Recent update...

Not the boasting kind, but for once I don't mind doing it ! :) Check it here.

Jonathan, looking forward to working with you !

Writing to the Sunday Times ("Tech Talk with Devaka")

Sorry for the fairly long radio silence. Been busy lately with lots of work. I started writing to a magazine here in Sri Lanka which is published every Sunday by the Sunday Times. You can check out the on-line version of the articles here under the "Mirror" weekly issues.

OpenOffice hitting the sky !

So guess what... The most popular free and open source alternative to Microsoft Word "OpenOffice" is hitting an all time high on downloads. Its so much that their web site is down :) Here's a screenshot of it. (Sorry ! You need to squint your eyes to read it..but basically it says "Apologies - our website is struggling to cope with the unprecedented demand for the new release 3.0 of OpenOffice......")

This is a fine example, showing the increase of FOSS adoption in the industry. Well done OpenOffice !

Down economy = Eye opener

Funny equation isn't it ? :)

But lets think about it for a bit. I think its a very timely subject.

Most companies spend billions of $$ on their IT infrastructure. Most even boast about it, because they believe the more $$ you spend on your IT the better it becomes. This of course, brought in heaps of money to software vendors and system integrators. Good for them !

Bottom line - There was plenty of green to be spent lavishly in getting an IT infrastructure built for a corporation.

This was then....how about now ?

When the economies are slowing down, executives will start hitting the books and see where can I cut back costs....and all of a sudden they see the IT costs....HOLY CRAP ! This is way too much..lets cut back ! cut back !

Why would you want to cut back ? Couple of reasons I can think of.

1 - If the system(s) is not utilized effectively and you see that the ROI is low

2 - If the system(s) is still under development and not certain of the return

3 - Long term costs such as maintenance is extremely high !

These are some of the issues a typical CTO/CIO will be pressured on by his board of directors.

So I say again.............Cut back ???? Hell NO !

NOW is the time to rethink your IT strategy and move forward in executing it. If you think of the situation differently, BECAUSE you are restraint by budget cuts you are forced to look at developing a solution which addresses the above reasons.

CTOs and CIOs get cracking now ! :)

Ideally, these issues should have been addressed at the very beginning of the IT plan. Formulating an IT plan that will result in "short term" results by applying IT in the critical areas of the corporation and increasing efficiency of operations. This is a hard rule EVERY company must follow...well, that's what I think :)

REMEMBER - At some point, this recession period will end. That is the way of things in this world...its nature. And when it happens, I strongly believe it is those who have carried forward their IT strategy through this period that will take off and leave the rest that had "cut back" on IT waay behind.

My tips on delivering a speech

Here's something different :) I've been doing several presentations to CXO level audiences recently and I've gotten pretty good feedback. So I must be doing SOMETHING right and wanted to share some pointers that I follow when delivering a speech.

1 - Prior to giving your speech, get a feel of the audience

There are different kinds of audiences and its not easy to figure them out. But what I usually do is to figure out the following;

• What's the average age of the crowd ?
• What's their interest level (one way I measure this is by seeing how many of them have notepads !)
• Are they a passive crowd ? or not ?
• What sort of knowledge do they have in the area you will be talking on ? (I do this by mingling with the crowd few minutes before the speech and getting to know a bit about them)

2 - Relax yourself - FIRST impression lasts the longest

Hmmm...now THATS easy :) I know its not. Even I get nervous before I get on stage. But when you do get on stage you HAVE to relax yourself. Body language and tone is much more important at the beginning of the speech than the content you will be talking on. The first few minutes of your speech is CRITICAL.

3 - Don't dive straight into your topic

I always make it a point to start off by saying something completely non-related to the topic...usually its a joke. (While I was in India I started off asking questions about cricketers....with caution ;) ) Doing this helps to "reset" the audience from whatever the mind set they were in before and ready to listen to what you have to say.

4 - Talk SLOW

This might sound weird, but most people tend to go super-speed when NOT relaxed. Slow down people ! :)

5 - Try not to look at each of the slides

This might be difficult if its a technical presentation, but my point is that don't break your flow of speech by looking at each slide as it moves from one to the next. You already know what's in the next slide so continue talking as you switch to the next (not looking at it) and when needed ONLY look at it and explain.

