In today's post we discuss, Wide-area data services
This is a term used to describe the set of issues that enterprise applications face in terms of network slowness, application performance, data coherency and other such data issues when the same enterprise applications are required to be shared by various branch offices and personnel. Think of a hypothetical example where a CAD software is being used to design a bridge by offices across the continents. The bridge will be modeled completely to the finest detail and at a pace where the engineers don't feel limited in the data they collaborate with to build the model. There is only one instance of the bridge and it is electronic at any given time.
Although the example serves to illustrate the context, wide-area data services are not restricted to one application. It is used to address data traffic issues that can improve such things as file sharing, email, backup, document management system, IT tools, as well as ERP and CRM solutions.
Together, the set of techniques used to achieve this speedup in the use of WAN applications is referred to as WAN optimization.
Riverbed is a pioneer in this area. We review the technical information on its optimization system as available on the Internet.
Riverbed's optimization System has four major components that address different technical concerns.
1) Data Streamlining - This looks into data deduplication so that the WAN bandwidth is reduced and applications can be prioritized by bandwidth and latency.
2) Transport Streamlining - This looks into different transport issues that removes inefficiencies when a data transfer must happen.
3) Application Streamlining - This looks into application protocol performance so that unnecessary round trips are avoided. Note that there is a line between mutating an existing application for performance improvement and reworking the application level protocol behavior. The former is neither allowed nor viable without source code and mere reverse engineering. The latter is non-invasive and more traffic oriented.
4) Management Streamlining - This looks into deployment and management and virtualizing branch office services.
Usually this solution is available in the form of a hardware appliance and a software client. The former works at the traffic level and the latter is installed at individual workstations.
By the way, wide area data services improvements are not restricted to applications but can also be applied to Cloud technologies including VMWare vSphere datacenter applications.


#codingexercise



Double  GetNthRootProductOddAndEvenRaisedPPlusQ (Double [] A,Double  p, Double q)


{


If ( A== null) return 0;


Return A.NthRootProductOddAndEvenRaisedPPlusQ(p, q);


}

Today I had the opportunity to use my hospitals patient information access portal. I found it quite interesting in the way information is organized on the portal. A few of the observations include :
1) patient access security
2) invitation only links
3) portal multi factor security
4) information organized by the type
5) information as deep as reports
#codingexercise


Double  GetNthRootProductOddRaisedPEvenRaisedQ (Double [] A,Double  p, Double q)

{

If ( A== null) return 0;

Return A.NthRootProductOddRaisedPEvenRaisedQ(p, q);

}

In the storage industry, file system protocols and their access are very important for the products and the day to day usages.the storage vendors push these features down into their products but cloud service providers have to even wire ways to expose these at their user level. If there were more than one vendot and each vendor had different degrees of interpretation, then there are more variations. Even if there is one vendor to go with, these variations are a helpful study both from a survey perspective as well as in evaluating the maturity of the product. It's in this connection that the change log between the versions and the components affected become all the more interesting . The savviness to use the right product right version of the product and right features enables ease of use to accomplish a task
In an example outside the topic we began some heat questionnaire and answer set for this evaluation.
Examples include :
How does this fit our need now ?
How does this feet our need down the line ?
How does this evaluate with others
How much effort us involved ?
How many moving parts are involved ?
What is the resiliency
And the TCO?
This builds a scorecard for each option.

#codingexercise

Double  GetNthRootSumOddRaisedPEvenRaisedQ (Double [] A,Double  p, Double q)
{
If ( A== null) return 0;
Return A.NthRootSumOddRaisedPEvenRaisedQ(p, q);
}

I've injured my hand and the swelling has increased even more today. In the previous post we ere discussing dynamic pricing models. It's important to note that such model is only applicable in a small percentage of cases. Specifically when the supply is less than demand. Uber's research has shown that both supply and demand curves are elastic here. Higher prices increase supply here. The Boston experiment confirmed that there is higher number of fulfilled requests when that happens. On the demand side there are two areas noteworthy, I referred the corresponding post by Bill Gurley. There is a mention of UberX as an alternative to the black car service and this has caught on.

