Your SpotOn the IBM Cognos Edge

Last week we had one of our sharp young Solution Architects, Pierre Seguin, attend a discussion on virtualization.  At SpotOn we're actively thinking about the management of Cognos BI in virtual-type deployments.  Pierre has kindly shared his notes and thoughts from the discussion:  

Virtualization has been around for a long time but as of late it has absolutely exploded. With good hardware support, software support, and the need for organizations to consolidate their server assets, this wave of virtualization seems to be here to stay for a while. On this note I attended The Cutting Edge on Virtualization panel discussion hosted by The Ottawa Network on Wednesday. The panel consisted of Mike Kemp, CTO of Liquid Computing, Jean-Marc Seguin, Chief Architect of Embotics, and the founder of Thinknostic, Miro Adamay. I wasn't sure what to expect but it turned out that the talk was pretty interesting. Here's my take on the events of the day.

They started out by outlining the state of the art in virtualization. The consensus seemed to be that when it comes to individual virtual machines the tools and hardware are there to support them in the main stream (and in fact all large organizations are currently doing this). Xen, VMWare, Intel VT-x, Itanium based virtualization, Solaris virtualization stack, the list goes on. The basic virtualization hardware and software is there and mature. The big problem today is the management of large virtualized environments. Bringing machines up, putting them down, moving them to different hardware, monitoring them, etc. This is all done by either a restrictive framework (ex. Solaris virtualization stack) or in most cases a completely different hodgepodge of tools at each organization. At some point in the future a large corporation (cough IBM) will inevitably come in and introduce open standards to support virtualized environment management. In the mean time we make due. The consensus is that this is some years off. Current work in virtualization (of which Liquid Computing and Embotics are heavily involved in) is concentrated on making management tools that can be used to describe, deploy and monitor virtualized environments on the fly. This is to say nothing about doing the same for application tier components that exist in the virtualized space.

The other aspect that was talked about was how virtualization is used in the dev/QA environment. The founder of Thinknostic, Miro Adamay, was one of the panel members. His company does custom development for many different clients.  Sound familiar? Have you ever had a client come back 6 months after you've completed a project and ask for new features? You're thinking ‘Great!' so you start to get to work only to find out your development and testing environments for the project have been cannibalized by other, more current projects. So, you go back to square one and set up the test environment from scratch just to get to the work they want you to do. It's all very tedious. To solve this problem his company has leveraged virtualization. His virtualization system consists of 55 virtual machines of which any 15 can be running simultaneously. So when a customer needs a new feature or bug fix they simply load the virtual machine associated with the project and bang! They're off to the races. We have had some good talks internally and are unanimous that this is a great fit for us too. This has become pretty standard in the industry and it's time we get on board.

All in all a very interesting field where opportunities seem to exist around every corner. Either internally for dev/QA streamlining or externally for creating the plethora of tools that will be needed to bring virtualization to the next level within the enterprise. We'll have to see where it takes us.

Pierre

The SpotOn executive team recently had breakfast with a senior software executive.  What a great morning.  First off, I love breakfast!  But the dialog has had me thinking for several days now.  I'm hoping to be able to relate aspects of the discussion in these blog posting. 

The purpose of the breakfast was to catch up with this individual, let him know a little bit about what SpotOn is up to, solicit some advice in the area of Customer Advisory Boards and Board of Advisors, and to establish an ongoing dialog.  We also had a fantastic discussion on the role of partners to large software vendors, and the future of business intelligence - both technology and the licensing models to support the deployments of the future.  What do you want to hear about?

One analogy that was particularly apt to the partner reality was that of the "streak in the windshield".  Picture if you will a set of windshield wipers as the pass over the glass on a rainy day.  Sometime a streak gets left on the glass.  However there is a good chance that the streak will be removed on the next pass, and if not quite probably it will be gone on the subsequent pass.  Huh?  Stay with me...

Now picture a sharp partner company in, let's say, the Cognos space.  They go about their business drumming up services and doing good work for their clients.  The partner recognizes that they have, in short order, solved the same problem with three successive clients.  The "aha" moment; we can solve this for all clients by developing a product.  Time, effort, and money go into the development; hopefully the partner is able to get the offering to market and effectively promote the solution. 

But look out, here comes the wiper blade!  Cognos announces new administrative feature in the next release eliminates the originating issue.  The Partner's market has just been dead-ended, current sales cycles screech to a halt.  Partner screams bloody murder.  But is Cognos not supposed to fix the obvious issues?

