The Business of Marketing Technology

Gartner Data Center Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:43:00 +0000

It's been a couple weeks since I last posted, but between the holidays and 2009 planning I haven't had time to do much else.

But, I am back on the saddle again! No, we haven't finished our 2009 plan yet, but I won't mention that again, for at least a while. The new news is that I am headed out to Vegas again...ugh... Its the Annual Gartner Data Center Conference at the MGM Grand. I am looking forward to this conference a lot. This is a great show to learn about the issues facing CIOs and IT executives RIGHT NOW. Of course, there is a lot of forward looking stuff as well, Cloud and VDI, but with the economy in such a state of flux and 2008 budgets frozen, I am interested to see what the mood is and where the dollars will be flowing in 2009.

PERFMAN will be there, of course. Come check us out in the exhibitor hall and keep a look out for Cameron Haight's sessions. Word on the street is that we get a positive nod from Gartner!

I will be Twittering from the show so feel free to follow along. http://twitter.com/rodstar

Recession Alert: Survival and Innovation in IT

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:12:00 +0000

In 2000 the downturn in the economy was directly related to IT. The internet bubble burst, the Y2K non-event was over and all of a sudden the well dried up. Here we are, 8 years later and right back where we started. But, this time it is the mortgage and credit crisis that is to blame and not IT.

But, we all feel the pain. I have been doing a lot of planning for 2009 and watching the numbers. (I have also been doing a lot of crying...LOL) So far, Gartner and Forrester have both revised their IT spending forecast only once. Both Gartner and Forrester predict a modest 2.9% growth in IT spending in 2009, down from 5.9% predicted earlier.

Essentially, that means IT spending will be flat (and I bet it drops a little.) Of course, individual results may vary and I am sure that you have been told to clamp it down already, especially if you are in financial services or retail. Retail is going to take this one hard.

But, what can an IT department do in times like this? Is it merely protect and survive? Try to save as many heads as possible and whether the storm? I don't think so. I think there is room to innovate and innovation leads to growth.

Here are a few things you can do to squeeze pennies out of IT and find ways to innovate:

Better manage what you have. How much free capacity do you currently have? What servers can be pushed a little harder? In a world where the norm is still one app, one server, there is a ton of wasted capacity in your data center. Find that capacity and put it to good use. You can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by just consolidating. And, contrary to conventional wisdom, you can find apps that will play well together on a physical machine.
Simplify--> Virtualize. You knwo those servers that have to be replaced? Well, instead of buying 10 new servers, buy 5 and create a VMware cluster. Move all those apps into the virtualized environment. You can do a lot with virtualization technology today and can save millions. If you are not looking into virtualized across the organization, you are setting yourself up to fail.
Measure what you have. This ties nicely with all of the above. Metrics are more important than ever. What are the SLAs you need to maintain? Are they reasonable? Does the accounts payable group really need .25 second response time? Sure, the website does, especially if it is core to your business, but some departments may be just as productive with a little less performance. And, who is paying for what? If you can accurately figure out what department is using what resources, then you can pass the costs back. You can also identify areas where particular departments are way out of line and start to trim them back.
Use Open Source Software. Seriously, folks. If you are not first evaluating an open source alternative then you are wasting company dollars. Open Source software is robust and enterprise-class in just about every area. Just look at the stack: OS, DB, Middleware, and even apps. Why pay $47,000 a CPU for Oracle, when you can do it for $5000 on EnterpriseDB. Its time to throw the IT bigotry out the window. I know your developer swears by Websphere and your DBA won't work with any other DB besides Oracle. Tough shit. Open source opens doors to allow you to build applications you can't afford to build with proprietary software. Its the path to innovation.

Ok, that's enough for now. What else am I missing? I am sure there are a ton of things. But, that's a good start.

Virtual Strategy Magazine Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:56:00 +0000

Virtual Strategy Magazine just published a podcast with Jerry Valentine from Grange Insurance and me. Its worth a listen.

Jerry talks about what went into the decision to choose PERFMAN and what some of the challenges are in moving to a virtualized environment.

Grange Insurance Delpoys PERFMAN for Virtualization Lifecycle Management

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:50:00 +0000

The $1 billion insurance provider uses PERFMAN to monitor and manage both their physical and virtual environments. You can read more here.

So, what is important about this release and why should you care? Well, a number of things.

