The Axis Technical Group Blog

Companies large and small are continuing to seek out new ways to maximize their technology investments to drive new business and lower costs. Over the last 18 months companies have executed numerous plans to reduce cost and maximize efficiency, and in many cases this led to an increased focus on technology. However, technology itself is not cheap either.

With an increase in the development (and use) of software to help save costs and increase productivity, the development cycle has been heating up at organizations coast to coast. But the multitude of platforms and environments organizations need to support are leading to new cost concerns. The fact is, testing software applications or products that support multiple active versions and/or multiple operating systems can be very expensive and time consuming activity.

Many of the clients and IT Executives that Axis Technical Group works with have focused on ways to deal with this challenge. One such solution is to use virtual environments for software maintenance and testing. By using this solution, The Axis India team is helping several clients realize substantial benefits from reduction in overall costs, to improved turnaround time and increased reliability of the test environment.

Axis Technical Group has just published a new white paper on the subject, and it is available for download by clicking here. We would also like to hear from you about the money-saving efforts your organizations are using as we all continue to navigate this new global economy.

Download: Virtual Environments for Software Maintenance & Testing

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India is home to a large and diverse population that has added to its vibrant character since ages. There are about 3,000 communities in India. So wide and complex is the mix of the Indian population that two-thirds of her communities are found in the geographical boundaries of each of her states. They are a mingling of the Caucasoid, the Negrito, the Proto-Austroloids, the Mongoloid and the Mediterranean races. The tribals constitute eight percent of the total population of India.

Based on their physical type and language, we can easily divide Indian people into four broad classes. First, a majority of high class Hindus, who live in North India and whose language is derived from Sanskrit. Secondly, those who live in that part of India that is south of the Vindhyas and whose languages – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam – are entirely different from Sanskrit. These are known by the generic name of “Dravidians”. Thirdly, primitive tribes living in hills and jungles of India, who as mentioned above constitute eight percent of the total population in India. The Kols, Bhils and Mundas belong to this class. Fourthly, there are a people with strong Mongolian features inhabiting within India the slopes of the Himalayas and mountains of Assam. The Gorkhas, Bhutiyas and Khasis are striking examples of this.

To add all this, India is perhaps the only place in the world where twenty religious streams flow together. If that sounds clichéd, here is a surprising piece of information. About 500 communities of India say they follow two religions at the same time! India has a population of over 1 billion people, the majority of whom are Hindus.

The caste system in India is a social system where people are ranked into groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification. The caste is a group whose members are restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is traditionally prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one’s birth.

The Indian term for caste is ‘jati’, which generally designates a group varying in size from a handful to many thousands. There are thousands of such jatis, and each has its distinctive rules and customs. Varna (meaning, “color”) refers to the ancient and somewhat ideal fourfold division of the Hindu society: (1) the Brahmans, the priestly and learned class; (2) the Kshatriyas, the warriors and rulers; (3) the Vaisyas, farmers and merchants; and (4) the Sudras, peasants and laborers. Below the category of Sudras were the untouchables, or Panchamas (meaning “fifth division”), who performed the most menial tasks. Although there has been much confusion between the two, jati and varna are different in origin as well as function. The various castes in any given region of India are hierarchically organized, with each caste corresponding roughly to one or the other of the Varna categories.

Reservations

The Indian government follows a policy positive discrimination towards the Backward Classes. In accordance to this policy, 15% of the government jobs and 15% of the students admitted to universities must be from Scheduled Castes. For the Scheduled Tribes there is a reservation of about 7.5%. There is also reservation for other backward classes. Along with the central government, the state governments of India too follow a policy of reservation. Different states have different figures of reservation based on the population constitution of each state.

In recent times this has led to tensions because the high caste communities feel discriminated against by the government. In many cases a large number of high caste members compete for a few places reserved for them. Sometimes some reserved positions remain unmanned because there were few candidates from the lower caste causing more tension between the castes. The caste identity has become a subject of political, social and legal interpretation.

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According to this story in the NY Times, LinkedIn has joined the likes of Google and Microsoft to partner with Twitter.

An excerpt of the article reads:

LinkedIn’s 51 million members will now be able to send status updates — such as the fact that they are looking for an analyst on a certain topic, or posting a job opening — to Twitter on a case-by-case basis, and vice versa. People will also be able to add a section to their LinkedIn profile that contains their most recent tweets and view other people’s tweets when searching LinkedIn.

Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s chief executive, said that he wants LinkedIn to be the hub for all professional conversation. Integrating tweets into LinkedIn will help them find a home where they will become part of someone’s professional identity, and conversations will develop around them, he said.

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What do you think about this new partnership? Is it good for LinkedIn? Is it good for Twitter? As a LinkedIn user, will you want to link your twits with LinkedIn status? Tell us what you think Want to learn more about Cary and the Staffing Services Axis offers to candidates and clients? email us here or comment below.

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*Note – This Blog is a repost of Alex Espinoza’s Blog Entry on 10/31/09. You can find the original post here.

