A Technical Manager's Perspective

Cloud Computing and SAAS

When I look at the emerging technologies like Cloud Computing and Software as a Service, I question if large businesses and enterprises will invest and adopt these technologies. We know from experience that there could be a gradual adoption on the enterprise side, however the off-network and cloud type services scare most CTO's and Security Officers, which is all that is needed to slow adoption within the enterprise.

At the same time, Cloud and SAAS services are attractive to startups and companies with limited IT resources and budgets. Cloud Computing and SAAS solutions can be cost effective, however most of these organizations are in a different spot than the larger enterprise organizations. Startups and smaller organizations have the advantage of flexibility and speed which are keys to gaining success and market share. Technical strategies like Cloud Computing and SAAS can go a long way toward introducing mature technologies into these organizations, especially when they are purchased in scaled down pay as you go usage models.

But can we really compare the strategies used in startups against the strategies and technologies used by larger enterprises?  I think we have to, and I think that we should be looking at any technologies and strategies that save us money.

But, I have to ask the question, will they save us money, and with the increasing cost of servers, bandwidth and Data Center's, is this a sustainable business model for the service providers? What is so different that service providers can allocate, support and make a profit from Cloud, SAAS and Infrastructure type services ? According to John Willis from www.johnmwillis.com, the difference is virtualization .......

As flour is to a cookie, virtualization is to a cloud. People are always asking me (their first mistake) what is the difference between clouds and the Grid hype of the 1990s. My pat answer is virtualization. Virtualization is the secret sauce of a cloud. Like I said earlier, I am by no means an expert on cloud computing, but every cloud system that I have researched includes some form of a hypervisor. IMHO, virtualization is the differentiator between the old Grid computing and the new Cloud computing.

Read John's complete post on Demystifying Clouds here .....

So, is this another shift in computing ? I think it is the start of one, and hopefully the startups and early adopters will show us if Cloud/SAAS model a viable alternative for some enterprise level projects. If it is a viable alternative, and we can save money and still provide the same level of support and service, then you will see the enterprise move toward Cloud Computing and SAAS.

Social Media Adoption by Business - Enterprise 2.0

In a recent post, Chris Brogan does a nice job outlining Social Media and Social Media Tools and identifies strategies for Business on how to introduce and adopt within Business organizations.

There's lots of talk about social media. Tons. The echo is nearly deafening at this point. Freedom. Openness. We have powerful tools to communicate. We are the media. It's all about the conversation. We talk about this all the time. But at the same time more people are just starting to get into this, and so it's all new and exciting and fresh all over again, businesses are starting to ask, "Hey, is there something here, or is this just another billable item like when we used to pay for someone to build us brochureware?" Businesses are asking how this stuff all threads into their world, their terms. They're asking how we're going to change their bottom line, deliver something to their top line, make this all worth it.

Do you have an answer for them? Here are some thoughts that lead down the path of helping businesses understand the value proposition:

Follow this link to read Chris's post on "Social Media- Talk is Cheap for Businesses"

Technorati : Business, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media
Del.icio.us : Business, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media

Dan Farber moves to CNET

I know that this story has been out since mid February, however after seeing this Kara Swisher interview of Dan Farber, I knew that I had to comment. Dan Farber is moving from ZDNet to become the Editor and Chief of CNET's news.com. I think that this is great for Dan and will miss him on the Between the Lines Podcast. I have a lot of respect for Dan and the work that he has done at ZDNet. He has helped to bring legitimacy to both Blogging and Podcasting, and hopefully he can help CNET.

Here is Kara's interview:

Technorati : CNET ZDNET

Technology and Management Topics

I know my posts have dropped off lately, however other factors from family to work and the Patriots have consumed my time in the last month. It is not for a lack of topics to write about as I have been digging into a couple of technologies, and pulling together thoughts on others. I have been reading a lot about OpenID and single sign-on and have a number of thoughts and strategies surrounding OpenID and it's impact both inside and outside the Enterprise. Cloud Computing is another technology that is starting to get some hype, and in many ways it may be useful to the Enterprise but not in the manner that is being talked about now.

I am also still very interested in Enterprise 2.0 and SOA from both a deployment perspective and a support perspective. And finally, Management. I am always looking to learn how I can improve as a manager and recently came across a new Management Blog that looks interesting. The blog is called Damn Good Manager and is worth checking out and contributing if so inclined.