It demonstrates that PERFMAN is used in very large data centers.
It shows the usage of PERFMAN to manage both the physical and virtual infrastructure, as well as the transition from physical to virtual.
It reiterates the PERFMAN claim of ease-of-use and deployment.

The second bullet brings up an interesting topic. Who can do this well? Well, the answer is not necessarily easy, but in a future blog post, I will attempt to define the different players and their strengths in this lifecycle.

Gartner is paying attention to social media. Are you?

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:49:00 +0000

I just realized how much of my time is spent on Twitter, blogs, YouTube, etc. It is amazing to see how the marketing of technology is maturing and adapting to the new media.

And, now is a perfect time for you to get involved. More on that later.

One could argue, and I have, that Gartner is nowhere near the bleeding edge of technology. In fact, a common, albeit misinformed perception of Gartner, is that they can predict the past with 80% accuracy. But, the reality is that most of their clients are very large multi-national organizations that fall into the late majority category, to steal a page from Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm".

So, to see Gartner with a very active Twitter account and to see an entire channel from Gartner on YouTube can only mean one thing. Social media is crossing the chasm and its not just for consumer products.

Ignore this trend at your own risk. In fact, I heard through the grapevine that one open source company was having a hard time getting activity in their "community" and their forums were dead. But, their software is used by thousands of companies. How is that possible? Well, it turns out that the dialogue was all on Twitter.

And, with the lovely state of the economy, budgets are being slashed all over the place. Many companies are cutting back on their marketing spend. (Many are moving money into digital advertising like Google Adwords because the results are measurable). Social media is FREE. It only costs time and energy. But, being a regular contributor to the world of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc can pay huge dividends.

However, it must be a full-time job to be done correctly. You need to have a strategic plan on how to attack the social media space. Without, you are just noise.

Here are some links to my pages:

Michael Cote from RedMonk debriefs on PERFMAN

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:52:00 +0000

We recently briefed Michael Cote (Ko-Tay) from RedMonk on the PERFMAN product suite and his latest podcast talks favorably about our solution, especially as it relates to virtualization lifecycle management and managing capacity in a virtualized environment.

The podcast is a weekly de-brief and PERFMAN is discussed starting at 8:05 in the mp3. Take a listen. (Link to MP3)

A short update

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:15:00 +0000

I have not blogged a lot lately, my apologies. I have been wrapped up in a number of work and personal things that have taken my attention away from this. Not to fear, the personal things are all good things. Lots of little family trips enjoying the wram October weather and my nights are filled with the Fightin' Phils ! ! ! Go Phillies! Off to the World Series for the first time since my senior year in college.

In addition, I am working on a new personal site that will consolidate this blog and my reef blog, along with important news and personal photos related to this blog and my personal life. One of the challenges is moving ALL of these posts over. Its a manual process, but well worth it.

The new site will be ready in a couple of weeks, I hope. It is based on the open source CMS, Joomla. I am a big fan of Joomla and will be moving PERFMAN's corporate site to Joomla as well. The personal site is really just a test for the corporate site.

Well, I am down in Baltimore for PERFMAN's quarterly Sales Operations Review.

Of course, you can always follow me on Twitter. (look at the top right of the page to see the feed).

Google's share price still not right...

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:21:00 +0000

I twittered yesterday about the sudden drop of Google's share price from 400.00 to 329. Nasdaq announced a routing problem and restored the price to 405.00, but take a look at what Yahoo has it listed as... I hope people don't think that's legit! Or, maybe I should short sell it!!!

It's About time, UIS!

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:34:00 +0000

Unisys reported this morning that Joe McGrath will be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year. Why wait that long? Unisys could learn a little from professional sports. If the coach isn't getting it done, get a new one!

So, good ole Joe took over in January of 2005, but he really started running the show in January, 2004 when Larry Weinbach made him COO, the first time Unisys has ever had a COO.

So, let's take a look at the stock since Joe assumed control...

Interesting, huh? The stock has been on a steady decline since Joe became heir apparent to Larry.

From 15 to 3....

I know a bunch of people still at Unisys and I wanted that company to succeed in the worst way. Now, maybe they can start over.

Congratulations, Unisys! Now, if you would just look a little closer, I can name about 50 other senior folks who have spent the last 5 years coasting...

PERFMAN 7.2 Enables Virtualization Lifecycle Management

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:24:00 +0000

Don't have time to tell you all about it right now, but we did announce our Virtualization Planning Tool this morning! The VPT enables you to analyze years of data on the physical servers, plan for how to consolidate them into virtual servers, and model their performance. I am selling it short, but I have to run to another meeting. You should read the PR here.

