Wellington
Tucked away on Wellington’s waterfront is an unassuming kiwi company bringing in the nextgeneration of design and creation of cloud computing software.
Many may never have heard of
If you’re a software aficionado, you’re going to be gob smacked about Aviarc’s huge leapforward in the evolving science of software development.
If you’re not and you haven’t seen the way Aviarc works, you’ll go “so what”: andthat’s part of the challenge that Core Technology has, as it launches its cloud-based toolset to aworld where even small steps for mankind are often hyped up like moon landings.
However, Aviarc has been described by no less thanIBM as being the most complex piece of code in the cloud. Since 2004, many millions of dollars havebeen spent on its R&D, which has also enjoyed the support of the Ministry of Science andInnovation and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. This has enabled Aviarc to remain a proudly kiwiinvention.
Aviarc links a highly visual, social, web based front end of software design (what someone wantsdone, and how it should look and feel) with the back end creation of the software that will make acomputer system to automate the design.
‘Traditionally’, if such a word can be used in the relative recent history of computing,there has been a huge disconnect between what a client wants in software and what is delivered.
“We know from twenty years of detailed research by leading analysts that in the eyes of thebusiness users, two thirds of software fails partly or wholly – and this is still true today,”says Aviarc General Manager, Wellington, Stephen Goodier. “What is built and delivered is notquite what is wanted so user confidence has declined. It is an issue that has plagued the industryfor decades.”
CT managing director Shane Mercer set out with a vision in 2004:to overcome this problem andintimately link the design and development phases together in such a way that the user anddevelopers had fingertip control, using every-day visual metaphors, such as pinning notes on aboard. Though the internet ‘cloud’ was more a concept than reality then, it seemed like alogical and fresh way to approach the challenge and its development has dovetailed neatly intoAviarc’s.
Using all the powerful characteristics of the web and browser was a no-brainer: the eureka momentin Aviarc was the development of the ‘Temporal Engine’ – a software component that allowsanyone to go back and forward in time – to where a particular operation was working okay, orbetter than what has been developed so far.
So far, so relatively geeky.
Aviarc’s final licensed product has three separate phases – Think, Link and Ink. Another wayof looking at it is to Capture, Conceive and Construct; moving from a type of right brain creative,social, design thinking to more of a left brain engineering, building, integrating set up.
And where Aviarc has excited many non-techy people is its ‘Drawing Board’ (the Think stage).
This is a design stage where figurative sticky notes are put on its pin board. As a relativelyunstructured stage, it allows people to play, get an idea of what they might like a final softwareproduct to look like.
People can contribute remotely to this drawing board stage; from around a city, country or worldif desired – all they need is a web browser and Aviarc.
The Think-Link component is where an IT professional comes in; helping to put extra structurearound what is required by the client users, and at the same time automatically creating up to 80%of the software application required to achieve the desired front-end functionality. After the Linkstage, the instructions and a great percentage of the necessary web browser based software is ableto be handed over to one or two developers to quickly finish off.
“One of the problems Aviarc solves is that it provides certainty of outcome,” says Goodier.“What you get is exactly what you expect – after all, you’ve actually designed it and evolvedit with your team of users.”
“Typically people look at Aviarc and say ‘It looks too good to be true’” he says ”Thenthey take a close look and realize that it really does do everything they have hoped for. We’vehad global experts deep dive on the tech, then surface and say ‘it’s real!’ - it’s ourfavourite moment in the journey.”
In fact Aviarc’s release as a separate, patented piece of intellectual property also begins aplanned transition of Core Technology’s business and the start of the go-to-market stage. However, the seven years of R&D has not been in isolation – over thirty Australasian companiesand public sector organisations already use Aviarc.
The Aviarc platform will be licenced for sale to business partners – with the overall packageand Aviarc Drawing Board being sold as separate products. Aviarc can already be delivered on theclient premises, mobile or via the IBM, Fujitsu and Amazon public clouds.
“A major play will be to go to Independent Software Vendors (ISV),” says Goodier. Core hasalready signed Wellington company Equinox, who use Aviarc to write software-as-a-serviceapplications for its clients.
Using the Aviarc platform provides three main advantages for its users he says:
•For ISV’s needing to modernise or revitalise applications, Aviarc provides an easy way toget into the cloud, get mobile and get new economies
•It allows ISV’s to writeapplications for end user clients that change fast and frequently
•Large clients can useAviarc to write their own applications – often they just get Core to do this with them, stating isas less expensive than a package.
One of the main advantages in using Aviarc, because the problem solving starts at the design endis captured at the Link stage, is de-risking the project and delivering certainty of look, feel,behaviour.
From here on in most of the variability has gone so “it is far easier to fix cost a project –and that is what we usually d,” Goodier says.
It has been estimated that Aviarc is 4-5 times more productive from a software development pointof view than present methods. Recently clients have observed it as being about one week of work forevery month they would have been used to.
“We thought it would be all about compelling price and speed but we’ve been surprised,” hesays.
“For the client, whilst these things are good, it is not about the price, it is more about thecertainty; the client knows what they are getting. The outcome is guaranteed. You end up with customsoftware, designed for you. We had no idea just how much frustration there is out there”.
Aviarcs Temporal Engine is one of its several key patents, and the ability it provides fordevelopers to go back in time (to a prior stage of code development) is a “way to enter a universethat previously existed creating a freedom to jump backwards and forwards between design and createstages that just didn’t exist before,” he says.
“We have a special product here, and we’re excited by what it can offer to those wantingcustom software, fast, that delivers on its promise. The programming languages used to develop cloudsoftware pre-date the cloud itself, we’re the first of a new generation to really exploit everyaspect of cloud, mobile, visual and social. The results so far have been spectacular.”