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Don Ferguson leaves IBM for MS

Don Ferguson, until very recently an IBM Fellow and Chief Architect for the IBM Software Group, has moved to Microsoft. Don is now a “Microsoft Technical Fellow in Platforms and Strategy”. This is a pretty big deal is it not? Yet I’ve not heard a dickie bird about this out on the usual sites. Peculiar.

Microsoft Press Release.

Posted at 02:44 PST on 16 Jan 2007   |   Categories:    |      |    microsoft don ferguson ibm

Comments

1. Well, if Ray Ozzie can join the evil empire without causing Notes to lose market share, I don't think this will do much damage either. Still, such a high level defection should be a major red flag at IBM.
   Picture this, you try to install MS Access 2008 and you find that the first step is installing Microsphere Application Server...
   
   on 16 Jan 2007 by Ed Maloney (#)
2. Depending on how much he had to do with the architectural leadership of IBMs SOA and web services (in his bio,) my reaction might very well be "don't let the door hit you on the way out." If he's the guy ultimately responsible for these tightly coupled WAS/DB2 platforms for Domino-based product lines -- heck, maybe he's already been working for MS for the last 12 months. :-/
   on 16 Jan 2007 by Nathan T. Freeman (#)
3. Thanks, I'm glad someone blogged about this. I read it on Slashdot this morning and I keep checking Ed Brill's blog to read his opinion on it, but he has been quiet.
   on 16 Jan 2007 by Chris (#)
4. The more I think about it, the more I really don't care. I'm beginning to think these "grand idea" people at IBM are the ones that get in the way of real solutions.
   on 17 Jan 2007 by Nathan T. Freeman (#)
5. That assumes a lot though. Whilst Don may be the “father” of Websphere, it doesn’t necessarily follow that he somehow shoe-horned things like the Sametime gateway and the Activity Server into a WAS / DB2 model.
   
   I don’t dislike Websphere, I’ve coded for it, and seen it perform amazingly with some of my projects.
   
   But yes, it is big, beefy, complex, and inappropriate for smaller businesses.
   on 17 Jan 2007 by Ben Poole (#)
6. I don't have a problem with Websphere as such. I have a problem with shifting the deliverables from the easily-auditioned architecture of Domino to the PHD-to-install architecture of WAS/DB2 coupled server products.
   on 17 Jan 2007 by Nathan T. Freeman (#)
7. Hi Chris -- As I said in a comment on vowe.net, I had never heard of Don Ferguson before yesterday. So I guess I don't have much to say on the subject. Some have been surprised that I hadn't ever heard of Don, given his bio. But I'm a sales and marketing kinda guy, so even if Ferguson did any work with the Lotus development team, I wouldn't necessarily have known about it. I looked around to see where he might have touched the Lotus org and really haven't found much.
   
   So, kinda non-news. I'm sure he's got his reasons for going to MS, but with no first-hand knowledge, I have nada to say on it.
   on 17 Jan 2007 by Ed Brill (#)
8. James Governor has provided more detail about Don, what he did, how he is. Interesting read:
   

   >Don, like Jon Udell, another new Microsoft hire, is a PHP fan (take that, astronaut accusers…

   
   http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/01/16/don-ferguson-joins-microsoft-5-things-you-didnt-know/
   on 18 Jan 2007 by Ben Poole (#)