Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Monday, 20 April 2009
Proposed Oracle Acquisition of Sun: IBM Stole the Thunder
The purchase of Sun by Oracle for $7.4 billion has far less industry buzz and excitement than the rumored acquisition of Sun by IBM.
IBM stole the thunder and the impending acquisition of Sun became an imminent and expected event. While hardware overlap existed in the IBM deal, IBM would have provided a much needed home for Sun’s software assets. Software giant Oracle lacks a hardware portfolio, so the key Oracle / Sun overlaps are far fewer except for the $1 billion acquisition of MySQL by Sun in 2008. Given Oracle’s tendency to be proprietary in its markets, ownership of MySQL by Oracle would be perceived as a great risk in the open source community. (Register or Login to Read More)
The purchase of Sun Microsystems by IBM would be a win for IBM.
Sun has been in a holding pattern since the dot com implosion. And, while Sun positioned themselves as “the dot in the dot com”, that was the last innovation we have seen come from Sun.
Sun, while it once had very competitive hardware, had no idea how to productize and implement effective software products. Sun works on the assumption that all software must lead to Sun server sales – definitely a flawed idea that was proven wrong numerous times. Sun also was never able to quite grasp the idea of high volume and low margin sales. Sun continued on in its technology efforts like it was 1988.
IBM has clearly demonstrated that it is more than capable of:
Being a hardware company
Running an effective and profitable professional services business
Managing a growing and diverse software portfolio
Delighting and maintaining its customer base
IBM has also managed many acquisitions and always seems to find something in an acquisition worthy of continuing on with the IBM brand.
The potential of a Sun acquisition by IBM makes sense. IBM is a world class business organization and will be able to make business sense out of Sun’s academic assets.
VMLogix and Citrix are partnering to deliver a complete virtualization solution for the application lifecycle. Citrix Essentials customers will have the advantage of using virtualization technology at every juncture of its IT organization; from the server to production and the entire application lifecycle including development and testing. This partnership represents a new and visionary method of applying virtualization technology throughout multiple stages of the IT organization in a hypervisor neutral environment.
Extracting the wealth of data that flows
through the network on a daily basis is crucial. Breaking barriers between
application and network management is critical to the understanding of data that
is continually flowing through the network...
Each year we enter into uncertain territory because of existing and previously untested market conditions, however predicting the future, or at least having an understanding of what could happen, is largely predicated on understanding the past and observing the present.
As the saying goes, history repeats itself. In 2009, expect to see some stunning developments that are reminiscent of the past as well as out of the box thinking by vendors to continue to thrive in new and different market conditions...
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 | Thursday, 17 July 2008
The global lifecycle transformation is an interconnected ecosystem of people, processes and technology within an enterprise and across its partners, suppliers, providers and customers. In this paradigm, the enterprise IT organization becomes a strategic business partner focused on delivering value. The transformation shatters barriers, facilitates collaboration and takes the risk out of software development to produce predictable reliable results for an optimized business outcome.
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Monday, 16 June 2008
The launch of ReplayDIRECTOR is an example of the power of virtualization permeating the application lifecycle in multiple phases. ReplayDIRECTOR provides an innovative solution using game changing technology.
Software is more complex than ever. Multi-threaded applications are being developed to take advantage of new hardware with multi-core environments. Using technology such as dynamic analysis will allow developers to predictably identify the most egregious errors such as race conditions and deadlocks.
Black Duck Software has been revolutionizing the world of software intellectual property since its founding in 2002. Koders is the first acquisition by Black Duck and is indicative of the market demand to grow and expand the footprint of the products and services offered by Black Duck.
Oracle’s intent to acquire the e-TEST Suite assets from independent application and network equipment testing vendor Empirix is a complementary move and converts to a win / win for both companies.
The release of Coverity Prevent with race condition defect detection capabilities is indicative of the transformation that is occurring in development environments. As market conditions drive adoption of multi-core processors, true multi-threaded applications will become the norm. Being able to detect race condition and other concurrency defects early in the development phase is tremendously productive and delivers significant cost savings.
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.
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Wednesday, 20 June 2007
The acquisition of Telelogic further enhances IBM’s view of the application lifecycle. The Telelogic acquisition takes IBM well beyond the traditional enterprise lifecycle and places them squarely into the emerging and strategic systems or embedded software market.
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Tuesday, 19 June 2007
The IBM acquisition of Watchfire Corporation makes IBM the first core application lifecycle vendor to demonstrate its willingness and commitment to solve the problem of application security. This is a win/win acquisition for customers as well as the application security market. This acquisition cements the role of application security and compliance in the well defined lifecycle.