I just recently read an article from Krishnan Subramanian, which I believe is very interesting: Microsoft’s Huge Cloud Problem.

I agree with most of the article’s comments. They have to be taken with a grain of salt, since most of is speculation. Very smart speculation, but speculation none the less. But What I do disagree completely, is the following line:

“..cloud is an evolution from the web and .NET was never a platform of choice in the web…”

I agree that the cloud is an evolution of the web, but the article talks about choice, who is it referring to? Is it the open source community? Or is the enterprise community? or is it both?

Obviously as an Open Source advocate, .Net or even Mono would not be your web platform of choice. You usually go to either PHP (which is the leader in the Open Source community) Ruby or Python (just to name a few, I know there are a lot more).

But in the enterprise world, .Net is very much relevant, and in most of the cases it is the platform of choice. I know that this is a huge market and the competition is strong, but to completely dismiss Asp.Net as not a platform of choice is far from the truth.

Asp.Net and .Net are very much relevant right now, and it will stay that way for a long time. Whether Azure succeeds or not.

It is a mistake to think that everything will be in the cloud. What will prevail are hybrid environments. That is why I think Microsoft will not only survive this (even though is going to be a really difficult climb), but it will remain relevant.

Google’s view of *EVERYTHING* in the Cloud is not very down to earth (hence the name, everything in the clouds). And in my opinion, it will never get there. A lot of things are going to be done in the cloud, and probably the majority, but not all. We are creatures of choices, and we will keep our options open.

Now with the open source movement, Microsoft has done a lot. And I actually think we should thank Miguel de Icaza and his team for this. He might be called a traitor by some, but I think he is the biggest Trojan Horse of all. He has been pushing Microsoft to open source (with the help of so many).

But let’s think about Mono for a minute. Microsoft already released the source code for .Net in a very closed license, which I see as a glass box (look but don’t touch). It is getting there, to that openness that the article is talking about. They know they have to do it. But they don’t know how.

Now, Mono is a very good example. They have been reproducing the signatures and interfaces to use .Net on Linux and it works like a charm. Also they have been adding their own mix.

Microsoft will end up releasing .Net as an Open Source project, it will not be soon though. They already have their own license for that. With what Mono has done, when Microsoft plans to release, the integration with Mono will make it easier to hit the market.

The article is right about one important thing, in order to compete in the clouds, they have to kill Windows as an Desktop OS. But I think it will prevail as Windows Azure. That is why the word “Windows” appears in there.

Just one more thing before I close this rant. I think the mistake that Netscape did with Mozilla, is a learning experience that can be applied anywhere. When Netscape decided to build their browser from Scratch instead of fixing their bloated browser at the time. They lost too much time, and they lost the browser wars. They should have fixed their browser, not start a new one, which ended up with the same problems. It eventually got fixed when the community did the right thing and fixed it with Firefox, but they didn’t not start from scratch, they fixed Mozilla.

Microsoft is the browser and we (the community) are Netscape. Are we going to kill Microsoft so that Apple or Google takes its place? And then end up with the same problems all over?

I wouldn’t really want Apple in Microsoft’s shoes. I can see what they can do with their App Store. They have so much to learn. It would be like going back to the 90’s. We already went this route with Microsoft so many times, and now, Microsoft is learning.

How about Google? I wouldn’t want Google either. They are still too young, and we haven’t seen their evil yet, which scares me a lot. They not only have a lot of power in the internet, they hold most of our data, and they want *ALL* of it. Everybody has an evil side, and Google is not any different. We just haven’t seen it yet.

Microsoft is a known evil, let’s fix it. Why change it for a new one, when this evil has already been changed so much, and it is learning to live with the community?

Well enough of rants…I’m going back to work.

Post contributed by Alex Espinoza Alex Espinoza, Software Development Manager for the Axis in Motion consulting team at Axis. Read more of Alex’s blogs at http://neonlabs.structum.net/blog/

Want to learn more about Alex and the Axis in Motion team? Email Alex here

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Many companies allow (if not encourage) their team members to dress up for Halloween, but this year, that tradition has extended to the world of technology and social media.

For those of you who Twitter , have a little Trick or Treat fun.

Log in to your personal Twitter account and tweet “#trick” … then tweet “#treat” and see what happens. Do them one at a time and include nothing else! Have fun and Happy Halloween from Axis Technical Group

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Axis Technical Group started in California, and all our expansion has always been in warm-weather areas. When our new Denver office opened this year, we knew there would be snow. And today, that snow came and is expected to continue dropping 18-24 inches of the white stuff over the next 24-48 hours. Click Here to read about it!

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Today was the official launch of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows7. However, several Axis team members have been using the new OS for the last month to rave reviews.

Read more about the Windows7 launch here.

Windows7 has a familiar “windows” feel to it, and at first glance, may look like Vista. However, even to the casual non-technical user like Axis VP Russell Wolf, Windows7 offers “an immediate improvement in performance, compatibility and reliability.” Russell has said that he finds the new taskbar a huge improvement, making it much easier to move through the sometimes more than dozen windows and/or applications he has open at a given time. “The speed of moving through and using the applications is noticeably better and I have yet to experience any hangups or delays like I did in Vista,” says Russell.

