Cisco ISP Essentials (Cisco Press Networking Technology) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is based on a living document that Philip, Barry and many network engineers around the globe have been working on for quite a few years. Since I do work with the original document I feared that it might only be a printed version of the online document, but I was delighted to discover that this is not the case, the book really is an expanded and up to date version of the recommended best practices based on real work network engineering experience.
The book is well written (typos and a few mistakes here and there) but the essence, the meat of it all are the detailed Cisco related commands and the usefull information that is provided. Saves a lot of time versus searching mailing lists, Cisco's web site and other ressources.

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A comprehensive guide to the best common practices for Internet service providers

Learn the best common practices for configuring routers on the Internet from experts who helped build the Internet
Gain specific advice through comprehensive coverage of all Cisco routers and current versions of Cisco IOS Software
Understand the Cisco IOS tools essential to building and maintaining reliable networks
Increase your knowledge of network security
Learn how to prevent problems and improve performance through detailed configuration examples and diagrams

Cisco IOS Software documentation is extensive and detailed and is often too hard for many Internet service providers (ISPs) who simply want to switch on and get going. Cisco ISP Essentials highlights many of the key Cisco IOS features in everyday use in the major ISP backbones of the world to help new network engineers gain understanding of the power of Cisco IOS Software and the richness of features available specifically for them. Cisco ISP Essentials also provides a detailed technical reference for the expert ISP engineer, with descriptions of the various knobs and special features that have been specifically designed for ISPs. The configuration examples and diagrams describe many scenarios, ranging from good operational practices to network security. Finally a whole appendix is dedicated to using the best principles to cover the configuration detail of each router in a small ISP Point of Presence.

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Essential LINQ Review

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(More customer reviews)Well, I'd have to say stuff the Entity Framework. Those of us who have spent many years watching Microsoft change its data access APIs more frequently than many people change their underpants are hardly likely to instantly jump as soon as Microsoft announces that the API they are currently using is now so last week.
The fact that this book has excellent coverage of Linq to SQL is all in its favour, in my opinion. However, the book also has a very clear explanation of the basic concepts, is the first book on Linq that I have seen which clearly explains why we have query expressions as well as query methods, and has excellent Linq to XML coverage if you absolutely can't avoid using the filthy bloated abomination that is XML.
All in all, a most excellent book, a pleasure to read, and highly recommended.

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Network Security Architectures Review

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(More customer reviews)Welcome to the twenty-first century in the world of computers and networking. With more issues occurring that have negative affects on the environment that information technologists work in, the knowledge of information security is slowly becoming critical. Sean Convery presents a detailed guide into the world of designing a secure network environment. Within "Network Security Architecture", Sean delves into the whys, the hows, and most importantly the cause and effect. As you examine the table of contents alone, it becomes clear that he has spent a great deal of time researching and detailing numerous different components of a network environment that have to be examined and considered for proper network security.
A close look at the book's table of contents will point out different areas that any Network Engineering individual from the Junior Administrator to the Senior Architect needs to be knowledgeable in. Sean examines policy, threats and the technologies available, he details how to harden devices and describes items that need to be considered in designing either new networks or enhancing existing ones. For these reasons alone this book is necessary for anyone that manages any portion of a computer network. This book offers far more than an education of network security. It is clearly designed not only to educate individuals, but provide a single reference for all network security areas as well.
Like many Cisco Press books, "Network Security Architectures" chapters are divided into three sections --: an introduction, the body, and finally a summary. It is these summary sections that help the most. In For example, in Chapter 6 on pages 262 thru 264, the concept of Design Consideration is summarized with charts. Where individual summaries appear light or limited, the book enhances the information covered in a section called "Applied Knowledge". This section helps individuals quickly implement what is covered in extreme detail in the chapter. Don't just look at the summary and applied knowledge sections, because this would not do all the hard work Sean placed in the book justice. For instance, in Chapter 5 on Hardening Devices, Sean provides clear examples on how to configure devices for security and hardening. This topic alone has not similarly covered since O'Reilly's book on "Hardening Cisco Routers" and that one did not go to the level of how to configure the devices fully.
As anyone that is familiar with Cisco Technology and Cisco Systems knows, they routinely publish various "SAFE" documents on topics. This book takes input from those documents, combining them with other both real world examples and theory to provide a greater combined presentation. Like any Cisco documentation this book can either be read in its entirety from cover to cover or only the sections that are needed now. But as you read the book you will realize that while "SAFE" documents focus on key issues, this book details not only the issues and the possible alternatives, but provides reasoning for implementing the recommendations in clear English. Convery's book is both an excellent resource and a great guide. Its ability to present both the Cisco and the real world philosophy on network architecture is critical for all that work in this arena.
As I mentioned previously Convery, uses the Cisco "SAFE" documents as guide points, but those are only detailed references. His book takes them to the next logical level and as such I could spend hours and pages detailing all the other reasons someone should acquiring a copy of this book, but the key reason I believe is that it is a clear consolidated source to design, implement and support a secure and highly available network. But the simple fact is in this day and age with more and more Viruses, Worms, Trojan horses, Network Probe attacks and numerous other problems in the growing Internet can anyone not afford to plan a "SMART" and "SAFE" network architecture? That is the real question that should drive someone to consider this book for there library and refer to it on a regular basis. I know I have already.
I highly recommend this excellent reference book for networking and security practitioners in any size environment. The investment will save time and money, even if only a few of the recommendations are implemented. You will find yourself referring to it frequently.

