On Friday, December 16th, 2011, FedCyber.com will host a webinar featuring one of the great champions of secure code, Mr. Michael Howard.

For more information and to register for this event see:

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/551297622

More on the webinar: 

FedCyber.com is pleased to announce a special opportunity to interact with Mr. Michael Howard, author of the Security Development Lifecycle process improvements and lead security researcher and architect at Microsoft. Michael Howard is a principal security architect at Microsoft, focusing on secure design, programming, and testing techniques. He works with thousands of people both inside and outside the company each year to help them improve security and privacy within their software. Howard is an editor of IEEE Security & Privacy, a frequent speaker at security-related conferences and he regularly publishes articles on secure coding and design, Howard is the co-author of six security books, including the award-winning Writing Secure Code, 19 Deadly Sins of Software Security, The Security Development Lifecycle, Writing Secure Code for Windows Vista and his most recent release 24 Deadly Sins of Software Security. He has worked on Microsoft Windows security since 1992.

In this 30 minute executive level session Michael Howard will provide an overview of the Security Development Lifecycle, focused on what federal CIOs should know about this methodology. Participants will learn how SDL minimizes security-related code defects and how this methodology can be applied to any development process.
Webinar Title: Security Development Lifecycle webinar with Michael Howard
Date: Friday, December 16, 2011
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST

Register at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/551297622

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

If you have been working modern IT concepts in the federal space you probably already know of Kevin Jackson, the mission-focused writer of the Cloud Musings blog and Director of Cloud Services at NJVC .

Kevin recently completed a new book, GovCloud: Cloud Computing for the Business of Government. I try to track cloud-related issues myself, but like many others I have trouble keeping up with the many moving parts of this construct. The book provides a helpful framework that puts many elements of government cloud computing into context, so I believe it will help us all decide what elements of this issue to focus in on.

This GovCloud book is immediately helpful. Everyone uses the term Cloud Computing but too many of us use it differently. The book provides common frames of reference that should help us maximize dialog on this important construct. IT professionals know you do not build anything without a plan and this book offers the blueprints and guidelines you need to accelerate cloud constructs.

Kevin and his co-author Don Philpott are gathering several of us together at an event on 29 March 2011 at the National Press Club in Washington DC. This should be a good event- an opportunity for us all to review where we have collectively started from and gotten to on this journey.

From the event announcement:

About this conference

The United States Government is the world’s largest consumer of information technology, spending over $76 billion annually on more than 10,000 different systems. Fragmentation of systems, poor project execution, and the drag of legacy technology in the Federal Government have presented barriers to achieving the productivity and performance gains found when technology is deployed effectively in the private sectors.

All that is about to change as the Obama Administration obliges federal departments to look to Cloud computing to cut costs and solve many of the problems that have plagued IT deployment for decades. The problem, however, is how do federal IT managers and those controlling the budgets go about deciding what is best for them.

Leading experts from Government and Industry will update the press and attendees on …

• Status of government Cloud initiatives
• Future Plans and Outlook
• Challenges and Opportunities

Speakers

• Dawn Leaf, NIST Senior Executive for Cloud Computing – Confirmed
• Jerry Smith, Office of DoD Executive Agent for IT Standards - Confirmed
• Brand Niemann, Director, Semantic Community and former Senior Enterprise Architect and Data Scientist, U.S. EPA. – Confirmed
• Kevin Jackson, Director, Cloud Services at NJVC – Confirmed
• Bob Gourley, Founder/Author CTO Vision and Former DIA CTO - Confirmed

I hope to see you all there.  To register see:

http://www.governmenttraininginc.com/Press-Conference-GovCloud.asp

Related articles

• Federal Cloud Computing Strategy (ctovision.com)
• CTOs: Provide your inputs on how the government will implementing cloud computing constructs (ctovision.com)
• Local Governments Embrace The Cloud Faster Than Feds (informationweek.com)
• Some thoughts informed by a Cloud Summit (ctovision.com)

Sony's base reader is extremely affordable.

Recently, I picked up a Sony Digital Book Reader PRS-300.  I found a great deal on Craigslist, and am ready to begin reading everything I can find.  The only problem is, it’s pretty hard to find reasonably priced e-books.  Fortunately Google Books has all the classics, but what if I want to read new books?  A look at bestsellers runs around $9.99 a book, sometimes even $14.99.  This is more than a paperback copy would cost, and definitely more than Half.com or E-bay searches would return.  So not only are e-books more expensive than regular books (sorry I refuse to consider paying for hardcover books), but they are not really yours.  Tablet computers (and the iPad) are going to revolutionize where and how we use computing resources.  Portable consumption, most notably e-books, is going to be a huge part of that, but only if they are distributed properly.

