Phurnace Blog

No, Our Features Are Not Offered By HP, BMC, CA or IBM

Larry Warnock — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

We occasionally get the question, �Does HP, BMC, CA or IBM offer what Phurnace does?� The answer is simply � NO. We have a unique patent-pending approach (a software system and methodology patent) to deployment automation and there is no other vendor that addresses the problem the way that we do. This is not to say that there aren�t other ways to deploy J2EE applications and to configure web application servers. There are other ways, but they rely on hand-crafted, custom-written scripts [...]

Eclipse Galileo (3.5 release) feature highlights

Casey Marshall — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Summer is here, which means it's time to cool off in the San Marcos river and escape the Texas heat. It's also time to download a new Eclipse -- Eclipse Galileo (3.5) released today. Phurnace Deliver builds on Eclipse technology, so I follow the latest developments in the community.

I want to highlight just a few of the features that have impressed me the most so far in Galileo, which has much general appeal for Java & web developers.

Eclipse Memory Analyzer< [...]

July 30 Registration for Webinar with Forrester Research Now Open

Jessica Gass — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Hello all, the registration is now open for our July 30th webinar with Evelyn Hubbert from Forrester Research. She is going to talk about ways that you can cut immediate costs in your I.T. organization. Daniel Nelson from Phurnace will discuss some recent case studies on how customers have seen quick ROI with Phurnace. We are excited to host this event with such a great analyst.

Click here to learn more an [...]

Easy Steps to Start Up Amazon EC2 Images

Wesley Willard — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) has generated enormous amounts of buzz in the last couple of months. EC2 allows scalable deployment of applications by providing a way for customers to create server �instances� which can run any number of operating systems, such as Windows XP and Vista, and any number of Linux distributions. The customer can load any software of their choice on to the machines, and customize them at will. A customer can create, launch, and terminate server instances as [...]

IBM Tivoli Remote Execution and Access (RXA) in WebSphere VE and WebSphere 7.0

Robert Reeves — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Both WebSphere Virtual Enterprise (VE) and ND 7.0 have the ability to remotely stop and start Node Agents, install WebSphere on remote servers and a whole host of handy remote activities. To perform these actions, WebSphere takes advantage of Tivoli Remote Execution and Access (RXA).

Luckily, you too can take advantage of RXA to manage your remote servers. Below, I�ll show you how to create a very simple Java class that will connect to your local windows machine and perform a dire [...]

Phurnace Deliver and WebSphere Application Server for z/OS

Robert Reeves — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100
This week, Phurnace announced our support for WebSphere Application Server for z/OS. You can read more about it in our Press Release.

To be honest though, we have always worked on WebSphere for z/OS. However, we were unable to give it the official Phurnace stamp of approval until we ran it through our testing battery. As you know, z/OS is IBM’s mainframe operating system. Thus, for an ISV like Phurnace, procuring a z Series machine and the skills to manage it is a bit outside [...]

The �Last Mile� � It Often Seems Like 10

Daniel Nelson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Phurnace's VP of Products and Co-Founder, Daniel Nelson, wrote a blog posting for one our partners, Electric Cloud, earlier this week. Here is a link to their blog and here is his post.

In the software development lifecycle the results need to ultimately get out into production. The application must make it onto the server, the server needs to be configured and all of the properties, paths and settings need to be correct to get the value of the application. Those in the data [...]

The Clouds are Building � What Kind of Storm Will They Bring?

Larry Warnock — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Cloud computing. You have heard the term and are most likely following the hype. And hype is a good term to describe the frenzied attention. However, be careful. Don’t write this hype off as a fad or overblown. In this case, I think it is wise to investigate and ask yourself some difficult questions about your current business. Regardless of what industry you are in.

When I first heard “cloud computing” I brushed it off as the latest marketing term for some [...]

Modeling is Everywhere

Casey Marshall — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100
At Phurnace I'm leveraging the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) to streamline our development and add some exciting new features. EMF was difficult to get to know at first, if only because the modeling terminology seemed new, strange, and kind of dry. The time invested in learning EMF was well-spent; once I "got EMF", it seemed pure genius.

My initial impression of modeling and model-driven architecture was kind of comical too; I imagined (with great disdain) this se [...]

Importance of Being Agentless

Daniel Nelson — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Ops folks hate agents. Hate them. I was in the same camp back in my data center days. The reasons are pretty obvious, right? Who wants to have to install and maintain another piece of software on every server? No one. Not only that, but agents scare the bejesus out of people running production systems. A small program that executes commands locally from a remote source is super scary no matter what. Like clowns with fangs scary. Add in the chance for that little agent to go rogue and st [...]

