“Music to Code By:” A Playlist by Joseph DeLuise

Posted on May 16, 2012 by APatterson

Here at HSI, we love us some Music Wednesdays.  This week, our own maestro of all things digital – and a peerlessly cool cat – has curated a playlist to fire the neurons.  (Also, because coding in silence is kind of sad.  Don’t do it.)

Programmers: this playlist supports brilliant work across the full spectrum of coding languages, so bring it:


Joseph DeLuise’s Music to Code By

About the DJ:  Joseph DeLuise is the VP of Technology Services for Howard Systems International and the designer of the nifty widget above.  In his spare time, he dotes on his beautiful family and listens to music to maintain his edge.

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    NY Metro: Tech Boom in New York’s Silicon Alley

    Posted on May 14, 2012 by APatterson

    As a career partner to some of the most innovative IT talent around, we get a little dewy when our local tech community receives much-deserved recognition.  Thus, we were compelled to share this article from today’s Metro on the boom in NYC tech startups – highlighting the alchemy of skill and ambition that makes this talent pool so extraordinary:

    Tech Boom in New York’s Silicon Alley

    By Alison Bowen, NY Metro

    They work together, play ping pong together and meet at the same coffee shops to brainstorm on what will make the next great Internet start-up.

    Welcome to the heart of New York City’s Silicon Alley. Many of the city’s web designers, software engineers and start-up founders work out of a stretch along Broadway and Fifth Avenue, between Union Square and Madison Square Park.

    “A new report out last week showed that New York is giving the West Coast’s Silicon Valley a run for its money, emerging a national leader in cranking out web start-ups.

    Calling the city “the nation’s second-leading hub for technology companies,” the Center for an Urban Future report shows that New York is dwarfing other cities in its rapidly multiplying start-up sector.

    According to the report, the number of information technology jobs in New York has increased 28.7 percent in the last five years, from 41,100 to 52,900.

    The report estimates there have been 1,000 start-ups created here in that same time, with many of them hunkered within a few blocks of each other. About 40 start-ups, from Shelby.tv to Tumblr, have offices between and around Union Square and the Flatiron district.

    Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future, which released the report, said eight different companies are located at 902 Broadway alone, between 20th and 21st streets.

    “That address is right smack in the middle of the area where we are seeing the greatest concentration of start-up activity – between Union Square and Flatiron,” he said.

    Because their offices are located so close together, employees have coffee meetings at the same cafes — Grey Dog is a favorite — and see each while in line for lunch at Shake Shack.

    “We all kind of cluster together,” said Reece Pacheco, 29, founder and CEO of Shelby.tv, a video-sharing site with offices located at 23rd Street and Park Avenue. “I’m just constantly running into people when I’m going out for lunch.”

    Pacheco said he intentionally wanted Shelby.tv to be headquartered near other tech start-ups.

    “I think there’s a natural tendency to want to be in the same area and make it easier to get to meetings and make it easier to meet up with friends at other companies,” he told Metro.

    While searching for office space, they looked south of 23rd Street, he said.

    “We want to be 23rd and below,” he said. “We want to be near places where we have coffee meetings.”

    This leads to a lot of run-ins with other techies. “Shake Shack is a staple of the New York tech community for sure,” he said.

    In his building, five other start-ups also operate — and those are just the ones where he knows people, he said.

    Their office includes a ping pong table, drum set and guitars – and a shower, which is helpful for Pacheco, who lives at the office for now, because he travels so much he doesn’t have an apartment.

    Jeff Levinson, at Divide, which lets users swap in and out of work and personal profiles on one phone, wanted to be around other start-ups – and their building at 22nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues had good history, he said.

    Google bought the start-up that previously operated in their office space.

    “The space has that good buy-out karma,” he said.

    Image credit: whatISworking.com

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      Featured Gig: Senior Analyst, Digital Communications (NYC)

      Posted on May 9, 2012 by APatterson

      Are you a thought leader in the social sphere who can who penetrate Klout scores and comb analytics to scout the emerging consumer trends?

