Friday 30 December 2011

Quality IT

Ok...THIS will be my last post...sorry.

Next week I will publish my post about good IT were I will quote a colleague at TeleComputing:

"Compared to buying cheap you only cry once when you buy quality!"

Happy New Year!

Thursday 29 December 2011

2012. How about my predictions?!

On Sunday morning 2012 hits us. A lot of lists and posts prevail about predictions in and about IT, cloud, Internet and more. I will give you some of my thoughts. They are based on my experience, things I read and hear off. The text itself is based on my trend notes written in TeleComputing’s Q4 newsletter and is now translated and in some places modified. I’m focusing more on some short basic to think about’s and reminders more than specifics like cloud, Big Data, Eco systems, BYO or social networking. Mine last longer than 2012 and point especially to service providers and the C-series.

A lot of things happening on the IT-market; what’s present, will increase and evolve in the future? Service provider’s needs to better listen and understand its customers core business and the C-series needs to better understand IT and how it can support the companies’ core business. We all have to be better prepared and plan for the future in time.

It’s very important that techniques to deliver IT as a service is secure, reliable and available because the service should be ditto. It also has to be modular, scalable and flexible to be able to support services from different ISV and sources, also through different techniques to different type of devices because of the consumerization trend BYO (Bring Your Own). Though; techniques are ”secondary”, don’t misunderstand me. Techniques are very important for the IT-department, the service provider (Cloud or not). To the customer it is the support to core business, functionality and availability that is important. This creates demand on the actors on the service provider market and IT departments; simple, functional and reasonable invoicing processes have to exist, and most important; the soft services like Service Desk, change management, perceptiveness, coordination and governance have to be excellent. The Orchestrator role is so important. It’s in these areas the settlement of being an actor on the service providing market or not.

Bullets;

The actor is either a service provider or an IT manager/-department. As a CxO; use it like a check list.

  • The actor must be able to describe how a service brings benefits for the customer and how it kills the customers’ pains. Customer: “What’s in it for us?”
  • The actor must be able to describe and motivate why underlying old techniques need to be upgraded or replaced to meet the future.
  • The CIO role is more business- than technique oriented. The technique is the actors pleasant ”concern”, and it should be transformed to the CIO as business.
  • The actor should be the customers’ market listener and whisperer. The actor should be a part of and contribute to increase the customers’ efficiency and productivity.
  • CxO, not only CIO; you have to understand what IT can do for your business. You have to understand; availability and service hours are not for free.
  • The actor should support the customer to be an attractive employer. People, especially young people, now a days looks of what the employer can do for them to succeed. Without good employees you as an employer won’t succeed in the future. Providing an attractive IT environment and policy is an important ingredient to attract the best.
  • The actor should be the trusted adviser. Some might say it’s a buzz word but partnership between the customer and the actor is a very important key to successful IT as a Service. But never forget, it happens to often and the service provider wakes up with a horse head in the bed; it really takes two to tango!
  • Standard becomes customized, customized becomes standard.
    My prediction is that standard services will increase and customized decrease. Because of economic and integration reasons this change will come, it is too expensive and complex to customize. Companies will customize their organization to the service opposite to the reverse, it’s a change but it has to be done. At the same time the standardized services become more customizable with standardized interface to integrate two or more systems /services.

This is my last post 2011 and I will be back 2012.

May your service provider be good to you next year too.
 
Happy New Year!

Friday 23 December 2011

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and have a great holiday.

I'll be back with new posts before 2012!

/Max

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Trendspan (in Swedish)

Min artikel om trender som publicerades i TeleComputing News nr 4 2011. Några ankor och flowproblem märkte jag vilka jag ber djupt djupt om ursäkt för. ;)

Vad som är på gång

I takt med att marknaden för IT-tjänster och outsourcing av IT-funktioner förändras så förändras även kraven på aktörerna inom outsourcing. Sedan en längre tid tillbaka har förändringen skett från att tillhandahålla co-location och sourcingtjänster till att tillhandahålla managerade tjänster - sourcing providern har blivit en managed service provider (MSP). I denna artikel ska jag lista och försöka beskriva de trender det talas om mest på marknaden.

Generellt finns det som vanligt en tendens att det är många nya benämningar på saker som egentligen funnits sen en tid tillbaka. Det som är tydligt är att gränserna är rätt suddiga och man kan alltid peka på att ingen har fel och alla har rätt.

