Application Servers
We can install, configure, integrate and tune the following application servers
- Oracle Application Server 10g
- Tomcat 5.5
- Tomcat 6
Tomcat can be installed with the following Java versions
- Sun J2EE 1.4.2
- Sun Java 1.5
- Sun Java 6
Integration
A common, yet overlooked, requirement is for system integration. For one client we extracted contact data from their corporate LDAP server (usually administered through a web front end) and fed it into their proprietary facilities management help desk software. This enabled the company to locate the details of new members of staff and have an up-to-date reference of people's telephone numbers and office locations.
Revision control
Software is a malleable product. In many projects multiple people make changes to the software simultaneously. These different people may be dispersed all over the world. Releases (configurations) need to be controlled and defects tracked. There must be no interference between different workers accessing the same resources.
A solution is to use revision control software. For small systems where there is a single copy of the source code on a single server and multiple developers, RCS and SCCS are simple and appropriate solutions. If multiple copies of the software need to exist concurrently (perhaps different configurations of the same software) then a solution is to use a product such as CVS (concurrent versions system) or something similar. CVS maintains a single repository of your software plus all changes made to it. You can therefore access a snapshot of your development tree as it existed at any point in time. You can also back up the repository using corporate backup technologies instead of worrying about the latest software source code being on an unprotected PC somewhere in the organisation.
Each time software is released to your customers you can 'tag' the released configuration. You will therefore always know which version of your software is with which client or clients. You can also maintain one client's software branch while leaving other customers' software unchanged.
The principles of revision control can be applied equally to other areas such as documentation and correspondence. Why create hundreds of old backup copies of your document when you can have a single document in revision control? There are many other benefits such as the ability to compare the current, working document against an old revision and visualise the changes made since then.
Rapid deployment
The automated scripting of releases saves time and effort as there are no more manual processes, and error detection and correction can be built into the process.
Software can be deployed automatically when an event triggers, such as a change in source code or an elapsed period of time.
