Distributed

Distributed Systems (2nd Edition) by Sape Mullender is easily the best book available on Distributed Systems. Many authors, yet so coherent and authoritive and well written. Makes reasonably easy yet rigorous reading. It is about 10 years old, but still very up-to-date in terms of principles. For more up-to-date other (also very good) alternatives see either or both of:

1. Distributed Systems - Couloris

OR

2. Distributed Systems - A. Tanenbaum

These are not nearly as deep as Sape Mullender, but quite thorough. Mullender covers distributed real time systems better (given short shrift by the others) and is more rigorous. But due to its age Mullender has hardly any coverage of distributed object middleware (e.g. DCOM, CORBA, RMI) and multi-media systems.

To get or good handle or distrbuted systems design or research however you also need a distrbuted algorithms text. You may want to search on the following authors:

Vijay Garg, Gerard Tel, Nancy Lynch.

Gerard Tel's is the most thorough in terms of problem/topic coverage and mots intuitive. But if you want a very easy to read book, non too mathematical with algorithms in a real programming language (JAVA) to adapt to build your own Distrbuted Software choose: Gerard Tel's Concurrent and Distributed Computing in Java which covers both Concurrent and Distributed Programming algorithms in Java.

Another important book which looks at distributed systems from a thorough, modern distributed objects point of view is 'Engineering Distributed Objects' by Wollgang Emmerich. It covers the distributed objects middleware raison d'etre, principles, and the Java RMI, CORBA and DCOM/COM+ approaches and architectures in an excellent, readable fashion.

"The Place of Face-to-Face Communication in Distributed Work"
Bonnie A. Nardi, Agilent Technologies; Steve Whittaker, AT&T Labs-Research

This chapter is significant. There is a wealth of knowledge and understanding that can be brought to on-line business collaboration from fields like anthropology. This is particularly important given the notable failure of many on-line collaboration efforts.

What intrigues me about the work are the larger questions that emerge - what does this mean for the meaning and quality of business life, the effectiveness of on-line work, work/life balance, alienation/mental health, etc. For example, what will the quality of our ideas be like is we work more and more on-line? If we work in isolated, on-line environments how does this impact our need to "be" as social beings and learn informally with others around the coffee pot? What if the on-line "coffee pot" can never be as rich as the real thing?

This is a well written and very practical treatment of e-business applications. The key concepts are defined clearly and the main ideas are well illustrated through numerous diagrams, tables, and examples. The chapters are long but carry the discussion logically -- the author highlights the important points and breaks up the discussion with review questions that I found quite refreshing. The topics and tone of discussion is for practitioners but is quite suitable for independent learning or classroom teaching (the material is based on courses taught by the author.

I like the layout. First few chapters give a very clear discussion of e-business strategies and link them to real-time enterprises, eMarkets, ERPs, CRMs, ASPs, eProcurement, supply chains, portals, mobile applications, data warehouses, data mining, and all other good names we hear about. The material in first 2 chapters is compact and in my view contains more useful information than some of the books on e-business. To complete the discussion, the author devotes an excellent and practical chapter to a step-by-step planning methodology that puts all the pieces together. This is followed by a very good and quick overview chapter on IT infrastructure and its role in converting e-business strategies into reality. The concluding chapter covers state of the art, market, and practice in EB apps. Very nice.

I have read Umar's past books and am impressed by his depth and breadth of knowledge. This module and the other modules of this handbook demonstrate that he has mastered the art of presenting complex and confusing issues clearly and completely.
The price is surprisingly low for the value.

I read this book (it should not be called a module, it is a complete book!) after going through many books and articles on enterprise integration. For the money, this is the best treatment of business issues, strategic choices, and enabling technologies for EAI. Umar starts with a very good discussion of various integration strategies and the tradeoffs. Approaches to deal with legacy applications are clearly spelled out including access in place, data warehouses, and m igration (gradual/cold turkey). Then a very solid discussion of EAI platforms is presented with a spotlight on XML, Web services, message brokers, screen scrapers, and all that. I really like the categorization of EAI-lite, EAI-mid, and EAI-heavy to emphasize that not all integrations are multi-million, multi-year projects. The role of data warehouses in integrations and when/how to migrate is also covered quite well. The examples and case studies in the last chapter to summarize state of the practice, market, and art is quite beneficial.

Umar is a good writer who has a good practical as well as theoretical knowledge of the subject matter (a rarity). In this and other modules of this handbook, he always starts with a conceptual framework and then explains different pieces of the framework through examples, commercial products, and relevant research findings. His focus is practical but he discusses the underlying principles and foundations quite well so that the material is useful for university/industrial courses. Large sources of additional materials and Web links further add to the academic value. Although this module is self sufficient, it should be combined with architecture and middleware modules of the handbook due to their affinity to the subject matter. It is a very worthwhile study.

