Good DevOps Marketing, Fixing Enterprise IT, Microsoft's $4.4bn cloud businesses, Booze
Meta-data
Hello again, welcome to #4. Today we have 16 subscribers, but one of them is my work address. So, we're +2! If you're a subscriber, I'd love to hear what you like, dislike, your feedback, etc.: memo@cote.io.
See past newsletters in the archives, and, as always, see things as they come at Cote.io and @cote.
Sponsor
My work, 451 Research puts on "round-table" events where end-users and their managers discuss various aspects and best practices of enterprise IT. A few vendors come to directly sell to them as well, or do some "thought leadership" intermingling. It's free for attendees! What's not to like?!
We have one (that's free!) coming up on September 16th in NYC on mobile. You should check it out and go if you're in the area.
Also, we just published a report on one of the more frequently asked topics we get: what exactly are people using cloud for, what applications are they running in public and private? I'm reading it now.
Follow-up
I came across a large infrastructure vendor today that was seeking to get the market to understand how awesome its use of microservices is. They work in one of the big, ponderous parts of the enterprise software market that would have made the Cult of DHH go into berserk mode back in the mid-2000s. So, that's a thing in the mainstream world, apparently.
Tech and Work World
Reminder: how business works
Another fine looking presentation - and slide - from Andrew Shafer.
Some of the better DevOps rhetoric you'll see
There's a pair of articles up on "enterprise architecture is dead" following the usual pattern of create a problem/enemy then introduce the solution/hero. If you're looking for "proof" and details to prove the problem and then pragmatic "OK, what do I do now?" steps for the solution, you won't find it. Nonetheless, these two articles are well crafted pieces on "the DevOps imperative" as you might think of them.
You can imagine about 5-20 more pages, plus an accompanying book-length treatment and the consulting work that comes with - or a product pitch! - that would flesh it out.
I point this out because if you're a student of technology marketing and rhetoric as I am, it's a good study. Note the quotes from real people, historical contextualizing, saying it doesn't really work, then the introduction of "big changes need to be made." And, it's all generally true, as I often come to in the punch line of my "I hate talking about culture" DevOps talks. (Twist!)
And, it has an Adrian Cockcroft cameo, so it's blue ribbon DevOps marketing for sure.
Monktoberfest 2014
I've only made it to one of the conferences my old firm, RedMonk, put on, but it was awesome. I can't really fit going to Monktoberfest into my life at the moment, which is a bummer. You should totally go, they're great for people, content, and libations. Snatch your ticket up soon as they go quick!
Apple wants access to the enterprise channel
Following up on the IBM/Apple partnership, most people, including Apple itself, seem to have settled on the partnership being all about growing enterprise market-share for Apple. Ben Thompson sums this take up well, afforded a nice week to digest the news. There's some confusing talk about "penetration" here and there, e.g.:
While Apple's iPad, for example, has been deployed by 93% of the Global 500, the penetration [read: market-share] is only about 20%. That's great breadth, not so great depth. By contrast, Cook pointed out, laptops in general enjoy 60% penetration [read: don't know is this market-share, or % of people companies who've bought one? Surely Macs don't have 60% laptop share?]. If Apple + IBM could drive iPad much greater iPad penetration, the "walls would shake".
One must always remember to separate "penetration" from "market-share," or at least find out which one is being spoken of. It's confusing.
The other fun thing: IBMers will soon be coding in Swift, it seems.
Standing Up
I mostly sit on the couch in my office when I can, which is comfortable, but feels wrong. Of course, standing brings its own aches and pains, but I understand that if I do it, I'll live forever!
I've been trying one of those DIY standing desk approaches (Ikea, FTW!) and it seems to work.
What's going on at OSCON
In the latest The New Stack Podcast, I talk with Alex while he’s on the show floor, SnowdonBot style! We talk about SAP, Microsoft and open source, OSCON, and then talk with Bitnami’s Erica Brescia who has interesting things to say, among other things. about Azure use rising.
When IDEs came on 3.5" disks
This summary of some Windows developer tools from the early 90s reminded me of my time back then. I was by no means a programmer (I bought a copy of Turbo Pascal and couldn't figure out what I supposed to do with it!), but sure liked computers.
Microsoft's cloud related-revenue run-rate is $4.4bn
As always, pick it apart (as Tim Anderson does) to make sure you understand it:
Run-rate means "take last quarter's revenue and multiple by four," generally, giving you a rough annual revenue total.
What composes this cloud revenue? Office 365, CRM online and Azure. That's actually how I would do it.
While most people have critized Microsoft for not being clear on their stratgy, I think some of the comments and commentary around their earnings call yesterday are as about as clear as we can get. As [CEO Satya Nadella says], "Dual (consumer/enterprise) use is how we reinvent productivity." They'll introduce the ease of use and end-user focus of consumer tech and "mobile" to the workplace. Makes sense if you've had to use "enterprise technology"; they want to fix that (cf. IBM/Apple partnership). Coincidently, see Don Hon's newsletter today for an excellent example of, and rant on, the type of shitty corporate IT that needs to be fixed.
I'm sure Microsoft doesn't know exactly how they'll fix it yet (and, you know, it's not like IBM/Apple were specific either), and that they're working on it. To be continued!
Fun
I had a "James Bond vesper martini" at the Alamo Drafthouse recently. It was delicious! With a slight modification to the canonical ingredients, it's a martini that's actually "refreshing":
1.5 oz/part vodka
1.5 oz/part gin
1 oz/part Lillet
Lime zest