      HSI is seeking a Senior Analyst with demonstrated success developing large-scale digital marketing initiatives.  The position is a permanent role in the New York City office of our client, a global management consulting firm.

      The Senior Analyst helps colleagues and senior stakeholders understand the effectiveness of digital communications and develop metrics-driven strategies to improve performance and meet business goals. He/she is responsible for executing the firm’s web analytics strategy on a global basis, and integrating metrics from other interactive communications activities including email marketing and social media.

      The Senior Analyst uses metrics to keep internal stakeholders informed and on track, and make recommendations to improve web usability/performance and campaign effectiveness across multiple channels.

      The successful candidate will have hands-on experience using Omniture, Google Analytics and other decision-support tools, and a strong understanding of how to leverage metrics and insight to inform the development of effective digital communications.

      RESPONSIBILITIES

      ■     Implemention of a web metrics strategy on a global basis, working with stakeholders including production, product development and IT to ensure analytics is embedded in development roadmaps and deployed consistently

      ■     Collaborate with colleagues and internal clients to:

      –    clarify business objectives

      –    develop KPIs, dashboards and scorecards to track progress

      –    conduct qualitative research and a/b testing as needed

      –    interpret data and make fact-based recommendations for action

      ■     Manage vendor relationships to ensure cost-effective access to tools, metrics and reports

      ■     Educate and train users to interpret dashboards and scorecards

      SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

      ■     Passion for digital marketing with a solid understanding of interactive marketing channels (search, online media, website development, etc.) and brand marketing principles

      ■     Minimum 5+ years business experience working in a marketing analytics, digital/interactive advertising, or direct marketing capacity

      ■     Strong analytical skills coupled with the ability to form hypotheses and draw meaningful insights from disparate data sources

      ■     Experience with Web analytics including Omniture and Google Analytics required. Experience with NMIncite Buzzmetrics and other social media metric tools highly desired.

      ■     Proven ability to work effectively with a variety of disciplines including editorial, communications and information technology

      ■     Outstanding communications and influencing skills with the ability to clearly communicate data, context, and implications to colleagues and senior stakeholders

      ■     Advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint

      To apply for this position, visit our Careers page or contact Lisa Bradshaw at Lisa_Bradshaw@howardsystems.com

       

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        Career Insight: Get Your Head In the Cloud

        Posted on May 7, 2012 by APatterson

        “Big Data will earn its place as the next ‘must have’ competency in 2012″ - IDC

        We’ve posted about the most sought-after tech skills recently but the stunning velocity of the enterprise Cloud market warranted a solo spotlight.  Consider these immediate job projections for the New York market alone:

        “Cloud computing, which remotely delivers services from “the cloud” via a network to servers, desktops, tablets, phones and laptops, will generate more than 60,000 jobs in New York in 2012, and will account for 17 percent of job growth in the city’s technology sector, according to a March report by the International Data Corporation (IDC).  Thanks to the heavy concentration of jobs in industries such as banking, communications, securities and professional services, New York City will be the largest beneficiary of cloud computing” – thirteen.org

        Not in New York?  Not to worry!  Opportunity abounds; nearly 1.2 million new jobs will be created in the United States and Canada, according to the study.  And the outlook is equally bright (and borderless) in GigaOm‘s latest Cloud Computing Market Forecast:

        “During the period from 2011 through 2014, the worldwide cloud market is estimated to grow 126.5 percent, driven by 119 percent growth in SaaS and 122 percent growth in IaaS.” 

        Why so many new jobs?  Investment in Cloud-computing technologies alleviates the IT burden of updating systems and outdated hardware, thus allowing them to shift their focus to innovation and job creation.

