Business mobility from IBM

 

Shows what IBM is up to

Business mobility from IBM

Virtualization for development

 

When I joined this industry in 1999, we always had issue with developing on Windows and testing/deploying on Unix. We still have the same issues now but from the verification and validation side of things we are better off now due to virtualization and also due to maturity of Linux. The maturity of Linux has made it the platform of choice at least for its Enterprise flavors from Redhat and Suse. Also testing has become so easy using VMware images of the two OSes. Create a virtual test environment and test your product on Linux or even Solaris. Though for commercial UX you will still need their physical box but I guess you can get it free if you tell them its either their OS/box or Linux on their competitors !

Virtualization has made life simple for developers too. Earlier, lot of time was wasted when developers had to first install the tools, configure them, load data into the DB, which were time wasters. Now you can create a whole image of the developer desktop, deploy it on the cloud and developers can use it on demand. At night, the developer desktop will go to sleep, the same server now starts the build/test environment and starts running the build or the test scripts. OS Patches also effect the product and that also can be factored in now by keeping versions and snapshots of the images.

We though need to be careful about licenses. Remember a windows image still need a license, so if you company has 50 licenses it means physical + virtual. Better have a good deal with MS on the licenses front. MS does bundle them. Like you can run 4 Win2k3 on the server which is running Win2k3/VMware Server. Win2k8 natively supports virtualization.

Lastly, for a Linux enthusiast like me, I can get a Linux environment on my Windows XP using VMWare player and do not need the Xserver or a telnet client. I can just switch over to the Linux desktop and work the way I like to work on remote Unix/Linux boxes as if I am on the console. I can learn Linux or just do development on Linux.

Career Options in India

 

List is not complete. There are still other options available. Click on it to be forwarded to the M-Power page.

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Must read: Consultants, know how the IRS determines employee status

 

Chip Camden offers independent consultants tips on how to be savvy when it comes to the IRS’s 20 factors for determining whether a worker is an employee under common law rules.

How IRS determines a Employee-Employer relationship

Is determined as employee the tax liability comes in which can cause penalties too so better be aware of what criteria are used by IRS to determine this. Important for freelance and independent software consultants working in USA.

Performance testing with no $$

 

Yes I know there are enough tools that can do automated testing but they do cost a lot of $ + you need a person who charges a lot of $ to use them. Before spending $ on that and them check this out once and see if your project requirement can be met using JMeter, a free performance testing tool. You do need some background on performance testing though and out friends at MS have given this paper for that. Read it first, then understand it, then decide what you want to do and the try executing in in JMeter. If it fits the requirement you are good, at least you would know what to use if it doesn’t.

MS Link

Performance Testing for web applications

Google Tech talk about OS tools for performance testing

Eclipse for Java Beginnings

 

Yes I know that you think you know Eclipse IDE but please go through this once so that next time when some senior person talks something like why don’t we create a breakpoint and watch the RS object to see the cursor position and RS object you don’t have a blank on your face !

Go to you-tube and make an effort to see the videos, helps a lot even for someone who has worked a lot on eclipse.

UML – The Visual language

 

The required language to know to interact with Clients, Engineers and managers !

Architects in Software

Its difficult to get why they are needed + the numerous kinds also add to confusion. Luckily people are understanding the need now. here is one more for the cause.

Enterprise Architect, Solution Architect and Infrastructure Architect.