David Linthicums 'Cloud computing: The semi-secret economic equalizer'

Interesting read: Cloud computing: The semi-secret economic equalizer by David Linticum on InfoWorld.

Short breakout:

"As the study illustrates, the cost efficiencies of cloud computing are the same in third-world countries as in the developed world, and up-and-coming nations can leverage data, applications, and infrastructure that were once cost prohibitive. In turn, this increases

'Outsourcing – Is it an Advantage or a Disadvantage?'

Read a short post about advantages vs disadvantages of outsourcing which I of course commented. One of the reasons I started to blog was to tell stories about outsourcing and the importency to choose wisely once the decision is taken.

Short break out:

"Outsourcing can be both beneficial and non-beneficial depending on your reason why you choose to outsource. To begin with outsourcing, according to Wikipedia, “is the process of contracting a business function to someone else”. But why outsource if the job can be done in your own company by your own employees? Therefore, the reason behind outsourcing plays a vital role in the decision to avail of services outside the company."

My comment:

#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.

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:

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!

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?

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!

#CloudWisdom 10

Virtualization will continue to emerge and will be the key to UI cloud services.

I have a dream

Have you ever build your car or just for fun the car of your dreams with a web app? Several of the biggest company offers this service. I’ve tried several of them and the best one, according to me, is the one from Audi (build your car web app).

I have a dream;

What if someone could build an application that was able to put a complete IT outsourcing app? An app who could handle sourced private clouds, public clouds etc. Choosing Service B Service A becomes NA. Choosing Cloud service A “forces” you to choose Communication Service A, B or C where C might be the customers’ existing WAN. And so on… During the end of the configuration session you have to pass some questions; how about customer specific applications, options suitable for the solution etc. When finished you get an overview to verify. Click print and you have a proposal for your customer.

If the proposal gets accepted you open the solution again and choose to create an agreement.

I know this is complex but wouldn’t it be nice? This would be thee app for the Orchestrator.

#CloudWisdom 6

Private, public, hybrid, community and etc Clouds. On-prem, outsourced to an MSP or outsourced on-prem. Never forget; it is important for the one who delivers and puts it together but it is never important for the Management group - for them it should fulfill a need, unease a task and increase productivity with less spending. Habla deutsch - speak the same language as the customer.

The nib and the ballpoint

This is a true and personal related part of the history.

In the beginning of the 1920’s my grandpa moved from Germany to Sweden because of the trouble in making business in Germany after WWI. He saw better possibilities in Sweden and took it. 1924 he started his own company in Sweden and imported nibs from Germany, nibs to put in fountain pens. Because of the sad WWII the possibility to import radically stopped. To continue business he was forced to start his own production of nibs and the company ‘Nordiska Pennfabriken’ ((NPF) translated: Nordic Pen Factory) was born. The production was a success and they more or less controlled the Swedish market. My grandpa became Mercher Emil Büchler. For his family, my father’s family, it was a “golden era”.

Remember; this was in a time where we didn’t have the internet, not even faxes. Information was brought by post, newspapers, barely by phone and of course from people to people. Short travel times didn’t exist and a videoconference…no it did definitely not exist. Facebook and Twitter? Neee.

Then suddenly, in the end of the 40’s - big BANG! Stop of the “nib golden era”. The ballpoint entered the market. My grandpa struggled for a few more years but he couldn’t compete and win against “the future”. In the end of the 50’s ballpoint’s had a total domination of the market and NPF stopped its production of nibs – NPF became part of the history. My grandpa continued his business focusing on offering other office equipment’s but he never really recovered from the ballpoint chock.

In Sweden we also have another similar non success story: Facit. A company who made mechanic calculators and who couldn’t compete with the cheaper produced and priced Asian electronic calculators. And I am sure there are a lot more similar stories around the world.

It is no excuse but no I can’t blame my grandpa for not monitoring the market well enough. Of course he in some way had heard about the ballpoint but he misjudged it. We can all learn from this that you never can take a laid back position. You have to find your tools to monitor your market. I haven’t really talked to my grandpa about this; he sadly passed away before I was old enough to do that. But I’m absolutely sure; with all the tools our generation has access to for communicating and monitoring trends and the market. If they would have been available for him and if not misjudging it he would have done the right steps to meet the upcoming possibility. He was an open minded and driven business man. His “golden nib era” wouldn’t have existed if he wasn’t.

Think;

- I might not lose my job. Maybe this is even more interesting, advanced and challenging to do.

