Tag: Ireland

Irish software at Oracle OpenWorld 2010


Preparation for the trio of Oracle’s major conferences (Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, Oracle Develop) has been underway for months, but once September comes around the pace really quickens. The final touches get put to product demonstration scripts, keynote speeches, and honing the elevator pitch. In product development you know it’s September because you can not find a product manager without scheduling a meeting days in advance. Of course, this is not unique to Oracle. There will be over 300 exhibitors at Oracle OpenWorld and many of them will be making sure their product or service is presented in the best possible manner. Having announced a major certification over the summer with Oracle’s Global License Management Services, the staff at one Irish software company will be no different.

iQuate is an Irish software company which produces network inventory and network management solutions for large, complex networks. Using a multitude of protocols iQuate queries PCs, servers, network devices, databases to not only build up a profile of what is installed, but also what is actually being used. This information allows companies to potentially save a fortune on their software licencing fees, by simply not paying for what they are not using. Check them out at stand 3130 in the Moscone Center, West Exhibition Hall, Level 1.

Come to thing of it, Oracle has development centres around the world and the Dublin offices have staff working on server technology, tools and application software. So some portions of the Oracle software on show will have been made in Ireland too! 🙂

Is iQuate really the only Irish software company exhibiting? It is the only one on the list of exhibitors with an Irish HQ. There might be other software companies that originated in or do the majority of their development in Ireland but have not listed an Irish address as their headquarters when registering as an exhibitor. In an effort to get into the US market and not appear as a foreign company, some businesses move their HQ to the US. This also demonstrates their commitment to the market. If you know of any other Irish software companies exhibiting this year please let me know and I would be delighted to include them.

Ireland’s new Baywatch mashup

Due to a new initiative from the EPA you can keep up to-date on the water quality of Ireland’s major bays (hence the article title), beaches and rivers. Made possible by some hard work from the clever people at IBM’s Water Management Centre of Excellence, Splash provides a great way to research different beaches and decide where to visit based on a number of parameters — water quality, weather, and whether or not a lifeguard is on duty, and so on. You’ll note from the spelling of Centre that it is European based. In fact it’s current home is right here in Dublin.

The site is a clever mashup of EPA water quality data, which is provided by the local councils, some location data and weather reports from AccuWeather. There also appears to be a Twitter status check as well but I have not seen any data from this actually displayed on the site. The location data includes a description of the area and some images.

For the Oracle offices in Dublin, the nearest beach is Dollymount Strand. The Splash website provides the following description:

Dollymount provides tremendous respite from Dubliners from the vagaries of city living. It is along beach with sweeping views of the Dublin Mountains. This seaside area and wildlife reserve is located north of Dublin Harbour. The strand is connected to the shore by a late 19th century wooden bridge. Dollymount is on the seaward side of Bull Island, one of the most protected pieces of property in Ireland. Cars are allowed on a small section of this beach which is separated from the Blue Flag beach by wooden pilings.

I’m not sure how ‘respite from Dubliners’ is achieved. Anytime I’ve been on the beach, at least one Dubliner has been there. The images are also of great interest as the site provides a birds eye view that you can zoom in and out of as well as a photo of the location. No Dubliners, or people for that matter appear in the images, so perhaps that is the respite referred to.
One of the IBM blogs suggests that this form of mashup will be rolled out to other countries in the future. Personally, I think this is a great example of innovation within Ireland and I look forward to seeing more if it.