2024 DevOps Lifecycle: Share your expertise on CI/CD, deployment metrics, tech debt, and more for our Feb. Trend Report (+ enter a raffle!).
Kubernetes in the Enterprise: Join our Virtual Roundtable as we dive into Kubernetes over the past year, core usages, and emerging trends.
Digital Analyst and Strategist | Writer | Prompt Engineer
About
A former research analyst with DZone.com where I interviewed more than 3,000 IT executives and wrote a broad range of articles on Agile, AI/ML, APIs, Application Development, Cloud, Databases, Data & Analytics, DevOps, Integration, IoT, Java, Kubernetes, Microservices, Open Source, Performance, Security, and Web Dev. Now covering the current and future state of IT for several sites and IT companies.
Stats
Reputation: | 43771 |
Pageviews: | 10.7M |
Articles: | 178 |
Comments: | 118 |
Articles
Trend Reports
Machine Learning
Industry leaders discuss the latest trends in machine learning. We dive into using machine learning with microserivces, deploying machine learning models in real-life applications, and where the field is going over the next 12 months.
Comments
Apr 18, 2023 · Olesia Filipenko
@Olesia Here's Bard's truncated response to your query about the war:
The Russian-Ukrainian war is a complex conflict with many contributing factors. However, it is clear that the Russian government bears the primary responsibility for the war. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly expressed his desire to restore Russia to its former greatness, and he has seen Ukraine as a barrier to that goal.
Mar 14, 2021 · Sarah Davis
Know the difference between customer experience and client experience.Customer experience measures transactions. Client experience measures relationships.
Mar 14, 2021 · Brett Crawley
How Net Promoter Score works and how you and improve upon the methodology.
Mar 14, 2021 · DZone_karap
How Net Promoter Score works and how you can get more insights.
Mar 14, 2021 · Andre Lee-Moye
Develop client empathy by being curious. Ask yourself, "I wonder why they said that?" and then go have a conversation with them to learn.
Mar 14, 2021 · Adi Gaskell
Follow these client feedback best practices to gather data-driven feedback and improve revenue, referrals, and repeat business.
Mar 13, 2021 · Tom Smith
Customer experience is the differentiator in B2C. Client experience is the differentiator in B2B where companies are interested in building long-term relationships rather than just executing a transaction. The Client Feedback Tool from Client Savvy is an effective way to use client feedback to inform a client experience management platform to drive revenue, referrals, and repeat business.
Mar 09, 2021 · Tom Smith
Anything that accelerates and improves the testing and development of applications and code improves the client experience of the end-user..
Sep 04, 2019 · Tom Smith
Thanks Jeff. It's all about the contributors sharing their thoughts and insights.
Jun 05, 2019 · Tom Smith
Derek, thank you for letting me know. It has been corrected.
Apr 12, 2019 · Tom Smith
I agree. Thank you for the feedback.
Mar 16, 2019 · Sarah Sinning
Great post Sarah. It's interesting to observe management having private offices while the rest of the staff has an open office. Someone needs to study the value of collaboration versus the productivity gains when someone is able to achieve a state of "flow."
Having moved to an open office environment six months ago, I'm very disappointed to see, and hear, the lack of common professional etiquette of colleagues with regards to keeping their voice down so they don't disturb others in the office that are trying to get work done. Forget trying to concentrate once the beer taps are open.
Feb 27, 2019 · Michael_Gates
Thank you for letting us know. We'll work on the acoustics.
Oct 31, 2018 · Tom Smith
J R:
Here's a link to the research guide that published yesterday: https://dzone.com/guides/databases-relational-and-beyond
It's the consensus of the 22 people I interviewed that databases have not advanced with the same velocity as other areas of technology (i.e. computers, mobile devices, software, cloud, applications, et. al.).
Aug 23, 2018 · Tom Smith
Ava:
Take a look at the companies that contributed their insights for this article: https://dzone.com/articles/iot-use-cases.
Their websites will indicate if they service the healthcare vertical.
Tom
Jun 23, 2018 · Andre Lee-Moye
Might a project management system like Waffle.io help developers automatically start building a bill of materials and completing documentation necessary for the lifetime success of an OSS project?
Jun 22, 2018 · Tom Smith
You are very welcome.
Jun 21, 2018 · Tom Smith
Jordan, thank you. I appreciate the insight.
