e-Zest is Professional Level Partner of VMWare and has a dedicated VMWare competency center. VMWare is the market leader in infrastructure virtualization and accoding to one of the Gartner's researches, its at least 6 years ahead of its competitors in terms of technology innovations. e-Zest has gained extensive experience in implementing the infrastructure virtualization using VMWare vSphere.

vSphere is amazing innovation from VMWare. Its worth spending few minutes understanding its key features and benefits.

VMware vSphere, the industry’s first cloud operating system, leverages the power of virtualization to transform datacenters into dramatically simplified cloud computing infrastructures and enables IT organizations to deliver the next generation of flexible and reliable IT services, using internal and external resources, securely and with low risk.

VMware vSphere infrastructure services transform discrete hardware resources into a shared mainframe-like computing platform that is incredibly resilient and capable of running the most demanding applications with nearnative performance.

Few of the the Key Features of VMWare vSphere:

1. Bare-metal architecture: VMware ESX and ESXi insert a robust virtualization layer directly on the server hardware for near-native virtual machine performance, reliability and scalability.

2. Small footprint: VMware ESXi is a compact, 70 MB form factor of the production proven VMware ESX hypervisor. It is a fraction of the size of a general purpose operating system for unparalleled security and reliability.

3. Server integration: VMware ESXi is available integrated into servers from leading OEM vendors for a simplified boot and deployment experience.

4. CPU virtualization: Run many operating systems and applications encapsulated inside virtual machines on a single physical server for higher utilization, without risking critical processes being starved of compute or memory resources. VMware ESX/ESXi use intelligent process scheduling and load balancing across available processors to manage the execution of virtual machine processing

5. Network virtualization: Network virtual machines like physical machines. Build complex networks within a single VMware ESX/ESXi or across multiple installations of VMware ESX/ESXi for production deployments or development and testing purposes.

6. Flexible virtual switches: Create a virtual network within a VMware ESX/ESXi host with virtual switches that connect virtual machines within the same host as well as the outside physical network. Virtual switches can be created with up to 2040 ports, and every host can be configured with up to 248 switches.

7. Storage virtualization: Abstract the complexity of storage subsystems while centrally maintaining virtual machine file storage for greater flexibility and manageability.

8. VMotion: Live migrate running virtual machines from one server to another with no disruption or downtime.

9. Storage VMotion: Live migrate running virtual machines from one storage location to another with no disruption or downtime.

10. High Availability: Protect against physical machine failures through low cost, easy

to setup VMware HA. VMware HA automatically detects physical machine failure and restarts virtual machines on other physical machines in a shared storage environment.

11. Scalability and extensibility: Manage upto 300 hosts and 3000 virtual machines with vCenter Server 4.0 and Link many vCenter Servers in your environment with vCenter Server Linked Mode to manage upto 10,000 virtual machines from a single console.

These are few of the key features which VMWare vSphere 4.1 offers. Contact us for a free demo/discussion wherein we can explain you in details the advantages of infrastructure virtualization using VMWare vSphere 4.1.

Author: Satish Agrawal is VP-Cloud Computing Practice at e-Zest Solutions Ltd. (www.e-zest.net) and mentor for Cloud Computing Professionals in and around Pune. His mission is to build core competencies at e-Zest in the domain of Cloud Computing for enterprises and ISVs and deliver best values. e-Zest Cloud Computing Practice provides complete cloud computing solutions from assessment to design to deployment to operation and adaption to evolution.

The next big thing is predicts as ‘Web 3.0’ is inseparably close to the term ‘Semantic Web’. Something which essentially means that search engine’s usability and effectiveness to be increased to the extent that it should make one believe that the whole internet is conspiring for you to reach to the information that you need at the least possible your keyboard, mouse or eyeball movement.

There are many new promising search engines geared-up to ride on this next wave of IT revolution, with HTML 5 inherent capabilities and auto tagging techniques we hope to see more structured content generation, with web 2.0 phenomenon a lot of UGC and content tagging would further help the web transforming into a semantic web, however we can’t expect the legacy content to be tagged and structured at the same time we can’t live without that content.

In this case I see only two directions:

1. The content which is not accurately tagged is anyways old and might become irrelevant over a period of time, so it does its natural death (It will still be indexed and searched by our best friend google!)
2. The content that’s useful and usable will be transformed into a structured content.