Something that is yours (ie: a physical object) is shareable, resale-able, and generally yours to do with as you wish.  Barnes and Noble’s Nook allows you to share a book with a fellow friend (they get it for two weeks) but for some friends (and books) two weeks is just not long enough.  My thoughts are, if I bought this, who is the publisher (or distributor) to tell me what to do with my own property?  That is the problem with e-books, you might buy them, but you do not truly own them.

If I do not actually own it, what is the reason to pay the up-charge from physical to digital edition?  Purely because it is more convenient?  I think that answer will be enough for some consumers, who have the extra funds, but that justification will not fly with most.  The initial selling point of the Kindle was $300 upfront and $9.99 for every ensuing book, creating both a savings in book costs, and ease of reading/portability.  However, Apple recently gave publishers clout to change the pricing structure, citing that they are not making enough money.  This push-back is bad for the consumer, because it will decrease price competition.  Instead of publishers looking for efficiencies to lower costs, they will just pass on to the consumers, potentially creating fewer consumers (or increasing demand for piracy).

The first successful online media consumption outlet was the iTunes store.  Apple offered every song for $.99, so consumers did not have to pay $20.00 for a CD, and consequently only listen to 4 songs.  This allowed users to get the music they wanted, and easily transfer it to their consumption devices (iPod, or burned CDs).  It is estimated that 25% of all songs sold in the US are sold in the iTunes store, so obviously they must be doing something right.  iTunes allows users to have the songs on up to 5 computers, and 5 devices.  There is some sharing enabled, but the low-cost really allows users to buy any songs they want (or at least a lot of them!).

The $.99 model is probably not right for e-books, but one digital audio distributor has a model that could work.  Currently, Microsoft offers their ZunePass.  For $14.99 a month you have unlimited listens, and the capability to keep 10 songs a month.  This model is probably not perfect for e-books, but could be close.  NetFlix’s subscription style delivery system is outperforming all expectations and almost all other video content delivery systems.  People like subscriptions, you can count on guaranteed service, for a known (non-fluctuating) price.  Corporations also like subscriptions (they help forecast demand, resources, and income).

I know I would pay $20-25 for unlimited books, and I am sure that I am not the only one.  A tiered pricing strategy could allow just 1, 2, or 3 books at a time.  These plans would probably be amenable to a whole lot of consumers – who could sign contracts enabling subsidized device costs.  Not only would this sell e-book readers, but it would sell contracts.  I believe until e-books are available individually for less, or as a plan, they will not gain widespread support, and publishers will continue to look for ways to make more money.

Simple economics would state that with supply and demand curves, eventually publishers would realize the proper pricing system, and adjust.  I don’t foresee that happening without a powerful market changing event.  What are you thoughts with the e-book situation?   Is there a way to rectify e-book prices with the prices that users are willing to pay?

2010 will bring a load of new gadgets, technology, and advancements for consumers and enterprises alike.  Microsoft is releasing Office 2010, Apple is releasing their new Tablet (iTablet), NVIDIA is releasing their “GeForce 3XX” series of graphics cards, SSD’s will be (hopefully) affordable, and Sprint should have a 4G/3G phone.

Microsoft's Latest Office has quite the uphill battle.

Office 2010 – with the beta already released and being used/tested as we speak, Microsoft is hoping to follow up on the success of Windows 7 with a powerful new Office Suite.  This Office will be about collaboration, working online, and easily sharing files with other users.  Microsoft, after crushing Corel’s WordPerfect, is now worried about Google Apps and Sun’s OpenOffice.org.  After extensively using both these alternatives, I really can’t imagine ever paying for desktop publishing software again.  That said, I look forward to seeing their new efforts and see how the implementation works.

Could the iTablet change everything?

