Wake Up And Smell The Curry
If you do keep an eye on my blog then you'll have spotted that I had gone a bit quite of recent, it's not been due to a lack of interest on my part but more keeping my head above water, things hopefully will quieten down for a bit so will blog some more:-)
If you live in Oz then you'd have spotted me (along with Greg and Neil, thanks guys) on our SQL 2005 Roadshow, it was great fun and I hope that there was something new and of value for all those who attended the sessions.
Lol, and if I was looking slightly stressed near the end of the SQL Roadshow then it was because 1) I had been on the road for 3 weeks and 2) I was getting myself ready for a two week MS India Security Summit, a great opportunity to get dev security messages across to lots of developers and also a great personal opportunity as I had always wanted to travel there. My one line summary of developers I met in India, is "great people, bright, friendly and wanting to get ahead".
That said this is something that I put together that might make the next Oz MSDN Flash titled :-
"Wake up and smell the curry"
Yesterday I returned from India where I had the opportunity to support the Microsoft India Security Summit across 5 cities. I had plenty of perceptions of India, ranging from the Mumbai (Bombay) Slums, the largest in Asia to the Taj Mahal, the 7th wonder of the world. Of course amongst these perceptions was the knowledge that India has become the outsourcing powerhouse of the world, but still somehow this never really hit home until I saw it.
We visited Bangalore, the “Silicon Valley” of India and I was stunned to see the infrastructure investments made by high tech companies. Glistening steel buildings, mirrored plate glass windows, satellite dishes etc. The structures 1st world cities define as symbols of success and progress.
Business is booming, road systems are bursting (or collapsing), hotel prices are through the roof, modest "business grade" hotel rooms cost $US250/night and rooms at The Leela Palace start at $US500 and demand for rooms is running at 5(people):1(room).
Stats from India’s “The Economic Times” run as follows, IBM: 23000 people, HP 15000 people, Infosys 22000 people, Wipro 39000+ (WW with a security practice) and yes, we have a modest presence there as well as do a lot of other companies, Oracle etc… These people are running Call Centres, Facilities Management Centres, Help Desks, Software Development Houses and they are investing long term in education.
So what prompted me to write this? Somehow till you see what is happening in India it’s difficult to appreciate the revolution that is going on there, India’s bullish political and economic goals are to be a dominant 1st world nation in 10 years.
So as software developers we have plenty of choices, we can give up and go home (not likely thank you very much), or better still build closer relationships with our customers, build innovative solutions, leverage frameworks and services rather than reinventing (I see this too often) and invest in skills development as we’ll need all of these elements to successfully compete with a country that is hungry to win!!
The main themes of my security sessions in India were really about understanding applications Threats and Countermeasures and Security Threat Analysis as key elements to successful projects.
Dave