Neuroning

Today is is my last day as an Oracle employee.
"Fired? Lay offs?" No, I decided to leave.
"What happened?" Nothing, really.  I was working with nice people, in a good environment, doing interesting work, getting a good salary. I was comfortable.
"So? Why are you leaving?" A deal popped up that allows me go independent and try something different. Actually, I’m teaming up with a good friend to build Code54. We always dreamed about creating our own little software company, and this is an interesting opportunity to give it a shot.
"You must be crazy! Do it during this economic crisis?!" No doubt.  I hope we can make it work on our favor. If I wait for the "ideal" time, I might never get to do it. I was too comfortable at Oracle, but comfort is not what I’m after right now.

This was not an easy decision. I’ve been working at Fuego/BEA/Oracle for over 10 years. I lived all kind of experiences from being a troubled 11-employee start-up to joining the Oracle empire. Thanks everyone!
Stay tuned: In a few months I’ll either be hiring or looking for a job again!
 

To me, BEA was the big fish not long ago.

Today, BEA is the small one in the mouth of Oracle.

We are in a steep ride, jumping quickly from a start-up to becoming part of BEA and now of Oracle. I hope we can keep the “small-company” atmosphere here in our division.

In March, I accepted a new position within BEA, to work for BEA Argentina.

After more than six years in the U.S., my wife and I were thinking about moving back to Argentina. We were talking about doing so in 2008. Then, this opportunity within BEA came across. It was sooner than what we planned, but it was interesting for me professionally, and BEA was helping with all the relocation needs. So I accepted.

It all happened (is happening I’d say) pretty quickly. Me and my family arrived at Argentina a couple of weeks ago, and I started on this new role immediately.

April was a good exercise on getting things done, both in and out of work. Here’s just a summary:

Old news: BEA Systems acquired Fuego Inc..

Starting March 1st, virtually all Fuego employees (including myself) became BEA employees. There are few organizational changes, which helps minimize disruptions on our productivity and service.

I’ve been with Fuego since its early days. I started working for Fuego’s ancestor company, InterSoft, as a Java/C++ developer in 1997.

I have different feelings about the acquisition. On the one side I feel a bit nostalgic: the company I somehow helped build is no more. But on the other side I’m proud to say Fuego was no “bubble”, and I’m very positive that BEA’s infrastructure and steering will provide the power to support the crazy growth we are experiencing, and bring the product to the next level.

All analysts are talking about BPM systems these days. BPM became a buzzword in the Enterprise software market. This is nothing but a proof of how far ahead the founders of Fuego were (and probably how clueless some analysts are?): the product itself was started in 1997, and it was called jBPM (yes, the same name later taken by the now JBoss-sponsored jBPM project).

This is old news already, and although it’s not about Software, it’s definitely about Development :-)

I’m happy to share that Pilar, my second daughter, was born last Monday 14th, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule –and on budget ;-).

She has jaundice, so she is under photo-therapy. Fortunately, this can be done at home, and should only last a few days.