December 2nd, 2008

Zoho's CloudSQL: a real step forward

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 5:55 am

Categories: Development tools, Office productivity

Tags: SQL, Cloud, Zoho, Smb/Sme, Databases, Programming Languages, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Software Development

Zoho just can’t stop churning out software. Today it is launching the Zoho CloudSQL. Put simply, this is the first step to providing a cloud based integration framework that allows developers to pass data between Zoho applications and their own. This is exciting stuff.  For the first time, a commercial software vendor is providing an easy way to interoperate with its applications without imposing an entry or exit visa tax.

From the release:

1. It’s the first technology that allows customers to interact with their data on the cloud, from another cloud application or from an on-premises one through real SQL.
2. It supports multiple SQL dialects. We support all the major (and even some not so major) ones: ANSI, Oracle, SQL Server, IBM DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Informix.
3. With our JDBC/ODBC drivers, developers can access data in the cloud just as easily as if it were stored in a local database.

I caught up with Raju Vegesna to get a feel of what the company intends: “You can think of CloudSQL as a linking mechanism for things like QuickBooks or any application that wants to talk to and from Zoho data.” That’s exactly where I hoped Zoho would position the service. 

Like it or not, cloud based accounting (AaaS anyone?) is a niche area with the world remaining firmly in on-premise land. While I see plenty of examples coming out to address the SMB market, it’s going to take time before finance types will trust corporate transaction data in the Internet cloud. Making it easy to consume services in an integrated manner without the distinction of whether the data is on premise or in the cloud is an incredibly smart move. It means that you don’t have to throw out your existing accounting applications if you don’t want to while opening up the business to other scloud ervices that are gaining traction. The obvious candidate is CRM but it could equally be SCM or talent management.

I also asked Raju what will happen with existing Zoho applications. Right now, they represent a great toolkit but little integration work has been done to turn them into a ready to consume suite of services. “The company has made a start by demoing a simple report demo but yes over time we plan to use CloudSQL as the integration point for all the apps.”

CloudSQL is a development environment and not for the end user. Its potential to open up a whole ecosystem category of its own is enormous. The big complaint of all business users is the general lack of integration capabilities between different applications. Taking this step puts Zoho out in front with something that has broad appeal, including the open source crowd.

However, before running off thinking this is some sort of Holy Grail, integration calls for much more than a few SQL calls and a Web API. Orchestrating services and events is where larger businesses would like to be. Even so, it gives the SMB a real chance to mix ‘n’ match services the way they want to get things done. In that regard, it removes vendor lock-in and allows for the emergence of genuine vertical market applications on a scale we’ve not seen in the past.

It will be interesting to see how Zoho follows this up and how it supports the ecosystem that congregates around its API.

November 7th, 2008

Would you flip to Microsoft?

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 10:41 am

Categories: Development tools

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Mike Arrington, Internet, Tools & Techniques, Desktops, Open Source, Management, Hardware, Dennis Howlett

The announcement of BizSpark didn’t get a huge amount of attention and I’m not surprised. After 24 years of running Wintel based systems I flipped to Mac and have never missed anything Microsoft offered. OK - I’m an edge case that wants to run as much as I can in the Internet cloud but as someone who has invested in startups the last couple of years I can confidently say that no-one I personally know is building on the Microsoft stack. That’s not to say they don’t exist.

I recently spoke with ThoughtFarmer. They’re betting that organizations wanting to replace intranets will be more willing to do so if the offering is built on Microsoft technology. I see the wisdom in that (more on ThoughtFarmer next week.) Despite all the column inches that open source, Mac, Ubuntu and the like generate, the fact remains that Microsoft still ‘owns’ the enterprise. That may not matter for departmental solutions owned by users or those deployed over the Internet but it sure as heck matters internally. Especially if that means support.

Mike Arrington declares Microsoft’s BizSpark initiative as ‘brilliant’ and when you look at it, that’s easy to understand:

What startups get: a free, tech-supported alternative to open source software. Microsoft gets to train a new crop of engineers on their software and services, and lock these guys in after three years when fees start to be charged. Brilliant.