This completes our life cycle offering because we have been doing the monitoring and management since 2004.

How low long has your management vendor been doing VMware monitoring, modeling and management???

Oh, and can they look inside the guest OS for root-cause analysis? Can you provide the single pane of glass view of multiple Virtual Centers?

We have customers managing over 6000 guests across multiple Virtual Centers with our product suite. Check us out at Booth 853 at VMworld!!!

Advanced Pictures from VMworld 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:39:00 +0000

Yes, VMworld has not officially started, but I was setting up PERFMAN's booth so I thought I would snap some pictures from "behind the scenes". Not sure I like the "theme" of the show so far. The monstrous cartoon-like head shots are a little disturbing... Maybe they will grow on me.

And, stay tuned for some really cool news from PERFMAN tomorrow. What? You haven't heard of PERFMAN? Join the club. But, tomorrow, that changes. Come check us out at Booth 853!

I think its the eyes that freak me out... LOL

Come Visit PERFMAN at VMworld (Booth 853)

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:35:00 +0000

I hope you will take a moment to stop by our booth for a demo of our product suite and to enter for a chance to win a Panasonic 42" 1080p Plasma TV!!!

In addition, we have some exciting news to tell you about! Looking forward to seeing you at the show!!!

Replace the Human Race

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:47:00 +0000

Here is a great article about computers replacing refs in sports. I never knew about the Hawk-Eye in tennis. Fascinating stuff...

Now get back to work.

VMworld is coming...

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:06:00 +0000

VMworld starts next week and it promises to be an exciting time for all involved (14,000 attendees and 200+ sponsors). For me, however, there is an even greater level of anticipation. This is the first show that I have had my hands on from start to finish at PERFMAN. Of course, the show was booked prior to my arrival, but everything else, from messaging and booth design through the PR and finally, the give away was all led by me.

This is not bragging as there are many things that could have been done better, faster, differently. But, it is momentous in the fact that this is the first effort from start to finish that was shepherded by the new team. And, we are very excited about the new messaging, the PR, the product, the team, etc.

It should be a very exciting time for us. After all, this is not only a major trade show for PERFMAN, but in many ways this is a "coming out" party. Strange to say that for a 20 year-old company, but there has been "virtually" (pun intended) no marketing here for many years.

Just the process of putting a foundation together took much longer than I expected. Of course, I did not expect to have to start completely from scratch!

And when I say scratch, I mean it. Yes, there are a few white papers and the customer list is long and impressive no matter the size of the company, but the basics were not in place.

Some of the things accomplished in preparation for this launch include:

New messaging and supporting documents
New PR team hired (Prequent Rocks!)
New lead flow processes defined and implemented
New lead tracking software implemented
New web site deployed with tracking capabilities
New corporate identity and supporting style guide
New collateral to support the sales process
New lead generation activities started
New customer newsletter implemented
New sales team hired and trained
New sales engineering team hired and trained
New advertising campaign in place
Introduction and briefing with a dozen analysts
New corporate apparel

And, yet there is so much more to do...

If I don't get a chance to blog again before the show, I will see you there. Come up and say hi!

PERFMAN will be in Booth 853!

Google Chrome - First Take

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:45:00 +0000

At heart, I am a technology geek (and a reef aquariums geek). So, I just had to try the new Google browser, Chrome.

I have had it installed for about 24 hours on both my work laptop and my home PC. And, though that certainly is not enough time to put it through its paces fully, I have to give it 2 thumbs up and a "so what..."

Others are not so complementary.

Here is what I can tell you so far. I like the default homepage. It organizes the recent pages very nicely and shows the recent bookmarks.

It imports all of my data from Firefox very well. Nothing was lost.

It does seem to handle Javascript much better. I do not see the slowdowns like I use to on Firefox when I had a lot of tabs open.

It works with every page I use...so far. And I have tested it with Google Adwords, LoopFuse, Joomla-based sites, Forums, Blogs, Flash intros, etc.

And now for the "so what". So far, nothing in this browser has presented anything to me that makes me say, "this is my browser". I am coming to realize that, at least for today, a browser is just like a window. Yeah, some are double-paned, some have decorative components, some insulate better than others.

But, at the end of the day, a window is something you look through, not something you look at. And this window is just like the rest.

