Monday 30 January 2012

Classic interior design and high quality IT – a tribute to value, my value

“Compared to buying cheap you only cry once when buying quality!”

Can you compare classic interior design and IT? It might not be the most natural comparison ever done since classic interior design should last for decades and IT you normally don’t want to get old. But yes if you compare in quality, support and last but not least value and this is what this post is about.

No beat around the bush; I love good quality interior design – classics, vintage. I also love good reliable IT – high quality IT. Normally I’m not looking for and loving the latest. To me it’s more important to find the greatest, because I can rely on it and have a support or money back guarantee if it fails, doesn’t fit the purpose or maybe even if the flavor doesn’t "taste" well enough.

Is price, high or low, equal to good or bad quality? No, definitely not.

Sunday 29 January 2012

Comment on ZDNet post

Last night I made a comment on ZDNet to the post 'Your next laptop could have Microsoft's Kinect built into it' by Sean Portnoy.

Short break out:
"Microsoft is finally delivering on its promise to bring Kinect to the PC with official support, but most people would probably assume it would be most useful with a desktop. Nonetheless, it appears that the motion-control technology could also show up on portable systems."

Saturday 28 January 2012

500!

Hurrah! I passed 500 followers on Twitter. :) Thanks all for following.

Have a great weekend all!

Wednesday 25 January 2012

#CloudWisdom 14

Sometimes they pops up... often by articles read during a day. Here is my #CloudWisdom 14:

PaaS M-/SP's; Look at the opportunity to provide PaaS to SaaS SP's. Become a SaaS platform provider and support the application providers to reach the cloud.
Application providers; Contact M-/SP's. Can they provide a PaaS; grab the opportunity to reach out in the cloud with your application. Become a SaaS provider in the cloud without building from zero or IaaS.

Another BYOD-post commented

BYOD must be my windmill (Don Quijote)! ;)

Added a comment to the post 'Cisco: Nearly half of IT managers still against BYOD trend' by Rachel King on ZDNet.

Short break out:
"Tablet computing in the enterprise world is about to hit a major turning point in 2012, but there are definitely some serious roadblocks ahead, according to a new report from Cisco.

Comment on the post 'Platform-as-a-Service: The Game Changer'

Great short read: 'Platform-as-a-Service: The Game Changer' by Kevin L. Jackson on Forbes.

Short break out:
"Developers can create and deploy software faster. Agencies can lower their risks, promote shared services and improve software security via a common security model. Data centers can leverage PaaS to make their infrastructure more valuable. PaaS can lower the skill requirements to engineer new systems and can lower risks by taking advantage of pretested technologies."

My comment:

Friday 20 January 2012

Comment to the post 'Are ‘Cloud Hubs’ the Way of the Future?'

Commented the post 'Are ‘Cloud Hubs’ the Way of the Future?' by Sarah Rich on Government Technology.

Short break out:

"The pressure of moving government applications into a cloud-computing environment is rapidly building as government agencies look to cut IT costs. According to a new report, the concept of “regional community cloud hubs” among government entities will greatly change the way state and local government procure cloud services."

Tuesday 17 January 2012

BYOD 3 – When the possibility becomes a demand

Humans are by nature creatures of habits and have been for ages. They like to know what to do tomorrow, next week and next month. Some people like it more monotonically some like it more varied. During the last decades the staffing business and independent contracting has made big entrances to the market. This type of employment fits some people better some worse. (I won’t go into the staffing business market and independent contracting but on a brief level I think they are devastating to people. Read my first sentences and you understand why. ) Normally young people are more or less forced into this type of employment. On the other hand it can be a gold mine if you are really good on something but then you most probably also has a buffer when between assignments because of the good salary. But in most cases people like to be permanently employed. It is safer and you know what to do tomorrow, next week and next month as long as you do your work, behaves and the company works ok.

Saturday 14 January 2012

2.0's

Have you noticed the 2.0’s? The 2.0’s equal to ‘now we’ve really been thinking about the semi good basic thing called nothing special because it really wasn’t possible to “versionize”.’ The 2.0’s equal to ‘well let’s shape up the thing to expected and supposed level and call it 2.0, everyone will love this.’

