IT Expert Voice

Access to Microsoft’s cloud is strikingly similar to Microsoft’s Active Directory resources, Windows Live, and public-facing web resources – except that a Microsoft data center is likely to be hosting them. Microsoft’s Azure platform is a private cloud development and service platform that supports Microsoft’s user Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) applications (such as online Microsoft Office components) and applications built around various building blocks using Microsoft cloud version “back-end” products like SQL Server. READ MORE

For a while, “disruptive” architectures were said to be a good thing. But a clash between the way cloud applications want to work, and the way the Web was designed to work, could create a disruption so massive that you’ll need to rethink the way your enterprise licenses its software.

The most distinct architectural difference between “the cloud” and “the Web,” as we have come to understand them, is this: The cloud is a realm of distributed applications that demand identity. The Web is built atop a transport protocol that thrives on anonymity. This fundamental distinction renders the two constructs as separate as oil from water. READ MORE

The Apache Software Foundation, best known for the self-named popular open source  Web server, has a variety of other technology that can help enterprises with databases, search, development, and more. Here’s an overview of the best. READ MORE

With high-level applications taking to the cloud, enterprises face a critical decision. They can invest in a new class of applications that handle corporate users’ identities more securely, or invest in the resources necessary to rewire their existing apps. Either way, the identity problem may be theirs to solve.

Today there are no fewer than twenty separate, if not altogether different, active protocols for secure identity representation over the Internet, according to a recent projection by security firm Ping Identity. The way to make these protocols work together is through identity federation: a protocol of protocols. READ MORE

If open source folks know anything, and they do, it’s how to build tools that enable collaborative development. Case in point: ticketing and issue tracking systems. If your shop needs a reliable, flexible, and scalable ticketing system take a look at Bugzilla, Request Tracker (RT), or Trac to find the best tool to keep your projects on track. READ MORE

How can you keep your corporate programmers on target? Try these suggestions from well-known PHP developer Luke Welling. READ MORE

Recently Microsoft’s CEO declared that rich clients are here to stay, and that thin clients won’t replace them. Is that correct, and if so, what type do you need? Jeff Cogswell looks at the blurring line between rich and thin clients. READ MORE

Test end-to-end service assurance from your transport network to your applications.

For IT decision-makers supporting their mobile workforce, understanding the benefits and complexities of the technologies used by their chosen service providers or mobile carriers can make all the difference in delivering a robust mobile implementation at reasonable cost to the enterprise. READ MORE

HTML5 is transforming enterprise development by bringing together mobile and desktop development, and re-unifying native and Web apps.

HTML5’s greatest contribution in the enterprise will be the way it re-unifies development, bringing together efforts for desktop and mobile applications, as well as “native” and Web apps. That’s one promise, at least, of this already-misunderstood standard. READ MORE

The open source landscape has changed dramatically in the past 10 years, and the picture of open source developers has changed as well. Where free and open source (FOSS) projects were once considered the domain of volunteer enthusiasts donating time to build alternatives to proprietary software, the odds are that the core contributors of any major project are paid developers working for a company with an interest in the project. Whether this is a good thing is subject to debate. READ MORE