Author Archive

PreEmptive is doing its part to help the Vancouver Winter Olympics go off smoothly.

Friday, February 19th, 2010 by Gabriel Torok

Online viewers of the Vancouver Olympics on NBCOlympics.com are using Silverlight based video and photo viewers delivering full HD quality content for viewers and helping content owners monetize their content. I am pleased to say that Dotfuscator had a hand in all of this innovation providing both protection and optimization for the high performing video player at the heart the NBC online Olympic experience.

For an overall description of the Silverlight solution, see: http://team.silverlight.net/events/let-the-games-begin/

For Microsoft’s own description of the role of partners (including us of course), see: http://team.silverlight.net/customer-evidence/vancouver-olympics-ndash-how-rsquo-d-we-do-that/

The development teams especially appreciated the fact that Dotfuscator can accept and output XAP files (instead of low level DLLs that force developers to manually edit XAP files).  This shortens and simplifies the release process – and was critical for an event like the Olympics.

On an unrelated Silverlight note, I was pleased to see David Kelly’s recent blog entry . This Silverlight MVP has identified Dotfuscator’s Silverlight analytics as “a critical tool in your tool Silverlight toolbox.” Good Stuff.

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Posted in Dotfuscator, Dotfuscator CE, IT Operations Management, Microsoft, Threat (swoT) | No Comments »

Dev Connections 2009 Keynote Demo

Thursday, November 12th, 2009 by Gabriel Torok

I was fortunate enough to be selected to demonstrate Runtime Intelligence in Dave Mendlen’s keynote at Dev Connections a few days ago. Everything was very well orchestrated and it was a fantastic experience. There were a couple thousand people in attendance and plenty of energy. When it was my turn I started by making two predictions:

That the audience would see an “easy way to use Visual Studio to allow your application to tell you how it being used in the field” – or a breakthrough that takes feedback driven development to an entirely new level.

And that a year from now these techniques will be familiar and some of them would be accustom to using this information to drive application development decisions.

I talked about how Dotfuscator continues to evolve and now includes Runtime Intelligence, the ability to instrument applications to gather real world runtime data.
And I showed them runtime intelligence information within the Visual Studio 2010 code editor and demonstrated it being used to make better decisions faster.

You can watch the entire presentation on our YouTube channel.

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Lower the Cost of Knowing

Monday, July 6th, 2009 by Gabriel Torok

Before tools like Survey Monkey were available, you could conduct surveys. But the cost was much higher, often including costs of envelope stuffing,  outbound and return postage, incentives such as a dollar in each envelope (to try to increase the response rate), data entry costs, and long time delays. Given the hassle and costs, you might be forgiven for making important decisions based on sparse data. In America, it’s called going with your gut. The rapid proliferation of low-cost web-based survey tools is a clear indication that lowering the “cost of knowing” stimulates organizations to “go find out.” In the past, companies did not survey as extensively because they felt they couldn’t afford the higher costs, and perhaps they did not value knowing enough to invest more.

Likewise, before point-of-sale systems were widely available, retailers were able to track customers and their buying habits, but at a very high cost and hassle factor. It was probably easier to “go with your gut”. Now, point-of-sale systems are a multi-billion dollar a year business and retailers are at an extreme disadvantage if they don’t use one.

A lower cost of knowing continues shifts in our desire and use of information. Developments such as nearly free international communication to practically ubiquitous Internet search have made knowing quick and easy. For example, today it is possible to very quickly discover which vendor has the best price and service. Improved information allows everyone to make better and faster decisions.

And yet today, many software producers still take a reactive “go with your gut” approach to understanding how their customers use their applications and measuring the satisfaction they receive from them. That is because historically, it’s been difficult and expensive to measure how users - individually or in aggregate - actually use applications. In other words, they perceive the cost of knowing as higher than the value of knowing.

This will change as new options significantly reduce the cost of knowing for software producers. In tighter economic times such as now, getting low cost, accurate and timely insight into software behavior, stability and performance will become essential. Successful software producers will benefit from the value of enhancing the customer’s experience by proactively understanding problems and opportunities and acting decisively based on their knowledge. What your customers aren’t telling you might be hurting you. After all, why would you rely only on your “gut” or a handful of customers for feedback when you can easily listen to your applications in a broad and precise way?

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Posted in Application Lifecycle Management, IT Operations Management, Runtime Intelligence, Software Development Lifecycle Management | No Comments »

On Helping Software Succeed

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 by Gabriel Torok

I will be writing an ongoing series in this blog entitled “On helping software succeed,” in which I will examine pertinent and timely topics relating to the success of software. After all, software is unique, unlike other businesses. It is much more malleable than most physical businesses – there are only so many things you can do with machinery, real estate or other hard assets. But software, like putty, can become whatever it is designed to do. And to complicate matters, most software is dependent on other software:

There are tools for creating, compiling, testing, debugging, and managing software applications.

There are operating systems, external applications and functions required my many software applications to run.

In short, software is a world of multiple unexpected and unanticipated moving parts unto its own. At PreEmptive (link), we produce software for both Java and .NET that helps organizations protect, manage and monitor their software applications. Our unique honor, as the only 3rd party application shipping inside of Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environment, gives us a unique perspective: a true insider’s view into the software development process.

As just one example, we surveyed (link) 300 software application developers at Fortune 1000 and other leading companies and found that just 42% of companies calculate return-on-investment of the applications they develop. In addition, just 7% of respondents say they measure the return against a well-defined set of metrics and success criteria.

Software is unlike other businesses, but it does not mean, that with a little effort, its business impact can’t be measured. For example, before companies commit to spending billions on machinery, real estate or other hard assets, they calculate the expected return on investment. Few companies do this with software. It adds up to a huge expenditure that is rarely measured as a genuine asset or balance sheet line item. As the economy tightens, companies will want to know how to measure the business impact and the return on their investments in applications.

Here are some starting suggestions for creating an effective system for measuring application ROI:

  • Invest in developing meaningful and consistent usage and impact metrics.
  • Tie these metrics to development, support and maintenance investment strategies. Usage and impact metrics must translate into smarter application portfolio management decision-making and development resource utilization.
  • Incorporate application ROI management into broader business performance management practices. Success can only be assured when application asset management is fully integrated into operational and business performance management.

Your thoughts? Comments?

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We’re launching a new blog today because…

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 by Gabriel Torok

We’re launching a new blog today to discuss the topics of Software Protection, Defense, Management and Monitoring.

You’ll hear from me, others at PreEmptive and guests on current and future software industry perspectives from an insider’s view.
Personally, I will mostly be writing about things that help software succeed. But I also want to know what you’d like to hear about. Let me know by posting a comment.

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