Programming Opa: Web development, reimagined

Building a Web application today means using a variety of different software technologies, each executing in a different domain. JavaScript, HTML, and CSS in the browser; PHP, Python, Java, Ruby, or the like on the server; MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, or any of a growing list of database servers as your persistent storage back-end. With Opa, an open source Web development technology from the French company MLstate, building a Web application tomorrow could be much more straightforward -- and safer.

By Rick Grehan | 01 February, 2012 22:07

Tags: application development, mysql, php, software, web development

First look: Zend's PHP developer cloud

When you consider the cloud, you typically imagine a realm of deployed, production applications. Zend Developer Cloud (ZDC) adds a twist: ZDC creates a place in the cloud where PHP-based applications can be developed for the cloud. No more developing locally, then deploying into the cloud -- ZDC pushes both into the ether.

By Rick Grehan | 11 January, 2012 22:06

Tags: application development, cloud computing, Development Environments, engine yard, heroku, internet, paas, php, PHP Web, software

First look: Amazon RDS gives you a MySQL server in the cloud

Amazon's Relational Database Service (RDS) creates a MySQL database server in the cloud. 

By Rick Grehan | 08 December, 2009 22:11

Tags: Amazon RDS, cloud computing, mysql, servers

Cloud control systems tame the ether

Signifying a formless haze of computing power and storage that is somewhere "out there," computerdom's current buzzword is as difficult to get one's arms around as a real cloud. A seemingly limitless pool of processors and memory and disk space, and you just scoop out what you need. Sounds great, doesn't it?

By Rick Grehan | 03 July, 2009 03:56

Tags: cloud computing

More specialty Linuxes to the rescue

The day of the mold-your-own OS has come, and Linux is the clay.

By Rick Grehan | 25 February, 2009 08:19

Tags: Linux

Specialty Linuxes to the rescue

Linux is, among other things, a customizable operating system. Clever developers can craft a Linux whose kernel and packages are configured for a specific purpose, to serve as a sort of vertical-market operating system. The benefit to users is somewhat akin to walking into a hardware store. On the shelves are tools, each suited to a specific task. And it's particularly nice that all the tools are free.

By Rick Grehan | 12 November, 2008 09:22

Tags: Linux, open source

Diving deep into Amazon Web Services

Amazon's Web Services (AWS) are based on a simple concept: Amazon has built a globe-spanning hardware and software infrastructure that supports the company's Internet business, so why not modularize components of that infrastructure and rent them? It is akin to a large construction company in the business of building interstate highways hiring out its equipment and expertise for jobs such as putting in a side road, paving a supermarket parking lot, repairing a culvert, or just digging a backyard swimming pool.

Hooking your apps into Amazon Web Services

Connecting your application into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) isn't complicated, particularly if you've done Web service programming on other projects.

.Net comes to WebSphere Portal

In the beginning, Mainsoft released Visual MainWin for Java EE, which compiled .Net CIL (Common Intermediate Language) code into Java bytecode. As technically fascinating as that was, on its own it provided limited traction. Much of Microsoft's attractiveness to the enterprise goes beyond its .Net languages and runtime frameworks. It is Microsoft's enterprise applications such as SharePoint and SQL Server that -- for many enterprise programmers -- make the .Net environment worth using. A tool that simply moves .Net code into Java moves that code out of reach of Microsoft's enterprise applications.