The question for startup developers is whether they trust Microsoft not to gouge them when the deal expires or before they’ve hit enough revenue to afford the services.Most of the folk I know give a collective shrug but then I only know a fraction of 1% of those in the developer community. As Jason Harris said on CMS Newsire:

In many cases, running Microsoft software doesn’t even enter the minds of those building solutions in a start-up environment.

It will be interesting to revisit this in say a year and see how Microsoft is doing. In the meantime, if you’re a startup, would you go for BizSpark?

October 16th, 2008

Koders.com: Ruby as programmers choice?

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 2:42 am

Categories: Development tools

Tags: Open Source, Ruby, Scripting Languages, Software/Web Development, Web Development, Zack Whittaker

Open-source is what keeps most of the world ticking over. We’ve got open-source running on super computers, stock exchanges, schools and educational instutitions. The enterprise is where it’s heading to now, if not already, as a cheaper alternative to heavy software licences.

After data was released on Koders.com, the leading open-source search engine from Black Duck Software, shows that Ruby is slowly but surely increasing amongst developers. Tens of thousands of people each day use Koders.com to search for code from a variety of open-source languages, and shows that Ruby is being used more and more than ever before.

Whilst many will be stuck using PHP, Python, Perl and ASP, Ruby has climbed the ranks of code search since 2004, fourth in line after Java, C/C++ and C#. From the press release sent to me the other day:

“Ruby, used in combination with the Rails framework, is rapidly gaining momentum and will reach 4 million developers worldwide by 2013, according to Mark Driver, research vice president at Gartner Inc. “Moreover, Ruby will enjoy a higher concentration among corporate IT developers than typical, dynamic ’scripting’ languages, such as PHP,” Driver continued.”

Black Duck Software bought Koders.com in April 2008, and the searchable code repository has increased by 33% since. The code repository now surpasses that of SourceForge, CPAN and RubyForge, the dedicated open-source project database for the Ruby programming language.

More information and Ruby statistics can be found from the Koders.com Zietgeist.

September 30th, 2008

Zoho Marketplace: awesome

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 5:31 pm

Categories: Development tools

Tags: Salesforce.com Inc., Marketplace, Sales Force Management, Sales, Dennis Howlett

Awesome is not a word I use often but when I saw Zoho Marketplace, the sound of my jaw hitting the desk was audible in the next street. What better way to get its collection of services working as the hub for other services that might build from Zoho products? Larry Dignan offered this critique:

The bigger question is whether Zoho’s Marketplace can attract more developers to its ecosystem. Salesforce.com’s AppExchange has been a critical cog to its development and strategy. Zoho could do the same. For now, Zoho says its market “is not big enough for vendors to make a living and not small enough to ignore.”

It’s a good point. The way I’m hearing it, Salesforce.com’s marketplace hasn’t been super successful for the developer community. Zoho might prove different. It is appealing to a much broader swathe of customers than Salesforce.com which increasingly is trying to go up the enterprise foodchain. Zoho firmly positions itself as an SMB player so potentially has a huge global audience. Larger companies that develop solutions based around Zoho might choose to use the marketplace as a way of sharing what they have learned. If that happens then goodness gets spread around to much broader audiences. However, Zoho Marketplace still has to find its way in the world and if companies don’t ‘get’ the value of what Zoho is offering then it will have failed.

In the meantime, my colleague Craig Cmehil also thinks it’s awesome, describing Zoho Creator - the place where you can develop apps for Zoho and the foundation for the marketplace as:

For quite awhile I guess you could call me a “ZC Pusher”, it was like the little kid selling lemonade outside of their house for 5 cents or something like that. Zoho Creator captured my attention and on many levels still holds it fast. What started as me pushing for a roadmap, turned into a relationship with the Zoho folks that has been simply awesome over the years. They are responsive and interactive so it made it easy working with them.

In closing, Zoho never ceases to amaze me with its speed to market, its inventiveness and downright utility. It makes you wonder why the Microsoft’s of this world appear like lumbering elephants in all senses of the word.

