Van Grembergen and De Haes (2009) focus on enterprise governance of IT and define this as “an integral part of corporate governance and addresses the definition and implementation of processes, structures and relational mechanisms in the organization that enable both business and IT people to execute their responsibilities in support of business/IT alignment and the creation of business value from IT enabled investments”. (Source: Wikipedia)

Most companies already have some sort of IT Governance in place to streamline their technology investment with their business objectives and vision. IT plays a major role in today’s business environment and with the acceptance of utility computing (also known as Cloud Computing) there are some new threats that need to be considered.

Cloud Security

In a time where companies use to own their entire IT infrastructure, the security was the sole responsibility of the IT department. It has been predicted that more companies will be adopting some sort of Cloud Computing in the next few months and years especially from mid-size companies. As services are provisioned from third party companies, the security of the application and data are no longer the internal IT department sole responsibility. Any security breach on the provider’s infrastructure would also leave the company data at risk from unauthorised access. Companies have to make sure that the third party provider’s security policy is in line with their own IT Security policies. Most providers do not share their cloud security policies especially in a multitenant environment such as Google Apps and Salesforce.com. Public clouds are exposed to the internet therefore prone to direct attacks from hackers. Companies have to consider what data their host in the cloud and apply the same internal security principles to it.

Local Government Laws

Local authorities have their own laws and regulation about data. In Europe there is the Data Protection Directive which must be observed by all EU countries. In the United Kingdom, the Data Protection Act 1998; this defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people, have to be considered when moving to the cloud. Your company should ask the provider where the data will be stored (or physical location of the server). Countries have different laws regarding the processing of data, if you users are predominantly from the UK, then their data should be stored in UK or EU data centres. The US has different laws which are not compatible with the European laws. Consider the recent case of Megaupload which the FBI has ordered the destruction of all their data even though Megaupload is a company based in Honk Kong. So ask yourself what would happen to your users’ data if the same had to happen to your company? In short, UK users should have their data stored in UK and make sure that your provider provides the facilities to do so. If you are running on an Amazon EC2 instance which is in the US then the US laws would apply.

Conclusion

Cloud computing brings many benefits to businesses but with every opportunities there are risks. Companies are cutting cost and therefore they are looking for the best way to increase revenue reducing fixed cost. When moving to a cloud environment, companies should review their IT Governance policies. While trying to reduce cost, company can open themselves to threats, laws and regulations of their based countries. If laws are violated, they will be heavy fine or in the case of megaupload; this can lead to the company closing for business and criminal case. Carry out due diligence before engaging a cloud provider or you can get in touch with us.

The problem with productivity tools is that all they all promise to make your life (as developer) a lot easier. I would guess that 99% of Java developers use some sort of the productivity tools (remember that your favourite IDE is a RAD tool).

The Face Off

In this post, I want to briefly discuss the productivity claim of Spring Roo and NetBeans 7.1.

Even though they promise no vendor lock-ins, Spring Roo (Not STS) is more or a less of an add-on for Eclipse based IDE for Spring based projects. For the brevity of this post, we will assume that your environment is already setup and working fine.

1. The creation of projects – Spring Roo requires that you create your projects on the command line
2. Entities – this is the task that kills productivity even in Roo. When creating a project from scratch, you need to type the name of your entities and metadata at the command line. Even for a Greenfield project, I am sure that not many developers start cooking without an idea of what they are trying to make. Creating entities relations at the command line is error-prone, which takes us to the next argument
3. Model your entities and their relationships in a third party tool such as MySQL Workbench. MySQL Workbench provides the facilities to create entities and generate the tables directly on a MySQL server
4. Back in Roo, you can now reverse engineer your database and create entities in one single comment (wOw!!! LOL)
5. You have to let Roo know that the project should be setup for the web ( I don’t know exactly how many Spring project are not web based but that number must be meaningless)
6. GWT setup – this is my favourite part it works 99% or maybe 98% as it creates the proxy, request and ui classes. This is where it breaks; Roo adds custom finder methods for the entities that GWT does not support. Your productivity will go down the drain if you are working on a project with many entities and multiple one-to-many and many-to-many (complex) relationships and no AspectJ experience
7. The Roo project can be edited in your favourite IDE as long as it supporst Maven (NetBeans support out-of-the box) and AspectJ (No support in NetBeans therefore no code completion).

