Custom Software Development Services

Embracing The Open Web: Web Technologies You Need To Engage Your Customers, And Much More

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, John R. Rymer

DataArt has contributed to a Forrester research report on Open Web.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The open Web is a culture, a community — and a set of preferred technologies for Internet applications. While HTML5 is the best known of these technologies, the open Web also includes JavaScript (client and server), CSS3, Representational State Transfer (REST) application programming interfaces (APIs), and mobile frameworks such as jQuery Mobile. Together, these technologies comprise a new application platform for the Internet that will gradually replace today's web platforms (HTML4, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Simple Object Access Protocol [SOAP] web services, Java EE, and .NET) for most applications. This research outlines the open Web platform's key components, their readiness, and how the platform is evolving.

original article

Try Before You Buy: Firms, Vendors Employ Proofs of Concept

by Jake Thomases

Technology vendors were once loath to give away their ideas for free. Financial service firms were similarly unwilling to invest in a project that might be a sunk cost. However, attitudes are changing, and it is now standard for companies to pay for proofs-of-concept before beginning a relationship.

Alexei Miller of DataArt contributes to the article.

“It’s an industry for the brave,” says Alexei Miller, executive vice president at custom software developer DataArt. “If you wanted a stable job and guaranteed pension, you wouldn’t be working at a hedge fund, or starting one for that matter. Smart investors always buy when everyone else is selling. So there’s this whole psychology of taking risks that they understand very well. When you talk to IT at a hedge fund about a technology project and you frame it in terms of risk, it’s something they instantly understand, even if it’s not a traditional financial risk. They have a brain that’s wired for this.”

DataArt’s clients, mostly mid-sized hedge funds, have approached Miller requesting new, interesting solutions. They are sometimes vague on specifics. A common request is to allow portfolio management on mobile devices—a proposition driven by traders who want to manage customer accounts on the train ride home. DataArt builds them a prototype in its Russian and Ukrainian research and development facilities over 10 to 15 days, at a cost of $10,000 to $20,000. The client tests it for two weeks to determine if it embodies what they imagined.

That kind of money doesn’t buy a finished product, Miller says, but the prototype is advanced enough to answer some questions, which often revolve around security. For example, can only authorized users access the portfolio? What if a trader leaves a mobile device—such as an Apple iPad—on a park bench? Does the data stay available if the application isn’t being used?

Another common inquiry, this one spurred by the back office with a nervous front office in tow, is about moving data to the cloud. Clients want to know how much it will save them and what the risks are. Miller anticipates that cloud questions will dominate 2012 as financial services businesses slowly embrace the possibilities.

In general, he says, IT departments are filled with creative, curious people who are optimistic about the potential of technology to solve their problems, even if they don’t know exactly what technology they should employ. Security is the number-one speed bump in their drive for new and innovative solutions.”

original article

Here Comes The Open Web – Embrace It

The New Web Platform For Customer Engagement And Much More
by Jeffrey S. Hammond, John R. Rymer

DataArt has contributed to and is featured in two Forrester research reports on Open Web.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Web is moving on to a new era of openness, mobility, and digital business. The open Web is a platform built on HTTP (the fundamental web protocol), a new generation of HTML, dynamic languages, and wide use of Internet services for everything from video encoding to social graphs to order management and payments. The open Web made its debut in consumer applications; for enterprises, it will power a new generation of customer engagement applications. The open Web will be particularly important to app Internet systems that bridge mobile devices, cloud services, and enterprise applications and data. This report will equip application development and delivery leaders with an understanding of the open Web and its potential value.

Alexei Miller, Executive Vice President of DataArt, is quoted as saying “If you go HTML5, you can bypass the app store and not pay the cut. This is a big factor, and that will only get stronger.”

original article

Mastering Windows Azure Application Development

by Dmitry Yakovlev

Dmitry Yakovlev, Senior Vice President of DataArt, contributes a by-lined article to HPC in the Cloud, reviewing the existing cloud landscape and sharing his expert opinion on what .NET developers should focus on in order to master their skills in Windows Azure Application Development.

"In the years to come, cloud computing will take a substantial piece of the market from traditional deployment models. This implies growing demand for applications that can operate in a cloud environment, and for software engineers skilled in cloud computing technologies. Since commercial software development is driven by enterprises which prefer mainstream technologies, Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure are likely to be the two platforms of choice for software developers. Considering the fact that both platforms can host applications written in different programming languages, one should denote Java and .NET as primary development platforms for Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure respectively."

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Dmitry Stillermann: Dos and don'ts for building enterprise apps

In his by-lined article for TabTimes, Dmitry Stillermann, Vice President of Capital Markets at DataArt, discusses dos and don'ts for developing tablet enterprise applications, outlining business considerations, platform advantages, security issues and implementation costs.

"When does it make sense to switch to a tablet in a business scenario? And how much should you spend?

For internal business processes, tablet applications provide the most value for the staff involved in many external meetings... I can make a firm statement: tablet development does not have to be costly, provided that you know what you’re doing.

Vendors, not being heavily constrained by any legacy compatibility considerations, have used all the best ideas that the software industry has come up with during the last decade. Development tools are unbelievably efficient and application programming interfaces (APIs) are well designed and documented. ... Publishing, deploying and managing apps are less of a hassle than some will lead you to believe."

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