Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[crispy]

Here's a serious question - Are there a lot of former Disney creatives/execs that now work at Universal? I keep hearing that Universal is out-Disneying Disney, and I was wondering if this was one reason why. It would make sense that disgruntled or disenchanted former CMs would go to work there.

 

[Funmeister]

Here's a serious question - Are there a lot of former Disney creatives/execs that now work at Universal? I keep hearing that Universal is out-Disneying Disney, and I was wondering if this was one reason why. It would make sense that disgruntled or disenchanted former CMs would go to work there.

I know back in the late 1990's Universal hired quite a few sales and marketing execs from Disney to work on IOA. After the park opened most of them were laid off.

 

[WDW1974]

Just a quick drop in, although I have been skimming some of this (and some folks say that I go off topic!). A dear friend of mine passed away this weekend after a three year battle with cancer. I don't wish to say any more on said topic other than it probably isn't in my best interest to be posting while very emotional and conflicted.

But I did want to try and get back to some of what I wish to talk about regarding NGE. Hopefully, someone can explain what the following might mean:

... the mandate was for an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) utilizing Progress, the software provider, for "an SOA platform for all of the Walt Disney Company to leverage" following a reverse engineering of "Oracle 10 databases" with new architecture/novel strategy for complex integrations.

Or, I think that's what this says. Saw material that makes my head hurt worse than it does already. Apparently, SAS 9.3 EBI Architecture (?) and JAVA J2EE (?) are (were?) involved given the many mentions.
No, the Spirit doesn't understand most of what he's been reading on the technical components. This probably means something to @flynnibus and @lilfort or any one of our other well-versed techies. One thing that is clear in the material I've seen - Disney has clients for whatever NGE delivers. The words 'clients' and 'partners' are not used sparingly...they're ALL OVER parts of what I've reviewed.

Yes, there's more to come. But I like having George Kalogridis playing 'just what does (Spirit) know and who the blank is leaking this to him?' It gives me a bit of a bulge, I admit.

Again, sorry for my absence ... really no one is sorrier than I am right now. Thanks @Lee.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Just a quick drop in, although I have been skimming some of this (and some folks say that I go off topic!). A dear friend of mine passed away this weekend after a three year battle with cancer. I don't wish to say any more on said topic other than it probably isn't in my best interest to be posting while very emotional and conflicted.

But I did want to try and get back to some of what I wish to talk about regarding NGE. Hopefully, someone can explain what the following might mean:

... the mandate was for an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) utilizing Progress, the software provider, for "an SOA platform for all of the Walt Disney Company to leverage" following a reverse engineering of "Oracle 10 databases" with new architecture/novel strategy for complex integrations.

Or, I think that's what this says. Saw material that makes my head hurt worse than it does already. Apparently, SAS 9.3 EBI Architecture (?) and JAVA J2EE (?) are (were?) involved given the many mentions.
No, the Spirit doesn't understand most of what he's been reading on the technical components. This probably means something to @flynnibus and @lilfort or any one of our other well-versed techies. One thing that is clear in the material I've seen - Disney has clients for whatever NGE delivers. The words 'clients' and 'partners' are not used sparingly...they're ALL OVER parts of what I've reviewed.

Yes, there's more to come. But I like having George Kalogridis playing 'just what does (Spirit) know and who the blank is leaking this to him?' It gives me a bit of a bulge, I admit.

Again, sorry for my absence ... really no one is sorrier than I am right now. Thanks @Lee.

My head hurts from the 3rd and 4th paragraphs, but: Condolences.

 

[WDW1974]

One other thing. Disney earnings will be out in two hours. All media companies are doing incredibly well. CBS and Viacom posted exceptional numbers. I fully expect Disney to do likewise.

But remember two very salient points, numbers lie and a quarter (or even multiple years of results) doesn't show underlying foundational cracks in a business. WDW has these issues across multiple business units (yes, most notably to us, P&R and Studios).

Anyway, hope you all are having better weeks than I because -- believe me -- nothing I'd rather do that get some REAL NGE info out there all the while making fun of the lifestylers (yes, sadly it appears my little buddy @EPCOT Explorer has it as a backup career option) out taking over Anaheim for D23.

I just hope they fumigate before I arrive!

 

[nytimez]

Sorry for your loss, do take care.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Here's a serious question - Are there a lot of former Disney creatives/execs that now work at Universal? I keep hearing that Universal is out-Disneying Disney, and I was wondering if this was one reason why. It would make sense that disgruntled or disenchanted former CMs would go to work there.

In terms of creatives, moving from company to company is not exactly unusual. The days of the lifelong Imagineer are over.

 

[crispy]

Spirit, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[PhotoDave219]

74, sorry to hear about your friends passing. My sincerest condolences

 

[Funmeister]

Sorry about your loss.

 

[Big C 73]

Sorry about your loss. It isn't easy. My prayers out to your friends family, God bless.

 

[danlb_2000]

Just a quick drop in, although I have been skimming some of this (and some folks say that I go off topic!). A dear friend of mine passed away this weekend after a three year battle with cancer. I don't wish to say any more on said topic other than it probably isn't in my best interest to be posting while very emotional and conflicted.

