Lukas Svoboda: Strategy, Architecture, Governance & Technology

Following the canning of the PDC 2007 this year, it has been announced that PDC 2008 will in October 2008. I personally went to PDC 2003, but did not manage to get to PDC 2005. For those who don't what PDC is it's the "Professional Developers Conference" for Microsoft Technologies. Don't let the rather misleading name fool you, as much as there is a developer focus it's also focused heavily on architects and future planning. PDC is completely different to the Microsoft TechEd conferences as it focus on the future roadmap of Microsoft technologies (often years into the future) and focuses on demonstrating working prototypes. In PDC 2003 I got my first copy of Vista (Then called Longhorn) with working versions of all the current .NET 3.0 framework including a then working prototype of WinFX. I was completely blown away at that point with the technology Microsoft had planned – and as we know Microsoft took another 4 years to fully release Vista. So that gives you a taste of the type of information you're going to get wind off. I hope to be there!

Over at Rod Drury's blog there is a massive debate on Microsoft's Open XML standard desires. Very interesting reading indeed.

Hi folks, apologies for the delays – I know a few of you have been waiting for this post – but here is the PowerPoint from the session I did at TechEd NZ 2007 on Best Practices for Software Development Teams.

Download it from this link – its 8 Megs. If you plan to use to beyond just your personal reading, all I ask is that you let me know (LUKAS AT SVOBODA DOT CO DOT NZ) and give me credit for the content source.

 

Well Microsoft TechEd New Zealand is finally upon us again and it's kicked off well. This year the company my company Fronde is a major sponsor and I've had the pleasure of putting our stand together. I was at TechEd this morning but I've gone and found some peace and quiet to prepare for my session which is on Wednesday around team system best practices (I'll blog more later today…). If you are at TechEd, go checkout the stand, we have a professional masseuse to ease your conference tensions, prize giveaway of 1 Gig USB hard drives and iRiver music players. The stand also features video testimonials of our employees and customers.

Apparently the private beta of Vista SP1 was leaked recently. There is an interesting view of this Service Pack here at APCMAG.com. The article is particularly interesting around the issues of speed of Vista and the fact that the service pack drastically increases the performance of vista.

Very interesting article in Computerworld regarding some of the frustrations that IT managers will face with allowing access to corporate resources from the iPhone. Just listening to the Apple strategy of the device shows it is very consumer orientated and certainly not a player in the enterprise. It's interesting to see how this strategy will work for Apple in its quest for mobile dominance. This strategy is distinctly different from the likes of RIM and Microsoft, who have been solving the corporate problem before attacking the mass consumer market. My prediction is that the iPhone will get a lot of attention for its looks and cool factor (typical response to anything Apple by the majority of consumers and Apple knows it) but will get a massive thumbs down when it comes to corporate integration. By the time Apple works this out, RIM and Microsoft will have copied all the cool features and be out with devices that are as cool but have much better corporate integration feastures. All-in-all, an interesting IT space to watching.

If you have been following my personal blog (www.kiwibohemian.com) you might know that I've changed jobs having moved from Optimation to Fronde. At Optimation I had the title of Managing Principal and I was supposed to be doing strategic consulting (not much eventuated) but I ended up mainly focused on building the Microsoft Practice. Having moved over to Fronde I'm now no longer doing any active practice building (Fronde has a fantastic Microsoft capability already well in place) and instead focusing on Strategic Technology Consulting. Anyway, to cut a long story short – My focus has changed. I'm now focusing on Enterprise Architecture again and linking EA to Solutions Architecture as my day to day job. Part of my new focus is to pick a few key IT areas and I've tentatively decided to focus on Service Orientation, User Experience and to a lesser extent Microsoft Enterprise Technologies. To this extent I'm thinking I might refocus and even rebrand this blog around these areas. Any thoughts from blog land out there? Would it make this blog any more or any less useful? And yes it is 4am good Friday. Too many exciting things keeping me from sleeping J

Okay, it's pretty slim - but this post on techcrunch hints that a competitor to google apps may well be on the way from Microsoft. Personally this doesn't surprise me in the least. In fact I would be more surprised if MS wasn't doing it.

Apparently Microsoft has delivered a mysterious white space Internet devices to the FCC in America for testing. This device could be hugely significant as it aims to use the "white space" or gaps in unregulated radio bands to provide ubiquitous Internet access. Something like this will leave the teleco's quaking in their boots as it would completely bypass their stranglehold on connecting to the Internet. The implication is free wide spread access to the Internet. Bring it on I say. More coverage at MarketWatch.com.

