Saturday Jun 26, 2010
Java 4-ever
I found this video via @sig on twitter. Its very funny.
A lot of people that know me will realise that I'm not the biggest Microsoft fan. I could relate to a lot that was in this video.
When Softies used to talk to me about interoperability with SOAP. I'd ask them why they wanted to concentrated on Simple Object Access Protocol? What happened when there was an Advanced Object?
Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
I am a developer
I like reading Ed Brill's blog . Why you may ask, do I like reading a senior IBM Lotus executive's blog?
Well, he is a superb writer, participates in the online community that he is a part off and gives some key insights into the inner workings of a large multi-national software brand. In the past, he has also left comments on my blog. This showed to me that elements inside of IBM can be approached if the discussion is framed properly. However Ed, I find stands out in the IBM hierarchy and leverages social media, where others are still passive observers. Its a pity that they don't, as until they do they won't understand the innovation that is in the Lotus brand with products like Lotus Connections and Lotus Sametime. We'll come back to this point as tacit knowledge in ICT is important. It is one of the main reasons I started this blog.
I can get quite vocal on twitter about IBM, if I feel that I've been .. well, I can't write those words here. If the IBM Australia Software Channel management team are unresponsive and not transparent, I'll notch it up a tone or two. I'm now finding people inside IBM Australia, not the management team, are responding, as the comments will appear as a red flag on a report. But that is not the reason I'm writing this blog post.
Ed wrote a post "I've never been a developer" and it hit a note with a number of people from across the globe in the Lotus community, with some 125+ comments. It also had resonance with me because I've experienced, and could associate quite strongly, with a number of the points made.
I did not originally sign up to IBM, for the Lotus brand. My interest was with WebSphere & Java (I was mentoring development teams in its use) and WebSphere Portal. IBM moved the WebSphere Portal product into the Lotus brand a few years back. I had to make a choice did I want to continue to leverage the investments in WebSphere Portal certifications through the Lotus brand or resit other certifications to remain in the WebSphere brand? I was tired of certifications so I moved forward with Lotus.
If we found potential sales opportunities we got some excellent pre-sales support from the IBM Lotus guys which also included WebSphere Portal pre-sales. Unfortunately, we either arrived too late to influence a sale and/or when Lotus was mentioned the customer lost interest. Didn't matter if it was Government, SMB or larger business. I kept thinking what is happening here? These products hold significant market share according to all the research I could find. If I keep at it, the effort should result in sales. During this period I learnt a lot of course about cash flow and demand
generation. I became very adept at running marketing campaigns and the pre-sales process (this could be a blog post in its own right).
The sales did not come. The effort I was spending on IBM certifications, meetings and pre-sales was increasing dramatically but the income sources (non-IBM) were drying up as I was neglecting them as the commitment to IBM software increased. In short, none of the IBM pre-sales material helped me achieve any significant sales in the local Australian markets that I tried - Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Additionally there was no appreciation or understanding with my potential customers what an IBM Advanced Partner was and what specialisation in an IBM software brand (eg Lotus, WebSphere and Rational) meant for them. There were a few small wins, including being the second company in the world to sell IBM Workplace Services Express (the product was briefly introduced to supplant WebSphere Portal Express with more collaborative components. Was withdrawn from market due to poor sales).
During this whole period, I was working 60+ hours a week (sales, technical, business development) for what seemed like a very, very long period. I wasn't winning. It also had a bad affect on my health.
Was it me? Was it just the local market? The analysts statistics were saying that WebSphere Portal had continuously for a number of years held the top spot in sales. Why couldn't I compete and win against Microsoft?
I started researching this and the major two items I found were:
- Customers believed that it was a wiser move to leverage their existing investment in Microsoft; and
- Microsoft realised it was their responsibility to generate demand - that is the channel was a fulfillment mechanism.
I started deeply questioning (some said that I have a very interrogative and probing style) why I had been directed by IBM to performing the activities I did. I quickly came to the realisation that in the IBM Australia Software channel, that outside the technical persons I was engaging with, that there was very limited current understanding of the market and what the customer needs were. I could say a lot more here, but believe it may not be wise to in a public blog (if you want to know, email me directly). The short of it, is that they are mainly vertical experts, that is they understand their area of expertise that they are employed to do (and incentified to perform well) but have no tacit knowledge (which I mentioned before) regarding the actual procurement process the customers had to follow. As well as, no first hand knowledge of how to implement, upgrade or develop new components using the IBM software being sold. Now if I'm wrong with these statements, I'd welcome constructive and evidence (not emotion) based debate on the subject. If I'm wrong, I want to know why?
I've got deep technical skills, and can deploy, administer and develop components. I still cut code and consider this to be an essential skill moving forward and wrote about it in a post here. It gives me that tacit knowledge to understand this technology and how to assist clients with its implementation.
What concerns me is that in IBM, the majority of persons I come across, outside of the technical pre-sales team, have no tacit knowledge regarding implementing IBM software on a customer's project. This may be a cheeky statement to make but it would surprise me if more then 5% of IBM's management could write and deploy a Hello World servlet on a linux based WebSphere Application Server deployment by themselves.
So Ed if you read this, I'd encourage you to become a developer and to participate in actual customer projects and to encourage others in the IBM management to do the same.
If people are looking for a scenario, for a hypothetical SMB customer
(with <10 employees with max 2 internal IT persons), try implementing a records management system from a customers perspective, starting with requirements, moving through vendor selection, implementation and the first upgrade. The SMB customer is more then likely to already have an email system (either Exchange or Google Mail) and is not looking to replace it. I've had this scenario before, with a strong relationship with the customer and the IBM Lotus software group, were unable to provide me with a viable solution and competitive positioning to ensure that I won the deal!