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.
Applications and their associated management are becoming more difficult yet more business critical. As enterprises watch the rise of complex distributed applications and teams, it is clear a solution to assist managing a constantly changing world must emerge. Virtualization technology is rapidly being deployed to assist these complexity demands. Virtualized environments solve a variety of problems yet introduce others.
Outsourcing and specifically the trend to move tasks to offshore providers is evolving. At the end of the 20th century, the concept of using an offshore provider was primarily a cost issue. As the nuances, positives, and negatives of using offshore providers became visible the idea of team virtualization was the most popular reason for outsourcing. Now, as teams are truly virtualized across boundaries, both real and imaginary, outsourcing is about to enter a new phase. Offshore providers will more than likely take on more technical roles and responsibilities while their clients concentrate on the core business and deliver strategic value. Emerging nations where populations are increasing their technical skills are a haven for entrepreneurs and venture capital investments. In this edition of the Future Watch, we hypothesize on where technical skills will emerge and why standards will be driven to acceptance.
Application security is an issue practitioners have chosen to defer to the operations group. The rationale is multi-faceted and includes issues such as: lack of skills, lack of time, and lack of support by upper management. In this Market Commentary, we examine the six truisms that must occur to make the practice of application security a reality.
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?
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 | Sunday, 08 February 2009
As the application lifecycle evolves, components that drive efficiency and quality become more crucial. Organizations building centers of excellence (CoE) around performance testing find that the CoE centralizes resources and utilizes the full capabilities of today’s robust automation products. One of the main benefits is that organizations are able to consistently produce better performing applications.
In a survey focused on rationales for building a performance CoE, the associated ROI, and success factors, we tested the hypothesis that more mature organizations have built more effective CoEs, are contributing to overall customer satisfaction, and are meeting or exceeding the goals of organizational service level agreements (SLAs).
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The business analyst role is gaining visibility and momentum, and driving competitive differentiation in the lifecycle market. From April through July 2008, voke conducted an independent survey of unique individuals in the emerging requirements definition segment of the application lifecycle market. The Market Snapshot survey set out to identify the state of the business analyst market segment based on roles, processes, and market readiness of technology.
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.
Multi-Core Quality webinar presentation slides presented by Theresa Lanowitz. Theresa will discuss the increasing trend toward multi-core environments and the critical need for implementing effective tools and processes early in the development lifecycle.
Webinar presentation slides from virtualization and application lifecycle expert analyst Theresa Lanowitz, of voke, inc. and John Michelsen, founder and Chief Scientist of iTKO LISA, exploring the current and future uses of Virtualization to assist development and QA processes.
Software Production Management is a critical component in the creation and delivery of quality software and is a key ingredient in the ever evolving application lifecycle. Highly optimized organizations are experiencing tremendous return on investment (ROI) by recognizing and treating Software Production Management as a critical component of the application lifecycle. In this Market Snapshot, we will examine the organization and how it benefits from Software Production Management, use models and the state of technology in the Software Production Management market.
Presentation slides from the joint Borland/VMware webcast with Theresa Lanowitz from voke talking about what it takes to test and deliver applications that hit their mark using virtualization. And why getting the most out of virtualization depends on how seamlessly it can be integrated with your software testing processes.
Theresa Lanowitz, Lisa Dronzek | Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Service providers and network equipment manufacturers are adding automation to their pre-production testing process for a combination of reasons: improved test coverage, accelerated time-to-market for products or services, reduced capital and operational expense, optimized equipment use, reduced training time, greater test collaboration, reduced test backlog, and reuse. All of these automation drivers are intertwined and focus on delivering better quality to the customer. This Market Snapshot will focus on the need for test automation of networks and connected devices, identify a path to automation adoption and provide an overview of where the market is with respect to the right processes, technical skills and technology.
Presentation slides from the informative webinar focused on the application lifecycle 2.0: Begin With The End In Mind.
This webinar features a strategic and visionary perspective of application lifecycle 2.0 and its ongoing evolution in the enterprise. Gain insight on how to transform your enterprise application lifecycle to deliver more cohesive communication and consistent results, identify events that impact a global business and enable a customer focus.
Presentation slides from STAREAST 2007: Theresa Lanowitz, voke, Inc. and Dan Koloski, Empirix highlight ways to move from simply being a tester of software to an advocate for your organization’s customers.
