Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Management Summit

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

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

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

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

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!