There is no doubt, the adoption and acceptance of Desktop Integration technologies is now a fundamental and crucial piece of ammunition in the integration arsenal - across the entire enterprise. More un-integrated applications are actually popping up on user’s desktops - not less! Virtualization is now just adding to the problem of complex integration issues of these desktop applications (yes, they are now less open for integration than before!). OpenSpan has approached this problem wisely as we believe virtualization has a phenomenal future. You can now integrate, not just desktop applications in physical machines, but also integrate applications across virtual machines too - even on remote virtual servers! This is game changing because it paves the way, not just for physical desktop application integration, but brings virtualized integrated applications into reality - even before some users had recognized there was going to be a problem!
A couple of news / items worthy of putting on my blog too. Be back soon.
Shepherd Chartered Surveyors Selects OpenSpan to Streamline Business Processes across Desktops
Serve Customers more Effectively with Microsoft CCF 2008 and OpenSpan Platform
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
OpenSpan record 2007 year
Wow – is it really 2008 already ?
A phenomenal year for OpenSpan with 440% revenue growth, over 30 New customers, New OEM channels, New major SI Partner relationships. Customers in UK, Germany, Singapore, Australia and South America isn’t too bad a reach either :)
5 of Fortune 30 are now OpenSpan customers. 5 of top 40 global telcos and 4 of the top 20 US Banks. Yep, an extremely awesome year for OpenSpan.
Some nice very recent recognition too with:
10 IT Companies to Watch in 2008 (Robin Bloor – Hurwitz Analyst)
10 It Companies to Watch in 2008
The Redmond 2008 Editors Choice Awards (Easiest to Use/Manage Category)
Redmond 2008 Editors Choice Award
Integrate your World from Peter Varhol at Redmond
Integrate Your World
I'm off on a trip to Europe today but will blog in the next few weeks about some major technology advances we have made recently with regards web services and also virtualization. I'll talk about OpenSpan and the game changing technology we have. As they say, “you ain’t seen nothing yet” ..... keep on watching..
Speak soon.
A phenomenal year for OpenSpan with 440% revenue growth, over 30 New customers, New OEM channels, New major SI Partner relationships. Customers in UK, Germany, Singapore, Australia and South America isn’t too bad a reach either :)
5 of Fortune 30 are now OpenSpan customers. 5 of top 40 global telcos and 4 of the top 20 US Banks. Yep, an extremely awesome year for OpenSpan.
Some nice very recent recognition too with:
10 IT Companies to Watch in 2008 (Robin Bloor – Hurwitz Analyst)
10 It Companies to Watch in 2008
The Redmond 2008 Editors Choice Awards (Easiest to Use/Manage Category)
Redmond 2008 Editors Choice Award
Integrate your World from Peter Varhol at Redmond
Integrate Your World
I'm off on a trip to Europe today but will blog in the next few weeks about some major technology advances we have made recently with regards web services and also virtualization. I'll talk about OpenSpan and the game changing technology we have. As they say, “you ain’t seen nothing yet” ..... keep on watching..
Speak soon.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
My little pet peeves of 2007 (and earlier) that will still be so in 2008 – can you relate? Do they all have something to do with “integration”? I think so.
I have four programmable TV remotes in my house, and not one works everything, all of the time – consistently.
I have a fairly nice (not cheap) German Mercedes that can go faster than I dare, that has electronics running at light speed over a fiber Optic backbone, opens the doors by a simple touch, doesn’t need a key to start and even knows exactly how far the car in front is and even brakes for me if I get a little careless. However, this piece of German Engineering does not actually seem capable of simply knowing that British Summer Time is different now. The time on my clock will always be out for 3-4 weeks a year by an hour. (Even though the built in GPS knows exactly where I am and what the time is to the nearest nano second!!!
Just when I thought we might actually be headed to some resemblance of a standard with more and more of my devices supporting the same 5v mini USB to charge and connect devices – my dreams have been shattered. My wife’s new Motorola phone actually detects that the same mini connector we used to share now reports on her phone that it’s the wrong adapter and won’t charge. Oh well, at least the phone is smart enough now to report the “error” – progress
The electronics used for stop-lights at the junctions I seem to frequent will remain broken so that at 2am in the morning (after a late night out), they will remain almost permanently at red despite the fact no other cars seem to be coming in any other direction (I reported a ground sensor out over a year ago and despite trying, DOT can’t seem to fix it so I won’t bother to report the other one thousand or so I seem to run into!!).
