Course Correction

You can't win, but there are alternatives to fighting.

— Ben Kenobi, Star Wars
(George Lucas)

by Jason Robert Carey Patterson, Jan 2011

The beginning of a new year is a time to reflect, to evaluate progress, and, if necessary, to make changes. And so it is for Lighterra and myself.

Next month will mark the 10th anniversary of Lighterra being a full time operation for me (and a little over 15 years of operation in total). The fact that Lighterra is still alive and kicking after a decade is impressive, especially considering the past decade wasn't a great one economically, having included both the dot-com bust and the global financial crisis.

In that time, however, things haven't exactly gone to plan regarding Lighterra.

I originally started Lighterra with two very specific purposes in mind. In the long term, it was intended to be a platform from which to sell or otherwise distribute the software I wrote. That goal has been achieved, and will remain. In the shorter term, however, Lighterra was specifically intended to provide an income while allowing the time to pursue the commercialization of my PhD work, along with the all-important freedom to do so. And that, alas, has just not panned out.

Unfortunately, what began as a software company with a small networking and system administration sideline, quickly morphed into what was, effectively, a networking services company. The explosive success and ongoing evolution of the World Wide Web resulted in my being swamped with critical but uninteresting system administration, networking and security work, leaving little or no spare time for software development to commercialize my PhD work.

There are many situations in life where adversity may strike. Things go wrong. Plans go awry. Most of the time, the right thing to do is to keep on trying, don't give up, grit your teeth and persevere. "Persistence pays", as the saying goes. And it's true, most of the time.

Sometimes, however, you need to step back and look at the bigger picture. There are cases where the smart thing to do is to make a strategic retreat, rather than continuing to fight an impossible battle – better to live to fight another day than to go down fighting. I'm not advocating giving up; far from it. But sometimes in life, a major course correction is required.

Ten years is a lot of persevering. It's time to turn over a new leaf.

And so, it is with a mixture of both sadness and excitement that I have decided Lighterra will be switching back to being a part-time operation for me.

Lighterra will continue to exist, but it will no longer be my primary focus. Instead, I will be returning to academia and taking a research/teaching position, where hopefully I will be able to pursue more interesting work and get back to my research interests once again. Lighterra will be run in my spare time, after hours.

As a result of the switch back to being a secondary, part-time operation, Lighterra's various offerings will be undergoing some major changes...

System Administration Services

I will not be taking on any new system administration, networking or security work. Those services will be phased out. Existing customers will not be left stranded, of course, but any system administration work will have to be done after hours or on weekends, and the intent is to gradually eliminate offering those services altogether. Offering such services is simply too taxing in terms of time.

HostEverywhere CDN

The HostEverywhere internationally distributed web-hosting CDN service will not be taking on any new customers for the moment, and has been switched to a private model for existing customers only, while a decision is made about its long-term future. It is unclear at this stage whether continuing to operate HostEverywhere will be viable or not as a low-priority, after-hours operation, given its 24x7 nature.

Software

Most of my software offerings have temporarily had their download pages disabled so that no new users are added while a decision is made about their long-term future. Most of these pieces of software will probably continue on as before, although some do require a significant amount of time and effort to support and update. Nonetheless, after a brief hiatus, I expect the majority of my software to continue on as before.

Articles & Papers

My articles and technical papers will continue to be available. Updates to popular pieces such as Coding Guidelines To Live By and Modern Microprocessors – A 90-Minute Guide! will continue to be made, so that they may continue to be used by programmers and compiler courses around the world. The other articles and papers are fixed in time and require no ongoing effort to maintain, except for The History of Computers During My Lifetime, which is intentionally only updated every few years. Returning to academia should allow more time to get back to my research interests, which in turn should result in my publishing more papers and articles, not less.

Finally, I want to reiterate that this is not the end for Lighterra.

Lighterra is changing to part-time, and I will be returning wholeheartedly to academia, but Lighterra is not closing down and I hope the future of Lighterra will be bright. It can now return to being a software company, a means to distribute the programs I write, which is what it was always intended to be; rather than a networking services business filling all of my time with mundane, critical but uninteresting system administration work.

Deciding to move away from Lighterra as my primary focus has not been an easy decision.

Here's hoping that in another ten years time, looking back at this decision won't lead to feelings of regret, but rather to happiness and satisfaction, knowing it was the right thing to do.

Only time will tell. Wish me luck!