Oooh, you know what? I just made that up but I really like it. I think I officially deem that statement Copyright ME. :) Feel free to use it, but give me credit if you do. LOL

Philadelphia Zoning Board REJECTS Unisys Billboards on Two Liberty Place

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:15:00 +0000

It is a good day for Philadelphia residents. The Zoning board voted unanimously to reject 2 16-foot Unisys logos on Two Liberty Place.

Why Unisys thought they were entitled to that to begin with is beyond me. After all, they were only getting 2 floors of the 58-story building (Wikipedia entry). A Unisys (NYSE: UIS) spokesperson said that they would go back and re-evaluate their decision to move into the building.

If I had to guess, there was probably a collective sigh of relief from Unisys management and board members. Rumor is that there were very few people who wanted to relocate their office to Philly. And, why would they? There are plenty of reasons to stay away, from the traffic (ever taken the Schuylkill Expressway?) to the City Wage Tax.

Of course, Unisys is going to have to go somewhere. They sold their current campus years ago in a cost-cutting measure and their lease will not be renewed.

Microsoft bows under Virtualization Pressure

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:40:00 +0000

One can argue that as Microsoft goes, so does the industry. But, more and more, Microsoft is under pressure to bow to the industry. Chinks in the armor started to appear with the dawn of the web. Netscape took the immediate lead. But, Microsoft countered, as they typically do, and won with IE.

The typo modus operandi for Microsoft, IMHO, is this. A new technology emerges and Microsoft is late to market with an inferior product. They finally wake up and try to build a better mouse trap. typically, they fail. So they do the next best thing. They buy one of the major players.

However, this MO is not working for them lately. You saw this with open source, specifically Linux. Microsoft is not able to defeat Linux, so they bought one of the leaders. Ok, so they didn't buy Novell, but they are certainly beholden to Microsoft now. And, let's not forget their attempt to kill Linux by throwing millions into SCO. You will notice, however, that they have recently taken a softer stance on open source and are trying to be better IT citizens.

It is happening again in the world of search engines. Google is kicking their proverbial ass. So, they tried to make a superior product (MSN) and are failing. Next step? Buy the major competitor to Google: Yahoo!. But, that didn't happen. So, we will see what happens next.

Let's move on to the meat of this post: Virtualization. Microsoft was late to the space. VMware has 87% of the market and continues to innovate. Meanwhile, Xen (Citrix) is the open source player who could also threaten. Microsoft tried for a long time to squash it and their licensing and support models gave no room for VMware to be a part of a Microsoft-run data center. So, first they innovate. Virtual Server was a lame attempt. Now, however, this Hyper-V product was a second shot and it may well be the first time in a long time that their product is actually BETTER than the competition. Time will tell.

But,the news is that Microsoft realizes that Virtualization is here to stay. To that end, they announced major changes to their licensing and support policies for 41 applications. Here are the details:

SUPPORT
- OLD: No support for VMs. If you have a problem, you must be able to duplicate it on a physical server.
- NEW: MS will now support 41 applications (SQL Server, Exchange, IIS, etc) in a VM. VMware is currently not in the program. But, that will change shortly.\, I imagine.
LICENSE
- OLD: The old policy stated that software was linked to a physical server and could only be moved once every 90 days, a definite challenge in the virtualization world.
- NEW: This policy is gone. Applications can be moved dynamically.

Good news for everyone!

I am hiring at PERFMAN

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:18:00 +0000

I am now ready to start building my marketing team and I am looking for two capable professionals in the Philly area. You can find the details on LinkedIn:

Marketing Communications Manager

Product Marketing Manager

If you think you have what it takes, let me know. I am especially looking for folks who have had experience in the enterprise software space and knowledge/experience in the IT operations and virtualization space.

Unisys in fight over building signage

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:33:00 +0000

There are times when marketing can go too far. Unisys has done just that. But, I wonder if they have an ulterior motive.

Earlier this year, Unisys announced that they were moving their corporate headquarters from Blue Bell, PA to downtown Philly. Why? Its a long story that is directly tied to their revenue or lack thereof. They have had such horrible financial results over the course of many years. Because of that they sold the campus they currently call home and leased it back from the new owners. They have continued to shrink from what was once a $20 billion dollar company to around $5 billion and the space is just too big for them. The thought, I assume, was get out of Blue Bell (because their lease is expiring,) and move downtown to get themselves back in the mix.

They chose one of the new Liberty buildings and they will occupy a couple of floors. But, they want to put 2 16-foot high lighted signs on the sides of the building. Are you kidding me? If they had half of the building, maybe. But, they only have 2 floors.