What interests me how this transformation of content is going to happen? I think it’s going to happen in following ways:

1. Next gen search engines are having NLP based categorization and auto tagging mechanism, that’s where we might see real-estate search engine, music search engine, video search engine, since it’s such a big world to categorize and arrange all the information in a reliable way.
2. Another way this is going to happen is new group of entrepreneurs are going to sought an opportunity to act as data aggregator, indexer and presenter, in short creating more friendly content for next gen search engines.

Probably history is set to repeat itself, Yahoo style directory services where categorization of content ( instead of websites previously) is going to be back so will be data scraping, since all you wish to categorize is content and not the application/ program that is generating that output, recalls the days of mainframe based screen scraping, isn’t it?

Today, there is a high demand for Rich Internet Applications (RIA). RIAs combine the maturity, stability and scalability of service orientation with state of the art presentation layer technology to create the next wave of web based distributed applications. RIA applications are defined as the combination of beautiful aesthetics and the feel of desktop applications with the accessibility feature of the web applications. These applications include several features which counter the disadvantages of traditional websites. For an end user, RIA applications serves the best of client-server and web technology, making it imperative for all the small and mid-size businesses, large scale enterprises and even government entities to adopt.

RIAs are implemented into a working system to provide better results to all visitors. These applications are designed, executed and implemented with a view of increasing the overall productivity of the website. By adding RIAs, website developers append a number of flexible features to a website and make it more vivid and alive. With RIAs, websites become more appealing, interactive and responsive and hence have become cutting edge solutions to enhance the way a business operates.

Currently websites and desktops are rapidly moving in the RIA application development direction. Flex development along with many other platforms is used to add RIA applications to a website. In the present world many different types of platforms are available – Adobe Flex/Air, Google Web Toolkit (GWT), JavaFX and Microsoft Silverlight. Each have some of the best features making it difficult to judge which one is the best.

Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex applications are different from each other in many respects, even though they are developed in a way, look very much similar. Flex development is the process of using a collection of web tools, technologies and run time environments to create better RIA solutions. It includes Adobes Integrated Runtime (AIR), Flex SDK and Add-on Components, Adobe Flash Player Runtime, Flex Builder and Server Side Integration Service.

One of the reasons Adobe Flex has become so popular is because of its versatility. Adobe Flex is a software development kit (SDK) based on the Adobe Flash platform. Adobe Flex is used for the development and deployment of cross-platform RIA. The additional advantage of Adobe Flex is that it is an open source framework and by using flex compiler and adobe Flash builder RIAs can be easily developed. Flex development encourages better presentation of business information through rich graphical presentations, multimedia and animated displays. It is a program that can do extraordinary things. Adobe Flex can help build a website from the ground up or if you are trying to design intricate animations, design a highly interactive application or building interfaces for a variety of users, build on existing code or starting over from scratch.

Flex offers a number of remarkable benefits for both developers and end-users, including:

· Record development time due to powerful coding tools and extensive visual component library

· Innumerable good features make it ideal to develop enterprise level applications.

· Solution scalability and reliability due to a powerful and elegant Flex programming model.

· Flex-based solutions are easily re-designed or enhanced whenever it is necessary.

· Easy integration into a server application due to a high-performance data synchronization engine between the client and server sides.

· In-context interactivity due to video, audio, streaming, and messaging components.

· Flex components like Charts, DataGrid, RichTextEditor, ProgressBar, Accordion, Slider etc make Flex development very easy.

All this makes Adobe Flex one of the best RIA development platforms. RIAs have since been widely adopted and proven to deliver tangible ROI to the businesses that deploy them. Measurable benefits include higher customer conversion rates, increased user productivity and improved customer loyalty.

e-Zest’s (www.e-zest.net) dedicated team of (RIA) experts has extensive experience in building interactive & efficient Rich Internet Applications (RIA) development solutions to a global client base. e-Zest offers services that enable its clients to effectively communicate and share their ideas, products and services with their global customers. Our RIA services include Adobe Flex & AIR, Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Microsoft Silverlight, CURL, OpenLaszlo and JavaFX. We offer custom solutions according to needs of the clients.

In the recent past the Indian economy has gone through major ups and downs and has also witnessed many controversies. It has led to enterprises adopting to GRC — or Governance, Risk Management and Compliance. In an economy like India where outsourcing contributes a major chunk to IT industry business, GRC has evolved from being desirable to unavoidable.