Tags lotus developers brand smb market ibm customer | Comments 1
Monday May 31, 2010
My iPad arrived
The iPad had been selling like hotcakes in the US. With the majority of
the online reviews being positive, since its US launch by Apple. As soon as I could, early in May 2010, I placed an order through the Australian Apple online store for a 32 GB iPad WiFi+3G (including some of the accessories).
I wanted to see what this devices was like to use myself. Would the tablet form factor be sufficient for a virtual worker who has no fixed desk in any one day. In particular I was interested to see if I could work with the iPad by its self without necessarily having to use my Mac Book Pro notebook or other desktops. I realised that some tasks would still need a desktop, for example programming, but if I was just reading, emailing, reviewing material, tweeting or interacting through social media that I did not need the full desktop real-estate experience.
The main advantage for me of the iPad, was going to be the larger display size then the iPhone and the convenience factor of having to carry less. I am also very interested to see, if I can use it as an eBook reader. Not so much for novels but for reference material that I need. I have a lot of books, gathering dust for the most part. Will the iPad help alleviate that issue? What happens in five years? Can I still access those books that I have purchased electronically? Only time will tell.
When I awoke last Friday the 28th May, it was with the expectation that the iPad would be delivered. I'd been hoping for the day before, but it didn't happen. I was working in the city that day, so I purchased a new micro-SIM from Three. I was their first iPad customer and they were just as excited and happy for me about the iPad. That is one thing that Apple does extremely well, building up expectation about their new devices.
A number of us, that morning, through twitter were trying to see if the iPads had stated to arrive or not. Someone tweeted that a friend had walked into JB Hi-Fi and just purchased one (I was thinking why had I ordered it through the Apple store?). Needless to say, that morning, with the immediate anticipation of the iPad, I was not very productive.
My iPad finally arrived in the early afternoon.
I unpacked it, inserted my new micro-SIM, performed the first sync (which took some time) and then started to explore my new device. It felt firm in the hand and was responsive. It immediately got the attention of a lot of people walking by. The majority of whom were interested to find out if I would still be using it in a week or so. As the 3G reception was not the best on Level 30 and the serviced offices I was using did not have WiFi (I know, have already started to address this), I thought, as I'd already written the day off, I would travel home and connect it up through WiFi.
On the way home, I had Google Maps open and the GPS was tracking my progression nicely on the map. This is one of the features I use a lot on the iPhone when I visit other cities, but it drains the battery. It will be interesting to see what happens on the iPad when I use Google Maps for extended periods.
I played with the iPad for the rest of the day, exploring everything that I could and getting things connected - email, calenders, twitter (tweetdeck), book readers (iBook, Amazon Kindle) etc. I found a number of ten must have iPad apps and loaded all the free ones. There is one, theguardian eyewitness iPad app, I particularly like, as it is mainly thought provoking photos (It really did also show off the quality of the iPad display). The paid apps I purchased were the iPad versions of the Apple iWorks applications - Pages (word processing) and Keynote (presentations).
So far, I have enjoyed the iPad and can see some interesting uses for it and will continue to experiment with its use. The big question for me is, will my current or potential clients use this device in a work context? (Some have already placed moratoriums on purchase of the iPads)
Tags maps ebook apple ipad wifi table google virtual | Comments 0
Thursday May 27, 2010
Salesforce.com: What is cloud computing?
This is a great video from Salesforce.com explaining Cloud Computing.
Tags cloud+computing salesforce video | Comments 0
Wednesday May 05, 2010
Importance of backups
I heard a high pitch squeal and looked at the server. No lights were flashing. Fear was starting to creep in.
This happened early Monday morning May 3, 2010 and after a little investigation and changing of power supplies I realised that the server was dead. It had, had a reasonable life, with having a motherboard and memory replacement back in 2007. But the hard drives, were a little old.
What was I going to do? I needed to recover this system as it holds my blog server (that runs this blog), main web server, dns and other software. I'd been thinking I needed to replace the hard drives and was contemplating moving everything into the cloud. But I had not gotten there as yet.
I choose the safe option, and after my first appointment, I went for a latte to wait for the computer shop to open. Yes, I purchased a new motherboard, Intel i5 CPU, new hard drives and 4GB of memory. I was praying that I could recover the system with the old drives. I'm always diligent and use two drives in a mirror, so if a single drive fails I do not loose everything.
After a little time rebuilding, I plugged the two old drives in and pressed the power button. The machines beeped at me very loudly. I'd put the second memory stick in the wrong slot. Quickly corrected that issue and tried to power up again. Everything was working fine until it got to the point of booting the Operating System. It just didn't start. I fiddled around but still no luck.
My worst fears were born true, both hard drives in the mirror were fried. One even had a puff of smoke rise as I was looking at it. At this point I was silently saying little words to myself. Thinking, did I have other backups somewhere.
I found some older backups of part of the system and was able to restore the web site and blog server but I'd lost over a years worth of blog entries. This is where I'm up to now, writing this blog entry and will need to recover my blog posts. I earlier found copies of them on facebook and through google cache for the period I needed. Now that this blogging server is back the google cache will be invalidated. So if you ever find yourself in a similar situation take copies of your blog entries, from where ever you can find them first.
Now the blogging server is back. I'll be entering in previous blog entries going back to February 2009. If you think you may be rereading entries, I apologies in advance. Please bear with me.
Once complete I'll back everything up and put it onto multiple machines. Then the next challenge will be creating a hybrid cloud solution so that I have no single point of failure again.
Tags crash server backup data | Comments 0