- Can I widen my business? There might be other segments in the market to deliver to.

- How will this affect my business?

- Will my customer be faithful to me if I do or don’t do this?

- This might be the future. If not; be sure to tell why.

- I know my product is special and it have to exist and be produced like it is today. And I will tell and prove the market why.

- Is it a buzz? Do I do this already? Tell the market in the new terms. It’s very difficult to change the market if you are alone.

- Negative and positive. Be open minded but not unmindful.

I hope you all can translate nibs and ballpoints in to IT, and of course even into other areas. I don’t say cloud will give you a golden era. But - whether you’re an CIO, ISV, MSP, trusted advisor or IT-professional; you really have to take a look at cloud computing. You can’t afford to not know what it is + why you shouldn’t or when, how and why you should adopt it. You must know your position and why you took it. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to end up in a situation saying; Ooops, sorry owners... We were kind of “fat and happy”… Maybe we should have looked more into the future…sorry... You have to monitor the market, be responsive and ready for change - always! Ask yourself; is cloud “the ballpoint” for your business?

#CloudWisdom 1-5

#CloudWisdom is my own hash tag on Twitter and, from now, her on my blog. The purpose is to share my basic thoughts and ideas about easing up the Cloud in a short and easy and, never the less, important way. They shall give the novice basic “aha’s” and “don’t be afraid-info”. They should trigger the experienced to ask themselves; do I tell my story easy enough? They shall give you wisdom about the Cloud.

To get better tracking, following and attention I will from now on publish them on both Twitter and here on the blog.

Published #CloudWisdoms at Twitter:

1. Those who understand the customers´ pains and needs and who can act the organizer to meet these have an excellent position.
2. Know your position and become the trusted advisor.
3. On-premise solutions are not all things bad; they are important and sometimes indispensable - integrate them with the Cloud.
4. A service in the Cloud is a service like any other service; don't make it difficult when explaining for the non-enlightened.
5. Cloud is not a prefix to “everything”. Misuse will kill the good and correct use. The market will get tired before adopting.

Hopefully – please feel a bit wiser.

/wiseguy ;)

DaaS, Part 1 – do we all mean the same thing?

When talking DaaS (Desktop as a Service) I often get confused; what do you/I/we mean? One type is the traditional virtual desktop accessed by i.e. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Client (formerly known as Terminal Services Client) with or without a Citrix Desktop Receiver. I think this is a SaaS, maybe a bit advanced but still a SaaS and a SaaS only. This type is according to me far the most common DaaS on the WW market. The other is as I see it most frequent on the Nordic market but please tell me if I lack in this.

Another type of DaaS, the one I usually think about is a complete managed DaaS. A DaaS including the basic infrastructure, platform, directory, file and print services which all will be accessed from a thin client, pad or a traditional pc, no matter the OS. The physical client itself should be included in the service, a physical client which of course contains a complete and environmental certificated (green) DLM (Desktop Lifecycle Management). Responsible for managing the physical client and the OS are the MSP, i.e. with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and the physical support handled by IMAC-D routines. The customer should only have to call for 1 piece of DaaS to fulfill one users need during agreed time and price.

What about the license? Yes, it should be included but it isn’t that easy if we want to use the most common operating system – Microsoft Windows. I will get back to this issue in: DaaS, Part 2 – what happens when you provide it with a Microsoft OS? which will be available in a couple of days.

To the DaaS customers should be able to add their typical applications and services (cloud or not). Whether this software and licenses can be included is more a LA (License Agreement), logistic and policy thing. If you as a MSP can lease it and make money out of it – why shouldn’t you?

I really can’t say which one of them is "true" DaaS but customers and MSP’s must be able to differentiate them from each other. Should you rather call the complete managed DaaS a WaaS, (Workplace as a Service) instead? Maybe, but it might confuse more than explain and it really gets a bit frustrating with all the different XaaS’s meaning different and same things.

I think the complete managed DaaS-market will increase. It’s part of the Orchestrator mind set. Customers have to focus on the core business. Customers have to buy complete IT, not one or more XaaS’s who fulfill 25, 50 or 75%. Do remember; the customers’ internal IT department can be the Orchestrator.

All articles in my special DaaS story:
DaaS, Part 1 – do we all mean the same thing?
DaaS, Part 2 (1 of 3) – what happens when you provide it with a Microsoft OS?
DaaS, Part 2 (2 of 3) – what happens when you provide it with a Microsoft OS?
DaaS, Part 2 (3 of 3) – what happens when you provide it with a Microsoft OS?