Telematique, water and fire.

Microsoft says it won't support SAML 2.0

While I was at SC05, I missed reading a lot of trade press, and while I'm sure that I will never "catch up", going through a few of my most frequently traveled RSS newsfeeds found this.

The bickering between MSFT and the anti-MSFT factions within the WS-* standards is getting very tiresome.  The result in WS-Man / WS-RF battle seems to be a pair of competing standards that provide almost exactly the same functionality.  Now this regarding SAML and WS-Federation.  Sigh.

Link: Microsoft says it won't support SAML 2.0 - Computerworld.

... Microsoft has backed WS-Federation protocols for the next generation of message-based applications because it offers a full suite of security, message and transaction protocols, said Don Schmidt, senior program manager for Microsoft's Identity and Access group. The company's stance is not about which protocol set is necessarily better but rather which offers wider flexibility in accommodating federated identity, he said.

Schmidt conducted a session today on ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services), Microsoft's software for federated identity, at the company's IT Forum 2005 in Barcelona.

The WS-Federation protocols compete with the SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) 2.0 specification, which so far has strong footing in the race to create secured identity federation across organizations. SAML 2.0 is backed by consortiums such as the Liberty Alliance and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).

SAML 2.0 protocols are fine for strictly Web single sign-on, Schmidt said. But the WS-Federation protocols are better equipped to deal with a distributed Web-services environment for message reliability, transaction support and security, he said. SAML 2.0 does not have reliable messaging or transaction support, he said. ...

IBM looks to make middleware SMILE

Interesting approach.   Could this be turned upside down, yielding a similar streaming approach for in-bound data and extracted data sets from remote, distributed sensors?  In situations where a (logically) centralized analytic process must deal with massive amounts of data, or seriously overburdened "last 100 meter" networks?

Link: IBM looks to make middleware SMILE | InfoWorld | News | 2005-11-21 | By Paul Krill.

...

SMILE (Smart Middleware Light Ends) technology enables stream-based queuing of information sets. For example, a query can be made that asks for the 20 most actively traded stocks in the last 10 minutes, with SMILE memorizing the state of events from the previous 10 minutes, according to Chitra Dorai, manager of Distributed Messaging at IBM (Profile, Products, Articles) Research.

"The SMILE system is a distributed stream-processing engine that processes messages in memory without requiring databases," Dorai said. SMILE also features a declarative programming model for distributed application programmers that relies on SQL. ...

MySQL AB to counter Oracle buy of Innobase

When Oracle made the move a few weeks ago, I wondered what MySQL would do about it... and how public they'd be about it.  Looks like MySQL is making it pretty clear that they don't want to be backed into a corner.

Link: MySQL AB to counter Oracle buy of Innobase | InfoWorld | News | 2005-11-22 | By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service.

...

Database industry watchers have speculated what the impact of Oracle's buy-out would be for MySQL's open-source database. But MySQL, the Swedish company that provides support services around the open-source software, is maneuvering for a replacement option.

"Obviously because Oracle made that acquisition we are evaluating options to replace that functionality in some way," said Richard Mason, vice president of MySQL for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). "We're not at the point yet where we can go public with what that plan is but we will be shortly." ...

Scalent Enters Data Center Virtualization Market

I don't exactly think of Scalent as a "new entry", since they've been clearly positioning for this kind of offering, and have been "in the market" with beta's and proof of concept installations for quite a while.

I would question any uni-dimensional value proposition like "improved utilization" as dangerous.  The total cost/total return calculations need to take into account not only the cost reductions implied by increased/improved utilization, but also the resulting delta in operating, administering and managing the data center after implementing the virtualization technologies.

I don't know the answer in Scalent's case.  For their sake, I hope that it proves out to decrease the OAM costs over time, rather than add to them.  That said, the guys responsible for Scalent are very smart, and very experienced...many of them are graduates of Phone.com.  I'd be willing to take it on the basis of their backgrounds that they know what the appropriate targets are.

Link: Scalent Enters Data Center Virtualization Market.

A new entrant jumped into the data-center virtualization market on Thursday when Scalent Systems Inc. introduced its Virtual Operating Environment, which promises to improve data-center utilization and reduce complexity.

Scalent's VOE tackles three critical facets of virtualization with software aimed at automating virtualization of servers, networks, and storage allocation, says Ben Linder, chief executive and a co-founder of Scalent.

