SOA Testing

For a complete list of the co-authors and contributors, see the end of the article. Microsoft's Software-plus-Services strategy represents a view of the world where the growing feature-set of devices and the increasing ubiquity of the Web are combined to deliver more compelling solutions. Software-plus-Services represents an evolutionary step that is based on existing best practices in IT and extends the application potential of core service-orientation design principles. Microsoft's efforts to embrace the Software-plus-Services vision are framed by three core goals: User experiences should span beyond a single device Solution architectures should be able to intelligently leverage and integrate on-premise IT assets with cloud assets Tightly coupled systems should give way to federations of cooperating systems and loosely coupled compositions The Windows Azure platfor... (more)

Applying Maslow’s Pyramid to Application Performance

This time I take an a bit of an unconventional approach towards defining performance management. The idea for this article came through a number of customer engagements, where the same question came up over and over again: “How do we start with Application Performance Management and what should we do?” Over time I developed a simple model which I called the performance management pyramid. The basic idea is to assign performance management activities to several levels. Each level serves a specific need and builds on top of the lower ones. Just like a building it starts with the b... (more)

Using SQL Azure for SOA Quality Testing

I. INTRODUCTION Throwing its hat in the Platform as a Service (PaaS) ring, Microsoft has joined the likes for Salesforce.com and Google with its annoucement of Microsoft Azure Platform. Microsoft Windows Azure Platform provides three primary components: Windows Azure: A cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. SQL Azure: A cloud hosted relational database that removes the burdens of RDBMS installation, patching, upgrades and overall software management for relational databas... (more)

Are You Scrubbing the Twitter Stream on Your Web Site?

Web 2.0 is as much about integration as it is interactivity. Thus it’s no surprise that an increasing number of organizations are including a feed of their recent Twitter activity on their site. But like any user generated content, and it is user generated after all, there’s a potential risk to the organization and its visitors from integrating such content without validation. A recent political effort in the UK included launching a web site that integrated a live Twitter stream based on a particular hashtag. That’s a fairly common practice, nothing to get excited about. What ha... (more)

ZapThink Announces SOA Training

ZapThink today announces the opening of registration for its four-day Licensed ZapThink Architect (LZA) Boot Camp, providing in-depth, hands-on training and certification on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and taught by notable SOA expert Jason Bloomberg. The LZA SOA Boot Camp will run from October 5-8, 2009 in Omaha, NE. "Companies are tired of all the hype surrounding Web Services and SOAs, and are finding it difficult to learn what they really need to know from vendor-centric conferences and training," said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst with ZapThink, LLC. "IT professi... (more)