Contemporary Issues in Database Design and Information Systems Development

Product Description

Database management, design and information systems development are becoming an integral part of many business applications. Contemporary Issues in Database Design and Information gathers the latest development in the area to make this the most up-to-date reference source for educators and practioners alike. Information systems development activities enable many organizations to effectively compete and innovate, as new database and information systems applications are constantly being developed. Contemporary Issues in Database Design and Information Systems Development presents the latest research ideas and topics on databases and software development. The chapters in this innovative publication provide a representation of top notch research in all areas of the database and information systems development.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #3066349 in Books
* Published on: 2007-04-30
* Released on: 2007-04-30
* Format: Illustrated
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 300 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Keng Siau is a Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL). He is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Database Management and as the Book Series Editor for Advanced Topics in Database Research. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he majored in Management Information Systems and minored in Cognitive Psychology. His master and bachelor degrees are in Computer and Information Sciences from the National University of Singapore. Dr. Siau has over 200 academic publications. He has published more than 70 refereed journal articles, and these articles have appeared (or are forthcoming) in journals such as Management Information Systems Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, IEEE Computer, Information Systems, ACM s Data Base, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cynbernetics, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, IEEE Transactions on Education, IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, Data and Knowledge Engineering, Decision Support Systems, Journal on Information Technology, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, Behaviour and Information Technology, Quarterly Journal of Electronic Commerce, and others. In addition, he has published more than 90 refereed conference papers (including 9 ICIS papers), edited/co-edited more than 10 scholarly and research-oriented books, edited/co-edited 9 proceedings, and has written more than 15 scholarly book chapters. He served as the Organizing and Program Chairs of the International Workshop on Evaluation of Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design (EMMSAD) (1996 2005). For more information, please visit his website at http://www.ait.unl.edu/siau/.

Modern Technologies in Web Services Research

Product Description

Web service technologies are constantly being recreated, continuously challenging Web service professionals and examiners. Modern Technologies in Web Services Research facilitates communication and networking among Web services and e-business researchers and engineers in a period where considerable changes are taking place in Web services technologies innovation. Modern Technologies in Web Services Research provides mathematic foundations for service oriented computing, Web services architecture and security, frameworks for building Web service applications, and dynamic invocation mechanisms for Web services among other innovative approaches.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #1741490 in Books
* Published on: 2007-03-30
* Released on: 2007-03-30
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 300 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Dr. Zhang is a Research Staff Member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. He is part of the e-business solutions and autonomic computing research team with a focus on on-demand business collaborative as well as business process integration and management innovations. Dr. Zhang is the lead researcher and architect of Business Explorer for Web Services (BE4WS), WSIL Explorer (part of IBM Emerging Technologies Toolkit) and Web Services Outsourcing Manager (WSOM) released by IBM alphaWorks. He has filed more than 30 patent applications in the areas of e-commerce, Web services, Grid computing, rich media, data management, and information appliances, and he has published more than 60 technical papers in the Journals, Books and Conference Proceedings.

The New Language of Business: SOA & Web 2.0

Product Description

*

“This book clearly shows how today’s industry pressures and business challenges mandate renewal of the contract between organizations and their IT assets and people–and it illustrates how a service-oriented approach to IT can help organizations go through the necessary transformation. The role of governance in bringing IT and business closer together is particularly well explained, and the book is worth reading for that alone.”

–Neil Ward-Dutton, Research Director, Macehiter Ward-Dutton



“It’s easy to pay lip service to the concept of business/IT alignment, but in The New Language of Business, Sandy Carter walks the walk. Few treatments of SOA ground this admittedly difficult topic in the world of business as thoroughly as Sandy has here. I’d recommend this book to any business reader who wants to leverage IT to make their business more agile and innovative, and to any technical reader who wishes to understand how to place SOA in the business context where it belongs.”

–Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst and Principal, ZapThink LLC



“A very valuable read. In today’s globally connected marketplace profitable growth requires business flexibility and continuous innovation, both of which are increasingly proving to be impossible without business modularity and the new table-stakes technology SOA.” *

–Ron Williams, Professor, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill



“Sandy has provided a pragmatic and holistic perspective on Service Oriented Architectures. She adds credibility by sharing IBM’s in-depth customer research as well as case studies to support the findings. The book is a strong source book for those wanting to get started with SOA.”

