Have you noticed? Since Broadcom took over CA, there is quite a bit of silence from Automic. And as it stands, there will be no official Automic Conference in 2019.
Therefore, this year, there was quite some interest in the FOKUS conference in Darmstadt on April 1st and 2nd was quite big.
In case you don’t know them, FOKUS is an association of German-speaking Automic customers. And just as a little Fun-Fact: The club currently has not a single Austrian member, although Automic indeed comes from Austria and is widespread here.
Anyway, FOKUS regularly organizes meetings for invited guests and this time the usually quite small meeting basically had to replace an official Automic Conference. It was the most visited FOKUS conference since its foundation, with more than 100 attendees.
There were more than 10 attendees directly from Automic / CA / Broadcom and they delivered several lectures on the status quo at Automic as well as the next version of the software.
And I know you’re probably sitting on the edge of your chair, waiting for my report. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you: As the FOKUS conference is a closed event, I can not share slides or communicate any further information from there …
I was allowed to give a short talk myself and I’ll certainly tell you about it sometime, If the opportunity arises.
Today, I want to get rid of some other thoughts.
The Takeover Marathon
Trust me, I’ll soon get to the point and talk about the current situation.
But to better understand what’s happening right now, you should first know what was going on over the last two years.
Therefore, here’s my short summary of the acquisition marathon:
- On December 1, 2016, CA announced that they were going to take over Automic.
- The official takeover happened in March 2017. The complex integration of Automic into the CA processes begins.
- On July 12, 2018, Broadcom buys CA Technologies.
- On November 5, this acquisition is officially completed and the integration of CA into Broadcom begins — although the integration of Automic into the CA processes is not yet complete.
- Ever heard of the company HCL?
On December 3, 2018, Broadcom announced a Preferred Services Partnership with HCL Technologies.
This concerns all CA products — including Automic. “Services” means training and consulting. If you want to buy Automic Training or Consulting in the future, you no longer may do that directly with the manufacturer. Instead, you have to buy it from another vendor — and HCL Technologies is Broadcom’s “preferred” partner for it.
But rumor has it that there is another, independent provider who’s apparently pretty good 😉.
What’s happening with Automic?
And with that, we finally get to the most important part of this article.
As written above, since 5th of November, ergo since the Broadcom acquisition, there has been radio silence on the part of Automics.
Such silence inevitably fills with rumors — and in the case of Automic, those rumors tended to be rather negative.
The competition (whose name I’ll not mention here, of course) smells the opportunity, fuels the uncertainty and tries to woo customers.
In German, we’ve got the saying “Wo gehobelt wird, fallen die Späne”. It means something along the lines of “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs” but the literal translation is: “If there’s wood shaping, shavings will fall.”
The thing is however: Shavings will also fall, if you are shredding wood.
The result of those two processes is quite different. Wood shaping usually creates a useful and beautiful product. Furniture or something like that. The shavings are simply a side effect. Shredding, on the other hand, creates … only chips.
The big question: Is Broadcom shredding…
… or shaping?
After Automic went through two takeovers within a short time, there are obviously lots of shavings on the ground.
The competition now points at them and claims that a shredder is responsible for that. And as there were hardly any official statements from Automic or CA or Broadcom, many of us, understandably, got a little unsettled.
At the FOKUS convention, Broadcom finally did communicate — and that was well-received by the participants. I, at least, was extremely happy about the information.
As I said, I can not give you any details, but I can assure you: we’re talking shaping, not shredding.
Yes, there are chips on the ground. But let’s be a bit more patient and wait for Broadcom to reveal their work! We only have to wait until June, when the Automic V12.3 will appear. If the shredder fairy tale was right, this version would not come at all or it would contain only small changes and fixes, no significant extension or improvement.
But if the release is similar to previous releases, then Broadcom obviously invests in the evolution of the product.
And at this point, unfortunately, I have to stop my report and wrap myself in ominous silence again. Otherwise, I might actually blab something, that I’m not supposed to.