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Distributed Systems expert Michi Henning, ZeroC

Distributed Systems expert Michi Henning Michi Henning is Chief Scientist of ZeroC. From 1995 to 2002, he worked on CORBA as a member of the Object Management Group's Architecture Board, and as an ORB implementer, consultant, and trainer. He is co-author of Advanced CORBA Programming with C++ and Distributed Programming with Ice. Michi holds an Honors degree in Computer Science from the University of Queensland, Australia.

Check out his blog here

Presentation: "Middleware Performance and Scalability - When they Do (and Don't) Matter"

Time: Monday 14:00 - 14:45

Location: To be announced

Abstract: Middleware performance is seen as the number one evaluation criterion when choosing middleware, despite the fact that other factors are far more important for many projects. This presentation discusses the importance of these factors, shows some of the pitfalls of benchmarking middleware, and presents performance and scalability results for a number of popular middleware platforms.

Presentation: "Why API Design Matters"

Time: Tuesday 10:15 - 11:00

Location: To be announced

Abstract: API Design is one of the most fundamental and important parts of programming. Yet, despite many years of experience and improved programming languages, poorly designed APIs are as common as ever. This presentation shows examples of poor APIs and provides guidelines for how to improve on the current sad state of affairs. It also suggests that, to address the problem at its root, we need to look beyond mere technical issues and make cultural changes in education, employment policies, and legislation.

Workshop: "Large Distributed systems"

Time: Thursday 13:00 - 16:00

Location: To be announced

Abstract: When it comes to creating large distributed systems, many pitfalls await the designers and implementers. Middleware that performs fine in a pilot project suddenly does not scale, bottlenecks appear in unexpected places, and performance drops to a point where the completed system is considered a failure. There are many possible causes for the failure, and they may lie in the middleware as well as the application. This tutorial examines the performance and scalability characteristics of three middleware platforms: Ice, WCF, and RMI. It points out common problems that lie in wait for the unsuspecting distributed system designer and examines design and implementation techniques to avoid them.