We started the year with the New England Patriots posting an undefeated regular season record of 16 – 0. It appeared to be conclusive; the Patriots would win the Super Bowl – not so fast – the wild card New York Giants made an unpredictable and disruptive move by narrowly defeating the favored Patriots. It was inevitable that the Patriots lose at some point in the season, it just happened to be the last and most important game.
In July, the greatest sporting event, the Tour de France departed with no defending champion for the second consecutive year! Team Astana, with two of the three podium finishers of the 2007 race appeared to have very good odds of gaining one of the top three spots again. Surprise! Team Astana was banned and Team CSC with Carlos Sastre and company rode to an unpredictable and disruptive victory. It was inevitable that the Tour de France could not escape controversy.
Disruption and unpredictability seem to be the prevailing themes for 2008. In a year when radical and unexpected occurrences were commonplace, should technology be any different? Let’s take a look at the big issues that may have shocked us, but in reality, were inevitable...
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Monday, 17 November 2008
Following the economic downturn of 2000 to 2003, the Fortune 500 companies that pursued short-term cost-cutting strategies such as outsourcing and rollbacks in quality assurance found themselves ill prepared for future opportunities. New research suggests that those enterprise organizations that continue to invest in critical IT areas such as software development, virtualization, and core lifecycle solutions will be better positioned for the next cycle of growth and expansion.
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Monday, 25 June 2007
The HP acquisition of SPI Dynamics is a long awaited first indication that signals HP may actually understand the importance of the application testing business acquired via Mercury. This is an important acknowledgement of the testing customer base by HP, a base previously overlooked in HP’s plans for the former Mercury.
The publication of the VMware whitepaper “Microsoft Virtualization Licensing and Distribution Terms” is a seminal moment in the 21st century computing industry. With the publication of this whitepaper, VMware is no longer just an interesting technology player; they are a bona fide catalyst to challenge Microsoft’s entrenched franchise business of the operating system.
The market has been aflutter with fanfare over the fifth birthday of Eclipse. Most of what has been reported has been on the positive side. However, to really accurately think about the future, the past must be considered. In this “Market Commentary”, we will examine two fundamental Eclipse questions: ·         What has the impact of Eclipse, both the technology and the foundation, been on the industry ·         What can be expected next of EclipseÂ
The acquisition of Mercury by HP is completed. The industry has lost an independent software company to a mega-vendor. It is unclear to the market what HP’s intentions are for the Mercury product line. In a highly competitive enterprise software application lifecycle market, HP does not have the luxury of time to slowly reveal their plans for the Mercury product line. Â
Today’s IT model is flawed – the organization and management structure has not evolved to meet the demands of the 21st century. The enterprise IT organization of the future must be more focused on the business and satisfying the customer rather than tactical projects and the most recent technology. By 2010, enterprise IT organizations will have finally figured out what the model should look like to take advantage of a global environment where collaboration is essential. In this vokeStream Future Watch, we identify some of the issues enterprise IT management and organizations must be aware of and address to satisfy their business customers. Moving the model from a decidedly silo based organization to one that is customer focused for the 21st century is the ultimate goal for enterprise IT organizations to achieve.
Read the first industry analysis of HP’s acquisition of Mercury.  Given the purchase price is astronomically high one has to wonder what other companies were in the bidding war for Mercury and is Compuware the next independent software company to fall?
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Monday, 21 July 2008
The application lifecycle is an integral part of today’s business. Regardless of core competencies, all organizations are driven by software that is created and customized to deliver a competitive advantage. The application lifecycle is now a strategic part of business.
This document examines the evolution of the application lifecycle and the importance of the core vendors in providing a sound foundation upon which to continue to build and define the application lifecycle.
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Monday, 21 July 2008
The application lifecycle is an integral part of today’s business. Regardless of core competencies, all organizations are driven by software. Software that is created and customized to deliver a competitive advantage. The application lifecycle is now a strategic part of business.
This document is an overview of the evolution of the application lifecycle and the importance of the core vendors in providing a sound foundation upon which to continue to build and define the application lifecycle.
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Wednesday, 28 March 2007
Virtualization is poised to become the defining technology of the 21st century. Virtual lab automation, a new use for virtualization in the application development and quality assurance organizations has made inroads to the pre-deployment side of the application lifecycle equation. In this Market SnapshotTM, we will examine the organization and its metamorphosis as virtual lab automation becomes more pervasive. We will also define the value and benefits of Virtual lab automation.
Make no mistake, the application lifecycle market is real, in turmoil, and critical to the success of every enterprise - globally. Without the products and solutions being offered in the application lifecycle market, enterprise IT organizations are relegated to technology controlling their destiny. The practice of allowing technology to control the destiny of business is fraught with peril. True focus on the application lifecycle and its integrated roles, responsibilities, and technology will continue to evolve and support the business. The application lifecycle ecosystem catalogs and analyzes the software suppliers in the market. Use this document as a way to evaluate potential partners for your own application lifecycle ecosystem. This document is virtual and updates are triggered by market events. Suppliers to the ecosystem will be added on a regular basis. Version 1.5 continues to build out the Application Lifecycle Continuum with Empirix placed in the “Contender” position.
