Feeling the (IBM) IMPACT

It's pretty hard not to miss all the buzz around this year's IBM IMPACT conference. I'm actually pretty excited to be there myself as it's my first IMPACT conference which blends my new role at WebLayers with my previous life at IBM.

With over 650 sessions, 300 customer presentations, a healthy amount of discussions on Twitter and the IBM WebSphere marketing machine behind it, next week's event in Las Vegas looks like the place to be if you have any inkling to learn more about SOA, BPM or automated governance.

As an IBM Business Partner, WebLayers will be at IMPACT in booths S3. Our founder and CTO Guy Loewy will be talking about "Smart Governance: The Impact of Automated Mainframe Governance on Achieving Your Business Goals" as part of Birds of a Feather session. You can catch Guy's session on Tuesday, May 5 at 12:00 in Galileo 903.

If you're in the neighborhood, swing by our booth and enter to win an iPhone. Also, if you'd like to meet up while you're there and exchange some ideas about SOA, governance and cloud computing, drop me a note as we're always eager to hear and share with the community.

-Jeff

Economic recovery is on its way but have we learned anything?

There seem to be some signs that the economy has perhaps bottomed out and that we're on our way to recovery. Forbes columnists Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein paint a realistic picture in terms of positive signs. They mention that while unemployment is personal and emotional, it is a lagging indicator to recovery.

On the other hand, there's no shortage of headlines about what exactly constitutes the bottom and what the upcoming earnings reports will mean in terms of recovery.

While this is certainly shaping up to be one of the deeper recessions - you can point to any number of stories and anecdotes that draw comparisons to the early 1930's - is it too soon to start talking about an upward trajectory?

I'm as optimistic as the next CEO when it comes to ushering in a better economic climate and I'll leave the deep economic analysis to the experts. However, I have to wonder if it's just me or if anybody else out there thinks that given that depth of the plunge that we may be a bit premature in our recovery predictions?

Now for all intents and purposes, the recession officially began in December of 2007 and we didn't really begin to get nervous until the Wall Street headlines that surfaced in September of 2008 and let's face it, we didn't officially declare the recession until the first quarter of 2009.

Despite the fact that the recession had been underway for some time, we didn't really feel its impact until the past six months or so. It could be a chicken and egg thing in terms of headlines. Or it could be the plain fact that the economy is always expanding and contracting and that we'll continue to see surges and spikes - though hopefully not as drastic.

If we do start to see more signs of recovery later this year and throughout 2010, have we learned anything? And if we did, will we remember those lessons when times are a bit healthier?

The rhetorical answer is, of course, yes. The realistic answer is perhaps a few lessons. The idealistic answer is that we'll emerge as smarter, more nimble players that won't get caught by surprise the next time around.

From an IT and business perspective, here's three lessons I've learned from this recession and plan to keep in the forefront of my mind:

1. Transparency is key. Whether you're talking about IT infrastructures, complex financial models or the viability of the business plan that you present to VCs, visibility will ultimately lead you to profitability.

2. Go shopping in your own IT closet before investing in new technology. You'd be surprised how you can work with what you already have to gain greater efficiencies and cost savings instead of tossing out the baby with the bathwater.

3. Prepare for a rainy day. Make sure you have a good handle on the IT infrastructure in terms of documenting processes, tracking changes to the code and instituting policies so that you're running the most efficient organization regardless of external economic forces.

I'm hoping to add to this list so if you have more lessons learned from the recession trenches, please send them along.

- Jeff

Are you a cheetah or a chipmunk when it comes to SOA governance?

Are you a cheetah or a chipmunk when it comes to SOA governance?

I had a lot of fun working with IBM's Sandy Carter as we mapped out our talking points for our upcoming webinar on SOA governance.

Most notably, she talked about the difference between cheetahs and chipmunks and how these animals so appropriately illustrate the personalities of organizations when it comes to SOA governance. You'd be surprised at the similarities.

So if you're serious about governance and SOA, I invite you to join us - and the 200+ IT architects that have already registered -- live on Thursday, April 16 at 12:00 eastern for the WebLayers/IBM webinar. And since both companies are adamant about upholding standards-based approaches, I can assure you that the conversation won't be about which IBM or WebLayers product is best for you.

Rather, it will walk you through the governance process so you can decide if and when you need it and the best time to implement it based on business needs and your existing infrastructure. And of course, we'll have some case studies and an ROI formula to share that is based on real world implementations.

So are you a cheetah or chipmunk? The answer may surprise you...and could impact the way that your IT infrastructure supports your company.

Jeff

Gartner's SOA Governance MQ: Good Guidance on Guidance

Well, the long awaited Gartner Magic Quadrant on SOA Governance was released yesterday. As expected, the Gartner report delves into the current leaders, challengers, visionaries and niche players.

While Gartner has its copyright rules that I won't dare disturb, I would like to share the news that WebLayers has made its debut in the leaders quadrant of this annual Gartner MQ.

The official report title, "Magic Quadrant for Integrated SOA Governance Technology Sets" provides an interesting view on the rising importance of SOA governance and related technologies as the recession gets deeper and the need for cost optimization rises. I am sure Gartner's lawyers were in over drive prepublication as this appears to me an objective view...Kudos Frank Kenney, I am sure it ruffled some big feathers here and there.

From our view, what this means in the bigger picture actually underscores three key points about the business of governance that we've been saying all along.

1. Governance goes beyond the SOA realm. Sure, governance is a natural fit for a service oriented architecture yet that's not the only use for it as it can strengthen the entire software development lifecycle.
2. There's a yet untapped potential for governance when it comes to offshoring because it can identify and correct potential and costly mistakes in design and coding long before they're returned back to corporate headquarters.
3. Along the same vein as point number two, visibility is key when it comes to doing more with less. Without it, you’re relegated to making business decisions without all the facts. So visibility, as a result of "active policies" and automated guidance reduces I.T. risk - Bottom line.

So why is it that governance gets more traction when times are hard? Could be one of those silver linings that you find during the recession when we know we have to 'hunker down' and learn to be lean and mean.

Or it could be a matter of semantics if you ask me. Isn't it funny how people tend to wince when they hear the term governance yet feel a bit more at ease when you talk about guidance?

Jeff