I, too, wish the best for the U2 team in their move to this new company. Some of these folks in Denver were part of Unidata, then Ardent, then Informix, then IBM and now Rocket Software in the span of 13 years or so (not looking it up right now). That is a different way of changing what company you work for than going the route of having to switch desks too.
While I don't know enough about Rocket Software to have an idea whether this will be good for the future of U2, just seeing IMS mentioned on their web site, gives me pause. While I have fond memories of my time spent working on IMS CICS COBOL apps, that is not software that gets enhanced. Your (Tony's) impression on that point is similar to mine. Is this a move for U2 to thrive or more related to survival than growth? I can't help but feel like I dodged a bullet on this one with my emerging software company, but have colleagues and an occasional client using U2 so I still keep a toe in this world and care where U2 heads. When weighing platforms earlier, the biggest plus that U2 had for me was that it was IBM (also that I knew and liked it and did feel some loyalty). I went with Cache' for features (AJAX integration with MV with no php, java or other middleware required, for example), however. I imagine there are folks who stuck with or moved to U2 because of IBM. I am feeling their pain in this. This new company has grown from 200 to 700 employees quickly, it appears, through acquisitions, if I am reading things right. I am very curious what their interest is in U2. I look forward to hearing what Chuck and others find out after scheduling a call with them. Although I am not working with U2 regularly anymore, I sure hope that Rocket Software can assure U2 customers that they will not do to U2 what Raining Data did to D3. --dawn On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Tony Gravagno <[email protected]> wrote: >> From: Bill Haskett >> Ouch! And we moved over to U2 for the IBM name. > > That's not a trivial point. Of the companies who have bought > into U2 or stuck with the databases through their adventuresome > history, I'd say a significant percentage have this platform > rather than an MV competitor's because of the branding rather > than the feature set. I'm sure most companies will stick with > the platform to avoid the pain of migration, but some soul > searching is in order for those who like to associate themselves > with large and stable names. > > I've always felt the perception of the significance of IBM > branding has been much higher than the actual benefits derived. > That is - it would have been nice if IBM were as good a business > partner to U2 VARs and end-users as they are to their DB2 > channel. It seems U2 vendors (and end-user IT people who have to > sell their technology choices to their upper management) have > continued to play the Big Blue card, even though at times it > seems IBM Corporate was unaware that these databases even > existed. This could be an opportunity for some market expansion > with a more flexible and nurturing vendor/partner. But I'll say > up front that the profile of Rocket Software fits the "acquire > and sustain" model more than it does the "enhance and expand" > model. It'll probably be at least a couple years before we get a > good picture of how this might play out. > > All that said, I think Susie Siegesmund and her team have done a > great job within the IBM machine to preserve the platforms and > keep them moving forward. My reservations have always been about > what IBM wasn't doing for the platform, which isn't related to > what it looks like the U2 team have done and have been trying to > do. Good luck to everyone on the U2 team making the move. > > Tony Gravagno > Nebula Research and Development > TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com > remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog > Visit PickWiki.com! Contribute! > > _______________________________________________ > U2-Users mailing list > [email protected] > http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users > -- Dawn M. Wolthuis Take and give some delight today _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list [email protected] http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