The message of "it's more than tools"has been prevalent for quite some time.Most enterprises and softwaresuppliers, however, remained steadfastin their focus on technology. In an erawhere expenditure, return oninvestment and customer satisfactionare paramount, a much greaterimportance is now being placed onoverall IT lifecycle management (ITLM).In this Executive Brief, we examine whyITLM should be a guiding principal forenterprise IT, and offer practical adviceon ITLM strategy and adoption.
Make no mistake, the application lifecycle market is real, in turmoil, and critical to the success of every enterprise - globally. Without the products and solutions being offered in the application lifecycle market, enterprise IT organizations are relegated to technology controlling their destiny. The practice of allowing technology to control the destiny of business is fraught with peril. True focus on the application lifecycle and its integrated roles, responsibilities, and technology will continue to evolve and support the business. The application lifecycle ecosystem catalogs and analyzes the software suppliers in the market. Use this document as a way to evaluate potential partners for your own application lifecycle ecosystem. This document is virtual and updates are triggered by market events. Suppliers to the ecosystem will be added on a regular basis.
This analysis is provided as historical reference for Mercury. The analysis was conducted prior to the announcement of HP’s intent to acquire Mercury.  Please see the voke First Impressions analysis of the acquisition announcement.  The Mercury segment of the Application Lifecycle Ecosystem will be updated once the intended HP acquisition is completed.Â
Dave Rubinstein chats with voke principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz about this week's Tech-Ed and next week's IBM Rational Conference on this edition of "Week in Review."
SD Times chats with voke principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz about Microsoft's Silverlight and VMware's new playback capability on this edition of "Week in Review."
Share Price, Reinvention, and Google Envy – 3 Good Reasons for Microsoft to Buy Yahoo!
Theresa Lanowitz | Friday, 01 February 2008
Today, Microsoft put in an unexpected bid of $44.6B to acquire internet pioneer Yahoo!
This is indicative of Microsoft, the pioneer in PC software making a move to stay relevant. Microsoft is the quintessential software company. With its franchise business of Windows being challenged by technologies such as virtualization and Microsoft’s own insular view of how people want to work and connect Microsoft is attempting to modernize itself with this move.
The problem with the Microsoft bid for Yahoo! is that Microsoft’s DNA is bound in a bits in a box, ownership of the stack, shrink wrap mentality. This DNA is what made Microsoft successful and dominant. However, the game of the 21st century is around connection, communication, and collaboration in a mobile environment.
Will Yahoo! accept the tempting offer? Will Microsoft take over one of the internet pioneers, dramatically change their business model, and attempt to compete with Google? What happens to the famous Yahoo! brand? Stay tuned…
The big news today was the Citrix acquisition of open source virtualization company XenSource. I have commented many times in the past year about the future I think virtualization has and how it will be one of the defining technologies of the 21st century.
So, here is my philosophy on the acquisition….one if you are inclined to be a geek and another if you fancy yourself more of a business person. Either way, the net / net of this is virtualization is real and coming to an enterprise near you...
Retro is in – all hail to the 80’s! But in software?
I was fortunate to be in attendance as Microsoft kicked off its 15th annual TechEd conference in Orlando, FL with a “Back to the Future” spoof complete with an authentic DeLorean , a remarkably well preserved Christopher Lloyd and Microsoft's Bob Muglia transformed to Michael J. Fox complete with an authentic 80’s wardrobe and hair.
I had the pleasure and honor of participating in the inaugural podcast of “SD Times The Week In Review” with SD Times Editor-in-Chief David Rubinstein...
According to the Gregorian calendar, the December 21 equinox is rapidly approaching and consequently so is the end of the year 2006.
It seems fitting that as we phase out of our last 365 and in to our next 365 we should pause to remember the good and not so good. So, here is our interpretation of 2006...
That is what HP (NYSE: HPQ) has ahead of themselves as they announce their bid of $52 per share or $4.5 billion to acquire Mercury Interactive Corporation (OTC: MERQ)...
At Microsoft Tech Ed, I had an informative conversation with Jason Beaudreau, Director of IT for Altair Global Relocation. When I first met Jason, I had no idea who or what Altair Global Relocation was. I figured they moved people around, but really did not think a relocation company would be a poster enterprise for technology. Think again! ...
At Tech Ed, the Microsoft spokespeople were certain to stress that the company was moving from supporting the developer to supporting development. This may seem like a big case of over analyzing semantics and word parsing. Trust me, this is a major statement...
I’ll admit it, I am a product of 70’s sitcoms, primarily The Brady Bunch. Who among us cannot remember Peter Brady belting out his memorable line “when it’s time to change, you’ve got to rearrange…” about change in the midst of teenage angst and puberty Brady style!
Well, the software industry is well beyond puberty and really has to change and rearrange. The software industry is no longer about software…it has to change and rearrange to be a hybrid...
