OpenEdge Perspective

pNFS is coming to a computer near you

2010-03-17T06:56:47-07:00

In fact, it may /already/ be on your computer.

We have an enormous variety of choices for stable storage devices for our databases and ways of configuring and accessing them. And lots of cryptic abbreviations and acronyms: JBOD, RAID 10, RAID 5, SSD, iSCSI, NFS, SCSI, ATA, NAS, SATA, SAS, AFS, SMB, and SAN to name just a few.

A new one you may not know about is pNFS or Parallel NFS. Since its original development in 1984 by Sun Microsystems, NFS has been steadily improving and growing in capabilities too. It is now almost everywhere. In January 2010, the IETF approved RFC 5661 which is the spec for NFS 4.1. RFC 5661 adds (along with a few other things) parallelization to NFS 4.0.

pNFS has been under development for a few years (since 2004) and will be well supported by storage vendors and operating systems. It will greatly increase performance and scalability of storage systems accessed via NFS.

Note: i have not had a chance to try pNFS out yet, so I can't provide you with any data about the performance of the OpenEdge RDBMS on it or how it compares with other choices.

If you want to learn more about pNFS, here are some places you can go for good summaries:

Panasas pNFS page: http://www.pnfs.com/

An IBM Developerworks pNFS article: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-pnfs/

If you want /all/ the gory details, you can find them in the IETF's RFC 5661: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5661

The Four Pillars of transitioning to the SaaS/Cloud Business Model…

2010-03-11T12:56:36-08:00

I have the pleasure of spending a vast majority of my time working with ISVs or as well call them APs on their business strategy, specifically those that are looking to move from a traditional software business model to that of a Software as a Service(SaaS) business model. Yesterday I was reading a favorite blog of mine Phil Wainewright’s Software as Services ZDnet Blog (http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/) and I thought it was a very insightful piece on the Four Pillars of the Transition to SaaS. The four pillars he highlights are:

Partner strategy. It’s clear that providers have to work with partners— but it’s equally clear that the old partner models have to be radically revised.

Pricing, packaging and selling. Makes a huge difference in timespan and ease or difficulty of the sales cycle, and the value of upsells and renewals. Once these decisions have been taken, there’s then the question of how to organize and incent the sales process.

As-a-service infrastructure. A highly automated operational infrastructure is needed to deliver the necessary partner, sales and customer relations in a cost-effective and responsive manner.

Customer relationships. Moving from a product sales cycle to a continuous, iterative service provider relationship is a complete culture change both for vendors and for their customers.

It is as though he has been on the phone with me and talking to our APs – the only thing that I would change is the order, as the biggest obstacle for most of our APs is the PRICING, PACKAGING and SELLING. I work very closely with our partners to help them understand that SaaS is not just a pricing model – but the pricing is critical to the successful transition to the SaaS business model. Understanding the target market and who the buyer is and how they are looking to consume the service is absolutely critical to understand, before making the transition.

Next, I would put the infrastructure requirements – only because that is a “COST” factor in the delivery of the service – so you need to understand your underlying costs – before you price and package your offering – so that one is also a critical component.

I would be remiss if I did not next say that the “CUSTOMER” is next on the list. I mentioned before knowing your “buyer” is important – but just as critical is the understanding of the customer relationship on a go-forward basis. You are no longer just selling them a piece of software or an application. In the SaaS business model – you are now a SERVICE provider and the relationship that you have with your customer is just different. You are now their “go to” person whenever anything goes wrong…and so you need to be prepared to address all of their business requirements. Otherwise they will leave you and go elsewhere.

Finally, the PARTNER STRATEGY, but I would look carefully at this in more than just one dimension. The partnering strategy changes considerably in a SaaS model – mostly because you are now most likely relying on multiple players for successful delivery of your service/product to the customer. For example – there is the provider of the Internet connection for your customer, there is the hosting or Cloud provider that will be responsible for the hardware, virtualization and operating system delivery and finally there is who you will partner with to deliver the integration and the access to other applications that need to work very closely with your business application. There might even be someone in your ecosystem that in the past has delivered training and/or implementation services for your application – the question then is: are they still needed? If not, what have you done to your application to make it easier for end-users to get up to speed and knowledgeable on using the application? Have you investigated the “ease of use” aspect of your SaaS application – or are you still thinking “old school”? Is your application now more likely to be part of a broader ecosystem and how do you fit into that system?

