Actuate CEO podcast: sometimes there are fights
February 12, 2010

"I like the Italian family culture... damn sometimes it comes down to arguments and fights - it can get emotional, typically it's passion." Pete Cittadini, Actuate

I had a good long chat with Pete Cittadini, CEO of open source business intelligence firm Actuate recently. The company is doing somewhere between $120m and $140m a year, having founded and still co-leading the Eclipse Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) open source project.

We touched on the firm's belief in the open source model and its own take on it, the firm's potential to expand beyond its North American market where 75% of its revenue is generated today, and how the company has performed against the backdrop of a recession.

I also asked about the high cost of being a public company considering its size, and whether Cittadini believes the firm can grow into one with revenues in the several-hundred-millions range.

Perhaps the most interesting comments for some listeners though will be around Cittadini's management style and the kind of culture he likes to foster at Actuate: ""I like the Italian family culture... damn sometimes it comes down to arguments and fights - it can get emotional, typically it's passion."

Listen to the podcast by clicking here. Below Pete's picture you'll find an approximate timeline of the questions if you would like to skip to a certain segment.

Pete Cittadini, CEO of Actuate: "We're grappling with [cloud] pricing."

Timeline of questions:

0:18 What attracted you to joining Actuate way back in 1995?

2:05 One of Actuate's USP is the fact it's open source. Why is that model important, and what's your particular take on the open source model?

5:19 75% of your revenue comes from North America. Does the rest of the world hold the potential for the strongest growth?

7:35 2001 was the pinnacle year for Actuate in terms of revenue. Despite revenue being down slightly in your latest quarter margins have remained strong: is that partly down to the open source model? [N.B. this podcast was recorded before the firm's latest quarterly results were published, which actually saw revenue UP 2% YOY, and UP 19% sequentially]

10:10 The macro-economic climate has clearly not helped. Are you starting to see the green shoots of recovery?

11:58 Actuate tends to get good analyst marks for ease of use. Are you seeing broad roll-outs amongst companies adopting the technology?

14:14 BIRT has a variety of deployment models. Would you say you have a cloud strategy?

15:40 Can a company with revenue in the range of $120m to $140m afford the cost of being public?

17:50 Are you optimistic you can grow into a company with revenues in the several-hundred-million range?

19:15 You've been in technology for over 20 years but started with a BA in Liberal Arts. That makes you somewhat unusual as a tech CEO. Do you think that means there are differences in the kind of culture you like to foster at Actuate?

If you missed the link to the podcast, here it is again.

Please follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/jasonstamper

Posted by Jason Stamper on 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

War of words in the SOA management space
February 10, 2010

You may not think that there would be a lot to get worked up about in the relative niche of services oriented architecture (SOA) management and governance. You'd be wrong. Oracle's acquisition this week of SOA management player AmberPoint has put the proverbial cat amongst the web services pigeons.

Witness A for the defence is Oracle's Thomas Kurian, EVP of product development, who explained the acquisition of AmberPoint thus: "AmberPoint and Oracle share a vision of providing customers with comprehensive SOA management capabilities that support modern IT environments and are also complete, open, and integrated."

"We expect the addition of AmberPoint's products to Oracle Fusion Middleware SOA Suite will provide stronger end-to-end governance," Kurian said, "that allows customers to manage the entire lifecycle of SOA-based solutions, providing visibility and management across heterogeneous environments."

But for the prosecution came comment from AmberPoint rival SOA Software - or at least I've always considered the firm a competitor. And if it wasn't a competitor, you have to ask why it would be so keen to make a comment on Oracle's acquisition.

Anyway, the firm sent me the following prepared comment: "AmberPoint was not a direct competitor for SOA Software. SOA Software is a leading provider of unified SOA and Cloud Services Governance products that enable organizations to successfully plan, build and run cloud and enterprise services."

It added: "AmberPoint only competed with the Service Manager product, and did not provide any form of unified governance automation solution. AmberPoint did announce in December their new AmberPoint Governance System but this was a free give-away, and was never intended to be a legitimate competitor."

Although later in the comment, it does list as one of the good things to flow from the deal that, "In summary, this acquisition will have a positive impact for SOA Software. It will help bolster our position as we continue to deliver value to our customers; our partners will be key for us; the product roadmap between Oracle and AmberPoint will take time to mature; their people will be distracted; and it takes a niche competitor out of our space."

