Mani's blog: Mani Chandrasekaran's Weblog

Sun Announces OpenSSO Express Support

July 23, 2008—Sun today announces comprehensive, enterprise-class support and indemnification for OpenSSO, the open source code-base from which Sun Access Manager is derived. And Sun is making its Sun Access Manager offering even more attractive to enterprises by extending support to also include OpenSSO Express, early access versions of the next Access Manager release that have been fully tested and certified by the OpenSSO community.

More details are available at http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/2008-0723/index.jsp They already seem to have Alcatel-Lucent as an OpenSSO user, thats great !! I think, we have a lot of opportunities for OpenSSO in India

A free MySQL camp is being scheduled in Bangalore on July 29th 2008. Please see http://blogs.sun.com/amitsaha/entry/mysql_camp_in_bangalore_july for more details. The agenda looks good. Also, of interest, the MySQL user group in Bangalore is being launched.

Good news. From Jim Parkinson's blogs http://blogs.sun.com/jpblog/

Linked from Jim's blog ...

Software available here

Documentation at: http://wikis.sun.com/display/CommSuite/Sun+Java+Communications+Suite+Information

On July 22nd we announced the availability of Java Communications Suite 6., which includes the new Convergence web client,push e-mail support and a host of other features. These new capabilities and enhancements make Communications Suite 6 an even stronger alternative to Microsoft Exchange, while enabling leading Telco and cable companies to provide their subscribers with seamless new services leading to increase customer growth and delight.

The Sun Java Communications Suite delivers industry leading email, calendaring and real time collaboration functionality for service provider and large organizations worldwide. It provides an extensible, standards-based development platform, offering improved performance, reliability and scalability at a lower TCO.

Communications Suite Components
Services

• Message access and message management
• Calendar Service and group scheduling
• Instant Messaging, Presence and Chat
• Centralized Address Book

Access

• Sun Convergence – a complete webclient
• Outlook Connectivity
• Mobile Sync

Administration and Configuration

• Delegated Administration
• New Communications Suite Installer

What's New

This Communications Suite release includes many new features, including:

• Sun Convergence communications client
• New subscription-based pricing model for point products
• New Messaging Server features include:
• Very large mailbox support
• Message store database rolling backup
• Additional LEMONADE support for mobile messaging

and more ......

Please come give it a test drive at http://commsuite.demo.sun.com:7080/iwc Userid : field1 / Password: cosmo

Or to learn more : www.sun.com/comms

When I started getting involved in Sun Comms (and Messaging server), one of the key resources I have used are the Sun blogs. One blog, I used to regularly read/refer was by Jonathan Hawkins. Just came to know, that Jonathan Hawkins, passed away, after fighting cancer. My deepest sympathies to his family. I have never met Jonathan, but this is an instance of a person's influence and knowledge, spreading far and wide around the world, by virtue of his work. Long live Sun blogs !!

From the Bhagavad Gita ...

    For certain is death for the born 
    And certain is birth for the dead; 
    Therefore over the inevitable
    Thou shouldst not grieve.
        Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2
        (250 BC - 250 AD)

Two great pieces of information in "The Register":

• Sun's Niagara 3 will have 16-cores and 16 threads per core - 256 thread per socket rocket
  By Ashlee Vance in Santa Clara
  Exclusive Sun Microsystems looks poised to lead the "mainstream" multi-core race for at least a couple more years. By late 2009, the server maker should deliver a third major revision of its Niagara processor which will have 16 cores and an astonishing 16 threads per core, The Register has learned.
  read the rest at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/sun_niagara_k2/
• Oracle hikes middleware license fees - The spoils of more
  By Gavin Clarke in San Francisco
  Oracle customers are starting to pay the price for its $23bn plus acquisition spree, with licensing hikes across all core middleware products.
  The database giant is hitting users of its databases and application server software with increases of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in licensing.
  Users of the recently acquired BEA Systems' WebLogic application server that are hit hardest: a WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition processor license is jacked up 47 per cent. Oracle is also introducing new named-user plus pricing for Enterprise and Standard editions.
  read the rest at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/20/oracle_license_increase/

Enjoy Madi !!