 

Moln, SaaS online

Sedan ett par år har online- och molntjänster samt SaaS, med alla dess underkategorier, starkt avancerat på marknaden och det finns idag inget som säger att det kommer att avta. Vissa tjänster kommer exempelvis inte vara tillgängliga för lokal installationer utan endast vara tillgängliga i molnet som en SaaS. Internet är en utmärkt bärare för tjänster, varför skulle man inte nyttja den här tekniken? Däremot kommer hypen avta, det kommer bli en mer gängse standard och vissa cloudwashers/wishclouds kommer att försvinna. Det är helt enkelt många som söker lyckan. Något man inte ska glömma är att många system och funktioner kommer att behöva vara kvar lokalt hos företagen eller husera i privata moln hos MSP:s, allt kan inte flytta till molnet, hybriderna är ett faktum.
  • Hybrider Tänk en hybridbil, mix av ex el och etanol. Hybrid IT är mix av moln (ex privata eller publika), system lokalt på företaget och tjänster från en MSP. Hybrider kommer bestå länge, kanske för alltid.
  • On-demand Behoven på flexibla betalningsmodeller och att avropa tjänster vid behov (On-demand) har ökat för att tillfredsställa krav på kostnadseffektivitet. Det här är väl egentligen ingen ny trend men den fortsätter att öka i efterfrågan.
  • IT Ecosystem Hett, men i grund och botten handlar det om att leverera produkter som tjänster och att produktleverantörerna (mjukvara) team:ar upp sig med solution providers, som ex TeleComputing, för att leverera produkten som en tjänst. Från ax till limpa och tillbaka till ax…få det att gå runt. Inte så knepigt som det låter flashigt.

 

Standard blir anpassat, anpassat blir standard

Jag uppfattar, eller kanske snarare förutspår, att det finns en tendens att standardiserade tjänster ökar och att kundanpassade avtar. Alltså det unika avtar medan det ”fyrkantiga” blir mer anpassningsbart. Av ekonomiska och integrationsmässiga skäl sker denna svängning, det är för dyrt och komplext att specialanpassa. Man behöver anpassa organisationen mot tjänsten istället för tvärtom, det är en omställning men den behöver göras. Samtidigt så blir de standardiserade tjänsterna mer anpassningsbara med tydliga gränssnitt för att integrera två eller flera system.

Virtuella klienter

Sist men inte minst vill jag slå ett slag för virtuella klienter. Och nej, det är absolut inte för att jag arbetar på TeleComputing. Virtuella klienter har ett oförtjänt dåligt rykte, ett rykte som inte på något sätt är aktuellt på marknaden idag, kort sagt ingen pratar om de dåliga ryktena för de finns inte. Ryktena baserar sig på användande av gamla versioner med gammal funktionalitet, dåliga installationer och konfigurationer, dåliga kommunikationslänkar mm. Kommunikationslänkar är inte längre ett problem, bandbredd finns både i marken och i luften och det till mycket rimliga priser. I o m molntrenden så är det naturligt att även köra virtuella klienter över internet. Citrix, VMware, Microsoft och andra leverantörers produkter som finns idag är inte samma sak som det som fanns 2005. Installationer och konfigurationer går att göra rätt. Virtuella klienter är hett och kommer att öka. Det finns egentligen ingen anledning att tro något annat – det fungerar riktigt bra! Sen; vare sig man gillar BYOD så är virtuella klienter, enligt mig, i princip ett måste. Kom förbi och testa nya OnDemand om jag inte lyckats övertyga.

Det här är bara några av sakerna som rör sig på marknaden. Det pratas mycket om moln men det gäller att koka ner vad som är viktigt för just ditt företag. Det är det ex TeleComputing ska vara ett stöd i, en rådgivare och partner.

Ökade krav på outsourcingleverantören

Alla saker som händer på marknaden, vad som är aktuellt nu och kommer att öka i framtiden ställer som tidigare nämnts krav på aktörerna. MSP:n behöver bättre förstå behoven företagets core business ställer och hur de tillfredsställs rätt och effektivt.

Tekniken för att leverera IT som tjänst är oerhört viktig att den är säker och stabil. Den behöver även vara modulär och flexibel för att kunna hantera tjänster från olika leverantörer och källor samt genom olika tekniker men även till olika typer av enheter i och med consumerization-trenden BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Tekniken är dock ”sekundär”, missförstå mig rätt. Tekniken är oerhört viktig för IT-avdelningen, MSP:n och molnleverantören. För företaget är det funktionen och tillgängligheten som är det viktiga. Detta ställer krav på aktörerna att ha bra enkla och förnuftiga fakturerings- och beställningsfunktioner samt framför allt de mjuka tjänsterna såsom Service Desk, ändringshantering, samordning och samverkan. Det är inom dessa områden avgöranden kommer att stå om att fortsätta att vara en aktör på outsourcingmarkanden eller ej. Kortfattat;
  • Aktören måste kunna beskriva hur en tjänst bringar nytta och ”killing pains” för kunden. K: ” What’s in it for us?”
  • Aktören måste kunna beskriva och motivera varför en bakomliggande föråldrad teknik är nödvändig att uppgradera för att möta framtiden bäst.
  • CIO:n på företagen går mot att vara mer affärs- än teknikinriktad. Tekniken är aktörens angenäma ”bekymmer”, och den ska förvandlas i business för CIO:n.
  • Aktören ska vara företagets öra mot marknaden samt vara en del i och bidra till företagets ökade effektivitet och produktivitet.
  • Aktören ska hjälpa kunden att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Människor, och framför allt unga människor, ser mycket på vad företagen kan göra för dem. En attraktiv IT-miljö är en viktig del av den.
  • Aktören ska vara den betrodda rådgivaren. Partnerskap mellan företaget och aktören är absolut avgörande för en lyckad IT as a Service. Glöm inte; it takes two to tango.