Test managers constantly lament that few outside their group understand or care much about the value they provide and consistently deliver. Unfortunately, they are often correct. The lack of visibility and understanding of the test team’s contribution can lead to restricted budgets, fewer resources, tighter timelines, and ultimately, lower group productivity. Join Theresa Lanowitz and Dan Koloski as they highlight ways to move from simply being a tester of software to an advocate for your organization’s customers. Learn how to effectively and concisely communicate with key stakeholders in your organization to ensure that they understand the value and role of the testing group. With effective and concise communication, the testing group will be perceived as more strategically important and integral to the success of every project. • Strategies for communicating complex data • Ensure your communications give you the visibility you need • How to create testing evangelists within your organization
Presentation slides from SQC Software & Systems Quality Conferences in DĂĽsseldorf, Germany.
This keynote presentation focuses on the changes every Quality Assurance organization is experiencing and how to manage the transition in becoming a model organization for the 21st century.
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.
Get first hand the latest industry study on the tangible benefits of adopting Virtual Lab Automation. Theresa Lanowitz, founder of Voke Inc. will elaborate on the findings from a recent field study.
Learn how your peers are:
Tackling infrastructure and process challenges associated with supporting the development and testing of complex applications and systems
Making the decision to adopt Virtual Lab Automation
Benefiting from the results of virtualizing and automating the test lab
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.
Every market is an ecosystem comprised of people, processes, and technology. The network equipment testing market is growing in complexity. To effectively manage this complexity, the market is focused on reducing time-to-market and testing costs while increasing efficiency and product quality. The network equipment testing market is poised to breakthrough in terms of commercially available technology to assist the people and processes. In this Market Snapshot, we examine the people, processes, and technology of the network equipment testing market.
Presentation slides from the Networking Equipment and QA: Breaking the Innovation Barrier keynote on October 24, 2006 in Mountain View, CA.
Fanfare's CTO, Kingston Duffie, and Theresa Lanowitz of voke for a discuss significant trends in quality assurance for networking equipment. During this presentation you will:
Get the facts about the current state of networking equipment development
Discuss current barriers to innovation and what this means to QA organizations
Gain pragmatic information that will help you tackle your real life QA challenges
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
In this Enterprise Leadership podcast Theresa Lanowitz
provides some down-to-earth discussion about cloud computing as a
disruptive technology, moving one step closer to pervasive utility
computing.
Every
household doesn't need its own energy grid. If you follow this logic,
then each enterprise does not need to be in the business of creating
massive infrastructure. Why not take advantage of the some of the
world's largest infrastructure offered to you by Amazon.com's Web
Services or Google Apps Engine? That is the view of Theresa Lanowitz, the founder of voke, a
research firm focused on breakthrough technologies, such as cloud
computing.
She says that while Salesforce.com has
revolutionized customer relations marketing by elevating it as a
platform as a service, Amazon.com and Google.com have the opportunity
to share their knowledge and expertise with every enterprise. She adds,
"By making their massively scalable, highly available, high-performance
environment, and a solid security infrastructure available, both
Amazon.com and Google.com have moved one step closer to software as a
service and pervasive utility computing. As a result, companies will be
able to lower the cost of doing business and to remain innovative,
competitive, and profitable. Enterprises of all sizes need to focus on
delivering value to the marketplace of their core competency,
regardless of what it is."
In this podcast, Theresa Lanowitz discusses the following:
What type of impact Amazon.com Web Services and Google Apps Engine will have on cloud computing;
What other areas of cloud computing and Web 2.0 will prevail;
Why CIOs are hesitant to embrace cloud computing; and
What three cloud computing takeaways CIOs need to think about in making decisions about this app?
2008 was a tough year for IT, and 2009-2010 appear to be more of the same: Budget cuts, a focus on conserving cash and doing more with less. At the same time, technology has not stood still: innovative technologies that have the potential to deliver strategic value, such as application virtualization and replay debugging, are still being developed, and are entering the mainstream. What can we learn from previous economic downturns with regards to making technology investments in such a climate?
Join Theresa Lanowitz, analyst from voke, and Jonathan Lindo, CEO and Founder of Replay Solutions for a podcast discussion of current challenges in today's application problem resolution processes and suggestions for how application development teams can dramatically shorten the process of fixing defects to speed time-to-market. This session will give practical guidance on how your application team can:
Make incremental investments that have immediate ROI through the elimination of manual work
Save money and increase efficiency by eliminating complex processes needed to reproduce defects
Improve productivity with better collaboration between geographically disperse teams
Increase application quality by fixing those hard to find or elusive defects
Replay Solutions provides application problem resolution products that dramatically shorten the process of fixing defects to speed time-to-market. ReplayDIRECTOR functions like a DVR for enterprise applications - recording all inputs and events affecting your application while it is running, then replaying those steps to execute the code in exactly the same way and reproduce the error without needing to reproduce the environment the defect occurred in.