Apple Tablet - In 2010, Apple will finally release their tablet.  Size, Pricing, specifications, and even availability are still up in the air, but most sources suggest March 2010.  It is expected to be a 10-12″ diagonal, multi-touch device running Snow Leopard.  This tablet is rumored to cost $1000  and may be available in 2 sizes.  We can expect the iTablet to be complete with the full Apple multimedia suite.  The iTablet certainly won’t be for everyone, but could be a Kindle-killer and a great living room/kitchen device.  If you are not a Mac “Fanboy”, the ICD Android tablet could be the device for you.  A 7″ Android 2.1 tablet designed to surf the web, read books, listen to music, and watch videos, both streaming and onboard.  There are quite a few more specs for the ICD Android tablet, most notably the inclusion of NVIDIA’s Tegra platform.  Due to the inclusion of Tegra chip, the ICD tablet should have long long battery life.

Will NVIDIA deliver once again?

ATI has set the standard, will NVIDIA meet the bar?

NVIDIA’s GeForce 3XX Series – In Q3 2009, ATI, the other dominant graphics card player, released their Radeon HD5XXX series of discrete graphics cards.  ATI combined lower power consumption, equal or better graphics performance, and a lower price into an extremely attractive package.   NVIDIA’s GeForce 9XXX and 2XX, their last two generations of processors, are keeping up with most of the ATI cards, except at the top end; however, ATI’s products are all DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5.0 compatible – something that NVIDIA’s are not.  In addition, ATI’s efforts towards power friendly graphics cards raises the bar for PC components across the board.  Hopefully NVIDIA’s 3XX series will be a fitting competitor to the ATI products.

Not only is it pretty, but it's fast!

New and Affordable Solid State Drives (SSD) – Right now SSD drives are just starting to become the norm for high speed applications.  They are filling servers, lightweight laptops, and high powered desktops.  Currently, SSD drives retail for around $3.33 per gigabyte, on the other hand  7,200 RPM HDD drives retail for just $.10 per gigabyte.  Now SSDs are not optimal for storage, but they are unparalleled for boot drives/OS drives and portable computing devices.  It is my belief that the cost per gigabyte to drop below $2.00 for SSDs, making them more available to the common user (and more affordable in portable computing.

What good is bandwidth that nobody can access?

Sprint releasing a phone w/ 3G/4G modems – Sprint has long been touting their WiMax 4th generation wireless network.  It is live in many cities and continues to expand.  But until they release a handset capable of accessing that bandwidth, it will be little more than a science experiment, useful to only the handful invested in a USB modem.  As AT&T is debuting 3G capabilities of up to 7.2Mbps on a handset, Sprint must move quickly to remain relevant in the carrier wars.

Newspapers and blogs around the globe have been carrying an amazing story of technological arrogance and organizational ineptitude regarding security of a key data feed from US intelligence systems.  We read headlines like: “Iraq Insurgents Hack US Drones” (WSJ), “Hacked Drones: How Secure Are US Spy Planes?(ABC)”, “Insurgents Hack Into US Spy Drone Videos“(AP), “Officers Warned of Drones Flaw in 04 (WSJ).”  As worrisome as those articles are, perhaps the more scary one was titled “Adm. Mullen says hacked drones caused no damage” (AP).  That article indicates he cares about cybersecurity, but he seems to be taking this all rather nonchalantly.  If he is leaping to the conclusion that everything is ok without a real assessment then that is cause for us all to be concerned.  And it sends a horrible message to his enterprise.  It is like saying “well, try not to screw up, but don’t worry, there is no way our technologically superior force can be defeated, and I don’t understand how this stuff works so the bad guys certainly can’t.”

Reminds me, sadly, of an incredible story by Arthur C. Clarke titled “Superiority” (available in the collection: The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke).  This short story, written in 1951, is such a great read because it captures some key, apparently enduring qualities of militaries that become seduced by their technological superiority. The result: Even though the story was written almost six decades ago Clarke gave us all a lens perfect for the viewing of technological arrogance.  And he gave us warnings that apply across the full spectrum of technologies, not just UAVs.

From the book:

“The situation was now both serious and infuriating.  With stubborn conservatism and complete lack of imagination the enemy continued to advance with his old-fashioned and inefficient but now vastly more numerous ships.”

More on the story:

• The setting is a SciFi future, where battles occur in space. But the human drama was actually based on Clarke’s observations of Allied victory in Europe in WWII.
• In the story, A losing Admiral has a request of his captors.  He hopes to clear up the record on a few things, and especially wants to be sure he is not forced to share a cell with the CTO-type person who got them into the mess he is in (Professor Norden, Chief of the Research Staff) .
• Failures were not due to lack of bravery or the fault of operational decisions.  Failure was due to the inferior science of the enemy.  Clarke reveals how in a way that is laughable but also causes anyone with military service pause (I believe most veterans have seen situations that the story will remind them of).

