefits of Java–it’s a run-time environment that features a just-in-time compiler and built-in management services–with the bonus that (unlike Java) it’s language-independent.

Catalyze Helps Capture Business Requirements

A good business requirements tool can help you gain the understanding and agreement of everyone involved in a software project, from customers to the business side to the technical team. That can speed time to market and reduce development costs by helping you quickly document and share information among stakeholders.

IBM Express Suite Targets SMBs’ Compliance Issues

In a bid to help SMBs address IT security, reliance and compliance needs, IBM recently announced a new suite of Express hardware, software and services.

The Upside of Compliance: It’s Driving IT Governance

Plenty of companies are making the connection between compliance and the policies and practices that align IT with business goals. In its 2004 global status report, the IT Governance Institute reported that 76 percent of executives surveyed acknowledged having IT problems that could be resolved by implementing an IT governance framework.

The BPO Problem: Data Integration

Today, Informatica is embracing a broader definition of data integration that includes operational data integration—things like data migration and consolidation, building operational data stores, synchronization among different databases and master data management.

Acquisition to Help IBM Compete with BEA and JBOSS

IBM acquired Gluecode Software, an open-source application infrastructure company that sells software, services and support on top of the Geronimo J2EE application server from the Apache Software Foundation.

Mobile App Development Network Rolled Out

Action Engine, a mobile application platform leader, launched the Action Engine Developer Network for independent software vendors and developers to build applications for the Action Engine Mobile Application Platform.