SOA Software was not the only one with something to say about the acquisition of AmberPoint. Witness B for the prosecution came Progress Software's Dan Foody, VP of product management, Enterprise Business Solutions, who had this to say: "This acquisition clearly validates that Business Transaction Management (BTM) is a critical requirement for any organisation. Oracle bought AmberPoint to fill a BTM hole in their portfolio but unfortunately, AmberPoint's core strength is SOA Governance, not BTM."

Fair's fair?

To be fair, Oracle didn't say AmberPoint's core strength is BTM. It said it does SOA management. But it did say that, "AmberPoint's solutions help organizations diagnose and resolve issues in application performance and business transactions... AmberPoint's SOA management products further extend Oracle Fusion Middleware's... SOA capabilities including Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle SOA Governance and Oracle Enterprise Manager accelerating the resolution of application performance and business transactions issues before the business is impacted."

But Foody was unconvinced. "Unfortunately, since AmberPoint's BTM solution is weak, Oracle still have a significant gap," he said. "Clearly AP [AmberPoint] can't be their complete solution, so Oracle will likely acquire someone else in the BTM space. So, the open question is why would someone want to use AP for BTM if Oracle are likely to acquire another company in this area?"

"Another challenge is that Oracle has proven that they are only focused on their own stack, whereas most customers have business transactions that span different applications and middleware - usually from multiple vendors. It's unlikely that Oracle are going to change their stripes, so I'd be concerned if I were a customer that has any non-Oracle platforms in my business transactions."

SOA Software went further still, arguing that AmberPoint was struggling, and far too niche: "Limited Market for AmberPoint: We believe that AmberPoint had significant difficulty moving forward in the market after their OEM relationships were terminated, and because of their reliance on service management or run time governance only," the firm said in a statement. "SOA Software and AmberPoint started competing in the web services management area several years ago, and while AmberPoint remained solely in that market, SOA Software expanded its product portfolio, providing a Unified SOA Governance Automation solution, and a comprehensive suite of mainframe SOA products."

Whether or not that is the case, I do feel I have to suggest that if you want to win points for having a broad solution, you probably don't want to be comparing yourself to Oracle. Who looks too niche: SOA Software with its range of SOA management and governance technologies, or Oracle, with a vast portfolio of database, middleware and applications technologies?

Ps. If you're interested in business transaction management (BTM), you may also want to take a look at OpTier and Precise. Another company that I've not actually met or looked at in the BTM space (as opposed to OpTier and Precise) is Correlsense.

Posted by Jason Stamper on 5:33 PM | Comments (0)

Do you like listening to political robots?

While you may seek a cheap thrill from telling political campaigners exactly what you think of their parties, you've got no such capacity when you're hit with a so-called "robocall".

The Labour Party found itself in hot water recently when the Information Commissioner's Office said it had breached privacy rules by making unsolicited automated "robocalls" - voiced by Coronation Street star Liz Dawn - to 495,000 people. But the Lib Dems, Tories and SNP have used the gimmick too.

In the run-up to the election it's likely these and other telephonic tactics will be on the increase.

But fear not, because help is at hand for those who prefer not to receive their campaigning, unsolicited, down the dog and bone. A new website has been set up by inventor Steve Smith, who made Dragon's Den history last summer when he received offers from all five Dragons on the show for his trueCall nuisance call blocking device.

He's set up www.thepoliticalcallregister.co.uk. By registering on the site, Smith promises to send your details to the main political parties, asking them not to contact you by phone. If they persist, he's promising to name and shame the culprits.

"This is a growing problem and the parties that do it are worse than cowboy telemarketers," Smith said. "These calls can be made for a penny each, so the politicians can very cheaply flood the country with calls - this is extremely intrusive."

Not everyone will be signing up for the service, mind. Smith's company trueCall carried out its own research with Mori in October 2008 and found that while 75 per cent of voters would not be happy if a political party rang them and played a recorded message, that leaves a sizable 25 per cent who clearly quite like the sound of a political robot's voice.

Besides, if you think we've got it bad in the UK, you have to feel for the Americans, where political "robocalling" is even more commonplace, and even more distasteful. In one automated message, people picked up the phone to hear a recording of an unidentified woman sobbing, and talking about an abortion-related incident she claimed she'd had at a women's health clinic founded by a Democratic congresswoman. Given the choice, I think I'd rather listen to Corrie's Liz Dawn.