We had an event at a major SI, at Hyderabad to cover the 4 S's of Sun (Software-Servers-Services-Storage). We covered the following Software products:

• Sun Software overview
• Glassfish Enterprise Server
• Glassfish page at java.net
• Main Glassfish Blog
• Glassfish performance related stuff
• Sun Portal Server. Did a live demo of Project WebSynergy, and the demo went very well.
• Open Portal page at java.net
• Project WebSynergy - Open Portal and LifeRay collab
• Portal blogs
• Thin Client/Sun Ray.
• MySQL.

It was a productive session, with lots of questions. Only regret, not having time to go out, and eat the famous Hyderabadi Biryani

Its raining new releases at Sun. Sun Microsystems Inc., today announced the immediate availability of Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS) 6, the latest version of its flagship service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business integration software. Sun also released a new master data management (MDM) suite, a high performance and unified solution that gives users a single view of their customer data and helps them more effectively manage customer relationships. Java CAPS 6 is the first SOA platform by a major technology provider built on open source through the Open ESB community at Open ESB.

The following are the salient features of Java CAPS 6:

• Sun Java ESB Suite: Based on Open ESB and JBI, the Sun Java ESB Suite is a completely open and modular platform that enables the rapid creation of composite applications and connects with various components and protocols for a flexible SOA.
• Intelligent Event Processor (IEP): Offers the ability to identify trends and patterns in real-time, enabling organizations to address critical business issues and take corrective actions proactively.
• Business Process Management: Supports BPEL 2, includes new high availability and failover features, and provides monitoring processes through integration with IEP.
• GlassFish and NetBeans (IDE) Software Support: Incorporates the GlassFish Enterprise Server, using industry-leading interoperability with .NET and WSIT/Project Metro as well as the unified and pluggable NetBeans IDE software to provide greater control.

A landmark event, Sun Identity Manager has been released. The following are the features (as given in the download link):

Sun Identity Manager 8.0 offers expanded Role support, enhanced reporting capabilities, and updated resource adapter support. This update improves upon the industry-leading Identity Manager 7.1 solution with:

# Role Enhancements

• Role life cycle management allows approvals on Role creates, edits and deletes, and role changes can be applied to all assigned Users.
• User-to-Role life cycle management improvements support future and temporary Role assignments.
• Default Role types include Business Roles, IT Roles, Applications, and Assets.
• Business Roles can contain required, conditional, and optional roles that allow fine tuning of access within the scope of a Business Role.

# Enhanced Reporting with Data Exporter

• Identity Manager operational data can be available to other processes and applications.
• Data within Identity Manager can be exported to a customer-managed data warehouse or third-party business intelligence and reporting tool.
• Exported data can answer historical questions regarding 'Who had access to a system, and who approved that access?'. It can also show operational behavior over time, such as 'Provision Operations by Resource' and 'Workflow Approval Response Times'.

# Supported Resource Additions and Updates

• Microsoft Exchange 2007 (New)
• Microsoft Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) (New)
• RSA SecurID 6.1.2 (Updated)
• Siebel CRM 8.0 (Updated)
• Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Applications 12 (Updated)
• HP OpenVMS 8.3 (Updated)

# Bug Fixes and Platform Support Updates
For more information about this release, see the Identity Manager 8.0 Release Notes or the Identity Manager documentation set.

General Availability (GA) is scheduled for July 14th. The localized files and documents will be available at that time. Please download and start using it today. Documentation is available at http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/1514.5 .

I have become increasingly involved in proposing solutions around Sun Messaging server (and Comms suite) for various customers, in India . The following are the most commonly requested information, which highlights the attractiveness of Sun Messaging server:

1. Introduction to the product - Product home page and a Sun Comms Suite wiki .
2. TCO - Value proposition for using Sun Messaging server .
3. Sun Messaging server official documentation
4. Partner products for implementing anti-virus, anti-spam
. Another helpful link for implementing Symantec Brightmail with Sun Messaging server and Configuring Cloudmark Anti-Abuse client with Sun Messaging server.
5. Reference customers
6. Archiving and Compliance solution using AXS-One

Updates (June 10th 2008>:
7. Email clients can be Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook (you will need an Outlook connector), basically any Email client which can talk IMAP/POP . Sun Calendar integration with Thunderbird requires the Lightning plugin for Sun Calendar server.
8. Blackberry integration ,Unified messaging (VOIP, Data etc) can be done with partner products

Please also see this blog by Jonathan Hawkins from Sun, for great tips on Sun Comm suite. I hope to keep this post, as a living, breathing post. Hope this helps !!!

