Communicating Enterprise Architecture

Oracle technologists discuss how to communicate enterprise architecture on podcasts and the 2009 year in review from a systems architecture perspective

http://blogs.oracle.com/archbeat/2010/01/

What is the future of SPML?

What is the future of SPML?

On the heels of the Oracle-Sun Merger.....

I follow Mark closely and he's on target with his Identity Management market analysis at Burton Group/Gartner.

On 27-Jan, Oracle signaled a commitment to SPML, one of the strong points from Sun's Identity Manager product. Thomas Kurian indicated that SPML adapters would be integrated into the Oracle Fusion middleware (ie. Oracle/Waveset Identity Manager).

SPML Is On Life Support ....

Blogger: Mark Diodati (01-Feb-2009)

The SPML standard-like all emerging standards-requires more work. More work is required to harmonize SPML with SAML. An optional "inetorgperson-like" user schema is required to promote greater SPML adoption (the OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee tried to create a standard user schema when developing SPML v2, but the members could not agree on one). A simpler "real world" search capability is needed, with a limitation on the number of attributes and filter expressions. The latter two requirements should be combined into a future "SPML Simple" profile.

Unfortunately, there appears to be little industry support for SPML enhancements. A vicious cycle exists. Few people are using the standard, so there's less momentum to enhance it. The IdM vendors' participation in the OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee has been minimal at best since the 2006 approval of the SPML v2 standard. The last meeting of the Committee was in early 2008. None of the major provisioning vendors have developed an SPML v2-conformant product. Many of the vendors who have created commercial SPML connectors tell us that they must create specific SPML implementations for each of the major provisioning products. An SPML reference implementation does not exist, but would surely help.

Sun + Oracle Strategy Information

Oracle Presentations and Webcast from 27-January-2010

http://www.oracle.com/us/sun/044498

Oracle Vision for 2010, same as IBM Vision in 1960:

“Deliver comprehensive integrated technologies”

Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Architecture

Interesting white paper on Ubuntu's approach to cloud computing architectures.

Overview

Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) brings Amazon EC2-like infrastructure capabilities inside the firewall. The UEC is powered by Eucalyptus, an open source implementation for the emerging standard of the EC2 API. This solution is designed to simplify the process of building and managing an internal cloud for businesses of any size, thereby enabling companies to create their own self-service infrastructure.

As the technology is open source, it requires no licence fees or subscription for use, experimentation or deployment. Updates are provided freely and support contracts can be purchased directly from Canonical.

UEC is specifically targeted at those companies wishing to gain the benefits of self-service IT within the confines of the corporate data centre whilst avoiding either lock-in to a specific vendor, expensive re-occurring product licences or the use of non-standard tools that aren't supported by public providers.

This white paper tries to provide an understanding of the UEC internal architecture and possibilities offered by it in terms of security, networking and scalability. 

http://www.ubuntu.com/system/files/UbuntuEnterpriseCloudWP-Architecture-20090820.pdf

The Oz Principle

Only when you assume full accountability for your thoughts, feelings, actions, and results can you direct your own destiny, otherwise, someone or something else will."

"See It": Recognize and acknowledge the full reality of a situation

"Own It": Accept full responsibility for one's current experiences and realities as well as others'

"Solve It": Change those realities by finding and implementing solutions to problems (often solutions not previously considered) while avoiding the "trap" of dropping back Below the Line when obstacles present themselves

"Do It": Summon the commitment and courage to follow through with the solutions identified, especially when there is great risk in doing so

A decade ago, The Oz Principle took the business world by storm. At its root, the principle works like this: Like Dorothy and the gang in The Wizard of Oz, most businesspeople have the tools to succeed, but when things go wrong they blame circumstance or others instead of looking within for the true cause of unsatisfactory results. Once individuals learn to accept responsibility, they can use the Oz Principle to become better leaders. Now, with corporate scandals in the headlines and the culture of victimization running rampant at every level of the business world, Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman return with a new edition of The Oz Principle. Fully revised, this edition will update the statistics, concepts, and relevant companies through fresh, timely anecdotes and stories.

The Oz Principle: Getting Results through Individual and Organizational Accountability

Who Owns Academic Curriculum?

Hard to keep access controls on university lecture content, materials, and curriculum. The debate is brewing over who has the right to these materials. Some professors approve the distribution of these materials, while other refuse.

Harvard alumni Magliozzi started up a side project called Finalsclub.org. The site bills itself as “the premier Web portal for interactive education,” allowing Harvard students to join online study groups and read annotated versions of the Great Books.

Magliozzi pays Harvard students to post their lecture notes online.

Entire article at Boston Globe (14-Dec-2009)

Apply for the 2010 Google GRAD CS Forum

Good luck to my colleagues!

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2010 Google GRAD CS Forum

Google is hosting the first annual 2010 Google Graduate Researchers in Academia of Diverse backgrounds (GRAD) CS Forum. The event will bring together students who are historically underrepresented in technology fields to connect with one another and with Google. Computer scientists are invited to this all-expense paid forum January 21-23 at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

Eligibility Requirements: CS (or related discipline) graduate student currently enrolled in Masters or PhD program at a North American university; Demonstrated academic excellence and leadership in the computing field; Cumulative GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale or 4.3 on a 5.0 scale or equivalent.

The Application Deadline is December 12, 2009. Apply at www.google.com/jobs/students/gradforum