LiveBlogging IOD 2007

Well, here I am in Las Vegas, staffing the Rational booth at IOD 2007. I feel like I'm the only Rational representative here, but do far it's been pretty busy.

Here's what I love about Vegas: The nearly naked dancers? no*. The gambling? No. The pretty lights? What happens here stays here? no.

It's the unexpected. Where's the last place you'd expect to see a Ferrari Formula 1 car? An IBM database show, right? Well, the first thing you see when you enter the show is a bright red, full size, Ferrari. It's at the AMD booth (they're a Ferrari sponsor).

In other exciting news, Dana Carvey hosted the kickoff keynote, and, while his knowledge of data was, it's fair to say, negligible, he raised some laughs from the audience. I often wonder at the wisdom of using B-level celebrities to host these kinds of events, but hey! they're cheap at least. Case in point: we're going to "enjoy" a Donna Summer concert tomorrow night.

In actual software-related news, IBM announced new products here today, including IBM Data Studio, which aims to do for data lifecycle management what Rational does for application lifecycle management. It's a freely downloadable Eclipse plugin, so it'll work (soon) in conjunction with the Rational Architecture Management portfolio (for example, Rational Application Developer or Rational Software Architect) to provide a comprehensive application and data development toolset. Look for it at the end of the month.

Well, I've got to go finish my booth duty for the day, but at least after that, there's the beach party!

I love Vegas.

* OK - I lied about the naked dancers