voke Market Mover Blog

Oh What a Week! Early June 2007…The IBM/Rational Software Developer Conference or RSDC for those in the know kicked off with two major acquisition announcements. The first announcement made on June 6 was the acquisition of Watchfire . Watchfire is an application security company with a solid lineup of products and services that will fit well with and complement the Rational brand. Application security is one of those things that everyone *knows* they should be doing but conveniently and blissfully ignores it. This is IBM’s opportunity to solidify its dominant position in the application lifecycle by offering a holistic focus on application security. Watchfire technology and services is a natural fit in the application lifecycle. And, IBM with its broad enterprise reach is in a position to educate the market on and implement application security solutions. And, just to show you how serious IBM is about the software lifecycle, IBM announced its intention to acquire Telelogic . This mo...

Back to the Future Part IV Premieres at Microsoft TechEd 2007 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. Microsoft was a good sport and poked fun at some of its past predictions including what the world would be like if the once much ballyhooed “BOB” had achieved any market traction. In the keynote, Microsoft opted out of vision and presented reality. At the start of his keynote, Microsoft’s Bob Muglia said he would not give a “vision talk”. And, he was right, the listener had to make their own judgment about what was visionary or back to the future and formulate their own conclusions. The crowd of 12,000+ developers went wild when the comma...

The Week That Was… 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. This is a weekly podcast that David will host and moderate while getting views, analysis and opinion of the analyst community on the week that was. In this first ever SD Times podcast we discussed: - JavaOne and the Sun announcement of JavaFX - Microsoft and its Silverlight announcement - VMware and their release of Workstation 6 - Coverity’s release of Prevent SQS - SQE’s STAREast conference the week of May 14 and my presentation on “Communicating the Value of Testing” Many thanks to SD Times and David Rubinstein for inviting me as a guest. So, tune in and get voke’s insight on the highlights of the week we just had. t

We Go Together Like… 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. This move to offshore work by German corporations was not surprising in as much it was an interesting study in market tre...

It Just Keeps Getting Tougher! 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! Think about this – turning on an appliance that simply has an ON/OFF button. But, we have made things more complicated and the complexity has not been masked from the user. So, yes, the TV has to go ON but so does the surround sound, possibly the cable box, TiVo, and everything else in the system i.e. other audio devices such as a media server must be repressed and secondary to the TV. Then you have the complexity of the surround sound being out of synch with audio of the...

Let’s Do Something New in 2007 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. OK, you can see the connection between the voke and Fanfare announcements. But, you are probably wondering why the Apple iPhone is mentioned here. Let’s make some assumptions and connect some seemingly disparate pieces. The network equipment market is all about making hardware or devices to connect to something via a network. Simple enough, we all reap the benefits of networked printers, TiVo (my personal favorite), and our laptops in an always connected network state. Fanfare delivers commercially available testing products to the network equipment market. This means the network equipment manufacturers no longer need to cobble together their own ...

2006 In The Rearview Mirror 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. The Pittsburgh Steelers win the 2006 Super Bowl! This has nothing to do with technology or business, but the Steelers are the ultimate in sports teams (OK, American football sports teams). The Super Bowl win is an exciting start for the new year, but as the Steelers return to the gridiron for the 2006 / 2007 season they certainly lack the grittiness and determination that made them champions in February. And, as any Steeler fan will attest, the three basic tenets for understanding the Steelers are: 1) never give up, 2) it is always the fault of the quarterback and 3) defense will win the game for you because of tenet #2. File this for 2006 under – the ...

All We Know Are the Facts – the HP Acquisition of Mercury is Complete Since I am in Los Angeles this week, I am in a Dragnet kind 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. The more important issues around this acquisition are about what is not seen or heard. On HP.com , banner ads for HP and Mercury, HP printers and toner, HP storage, and HP laptops rotate. The position of “Business outcome. The next big thing in IT” swaps places with HP’s VoodooPC acquisition. What is wrong with a headline screaming that the $4.5 billion acquisition of Mercury is complete? Instead of boldly announcing a successfully completed acquisition in a reasonably short time, viewers are left to watch quirky ads with u...

VMWorld 2006 – VMWare – Software Innovator with a Social Conscience 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 ! A software company helping with energy conservation – how 21st century is that? At the opening session of VMWorld, PG&E (electric and natural gas provider to northern and central California) announced an energy conservation plan around server consolidation and virtualization. Businesses can receive a credit from PG&E for $750 - $1350 for every server removed. The program caps at $4 million per company! VMWare is making software that will change the way we use technology. VMWare’s philosophy is to take control of the resources and use what you need, when you need it, and wher...

Leaving (the Software World in) Las Vegas 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! Mercury World has evolved to an industry bellwether event. Attendees can be assured they will be educated as well as entertained. And, true to their DNA as a software company of vision, Mercury ended their run as an independent company in grand style. The venue was splendid…the Bellagio. The keynote speakers were inspiring…Dr. Jared Diamond (author Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse ), slam poet Rives and the supernova in a shining event, former US Secretary of State, Dr. Madeleine Albright. Back to the business of Mercury World…the conference was kicked off by Mercury CEO Tony Zingale and CMO Christopher Lochhead. These two executives were full of zeal and certainly engaged the crowd. In an...

