If you’ve been following this blog (and if not, why not!) then you will have seen that we’re gradually providing more information about the session content at Micro Focus World 09. MFW'09 will have 15 tracks and over 100 separate sessions scheduled so there’s going to be a huge amount on offer for a wide developer audience - as it should be!

The conference theme is based around the concept of “Business 2.0” – how will organizations exploit the new technologies of Web 2.0, the Cloud, SOA, new platforms and new business dynamics while exploiting their considerable investment in powerful systems where they can’t afford to take risks. This is obviously very important and timely given the amount of change going on in the world and potentially paradigm-shifting platform changes gather speed.

Having said all that, Micro Focus isn’t about to forget its core strengths or its core audience. Developers are at the heart of all the changes and opportunities going forward, and their knowledge, skills, productivity and agility in moving across technologies and platforms mark them out as critical assets to any organization.

It also shouldn’t be forgotten just how much business awareness the development teams have – a “COBOL programmer” may seem like a fairly simple way to describe a role, but in reality a large proportion of their work is concerned with understanding how the business works, interactions between systems and people to achieve a result, optimal approaches to solving problems and much, much more. These people are critical corporate assets and need to be supported and nurtured (can you tell I used to be a programmer myself?!)

Anyway, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the developer tracks at the conference. There will be more details published over the next few weeks and months but sessions will cover everything from the COBOL language through best practices to exploiting new platforms and tools. Combined with the main conference sessions, optional training sessions will really enhance developers’ skills and value.

So, although the headlines might be talking about Business 2.0, we are keeping a close watch on developers and continue to push the envelope to provide the best support they need regardless of the business’ technology choices. Whether it’s running “big iron” mainframes, creating funky WPF & .NET applications on Windows or providing rich developer support across all platforms including UNIX and Linux with our newly launched Net Express/Server Express for Eclipse, Micro Focus provides state of the art development environments.

As a developer, what do you want to get out of the conference? What do you want to hear? As a self-confessed ex-developer and now Product Manager for Micro Focus’ Application Development tools, I’m really looking forward to meeting as many techies as possible in Dallas and hearing your feedback – but don’t feel you have to wait until then, please feel free to leave comments here to spark a discussion with your peers. I’m sure you will find some common themes or issues we should discuss.

Just for fun, some Dallas trivia: Did you know that the outlaw Frank James once sold sewing machines in downtown Dallas.

Welcome to the blog space for Micro Focus World. During the next few months, I will be using this space to discuss the latest developments related to Application Modernization.

My name is Andy Sinclair, I’m a Senior Product Director in the Micro Focus Product Management team, responsible for the products that support our Application Modernization solution.

This solution area focuses on helping organizations that are running mission critical applications on mainframe or proprietary mid range systems, exploit and reuse these assets to deliver more value to the business. This is very topical as more and more organizations tighten purse strings in today’s increasingly volatile economic climate.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be reaching out to our existing and prospective customers interested in understanding how mainframe development teams can help their organizations respond to the new opportunities and challenges that face every business or government body today – that’s what we mean by the overall conference theme of Business 2.0!

Within the Application Modernization track we will look at how to modernize applications on the mainframe more efficiently and explore why more and more organizations are deriving business benefit from running discrete mainframe workload on alternative Linux, UNIX, Windows servers or zLinux partitions. We will also look at how existing mainframe applications can and should exploit Web 2.0 to support the conference sub themes of “On the Web” and “On the Move” and last, but not least, we will explore how Cloud computing is evolving and whether existing mainframe applications can be run “In the Cloud” to deliver business advantage.

We hope you will find these themes not just relevant but exciting. With this in mind, I will be soliciting your thoughts, ideas and feedback on our plans and themes for the conference to ensure that every attendee of Micro Focus World leaves armed with the information they feel can help instigate change that helps “move the dial” in a positive direction.

Hence, this blog space. It’s been set up to enable interaction, not just with myself but with other Micro Focus customers who really care about what topics should be covered to deliver the greatest possible value. Any ideas are welcome until we freeze the agenda, so let’s get blogging.