May 29, 2018 · Tom Smith
Speed to market with higher quality code! Thanks for sharing.
May 29, 2018 · Tom Smith
Speed to market with higher quality code! Thanks for sharing.
May 29, 2018 · Tom Smith
Speed to market with higher quality code! Thanks for sharing.
May 25, 2018 · Tom Smith
Rohit, I appreciate the positive feedback. Thank you.
May 23, 2018 · Tom Smith
Jagdeep, I glad you found it helpful. Thank you.
May 21, 2018 · Tom Smith
@Dean, thank you for pointing that out. There was no mention of JavaFX among the people I could find to speak about Java.
May 18, 2018 · Tom Smith
@David
All of the companies I spoke with are well established "legacy" enterprises. Very few companies stepped up to participate in the interviews. I do not recall speaking to new companies where Java is a primary development language though quite a few are still using for some aspect of their solution due to its pervasiveness.
May 15, 2018 · Tom Smith
Every company who want to remain relevant needs a diverse workforce - race, age, and gender. "Groupthink" stifles innovation.
May 01, 2018 · Tom Smith
That was a concern with software development in general not saying that Java developers were any better or worse just that more care needed to be taken with the process.
Apr 26, 2018 · Matthew Casperson
Also when they're unified around vision, mission, values and empowered to provide a great customer experience (CX).
Apr 24, 2018 · Tom Smith
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Good luck with your games!
Apr 24, 2018 · Tom Smith
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Good luck with your games!
Mar 25, 2018 · Tom Smith
Tom, thanks for sharing, I'll check it out.
Mar 22, 2018 · Tom Smith
Jagdeep, thank you. I appreciate it. Tom
Mar 20, 2018 · Tom Smith
Irene, great list. Thank you for sharing. There are tremendous opportunities with a lot of top and bottom-line value once companies are able to get there.
Mar 01, 2018 · Tom Smith
Mona:
Thank you for the feedback. Ten months later, it seems that companies are making an effort at complying and realizing the importance of learning where all of their data is hiding.
Tom
Feb 07, 2018 · Tom Smith
By helping legacy companies move appropriate applications to the cloud where they can accelerate development, integrate development and operations, and adopt CI/CD for shorter feedback loops and faster improvement in UX and CX.
Jan 29, 2018 · Tom Smith
Alexandra:
I glad you found it useful and hope your students do as well.
Tom
Dec 07, 2017 · Tom Smith
Ranjit, I'm glad you found the information useful. That's what DZone is all about - providing information of value.
Dec 01, 2017 · Tom Smith
Feel free to weigh in with your opinion on Java.
Nov 27, 2017 · Tom Smith
Anson, you might enjoy this article: https://dzone.com/articles/rpa-enables-devs-to-do-more-rewarding-and-stimulat
Oct 20, 2017 · msadangi
Great post! It's amazing how much your customers and prospects will tell you if you just listen intensely.
Oct 18, 2017 · Tom Smith
Jason, thank you I appreciate it.
Oct 18, 2017 · Tom Smith
Denis, thank you, I appreciate it.
Oct 17, 2017 · Tom Smith
David, enjoy. It looks like it's going to be a great event.
Oct 15, 2017 · Tom Smith
@Musaul thank you for letting me know. I have corrected the link back to Pensa's home page.
Oct 09, 2017 · Tom Smith
If you have some additional use cases, I'd love to share with the community. Thanks!
Aug 31, 2017 · Tom Smith
John we had a Java versus Kotlin "Smackdown" between two of our Zone leaders two Fridays ago. While Java is the still the preferred language there were a lot of very good points made in favor of Kotlin that encouraged some participants to consider switching.
https://dzone.com/articles/dzones-first-ever-zone-leader-smackdown-kotlin-vs
Keep an eye out for an article reporting on the arguments made by the two participants.
Aug 31, 2017 · Tom Smith
John, thank you for pointing that out. It has been corrected.
Aug 30, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Great attitude! One thing I took away from my interviews is that the security of the IoT device is part of a great UX.
Aug 30, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Great attitude! One thing I took away from my interviews is that the security of the IoT device is part of a great UX.
Aug 30, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Great attitude! One thing I took away from my interviews is that the security of the IoT device is part of a great UX.
Aug 30, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Great attitude! One thing I took away from my interviews is that the security of the IoT device is part of a great UX.