6 - Don't READ OUT THE SLIDE !

This is so important. I see no point whatsoever by reading out what's in the freaking slide ! You put the text on a slide BECAUSE you wanted the audience to read ! This kills the interest level of the audience and almost immediately gives a negative view of the presenter.

I'm no expert in this, but my somewhat unorthodox methods have been effective for me. I'm not sure whether it'll work for everyone, but hey 'sharing' is 'caring' :)

Time to show the true colors of FOSS

Its all chaos in the business world these days. I'm keeping my eye out for the next big giant to fall ! :)

I believe this is the opportune moment for Free and Open Source Software to shine. Delivering enterprise level solutions at incredible low costs.

There was this barrier for FOSS when there was an industry proven, recognized proprietary software which was always the "1st option" for customers. FOSS always took 2nd place. Things are changing now. More and more corporations are looking to cut down on costs and definitely NOT looking at spending billions on purchasing software !

We've had customers, specially in the insurance and financial industries (duh ! big surprise there) looking at "Open Source" SOA platforms to replace their existing systems. To think that big names in these industries are looking at open source alternatives, means a lot. If they do, pretty much everyone else will too...at some point.

System integrators are also getting choked by the current crisis. Their customers are halting all the new expanding projects so that they can reduce costs.

Our SI partners now have the competitive edge to offer these customers the same solution at a fraction of the cost they had initially estimated.

Time to shine boys ! (Thats to me homies at office ! :) )

Innovation and Productivity through WSO2

I was in India last week attending meetings with some of the biggest companies in the world. Namely TATA (Revenue: USD 62.5 billion), Infosys (Revenue : USD 4.18 billion), Wipro (Revenue: USD 8 billion) and Satyam (Revenue: USD 5 billion).

The scale of operation of these companies are incredible. Apart from TATA, the rest are in the top 10 of the largest System Integrator companies in the world. Basically, they develop IT solutions for customers. Each has somewhere close to around 70,000 - 80,000 people. Wipro has almost 100,000 people.

My job was to 'sell' WSO2 to each of these companies. Selling is not an easy task for a company such as us. Specially when we are truly a free and open source software company. I say 'truly' for many reasons.

1 - We don't have dual licenses like Mule. Just one license which is Apache 2.0. What you download is the same that goes into production.

2 - All development activities are open to the public

3 - We've built our products with the 'developer' in mind.... Not a paying customer

4 - We let others see the value in us, as opposed to us telling them. "We provide...you decide"

5 - All the products are 100% free and open source

How do these reasons translate into any value to a customer ?

As we all know, the business world is slowing down. Lehman brothers went under, Merrill Lynch got bought off, AIG got bought off so basically its not a pretty sight. In such situations companies will look to cutting down costs.....and IT is the first thing they would focus on.

SOA was modeled in such a way that you wouldn't have to cut down IT costs. Firstly by identifying and applying IT into application areas you know that will yield increased revenue in the short term and then increasing your efficiency of work by having stable work flows in place.

So 'SOA' is sellable. But the means to achieving it has a cost. Cost in terms of purchasing the technology and the cost in building an SOA solution. THIS is where we provide value.

Our technology is extremely simple, agile and easy to understand. We've used Apache WS projects which were born and grown within the largest open source middleware community. So this technology has been used by millions of developers/users hence extremely developer friendly. This increases a developers productivity by multi-folds. System integrators adore this kind of value because they work with thousands of developers ! Also, because the technology is been built on Open Standards, interoperability is addressed to its fullest. It also provides with the flexibility for developers to explore new ways of doing things in different formats. What does this result in ?...... Innovation.

You put Innovation and productivity together....COST comes down drastically. And we're not talking about purchasing cost yet !

Purchasing cost....zip ! Its free !! Support pricing we offer is reasonable and if you like I can show you the figures....IF you become a client of ours ! :)

You'd be amazed the total cost a WSO2 customer has to bare in order to achieve an SOA solution using our stuff as opposed to buying a proprietary solution.