Judith Hurwitz on IT-Director.com

What's a Smarter Planet (and what does that have to do with technology?)

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:26:25 +0100

So, who could argue that we need a smarter planet. I certainly couldn't. I am at an IBM software analyst meeting. I have been attending this meeting for many years. The focus, as you might... [Read More...]

My Top Eleven Predictions for 2009 (I bet you thought there would be only ten)

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:47:41 +0100

What a difference a year makes. The past year was filled with a lot of interesting innovations and market shifts. For example, Software as a Service went from being something for small companies or... [Read More...]

Will packaged applications sink under their own weight?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:34:38 +0100

I have been researching and thinking about the problem of the packaged application for many years now.� Over the years I have had conversations with many CIOs who are planning to implement large... [Read More...]

Why I think Web Oriented Architecture is phony

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:28:35 +0100

If you are not in the software industry and not conversant in the jargon, you probably think I have lost my mind. What do you mean WOA? It stands for Web Oriented Architecture (WOA).� So, from what I... [Read More...]

What happens to SaaS in a tough economy?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 12:29:35 +0100

I participated in a SaaS event this week that was sponsored by IBM.� It was sort of a funny feeling to be at a very good, positive event that focused on SaaS as a platform right in the midst of an... [Read More...]

What's an information agenda?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:27:58 +0100

I had an opportunity to have a chat with Ambuj Goyal, General Manager of IBM's Information Management division about the idea of an information agenda -� an initiative that IBM recently... [Read More...]

Confessions of a Twitter user

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:18:37 +0100

Back in January of this year I signed up for a Twitter account. I have to admit I was skeptical. Why does anyone need to know what I am doing right now? I wrote a blog about how silly I thought it... [Read More...]

Ten things I learned about Citrix� and a little history lesson

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:43:07 +0100

I attended Citrix's industry analyst event a couple of weeks ago. I meant to write about Citrix right after the event but you know how things go. I got busy.�But I am glad that I took a little... [Read More...]

Can HP Lead in Virtualization Management?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:14:01 +0100

HP has been a player in the virtualization market for quite a while. It has offered many hardware products, including its server blades, which have given it a respectable position in the market. In... [Read More...]

Is Anticipation Management a Game Changer?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:00:00 +0100

I am going to introduce you to the idea of anticipation management. I hope that by the end of this you will agree with me that at the end of the day, this is what the value of information is all... [Read More...]

Cloud Computing: a work in progress or a silver bullet?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:40:20 +0100

I have seen some research recently that suggested the CIOs are not seriously thinking about Cloud Computing. Is this a leading indicator on this emerging market or is it looking in the rearview... [Read More...]

Will Desktop Virtualization Be Huge?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:47:34 +0100

I have been spending a lot of time over the past several months looking at issues around desktop virtualization. While a lot of the focus in the market has been around server based virtualization,... [Read More...]

Can Microsoft Pull Virtualization, SOA, Management, and SaaS Together?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:26:39 +0100

For three years in a row I have attended Microsoft's server and tools analyst briefing. This is the vision of Microsoft that focuses on the server side of the company. A few years ago I... [Read More...]

Why did CODA move to salesforce.com?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:35:27 +0100

After meeting Steve Pugh, CEO of CODA Financials, Inc., I wanted to understand why this mid-market financial applications vendor decided to build its next generation infrastructure on... [Read More...]

Is there beef behind salesforce.com?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:59:59 +0100

I have been following salesforce.com since its founding in the mid-1990s. Initially the company started by creating a contact management system which evolved into the sales force platform it offers... [Read More...]

Taking the Pulse of The New Tivoli

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:07:45 +0100

It is ironic that I was at the first Tivoli user conference called Planet Tivoli back in the early 1990s. Now, I am sitting at Tivoli's first full blown user conference called Pulse. Pulse is... [Read More...]

How Amazon cashes in on its Cloud

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:52:04 +0100

I had a very interesting conversation with Jeff Barr, the senior web services evangelist at Amazon. I have known Jeff for almost 15 years. In those days Jeff was one of the architects at a company... [Read More...]

What does it mean if HP buys EDS?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:09:57 +0100

I was minding my own business and twittering (I think that is how you say it) when I noticed a breaking news story from the Wall Street Journal: HP would be acquiring EDS. This is quite a significant... [Read More...]

Can Twitter Trigger Innovation?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:36:39 +0100

A few months ago I wrote a blog entry criticizing Twitter . I was not sure I got the relevance of this micro-blogging site. So, I decided that it made sense to spend time getting deeply involved in... [Read More...]

Ten things I learned about CA

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:40:12 +0100

I spent part of last week at CA's (Computer Associates in the old days) industry analyst meeting. My overall impression is very positive. CA is a complicated company with a complicated... [Read More...]

The Desktop as a Service: Can Desktone be a Focal Point?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:08:21 +0100

I have been thinking a lot about the evolution of virtualization lately and so I was intrigued when a company I had never heard of called Desktone asked to come in for a briefing. When I heard that... [Read More...]

Is a Hedge Fund Manager right about SOA?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 19:45:43 +0100

I was busily working away when I got a call from a hedge fund manager. Now, I don't really know that many hedge fund managers so I thought this could be a good education. This fund manager... [Read More...]

My impressions of IBM's SOA Impact conference

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:00:02 +0100

Last week I attending IBM's Impact conference which Sandy Carter, VP of SOA for IBM, contends is the largest SOA conference in the world. With more than 6,000 attendees all focused on SOA, I... [Read More...]

Is HP ready to rock and roll?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:04:16 +0100

Every year for the past 20 years I have attended HP's annual analyst meeting. The first one I attended was quite small with a couple dozen analysts with all the focus on hardware. Having... [Read More...]

When does the data center become the cloud?

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:52:15 +0100

This is the beginning of another season of analyst meetings. Today I am at IBM's Linux and Open Source meeting. Next week I will be with HP at their industry analyst meeting (hardware,... [Read More...]

Has IBM Changed its Partner Strategy? The Hunt for OEMs

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:50:22 +0100

Partners are getting more and more important to the major software players. IBM announced a very interesting relationship with Kana, a $60 million solution provider of multi-channel customer service... [Read More...]

I love the smell of acquisitions in the morning: BMC Gets BladeLogic

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:55:25 +0100

The great thing about acquisitions is that it provides a lot of fodder for bloggers and pundits. And there have certainly been a lot lately. For example, just yesterday BMC finally got a data... [Read More...]

When not to salvage the legacy application

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:45:55 +0100

One of the hardest things for organizations to do is to retire old applications. Unlike hardware that tends to be replaced on a regular cycle, old software sticks around way too long. It definitely... [Read More...]

How I learned to love the Mac: confessions of a PC user

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:53:19 +0100

The last time I used an Apple computer was the Apple Lisa when I worked at John Hancock Life Insurance many decades ago. Hancock was the type of company that liked to try every new technology. I was... [Read More...]

Lusting for the dumb terminal: lessons for the virtualization market

Judith Hurwitz, Hurwitz and Associates — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:52:32 +0100

In the old days when mainframes roamed the world, there were things called dumb terminals that enabled users to connect to server based applications. These dumb terminals were - as their name... [Read More...]