Who remembers John Conway's Game of Life from 1970?  (I think my first "graphic" programming effort was this thing around 1977 - probably written in PL/1 - really dates me!).  Thoughts around these types of computer simulation (often mimicing something in the biological world) triggered much of the efforts around Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

AI came in fits and starts, and some of it has proven useful when applied to real-world problems.  AI has not have that stellar a success rate in the management of IT systems (who remembers Neugents from Computer Associates?). 

What got me thinking about this is an article in the July 2007 National Geographic by Peter Miller titled "Swarm Theory."  In the article, Deborah Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University says "Ants aren't smart, ant colonies are."  One implication is that while building AI software systems to do things that come naturally to human 3-year olds is a struggle, it is possible to build systems that are at least as smart as an ant.  Collections of these "software ants" can then do useful things together.

Simple creatures following simple rules, each acting on local information, drives "swarm intelligence."  (There's a nod to James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds here.)  In the article, Miller lists a number of amazing applications of this technique - both in the animal/insect world and in the technology world.  One example is telephone companies using "virtual pheromone deposits" in switches to indicate best paths for call setup and transmission. I can envision software using these methods in grid and datacenter computing, performance balancing, etc. Check out the article and especially the great photos.

(written 07/31/07)

This week BMC announced the acquisition of RealOps, a leading Run Book Automation (RBA) vendor.  I'm very excited about this addition to BMC.  I've known Sean McDermott and his team at RealOps for a few years, and this is one of those technologies that makes you scratch your head and ask "Why didn't we think of this sooner?"

IT groups have been creating automation to run their environments forever (at least since the early days of mainframe console automation) and the vast majority of this automation was accomplished through arcane rules defintions or piles of (usually undocumented) scripts (Perl, Rexx, Shell, etc.).  RBA offerings have taken a page from the Business Process Management (BPM) tool sets and introduced the idea of graphical design for process and task workflows, robust run-time engines and libraries of integration adaptors.  The result is faster automation (especially of complex workflows) and process documentation.  I truly believe every IT shop will adopt this technology relatively quickly - the payback period is short, the time-to-value is short and organizations gain a general-purpose "swiss army knife" sort of product that is going to be used a variety of valuable ways.

While the core capabilities will be useful to all customers to design custom process flows, many will look for the workflow applications that can also be provided on top of the run-time environment. This wll be a boon to vendors and service providers alike.  While still an emerging market, I think RBA solutions are going to have one of the fastest adoption rates of anything we've seen in the IT operational realm in quite a while.

(written 07/20/07)

I've recently been on the road at some customer visits as well as participating in a number of field briefings covering BSM solutions.  It is interesting to observe the audience while other BMC folks and partners are presenting. While everything we talk about is compelling to someone, there is always something that really grabs the audience every time they see it - our  Dashboards for BSM product.  People really "wake up" and pay attention, the questions start flowing, and they want to get their hands on it.

This technology has a very slick RIA (Rich Internet Application) user interface (developed using Adobe Flex).  I've always felt many software products are found wanting when it comes to the user interface, and while the interface is often a small part of the overall code body for many complex applications, the interface can make or break many products.

This is what makes the Apple iPhone the instant hit it has been.  It is what makes Google Maps for Blackberry so popular (one of the neatest and most useful Blackberry apps I've used).

Many kudos to my good friends Ash Arora and Tom Bishop (podcast here) for making Dashboards happen at BMC!

(written 07/05/07)

Recently finished reading The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis - great book, highly recommended.  It's really 2 stories in one - the evolution of the NFL where the left side offensive tackle has emerged as the "most valuable player" position over the past few years (because that person protects the quarterback's "blind side" on passing plays, especially with the rise of passing offenses and the counterbalancing defensive pass rushers), as well as the personal story of Michael Oher, a young man from Memphis with a preternatural ability that fits that offensive tackle position very well.

The book got me thinking about most valuable player positions in any organization, and how that position in IT organizations has evolved over time with the rise and fall of technology and the shifts in business use of information technology.  A number of us can remember when the most in demand skill included areas like "CICS application programmer" or "IMS Database Administrator."  As technology emerges and cranks through its cycles, the skill set needed in IT shops shifts with it. Additionally, the rise of the global, interconnected world (i.e., The World is Flat theories) has enabled those skill sets to move to the most productive and cost efficient locations (making the IT labor market truly open like the free agency model in professional football).

While those things may be true, and will continue to evolve over time - there are at least two skills that I believe will always be in high demand:  Architects and Business/Technology Analysts.  People that can understand and speak the language both of business and what technology can do for it, and translate business requirements (often messy) into technology reality will always command a premium in the market.  Generally, these types can also translate the power of technology into "layman's" terms.  This premise has driven the rise of the consulting services businesses for the past 20 years.  Organizations that find people with those skills should be good stewards of that asset - encourage them, enable them, retain them and reward them. 

(written 06/22/07)