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RedMonkTV brings you video from the RedMonk universe. Interviews, demos, and gonzo analysis and commentary from the RedMonk gang.Video Episodes:
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17:25:46 10/12/09
Demo: Fedex Critical Truck Tracking
[LESS INFO] 5 VIEWS | ADDED 21:25:46 10/12/09
While at Adobe MAX, I had the pleasure of talking with one of the customer keynotes, Adam Mollenkopf of FedEx Custom Critical. His team had worked on a Flash Platform and LiveCycle driven console for tracking high-dollar shipments and monitoring just about every aspect of the shipment itself. I'm always searching for stories of why an RIA (here, Flash) was used over Ajax or traditional GUIs, and I think in Adam does a good explanation of why they came to pick the Flash Platform over Ajax in the first part, the interview. We then sit down and he walks us through the demo of the console in action.
During the demo, here, in addition to the general RIA-ness, the special thing to note is the rules engine backing all of the predictions and analyzing sensor and geo data. Those create an interesting (and for FedEx useful) stream of real-time data to console of realtime data to churn over, expose in the RIA, and start making business decisions around.
Disclosure: Adobe is a client and sponsored this videos.
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17:20:27 10/12/09
FedEx Critical Truck Tracking
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:20:27 10/12/09
While at Adobe MAX, I had the pleasure of talking with one of the customer keynotes, Adam Mollenkopf of FedEx Custom Critical. His team had worked on a Flash Platform and LiveCycle driven console for tracking high-dollar shipments and monitoring just about every aspect of the shipment itself. I'm always searching for stories of why an RIA (here, Flash) was used over Ajax or traditional GUIs, and I think in Adam does a good explanation of why they came to pick the Flash Platform over Ajax in the first part, the interview. We then sit down and he walks us through the demo of the console in action.
In this interview, Adam first tells us what FedEx Custom Critical does, and then we jump into a discussion of how they came to select the Adobe stack for implementation of their shipment tracking console. They not only chose Flex and LiveCycle for the rich interface, but also for the high-speed data transfer between front-end and back-end. Adam really likes the data management that comes with the stack, esp. being able to use "true push" to the client.
A full transcript is also available .
Disclosure: Adobe is a client and sponsored this videos.
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17:03:00 10/08/09
Enterprise Lipstick - James Governor at Adobe MAX 2009
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14:55:24 09/25/09
Jeff Smith on the IBM Solutions Architecture for Energy and Utilities Framework (SAFE)
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 18:55:24 09/25/09
See the full transcript as well.
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13:56:42 09/18/09
Jeff Smith on the IBM Solutions Architecture for Energy and Utilities Framework (SAFE) - Extended
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 17:56:42 09/18/09
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13:14:16 09/18/09
IBM Solutions Architecture for Energy and Utilities Framework (SAFE) Demo with Paul Williamson
[LESS INFO] 8 VIEWS | ADDED 17:14:16 09/18/09
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17:55:25 08/19/09
ConVirt Open Source Virtualization Management - Part 2
[LESS INFO] 5 VIEWS | ADDED 21:55:25 08/19/09
Virtualization is magic of IT shops, but as with any technology it creates it's own unique set of management challenges. That's why it was fun to sit down with Convirture 's Jaydeep Marfatia and Arsalan Farooq for this two part screencast and see how ConVirt tackles virtualization management issues. They also indulge me in some "the future of IT management" talk which you know I always enjoy - there's even some private cloud talk.
In this second part, we get into actual management, seeing how ConVirt manages not only the basic parameters for each virtual machine, but also the pools of storage and private networks. When it comes to provisioning, ConVirt also offers the optional intelligent VM placement that automatically figures out the best host to put a new virtual server. We wrap up by going over the ConVirt community and commercial support options.
Disclosure: Convirture is a client and sponsored this video.
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17:48:08 08/19/09
ConVirt Open Source Virtualization Management - Part 1
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 21:48:08 08/19/09
Virtualization is magic of IT shops, but as with any technology it creates it's own unique set of management challenges. That's why it was fun to sit down with Convirture 's Jaydeep Marfatia and Arsalan Farooq for this two part screencast and see how ConVirt tackles virtualization management issues. They also indulge me in some "the future of IT management" talk which you know I always enjoy - there's even some private cloud talk.
In this first part, we start out with a quick history and overview of the ConVirt project and Convirture the company. Next, we look at the console for browsing physical and virtual machines, using it drill down into each to look at configuration and health metrics. Having browsed through existing servers, we start looking at how ConVirt helps you create a library of virtual images by creating templates. We see how you can use these templates - with all sorts of settings for the server, storage, network, and more - to create new virtual servers.
