For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Microsoft Ups The ALM Ante With Its Bet On Teamprise

Expect VS 2010 To Accelerate The Shakeout In The Application Life-Cycle Management Market

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, November 16, 2009

Microsoft's Team Foundation Server (TFS) has proven very popular with .NET developers but not so much with Eclipse developers. This presents a problem for Microsoft, because many of its largest customers develop for both .NET and Java and want a consolidated . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

JAVA Under Oracle: Seven Things You Need To Know

Java Standards Will Narrow; MySQL, ADF, And JDeveloper Will Expand

by John R. Rymer, Noel Yuhanna, Jeffrey S. Hammond, Mike Gualtieri, May 8, 2009

Oracle's proposed purchase of Sun Microsystems (ticker symbol: JAVA) will give it control over two of the most widely used application development technologies in the industry: the Java platform and MySQL. Oracle can't say exactly what it intends to do . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Behind "Cloud" Is Your Future Application Environment: Ultra Modular Computing

Shift Cloud Excitement To Your Own Data Centers

by Charles Brett, Jeffrey S. Hammond, April 6, 2009

Cloud computing is all the rage, but its greatest benefit may be to teach IT organizations how to build flexible and cost-efficient private data centers. The technical foundations of cloud computing — commodity hardware, virtualization, elastic workload . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Platform-As-A-Service Is Here: How To Sift Through The Options

The Rewards And Risks Of PaaS For Application Development Shops

by John R. Rymer, April 1, 2009

The term platform-as-a-service describes many different approaches to developing applications that run in Internet data centers, and each of these approaches is suited to a limited number of application scenarios. These scenarios are evident in the developer . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Is Open Source Software Confusing To CIOs?

Identifying The Most Urgent Communication Challenges For Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., March 16, 2009

The budget situation in many IT organizations today means that CIOs are paying more attention to the open source discussion than ever before. We created a fictitious discussion between two CIOs to identify the major concerns and even confusion about the . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

2009 Update: Evaluating Integration Alternatives

Scenario-Based Guidance For Choosing Products That Provide Application, Process, And Data Integration Features

by Ken Vollmer, Rob Karel, Larry Fulton, Noel Yuhanna, January 26, 2009

Technical innovation and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity continue to drive the evolution of the integration marketplace, leading to a market with a significantly different array of features and tools than what existed just 18 months ago. In . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

IDE Usage Trends

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, February 12, 2008

Forrester surveyed 703 application development professionals who subscribe to 1105 Media's .NET or Java newsletters and are actively involved in .NET or Java development to understand their integrated development environment (IDE) usage patterns and attitudes . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Keys To Successful VB6 Migration

Dispelling App Dev Professionals' Fear, Uncertainty, And Doubt

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, March 7, 2007

Application development professionals reveal fear, uncertainty, and doubt when dealing with strategies and timelines for migrating Visual Basic 6 (VB6) apps to Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) 2005. The end of support for the VB6 IDE means that application . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Eclipse IDE Is A Strong Leader In Open Source Projects

The Forrester Wave™ Project Summary, Q2 2006

by Michael Goulde, June 28, 2006

The Eclipse Foundation was founded on the basis of donated IDE technology and has grown into a vibrant, industry-leading, not-for-profit organization. The Eclipse IDE has strong industry support through its plug-in architecture that makes it easy to create . . .

Borland Picks Up Testing Tools, Drops Its IDEs

by Carey Schwaber, Carl Zetie, February 14, 2006

On February 8, 2006, Borland Software, a vendor of application life-cycle management (ALM) solutions, acquired Segue Software, a vendor of test automation, load testing, and test management tools. While plugging the biggest hole in its ambitions to fulfill . . .

The Eclipse Tools Market Enters The Next Phase

BEA's Acquisition Of M7 Heralds The Next Stage

by Carl Zetie, October 25, 2005

Forrester has long anticipated that Eclipse would change the tools landscape in more important ways than mere cost of acquisition. Commercial tools vendors are all wrestling with the implications of Eclipse on their business models and channels as well . . .

