Take Quality Products to Market Faster with Enterprise-Ready Dynamic Languages

Taking Quality Products to Market Faster with Enterprise-Ready Dynamic Languages www.activestate.com / business_solutions March 10, 2010

Larry Backman VP Quality Assurance Computer Associates Jeff Hobbs Director of Engineering ActiveState

Agenda
Introductions
CA’s story with Perl
Open source licensing considerations
Growth of dynamic languages
Value of dynamic languages
Overview of ActiveState’s dynamic languages solutions
Q&A

Audience Poll: What is the single largest pressure today in a development environment? 29.4% of enterprise developers report the biggest pressure is to get products to market faster

Who is Computer Associates (CA)
One of the largest software vendors
Founded in 1976
Over $4 billion in revenues
13,000 + Employees
99% of Fortune 1000 use CA products

SiteMinder Web Access Manager

Component of CA’s Secure Web Business Enablement Solution.
Enterprise-scale Internet access control system.
Enables secure access to web applications and websites for employees, customers and business partners.
Fulfills compliance standards for security of web applications and resources.

Selecting Perl

Great parsing qualities.
Able to manipulate large amounts of data.
Simple and familiar programming language for:
CA QA
CA Services
CA Customer base

Solid interoperability.
Accelerates cross-platform development, key for SiteMinder running on many platforms.

Challenges with Perl

Perl itself was not stable enough to meet CA's needs.
Legal risk concerns with Perl were too great for a security product like SiteMinder.
Open source Perl had some multithreading and multiprocessor issues as well as scalability problems.
Needed a solid, trusted version of Perl – enterprise and redistribution-ready.

Audience Poll: What is the single most important reason you use a dynamic language (for example Perl, Python, Tcl)?
47.3% Speed of development
36.8% Ease of use
15.7% Low cost
Speed of development Low cost Ease of Use

Choosing Enterprise-Ready Perl

Required commercially supported Perl to mitigate legal risks
Needed a trusted, tested Perl distribution to complement enterprise-class software like SiteMinder
Quality assured code and quick implementation a must

Cross platform and scalability requirements
Turn-key maintenance and Perl expertise
Turn-key redistribution licensing
Swift technical support if issues arose

Object Store User Directory Policy Server Web Server Web Agent HTTP Driver Test Scripts Logs Siteminder Web Access Manager Perl Base Automated Test Harness
Complex n-tier enterprise security product C++ API to subsystems and object layer
Perl -> C++ Wrapper
Perl Script Interface
Ant/Perl Automation and deployment Framework
Perl automated harness
Nightly Build -> harness interface
Perl Modules
Perl test scripts
STI Test Harness Perl Driven Automation Portal

Central Dashboard

Benefits and Value of ActivePerl

The ActivePerl framework helps CA:
Find and address a regression in SiteMinder within 24 hours
Improve the quality of SiteMinder by identifying defects early in the development cycle

Maintain an efficient and streamlined test cycle
Deliver fixes faster and resolve problems swiftly
Cut costs for expanding CA’s product matrix

Benefits Save time. Save effort. Save development $.

Focus on enhancing SiteMinder
Maintaining, updating, reinstalling, configuring and porting Perl is not required with ActivePerl so developers can focus on core competencies with SiteMinder.

Faster development of new features, faster to drive revenue and marketability.
ActivePerl infrastructure is maintained by ActiveState, so precious development cycles are spent on CA’s products.

Clean, reliable code.
Platform independence.
Scalability.
Reliable Perl expertise on demand.

Audience Poll: Do you currently buy both support and indemnification for the dynamic languages you use?
5.8% Yes
58.8% No
35.2% Don’t know
Yes No Don’t know

Licensing Considerations

Open source licensing is inherently complex…
For security or enterprise products, always use commercially supported open source to reduce legal risks.
Always use a safe redistribution package (OEM) when embedding open source in marketable products

Don’t leave money on the table with customers who require assurance for proper licensing of open source.
Consider implications of potential copyright infringement lawsuits - $$$
Harmful for company reputation
Very costly and time consuming

About ActiveState
Founded 1997
2 million developers
97% of Fortune 1000
Products & services for end-to-end development, management and distribution of applications with dynamic languages
Open source projects to mission-critical applications
Dynamic Languages:
Core: Perl, Python, Tcl
Secondary: PHP, Ruby, Javascript

Drivers & Trends For Dynamic Languages Faster time to market Increased use in mainstream IT Pressure to increase development staff productivity Lower development & maintenance costs Uptime of critical applications IT Paradigm shift, open source acceptance in business Compliance with corporate policy for commercial support of open source Legal risk mitigation Intellectual property security IT investment protection Business & Government

Dynamic Languages Popularity 57% of enterprises are using Perl, Python, PHP & other dynamic languages 57% of enterprises are using Perl, Python, PHP & other dynamic languages

Why the Growth?
Dynamic Languages Deliver Value
Flexible and extensible to generate clean, reliable and reusable code
Excellent for data processing, and web apps development
Large libraries of turnkey modules ready for deployment
Faster time to market. Quality applications. Increased productivity.

ActiveState Solutions

Our Product Stack for Dynamic Languages

Support from Open Source to Enterprise Applications ActiveState Language Edition Community Edition Business Edition Enterprise Edition OEM Market/Use Free & Open source projects Business-critical applications Mission-critical applications Distributed applications OS: Windows, Linux, Mac     OS: Solaris, HP-UX, AIX    Older versions    Commercial support Email 2 days Email/Phone 2 hours Email/Phone 2 hours Indemnification   Royalty-free Distribution 

Customers & Partners Software & Hardware Finance Aerospace & Defense

Thank you.
Enjoy your complimentary whitepaper at
www.activestate.com/
webinars

Contact Us
Larry Backman
[email_address]
Jeff Hobbs
[email_address]
ActiveState Business Solutions
[email_address]
Follow @activestate on Twitter.
1.866.510.2914

www.activestate.com / business_solutions

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Take Quality Products to Market Faster with Enterprise-Ready Dynamic Languages

by ActiveState on Mar 12, 2010

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