Nebula R&D retired, Tony no longer serving MV industry

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Tony Gravagno

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Mar 29, 2023, 5:48:30 PM3/29/23
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I neglected to post an announcement to this group. Oops.

I have closed Nebula R&D, my business focused on providing products and services to the MVDBMS industry. All new business development is dedicated to offering modern software and services to larger and more diverse consumer and business audiences.

Until those go production, I continue to provide strategic IT consultation and project management in the MV ecosystem and beyond. There are better answers to migration, and less painful ways to manage migration or modernization for those inclined in those directions.

There are no changes for this group. We have many managers including myself who continue to monitor for new members and issues.

I'm republishing an announcement below for those who have not seen it on LinkedIn.

Exchanges are always welcome.
Kind regards to all.
Thanks for your time.

T

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Nebula R&D has been happily retired. I thank all of our dedicated clients and colleagues for your support and patience. :)

A number of factors contributed to closing Nebula.

- It was simply time. I've been wanting to shift the business direction for a few years, and 2021-2022 gave me that opportunity. Sometime his year or next, I do plan to open a new business with a more narrow MV offering - not the broad menu offered by Nebula.

- Most of our clients have moved off of MV and the only new calls coming in were for assistance with migration or otherwise sunsetting existing installations. That kinda hurt. I stopped active marketing and sales and kept the doors open until our last client was finally off of MV.

- While "modernization" is the word on most lips, it's always been a challenge to work with stakeholders to modernize MV apps. As I get older it's increasingly difficult to take on the uphill battle, which is unnecessary outside of this industry.

- With Covid, many businesses took a cautionary posture and froze budgets. Though yes, many businesses took the opportunity to go into development overdrive - go figure. But getting new business in the MV industry had become a challenge, and as noted above, and I wasn't interested in pursuing that kind of new business anymore.

- Rocket's acquisition of all MV platforms resulted in quiet forums and existential off-list discussions. I hope Rocket steps up to their position as an industry leader and channel partner, and I wish them the very best.

The world changes much faster these days and it's tough for a generalist to keep up. So, over the last 1-2 years, I've shifted from being a generalist, offering a variety of interfaces with MV, to focusing intently on more narrow segments of the IT industry, outside of MV. I've built a small cloud network which hosts various services, and am building new consumer-facing SaaS businesses, hosted in the network. I've focused intently on the WordPress industry as a CMS and core front-end for our new apps. And I've re-trained deeply with React, TypeScript, and related libraries for modern front-end development and integration with WordPress. At some point I would enjoy porting the business logic back into MV - but that depends on licensing costs which, sadly, aren't yet oriented toward this modern use-case. Again, I hope Rocket navigates this.

Along with this, I've been working with colleagues on a new front-end GUI designer for MV - similar to familiar offerings, but of course entirely based on modern tooling. This platform has been in production for some years, front-ending robust MV apps for many clients. If I get back to servicing the MV industry, this product will lead the way. The door is still open on that.

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Scott Ballinger

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Mar 29, 2023, 8:32:02 PM3/29/23
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Adios amigo.
Best of luck to ya.
/Scott Ballinger

MAV

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Mar 30, 2023, 3:18:46 AM3/30/23
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Buena suerte, Tony.

Un saludo,

Marcos Alonso Vega

David Knight

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Mar 30, 2023, 4:43:54 AM3/30/23
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Best wishes for your future.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Will Johnson

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Mar 30, 2023, 2:40:13 PM3/30/23
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To which Caribbean island are you retiring?

Brian Speirs

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Mar 30, 2023, 2:44:11 PM3/30/23
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We will miss you, Tony. For that matter, we've missed you for the last year or so ...

Best wishes,

Brian

KOSDAY SOLUTIONS

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Mar 31, 2023, 2:07:11 AM3/31/23
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Hi Tony, I wish you all the best for your new journey. I am absolutely sure that you will succeed in your new tasks. You are a smart guy with your feet on the ground, and that worries me. In all these years you have helped a lot of people and made it "easier" to understand the MV environment. And yet you're leaving, which makes me wonder about the future of MV.  
It is not good news for those of us who stay in the MV boat that one of its gurus is leaving us.
Well Tony, let's wish each other happy and prosperous new business, and here's a friend for whatever you need.

Angel

El miércoles, 29 de marzo de 2023 a las 23:48:30 UTC+2, Tony Gravagno escribió:

Mike Preece

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Apr 4, 2023, 8:52:37 AM4/4/23
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All the best mate.
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