So, the whole thing is now before the zoning board and there is a battle brewing. Rumor has it that no one wants to go to the new Philly office because of the city wage tax, the additional commute, the cost of traveling downtown, etc. They are literally struggling to find 150 people to move there.

Maybe they are using this sign issue as a way to get out the move. Maybe they are hoping that they lose the battle and can get out of the deal.

As an ex-employee of Unisys, I can not believe that Joe McGrath still has a job (or many of the executives for that matter). What was once a great company is no more. Take a look at their Income Statement. Yahoo! has the income statements for the prior three years and each year they have lost millions of dollars. Yet, McGrath continues to get raises and bonuses while good people are laid off. And the ones that are still there are being treated so poorly it is unethical.

MMI wants to split the company up. Its unfortunate that it has gotten to that point, but it is the only option left. But, first, fire the management team.

I saw the writing on the wall and got out in 2006. The company is out-of-business, dead-in-the-water, finished. They just don't know it yet.

Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Management Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:05:00 +0000

Day Two at the Gartner Summit and all systems are go. The show is much smaller than last year, from what I can tell. But, the crowd is generally enthusiastic and those that we talked to are very interested in PERFMAN.

This was the first step in a rebirth for PERFMAN. To coincide with the show, we re-launched our website with new branding and messaging. It is hard to imagine a software company being in business for over 20 years with hundreds of customers such as : Nestle, Lockheed Martin, JB Hunt, Conseco, the IRS and NOT having any recognition in the marketplace. Well, I was wrong, Gartner knows who we are and our log was on the slide deck!

And that transitions to my next topic. The show itself was decent for a guy like me who is new to the space. If you are trying to learn a new market, a Gartner show is fabulous. But, if you are already up to your neck in the space, then you typically have to wade through the presentations to get your nuggets. Gartner Summit events in my experience (this one and the Open Source Summit) are very motherhood and apple pie. They spend most of their time in the ether and rarely dive down below 50,000 feet.

Forrester, on the other hand, will get specific and tactical. And, personally, I think that leads to better successes for the participants.

Anyway, the show is almost over and then its back home to build the marketing machine. Take a look at the new site and give me your thoughts. Its not the final product, but its a start.

Personal Internet Use at Work

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:21:00 +0000

A new study on "cyberslacking" was posted in the June issue of CyberPsycology and Behavior Journal (who knew there was such a thing) says that not all personal internet use at work is detrimental and that companies should not have a black and white policy against it.

I couldn't agree more. In today's world, the lines between work and personal are just too blurred. Take me for example. Currently, I am commuting almost an hour and a half each way to work. That means I don't get home until seven and last night 8:30pm. So, in order to make up for that, I need to get a few things done at the office. If not, the alternative is that I leave early. And, how many people don't go home and get online to do personal things and end up doing something work related. Every night I end up checking website stats, proofing some copy on the new site, reading an article about a competitor or the industry.

Putting in place a policy that states no personal internet use is actually detrimental to the company itself. Most of us are salaried employees, meaning we get paid no matter how many hours we work. So, do you think most slack off and put in less hours? Not a chance. Most of us put in 50 or more hours in the office and more at home. So what that I check the bank account for my wife or read an article about Tiger Woods. That 10 minutes is a sanity break to allow my mind to relax a bit before I dig into the next big project.

Web 2.0 Tool for Competitive Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:07:00 +0000

In my quest to understand the market and do some competitive analysis, I found 2 great new tools that make competitive analysis a breeze. Both are from the same company.

The first is call Competitious and is their first effort at a web 2.0 competitive analysis. The second is their GA product call RivalMap. I started using Competitious and then found RivalMap via their blog after 8 hours of importing data. Luckily RivalMap has a simple conversion tool.

RivalMap allows you to add your competitors, their products, etc. You can also add RSS feeds, a wiki for each and you can build a complex competitive feature comparison. Finally, it also enables uploading of files and SWOT analysis. There are multiple versions, based on number of users and file space, but the basic version is free. The most expensive version is $199/month for 25 users and 30GB of storage. Above that is an "Enterprise" version. Not too bad if you ask me.

The Next Chapter...PERFMAN

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:06:00 +0000

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I was preparing to depart EnterpriseDB and I outlined the reasons in this blog post. Word has gotten out and my departure was mentioned along with the new CEO at EnterpriseDB by Matt Aslett and The 451 Group yesterday.

