You say “Late”, I say “Delayed”

Ronald Schmelzer at ZapThink wrote a recent ZapFlash titled, “Why Service Consumers and Service Providers Should Never Directly Communicate.” Yes, I agree, the title is way too long, but you should read it anyway. The basic premise of this one is that there is a need for a service proxy to protect your investment in SOA. I’ll save my kudos and comments for another post, but in general I agree with Ron and his vision of SOA and the need for a proxy/intermediary to prevent the loss of loose-coupling and destroy the reusability of services.

What I really got excited about in this ZapFlash was the use of the term “late-binding”. That’s because the terminology – and the technology it describes – are so very similar to what the application delivery world calls “delayed-binding”.

Read more at: F5 DevCentral

F5 Networks Announces Winners of Second Annual DevCentral iRules Contest

iRules Winners — Customer Division

* First Place iRule: “reverseproxy_webmail_prod” by Jamey Price (USA)

This iRule provides reverse-proxy functionality for a set of Lotus Notes 7 servers to provide webmail to end users. The results of developing this iRule were reduced configuration complexity as well as avoidance of previously unacceptable performance provided by alternative solutions. According to Jason Bloomberg, a contest judge and Senior Analyst with ZapThink, “The cookie manipulations make this iRule especially interesting.”

Read more at: F5 Press Release

F5 Announces Second Annual iRules(TM) Contest to Highlight Innovative Application Delivery Networking Solutions

On December 12, 2006, prizes will be awarded to the top three entries in both customer and F5-affiliated reseller categories. Judging will be conducted by an expert panel comprised of industry leaders including:

• Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group
• Abner Germanow, IDC
• Jason Bloomberg, ZapThink
• Ronald Schmelzer, ZapThink
• Jason Rahm, 2005 iRule Contest Grand Prize Winner
• The F5 DevCentral team

Read more at: F5 Press Release

F5 Networks Announces Winners of iRules Contest

“We were impressed not only with the breath and depth of applications submitted for the contest, but especially with the real-world benefits the deployments delivered for each organization,” said Ron Schmelzer, Senior Analyst with ZapThink and a contest judge. “While many of these entries address challenges that could be resolved by recoding applications, it is significant that people are solving them with iRules instead. By choosing iRules for these functions, it is clear that this technology provides a variety of advantages in terms of cost reduction, productivity increases, or improvements in security, reliability, accessibility and performance over other alternatives. In some cases, these entries resolve issues that cannot be addressed in the application and also enable new possibilities not available in existing technologies.”

Read more at: Business Wire

BorderWare’s Threat Detection and Response Solution Wins F5′s DevCentral iRule Contest

Industry expert judges include Lori MacVittie of Network Computing Magazine, Joel Conover of analyst firm Current Analysis, and Ronald Schmelzer and Jason Bloomberg, both of analyst firm ZapThink.

Read more at: Business Wire

Layer7′s customer base, technology of interest, CEO says

Layer7 has good technology, and will likely attract interest as the XML security market undergoes further consolidation, said Ron Schmelzer, an analyst with ZapThink.

Read more at: Merger Market

IBM acquires DataPower

“DataPower’s product suite of integration, security and performance appliances will fill various holes within IBM’s broad SOA offering,” says Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst at research firm ZapThink. IBM is acquiring the sales leader in the application-oriented networking market — and a company that already has a solid relationship with IBM’s software, hardware and services groups, he says.

Read more at: NetworkWorld

SOA — Crossing the Application/Network Boundary

“SOA – Crossing the Application / Network Boundary”

Guest Experts: Jeff Browning, Product Manager, iControl (SOAP/XML API for network devices) and Steve Orrin, Chief Technology Officer, Sarvega

Topics:

• What impact does SOA have on the network?
• How can application developers consider network assets as a Services and resources they can consume?
• …
  

ZapThink on SOA, the PDC, and the role of the network

F5′s Jeff Browning gets the scoop on how Microsoft is addressing SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), important topics companies need to keep in mind, and where you can get more info and resources about SOA.

Read more at: F5 DevCentral

F5 Networks Announces iRules Contest Showcasing Application Fluent Solutions

Judging for the iRule contest will begin September 1, 2005 by a panel of leading industry press and analysts, as well as the F5 DevCentral team of iRule experts. Industry expert judges include Lori MacVittie of Network Computing Magazine, Joel Conover of analyst firm Current Analysis, and Ronald Schmelzer and Jason Bloomberg, both of analyst firm ZapThink. iRule entries will be judged on a weighted scale that combines innovation, creativity, and business applicability.

Read more at: F5 Press Release