As a Microsoft Channel Partner and reseller, I can tell you that dot NET has had similar problems with market penetration. The big changes in Studio and the rather steep learning curve to become proficient may well pay off at some time, but so far it has been slow to catch on. The multitudes of VB programmers are having to learn it all over again due to lack of backward compatibility and syntax changes needed to embrace OOP. MS implementation of SOAP is likewise not mature as yet either. One hears quite a bit of ballyhoo about pure JAVA, however, its implementation leaves much to be desired as well. As a result, I am advising my clients to be careful about putting one's eggs in just one basket. With the adoption of "standards" ( depends on whose standards you wish to look at) not being very mature, the entire market for Web Services is going to be in a state of flux for a long time to come, and the vendors seem to be trying to overcome inherent weaknesses with marketing, as opposed to product.
I have just taken a look at Microsoft's newest server entry, dot NET enterprise, I can see that giant steps have been taken in ease of setup and administration (It is almost as if they are trying to put the system admins out of business) with features such as built-in SMTP hosting and POP3 features which will permit almost any server to be an email host, without the burdensome Exchange server or other email server overlays. Very easy to set up and administer for shared hosting, and most of the other server functions which in the past have been really complex. The built-in MSDE is going to speed up most any database functions that have been very resource intensive in the past. MS is taking security very seriously as they market their server products to the enterprise, and there are many new security features in the product. IBM has embraced both Linux and ColdFusion on their WebSphere (java) server product, which tells me that CF is not going away anytime soon. Version 4 of MySQL is soon to be released, which will make this database product very competitive with the former mainstream products such as Oracle, MSSQL, Sybase, and SAP. Being open-source, the savings in licensing costs alone are starting to get major attention from clients. That said, the US military, and other agencies have negotiated enterprise licensing from Oracle, and are fast replacing their hodge-podge of FoxPro, Sybase, MSSQL, and other database products with Oracle as a standard. For those *nix aficionados who love to bash vulnerabilities in Microsoft products, I like to mention that as a hosting provider who uses both platforms, of the security patches over the past month or so, they have been coming more numerous on the Linux platform as new vulnerabilities are being exposed. All in all, the client is becoming much more sophisticated, and is reluctant to purchase whatever technology that comes along unless there are compelling reasons, such as ROI and cost-effectiveness inherent in the offering,. For the developer, the market has changed in the past year or so from a seller's (developer) market to a buyer's (client) market, and thus wages are dropping as there appear to be more developers seeking work than there are clients looking for them. Also they are looking for more multi-skilled developers as opposed to gurus in only one software product. Bottom line is that no one particular product will have the easy sledding as they have enjoyed in the past. CF is a great product, don't give up on it yet! ================================ This address is filtered through the open relay database at http://www.ordb.org and is virus scanned by ANTIVIR http://www.dwhite.ws mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kris Pilles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 7:51 AM Subject: RE: How Good is the Job Market for ColdFusion? | Interesting to find some of this out. We are in a position that I think | many organizations are in. We've been priamrilly a CF house for well | over 2 years and we purchased MX enterprise but have yet to install it | because of the growing popularity of .NET . I really enjoy CF and love | what I can do with it and how fast I can develop with it but... I think | that our IT director along with a good part of me is feeling pressure to | switch over to .NET entirely. The biggest reason is .NET's ability to | allow us to develop for a multitude of enviroments... Thin client, | clinet server, web based etc... This will allow our organization to | have all of their programmers working on the same platform thus creating | an internal community where everyone can help everyone else out and | learn from each other.. | | While CF is a great product, it can not offer this type of | standardization to us. I am a strong believer in CF and will continue | to use it for development for my personal business sites as well as any | development I contract but in a corporate enviroment where many | different applications are being developed and supported, I have no | solid reasons as to why we shouldn't switch to .NET | | KP | | -----Original Message----- | From: Vernon Viehe [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] | Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 7:25 PM | To: CF-Talk | Subject: RE: How Good is the Job Market for ColdFusion? | | | >The enterprise penetration of MX has been weak. MM would blame this | on the marketplace, but I'm not sold on this. | | Server version upgrade cycles in the enterprise app-server space is | around 12 months, according to those I've discussed it with. We're | really only about halfway through the cycle at this time. The overall | installed CF base is pretty healthy, and growing. Here's a partial list | of existing CF sites we use for PR/marketing: | http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/proven/ | | Even considering the upgrade cycle in the enterprise app-server world, | the list of CFMX enterprise sites is growing every day. The following | are a few of the CFMX sites recently sent to me: | | http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/ | http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?countryid=19&languageid=1 | http://www.panasonic.com.au/hometheatre | http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/ (some CF, some dynamic Flash content, some | just plain HTML) http://www.reservations.broadmoor.com | | We know a lot of enterprise-level customers have upgraded to CFMX and | are in the upgrade cycle - but they don't always report back to us when | they go live with CFMX, so feel free to send me sites that you know of | too! | | In addition to this stuff, consider the ways Macromedia is expanding the | CF market: | | *Ground-up rewrite in Java: This expands CF capabilities, as well as | makes CF an option to the enterprise-level sites which want the benefits | of deploying on a the Java platform and the rapid app dev (RAD) offered | by CF. It also means current CF customers have a way to move up to the | Java platform without requiring they abandon their existing apps (or | their CF developers). Admittedly, this has been a challenging release of | CF for some, but once the dust settles, CF and the CF community will | enjoy this huge leap forward. | | *We're working to deliver the information developers need to help them | be successful with ColdFusion and our other technology offerings: | www.macromedia.com/desdev | | *We're tappiing into new markets for CF: | | -With Flash remoting, the HUGE Flash community is getting turned on to | CF. While one can purchase Flash remoting for ASP, Flashers taking to CF | readily because of it's shorter learning curve and RAD capabilities. | | -Dreamweaver users: OK, before you pile on me about this one, I'm not | trying to debate the CFStudio/HS+ vs. Dreamweaver issue for CFers. | Dreamweaver is ~80% of the HTML editor market, and these folks are | moving into the dynamic application/web app development space in droves. | Dreamweaver MX makes their entry into the CF arena a snap with its built | in server behaviors that cover the most basic stuff, and CF's shorter | learning curve and tagged based syntax makes CF a very attractive for | these new application developers. | | *We've delivered innovative products that are more integrated and work | more smoothly with each other than ever before, offering "one-stop" | shopping for industry leading technologies. This also means that we can | deliver well integrated technologies, and better information for those | who are integrating these various technologies. But we've also worked to | remain somewhat agnostic with many of these innovations; many (most) of | these innovations integrate with 3rd party products/platforms. | | Individually, one may not be positioned to take advantage of everything | we offer surrounding CF, but we see businesses moving into these areas | as they begin to plan and implement new projects, and bring additional | technologies & skills into their shops. | | It's been said Macromedia should concentrate on CF improvements and | fixes and forget everything else, but our efforts across the board are | not mutually exclusive. We've already released one CFMX updater, and | another is fortcoming. | | Macromedia is fully behind ColdFusion and ColdFusion developers. Yes, | there is definately room for improvement, as is evidenced by some of the | more lively discussion on this list recently. But we do listen to and | incorporate to the community's feedback, while we continue to innovate. | Unfortunately, sometimes we can't talk about everything happening, even | in the face of (emerging) competition. But that shouldn't be misread as | an indication that nothing is happening behind the scenes. | | I personally think the economy has stifled some of the payoff from | Macromedia's efforts, it's stifled just about everything involving | economics! But eventually you will start to see these efforts start to | pay off for ColdFusion and CF developers. | | Nay-sayers can say spout gloom and doom if they will, but CF is on the | way up. We're just gettin' started! | | Vernon Viehe | ColdFusion Community Manager | Developer Relations | Macromedia, Inc. | Online diary: http://vvmx.blogspot.com/ | -------------------- | Macromedia DevCon 2002, October 27-30, Orlando, Florida | Architecting a New Internet Experience | Register today at www.macromedia.com/go/devcon2002 | | | | | | | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_talk FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm
