IBM Rational conference

via Judith Hurwirtz

Judith has attended to the last IBM Rational Conference and is sharing with us some noteworthy aspects of the “changing landscape of software development”.

  1. Rational is moving from tools company to a software development platform. […]
  2. More management, fewer low level developers [were attending the conference] […]
  3. Rational has changed dramatically through acquisitions. […]
  4. It’s all about Jazz. Jazz, IBM’s collaboration platform was a major focus of the conference.  Jazz is an architecture intended to integrate data and function.  Jazz’s foundation is the REST architecture and therefore it is well positioned for use in Web 2.0 applications. What is most important is that IBM is bringing all of its Rational technology under this model. Over the next few years, we can expect to see this framework under all of the Rational’s products.
  5. Rational doesn’t stand alone. […] What I found quite interesting was the emphasis on the intersection between the Rational platform and Tivoli’s management services as well as Websphere’s Service Oriented Architecture offerings. Rational also made a point of focusing on the use of collaboration elements provided by the Lotus division.  Cloud computing was also a major focus of discussion at the event.[…] The one area that IBM seem to have hit a home run is its Cloud Burst appliance which is intended create and manage virtual images. Rational is also beginning to deliver its testing offerings as cloud based services. One of the most interesting elements of its approach is to use tokens as a licensing model. In other words, customers purchase a set number of tokens or virtual licenses that can be used to purchase services that are not tied to a specific project or product.

Cross-posted on the Innoveo Blog

Software maintenance

via Judith Hurwitz

Judith is bringing, as usual, interesting feeds for thoughts, this time in the field of software maintenance fees.

[…] As the world slowly moves to cloud computing for economic reasons there will be a major impact on how companies pay for software. Salesforce.com has indeed proven that companies are willing to trust their sales and customer data to a Software as a Service vendor. These customers are also willing to pay per user or per company yearly fees to rent software. Does this mean that they are no longer paying maintance fees? My answer would be no. It is all about accounting and economics. Clearly, Salesforce.com spends a lot of money adding functionality to its application and someone pays for that. So, what part of that monthly or yearly per user fee is allocated to maintaining the application? Who knows? And I am sure that it is not one of those statistics that Salesforce.com or any other Software as a Service or any Platform as a Service vendor is going to publish. Why? Because these companies don’t think of themselves as traditional software companies. They don’t expect that anyone will ever own a copy of their code.

The bottom line is that software will never be good enough to never need maintenance. Software vendors — whether they sell perpetual licenses or Software as a Service– will continue to charge for maintance. The reality is that the concrete idea of the maintenance fee will evolve over time. Customers will pay it but they probably won’t see it on their bills. Nevertheless, the impact on traditional software companies will be dramatic over time and a lot of these companies will have to rethink their strategies. Many software companies have become increasingly dependent on maintenance revenue to keep revenue growing. I think that Marc Benioff has started a conversation that will spark a debate that could have wide ranging implications for the future of not only maintenance but of what we think of as software.

Interesting!

Cross-posted on the Innoveo Blog.

Oracle buys Sun

via Between the Lines

As everybody already knows, Oracle is buying Sun for about $7.4 billion, including Sun’s debt ($9.50 a share in cash). Some interesting thoughts from Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief of ZDNet.

  • [Oracle] added that the acquisition of Java “is the most important software Oracle has ever acquired.”
  • Oracle also becomes a full-fledged hardware player.
  • Oracle and Sun have been long-time partners. […] “More Oracle databases run on the Solaris Sparc than any other system,” said Ellison, noting Linux was second. “We’ll engineer the Oracle database and Solaris operating system together. With Sun we can make all components of the IT stack integrated and work well.”
  • Oracle with Sun appears to be the Apple of the enterprise. Indeed, Oracle President Charles Phillips noted that the company is looking to offer everything from apps to the disk.
  • Oracle’s stack of IT stuff now includes:
    • Java;
    • Solaris;
    • Enterprise applications ranging from CRM to ERP to business intelligence;
    • The database (Oracle and MySQL);
    • The middleware;
    • The storage hardware;
    • Cloud computing services;
    • And servers.
  • Art of War approach:
    • Oracle gets to annoy IBM—and own Java—over a few pennies a share more than Big Blue was willing to pay.
    • Oracle gets to kill MySQL. There’s no way Ellison will let that open source database mess with the margins of his database. MySQL at best will wither from neglect. In any case, MySQL is MyToast.
    • Sun has a big installed base. All the better to upsell applications into.
  • Sun was relatively cheap compared to Oracle’s other acquisitions. The price was above the Hyperion buyout but below PeopleSoft and Siebel.
  • Oracle saves Sun management from what could have been a complete debacle following the IBM takeover talks. The Sun board had been split on the IBM deal. Today, it’s all roses.

The official Oracle press release can be found here.

It is clear that this deal will change the IT landscape quite massively. And the consolidation is definitely not finished…

Cross-posted on the Innoveo Blog.

Twhirl v0.9 is out!

The new version of Twhirl is out after a good organized and dynamic private beta phase. You can download it here.

This version is very stable, no problem to attend on this side.

I’m quite a fan for a while of Twhirl as a Twitter client. Now, it allows also to broadcast your messages to Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. through the ping.fm service.

By the way, do you know this ping.fm service? Really great! It allows to publish centrally and to push your messages to the different “status” services of the main social networking websites. Worth a try, it’s free!

twhirl

Below, some information about Twhirl.

Twhirl features

  • multiple Twitter, laconica, Friendfeed and Seesmic account support
  • runs on Windows and Mac OSX (and Linux)
  • notifications of new messages across all of your accounts
  • shorten long urls easily (using snurl, twurl or isgd)
  • post images to TwitPic
  • search tweets using Twitter Search and Tweetscan
  • timeline filtering
  • groovy color schemes to personalize your experience
  • automatically checks for new versions

What’s new in Twhirl v0.9

  • spellchecker (currently English only, can be deactivated in settings if you use Twhirl in other languages)
  • your Twitter @replies will display even if you are mentioned in the middle of a tweet – don’t miss anyone quoting your name
  • share all your updates to all your favorite social software via Ping.FM support: Twhirl now posts to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and more
  • follow any topic in near-realtime: searching for a term or a brand and then activating it as a saved search it will bring all future mentions of it into your timeline
  • record a video and post it straight to Twitter, then get your Seesmic video replies and follow the video conversation
  • get new Seesmic replies and videos in realtime thanks to XMPP support
  • support for bitly url shortnener with stats and history
  • support for direct messages and favorites on laconica/identica

Actually, I’m using Twhirl as micro-blogging client, without being a seesmic user ;-)

Have a look also at the video from Loic, showing how Twhirl is working.

Marten Mickos, former MySQL CEO, is to depart Sun

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

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

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

    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

    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)