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The Cloud: Onward to the Trough of Disillusionment

December 10, 2010Hosting Industry, ResearchTakeshi Eto

I did a few blog posts last year about the Gartner Hype Cycle and Cloud Computing. In Part I, I introduced the Gartner Hype Cycle. In Part II, I discussed the need to look beyond the initial hype peak called the “Peak of Inflated Expectations”.

As discussed in the Part I of the Hype Series, in Gartner’s 2008 report, Cloud Computing was on the upward left side of the Hype Peak and in Gartner’s 2009 report Cloud Computing was at the peak. Below are the 2008 and 2009 Hype Cycles.

Every year, Gartner updates their Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle and they released their 2010 Hype Cycle in August 2010 as displayed below.

Notice that “the Cloud” has three entries now – Cloud Computing, Cloud/Web Platforms and Private Cloud Computing. All three categories are projected to be 2-5 years from mainstream adoption. In 2010, both Cloud Computing and Cloud/Web Platforms have made it over the peak with Cloud/Web Platforms lower down the slope, while Private Cloud Computing is making its way to the peak.

So, now that Cloud Computing and Cloud/Web Platforms are over the hype peak, and as these emerging technologies make their way down to the “Trough of Disillusionment,” I think things get more interesting. As discussed in my Hype Series Part II, I hope to start hearing discussion about how deep or shallow the Trough of Disillusionment will be and how fast or slow the Slope of Enlightenment will be, as this will affect how fast mass adoption of Cloud Computing will be.

In the Gartner’s Hype Cycle Special Report for 2010, Gartner published the following hype cycle graphic illustrating the typical progression of a technology as it goes through the different phases of the hype cycle.

If Gartner is correct, in its position now, Cloud Computing and Cloud/Web Platforms are due for negative press, supplier consolidation and Cloud failures. In fact, Gartner is starting to speak publicly about such Cloud failures.

The impact of Cloud computing will no doubt change the hosting landscape but I do believe that there is an awful lot of hype out there and I also believe we are seeing a lot of Cloud-washing (the subject of future posts). And I also believe that Cloud computing is not going to wipe out entire hosting segments off the map as some would have you believe.

At DiscountASP.NET, we’ll continue to track the progress of Cloud computing and hopefully cut through the hype with a more realistic lens. And, of course, we’ll continue to focus on providing innovative hosting solutions for the .NET developer and work hard to remain relevant in these changing times.

Takeshi Eto
VP Marketing and Business Development
DiscountASP.NET

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Silverlight 5 Announced at Silverlight Firestarter Event – Rumors Put to Rest

December 2, 2010Announcements, TechnicalSilverlightMichael

Silverlight 5 was announced today and will be available next year. This announcement apparently was made earlier than originally planned, as a result of rumors regarding the state of Silverlight after PDC. The heavy promotion of HTML 5 , during the IE 9 demos, coming after a series of tweets by Scott Barnes earlier in the year, led to concerns over the future of Silverlight.

Prior to today, Scott Guthrie addressed this issue on at least two separate occasions, stating unequivocally that Silverlight is, and remains a “Key Development Platform”. Today’s announcement appears to be the punctuation on those remarks.

The reality is that HTML 5 and Silverlight are NOT competing technologies. Yes, there is some crossover, but the differences are so major, the conversation is just silly and not worth even entertaining.

For more information regarding this announcement and new features, visit Scott Guthrie’s blog.

– Michael Ossou

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Using Team Foundation Server 2010 Source Control from SQL Server Management Studio

December 2, 2010How-to, Team Foundation Server, TechnicalJoseph

While Team Foundation Server 2010 may be primarily known for handling applications, there are extended abilities that will allow you to store other types of mission critical information which is what we’ll be taking a look at.

As with most data-driven applications, the code is something that we safeguard fairly well but sometimes the queries and other database objects are overlooked. I hate speaking from personal experience but how many times have there been attempts to “fix” a stored procedure that ends with disastrous results?

One neat feature that we’ve been exploring is storing queries that we work on into Team Foundation Server 2010 and I’ll be sharing that information with you.

There are some prerequisites involved. Make sure that you have the following available and installed:

•   SQL Server Management Studio 2005, 2008 or 2008 R2 (Express versions will not work)
•   Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider 2010
•   Added your user to the collection
•   Have an existing Team Project or have created a new Team Project
•   Have proper permissions to the project

I’ll be concentrating on getting new SQL scripts through a SQL Server Management Studio project to your Team Foundation Server.

After you’ve installed the Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider 2010, open up SQL Server Management Studio and then access, “File”, “New” and then “Project…” to get started. Select the SQL Server Scripts template, provide relevant information for the fields, make sure that you check the “Add to Source Control” option and then click on the “OK” button.

Next, we’ll need to create a connection to our Team Foundation Server. At the “Connect to a Team Foundation Server” window, click on the “Servers…” button and then the “Add..” button. Supply the information for your DiscountASP.NET Team Foundation Server and provide your sign-in credentials when prompted. Click on the “Close” button at the “Add/Remove Team Foundation Server” window which should take you back to the “Connect to a Team Foundation Server” window where you can click the “OK” button.

From the “Choose Folder in Team Foundation Server” window, choose your existing project or the new project that you have created and then check in all of the files.

If the “Solution Explorer” isn’t already visible, click on “Solution Explorer” from the “View” menu. Right-click on the “Connections” folder and then click on the “New Connection” item to store the connection information to your database server.

Right-click on the “Queries” folder and then click on the “New Query” option. For test purposes, you can create a simple query such as “select getdate()” and then save it.

To check the new query in, right-click on the query that you’ve created and then click on the “Check In…” option.