In this requirements.net exclusive podcast, Theresa discusses a rather unconventional report (titled: Fortune 500 Spending Required for IT Cost Savings”) which looks at the economy and smart moves for IT.
In this report, the voke research team makes some very interesting reminders about the fall out of the dot-com bubble bursting, and the lesson’s from IT’s reaction in 2001 and 2002.
The voke research teams make some important recommendations which tie directly to Business Analyst empowerment and investments in requirements definition as a critical element to surviving the IT downtown.
The Podcast is 40 minutes of a fact-based, fresh dialog on efficient outsourcing, IT virtualization, lifecycle management, and the importance of the BA and requirements.
Virtualization is, like, everywhere. Oracle got in on the act this week by announcing its own platform at its OpenWorld conference. Meanwhile, IBM said it would spend $5 billion on Cognos to anchor its information-on-demand strategy. Plus, listen as voke principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz discusses some up-and-coming companies with SD Times editor-in-chief David Rubinstein on "Week in Review."
SAP spends US$6.7 billion for BI software provider Business Objects, and it's shrugged off as mere consolidation? Listen as SD Times editor-in-chief Dave Rubinstein and voke principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz discuss the acquisition, ALM 2.0, and testing, on this edition of "Week in Review."
In this episode of the STARWEST 2007 Conference Podcast, Joey McAllister speaks with Theresa Lanowitz about her STARWEST 2007 keynote presentation, "Customer Advocacy: The Key to Testing Success," in which Theresa will talk about how testers should be viewed as customer advocates rather than the pessimists of the software world.
This week at VMWorld 2007 it was apparent that virtualization is moving up the stack and tool vendors proliferated. Listen to voke principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz on this edition of "Week in Review."
IBM's acquisition this week of DataMirror would seem to put Big Blue square in the middle of the real-time world. Listen as voke principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz and SD Times editor-in-chief David Rubinstein discuss the acquisition and what it might mean for enterprise development organizations on this edition of "Week in Review."
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 iTKO SOV (Services Oriented Virtualization) was SRO (Standing Room Only)! Since there was such an incredibly large interest in this webinar, we will be doing a live encore performance! In case you missed the event, you can catch it live again – all you have to do is register here.
I will be presenting along with iTKO Chief Scientist John Michelsen. On the analyst side, I will present some statistics around virtualization including cost savings and discuss the need for virtualization strategies in every organization. From the iTKO perspective, John will talk about the solutions in SOA environments using LISA with VSE and discuss real life scenarios where LISA with VSE helped to significantly reduce costs while delivering both higher quality and a faster time to market.
So join us on Thursday, December 13 at 11:00 AM Eastern / 8:00 AM Pacific to learn about virtualization and services. Just remember to register here.
Check out how virtualization can really help in testing in an SOA. I will be participating in a webinar with iTKO Chief Architect, John Michelson. iTKO has just released their latest version of LISA with VSE (Virtual Service Environment). Find out how LISA with VSE increases collaboration across the entire lifecycle...
Do you too want to be a believer? Don’t “monkee” around, learn more about the application lifecycle 2.0 by joining me in an MKS sponsored webinar: “Begin With the End in Mind” on August 28 at 11AM Eastern / 8AM Pacific. Register here...
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.
One of the biggest benefits of going to conferences is coming across new and exciting vendors in the industry. While you are attending the conference and caught up in the excitement, it’s thrilling to find a new gem with innovative and creative ideas, products, and offerings. Last week at the Wind River Worldwide User Conference, I found five exciting “newish” companies and one stalwart with a new twist on things...
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...
David Cassidy and puka shells, Donny Osmond and purple socks, or chocolate and peanut butter. OK, I am dating myself, but there are just some things that do go together. I spent the past 2 weeks realizing there is some truth to this concept, even in technology.
On April 25, 2007 I was honored to deliver the keynote address at the SQS Software Quality Conference in Dusseldorf, Germany. This is a major event in the software quality world, with attendees coming from around the European Union to hear about quality and exchange ideas with others. While preparing the content for my keynote, I had several conversations with SQS CEO, Rudolf van Megen. Mr. van Megen has a unique outlook on the quality market and its future direction. During our conversations he told me of the big push in the German market, specifically, to using offshore providers...
