Archive for April, 2005

04.14.05

Centralize your audits.

Posted in Architecture, J2EE at 3:48 pm by kkj

As part of my relationship with Copenhagen County on technical architure elements for Electronic Health Care Records (EHR) I fleshed out the specification for making a centralized audit server. Based on the ubiquitous Syslog protocol, augmented with reliable, guaranteed delivery over TCP/IP, the Audit Component utilizes Log4j with a specialized appender for performing audit trails. It defines a set of values required for each entry, and formats those into Syslog entries, then sends them to the centralized server for storage and analysis.

For now only the binaries and the documentation for the Audit Component are available online, but eventually the specification for setting up the Syslog server, for hardening it, and analyzing the log trails may also be made available. Log analysis turns out to be a huge area of research with tendrils reaching the far side of artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic. It is an area with just a few, simple open source products, and expen$ive commercial ones.

We have yet to find a product that suits our needs in this area, and I have a feeling it will require a solid set of sleuthing abilities to track the right one down. Happy hunting, Sherlock.

04.09.05

Fighting Copyright Infringement with J2EE

Posted in Architecture, J2EE at 3:08 pm by kkj

And so I am back from a busy week in Sofia, Bulgaria. Through the presentation on experiences with Websphere 4, held at The Danish Patent and Trademark Office back in February, we got assigned to assist as counselors on project NIPIES. An abbreviation for National Intellectual Properties Information Exchange System, NIPIES is slated to assist the Ministry of Culture, The Ministry of the Interior, The Police, The Patent Office, and The Bulgarian Customs Agency with information sharing in the battle against copyright infringements. And trust me: that is a major issue in this Eastern European state!

I am back, and the bustle of Sofia’s busy streets, leaded air, and heavy traffic is such a contrast to my quiet neighborhood. Gone are the crowds of youngsters in top brand garments most likely bought from one of the street markets at a very reasonable price. I can walk the streets again without the fear of an impending lung disease, and no longer will I be the only one wearing a seat belt in traffic.

NIPIES is another IBM Websphere project, an enterprise system that will allow quick access to patents, trademarks, and designs from the involved insitutions over a private, secured network. Our role is that of advisors, reviewing the project, and assisting the team in building the system. There is work to do, and it is very different from what we’re used to. It will be quite something to go back in 2 weeks for the next assignment.