Miko Matsumura Platform Software Executive Technologist

Flying Monkeys from Armonk: IBM buys Lombardi

IBM bought Lombardi this morning for an “undisclosed sum”. Having been through an acquisition by a larger company myself, I can only imagine what the Lombardi folks in Austin Texas (and elsewhere) may be thinking. First of all, let me say that I have a lot of respect for Lombardi. Frankly anyone who can build a company from the ground up to tens of millions in revenue is a terrific success, and in particular, Lombardi was very innovative with capabilities like Lombardi Blueprint....

Why 2010 won’t be like “2010″.

It’s that time of year where pundits prognosticate about the upcoming year. I’ll bite–MMX (that’s Roman numeral for 2010) is shaping up to be a doozy of a year (although I prefer 7DA, which is 2010 in hex). Last night I decided to re-watch 2010 “The year we make contact”. It’s still an incredible movie and a fascinating way to examine people’s assumptions and predictions about the future. The book 2010 was published by Arthur C Clarke in January of 1982. Some of the striking...

There is no “I” in IT: Oh wait yes there is.

The Dynamic Enterprise I’m in the airport in Victoria on my way back from giving a talk sponsored by the Office of the CIO in the Government of British Columbia entitled “Enterprise-Scale Business Transformation with SOA and BPM”. Increasingly, I’m seeing efforts around large-scale Business Transformation involving the dynamic system of Business and IT. In my talk, I asked the following question: How do you achieve “Business Transformation” in a system...

Inside of a Dog, it’s too Dark to Read: SOA and Business Variation

Groucho Marx once famously said “outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read” The amusement is that the word “outside” is semantically ambiguous. What’s less funny is the SOA Manifesto stating that they will follow the principle of “Pursue uniformity on the outside while allowing diversity on the inside.” Much like the Groucho Marx quote, the antecedent for “outside” is ambiguous....

The Legacy of Enterprise 2.0–Concluding thoughts from the Conference

The absolute highlight of last week’s Enterprise 2.0 conference was meeting in person and online many very bright people including Nenshad Bardoliwalla, Susan Scrupski, Michael Krigsman and many others. There’s certainly a strong discourse here about advancing the agenda for Enterprise computing. As with many advanced topics in Enterprise computing, it’s very easy to take a potshot: as we all know: * SOA is Dead (Anne Thomas Manes) * Enterprise 2.0 what a Crock (Dennis...

The Enterprise 2.0 Crock

I think it’s great to have a panel called “Is Enterprise 2.0 a Crock?” at the Enterprise 2.0 conference. Much like SOA conference panels addressing “Is SOA Dead?” Dennis Howlett posed this question in his blog, entitled Enterprise 2.0: What a Crock. The summary paragraph is quoted here: Like it or not, large enterprises - the big name brands - have to work in structures and hierarchies that most E2.0 mavens ridicule but can’t come up with alternatives that...

Top 5 Definitions of Enterprise: focusing on the Enterprise in “Enterprise 2.0″

It’s a cool sunny day in San Francisco and there’s some bustle at the Moscone center. Enterprise 2.0 conference. You can tell it’s an Enterprise conference because unlike the Web 2.0 Conference there’s no free pass even to the show floor. Also the full pass is about $2500 bucks. One way to define Enterprise is: en⋅ter⋅prise   /ˈɛntərˌpraɪz/ [en-ter-prahyz] –noun 5. Stuff I wouldn’t do unless you paid me. This definition puts Enterprise...

Enterprise Cloud: Why Size Matters

One of the biggest issues in speaking of technology trends is the natural impulse to apply a “one size fits all” approach. People talk about technology the way they talk about the weather–it’s something that affects everyone the same way. Raining? That’s too bad about the ball game. Nice for your flower garden though. Unfortunately, when it comes to technology, it doesn’t affect everyone the same way. At the risk of losing 90% of my readers in one go,...

The Cloud Bubble

The Gartner Hype cycle research shows Cloud Computing as being on the peak of expectations… the very top of the hype bubble roller coaster. Vendors are looking for something to sell, and the consolidation of the data center, reducing operational cost and economy of scale are as convenient of an excuse as anything. There are some fundamental technologies as well that will make a big difference such as Virtualization. Is computing becoming a utility? When someone refers to cloud, the...

SOA Arrogance is Dead

I spoke at the Burton Group Catalyst conference in the SOA Track immediately after Anne and made the following point.. First and foremost, the most stupid and ignorant reading of “SOA is DEAD” is that the perspective of SOA is no longer needed in the Enterprise. This point of view is stupid, particularly when SOA is so important for mash-ups, Cloud Computing, SaaS, PaaS, BSM, IT Governance, Portfolio management and most modern IT practices. The problem of Enterprise IT Complexity...