May 2004 Online Extras

An assortment of articles, presentations and content exclusive to Baseline online.

Backstop Your Business
Business Coach: Billy Beane: What MBAs Can Learn From MLB
Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane finds the best talent for the right price. It's a technique you can use to stockpile managers.

PLANNER: Calculating Costs of a Human Capital Management System
Fill out this spreadsheet to determine whether building a system to manage your people is worth the outlay.

Application Server Vendors
Drilling into Web Bedrock
Java application servers have matured into reliable—but complex—engines for efficiently delivering services over the Web. What should you consider before selecting your "one throat to choke"?

Be sure to check out our Dossiers on three vendors offering application servers:
• BEA's WebLogic ("Quick on the Draw")
• IBM's WebSphere ("Dances with Mainframes"), and
• Oracle's Application Server ("Captive Audience").

Calculating Costs: When it makes Cents to Buy a Mainframe
(p. 76)
This Calculator (Tool: Will Mainframes Serve Your Future?) will help you figure out when mainframes are old school, and when they're the best thing to host your open-source audience.



Primer: Object-Oriented Cobol
(p.78)
Cobol (Common Business Oriented Language) has been around for some time. Take this quick Quiz ("Time for Cobol in Chunks?") to see if this new-age version of Cobol is of practical use to you.