Web Services at the San Diego Supercomputer Center:
A Turnaround for Tech
Conferences?
By Ken North
Technology conferences have seen three years of declining interest. If the
January 2004 web services event in San Diego is an indicator, we're going to see
a turnaround for tech conferences.
Note: We recorded audio and
video programs during the conference. Check the list below.
It's been almost three years since Microsoft and IBM started beating the drum
for services created with XML and SOAP messaging. Enthusiasm and interest
developed rather quickly when major software companies jumped on the web
services bandwagon. The industry's excitement provided fuel for an explosion of
XML and web services conferences. Despite consortia and industry groups
continuing to generate waves of new specifications and XML vocabularies, there
has been serious attrition among conference organizers.
Many conferences ended their run in 2003 due to lack of sponsorship. That
turn of events is unfortunate because conferences provide opportunities for
professional education and developing relationships. Conference participation is
particularly beneficial for the organizations adopting important new
technologies. The declining participation at web services events is curious
because many organizations are still novices at web services. They'd benefit
from the knowledge of experts and early adopters who speak at conferences.
Sean Peisert and Ashraf Memon of the SDSC contributed to the
conference's success.
The conference organized by the San Diego Software Industry Council (SDSIC)
and San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) was a good start for tech conferences
in 2004. The program included panel discussions and presentations by speakers
from AmberPoint, BEA, Confluent Software, Computer Associates, IBM, Microsoft,
Neudesic, PivX, SDSC, and Tarari. There were sessions about web services
management, scientific applications, BizTalk 2004, security and the future of
web services. Besides the audience at the Supercomputer Center, there was a live
webcast to an extended audience.
The Supercomputer Center is heavily involved in leading-edge development of
data visualization technologies, storage of very large research data sets,
next-generation networks, and various scientific computing projects. SDSC
researchers Ilkay Altintas, Bertram Ludaescher, and Ashraf Memon presented a
session about workflows and the adoption of web services and grids for
scientific applications. Neudesic's Brian Loesgen followed with a technology
preview of Microsoft BizTalk 2004, which is the subject of a book Brian recently
co-authored.
Web Services Management, Security
The focus of early web services conferences was infrastructure technologies
such as XML, SOAP, schemas, WSDL, and developer toolkits. After developers and
organizations master the infrastructure technologies, their attention turns to
interoperability, process flow or orchestration, security and management issues.
The conference program included panel discussions about two of those
concerns -- management and security. The management session included
speakers from companies that are major players in the web services management
space. The panel included Tony Darugar (Blue Titan), Rajiv Gupta (CTO, Confluent
Software), Ed Horst (VP, AmberPoint), and Paul Lipton (Technology Strategist ,
Computer Associates).
Jeff Carmichael, Mark Colan, Rajiv Gupta, Thor Larholm, and Gene
Thurston participated on the security panel.
The security session started with panel members doing presentations and
concluded with a question-and-answer period. Panel moderator Ken North (Ken
North Computing, LLC) presented an overview of security requirements, threats,
and the state of web services. Thor Larholm, a well-known security researcher,
followed with a discussion of vulnerabilities and federated identities. Jeff
Carmichael, CTO of Tarari, explained the role of hardware-assisted security and
content processing for web services. Rajiv Gupta presented enterprise security
challenges and solutions such as policy managers. Gene
Thurston, a co-author of
the WS-Security specification, discussed architectural issues and using agents
to combine security and management tasks. Mark
Colan, IBM Web Services and SOA
Evangelist, discussed a security roadmap and the declarative approach to
security with WebSphere.
The closing panel, moderated by Brian Loesgen, assembled individuals from
several of the major software vendors. Panelists Mark Colan (IBM), Scott Kerfoot
(Microsoft), Paul Lipton (Computer Associates) and Christopher Voisey (BEA)
presented their thoughts about the future of web services.
Speakers at this event noticed a high level of interest among audience
members. The program included speakers from the Bay Area and East Coast. If this
event is indicative of what we can expect for future SOA-related events, we'll see more energy in the
technology community and more enthusiasm about tech conferences.
Ken North is editor and publisher of WebServicesSummit.com and SQLSummit.com.
Audio (MP3, Podcast) and Video Programs
Interviews and selected presentations from the SDSIC conference are
available here in several formats. For low-speed connections, you can view HTML
or PDF slide presentations, listen to MP3 audio or podcast programs, or watch a multimedia
presentation (audio with slides). To view PDF slides, you'll need Adobe Reader.
To view the multimedia presentations or video programs, you'll need Real
Player.
|
|
Program |
Audio, Slides |
Low speed |
Video |
 |
Ken North |
Web Services Security Universe |
Slides |
MP3 |
Real |
|
Thor
Larholm |
Info Security
(interview, 11:52) |
Slideshow |
MP3 |
Real |
|
Thor
Larholm |
Federated Identities |
Slides |
MP3 |
Real |
|
Jeff Carmicheal |
Content Processors
(4:36) |
Slides |
MP3 |
Real |
|
Gene Thurston |
Spotlight on Secure Web Services (interview,
19:03) |
Slideshow |
MP3 |
Real Video 56K
128K |
|
Gene Thurston |
Security and Management |
Slides |
MP3 |
Real |
|
Rajiv Gupta |
Enterprise Security Challenge
(10:19) |
Slides |
MP3 |
Real Video
56K 128K |
|
Mark Colan |
SOA, Web Services and Big Blue
(interview, 17:11) |
Slideshow |
MP3 |
Real Video
Windows Media |
|
Mark Colan |
WS Security |
Slides
(PDF) |
MP3 |
Real |
|
Mark Colan |
Future of Web Services |
Slides
(PDF) |
MP3 |
Real |
 |
Ashraf Memon |
Grids, Web Services and Security |
Slides |
MP3 |
Real |
