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Market Dynamics

Salesforce.com + Google Apps (Verdict: Good, but occasionally frustrating)

I started using the Salesforce.com/Gmail integrated product this weekend and was largely happy with the experience. The main thing for my company is getting information into one centralized system. We do so very effectively with our developer sites (wiki-based) but have been using SF.com with only middling success. My theory on the Gmail integration is that it will help to enforce information sharing amongst our staff.

My other theory is that we can eventually get rid of Outlook. If there is any app that people are more addicted to than Outlook, it's Gmail. And now we've suckered them into using it for business. … Read more

Hand-coding HTML is still hip, says NY Times Design Director

Being that my first "real" job was at a web design shop as a code monkey, it warmed my heart to see Khoi Vinh, Design Director for the NY Times state that they still write HTML code by hand. Of course, I have to believe that he was referring to templating and such, as there is no way they could maintain or deliver that amount of content without some kind of CMS.

It's our preference to use a text editor, like HomeSite, TextPad or TextMate, to "hand code" everything, rather than to use a wysiwyg (… Read more

Touchscreen Blackberry on the way?

I'm still the only Mac guy I know who doesn't have an iPhone, primarily because AT&T service doesn't work in my house in San Francisco (it must be the fog.)

I still like my Blackberry 8870 (on VZW) despite the fact that it feels like I am operating in 1998 and all my friends are in 2008. It would be nice if RIM would modernize these things, especially for we addicts who prefer an outside keyboard. The new 9000 series seems to go a ways toward that until the carriers jump in and screw it … Read more

A quick look at Ubuntu Hardy Heron

I installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron via Parallels today and I am once again amazed at how sophisticated Ubuntu has become in terms of usability and offering the "just works" Linux experience.

There are many new features including some new interface customizations which allow you to customize your experience. The release seems more stable that Gutsy Gibbon but that could just be my hardware.

I've been a proponent of the Linux desktop for five or so years and the thing that continues to stifle adoption is the lack of drivers from some major hardware vendors (which seems to … Read more

IBM confuses hardware with Cloud Computing

Far be it from me to call BS on IBM, but today's announcement and subsequent NY Times story on IBM's new hardware (which are essentially blade servers) has nothing to do with Cloud Computing.

It's a fantastic marketing attempt to say that the new hardware somehow is related to running applications on a hosted infrastructure but give me a break. I really do admire the way big vendors try to manipulate the market into what works for them.

Just as IBM doesn't seem to understand open source and SOA, this just proves that it don't … Read more

Cloud Vendors A to Z (courtesy of ESM Blog)

John M. Willis has put together a matrix of the major players in the cloud right now including some of the companies that enable and others that are just offerings.

It's an interesting exercise to figure out how all these parts fit together and considering that the SaaS providers don't have a reason to disclose what's going on behind the scenes I bet there is a ton of other software that is not represented here.

Just knowing what I know about Mule's adoption in SaaS companies I can tell you that we are enabling several businesses … Read more

Learning to love SOA Governance

Feeling technically frisky on this cloudy Friday? How about some SOA Governance 101?

SOA (service-oriented architecture) requires many pieces of the puzzle to come together. One of the key components is governance, which often includes the use of a Registry and Repository.

In this eBizQ article I outline the Five Biggest SOA Governance mistakes and how to correct them. We also covered this in a webinar a few weeks back that you can view in the archives.

Sun obscured by The Cloud

With all the hype in the cloud and the clear necessity for big software vendors to stake their claim I would have thought Sun would have announced/done something already. As my partner-in-crime Ross Mason points out in this post, they did: network.com--which is basically Grid computing and is shockingly dated in just a few years.

I wrote previously that "Java-in-the-cloud" will lead us to "Platform-as-a-Service" and as I continue to think about it, Sun has more of the pieces than any other BigCo--the right of hardware, operating system (Solaris) and development environment (Java) … Read more

Amazon keeps getting the Cloud right while everyone else snoozes

With the announcement that Amazon is now offering premium support for AWS they have taken another giant step forward in solidifying the leadership position in the cloud. At this point the BigCos are either going to have to partner with them or just give up any chance of a first-mover advantage.

Interestingly, I can't see a way for a BigCo (let's say Microsoft) to acquire Amazon to get the technology because being a retailer is not MSFT's core business and MSFT shareholders probably wouldn't be too thrilled owning a giant consumer bookstore...or maybe they would? … Read more