Well, the first times it popped up it felt fresh, maybe even a little bit cool. But start to think about it, taste it. Does it really work in the long term? I think it’s too obvious the 2.0 "baptizers" (market department?) didn’t think well enough.

Isn’t this just - evolution?

My point is; there are some basic types of things and activities which aren’t possible to put in to versions. Some examples: car, job, person, name etc. 2.0’s without a real or a planned successor stops at 2.0 and it only shows we had to call it 2.0 to be able to express ‘we’re better now, trust us. Now; what could possibly go wrong?!’. Will you be more successful if you call it 2.0 instead of just shaping up the function, activity or thing which are not working well enough or more possibly how it was supposed to work from the beginning? What’s the next step? 3.0? ‘Now we are really good.’ Eh… It’s a dead end. Things can evolve without putting them in to versions.

Use 2.0 when you have an unnamed version or a 1.x and the 2.0 is the successor and when you have a plan for a 2.x and 3.x in the future. Also when you can point at a specific procedure or standard. Don’t use 2.0 when you just want to tell ‘now we do it a little bit better’. It’s just so transparent.

Think before you start numbering!

By the way; I’m waiting for earth 2.0…

/Max (1.0)

Thursday 12 January 2012

'Businesses Don't Fail - Leaders Do' by Mike Myatt

Friday the 13th tomorrow. As with the post #CloudWisdom 13 you get luck.

Salute to the post 'Businesses Don't Fail - Leaders Do' by Mike Myatt (@mikemyatt) on Forbes.com. It's great check list for all:

- Board members analyzing their appointed management team.
- Employees evaluating its employer.
- Customers evaluating its providers.
- CxO's and management teams to verify their management.

Short break out:

"Why do businesses fail? If you’re willing to strip away all the excuses, explanations, rationalizations, and justifications for business failures, and be really honest in your analysis, you’ll find only one plausible reason -poor leadership. I’ve often said that real leaders refuse to take the credit for success, but they will always accept responsibility for failures. Harsh? Yes; but it goes with the territory."

I would say you could fail in only a few...if any...

Enjoy a really good read.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

#CloudWisdom 13

Will this be the unlucky 13th #CloudWisdom? No, this time you are really lucky!

Does cloud mean you’re being all left alone? No support? No SLA?

Myth!

Answer: No.

There are tons of excellent cloud SP, -integrators and -“supporters” available to help you adopt and support the cloud.

Welcome.

Monday 9 January 2012

#CloudWisdom 12

CIO is one of the key positions in cloud adoption.

Strenghten your CIO's position in the management group. Support is needed from the IT operations department, the management group and the organisation. You won't succed in cloud if you don't translate tech to business and business to tech.

Thursday 5 January 2012

About the vehemence...

I’ve been thinking more about the Kusnetzky-post and my earlier comments posted on ZDNet and as a post on In Max Mind.

What is the vehemence really about?

Is it so that technicians know something about security, availability, consequences that the management level doesn’t know or understand? If so; please tell us. Also tell the cloud technicians so they can build good, secure, reliable and available services.

Is it so that technicians don’t want to kill their darlings? No, or at least I want to think a modern technician don’t have problem doing that. Technicians are normally eager to find the best solution. And todays technician are skilled to give and take help from colleagues, update and read knowledge bases etc to find a fast, good and the best solution to an issue or need.

At the same time; are the management level too eager to save money and doesn’t see the problem integrations and federation might cause, also the talent of orchestration it takes provide services from different sources or vendors. On top of this the concerns about security.

But really, why would companies like IBM and Microsoft go for the cloud if it wasn’t good? Because of Google? Don’t think so. Google is very much a threat to them. But nor Google, Microsoft or IBM are fools, nor the people working there. Of course they will do the very best, like the IT department, to bring good IT-services to their customers. And they are quite competent companies…

I think you as an IT department should think about cloud as one way of delivering good IT services to your business. Not the only way but definitely one way. You have to adopt the ones suiting your business even if you could build it yourself. There will be a break between IT departments and management level if IT departments only plays defense. The management level will always win and might choose the wrong (a non-suitable) cloud service if the IT department doesn’t act as advisors and take responsibility.