–Judith Hurwitz, President & CEO, Hurwitz & Associates, coauthor,

Service Oriented Architectures for Dummies



“Few people have thought as long or as hard about SOA as Sandy Carter. This book embodies her invaluable work and the work of many at IBM to research, define, deploy and make SOA happen. Useful not just from a SOA perspective, but also as a concise articulation of the contemporary concepts fundamental to understanding where business and IT are heading.”

–Carol Baroudi, coauthor Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies, Senior Analyst, Aberdeen Group



“The New Language of Business: SOA & Web 2.0 is based on the collective feedback from industry leaders at organizations of all sizes, in more than 50 countries, who shared their views, experiences, and challenges of aligning technology with business goals.”

–From the foreword by Steve Mills, Senior Vice President and Group Executive, IBM Software Group





There is now a direct, provable link between an organization’s flexibility and business performance. To optimize flexibility, companies must achieve unprecedented levels of integration and automation of key processes and infrastructure, both internally and externally. At the same time, they must learn to manage their processes far more dynamically and responsively.



They must become flex-pon-sive*.



Until recently, technology stood in the way of achieving these goals. Thanks to the emergence of service oriented architecture (SOA), Web 2.0, and open standards, technology now enables companies to achieve those goals. In The New Language of Business, one of IBM’s top SOA strategist demonstrates how business leaders can use innovations in technology to drive dramatic process improvements and support accelerating change.



Sandy Carter shows how to deconstruct your business into a “componentized” business model, then support that model with linked, repeatable IT services that can adapt quickly, easily, and economically. These techniques will help both IT professionals and business leaders reach new levels of operational excellence to deliver the market-focused innovations that matter most.



Drive competitive advantage through Service Oriented Architecture

Leverage the value of business process components and IT services



Achieve one version of the truth–finally!

Use information as a service to improve business insight and reduce risk



Master SOA governance and the service lifecycle

Manage IT infrastructure for business results, both short-term and long-term



Start fast: choose from three winning approaches

Get quick wins with business process management, collaboration or information



Implement on demand: what works–and what doesn’t

Discover key success factors–and ten critical mistakes to avoid



Create the flex-pon-sive* business!



•Learn the secrets of success from industry leaders at organizations of all sizes, from over 50 countries–and why SOA was unanimously chosen as the best way to address their challenges



•Leverage the IBM roadmap for SOA and Web 2.0 deployment, plus proven best practices learned in the field



•Understand what it means to be flex-pon-sive*–and how your organization can get there



In The New Language of Business, senior IBM executive Sandy Carter demonstrates how to leverage SOA, Web 2.0, and related technologies to drive new levels of operational excellence and business innovation.

Writing for executives and business leaders inside and outside IT, Carter explains why flexibility and responsiveness are now even more crucial to success–and why services-based strategies offer the greatest promise for achieving them.



You’ll learn how to organize your business into reusable process components–and support them with cost-effective IT services that adapt quickly and easily to change. Then, using extensive examples–including a detailed case study describing IBM’s own experience–Carter identifies best practices, pitfalls, and practical starting points for success.



Build the flex-pon-sive* business



* Flex-pon-sive* companies respond with lightning speed and agility to rapidly changing business needs. Flex-pon-sive* companies are focused on processes that are enabled for change through IT.



Foreword



Part I: Start at the Beginning–The Business

Chapter 1: The Innovation Imperative

Chapter 2: What Is Flex-pon-sive*?

Chapter 3: Deconstructing Your Business: Component Business Model



Part II: A Flexible Business Requires Flexible IT

Chapter 4: SOA as the DNA of a Flex-pon-sive* and Innovative Company

Chapter 5: SOA Key Concepts

Chapter 6: SOA Governance and Service Lifecycle

Chapter 7: Three Business-Centric SOA Entry Points

Chapter 8: What about Web 2.0 and SOA? Are They Related?



Part III: How to Implement Flex-pon-sive* in Your Business

Chapter 9: The Top 10 Don’ts!

