TechRepublic Blog puts ColdFusion on life support

Another day passes, another blog post published on a tech site about the impending death of ColdFusion.  But this one comes as more of a slap in the face than previous posts, as it comes from the blog of a very reputable technology publication: TechRepublic.

TechRepublic, a site brought to you by the conglomerate known as CBS, is a reputable publication that many IT professionals go to for information.  In addition to their unique content, the site brings in articles from various feeds on the web, and is a great source of tech related news.  One of the sources of that information is a company called Global Knowledge, a "worldwide leader in business training".  They specialize in Microsoft and Cisco Training (nerd note: that was foreshadowing).

Global Knowledge is the source of a recent article titled "10 dying IT skills". Written by Linda Leung, this article is an attempt to compile a list of dying IT skills in the tech industry.  The theme of the post is a popular one for tech blogs, as it requires little to no effort to construct on the quick.  For the most part, the article does an adequate job of listing skills on the verge of death.  COBOL, HTML, Novell NetWare, etc.  COBOL only still exists because it is too expensive for some banks to switch from and HTML should be scrapped for XHTML or DHTML. But then the article jumps the shark with its inclusion of ColdFusion as a dying skill.  And thus the ignorance of another tech author is exposed.

To suggest that ColdFusion belongs anywhere close to this list is insane, and proves no real research went into writing this post.  For starters, comparing ColdFusion to COBOL is irresponsible.  Spouting nonsense this ridiculous is punishable by flogging in some countries.  Then, it suggests that Adobe doesn't have the money to compete with the marketing of Microsoft and Sun.  Interesting theory.  And this says nothing of the logic in saying that ColdFusion is a dying skill simply because the job searches performed by the author for CF jobs was less than that for PHP jobs.

Let's not forget the above mentioned foreshadowing.  Of course Microsoft proponents would like to see the death of ColdFusion.  The more updates that come from Adobe, the more they supply components for the .NET framework, something Microsoft would like to keep in their court.  Not to mention the Microsoft Exchange support possible through CF.  Some might say, 'well the list includes Visual J++ so how can you say this is biased in favor of MS?'  To which I respond...can you tell me one thing coded in Visual J++ before Java sued Microsoft?  Exactly.

At Brice Cheddarn Development, we take pride in being a ColdFusion shop.  We don't think of one of our primary skills as dying off.  Rather, we tend to think the full power and potential of ColdFusion has yet to be discovered and harnessed.

So, to prove ColdFusion is far from dying off, here are some very basic facts I was able to stumble upon with a 10 minute Google search, the bare minimum I require before someone writes a blog post (a high standard, I know):

• ColdFusion is in use at 75 of the Fortune 100 companies.  To some, this might suggest that ColdFusion is a valuable skill to have.  Lots of people strive for jobs at Fortune 100 companies.  But I guess when only 75% of the Fortune 100 uses a product, we don't really need to worry about having people around who are skilled in that product do we?
• Adobe is getting ready to release the latest version of ColdFusion:  Centaur...ColdFusion 9.  If the language is dying, why are they releasing a new, hush hush but semi-hyped version?
• CFUnited 2009 is coming soon!  CFUnited is the premiere ColdFusion conference and is created for developers by developers.  It is an annual 4 day conference featuring the latest in ColdFusion and celebrated its 10th anniversary last year.  The event attracts over 800 developers a year.  The sessions are voted on by the community so  the content stays true to what the community wants to see at CFUnited. I guess someone should tell them ColdFusion is on life support so they can stop hosting this event (nerd note: more sarcasm).
• There are 1800 members registered for the online ColdFusion Meetup.  This group hosts a weekly online meetup for the ColdFusion faithful, a place where CF developers can find great information to make their jobs better and their careers more satisfying.  Did no one tell these guys they are the Autoworkers of Web Development yet?  (nerd note: even more sarcasm...laying it on pretty thick now, huh?)
• From Adobe: 10,000+ companies, 778,000 developers, 125,000 applications, 350+ usergroups, and over 10,000 downloads a month.
  

Maybe Linda Leung should have included "Research" as a dying skill instead of ColdFusion.

nerd update:  and someone might suggest to the author to read the TechRepublic website before including ColdFusion on a list of dying skills because someone already tried that 2 years ago.

4 Comments