These are just some of the questions that you need to be thinking about as you transition to a SaaS business model. Most of our APs that have made the transition will tell you that after a few years, it can turn out to be a very lucrative growth model. However, that does not mean that it was an easy transition. But just keep in mind we are here to help, as we also have thought about our partnering strategy as it relates to the SaaS business model. As always – any questions – feel free to contact me at cosmith@progress.com.

Check out the latest Forrester Consulting study

2010-02-04T11:35:57-08:00

We wanted to find out more about the economic impact that Progress Partners may realize by building applications with OpenEdge versus using a non-Progress platform. To help us, we enlisted Forrester Consulting to do some research. You can see what they discovered in this new report: The Total Economic Impact™ of Progress Software OpenEdge Platform. Among the revealing findings:

Developing with OpenEdge was shown to be 40% more productive than alternative platforms
ISVs choosing OpenEdge are able to deliver their application 30% faster to market than when using an alternative platform
Once deployed the support staff productivity gain is 80% as compared to alternative platforms

Get the full report to learn more.

iPad? Not.

2010-01-29T13:28:38-08:00

Mike, I'm also trying to find an excuse to buy the latest shiny new toy, but unlike you, I can't come up with any.

Although I'm quite sure that Apple will sell a boatload of them to other people, I don't see anything about the iPad that makes it compelling as "the ultimate Cloud client access device". I see it as a locked "consumption endpoint" for media corporations that want to give you controlled, limited access to overpriced movies, music, books, newspapers, games, and so on.

The device is closed and you can only run the software Apple decides you should be allowed. No vi, ssh, shell scripts, or my own programs. 3G data communication is available which in theory makes it so you can get to the cloud from anywhere -- except that AT&T has good signal only in the (not too big) cities. The device has very limited storage and gives no access to the file system. I can't turn off cookies and JavaScript in the browser. On the plus side though, Flash is not supported.

I'd rather have a laptop like the MacBook Air instead. Or a MacBook Pro. You have to use the iPad with another computer anyway, so why bother?

Apples' iPad, the Cloud in the palm of your hand?

2010-01-28T10:14:54-08:00

Unless you've been living under a rock in the past 24 hours, it can't have escaped your notice that after months, if not years of speculation and rumor, Apple has finally announced its tablet device, the iPad. And let me just say up front that my inner geek is showing definite signs of techno-lust! Yesterday, as I watched the news come in on my iPhone while travelling, a colleague turned to me and asked 'What I'd use it for?'. My initial response was, 'Use it for, that's not the point, I just want it. I'll figure out a use for it later!'.

But later in the day, I sat down to watch the video of the launch event and did start to ask myself, 'What would I use it for?' During the press event, the phrase 'Internet in the palm of your hand' was used repeatedly by Steve Jobs & co., and that got me thinking. The way in which you can browse using multi-touch and gesture based input certainly offers an intuitive, simple and natural way to interact with a browser, let alone the native applications. The extra screen real estate of the iPad over the iPhone also makes it a more viable browsing device. Add 3G into the mix along with Wi-Fi and you have a very viable, portable, gesture based, easy to use, always connected device. Now doesn't that sound like the ultimate Cloud access device? So not only do you have the 'Internet in the palm of your hand', you now have the 'Cloud in the palm of your hand'.

So what do you think? Am I simply trying to justify buying another device to add to my already long laundry list of iPhone, MacBook Pro, PSP, PS3, etc, etc...or is the iPad a genuine new class of device, the ultimate Cloud client access device. Let me know in the comments below.

Mike

Join Me At BravePoint Virtual Interchange Two

2010-01-22T13:25:09-08:00

The BravePoint Virtual Interchange Two conference is happening in two weeks! Coming live to your computer whereever you happen to be.

Thursday, February 4 and Friday, February 5 2010.

9:00 am to 5:15 pm (EST) both days.

I will be doing two sessions, one with Dan Foreman and one without:

0) Practical Progress OpenEdge Database Internals

Dan Foreman - BravePoint

Gus Bjorklund - Progress Software

In this talk Gus Bjorklund and Dan Foreman looks at selected OpenEdge database internals with a view to offering practical advice, knowledge, and tips to a Progress DBA. This talk is not just geeky insight into the workings of the database (though it will certainly have some of that). Our goal is enhancing the DBA's knowledge to optimize the DB and solve problems.

