What to expect from Tibco Now 2018
What should you call your technology conference, exhibition, symposium and all-round shindig these days?
The name choices are various, but fall into a group of usual suspects including: TechEd, Next, Knowledge, Edge, Connect, Live and Now… with most of the other choices being a play on words related to the name of the vendor (think Inforum for Infor, SuccessConnect for SuccessFactors) and so on.
Only Splunk comes forward with a real twist and calls its event .conf as a geeky nod to those that know a CONF file is a configuration or “config” file used on Unix and Linux based systems to stores settings used to configure system processes and applications.
Tibco keeps it plain, simple and comparatively Ronseal and goes for Now, or the rather shouty NOW in caps if you want to comply with the branding police.
With branding sensitivity in mind, the debate continues as to whether to describe Tibco as Tibco or (as it would prefer) as TIBCO.
Generally speaking, company and organisation name acronyms stop at 3-letters, unless happen to be NASA, NATO or some other globally relevant body.
But this is a thorny area. Tibco is an acronym and it stands for The Information Bus COmpany, so could Tibco be the exception that proves the rule?
Nomenclature shenanigans notwithstanding, Tibco hosts its annual Tibco Now gathering in Las Vegas next month at the Aria Resort & Casino from September 4-6 this 2018.
TIAPIMACO, lika mama used to make
Tibco is still The Information Bus COmpany at heart, but these days it refers to itself as the integration, API management & analytics company (TIAPIMACO perhaps – or does that sound too much like a new shape of pasta?), which in many ways come back to the same thing i.e. granular data connectivity and inspection.
Into the show preview information then and the company tells us that this year’s event is themed around what it has called ‘innovation at the edge,’ — ah hem, did someone say Internet of Things (IoT)? Well, we probably don’t have to do we?
The company promises to focus on practical applications for digital services using the TIBCO Connected Intelligence Cloud, which is described as a unified set of services and capabilities that provides an entirely cloud-based experience.
Chief marketing officer Thomas Been says that this year’s event will make clear how the Tibco Connected Intelligence Cloud can be used to build digital services that utilise AI, IoT and blockchain across industries such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing.
Been says that conference highlights include keynote presentations from people such as Jean Michel Arès (Bank of Montreal), B. Joseph Pine II (Strategic Horizons LLP), and Peggy A. Whitson, Ph.D. (Former NASA Astronaut).
Keynote presentations from Tibco executives include Murray Rode (CEO), Matt Quinn (COO), Thomas Been (already referenced) and Nelson Petracek (CTO).
With a reasonable developer focus, the company says that the event also features hands-on training sessions.
Pasta fresca o la stessa vecchia storia?
Will we learn anything new about Tibco this year?
Ah now that’s the big (and arguably most important question)… it’s for sure that the company with pay lip service to so-called digital transformation (*yawn*) and the general movement to cloud, data analytics and AI-driven automation. What we really want is the inside story: inside the devices, inside the application architectures, inside the log file repositories, inside the stream processing channels and inside the heart of where the company thinks it is going next.
Guest speakers include Dr. Peggy Whitson is a former NASA astronaut and biochemist. She has participated in 10 space walks, holds eighth place on the all-time space endurance list and spent 665 days in space, the US record.