Chapter 10: Case Study: IBM

Chapter 11: Putting It All Together



Glossary

Index

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #239582 in Books
* Published on: 2007-03-02
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 320 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sandy Carter is Vice President, SOA & WebSphere Strategy, Channels and Marketing for IBM Corporation. Sandy is responsible for driving IBM’s cross-company, worldwide SOA marketing initiatives, and in this role, helps oversee the company’s SOA strategy across software, services and hardware and sets the company’s SOA marketing direction. Sandy has played a critical role in helping to identify SOA acquisition targets and ensure the successful integration of these organizations into the IBM SOA portfolio. Additionally, she directs SOA messaging and content, leading a global team in driving customer demand for IBM and IBM Business Partner SOA solutions.



Sandy’s track record speaks for itself: 4Q2006 marked the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit WebSphere Family growth, and the WebSphere brand has won seven industry awards. In addition, she has helped IBM’s SOA initiatives consistently earn third party validation and top leadership rankings by analysts and pundits alike, as evidenced by these reports: Dwight B. Davis, from Ovum said, “IBM’s approach to the SOA market is more comprehensive and more coherent than any other vendor’s plan at the moment.”, while Barrons reported “SOA has become a buzzword for the growing trend throughout the IT industry to make computer systems more flexible and adaptable to changing business needs. IBM sells more than three times as much in SOA products and services as anyone else.”



Sandy is a frequent speaker at industry events sponsored by Gartner Group, IDC, Women in Technology (WITI), and Infoworld magazine and has the leading blog in the industry for SOA. Her professional associations include member and winner of the Best Speaker Award, the Marketing Focus Advisory Council; Board Member of the Grace Hopper Industry Advisory Committee; and membership in Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Inner Circle. She is a recipient of the 2005 AIT United Nations Member of the Year award for helping developing countries in the area of technology. She is an active member of Women in Technology and the Co-Lead IBM Partnership Executive at Duke University.



Sandy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in math and computer science from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard, and is fluent in eight programming languages. For more information, please visit Sandy’s blog at: http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/SOA_Off_the_Record

Customer Reviews

SOA as a Business Philosophy4
Is Service-Oriented Architecture primarily about technology or business? Sandy Carter, Vice President for SOA and Websphere at IBM, comes down squarely on the side of business. In The New Language of Business: SOA and Web 2.0, Carter defines Service-Oriented Architecture as "a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks or services" (44). Her introduction to SOA is geared for CI0's who need to make a business case for designing and implementing an SOA.

Carter's strongest chapters focus on conceiving of the enterprise as sets of services and processes. Her third chapter, titled "Deconstructing Your Business: Component Business Model," provides an excellent guide for breaking down a business into a sets of discrete components, which can then be sorted out into commodity and differentiating activities. This component business model can serve as a road map for deciding which activities to outsource and where to invest in building services to increase the flexibility of key differentiating components. Her discussion of "business process management" in the seventh chapter supplements and extends this business perspective on SOA. Carter makes a compelling case that the move to a SOA cannot succeed if it is conceived simply as an I.T. project. A prerequisite for achieving an SOA is to change business practices by encouraging greater horizontal collaboration between I.T. and business leaders and by setting up strong governance committees to overcome inevitable turf wars.

The Joy of SOX

Product Description

* The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed in 2002 in response to a series of high-profile corporate scandals and requires that public companies implement internal controls over financial reporting, operations, and assets; these controls depend heavily on installing or improving information technology and business methods
* Written by one of the most visible personalities on the tech-biz side of the SOX discussion, this highly readable, engaging book provides a clear road map for integrating SOX compliance into the fabric of everyday IT infrastructure and business practice
* Shows the reader how to leverage and use service-oriented architecture (SOA), a set of technologies that enables interoperation of heterogeneous computer systems, to achieve the level of internal controls over IT that SOX mandates

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #439805 in Books
* Published on: 2006-04-03
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 312 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"an engaging and thought provoking book" (Information Age, December 2006)

From the Back Cover
"We choose to do [these] things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills."
—President John F. Kennedy, 1962

President Kennedy was speaking of going to the moon—a goal only slightly more ambitious, in the view of many corporate executives, than complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Hugh Taylor, corporate iconoclast par excellence, turns the prevailing view upside down as he illustrates how achieving full compliance with the spirit as well as the letter of SOX actually has the power to strengthen American business. As a catalyst for positive change, SOX challenges us to tighten operational control while maintaining strategic flexibility—not an easy task, but one that, once achieved, can bring out the best in corporate America.

