Columbus Architecture Group

February Meeting Announcement

2010-01-22T07:43:00.001-08:00

Topic: The Profession of IT Architecture - A discussion for Architects, Aspiring Architects and IT Managers

The role of Architect really lit up the job boards over the past 6-7 years. Unfortunately the title is rather ambiguous with the variations such as, Application Architect, Enterprise Architect, Systems Architect, Domain Architect to name a few. What are these varieties? How can you create a career plan to move into and around the profession? How can IT leaders structure their departments to take advantage of the role and provide growth opportunities for their associates?

In this discussion we’ll look at what the profession of Architecture really is. We’ll look at the various segmentations and levels of IT architecture and look at what skills are more important for the various roles.

The objective of this discussion is to provide some clarification on the profession of IT Architecture. Professionals will be able to use this information to work more effectively in their existing positions, or craft career goals in the Architecture profession. IT Leadership will see how to structure organizations to tap into this field, reducing risks and opening up new opportunities. Additionally leaders will be able to offer more specific goals and objectives for those architects they manage. This is an informative discussion for anyone working in or around the IT architecture profession.

Speaker: Christopher Grant is a Sr. Architect with an MBA and nearly 15 years of experience in the technology field. He has lead technology efforts in a wide variety of organizations, large and small, ranging from real estate to retail. Christopher has studied a various Architecture styles and frameworks including Zachman and TOGAF and has sat on multiple Architecture Boards and contributed to various Centers of Excellence. Over the years he has worked in a variety of domains ranging from internal business systems to externally facing eCommerce systems, in a variety of technologies from Java and Microsoft to ColdFusion and PHP, Flash and Flex.

Where: Quick Solutions, 440 Polaris Pkwy, Suite #500 at Monday February 1st at 6:00 PM

December Meeting Announcement

2009-11-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

The next ColARC meeting will be Monday December 7th at 6:00 at the Quick Solutions office 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500.

Steve Andrews will be speaking:

Solution Management Architectures: Beyond The Code

Once a software solution moves beyond a single project, a single developer, or a single environment, larger issues such as versioning, building, and deploying the code come into play as the number of developers and environments grow. In this session we'll take a high-level look at version control structuring, branching and merging methodologies, multi-environment configuration management, and build structuring.

Steve Andrews is a Team System MVP and INETA speaker, and has been working as a developer for more than 9 years. During this time, he has designed and developed applications in such widely varying areas as trust accounting, medical information management, supply chain management, and retail systems. Steve is also a MCTS, ICSOO, and community fanatic.

November Meeting Announcement

2009-10-30T04:21:00.000-07:00

The next ColARC meeting will be Monday November 2nd at the Quick Solutions building at 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500 in Westerville at 6:00

This month we will be having a fish-bowl meeting. As last months meeting topic never actually got discussed at all, we'll hold it over. The topic is "Has development become too complicated?"

This is the second month of the ColARC membership drive. For those playing at home, we ARE NOT on track to get the required 150 total entries by February to give away the XBox. It's not too late, we can still catch up! There is an XBox on the line here folks, so be sure to bring some new people with you!

Next ColARC meeting, Monday Oct 5th

2009-10-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late update...

The next ColARC meeting will be Monday October 5th at the Quick Solutions building at 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500 in Westerville at 6:00

This month we will be having a fish-bowl meeting. The topic is "Has development become too complicated?"

Remember, this is the first month of the ColARC membership drive. There is an XBox on the line here folks, so be sure to bring some new people with you!

Big News About the September Meeting!

2009-09-01T17:33:00.001-07:00

September is looking to be a pretty great month to come to at ColARC meeting...

First off, due to the holiday we are moving the meeting back a week. The September meeting will be on Monday the 14th at 6:00. Location is the same: The Quick Solutions Office at 440 Polaris Pkwy. Suite 500 in Columbus. For people coming from the south, I hear Cleveland avenue is a faster that I-71, which can get a bit clogged around 270 during rush hour.

Secondly, we have a very special guest this month. Jim Holmes will be coming up from Dayton to give his presentation on leadership. Jim gave this talk at the Kalamzaoo X Conference and more recently at eRubycon. This is a MUST SEE presentation and if you missed it at either of those event, you need to come see it now!

Lastly, we will be unveiling the ColARC membership drive. I don't want to give too much away, but you'll be getting a chance to win some pretty cool stuff!

Hope to see you all there!

Reminder!

2009-07-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a happy 4th of July!

I just want to remind everyone that due to the holiday weekend, we will NOT be meeting on the normal day (1st Monday, July 6th). We will instead meet on the following Monday, July 13th.

