CF.Objective Notes -- How Mura Will Save CFML (and you can too)
July 03, 2012
How Mura will save CFML (and you can too) -- Malcolm O'Keefe
Does it need saving?
Yes
Chicago conference the week before CFO
If you weren't a PHP based solution, more than 1/2 the developers didn't have any interest
ColdFusion is seen as a curiosity / oddity
CF doesn't have the reputation it deserves
Well, it's not dead
WE know it's not dead -- we're making a living at it
But the PERCEPTION needs to be changed
Adobe says it's "thriving"
20% increase since 2007
778,000 developers
lots of user groups, downloads, etc
good stats, but this is from 2008, and this is data from Adobe (so consider the source)
What we heard today at the keynote -- going after new developers, java guys, php guys, etc
WE don't need to be pitched
the OUTSIDE WORLD needs the pitch, people evaluating new web technologies
Job Trends from indeed.com
job posts for a specific keyword
historical data, less than 1% were CF jobs
it's basically flatlined over the last 6 years
PHP job trend -- going up and up, meteoric rise over the same time frame
....but PHP does NOT have a significant tech advantage over CFML
they're either equal, or (in our opinions) CF is better
Why aren't we seeing improvement in job growth?
how did we get here?
Why do organizations NOT choose CFML?
Rise of open source
companies increasing use of open source
OS licensing model is more flexible
When talking to enterprise that does not have a CF license, it scares them off
the conversations/sales pitch grinds to a halt
sometimes it's a deal-killer
if you're a startup looking to build a highly scalable solution, you're almost certainly NOT going to start with Adobe CF
- startups don't know there is such a thing as "open source CFML" -- Railo, Open BD
rich ecosystems (example - PHP), broadly publicized
CMS: Drupal, Joomla, Silver Stripe, etc
IT budgets 2006 -- 10% spent on pen source (usually RedHat, JBoss)
2012 -- 30%
open source is seen as less risky than it was before
CFML loss starts with the CMS
-- whatever language is used by the CMS, custom apps will follow
- this affects:
future hiring decisions
app engine adoption/sales
perception
Drupal is the Terminator
CF companies start with CF, then bring in Drupal, and slowly the company switches to PHP
-- sent back in time to kill CFML
ex: University of British Columbia
were a broadly CFML shop, used Mura, success
why did they change to drupal
--almost the same as "nobody gets fired for buying IBM" (Drupal has a ubiquitous name)
Drupal is making a big push in federal government
Despite the doom and gloom, we do think there is hope ahead
things we can do ourselves to promote CFML
How do we ALL safe CFML
create the best applications - it's about the solutions, not the stacks
big ideas - stars with the solution, then the stack follows
foster a healthy ecosystem
Mura CMS and other useful open source tools for the community to rally around
Our vision: Mura CMS as enterprise hub
Mura at the web server level, connecting with different aspects of an organization's internal architecture
if you create a great application, people will use it
make it so good they HAVE to use it -- CFML or not
Resuna(sp?) -- digital asset management solution
seeing tons of success just because it's GREAT, they don't care what the stack is
Find a need, and build what's missing
Make it USABLE -- easy trumps complexity every time!
Contribute to another project -- don't reinvent (unless you can revolutionize)
Important things:
ease of use
availability of extensions
availability of community support
technology platform (LAMP, .NET, etc) -- important, but LESS important than the 3 above
How Mura will save CFML?
Trojan horse
people chose Mura because they like the features, and it "sneaks in" CF as part of that deal
Growing CFML marketshare
high percentage of Mura customers are NON-CF shops
Ex: Apple uses Mura all over their B2B sites
Mura chosen for functional, ease of use -- stack is secondary concern (sell the solution, not the technology)
but once they have the stack, you can leverage it for further CFML development
Almost ALL sites need CMS of some sort or another
It's easy to whip up a UI to present content, can knock it out in a few days
But over time they become difficult to maintain, bit rot, etc
Someone starts talking about "we need a REAL cms" -- pressure to buy something, rather than build another custom cms
Our plan for World Domination:
1. ColdFusion community
2. General web development community
3. CMS community
How YOU can save CFML
- build great applications
- don't reinvent the shell, improve existing CFML apps
contribute to the community in any way you can and do it regularly
stop apologizing, start evangelizing!
Foster a healthy ecosystem
collaborate
post your stuff publicly
post on github and RIAforge
find gaps and address them
finish your work, no abandon-ware!
Opem CFML Foundation
Organization that is promoting the use, awareness, and adoption of CFML in the broader dev community
goal: do all the things we talked about today, make people aware of the benefits of CFML, aware of the projects, etc
Focused on a select # of quality projects -- if you use them, you're likely to be successful
Events:
Open CF Summit
MuraCon
CF community and Mura
build plugins!
become a contributor to the codebase
bug fixes
new features
documentation
Does it need saving?
