[plug] Fwd: [CS-FSLUG] InfoWorld on Microsoft's SKUs

[Leon Brooks]

A lesson in here for all software developers?

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
Subject: [CS-FSLUG] SKUS ME, MR. CHIEF SOFTWARE ARCHITECT
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 17:20:07 -0400
From: "Fred A. Miller" <CHOMP>

- From "Above the Noise" newsletter, InfoWorld.com

SKUS ME, MR. CHIEF SOFTWARE ARCHITECT
Posted August 2, 2002 01:01 PM  Pacific Time


DEAR MR. CHIEF Software Architect of Microsoft:

We at InfoWorld can appreciate that you are a busy man.
Building the next generation of enterprise computing
infrastructure is obviously hard work and we would not
want to distract you too much from your ongoing
efforts to save the planet from evils of information
chaos.

Frankly, I'm not sure how we all get through the day
without instantaneously sharing every piece of vital
information with everyone we work with, but we're sure
that once we can, the world will be a more secure
place. And as you yourself have pointed out, the work
to reach one degree of separation and achieve
information nirvana is akin to the decade-long effort
it took to put a man on the moon.

For the record, the industry is making pretty good
progress. Although it hasn't come anywhere near
accomplishing the hyperbole that you threw around
about Web services two years ago, the fact remains
that Web services have already saved IT organizations
millions of dollars in integration costs. Given enough
time, we're all sure that Web services will soon move
beyond the four walls of an enterprise and start to
have a real impact on individuals.

The other key thing about Web services and .Net, of
course, is that it gives people a layer of abstraction
that will shield applications from the coding sins of
the past. We know you don't like to admit that under
the user interface, Windows architecture is an ugly
thing to behold that explains why things break
frequently and accounts for all the security holes.

But the real reason we are writing this letter is to
bring your attention to a more mundane matter that is
driving just about everybody who does business with
Microsoft crazy. You see, it has to do with all those
people running around the Microsoft campus wearing
different colored golf shirts. Each color identifies
an employee with a different product group within
Microsoft; and most employees are more loyal to the
product group than they are to Microsoft or the
customer. That attitude makes it hard for us customers
to sort through all the SKUs in order to figure out
what it is we need to buy in order to get something done.

Now we know you are sensitive about the topic of
bundling, given all the legal interest in your
business practices. But what you need to do in the
short term is come up with a more modular form of the
enterprise server that turns the vast majority of
these product groups into features of the server that
can be turned on when needed.

You see, most people don't know what they are going to
need over time, so rather then having to buy 10 to 15
different products, it would be a lot easier to just
turn on an existing feature when the customer needs
it. Of course, this server would have to be
architected in a way that would allow customers to
insert a product from another vendor in its place, but
contrary to recent testimony by your employees, we all
know that such an architecture can be created.

So please take a minute from your busy day, collect all
those golf shirts on campus, and give them to the
homeless. Then think about delivering some real IT
solutions rather than an endless stream of tools that
come with incomprehensible directions.

Michael Vizard is editor in chief of InfoWorld and
InfoWorld.com. Contact him at michael_vizard at infoworld.com.

- --
If you listen on a quiet nite you, can hear
the sound of an XP Server reboot.

-------------------------------------------------------

Cheers; Leon