Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Retail in the cloud - ARTS

ARTS Releases Cloud Computing For Retail Report


Original news at ARTS website:
http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=803

Washington, October 15, 2009—The Association for Retail Technology Standards, the standards division of the National Retail Federation, is pleased to announce the release of the draft version of Cloud Computing for Retail that will provide unbiased guidance for achieving optimum benefit of this computer technology. Cloud Computing, which effectively lowers IT costs for retailers, is an emerging computing model by which users can gain access to their applications from any location, through any connected device, making the infrastructure transparent to the user.


The whitepaper follows in the footsteps of the highly successful SOA Blueprint, used by retailers as a guide for SOA implementations, to become an essential companion for retailers implementing Cloud Computing. Developed by an ARTS member committee of leading retailers and vendors chaired by The Kroger Co. and IBM, the whitepaper provides information on best uses of Cloud in retail, maximizing security and reliability, avoiding vendor lock-in and achieving a rapid ROI. The whitepaper is based on extensive research and actual experiences of the committee members.

******Click here for more details.*********

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Business Service Realization

A Key Phase in SOA Programs Business Service Realization
— Today, every IT enablement and business transformation task has an element of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) embedded in it. However, even with matured SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) processes for IT execution, the gap in identifying business services for an SOA implementation still remain. Architects and business stakeholders are generally found struggling with questions such as “When should we identify a service?”; “Who should be identifying them?”; “What should be a service and why?” Service identification in enterprise architecture involves realizing the enterprise's business vision.