Right now let’s see how be more productive by carrying out the same tasks directly in NetBeans 7.1+:

1. NetBeans has a wizard to create a new web project
2. You can connect directly to a MySQL or Oracle DB and create a database with tables (you can also launch MySQL WorkBench directly from NetBeans)
3. NetBeans provides a wizard to create entities from a database
4. NetBeans provides a wizard to create JSF pages from your new entities

Conclusion

Don’t feel bad for yourself if your favourite IDE is NetBeans and you can’t utilize the full features of Spring Roo. The fact is that it is not proven that Spring Roo increase developers productivity (even on GWT based projects with reverse engineering DB tables). To make best use of Spring Roo you will need Spring STS but NetBeans IDE has most and even more features that you can use to increase your productivity. My view on Spring Roo is that is overrated and I have not noticed any productivity gain in comparison to using other tools.

Prerequisite

In order to follow this tutorial you will need the following software;

1. NetBeans 7.1
2. Java SDK 7
3. Maven 3 (I know that NetBeans 7.1 comes bundled with Maven but I will recommend you to install a standalone version)
4. Spring Roo 1.2.0 Release

I am currently running MS Windows 7 64-bit and I had some issues with Maven; Maven would hang when downloading dependencies. A workaround would be to download those dependencies and move them to directory manually.

By now, you should be familiar with your tools therefore I am not going to take you installing each piece of software.

Let’s get started

1. Create a new directory name springroo-tutorial
2. Launch your OS command prompt and navigate to your new directory “cd springroo-tutorial”
3. Type roo (make sure that you have setup Spring Roo to be available in your system path variable)
4. Type project –topLevelPackage com.etapix.springroo.gwtwebapp –java 6 (force the compiler to use Java 6)
   
5. Setup a database by typing persistence setup –provider HIBERNATE –database HYPERSONIC_IN_MEMORY
   
6. Create a new entity as follow entity jpa –class ~.domain.Speaker –testAutomatically
   
   1. Create some fields for the new entity
      
      1. field string –fieldName fullName –notNull
         
      2. field string –fieldName email –notNull –regexp ^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$
         
      3. field string –fieldName city
         
      4. field date –fieldName birthDate –type java.util.Date –notNull
         
      5. field string –fieldName bio
         
7. Create another entity as follow entity jpa –class ~.domain.Presentaion –testAutomatically
   
   1. Create some fields
      
      1. field string –fieldName title –notNull
         
      2. field string –fieldName description –notNull
         
      3. field string –fieldName speaker –notNull
         

Let’s set Roo for GWT

1. type: web gwt setup
   
2. type: web gwt all –proxyPackage ~.proxy –requestPackage ~.request
   
3. type: logging setup –level DEBUG (this is useful for correcting errors)
   

Let’s move to NetBeans (Make sure you do not exit the Spring Roo shell)

1. Click on “open project”
2. Browse to springroo-tutorial folder – Netbeans will recognize it as a Maven project
3. You can build the project by right clicking the project name => build
4. To run the project as a GWT hosted project
   1. Right click on project name
   2. Click on properties
   3. Click on action button
   4. Create a new action
      1. Type gwt:run
      2. OK

         

          

   5. Right click on the project => custom => Run GWT Mode

That’s all folks!!!

Hope this tutorial helps.

What is Mobile Business Intelligence or Mobile Intelligence?

Mobile BI refers to the distribution of business data to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers (source: Wikipedia).

Mobile BI is not just about distributing data to mobile devices but providing information that mobile workers will need in order to make critical business decisions while away from their desks. ETAPIX eGlobal Business Intelligence suite provides business analytics and metrics available on popular smartphone and tablets such as iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Java 2 ME enabled devices. The same information available on their desktop will also be displayed on their mobile devices while on the move without sacrificing user experience.

How can you secure your data on mobile devices?

