TechEd

TechEd 2009: Cloud computing not a hot topic

Moving software development and testing to cloud environments wasn’t a hot topic at Microsoft TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles. Sure, there were some TechEd sessions on cloud computing, and
Microsoft cloud computing evangelist Steve Martin talked up Azure; but a good number of attendees, particularly in the software development field, said cloud isn’t on their agenda now.

“People are waiting to see if cloud computing has staying power and what its true importance will be,” said Wayne Ariola, strategy vice president for Parasoft Corp. told me.

Then again, some attendees and vendors at the show are gung-ho about the cloud. For example, Greg Allen — First Financial Bank SCCM 2007 administrator — told me he’s keen on Microsoft’s virtualization and cloud technologies.

Let’s take a look at what people on both sides of the cloud had to say at TechEd.

Some attendees said that development teams with a wait-and-see cloud adoption strategy could be eating early adopters’ dust. They noted the advantages of using cloud environments for software testing; particularly the ability to test applications in a full production environment.

While the pro-cloud people I met at TechEd don’t advocate dropping development into cloud computing without due diligence, they do think that companies should prepare for and do pilots in cloud environments today.

“It’s not a future technology. It’s a now technology,” said Margaret Lewis, AMD director of commercial ISV marketing. Indeed, she thinks cloud computing is a disruptive technology with the potential to help the economy recover. She foresees the emergence of a bevy of boutique cloud providers for various vertical and horizontal markets. In this video, she explains why cloud preparation and usage should be on software companies’ agenda.

While Lewis sees cloud computing as a recession beater, others at TechEd said that the economy will hold up cloud adoption.

The recession has forced many companies to stall, scrap or not start development projects, moving what’s left to the cloud isn’t a compelling objective now. “They’re also waiting they don’t see cloud as operationally necessary or strategic competitively,” said Ariola. Also, he’s talked to quite a few companies that recently adopted virtualization to consolidate servers, particularly in their test/dev labs, and are happy with the results. They don’t feel an immediate need to do another move right now.

In my TechEd conversations, about a dozen people opined that cloud services aren’t mature or production-ready. Their views reminded me of my recent interview with Eugene Ciurana, director of systems infrastructure at LeapFrog Enterprises, a large U.S. educational toy company, in which he warned that cloud service-level agreements aren’t up to par.

Cloud providers have to work out some thorny issues before scores of development teams get on board, Ariola said. In his work in the field, Ariola has heard many ISVs express concerns about cloud security. Those fears may be well-founded, according to this week’s Forrester Research report citing problems early cloud adopters have had with customer privacy protection.

Ariola thinks dev/test could be a killer app for cloud computing at some point, but right now “it’s not on most application developers radar.” He likened the cloud’s clout today to that of service-oriented architectures (SOA) in its early days. “This is a major change, and it won’t take place overnight.”

Yes, the cloud adoption pros and cons debate will continue for a while. Watch this blog, as well as SearchSoftwareQuality.com and SearchCloudComputing.com, for more information. Meanwhile, check out the news and views in these recent articles and videos:

• Feds get specific on cloud interoperability
• Testing software in the cloud: Pros and cons
• Testing software with Amazon Web Services (AWS)

TechEd panel gives developers, testers recession-savvy career tips

Developers should get their noses off the coding grindstone and spend time developing expertise in a future technology, consultant Ted Neward advised during the Microsoft TechEd panel discussion on “Surviving the downturn.” Too often, he said, developers are so focused on current projects that they don’t think about advancing their careers.

So, if developers should be studying future technologies, what should they choose? “Choose something that will make you rich and something that will make you happy,” said panelist and consultant Aaron Erickson.

In this post, I’ll share some of the career advice from the panel discussion, held at the TechEd conference in Los Angeles. Panelists included Microsoft MVP Rachel Appel; consultant Aaron Erickson; Headspring CTO Jeffrey Palermo and principal consultant Eric Hexter; and moderator Bryan Von Axelson, a Microsoft partner solutions advisor.

When choosing which technologies to study, do some homework so you’ll know which technologies are not going to be winners in the long term, Palermo said. For example, he ignored the first version of Windows Workflow. Other panelists laughingly agreed he’d made a good choice.

“Work on something that raises the bar,” said Hexter. Choose technologies that can help your company leap ahead of competitors.

Neward advised developers to learn a new language every year, even though it may be an exhausting process. Frankly, he said, developers must accept that they’ll always be in school. “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse,” he said. “If you’re not excited by a constant pace of learning, you’re not in the right field. The IT space has a higher pace of change than other industries.”

A good practice for ongoing learning is to first learn concepts more than details, Neward said. Once your interest in piqued, other panelists added, then drill down and become an expert on the how-to details.

Don’t just focus on development to do your job better, panelists advised. Beyond studying technologies, expose yourself to different segments of development and IT.

Just being an expert in one job, like programming, is short-sighted, Palermo said. Pay attention to what the other IT guys are doing.

“Go for something beyond your comfort zone,” Appel said. Learning about database management, for instance, could help a developer approach problems in a different manner. Others suggested shadowing data center, network and other managers.

Too many IT people focus on technologies and not business processes, Palermo said. Those who understand the fundamentals of solving business problems will develop better products that meet business requirements.

After the panel discussion, I interviewed Neward about issues relating to software testers. He said that being able to pitch the value – in dollars and cents – of your team’s role in development is critically important during an economic downturn. Here he answers questions about the impact of the recession on software testing, ways software testers can show the value of testing in dollars and cents and career strategies.

IT pros: Good news in Microsoft TechEd keynotes, sort of

The keynotes at Microsoft TechEd in Los Angeles today brought mixed reactions from attendees today, according to the 23 IT pros I quickly interviewed as they exited. Most were enthused about promised new enhancements to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2’s virtualization features. Others wanted Microsoft to give them new technology that they can use today.

The happiest news, most attendees said, is that a new Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RC may be released this year. The release date was sort of promised by Bill Veghte – senior vice president of the Widows Business at Microsoft – during his keynote. He said that testing and partner feedback indicates that “Windows 7 is tracking well for holiday availability.”

Microsoft’s planned enhancements to existing virtualization products are good news for Greg Allen, SCCM 2007 administrator for a large financial institution. He sees virtualization bringing great opportunities for savings on server costs and more configuration flexibilitly.

On the flip side, attendees wanted more birds in the hand than in the future, future releases. “I didn’t see or hear anything new or exciting,” Chris Aker of Reed Elsevier Inc. told me. “Mostly, they talked about products I’ve heard about before.”

Zennith Borrego of Ysleta School District’s Technology also came away from the keynote with a positive take on Windows 7. Here’s a video clip from my interview with her.

For in-depth news and updates, watch this space and TechTarget’s Microsoft TechEd news roundup.