So looking through my calendar for the next couple of weeks I have a ton of presentations to give and events to attend. First of all tomorrow at 2pm BST I am giving my Integration and Interop presentation, latest version, as a webcast which should be interesting. I have given this presentation as a 2...

I read this really interesting article about architects in the CIO magazine http://www.cio.com/archive/030105/blueprint.html I also had a long discussion with the CIO of a major investment bank in the city about his perception of architecture. It is pretty clear that there is a feeling that architects...

I noticed an interesting conference by The Open Group on architecture (the IT Practitioners Architecture Conference ) on the 25-27 th April in Dublin. It says that they will be focusing on the role of the IT Architect and the IT Architecture as a profession which anyone who is sad enough to have been...

There is an interesting discussion with Steve Cook on software factories in this month’s DNJ online. I understood most of it, the bit I didn’t get was about how patterns are a modeless software factory. I have always been puzzled about the relationship between patterns, DSL’ and software factories and...

The day before yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to a Security discussion with some very senior security people in the UK . I introduced myself as an architect which led to some fairly “interesting” views of the role of the architect. There was clearly a lot of feeling that people starting off...

Keith Pleas et al are running another patterns and practises summit this year in both the US and in Oslo following on from the very successful events last year. They have very kindly asked me to keynote again however I am doing the UK technet Roadshow and the SPA 2005 event around then so I don’t want...

So last Thursday I did my first Technet evening interop event based on Simon Guests Interop slides . It was a small and select audience and went reasonably well (I hardly ever feel things go very well). As always I was worried about not enough material and as always there was far too much. In fact it...

A month or so ago I blogged about an area of infrastructure architecture I feel is very important; mapping of organisations to infrastructure . The snag is that you have to understand a lot about both the organisation and the infrastructure support. Whilst there is not much I can do about the organisation...

WOW! Microsoft are buying Groove: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/mar05/03-10GrooveQA.asp and http://news.com.com/Microsoft+to+buy+Groove+Networks/2100-1014_3-5608063.html?part=rss&tag=5606366&subj=news I have used Groove in the past and was very impressed by the way it worked...

There has been a huge amount of controversy over the whole REST vs SOA debate which seems to have settled down to the conclusion that REST is base for outside the firewall and SOA inside (whilst I realise this would be violently disputed by both camps it seems to be what is happening). I have to say...

A funny story I have heard many times is that of a helicopter pilot who was lost in the fog. He saw an office block in the gloom and a person at the window. He shouted out “Where am I?” and the person in the office block shouted back “In a helicopter”. On hearing this the pilot immediately flew straight...

One of the biggest problems I have with designing SOA systems is the area of data services or entity services as Microsoft calls them. The snag is that in many cases the data has to used by multiple services and so you really want to share the data between services which breaks autonomy. Thinking about...

Mapping the levels of the Interoperability architecture to MS products: Mapping the levels of the Interoperability architecture to MS products: HIS SFU SFN SQLS Win NET WS* MIIS MOM Network X X X X Directory X X X X Security X X X X X File and Print X X X X Clients X X Platform X X X X Data X X X CRM...

The areas of infrastructure that we need to understand interoperability around are: Network 1. Networks (Protocols, DNS / Bind, Wireless) 2. Directory (LDAP, AD, iplanet, NDS, edirectory) 3. Security (Standards, Kerberos, Certificates, SSO, IRM, Identity, WS-Sec, Federation) Base 4. File and Print (Windows...

Following onfrom my blog yesterday I have collated all the feedback I got (Thanks!) and came up with these major levels and elements in the levels: Hardware 1. Hardware (routers, servers, client devices, wireless, storage (SANS / NAS)) Network 2. Networks (Protocols, DNS / Bind, Wireless, VPN, VOIP,...

I am writing a mega scenario to use as a test for infrastructure architecture. This implies that it covers all the technical aspects of infrastructure. The elements or layers that I have are: 1. Hardware (routers, servers, client devices, storage (SANS / NAS)) 2. Networks (Protocols, DNS / Bind, Wireless...

Last week I attended and presented at Devweek in the UK as part of their architect track on Models and Languages . It was pretty much my standard presentation on models, Frameworks, SOA, Languages, tools and process. There were about 50 people in the audience which considering the very developer focus...

A couple of weeks ago I had to do a week of interviews of very senior architects and it was a very interesting experience. I came into it with a fair amount of cynicism but actually it worked remarkable well. The format was that people applied and sent in a resume along with documentary evidence of their...

I am not a huge fan of Gartner or indeed any of the analysts. As a sweeping generalisation I feel that they take opinion and dress it up as fact (0.8 probability J ) which I am uncomfortable with, especially when I don't agree with the opinion! I am also bored the whole magic quadrant thing which seems...

One of the interesting things about my new job is that I get out a lot and talk to customers who are struggling to build real systems and understand their problems. I love customers; they just say what they think and what they are trying to do simply and clearly. When you see a lot of them as I do you...

I have just presented to a group of very senior IT managers in very large UK Enterprises about the Microsoft Dynamic Systems Initiative . DSI is all about system operation and administration and is based on a model driven approach using a metamodel called the System Definition Model SDM used by both...