September 7th, 2008

Iceberg: cuts code, evolves your enterprise

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 7:48 am

Categories: Development tools, Office productivity

Tags: Web, Microsoft .NET, Microsoft SharePoint, Client, Web Site, Workflow, Iceberg, Collaboration, Groupware, Web Site Development

This is a dual post written and posted simultaneously. For the perspective of how Iceberg this benefits student, check the post over at iGeneration. Some bits are the same and used in both entries; ain’t easy posting the same thing for different audiences.

A few weeks ago when I was trying to distract my ever marathon-running mind with the death of a close friend, I spoke to Wayne Byrne - a brilliant and inspiring young chap from the shining streets of Ireland. We spoke for the best part of 2 hours, and he talked me through this software.

As I wrote over on t’other blog, Iceberg is basically a platform which takes on a similar look to SharePoint, without being SharePoint. It’s a web platform which enables you to make custom, complicated workflow based, high-quality and dynamic; yet stable applications simply, without writing a single line of code.

The key to Iceberg is the “no written code” factor to it, enabling anybody to really use it. I’ve used it and I know a little of Java (courtesy of two fantastic lecturers for my first year at university) and some web languages, but nothing exciting. With Iceberg comes a huge back-end database, but in terms of database knowledge, you don’t need to know anything. All you need to know about using this software is what you want to make, and not how to actually make it.

Considering it’s the CIO’s and the CTO’s of an organisation which will often make the Visio-style flowcharts, explaining everything that the application does and how it’s meant to do it; it’s these two executive officers who are the ones who can and should be able to design something themselves in Iceberg. Even low-level developers can make something faster - a better application, automatic chart generating, report generating, user access controls, calendars, views and data flows.

With .NET and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 running behind the scenes on the computer or server you’ve installed it on, you start off making a database. The database can talk to pretty much any other legacy database out there making inter-collaboration better; it can even talk to cross-operating systems and platforms. Any legacy databases can be queried live; lots of data could be out of date and you could get a semi-trained monkey (an intern) to use Iceberg and update it, without breaking anything.

With the search and databasing features, you can even update details on certain tasks done by which only that person worked on - even out of the entire user access database. It populates forms directly from the database - up-to-date or legacy - and does it fast.

This software is a great example of “Enterprise 2.0″; enterprise software enabling the organisation to work with XML and web services and nothing else. By using web services, web applications and protocols, it increases efficiency overall. The security features make sure you can’t tread on anyone else’s turf, with read only, read-write and full access permissions available.

One of the killer features is the Process Designer. If you do have a passion for coding, although not necessary with Iceberg, this is the place to do it… except you still don’t write any code. You simple start dragging and dropping things into a Visio-style pane, all Flash based. This workflow viewing allows you to see the objects and manipulate them to how you want them to work.

The fields you can create are different for all things; it makes life so much easier and simpler for non-developers. The Enterprise 2.0 live connection to other databases allows you to see what fields are available to you to the micro-second (obviously dependant on your network speeds), and the rest of your visual fields are highly customisable.

Oh and there’s more. Read on, fellow colleague of the wider enterprise symposium.

Read the rest of this entry »

August 20th, 2008

ModelSheet: good in theory, needs more work

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 1:35 pm

Categories: Development tools, Office productivity

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Theory, Spreadsheet, ModelSheet, Productivity, Microsoft Excel, Web Browsers, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software

Modelsheet is pitched as a product that is supposed to make the development of complex models much easier than the default ‘Excel way.’ In theory it removes a number of the steps necessary to ensure data accuracy and template integrity. However, there are usability issues that need urgent attention.

This is a saas service so I was surprised that it only works with Windows machines. While having to use Internet Explorer because of Firefox incompatibility, it crashed the browser twice. The user interface is not particularly friendly and it uses Times New Roman as a font face, which as far as I know, only the IMDB has successfully pulled off. Since Internet Explorer was crashing, I tried Firefox, with the IETab plugin, as this makes the software work in Firefox.

