In light of the current global financial meltdown, Darryl Taft of eWeek has posted a great article: Can Ruby, Rails Make Developers Shine in a Downturn?
In the piece, Darryl asks whether “specialty coding skills will help developers ride out the financial crisis”—specifically, are Ruby on Rails developers better prepared to deal with financial uncertainty? Like many of the other folks quoted in the article, our belief is that for the most part, Ruby on Rails developers are in great shape to weather the storm. Why?
First of all, while we fully expect some CIOs to delay or cancel some internal IT projects. Rails shops are built to do more with less. It’s part of our DNA to be more agile, more nimble, and more productive than developers using “legacy” tools. In our customer base, we consistently see Rails developers as 5-8x more productive than developers using traditional tools. We agree with Lance Walley of Engine Yard that a downturn in traditional IT spending could actually be a boon for Rails projects and the development shops that bring them to market.
Second, Rails represents a low risk investment for the IT organization. The platform is open source (free) and the community behind it provides teams with an expanded network upon which they can call to help build and optimize the performance of their applications.
Finally, Rails is all about creating great Web apps, many of which are delivered via a SaaS (software as a service) business model—so IT shops don’t have to write big checks for infrastructure or applications. They can get much of what they need from specialized hosters, or via inexpensive hosting alternatives in the Cloud. And, subscription-based pricing models make it easier for customers to sign up while keeping their risk low.
So, we remain bullish about the opportunities for Rails development, even while our global leaders struggle to keep the financial wheels on the bus. What do you think?
Continued Discussion
8 responses to this entry
This is not the first downturn I’ve consulted through (though the first with Rails!). Based on my past experiences:
Net: If you’re good, it’s an opportunity. If you’re a hack, it’s time to think about your next attempt to find a career.
on October 08, 2008 at 12:12 PM
If Rails developers are indeed more productive than others, doesn’t that mean that businesses don’t need as many of them?
on October 08, 2008 at 04:52 PM
mentioned financial Crisis: CHECK praised RoR: CHECK Namedropping of RoR Celebs: CHECK Praised a revenue Model: CHECK Failed in providing useful Information or Criticism: CHECK
YAY
on October 08, 2008 at 05:07 PM
@Mark Wilden The market for boutique-y applications is through the roof. Everyone wants some marginally different thing and the talent in house is too busy or not equipped to make the changes or maintain the thing themselves. While long term projects aren’t a big thing, there’s a large market for little things.
on October 08, 2008 at 07:07 PM
@Mark I noticed that being more productive means more budget for other and otherwise impossible projects, at the same client.
on October 09, 2008 at 04:40 AM
Here in Washington, DC the economic downturn isn’t going to change the demand for developers all that much, at least not in the short term. There is a very high demand for Ruby on Rails people across the board (see Jobmatchbox.com’s Programming in Ruby on Rails category for examples). But that isn’t the core question if I’m reading it correctly, it is whether or not organizations will look to Ruby on Rails to get things done on a smaller budget and shorter time frame. Along with that there is the question of whether or not leaders will outsource projects.
First off, in the startup community (everywhere, not just DC) the money coming from angel investors is drying up quickly. This is only a slice of the pie, but much of the money supporting smaller software solutions shops building with Ruby has been coming from these early stage companies and it is not going to come back for a while (6-12 months).
Second, teams may look to Ruby as a shortcut…but many of them already have (I’m speaking primarily about Washington, DC). If you look at the numbers, the vast majority of startups in the DC area are already working with Ruby on Rails. Others are still using PHP, Java, C# and even one is using Haskell.
Third, if new teams look to Ruby as the answer it will probably be more because the marketing of it by the community is amazing (if not cultish). Anyone who is working in Ruby these days, and who also happens to be an accomplished engineer, should have no trouble in this economy. I’d be more worried about job or business security if I were in a non-essential area. If anyone with Ruby on Rails skills can’t find a job I would be happy to personally help direct them to hiring teams here on the east coast (DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia or NY). I’m email @ jobmatchbox.com .
Last, I just wanted to point out that your ui for fiveruns is fantastic – kudos to whoever did it.
on October 09, 2008 at 03:14 PM
It will make them shine!
Thanks, Ed
on October 09, 2008 at 05:31 PM
More opportunities. Rails rocks!
Yes, there will be more and more Rails opportunities because Rails philosophy is exactly the opposite to the one that led to the crisis. Rails is about getting REAL, getting things done, and using your common sense. The crisis is essentially about destroying real value to make VIRTUAL value and about going away from the common sense. For instance, the crisis comes from this against common sense philosophy : “lend to the poor, give to the rich”.
on October 21, 2008 at 10:08 AM