I’m not sure if all of you are aware of exactly what we do here at Draconis Software.  I thought now would be a good time to let everyone know, since we’ve got some availability for new work.

Here are the three main types of work we do, and why we do them:

1. Web (Rails, Grails, et al): Our bread-and-butter remains in doing web development.  Despite the complexity that HTTP brings you when trying to build an application, there’s still something exciting about the dichotomies that web development brings: web framework and database, server-side and client-side, function and design.  And clearly web companies aren’t going away anytime soon.  For a while now (probably over a year) most of our clients have tended towards Rails, and it’s also our defacto suggestion for new clients.  Lately though, we’ve been doing a bit more work with Grails, which I think is becoming an exciting framework.  We’re also open to some of the older web technologies, like Java or PHP.
2. Mobile (iPhone): Our decision to branch into mobile development was influenced by one main factor: we’re in love with the iPhone!  Luckily, the iPhone is also a pretty good platform in which to develop, and many of the methodologies from web development can carry over.  Our most recent iPhone project was creating an iPhone interface for Invotrak, which shows how web and mobile development can be bridged.
3. New Things!: We pride ourselves on being able to tackle new technologies (see #2 above).  For example, as much as we love Rails, we’d jump at the chance to play more with one of the other Ruby web frameworks, like Merb.  I don’t know what the Next Big Thing will be in a year or two, but I hope that we’ll be playing with it when the time comes!

We don’t limit ourselves to any one type of client.  We’ve worked with public companies, pre-venture startups, individuals, and everything in between.

For anyone interested in talking to us, there’s plenty of ways to contact us, including our website, email, or just leave a comment on this post.

Also, I’m curious if anyone reading this has consulting firms of their own (and/or does freelancing)? Let us know in the comments!

Just a quick note about our new site design (if you haven’t noticed already).  We’ve put a lot of effort into redeveloping our site, hopefully conveying a fun, bright feel.  The main change, though, is what’s no longer visible: our network monitoring system RSP.  As a company, we’re moving in a different direction and have decided to make our site focus on our consulting efforts.

The Draconis Software website has gone through many different iterations over the years, and I’m particularly happy with the direction it’s going in.  As time goes on, we’ve worked hard to simplify our web presence, putting up only the most interesting and necessary information about our company and what we’re up to.  This has been one of the principal tenets of the web 2.0 design movement, and we’ve certainly practiced this with our clients.

But, enough about our thoughts on the site: we’d much rather hear what you think!  What do you like/not like about the new design?

Sorry for the lack of posts lately – we’ve been pretty busy. We hired another software developer, and we’ve been working to expand our consulting business a bit. Unfortunately, the blog suffers for this, but it’s not for a lack of interesting stuff! Over the last few days, we’ve had the fortunate experience to work with memcache and a number of other performance-related tools to help fine-tune a very large PHP codebase.

In addition, we’ve been putting efforts into invotrak (our invoice-tracking tool) along with other projects we’re pretty excited about. We should have some details on at least one new site being launched soon, so stay tuned!

We’ve just “completed” our move to new offices.  It’s a little larger, a little nicer, and so far, I’m very happy with it.  We’ve got the place wired for gigabit Ethernet, VoIP, plus wireless for the laptops, and it should be pretty slick.  Only snag, thus far, is Verizon (our ISP).  We’ve got our telephone line installed, which is really only used as a dedicated line for faxes, but the DSL connection still isn’t syncing.  So, for the time being, we’re working from home.

Sorry posts have slowed down recently (though, when have we ever posted fast?), as we’ve been taking vacations and getting this move pushed through.  Hopefully we’ll be returning to normal soon!

Check out the updated Draconis homepage – it’s quite a bit different from before, with no flash!  The remaining RSP pages and other related content is still the same, but that will be converted over at some point in the near future.  I spent quite a bit of time on this design, so be sure to let me know your thoughts!