Architecture

Metropolis

Mark H. Wagner — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 15:05:00 GMT

Interesting article:

A metaphor for the evolution of information technology into the world of service-oriented architectures.

Summary: Explores the idea that information technology is evolving in a fashion similar to how American cities have evolved over the last two centuries. The opportunities and pressures of the technological revolution have driven our metropolises to adopt new frameworks, models, and patterns for commerce and communication. Recent developments in IT are analogous. What can we learn about the present and future directions of IT by studying the recent history of our urban centers?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/journal/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnmaj/html/aj2metrop.asp

Book: Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures

Mark H. Wagner — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 14:03:00 GMT

Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures

When it comes to software development books, I usually read books that are much more technically oriented than this book. This book is exactly what it sells itself to be; a non-technical book on a technical subject. The content is excellent for any software development manager wanting to better understand web services.

The book starts out with more of a conceptual view by telling story about a businessman on a business trip. This story is intended to be a bit of utopia and how web services and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can help to bring these daily conveniences to the average person. The book then moves on to the changes required and the impact that change itself will bring to an organization. There are some excellent points and examples made in this part of the book. Again, they are short and to the point. The last part dives into the architectural stages of implementing web services.

This book hits its target audience of technical and non-technical managers who need to better understand and communicate the concept, benefits, and risks with implementing web services to upper management, as well as coherently communicating with the technical staff.

This 232 page book is a quick and easy read with 188 pages of core content and the rest providing reference material like terms and definition. A worthwhile read and good handbook for the software development manager needing a clear and concise book on what web services are. I appreciate the clear and to-the-point content.

Accepted to the Whidbey Beta Program

Mark H. Wagner — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 11:33:00 GMT

The company I work for has just been accepted into Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 Ascend Program (aka Whidbey Beta Program). As a software architect, I am quite excited about this. I hope to be able to post any relevant (that I legally can) information here on my site. I don't expect we will begin to make the transition to VS 2005 until sometime in November. Thats still a good 90 days away. We simply have to much to complete before then.