Some of our topics:

Understanding create/toss limits
Understanding records-per-block
Using rfutil aimage scan verbose to understand and troubleshoot fast growing BI files
Understanding the rules for BI cluster allocation and re-use and how to calculate how many clusters are actually in (or not in) use
Why record deletes are typically expensive
Understanding 'obscure' parameters such as pinshm, hash, etc.

1) The OpenEdge Schema Tables, Part 1

Gus Bjorklund - Progress Software

In this talk we describe the tables that comprise the OpenEdge database schema. These are the metadata tables that describe the logical and physical structure of a database. Topics include logical structure, physical structure, what schema tables exist, how they are related, how they are used, and example queries showing how to produce simple reports about the database.

In addition to Dan Foreman and and myself, there will be plenty of good stuff from other speakers like Tom Bascom, Adam Backman, Peter van Dam, Dustin Grau, Ken Wilner, Sunil Belgaonkar, Paul Guggenheim, Cameron Wright, and Mike Fechner.

You can see the agenda and session descriptions at:

http://www.bravepoint.tv/vi/schedule.html

The conference home page is here:

http://www.bravepoint.tv/vi/index.html

BravePoint Virtual Interchange Two will be broadcast live on the Internet from BravePoint studios outside Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

If you are in the area, you can attend in person. If you do, we can have a beer together. You can get more information about that here:

http://www.bravepoint.tv/vi/read_more.html

Don't miss this sure to be exciting event.

Quick OpenEdge on Amazon EC2 Update

2010-01-22T13:15:30-08:00

Last September, at Exchange 2009, I talked about Cloud Computing in general and about Amazon Web Services (AWS) in particular. Since I first started experimenting with Amazon two years ago, Amazon has added many new things and made a lot of improvements. One of the most important is Elastic Block Storage or EBS. It is just the thing for database storage. In September I said we were going to support EC2 as an official OpenEdge environment in the future. Well, the future is (almost) here.

We are now in the midst of our certification testing, which has been going well so far and is nearing completion. Assuming all goes well, you can expect an announcement of support fairly soon. We will also be publishing some white papers that explain step-by-step exactly how you can get started in this new world of on-demand computing.

Our New Year’s Gift to You…

2010-01-05T10:18:18-08:00

Now that the holiday rush is over (phew!), we wanted to remind you that the latest version of OpenEdge is now available! This release, version 10.2B, builds on previous OpenEdge 10 releases to further increase developer productivity, while still reducing the total cost of ownership of the business application. We’ve added capabilities to fortify application security and compliance – a must have for SaaS. Other new features and enhancements will enable you to:

· Deliver applications that comply with the latest data privacy regulations

· Simplify the deployment of applications via the Web

· Increase visibility into operations

· Accelerate delivery of service-based applications

Making the upgrade is a no brainer. As one customer, Carl Verbiest from CCE NV says “As always what I love most about a new version, is you just change the executable and you’re up and running with existing code in a new OpenEdge version. You can use the new 10.2B features where needed without the need to rewrite you existing application – the migration is quick and easy”.

So check it out. Contact your account rep for more information or visit Progress.com.

New video series on PSDN on Visual Designer and GUI for .NET

2010-01-04T13:10:15-08:00

Coordinated with the release of OpenEdge 10.2B, I have posted a new series of short educational videos on PSDN on using Visual Designer in OpenEdge Architect, and the OpenEdge support for the GUI for .NET. These fifteen videos, some with accompanying PDF documents that let you review the content and code samples in a bit more detail, cover many of the most important basic topics around using this very powerful new user interface development technology, including creating forms, using data management controls like the UltraGrid and the ProBindingSource, creating inherited controls and user controls, and many others. The videos are intended to complement the online help and other documentation, and to provide you with a more animated and visually oriented way to get to know this important part of OE 10.2.

These videos are in addition to the set of introductory videos that cover a lot of the basic topics related to using OpenEdge Architect. They're all available directly from the OpenEdge home page on the PSDN area of Progress Communities:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/community/psdn/openedge

The landing page that summarizes all the new videos, and gives a recommended viewing order if you want to look at all of them, is here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-103435

There's also a landing page for five introductory videos to get you started using Architect for the first time, covering topics such as creating your first Architect workspace and project, defining database connections for your workspace, setting project properties, building and running your project, and using the ABL Editor that's a central part of the value of developing in OpenEdge Architect. That page is here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101140

And then there's a continuing series of topics that go beyond the Getting Started series covering Architect subjects such as defining and using perspectives and views, maintaining structured procedures created in the AppBuilder, using the ABL Debugger, and various more advanced features of the ABL Editor. This includes two new videos on the support for ABL classes in Architect. Those sessions are all available here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101504

The videos are designed to be fairly self-contained, so that you can view what's of interest to you, though there is a recommended sequence to them that's indicated by their organization on the site. And they're kept to around seven to ten minutes each so that you're not overwhelmed with content, and so that you can try out what you've learned in each video before proceeding.

