Jason Milgram's blog

So what do you do if you developed a client/server application for the SMB market, and you want to grow your customer base and increase revenue? This was the case with a recent customer of ours. Our suggestion was to convert their traditional software sales model (fixed revenue) into a Software-as-a-Service model (recurring revenue). The transformation required Linxter and Microsoft SQL Azure to update their client/server architecture to a client/cloud architecture.

Information Technology has a pendulum-like history that’s pretty simple to catalog: when the tools for building things become easier to use, more people begin to use them. For example, when the PC’s operating system changed from text-based usage to a graphical user interface, the use of PCs in the work environment skyrocketed. The same is with the case of the REST API – it lowered the technical barrier to entry, and many more engineers began utilizing them.

For the last several weeks, I have been in proof-of-concept mode working on two separate projects, one related to the smart grid and the other to robotics.

In May 2008 an iguana wandered into a Tamarac, FL power substation, shorted out some equipment, and turned the lights out on 20,000 South Florida residents. It was a good reminder that even one small mistake, whether a person’s or an iguana’s, can cause problems of great magnitude. I bring this up because the story applies to, no – especially applies to IT infrastructure and the administration of it.

We had the opportunity to participate in Windows Azure Incubation Week in Atlanta this month. In addition to feeding us, Microsoft provided class room training as well as one-on-one technical consultation. Six other firms were also in residence at the event; ChasingSavings, CoreMotives, LLC, EyeMail, FandomU, Izenda and LessMeeting.

Analysts predict that cloud middleware will move into a hyper growth stage beginning in 2010. As a message-oriented cloud middleware (or cloud messaging for short) provider, I can add to the discussion by letting you know what has been going on at Linxter.

This is how Libertas Technologies, one of our partners, begins their recent whitepaper in which Linxter and Amazon’s Simple Queue Service (SQS) are compared. Comparing Cloud Messaging Platforms, an eight page no-nonsense report, does a great job stepping through a series of benchmark tests and highlighting key differences between Linxter and Amazon SQS. The differences primarily came down to ease of use and performance.

As a message-oriented cloud middleware solution, Linxter provides secure, assured information delivery, also known as information assurance. But what does that mean? Well, the US government defines information assurances as “Measures that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation.”

Performance testing of cloud services is of great interest to me and many other software engineers. Therefore, I created an application anyone can use to do their own point-to-point Linxter messaging performance testing. It’s an open source Visual Basic console application. In addition to reviewing our posted results, you can create your own testing scenarios and customize the console application as needed to better understand your own cloud service latency issues.

There is an interesting race going on right now among some of the largest technology players. It is a race to fully develop out the new cloud services operating model. This race has long term implications for everyone in the technology space, because once components of this model become available as-a-service, the consumers of the services start to care less about what is running them. So, whether the back-end uses a database from Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, or the open source MySQL, it ends up not mattering as much. It simply becomes a service.