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CloudCamp MSP 2010

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Big thanks to the “Georges” from enStratus, and Jeff Brand from Microsoft for organizing another great CloudCamp event!  It was very eye-opening to compare this year’s event to the 2009 CloudCamp, as it was obvious that many attendee’s opinions of the cloud has shifted over the course of a year.

At CloudCamp MSP 2009, the majority of the conversations revolved around what the cloud was, what it was not, questioning security and availability, and how organizations could get started reaping the benefits from this new phenomenon.  This year, however, the focus shifted to discussions around how organizations are using the cloud, how they’ve mashed-up best-of-breed cloud applications, and understanding what benefits different cloud service providers - such as Force.com, Amazon, and Google App Engine - provide.  The most tell-tale sign that the perception of the cloud has changed - especially related to security concerns -  was realized by a single tweet from @geekandi: “whoop! Security breakout has 3 people now! :)”.

With this kind of a shift in a year, any speculations on what CloudCamp MSP 2011 will bring?

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Posted in Application Development, Architecture, Cloud Computing, Cloud Integration, Development, Force.com, Innovation, PaaS, SaaS | No Comments »

Building Architecture vs. Web Architecture

Friday, October 30th, 2009

My wife and I have recently decided to take on the treacherous plunge into one of the most time-consuming (second to having a child, of course) tasks: remodeling our house.  We’re taking our 1950’s one-story rambler into a two-story - a pretty awesome transformation thus far.  The remodel process reminds me of the parallels between building architecture and Web architecture.

I’ve often used building architecture to explain the purpose of Web architecture documents/deliverables, and thought it was worth sharing.  Three of the most common pieces of documentation when we’re designing a Web app include a data model, wireframes, and technical specifications.  Here are the explanations I use:

Data Model: Just as the foundation of the building is one of the most important components of a stable building, a sound data model is one of the most important foundations for building a Web application.  Defining a data model which is scalable yet stable will allow the application to grow while assuring maximum performance and up-time.

Wireframes: Architectural building drawings are an extremely useful and efficient way to communicate so many aspects of the building design between the customer and architect.  The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” proves very true here - in a single page, overall layout, window and door locations, room flow, and many other aspects are communicated.  Wireframes serve a similar purpose.  They allow the customer and Web architect to be talking the same language by viewing a rough mockup of all pages/screens within a web application and understand the the overall layout, page flows, etc.

Technical Specifications: Most homeowners are aware of where their lights and light switches, sinks, and heating/cooling vents are located (sometimes defined in the building drawings); but most aren’t (and don’t care to be) aware of the wiring, piping, and venting behind the walls.  The technical specifications is the plumbing, electrical, and venting behind the scenes - the technical stuff that ties everything together.

I find these comparisons help clients who are not as familiar with designing and building Web applications to understand the purpose of the documents produced during the design phase.  Hopefully they will help you as well!

Posted in Application Development, Architecture, Business Requirements, Web / Internet | No Comments »

Force.com Free Edition

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

On Monday, Salesforce.com releaed their force.com Free Edition (FE): an edition which offers 100 licenses, one application with up to 10 custom objects, 1 GB of storage, and one site via their Sites offering (also just released out of limited release and now generally available as of Monday).  Pretty cool offering, but what are the benefits and how can it be used?

Force.com FE is probably best described by what it doesn’t offer, which is the first point mentioned in the Force.com Free Edition FAQ:

“Salesforce CRM functionality is not included in Force.com Free Edition. The following Salesforce CRM standard objects are not included: Accounts, Contacts, Campaigns, Leads, Opportunities, Forecasts, Products, Cases and Solutions.”

Even without those objects, you can create up to 10 custom objects to meet your application’s needs.  The power of this offering is in the benefits of the force.com platform like scalability, security, reliability, analytics, offline access, mobile deployment, data model modifications through a point-and-click interface, etc. - which give your development project a jump-start - and all for free!  Take a look at their Force.com Free Edition FAQ for more info.  It’s an amazing offering from salesforce.com, and surely one we’ll consider for our clients’ upcoming projects.

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Posted in Force.com, Salesforce.com, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Risk Management and Planning - A SaaS PaaS Success story

Monday, May 25th, 2009

I just rolled off a 6 month project in which we built a SaaS application on the force.com platform: SaaS on PaaS on SaaS . The project was 6 months plan to  launch! It’s amazingly clear the value of detailed and focused risk management and proper planning around these risks to be successful on this type of work.

To put this project in perspective for those that aren’t familiar with the force.com platform - according to Nucleus Research - this project would have taken nearly 2.5 years on a traditional platform - 4.9 times as long. The project launched without any major glitch, and the reason for success is worth sharing.

Sometimes when teams are so overwhelmed they forget to look up and scan the waters for what lies ahead.  I always equate the managing and leading of web projects to a captain of an imaginary row boat going down the river.  The lead knows the waters, understands the dangers, has plans for navigation around rough waters, and has contingency plans if things go awry.  Most important, however, is that the leader communicates and collaborates with his/her team; and in this case, before the team launches their boat into the river.

There’s a great lyric I’ve always believed held very true, and think it applies here: “Perspective pries your once weighty eyes and it gives you wings.”  Perspective provides the insight into risks and planning around those risks or challenges.  We definitely gained perspective, and without a doubt, it helped us rock this project.

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Posted in Cloud Computing, Force.com, PaaS, SaaS, Salesforce.com, Web / Internet | 1 Comment »