Maybe I keep my head in enterprise tech too much, but did you know that Microsoft has free accounting software available? You can view details and download from the IdeaWins website. I don't know a lot about it, but I sure will be reading up on it now!

Update: it's focused on home and small business, however the features are quite intensive. Worth a look if you are a small business and need something quick!!!

My new pet project has gone live tonight: ARCast NZ. Check it out at the following address:  http://www.arcast.co.nz/

ARCast NZ is an official offshoot of Ron Jacobs' International ARCast. Since 2005, Ron Jacobs has been interviewing architects all around the globe and giving insight into the world of architecture. ARCast NZ is hosted by yours truly and is focused on the software and infrastructure architecture community in New Zealand. I intend to do at least one cast a month looking at relevant issues in the local NZ architecture community.

The Microsoft eToilet - the integration of the Zune and your fecal waste... Coming to a bathroom near you!

 

 

 

Recently Ron Jacobs, (Blog is here) toured New Zealand to give a couple of talks to usergroups on Service Orientation and a few other interesting topics. Ron as part of his job at Microsoft runs Arcast - a community podcast for Architecture and Architects in the Microsoft space. While he was NZ, we caught up and he interviewed me for Arcast. It all came about from a conversation I had with him after one of his talks - that basically I said SOA needs to become more radical and more pervasive as a design and technology philosophy. The overview of the talk is:

"When web services first came about, most people wondered if they were really the right way to go. After all performance wasn't great for some things and the wire format of text/xml was rather large and bulky. Over time we came to think of SOA and web services as the same and developed ways of thinking about architecture that worked in this model. With the release of WCF however, this point of view is changing. Now it is possible to think of your applications as a collection of services both internally and externally. A radical concept you say? Why yes, it most definitely is and that is why today we bring you an SOA Radical - Lukas Svoboda. "

The Arcast post and topic overview is here, and you can download the podcast directly from here. Also currently listed at the top of the Microsoft Resource Architecture Centre

Thank you to the fine people at Microsoft Community Support - I've been confirmed as an Architect Microsoft MVP again for 2007. For information on what an MVP see the Wikipedia listing, the Microsoft MVP faq and my MVP profile. My profile is a *little* out of date.

If Office 2007, Vista 2007 (with Windows Media Centre) wasn't enough - .NET 3.0 has also RTM'd. You can download .NET 3.0 directly from this link. A busy few weeks for Microsoft!!!

Probably old news to most, but Windows Vista and Office RTM versions are released on MSDN. More at this link

Mai-lan's Visio Blog on MSDN blogs has an excellent stencil for basic web service design including the famous "Microsoft" Web Services icon. I use it a lot personally in my diagrams as an image and it's good to finally find it as a vector based visio icon. Find it on this blog post

Article by Mary J Foley on what makes Google tick (She is a well known MS commentator, so there is plenty of contrast againest Microsoft).

One of the fourm replies, which is just hilarious!!! 

Just came across this fascinating video at YouTube. Microsoft takes the Apple Ipod and repackages it according to current Microsoft packing conventions. The results are hilarious but do illustrate Microsoft's general tendency to overemphasize every single little product feature and cram information into it's packaging. Interesting video illustrating some points that Microsoft should consider in it's branding for for the future - especially with the whole Zune release coming soon.

"Yamazaki" or as it's better known: Windows CE 6.0 has been released to market. Windows CE 6.0 will be the base platform for the next version of Windows Mobile. Press information is here, and from Mike Hall's Blog the following is some basic info on new features:

1. Operating System architecture.
   • CE 6.0 now supports upto 32k processes with 2GB virtual memory per process (CE 5.0 supported a maximum of 32 processes with 32MB Virtual Memory per process)
   • Operating system processes moved to kernel space (GWES, Device driver manager, file system manager are all in kernel space - improves performance)
   • New Kernel mode and user mode driver model (CE 5.0 only supported user mode drivers) - kernel mode drivers for performance, user mode drivers for stability - plus you can now have multiple instances of the user mode driver manager (hey, you have upto 32k processes!)
   • Strict partitioning of user mode and kernel mode (no SetKMode!)
2. Tools - The CE 6.0 development tools are integrated with Visual Studio 2005 - this gives you one tool to configure, build, download, debug, and test the operating system and the same tool to write your native (Win32, MFC, ATL, WTL, STL) or managed (C#/VB) applications.