My big hope in sharing this is to get you to read this short story and think about it in a context of today’s military.  The lessons from this story are the same lessons which should be learned from Thucydides and Sun Tzu and countless others.  These are the same lessons that should have been learned when the entire national security apparatus underestimated the enemy in Vietnam.  The lessons are, unfortunately, learned again and again. Look for these lessons in every US military battle lost, and look for them in the movies and books that come out of the battles (one very clear example of our arrogance at work and its cost in lives is “Black Hawk Down“).  The big lesson, learned again and again:   If you start relying too heavily on your technology and allow arrogance to set in, you open yourself up to defeat by a technologically inferior force.

Some of the worst problems arise when leaders start to think their technology is so superior it can have no flaws. When you start assuming you are superior to a thinking, creative adversary it is time to question your assumptions (before it is too late).

And, another point that should not be a shock to anyone in uniform or out:  The bad guys want to steal our secrets, and we should want to prevent them from doing so.  It is hard to accomplish this goal, but one thing we should not be doing is making it easy for them to intercept our data in the clear.

Adobe Flex 3 Bible

Adobe Flex is a software development approach and environment which enables the production of cross-platform Rich Internet Applications.  Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is the cross-platform runtime environment used by Flex (as well as Flash, HTML, JavaScript and AJAX) for deployment of desktop applications.

I’ve long known the power of Flex and AIR, and have long respected the smart strategy of enabling developers and enterprises to decide when a solution should be one that will run in the browser or on the client. But to really learn the power of Flex and AIR I decided to try coding a few examples.  After ordering and working my way through a few books (including David Gassner’s  Flex 3 Bible) and building a few sample programs, I decided to create an application designed to serve friends in the national security community. I thought doing so would force me to learn more details of the Flex AIR approaches and could also result in me producing an application of use to some military planners.

Some lessons:

• Flex is easy to learn. If you know Visual Basic you will enjoy and appreciate the graphic design capabilities of Flex.   If you know object oriented languages you will feel right a home with Flex’s use of functions, objects and events.
• Flex is easy to test and debug.  There are great visuals to help you spot mistakes. And it is easy to repeatedly run your work in progress.
• Flex is easy to deploy, in both desktop and web editions.  Use of Flex and AIR makes preparation, packaging and deployment really fast.
• Overall, creating an application is fast.  I went from idea to application in a matter of days.  Part of that is because this is a simple application, but part of it is because Flex is so easy and fast to work with.
• I believe every enterprise should have AIR on every client.

You can download Flex for free from Adobe.  The download comes with a 60 day license.  Developers in between work can apply for an extended free license.  To download yours see: http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/

In a coming post I’ll provide links to the first version of my application.  I’ve sent it to a couple friends to let them beat it up before making it totally public.  And I am thinking of adding a few other features to make it a bit more polished before posting it.  But standby, it is coming soon.

Till then, please ensure your computer is running the most current version of AIR.  Do that by downloading:

http://get.adobe.com/air/

Air runs on Windows, Mac and Linux OS’s, making it really cross-platform.

I found: If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Governmentto be a book I couldn’t put down. This great read is about results and how to get them.  And, as the title implies, it focuses on big results in government.  The government is doing many things to the highest of standards and getting many big things done, but the list of failed programs, fiascoes and squandered opportunities seems to be growing longer and longer.  Some highlighted in the book include Iraq, Boston’s Big Dig, Hurricane Katrina and the drowning of New Orleans, Abu Ghraib, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, failed immigration reform, and the massive economic meltdown.  Many successful pursuits/accomplishments were also studied. The point, of course, is that we can study both failure and success and glean lessons relevant to our decision-making.

The authors, William Eggers and John O’Leary,organize lessons from their study into seven categories of traps:

• The Tolstoy Trap
• The Design-Free Design Trap
• The Stargate Trap
• The Overconfidence Trap
• The Complacency Trap
• The Silo Trap

In laying out the details of these dangers, Eggers and O’Leary write in a fast paced, page turning style that at times injects analogies from science fiction TV and action movies.  I appreciated that.

The most important chapter of the book, as you might imagine, is the last.  A call to action titled “Creating a Better Future.”