Aug 30, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Great attitude! One thing I took away from my interviews is that the security of the IoT device is part of a great UX.
Aug 30, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Great attitude! One thing I took away from my interviews is that the security of the IoT device is part of a great UX.
Aug 30, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Great attitude! One thing I took away from my interviews is that the security of the IoT device is part of a great UX.
Aug 29, 2017 · Michael_Gates
Calvin, I appreciate the feedback.
Aug 28, 2017 · Sarah Davis
Dennis, thanks for sharing. With regards to big data being welcomed with open arms, the more people see the benefits of big data, which will increase as more data is gathered, the more difficult it will be for them not to embrace it. Kind of like making the digital transformation - those who do will thrive, those who don't will die.
Aug 01, 2017 · Tom Smith
I agree. I've been using single and multi=variable regression to solve business problems for the past 20+ years; however, I have not found a company with the vision to use the business and marketing insights necessary to use big data, or small data for that matter, to solve business problems.
Aug 01, 2017 · Tom Smith
Mike, thank you, I appreciate it.
Jul 19, 2017 · Tom Smith
Great points Jonathan. I appreciate the feedback.
Jul 17, 2017 · Tom Smith
Always a pleasure to speak to the "DevOps Evangelist." Have a great week!
Jul 15, 2017 · Tom Smith
Mit, I would agree but would replace customer-centric with business-centric. Part of being customer-centric is being concerned about the security of your customers' PII.
Jul 14, 2017 · Tom Smith
Thank you Tina. Please feel free to share with others that you think would benefit from this content. Have a nice weekend.
Jul 06, 2017 · Tom Smith
John:
Feel free to post on DZone.
Would love to share other Computools' blog posts on DZone.
I should I speak with about signing you and your team up as "Most Valuable Bloggers?"
Tom
May 26, 2017 · Tom Smith
Based on what I continue to hear, it will. Just be willing to collaborate and continue learning, and share your knowledge to help others see the benefits of collaboration.
May 08, 2017 · Tom Smith
John, Thanks for the positive feedback. I will share with Matt.
Apr 30, 2017 · Tom Smith
Mark, I appreciate you adding your perspective.
Apr 28, 2017 · Tom Smith
Martin, I certainly did not get that from the interviews I conducted. If anything, I heard that Java is easy to learn but it's very deep and can take a lifetime to learn its full breadth and depth.
Apr 28, 2017 · Tom Smith
Greg, thank you for your question. Kotlin was mentioned by one respondent and probably should not have been in the tl;dr. Probably of function of the project they are working on or the clients they are working with.
Apr 28, 2017 · Tom Smith
John, thank you for the feedback. The strength of Java is its ubiquity, the ecosystem, and the community. I am not able to speak to C#.
Apr 20, 2017 · Jo Stichbury
Jo, great post. Anyone using "utilize" is showing their ignorance rather than the level of intelligence they are attempting to portray themselves as having.
Apr 04, 2017 · Tom Smith
Reza, I appreciate the offer and will take you up on it. Thank you.
Apr 03, 2017 · Tom Smith
Bruno, very fair point. With a company like Oracle, we tend to think of the corporate monolith and not the people behind it. I'd like the opportunity to interview someone from Oracle when conducting these interviews but I do not get a response when I send out a query.
Apr 03, 2017 · Tom Smith
Bruno, thanks for the feedback. Oracle will come up in the article series; however, there's skepticism over Oracle's commitment to Java's success and doing what's in the best interest for the community and ecosystem.
Mar 31, 2017 · Tom Smith
Reza, I appreciate your feedback and your ongoing contributions to DZone. I will reach out to you the next time I'm conducting interviews concerning Java.
Mar 23, 2017 · Tom Smith
Bharat, that is what I was told by Manoj since they are maintaining logs redundantly on several different public, private, and hybrid clouds.
Mar 23, 2017 · Tom Smith
Just one of many IT executives who share their insight with me on various IT-related topics.
Mar 05, 2017 · Tom Smith
Sunish, thank you. I appreciate the feedback!
