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Red Hat Information Technology has created a new middleware architecture for our internally-developed applications. Although many of our internal applications take advantage of open source solutions, we have historically used tools such as Tomcat and Perl on a standalone basis and not taken full advantage of our JBoss application stack.
We’ve defined our new middleware architecture based on JBoss technology. This includes an Enterprise Service Bus implementing a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA); Seam, the JBoss integration framework; the JBoss Business Process Modeling suite (JBPM); and Drools, the JBoss rules processing environment.
The entire stack runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, taking advantage of the operating system tools for virtualization, provisioning, configuration, and other functionality. The full technical architecture incorporates Cobbler/Koan, JBoss SOA, Xen, LVM, Git, and more.
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I was pleased to see that Red Hat is ranked number 12 on the CIOZone list of rapidly growing software companies.
See the full list at The 60 Fastest Growing Software Companies.
We’ve established our Information Technology objectives for our 2009 fiscal year, which just started. Last year we used a fairly lengthy list of objectives in eight or nine categories. Although it gave us a useful view of all the things we wanted to accomplish, we found it somewhat hard to focus on a large number of goals.
This year, we are taking a simpler approach and organizing our objectives in four categories: Enable the Business, Grow Our Capabilities, Improve Process Discipline, and Deliver Financial Transparency. In each of these categories, we have a set of specific objectives. We developed measurements for the objectives at a recent IT leadership meeting.
The four high level objectives are designed to support the overall goals of Red Hat for the fiscal year. Within each, IT associates and their managers will establish goals relevant to their specific responsibilities.
Throughout the year, we will review our progress against the objectives and adjust as necessary.
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I just reviewed David Carr’s article on the top 50 open source tools for CIOs to consider. It provides another perspective on how CIOs should view open source and how the environment for open source solutions is changing rapidly.
The economic challenges faced by most organizations reinforce the need to invest in value-oriented, highly functional open source products. Carr notes that you may also have an opportunity to better manage the open source tools that are already in your enterprise.
The selections reinforce the reality that whether you are considering Linux as an operating system, web services and application stacks, end user tools, wikis and content management systems, databases, programming tools or other applications, there are great open source solutions available. Read the full article at 50 Top Open Source Resources CIOs Should Know (And Maybe Love).
We’re using many of these open source solutions to run our business at Red Hat. We’ve found them to be both flexible and cost effective. They enable us to achieve our goal of driving innovation in Red Hat’s business.
For some thoughts on appropriate open source solutions for your personal applications, see my post on Migrating Your Personal Application Portfolio.
Over the past few weeks, my assistant and my team have convinced me to use Instant Messaging (IM) or chat services for team collaboration. This is not new to me: we used IM as a communications tool when I was at Capital One. I even used IM from time to time during my first months at Red Hat. However, I found that I was away from my computer often enough, and busy enough, that taking the time to change my work style didn’t seem to be worth the effort.
I have changed my opinion. Since the beginning of 2008, I have worked to be online as much as possible. It has changed the way I interact with my team and with the entire organization.
A new breed of appliance is emerging. Not unlike their kitchen counterparts, the goal in using these appliances is to plug them in and use them, not to spend hours installing them, configuring them, tuning them and maintaining them.
These appliances are built using software.
If you are a CIO, you may already be invested in open source applications at home. Or, like many, you may be a very busy person just using the applications that came with your personal computer, scanner, printer or camera and haven’t really considered the wealth of personal open source applications that are available and ready to use. If you fall in that second group, here are some candidates to get you started.
Mobility has become a pervasive element of information technology solutions. Whether it’s voice, email, text messages, intranet access, applications for mobile devices, support for remote workers, or some other mobile feature, all information solutions are starting to exhibit mobility requirements. Many are already fully enabled for mobility.
The thoughtful Information Technology organization has a strategic plan for mobility and is already delivering mobility solutions to meet the needs of their enterprise. The IT department that is still trying to draw the line at the network firewall risks being left behind.
You may already be heavily invested in the rapidly emerging technology of virtualization. If so, consider some of the ideas below for further exploiting the technology. If not, now is the right time to get started.
Virtualization provides a set of tools for increasing flexibility and lowering costs, things that are important in every enterprise and Information Technology organization. Virtualization solutions are becoming increasingly available and rich in features.
Since virtualization can provide significant benefits to your organization in multiple areas, you should be establishing pilots, developing expertise and putting virtualization technology to work now.
We’ve recently seen a large amount of information in the press regarding information security and what happens when organizations misstep in implementing security procedures and systems. This problem is not going to be solved in the near term. To date, the volume of reports has not diminished public interest. We can expect to see additional incidents and they will become increasingly visible.
The problem requires attention from both technology people and their business partners.
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