TeleComputing News No 4 2011 (in Swedish)

TeleComputings News No 4 2011 (in Swedish) is out!

Posts by and about me.

Enjoy!

Another one of thoose nice cloud graphics

This one from Dell.

Full post "The History and Future of Cloud Computing" by Ana Cantu, Dell.


Full size

Friday 16 December 2011

#CloudWisdom 11

Read a post on HP Blogs 'Cloud washed by wrong information' by Christian Verstraete (@christianve)

I don't like WishClouds or Cloud washed services, because I can't see the point, but try not to nitty gritty review others cloud services.

My #CloudWisdom 11;

If you want to spend time judging clouds; prefer acquit before condemn. And ask yourself: what is a pure cloud service?

Thursday 15 December 2011

Major incidents - not good for any ones business

A couple of weeks ago a large Swedish service provider had a major incident on their storage solution. Slightly speaking; there was big BIG trouble for a lot of companies for a couple of days.

First you might think; “oh…not good…for them. But good for my business! Yes! $$$” Quoting Microsoft Word’s spell check; consider reverse. It’s definitely not good for the stroked provider, neither it’s good for the general cloud-, outsourcing- and SP business. People and companies will start to think they should withdraw from their provider or might stop a process to move to a provider. So, no; major incidents at other providers are not good for your business either.

One certain direct effect is that customer will closely check your process and most probably claim for higher penalties and indemnities. Note! I don’t say it’s bad to be reviewed or show how well prepared you are. But it will cost you in longer processes and time consumed to be reviewed. So, again; major incidents at other providers are not good for your business either.

One positive effect is that providers who can’t solve incidents fast and correct will drop off. That’s good for customers and the general business, somehow in a bad way because of bad publicity for providers in general and the actual loss for the customer.

We will always have incidents, regardless of on-premise, at an SP or in the cloud. The most important things are how you best avoid most of them, are well prepared and solve them fast and correct when they appear – ITIL service management at a glance.

Tip of the day! If you think it’s fun with other providers major incidents; laugh quiet and nice at home. In some way it will affect your business too. Tune your processes and security policies. Test and validate. Be well prepared, it might be your major incident the next time.

To all who says “keep it on-premise”;

If I return to my earlier blog post Don’t blame the cloud; what if the storage solution resided on-premise at the customer? I would say scary. If you even will be able to restore the data it probably will cost a lot to fix the problem. And the most important thing on top of this; the loss, including reputation, of doing business caused by the stop.

If as a service from a service provider, cloud or not, you have;

- SLA, normally* with penalties

- Normally* high level supporting services and agreements
- Normally* incident management included in the service
- Normally* indemnities for both direct and indirect loss
*Normally = serious and reliable service provider

Agree/disagree? Are major incidents at another provider good or bad for your business, in the long term?

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Feeling honored 2

A couple of weeks ago Parallels Cloud (@ParallelsCloud) put me on their top 10 list of cloud twitter accounts to follow. Me feeling honored? Yes!

Sad thing; they had to pull the post down. Reason unknown...

Tuesday 13 December 2011

BYOD 2 – A possibility for "the cool guys"

In the first part (BYOD 1 – What is, why trend) I wrote about some basics about what BYOD is and why it has become a trend. We also got some information about what vendors, analysts and journalists say and think about it. Now let's look into for whom is BYOD good for: BYOD 2 - a possibillity for the cool guys.

First; I won’t further discuss this but employers who are having a policy which says “here you have some money, go by your own” is to me a employer who don’t have an attractive device policy. They are just struggling to be an attractive employer and have a weak policy and management level, which is controlled by the employees. It will only create an administrative mess. Just think about simple thing like if the employer buys a device not good enough, who’s responsible to return or upgrade it? And when someone ends their employment after 1 month or 1 year, before the depreciation time ends, should the employer give the “so personal” device to someone else? Just skip this way of BYO, its buy your own and it’s not good for anyone more than the hardware vendor. Let’s focus on the BRING your own.

For vendors of pads and smartphones it’s definitely worth pushing BYOD. But this market will increase whether or not BYOD-model will be implemented by the employer.

