David Norfolk on IT-Analysis.com

Report from Techwave - part 2

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:00:00 +0100

Reporting some real customer views of Sybase IQ and PowerDesigner, two of Sybase's current successs stories. [Read More...]

First report from TechWave 2008

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:00:00 +0100

I seem to be at Techwave 2008 today, probably because Phil Howard is on holiday. But there's a lot more to Sybase than databases.... [Read More...]

From the TMF

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Another of David Norfolk's visits to the Test Management Forum [Read More...]

EGL - A Different Programming Language

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Things come full circle and as the focus of systems development moves towards automating busines process, there's again a need for a business-friendly procedural coding language something like COBOL.... [Read More...]

CMDB and CMS: Powerhouses Of Service Management

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:00:00 +0100

The BCS/itSMF conference The CMDB and CMS - the Powerhouse Of Service Management points to a closer relationship between the BCS and the itSMF (between traditional IT and Operations service delivery) and captures participant knowledge. [Read More...]

Informix - and reuse within IBM

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Steve Mills described technology reuse in IBM Software in his RSDC 2008 keynote - and reuse of Informix RDS technology in IBM products bodes well for its future. However, technology reuse generally has been a very long time coming. [Read More...]

Power designing

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

A brief look at an interesting but sometimes overlooked business modelling environment which is integrated with practical architecture and data modelling tools and links to open development environments for code genersation/production [Read More...]

Sam, Sam, pick up thee ITIL......

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

What most people call Software Asset Management (SAM) is just licence management and purely compliance focused. This rant is a plea for proper asset management as part of a Configuration Management System offering real busines benefits. [Read More...]

The skills shortage in a computer-literate age....

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Once again there is a skills shortage. But we often worry about the wrong sort of skills. What is needed is the hard disciplines of proper Computer Science and Engineering. [Read More...]

At the 19th Hole

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

A look at some speculative futures around sometimes-overlooked Sybase technologies. [Read More...]

Why oh why oh why oh (RSDC Fytte 3)

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

A search for beauty in conference themes... Or, why does everything have to be so blinkin' cool? [Read More...]

IBM RSDC - 2nd Fytte

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

A round up of what tickled me at RSDC in the way of new tools. We have a new (ish) language and some promise of help with governance. [Read More...]

IBM RSDC 2008 - Fytte the First

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

A look at Rationals announcement of the Jazz platform, some new products and its reaction to the Telelogic acquisition. [Read More...]

Hello and Welcome

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Welcome to my new Blog, in which I set out the terms of engagement as far as I am concerned. [Read More...]

Multicore - another IT Crisis

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Parallel processing on multicore computers is more energy efficient, which is becoming important. However, not all programs are designed to run in parallel and not all programmers can think parallel [Read More...]

Controversy in SCM

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Our recent article on Accurev prompted some feedback from the Subversion camp. But the real issue isn't the tools you buy but whether you can manage the People and Process aspects of SCM. [Read More...]

Competition in the world of SCM

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:00:00 +0100

The Software Configuration Management (SCM) world is being shaken up by the viral adoption by programmers of Subversion and other Open Source tools, regardless of corporate policy. However, AccuRev offers a process-centric alternative. [Read More...]

Informix seeks developers

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Reports of the death of Informix IDS seem much exaggerated - there's an opportunity for developers there. [Read More...]

Abstractions in MDD

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Model Driven Development (MDD) tools are often too close to the physical code, although a completely generalised code-independent tool is hard to build. Perhaps Domain Specific Models can offer a better approach to MDD. [Read More...]

Development Governance for Mashups

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Mashups are an agile (and very web 2.0) way to integrate disparate data sources in a Web application. However, we ask whether an agile response to the possibility of RESTful chaos is needed. [Read More...]

Software product innovation with Staff&Line

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Staff&line's EasyVista is an innovative systems management solution. Can developers of other software products attempting to break into established markets learn anything from it? [Read More...]

Testing Summit

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0100

The Test Management Forum for IT testing professionals meets quarterly and holds an annual Testing Summit. This is a good place to discuss some of the quality issues facing Applications Development today. [Read More...]

Who's supporting your software?

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Most companies understand the issues around supporting proprietary software, but the issues with Open Source software may be different. We discuss them with Brian Behlendorf, founder of CollabNet. [Read More...]

The end of the free lunch - is a final course appearing?

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:00:00 +0100

We have to get used to the end of the free lunch of ever faster CPUs and start to get to grips with parallel processing. Pervasive Software has a tool which might help - although it is no free lunch. [Read More...]

An XML Information Processor

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0100

When everyone and their dog are claiming to be XML standards based it was refreshing to talk with Ben Walshaw (Head of Technical Services, Emea, JustSystems Europe (UK) Ltd) about a genuinely innovative XML development. [Read More...]

SOA Innovation and Metrics

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0100

SOA governance is essential to the successful introduction of SOA - and an important part of this will be agreeing on innovative service metrics. [Read More...]

Oracle UK User Group Conference 2007.

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0100

We think an active User Group is an important part of the community around enterprise software. We take a look at one, the UKOUG, and its 2007 survey of its Oracle customers. [Read More...]

IT Entrepreneurs

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0100

Perhaps the entrpreneurs involved in startups have a different view of IT than extablished companies do. That, at least, is the impression we got from Sun at the launch of its Startup Essentials program. [Read More...]

Managed Objects - is home-grown software the company's Achilles heel?

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0100

You can't manage what you don't know you have - but although automated discovery of software, especially home-grown software, is attractive, it has its issues in practice. Managed Objects may be bringing something new to the party. [Read More...]

SOA Governance

David Norfolk, Bloor Research — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0100

SOA is about business services, not technology. Introducing SOA is about becoming a service-oriented organisation and SOA Governance is a strong part of that. [Read More...]