3. Technologies - more information on supported operating system technologies will be made available at launch.

I joined Optimation NZ over a year ago now and since then as Managing Principal I have been focusing on building a team of Microsoft consultants in Auckland. The focus rather than being that of a development team is instead a focus on activities such Architecture/Design, Project Management, Analysis and Microsoft Product Implementation. In recognition of my efforts, I've now been awarded the additional role of National Microsoft Practice Manager, which means I horizontally oversee our Microsoft capability through Optimation's technology, software and managed services teams right across New Zealand.  

In more Microsoft release candidate madness .NET 3.0 has rearched RC status. The link is not yet posted on MSDN as far as I can see, but a quick google search reveals this Microsoft downloand link to download the RC.

Coverage of this can be found on Microsoft Watch.com and ActiveWin.

Over the weekend NZ Time, Windows Vista RC1 was finally released. Full details are on the Vista team blog. Summary details here:

Jim Alchin writes:

"To the TechBeta community:

It’s official — Windows Vista RC1 is done!

We could not have achieved this milestone without your support. The quantity and quality of feedback and data we received from you has been essential to helping us progress. Thus we wanted you to be the first customers outside of Microsoft to get access to the bits. Next week, a broader set of technical customers will get them via MSDN and TechNet. But you’re the first! We wanted to get it into your hands asap so you can start giving us feedback right away.

You’ll notice a lot of improvements since Beta 2. We’ve made some UI adjustments, added more device drivers, and enhanced performance. We’re not done yet, however — quality will continue to improve. We’ll keep plugging away on application compatibility, as well as fit and finish, until RTM. If you are an ISV, RC1 is the build you should use for certifying your application.

The operating system is in great shape with RC1, but there’s still a lot of testing to do. You’ve come through for us so far, and I’m asking you to once again put the pedal to the metal and send us feedback. Windows Vista is going to touch hundreds of millions of lives all around the world. Thanks for everything you’re doing to help us give them the best experience possible.

Jim"

I've managed to get my mits on an iMate SP6 pre-release model. It feels nice and solid and has some improvements. Some initial things: It's got a 2 Megapixel camera and is 3G capable. Two cameras with one dedicated for video calling, so yes the first imate smartphone with video calling! No Wifi (I suspect it's pushing sh*t uphill to get Wifi and 3G radio stacks into a unit so small). Check the pictures out (thanks to supermondo camera phone photographer Adam Green) for some pics of yours truly with it. This is the first full featured Microsoft smartphone in my opinion. Not only is it an amazingly compelling application platform but with a high spec'd camera and a decent data connection some very interesting applications are possible!

As promised, here is my presentation from TechEd 2006 - How to Get Your Grandmother Building Missile Defense Systems. The files are 2 Meg downloads each.

ARC213-SVOBODA-Part1.zip (2.1 MB)

ARC213-SVOBODA-Part2.zip (1.97 MB)

Just putting the finishing touches on my presentation for TechEd. I'll be doing it on Wednesday at 3:45pm. A preview of my opening slide:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, Day 1 at NZ Microsoft TechEd 2006. I'm presenting day 3 at 3.45pm on the following topic:

"How to get your Grandmother building missile defense systems".

Great title, but what does it really mean? So the abstract is as follows:

How do you create the conditions where moderately skilled developers can build high quality software?

Join Lukas Svoboda as he examines several case studies at Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner Optimation where they built and consulted on high quality, self-sufficient software architectures that could adapt to changes in staff, requirements, and budget.

Lukas shares what Optimation learnt, and explains how they approach projects using tools and techniques such as Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, Visual Studio 2005, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation and the Microsoft Software Factory initiative.

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In addition to this I'm going to extend the concept of "Grandma" to more than just moderately skilled developers - I'm going to talk about aligning your whole approach to technology and making sure both ends support each other. So the grandma concept extends to everyone involved in the software project right from your business stakeholder through to your architects, developers and testers. I'll finish up with recent and emerging MS technology that supports gets things done better and then close with some case studies from the past year.

Hopefully my philosophical thinking should be useful information for people who are stuck trying to get meaningful software development while finding their way through all the new MS Technology.