News from Silicon Fen
Category: Blog
By Janice
22/08/2016
Silicon Fen is the area around Cambridge which has a cluster of high tech businesses. In our accompanying infographic which we will publish later this week we provide insights into the 521 IT companies we have on our database in the ‘Silicon Fen’ area. ARM is one of the massive success stories from the Cambridge area having created IP which 60% of the people in the world come into contact with on a daily basis (Bloomberg, 2014)
We spoke with Finn Grimwood to get a better idea about IT in Cambridge and the company he works for.
Finn, you work for a company called undo.io - what is it that your company does?
‘undo.io is a reverse debugger. There are various tools used to debug software but undo allows users to effectively run their programs in reverse to find the fault. Traditional debuggers do one line at a time in a forwards running direction. Whilst this works it also means that it can be difficult to identify cause and effect so you’re never too sure what exactly caused the problem. This can make error reoccurrence more likely.’
Who are your main clients?
We sell a lot to big software developers. Undo is a Linux based piece of software and since small businesses usually don’t use Linux itself they aren’t our focus. Yes, Linux is highly customizable but it’s too complex for most small businesses. If you think you need to use Linux its best to outsource it to a third party or consultancy.
Is the label Silicon Fen valid for Cambridge?
‘Sort of…. but truth be told there aren’t a lot of consumer tech companies in Cambridge. Nothing is too mainstream here its mostly deep technology. Cambridge is strong in embedded systems, chip design etc. ARM is the big fish – everyone knows someone who works for them. Actually it’s fair to say that to a certain extent ARM is the pond that other fish swim in as there are lots of smaller firms connected to ARM in some way.
Do you have any advice for companies that are starting up in Cambridge or just in general?
In Cambridge there is a huge amount of talent and actually quite a lot of space. But to compete in any IT sphere these days you must have a very good product and ideally one with a mass market.
e-mail us on support@companyconnecting.com
call us on 0845 643 5375
"News from Silicon Fen " First published on Company Connecting August 2016
©Company Connecting
