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This year’s Open Source Business Conference was the best I’ve seen. Shocking, considering it’s my first one. I was definitely at the bottom of the totem pole in the room – most attendees of this conference are industry leaders. OSBC was run on the highest level I’ve seen at a business conference. Kudos to Matt Asay for putting together some of the smartest minds out there.

OSBC has a CEO track – so I was in my element, soaking it all up. I met some amazing people and gained valuable insight into running DataSync more effectively. Here’s my summary of the event:

• The leaders – Red Hat, Novell, and Sun all had their CEO’s present, and all did a solid job articulating the open source vision and direction. I was most impressed with Red Hat’s new CEO, James Whitehurst, who actually came from Delta Airlines. He has an uncanny understanding of how to monetize open source effectively, while still maintaining a vibrant community.
• Microsoft – I’ve seen this tech giant show up at just about every tech conference I attend, and they always seem grossly misaligned with the idea of open source. This audience was especially hostile. The guy Microsoft had come in (Robert Youngjohns) did a great attempt at embracing the community, but the whole message didn’t make sense. I agree with Matt Asay’s conclusion on the convoluted Microsoft message.
• The sessions – I was very impressed with the sessions I attended. Save for one session, I stayed on the CEO/CMO track. The best sessions I attended were the two CEO panels. I was especially impressed with Mike Olson of Cloudera. Mike was formerly an executive at Oracle and seems to understand how to build software better than just about anyone. He also isn’t afraid to say things how they are. I respect that.
• The message – Everyone talked about the cloud. Everyone. I got sick of hearing it. The main message this year is that the cloud will enable open source to be deployed quickly and inexpensively. I’m sure DataSync will move in that direction as well. The ROI (Return On Investment)/value message also came across strong. With the economy in the dumps, open source is a really attractive option.

Going to OSBC wasn’t free (or cheap!), but it was worth every penny. I gained a ton of knowledge about how the industry works, and how DataSync can compete and win in an industry that commoditizes everything. There’s a massive opportunity for us to make an impact; I’m excited to push forward and continue to create vale in open source software.

I’ve been asked this question a lot recently. Middleware is a notoriously obscure word that gets thrown around in tech circles. However most mere mortals really have no desire to learn what the jargon actually means.

DataSync builds middleware, so it’s important to me that the masses see the light. According to Wikipedia, middleware is “computer software that connects software components or applications”. That’s almost circular logic (software that connects software to software??). This definition confuses me.

Let me make my own attempt: middleware connects the dots between software applications. In other words, middleware is the glue that connects software to other software. Also, the ‘middle’ in middleware means that in some cases it sits between the underlying computer system and user-facing applications.

I’m going to get crucified by many for my definition, but it’s my best attempt at 11pm

Any suggestions on how I could better explain it? Middleware is hugely important to my industry, and I hope to someday explain it easily to just about anyone.

It seems these days that the fear mongering has taken over the news, and a lot of people’s minds. I’ve been hearing from every corner of business lately that the world is ending. It’s not.

DataSync had it’s best month ever in terms of new subscribers last month, and we’re already past that in October. People haven’t stopped doing business, but they have changed how they do it. We happen to host and integrate open source software, which is a much more cost effective alternative to expensive onsite proprietary software.

For those of you in businesses that deliver little value with high upfront cost: beware. The world is ending for you. Our professional services business has slowed significantly, and our hosting business has picked up. I would guess that we’re not the only ones. Businesses are cutting back on expensive consulting projects and moving towards more flexible open solutions.

As I have been in the past, I’m very bullish on all things open. As Matt Asay has mentioned, the recession will be kind to open source companies:

Open source breeds communities, which in turn add value to the software, making this innovation more of a group effort (and, hence, potentially a less costly effort). In turn, open source should be a big winner in this downturn, just as it was in 2000 to 2001.

I’ve gotta agree with Matt here, open source drives a lot of value in a down market. We’ll see what things look like in 6 months

Bear Sterns. AIG. Lehman Brothers. Even Goldman Sachs. The list goes on. Large companies are failing or having liquidity problems in droves. The mortgage crisis is impacting every corner of the global business climate. It’s an interesting note that Oracle is boasting record profits despite the tough economic situation. This will not last. Organizations will not put up with being ripped until they can move to something else. Oracle is nearing the end of it’s stranglehold on software. Why? Open source.

So what does this mean for IT budgets? Aggressive cost cutting. Everywhere. Firms are beefing up on cash and cutting expenses in every area, including IT spending. The first thing to go will be expensive software licenses and internal IT budgets. The problem is that CIO’s can’t eliminate software functionality. However they can move quickly to more cost effective solutions. Expensive proprietary licenses can be eliminated and IT staffing can be reduced.

I happen to run an open source/SaaS firm, and we’ve noticed an upswing in interest from a broad swath of businesses. Why the upswing? 3 major reasons:

1. Flexibility – Businesses are tired of getting locked into a feature set.
2. Control – If the vendor or solution doesn’t work, businesses want the assurance they can take their software and data elsewhere.
3. Cost – Our on-demand (SaaS) and on-premise solutions are 50% below market rates for closed-source solutions.

Let me make a bold statement: an economic downturn of this scale has the potential to change not only the financial sector landscape, but also the software development and delivery industry. High-cost proprietary vendors will have an increasingly difficult task of selling value to an increasingly cost-conscious business world. Open source software has the potential to offer robust software, compatibility and interoperability, and a price point that becomes increasingly attractive.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is also a trend that is poised to gain significant traction because of recent events. Organizations are looking to shed overhead and assets in favor of a dynamic model that can scale with their business. Investing in expensive IT equipment like servers, network equipment, and the staff to run it all is a fixed cost. You can’t run servers with no staff. SaaS solves this. Businesses can grow and shrink dynamically and connect IT costs directly to business size and objectives.

