no more cubes

Category: Business & MBA

Business related notes.

  • On Low-Code platforms

    Drag-and-drop platforms enable developers to assemble applications without manual programming. Toyota, ConocoPhillips, and GlobalTranz are among those enterprises leveraging low-code to create business value.

    From the article

    No Code

    Low-Code/No-Code seems to be the buzz word of the current industry. There are virtually no product releases anymore recently, that don’t include features from this category. Every vendor is aiming to push something with this label.

    Only, the idea is about as old as the software industry itself.

    The sole purpose of software is to make technology available to people with less technical background. Software, in particular enterprise software, is meant to scale. To enable large scale processes to work. These processes most often require diverse backgrounds and experiences to work together.

    Standardised software products, rolled out across entire companies, if not value chains, promises to allow exactly that. With no coding required. At least not, after the integration project finished.

    Low Code

    What is different though, is the rapid speed of change. And low-code is the key to enable virtually everyone. The entire concept is about democratising technology a lot further. The big bet is to shorten integration projects and enable business users to innovate. With no IT-Department in the middle. Asking for huge budgets and long delivery periods.

    Low Code, after all, is a very old idea, but with a new, much larger, audience for enterprise software. And that’s why it’s such a game changer for the industry.

    CIO.com has an article: How low-code platforms are transforming software development | CIO

  • Von Cobol nach Java

    Facebook arbeitet an einer KI, die automatisch Code von einer Programmiersprache in eine andere übersetzen kann. Das Feld ist nicht gänzlich neu, es gab schon Versuche, KI zu verwenden um beispielsweise statische Analyse und damit Code-Qualität zu verbessern. Wenn eine Maschine zwischen Code übersetzen kann, werden eine ganze Reihe von Banken jubeln, endlich nicht mehr auf unersetzbare, uralte Cobol Programmierer angewiesen zu sein, die auch noch unfassbare Stundensätze aufrufen.

    Es ist eine Gelegenheit, schwierigere Probleme anzugehen.

  • Third-Party API Economy.

    The Third-Party API Economy
    Image: Grace Isford

    How to Give Your Users Superpowers

    Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, thrive and give companies an edge for focusing on very specific issues. While the pattern has been around sind the early 2000s, the ecosystem only started to develop this rapidly recently.

    Only to make an example, Twilio started their service as an API only offering. The problem the company solves is basically notification. On all channels, mainly texting and calling. Which by itself is pretty complex, compared to what the involving party actually wants to achieve. Twilio is wrapping this functionality to allow their customers take advantage of telecommunication.

    Grace Isford made an effort to classify vendors in the market, that follow similar patterns. The criteria for the selection in his chart are:

    • The product reduces complexity
    • The company provides Business Critical Functionality
    • It takes advantage of a technological shift
    • And finally a community factor

    The entire sector is currently exploding and it’s difficult to keep track. Specialised services, consumable through Web-APIs become a commodity for at least developers. Grace Isfords chart gives a good overview of the current situation, along with some criteria to consider the offering.

    Source: The Third-Party API Economy. How to Give Your Users Superpowers | by Grace Isford | Sep, 2020 | Medium

  • Snyk to acquire DeepCode

    Snyk, vendor of open source security software, announced their intent to acquire DeepCode, a Zurich based startup that build AI based security solutions for developers.

    From the announcement

    We are excited to integrate DeepCode’s technology to our developer-first vision and the Snyk Cloud Native Application Security platform.

    From the announcement

    Source: Accelerating our developer-first vision with DeepCode | Snyk

  • Facebook threatens to stop operations in EU

    Facebook threatens to stop operations in EU: Not so sure I’d understand it as a threat, if Facebook ceased operations in Europe. Me personally would’ve kicked the information sucking service and timesink to the youth out a while ago. Latest, when it became clear that Facebook is a pool of hatespeak, that nobody can or wants to control, the time should’ve been over.

    However, that’s exactly what they threaten the European Union with. The debate and negotiation started over the ability to transfer personal identifiable information over the Atlantic, to the US.

    Most likely, I’d suspect, EU regulators will fall for the attack and back down.

  • Snowflake completes largest-ever software IPO

    The IPO closed at $120 per share, totalling in a market capitalisation of $33bn. This impressive value eclipses many established global tech players.

    Update: TechCrunch’s SnowFlake Category.

    via Financial Times (ft.com)

  • GAIA-X takes next steps

    Der Mitteilung des Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) zu Folge haben heute je 11 deutsche und französische Gründungsmitglieder die notariellen Unterlagen zur Gründung einer “Association internationale sans but lucratif“, kurz AISBL, unterzeichnet. Es handelt sich dabei um eine “Vereinigung ohne Gewinnerzielungsabsicht”, einer belgischen Gesellschaftsform, die dem deutschen gemeinnützigen Verein vergleichbar ist. Sitz der Vereinigung wird Brüssel sein.

    Die juristische Geburt des Konzeptes GAIA-X stellt einen großen Schritt nach vorne für europäische Dateninfrastruktur dar.

  • Save ARM

    After nVidia announced their intent to acquire ARM for $40B the other day, ARMs cofounder Hermann Hauser cofounder, today published an open letter to the british prime minister. The letter brings attention to economic implications the deal will bring and appeals to prevent those. To save ARM: https://savearm.co.uk/

    Critical voices have expressed their concern over the market share nvidia would build only after the announcement.

  • Nvidia to buy ARM for $40B

    nVidia has a blog post over the proceeding. Of course, not only for the sheer size of the deal at $40B, not only techcrunch but also The Verge report on how Nvidia is acquiring Arm for $40 billion. The impact and consequence of the deal is suspected to be huge. ARM’s market share in mobile computing has been tremendous. Through their licensing modes, many mobile phones can remain affordable with decent CPUs and GPUs. With nVidia in the game, a huge single vendor emerges for the market, that some random sources expressed concern over market dominance.

  • Snyk closes mega funding round

    snyk

    Snyk closes mega funding round: the London based company offers open-source services and products for modern security. The company announced the funding round on it’s own blog. The company, founded by Guy Podjarny, grew rapidly since it’s founding in 2015. The product addresses modern security needs for a container driven IT world. With open source and developer first approaches it delivers an approach that hits a nerve. Increasing complexity of software development and dependencies to open-source components drives demand. Dependencies to open-source components are a twofold reality: They allow faster development for any product team. At the same time, they bring a level of complexity that requires additional management. This reality created a market for companies like Snyk, but also WhiteSource or BlackDuck, in the security space, with a special focus on software development.

    Snyk helps software-driven organizations find and fix vulnerabilities in open source dependencies and container images.

    We are truly humbled to announce the closing of our latest funding round—an investment of $200 million led by Addition—to modernize the security industry.

    from the Snyk blog.

    The funding round is a Series D. Snyk closes mega funding round: With previous rounds, the company expanded internationally before. This recent funding round let’s expect further rapid growth of the brand and product. The size of the funding sets expectations for the near future pace of growth.

    Source: Snyk Closes $200M to Modernize Security Industry | Snyk