Mar 03, 2017 · Tom Smith
Hadoop, Spark and Tableau were the most frequently mentioned solutions for collecting and analyzing data with several other solutions and tools sitting atop Hadoop. Open source solutions like Kafka, Nitti, and Storm were mentioned by a couple of respondents with Python and R being mentioned for data analysis. SAS used to have a monopoly on analysis tools but that has changed in the last 12 months with more people using R and H20. However, this is not the end of SAS since it’s well-engrained in 99 percent of the Fortune 500.
Jan 11, 2017 · Tom Smith
Based on new research I just saw from CA Agile and DevOps do improve the developer work environment. We'll be publishing an article on this after we have a chance to speak to the folks at CA.
Jan 11, 2017 · Tom Smith
But you do need automated testing to do DevOps at scale, yes?
Jan 11, 2017 · Tom Smith
Based on the interviews I've conducted, the consensus is with automated testing and monitoring throughout the development process you have higher quality output with less human intervention and not waiting until the end of the SDLC to test for performance and security.
Dec 29, 2016 · Tom Smith
Sonya, thanks for the feedback. Having a sufficient number of people knowledgeable about big data, analytics, databases, data science, and business intelligence is a huge hurdle and opportunity.
Dec 19, 2016 · Tom Smith
John, I did not hear that in my interviews but it certainly makes sense because there is so much opportunity in any one vertical, an analytics company doesn't have the need, or the bandwidth, to serve multiple verticals.
Dec 19, 2016 · Sarah Davis
Dean, great points. Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like you're a supported and promoter of the type of knowledge sharing that takes place in an Open Source or Java community.
Dec 15, 2016 · Tom Smith
Alina, thanks for the feedback. It is very much appreciated!
Dec 12, 2016 · Tom Smith
Initial cost of start-upon AWS was mentioned by one respondent but then he felt scaling justified it. As for "vendor lock-in" there is significant agreement that in the future this will go away as applications will be able to run on any Tier One cloud though their may be some cost implications for moving.
There did not seem to be a concern about intellectual property residing in house as ultimately, everyone will be in the cloud due to economics, core competencies, and inability to have the knowledge and expertise to maintain their own cloud.
I would love to get more than 13/15 perspectvies on the topic.
Dec 12, 2016 · Tom Smith
John, thanks for the feedback. I did not get a lot of concerns expressed about the problems it didn't solve. I do know that there's a lot more for developers and engineers to learn and that the tools are expanding and changing rapidly so it can be difficult to keep up with all of the changes.
Dec 09, 2016 · Tom Smith
Hemang - good for you and Cygnet putting security at the forefront rather than leaving it as an afterthought - that may or may not be addressed based on the desire to get the minimum viable product to market.
Dec 09, 2016 · Tom Smith
P.K.- Great point. Staying agile and having a thirst for knowledge is a common theme whenever I ask this question.
Dec 09, 2016 · Tom Smith
Eugen you are absolutely right, that's why so many of the people I've spoken with propose testing throughout the SDLC.
Dec 09, 2016 · Tom Smith
Jack, thanks for sharing.
Dec 09, 2016 · Tom Smith
Based on the people I have talked to, it already has. Companies need to focus on "doing well by doing good" rather than using data to cut corners and exploit others for nefarious purposes.
Dec 09, 2016 · Tom Smith
Cyber:
Thanks for the feedback. I will make a note to reach out to LexisNexis and HPCC Systems to get their perspective for our next big data research guide.
Aug 25, 2016 · Tim Spann
Jeff, as you shared during our conversation, the OWASP top 10 were supposed to serve as the foundation or floor for data security; however, software vendors have turned it into a ceiling. It's time for software vendors to step up the security of their products prior to release rather than simply "speeding to market" without regard for the security of their software, apps, and end users' PII.
Aug 23, 2016 · Tom Smith
Biniam:
I'll be happy to send you a PDF if you'll send me your email.
Thank you,
Tom
Aug 02, 2016 · Tom Smith
Thank you for your feedback. It's great to get a reader's perspective and to know we're providing information of value.
Jul 29, 2016 · Tom Smith
It's the opinion of the person I interviewed based on their experience and what they're observing in the market.
Jul 26, 2016 · Tom Smith
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
Jul 13, 2016 · Susanna Varghese
Providing an LMS is one way to let your employees know you care about them. Another way is to talk to them and understand their needs and wants as opposed to assuming you know what they need and want.