Interesting scenario; who's right and who's wrong?  Is there a right and wrong?  Couple of thoughts that I've been chewing on:

• As a Partner, you had better know if an opportunity has long-lasting potential, or is a streak on the window.
• Identified streaks likely can be profitable, have legs, and earn a decent return - but don't forget that it is a streak.
• Is there any value to the Wiper in the equation (say Cognos) to not addressing the issue and promoting the partner solution?  Does this promote a thriving partner ecosystem?  Is this outweighed by customer frustration?
• What are the options for "steak" partner offerings? Let them continue to exist independently? License the technology for distribution of core product integration?
• What is the true cost of swapping out partner technologies for core software technologies when customer switching costs are considered?

At SpotOn are goal is to identify greenfield opportunities with Cognos customers where we can rapidly deliver high impact technology solutions with staying power.  The reality is that somewhere in the walls at Riverside, smart people are thinking about the same opportunities.  We believe that the SpotOn secret weapons in the equation is speed and agility.  Not only in bringing technologies to light and to market, but also to keep moving when our own "streaks in the windshield" disapear.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

It's Anastasia here from SpotOn and I wanted to introduce myself as the newest member of the SpotOn team and Vice President of Innovation and Market Development. 

Innovation is such an important part of software development.  The fun part of dev is fueled by creativity, finding how you can mold technology to suit your desired purpose without letting the technology mold you.  It can indeed be a lovely power struggle.  Perhaps it's the geek and the artist in me that see's how both art and technology are very similar.  It's a way to express, to inspire and to bring value to another.  Some technology makes you more productive, some technology lets you have a little fun.  Art can make you happy, inspire you and ...  A little too deep hmm? 

Ok, let's try this...Software development is about constant change, challenge, adoption, exploration.  While it does have some drawbacks like bug fixing, conformance and maintenance, that part of software development can be fun as well!   Now you may be wondering if I've gone completely mad. Did the team at SpotOn really mean to adopt HER?  Listen, bug fixing can be tedious unless a developer is given the freedom to create even when creating means fixing a problem.  It's called creative problem solving and is applicable to any aspect of life and even technology. In fact, I firmly believe that creative freedom in development is a secret sauce of being successful in technology.  

This week the SpotOn team has been been trying our products in new environments like  Firefox 3.0 and Google Chrome and even on an OLPC (http://laptop.org/) to test how robust SpotOn products are.  This type of work can be and IS exciting. 

Making sure your software works in a constantly changing technology environment, well that is exciting too.  It's like being a sleuth trying to solve the mystery!  Hearing from customers is great, even if they need to give you a piece of their mind. Making sure we are able to maintain their satisfaction is paramount. 

Technology is constant evolution and establishing that balance of evolving with your customers and leading the way into new territory is very exciting! Maybe that's why the SpotOn team invited me on board. 

I am completely aligned with SpotOn's notion of "solving the unsolvable" and view this new gig of mine as being able to hang out with some really amazing and talented people and do some very creative things while at the same time delivering high quality software products for our new and existing customers.   If someone tells us it can't be done, the team at SpotOn will always tell you how many ways it CAN be accomplished.   

So keep tuned as we have a very busy Fall , 2008.  We'll be exhibiting and attending various Cognos Performance events, hosting regular webinars, updating our web site...including this blog and of course we have some exciting new products to announce...possibly in the area of visualization....but that's for another blog...

Thanks for tuning in to my first in what will be many blog entries, come back often, stay tuned!

Introducing Anastasia Valentine!  Read all about it here. 

I'm going to let Anastasia tell you what she's up to at SpotOn.  Drop her a hello in the comments, or email her at anastasia.valentine@spotonsystems.com.

Feel free to refer to her as SpotOn's Inflection Point!

Which book should I quote this time?  Let's go with Guy Kawasaki, who says that A Players hire A+ Players.  It is easy to sit back, nod wisely, and proclaim that that is in fact what you would do, of course!  Let me tell you that it is interesting to actually consider it, in terms of bringing senior individuals onto the executive team.

Trust me, it is plainly clear the areas in SpotOn that could benefit from additional bandwidth, expertise, and attention.  SpotOn has been very successful in a very short timeframe.  I believe this is due to the fact that we recognized our key market space and the unique value that SpotOn can deliver to those clients.  The exciting and amazing and scary proposition is that from where we sit, there is tremendous potential upside.  To capitalize we will need focused execution and the "right people on the bus" (yes, another book: Good to Great).

Makes sense, right?  I guess the fear is the "upsetting the applecart" factor.  Darren and I have a pretty good thing going here.  Will somebody new with force of character, personality, and the ability to do some (many?) of the things you do better than you mess up that good thing?  My belief is that when you bring senior, extremely capable people into a small organization - you're going to see an inflection point.  You just hope that the line inflects in the right direction - up!