Technorati : Technology OpenID SOA Management

Dion Hinchcliffe's Enterprise Web 2.0 Predictions

Technorati : Enterprise 2.0 Web 2.0 SOA SAAS

Predictions for 2008

With the New Year approaching it's a time for predictions. Here are my thoughts on Technology in 2008:

1) I see the continued adoption of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 applications in Business. This adoption will not be across all applications but instead will key on the applications where communication and social involvement will help internal processes. Enterprise 2.0 will become another tool for Business and Applications Analysts to use when considering application upgrades and new deployments.

2) Web Services will continue to grow along with Java adoption and Service Oriented Architecture. A lot of companies have invested in Java, Web Services and SOA. SOA will help to provide a platform to scale larger applications and the adoption of Web Services will help to justify the need for true SOA deployments, which will give developers more options when accessing data and building applications.

3) Identity and Authentication Management will grow and gain greater acceptance. OpenId is just the start of this trend. Once OpenId starts to gain acceptance, stronger authentication tools will be used along with OpenId to maintain a secure Identity. Here is a list of the many Identity Working Groups

4) Cloud based computing will continue to grow with new opportunities in the Cloud Based High Performance Computing market. We will see more Software As A Service applications and as the Cloud Based HPC market grows, more vendors are going to want to move to a SAAS model.

5) We will see more Social Media Projects and new Social Networks hitting the marketplace. New vendors will give Business better choices when deploying internal social networking tools and new features will help the big players like Facebook and LinkedIn. However, I predict that this market will start to slow down in late 2008 with many smaller social networks merging or going away.

6) Mobile Web will gain greater acceptance as Vendors reduce the cost of accessing the Web via your phone and start to offer more services via the mobile network.

7) Open Source solutions will continue to grow and gain acceptance within larger organizations. More vendors will start to offer support for Open Source solutions as this will provide Business with an additional revenue model.

8) The Gaming industry will continue to surge with new adoption in both the Online and Game Console segment. New titles come out every day and there is an increase in softer non-combative titles which are becoming very popular.

9) Google will continue to expand into other markets. We will learn more about Open Social in 2008 but will have to wait until 2009 to see the impact of open social, however Google will continue to diversify and introduce other Business Models.

10) Microsoft will be around for a long time, and their Windows Server 2008 release will be stable and quicker than Windows Server 2003. Adoption will be slow throughout 2008 until the first service pack comes out, however my prediction is that this will be a stable OS that gains adoption in 2009.

11) Acceptance of Microsoft Vista will be very slow and will require multiple Service Pack updates before it becomes a favorable choice. I predict that it will be 2009 before we start looking at Vista as a recommended desktop solution.

12) Prepare for a slowdown. Gartner, Global Insight, and the Wall Street Journal predict a 30-36% chance of a recession in 2008.

Happy New Year

Technorati : Technology Predictions 2008

Continued Support for Virtualization

NetworkWorld recently did a series on the New Data Center. They touched on the products and best practices, talked about security, storage, the wan, and virtualization. What I was really looking for was an article that I read on virtualization called Into the virtualization realm, which included a great slide show that discusses 7 Ways to use Virtualization. I have been reading NetworkWorld at the office and was pleasantly surprised when I went to their site and found a vast amount of content on many technical and support topics.

Most companies and organizations that I speak with have already deployed some sort of virtualization. If you or your organization has not, then I would encourage you to start investigating virtualization. You can start by reading, listening or viewing information about virtualization on the Internet. Most virtualization tools can be installed on your desktop which is a great way to start. Here is a link to a ZDNet Whiteboard explanation about Virtualization an an article from NetworkWorld that identifies 10 free virtualization tools worth noting.

In mid 2006, I wrote about my experiences with our Server Consolidation Project and included an Update a few months later. Since that time, our use of virtualization use has doubled. In my opinion, Virtualization is a great tool that can help you to better manage your environment. Virtualization is not the data center killer application that will allow you to reduce your data center to one rack, however it is a tool that will allow you to consolidate many of you smaller and mid sized application servers into a single footprint. To be effective you need to find the right mix of applications, hardware and system resources (CPU, Memory, disk i/o) that works for you and your organization.

Every organization has different needs and different types of infrastructure, but now there are virtualization products that support many different types of platforms (Intel, Unix). VMWare, Windows Virtualization, Xen are the major players and another great place to start.

Technorati : NetworkWorld, Virtualization, Vmware, ZDnet

PodCamp Boston 2 - Boston Area Technology Professionals

Are you a Technology Professional in the Boston Area ?

