FileMaker Inc is now Claris International Inc.

[Ocean West]

Dear Partners, Moments ago at our 24th annual DevCon, I announced several significant changes to reenergize our company’s identity, growth, and path forward. First, we have rebranded FileMaker as Claris International Inc. This company name may sound familiar to many of you who have been with us since the early days. It honors our legacy while at the same time reflecting a new direction for growth. FileMaker will live on as a service offering under the Claris banner. Second, I announced the acquisition of Stamplay, a service that helps businesses of all sizes integrate data from third-party cloud services such as Box, DocuSign, Mailchimp, and others into their apps. This offering, renamed as Claris Connect, provides customers with an intuitive interface for automating workflows across cloud-based services, saving them the task of building custom-built, backend integrations. These changes reflect both the start of an exciting new chapter, and a continuation of the vision we have been executing against for more than 20 years: to make powerful technologies accessible to everyone. During the coming weeks, months, and year, your passion and buy-in will be critical to our community’s success. We have an ambitious vision, and your participation in developer recruitment, events, and marketplace will continue to provide power to problem solvers worldwide. Learn why we chose the name Claris and how we arrived at our brand identity in this blog post by Ann Monroe, our VP of worldwide marketing and customer success: https://content.filemaker.com/e/526331/-2019-a-clear-future-as-claris/93l74b/1409098725?h=XLI584qCr21kDZCURUfJp3YzBUGCYt0Og-zON333_2M Discover more about our product roadmap and Claris Connect in this blog post by Srini Gurrapu, our new VP of product management and design: https://content.filemaker.com/e/526331/-future-of-the-claris-platform/93l74d/1409098725?h=XLI584qCr21kDZCURUfJp3YzBUGCYt0Og-zON333_2M To read more about this new chapter and learn about the ways in which we plan to continue to invest in community and services, visit the blog to read my official introduction letter: https://content.filemaker.com/e/526331/nergized-brand-vision-strategy/93l74g/1409098725?h=XLI584qCr21kDZCURUfJp3YzBUGCYt0Og-zON333_2M Drop me a line with your thoughts. I’d love to hear them. You can reach me directly at [email protected] Best, Brad

[Scott Reese]

 

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The Claris Platform is built on four pillars:

1. Cloud-First – All new technologies will be built in the cloud with active migration to the cloud while continuing to support hybrid on-premise customers.
2. Native Web and Mobile experiences - Deliver native web and mobile experiences with consistent application authoring and consumption experiences.
3. API integrations and Orchestration – Orchestrate workflow integrations to cloud and on-premise services.
4. Emerging Technologies – Enhance all FileMaker services with AI and advanced technologies such as AR/VR.

 

I am not certain how excited I am for this change. One of the best things about FileMaker is not being forced into a cloud option. If they are going to force this then I'm not sure I'll stick with the platform.

[OlgerDiekstra]

7 hours ago, Scott Reese said:

 

 

I am not certain how excited I am for this change. One of the best things about FileMaker is not being forced into a cloud option. If they are going to force this then I'm not sure I'll stick with the platform.

Where would you migrate to? Afaik, there isn't anything quite like FM on the market. It also means you'd be rebuilding your databases from scratch. While the years of knowledge one would have gained building those databases would certainly be useful and it's an opportunity to do things better (potentially), it's also a massive investment.

Edited August 6, 2019 by OlgerDiekstra

[Josh Ormond]

Nothing really says they are completely abandoning on-prem servers. Just that their focus will shift, as has already been happening, to cloud tech. There are many businesses and organizations that can't use cloud tech to store data, so there will always be an on-prem component.

This shift, overall, really helps drive the platform toward the future. This is where tech is heading.

[OlgerDiekstra]

What I would really like to see is a native android and Linux client. They're already running the server on Linux in AWS, so its not that big a step. And with technologies like flatpak it could be made to work on most distros without too much effort.

Ah, not having to run Windows any more... What a dream... And no, Mac isn't an option.

[Josh Ormond]

The Android thing is never going to happen. 

[OlgerDiekstra]

Are you saying Linux is in the pipeline?

With Android roughly 75% of the mobile market share that actually doesn't make sense. I do wonder at what point FM/Claris are going to reconsider, especially with iOS market share on a slow but steady decline.

But I'd be happy with Linux. For now.

[Josh Ormond]

It will be interesting to see exactly what happens. A colleague is at DevCon and had a nice chat with Srini Gurrapu ( the new VP of Product Design and Development ), and he talked about the vision. At this point, there are a lot of possibilities. He was very open and honest about what they are striving for. I’m sure we will see more come through official channels as they work through that vision. It’s clear. Both Brad and Srini are shifting things into high gear. 