Technology that is. Things are getting more complex – that means there is more source code to run things and more code means less optimal integration and some big tough problems left unresolved.
Think about one of the simplest tasks in any household, turning on a TV. Well, how simple is it now? My non-scientific study, yet curious observation of cell yells between vacationers and their caretakers at home indicates one of the most common things they discuss is how to turn on the TV! ...
The week of January 9, 2007 is shaping up to be an eventful week. At voke, we announced our Market Snapshot report for the network equipment testing market. Fanfare announced their ability to deliver much needed commercial testing products to the network equipment market. And, Apple announced its iPhone...
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...
Since I am in Los Angeles this week, I am in a Dragnetkind of a mood, and as Sgt. Joe Friday would say – “All we know are the facts, ma'am"
The facts are: • The HP acquisition of Mercury is completed • The cost to HP $4.5 billion in cash • The acquisition was announced on July 25, 2006 • The acquisition was closed on November 7, 2006
All we know are the facts – all we know for certain...
Along with 7,000 others, I am attending VMWare’s third annual conference! Let me reiterate that number – seven thousand attendees at a conference in its third year!
VMWare is the new cool! The company is so cool they are not only creating industry changing technology, they are also helping in the global movement to conserve energy! ...
The final (assuming the HP acquisition of Mercury closes) Mercury World was held in Las Vegas, Nevada the week of October 9, 2006. Captain Mercury had one last hurrah - I am sure many of you remember Captain Mercury, the superhero of load testing! ...
I recently had the pleasure of delivering the keynote presentation at the Software Quality Systems (SQS) conference in Zurich. SQS is always an excellent and gracious host at their conferences...
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)...
I thought of this Tommy Tutone 1982 one hit wonder as I wrestled with the latest machinations of my mobile carrier. And, quite honestly, no blog is complete without some overt reference to 1980’s nonsensical music!
Let me get to my problem. I spend quite a bit of time on my bicycle. These rides are not just around the block to visit friends, rather they are Lance Armstrong inspired long distance events of 100 miles or more. One minor problem, I don’t have the luxury of having Johan Bruynell and the Disco team trailing me to provide food and support. Without the resources of the Team Discovery, I have to take my own food as well as communication device. This means a light weight, durable, and reliable cell phone. Easy problem to solve, right? Wrong!!!! I recently had to expand my Cingular calling plan to a family plan – even though I am the only person on the plan. So why does a family of one need a multi-number plan? Good question – here’s the problem and the solution…
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...
I spent a productive afternoon of doing nothing taking in all that is Boston. Boston is one of the greatest, if not the greatest American city. It has history, music, culture, art, august educational institutions, an efficient and well used transit system, architecture and, of course, the Boston Red Sox...
We are rabid consumers of information. We want our information fast. We want our information to be accurate. And, we want our information any time and any where. We can be this demanding because we know everything of importance has been cataloged, filed, arranged, and assigned a key field – at least electronically. Now, as consumers of data we are not too concerned about the infrastructure supporting our insatiable need for fast, reliable, and on the go information. However, someone has to do the behind the scenes work so we don’t suffer in our quest for information. For years we have had developers toiling over performance algorithms to help us over the hurdle of server constraints. It was the best we could do...
I first encountered Trolltech about four years ago and have been intrigued since. After you get over the odd name and being reminded of Peer Gynt and the Three Billy Goats Gruff legends, you realize the company has some interesting technology that will go a long way in helping with device software optimization (DSO). You also realize that Trolltech is a company of and for developers – after all, if trolls are exposed to sunlight they turn to stone. And, we all know that real developers prefer to work their magic in the wee hours of the night and avoid those harmful ultra-violet rays at all cost...
One of the unique vendors I encountered at the Wind River Worldwide User Conference was Kuka Controls. The company, among other offerings, makes two products that can really enhance the experience between device software and a traditional Microsoft Windows environment. The two Kuka products with so much to offer in terms of integration are VxWin and CeWin...
The 2006 Wind River Worldwide User Conference concluded today. This conference was edgy. From the ultra-hip urban graphics on everything from signage to hotel room keys to a Phil Gordon hosted poker tournament, Wind River is shaking up a staid and conservative industry...
Do you recall the big vision of a few years ago…the one that said because of connected appliances in your house along with a low cost, pervasive and reliable network, when an appliance begins to fail, a simple message is sent to the appropriate repair person and before you even know your appliance has a problem a fix or patch has been dispensed...