But I did want to try and get back to some of what I wish to talk about regarding NGE. Hopefully, someone can explain what the following might mean:

... the mandate was for an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) utilizing Progress, the software provider, for "an SOA platform for all of the Walt Disney Company to leverage" following a reverse engineering of "Oracle 10 databases" with new architecture/novel strategy for complex integrations.

Or, I think that's what this says. Saw material that makes my head hurt worse than it does already. Apparently, SAS 9.3 EBI Architecture (?) and JAVA J2EE (?) are (were?) involved given the many mentions.
No, the Spirit doesn't understand most of what he's been reading on the technical components. This probably means something to @flynnibus and @lilfort or any one of our other well-versed techies. One thing that is clear in the material I've seen - Disney has clients for whatever NGE delivers. The words 'clients' and 'partners' are not used sparingly...they're ALL OVER parts of what I've reviewed.

Yes, there's more to come. But I like having George Kalogridis playing 'just what does (Spirit) know and who the blank is leaking this to him?' It gives me a bit of a bulge, I admit.

Again, sorry for my absence ... really no one is sorrier than I am right now. Thanks @Lee.

Good info, it's interesting so hear what kind of IT infrastructure they are using. All the technology pieces you mention seem reasonable. A few definitions for the non-tech savy..

Enterprise Service Bus: Software that makes it easier for multiple system to talk to each other through messages. It's a good way integrating different systems together. Progress is the vendor (http://www.progress.com/). I have used some of their products but haven't used their ESB.

Oracle 10 Database: Oracle is a high end database. Version 10 was released in 2006, so these are likely databases for existing systems.

SAS 9.3 EBI: Enterprise Business Intelligence, this is a data analysis and reporting tool.

JAVA J2EE: This is a language and platform for developing enterprise applications. Probably used for a lot of the software used behind the scenes.

These technologies all make perfect sense to build a system like NextGen.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Good info, it's interesting so hear what kind of IT infrastructure they are using. All the technology pieces you mention seem reasonable. A few definitions for the non-tech savy..

Enterprise Service Bus: Software that makes it easier for multiple system to talk to each other through messages. It's a good way integrating different systems together. Progress is the vendor (http://www.progress.com/). I have used some of their products but haven't used their ESB.

Oracle 10 Database: Oracle is a high end database. Version 10 was released in 2006, so these are likely databases for existing systems.

SAS 9.3 EBI: Enterprise Business Intelligence, this is a data analysis and reporting tool.

JAVA J2EE: This is a language and platform for developing enterprise applications. Probably used for a lot of the software used behind the scenes.

These technologies all make perfect sense to build a system like NextGen.

I wish we were discussing the technologies necessary to build new E-Tickets. I think that's the problem with NextGen. Infrastructure upgrades were OBVIOUSLY necessary. But that should have happened in the background while physical additions were built in the parks. Instead, this behemoth of a project has taken money away from attraction development.

The silver lining: maybe Rasulo can get fired for this colossal waste of money?

 

[sshindel]

... the mandate was for an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) utilizing Progress, the software provider, for "an SOA platform for all of the Walt Disney Company to leverage" following a reverse engineering of "Oracle 10 databases" with new architecture/novel strategy for complex integrations.
.

@danlb_2000 already hit it pretty solid, but I'm interested in this part (bolded).

I've assumed that with size of the data they were collecting, they were going to be using some form of "Big Data" approach, like Hadoop or something similar. I'm wondering if the bolded speaks to that, or if they are more referring to the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture).

 

[djlaosc]

Just a quick drop in, although I have been skimming some of this (and some folks say that I go off topic!). A dear friend of mine passed away this weekend after a three year battle with cancer. I don't wish to say any more on said topic other than it probably isn't in my best interest to be posting while very emotional and conflicted.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[danlb_2000]

@danlb_2000 already hit it pretty solid, but I'm interested in this part (bolded).

I've assumed that with size of the data they were collecting, they were going to be using some form of "Big Data" approach, like Hadoop or something similar. I'm wondering if the bolded speaks to that, or if they are more referring to the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture).

Something like Hadoop would only come into play when you are analyzing data, that quote seems to be more about how the data is stored. My guess is that the current way data is being stored is not good enough to support the way they want to collect, aggregate and analyze the data.

 

[lebeau]

Condolences, 74.

 

[sshindel]

Something like Hadoop would only come into play when you are analyzing data, that quote seems to be more about how the data is stored. My guess is that the current way data is being stored is not good enough to support the way they want to collect, aggregate and analyze the data.

True. They likely replaced their existing system and then added analytic separately.

 

[danlb_2000]

True. They likely replaced their existing system and then added analytic separately.

Yeah, you don't want to try to do analytics in the same database/system where you day to day transactions are occurring.

 

[sshindel]

Yeah, you don't want to try to do analytics in the same database/system where you day to day transactions are occurring.

Absolutely not (though try and tell that to my business partners )
What I was thinking here was that instead of keeping their current database/architecture and adding Hadoop/Big Data on the side for all the analytics, it sounds like they reworked the whole thing, which is what I was thinking they would do in the first place.