“IT’s the Future”…A Clever Play on Words by SQS 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. And, as usual, the conference was chock full of information. Tracks included: - Outsourcing - Methodologies - IT Governance and best practices - Organizational structure and effectiveness - Auditing (internal and external) - The culture of quality - Test automation - Creating secure test data - Embedded systems This was not the typical conference focused on development and test tools, nor was it a bunch of techies showing their test scripts. The conference made one question their quality practices within IT and what they were really doing to modernize their practices to better serve their customers. The conference title - “IT’s the future” or “It’s the future” is really a clever play on words – think about it or IT. We constantly talk about t...

A Long Way To Go And A Short Time To Get There 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). The prognosticators at Israel’s Globes newspaper called this acquisition on May 1, 2006 but with a price tag of a paltry $3.5 billion. When this “fictitious” article hit the press, Mercury was quick to insist the rumors were false and expertly put a spin around the notion that they wanted to remain an independent software company, put the NASDAQ delisting behind them and continue to serve their constituents with high quality software. What a difference $1 billion can make! In Mercury’s defense, they were moving along in 2006 appearing as though they were going to remain independent and possibly even somehow re-invent themselves. Some examples of this pursuit were the two acquisitions made in 2006 totaling $123.5 million. For those keeping score the tab was $105 million for ...

Jenny…867-5309… 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...

Think Before You Leap… 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! Jason told me Altair was a global company and gave me an impressive list of corporate clients, all household names. He then told me that Altair employed a mere 200 people with a scant 20 in the roles of IT. And, the next thing Jason said was Altair wins business because they can differentiate themselves from the competition through technology. The technology helped them be more efficient and accommodating to their customers. Jason really stressed the people aspect of the business describing how understanding the customer’s needs was the major focus of the business. My next logical question was around outsourcing. No, ...

Er / Ment… At Tech Ed, the Microsoft spokespeople were certain to stress that the company was moving from supporting the develop er to supporting develop ment . This may seem like a big case of over analyzing semantics and word parsing. Trust me, this is a major statement. By publicly communicating the movement from er to ment , Microsoft is saying they are serious about the application life cycle. Microsoft understands and knows the develop er , but what about the rest of the players in the application life cycle chain – the develop ment and deploy ment aspect? This is something Microsoft has been wrestling with for a while. How do they move up the all-important stack from er to ment ? Start by introducing products (of course we should expect products from Microsoft) that will attract other members of the life cycle…architects, quality assurance groups, business analysts, project mangers, etc. A big check mark on the product side with Visual Studio Team System , however, M...

It’s the Little Things That Count, Really… I left Boston and Microsoft Tech Ed 2006 today. As a road warrior and conference veteran I must say the Tech Ed experience in Boston was superb. The show, as always, was well organized and met the needs of a variety of attendees…developers, architects, analysts, managers, students, purchasers, executives, partners, and even competitors. Microsoft has really set the standard for hi-tech events. Realize, this event was attended by well over 13,000 people. To scale quality to that size takes some effort. Microsoft always manages to take care of the creature comforts at its events. With Tech Ed being a developer-centric event, the typical staples were on hand. For those not familiar with the care and feeding of developers, that means plenty of caffeine and processed sugar along with wireless internet access, plenty of power, and comfortable seating. Microsoft delivers on that 100%. But what about the rest of us, those that see white food ...

When It’s Time to Change, You’ve Got to Rearrange… 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. Microsoft is, without question the definitive quintessential software company. The problem is the company is, at its core, an operating system company. Everything Microsoft is and does is about selling and installing more copies of Microsoft Windows. Windows is the franchise product – period – full stop! Now, this is not an entirely bad problem to have, but what about the future. People and enterprises are no longer paying in excess of $500 (US) for a single productivity application to p...

Expression in the Land of Beige?! Americans are obsessed with beige. They live in beige houses with beige furniture, beige floors, and beige walls. They wear beige pants and drive beige cars. They use beige computers and beige monitors and eat from beige plates atop beige tables and beige counters. OK, maybe I am exaggerating, Americans choose from a palette consisting of eggshell, taupe, sand, nougat, tumbleweed, caramel, mocha, latte, stone, and light tan. Guess what, it is still beige by any other name! As a society ensconced in beige it seems only logical that the human interface of the software designed by primarily Americans has been anything except revolutionary. Admit it, software interfaces have been rather beige! At Tech Ed 2006, Microsoft is presenting its four new tenets for “People_Ready” software. As part of making the tenets reality, they are focusing on the correlation of said tenets and their products. One of the highlights of this movement has been the little p...

The Red Sox Nation and Microsoft? 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 . I love Boston and I love the Red Sox, but I do not randomly clad myself in their logo. As I meandered from one section of town to the next I was struck by all of the Bostonians showing their support for the Boston Red Sox. These were not people on their way to or from a game – these were people out for Sunday brunch, shopping, meeting friends, enjoying the bucolic Sunday afternoon. There were people in pink Red Sox hats, the St. Patrick’s Day green Red Sox hats, jaunty tweed Red Sox hats in the tony Beacon Hill area, Red Sox t-shirts, jackets, blankets, and umbrellas, and the traditional good old fashioned Red Sox logo hat. Why was everyone so...

Life is a Database Old Chum… 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. Enter ENCIRQ . The ENCIRQ Data Foundation Framework gives developers everything they have been wanting…a way to get away from the classic client / server database architecture. Client / server is so 1980’s. With this model, ENCIRQ just ...