May 12, 2016 · Brett Crawley
Omri, I've used NPS to determine customer engagement versus satisfaction. I strongly recommend reaching out to everyone that completes an NPS survey to thank them for doing so and engage them in a discussion. Specifically, I want to ask "promoters" for recommendations, quotes, testimonials, and referrals. I want to probe "passives" to determine what we can do to move them to "promoter" rather than letting them slip into "detractor." Lastly, I want to engage "detractors" to let them know we heard them and we want to address their concerns.
May 12, 2016 · Sam Atkinson
Great article. While I don't anticipate ever being in the market for a Tesla, I do look forward to all auto makers building cars to which they can "push" software updates since that's what's driving more than 50% of all recalls at this point. Automakers: Save the customer time, make their lives simpler and easier!
Apr 30, 2016 · Michael Hart
Based on the interviews I've conducted with IT executives, DevOps is the way any software company founded in the last five years develops and brings code to production.
DevOps may be slow to catch on in established enterprises due to the culture change required.
However, based on the disruption we're seeing from start-ups in a number of industries, I'll place my money on the start-ups using DevOps versus the established enterprises who aren't able to make the cultural transition required to be a DevOps shop.
Apr 30, 2016 · Abdullahi Muhammed
Until companies start taking the time to correct the security flaws in their code rather than paying $10,000 of $50,000 for a "certificate of security" required by their insurer, we will continue to have data breaches.
Most consumers have already indicated, by their actions, that the convenience offered on websites and apps outweighs their concerns regarding their identity and personal information.
Perhaps another answer is for the insurance companies to require more rigorous security testing by more demanding security firms before they'll cover a firm's loss.
Feb 18, 2016 · John Vester
It already has. UNC continues to lead the way in applications and research on CTE.
Feb 16, 2016 · John Vester
Too bad the NFL took the IoT devices out of helmets that would indicate the amount of head trauma a player experiences on a hit.
Feb 05, 2016 · Matt Werner
Great post. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for a collaboration and Q&A software to get people talking and documenting answers to questions so IT doesn't have to answer the same questions multiple times.
Feb 05, 2016 · Tom Smith
Michael, great point. Thanks for sharing.
Jan 22, 2016 · Duncan Brown
Concerns regarding IoT:
"Security is the biggest issue but support isn’t far behind. Who do you call when an IoT device goes down? IT is now getting calls because the radiology department just bought four portable x-ray machines that connect to the internet."
Dec 22, 2015 · Tom Smith
I heard more people implementing CD than CI but that could be the result fo the small sample of folks (24) I talked to.
Dec 22, 2015 · Tom Smith
Nenad, given that I spoke to 20 different executives, I think that speaks to the diversity of opinions and technologies.
Dec 22, 2015 · Tom Smith
Probably why we see more people implementing DevOps than implementing continuous delivery and more people implementing continuous delivery than continuous integration.
Dec 22, 2015 · Tom Smith
Greg, perhaps a better statement would be, "Ensure a consistently excellent UX across all devices." Thanks for pointing out the misconception.
Dec 22, 2015 · Tom Smith
Astoria, are you a media contact for them? If so, I'd love to interview you for our next mobile focused research guide. If not, please let me know the right person to whom I should reach out. Thank you.
Dec 11, 2015 · Tom Smith
Fokke, these are 18 executives' different opinions hence the inconsistency and disagreement.
Dec 11, 2015 · Emmett Coin
How about an insurance company refusing to pay the claim of a hacked company because they failed to correct the security flaws recommended by their certificate provider since the insurance premiums were less than the cost to fix the vulnerabilities?
Dec 11, 2015 · Matt Werner
Given the current and potential size of M2M, these standards address a key concern raised by executives about how quickly IoT and M2M could and would grow.
Dec 08, 2015 · Rodrigo Kyle Mehren
Constant iteration and redefinition are central elements of successful businesses today. Fifty-two percent of the Fortune 500 in 2000 aren't there anymore because they didn't make the transition to digital. I expect we'll see the same between now and 2030 as companies fail to use data, like consumer feedback, to make informed decisions,
Nov 16, 2015 · Matt Werner
@Asami Great point. One of the tremendous benefits of DevOps and Continuous Delivery is the real-time feedback team members are able to get on the performance of their application so they can continue to iterate and improve to address concerns and improve the customer experience. Listen to the customer, fix the problem, and your earn a loyal customer who may even sing your praises to others.