All About Software for IT Managers

Software Magazine, June, 1999

New life. New organizations. New ways of doing things. IT pros as rock stars.

Read all about it.

Software Magazine's 17th annual Software 500 ranking shows the software industry is both maturing and welcoming new innovation at the same time. The big get bigger and the small come on and are still welcome. E-business is fueling innovation, growth, and opportunity, while open source software is posing a dramatic alternative that developers especially are supporting for certain uses, such as Linux boxes running Apache Web servers.

Microsoft surpassed IBM in software revenue for the first time in the history of the industry. IBM has always been the software leader. It seems fitting that the same year the forces behind Linux define Microsoft as the Establishment, Microsoft knocks off IBM from the lead in software sales.

Talented IT professionals are "the new rock stars" in the words of Mark Gorenberg of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, interviewed by Managing Editor Colleen Frye in her summary of this year's Software 500 project. The project was overseen ably once again by Colleen with help from Amy Sauer, editorial coordinator, and Sue Bencuya, researcher. Elizabeth U. Harding contributes as West Coast Editor and Maurice Curran, as editorial assistant. We also welcome back Joshua Greenbaum, principal of Enterprise Applications in Berkeley, Calif., as author of the Applied Software column, and Ian Hayes, president of Clarity Consulting, South Hamilton, Mass., as author of the Managing IT column.

IT professionals need their own magazine and that's what Software Magazine is. We plan to closely identify with the requirements of IT managers and deliver a magazine and complementary Web site (www.softwaremag.com) that serves them. We serve, for example, by delivering content from the most qualified writers on compelling topics. In this issue, Dan Kara of Intermedia Group, Westboro, Mass., reports on the results of a study commissioned by Software Magazine on the Websourcing market, the emerging new generation of services and applications designed to capitalize on the low cost and global reach of the Internet. (This piece drives a stake in the ground for our planned coverage of Web application hosting, e-services, advanced ISP services, and Web development.)

In coming issues, we will surface more of the community of writers and content providers we will enlist to support the Software Magazine community. We want your feedback on what you need to read in the magazine, what you would like to see on the Web site, how you think we are doing. We look forward to a continuing strong relationship.

Regards,

John P. Desmond

Editorial Director