Well, without further ado, I wanted to announce where I have landed... The company is called PERFMAN. But, don't go looking for the site yet. Let me provide you with a bit of an explanation first.

PERFMAN is what I like to call a 20 year-old startup. Why? Well, PERFMAN has been in business since 1987. They have hundreds of customers who are very happy with their product and they have had 100% implementation success. They are also profitable. But, they have no sales and marketing organization. Their business is word of mouth and a couple of trade shows. So, what makes them a start-up? The difference is that now the company is focusing on growth and the pieces are being assembled to enable that growth.

What does PERFMAN do? PERFMAN is a pioneer in the performance and capacity management space. Their product suite works across multiple platforms form mainframes (z/OS) to Unix (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris) to Windows and Linux and even manages VMware! It is very robust and powerful.

So, I have joined the team as the VP of Marketing and will be helping to reshape and expand their presence in the market. My first job...a new corporate presence and new product positioning.

Go ahead and look at it now (www.perfman.com). It will look dramatically different in a few weeks.

I am very excited about this opportunity and will be posting a lot more about this space as I blog. But, for those of you who rely on me for open source and database banter, especially my unrelenting attacks on Oracle and MySQL, have no fear. I have no intention of stopping that.

New CEO at EnterpriseDB

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:51:00 +0000

As I am sure most of you have heard by now, EnterpriseDB announced their new CEO today. Ed Boyajian, formerly of Red Hat fame, will be taking over the reigns at EnterpriseDB on June 9. You can read the whole story here.

This is great news for EnterpriseDB. Though I was not directly involved in the selection process, I did get a chance to work with Ed briefly before I left the company and I have to say that he is just what the doctor ordered. Andy has done a phenomenal job growing the company from an idea to 300 customers and millions of dollars in sales. Ed will now come in to take the baton from Andy to drive this company to take its rightful place as the leading open source database company.

Andy will be staying on, of course. He will continue to focus his efforts on strategic business development, a role he has had from the beginning.

Congratulations to EnterpriseDB and the team!

ANTs in my pants

noreply@blogger.com (Derek M. Rodner) — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:18:00 +0000

You know, I really don't know what to make of these guys. I mean, we all know they are rowboat adrift in the sea. But, have you ever seen a more scatterbrained company in your life? I wrote about them on September 19, 2007 because I got a kick out of their "no news" press releases. I have never seen more thinly veiled attempts to make themselves bigger than they are. But, up until now, they were merely ants. After all, they are a publicly traded company but their revenue numbers have been pathetic. In 2005, they did almost a half million dollars in revenue. That's right, I said a half million, or $467,000 to be exact. In 2006, it got worse at $288,000 in revenue and last year they did $360,000.

Yet, they continue to drone on about their "consortium" which, from the outside simply looks like a beta program. Its no consortium. They made a big deal out of a Cadbury Schweppes deal and I thought they were getting somewhere, but that amounted to a single, small app that was nothing.

And, they continue to mention a major deal with IBM that COULD be worth millions over time. You can read about it in every SEC filing. But, it has never materialized. And, the last time I checked, IBM's money and backing went to... US!

They announced a major Oracle partnership, but Oracle never acknowledges their existence. I think they simply signed up for the partner program at oracle and paid the $1500. End of story. (for details on these releases, check out my previous post about ANTs)

But, they continue to get more private funding... and this quarter has seen some real action...finally. Sybase is paying them $1.4 million to do whatever they want with the entire product line from ANTs. Not a bad deal really for Sybase, though, had they waited another 12 months, I think they could have gotten for free in the fire sale. This means that Sybase can do whatever they want with the product, including reselling it without paying another dime to ANTs. Sounds desperate if you ask me.

Then, this month they announced that they were acquiring Inventa Technologies. a professional services company. And of course, in order to do that, they needed MORE financing. Throwing good money after bad, if you ask me. At some point, you just have to say enough already and recognize its time to move on.

But, it gets better. Today ANTs announced that they have sold 1/2 of their product suite (along with a few bodies) to Four J's Software. Why would Four J's want it? Because it is the underlying technology of their Genero db product.

So, I haven't taken the time to figure out the total numbers yet, but it seems that ANTs has paid millions for Inventa and yet have basically sold everything to everyone else. Yes, they still have the compatibility product. But, so does Sybase. And I don't suspect that anyone else is going to come knocking on their door...other than the shareholders... ;)