ActiveState, CA, Taking quality products to market faster with enterprise ready dynamic languages

Taking Quality Products

to Market Faster with

Enterprise-Ready

Dynamic Languages

March 10, 2010

Larry BackmanVP Quality Assurance

Computer Associates

Jeff HobbsDirector of Engineering

ActiveState

Agenda1) Introductions

2) CA’s story with Perl

3) Open source licensing considerations

4) Growth of dynamic languages

5) Value of dynamic languages

6) Overview of ActiveState’s dynamic languages

solutions

7) Q&A

Who is Computer Associates (CA)

• One of the largest

software vendors

• Founded in 1976

• Over $4 billion in

revenues

• 13,000 + Employees

• 99% of Fortune 1000

use CA products

SiteMinder Web Access Manager

• Component of CA’s Secure Web Business

Enablement Solution.

• Enterprise-scale Internet access control

system.

• Enables secure access to web applications

and websites for employees, customers

and business partners.

• Fulfills compliance standards for security

of web applications and resources.

Selecting Perl

• Great parsing qualities.

• Able to manipulate large amounts of

data.

• Simple and familiar programming

language for:

CA QA

CA Services

CA Customer base

• Solid interoperability.

• Accelerates cross-platform

development, key for SiteMinder

running on many platforms.

Challenges with Perl

• Perl itself was not stable enough to meet CA's

needs.

• Legal risk concerns with Perl were too great

for a security product like SiteMinder.

• Open source Perl had some multithreading

and multiprocessor issues as well as

scalability problems.

• Needed a solid, trusted version of Perl –

enterprise and redistribution-ready.

Choosing Enterprise-Ready Perl

• Required commercially supported Perl to

mitigate legal risks

• Needed a trusted, tested Perl distribution to

complement enterprise-class software like

SiteMinder

• Quality assured code and quick

implementation a must

• Cross platform and scalability requirements

• Turn-key maintenance and Perl expertise

• Turn-key redistribution licensing

• Swift technical support if issues arose

Object

Store

User

Directory

Policy

Server

Web

Server

Web

Agent

HTTP DriverTest

Scripts

Log

s

Siteminder Web Access Manager Perl Base Automated Test

Harness

•Complex n-tier

enterprise security

product C++ API to

subsystems and object

layer

•Perl -> C++ Wrapper

•Perl Script Interface

•Ant/Perl Automation

and deployment

Framework

•Perl automated

harness

•Nightly Build ->

harness interface

•Perl Modules

•Perl test scripts

STI Test Harness

Perl Driven Automation Portal

Central Dashboard

Benefits and Value of ActivePerl

The ActivePerl framework helps CA:

•Find and address a regression in

SiteMinder within 24 hours

• Improve the quality of SiteMinder by

identifying defects early in the

development cycle

•Maintain an efficient and

streamlined test cycle

•Deliver fixes faster and resolve

problems swiftly

•Cut costs for expanding CA’s product

matrix

Benefits

Save time.

Save effort.

Save development $.

Focus on enhancing SiteMinder

Maintaining, updating, reinstalling, configuring and

porting Perl is not required with ActivePerl so

developers can focus on core competencies with

SiteMinder.

Faster development of new features,

faster to drive revenue and

marketability.

ActivePerl infrastructure is maintained by

ActiveState, so precious development cycles are

spent on CA’s products.

Clean, reliable code.

Platform independence.

Scalability.

Reliable Perl expertise on demand.

Licensing Considerations

Open source licensing is inherently complex…

• For security or enterprise products, always

use commercially supported open source to

reduce legal risks.

• Always use a safe redistribution package

(OEM) when embedding open source in

marketable products

• Don’t leave money on the table with

customers who require assurance for

proper licensing of open source.

• Consider implications of potential copyright

infringement lawsuits - $$$

Harmful for company reputation

Very costly and time consuming

About ActiveState• Founded 1997

• 2 million developers

• 97% of Fortune 1000

• Products & services for end-to-end

development, management and

distribution of applications with

dynamic languages

• Open source projects to mission-

critical applications

• Dynamic Languages:

Core: Perl, Python, Tcl

Secondary: PHP, Ruby,

Javascript

Drivers & Trends For Dynamic Languages

Faster time to market

Increased use in

mainstream IT

Pressure to increase

development staff

productivity

Lower development &

maintenance costs

Uptime of critical

applications

IT

Paradigm shift, open source

acceptance in business

Compliance with corporate

policy for commercial support

of open source

Legal risk mitigation

Intellectual property security

IT investment protection

Business & Government

Dynamic

Languages

Popularity

57% of enterprises

are using Perl, Python,

PHP & other

dynamic

languages

Why the Growth?

Dynamic Languages

Deliver Value• Flexible and extensible to

generate clean, reliable and

reusable code

• Excellent for data processing,

and web apps development

• Large libraries of turnkey

modules ready for deployment

Faster time to market.

Quality applications.

Increased productivity.

ActiveState Solutions

Our Product Stack for Dynamic Languages

Support from Open Source to Enterprise

Applications

ActiveState

Language Edition

Community

Edition

Business Edition Enterprise

Edition

OEM

Market/Use Free & Open

source

projects

Business-critical

applications

Mission-critical

applications

Distributed

applications

OS: Windows, Linux,

Mac

OS: Solaris, HP-UX,

AIX

Older versions

Commercial

support

Email

2 days

Email/Phone

2 hours

Email/Phone

2 hours

Indemnification

Royalty-free

Distribution

Customers & Partners

Software & Hardware

Finance

Aerospace & Defense

Thank you.

Enjoy your complimentary whitepaper at

www.activestate.com/

webinars

Contact Us

Larry Backman

Lawrence.Backman@ca.com

Jeff Hobbs

jeffh@activestate.com

ActiveState Business Solutions

Business-solutions@activestate.com

Follow @activestate on Twitter.

1.866.510.2914

Q&A