In the Sun ISV CxO summit held recently at Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, I had talked (at Chennai and Hyderabad) about Sun's contribution to the Open source world. As a follow-up, I thought it will be a good idea to post links to some useful resources:

1. The Sun SAMP stack (Solaris, Apache, MySQL, Python-PHP-Perl). Some performance numbers for running SAMP are over here.
2. Sun's open source page. A small handy, graphical comparison of CDDL vs GPL vs BSD is given at Chandan's blog.
Let me know, if you have any questions/comments.

The Sun Portal server 7.2 has been released. Download the bits and play with it.
Documentation is available at http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/1483.2

What's New in This Release

The following new features are available in Portal Server 7.2:

• Desktop Design Tool
• Delegated Administration
• Enterprise Edition Installer
• SharePoint Integrated Services
• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Support for Secure Remote Access
• CMS Portlet and CMS Framework
• JSR 286 / Portlet Container 2.0 Support
• WSRP 1.0 Reintegration
• Portal Server 7.2 Samples Consolidation
• Enhancements to Cluster Configuration
• Google Gadgets Integration
• Workflow API
• JSF Portlet Bridge 1.2

From a mailer, I received today:

---

MySQL, now a part of Sun Microsystems, is pleased to announce that David 
Axmark, Co-founder of MySQL and Brian Aker, Director of Technology for 
MySQL, and other MySQL representatives are meeting with customers and 
partner candidates across key cities in India. Exclusive seminars and 
networking events where you can explore the benefits of MySQL Enterprise are 
now available. Admission fee is free if pre-registered. 
 
Topics covered:  
Introduction to MySQL product line  
MySQL Enterprise Demo  
Storage Engines for MySQL  
Introduction to Understanding Replication Development Process  
MySQL Performance Tuning  
MySQL Case Studies  
Deep Technical Q&A  
Networking  
 
----------  
Location: Pune  
----------  
Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2008  
Time: 14:00-18:00 (Registration begins at 13:30)  
Admission fee: Free, if pre-registered.  
Venue: Le Meridien Hotel  
Pre-Registration is available at:  

http://www.reg-express.com/register/registration_mysql.jsp?eml=mysqlpune@sercononline.com&eventid=mysqlpune 
 
Contact - Chintan Khona  
Tel - 022 - 66179180  
Mobile - +91 9870247788  
Fax - 022 - 66179011  
Email - mysqlpune@sercononline.com  
 
----------  
Location: Hyderabad  
----------  
Date: Thursday, May 29, 2008  
Time: 14:00-18:00 (Registration begins at 13:30)  
Admission fee: Free, if pre-registered.  
Venue: Fortune Katriya Hotel  
Pre-Registration is available at:  

http://www.reg-express.com/register/registration_mysql.jsp?eml=mysqlhyderabad@sercononline.com&eventid=mysqlhyderabad 
 
Contact - Sandeep Reddy  
Tel - 040 - 65153371 / 72  
Mobile - +91 9849058074  
Fax - 040 - 23326249  
Email - mysqlhyderabad@sercononline.com  
 
----------  
Location: Chennai  
----------  
Date: Friday, May 30, 2008  
Time: 14:00-18:00 (Registration begins at 13:30)  
Admission fee: Free, if pre-registered.  
Venue: The Accord Metropolitan Hotel  
Pre-Registration is available at:  

http://www.reg-express.com/register/registration_mysql.jsp?eml=mysqlchennai@sercononline.com&eventid=mysqlchennai 
 
Contact - Sivashankar  
Tel - 040 - 64505591 / 92  
Mobile - +91 9790886858  
Fax - 040 - 43532086  
Email - mysqlchennai@sercononline.com  
 
Don't miss this opportunity to meet with David Axmark, Co-founder of MySQL,  
Brian Aker, Director of Technology for MySQL and other MySQL 
representatives. Seats are limited. Register now!!  
We look forward to meeting you!  

I was a proctor for a few labs at the Java One 2008, last week. They are very good and somebody can get started on a new concept/technology very quickly. Please download the labs and lab guides soon.