In this refreshingly readable book, Taylor presents a powerful case for compliance, not because it's the law but because it creates an environment that ensures a well-run business with financial information that CEOs as well as investors can rely on. It demands a new level of management effectiveness that, by its very nature, benefits the bottom line.

SOX has the potential to help us do what we do better.

About the Author
Hugh Taylor is Vice President of Marketing at SOA Software, the leading provider of management and security solutions for enterprise service-oriented architecture. He is the co-author, with Eric Pulier, of Understanding Enterprise SOA (Manning, 2005). The author of more than a dozen articles and papers on the subject of web services and service-oriented architecture, Taylor is an authority on business process management, SOA, and compliance issues. Taylor received his B.A. degree, Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College in 1988 and his M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School in 1992. He lives in Los Angeles.
Customer Reviews

Joy of Sox3
Well written book, but too detailed about Sarbanes Oxley. I was looking for something with more emphasis on Service Oriented Architecture which is barely touched on in the book.

Little Joy in SOX, but Helpful Understanding4
I make a living leading seminars discussing topics on software project estimation, requirements, and project management. It is not uncommon during one of these seminars to have a participant ask how the practice under discussion would impact or aid Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. What I wanted out of Hugh Taylor's book was a deeper understanding of SOX and some pointers I could give my students.

The Joy of SOX delivered on the first half of my quest. While not an accountant, Taylor did a good job explaining the key points of the act, focusing on section 404. I grew in my understanding of the role software systems play in acting as a "control" and the impact of changes to those systems. A simple definition of a "control" is that it is a device (practice, checkpoint, division of roles) inserted by a company to assist in the determent and detection of fraud.

Taylor, after painting a very bleak picture of what it means to comply to SOX (i.e. insert and maintain all the necessary controls), goes on to propose a solution that allows a company to react as necessary in business while keeping compliant. His solution, using a web based Service-Oriented Architecture. For those who are not buzzword compliant, that means using non-proprietary methods over the internet to communicate between different computer systems. Most of the time today, companies have to pay software development professionals to write a proprietary method. That takes a lot of time.

It is on the second point of my quest that I felt a little let down. Being a software development person, the word "agile" has a lot of baggage with it. He uses the word to mean the fundamental fluidity of the business to engage in new business practices. We software people want to enable that but we use the word an approach to software development. The two don't quite mean the same thing. So when I got to his prescription, I was into an alphabetic soup of software development acronyms that I have never quite liked, even being in the field. Perhaps his way would work, but I think the hype machine is still on over XML, SOAP, SOBA and the like. Hey, given the alternatives he paints in the first half of the book, it is probably worth considering.

So, who should read this book? Well, if you want a decent way of understanding what SOX means to a public business, then the first half is worth reading. The use of the case study makes it a little HBR like and I enjoyed that. If you are a software development professional like me, well, the first half is worth knowing and you can skim the second half. If you are a business professional, you better know the first half. The second half? You can read it but this is what my friends and I would call "beer discussion" topics. There is no "right" answer, only answers that are better given the situation. Maybe bring your favorite IT person along for the beer.

A useful overview5
How can you resist a book with a title like "The Joy of SOX"? I liked the book - it was the first intelligible or helpful summary of Sarbanes-Oxley I have come across. Using an imaginary scenario it laid out both a plausible current state and accurately described the way in which business change might put the company's IT systems, and SOX compliance, at risk because they could not be changed quickly or accurately enough to respond. The book goes on to lay out how SOA is a key ingredient to building a profitable business that is also highly controlled and where processes are visible both to management and to regulators.

Most of the chapters are very readable, even some dealing with an alphabet soup of standards and standards bodies. A couple were heavier going and a few seemed like they needed to be longer - there was a certain amount of "and then magic occurs" that I am sure Hugh could have addressed in a longer book.

These complaints are, however, minor. For those of you interested in Sarbanes-Oxley or COBIT but not willing to wade through a lot of material, this book is a nice introduction.

