A Snapshot of Cloud Computing, SaaS and PaaS

Peter Laird, managing architect for the WebLogic Portal, and Kent Dickson, Vice President of Strategy and Product Management at BEA, have just recently posted a good overview of the Cloud Computing, SaaS and Paas markets. Well done guys! While they do not attempt to cover everyone in the space, as that would be next to impossible, they do hit most of the major players and paint a clear picture of where these technologies sit. They have also provided a list of links that is a great reference and good fodder for research on each of the services. This is the graph they have published.

Big Blue and Google hanging out in the Clouds

Undoubtedly two of the most respected software companies in the world are teaming up. The granddaddy of software and the young whipper snapper discussed their relationship on Thursday at an IBM conference in Los Angeles, CA. I find it almost comical when I read so many blog comments on how the cloud is a fad and will fall by the wayside very quickly. With IBM throwing their hat in the ring with Google, I am not sure how many more will have to start swinging to make others believers. Schmitt is quoted as saying "It's the story of our lifetime." I am not sure if it is that big as I am hoping for the cure for cancer, but it is certainly fun! These two can provide the next wave of innovation in hardware and software that will enable the masses in cloud computing.

Java 6 on Mac!

It has been a long time coming, but finally Apple has released Java 6 for the Mac. The download is 57MB, takes 127MB of space to install and works on OS X 10.5.2 or later. It was a simple install and after adding 1.6 to the Execution Environments for Eclipse, I am off to the races. Everything at first blush seems to be operating as expected. This should really please the Java development community after the backlash against Apple for not keeping a reasonable release cycle after Sun's releases. Whether you agree that it is Apple's responsibility or not to keep Java going on their operating systems, this comes as a welcomed release for Java developers. Thank you Apple! I hope with the OpenJDK initiative that Java 7 will not be a 2 year lag behind on Mac. The largest motivating factor that moved me to start using the Mac was that with the MacBook Pro I could run OS X, Windows, and Linux (choose your flavor) all on the same box. This allows me to more easily test our software on various platforms. This Java issue was one of the biggest disappointments I had when I made the move. I am glad that it is resolved.... for now. Happy Coding!

Cloud Computing SLA

A funny coincidence happened to me last week. Reading a ZDNet article on Cloud Computing, I felt compelled to comment and in my comment I forecasted that we will soon have SLAs in the space. The next day Amazon announced their premium support for customers on their infrastructure. With their agreements they offer "business day technical support" with their Silver level and 24x7 support with their Gold level. Amazon continues to lead in this space and it will be a long hard road for anyone to catch up. More and more applications will move to Cloud Computing because of the price point, scalability, and the ability to only pay for what you use. SaaS has been talked about and touted for several years now, but I believe we are really just starting to see it take off.

AB Tech and Heath Shuler

Today was a big day for Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College (AB Tech) and the Small Business Center that is on their campus. Our US Congressman for the 11th District in North Carolina, Heath Shuler, came to present a check for $354,240.00 to Russ Yelton and Dr. Betty Young. This money was given to be used to help deliver and innovate clean energy technologies and also to help educate people around the globe. Representative Shuler talked about the importance of the beautiful environment that we live in and our natural resources that we have. He encourages the growth of "Green" technologies coming out of the Small Business Center and Western North Carolina. We are excited that DigitalChalk software will be providing the educational arm of this grant by delivering lessons, lectures and discussons on the clean energy initiatives.

Congressman Heath Shuler

Heath Shuler, Russ Yelton, Dr. Betty Young

Russ Yelton... Lights, Camera, ACTION

Fun at InnoVenture 2008

We had a great time at InnoVenture 2008 last week. The only regret that I have right now is that I forgot to take my camera! Those of you that know me well know that I think that is a major crime. While I don't have anything to show you now, I have been promised by Pam Lewis at AdvantageWest that I would get a couple of them from her. As soon as I do, I will put them up here. UPDATE... Thanks Pam for the photos!

Our booth

Tony at the booth... "Cheese!"

Phil Yanov has posted some of his pictures on flickr here. I presented our ideas for the future of learning on Tuesday morning to an audience of Entrepreneurs, Investors, Venture Capitalist and Educators. It was an exciting time for DigitalChalk as we were able to push our ideas out to a larger audience and see them very well recieved. There were several people attending the conference that signed up to teach and share their ideas when they came by our booth! It really has been a crazy couple of days follow the conference. Thanks to SwampFox, AB Tech and AdvantageWest for a fun time and all the introductions.

Browser Wars Continue

The battle for the best web browser is alive and well. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 is in beta as well as Firefox 3.0 (beta 4) and Safari has released 3.1 today. What does this mean for the Software as a Service provider who delivers their content purely through the browser to their customers like we do at DigitalChalk?
I can tell you that I am torn. I love the standards that Microsoft claims they are committed to delivering on this time (haven't we heard that before?), Safari boasts to support, and Firefox has always been the best at delivering on. However, I can tell you that it is a major effort to ensure that your application looks and acts the same on all of these platforms. We spent countless hours making sure that our pages render in IE6, IE7, Firefox 2.0 and Safari 3.0. Now, we are faced again with another round of browsers. We can all cross our fingers and just hope that we see HTML/CSS/JavaScript work the same in all of them, but unfortunately I am a pessimist here.
The trends are also that users of Firefox upgrade quickly to the latest and greatest, while the users of Internet Explorer really lag behind. We are still seeing a mass of users, especially in the corporations, lagging behind and using Internet Explorer 6. I imagine that while Microsoft is boasting about their HTML5 and CSS 2.1 standards compliance that the world will shrug "so what" for another 2 years. There are some great features that they boast, that many developers will enjoy, such as the Developer Tools for CSS and an integrated JavaScript debugger, but it will not do much good if the user base is still on IE6. I did see an "Emulate IE7" button, which may prove handy and gives me some hope.
I love seeing software evolve and become better, but it certainly can be painful. I have a feeling that instead of just moving forward, we are going to just have to cast a bigger net in the SaaS delivery supporting IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox 2.0, Firefox 3.0, Safari 3.0/3.1.,
So, I guess that I am still torn... If the browsers from Microsoft and Apple deliver on what they have promised, then a Thank You is in order... I just wish they would have listened and done the right thing 5 years ago.
What platforms do you plan on supporting in the near future?