#codingexercise


GetAllNumberRangeProductSeventhRootPowerTwwlve(Double [] A)



{





if (A == null) return 0;





Return A.AllNumberRangeProductSeventhRootPowerTwelve();




}

In the previous post we reviewed the pricing models. To summarize we have advertising model with deep pockets and critical mass. Large companies can engage in this. Then there is free product with subscrption Services for sale . This is generally not liked by investors there's a model to renter existing distribution especially with a markup 2 to 5 times above the cost of the software. If we don't want this cost model, we could pursue a value mod l where the offering is clear to the customer and the conversion  from basic services to premium services is with a factor that us simple and clean. Of course pricing model may be allowed to be governed by the factors this is   the example of market model. Where competitive forces could be allowed to shape the pricing  taking its a,step further we can have pricing models
That are dynamic. Take Uber surge
Pricing for instance. This is an example of dynamic model which we haven't discovered so far  there us actually an interesting incident that led to this model. In Boston Uber drivers detected a problem where as they signed off at 1am there was a lot of unfilled request piling up. To make the supply elastic, drivers were given the option of more money for working longer.

Today we review the different types of pricing models for software.  Pricing models are complex decisions  there are a lot if intertwined factors at play such as strategy, customer etc. Let's use this blog post to come up to speed with at least a few.
First, give it away for free and make money on advertising. Facebook, Twitter and PInterest follow this model. It requires deep pockets and is very hard to measure. There is said to be a critical mass required for this model to succeed.
Second, Free product bundled with paid services model. Red Hat  Linux follows this model. Customers pay subscription fees if they want support or other services from the service offerimgs. A positive benefit of this model is that this generates cash flow although on the flip side it turns investors away
Third pricing model is Freemium model. Dropbox and linkedin offer just enough products for free to gain regular audience and then convert them for paid services. The pricing has to be a function of the perceived incremental value. This is typically made with simple conversion factors so the equation may look like 10000 more at 10$ each.
Next is the cost based model where the product is sold at two to five times the cost incurred.multiples are used because the middlemen in the distribution channels as well as the end retailers work with fixed markup? This is the most common method for entering into existing distributions.
Value model is another. This articulates the value of the offering be it monetary or otherwise. In all these cases the value has to be perceived as compelling.
Portfolio pricing expands on this by offering a variety of products and services. There more mix and match possible now.
Tiered or volume pricing is used if the product is purchased in different types of quantities by different users?
Market pricing is another model which is used in highly competitive and minimally differentiated markets. Strong players like Amazon for instance can ask and get a premium based on better services or better timeliness of services. However businesses have to watch out for not competing themselves away.
Feature pricing is another example of pricing model where the pricing starts from a baseline of features or a bare bone version. This model often suffers from a lot of customer complaints.
Another extension of a pricing model based on reusability is razor and blade model.
Here the base component us sold cheaply or even given away and the consumable portion is charged as used or more often. To be able to provide the base units, there must be a deep pocket to begin with.
Generally speaking complex pricing models can get more and more complex but the right use of metrics and simpler conversions can overcome the shortcomings of overly simplistic model.
Courtesy Cayenne Consulting blog

A quick look at cascade styles in Hibernate ORM framework. By default there is no cascading of state between one associated entity and another. Hibernate does not implement persistence by reachability by default. If we want a cascade style along an association, we must specify it expicitly in the mapping file. Cascading options  can be described as persist, delete, lock. These can be combined. The associations can be parent child for these to work in that what affects the parents cascades to the child.
The cascading operations for a parent child relationship are as follows
If the parent is passed to persist, all children are passed to persist
If the parent is passed to merge, all children are passed to merge.
If the parent is passed to save, update, saveorUpdate, all the children are passed to the same
If a transient or detached child becomes referenced by a persistent parent, saveorUpdate is called.
If a parent is passed to delete, all the children are passed to delete.
If a child becomes dereferenced from a persistent parent, nothing special happens. Cascade = delete-orphan could handle this case.