Joseph Gulla
Contributor
Joseph Gulla got his start in IT as a COBOL programmer in the late 1970s. He has worked with IBM products as a developer, system operator and instructor. Gulla has a Ph.D. in CIS from Nova Southeastern University and an MBA in MIS from La Salle University. Since 2000, Joe has helped StreamFoundry, an IBM Business Partner, with competitive software migrations and has continued his long association with Alazar Press as its general manager.
A Focus on Cloud Management
December 11, 2017
In this post, I keep my focus on the management theme from the previous three weeks of posts with concentration on cloud. What is different with cloud as compared to system, network and application management? Don’t cloud services require system and network management? Don’t cloud services run an application so isn’t application management useful? Time […]
ArticlesREXX Language Helps Ensure Consistency of Applications Across Platforms
December 4, 2017
The fact that the REXX programming language has a long history is an asset. It speaks to its stability, growth and expansion to different platforms and multiple versions. REXX has earned its reputation as a small, easy-to-learn language, just 23 instruction statements, that can be used to write programs for a wide variety of needs. […]
ArticlesA Comprehensive Approach to Application Management
December 4, 2017
In this post, I explore the discipline of application management, which is an IT management process with tools focused on the availability, performance and manageability of applications. Applications that have files, databases and other resources distributed over multiple OS images can be a challenge to manage. When suddenly some part of the application isn’t working, […]
ArticlesAge of Networks and Network Management
November 27, 2017
In this post, I explore the current state of network management, a powerfully mature discipline that emerged after going through many changes as networking evolved to its present state. Network management is still growing and evolving. That’s because network environments are still developing in sophistication, built-in support and changing device implementations like virtualized firewalls, switches […]
ArticlesComprehensive Systems Management
November 20, 2017
In this post, I explore systems management as a comprehensive discipline: What is it, how has it changed and what are the latest innovations to emerge. Systems management has developed into a mature and vibrant network of activities that are key to keeping systems available and useful. Let’s consider it as a model with categories […]
ArticlesIT Management Activities and Their Context
November 13, 2017
This is the first in a series about IT management. You might think of this as system, network, application and cloud management, but definitions and practices are changing and expanding. Or, you might think of this as IT Service management. That’s certainly part of it as well. IT service management creates context so it is […]
ArticlesDesign and Develop Large-Scale System Software
November 6, 2017
This is the sixth and final post in a series about things they never taught me in school. Over the years, I have taken many different computer classes in schools, through IT companies and by self-study, but nothing prepared me for the rigor of leading a team in the design and development of a large-scale […]
ArticlesHow to Create an IT Offering
October 23, 2017
This is the fourth post in a series about things they never taught me in school. Attending classes, I never learned how to create an IT offering. In fact, I never heard of an IT offering until I was 20 years into my IT career. At that time, elements like professional or support services were […]
ArticlesHow to Automate an Entire Software System
October 16, 2017
I studied to be a computer application developer. My interests were halfway between business and computers, so developing applications were a pretty good fit. Besides, I didn’t know anything about the system side of things—OSes, middleware software, job entry subsystems and system software installation—basically the tasks and concerns of the system programmers. After five years […]
ArticlesOther Things They Didn’t Teach Me in School: Pseudo-Conversational Programming
October 9, 2017
I spent three months studying COBOL, wrote eight challenging batch programs, and then took my first assignment, which involved writing online transactions that I learned nothing about before taking the assignment. Since I had no training in real-time programming (i.e., online transaction processing (OLTP) applications, I needed some tutoring by the analyst assigned to be […]