As I commented to the Kusnetzky-post; the CIO role is so important. CIO’s should be given a strong position in the C-series. The management group should give the best support to the CIO. Also the IT department should give the very best support to the CIO. Trim the processes to find the best and fastest way to benchmark and qualify services to your solution.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable if letting the management team buy services. The management team know how to make business. The IT department should support them in this and bring IT to the best value (price, quality, availability). Start adopting when it’s good.

Comment to Ken Hess ZDnet post 'Consumerization: The New Colossus'

3rd of January Ken Hess (@kenhess) published a post named 'Consumerization: The New Colossus' on ZDNet. Worth reading, also the comments. Added this comment to the post today:

I do agree with @aep528 in some cases. Also agree with many of the other comments, concerns and hurrahs. On my blog I'm writing a 3 step story about BYOD where I've published step 1 and 2. I'm really not so in to BYO, I really can't see the point and it will cause an administrative mess. Though my biggest concern is, which my step 3 will be about; when the possibility becomes a demand.

The demand might be a consequence of @aep528's company benefits. What will happen when companies demand you to BYO? I think as Ken say independent contractors will increase and as a dramatic consequence a personal "gold" service agreement attached to your device might be the key to keep your employment or not. And I think this will be a bigger problem than we might think. Why? There are a lot of employers who always try to use laws and systems at a maximum and with a mind set of “is there a possibility – use it”. In Sweden, where I live, there are rigorous rules of how and when you can fire somebody but firing will be easier if having independent contractors. And this will cause disorder in the society. No, I don’t mean BYOD will turn all things upside down but it will make people upset.

Also consider there are a lot of groups who never will afford bring their own. As I say in my part 2 I think BYOD is a possibility for “the cool guys”.

The future employers have to be attractive to attract good people. One way is to allow BYO. But if I was a good prospect to employee I would say “please give me the device” instead of asking “can I bring my own?"

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Comment to the last post

Hopefully my comment won't disappear now. If, here you go:

"Thanks for a good read. I so agree.

Reproduced and a bit changed (my first one disappeared):

Of course there are concerns about security, who to blame if it fails etc. And no doubt; cloud services should be secure, reliable and available. But my opinion is that cloud won't get people out of work. It's not like the IT is a decreasing market. Technicians are so needed even if adopting cloud services. We should see it as a possibility to evolve; it might end up in a different direction and role. Companies need to have technical experts, they need policies and trusted advisors, and they need orchestrators to wrap up the complete IT delivery.

It seems like discussions often end up in two teams; the tech team vs the management team. We have to silo and come closer; business to tech and tech to business. Just look at the change of the CIO-role the filter to tech and business. CIOs has an important role, has to be strong and should focus to meet the core business needs to a given budget. Some services will be cloud, and some not.

Cloud is in some way a change in IT delivery and we have to adopt some the services sooner or later, or maybe sooner than later.

Fighting a good reliable, secure and available solution is good. Fighting cloud just because you dont like it or just love the way you designed it might be read like retrogressive.

Also; think about working at a cloud service provider quite techy indeed."

'Cloud computing: why all of the vehemence?' by Dan Kusnetzky

Good read: 'Cloud computing: why all of the vehemence?' by Dan Kusnetzky.

Short break out:

"It would be wise of IT and facilities practitioners to focus on where and how new technology or new approaches can be of use to the organization rather than trying to fight them. Mainframes, minicomputers (now called midrange systems), distributed computing, client/server computing and the like are still found in nearly all medium to large organizations. They didn’t go away when a new approach or a new application was adopted."

I did comment it but it seems like the comment was removed. Really don't know why, it really wasn't controversial. Well, it might appear again later. Sometimes it takes a couple of hours.