As a former government Chief Technology Officer, I wish there had been a greater examination of IT programs in government.  There were several key IT  programs reviewed, including NSA’s Trailblazer, the U.S. Census Bureau’s handheld computer initiative, The FBI’s Virtual Case File program and the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI). There are definitely lessons there I appreciated and I strongly recommend this book to any CTO.  But I just wish there were more IT-focused case studies.  For example, I would have liked to see a review of the Military’s command and control programs or the continuous struggle to improve security in the federal nets.

I guess some exercises must be left to the reader.

I also believe they missed a key trap that slows progress.  There is a huge tendency to over-study and turn small things into massive programs that never end.  Tasks that could have taken a couple months take a year or two and next thing you know they are never done.  This seems to be one of the root causes of the recent Network Enabled Command and Control (NECC) failure, for example

Another thought that crossed my mind reading the book is that the government’s move to and leadership of big efforts in Cloud Computing , Open Source Software, and Web2.0 (including Gov2.0) can also provide lessons to this body of knowledge, and of course can also benefit from the lessons from this book.

My recommendation:  Buy, read and implement the lessons in If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government

Safari Books is looking for stand out technologist developers/programmers who are using technology in creative ways, including helping the community.

Here’s more from their announcement:

If you’ve done something that demonstrates dynamite CODING SKILLS, we want to hear about it.

Safari Books Online’s Coder Challenge is here! We are looking for dynamite coders. Developers who stand out in our industry – those who are using technology in creative ways or are helping our community in novel ways.

Tell us about the project that demonstrates your dynamite coding skills using the form below. If you’re selected as one of the winners, you will receive a 3-month subscription to Safari Books Online and an invitation to join Tim O’Reilly, CEO and founder of O’Reilly Media, Inc., at a special event early next year in California. Winners are selected based on community votes and those of our selection committee.

See more about the project at:

http://safaribooksonline.com/Corporate/DynamiteCodingSkills/

My view: there are many unsung heroes who are developers/coders.  Bringing recognition to technical talent is a great thing!

Please help spread the word!

I’ve mentioned before that I run my small business, Crucial Point LLC, primarily by leveraging cloud computing capabilities. With this post I’ll mention a book that helped me do that: Google Apps: The Missing Manual.

This book does a great job at capturing the core functionality of Google Apps. However, no book can keep up with the capabilities and features of the Google Apps suite.  In cloud computing, features can be developed and fielded fast, and since Google intentionally invests in driving more and more features, a continuing stream of announcements on new functionality has occurred since I bought this book.

That said, the Manual is full of tips, techniques, suggestions and guidance for making the most of your Google Apps that remains very relevant.  Whether you are a user of the free personal/educational/non-profit editions or a business users these are very powerful tools and a book like this can help you think through ways to transform your workflow.

I’d recommend the book to anyone thinking about making the switch to cloud computing.  I should also point out that they give away some great free content from the book online at Amazon, right in the book review. For example, the following list of tips:

QUOTE:

Top 14 Google Docs Tricks

1. If you install Google Gears (http://gears.google.com/), you can edit Docs word-processing documents offline, and Docs automatically syncs them with the online version the next time you sign in online.

2. If you make other folks collaborators on Docs documents and spreadsheets, everyone can work on the files simultaneously. To invite collaborators, head to the upper-right Share button (for documents) or Share tab (for spreadsheets).

3. It’s a snap to publish documents created in Docs as blog posts—just select “Publish as web page” from the Share menu, and then click the “Post to blog” button.

4. If you want to embed a Docs presentation in a Web site, just go to the Publish tab, click “Publish document”, and then copy the HTML that appears in the Mini Presentation Module box. Paste the code into your site’s HTML, upload the revised version of the site, and voilà!

5. Google gives you a whole slew of functions to help make working with spreadsheets more efficient. For the complete list, go to www.docs.google.com/support/spreadsheets. (The GoogleLookup function is particularly nifty.)

6. If your Docs list is getting cluttered, you can hide files (documents, spreadsheets, or presentations) to keep your list clean. Just turn on the checkbox next to any file you want to hide (you can select more than one), and then click the Hide button. To make a hidden file reappear, find All Items in the left-hand menu and, if necessary, click its + sign to expand it. Then click Hidden to see your hidden files; select the one(s) you want to see in your Docs list, and then click Unhide.