Have you seen the shift in Technologies toward a Web-Centric Web-Services approach to applications where the Web has become an application delivery mechanism as opposed to a document delivery system. If so, and if you would like to learn more, then you should consider attending:

PodCamp Boston 2, October 26 - 28, 2007, at the Boston Convention and Expo Center

PodCamp Boston 2 is the new media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, podcasting, social networks, video on the net, and new media together for three days to learn, share, and grow their new media skills. Whether you're just interested in new media or an experienced veteran, PodCamp Boston 2 is for you!

I attended PodCamp Boston last year can tell you from a first hand experience that this conference is not your typical Marketing/Advertising based conference. You don't need credentials to help or speak. Anyone who is so interested may contribute. Commercial pitches are discouraged. All PodCamps obey the Law of Two Feet. If you turn a speaking opportunity into an advertisement, PodCampers will simply walk out.

This year I am hosting a discussion on "Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and Beyond". The discussion is open to everyone and I welcome input from other facilitators and everyone attending PodCamper Boston 2.

Technorati : Enterprise 2.0, Podcamp Boston 2, Web 2.0

Mr Enterprise 2.0

Here is a nice SlideShare that introduces many Enterprise 2.0 concepts from Scott Gavin. This slideshow has been available since May and is a great visual tool to better understanding Enterprise 2.0.

Congratulations to Scott on the great job ........

http://www.slideshare.net/slgavin/meet-charlie-what-is-enterprise20

Great Enterprise 2.0 post

I have seen the shift in Technology and believe in the move toward an open, collaborative adoption of applications in the Enterprise. I have followed this topic in the blogosphere and shared my thoughts on many occasions.

There has been a lot written and communicated about Enterprise 2.0, however, I came across as an exceptional post on the subject that I wanted to share with you. The post called What is Enterprise 2.0 was written by Fred Cavazza, a French Technologist with a passion for change in the enterprise. This is a good starting point for folks looking to explore Enterprise 2.0, a great reference point for the Enterprise 2.0 work that has already started, as well as a great reference point for Enterprise 2.0 applications and strategies that we can start adopting now.

I have included some of Fred's thoughts and examples below, but I would urge you to read the complete post and visit the many reference links embedded within the post. I really enjoyed browsing thru the many Web 2.0 - Enterprise 2.0 tools and applications that will become the foundation for computing in the future.

Fred Cavazza - What is Enterprise 2.0:

"Enterprise 2.0 is above all about sharing and collaboration"

"real benefits of Enterprise 2.0 will only come from a renewed IT architecture"

Enterprise 2.0 is above all about sharing and collaboration. Launching a blog, a wiki or an online workspace without anticipating collaborators' adhesion is a pure waste of time and money. The biggest mistake is to under-estimate habits' weight and change reticences. Information (the one and only) is a very rare commodity and collaborators are fighting hard for it. They stock it in files which are jealously protected by password and non-shared directory.

Working in wiki-mode, sharing know-how and experience on a blog are counterintuitive ways of working, the opposite of what we hardly learn in the enterprise "jungle": being seen by your managers as indispensable to the functioning of the enterprise. This was to date the most reliable way to advance in hierarchy and to collect end-year bonus.

But the (business) world as changed: Chinese competitors can now produce goods for 1/10th of your price and Indian competitors can provide services for 1/5th of your price. Moreover, this is only the beginning since those two countries are facing similar low-cost labor work competition (Philippine for China and Sri-Lanka for India). Conclusion: To maintain competitiveness, we must change our working habits, methods and tools. The main objective is to enhance business-critical information flow.

The biggest challenge for a collaborator is not to find the right information (because it is there, somewhere…) but to find it on a minimum of time

Let me insist for the last time on two essential rules:

• All those tools are completely ineffective if collaborators do not embrace them. Global management has to show the example by validating and encouraging necessary changes in work habits and methods. Experimentations can be made to evaluate collaborators needs, but you will be forced one day or another to convince you top management.
• Efficiency is enhanced if those tools work together. Try to imagine the power of such a portal as the one described in my chart: collaborators connect every morning on their personal start page to monitor activity or project advancement ; they have powerful social tools to quickly find information or key-competence ; with some few clicks they can access or deploy adapted online applications or build some.

But remember that tools are only supporting collaboration, only users can make it happens.

Technorati : Enterprise 2.0
Del.icio.us : Enterprise 2.0
Buzznet : Enterprise 2.0