I just read this booklet and found it to be very beneficial. The author has a very straightforward style of presenting the essential concepts without wasting the reader's time. The first chapter of this 5 chapter booklet gives an incredibly well rounded discussion of ebusiness management in terms of the typical planning, organizating, staffing, monitoring and control activities. My favourite is the second chapter that gives a really good coverage of "management platforms" that support the FCAPS (fault, capacity, accounting, performance and security) in modern environments. Although I have been in the industry for almost 20 years and had heard of Netview, Tivoli, Opeenview and other such things, I never quite understood what are all these things and what do they have to do with management. This chapter alone is worth the cost (only $18) of this booklet. The next 2 chapters on security are equally good. They cover security management and organizational issues, discuss the core security technologies, and then show how this fits in to secure all the IT assets -- starting from network links to corporate databases and web transactions. The security design procedure with attack trees is just wwonderful. The final chapter gives a good scan of state of the practice, market, and art. Beautifully done!

Dr. Umar tested this module, and companion modules, in a class of his which I took in graduate school. While I was a professional student familiar with most of the topics at some level, I noticed he did an excellent job of providing a structured overview of the middleware technology landscape in the Middleware module. In particular, I liked the fact that he went beyond descriptions of systems and services to also look at practical issues like tradeoffs among different middleware technologies relative to specific types of applications. Also, the writing and visual style is at a pleasant enough level that you don't get lost in the complexities associated with all technologies. If you're new to the middleware area, and desire an initial broad brush overview, I highly recommend this module, especially given its reasonable price. Once you're done with it, you can confidently venture to other more detailed (and expensive) texts to investigate a specific topic, without losing the topic's context in the general scheme of things.

What is the Internet? How does it work? Why is it so important? These questions can be very confusing to someone without a computer science or IT background. After reading this Networks module, I feel I finally have a very good understanding of the power of the IP networks. I highly recommend this module to anyone with an iota of curiosity about the Internet.

Although it's not breezy reading, even as a business school student I had little trouble with the technical explanations. Dr. Umar uses real-world examples. In fact, the information is so practical that now I know the actual meaning behind terms such as Ethernet, LAN's, WAN's, MAN's, NIC, RJ45, cable modems, DSL, T1, T3, optical fiber, ATM Frame relay, etc. The module also covers Voice Over IP and the inevitable convergence of voice and data - no wonder phone companies are running scared. In addition, wireless technologies, cellular phones and 3G are also addressed.

I was mostly interested in distributed networks but the module also covered IBM's SNA and token ring networks reflecting Dr. Umar's experience with Big Blue's "big iron" mainframes. Nonetheless, it was still valuable information.

This paperback gives an excellent overview of the technical as well as strategic issues in e-business and distributed systems. It sets the stage for all other modules of the handbook (applications, architectures, integration, networks, middleware, platforms, and management)through several real life case studies and examples. The preface very nicely shows several course examples where the modules can be used and points to the instructor material that is available from the author site. The first chapter starts with a discussion of strategic issues in e-business and shows how the latest distributed computing technologies enable these strategies. The discussion of Real-Time enterprises is well placed in the discussion. The second chapter contains many case studies and examples to highlight the practical issues.

The same practical style, helped with numerous diagrams and examples continues in all modules. The modules are quite inexpensive and rich with well written content. GREAT WORK.

If you want a hype free and well thought out discussion of the platforms for EB/EC and mobile applications, then this module is for you. The author does an incredibly good job of defining application servers in terms of middleware platforms and then goes on to clearly discuss the specialized as well as general purpose app servers. The discussion proceeds from mobile application servers to ecommerce servers to B2B servers and concludes with multimedia and collaboration servers. The evolution of these servers into powerful "super app servers" such as .NET and J2EE follows in a natural manner. Very much worth the cost. I read this module after reading the equally well written Middleware Module. These two modules really cover the ground in the basic middleware services and the packaging of these services into powerful application development and deployment platforms.

What a confection! Quelle surprise! That a mere snippet should have carried all these words, pages and pages full. And yet. After all. We look in vain for the key debates. Where for example, are those vexatious references to Kantian suppositions or Derridian dramaturgy that have been so sharply inserted into the critical discourse by Napalm, Drory and Rogers? And has she completely bypassed Marguerite Duras' emblematic canard, Varda ou est elle? Screen Theory may also nod from its slumbers to learn its fate on page 159ish. All in all just the kind of potboiling eyewash one might expect from the kind of woman she is.