Security should be part of any software architecture and IT strategy. eGlobal Business Intelligence for mobile devices delivers data to mobile devices through Cloud delivery and native applications. IT department can decide where they want the data to reside. The application encrypts the data between the client and back-end services so to provide an enterprise-grade security.

Mobile Business Intelligence applications have evolved from being a client application for viewing data to a purpose built application designed to provide information and workflows necessary to quickly make business decisions and take action.

eGlobal Business Intelligence mobile soultions

Mobile Browser Rendered App (Mobile Web App)

eGlobal BI for mobile can be delivered as a Mobile Web App using the latest in web technology.

Customised Mobile Application

The Business Intelligence information is delivered in a device specific format. The information is provided in a way that make best use of the device real estate and functionality.

Mobile Client Application

This is the most advanced mobile delivery system as the application will use the full power of the mobile device by providing full interactivity and periodic caching of the data which can be viewed and even analysed even offline.

Companies across all verticals, from retail to even non-profit organisations are realizing the value of purpose-specific mobile applications suited for their mobile workforce.

Call us today for a demo of our eGlobal Business Intelligence Mobile Edition or a free proof of concept.

Business Intelligence allows organisation to better understands, analyse, and even predict what’s occurring in their overall environment and in their company. Business Intelligence helps your organisation turn data into useful and meaningful information and distributes this information to those who need it, when they need it, wherever they need it – so that they can make better and timely informed decisions. It allows company to combine data from a wide variety of sources and see an integrated, up-to-date, 360 degree view.

We have compiled the top 5 Business Intelligence considerations in choosing a vendor. This article focuses on Etapix Global eGlobal Business Intelligence product.

1. Vendor stability

It is important in choosing a Business Intelligence product that you evaluate the vendor stability; what will happen if the vendor disappears or merges with a larger vendor? We, at Etapix, understands this importance that is why we always use industry standard and provide our source code to our client free of charge. Our company was setup in 2006 and since then we have never looked back. We continue to innovate so that our clients can gain a competitive edge in their market.

2. BI consolidation

There are growing numbers of Business Intelligence products installed within organisations. Unlike most vendors, we do not sell just one part of the product but we provide a full end-to-end solution so that companies do not have to waste valuable time purchasing pieces of software from different vendors. Our Service Oriented Architecture makes it possible for our product to integrate with third party applications and vice-versa. We will consolidate all your Business Intelligence applications into a single product – eGlobal Business Intelligence.

3. User Friendliness

To increase user adoption within the organisation, eGlobal Business Intelligence was developed from the ground-up with an intuitive user interface. Users can tailor the look and feel to their way of working. Our interactive dashboards and animated charts helps user better visualize the information and collaborate on it the way they are used to as on their favourite social network site.

4. Time to Deploy

Companies do not want to spend months to implement their chosen Business Intelligence solution; after all companies buy BI solutions because they want answers now. Etapix eGlobal Business Intelligence can be deployed in days not months and users can get familiar with it in hours not weeks of training.

5. Deployment Model

Businesses are more cautious about how they spend their departmental budget or remove the stress of having to maintain and look after another system. Etapix has always been at the forefront of technology and therefore has built all their solutions to be made available on premises and in the cloud as a software as a service offering. Our cloud solutions are not run in a multi-tenancy architecture so we can better secure our client data from threats.

We hope that the above information gave you an idea about our solutions. Call us today for a demo or proof of concept.

It is embedded with the advance java features like eclipse and netbeans which make it one of the dreaded programming software to design templates and starting pages for any application s and websites. The most common applications which run close to the Java FX are Microsoft silver light and Adobe Flex programs.

JavaFX is one of the powerful scripting languages which can be used to create rich graphical interface for devices. JavaFx runs inside the java virtual machine which enables to bind it with suitable function and utility which increase the UI interface.

JavaFX seems to unleash a rich internet application interface which is handy for the developers to combine the basic API and compile the declarative scripting language into one to form rich interface for the clients.

The enterprise rich internet application development by java enables the users to have a platform which is rich in content and have a sturdy framework to develop programs which are more sophisticated and flawless. The open source mode of this JavaFX also proves to be one of the major boon for this language as one has to just get the general user license and start scripting using it unlike other software’s which need to be bought before using.

