Updating the history of Arjuna

Back in 2002 when I was still with HP and our transaction system was still called Arjuna, I wrote a paper with Santosh on the transition of what had started out purely as an academic vehicle for getting a few of us PhDs, into a rather successful product. Back then we conjectured what might happen in the next few years, but the reality has turned out to be even more interesting.

We've always talked about updating the paper, but it's never happened. So it was with interest that we were asked to write a new version as part of a book for Brian Randell's birthday. The paper is almost finished and it has been a lot of fun working on it and remembering all of the things that have happened in the intervening decade: HP leaving the middleware space and us starting again with Arjuna, Web Services transactions, joining JBoss and taking Arjuna there, Red Hat, REST and more. Not all of it will be in this paper, but then maybe that leaves room for yet another update?!

One thing that updating the paper clearly showed was that something that started life as an academic project has not only had an impact on many products over many years, but also an impact on the people who have worked on it. Individuals have come and gone from the team over the years and they've all left their mark on the system and vice versa. And like the system, they've been a great group of people! So whether it's called Arjuna, JBossTS or something else, it and this paper remain a tribute to them all.