May 2009
I guess there's nothing new about big companies gobbling up smaller ones, but I have to say that the recent Sun acquisition by Oracle feels like the end of an era. I've been around long enough to have worked on Sun pizza boxes running Solaris when the rest of the IT community was using minicomputers. And I clearly remember the ascent of Java, my own experience starting with the Beta JDK 1.02 doing GUI Java widgets back in the days of the AWT.
When I think of recent events, the thought that comes to mind is "End of Empire". No one can predict what will happen to Java, mySQL, and all the other great stuff that has come from Sun. But, I'm sure Open Source will prevail, and at any rate, change is always slow--at least under the watch of a behemoth like Oracle.
In contrast, I have to say that working in a start-up, change is anything but slow. Symplified has been leading the SaaS revolution, and it's an exciting place to be. When I look around at the established (dare I say "legacy") IdM companies, I feel that their purported strengths have become their weaknesses. Overblown feature sets and product families that are complex enough to make CIOs reel are not what enterprises need today. High integration costs, elongated deployment timeframes, and high project failure rates are not the characteristics of technology I would recommend to my CIO. But I understand that once invested in a technology, and the code base that drives it, an earlier generation technology provider is challenged to make radical changes to compete with new contenders and adapt to paradigm shifts (like Cloud Computing).
In closing, I am proud to announce Symplified's nomination for the 2009 Apex Awards, the prestigious technology awards recognizing outstanding accomplishments and leadership by Colorado's advanced technology companies and professionals. Honestly, it's hard to say which criteria is our strongest area as we have done well in all: Innovation, Vision, Strategy, Performance, Leadership, Culture, and Corporate Responsibility. So as the big get bigger, I know that the great get greater, and look forward to an exciting third and fourth quarter providing Cloud Security.
Coby Royer
Technical Product Manager
Symplified | The Cloud Security Company
January 2009
We’ve started a new year and the Internet is ripe with resolutions, reflections, and predictions. I’m joining in the trend with a few thoughts of my own (presumably shared by the SaaS and Identity Management Community as well!).
For starters, I’d like to share an image that has stuck with me from President-elect Obama’s golf game on his recent Hawaii holiday. Obama’s Blackberry went flying out of his pocket during a swing and it thrilled me to think of a tech-savvy chief executive and commander in chief (athleticism and national security aside). While I can’t promise correlation to e-commerce and technology friendly national policies, I have to confess a sense of renewed hope for our national outlook overall. The prospect of change is comforting to many, especially those who are adaptive and thrive on innovation.
I’m pleased to see that the outlook for Software as a Service and Cloud Computing remains bright. The industry analyst community consistently agrees on the accelerating trend for SaaS adoption in response to increased economic pressures to reduce operating expenses and basically deliver more for less. Significant chunks of IT budgets remain earmarked for compliance and security as well. For a company like Symplified, this represents a convergence of demand for solutions we offer—Cloud Based Single Sign-On and Web Access Management. Check out our latest Cloud Insights Newsletter: 2009 Gameplan to read more.
In reflecting on 2008, I have to say the excitement of being in a new startup has been contagious. I first encountered Symplified’s founders in evaluating access control products for a Fortune 1000 company some ten years ago. Securant ClearTrust showed a strong market vision and the founders have proven their ability to execute, having now moved on to re-invent this space and address the next generation of mission critical needs for Cloud Computing. This past year was especially exciting for me, having participated in the launch of both the company and the new products I helped foster.
In closing, here are a few quotes about resolutions I found amusing:
“Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man.”
-Ben Franklin
“New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
- Mark Twain
“He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool.”
-F.M. Knowles