[Technology]

WSO2 named 2008 SD Times 100 Award Winner

WSO2, the open source SOA Company has been recognised as a 2008 SD Times 100 award winner in the Middleware category.

The SD Times 100 is a listing of companies, organisations and individuals, selected by the editors of SD Times, that most broadly “set the agenda” for software development managers, developers, and the industry through leadership and innovation during the past calendar year.

The SD Times said that in today’s services-based world, “The promise of SOA is beginning to come true.” Recognising middleware companies on the SD Times 100 list for their role, the magazine said, “Our finalists provide the best tools and systems for keeping track of all those services.”

“With its focus on solving real-world software developer demands, we’re honoured to have SD Times recognise WSO2 as a leading provider of middleware solutions,” said Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana, co-founder and CEO of WSO2. “It is a strong validation, not only of our commitment to open source, but also the value our software brings in enabling heterogeneous service-oriented architectures.”

WSO2 has earned other prestigious awards in 2008. The WSO2 Web Services Application Server (WSAS) 2.0 received the SearchSOA.com Product of the Year award in the Data Services/Integration category and IDG’s InfoWorld named WSO2 CTO Paul Fremantle, one of InfoWorld’s Top 25 Chief Technology Officers for 2008.

WSO2 is the open source SOA company founded by pioneers in Web services and of members of the Apache Software Foundation Web services community.

The company is delivering a new, entirely open source middleware stack that is optimised for Web services and SOA. The company’s cornerstone products are the WSO2 Web services Application Server (based on Apache Axis2) and WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (based on Apache Synapse), which are built on the WSO2 Web services Framework.

The company is backed by Intel Capital and maintains operations in the United States, United Kingdom and Sri Lanka.

The list of middleware companies is as follows:

BEA, BPEL4People specifications, Interware, Lombardi, Mindreef, MuleSource, Nexaweb Technologies, TIBCO, WebMethods, WSO2.

ICT Week to bring all on single platform

by Gamini Warushamana

[email protected]

The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and Infotel Lanka Society Ltd launched the National ICT Week - 2008, the biggest annual ICT event in the country that brings all industry stakeholders together.

The ICT Week will commence on October 27 with a number of events that will bring together the entire IT community in the country, industrialists, professionals, academics and the user community on to a single platform.

Infotel 2008, the ninth Infotel exhibition is the major event in the National ICT Week and the organisers said that the Infotel 2008 will be the biggest ever ICT showcase in the country.

Infotel 2008 will be an ideal platform to showcase the combined strength of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka and to pitch this message into the international arena.

It will highlight the enormous growth potential in the country and the comprehensive policies, infrastructure and conducive business environment in place to fuel and sustain this growth Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Tissa Witharana told the media.

The four-day Infotel exhibition will commence on October 27 and the exhibition will be open from 10 am to 8 pm at the BMICH. The theme of the exhibition is “The future is already here”.

The objective of the exhibition is to draw attention to the already available infrastructure and human capabilities in the country for investors.

It will also be a forum to promote ICT products and services and an effective meeting place between service providers and potential local and foreign clientele, the organisers said.

ICT is undoubtedly the next growth frontier for Sri Lanka and it needs a sharpened focus and a robust and continuous strategy.

The resources are available, they must be exploited.

We hope that Infotel 2008 will stimulate and expand people’s minds into what is actually available here and little used, said Infotel chairman Rohan Rasool.

He emphasised the need for human capability building in the ICT sector.

The exhibition consists of software, hardware and communication categories and from this year, a special “career section” has been introduced.

The objective is to provide information for career seekers, students and the visitors on how to match career and job opportunities in the field of ICT with the required academic and professional qualifications along with skills required by the industry.

The e-Sri Lanka initiative section of the exhibition will be coordinated by the ICTA and it will demonstrate the applications that help to bridge the digital divide between average citizens and state institutions.

It will enable visitors to share and be informed of e-services and solutions offered by public sector agencies to improve their lifestyles using digital technology, the organisers said.

The 10th International IT Conference (IITC) organised by the University of Colombo School of Computing is another key event of the National ICT Week.

The organisers said that the conference will enable the participants to acquaint themselves with the current global technological developments through presentations made by eminent specialists in the field.

The conference from October 28 - 29 will be followed by several high quality tutorials and workshops in the areas of cutting edge technology..

IBM Business Partner kick off 2008

IBM (Sri Lanka and Maldives) concluded their annual business partner kick off at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel recently.

It is organised by IBM Sri Lanka annually to recognise their business partner achievements and to share its future plans with its channel partners.

The Golden Key Company Ltd won the Business Partner of the year award while E-W Information Systems Ltd and Open System Technologies shared the other awards.

IBM is the leading IT Company in the world with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century.

It is the highest patent winning company in the world in the past 13 years and its products and services are way ahead of competition.

IBM Sri Lanka started its operations in the country in 1962. From its inception IBM Sri Lanka was the leading IT player in the country with customers from government, corporate and non government sector.

SmartArt Graphics creates quality illustrations

SmartArt Graphics is a powerful new tool in Office 2007 that enables the delivery of compelling visual communication. With its range of layouts, SmartArt Graphics is a quick, easy and effective method of expressing ideas that provide greater audience comprehension and recall.

Creating designer-quality illustrations and graphics that appeal to viewers has never been this easy.

With SmartArt Graphics, and embedded features such as speciality themes, creating quality illustrations is only a few mouse clicks away.

“Slide text in Office PowerPoint 2007 can be converted into a SmartArt Graphic”, said an avid user.

“Converting text into a SmartArt graphic is an efficient method of transforming existing slides into professionally designed illustrations.