Thoughts on WebSphere 7.0 and Impact 2009

Robert Reeves — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Last week the Phurnace team visited Las Vegas to attend IBM�s Impact 2009. We presented a �Bird�s of a Feather� talk and spent some great time with customers (current and future) at our booth and at dinners.

While at the conference, the most often asked questions were about WebSphere 7.0. It seems that the upgrade is getting rolled up into renewed IBM software contracts. This is turning out to be a surprise to our customers as they are now forced to move to WebSphere 7.0 a bit soo [...]

Phurnace - Your "On-Ramp" to the Amazon Cloud

Jessica Gass — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100

We had a great time last week at IBM IMPACT. Thanks again to everyone who came to our session or stopped by the booth. We should have a posting later this week from Robert on thoughts about the show.

If you haven't had the chance yet, take a look at our press release from last week on how we can help companies "On-Ramp" their applications to the Amazon cloud. We collaborated with teams from Amazon Web Services, IBM WebSphere Portal and Ixion, LLC to p [...]

IMPACT 2009 Next Week

Jessica Gass — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Phurnace is a Silver Sponsor next week at the IBM IMPACT 2009 conference. The conference is focused on SOA and the leveraging of WebSphere products � WebSphere application server, WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Process Server, and more. There are even going to be sessions and announcements related to IBM and Amazon and the cloud platform AWS, including some exciting news on this topic from Phurnace.

We found this to be a great event last year. It was good to connect face to face [...]

Oracle to Acquire Sun � The Pendulum Swings Again

Larry Warnock — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100
You may have already heard the news that Oracle has made a bid for Sun. The IBM acquisition deal fell through two weeks ago. In my opinion, it looks like the market is making a slow move back to the one-stop-shop �system house� approach. IBM, HP, Oracle/Sun and maybe soon Cisco, will all offer systems with hardware, software and services. Is this a trend toward a conservative IT approach? �I want one vendor responsible for my environment?� �I don�t care if all the pieces are best of breed, [...]

Check Out Our Great Phurnace Webinar Lineup

Jessica Gass — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100
I know everyone hates it when the Marketing person posts a blog but we have some very interesting webinars coming up soon that I wanted to share with everyone. Please forgive the Marketing fluff as the content of these webinars will be very valuable.

WebSphere Portal Customer? - The first webinar is great for anyone using or considering using WebSphere Portal. We have a speaker from IBM, Richard Gornitsky, who is the Chief Architect for some of the largest WebSphere Por [...]

Google Loves Your DBA

Robert Reeves — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Among all the questions about putting your business apps into the cloud, the one that is most perplexing is what do you do with your existing database? After all, you have an existing infrastructure. You have processes. You have a DBA resources. Why uproot all that effort for some silly Java application and this Cloud nonsense?

Well, now you don't have to. Google officially announced today that they are going to allow Java to run on their App Engine. But, just as interesting, yo [...]

Phurnace Loves Puppet

Robert Reeves — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100
A few weeks ago, whurley turned me onto Puppet. Puppet is a systems management framework that allows its users to concentrate on WHAT they want to accomplish and not HOW. Moreover, Puppet configurations can be applied over-and-over again without any concern.

Obviously, I'm a huge fan of this approach as this is what Phurnace Deliver does for your Application Servers. By allowing these configurations to be applied to your servers, regardless of state, you are no longer in the bus [...]

Java in the Clouds

Robert Reeves — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:00:00 +0100
Cloud computing - one announcement and one rumor caught my attention this week

Amazon announced an Eclipse plug-in that helps you deploy Java applications to a Tomcat instance. The Eclipse plug-in takes advantage of the Eclipse WebTools project and marries it with a few custom views that show you EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)and EBS (Elastic Block Storage) specific information. The use case here is for Java developers to be able to deploy their Java applications to a Tomcat instance r [...]

Happy Birthday Phurnace Blog!

Jessica Gass — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:00:00 +0100
We are excited that our blog was one year old as of yesterday! As part of the celebration, we let our bloggers take the week off this week while we eat birthday cake and plan out some exciting new posts for you. Do you have ideas on topics you would like us to post on? If so, leave a comment with your suggestion and we will work on it.

Austin is Hot, Phurnace is Cool, Life is Good�.

Jessica Gass — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:00:00 +0100
You really can�t beat Austin in the Spring. This week has made me especially happy to live here. We have tons going on right now � SXSW, Flatstock, Rodeo, Spring Break, March Madness, bluebonnets, a new awesome food truck on South Congress, Mighty Cone�.this city is BUZZIN! Oh and did I mention that it is in the 80�s and sunny and that we can hear SXSW bands from our parking lot? Life is Good!

Phurnace had some great news this week. We were included in a Gartner report of Co [...]