The software is bulky, buttons are abbreviated and at first glance it is difficult to understand what they do. There are inline frames with scrollbars. I was never quite certain where I was in the program and equally unclear as to what I was meant to be doing. Maybe it’s because I’m ‘just a kid’ who knows Excel pretty well, but I’m happy with Excel. I know where things are, I know what they do, I know how to make pretty little pie-charts and 3D graphs. Any new product based on a spreadsheet metaphor is going to present challenges but this product should only be put in the hands of power users prepreaed to invest in learning the solution.

One bright spot is the version tracker. All too often, spreadsheets end up in a mess because someone messed up the template and it didn’t get spotted until the next revision. With model sheet you can get back to the previous version to figure out the model inconsistency. Consider this feature a “shadow copy” of a spreadsheet - being able to go back and forth through edits and updates.

At this stage, I’m not sure Modelsheet makes life easier. After wrestling with it for 24 hours I found myself bemused. While the software is meant to make tasks like budgeting and forecasting easier, I found it too hard to understand without expending a significant effort. In today’s consumery world, that’s not going to stand up well to scrutiny. Today’s users expect intuitive interfaces and right now, I don’t see that. You can argue that serious software demands serioius attention but all the talk I hear is of intuitive working. After all, who has time?

I hoped the video introduction might help. But it was so dull, I found myself dreaming of an intensive tour of a cardboard box factory followed by pampering in a day long Chinese water torture experiment. In fairness, Modelsheet is at an early stage of development and I’m sure will improve over time. Right now however, I find it difficult to see how it will find its place in the world.

June 25th, 2008

RightScale cloud management extends to MySQL

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 4:59 pm

Categories: Development tools

Tags: MySQL, Cloud Computing, Databases, Storage, Open Source, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Hardware, Dennis Howlett

RightScale, which specializes in cloud computing management for the Amazon Web Services platform today announced support for MySQL Enterprise. The service, which goes live July 1, provides automated deployment, management and scaling, coupled with MySQL Enterprise premium-level support for large database applications.

The RightScale Manager for MySQL Enterprise will deliver pre-configured templates for all the components needed to provide high performance, reliable database operation that is fully backed by MySQL Enterprise software and support.

According to the blurbs, the solution provides:

• Rapid deployment into the cloud:  In a matter of hours, customers can get up and running on a cloud computing infrastructure using pre-packaged components, services and expertise.
• Dynamically scalable infrastructure: RightScale unique auto-scaling feature enables applications to scale both up and down seamlessly in the cloud infrastructure to dynamically meet varying traffic and loads.
• Minimal resources needed to deploy and manage a cloud infrastructure — allowing organizations to focus on core competencies.Automated, replicated set-ups; lifecycle development tools; a centralized dashboard.

Pricing runs from $500 per month with an initial  $2,500 upfront license fee.

Today, RightScale is focusing its attention on startup businesses that are using cloud computing as the basis for service provision. Early customers include Animoto (which I discussed yesterday) and ForeclosureRadar. This announcement should make it attractive to on demand service providers that are scaling rapidly or have significant compute and database requirements.

May 23rd, 2008

Firescope crushes the BSM price point

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 11:56 am

Categories: Development tools

Tags: Asset, SLA, Information Technology, Price, Small And Medium Business, Firescope, Asset Management, Smb/Sme, Service Level Management, Operational Planning

Earlier today I spoke with Mark Lynd, president of Firescope, a company that’s trying with very little funding - $4 million at the last count - to bring Business Service Mangement (BSM) to the mass of smaller enterprises. Earlier in the week, the company launched BSM-Business Edition at a starting price point of $2,450. The reality is somewhat higher.

Firescope provides potential customers with a handy product selector which requires users to enter IT asset inventory numbers across a range of asset types like servers, routers, switches, VoIP servers and so on. Using this tool is not likely to be a problem for SMB’s though I suspect thatorganisations with more than say 30 application and database servers might be challenged to get the numbers right.

In my imaginary configuration of 78 networked assets, 60 of which were networked printers, Firescope recommended a solution that costs $3,850. I don’t have a problem with that as such but do feel that what seems to be arbitrary pricing based on a hardware ‘headcount’ isn’t really addressing the problem of BSM pricing in quite the manner I’d prefer. Compared to other solutions, Firescope BSM-BE is unquestionably hitting an attractive price point but I wondered what might happen in a more complex environment. 136 networked assets, which this time included 100 printers took me to $5,450.

The flip side of a low price is that the service inevitably gets compared to higher priced offerings and those of traditional services like HP OpenView. But as Lynd correctly pointed out: “Products coming from the higher priced vendors offer plenty of functionality but you find that only 10% gets used while paying 100% of the price. We’re trying to get to that 80-90% SMBs need at a lower price point.” It’s a commodotizing play that has worked well elsewhere, Lynd citing SolarWinds as one example.

Even so it is hard to complain about a service that is breaking ground not just on price but in design and approach to market. The company has taken advantage of Web 2.0 technologies, AJAX and open source as a way of allowing it get to market quickly at modest cost to itself while keeping things simple for the newbie. It provides a transparent, try before you buy option that allows sysadmins the opportunity to road test BSM-BE for themselves. Next week, it will release a free to use workbench that provides an: “IT service modeler and SNMP walker/browser.”

But what about depth of functionality? Is it all an SMB might need?  From a usability perspective, Firescope has worked hard to make it easy to understand what the user, whether a sysadmin, CIO or end user sees on their screen. This has been achieved by attention to the differing needs of different roles within an organization. From what I’ve seen, that works well. I’m less sure about reporting which is limited to around 40 standard report types in the BE edition and no customizations. I like the fact Firescope can provide information on the financial impact of SLAs and handles multiple SLAs per service used. Basics like availability, SLA, performance and security management are all there.

However, Firescope is not without critics. In a PC World article, a competitor asserted that:

“The idea of providing some BSM functionality to smaller IT shops is noble and an interesting idea, but I’d recommend being cautious about raising expectations. … BSM doesn’t lend itself to tossing cheap and cheerful code over the wall and hoping it will self-install and model critical IT services independently,” said Frank Strong, marketing communications director for Managed Objects, via e-mail.

I usually take these kind of shots with a pinch of salt but you do have to ask - where is the cut off point before engineers need spend time making sure they’re looking at the right things?  Perhaps the answer comes from the company’s blog:

I knew we had something when a graphic designer friend, someone who thought TCP/IP was a brush setting in Photoshop, was able to get FireScope up and running, collecting data and delivering financial analysis of his technology in a little under an hour.

I can’t help but think Firescope is onto something. The company is achieving an 8% conversion rate from downloads. That is high by any standards. In those larger deployments: NASDAQ and Slumberland are customers - Firescope offers a deeper range of options and acknowledges that for those large businesses, a solution sale is required.

April 15th, 2008

Coghead Gallery signals new opportunities for developers

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 4:47 pm

Categories: Development tools

Tags: Developer, Amazon.com Inc., Model, Paul McNamara, Coghead Gallery, Manufacturing, Dennis Howlett

Paul McNamara, Coghead’s CEO briefed Phil Wainewright and I the other day about today’s announcement of the Coghead Gallery. While the concept of code exchange has been around for a while, to date there’s not been an efficient way for the small development shop to discover code it might wish to re-use in larger applications or distribute.

McNamara claims that the smaller development shop, which he defines as 2-20 people, rarely has the capital required to establish itself as a provider of anything other than custom code. As a consequence, it is often difficult for these shops to break out and provide applications into the general market place. Coghead is endeavoring to change that with the Gallery, supported by extensive infrastructure based on Amazon web services.

While Coghead doesn’t meet the full definition of platform as a service, it is going firmly in that direction with its Gallery offering. Coghead offers two models for developers to select. The first is what it calls an ‘open definition’ where developers offer code that others distribute, modify or use. This leans towards the open source model of computing albeit within the framework of the Coghead services platform. McNamara is keen on this model as he believes it paves the way for small shops to acquire code they can then mashup or extend to business specific applications for targeted markets.