For vendors of virtual desktops it will be a continued golden era. My opinion is that virtual desktops (VD) have a, undeserved, bad reputation, this because of bad tradition of lazy communication links and old versions of VD’s. Virtual desktops are a really good way to connect to the employer’s palette of services. With the newer versions from Citrix, VMware, Microsoft and all the others you can get a really nice employer and employee user experience. I will get back to VD’s in a later post.

For vendors of management software the development have to proceed with or without the BYOD. The market of pads and smartphones + the market of VD’s increases and companies have to orchestrate and provide desktops/apps to many different devices.

Fine, the business seems to grow for the main segment of vendors to BYOD solutions…with or without BYOD.

But – if you look at the BYOD trend in general, not on pads, VD’s and management systems, how big is this market and for whom is it for? Sorry, but I think we expect too much of BYOD. I am not going to tear every good reason of freedom down. I am sure I have more than 10 killer reasons why not BYOD. Neither I will embrace why you should allow and implement BYOD. I will focus on some basic reasons why it might be complicated for BYOD to grow and become a legacy standard in delivering IT. Also, and probably the main reason, why it will be difficult to see wins for both employees and employers.

People, by nature, will try to save money so they will try this, they will claim it is a working tool. And - who wouldn’t?! In Sweden and many other countries you do a yearly income declaration. In some cases you are able to withdraw private costs for clothes and tools you need to use in your work. How will tax authorities handle this? I’m quite sure the tax authority will say no no pointing “your employee agreement doesn’t say you should bring your own and we expect your employer should provide you with the device you need.”

Some industries will never ever support own devices. Banks, defense, audit, research in medical and technique etc. Just think about the rigorous security programs and policies companies have to secure their business from attacks, industrial espionage etc. The effort to achieve a secure BYOD-program is too high both from a risk and a cost perspective.

In the first part I talked about Apple being the guys to thank for BYOD. Windows still has a devastating majority of all the professional desktops around the world. But many employers now more do allow, or start to implement, Mac in their standard device portfolio. And when this is implemented at a reasonable level many Mac users most probably want a client the employer pays for instead of bringing their own.

The reason I started to think about BYOD was for this reason; who are the BYOD targeted people and what happens when the bringing becomes an employer demand? I will talk about the employer demand in part 3, so first; who are the targeted people? The people I think about works in areas like IT, market and sales. Not seldom talented with creative skills. Not seldom young. Not seldom with a quite nice salary. The privileged people, the cool guys. How about all the others? Where the absolute mass of people reside = where the margin and all the easy money resides. Note! I haven’t done any research. I am struggling to find other users but it’s difficult, and don’t think I haven’t thought about this. How many are there in industries like industry, health care, general offices – all the “normal” people, the mass, the money? No, they won’t bring their own devices to work – they won’t. If a nurse was allowed to use his/her iPad to read journals on the round he/she wouldn’t – it’s in the walls.

To me BYOD is something for the cool guys. Success stories should include easy money, easy money won’t be found at the cool guys’ level– they are far too few to give big business. Save the BYOD campaign money to something better.

Until part 3 remember; if you bring your own you own it and are responsible for it!

"2012 Threat Predictions: An Industry Roundup" by Infosecurity

Read a great article from Infosecurity. A must read for CIO's, IT guys and all others. You should be informed and up to date with this. Read the full article: "2012 Threat Predictions: An Industry Roundup"

Breakout:
"We asked more than 20 security companies and security experts for their threat predictions for 2012. The intent? To find what the security industry in general expects to see next year. The results are not scientific, but certainly indicative of what business can expect in 2012.

We should start with a caveat: Many of these threats should be combined. For example, social engineering threats will often be focused on social media; the ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) threat is closely linked to the mobile threat; infrastructure attacks will likely use APTs, and so on. Nevertheless, the overall picture is a pretty good overview of the evolving threat landscape for 2012.
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1: Mobile Malware
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2: The APT
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3: Social Engineering
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Finally...
One last comment. Despite all the threats and warnings and predictions you’ll come across over the next month, remember this: it will be the threat that you didn’t expect that gets you."

Overview:

















All from Infosecurity

Fallin'

I see a lot of negative articles about Facebook. Is it a joined lobbying "attack" or has a star actually start to fall? Again; if falling, who is the successor? Or are we getting tired of the Facebook way of socializing?

Also: Will the "Facebook era" end?

Always remember; Facebook is a company, not a ww sponsored service like the Internet.

Friday 9 December 2011

Dizzy

Don't ask about the dizzy photo...don't know what happened.... Will look into it soon.

Back in blog business?!

Yes, at last I feel I can concentrate on the blog. I have been working in a customer agreement project which has been taking all my time.

First I will finish my BYOD part 2 and 3 (do you even remember the 1st?! ;)) then I will “attack” the subjects: virtual desktops, major incidents and the equableness of good IT and quality interior design.

Wish you all a great weekend!

Until, forever and as always I check off my activity list: