Aster Data expands SQL for map/reduce

Aster Data has built a business out of map/reduce, and the release today of a thousand new SQL query building blocks—what it calls "functions"—is designed to give business users access to map/reduce computed analytics.

Whereas open-source big data solution Hadoop, for instance, is based entirely on its own implementation of map/reduce, as well as a set of homegrown query structuring frameworks like Pig and Hive, Aster Data wants to use SQL right from the start. Sharmila Shahani-Mulligan, executive vice president of marketing at Aster Data, said that this is a significant advantage over Hadoop.

“Hadoop lends itself more to batch-type processing. Most of our customers are running analytics on a daily basis with the expectation of results returned every few minutes," she said. "It's not real-time, but it's near real-time.

"The second advantage is SQL map/reduce. We are literally targeting the business analyst with SQL using full map/reduce underneath.”

Map/reduce is the framework for processing huge amounts of data, and it is the basis of the Apache Hadoop project, as well as of Big Table, which runs Google's search engine. Using map/reduce, huge stores of data can be processed, and the results can be combined into a cohesive set of information.

Stephanie McReynolds, director of product marketing at Aster Data, said the new sets of query-building tools aren't limited to business users. “We introduced many new business analyst-ready functions," she said. "[These] functions address particular business issues, like path analysis for website traffic.

"We also have a series of packages for power users. These are for people building their own SQL map/reduce applications. They want to use Java or C functions to get ahead. These are smaller building blocks."

Shahani-Mulligan said that Aster Data's analytics can be tweaked and queried by business users, a major advantage over Hadoop. She said that many business users already know SQL, which cannot be said of Hive or Pig. She said that with Hadoop, developers likely need to be called in to implement any analytics batches that need to be run, but with Aster Data, the business users can do that themselves.

“With almost any of our [customers] you talk to, one of the big appeals has been that their existing business analysts can work with functions and don't have to use a new language," said Shahani-Mulligan. "This is why we came out with SQL map/reduce. Some of them also have Hadoop, but it requires you to do constant programming in map/reduce versus having a simple-to-use interface."

By Alex Handy

Silverlight, WPF at forefront of DevExpress plans

.NET component and application framework maker Developer Express will place a greater emphasis on Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) this year, according to its 2010 road map, announced on Tuesday.

DevExpress' Silverlight components will deliver full design-time support for Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 3. Upcoming Silverlight 3 controls will include charting, data editing and a scheduler. A Silverlight 4 printing control will also be introduced.

"We feel we are late to the party, but then again, Silverlight is changing a lot," said DevExpress CTO Julian Bucknall. Aside from controls, the company is integrating Silverlight into its eXpressApp Framework, he added.

Some of its upcoming WPF controls will include final versions of DevExpress' pivot grid and layout manager, data editor, ribbon, report view, and scheduler.

DevExpress' embrace of Silverlight and WPF comes at the expense of Windows Forms development. Bucknall said that WinForms controls are being deemphasized, but development will continue with more chart types, VS 2010 and Client Profile support for controls, as well as new user interface styles to match the appearance of Windows 7 and Office 2010.

VCL (Visual Component Library) controls will be likewise updated with additional views and similar user interface options for the Microsoft stack.

DevExpress will continue to forge ahead to update its existing ASP.NET controls, and it will begin to deliver new controls that exploit the new capabilities that will be introduced by .NET 4.0 , Bucknall said. He is being more circumspect about developing components for ASP.NET's Model-View-Controller pattern, but the company will introduce a navigation bar and tab control nonetheless.

Lastly, new editions of the company's next IDE productivity tools, including CodeRush and Refactor Pro, will be released later this year around the time that VS 2010 ships, Bucknall said. "There were big changes in Visual Studio 2010," he added.

By David Worthington on SDTimes.

TFS FAQ - By Sanjay Jotwani

Introduction

A Work Item in common parlance is considered to be an instance of effort/work being carried out by an individual. Multiple instances of Work Items eventually culminate into the delivery of a service or a product that is meant for a customer.

Team Foundation Server Work Items

Depending on the approach one adopts for managing an application life cycle i.e. from requirement gathering to actual delivery/deployment, there are various work item types that will be instantiated and persisted into a database. As business needs and the processes thereof are dynamic, and disparate, customizing a Work Item, hence seems to be inevitable. It is therefore essential to understand the anatomy and thereby gain the basic understanding of customizing an existing work item type, or even adding a new work item type.

The Anatomy of a WIT(Work Item Type), in TFS has three essential parts, viz.

1. Fields
2. Layout, and
3. Workflow
   
   

In TFS there are approximately 57 “Field Reference Names”, mapping to base/native types. This is an extensible set.  In keeping with the .NET namespace tradition, two namespaces are predefined: System and Microsoft. The System namespace includes all system fields that are mandatory for Team Foundation system functions. The Microsoft namespace defines all required fields for work item types defined by Microsoft. Customers and partners can create their own field namespaces for custom work item types. We could define our own namespaces, for e.g. a WIT for tracking leads could have a field with a reference name of “Synergetics.LeadManagement.CustomerName”. This in turn could be of a base type “String”, having a name of “Customer Name”, as shown in Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1

Layout

In this section, you map the reference name of the field to a control. The control is the user interface for capturing the required data, and can be customized with a “Type” property to perform necessary validation and change the look and feel, as shown in Figure 1.2. A “Type” property could a “FieldControl”,  “DateTimeControl”, or even a “LinkControl” depending on the data requirement.

Figure 1.2

Workflow

A wok flow is a series of linked steps which would be used to declare transitions to different states, in the life time of a work item. Transitions would be declared, or provide links between states in a WIT work flow, using a graphical UI, as shown in Figure 1.3

Figure 1.3

As an example, the transition from “Active” to “Closed”, will occur for the reasons:

Obsolete, Chose Competitor, Project Cancelled, Too Expensive, or Offer Accepted;

Wherein default values and rules for the fields Assigned To, Activated Date, Activated By, Closed By, and Closed Date are also declared.

The Actions, provides the events under which this transition is deemed to occur.

To conclude customizing a WIT in TFS is a simple, code free effort and can be done within a short period of time, actually hours if not minutes. The key is to know the process and identify the flows, further to which each flow could be encapsulated as a WIT.

Interestingly, as may have been observed, the example used to explain the anatomy and steps, are for a WIT which captures and tracks non development efforts. If you are wondering why would I use TFS to do such a thing?! Well, think about support calls that one would want to capture, post deployment of a product/application.

Thanks for spending time in reading this blog, and sincerely hope it may have helped clear some doubts on the WITs in TFS.

Cheers & Have A Nice Day Ahead!!

About Author: Sanjay Jotwani is Technology Transformation Group Leader.

Synergetics India: IT consulting and Training services on .NET 4.0, SQL server 2008 BI. Awarded as the Best. NET Training Service Provider by Microsoft.

Cloud development ties code to dollars

Writing applications for cloud environments is a different affair that writing for in-house hosting. At the All About the Cloud summit in San Francisco this week, the focus was on what changes developers need to make to their applications to enable their optimal use in the Cloud. Perhaps the most interesting revelation offered during the event was that of the direct correlation between billing and the quality of source code.

Treb Ryan, CEO and founder of OpSource, said in a keynote talk that Cloud hosting offers “the best margins I have seen in the hosting business.” He added that Amazon has largely played down the profitability of Cloud hosting, and he suggested they have done so to scare off potential competition. OpSource has been offering hosting for software-as-a-service applications for more than five years and has relatively recently entered the Cloud hosting business.

Ryan said that applications hosted in the Cloud are under a performance microscope. If they send too many requests to the database, that will be reflected by a higher bill at the end of the month. He said that developers writing applications for deployment in the Cloud need to realize that “bad code costs me twice as much as good code. I can cut my op costs in half” by optimizing the code.

Thus, said Ryan, developers can see a direct correlation between the code they've worked on all month and the reduction in their Cloud hosting bill. That's something developers haven't really been able to do since the days of mainframes and time-sharing.

Elsewhere at the All About the Cloud summit, attendees and speakers discussed the remaining problems of the Cloud. Integrating Cloud applications with on-site systems was one of the first and most painful points discussed.

Paul Daugherty, chief technologies architect at Accenture, said, “We are at an inflection point where integration becomes more critical. Increasingly we're seeing a big increase in data sources used. Initially integration was about two different applications, but now it's getting into the 10s and 20s.

"There was an interesting piece of research Gartner did: They looked at companies using SaaS applications. One of the less obvious data points out of their sample respondents was that 14% or 15% adopted SaaS, then reversed back out onto on-premise. The No. 1 reason for that is cost of integration, and cost required was too great."

Another remaining Cloud issue is security, said Ryan. “We're still addressing security. The idea that the vast majority of Cloud environments have the same user name and password for all users is ridiculous."

He added that most Cloud providers do not currently offer a way to tie multiple accounts together, and thus whole companies sometimes use the same login and password for their Cloud environments. Instead, Ryan would prefer accounts that could be used by each user, but could also be tied together for collaboration on the same virtual machines within the Cloud.

from SDTimes, By Alex Handy

Synergetics India: IT Consulting and Training Services on .NET 4.0, SQL server 2008 BI. Awarded as the Best. NET Training Service Provider by Microsoft.

Cloud computing will be hybrid

Cloud computing will be hybrid:

Ovum The next three years will see Cloud computing mature rapidly as vendors and enterprises come to grip with the opportunities and challenges that it represents

SAP to purchase Sybase in cash deal

SAP announced yesterday that it will acquire venerable database company Sybase to bolster its mobile development practice. The deal is valued at approximately US$5.8 billion in cash.

Sybase's board of directors unanimously approved the transaction, which is a 44% premium over its three-month average stock price of about $36 per share. The transaction will close in the third quarter. The agreement was signed by SAP's American subsidiary and underwritten by Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank.

Sybase will operate as a standalone unit of SAP called “Sybase, an SAP Company.” Its management team will be kept in place, and SAP intends to appoint Sybase's CEO John Chen to its board.

Datamonitor analyst Warren Wilson said in a statement, "The acquisition may also signal a shift in SAP’s long-standing strategy of growth through internal development rather than acquisition—a wise shift, in our view, given the rapid pace of IT innovation overall and the market’s positive response to arch-rival Oracle’s acquisition-based strategy."

The acquisition also broadens Sybase's capacity to develop new solutions for analytics. It will gain access to SAP's in-memory database technology, significantly increasing the performance of its analytics and complex event processing software, as well as enabling it to build those capabilities into its transactional products, Wilson stated.

"The move also furthers SAP’s strategy of supporting customers’ heterogeneous IT environments, because Sybase’s anytime/anywhere/any application approach has resulted in a platform that is versatile enough to connect and mobilize a wide variety of applications and data, both SAP and non-SAP," said Wilson.

Sybase, founded in 1984 as Systemware, began as a database software maker competing with firms like IBM, Informix and Oracle. The company’s main product, called SQL Server, was originally offered for Unix.

Sybase worked with Microsoft to port SQL Server to OS/2 and Windows NT. Both companies marketed and expanded the Windows version; Microsoft SQL Server grew into a dominant player in the database industry, while Sybase SQL Server fell behind.

The companies have since taken their database product lines in different directions; Sybase now calls its database Adaptive Server Enterprise.

Since the late 1990s, Sybase has reinvented itself as a provider of tools for building applications and delivering data to mobile devices.

In 2006, Sybase acquired Mobile 365, a mobile messaging company that handles over 1.5 billion messages per day, ranging from alerts and promotions to transactions, according to Datamonitor. Mobile 365 has relationships with more than 850 mobile providers covering more than 4 million subscribers.

In buying Sybase, SAP has substantially strengthened its hand in mobile applications, Wilson said. Sybase's platform provides versatile deployment options for mobile applications across BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile devices.

The combination of SAP and Sybase is a "transformative event" for the software industry, "revolutionizing" how transactional and analytic applications are built, Sybase's Chen said in a statement. Allowing customers to run their business from many devices will drive enterprise productivity, he added.

By David Worthington 

BSIMM crafts model for building in software security

With the sample size of participating companies having tripled in one year, the folks behind the Building Security In Maturity Model (BSIMM) have found that most have an internal group responsible for security, and that 15 activities to ensure security are almost universally done.

The BSIMM project began in March 2009 as a joint effort between Cigital and Fortify Software to record what organizations are doing to build security into their software and organizations. Starting with input from nine companies, the number of participating organizations has grown to 30, according to Gary McGraw, CTO at security consulting firm Cigital. He said the larger sample size allowed the group to statistically validate the model, and that the levels for measuring security are sound.

McGraw explained that the BSIMM team observed 109 activities that the 30 organizations do to secure their software, and those activities are broken down into 12 “large-scale conceptual buckets,” he said, such as training or code review. Then the activities within those buckets are further divided into three levels: The things that most of the organizations do are at the first level, while level 3 is for “the rocket science, things that are rarely done but are very cool,” he added.

Organizations can download BSIMM2 to compare their own activities to what other groups are doing and plan their security strategy going forward, explained Brian Chess, cofounder and chief scientist at Fortify Software, which makes vulnerability detection software and provides security services.

Chess said that the companies studied all do good hosting and network security. “They all have firewalls, that’s no great revelation,” he said. “But there are 14 other activities that almost all the companies universally do.”

By David Rubinstein

'Midori' concepts materialize in .NET

'Midori' concepts materialize in .NET,

Some of Microsoft’s latest technologies could be green shoots on a migration toward its "Midori" operating system, according to analysts who are familiar with the project.

Recent additions to the .NET Framework adhere to the concurrent programming principles outlined in the Midori documents that SD Times viewed in 2008. Silverlight and the Windows Azure platform could also be complementary to a potential release of Midori, the analysts said.

Midori is a technology incubation project that was born out of Microsoft Research’s (MSR) Singularity operating system, the tools and libraries of which are completely managed code.

Microsoft has designed Midori to be Internet-centric with an emphasis on distributed concurrent systems. It also introduces a new security model that sandboxes applications.

"Midori is an attempt to create a new foundation for the operating system that runs ‘inside the box,’ on the desktop and in the rack. As such, it's willing to break with compatibility (or at least wall off compatibility to a virtual machine)," explained Larry O’Brien, a private consultant and author of the "Windows & .NET Watch" column for SD Times.

Microsoft may be laying a foundation for Midori in its existing development stack through languages and Silverlight as a runtime, O’Brien said. Microsoft Research is also increasingly focused on reasoning about concurrent programs, he added.

These major architectural transitions require developers to make a “conceptual leap” to a new model of programming, and to relearn how to program in an efficient manner, said Forrester Research principal analyst Jeffrey Hammond.

"We're seeing a gulf opening up right now between serial and parallel programming; only a small minority of rocket-scientist types can actually write code that works effectively in a parallel, multicore world,” Hammond added. “I think it's pretty clear that Midori is on the other side of that scale-out gulf. From a development point of view, those that can make the leap solidify their skills and employment opportunities for the next decade and beyond."

When asked whether there were any new developments in the Midori project, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "Microsoft is always thinking about and exploring innovative ways for people to use technology. Midori is one of many incubation projects under way at Microsoft."

Green shoots

Microsoft's F# programming language, which will ship this month with Visual Studio 2010, "hugely fits" the Midori programming model that was outlined in Microsoft’s documents, O’Brien said. F# is designed with restrictions that are intended to make it easier for developers to automatically parallelize applications, he explained.

For instance, F# is highly immutable—meaning that object states cannot be modified once created—and has an implicit type system. Midori requires developers to follow a similarly constrained model.

"Immutable variables are pretty much the opposite of how most programmers think about variables ('A variable that doesn't vary?'). So just a few years ago, the idea that functional programming was going to catch on seemed very dubious, and it was very surprising that F# became a first-class language so quickly," O'Brien wrote in an e-mail.

"Similarly, immutability and strong typing make it easier to reason about security," he added.

O'Brien questioned whether F# would become a more prominent language, or if Microsoft would evolve C# to have more of the same constructs that support automatic parallelization.

