From Pete's Desk:.

What is SOA?

"It's All About Loose Coupling of Relationships....Buddy."

To our clients and friends,

Over the years I have often been asked how many languages I speak. I always reply soberly: Thousands. In the past, my career has been marked, high-jacked, ambushed and sideswiped by industry phrases. New, alien languages seem to jump out of nowhere. They become industry standard and from there, they grow to haunt me. All you need to do is attend a meeting ... they're talking about obscure things ... and when a voice comes out of the dark and says, "SOA," you ask yourself, "God, please help me; what is SOA?"

I've done a little research in an effort to make the world a better place to live. I have tried to find a conceptually simple way to explain SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture), and better yet, to show you how complex this monster can be. I have provided you an architectural overview of the beast. There is no doubt that there are great benefits to SOA, but be sure you know what you're getting into.

By the way, if you are learning this new language, consider finding someone who really knows what they're talking about to help. That's why we have decided to showcase Adriano Gonzalez from Seena Technologies on the topic of SOA in this issue of INsights. Gonzalez and Seena are providing a noteworthy point of clarity in the SOA discussion (along with holistic information management and full lifecycle quality assurance.) It’s all about survival of the fittest ... and the smartest.

Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Einstein made that famous statement many decades ago, and it's still relevant today for building superior software systems. Anybody in the IT industry can point at far too many software systems that have failed Einstein's test. Some are made too simple to carry out the duties they are supposed to perform. Others are too complex and the costs of building and maintaining them have rocketed. We also need to mention the nearly impossible task of integrating different systems together. It seems that reaching the right level of simplicity is a question still searching for an answer.

SOA is a technology that can help to provide that answer.

Success to all,

Pete Elliot
Director of Marketing
pelliot@keyinfo.com
818.737.2804
Bio

Webinar: Intuitive Document / Forms / Report Generation Saves Money and Time:.

Data from Any System ... To Any Output Format (Print, Web, Electronic)

In this Webinar on May 25 from 11 am to noon, Pacific Time, you will discover a software solution that dramatically reduces IT time and money for document/forms/report development, generation and maintenance.  See a live demonstration of Scriptura’s intuitive WYSIWYG interface, which permits offloading document modification and maintenance to end-users.   Learn how IT professionals and end-users easily create complex documents using this cross-platform (all IBM eServers and mainframes) solution.  Scriptura supports XML, JDBC, text/spooled file and Notes/Domino data sources and can be seamlessly integrated with your existing applications.  Find out how you'll save time with output flexibility that uses the same document design to generate any output format (including PDF, HTML, PCL, Word, RTF).  See how Scriptura logic dynamically modifies letterhead, conditional paragraphs and charts on the fly.

Webinar
Thursday - May 25
11 am to noon, Pacific Time
To Register, click here

Speaker:

• Ron Deardorff, Senior Technical Support Manager for Scriptura

Capabilites and benefits to be covered:

• Platform independence across all server and mainframe architecture
  
• Support of XML, JDBC, text/spooled files and Notes/Domino data sources
  
• Truly WYSIWYG intuitive, drag and drop interface that saves IT time and money
  
• Sophisticated conditional logic for dynamic generation of custom documents
  
• High-speed rendering of large volumes of documents
  
• Output flexibility (including PDF, HTML, PCL, Word, RTF) from the same document design

Who should attend?

• IT staff looking to quickly design printed or electronic output from XML, JDBC, text/spooled file and Notes/Domino input
  
• IT staff looking to enable document design maintenance by end-users
  
• End-users wanting to modify document layout and content without IT assistance
  

Highlights from April Webinar:.

The Focus was on Tivoli TPC in this One-Hour Webinar

Key recently hosted a Webinar titled Optimize Storage with IBM Tivoli TotalStorage Productivity Center. Presented by Doug Schofield, IBM Senior TPC Technical Specialist, the one-hour Web-based seminar showed attendees how to optimize utilization of their storage infrastructure, increase administrative efficiency and reduce overall storage costs with IBM Tivoli TotalStorage Productivity Center (TPC).

Attendees learned what's new in V3.1 of TPC, including the new topology viewer and reporting that helps you simplify management of storage at every point (host file systems, network, SAN fabric, physical disks). TPC helps users plan storage and database growth, as well as pinpoint performance and availability issues. Attendees also learned to optimize data lifecycle management so data is maintained in a location that is equal to its business value.

IBM's TotalStorage Productivity Center allows the user to simplify and automate the management of an enterprise's storage infrastructure through a centralized suite of tools for disk, data, and fabric to manage the capacity utilization of file systems and databases and automate file system capacity provisioning.

To access a replay, go here.