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Enterprise Service Bus: Theory in Practice Review

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(More customer reviews)Chappell describes a highly promising but still speculative technology for connecting together enterprise-wide computations. It can also potentially be used to span different companies. Some of you may groan. Haven't we heard this already, several times? Remember the toutings of CORBA, Java's RMI, JMX, JMS, and the nascent Web Services?
Well, ESB draws upon often bitter lessons learnt with these earlier endeavours. CORBA was widely found to be too complex. RMI works only for tightly coupled systems, which do not scale well. So that became one reason for JMS, because it enabled loose coupling. But JMS is too low level. Web Services may indeed be promising, but face a danger of overspecifying a standard before enough practical experience is garnered.
ESB tries to subsume the best ideas from the above, and from other efforts. It promises loose coupling and an incremental rollout, amongst other things. The incremental ability may be key to getting a small scale project approved and implemented, due to its minimal investment.
You could think of ESB as taking the ideas of the JMX management console a step further. Plus, ESB can use JMX as a subsidiary technology.
Chappell also offers nice visual component schematics that could be used to represent and perhaps even assemble an ESB network. If this indeed is possible, it would be tremendous. Akin to the 1980s, when MicroSim offered a graphical version of Spice, with electronic parts availabled from a menu.

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Large IT organizations increasingly face the challenge of integrating various web services, applications, and other technologies into a single network.The solution to finding a meaningful large-scale architecture that is capable of spanning a global enterprise appears to have been met in ESB, or Enterprise Service Bus.Rather than conform to the hub-and-spoke architecture of traditional enterprise application integration products, ESB provides a highly distributed approach to integration, with unique capabilities that allow individual departments or business units to build out their integration projects in incremental, digestible chunks, maintaining their own local control and autonomy, while still being able to connect together each integration project into a larger, more global integration fabric, or grid.

Enterprise Service Bus offers a thorough introduction and overview for systems architects, system integrators, technical project leads, and CTO/CIO level managers who need to understand, assess, and evaluate this new approach. Written by Dave Chappell, one of the best known and authoritative voices in the field of enterprise middleware and standards-based integration, the book drills down into the technical details of the major components of ESB, showing how it can utilize an event-driven SOA to bring a variety of enterprise applications and services built on J2EE, .NET, C/C++, and other legacy environments into the reach of the everyday IT professional.

With Enterprise Service Bus, readers become well versed in the problems faced by IT organizations today, gaining an understanding of how current technology deficiencies impact business issues. Through the study of real-world use cases and integration patterns drawn from several industries using ESB--including Telcos, financial services, retail, B2B exchanges, energy, manufacturing, and more--the book clearly and coherently outlines the benefits of moving toward this integration strategy.The book also compares ESB to other integration architectures, contrasting their inherent strengths and limitations.

If you are charged with understanding, assessing, or implementing an integration architecture, Enterprise Service Bus will provide the straightforward information you need to draw your conclusions about this important disruptive technology.