The basic problem one may face from this JavaFX is the mode of loading which it shows during runtime. You have to wait and wait when you click on the applet as it shows a screen that the data is loading but in real sense it does not shows the original time required for loading and opening of this applet.

After these entire one can still get the most out of this java application as it delivers:

Platform to crate more advanced content: One of the most secure platform to develop rich internet applications

Use of java tools: As the use of Java has spanned form each of the devices this application can easily team up with other applications easily and help in better audio, video and sound clarity. The regular patches and other applications are developed day by day to meet the requirements.

Minimum development cycle: Java FX helps to create and differentiate between different section for logic, ideation, design and testing which helps in rapid prototyping and enables faster testing to check out for any loopholes.

Minimum project risk and maximum compatibility: As this comes from the stable of the java family any one who is familiar with the java developing frame work can easily work on these applications thus enabling maximum use of the in-house manpower and talent.

Thus the JAvaFX serves the requirement of the enterprise who want to come with rich internet applications.

The VMware Zimbra is available in two modes for the client is one is the open source platform and other is in closed source platform with enhanced features and some path breaking concepts. The Vmware zimbra is full version collaborative suite which offers the client to integrate the mail, calendar, and group documents in one interface.

The Vmware zimbra uses IMAP and POP3 server for its proper functioning. Vmware zimbra is useful for the small businesses as it can synchronize easily with most of the open source mail clients and also with the Microsoft outlook and apple mail. It can also be synced with the new age modern Smartphone mail system and help in transferring the data easily. Vmware zimbra can sync with the blackberry windows, iphone and android phone easily.

TheVMware zimbra works best to suit the needs of the customers who are looking to switch to the clod computing technology. It enables easy transfer of all the required documents, mail and calendars which is somewhat not possible on the other mail servers.

VMware zimbra offers open source application for its clients which can be used to test, deploy and customize the feature which they want for a long term. The basic model of this application helps in open source email setup and collaborating data in one framework.

For small businesses it is always necessary to look out of the box solutions which can help in cost cutting and deploying some unique products which can enhance there product value and market. most of the firms are now offering solution which almost suits the needs of the client in all basic forms. The only thing one has to do is to choose the correct mode of applications.

The VMware zimbra collaboration suits offer our clients a:

• Rich sharing platform with AJAX or web2.0 which increase the chances the search, tagging and increases the RSS feeds.
• Easier framework to easily collaborate with the internal intranet and internet settings automatically to transfer data easily.
• Supports a broad range of email client which are used by customers worldwide
• One can chose their personal interface to enhance the look and product portfolio

Availability at lower cost:

• Web delivery mechanism which enables freelancer and personals to remain attached with this system all the time.
• A stringer anti spam and anti virus software is embedded inside
• It has a strong internet security features which does not require a VPN and saves money.

Zimbra uses the special MIME format for storing the messages on the disk which make them safe and secure from any threats. It also supports all the standard protocols to transfer the data like POP3, IMAP, icalendar and HTTPi.

Cloud computing is divided in to three parts:

Software as a service (SaaS): in this service the software which is delivered over the net comes under the cloud computing domain.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Serving any company to just use the server with its own software and tools is termed as IaaS.
Platform as a service (PaaS): When only a service platform is used by a client than it is called PaaS.

The cloud computing may be private or public. A public cloud computing refers to companies which are selling its space and providing its services to customers at a reasonable cost. In private cloud a company is operating a cloud which is authorized to be access by authorized persons only.

The major advantage of the cloud computing is the pay for use style mode which enables any user to pay for the amount of data allocation used.

The cloud computing may be further break down into three segments which are applications, platform and infrastructure.

The application sectors seems to be gaining more development and boost in the start of the cloud computing. Companies are cutting down in there infrastructure cost by investing money in the cloud computing server rather than investing in on site server which requires time and proper maintenance and up gradation from time to time.

Cloud computing also enables the user to have on demand software and applications which can be directly embedded in the server and ready to use in no time. Expert are always maintaining the server which lowers the risk of spy ware and spasm which always hit the small firms and systems and results in loss of productive time.