Oh, and I brought a new Apple Itouch in 2007 and in 2008, the browser will still crash more than my windows desktop and it does not support copy and paste – and yes – I do miss Copy and Paste – on this device at least.
Here’s a toast to 2008 and may all things be more integrated than in 2007 – thanks at least, in some part to me and what we do at OpenSpan - for software anyway!
I have four programmable TV remotes in my house, and not one works everything, all of the time – consistently.
I have a fairly nice (not cheap) German Mercedes that can go faster than I dare, that has electronics running at light speed over a fiber Optic backbone, opens the doors by a simple touch, doesn’t need a key to start and even knows exactly how far the car in front is and even brakes for me if I get a little careless. However, this piece of German Engineering does not actually seem capable of simply knowing that British Summer Time is different now. The time on my clock will always be out for 3-4 weeks a year by an hour. (Even though the built in GPS knows exactly where I am and what the time is to the nearest nano second!!!
Just when I thought we might actually be headed to some resemblance of a standard with more and more of my devices supporting the same 5v mini USB to charge and connect devices – my dreams have been shattered. My wife’s new Motorola phone actually detects that the same mini connector we used to share now reports on her phone that it’s the wrong adapter and won’t charge. Oh well, at least the phone is smart enough now to report the “error” – progress
The electronics used for stop-lights at the junctions I seem to frequent will remain broken so that at 2am in the morning (after a late night out), they will remain almost permanently at red despite the fact no other cars seem to be coming in any other direction (I reported a ground sensor out over a year ago and despite trying, DOT can’t seem to fix it so I won’t bother to report the other one thousand or so I seem to run into!!).
Oh, and I brought a new Apple Itouch in 2007 and in 2008, the browser will still crash more than my windows desktop and it does not support copy and paste – and yes – I do miss Copy and Paste – on this device at least.
Here’s a toast to 2008 and may all things be more integrated than in 2007 – thanks at least, in some part to me and what we do at OpenSpan - for software anyway!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Enterprise Applications
I really enjoyed this post and as an importantly, all of the replies to it.
Khoi Vinh, posted
If it looks Like a Cow, Swims like a Dolphin and Quacks Like a Duck, it must be Enterprise Software..
It really does show just how many companies are struggling with their enterprise applications and of course cannot just get rid of them (else they wouldn't be struggling, right?). I am absolutely not convinced that even the new applications we are building are not going to fall into the same traps, because alarmingly, there are not many answers to this problem, even with hindsight!
As you know, I am a big advocate of enabling agile and flexible API’s into Enterprise Applications. You can do so much more once these API’s exist. Of course, if the Enterprise Application doesn’t have an API or the right one for you, you can use OpenSpan to provide it. Using OpenSpan to enable your application to be customizable too is pretty cool, even if I do say so myself!
Anyway, enjoy this post and the great replies, it speaks for itself, IMHO. (Yes I’ve replied a couple of times as well).
Khoi Vinh, posted
If it looks Like a Cow, Swims like a Dolphin and Quacks Like a Duck, it must be Enterprise Software..
It really does show just how many companies are struggling with their enterprise applications and of course cannot just get rid of them (else they wouldn't be struggling, right?). I am absolutely not convinced that even the new applications we are building are not going to fall into the same traps, because alarmingly, there are not many answers to this problem, even with hindsight!
As you know, I am a big advocate of enabling agile and flexible API’s into Enterprise Applications. You can do so much more once these API’s exist. Of course, if the Enterprise Application doesn’t have an API or the right one for you, you can use OpenSpan to provide it. Using OpenSpan to enable your application to be customizable too is pretty cool, even if I do say so myself!
Anyway, enjoy this post and the great replies, it speaks for itself, IMHO. (Yes I’ve replied a couple of times as well).