        Our consulting division, Questcon Technologies, provides on-site expertise to facilitate the secure, seamless migration of data to the Cloud.  We asked CTO Tim Connolly to list the areas of expertise that he considers essential for any technology pro seeking a career in Cloud computing:

        1. Know the various cloud implementations (Public, Community, Hybrid, Private), and the pros and cons of each.

        Wiki cheat sheet: Public cloud applications, storage, and other resources are made available to the general public by a service provider. These services are free or offered on a pay-per-use model. Generally, public cloud service providers like Microsoft and Google own and operate the infrastructure and offer access only via Internet (direct connectivity is not offered).

        Community cloud shares infrastructure between several organizations from a specific community with common concerns (security, compliance, jurisdiction, etc.), whether managed internally or by a third-party and hosted internally or externally. The costs are spread over fewer users than a public cloud (but more than a private cloud), so only some of the cost savings potential of cloud computing are realized.

        Hybrid cloud is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together, offering the benefits of multiple deployment models.

        By utilizing “hybrid cloud” architecture, companies and individuals are able to obtain degrees of fault tolerance combined with locally immediate usability without dependency on internet connectivity. Hybrid Cloud architecture requires both on-premises resources and off-site (remote) server based cloud infrastructure.

        Hybrid clouds lack the flexibility, security and certainty of in-house applications. Hybrid cloud provides the flexibility of in house applications with the fault tolerance and scalability of cloud based services.

        Private cloud is cloud infrastructure operated solely for a single organization, whether managed internally or by a third-party and hosted internally or externally. They have attracted criticism because users “still have to buy, build, and manage them” and thus do not benefit from less hands-on management,[35] essentially “[lacking] the economic model that makes cloud computing such an intriguing concept”.

        2. Understand the intricate nature of Cloud Security and Privacy.

        Wiki cheat sheet: Every enterprise will have its own identity management system to control access to information and computing resources. Cloud providers either integrate the customer’s identity management system into their own infrastructure, using federation or SSO technology, or provide an identity management solution of their own.

        Physical and personnel security: Providers ensure that physical machines are adequately secure and that access to these machines as well as all relevant customer data is not only restricted but that access is documented.

        Availability: Cloud providers assure customers that they will have regular and predictable access to their data and applications.

        Application security: Cloud providers ensure that applications available as a service via the cloud are secure by implementing testing and acceptance procedures for outsourced or packaged application code. It also requires application security measures be in place in the production environment.

        Privacy: Finally, providers ensure that all critical data (credit card numbers, for example) are masked and that only authorized users have access to data in its entirety. Moreover, digital identities and credentials must be protected as should any data that the provider collects or produces about customer activity in the cloud.

        In addition, providers and customers must consider legal issues, such as Contracts and E-Discovery, and the related laws, which may vary by country (http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/guidance/csaguide.v3.0.pdf ).

        3. Understand the differences among the various Cloud Service Models: Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).

        Wiki Cheat Sheet:

        Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): In this most basic cloud service model, cloud providers offer computers – as physical or more often as virtual machines –, raw (block) storage, firewalls, load balancers, and networks. IaaS providers supply these resources on demand from their large pools installed in data centers. Local area networks including IP addresses are part of the offer. For the wide area connectivity, the Internet can be used or – in carrier clouds – dedicated virtual private networks can be configured. To deploy their applications, cloud users then install operating system images on the machines as well as their application software. In this model, it is the cloud user who is responsible for patching and maintaining the operating systems and application software. Cloud providers typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing basis, that is, cost will reflect the amount of resources allocated and consumed.

        Platform as a Service (PaaS): In the PaaS model, cloud providers deliver a computing platform and/or solution stack typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers. With some PaaS offers, the underlying compute and storage resources scale automatically to match application demand such that the cloud user does not have to allocate resources manually.

