Bio
“Jonathan Sapir has proven over and over to be a thought-leader far ahead of his time. He has significant insight, appreciation, and knowledge of complex IT movements and has a knack for distilling them in a way that is practical and hands-on. –Ronald Schmelzer, Managing Partner, ZapThink.
I began my IT career writing Assembly Language programs on a very old IBM 370 mainframe. I spent many years as a systems engineer at IBM, learning to build systems in a wide range of industries.
In the '90's, I built a mid-size consulting firm in Chicago building solutions for startups through Fortune 500 companies using Magic Software, Java and Powerbuilder.
In 2003, I wrote a book, "Igniting the Phoenix: A New Vision for IT"., which discussed mashups, situational application builders and social networks (though the terminolgy didn't exist yet). Rod Smith, IBM Fellow and IBM Vice President of Emerging Technologies, was the biggest fan of the book, and he wrote:
"I'm a avid follower of Jonathan's thoughts & body of work. When starting down the current path of Web 2.0 three years ago, Jonathan's book & interviews captured exactly what is now transpiring in terms of business transformation. I have quoted Jonathan on many, many occasions; his insights into understanding emerging key business issues both from the IT perspective and the line-of-business have been truly visionary. How much so? I've based my current emerging technology efforts around the principles Jonathan laid out - and glad I did!"
In the first half of the '00's, I built a product, SnapXT, reflecting some of the ideas in the book. Zapthink described it this way:
To bring business value to the nascent mashup market, SnapXT offers users the ability to create enterprise-quality mashups that assemble diverse IT assets and data sources in a flexible, declarative fashion. What makes SnapXT different is its multiple interface metaphors that simplify application creation and empower the users of those applications. As a result, SnapXT is pioneering enterprise mashups through their tool that offers true business value to companies looking to build Service-Oriented Business Applications.
The software was acquired and used as the basis for an internal application.
I started SilverTree Systems in 2007 to help companies start migrating their organizations to the Cloud. SilverTree specializes in leveraging cloud platforms like Force.com, Google, Amazon and Facebook to build powerful solutions for clients of different sizes and industries.
I recently published a book, Power in the Cloud, to provide business people with an understanding of the Cloud computing revolution and how it would change their organizations:
"Jonathan lays out a clear picture of the forces driving change in the traditional IT organization and then he goes on to provide a clear picture of how IT organizations must change to reposition themselves and deliver a new value proposition to the companies they support. His description of the role of repositioned IT groups and the emergence of what he calls the 'Situational Application Analyst' is right on target. IT and business executives will profit from reading this book and implementing its recommendations." - Michael Hugos, Award winning CIO and author of Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World
I am currently involved in a wide range of Cloud computing projects, involving both software vendor startups and enterprises looking to leverage the Cloud.