Posted by Jason Stamper on 4:20 PM | Comments (0)

Will the government now act on open source?

Since early 2004, it has been the government's stated policy to use open source software in the public sector wherever possible, as long as it offers the best value for money.

To date, the policy has had little impact. So will the latest tweaks to its open source Action Plan make a difference?

Software is "open source" when the source code is freely available to be viewed, shared or changed - things that you can't do with more traditional proprietary software. Crucially, open source is also the cheaper option in many cases.

So how good is the government's record on using open source so far?

In its latest Action Plan, it gives three key examples of how it has increased its use of open source. First, it says that over 25 per cent of secondary schools use the Linux operating system on at least one computer: small beer, given that the government first published its policy on open source in 2004.

Second, the series of NHS databases known as "Spine" use an open source operating system; and thirdly, Birmingham City Council has been rolling out open source software across their library services since 2005.

These last two instances would be more compelling if they didn't also serve to show just how few projects there have been to date. Click here to read the rest of this entry.

Gordon Brown, January 2010. Getty Images.

CBR took an in-depth look at open source in the UK in the May 2008 issue. To read that article click here.

Posted by Jason Stamper on 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

SOA Software expands in face of AmberPoint acquisition by Oracle
February 9, 2010

It's not easy being a small, services oriented architecture (SOA) management and governance player. But if anyone was wondering about the likely longevity of this tiny niche, or whether it will simply be subsumed into broader systems management or business service management frameworks, SOA Software has news for you.

Yesterday it was announced that probably its nearest rival, AmberPoint, would be acquired by Oracle; yet today SOA Software announced that it is not withering but expanding. The firm claims it grew revenue 55% last year and made an operating profit.

Now it says it's expanding its European presence with the appointment of Steve Pope as VP of Europe, and Simon Parker as director technology Europe, to, "Support and drive the company's rapid growth in the European markets".

SOA Software counts IBM, Microsoft, JBoss (Red Hat) and SAP among its alliance partners. No surprise that Oracle's not on that list, especially after yesterday's news.

On balance though, one can't help wondering whether this little segment is long for this world. SOA projects are never undertaken for their own sake and nearly always suck in other elements that may need more traditional systems or service management capabilities anyway. So won't this type of technology just become part of broader suites, as being suggested by Oracle with its AmberPoint buy?

Posted by Jason Stamper on 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

CBR Podcast: Novell CEO on his bold new strategy
February 4, 2010

I caught up with the president and CEO of Novell, Ron Hovsepian recently, to find out more about the company's recently announced Intelligent Workload Management strategy.

Of course, I also took the opportunity to ask whether he still believes that the firm's controversial agreement with Microsoft on Windows-Linux interoperability and virtualisation was in the firm's best interests, considering how the open source community reacted to the deal for the most part (angrily).

And needless to say I asked for his thoughts on the firm's latest results.

Anyway to listen to the podcast click the link below (there's an approximate timeline of the questions below if you want to skip to a particular segment):
Ron Hovsepian Novell CEO Podcast.wma

Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell.

0.22: Can you tell me what you are most proud of at Novell during your tensure as President and CEO thus far?

1.55: One of the more controversial decisions since you've been CEO was to sign that interoperability agreement with Microsoft. Knowing what you know now about the open source commmunity's reaction, was that the right move for Novell?

4.12: How pleased are you with Linux platform revenue, and is it doing enough to make up for [any declines] in Novell's more mature product categories?

5.25: You acquired PlateSpin and Managed Objects... can you explain what your recently announced Intelligent Workload Management strategy is all about?

9.15: Can you put some more detail around specific products in those four key areas: Build, Manage, Secure and Measure?

16.45: Is the sales decline in Novell's most recent quarter (Q4 revenue 09 was $216m, down from $245m in Q4 '08) purely down to the economic environment, or are there areas you have identified where you need to improve your execution?

19.00: Novell has plenty of cash in the bank; how keenly will you look at acquisitions in 2010?

20.30: The average tenure of a CEO is about 5 years; do you feel that you have plenty more you can do at Novell, to regain some of that growth?

Posted by Jason Stamper on 11:56 AM | Comments (0)