Web-Oriented Architecture (WOA)

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been under discussion for more than a few years now. Likewise, we have seen the advent of Web 2.0 and the evolution of social computing in the blink of an eye. And, now there's the whole cloud paradigm that's the talk of every technical conversation, whether in the real or digital world. The following wonderful presentation takes us through how SOA and the new Web (Web 2.0) are intersecting to form, what is being referred to as the Web-Oriented Architecture.

Web-Oriented Architecture (WOA)

Facebook Engineering and Open Hardware

Facebook just announced that it is going to open source its server and data center designs and has announced the formation of the Open Compute Project, an industry-wide initiative to share specifications and best practices for creating the most energy efficient and economical data centers. This could potentially mark the beginning of an era, akin to what open source software did for the software industry: Open Hardware.

Surely a great thing to happen in a world that is becoming increasing open, both technically and of course, socially. The Open Compute project is about making available the "hacks" that the Facebook Engineering team has worked on to efficiently power their data centers. This opening-up is with the intent to encourage innovation in the hardware design space, much like open source promotes innovation.

Watch the folks at Facebook Engineering in this short video speak about this, first hand.


Oh, and just one thing: don't expect hardware to become free anytime soon, like what's happened in the software industry. Till then, well, cloud computing may hold the promise for those who cannot do the engineering themselves!

Understanding NoSQL Databases

Of late, what with the rise of phenomena like Facebook and Twitter, that are pushing the envelope, requiring handling requests and data at scales not seen so far, there is clearly something different at work, under the covers. Sure, this has been possible with the rise of technologies that enable Web 2.0, Social Media and Cloud Computing, but there's probably another key element at work that powers this.

This key element - the ubiquitous data store - is not your classical relational database aka RDBMS. Instead, it's a new kind of database (architecture), viz. NoSQL or the non-relational database.

The following presentation is an excruciatingly detailed, but very good look into the innards of the NoSQL Database architecture, and also helps to understand how this compares to RDBMS.

NoSQL Databases: Why, what and when

Thanks to Lorenzo Alberton for putting together this wonderful presentation.

See also, 'Building Scalable Web Applications: The Non-relational Way!', which provides a glimpse into the new, emerging trend of non-relational aka NoSQL databases.

100 Years of IBM

International Business Machines (IBM) is an iconic symbol of our times. In it's centennial year, the company has made an amazing video, where people aged 100 to 1 recount IBM's momentous milestones all the way from 1911 to 2011.

Understanding Facebook - A Web 2.0 Phenomenon

Started in only 2004, facebook.com is today, the world's largest social network, boasting more than 500 million (yes, that's half a billion!) users, who collectively spend more than 5 billion minutes per day.

The rise of facebook to it's present stature is awesome and incredible, by any yardstick, and its hardly surprising that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of facebook, was named 'TIME Magazine's Person of the Year, 2010'.

facebook has come a long way since it's early days, and has revolutionized the social dynamics of the human race today, be it in the personal or corporate or community sphere. It is thus, a first hand example of the awesomeness of the era of Web 2.0. Since the number of facebook user's is now crossing 550 million, it's likely that you too are already using it, or have at least seen it at some point. So, it's no point discussion 'Facebook 101'.

However, if one wants to get a sense of what this phenomenon is all about, check out this comprehensive presentation.

Facebook: Beyond The Fundatmentals

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