Tag Archives: business

Crazy compensation committees and CEO’s

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via Jeff Bussgang

I am just flying into a rage when I hear all these bonus and golden-parachute stories!

All these stories with these crazy CEOs that are doing a very bad job for their companies, which need to be helped by the government and are receiving billions to save their business. And, at the same time, are delivering bonus for themselves and their managers. This is just intolerable! Do not forget, these guys are not alone, there are “great” remuneration committees that are voting these golden-parachutes and crazy bonus. Why not talking also about them?

How can employees accept this kind of behavior? They are not acceptable.

We shouldn’t wonder why CEOs have such bad reputations today, when some are acting in this way, and just impacting all the other CEOs in a very negative way…

Very nice post from Jeff expressing this point of view more in detail:

Perhaps the most successful venture capitalist in history, Sequoia’s Mike Mortiz (backer of Google, Yahoo, Paypal, to name a few reasonable wins), said in a recent interview that one of the ways he decides whether to invest in an entrepreneur is how much they plan on paying themselves. Moritz views high salaries with immense suspicion. If the founder takes a modest salary (in start-up land, that’s typically $100-200k per year – well below even President Obama’s $500k cap), he knows they believe in the future value of their business. […]

Remember, entrepreneurs aren’t saints or selfless do-gooders. They typically work 80-100 hours per week for two reasons. First, they are PASSIONATE about their venture for the sake of the business and its impact on the world more than the money (“Ask me about my business and you can’t shut me up,” confessed my friend Scott Savitz, CEO/founder of Shoebuy.com, the other day). […]

They want to prove to their investors and employees that the risk they took in investing in them and joining their cause will pay off. Why don’t Fortune 500 CEOs feel the same way? Why is it that they don’t view their role in life to prove to the shareholder that buys their stock in the public market that they took a worthy risk and they’ll be darned sure it pays off? Instead, they think it’s culturally acceptable to take outsized pay packages and perks that no educated, rational shareholder would ever approve if given the chance. […]

The behavior is in such stark contrast to what’s going on in the small business, job-creating end of the economy, it’s absurd. The public is understandably outraged. I am too. That’s why I’d fire all the compensation committee heads and turn the reigns over the start-up CEOs. […]

Marten Mickos, former MySQL CEO, is to depart Sun

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via 451 CAOS Theory

It seems that SUN will not communicate on that, but Marten Mickos, the former MySql CEO, is leaving SUN, after about 1 year… I remember one of my post in February 2008 with some explanations about the “why” of this merge, directly from Marten. Outch. Something didn’t work as planed there.

Some more information below.

I just got news that Marten Mickos, former MySQL CEO, is to depart Sun amid a reorganisation of its infrastructure and database business units. Don’t expect an announcement from Sun on this, but the news is confirmed.

[…] Marten will be transitioning out of Sun by the end of the company’s (current) third quarter.

Marten’s departure is a big loss for Sun and follows quickly after the departures of Monty Widenius and David Axmark.

[…] Matt Asay is right, Marten’s departure “is likely to lead to an exodus among MySQL’s deep talent pool”. This needn’t be a complete disaster – the same thing happened at JBoss and Red Hat has recovered from that, but this is going to be a serious test for Sun’s ability to maximize on the potential of MySQL and its other open source assets.

Matt also writes that “Mickos was the backbone of MySQL’s rising revenues, as an open-source pragmatist and visionary. He was the face of MySQL, but also of the rising open-source industry.” This is true, and for that reason I hope it’s not too long before we see him taking charge at another vendor.

Good luck to Marten, hope to see him asap in a new role!

What is a great software company

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via Judith Hurwitz

Judith is discussing the difference between a good and a great software company.

Interesting insights!

1. Great companies start with a predictable business model and turn the model upside down. They look three years ahead and experiment with innovation. They have to have a combination of intuition, risk, and innovation. These companies are willing to take enough risk to win big but smart enough to know the difference between great opportunities and pipe dreams.

2. Great companies find new areas to position themselves for leadership. This is very tough to pull off. The area has to be important enough for the market to pay attention to but not too big that they look silly.  Great companies never try to take a big existing market with established leaders and try to claim primacy.

3. Great companies build great relationships. Management at these companies builds an ecosystem of influencers including great customers who will talk about the value, press, analysts, and partners who together help the company create a persona of innovation and greatness while the company is still building.

Great software companies are complicated to build.   The software business a complicated and brutal with  lots of failures at every turn.  […] It isn’t easy. Great software companies are even more difficult and scary to build.

Comparison of Open Source Application Servers

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openlogic

I have found – by accident really! – a very interesting presentation on SlideShare concerning the different leading Open Source Application Servers on the market.

This very solid evaluation is proposed by OpenLogic.

I have summarized parts of it below.