Automatic parallelization was a "big question mark" in Microsoft's Midori documents, he said. "One thing I've been noticing is that MSR is producing tons of stuff on reasoning about concurrent programs, exploiting latent parallelism ‘automatically.’ "

Microsoft must evolve the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime further to fully exploit the advantages of functional programming, O'Brien said.

Microsoft also has rapidly developed its Silverlight runtime. The Midori programming model includes Bartok, an MSR project that endeavored to create a lightweight compiled and managed runtime system that was more efficient than the  .NET Framework.

"There's no question that Microsoft is seeing Silverlight as the lightweight platform for delivering applications (Web-based and mobile). As far as Midori and [Windows] Azure go, what I can see is that a Silverlight front end is a good front end for an Azure-powered back-end system," O'Brien said.

An Azure tie-in?

It would make sense for Microsoft to use the Azure platform as a vehicle for introducing Midori, Forrester's Hammond said. "It's essentially a  .NET-centric (and Internet-centric) scale-out runtime.

"A distributed network-aware OS is the perfect thing to host in the cloud, and what better place to knock out the kinks than your own data center, where you have 100% control over the hardware and infrastructure you're testing on? This also allows them to test it underneath parts of the overall infrastructure: for example, hosting an individual service," Hammond explained.

Further, Microsoft is battling for new territory—distributed applications—with the Windows Azure platform, O'Brien said. As such, the platform has little legacy codebase, as well as ample funding in money and talent, along with new challenges, he added.

"While I don't think that we know if Midori would work as something fed ‘down the pipe’ to the consumer, the idea that Azure might ultimately benefit from its own operating system is definitely worthy of debate," O'Brien said.

O'Brien said that Microsoft might launch Midori as a new operating system for cloud data centers to up the ante against Google, which has developed new programming languages for writing distributed applications.

Midori's strong emphasis on concurrency issues, a willingness to break compatibility, and the idea of using a hypervisor "as a kind of Meta-OS" would fit that strategy, O'Brien observed. However, he noted that there is no concrete knowledge about the state of Midori or even that its design is necessarily attractive for a data center OS.

Microsoft does not have the lead in cloud computing, and it is rolling out new features for the Windows Azure platform to stay competitive with Amazon and Google, O'Brien noted. "At this stage, Microsoft cannot build Azure bottom-up. But the risks of retrofitting Azure to a new OS are vastly less than the unknowns of putting a new OS onto all the world's hardware."

The status of Midori

While the company has remained tightlipped, some information relating to the status of the project has become available. Midori team member Jonathan Shapiro departed Microsoft in March, citing personal reasons.

Microsoft recruited Shapiro from the BitC language and Coyotos operating system projects to work on Midori. He served on a team of high-profile programmers reportedly led by Microsoft senior vice president of technical strategy Eric Rudder.

Whether Rudder's focus has shifted away from Midori onto other projects in unknown. He recently presented at TechEd Dubai in early March on the topic of Microsoft's "three-screens-and-a-cloud" software-plus-services strategy for .NET.

By David Worthington

Microsoft to introduce new licensing scheme for Office 2010

Microsoft to introduce new licensing scheme for Office 2010,

Microsoft is implementing a new sales strategy with the coming release of its Office 2010 it says should make it easier to sell and deploy for channel partners, but one that could take away their opportunities to sell upgrades.

With the launch of Microsoft Office 2010, expected on June 15, the vendor wants to pre-load a new Office image that includes all three versions of the application on between 80 percent and 100 percent of all new systems sold, said Vic Barakat, OEM distribution partner account manager at Microsoft.

That image will include the Home and Student edition, which will include licenses for use on up to three PCs, as well as the Home and Business and the Professionals editions, which will include licenses that allow it to be installed on one desktop PC and one portable PC used by the same user, Barakat said.

Microsoft, through its channel and retail partners, will also sell a new "product key card" or PKC that will allow customers to unlock their preferred version of the application. The PKC will include a code that causes the selected version to automatically turn on in minutes without the need for further installation, and customers can purchase keys at a later date to automatically upgrade to other versions, Barakat said.

Barakat unveiled the new licensing scheme during a presentation to solution providers and system builders at the D&H 2010 West Coast Technology Show, held in California.