        Software as a Service (SaaS): In this model, cloud providers install and operate application software in the cloud and cloud users access the software from cloud clients. The cloud users do not manage the cloud infrastructure and platform on which the application is running. This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the cloud user’s own computers simplifying maintenance and support. What makes a cloud application different from other applications is its elasticity. This can be achieved by cloning tasks onto multiple virtual machines at run-time to meet the changing work demand. Load balancers distribute the work over the set of virtual machines. This process is transparent to the cloud user who sees only a single access point. To accommodate a large number of cloud users, cloud applications can be multitenant, that is, any machine serves more than one cloud user organization. It is common to refer to special types of cloud based application software with a similar naming convention: desktop as a service, business process as a service, Test Environment as a Service, communication as a service.

        For information about current or upcoming opportunities in Cloud services, visit the Questcon careers page or contact Andrew Sokol at Andrew_Sokol@howardsystems.com

         

         

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          Music Wednesdays: Locally Grown

          Posted on April 25, 2012 by APatterson

          We understand the need to flirt with the exotic, but these days we’re getting our groove on with some brilliant American-made tunes.  Coincidentally, our clients have been voicing their renewed appreciation for the engaged, imaginative minds of American programmers, while cooling their romance with offshore IT.

          HSI and Questcon are proud to provide an onshore, best-in-class option for their software development and testing needs.  Some things – like real, meaningful collaboration –  just can’t be replicated by low-cost aspirants.

          To caffeinate your Wednesday, we’ve put together a playlist inspired by some of today’s genre-busting American acts.  Maybe next time, we’ll go vintage.  Got a suggestion?

           


          Locally Grown Playlist by Howard Systems International on Grooveshark
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            Philly Tech Week Kicks Off

            Posted on April 20, 2012 by APatterson

            The second annual Philly Tech Week starts this weekend, with a marathon schedule of over 80 seminars, tutorials and – don’t mind if we do – happy hours.  The 9-day fest is curated by the founders of the Technically Philly site with a mission “to grow the impact of this innovative region through programming focused on technology, collaboration and improving Philadelphia.”

            Philly’s tech scene (aka “Philicon Valley,”) is no overnight sensation.  Co-founder Sean Blanda estimates that the tech community numbers “in the tens of thousands,”  bolstered by innovation-minded VC’s and companies like our clients.

            Howard Systems has been a partner to the Philly talent community for over 30 years; we’ve guided young programmers as they’ve matured into dynamic leaders and sought-after free agents.  Maybe it’s something in the cheesesteak, but our IT pros there are remarkably driven, intellectually curious and passionate mentors to their younger colleagues.  Alex Hillman, founder of the city’s first tech incubator, wrote:

            “Philly’s tech scene doesn’t care that it’s a tech scene. It cares about making a difference, not just for itself but for future generations.  

            Philly’s tech scene isn’t just tech, but also includes leaders from education, science, government, the arts, business, and more. Philly’s tech scene works towards bettering Philadelphia, not just Philadelphia tech.

            And it’s not for charity. When Philadelphia as a whole wins, so do we.”

            Are you planning to stop by any of the Philly Tech Week events?  Tweet the action  @howardsystems with #PhillyTechWeek.

             

             

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              Upwardly Mobile: Developing for the Post-PC Era

              Posted on April 13, 2012 by APatterson

              While financial pundits decried Facebook’s billion-dollar purchase of Instagram this week, the New York Times posed a far more arresting question: Were we witnessing the symbolic end of the PC era?

              In the Times article, “A Billion Dollar Turning Point for Mobile Apps,” writer Jenna Wortham detailed how smartphones and tablets have shifted the consumer focus from the web browser to “self-contained social worlds, existing almost entirely on mobile devices.”  An excerpt:

              “For decades, the center of computing has been the desktop, and software was modeled after the experience of using a typewriter,” said Georg Petschnigg, a former Microsoft employee who is one of the creators of Paper, a new sketchbook app for the iPad. “But technology is now more intimate and pervasive than that. We have it with us all the time, and we have to reimagine innovative new interfaces and experiences around that.”

              Of course, IT pros are well aware that mobile app development comes with its own unique considerations and frameworks to master.  The native sensibility of the touchscreen UI will soon become standard, exposing the awkward retrofit of apps conceived for the UI of a mouse cursor.  Developers must now build to accommodate the lower file weight required for the mobile device bandwidth, and the need to support diverse platforms from Apple – Android – iOS to the emerging tech players (Windows, anyone?)