Goal of the presentation /

Help you choose which open source application servers to evaluate more thoroughly:

  • JBoss
  • GlassFish
  • dm Server
  • Geronimo
  • Tomcat

Which open source application servers are your using or considering using /

appserver

J2EE Didn’t Fill the Need /

  • EJB 2 is difficult to use
    • Many people consider it unnecessary difficult
    • Entity Beans were especially problematic
    • But even session beans earned bad reputations
  • The Open Source community responds
    • OSS packages mitigating the problem
      • Hibernate instead of Entity Beans
      • Spring as a component model
    • They were very successful in the marketplace
  • Many Spring/Hibernate applications
    • Required only Tomcat to run but also work in full app servers

When Tomcat Is Not Enough /

  • Tomcat doesn’t support
    • JMS
    • EJBs
    • Other…
  • Enterprises need integration
    • The more mature the app is, the more likely it is to be added
  • Add-ons
    • It was possible to add things that Tomcat was missing
    • But this became a “build your own Frankenstein” exercise

Java Enterprise Edition in the Meantime /

  • Weaknesses in EJB 2 model were recognized
  • Work on new specification was completed
    • J2EE → JEE 5
    • EJB 2 → EJB 3
      • Entity Beans → JPA
  • EJB 3
    • Simple annotation-based programming model
    • Not everybody adopted EJB 3
  • JEE 6 will embrace modularity
    • Profiles, including web profile

Choices in 2007 /

  • Use Spring
    • Start with full app server
    • Start with Tomcat, build from there
  • Use EJB 3
    • Requires full app servers
  • Full application server
    • Pros – everything you are likely to need, could use EJB
    • Cons – complexity, might use more resources then Tomcat
  • Tomcat
    • Pros – small, simple, low resource usage
    • Cons – you might need to build your own app server, no EJB

OSGi /

  • Started in 1999
    • Recently got a lot of exposure
    • In particular, R 4.1
      • JSR-294
  • OSGi brings
    • Dependency management and modularity
    • Ability to load only parts it needs
  • OSGi currently has a lot of mindshare

The central questions /

  • Decisions, decisions
    • EJB 3 or Spring
    • Spring on dm Server or on J2EE/JEE server?
    • OSGi or not OSGi
    • Do I need EJB 2 compatibility?
    • In addition, there are many “old” considerations
  • Servers are not “all inclusive”
    • EJB 3 apps won’t work on SpringSource dm Server or Tomcat

Assessment JBoss /

JBoss Thought Leadership

  • Complete ecosystem
    • Portal
    • ESB
    • BPM
  • JBoss has history of innovation
    • Pioneer of EJB 3
    • Seam Application Framework
    • Web Beans
  • OSGi
    • Support in JBoss 5

JBoss for Developers

  • Excellent customizability
    • JMX-based, don’t deploy what you don’t need
  • Seam is worth a look for developers
  • JDK 6 with 4.2.3 and 5.0 GA
    • JDK 5 compiled binaries work on both JDK 5 and JDK 6
  • JBoss IDE
    • Eclipse-based
    • JBoss Tools
      • Free version (RHDS is paid version)

JBoss in Production

  • Dependability
    • Excellent clustering and failover capability
    • Reliable in production
  • Monitoring and deployment capabilities
    • Not really oriented toward system administration out of the box
      • Command line/file edit flavor of configuration
      • GUI tools (Tomcat manager and JMX Console) are fairly basic
    • Excellent 3rd party tools available for monitoring
      • Hyperic
      • GroundWork IT
      • JON *

JBoss – Conclusions

  • Strengths
    • Mature, scalable and reliable
    • Good support for J2EE and EJB 3
    • Seam framework
  • Weaknesses
    • Limited GUI-based configuration in open source version
    • LGPL License may be a concern for ISV’s embedding app servers

Assessment SpringSource dm Server /

SpringSource dm Server

  • Newcomer
    • Released in April of 2008
    • GPL license
    • Incorporates many mature components
      • Spring Framework
      • Tomcat
      • Equinox
    • dm Server users are very early adopters
  • Different take on app server
    • OSGi support
    • No support for EJB
    • No JMS out of the box

dm Server for Developers

  • Server works well with Spring Framework
  • IDE
    • Spring IDE – IDE for Eclipse platform
    • Support for NetBeans and IntelliJ
  • OSGi support
    • Resolves “dependency hell”
    • But requires application migration to take advantage of it
  • Supports Java 5 and 6

dm Server Thought Leadership

  • OSGi-based
    • Good OSGi implementation
    • OSGi discussed a lot in their documentation
  • No support for EJB
    • No support for EJB 3 or old EJB 2 spec
  • Spring offers similar functionality to Seam
    • Which is somewhat more mature
    • Although some of the Seam ideas might be somewhat more powerful
      • Bijection

dm Server – Conclusions

  • Strengths
    • Support for Spring Framework
    • Support for OSGi
  • Weaknesses
    • Newcomer
    • No EJB
    • Limited experience among workforce

Assessment Tomcat /

Tomcat

  • First release (3.0.x) in 1999
    • Apache license
  • Servlet container
    • Lightweight server
  • Used in many other app servers
    • JBoss
    • dm Server
    • Geronimo

Tomcat – Conclusions

  • Strengths
    • Lightweight
    • Well known and tested

      • < li>Fast startup/deployment for development

  • Weaknesses
    • No support for EJB, JMS or almost anything else outside of “web side”
    		•

    Tomcat in Development and Production

    • Tomcat 6 supports
      • Clustering
      • Failover
    • Widely used for both development and production
    • Supported in most popular IDEs

    Conclusions /

    • App servers are not just about the JEE specs
    • Make some high-level decisions before evaluation
      • Do I need EJB 2 compatibility?
      • Do I intend to follow EJB 3 and other industry standards?
      • Do I need something fast, lightweight, and easy to use?
      • Do I have a need for lifecycle management of server components (through OSGi)?
      • Do I need support for dynamic languages like Groovy and JRuby?
      • Am I an early adopter of new technology?

