Selling ColdFusion to Clients

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Selling ColdFusion to Clients

• Michael Smith
• michael_at_teratech.com
• TeraTech, Inc.

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Speaker Information

• Who am I?
• ColdFusion Developer
• 10 years with ColdFusion
• Teach one-on-one and custom classes
• On site and custom development
• Fusebox and Process Methodology

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Selling ColdFusion to Clients

• What strategies do you use for selling the
  ColdFusion platform to clients? Particularly when
  there are multiple possible platforms in the
  running.

4
Who is your audience

• End users
• CIO
• Other developers
• Other

5
What platforms compete with ColdFusion?

• ASP, ASP.Net
• Java
• Ruby on Rails
• PERL
• PHP

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Why is CF great?

• RAD
• Easy to Learn
• Powerful
• Scaleable
• Built in functions
• Portable, standards based
• Extensible

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RAD

• RAD Rapid Application Development
• Iterative Prototyping
• User involvement
• Fast!
• Code quality may suffer

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Easy to learn

• Tag based ltCFgt lt/CFgt
• Separate files with hyperlinks
• HTML by default
• Compiler is hidden from every day use
• Basic functionality deliberately kept simple
• More complex functionality as options

9
Great Learning Resources

• Extensive documentation
• Livedocs
• Forums
• cf-talk
• Forta books (and CD examples)
• Adobe labs
• User groups and conferences

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Powerful

• Hundreds of tags and functions
• Integration open standards
• Extensible
• Caching
• Built in
• Programmer controlled
• Sophisticated threading model

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More power

• Support for all design patterns, n-tier
  development, etc
• High performance and scalability.
• Complete client (browser) independence
• Plus extra support for client-side Flash.

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Scaleable

• Largest site in the world runs on ColdFusion
  (MySpace)
• Smart automatic threading and resource pooling
• Clustering
• Compiles and runs as Java
• Can use high end J2EE server

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Build in functionality

• Includes runtime services for
• charting and graphing
• full text searching
• high performance multi-threaded mail delivery
• Built-in support for XML and web services.
• Access to COM, CORBA, Java, C/C, and any
  operating system specific applications or
  scripting capabilities.

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Portable

• Servers from Microsoft, IBM, BEA, Sun, etc
• OS portability across Windows, Unix, Linux,
  Solaris, AIX, etc.
• Full support for all major databases (including
  Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle etc) via standard
  JDBC drivers

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Extensibility

• CFCs, custom tags, UDF (functions)
• Include files
• Java
• Web services
• COM

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Common Concerns

• But it isnt free
• CF is too slow
• CF doesnt scale
• CF isnt secure
• CF code is badly written
• It is not made by Microsoft

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But it isnt free

• Combating the "PHP is Free" or "ASP is Free"
  argument.
• Cost of programming vs server
• Low cost hosting
• Educational discounts
• Free editions

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CF is too slow

• Depends on programmer not the language
• Slow apps usually due to database or SQL issues
• Or poor algorithm
• Same is true of all other languages

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CF doesnt scale

• True if code not written correctly
• Not true for professional code
• Caching built into CF
• Clustering features built into CF

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CF isnt secure

• Depends on programmer not the language
• Insecure sites usually due to not validating
  client data or OS/database security
• Same is true of all other web languages
• CF supports good security (eg CFQueryParam),
  Datasource access levels, Security alerts

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CF code is badly written

• Can be true because CF is so easy to learn
• Not true of professional programmers code
• CF can be easy to read and maintain
• Fusebox and other frameworks help

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It is not made by Microsoft

• True!
• Political considerations
• One vendor policies
• Adobe is large too!
• CF is fully Microsoft compatible
• Windows, IIS, SQL Server, COM

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CF and Java

• How can Java developers look at ColdFusion in a
  positive light?
• http//today.java.net/pub/a/today/2007/02/27/coldf
  usion-for-jsp-developers.html

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More CF and Java

• Very Large Tag Library on Steroids
• All parts tested and compatible
• Easy integration with Java
• Compiles to Java
• Deployment as JAR

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CF and .Net

• CFML on .Net (Blue Dragon)
• .Net is Web services

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ColdFusion as app glue
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ColdFusion facts

• 125,000 ColdFusion servers deployed
• 300,000 developers
• 10,000 organizations
• 75 of the Fortune 100 companies
• 40 of the Media Metrix Top 50 Web Properties
• nearly all major branches and agencies of the
  U.S. federal government

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More facts

• 290 million ColdFusion pages (Source Google)
• 360 user groups worldwide
• Official Adobe Developer Certification Program
  available
• Thousands of third-party components and add-ons
• In use at leading systems integrators, including
  CSC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte Touche

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Partial Customer List

• 192.com
• ACD Direct
• Allied Office Products
• America First Credit Union
• American Power Conversion
• Amkor Technology
• Aspen Skiing Company
• ATT Wireless
• Bank of America
• Bertelsmann
• BMW USA
• Boeing
• Casio USA
• Caterpillar
• Chicago Bears
• City of Davis, CA
• County of San Diego, Dept. of Child Support
  Services

• Crayola
• Dallas Stars
• DHL
• Dial Corporation
• East Carolina University
• eBags
• Eli Lilly
• eMCSaatchi
• FAO Schwarz
• First Union
• Foot Locker
• George Washington University
• Georgetown University
• GlobalSpec.com
• Goodyear
• Half.com
• Hasbro

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Partial Customer List (cont.)

• iHotelier
• Inmarkets Training, Ltd.
• International Speedway Corporation
• InvestEdge
• Jaguar Australia
• Legato
• The Limited
• Mayo Clinic
• Mayo Health Systems
• Michelin
• Moen
• MySpace
• MySwitzerland.com
• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• New York Giants
• New Era Cap Company
• New York State Office for Technology
• One World Alliance
• Peace Corps

• PGA of America
• Pottery Barn
• Prometheus
• Quaker Oats
• Roche Pharmaceuticals
• Rugby Football Union
• Schlumberger
• Scott's Corporation
• Seattle Times
• United States Senate
• Siemens
• Simon Schuster
• SmartMoney.com
• Sprint
• State of New York
• Symantec
• Travelers
• United States Olympic Committee
• US Bank

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Why is CF Great Really?

• The CF Community!
• CFUGs
• Conferences
• Speakers
• Listserv CF-talk, MDCFUG-L
• Users helping Users

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What is a CFUG

• ColdFusion User Group
• Learning CF
• Answering questions
• Presentations on CF techniques
• Networking and friends
• Free info
• Users helping Users

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Resources

• http//www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/proven/
• http//www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/cf
  _aspnet.html
• http//today.java.net/pub/a/today/2007/02/27/coldf
  usion-for-jsp-developers.html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColdfusionCriticism
  
• http//www.gotcfm.com
• http//www.cffaq.com/

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More resources

• http//www.reybango.com/index.cfm/2007/2/6/ColdFus
  ion-How-Misconceptions-Continue-to-Plague-It
• http//www.reybango.com/index.cfm/2007/2/9/Tim-Bun
  tel-Really-Cares-About-ColdFusion-Developers
• http//www.forta.com/cf/using/
• http//coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/46362.htm

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Questions

• Ask me now or email me later
• michael_at_teratech.com