breaks the news of the week. Launched on April 15, it is already “an Adobe (Macromedia) Flash killer”. Well, it sounds a little bit overconfident. Actually, Microsoft just tries to collide with Adobe by grabbing a niche from Flash. The question is will it really succeed in becoming the only winner. You want the answer? “Doubtful!”
Silverlight aims at RIAs development market and will be mashed up with Microsoft’s here and then, but it won’t replace Adobe’s Flash. In this “war”, Microsoft is not the leader; it is the follower. It’s too late to set new standards. Maybe, a piece of a market will be a reward, but not the whole game. However, I agree with about the situation in general:
Of course, those two companies are starting to get into each other’s areas, but in the grand scheme of things, that isn’t really important. We’re seeing a definite blending of the software world where being “on the desktop” or “on the web” doesn’t really matter. People are just excited about building engaging user experiences, and they want technologies that make that easy to do and in a way that is good for users. […] As both companies develop tools and ecosystems around Rich Internet Applications, developers, users, and designers win.
Well, Microsoft’s didn’t kill yet, so it won’t kill Adobe Flash. Moreover, it won’t be the only winner, either. “The Only Winners” are we.
Matt Assay about “open source style” in restaurant business. Denver-based restaurant chain gives its food away for free to attract new customers.
Instead of telling people about a product, you let them use it. For free. Then they come back to buy from you, if you make the experience relatively painless. Sounds like open source. But tastes better.
In fact, this “open” business model works almost everywhere. Open source software and fast-food chains are just vivid examples. Most food vendors, as well as parfume manufacturers, are used to product sampling. Once a customer recognizes the value of a product, he will come back again for more. This model is really brilliant!
1) You promote your products; 2) You give your target audience positive emotions (which is equal to positive responses); 3) You communicate with your customers and get the feedback on product quality, value, etc.
By all means, it is MUCH MORE PERSUASIVE than just using words. Giving your customer a possibility to try a product and “taste the value”, you already have him (or her) involved in using your services. If your product HAS a value, you WILL get a response. Fast-food, bubble gum, candies, nevermind.
However, that’s true, it is hard to imagine a restaurant, which could be giving its food away all the time, and getting its revenues from the additional services only. =)) Anyway, who knows…
It seems like the term “webware” is getting hot these days. and claimed in their blogs that they prefer the word “webware” to the acronym. This is how Paul put it in a funny manner:
I imagine that to the horse and buggy manufacturers, the automobile was nothing more than the ‘Horse and Buggy as a Self Propelled Vehicle’ (HaBaaSPV). And to the manuscript producers of the middle ages, the printing press (which in the early days was operated by Scribes) was simply the ‘Scribe as an Operator of a Repeatable and Automated System for Increased Productivity and Broad-based Distribution’ (SaaOoaRaAMfIPaB-bD, pronounced Sa-ō-ŏ-ra-A- … oh never mind, you get the point).
Later, he wisely notices:
Whereas the term ‘SaaS’ wrongly places its emphasis on the very technology component (software) that users of web-based applications no longer need to think about. Webware is a revolutionary new approach to satisfying information needs.
The term is also promoted by Rafe Needleman, CNet editor. Rafe labelling as “webware” for all Productivity Applications, Data-Driven Applications, and Community Services, which are being delivered over the Web. So, we already have software, freeware, adware, , and even (credits to Dave Linthicum). The term “webware” is becoming the edge of this “ware” hype.
But wait, folks! Someone should protect the copyrights, as well. Because there’s a suite of Python packages and tools for developing object-oriented, web-based applications, which is called “”. p.s. For simplicity, there’s also a word “buzzware”.
David Van Couvering’s undergirds the idea that Wiki integration will become the next data integration trend soon. Incompatibility between heterogeneous Wiki formats is an issue, definitely. As a result, a number of software vendors are already developing some integrators between Wikis, blogs, e-mails, and so on.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) will surely accelerate this future trend. The more enterprises, as well as their departments, consolidate with 3rd parties, the more they need data-and-knowledge integration. As an “Enterprise 2.0” essential element, Wiki can be seen as a “service” inside enterprise’s SOA model, too. Therefore, some integration tools will be needed to weave Wiki-based data between either sources, or applications.
And you know what? Since Wiki is a collaborative-based effort, open source will be a winner in this game, sooner or later.
Eric Roch followed his “” post with the new one, “”. There he compiled a comprehensive list of generic Request for Proposal (RFP) and Request for Information (RFI) questions that help select ESB/SOA product. Thanks, Eric!
However, even if you have already chosen a vendor, Mr. Roch’s list will surely help you gain more understanding of ESB/SOA implementation. It is better to analyze the answers to all these questions before you sign the contracts. Commonly, there are some challenges and hidden misunderstandings. Be aware and avoid them.
David Van Couvering gave to anyone who is interested in getting into IT industry. He wrote,
Ten years ago, I would have told you to get some training and try to get an entry-level position in a tech company. Things have changed since then. Now there is this fastly growing phenomenon of open source software. This means that you do not need to take a class, go job hunting, interview, etc., etc., to start getting some real-world experience and meeting and learning from other folks in technology. So instead what I recommend is to poke around and find out what open source projects there are that interest you. […] Then all you do is start volunteering your time.
Hmm, sounds a bit risky yet very interesting! It seems like the tendency is on the rise. Some might know that Matt Asay recently, “If I wanted a job, I’d be sure to go to work for an open source company.” Open source skills are up-and-coming, he-he.
The reasons are obvious. Open source model is currently one of the most competitive software model, “the 21st Century way of writing/selling/supporting/implementing software”, as Matt put it. In few years a lot of IT vendors will run bankrupt due to the success of their competitor’s open source projects.
However, this doesn’t mean that open source approach fits every job seeker. I totally agree with the comments to David Van Couvering’s post. A person should be an open source coder at heart, rather than money-motivated only. Otherwise, Real Estate career would be a better decision, that’s true.I can say the same about open source vendors.
Putting community and the end-user goes first, not the money. One of the major features of open source products is their quality. So, often a commercial open source company has to choose between investing in community (aka users) and investing in, say, advertising. Quality goes first, let me say that again. Otherwise, well, get into Real Estate!
There are some briefly described pre-requirements and useful considerations for a ‘real-time enterprise’ in recent William McKnight’s post. To achieve real-time data warehouses, William also suggests rescheduling ‘batch’ ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) to run more frequently.
I’d add that it’s not about rescheduling frequency only; it’s about rescheduling the very moments of ETL operations. Sometimes it is not enough to increase the frequency, it even may be in vain. First, there’s a challenge of increased queue contentions. Second, there’s no use updating data, if there were no changes in it.
Some EAI advisors recommend using alert notifications instead. It is about defining the moments of updating as well as transforming data on an event basis, rather than according to a fixed schedule. However, it is clear that the real-time event model is more complicated, while developing. But , EAI/ETL/EII vendors are already being forced to aiming at it, anyway.
‘Software as a Service’ gurus and commented on a new study by Nucleus Research. According to the , companies of all sizes are shifting to project management and content management initiatives, while implementing SaaS technologies. Here’s how Zoli put it:
A new study by Nucleus Research confirms these findings: 63% of companies with over 1000 employees adopted some On-Demand solution, vs. 46% of those with less then 1000 employees. The study turned up a few more “surprises”, perhaps the most striking one being the market-share of particular types of applications. Salesforce.com is the poster-boy of SaaS, in fact many would argue they created this market, yet CRM appears to have a relatively low adoption rate amongst SaaS customers, only 32%. Project Management comes close, 23% of the responding organizations deployed PM solutions.
So, Content Management and Project Management are currently the new growth areas in SaaS world. “Rapid implementation and ease of use were the two reasons cited most often for adoption,” Nucleus reported.
This survey shows how Software as a Service technology is evolving. WikiPedia has already become a standard, as we know. On the other hand, the need for effective collaboration is overwhelming, so it is not a surprise that enterprise CMS is moving towards SaaS.
A number of explain why software vendors adopt SaaS model to improve their project management, too. Process integration is one of the main trends for this year, according to multiple researches.
In an about Regulatory Compliance and Data Quality, Robert Lerner mentioned watch lists, “the lists of suspect individuals, organizations, and countries with which it is unlawful for transact business with.”
“If an organization has problems in the quality of its customer data, then it will have difficulty making accurate matches against the watch lists. For example, if an organization has misspelled the name of a customer or potential customer – using Smith instead of Smyth – then the odds of correctly matching this customer against a watch list are slim.”
That reminded me of a true story I’ve heard about a man, say, Mr. Smith, who received a call from a bank one day. After ‘hellos’ and ‘how-do-you-dos’ bank officer asked that man to return to the bank and “sign the rest of the papers”.
“What papers?” Mr. Smith asked.
“The papers confirming that you transferred $1,000,000 from your account yesterday,” bank officer answered.
Mr. Smith was shocked. “Me?”
“Are you Mr. Smith?” bank officer asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you live in blah-blah-blah?”
“Yes.”
“Is your account number blah-blah-blah?”
“Yes.”
“Then it might be you who transferred $1,000,000 yesterday.”
In a few hours Mr. Smith found himself sitting in the bank watching yesterday’s video control system tapes. After additional verifications they noticed that there was a mistake in spelling Mr. Smith’s name. Everything was correct, first name, the country of residence, but the last name was misspelled in the papers. Just one letter, one silly letter was misspelled. The man who visited the bank the day before was, say, Mr. Smyth. That’s why the bank officer mixed up the clients and called the wrong number, he called Mr. Smith instead of Mr. Smyth.
That’s it. It’s all about data quality, data validation, data accuracy, etc., etc. Keep an eye on spelling your names, and avoid getting into a watch list.
Oh, yes, and install data integration software. =)
The hype around is on the rise. With the recent launch of this service, analysts about Software as a Service (SaaS) pros and cons. Again. And security is being discussed, either. I liked this excerpt by Phil Wainewright about the fight between on-premise and on-demand advocates:
“So here is a selection of news stories culled from the past few months that allow us to objectively evaluate what happens when users “have total control over things like privacy and security” as Ryan :
· U.K. company fined over laptop theft · Hard drive vanishes from VA facility · Stolen Boeing laptop held ID data on 382,000 · Commerce Department counts 1,100 missing laptops · Theft of laptop puts thousands of identities at risk
And how likely is it that Google will be so lax as to allow any unauthorized access to its servers? As Talkback regular Donnieboy in a comment to my post on Google Apps last night, Google doesn’t even hand over search data to Federal investigators.”
Well, it seems to me that the more SaaS is being adopted, the more it is being criticized. It’s natural. However, if SaaS technology were as vulnerable as the skeptics say, then it wouldn’t be so popular. And don’t forget, SaaS popularity is increasing.
To make a forecast, I’d say that the market will surely put everything in its right place. There will be a robust niche for on-demand packages, and there will be other niches for on-premise applications. We’ll see how these niches will shape the portrait of a devoted SaaS optimist.