    Recommendations /

    • “I’m using EJBs and I’m conservative”
      • JBoss, GlassFish
    • “I don’t need XA/JMS/EJB”
      • Tomcat, JBoss, GlassFish, dm Server
    • “I’m using Spring”
      • Conservative – JBoss, Tomcat, GlassFish
      • Leading edge – dm Server
    • “I need to embed an app server in my commercial code”
      • Tomcat, Geronimo
    • “I use Spring heavily and I need OSGi”
      • I need it today and don’t need EJBs – dm Server
      • I need it soon and/or need EJBs – GlassFish, JBoss
    • “I use Seam”
      • JBoss
    • “I want ActiveMQ/Spring/Hibernate preinstalled”
      • Geronimo
    • “I need dynamic language support”
      • Groovy/Grails – dm Server, JBoss, GlassFish
      • JRuby/Rails – GlassFish, Geronimo

    Innoveo Skye – Product strategy workshop

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    Yesterday and today, workshop with the Innoveo Management Team near Zurich for refining and documenting our Innoveo Skye™ (content, scope, roadmap) software solution for insurances (front-end and distribution).

    More information there about Skye™.

     

    International IT market is resisting the downturn

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    via EITO

    Despite the weakness in the international economy, demand for information technology (IT) will continue to increase in the coming year. According to the new forecast of the international market research institute EITO, turnover of computers, software and IT services in Western Europe will increase by 2 percent in 2009, to a round 315 billion Euro. “IT expenditure of businesses will continue to grow even in an economic recession”, said EITO chairman Bruno Lamborghini. “Information technology is of strategic importance for companies in a crisis situation because it makes operations more efficient and more economic.” Increasing demand for IT was also to be expected from contractors working in the public sector, where investment has limited dependence on economic fluctuations. According to the latest forecast, providers of software and IT services in Western Europe will achieve a substantial increase in turnover of 3.2 percent in the coming year, to 228 billion. In comparison, manufacturers of IT hardware are facing a loss of 1.3 percent, to 87 billion Euro.

    The EITO market researchers are expecting development of the IT market in Western Europe, which includes the 15 core countries of the EU with the addition of Switzerland and Norway, to be more robust than in the USA. IT turnover in the United States is forecast to grow by 0.8 percent to 347 billion Euro. Before the global financial crisis became more acute, EITO was assuming growth of the IT market at a level of 4.4 percent in the USA.

    The global IT market for the year 2009 will grow, according to the EITO forecast, by 2.7 percent to 983 billion Euro. As in Europe, suppliers of software and IT services around the world are growing particularly strongly. Their turnover world-wide is forecast to grow by 3.4 percent to 677 billion Euro in the coming year. The hardware market is increasing by 1.3 percent to 305 billion Euro. The driving forces are emerging markets like China, India and Russia, which still have some ground to make up in developing their IT infrastructure.

    So, summarized, concerning turnover forecast for 2009

    • Worldwide:
      • Overall: +2.7%
      • Software and IT services: +3.4%
      • IT Hardware: +1.3%
    • Western Europe (15 EU countries, Switzerland, Norway)
      • Overall: +2.0%
      • Software and IT services: +3.2%
      • IT Hardware: –1.3%
    • USA:
      • Overall: +0.8%
    • Western Europe more robust than in the USA
    • Driving forces internationally: China, India, Russia (generally speaking: emerging markets)

    Innoveo – A real life example of productive SOA solutions

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    soa for dummies

    Two years ago a first version of the publication “Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies” has been published. Therein our reference customer, the Helvetia Insurance Group, was mentioned together with the solution we have successfully put in place for them.

    In the second, reviewed edition, Innoveo has been dedicated again one full chapter of the book. Still our solution is considered to be a practical, state of the art example of how SOA can work in real life, creating both, an enhanced efficiency and cost optimization on the IT side as well as real business benefits on the customer side.

    We are proud of having been selected by Judith Hurwitz for her book and we wish Judith again an amazing success with this new publication.

    Find more information about the book on Judith Hurwitz’s Weblog. Judith is one of the authors and we’ve had the pleasure to be directly in contact with her to discuss the content and the progresses we’ve made in the time between the first and the second edition.

    You can order the book at Amazon.com.

    Get additional information about our consulting services and our insurance frontend solution Innoveo Skye™ by visiting our company website.

    cross-posted as Innoveo News.