Recent Posts by Bob Rhubart

Our first program for 2018 brings together a panel of experts whose specialties cover a broad spectrum, including Big Data, security, open source, agile, domain driven design, Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture, Internet of Things, and more. The thread that connects these five people is that they are part of the small army of experts that will be presenting at the 2018 Jfokus Developers Conference, February 5-7, 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden. This program was recorded on...

Here are some trends that made a difference in 2017. By Bob Rhubart January/February 2018 Software architects and developers live in a perpetual swirl of technological trends, each with at least some potential to evolve from ripple to wave. A great many of these trends simply evaporate. But for others, powerful currents converge, mysterious forces align, and what emerges is something that changes the software development landscape in a profound and lasting way. As we enter a new...

Blockchain originally gained attention thanks to its connection to Bitcoin. But blockchain has emerged from under the crypto-currency’s shadow to become a powerful trend in enterprise IT -- and something that should be on every developer's radar.  For this program we’ve assembled a panel of blockchain experts to discuss the technology's impact, examine some use cases, and offer suggestions for developers who want to learn more in order to take advantage of the opportunities...

Innovation never sleeps, and tech trends come at you from every angle. That's business as usual in the software developer's world. In 2017, microservices, containers, chatbots, blockchain, IoT, and other trends drew lots of attention and conversation. But what trends and technologies penetrated the hype to make a real difference? In order to get a sense of what's happening on the street, we gathered a group of highly respected software developers, recognized leaders in the...

Small packages. Big value. By Bob Rhubart November/December 2017 In the continuing quest to examine the point at which trends in IT and architecture gain traction with reality, I thought it was about time to focus on containers and their use among members of the community. Are these standalone, executable packages of code, runtime, and system tools making a difference in the work of architects and developers? Lucas Jellema, CTO at AMIS in the Netherlands, Oracle ACE Director, and...

The previous podcast featured a discussion of chatbot development with a panel of developers who were part of a program that provided early access to the Oracle Intelligent Bots platform available within the Mobile Cloud Service. In this podcast we continue the discussion of chatbot development with an entirely new panel of developers who also had the opportunity to work with that same Intelligent Bots beta release. Panelists Mia Urman, Peter Crew, and Christoph Reupprich...

One of the highlights of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Partner Forum in Valencia, Spain in March 2016 was a live demo of a system developed by ACE Directors Wilfred van der Deijl, Mark Simpson, Lonneke Dikmans, Torsten Winterberg, and Lucas Jellema that integrated 10 different Oracle PaaS services. The details of that project were described in the 8-part article series, Soaring Through the Clouds, written by members of the demo team. In March 2017 three members of that team...

When kids code, careers grow. By Bob Rhubart September/October 2017 In casual conversations with the small army of software developers I’ve met over the last 20 years, I’ve learned at least two things. One is that software development is as much a lifestyle as it is a career choice. The other thing is that, probably because of the first thing, the coding bug often bites people long before they need to earn a paycheck. But the details of those casual conversations can be a...