The three components – Governance, Risk and Compliance are connected, and yet at the same time they are separate entities that require their own strategic steps and procedures. With compliance requirements becoming mandatory, many companies have been aggressively discussing the implementation of Governance Risk & Compliance as a key strategy. The frequency and urgency of these discussions have increased significantly as global competition has shifted the speed of business into overdrive. To enterprises that are able to see the long term survival as part of their business plan, GRC is a welcome framework to operate in a dynamic world where IT runs just about every aspect of their business and the nature of risks and threats are also ever-changing.

The GRC market is gaining significant momentum leading to an enterprise-wide view of the risks associated with all lines of businesses and geographies. The GRC market in India continued to grow in 2009. The recent Forrester Research Report quotes that the GRC technology industry comprising of software, consulting and related services is currently growing at 24% year on year and is slated to grow from $2.6 billion in 2009 to over $24 billion in the next five years.

The enterprises are increasingly turning to GRC solutions to both improve visibility into their enterprise-wide risk posture and automate compliance processes. GRC helps meeting security best practices and protecting business-critical information. Combined with rich vulnerability data and compliance intelligence gathered across the entire IT infrastructure, GRC becomes even more effective.

Businesses are dependent on technology to automate processes in order to remain competitive and operate efficiently and effectively. However, these new opportunities create new risks and threats to the business. These risks and threats are both internal and external. All stakeholders like partners, client, shareholders etc would require that information systems must have adequate internal controls and are effectively addressing security challenges. This is where enterprises can leverage a well established GRC process to monitor security issues as well.

The enterprises today demand effective governance, including enterprise risk management, transparency, accountability, and optimized performance to ensure they receive risk free sustainable results. In IT business, GRC primarily focuses on information security and quality. GRC empowers enterprises to identify and analyze many risks that can affect the organization. Identifying preventive steps reduces the likelihood and magnitude of adverse impacts.

e-Zest offers a fully integrated suite of GRC solutions. e-Zest’s GRC competency team holds both business domain and technology expertise to deliver successful GRC solutions as per the clients’ needs. Our GRC services include GRC-Outsourced Product Development services, Custom/Bespoke Application Development, GRC Application Migration/Re-engineering services, GRC Product Implementation services and GRC Application/Product Integration with BPM/ERP Solutions. e-Zest’s On-Demand GRC solutions provides security features that strengthen the information environment without constricting flexibility and efficiency.

Certified Scrum Master Stephen Forte will be presenting a half day seminar on Agile Development, Tools and Teams on Wednesday February 24th at the MCCIA in Pune. The event is brought to you free by e-Zest, MCCIA, and Telerik. Seats are limited, to sign up in advance, please email seminar@e-zest.net.

The Program Details

One of the most popular Agile project management and development methods, Scrum is starting to be adopted at major corporations and on very large projects. After an introduction to the basics of Scrum like: project planning and estimation, the Scrum Master, team, product owner and burn down, and of course the daily Scrum, Stephen (a certified Scrum Master) shows many real world applications of the methodology drawn from his own experience as a Scrum Master. Negotiating with the business, estimation and team dynamics are all discussed as well as how to use Scrum in small organizations, large enterprise environments and consulting environments. Stephen will also discuss using Scrum with virtual teams and an off-shoring environment. We’ll then take a look at the tools we will use for Agile development, including planning poker, unit testing, and much more. There will be plenty of time for Question and Answer. This seminar is a jump start for a certified scrum master exam. 

Who Should Attend 

Developers and development managers, especially those using the Microsoft .NET platform. 

Schedule and Agenda

The Speaker

Stephen Forte is the Chief Strategy Officer of Telerik, a leading vendor in .NET components. He sits on the board of several start-ups including Triton Works and is also a certified scrum master. Prior he was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and co-founder of Corzen, Inc, a New York based provider of online market research data for Wall Street Firms. Corzen was acquired by Wanted Technologies (TXV: WAN) in 2007. Stephen is also the Microsoft Regional Director for the NY Metro region and speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on application and database development including Programming SQL Server 2008 (MS Press). Prior to Corzen, Stephen served as the CTO of Zagat Survey in New York City and also was co-founder of the New York based software consulting firm The Aurora Development Group. He currently is an MVP, INETA speaker and is the co-moderator and founder of the NYC .NET Developer User Group. Stephen has an MBA from the City University of New York. Stephen currently lives in Hong Kong and will be returning to Mt. Everest again in September 2010. 

Final Details