ING Financial adopts Drupal

Drupal has made another major step in the right direction as ING Financial have adopted Drupal, migrating a number of sites over from Oracle Stellent, as reported by The Godfather himself, Dries Buytaert -

http://buytaert.net/ing-using-drupal

I mentioned a couple of blogs ago how the financial sector was beginning to pick up on Drupal, which can only mean good things for me, errr I mean you! You! Rates will go up to reflect the clientele so happy days for all involved.

"The lack of Drupal talent is the number 1 limiting factor in the take-up of Drupal worldwide" - Dries Buytaert, Creator of Drupal

Unfortunately I didn't attend DrupalCon, but someone I know did and he Tweeted this fascinating quote from Dries Buytaert, the creator of Drupal or as I like to call him - The Godfather. I found this quote fascinating mainly because it didn't make sense to me.

Now, before I get attacked by an angry mob of Drupal t-shirts, hear me out. From my point of view and that being the point of view of the person who spends most of his day speaking to clients who have chosen to adopt Drupal for various web-based project, I can say without a doubt that over the past two years the amount of companies taking on Drupal has increased dramatically, as has the diversity of the clientele it attracts.

So, whilst I concur with Dries that Drupal hasn't taken over worldwide just yet, lets cut our favourite CMS a little slack. It's definitely getting there and I still stand by my belief expressed in my previous blog that 2011 is going to be the year that Drupal really hits the next level. I think the landscape will have changed forever by the end of the year.

So how about the bit about Drupal talent? Well this part, i'd probably agree with, whilst the demand for Drupal talent is increasing, there doesn't seem to be a huge influx of new Developers coming through. I'm sure some of my rivals (who are of course less successful and probably far uglier than me) will agree that Drupal Developers are still a  rare breed, despite the vast increase in demand for them.

The danger is that Drupal is such a buzz word these days, that you are getting a lot of people who throw it on their CV despite not having any real expertise with it, so you have to be careful.

So what's the answer to this conundrum? I'd love to hear what people think...

In follow up...

In follow up to my posting yesterday, here's an article showcasing the business apps for iPad 2...

http://www.computerweekly.com/galleries/245694-1/Keynote-iPad-2-for-business.htm

The death of the PC (but not the Mac!)

Interesting article here confirming what many predicted the moment Apple announced the launch of their latest missile in their quest for world domination, namely the iPad...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20039080-64.html?tag=topStories3

I remain slightly sceptical that the emergence of tablets is going to result in the death of the desktop or the laptop, but it is still a possibility...in a world and where the consumer wants as many things as possible rolled into the smallest package possible, perhaps the PC is as dead as a video recorder or a tamagotchi (remember those?).

Eventually though, won't there be nothing left? We'll have a mobile phone, a camera,  a web browser, our email, a music player, a television, a helicopter and our girlfriend all rolled into one tiny little box we can attach to our key ring.

Isn't it ironic how consumerism teaches us to need as many things as possible yet the ultimate acquisition is one thing which does everything?

Just a thought...