The second model: ‘protected definition’ allows the development shop to protect its IP and use Coghead as the storefront through which its applications are sold. McNamara says that customers can switch between both models and is enabling that through a BSD style of license.

Since Coghead is providing the infrastructure, I was interested to learn how it plans on protecting both itself and its customers from developing rogue code along with potential Amazon outages.”We architecturally constrain users to prevent out of control processes such as a recursive action that ends up spinning a lot of threads. We can detect and kill those and notify the developer. We’re replicating to S3 so if there is an Amazon outage then the only impact is on the replication service,”said McNamara.

Coghead’s business model is based on the assumption that as we move towards cloud computing, that applications will migrate towards being lighter in weight, with fewer features and requiring zero infrastructure. While the idea makes sense, developers will need to be laser focused on their target opportunities in order to turn this idea into a viable business.

March 25th, 2008

TopCoder: breaking the development cost rules

Posted by Dennis Howlett @ 10:47 am

Categories: Development tools

Tags: Developer, Partnership, America Online Inc., TopCoder, Development Cost, Business Structures, Finance, Dennis Howlett

According to my friend Vinnie Mirchandani, beating US internal IT development costs is tough going. He should know, it’s part of what he does day in, day out. But what if you need access to high quality development resource on an emergency project? What if you’re thinking of development outsourcing but want to do it on a true partnership basis?

I recently caught up with Mike Morris, EVP software development at TopCoder and Nic Perez, technical director AOL to find out what TopCoder brings to the table. The company takes the idea of community, applies a heavy dose of competition for skills and then applies that formula to the business of development. The result is a virtual community of some 140,000 developers spread among 200 countries, all of whom can be tapped for a variety of special projects, focusing on newer technologies like J2EE, .NET. Flash and Flex. The model is particularly suited to the developer market for the following reasons:

• It provides customers with access to a high caliber of talent where quality is peer reviewed
• The competition based model provides the kind of environment that appeals to developers and so ensures thee is a thriving and growing pool from which customers can draw
• The current size of the developer pool means TopCoder can focus on core solutions yet offer a partnership style model
• Concentrating on the development of standardized components provides TopCoder with an ever growing catalog of components from which to draw and which helps to drive down the end cost to customers. The current catalog listrs some 1,100 components.

Asked where TopCoder’s primary customers come from, Morris said: “We draw our customers primarily from Fortune 500 companies where there will be a decent amount of integration rather than building from scratch. This allows us to offer flexible terms, that can range from component sales, through to full projects on standalone or partnership terms. We’re also looking for companies that have a high growth style as thats’ a direct fir for our business model. We’re currently targeting 50% growth year-on-year for the next three years.”

The proof is in the eating and this was Nic Perez’ cue to explain how AOL is working with TopCoder: “AOL has been utilizing TopCoder for about 18 months, focused on Java development where we’ve used their people for the UI and widgets. As we’ve been building out the Open Mobile Platform, we found the US carriers force us to do what they want so that’s meant building out for around 1,700 different handsets. AOL looks at TopCoder as a captive virtual workforce where the catalog of components serve as Lego blocks for onward development.”

While AOL gains significant advantages in go to market, I was interested in the cost dimension. The two companies are working towards managing the development process as efficiently as possible. This is a work in progress but AOL believes that once process has been bedded down, the savings could be as high as 50% of traditional development costs.

Morris notes that: “We’ve got development competitive with the likes of Wipro and yes, consulting isn’t cheap because we’re constrained by US market conditions. But overall, we can be very competitive when compared with US internal development costs. That will improve as our process becomes more automated.”

TopCoder’s model isn’t new. Others like eLance offer much the same market driven approach. TopCoder differentiates itself on the way it is building out a fully engaged community that prefers the challenge of larger projects where there is plenty of potential for high earnings. The only question is whether TopCoder will safely weather what many believe is a coming recession. Its projections indicate otherwise but as always, these will need to be revisited over time.