Disclosure: Convirture is a client and sponsored this video.
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14:07:39 08/18/09
Zenoss Update with Bill Karpovich at OpenSourceWorld
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 18:07:39 08/18/09
While at OpenSourceWorld, I talked with Zenoss ' Bill Karpovich, getting an update on what's been going on with Zenoss. We talk about recent versions, management packs (with over a 100 now ), the community, and reaching the million downloads milestone.
Disclosure: Zenoss is a client.
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13:27:06 08/18/09
Open Source on Windows, Community Management - John Mark Walker at OpenSourceWorld
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 17:27:06 08/18/09
While at OpenSourceWorld last week, I snagged a jiggly-framed updated with John Mark Walker . We talk about the upcoming open source on Windows conference he's planning and (him having been in many community management roles) the state of community management. The book I mention is Dawn Foster 's Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy
Disclosure: Microsoft is a client, as was Hyperic.
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10:14:05 08/07/09
Using web technolgies for RIAs - Appcelerator - RIA Weekly #58
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 14:14:05 08/07/09
While in Mountain View a little bit ago, I had the chance to catch up with Appcelerator 's Jeff Haynie . While Jeff has been on RIA Weekly before, I start out by asking him to go over what Appecelerator does. As he susinctly puts it, their offerings focusing on providing a framework and runtime to develop applications for mobile, web, and desktop apps using web technologies (like JavaScript, CSS, HTML, you know, Ajax). We then get into a discussion of how Appcelerator came to see this as an opportunity, namely, using web programming as the model instead of programming models fit per deployment platform. Next, I ask Jeff if the goal is to provide a platform that automatically spins up UIs for different types of devices, or "screens." He says, no, in the sense that they want to have each type of interface specialized whether that's a native feel to mobile applications or desktops. As he says, designers and developers have said that they don't want applications to look the same across platforms.
After this lay-up of context and capabilities, we get into the actual Appcelerator portfolio, namely Titanium, the runtime and tool-chain for building these web technology based applications. Jeff also goes over the cloud-based services Appcelerator provides - for example, for helping distribute applications, building across different platforms, and more.
Knowing that Appcelerator had recently suveyed it's user base, I next ask Jeff to tell us the types of applications they're seeing developed on the platform. There's a wide spread of application types, esp. in iPhone-land, using Appcelerator, including several internal only applications businesses have been developing. Another interesting data point is that they've been seeing about a 50/50 split between developers doing iPhone and Android development.
We then discuss how companies are seeking to do applications that move beyond, you know, fart apps and more into applications that support their business and brand. As Jeff says, some companies have felt they've missed out on fuller models of engagement (or "branding and marketing" if you prefer) in the web space and are looking for new ways of doing that in a post-web world.
Finally, we talk about the commercial offerings and services that Appcelerator is going to be providing around (as briefly mentioned at the start) distributing applications, cross-compiling services, analytics, and other cloud-enabled offerings.
Disclosure: Appcelerator is a client and sponsored this video. Adobe is a client as well.
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15:55:07 07/16/09
Spiceworks 4.0 with Tabrez Syed
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 19:55:07 07/16/09
Recently, I say down with Tabrez Syed of Spiceworks to go over their most recent version, Spiceworks 4.0 . In introducing himself, Tabrez speaks to the mixed role he has at Spiceworks, a combination of traditional product management and the newer practices of community management. As we discuss Spiceworks more, it's interesting to see how these two roles play out. To that end, I ask Tabrez to give us an overview of Spiceworks itself. More than just the asset discovery, monitoring, help-desk, and reporting, Spiceworks also incorporates the thriving community (over 700,000 users) around the product.
Focusing in on the community aspects, I ask Tabrez to characterize the folks in the community: what types of IT shops and organizations are they? Being in the small and medium business category, these folks are often balancing both the technical requirements and small pools of cash and time.
We then go over the new features in Spiceworks 4.0. Starting with help desk improvements., Tabrez goes over the workflow changes to enable better colloboration and covers the email "command line" functionality they've added so that users can work with tickets on their phones. He also goes over the user-centric portal that Spiceworks 4.0 offers, giving the start of a knowledge base and a way to encourage self-service IT. Finally, we go over one of the most highly requested features, the network map which shows a visual network topology.
Also, check out the demo .
Disclosure: Spiceworks is a client.
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23:19:35 07/01/09
Jeff Hammerbacher on Hadoop & Cloudera
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 03:19:35 07/02/09
While at Velocity 2009 this year, I had the chance to sit down and talk with Cloudera's Jeff Hammerbacher . We talked all about Hadoop, how it's used, and how the company he's at, Cloudera, is fitting into the Hadoop community.