SOA Using Java

Product Description

Expert Solutions and State-of-the-Art Code Examples

SOA Using Java™ Web Services is a hands-on guide to implementing Web services and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) with today’s Java EE 5 and Java SE 6 platforms. Author Mark Hansen presents in explicit detail the information that enterprise developers and architects need to succeed, from best-practice design techniques to state-of-the-art code samples.

Hansen covers creating, deploying, and invoking Web services that can be composed into loosely coupled SOA applications. He begins by reviewing the “big picture,” including the challenges of Java-based SOA development and the limitations of traditional approaches. Next, he systematically introduces the latest Java Web Services (JWS) APIs and walks through creating Web services that integrate into a comprehensive SOA solution. Finally, he shows how application frameworks based on JWS can streamline the entire SOA development process and introduces one such framework: SOA-J.

The book

* Introduces practical techniques for managing the complexity of Web services and SOA, including best-practice design examples
* Offers hard-won insights into building effective SOA applications with Java Web Services
* Illuminates recent major JWS improvements–including two full chapters on JAX-WS 2.0
* Thoroughly explains SOA integration using WSDL, SOAP, Java/XML mapping, and JAXB 2.0 data binding
* Walks step by step through packaging and deploying Web services components on Java EE 5 with JSR-181 (WS-Metadata 2.0) and JSR-109
* Includes specific code solutions for many development issues, from publishing REST endpoints to consuming SOAP services with WSDL
* Presents a complete case study using the JWS APIs, together with an Ajax front end, to build a SOA application integrating Amazon, Yahoo Shopping, and eBay
* Contains hundreds of code samples–all tested with the GlassFish Java EE 5 reference implementation–that are downloadable from the companion Web site, http://soabook.com.


Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1: Service-Oriented Architecture with Java Web Services
Chapter 2: An Overview of Java Web Services
Chapter 3: Basic SOA Using REST
Chapter 4: The Role of WSDL, SOAP, and Java/XML Mapping in SOA
Chapter 5: The JAXB 2.0 Data Binding
Chapter 6: JAX-WS–Client-Side Development
Chapter 7: JAX-WS 2.0–Server-Side Development
Chapter 8: Packaging and Deployment of SOA Components (JSR-181 and JSR-109)
Chapter 9: SOAShopper: Integrating eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo! Shopping
Chapter 10: Ajax and Java Web Services
Chapter 11: WSDL-Centric Java Web Services with SOA-J
Appendix A: Java, XML, and Web Services Standards Used in This Book
Appendix B: Software Configuration Guide
Appendix C: Namespace
Prefixes
Glossary
References
Index

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #85507 in Books
* Published on: 2007-05-19
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 608 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark Hansen, Ph.D., is a software developer, consultant, and entrepreneur. His company, Javector Software, provides consulting and software application development focused on Web services. Mark is also a content developer for Project GlassFish and has developed the open source SOA-J application framework for WSDL-centric Web services development.

Previously, Mark was a visiting scholar at MIT, researching applications for process and data integration using Web services technology. Prior to that, Mark was an executive vice president for Xpedior, Inc., a leading provider of e-business consulting services. He joined Xpedior when they acquired his consulting firm, Kinderhook Systems.

Mark founded Kinderhook in 1993 to develop custom Internet solutions for Fortune 1000 firms in the New York metropolitan area. Prior to founding Kinderhook Systems, Hansen was a founder and vice president of technology for QDB Solutions, Inc., a software firm providing tools for data integrity management in corporate data warehouses.

Mark's work has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Information Week, Computer World, Database Management, Database Programming and Design, Business Communications Review, EAI Journal, and IntelligentEnterprise.

Mark earned a Ph.D. from the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, a master's degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Cornell University.

Mark and his wife, Lorraine, live in Scarsdale, New York, with their three children, Elizabeth, Eric, and Emily.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Java became a powerful development platform for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in 2006. Java EE 5, released in May 2006, significantly enhanced the power and usability of the Web Services capabilities on the application server. Then Java SE 6, released in December 2006, incorporated the majority of those capabilities into the standard edition of the Java programming language.

Because robust Web Services technology is the foundation for implementing SOA, Java now provides the tools modern enterprises require to integrate their Java applications into SOA infrastructures.