              We asked Tim Connolly, CTO of Questcon Technologies and our in-house guru of All Things Development, for his take on the mobile evolution:

              “When I first started my career in technology in the early 90′s, there were scary people working with huge IBM Mainframes that were in a room hidden away that no one was allowed to see. These days all of the computer power and more can be found on your phone in your pocket!

              “Today, a career in mobile software development allows you to harness that technology power and figure out how to use it in mainstream society.  Just look around on your commute and you will see almost everyone using the phone or tablet to plan their workday, read the news or make real-time connections.  I feel the opportunities are limitless for the next generation of software developers.”

              We’re with Tim – and boning up on our HTML5.  Tell us what you think – is there still a place for PCs in a transient culture?  Leave a comment here  or @SoftwareQA.

               

               

               

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                Featured Gig: Enterprise Systems Engineer in New York, NY

                Posted on April 5, 2012 by APatterson

                HSI is seeking a Systems Engineer to bring technical and Project Management expertise to our client’s Infrastructure Development products. This is a direct hire position based in the New York office of a premier global management consulting firm.  The Enterprise SE will be a key player for  a team that delivers and deploys developed applications, including prototyping, code development, modularization, unit testing, performance testing, configuration and defect management and production deployment.

                The SE’s primary role is to design, code, test, and analyze software programs and applications. This includes researching, designing, documenting, and modifying software specifications throughout the production life cycle, as well as analyzing and amending software errors in a timely and accurate fashion and providing status reports where required.

                In addition, the SE will ensure the stability, integrity, and efficient operation of the in-house information systems that support core organizational functions by monitoring, maintaining, supporting, and optimizing all networked software and associated operating systems.  He or she will apply proven communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to help identify, communicate, and resolve issues in order to maximize the benefit of the Company’s IT investments.

                RESPONSIBILITIES & SKILLS

                • Project manage projects for new products, upgrades and services integration.
                • Responsible for design, development, implementation and vendor management.
                • Interact with business analysts to understand business requirements and translate these into technical designs.
                • Monitor and assist with the creation of the Company’s SOA monitoring strategy, implement TIBCO/Altiris managers along with other tools providing alerts and Notifications for proactive monitoring.
                • Create strategy for reporting Infrastructure activities and business activities.
                • Performance Requirements and complete sizing of Hardware, Storage, and Software.
                • Provide Engineering Solutions. Implementations, install, configure, deploy, monitor, clustering, load balancing, fail over for implementations (Service Management, SOA, Omnibus).
                • Work closely with the teams responsible for Service management designing and implement next generation Ticketing system.
                • Lead tactical and significant portion of strategic direction for the development of the Colleague Portal.
                • Solve issues across products, vendors, and connection media.
                • Participate in cross-team efforts to ensure functionality within the environment, including our support, help desk, and development teams, but also lead teams resolving issues related to knowledge expertise.
                • Foster collaboration and proactive communications with clients and other development teams during project work.
                • Demonstrate excellent problem solving skills.
                • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
                • Be a self-starter, highly motivated to achieve team as well as individual goals and lead by example.
                • Can manage time effectively and prioritize tasks across several simultaneous projects.

                BACKGROUND AND TRAINING

                • Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or Electrical engineering; or Bachelor’s degree in other discipline and significant relevant experience.
                • 5 or more years of experience in a related field.
                • Working knowledge of Java, JavaScript, Perl, RDBMS
                • Clear understanding of Web services approach including Web service protocols such as SOAP and REST
                • Strong software integration experience and system integration design skill.
                • Understanding of database structures, ORACLE, SQL and Stored procedures.
                • Ability to quickly learn, creatively solve problems, effectively prioritize, and execute tasks in a fast paced, dynamic environment.
                • Ability to work independently and within a team, and to professionally interact with clients.
                • Strong hands-on implementation, implementation planning and process management skills.
                • Sound understanding of Asset Management strategies.