Getting Ready For Microsoft's Team System

How Development Tools Vendors Are Preparing To Compete And Coexist

by Carl Zetie, October 20, 2005

The release of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is imminent, with Team Foundation Server not too far behind. What does this mean for other vendors in the development tools marketplace? It means shifting investment patterns and careful positioning as they . . .

Visual Studio Will Ship, Team System Will Slip

by Carl Zetie, September 15, 2005

Microsoft announced that the much anticipated — and much delayed — Visual Studio 2005 would definitively ship in November. Then it conceded that Team Foundation Server, the component that supports multi-user, team-based development, including configuration . . .

Eclipse And The Long Tail

How Small Plug-Ins May Add Up To Big Business

by Carl Zetie, August 5, 2005

Software vendors in many markets — not just those in Eclipse's first beachhead of application development and life-cycle tools — should look at Eclipse through the lens of the Long Tail economic model to understand if and how the platform can transform . . .

Eclipse Has Won — What Next For Eclipse?

by Carl Zetie, July 22, 2005

The battle to be the leading development tools integration framework — at least, outside the Microsoft sphere of influence — is over, and Eclipse has won, even if some vendors have not yet conceded. With the accession of key tools vendors to the Eclipse . . .

Eclipse Adoption Rates: Emerging Into The Light

by Carl Zetie, July 1, 2005

It's not always easy to determine just how extensively Eclipse has penetrated enterprise IT shops. In many organizations, its adoption started out as a grassroots movement by individual developers. Eclipse adoption is increasingly coming out of hiding, . . .

Lightweight Tool Sets Represent An Alternative To Integrated Tool Suites

by Carey Schwaber, April 21, 2005

To achieve tight software development life-cycle tool integration, firms can either adopt comprehensive, integrated tool suites or they can select and integrate a set of lightweight tools. Lightweight tools are single-purpose point tools that have open . . .

How Developers Can Conquer Complexity

New User Priorities Present Challenges To Vendors

by Carl Zetie, December 7, 2004

Enterprise application developers face greater complexity than ever in meeting business requirements. Platforms, architectures, and technologies have all grown more demanding, as have the underlying business requirements. Leading vendors are primarily . . .

Trends 2005: Application Development Tools

by Carl Zetie, October 28, 2004

Application development organizations continue to struggle with the age-old tension between the desire for a managed, predictable process and the fear of getting bogged down in bureaucracy and rigidity. Leading tools vendors are increasingly lined up . . .

Eclipse Changes The Game For Development Tools

by Carl Zetie, October 7, 2004

Eclipse isn't just changing the development tools that enterprises buy: It's changing the way that enterprises buy development tools. Eclipse's early appeal for IT organizations was the ability to acquire features for free or at low cost. Eclipse's real . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Project Beehive: Good for BEA, Good For Frameworks

by Carl Zetie, John R. Rymer, June 2, 2004

BEA Systems has created an open source project, dubbed Beehive, to make the application framework that underlies WebLogic Workshop available on other application servers, starting with Tomcat. While this move gives J2EE developers free access to a proven . . .

Sorting Out IBM's Plethora of Development Tools

by John Meyer, July 11, 2003

IBM arguably offers the broadest selection of development tools on the market, but it's exactly that breadth that has led to confusion for buyers. Organizations should proceed cautiously until the IBM IDE road map is officially rolled out.

Role-Based Tool Access: It Will Be on Every Successful Suite Vendor's Tool Road Map

by John Meyer, June 30, 2003

As organizations look for ways to do more with less, including developer resources, it becomes important for companies' developers to seamlessly perform multiple roles in the development process. RBTA is the mechanism that will make it possible.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

IBM Acquires Rational: BEA and Borland Must Respond to Expected Advances in Development Integration

December 19, 2002

BEA and Borland need to expand their partnership to link their respective product development road maps to achieve even higher levels of integration than those that exist today.

Market Overview 2003: Java Enterprise Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

by John Meyer, December 12, 2002

When organizationally feasible, companies should strive to standardize on no more than two IDEs at any one time, with a tight alignment between the current application servers in-house being a primary influencer on the final decisions.