Of course, Java has had basic Web Services capabilities for some time. JAX-RPC 1.0 was released in June 2002. J2EE 1.4, finalized in November 2003, included JAX-RPC 1.1. So what is significant about the latest versions of the Java Web Services (JWS) APIs?

The answers are power and ease of use. Programmers will find it much easier to build enterprise-class applications with Web Services in Java EE 5 than in J2EE 1.4. Evidence of that is contained in Chapters 9 and 10, which describe an application I developed to integrate online shopping across eBay, Yahoo! Shopping, and Amazon. It’s a pure Java EE 5 application, called SOAShopper, that consumes REST and SOAP services from those shopping sites. SOAShopper also provides its own SOAP and REST endpoints for cross-platform search, and supports an Ajax front-end. SOAShopper would have been a struggle to develop using J2EE 1.4 and JAX-RPC. With the new Java Web Services standards, it was a pleasure to write.

This book focuses on the following standards comprising the new Java Web Services:

* JAX-WS 2.0 JSR 224—The Java API for XML-Based Web Services. The successor to JAX-RPC, it enables you to build and consume Web services with Java.
* JAXB 2.0 JSR 222—The Java Architecture for XML Binding. Tightly integrated with JAX-WS, the JAXB standard controls how Java objects are represented as XML.
* WS-Metadata JSR 181—Web Services Metadata for the Java Platform. WS-Metadata provides annotations that facilitate the flexible definition and deployment of Java Web Services.
* WSEE 1.2 JSR 109—Web Services for Java EE. WSEE defines the programming model and run-time behavior of Web Services in the Java EE container.

These standards contain a few big improvements and many little enhancements that add up to a significantly more powerful Web Services programming platform. New annotations, for example, make it easier to write Web Services applications. And the delegation, in JAX-WS 2.0 JSR 224, of the Java/XML binding to JAXB 2.0 JSR 222 greatly improves the usability of JAX-WS as compared with JAX-RPC. The deployment model has been greatly simplified by WS-Metadata 1.0 JSR 181 and an improved 1.2 release of WSEE JSR-109.

Chapters 1 and 2 review these JWS standards in detail and describe how they improve on the previous set of JWS standards. Chapters 3 through 10 focus on writing code. To really understand the power and ease of use of the new Java Web Services, you need to start writing code. And that is primarily what this book is about. Chapters 3 through 10 are packed with code examples showing you how to best take advantage of the powerful features, avoid some of the pitfalls, and work around some of the limitations.

Chapter 11 looks to the future and offers some ideas, along with a prototype implementation, for a WSDL-centric approach to creating Web Services that might further improve JWS as a platform for Service-Oriented Architecture.

I started writing this book in 2002, when JAX-RPC first appeared on the scene. I soon ran into trouble, though, because I wanted it to be a book for programmers and I had a hard time writing good sample code with JAX-RPC. Four years later, when I started playing around with beta versions of the GlassFish Java EE 5 application server, I noticed that things had significantly improved. It was now fun to program Web Services in Java and I recommitted myself to finishing this book.

The result is a book with lots of code showing you how to deal with SOAP, WSDL, and REST from inside the Java programming language. Hopefully this code, and the writing that goes with it, will help you master Java Web Services and enable you to start using Java as a powerful platform for SOA.
About This Book
An Unbiased Guide to Java Web Services for SOA

My primary goal in this book is to offer an unbiased guide to using the Java Web Services (JWS) standards for SOA. Of course, any author has a bias, and I admit to believing that the JWS standards are quite good. Otherwise, I would not have written this book.

Having admitted my bias, I also freely admit that JWS has weaknesses, particularly when it comes to the development approach known as Start from WSDL and Java. As you will see described in many different ways in this book, the JWS standards present a Java-centric approach to Web Services. That approach can be troublesome when you need to work with established SOA standards and map your Java application to existing XML Schema documents and WSDLs.

In such situations, it’s helpful to be able to take a WSDL-centric approach to Web Services development. In this area, JWS is less strong. Throughout the book, I point out those shortcomings, and offer strategies you can use to overcome them. Chapter 11 even offers a prototype framework, called SOA-J, that illustrates an alternative, WSDL-centric approach to Java Web Services.
Written for Java Developers and Architects

This is a book for people who are interested in code—primarily the developers who write systems and the architects who design them. There are a lot of coding examples you can download, install, and run.

