IT needs to overcome a perception that it's more tactical than strategic.

Business and IT executives differ in their perceptions of strategic and operational IT issues, from IT's strategic role to its performance. And an A.T. Kearney survey of senior business and IT executives conducted this summer by Harris Interactive suggests that senior business executives don't believe IT is keeping pace. Many of these business leaders believe IT is tactically focused and that the best technology innovations come from the business side. Unless significant changes are made, those differences may continue to define—and possibly limit—IT's strategic role. - Read More

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On October 6, 2004 IBM announced WebSphere Application Server version 6. To paraphrase, the announcement states that the next version of WebSphere contains support for various Java and Web services standards. Included with this release is the Web services specification, WS-I Basic Profile 1.1, J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) 1.4, as well as the Java API for building Web services and clients using Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) and XML, and JAX-RPC.

Also announced were several other areas of improvement, such as new packaging, improved ease of use, and Enterprise Class Deployment, all delivered to enhance reliability, scalability and interoperability. My intention here is to help shed some light with respect to the functions and features provided with WebSphere 6, and to show how it surpasses previous releases of WebSphere Application Server. - Read More

InferData teaches the following related courses:

- WebSphere Performance Tuning and Tools

- Advanced WebSphere 5/6.X Administration

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IBM is expected to disclose on Wednesday features of the forthcoming version of its WebSphere application server, which will center on improving performance and administration.

WebSphere Application Server 6, the company's Java-based server software for running business applications, will be available before the end of the year, the company said. Big Blue had added a number of enhancements designed to make the software more reliable in case of outages and simpler to manage once applications are running.

The update will also bear the first fruits of IBM's strategy to beef up its standards-based integration software. The company has rewritten the Java-based messaging engine included in WebSphere and developed tools to simplify the task of wiring applications together via messaging.

IBM's primary competitors in the Java application servers are BEA Systems, which is trying to stabilize itself after two disappointing quarters and the departure of several executives, and Oracle, which analysts say is seeing growth in its market share. The market is getting increasingly competitive as Sun Microsystems makes its bid to garner more customers and developers seek open-source alternatives, such as JBoss, to commercial Java application servers. - Read More

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Forward thinking financial services organizations such as investment managers, broker/dealers, and custodian banks are positioning themselves for a Wall Street recovery by updating their information technology infrastructure. This often involves adding a messaging layer to automate the exchange of information both within internal systems and between internal systems and external trading partners. To understand how to make use of this messaging layer, organizations need to examine many systems and processes throughout the trading cycle in order to discover their respective functional characteristics, user communities, and data sources. Domain modeling can be very helpful in enabling system architects to visualize the current state of the trading environment, and then to reason about how the organization can optimize various systems to achieve straight through processing (STP)— end-to-end automation of the pre-trade to post-trade settlement process.

What is domain modeling?

According to Rational Unified Process,® or RUP,® a domain model is a business object model that focuses on "product, deliverables, or events that are important to the business domain."1 A domain model is an "incomplete" business model, in that it omits individual worker responsibilities. The point of domain modeling is to provide "the big picture" of the interrelationships among business entities in a complex organization. The domain model typically shows the major business entities, their functional responsibilities, and the relationships among the entities. It also provides a high-level description of the data that each entity provides. In RUP4STP2 (Rational Unified Process for straight through processing), a RUP Plug-In developed by Rambyte, domain modeling plays a central role in understanding the current environment and planning for the future. Our Current Trading Model artifact is a visual representation of an organization's present trading cycle, and our Future Trading Model illustrates how various trading partners and internal systems might be configured to optimize processing and workflows to achieve a compressed settlement cycle. Whereas the default business modeling discipline in RUP is abstract and can be applied to all industries, the business modeling discipline in RUP4STP is specialized for the securities trading domain, using concepts, guidelines, and activities familiar to IT professionals working in that industry. For a downloadable example of a Current Trading Model created with IBM Rational Rose,® see the Appendix. - Read More

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InferData has been developing and delivering our own, vendor-neutral, technical courses since 1993.

We have designed, developed and delivered 100+ hands-on technical courses in the areas of Object-Oriented Methodology and Enterprise Application Development.

Our clients include: J.P. Morgan Chase, IBM, Dell, Sprint, Philips, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Northwestern Mutual, NASA, Lucent Technologies, and many others.

InferData is offering a $100 Amazon.com Gift Certificate (make a note of the special offer in the comments section of the registration form) if you register for and attend the following course on the following dates...

Advanced J2EE Design for Architects -- Austin, TX - Jan 4-7 - Registration

... Please call us at 512.306.8225 or email mfaust@inferdata.com for more details about this class or any of our many other courses.

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