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Agile SOA - without the wait
Create Web Services by wrapping legacy applications - now that's agile
You have a workflow that involves 2 legacy (10 year old) windows applications (say written in VB and C++), a legacy web application (say 2 years old with embedded DHTML and Ajax), a packaged Java application and an SAAS application like salesforce.com. This workflow (transaction) is carried out 10’s of thousands of times every day by hundreds of users.
How quickly would you expect to build a service around some or all of this process? 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years perhaps?
Assuming you can persuade your SAAS and packaged application vendors to do their share in your timeframe, there is still no telling really how long this will take. All of the business logic needs to be replicated, that so far took thousands of man years to develop and assuming you actually know where to find it! In the mean time of course, your business user requirements around improving and extending this workflow are not standing still. Indeed they must not stand still in today’s competitive environment.
What if you could wrap these existing applications and workflows, and have your SOA that way? What if you could taking any of your (or your vendors) existing web services (if they exist yet) and have them participate immediately in these workflows without waiting the 1, 3, 5, or 10 years? You wouldn't even need to understand your existing business logic because it would automatically get carried forward in the wrapping.
At OpenSpan, we believe in SOA but we believe it should not take away the critical importance of remaining Agile. This applies to remaining Agile around the deployment of SOA as you build it out as well as being agile around changing business requirements. If you build a web service, your existing applications should be able to consume it right now (see Last Mile of SOA).
A successful SOA strategy will be an Agile SOA strategy. IT and Business both win with this approach. IT get to work on their long term SOA strategy yet remain the superstars for introducing SOA immediately, and whilst continuing to deliver on the ever changing real-world business needs.
You have a workflow that involves 2 legacy (10 year old) windows applications (say written in VB and C++), a legacy web application (say 2 years old with embedded DHTML and Ajax), a packaged Java application and an SAAS application like salesforce.com. This workflow (transaction) is carried out 10’s of thousands of times every day by hundreds of users.
How quickly would you expect to build a service around some or all of this process? 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years perhaps?
Assuming you can persuade your SAAS and packaged application vendors to do their share in your timeframe, there is still no telling really how long this will take. All of the business logic needs to be replicated, that so far took thousands of man years to develop and assuming you actually know where to find it! In the mean time of course, your business user requirements around improving and extending this workflow are not standing still. Indeed they must not stand still in today’s competitive environment.
What if you could wrap these existing applications and workflows, and have your SOA that way? What if you could taking any of your (or your vendors) existing web services (if they exist yet) and have them participate immediately in these workflows without waiting the 1, 3, 5, or 10 years? You wouldn't even need to understand your existing business logic because it would automatically get carried forward in the wrapping.
At OpenSpan, we believe in SOA but we believe it should not take away the critical importance of remaining Agile. This applies to remaining Agile around the deployment of SOA as you build it out as well as being agile around changing business requirements. If you build a web service, your existing applications should be able to consume it right now (see Last Mile of SOA).
A successful SOA strategy will be an Agile SOA strategy. IT and Business both win with this approach. IT get to work on their long term SOA strategy yet remain the superstars for introducing SOA immediately, and whilst continuing to deliver on the ever changing real-world business needs.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
If only all PC applications were Open
They can be.
For quite some time, Salesforce.com has had some really good integration with Microsoft Outlook. I love the fact that whilst in Outlook, I can click a button that pushes the email or the contact information into the relevant contact in salesforce.com. A way cool benefit to me as a business user. There are other vendor applications that have some cool close ties with Outlook and other Office components but compared to the number of applications out there, there are relatively few that integrate so closely.
So, it begs the question, why are so few applications tightly coupled like this?. Why should integration only be limited to those vendors that chose to tie their solutions to other vendors product, like Microsoft Office. If only any application could be tied to Outlook in the same way, even if the original developers didn’t build that functionality into their application.
OpenSpan can take virtually any application and enable this cool plug-in capability with Office, even if you don’t own the application or have any source code. With OpenSpan’s ability to rapidly give applications an API where one previously didn’t exist, existing applications extensibility takes on a new lease on life!
In fact, you are not limited to just Microsoft Office either! Ever wanted to integrate one of your applications to Google Office? Now you can and you don’t have to be a hard core developer to do it!
There are a lot of things you can do, now there are ways to give existing applications virtually instant API’s.