[john renfrew]

Cloud FIRST, not Cloud ONLY

Oh, and get with the programme and start learning to update....

 

That's the message (paraphrased obviously)

[OlgerDiekstra]

3 hours ago, john renfrew said:

Oh, and get with the programme and start learning to update....

That's the message (paraphrased obviously)

How does this relate to this thread? I'm obviously missing something?

[john renfrew]

I was at DevCon, where we heard from the horses mouth so to speak, and as I indicated this was a paraphrase, it was also to get people to see where their strategy seems to be going.

Do not believe stuff which says that desktop is going away. Do prepare yourselves and customers for getting and keeping up to date with the latest versions)

Edited August 10, 2019 by john renfrew

[Wim Decorte]

On 8/6/2019 at 12:39 PM, Scott Reese said:

One of the best things about FileMaker is not being forced into a cloud option.

To be extremely clear: there is no forcing into a cloud option.  Claris is very much aware that having a strong on-premise offering.

 

On 8/8/2019 at 2:25 AM, OlgerDiekstra said:

Are you saying Linux is in the pipeline?

 

For the client?  Extremely unlikely.  There is very little adoption for the LInux desktop out there, very few companies and organizations have adopted it.

For Server: we'll see.  We used to have one (back with FMS 5.5) and FM Cloud runs on CentOS.  So it wouldn't be too big of a jump to an on-premise Linux FMS.  One issue may be that while it would allow for much cheaper FMS deployments, it wouldn't be very accessible to the average FM developer.  We've seen some of that reaction when we talk about using Zabbix for server monitoring, which requires a tiny Linux server.  The most immediate reaction was "I don't know Linux, it's too hard..."

[OlgerDiekstra]

6 hours ago, Wim Decorte said:

For the client?  Extremely unlikely.  There is very little adoption for the LInux desktop out there, very few companies and organizations have adopted it.

I think part of the reason that Linux has a low adoption rate (especially in the FM community) is because FM just doesn't run on Linux. There are a lot of Mac devs out there, and Mac being a unix based OS, the jump to Linux its much smaller to Linux than it is to Windows. 

I've been using Linux (Elementary OS) for years now and run Windows in a virtual box (at home), just because I need to run FM. If FileMaker were to run on a Linux desktop, I would deploy Linux on all computers in our company. FM isn't the only product that still doesn't run on Linux that we use, Photoshop is another, but with the Photoshop licenses becoming more and more expensive every year, and without the ability to get a perpetual license, that may get ditched at some point in favor of something more suited.

With Microsoft's stance towards enforcing updates and not letting people be in control of their own devices, which has resulted on a number of occasions for some of our staff to be unable to do anything with their computer because Windows was updating for hours on end, it doesn't create a warm and fuzzy feeling. I spend a lot of time modifying Windows to disable all the different bits and parts that control the updates, without breaking it too much.

I just don't have to do that with Linux.

Mac's are better in that regard, but the walled off garden that Apple has created just doesn't appeal either. If I want to jailbreak my device, that's my choice. For those that don't understand the technology, or simply just want to use a device and not bother with looking over the wall, that may be just fine (and I know there are plenty out there). But they're not the only people that use Apple devices, and I'm sure there's plenty who'd like more control over their own devices.

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For Server: we'll see.  We used to have one (back with FMS 5.5) and FM Cloud runs on CentOS.  So it wouldn't be too big of a jump to an on-premise Linux FMS.  One issue may be that while it would allow for much cheaper FMS deployments, it wouldn't be very accessible to the average FM developer.  We've seen some of that reaction when we talk about using Zabbix for server monitoring, which requires a tiny Linux server.  The most immediate reaction was "I don't know Linux, it's too hard..."

It still provides choice. Apple doesn't have proper server hardware. I know you can take a Pro and run server on it, but it's not rackmountable, doesn't have redundant PSU's. In which case developers are stuck running FMS on Windows, with expensive licensing, and they have to learn an OS that's even further removed from MacOS than Linux.

I can't upgrade to FMSv18 at the moment because I'm stuck on a Win2k8 server. If FMS ran on Linux, I would have been able to upgrade easily.

Developers not wanting to learn Linux is a weak excuse. Linux is everywhere these days and vastly outnumbers MacOS, iOS and Windows installations combined. Just think of all those little IoT devices, all running Linux based OS's.

Anyway, that's my take on it. I can only hope FM/Claris will one day release at least FMS on Linux again.

Edited August 11, 2019 by OlgerDiekstra