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Exploring IBM SOA Technology & Practice Review

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(More customer reviews)I was an IBM Fellow and Chief Architect for IBM Software Group. I helped lead the team that produced many of IBM's SOA products, as well as author many of the industry specifications. I am currently a Technical Fellow at Microsoft.
This book is excellent for teams starting SOA projects, or moving to the next level in SOA and Web services. IBM's products appear complex due to the depth and breadth of functions. This is not the case. The most common question in my customer briefings was "What do we do next, and how do we get started." IBMers presenting the big picture and next steps is not scalable; there are only so many briefers.
This book codifies the most important information that teams need. The authors have extensive experience working on projects with customers, and enabling successful projects. Writing this information in a book will allow other teams to succeed based on best practices and hard won experience for early adopters.
This book is a critical resource for any SOA/Web service team

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Service oriented architecture (SOA) is a major technology trend focused on making corporate information technology (IT) an enabler of business flexibility and innovation. While SOA is not the unique province of any single vendor, IBM has taken a leadership position in the industry and is actively helping organizations in many industries be successful with SOA. This book will help you migrate your existing computing infrastructure in the direction of a service oriented architecture using IBM technology and services. In Exploring IBM SOA Technology & Practice, IBM SOA expert Bobby Woolf explores IBM's vision for success with SOA. Woolf starts by describing the reasons an organization should consider adopting SOA. Issues and challenges faced once you decide to adopt SOA are examined. Guidance is given on how to prepare, select good SOA projects, and how to structure a committee to manage all SOA projects in an organization. Woolf then moves in for a closer look at the nuts and bolts of SOA including the IBM SOA Reference Architecture, the suite of IBM products/services (e.g., IBM WebSphere) used to implement that architecture, and SOA application development practices. Vital topics such as lifecycle management and governance are covered. At the "Member's Only" Web site, you will find direct links to a rich array of SOA videos, Webcasts, white papers, and other SOA resources to help your projects succeed. This book is a key resource for IT professionals and business people who work closely with IT and want to learn how to use SOA to make their corporations more successful and it shows how they can work with IBM to achieve that success.

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Building an Enterprise Architecture Practice: Tools, Tips, Best Practices, Ready-to-Use Insights (The Enterprise Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)As a practicing Enterprise Architect (EA) I have found the to be an good book for reference - if used as a filler along with other books.
If your are new to EA this is a good book to have in your library, however it is not the only one you will need. This book is somewhat thin on content in many critical areas, but what is present is of fairly good quality.
An example of missing detail would be how to create and maintain an ongoing EA practice that will survive beyond the first budget review cycle. This book talks about the steps of creating a practice in theory and uses a sample company as an example, however it is idealized for the book and does not reflect reality in today's world of "what have you done for me lately" economics.
It is quite expensive for what you get, considering that it is just enough to make you realize that you need a whole lot more that you did not get.


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This book provides practical advice on how to develop an enterprise architecture practice. The authors developed different tools and models to support organizations in implementing and professionalizing an enterprise architecture function. Coverage applies these tools and models to a number of different organizations and, as a result, will help readers avoid potential pitfalls and achieve success with enterprise architecture.

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Enterprise SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture Best Practices Review

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(More customer reviews)Too many "SOA" books are either API documents or high-level hand waving. You can tell that this book is based on actual project experience. The authors manage to give actionable guidance and explain their reasoning well without diving into too many technology details. If you are interested in the "A" of "SOA", you will like this book.

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This book spells out guidelines and strategies for successfully using ServiceOriented Architecture (SOA) in large-scale projects. SOA represents the latestparadigm in distributed computing and middleware development. However,SOA is not a revolution, but rather an evolution in software architecture. SOAis a collection of best practice software construction principles accompanied byproven methodologies in development and project management.This book is unique in that it offers a pragmatic approach to the topic. Theauthors borrow from their more than forty years of collective enterpriseexperience, and offer a frank discussion of the challenges associated withadopting SOA. They also help readers ensure that their organization does notbecome too closely tied to a specific technology. The result is a detailedintroduction to the topic and an architectural blueprint for implementing SOA.

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Agile Software Development: Best Practices for Large Software Development Projects Review

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(More customer reviews)A great book, which makes one thing clear: complex software projects cannot be described and managed by THE perfect plan. The authors encourage to adopt agility and give useful guidelines/best practices how to be prepared for the unexpected.


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Software Development is moving towards a more agile and more flexible approach. It turns out that the traditional "waterfall" model is not supportive in an environment where technical, financial and strategic constraints are changing almost every day. But what is agility? What are today's major approaches? And especially: What is the impact of agile development principles on the development teams, on project management and on software architects? How can large enterprises become more agile and improve their business processes, which have been existing since many, many years? What are the limitations of Agility? And what is the right balance between reliable structures and flexibility? This book will give answers to these questions. A strong emphasis will be on real life project examples, which describe how development teams have moved from a waterfall model towards an Agile Software Development approach.

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