                Please forward resumes to Lisa_Bradshaw@howardsystems.com

                 

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                  IT and Marketing: The New “Supergroups”

                  Posted on March 29, 2012 by APatterson
                  supergroups-examiner

                  This gallery contains 2 photos.

                  There’s been quite a bit of press lately about the convergence of IT and Marketing, most pointedly in IBM’s Global CMO Study released this month.  Here at Questcon and HSI, we’ve had a tremendous increase in engagements tied to marketing … Continue reading →

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                  Featured Gig: Senior Performance Engineer in King of Prussia, PA

                  Posted on March 23, 2012 by APatterson

                  Howard Systems is seeking a Senior Performance Engineer with a relentless thirst for perfection, as a contract to hire position with a client in King of Prussia, PA.  Our client is a leading provider of e-commerce and interactive marketing services for the world’s premier brands and retailers.  

                  The SPE will work with a dynamic team to continuously improve web-based e-commerce applications through the identification of tuning, re-engineering and caching opportunities.  He or she will determine improvements that can be made to lower page load time as well as transaction response times using tools such as dynaTrace Diagnostics, HP Diagnostics, dynaTrace AJAX, and HTTPWatch.  The SPE will define, develop, maintain, and execute QA performance testing for IT systems in accordance with project scope and/or maintenance improvements, while ensuring performance testing is complete and performance issues are identified prior to implementation.  

                  This role requires specific skills in the Performance Engineering field. The successful candidate must have strong experience with LoadRunner both in scripting and analysis. Experience using dynaTrace Diagnostics and/or HP Diagnostics is a huge plus. 

                  Minimum Requirements 

                  • Bachelor’s degree + 7 years of hands-on LoadRunner experience for the performance testing of J2EE (WebLogic), Oracle, and/or Web Applications, or
                  • Master’s degree + 5 years of hands- on LoadRunner experience for the performance testing of J2EE (WebLogic), Oracle, and/or Web Applications
                  • Strong performance engineering root-cause analysis and reporting
                  • Must possess ability to estimate level of effort (LOE) for performance testing projects
                  • Ability to handle baseline and comparison performance tests from beginning to end (i.e. creation of plan, scripting of tests, scenario execution, analysis, and reporting of results)
                  • Experience with reviewing requirements and specifications for potential performance risks/issues and providing input during requirements and specification walk-through
                  • Ability to foster a collaborative team environment with peers and other project team members
                  • Experience with MS Excel and LoadRunner Analysis module for reporting performance results
                  • Must possess the ability to act and re-act quickly in a rapidly-changing environment.
                  • Strong problem solving and quantitative skills
                  • Good communication and presentation skills

                  Citizenship or sponsorship is required.

                  Desirable Skills/Experience

                  • 1+ years of front-end or application performance is a major plus
                  • Past experience with webpage breakdown tools such as dynaTrace AJAX or HTTPWatch is a major plus
                  • LoadRunner certification is a major plus
                  • Experience with Diagnostics (dynaTrace/HP) is a major plus
                  • Experience with high performance/high volume web sites and web services a plus
                  • Strong QTP (QuickTest Professional) scripting knowledge is a plus
                  • QA and Production monitoring tools (SiteScope, Patrol, Gomez, etc.)
                  • Measurement of WebLogic and related performance metrics knowledge
                  • Understanding of J2EE memory management
                  • Experience with Unix shell scripting
                  • Solid understanding of web services (LR scripting with the web services protocol is a plus)
                  • Systems engineering/architecture experience 3-5 years (implementation of multi-tiered systems including web servers, application servers, database servers, load balancers, firewalls, etc)
                  • JVM tuning
                  • Capable of independently seeking solutions to problems 

                  Candidates should contact Andrew Sokol via LinkedIn or send resumes to Andrew_Sokol@howardsystems.com

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