Yes
Chicago conference the week before CFO
If you weren't a PHP based solution, more than 1/2 the developers didn't have any interest
ColdFusion is seen as a curiosity / oddity
CF doesn't have the reputation it deserves
Well, it's not dead
WE know it's not dead -- we're making a living at it
But the PERCEPTION needs to be changed
Adobe says it's "thriving"
20% increase since 2007
778,000 developers
lots of user groups, downloads, etc
good stats, but this is from 2008, and this is data from Adobe (so consider the source)
What we heard today at the keynote -- going after new developers, java guys, php guys, etc
WE don't need to be pitched
the OUTSIDE WORLD needs the pitch, people evaluating new web technologies
Job Trends from indeed.com
job posts for a specific keyword
historical data, less than 1% were CF jobs
it's basically flatlined over the last 6 years
PHP job trend -- going up and up, meteoric rise over the same time frame
....but PHP does NOT have a significant tech advantage over CFML
they're either equal, or (in our opinions) CF is better
Why aren't we seeing improvement in job growth?
how did we get here?
Why do organizations NOT choose CFML?
Rise of open source
companies increasing use of open source
OS licensing model is more flexible
When talking to enterprise that does not have a CF license, it scares them off
the conversations/sales pitch grinds to a halt
sometimes it's a deal-killer
if you're a startup looking to build a highly scalable solution, you're almost certainly NOT going to start with Adobe CF
- startups don't know there is such a thing as "open source CFML" -- Railo, Open BD
rich ecosystems (example - PHP), broadly publicized
CMS: Drupal, Joomla, Silver Stripe, etc
IT budgets 2006 -- 10% spent on pen source (usually RedHat, JBoss)
2012 -- 30%
open source is seen as less risky than it was before
CFML loss starts with the CMS
-- whatever language is used by the CMS, custom apps will follow
- this affects:
future hiring decisions
app engine adoption/sales
perception
Drupal is the Terminator
CF companies start with CF, then bring in Drupal, and slowly the company switches to PHP
-- sent back in time to kill CFML
ex: University of British Columbia
were a broadly CFML shop, used Mura, success
why did they change to drupal
--almost the same as "nobody gets fired for buying IBM" (Drupal has a ubiquitous name)
Drupal is making a big push in federal government
Despite the doom and gloom, we do think there is hope ahead
things we can do ourselves to promote CFML
How do we ALL safe CFML
create the best applications - it's about the solutions, not the stacks
big ideas - stars with the solution, then the stack follows
foster a healthy ecosystem
Mura CMS and other useful open source tools for the community to rally around
Our vision: Mura CMS as enterprise hub
Mura at the web server level, connecting with different aspects of an organization's internal architecture
if you create a great application, people will use it
make it so good they HAVE to use it -- CFML or not
Resuna(sp?) -- digital asset management solution
seeing tons of success just because it's GREAT, they don't care what the stack is
Find a need, and build what's missing
Make it USABLE -- easy trumps complexity every time!
Contribute to another project -- don't reinvent (unless you can revolutionize)
Important things:
ease of use
availability of extensions
availability of community support
technology platform (LAMP, .NET, etc) -- important, but LESS important than the 3 above
How Mura will save CFML?
Trojan horse
people chose Mura because they like the features, and it "sneaks in" CF as part of that deal
Growing CFML marketshare
high percentage of Mura customers are NON-CF shops
Ex: Apple uses Mura all over their B2B sites
Mura chosen for functional, ease of use -- stack is secondary concern (sell the solution, not the technology)
but once they have the stack, you can leverage it for further CFML development
Almost ALL sites need CMS of some sort or another
It's easy to whip up a UI to present content, can knock it out in a few days
But over time they become difficult to maintain, bit rot, etc
Someone starts talking about "we need a REAL cms" -- pressure to buy something, rather than build another custom cms
Our plan for World Domination:
1. ColdFusion community
2. General web development community
3. CMS community
How YOU can save CFML
- build great applications
- don't reinvent the shell, improve existing CFML apps
contribute to the community in any way you can and do it regularly
stop apologizing, start evangelizing!
Foster a healthy ecosystem
collaborate
post your stuff publicly
post on github and RIAforge
find gaps and address them
finish your work, no abandon-ware!
Opem CFML Foundation
Organization that is promoting the use, awareness, and adoption of CFML in the broader dev community
goal: do all the things we talked about today, make people aware of the benefits of CFML, aware of the projects, etc
Focused on a select # of quality projects -- if you use them, you're likely to be successful
Events:
Open CF Summit
MuraCon
CF community and Mura
build plugins!
become a contributor to the codebase
bug fixes
new features
documentation