Have been hopping from one event, to another event. Here are some updates frrom some of the talks, I attended:

1. Attended a talk on asynchronous ajax: Async Ajax or Comet or Ajax Push or Reverse Ajax, is a big thing this year at J1. Gtalk, Gmail, meebo.com are examples of a async ajax. 4homemedia.com, is a async ajax website running on Glassfish. As per the talk, the complet Async support (which supports async I/O, suspendible request/response and elivery guarantee) is best delivered by Glassfish with Grizzly/Comet. of course, I knew that Servlet 3.0, will add Java EE standard support in Async Ajax. This was a fullhouse session !!

2. Another fullhouse session, was on tools for Java performance. The tools, as per the talk were:
a. OS level tools like Dtrace. If you are scared by the complexity of using Dtrace, try Chime and D-Light. Dtrace is limited to Solaris and Mac OS X
b. JVM tools like jps, jmap, jstack and jinfo.
c. GC Histo is another tool for analysing GC.
d. Visual VM is a new tool on the block, which combines all the Java tools in a single integrated manner. This seems very cool.
e. JConsole is another tool. Netbeans also has a good profiler, advantage of using Netbeans is you can step through code.

3. Social networking: Apache Shindig is a apache incubator project, which enables you to do Social networking. hi5.com uses Shindig.

4. A talk on doing HDTV stuff using Java on a PC. Java ATSC receiver is the java.net project, the presenter has promised to post code soon at https://jarx.dev.java.net/.

Two announcements of interest:
1. The Sun app server has undergone a name change, yet again. "Sun Java System Application Server" to "Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server" to more clearly articulate its relationship with GlassFish. There is also an unlimited pricing option for glassfish enterprise server. Please see announcement
Unlimited Pricing for GlassFish Enterprise Server Use
Sun introduced GlassFish Unlimited pricing enabling enterprises to purchase the rights of unlimited GlassFish Enterprise Server use for a flat fee based on the number of employees in the organization. Combined with MySQL Unlimited pricing, the new pricing model makes it easier for customers to purchase two of the leading open source products.
2. Sun and Liferay have announced that they will going jointly to build a new open source based Portal platform. Sun has joined the Liferay Community to develop a common Web presentation platform that incorporates portal and integration technologies from Liferay and from OpenPortal, GlassFish, OpenSSO and other related projects. Please see http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-05/sunflash.20080507.2.xml for the press release, and http://glassfish.org/portal for the FAQ.
I talked to a Sun portal engineer, the next minor release of Sun Portal server 7.2, is still expected to be released as per schedule (sometime in June, I think), dont quote me on this one !!

I am proctoring a session LAB-4520 bring your laptop hand-on lab, Plugging Glassfish V3 with JSF and Jmaki. basically extending the Glassfish admin console, with your own console. There is a prize going for the best/coolest console. Grab the prize India !!

Image Credit: The image is linked from the http://java.sun.com/javaone/sf/index.jsp website.

Now, the Java One kicked off in grand style today. Rich Green, did the honors. The theme of this Java One is, Java and YOU !! What it means, is there is a lot of focus on consumer Java and how it is embedded (not as in embedded programming !!) in our daily lives. I have already seen a million demo's on Java FX by the end of Tuesday evening !! Here are some highlights and links, for some stuff that I thought will be useful :

1. Saw the Amazon Kindle in action. I love books myself, but unfortunately this device may not work in India
The n/w at Moscone, was flaky, shook up a couple of demo's , including this one, which needed n/w connectivity. Amazon Kindle is Java all the way !!
2. See the keynotes at this link.
3. The free goodies at the Pavilion, were disappointing this year. Picked up a few T shirts, nothing great. Can't comment, on what they were giving at the Sun stall, as Sun employees are banned from getting them
4. Neil Young, was the featured guest of the day. Don't ask me who is Neil Young, Google his name (I did the same !!) He has Java-fied his collection of music on his website.
5. Update on new features in upcoming Java 7, check out the Open JDK website.

On a different note, I am trying to pick a Apple iPhone at the Apple retail store in downtown San Francisco, but its getting sold out everyday !!! Is it a scarcity, an artificial scarcity or what?
Gotta go, More later .