From the “Check In” window, make sure that the new query is selected and then click on the “Check In” button. From the available source files, make sure that your new query is selected and then click on the “Check In” button again.

Your file should now be properly marked as read-only. To make revisions, you can check the file out, apply your changes and then check the file in.

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DiscountASP.NET Wins DevProConnections 2010 Community Choice Gold Award

November 29, 2010Announcements, Inside DiscountASP.NET, MiscellaneousTakeshi Eto

We are proud to announce that our ASP.NET Hosting Service was named as a gold medal winner of the “2010 Community Choice Awards” in the Best Web Hosting Category by Penton Media’s DevProConnections magazine.

This poll was formerly the asp.netPRO Magazine Readers Choice Award, so technically this win would make it our 6th year in a row!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you – for all your support through the years.

Takeshi Eto
VP Marketing and Business Development

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The MySQL sequel – it’s back, and it’s better than ever.

November 23, 2010Announcements, Technicalmjp

We discontinued the creation of new MySQL databases more than two and a half years ago. The demand for MySQL was very low, and many of our users seemed to be abandoning it for MS SQL. But there must be something in the water, because we have seen renewed demand recently. More and more of our customers want to use MySQL-only applications (WordPress, forums, etc.) so we are lighting up new MySQL servers and opening service to all of our users again.

2,000 MB disk space quota!

Create an unlimited number of MySQL databases at no extra charge!

MySQL version 5.1.50

This is a dramatic increase in value and flexibility over our previous MySQL offering. If you have been waiting for us to bring MySQL back, here it is! It’s available now in Control Panel.

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TFS Hosting – Adding the Scrum Custom Process Template

November 18, 2010How-to, Team Foundation Server, TechnicalJoseph

In some cases, the default Team Foundation Server process templates (Agile and CMMI) may not meet your project’s requirements. The good news is, if you want to use a different process template for your project, you can upload one to the server.

We are frequently asked if the Visual Studio Scrum process template is supported, so here are the steps that you can take to add it to your Team Foundation Server.

First, download and install Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 from the Visual Studio site.
Connect to your Team Foundation Server through either Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2010 Shell. If you need help accessing your Team Foundation Server, you can find instructions in our Knowledge Base.
After you have successfully connected, from the “Team” menu, mouse over the “Team Project Collection Settings” item and then click on the “Process Template Manager…” option.
At the Process Template Manager window, click on the “Upload” button.
You will need to locate the template folder. In my case it was C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0\Process Template.
Make sure that the proper folder is selected and then click the “Select Folder” button to start the upload process.

Now that the template has been added, you will be able to choose the “Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0” process template when you create any new Team Projects.

Profile of Mobile App and .NET Developers and Implications for WP7

November 16, 2010ResearchTakeshi Eto

We are continuing with our series of research papers. This one is based on results from our September 2010 customer survey and focuses on Windows Phone 7.

Summary:

Officially launched on October 11, 2010, Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is Microsoft’s new entrant into the competitive mobile phone marketplace. The future success of Windows Phone 7 will be driven by the health of the WP7 application ecosystem. In order to gain a better understanding of the ASP.NET developer’s attitudes toward Microsoft’s mobile strategy and their interest levels in developing for the WP7 platform, Windows shared hosting provider, DiscountASP.NET, surveyed their customer base. Based on the results of a September 2010 survey, we explore general attitudes toward Microsoft’s mobile strategy as well as our customer’s state of mobile application use and development experience. We further drill down on the results from our USA-based customers and discuss the differences in characteristics and attitudes between the customers who have experience building mobile applications and those who did not. Finally, based on the results we discuss its implications on Windows Phone 7 application development strategies.

Here is a link to the research paper:

Profile of Mobile Application Developers and ASP.NET Web Developers and Implications on Windows Phone 7 Growth Strategies

Let us know what you think.

Takeshi Eto
VP Marketing and Business Development

Links to previously published papers:

July 2010: Windows Phone 7 Application Category Interests of Global ASP.NET Developers

June 2010: Profile of Silverlight Adopters and Implications for Windows Phone 7 Applications Development Strategies

April 2010: Silverlight Surpasses Flash Use among Recent Shared ASP.NET Hosting Customer Web Sites

March 2010: State of Silverlight: A Shared Windows Hosting Provider Perspective

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Why Use Hosted Team Foundation Server?

November 10, 2010Team Foundation Server, TechnicalJoseph

I thought I’d take a moment to answer a question that we’ve been fielding fairly frequently, which is why we’re offering a source control now.

As with most decisions, it just boiled down to timing.

Prior to Team Foundation Server 2010 being available for evaluation, we examined some alternative solutions that just didn’t live up to our expectations. The other source control systems that we took a look at were not intended for a shared hosting environment, were too complicated to administer as well as use and there was a substantial amount of overhead cost. We also wanted to have integration with Visual Studio.

With Team Foundation Server, while there were technical challenges, we were able to deploy servers into production relatively quickly, offer a product that was easier to use and with the new licensing model, not only are we able to offer the TFS Basic service at a reduced cost but as our first standalone SaaS offering as well.

So, why use Team Foundation Server Hosting?

Whether you’re a development company with several projects and developers or a one-man shop, the ability to maintain progress and focus during the application development cycle is absolutely critical. With Team Foundation Server handling source control, you gain the ability to document all revisions made to your project as well as the ability to assign various tasks through work items for complete organization. And with our SaaS solution, you don’t have to figure out and maintain a local TFS server on-premises.

Since the service integrates directly to the Visual Studio 2010 IDE and is backward compatible with previous versions of Visual Studio, there is no longer a need to install, maintain and launch several third-party applications or services for your source control and bug tracking needs.