Being a book for Java programmers working with Web Services, the discussion and examples provided within assume you have a working knowledge of Java and a basic understanding of XML and XML Schema. You don’t need to know a lot about SOAP or WSDL to dive in and start learning. However, as you go along in the book, you might want to browse through an introductory tutorial on WSDL and/or XML Schema if you need to firm up your grasp on some of the Web Services basics. Throughout the book, I offer references to Web sites and other books where you can brush up on background material.
Knowledge of J2SE 5.0 Is Assumed

This book assumes you have a basic understanding of J2SE 5.0—particularly the Java language extensions generics and annotations. If you are not familiar with generics or annotations, you can learn all you need to know from the free documentation and tutorials available at http://java.sun.com.

Don’t be intimidated by these topics. Generics and annotations are not hard to master—and you need to understand them if you are going to do Web Services with Java EE 5 and Java SE 6. The reason I have not written an introduction to

Designing and Building Enterprise DMZs by Hal Flynn

Product Description

This is the only book available on building network DMZs, which are the cornerstone of any good enterprise security configuration. It covers market-leading products from Microsoft, Cisco, and Check Point.

One of the most complicated areas of network technology is designing, planning, implementing, and constantly maintaining a demilitarized zone (DMZ) segment. This book is divided into four logical parts. First the reader will learn the concepts and major design principles of all DMZs. Next the reader will learn how to configure the actual hardware that makes up DMZs for both newly constructed and existing networks. Next, the reader will learn how to securely populate the DMZs with systems and services. The last part of the book deals with troubleshooting, maintaining, testing, and implementing security on the DMZ.

· The only book published on Network DMZs on the components of securing enterprise networks

· This is the only book available on building network DMZs, which are the cornerstone of any good enterprise security configuration. It covers market-leading products from Microsoft, Cisco, and Check Point

· Provides detailed examples for building Enterprise DMZs from the ground up and retro-fitting existing infrastructures
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #648084 in Books
Published on: 2006-09-28
Format: Illustrated
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
656 pages
Customer Reviews

large, but not well executed
i used to install firewalls as a consultant, and i spent a lot of time looking at varius configurations. in the intervening years, i've had the chance to keep current and examine a number of firewall devices for new features, configurations, and also look at some of the changes new technologies (ie WiFi) have brought. all in all, i think i was was pretty well prepared to look at "Designing and Building Enterprise Dmzs" from the angle of someone who's a moderate level firewall user.

i think it's fair to say that i'm disappointed in this new volume from Syngress, for numerous reasons. but before i get to the nits and complaints, i'll start with what i did like.

the book is large, nearly 700 pages of text covering a number of major commercial firewall products, such as checkpoint, nokia, microsoft, cisco, juniper netscreen, and sun. i like th fact that the authors were ambitious (more on that later), you do wind up with a lot of information in a single volume. if you've read firewalls books before, like the canon from oreilly, then you know a lot about firewalls, but you've probably understood that things are changing. new technologies require new solutions, and new offerings have hit the market. firewalls are now more abundant, more feature filled, and this book does a good job of tackling these products with, often, a good attempt at key coverage.

what i also like about this book is that it's not only about technologies, it's about management and about network layouts. this book doesn't pretend that there's one network, but instead shows how various approaches for various needs can be applied. the authors try to show you how each product's features can support those requirements, and what technologies can be used to guard access or secure hosts in a DMZ. this isn't just a book about firewalls and products.

ok, on to the complaints. you know a book is bad when you spot errors such as a bad CIDR specification for RFC 1918 address space (table 1.4), lots of port lists, and a brief primer on "servers" an services buried deep in a chapter on security cisco routers (chapter 11, page 540). i suspect the last point is due to the numerous authors in the book and a failure to find a cohesive structure, but that's a major failing of the book. it doesn't find a consistent voice and doesn't provide consistent coverage of the topics.