7. You can easily turn spreadsheet data into all kinds of charts: column, bar, pie, line, area, or scatter. To create a chart, open your spreadsheet to the Edit tab, select the range of cells you want to convert into a chart, and then click the “Add chart” button. In the Create Chart box that appears, tell Docs what kind of chart you want to create and fill in the other info it needs, and then click “Save chart.”

8. If you create a chart based on a Docs spreadsheet, you can save it as an image and insert it into a Docs document. After you create your chart, click its upper-left Chart link and select “Save image”. Save it to your computer, and then open the document you want to put it in. Click Insert and select Image, then tell Docs where to find the file on your computer.

9. If you don’t like a change that you (or someone else) made to one of your Docs files, no problem. Just head to that file’s revision history (click File and then choose “Revision history”) and pick a previous version that you like better.

10. If you’re working on a computer that doesn’t have Adobe Reader and you need to print a document, click Share and select “View as web page (Preview)” to open the formatted document as a Web page. You can then print it from your Web browser. The formatting isn’t quite as good as if you print from a PDF—and you’ll probably have the browser’s header and footer—but all the content is there.

11. If you’ve published a Docs document as a Web page, you can make the Web page update automatically whenever you edit the document. Just click Share and select “Publish as web page”; then turn on the “Automatically republish when changes are made” checkbox.

12. To see how your Docs document will look to folks you share it with, click the Share This Document page’s “Preview document as a viewer” link. If the preview doesn’t look quite right, then go back and edit the document before you share it.

13. You can add YouTube videos to your Docs presentations. In the blue bar above the edit pane, click “Insert video”. Google opens a box where you can search YouTube videos by keyword. Find the one you want and click it to select it. Then click the Insert Video button to put the video on your slide. Once it’s there, you can move, resize, or delete it, just like any image or shape. During a slideshow, viewers can play the video by clicking the Play button on its slide.

14. When you’ve got several collaborators editing the same document all at once, have each person choose a different color for his text to help sort out who made what changes. (The simplest thing is to have each person use the same text and highlight color.) Then, when you finalize the document, simply select the whole thing and click the “Text color” button to change the rainbow of text colors to basic black.

UNQUOTE

The Amazon review also provides a list of the “Top 10 Cool Things about Gmail” and “11 Ways to Save Time with Google Apps.”

You can find many other user-focused books on Cloud Computing, but in my opinion, Google Apps: The Missing Manual remains the best.

[amtap book:isbn=1430218916]

For a combination of personal and professional reasons, Pro OpenSolaris is the perfect book at the perfect time for this period in my life.

As a CTO with enterprise-grade experience I know Open Source Software and its many benefits.  And as a security professional I have long known of the powerful security features of Open Source in general and Solaris specifically.   As a computer scientist I have also been a long time personal user of Solaris (as well as Linux, Mac OS X, XP, and Vista).   But things have been moving fast in the open source community and some of the most dramatic changes have been in OpenSolaris, so it has been hard for me to keep up.   This book provides a great update of those changes and puts them in a context I needed for continual learning.

But let me tell you why I really liked this book.  It presents information on a subject I believe all software developers, programmers, project managers and CTOs really need to know, and it presents it in a way that is fast, fun reading. Harry Foxwell and Christine Tran have mastered the art of expression, and that is a rare gift for technical people to do.

But here is why you really need to read this book:  Although you can find loads of information on the Internet covering technical details of Open Source Software and especially Solaris, it can be very hard to find a comprehensive update on the new innovations in OpenSolaris.  Things like a massively scalable new data storage approach called ZFS and the significantly enhanced security over the already very secure Solaris.  Virtualization is also a key topic, as is the metrics and monitoring ability of Open Solaris (DTrace).  And, of importance to Linux and Solaris developers alike, a great overview and context of the OpenSolaris open-source based development environment is provided.

This book gives you everything you need to take a computer from its current state to one that is running OpenSolaris, either alone or as part of a virtualized system. It then provides great context and suggestions for tailoring the environment to be just the way you want it to be.

On a personal note: I’ve known Harry for about five years.  I first met him when I was CTO at DIA.  I found him to be one of the most pleasant, easy to interact with professionals in the business.  He also has the gift of being able to explain and teach, which is something I have always appreciated.  Those gifts come through in this book.

Let me close with another great reason to buy the book:  it will give you a great, no-nonsense understanding of what is really coming out of the Open Source software community.  All technology professionals need a better understanding of that.   Please order you copy of Pro OpenSolaris.