Milan

I started this entry in Milan and worked on it in Nice but I didn’t finish and now I am actually in Rome…so I am not keeping up with this very well I’m afraid One more stop after this – Edinburgh on Saturday.
Anyway, I was in Milan on Monday to join a meeting with Massimo Pezzini, the distinguished Gartner analyst. We were reviewing with him our product, marketing, and business plans around our existing and new products and open source projects (Celtix and SOA Tools).
This was a good time to get Massimo’s feedback since we have recently released Artix 4.0 and the Celtix project recently reached V1.0.
Massimo has a long history with SOA and in particular is well versed on the famous Credit Suisse SOA. Among the things he told us is that SOA is not ERP, and that SOA is transitioning into the mainstream.
The first point is related to the adoption of new technology in the corporate IT environment. SOA is not a product that you install and spend a lot of time and money customizing for your business. It is not intended to provide application features and functionality. You either already have the features and functions you need, and service enable them, or you develop new services to fill in any gaps. So with SOA you do not get a solution but rather a better approach to a solution for buisiness applications.
Massimo’s view about SOA transitioning to the mainstream means that he sees sufficient adoption of SOA among customers to indicate that it’s here to stay. Sometimes we hear from critics of SOA that it’s not real, or that it’s just the latest vendor hype. This is of course not the case, although it is true that software vendors are attaching the SOA acronym to everything and anything. That does hurt since it causes confusion and raises questions about what really is SOA and what isn’t. But despite this Massimo sees enough real investment in SOA to say that it has become established.
I got to Milan early enough to go out for a walk with Pat Walsh in the park near the hotel. We were staying near the Gartner office in the near suburbs. Walking around among the folks kicking the soccer ball around, picknicking, and just enjoying the sun we heard some pop music in the distance. This turned out to be a political rally.

Singing for Malagola
The municipal elections throughout Italy are scheduled for May 28 or 29. According to a leaflet we picked up, Malagola was born in 1982 and still lives with his parents. It seemed pretty clear that he was getting a lot of support from young kids. We caught a glimpse of the candidate shaking hands and talking to potential supporters as the band continued to play and intermittently chant his name. He did not seem affected by this – at least he did not look up from his conversation or acknowledge the crowd.
On the way back to the hotel we passed a campaign poster of sorts, which as far as I can tell means something like “with Malagola Letizia Will Fly.” But my Italian is basically nonexistent so I might have gotten that wrong.

The Malagola Campaign “Poster”
The next morning I proudly showed my Malagola leaflet to Massimo but he immediately pitched it into the wastebasket! Perhaps he is not young enough to be a Malagola supporter?
Sunday evening, thanks to a recommendation from Margo Cronin (who also recommended Mt. Rigi) we ended up a a great restaurant just off the Corso di Porta Ticinese – a great restaurant and nightlife area. The restaurant was right next to the Basilica of San Lorenzo, in front of which are the second century Columns of San Lorenzo.
It turns out that this is a great spot for an after dinner drink because you can get one from any number of bars and restaurants that flank the Basilica and take the bottle or cup out onto the plaza between the Basilica and the Columns. Or even sit between the columns themselves… What a great way to make use of a cultural monument.

The Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore at Night

The Columns of San Lorenzo at Night
The photos are a bit dark, I’m afraid. I guess I still haven’t quite got the hang of the new camera yet. But I think you can see the people hanging out on this warm night enjoying the public space.
Once again, apologies to folks back home. But I have not seen a drop of rain since I left a week ago Sunday (May 7).

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