For quite some time, Salesforce.com has had some really good integration with Microsoft Outlook. I love the fact that whilst in Outlook, I can click a button that pushes the email or the contact information into the relevant contact in salesforce.com. A way cool benefit to me as a business user. There are other vendor applications that have some cool close ties with Outlook and other Office components but compared to the number of applications out there, there are relatively few that integrate so closely.
So, it begs the question, why are so few applications tightly coupled like this?. Why should integration only be limited to those vendors that chose to tie their solutions to other vendors product, like Microsoft Office. If only any application could be tied to Outlook in the same way, even if the original developers didn’t build that functionality into their application.
OpenSpan can take virtually any application and enable this cool plug-in capability with Office, even if you don’t own the application or have any source code. With OpenSpan’s ability to rapidly give applications an API where one previously didn’t exist, existing applications extensibility takes on a new lease on life!
In fact, you are not limited to just Microsoft Office either! Ever wanted to integrate one of your applications to Google Office? Now you can and you don’t have to be a hard core developer to do it!
There are a lot of things you can do, now there are ways to give existing applications virtually instant API’s.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Next New thing – that’s the problem!
I am confident I have found a Holy Grail. The root cause of most project failures and the main ingredient for the mess we have, and continue to have around Enterprise Applications and Integration. Scarily, I also think new projects, and even SOA are likely to suffer from the same root cause and will NOT be the panacea everyone hoped for. We are seeing evidence of that now. I see no big fix on the Horizon either, for future projects in IT and the types of problems we have today, will be the same problems we’ll have 10 years from now! Am I sticking my neck out here?
When I look back, since I started in IT 30 years ago, there has always been the “next new thing” in technology. This fact is not disputed but the penny dropped for me last year when I thought about the relationship to this fact when you add one other major ingredient – PEOPLE.
Is it not true that most people working in technology and especially in some form of development, only want to be working on the next “new thing”? Is it not also true, these same people get bored really quickly with the “new thing”, often before it even gets “old”.
Smart people in technology get bored at around the 18 month marker and want to be working on the next “new thing”. This is my Holy Grail and I am not sure that it’s ever going to be fixable. At least acknowledging this fact should allow us to prepare for it!
18 months is not long enough for most projects, not even close and if the smart people who started them are not around for the completion, testing, roll-out and continued evolution of the applications, it is no wonder the expectations are rarely met.
You can certainly do no wrong by breaking down projects into smaller pieces where feasible. This will help and that’s certainly a prospect of SOA, if done right. For Quick wins, look to smaller projects and products that can consume these “new” services from existing applications!
This Holy Grail is good for companies like mine, that will help the tens of thousands of companies that have hundreds of thousands of applications that need to be enhanced to do more now than what was originally delivered. The fact OpenSpan can take 25 year old and 1 week old applications/technologies and tie them together to deliver what users need today, goes a long way to allowing the “Next New Thing” projects to finally exceed original expectations.
When I look back, since I started in IT 30 years ago, there has always been the “next new thing” in technology. This fact is not disputed but the penny dropped for me last year when I thought about the relationship to this fact when you add one other major ingredient – PEOPLE.
Is it not true that most people working in technology and especially in some form of development, only want to be working on the next “new thing”? Is it not also true, these same people get bored really quickly with the “new thing”, often before it even gets “old”.
Smart people in technology get bored at around the 18 month marker and want to be working on the next “new thing”. This is my Holy Grail and I am not sure that it’s ever going to be fixable. At least acknowledging this fact should allow us to prepare for it!
18 months is not long enough for most projects, not even close and if the smart people who started them are not around for the completion, testing, roll-out and continued evolution of the applications, it is no wonder the expectations are rarely met.
You can certainly do no wrong by breaking down projects into smaller pieces where feasible. This will help and that’s certainly a prospect of SOA, if done right. For Quick wins, look to smaller projects and products that can consume these “new” services from existing applications!
This Holy Grail is good for companies like mine, that will help the tens of thousands of companies that have hundreds of thousands of applications that need to be enhanced to do more now than what was originally delivered. The fact OpenSpan can take 25 year old and 1 week old applications/technologies and tie them together to deliver what users need today, goes a long way to allowing the “Next New Thing” projects to finally exceed original expectations.
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