Key and Seena Technologies:.

Full Lifecycle QA, Holistic Data Management and SOA

Key and Seena Partner on Services Offerings for Full Lifecycle QA, Holistic Data Management and SOA

Quality Assurance (QA) is often viewed as synonymous with the testing cycle of a development project. However, full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) QA entails the disciplines and activities that provide important types of accountability to the organization:

• The project meets the expectations of the users
  
• All required documentation is available to support IT business controls and regulatory compliance

This accountability is achieved by the following major activities:

• Assuring requirements are clearly specified and conformity to the requirements is traceable
  
• Managing variability to the requirements and adjusting conformity checks
  
• Performing Quality Control on the deliverables - includes the testing function, and facilitating reviews

Key's new strategic partner, Seena Technologies, has QA teams that have developed methodologies in applying full requirements and documentation review, automated testing and end-to-end change management processes and procedures for their clients to ensure the greatest quality delivered within their systems.

To see this complete article, go here.

Key at Server Blade Summit:.

Key Discusses Latest Technologies at Largest Blade Event
on West Coast

IT installations of all sizes are embracing IBM's Blade Server technology to reduce capital costs and save on space and power. Blades also play a central role in server consolidation and virtualization (blades are one of Gartner's Ten Technologies to Watch for 2006). Blade Servers permit you to lower your IT costs while still achieving high performance and reducing administrative workload.

The recent Blade Server Summit in Garden Grove, CA, featured leading blade authorities from IBM and other solution providers. Key's Dru Murphy presented a free session, Workshop B2: Architecting, Servicing, & Implementing Large Enterprise Server Blade Environments, in which he described lessons learned from successful blade server implementations and the challenges to be aware of when deploying blade servers. Attendees heard what belongs on blades and what doesn't, and learned how to "sell" blades within their organizations. Murphy’s presentation was designed to show how to best evaluate and prepare for blades within your organization.

New Orange County Office for Key:.

Key Holds Open House May 11

Key's clients, interested IT professionals and colleagues are cordially invited to A Night of Innovation, the gala grand opening of Key's new offices in Newport Beach, CA. "The gala starts at 4 pm on Thursday, May 11th to celebrate our clients, innovation in technology, and Key's new partnerships in and around the Orange County and San Diego communities," said Leif Morin, Key's president. Running from 4 to 9 pm, attendees will enjoy appetizers, a buffet dinner, drinks and music at the Tentation Ultra Lounge next door to Key's new offices. The official host for this event will be Lief Morin.

To register to attend, click here or contact Kendrell Craven at 818.737.2808 or kcraven@keyinfo.com.

Award from IBM:.

Key Garners Prestigious IBM Fast Track Growth Award

Key has received an IBM Fast Track 2005 Revenue Growth Challenge award in recognition of 157 percent revenue growth in 2005 over 2004 for products and services from IBM. This achievement places Key in an elite group in the top one percent of IBM Business Partners for 2005.

“This award is a direct reflection of our commitment to integrating the industry’s finest IT solutions as an IBM Premier Business Partner,” stated Pete Elliot, Director of Marketing for Key Information Systems. “We look forward to continued growth as we support our customers with IBM systems and services that help them achieve critical enterprise business goals.”

Announced March 16 at the IBM Americas group meeting at the PartnerWorld conference in Las Vegas, formal presentation of the award took place at the IBM Business Partner Recognition Event. At the gathering were CEOs, presidents and senior executives of other high-achieving IBM partners, as well as members of the IBM executive team.

Reader Feedback:.

We value your ideas and comments. Please send your thoughts to Pete Elliot at pelliot@keyinfo.com or call him at 1.818.737.2804.

Publisher:.

Key Information Systems, Inc. has been a Premier Business Partner with IBM for five years headquartered in Woodland Hills, CA. Founded in 1995, the company provides system integration services, corporate infrastructure architecture for business continuity, storage, and e-business solutions. The company is a leading provider of IBM eServer solutions for the i5/iSeries, p5/pSeries, xSeries and OpenPower servers, and supports the i5OS, OS400, AIX, Unix, NT, and Linux operating system platforms. IBM storage products supported include IBM TotalStorage DS8100 SAN, DR 550, NAS, FAStT, BladeCenter, LTO tape solutions, Tivoli, plus TSRM for storage virtualization and management. High Availability and Fault Tolerant solutions are backed up with a complete range of professional services including education, critical assessments, installation, maintenance, and financing. All these computer resources are available at Key's Business Partner Innovation Center at 21700 Oxnard Street, Suite 250, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, USA. For more information, visit the company online, or call 1.877.442.3249, or email info@keyinfo.com.