JP Morgenthal

SOA Sessions at Cloud Expo Thanks to @jadkins for the colorful ending to that cliched saying, which really got me thinking. Sometimes we just make certain aspects of architecture too difficult for no reason. Good design is important and can have significant financial impact if done incorrectly, but chances are the negative impact comes into play during the engineering effort, not during the architecture. To clarify my point, one must first understand what architecture is really focused on and how that differentiates from engineering. For example, if we're designing a solution for financial services products. I can choose to take a framework approach to architecture in which we identify the common financial services components, such as securities and instruments and ex... (more)

The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics

Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. The really interesting thing about economics is that getting the right answer requires that you pose the right question. That is, if you choose to make conclusions based on casual observations of explicit... (more)

Cloud Computing Was the Big News of 2009

Early Bird Registration Cloud Expo This time of year is a great time to reflect upon the last 12 months and see what has occurred as well as discuss the impact of the events on this year and next. The Big News The big news in IT this year has to be Cloud Computing. Like the result of a Gremlin fed after midnight, Cloud Computing turned into the Stripe of the IT world. As pundits and vend... (more)

Two Critical and Oft Forgotten Features of Cloud Services

An interesting facet of advancement is that it tends to limit know-how over time. At one time the mechanic in your local garage could take your entire engine apart, fix any problem and put it back into running order. Today, they can put a computer on the end, read a code, and hope it provides some understanding of the problem. Similarly, the application server revolution has unfortunatel... (more)

My Experience Developing A Google Wave Robot

Google Wave on Ulitzer This past weekend I set out explore some of the extension capabilities of Google Wave. One of the weaknesses that have been identified by many is the lack of integration with email. For me, in particular, because Wave is new, many Waves are being orphaned as those playing and testing out Wave don't come back to the conversation for long periods, if at all. My goal w... (more)