We will be doing lightening talks, and there are still some spots left. If you would like to do one, leave a comment here or send an email.

July meeting change

2009-06-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Due to the holiday weekend, ColARC will be meeting on Monday July 13th. This is a change from our regular schedule. We will still be meeting at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Polaris Pkwy.

The July meeting will be lightening talks. There are still a few slots open. Lightening talks should be between 10-20 minutes, and can be on any topic you're interested in relating to architecture. If you've never spoken at a user group or event before, lightening talks are a great way to get started!

If you would like to do a lightening talk, leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

See you all there

Next ColARC Meeting - Lightening Talks!

2009-05-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

The next ColARC meeting will be Monday, June 1st at 6:00 PM at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500 in Westerville OH.

We will be doing lightening talks in June. If you would like to do a lightening talk, or if theirs a lightening talk you'd like to see, please leave a comment.

We will also be rolling out the details of our ColARC membership drive. This will give you the opportunity to win some awesome prizes just for bringing a friend to ColARC. You don't want to miss this!

Next ColARC meeting Monday, May 4th

2009-05-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

The next ColARC meeting will be Monday, May 4th at 6:00 PM

This months meeting will be at the Microsoft office at 8800 Lyra Dr. in Columbus (across from the Polaris Mall). It will be a fishbowl discussion.

This topic will be "Interacting With the Business." How do you bridge the gap between the needs of IT and the needs of the business users? How do you work with IT to align it with the needs of the business, while making sure the business understands the realities of delivery and capabilities of your current IT staff and infrastructure.

Hope to see you all there!

Guest Speaker at the April 6th meeting

2009-03-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

I've very excited to announce that Mike Rozlog the Sr. Director of Java Solutions for Embarcadero Technologies will be speaking at the next ColARC meeing. His topic will be "Software Archeology."

I would also like to remind you that the April and May ColARC meeting will be meeting at the Microsoft office at Polaris. The meeting will begin at 6:00.

Hope to see you all there!

March Lightening Talks

2009-02-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

So far we have the following Lightening Talks scheduled for the next ColARC meeting:

Brian Disbrow (TBD)

James Bender (The Service Bus in the Cloud with .NET Services)

Andrew Holowaty (Custom Reporting Framework)

Craig Stuntz (The Structure and Interpretation of URI's)

Greg Malcom (TBD)

This list is in no particular order. I know some people have trouble getting up to Polaris from Downtown by 6:00, so we'll determine the line-up at the start of the meeting.

March ColARC Meeting: Lightening Talks!

2009-02-05T15:13:00.000-08:00

The next meeting of ColARC will be on Monday March 2nd at the usual place (Quick Solutions Office, 400 Polaris Pkwy Suite 500, Westerville)

In March we will be doing lightening talks. According to Wikipedia:

A Lightning Talk is a short presentation given at a conference or similar forum. Unlike other presentations, lightning talks last only a few minutes and several will usually be delivered in a single period by different speakers.

We are looking for lightening talks in the 10-20 minutes range. If you would like to deliver a talk at the next ColARC meeting, please send a short abstract and an estimation of how long the talk will be to col.arc@live.com

See you there!

Next Meeting Monday Febuary 2nd

2009-01-31T07:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late notice, but the next ColARC meeting will be Monday, Febuary 2nd at 6:00 at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500 in Westerville OH

The topic will be Architecting for Security. Data theft and incidents of "unauthorized access" have been on the rise. As an Architect how are you addressing the rising threats to your applications and Enterprise. Are new platforms like the cloud helping aleviate your concerns, or creating new challenges. How are you addressing these issues in your organization?

NOTE: This meeting is "weather permitting." Currently the forecast is calling for snow on Monday with accumulation. If road conditions are too bad, the meeting will be postponed. Please check back here to verify that the meeting is still on.

Next Meeting Monday January 5th

2008-12-29T07:51:00.000-08:00

The next ColARC meeting will be Monday, January 5th at 6:00 at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500 in Westerville OH

As for a topic...

In a time of economic slowdown companies look for ways to reduce costs. Many companies look to IT as a department that can be trimmed down while other companies look to IT to help them find ways to reduce costs elsewhere. In some cases, as industries consolidate, IT spending is increasing as new integration projects are started. As an architect, what are your concerns about the current economic climate and how are you positioning yourself and your company to be competitive in the future?

nPlus1 is Looking for Writers

2008-12-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

nPlus1 is looking new writers. If your interested in contributing some first-part content to nPlus1 please send an abstract or a draft to articles@nplus1.org.