"We can radically raise utilization," Linder says. "Customers are seeing a tripling of resource utilization that provides a meaningful and substantial reduction in the number of new servers they have to add into their infrastructure because they can more effectively and powerfully use their existing infrastructure."

The Scalent software is designed to work with other virtualization products from companies like Microsoft, VMware, and Zen Source to create a true virtual infrastructure that unites all major IT systems into a single virtual fabric, he says. ...

Best-of-breed tools for the next-generation data center

I've just run across this article, and haven't had the time to read it thoroughly.  From a quick glance, however, Antonopoulos (an analyst and co-founder of Nemertes Research) has done a nice job laying out the (first) four constituent parts, and nominated a few offerings as leading lights.

I have a sense that the selection of commercial offerings is impacted by the Nemertes clientele and their specific focus, but I like the categorization and taxonomy.

Link: Best-of-breed tools for the next-generation data center.

Novell details layoffs, restructuring plans

This is going to be brutal, but Novell has some assets that could be parlayed into a truly butt-kicking company.   It's just not clear to me that the folks in charge are willing to take the body blows that would inevitably result from creating a new, improved Novell.

Link: Update: Novell details layoffs, restructuring plans - Computerworld.

Novell Inc. said today that it plans to lay off 600 employees, or 10% of its global workforce, part of an effort to save more than $110 million annually as the struggling software maker restructures to focus on products such as SUSE Linux.

The announcement came a day after the enterprise software maker promoted Ron Hovsepian to be its president and chief operating officer. Hovsepian had been serving as executive vice president and head of global field operations,

In addition to Linux, Novell said it will concentrate on open-source and identity and resource management products. ...

Virtual Iron widens support with 2.0

Another "player" in the compute virtualization game.  This early stage tech company is worth watching. 

Link: Virtual Iron widens support with 2.0 | InfoWorld | News | 2005-10-31 | By China Martens, IDG News Service.

Data-center virtualization and management startup Virtual Iron Software is expected to make the second release of its software, Virtual Iron 2.0, generally available Monday. The new version of the company's software adds support for Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron chip and for IBM's (Profile, Products, Articles) BladeCenter blade servers as well as expanding policy-based management capabilities, according to a Virtual Iron executive. ...

Red Hat sees virtualization as route for 2006 - Computerworld

Another significant player shows up with aspirations to be the centerpiece in the Next Generation Data Center sweepstakes.   When the battle is over, who will wear the crown?

Link: Red Hat sees virtualization as route for 2006

... Though Red Hat offered few specifics on its virtualization plans, the company is expected to include Version 3 of Xen in its upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 product, which is expected sometime in 2006, according to Tony Iams, a senior analyst at research firm Ideas International Inc.

But the more interesting part of Red Hat's virtualization road map will be based on the load-balancing and workload automation tools that it will eventually develop to take advantage of the Xen virtualization capabilities, Iams said. That software, which is probably still several years away, will put Red Hat in competition with vendors of proprietary systems, such as Microsoft Corp. and EMC's VMware Inc. subsidiary. But it may also put Red Hat in competition with its Linux partner, IBM.

Red Hat is fixated on management opportunities and wants to have open-source versions of higher level management software, according to Iams. "That's quite ambitious, because now you're going after the bread and butter of the VMwares and even the IBMs out there," he said.  ...

Why Microsoft Is Going "Live"

The BusinessWeek take on Microsoft's strategy for "Live" software is interesting.  They're treating this as the opening act of another sea change at MSFT, of a scale and with the same importance that their internet move took on.

Link: Why Microsoft Is Going "Live".

There's more in a series of articles in Information week.
Link: Microsoft Making 'Sea Change' In Software Strategy

But, Phil Wainewright doesn't see it in quite the same light:
Let the great Microsoft mash-up begin

Today's announcement of Microsoft's "live era" is a holding operation. It's just like in 1995, when Bill Gates ripped up Microsoft's intended Internet strategy and had it rewritten with barely minutes to spare before the scheduled launch of what became known as 'embrace and extend.'

Now in 2005, Gates and his lieutenants, recognizing the need to pull something out of a hat, have had a quick look around and hurriedly cobbled together whatever they could find to at least give the appearance that Microsoft has something to offer in the on-demand arena. They know that Microsoft has to look as though it has a credible strategy, otherwise investors and employees will start wondering whether they should move their allegiance elsewhere (those that haven't already). ...