We're very interested in your feedback both on this specific set of presentations and on the general format that they use. We'll keep adding material on these are other product areas as time goes on. Keep us posted on your comments and recommendations, either as comments on this blog entry or messages directly to me at john@progress.com.

Exchange Online 2009 - Behind the Scenes

2009-11-20T10:08:00-08:00

In early Spring 2009, when we began planning our first online conference, we had no idea what to do. We knew that we wanted to do something unique and different, but had no idea how long it would take get things done, what would be hard or easy, or how many people we would need. We didn't even know the right questions to ask. I spent a number of weeks educating myself, looking at and participating in online conferences other companies, universities, and organizations like the Smithsonian Museum were doing. Among other things, I spoke at BravePoint's Virtual InterChange conference, which allowed me to see what's involved in doing a live broadcast.

We eventually decided to do something akin to a TV "newsmagazine" style broadcast with a number of separate programs and "episodes", using a variety of media and techniques. What we produced in the end was, on the one hand, not too far from that, and on the other, not at all like that.

We had numerous discussions about what to do, how to do it, and who we could get to help. Also many arguments about things which turned out not to be important in the end. Key to helping figure it out and get it all done was Cramer, a production company that has done a lot of work for us in the past for our F2F (face-to-face) conferences and all sorts of videos.

Among the things we discussed endlessly were how many technical sessions we should have and how long they should be. Would anyone come? How long an attention span would an online audience have? How many days would be people be willing to "tune in"? For how long? 2 hours? 4 ? 6 ? Would people leave if there was "dead air"? What should we do about people in different timezones? How many sessions would we have time to produce? Is live or recorded better? Which is harder to do? We got many different answers to these questions. In the end we decided on two concurrent video "channels" starting with general sessions followed by a series of 30 minute technical sessions with a short question-and-answer period in the last few minutes of each one, and a live discussion channel. The sessions were recorded but the q&a period was live. Would that work? We wouldn't know until we actually did it.

When we opened the conference registration site, we got a huge surprise. After two days, we saw that about two hundred people had registered. Then, over the weekend, registrations spiked up over 3,000 and continued rising. At first we were thrilled. Then we learned that someone had posted a link to our registration page on several sites that enabled people to find places where they could get free stuff. We had free stuff. Anyone who registered would get a free T-shirt. Over 4,000 people who had no interest in the conference had signed up just for the free shirt. What else could go wrong? I loaded all the registration information into an OpenEdge database and wrote a 4GL program to rank all the registrations and identify the bogus ones so we could delete them.

Gradually, things came together and all the speakers got their materials prepared and practiced their talks. In early August, we began filming. I spent 4 weeks at Cramer's studios, working with the speakers while we were filming and then with Cramer's folks (thanks Theo!) editing video while others worked on the web site, registration, promotion, and many other things. It was a lot of work but it was fun.

Finally we were ready. The conference broadcast went live at 8:30 am on September 15. We held our breath. Everything worked, with only a few small technical glitches. Here's a picture of the control room for one of the channels.

When the broadcast was finally finished on the third day, we were relieved. We made it.

As we discovered, 30 minute sessions worked pretty well. Almost. In hindsight, we learned that:

0) 23 minutes of content with 7 minutes of q&a time didn't allow enough time for questions for most of the sessions,

1) our speakers were not used to speaking for such short periods and had some difficulty with that,

3) there were (deliberately) no breaks between the end of one session and the start of the next. Feedback says we should have had them,

4) the "networking lounge" and discussions were hard to use and didn't work as nearly as well as they should have. In spite of the difficulty some good discussion did take place.

Still, I think those were relatively small problems. In the grand scheme of things, I would say Exchange Online 2009 was a success.

Session videos for the Exchange Online 2009 conference are still available for viewing for another month. If you haven't had a chance to visit, please point your browser to http://events.unisfair.com/rt/exchangeonline~sept2009