We are looking for articles on the following topics:

Application Architecture

Enterprise Architecture

Cloud Computing

Virtualization

Frameworks

Application Servers

Methodology/Process

Anything that would be interesting to other Architects or aspiring Architects

We look forward to seeing your articles!

The Editors

Reminder....

2008-11-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

... the next ColARC meeting is on Monday December 1st at 6:00 PM. That's this Monday.

For more information, check out www.colarc.org

See you all there!

Reminder: Next meeting Monday December 1st.

2008-11-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder that ColARC now meets on the first Monday of the month at 6:00 in the training cetner at Quick Solutions, which is located at 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500 in Westerville.

We will holder over the topic from last meeting: Services and Cloud computing.

What are your opinions of these advances?

Do you think they are ready for the Enterprise?

What are the value propositions of SOA and cloud computing?

How are you preparing yourself, your managment and your development teams for the cloud?

Hope to see you all there!

Next Meeting Monday November 3rd

2008-10-30T08:27:00.001-07:00

The next ColARC meeting will be Monday, November 3rd at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Polaris Pkwy, Suite 500 Westerville, OH.
The topic will be Services and Cloud computing.

What are your opinions of these advances?
Do you think they are ready for the Enterprise?
What are the value propositions of SOA and cloud computing?
How are you preparing yourself, your managment and your development teams for the cloud?

New Architecture Portal

2008-10-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

nPlus1 launches on Monday, October 27th!

What is nPlus1?

nPlus1 is going to be a great resource for Software Architects or aspiring architects who are looking to take their skills to the next level (hence the plus 1). Our goal is to have original articles that are relevant to software architects regardless of platform, with a few from time to time that are specific to one technology or another. We also plan on posting links to other sites and articles from sources that our staff feel are good resources to our readers.

The site officially launches on Monday, Oct. 27th. That's the first day of the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) and the senior staff will be there. If you're going to be at PDC keep an eye out for us. We'll be wearing white t-shirts with the nPlus1 logo on the back. If you want to learn more about nPlus1 make sure to stop and ask us about it.

Chris, Mike and myself are very excited about this. We hope you all find the site to be a great resource.

Topic Information for October 15th Meeting

2008-10-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

The next ColARC meeting will be at 6:00 on Wednesday October15th at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Suite 500 Polaris Pkwy, Westerville OH 43082.

This months topic will be "The Architect as a Leader":

As an Architect how do you provide technical leadership in your organization? What strategies do you use to present new ideas, tools and techniques to management and the development team? How you you evangelize your ideas to others? In many situations the Architect is viewed as the leader of the development team. Is this always appropriate? As an Architect, how do approach leadership on your team and in your company?

ColARC Schedule

2008-09-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

Previously, it was announced that ColARC is meeting on the second Tuesday of the month starting in November. This was an error due to an error in the process for scheduling the room that the meeting is held in.

I am in the process of clearing it up, but starting in November ColARC will meet on the first Monday of the month. The November meeting will be on Monday, November 3rd at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Polaris Pkwy.

Due to a previously scheduled event it he room, the October meeting is still Wednesday the 15th.

Sorry for the confusion.

ColARC is on Twitter!

2008-09-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

ColARC has joined the Twitter community!

You can see updates about the group by visiting it's Twitter page, or better yet click the "Follow" button and get updates directly in your timeline!

Columbus Architecture Group Scheduling Announcement

2008-09-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

The Columbus Architecture Group now has a firm meeting day!

Starting in November, ColARC will be meeting on the second Tuesday of the month at 6:00 PM at the Quick Solutions Office at 440 Polaris Pkwy in Westerville OH.

The next meeting is on October 15th. This is the last month before the meeting will not be on the second of the month.

See you there!

It's almost here...

2008-09-09T06:15:00.001-07:00

The first meeting of the Columbus Architecture Group is tomorrow (Wednesday) the 10th at 6:00 PM.

The meeting will be held at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Polaris Pkwy, Suite 500 in Westerville (http://tinyurl.com/5hx7lf)

The first meeting will be a fishbowl and the topic will be "What is an Architect"

Hello World!

2008-08-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the home of the Columbus Architects Group!

ColARC is a community group for Architects and aspiring Architects.

We meet the second Tuesday every month at the Quick Solutions office at 440 Suite # 500 Polaris Pkwy in Westerville OH.

Our discussions will center around topics that are important to passionate Architects on all platforms in Enterprises big and small.

The topic of our first meeting will be "What is an Architect?"

Our first meeting is Wednesday, September 10th at 6:00 PM. (this is a special event, the normal Tuesday schedule will begin in October)