António Cruz

Cloud Computing Notes

2008-12-13T02:45:35Z

While reading several articles and seeing videos about cloud computing, I wrote notes when I found something interesting. IMO, these notes can give a good summary of many distinct views about this and other related subjects, so I'm posting them here: According to a 2008 paper published by IEEE Internet Computing “Cloud Computing is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centers, tablet...(read more)

A Quick Reference for Microsoft project and technology names: Windows Azure, .NET Services. Live Services, SQL Services, Dublin, Oslo, Geneva, and more!

2008-11-17T07:40:46Z

It is not easy to keep pace with Microsoft projects and products naming. There are literally dozens of names to follow and sometimes it seems they change so fast we are already skipping some when we check them! In order to help others (and myself) with this task, I'm writing this post. This obviously will not be a revelation for many of us, but I think it is helpful to aggregate all the names in one place so anyone can look for a specific name and get a small description of it, without having to...(read more)

What is (and what is not) Service Orientation - Part II

2008-02-17T16:13:00Z

In my first post about the subject , I've focused on what service orientation is not . In this second post, I'm writing about what I think service orientation really is: 1) Exposes business processes as services : SO impacts vertically your organization, and may/should change the way you think about and develop software. You will be more and more focused on exposing every process in your organization as a service and not just developing single components. In your analysis/modeling phases, you'll...(read more)

What is (and what is not) Service Orientation - Part I

2008-02-13T23:06:00Z

These last 2 years as software architect and lead developer for Sapo Services project, I learned a lot about what is service orientation and what works better. These conclusions are of course taken from my real-world experience implementing this and other projects I take as an independent consultant and not a law you will see applied in every case. I will make a two-post series on this subject, also giving fundament for every argument I'll present. I'll begin with what service-orientation is not...(read more)

Scrum tips from a recently Certified Scrum Master

2008-02-12T00:46:00Z

Thanks to Microsoft , Fullsix and Logical Software , who organized and sponsored the first Scrum Master Certification training ever delivered in Portugal, I am now a Certified Scrum Master . As recognized by Mitch Lacey , our Certified Scrum Trainer , the attendees were a very dynamic and focused group that made the training experience very pleasant. For those of you who didn't had the chance of being there, I decided to compile and share some of my personal notes I wrote during the training. I usually...(read more)

Notes for a 64-bit Architecture Migration Strategy

2008-02-10T13:06:00Z

According to this report , " AMD’s March 2003 introduction of its Opteron processor, followed by Intel’s March 2004 release of a family of x86 64-bit processors under the Xeon brand name, changed the landscape considerably [My note: the landscape of having to use an Itanium processor and either run slower emulated code or revise and recompile to 64-bit] . These processors almost completely closed the divide between 32-bit and 64-bit architectures because systems based on the x86-64 processors can...(read more)

What does a Software Architect do?

2008-02-09T10:48:00Z

Being a good architect is not an easy task to do. This January, I was in Norway for the Architect's Master Class with Juval Lowy, from IDesign , and one aspect that I've found interesting in what concerns this course organization is the way Juval assigned time to the 3 main areas we discussed: Process (1 day), Technical (2 days) and Design (2 days). Why I've found it interesting? Well, because it looked a real perspective to me, thinking in the way I'm used to spend my working time nowadays: a portion...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, Solution Supply Chains

2007-03-06T16:17:00Z

Jack Greenfield - He decided not do do a demo of Web Service Software Factory - We can do ourselves that at home - We would not get the vision that people at MS is getting - It also did not installed correctly on Jack's machine (LOL) Agenda: - Learning from other industries - Mass customisation in software industries - Supply Chains - Customer dilemma: - A few software vendores build rich but generic platforms (1 million markets of 1 vs 1 market of 1 million) - Hundreds of ISVs build industry and/or...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, Enterprise Architect Group Final Meeting

2007-03-06T14:49:00Z

The Role of An Architect - Check "Developing the Future" whitepaper. There is also a Microsoft response to it. - There is going to be a DTF version 2 - Why having focus groups like this in conferences? - The role of an architect could benefit from clarity - We had great feedback from previous events - What marks out an architect? - Strong technical foundation - Domain Expertise - Proven practical experience - Very broad range of concerns (technical, legal, ergonomics, business, management) - "An...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, What Do Architects Do, Anyway?

2007-03-06T14:01:00Z

Ron Jacobs, Microsoft, Architect Evangelist http:// arcast.net (or) www.arcast.tv for video http://ronjacobs.com - What is the role of the architect? - What is software architecture? - Do I want to become an architect? - Architecture as a profession - 1857, New York, 13 powerful man wanted to elevate architecture to a profession - The role of the architect - Explorer: Colombo. The silk road has gone and there was a need to get goods from the East. Columbus was an optimist. He estimated the distance...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, Identity Scale Federation

2007-03-06T11:50:00Z

Steve Plank, Microsoft, splank@microsoft.com - Players: - Identity Provider - Relying Party - Subject - Specs: - WS-Policy - WS-MEX - WS-Security Policy - Ws-Security - Relying Parties can be web services or web sites but usually are web sites - Using web services makes things more flexible, we could use a WPF application as a relying party, for example - An Identity Selector gives: - Consistent User Experience: there is no dodgy warnings on the internet - CardSpace runs in a separate desktop with...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, Active or Passive Federation for the Enterprise

2007-03-06T10:11:00Z

Steve Plank, Identity Architect, Microsoft - Federation Flow - Home-round discovery is the process of knowing of all the trust relations I have which one will be the one that applies to me - All the redirection is done using HTTP 302 - Check the WS-Federation Passive Requestor *Interoperable* Profile protocol, lastest version is of 2006 - ADFS Limitations: - Browser only, no web services - Home realm discovery - Domain-centric viewpoint - All trust deciosions made centrally, one-by-one - Doesnt scale;...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, Enterprise Architect Group Second Meeting

2007-03-05T19:52:00Z

EN01 (II Part) - Architecture has not the same scope as systems engeneering - There are similarities with a physical arquitect - The deliverables make difference, at the end of the day that will be what distinguishes architects Architects flavors - Enterprise - Solutions - Infrastructure - Microsoft has met with many university teachers to ask them what do you want to be able to deliver architects to market? - There are not many real architects *in the world*, what we have is many software and system...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, SaaS As A Disruptive Technology

2007-03-05T18:47:00Z

Matt Deacon, Microsoft UK, Steven Moxey, Manchester Business School (Nota: entrei a meio da sessão) - What are the key attributes of a traditional software product? Case study: SIEBEL (CRM) - Market share - In-house retention of data - Integration with other systems - Customisation to requirements - Scalability of system - Offline capability (smart client) - Resilience and scalability. Availability, response time - International deployment - International support - Reassurgingly expensive - Unique...(read more)

Conference Architect Insight 2007, Service Capsules - A Language and Patterns Perspective on Service Design and Implementation

2007-03-05T18:45:00Z

Arvindra Sehmi, Microsoft EMEA DPE - This session is about emerging ideias and concepts - The term Service Capsule is not an official approved or endorsed by Microsoft - The term Service Capsule is used simply to distinguish from the term Service - This session is not supported by Microsoft - Business Processes actors go through different interactions - We need to know what sequence to use when calling services that perform those actions - Humans will always be envolved in these workflows - What...(read more)