We start out talking about the reception of Jeff's Hadoop talk at Velocity and then very quickly get into a discusion of what Hadoop is and the types of applications that use it. Remembering Jeff's (brief) Wall Street background, I ask him how he went from Wall Street to Facebook, which starts a discussion of the differences between financial analysis and web company data analysis.
I ask Jeff if Hadoop is just an open source implementation of existing closed source ideas and products. His answer is no, that it's something completely new. And though they're not sure what to call the category it fits into, they've been watching users of Hadoop swap it into traditional workflows and use it for new ones. This leads me to ask what the data inputs and outputs for Hadoop typically are: are they mostly databases, logs, or what? And how do users consume the data work-loads that get send through Hadoop? Jeff goes over some interesting examples.
We talk about Jeff's sense for how many people are using Hadoop. He says "on the order of 100's" are using it production, with an order of magnitude more playing around with Hadoop. Looking forward, Jeff goes over some application types that we might see using Hadoop in the near future.
Next, we get into a discussion of what the company Cloudera's relation to Hadoop is and what the corporate goals are. As Jeff starts to say, most Hadoop use in the web world at the moment, so they're hoping to not only bring Hadoop to the more enterprise installs, but be an advocate in the Hadoop community for those uses.
I then ask Jeff what the emerging cycle of Hadoop adoption is for organizations. As with much open source, he begins, it starts with developers electing to use it, largely, on their own. As these applications move from "desktop computing" (some spare boxes) to production, operations typically gets involved to make sure the whole Hadoop-based stack stays healthy.
Many of the questions Cloudera gets about Hadoop are around the hardware specs for Hadoop clusters and applications. So, I ask Jeff to go over the typical, if not best, server configurations and specs.
Looking forward, I ask Jeff to tell us about the product road-map for Cloudera: what are they looking to do in the near future? Much of their efforts are in the area of making Hadoop more usable and, with things like monitoring, making Hadoop easier for IT departments to consume. At higher-level, Cloudera is figuring out how to deliver "warehouse scale computing" beyond the walls of Google, who recently quipped the term.
Closing out, Jeff briefly discusses the high probability of commercial competitors to Hadoop and Cloudera emerging, and the virtues of Hadoop being open, vs. closed source.
Disclosure: Cloudera is a client and sponsored this video.
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16:04:56 06/18/09
Telelogic a year later - Ken King at RSC 2009
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 20:04:56 06/18/09
While at RSC 2009 this year, I talk with IBM's Ken King, who you may remember from our discussion about the Telelogic acquisition at last year's RSDC .
I ask Ken to give us an update on the Telelogic company integration - the Blue Washing - since last we talked at RSDC 2008. We then talk about how Telelogic's origins in the systems space helps address part of IBM's idea about Smarter products and connect to the Rational vision of making software a strategic asset.
Disclosure: IBM is a client and sponsored this video.
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14:20:03 06/18/09
Getting more insight into software - Mike O'Rourke at RSC 2009
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 18:20:03 06/18/09
In this interview from RSC 2009, I talk with IBM's Mike O'Rourke, who you may remember from last year's RSDC series . We discuss this year's RSC focus on reporting, metrics, dashboards, etc. vs. "low-level" developer tools. As Mike says, this solves a problem where people are "tracking activity in a tool, but not across a whole life-cycle [of software]." Embodying this is the the Insight tool that tracks a requirement across the life-cycle of development, QA, deployment, and so on.
We also discuss how these tools fit in with best practices and establishes methodologies of companies. How do you get a development organization to the point of maturity where they can even start to track how well they're doing? Mike spends discusses how he does this across the projects he overseas in the Rational portfolio, and maps it back to the generalized case. This also leads into a discussion of the recently released MCIF and how the process therein is hooked into the tooling and reporting in development. I then ask Mike about the team and organization size that Insight, MCIF, and other products work well with.
Shifting gears slightly, I ask Mike to tell us about the past year's efforts to incorporate the Telelogic tools into the Rational portfolio. Part of this is the ongoing effort to have Rational products built on-top of Jazz, so Mike goes over the road-map for those transitions.
We wrap up with a discussion of the issues that Rational has encountered in moving some of their products to the cloud. I ask Mike for some lessons learned that might be helpful to others doing the same. One interesting practice Mike mentions is getting previews out there to enable richer customer/development feedback on the product, rather than waiting for the 12-18 month big-bang feedback cycle.
Disclosure: IBM is a client and sponsored these videos.
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05:48:16 05/27/09
SAP software for Utilities demo
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 09:48:16 05/27/09
At the Sapphire 2009 event in Orlando Chad Leonard gave us a demo of some interesting software for utilities which addresses the cost to serve model and CO2 reporting