In cloud computing one can also use the multiple open source suites and collaborative software which will get distributed automatically to the users who are in the network. Use of open source framework is one of the best approached business model by companies today to overcome the risks and inventory costs involved in purchasing these software’s from the software firms.

Companies which are offering the software as a service are some of the renowned companies which have built major applications in the past which has changed the way of work. IBM, Google, Netsuite and sales force are some of the major service provider of cloud computing in the market.

It is now easier for the small businesses to opt for a comprehensive package of cloud computing as some of the major services providers over the net are doling are these services.

A shift to the cloud computing by companies in near future will change many myths and try to form a new rule in the networking arena. It will create new subcategories from the hardware manufacture and ISP provider who were previously doing this same job under different domain.

Web has always been the forefront where major companies have developed solutions to meet the ever growing demands of the clients. On the other hand the mobile application development started on the framework of the web design but later on shifted to newer languages and technology and developed its own niche in making suitable and faster application in no time.

The basic difference may lie in the fact that a HTML5 or any web development tool which is used to generate a program can run over the numerous number of the system and operating  platform whereas the native apps has a limitation that either it will run on android or symbian or other OS developed for the mobile platform.

The difference in development in native apps and web application is the SDK used for designing these applications. The web applications uses all the major tools to design and develop the application interface whereas native apps uses newly designed codes and frame work to link and make a rich user interface.

These applications are also designed keeping in the mind the difference of the hardware on which they are going to run. Most of the native apps will run on Smartphone’s which have a 512 MB RAM and processor which are built to perform smaller functions. The input mode is through trackball and optical track pad.

Although the aesthetics the look and the appeal of the application matters but the real work is generated from the ease with the application performs and what time count it takes to run. As it is said that all thing which is beautiful could not turn out be intelligent same may happen with the application built around native apps.

Without any doubt one can say that web development has still not received its peak and still a lot mere better applications need to be generated to tackle the ever-growing solution. And these native apps and web developments both have different path to cater as both will work for efficient management of the technology in near future.

Sooner or later we may see a mix or a hybrid solution where the best features of the native apps and web development tools are mixed to form a formidable programming unit which can offer a wide range of functions.

The development in this field will depend on the business realities and requirement and whichever will showcase the future in monetary terms will win the race ahead. The discussion of the native versus web tools like HTML 5 will seem to exist when one of them will be leading the market in terms of users and developers.

The major security concern starts from the fact that the customer data fully lies on the server of the service provider. The program and data both lies in the private premises of the service provider. This is an open source framework design which offers major loopholes for the security breach.

Dangers and risk associated with cloud computing:

In cloud computing the major risk is associated with the loss of privacy of the data, theft of crucial information and disruptive services which can time again damage the work flow.

Some of the risk are any program may turn into malwre and erase or damage the data in the server. Some hostile program can cause damage to the communication link.

The common requirements of any company for data security are confidentiality which means data is not reproduced or generated by any unauthorized persons, integrity which means data is present in a system in proper format and cannot be modified by any unauthorized person, availability of data for unlawful or malicious purpose is not feasible and a agreement that data which is electronically generated has some legal bindings.

Security levels required in cloud computing are:

In cloud computing security is required at various levels and some of the levels are

• Server access security features
• Internet access security features
• Database access security features
• Program access security feature
• Data privacy security features

The ways in which one can tackle the risk associated with the cloud computing are:

Use of video surveillance system for the database security and intrusion by any means of malware and codes must be stopped at the beginning level itself. The employee who has been terminated or whose work with data center is finished must be denied with the access route to safeguard the data. There should be proper tracking software for the person who is using the data from the server and proper tools should be installed in the server to authenticate the proper use of data from time to time.

One should always keep track of the location of the data which is being used for various purposes. The server center must be known to the user and proper legal agreement must be binding both the parties for any unlawful use of the data by any persons. All the personal information which is provided by the user must be safeguarded by the laws to prevent any malicious use of the passwords and other relevant information.

Backups of the data must be taken from time to time prevent any fatal crisis which may damage the whole data. The administrator should have all the remote access to the data wherever it is stored.