The single image containing all three versions is aimed at simplifying the number of SKUs of the software that partners take to customers, and make it easier for them to sell the product, Barakat said.

"So instead of asking the customer, do you want Office with that, now you can ask, 'Which version do you want,'" he said.

Barakat said the PKCs will be available in blister packs for sale to customers in a variety of outlets, which means it is important for solution providers to make the Office 2010 sale with the PC.

In response to an audience member who asked about whether customers can purchase the PKCs from places like Office Depot or eBay, Barakat responded, "You should be able to compete."

Microsoft is also introducing an "Upgrade Anywhere" program whereby customers can upgrade the Home and Student edition or the Home and Business Edition to other editions. Such an upgrade is done by customers contacting Microsoft directly, and does not offer solution providers an opportunity to participate, Barakat said.

"We're trying to tell you right now, if there's a benefit to the customer for you to sell the Professional edition, you should sell them," he said.

Audience members responded immediately, asking why Microsoft is taking them out of the upgrade loop.

Barakat answered by saying that Microsoft does not have a retail system that would tie back into the solution provider's original sale.

"We think it's a good thing," he said, referring to the Upgrade Anywhere program. "We understand the implication for the channel. We apologize for that."

Microsoft on Friday also launched its Microsoft Technology Guarantee program under which customers who purchase Microsoft Office 2007 and activate it by September 30 get a free upgrade to Office 2010, as long as they activate the upgrade by October 31.

Barakat said that customers can download the Office 2010 upgrade starting in mid-June when it is scheduled to be released, or they can order a DVD with the software from Microsoft for $15.

Barakat also said that Office 2010 will be available for downloading by channel partners on about June 1, and that Microsoft plans a media blitz over the new software in July.

Patrick Rayne, IT specialist and CEO of Rayne Technology Solutions, Calif.-based solution provider, said he has been using the beta version of Office 2010 for six months.

Rayne said he likes the beta so much that he has been telling customers who wanted to buy Office 2007 to wait until they can get the upgrade under the Microsoft Technology Guarantee program.

Rayne also said he likes how Microsoft is simplifying the availability of Office 2010 with the PKC, thereby eliminating the need for disks and electronic distribution. Also, he said, it is nice to not have separate disks for different editions of the software.

However, Rayne said his is concerned about how Microsoft plans to handle upgrade requests from customers directly instead of going through partners.

"If a customer upgrades Office later, they pay Microsoft," he said. "I don't see what Microsoft doesn't handle it like it does Office 2007 and provide an upgrade key through its distributors.

John Vickers, president and CEO of Vickers Technology, a Calif.-based solution provider, said he also appreciates how Microsoft is moving all three versions of Office 2010 into a single image.

"I like how they're reducing the number of SKUs," Vickers said. "Even when customers use Microsoft's online tools to purchase Office, it's still confusing."

However, Vickers said, the fact that Microsoft is eliminating disks from the Office sales process except for those who order the DVD when upgrading from Office 2007 to Office 2010 could lead to problems later.

"People like disks," he said. "I like disks. Especially if a customer buys a computer from Best Buy, or from anywhere. How can they recover if their computer crashes? Microsoft will ask them for their product number, but the numbers are all on the system."

Michael Schwab, co-president of D&H, said that the new PKC is a much more natural way to sell and deploy Microsoft Office than in the past by offering a code that unlocks the application without having to go through the entire installation process.

However, whether upgrading Office via PKC or volume licensing is the better solution is one that solution providers can hash out with their distributors, Schwab said.

"At D&H, we present a single face for Microsoft," he said. "Solution providers can present OEM or packaged solutions or retail solutions. But behind D&H, there are different groups at Microsoft who don't see the whole picture. Our value is to present a unified voice for Microsoft solutions." 

By Joseph F. Kovar, ChannelWeb, March 8, 2010

  Synergetics India: IT consulting and Training services on .NET 4.0, SQL server 2008 BI. Awarded as the Best. NET Training Service Provider by Microsoft.

Microsoft issues only one security patch for today

Microsoft issues only one security patch for today

January 12, 2010

http://www.synergetics-india.com/microsoft.htm