In a time where most businesses are taking big hits, I’m very bullish about the open source/SaaS market. I’m watching it on the ground level, and I see the value proposition growing stronger in many hurting industries.

Something great happened today – DimDim 4.0 came out. It’s the WebEx killer, and the guys at DimDim are even bold enough to put “WebEx is history” on their frontpage.

This web conferencing application lives up to expectations, and more. For months I have been playing with WebEx, GoToMeeting, Yugma (ug), and some other apps. I just couldn’t stomach paying a lot of money (WebEx and GoToMeeting) or using a crappy application (Yugma) for doing sales-critical webinars at DataSync. I’ve used DimDim in the past, but it just wasn’t quite there yet. Version 4.0 changes that.

First, the latest version of this app supports Mac desktop sharing, a requirement for me to function. Second, DimDim is now all flash and doesn’t require any client-side java application to function. It’s about time. DimDim supports whiteboard and PDF sharing inline, a really nice feature to get your audience involved on collaborative projects.

Here’s a a partial feature list from DimDim’s site:

• Share & Present Documents (PPT/PDFs)
• Share Mac & PC Desktops
• Share Whiteboards
• Share Mics (Built in VoIP & teleconferencing)
• Share Webcams (Live video & audio)
• 2-Way Video Chat
• Recording and playback of meetings
• Multiple Presenters (Host lets others share)
• Public Chat (Instant Messaging)
• Annotations and Markup tools
• Scheduled Meetings
• eMail & Calendaring (Outlook integration)
• Localization
• CRM integration (SugarCRM)

We’ve already looked at adding this app to DataSync Suite, and it’s looking really promising. I do webinars all the time, and it’s great to finally have an application that is open source, user friendly, and does exactly what it’s designed to do.

In my years dealing with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, I’ve learned a lot about two highly connected, yet highly diverse areas of life: business and technology.

Naturally I started on the tech side. I came out of the tech field and viewed CRM primarily as technology geared to solve a set of defined requirements. This made my challenge as a CRM implementor simply to execute on the requirements doc.

One problem: there was never a solid requirements doc. Why? Because businesses don’t have a hardline set of rules for running themselves. It’s true: almost every business gets things done by doing them, not figuring out how they actually do things. Almost every business, including our own, is very dynamic and runs on loosly defined proceses.

However CRM runs totally opposite. CRM, in our case SugarCRM, runs on a hardline set of rules for executing tasks and managing information. CRM itself is designed to guarantee that sales, marketing,  customer services processes are run thoroughly and consistently.

Therein lies the issue. Dynamic businesses need defined processes. I have found that the greatest need today isn’t better CRM software or more of it, but instead a complimentary alignment of both systems. CRM must be designed to be loose enough to fit dynamic business. However it must be defined enough to complete business processes accurately and repeatedly.

In my quest to build great software platforms, I am forced to constantly rethink how software is implemented in businesses today. Often software people and business people think very differently, and translating both languages is always challenging. When I completely figure out how both work I’ll let you know

The fear mongering is in full force. The news is full of bank failures, an ongoing housing crisis, and gas prices that won’t go down. Sounds gloomy, eh?

But it isn’t all bad. Open source is poised for a boom. According to OStatic.com, more and more businesses are switching to open source to cut costs and increase value:

“The adoption of OSS continues to increase among banks and investment services firms. Among the investment services firms surveyed, approximately 84 percent expect to be using open source software by the end of 2008. Adoption is most notable in this category because they are impacted by escalating transaction volumes and data processing requirements as well as cost pressures.”

Once again, economic pressures and recessionary environments force businesses to trim fat and get more efficient. This proves the value and long-term benefits of running an open infrastructure. The thinning years prove the meddle of any technology, and it’s great to see confidence in the open source model in times that test any business model.

I was just thinking today how much I like the power of social marketing. DataSync has undergone an astounding transformation over the past year from a bricks and morter IT shop to a full fledged Web 2.0 company. Our original marketing efforts focused on old school sales techniques: door to door, cold calling, beating the street. The result is a rough sales model that costs a ton to implement.

Enter social media. We now get thousands of visitors each month to our website. We participate in the community and value creating strong relationships. Some guys from our network team just created a new website – whatan00b.com for new linux users. We’re all about helping build the ecosystem, and it’s amazing how strong the response has been.

So for those of you who are trying to generate interest the traditional way, think again. We’ve cut marketing costs and increased traffic with using smart methods. To top it all off, we love participating! Open source is all about moving the ecosystem forward, and we’re psyched to help make that happen! If you’re interested in learning more about social media, feel free to drop me a line and I’d be happy to share what’s worked for me.

So we’ve finally finished our first major integration project! The team released a major upgrade to our web software platform – DataSync Suite. From the press release:

DataSync, the development company behind the popular open source integration package DataSync Suite, is proud to annouce the release of DataSync Suite 0.5 beta. Praised by pre-beta testers, DataSync Suite is positioned for explosive growth. DataSync Suite 0.5 features Zimbra/SugarCRM integration, which allows users to archive email from Zimbra directly into SugarCRM using an intuitive AJAX interface. DataSync Suite 0.5 also adds effective administration tools that give admins the ability to add/remove users from all applications with a single operation. Updated documentation is available on the DataSync wiki.

DataSync Suite is based on Web 2.0 open source technology and heavily utilizes Zope 3 for its application framework. DataSync has recently released an aggressive development roadmap for the continued growth of their flagship product.

Good stuff. Kudos to the engineering team to hit this deadline and launch the product!