some chapters spend more time reviewing marketing materials for products (ie the chapter on juniper netscreen devices, chapter 9) than on getting down to a real feature comparison. this is a real failure of this book. the authors have a chance to cover all major commercial firewalls out there in a clear and unified way, taking an approach that can unify solutions across all, and haven't done so. you wind up with inconsistent coverage and have difficulty in finding the same information in any of the chapters. it's very tough to have multiple authors writing a book, but the editors should have budgeted time to provide a cohesive voice or enforced coverage standards. the reader would have benefitted dramatically for that.

as is often the case with syngress books, the screenshots are too often poorly done. again, this seems to be a function of the chapter and, i'm presuming, the author (based on their stated strengths in the intro to the book). the chapters using web-based and UNIX tools are often filled with poor quality, full screen screenshots that are illegible due to the scaling. the chapters on windows-based tools often have only a small window as a screenshot, enabling better legibility. care needs to be taken for these sorts of things.

the quality of the writing is ok, but it could be better overall. again, a function of the authors, i think, and not a strong editing job. often the writing is not very clear or well organized, and overall the book suffers for it. there's some good info in here, but it's buried under unclear and poorly organized text.

you should look over this book carefully if you're thinking about buying it. this will probably target people in large, heterogeneous environments or people studying for exams. i doubt someone will have all of these technologies in their production environment. however, if you want to see a lot of different firewalls compared, this is worth looking at, but be cautious about buying it.

Information Revolution : Using the Information Evolution Model to Grow Your Business by Jim Davis

Product Description

A strategic model for identifying, evaluating, and improving information use

"Fundamentally changes how you look at the role of information technology and takes it to the leadership level, which is the only way for business performance to be maximized in this global economy."
--Ron Milton, Executive Vice President, Computerworld

"Information Revolution is truly a must-read for those who generate, support, and make decisions for their respective organizations. By the way, that would be everybody."
--Bob Schwartz, Vice President and Chief Information Officer,

Panasonic Corporation of North America

"As this book clearly describes, information management advances both through evolution and intelligent design. The ideas herein will help any organization avoid extinction!"
--Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor and Director of Research, Babson College

"This model captures the best practices from the early stage of Business Intelligence development through the most sophisticated environments where the value and nature of information is unquestioned. All of us should strive to reach the final level. And now we have the ultimate guide to help us get there."
--Claudia Imhoff, President, Intelligent Solutions, Inc.

"Managing a successful Business Intelligence effort requires a long-term view and this means leaders must have a methodology to guide them as they navigate their organization through the BI evolution. Information Revolution provides the prag-matic road map all executives can understand and follow."
--Irving Tyler, Chief Information Officer, Quaker Chemical Corporation

"Information Revolution is the perfect blend of 'what,' 'how,' and especially 'why.' This book is a must-read for those driven to excel in this information-based world, instead of being another 'me, too' along for the ride."
--Bruce Barnes, former chief information officer, Nationwide Financial Services

"Information Revolution provides a powerful framework for assessing the current state of your company's systems and its decision making capabilities. It then presents a clear process for moving your systems and your company toward an adaptive and innovative enterprise."
--Michael Hugos, Chief Information Officer, Network Services Company
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #206203 in Books
Published on: 2006-01-09
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
224 pages
Editorial Reviews

Review
"Any finance executive who has used business intelligence or analytical tools will find it an easy read." (Business Finance, October 2006)

Michael Hugos, Chief Information Officer, Network Services Company
This book presents a clear process for moving your systems and your company toward an adaptive and innovative enterprise.

Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor and Director of Research, Babson College
This book clearly describes information management advances through evolution and intelligent design. Ideas herein will help any organization avoid extinction!
Customer Reviews

Interesting
Ant interesting book about information management in an organizational holistic approach. Good tips and reflection.

Incomplete
This book is more of a workbook than a stand alone book. It appears to be best used as part of a workshop for someone who is willing to set aside a considerable amount of time to provide detailed answers to the hundreds of questions they pose. Additionally, the material is superficial. The 5 steps they propose for evolutionary growth suggest linear, step-wise growth and ignore realities of large, complex organizations that may have elements of all 5 stages. The model appears to be applicable to well defined commercial entities. It is not always clear what the research is based on, and it is not clear how applicable results may be to government or non-profit entities.

Real World Wisdom
This book goes WAY beyond the surface. It gives practical advice to succeeding by effectively using corporate information.