Axis Network Engineer, David Key, raved about the ease of migrating laptops and PCs to the new Windows7. He reported a short, trouble-free migration from Vista machines, and when moving from XP, although a longer process, it was still easy and problem free.

In the IT world, Microsoft has often been called a Marketing company first, and technology company second. But recent evidence, including the must-see Launch Party Video, and Windows7 itself, Microsoft may have finally reversed that.

But don’t take our word for it. We would like to hear from you about your experiences with Windows7.

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Improving the Software Development Experience

It is no news that Software Development is a complex process that requires a successful methodology in order to get high quality final products. The challenge is not following a methodology, but choosing a successful one. This difficulty of doing so grows with the inner complexity of organizations, where every single process is handled differently. So, a methodology or process that works with one company, might not really work with another. It might need to be adjusted, thus eliminating the certainty of success and leading to the failure of countless Software Development organizations and companies. Recently however, development groups are riding the “Agile Development” wave and with it a framework, NOT a methodology: Scrum.

Using the Framework, not building from Scratch
Everybody is reinventing the wheel to fit their organization; but a wheel is still a wheel, and a tire, a tire, regardless of if it is on a small import sedan or a flashy sports car. The tires may be different sizes and offer different performance values, but the functionality remains the same. This is what Scrum provides for the Software Development process: a Framework, not a methodology. You can build your own process and define the elements of the Framework that you want to use. More importantly, the framework is so rich, that you can add or remove elements as you go along, depending on your needs, and avoiding the need to tailor your own with trial and error. This is a major leap for project management and software development, since most methods usually focus on staying on track and making sure things are followed exactly by the book, not allowing any room for flexibility. With Scrum, the focus is on getting things done and delivering value all of the time. This, of course doesn’t mean that with Scrum time doesn’t matter. But it will only matter if you want it to. Scrum has elements for measuring speed. So if your project is focused on time, you will most certainly use the Speed elements. That is the beauty of Scrum. It is just like a development framework in the sense of .Net or ATL. The framework provides a set of building blocks, and you build your process according to your needs.

People not Technology
The problem with most methodologies is they focus on the technology. For example, Rational Unified Process is centered on the technology you use, be it C++, Java, etc.; with Scrum, the focus is on people. Project Managers sometimes lose focus on what is most important – the team members. Their work is what makes the final delivery a success, so focusing on the technology as part of a Software Development process is not really a priority. The main focus of managing people is not to make them work like slaves until they deliver what the client expects; the main focus is to improve productivity and collaboration in the team so that they can all deliver innovation and value to the client.

Conclusion
Software Development is still an art and not an exact science. The people who make up software development organizations, like the team at Axis Technical Group , are finding intuitive ways to solve complex problems and focus on getting things right the first time. This is a major shift and is helping rid the industry of a ghost that has haunted it for so long. The answer has never been in copying successful companies, but creating a tool that actually works for each project and organization. With a set of elements and rules that can be combined as needed, there is no stopping innovation.

Post Contributed by: Alex Espinoza – Software Development Manager on the Axis in Motion Consulting Team

Want to learn more about Alex, the Axis in Motion Consulting team, and Scrum? Email Alex here

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Out with the old, and in with the new. If you have visited the Axis Technical Group website before, then you must have noticed a change with the recent launch of our new corporate homepage www.axistechnical.com .

Axis’ new home on the web offers better focus on our service offerings and provides a springboard to future client functionality. Utilizing the latest in Microsoft .Net 3.5 technologies including ASP.net and AJAX, and featuring a fresh interface, the site is designed to give Axis customers, employees, prospective candidates and partners, easier access to company news and information. The site launch is the first phase in a lengthier initiative to introduce technological innovations that will offer additional service and value to our customers.

“Our new website is more representative of the reasons Axis stands out in our industry, and fortifies our strength as a company – customer service to both our clients and our candidates,” explains Michael Valdes, Axis Technical Group President. The website will grow to include newly integrated portals for customers, job seekers and employees in addition to information about Axis Technical Group Inc’s global offices in India and Mexico.

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Axis Technical Group sponsored the first ever Cloud Camp in Los Angeles on Wednesday September 30, 2009.

Cloud Camp is an “un-conference” where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, IT professionals, heads of business, end users and suppliers alike, all need a place to meet in order to share experiences, challenges and solutions. Cloud Camp offers such a place in a unique arena where participants are encouraged to share their thoughts in several open discussions, all in the pursuit of advancement in Cloud Computing.

Our Axis in Motion consulting team led by SVP of Technology Ken Tu, and Software Development Managers Gilberto Ramirez and Alex Espinoza, were joined by Russell Wolf, Axis VP, for a night of learning what the Cloud is (a new utility like gas & electric but for technology) and what it means for the future. Axis is working on its own offerings for the cloud and as we further define those offerings, and what our place in the cloud will be, we will post updates here and our website.

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