American Idol: Cloud Computing

Tonight I watched the inaugural broadcast of “American Idol,” auditioning in Boston for the 2010 season. I was amazed to see hundreds of hopefuls and their friends and families gathering in Gillette Stadium for a chance to be heard by audition professionals and maybe even by the judges themselves. It’s a great opportunity to jump-start a singing career.

Cloud computing reminds me just a little of winning “American Idol.” Cloud computing clearly rose to the top of IT media attention, analyst recommendations, business and IT awareness in 2009, and now it’s slated for a concert tour that will reverberate for decades. The winning artists include all cloud vendors, researchers, educators, analysts, journalists, bloggers, tweeters, investors, and ultimately IT professionals and end users who use the cloud-based instruments at their disposal to create stellar solutions and performances.

If you are going to audition thousands of singers nationwide and narrow the final competition to 36, you definitely need a vetting process. Similarly, due to the low barriers to entry provided by cloud computing itself (infrastructure and platform as a service), many new cloud-based solutions are entering the market and will be vetted.

Like the judges of “American Idol,” I'm delighted to showcase these winners:

• Enterprise mashup dashboards such as mashmatrix Dashboard provide rapid, personalized development of dashboards from any web-facing data source; get a complete view of all the information you need on one screen without having to switch between screens and applications.
• SaaS business intelligence (BI) applications from Birst and eiVia provide quick reporting and predictive analytics for decision-making.
• Enterprise relationship management solutions such as BranchIt help your business leverage relationships that colleagues may have with prospective customer or partner contacts.
• Price optimization applications from companies such as Mimiran help you avoid leaving money on the table in pricing your products or services.
• Enterprise brand management solutions from Biz360 aggregate, measure, and analyze news media and consumer opinion from print and social-media sources to yield insights that enable sales, marketing, PR, and executives to better understand their customers, competitors, influencer communities, industry trends and issues, the press, and the investment community.
• Enterprise cloud databases such as TrackVia help you quickly design and deploy cloud-based applications to solve business problems.
• Integration products from Pervasive Software and Sesame Software provide data exchange and interoperability between legacy on-premises and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.
• Cloud-based single sign-on systems from companies such as TriCipher provide a secure, single login for a user to access all authorized cloud-based applications.

What will be your vetting process for the many cloud solutions at your disposal? What types of stellar solutions do you want to create in the clouds this year?

Cloud Computing in Concert

Jeff Beck

Over the weekend I watched the 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts and attended a jazz-rock fusion concert completely improvised by fusion masters Allan Holdsworth (guitar), Tony Levin (upright bass and Chapman Stick), Terry Bozzio (percussion), and Pat Mastelotto (percussion). The concerts were impressive in different ways.

The two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts were amazing because they brought so many different and influential musicians together in two evenings at Madison Square Garden and in a single HBO broadcast. Here are a few examples:

• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Smokey Robertson
• Aretha Franklin
• Jeff Beck with Sting, Stevie Wonder, and Buddy Guy
• Crosby, Stills & Nash with Bonnie Raitt and Paul Simon
• Simon & Garfunkel performing together (a rare event)
• Metallica with Ozzie Osbourne
• U2 with Mick Jagger and Fergie
• Bruce Springsteen with Billy Joel

Here are set lists from day one and day two, from the New York Times ArtsBeat blog.

Holdsworth, Bozzio, Mastelotto, Levin
The jazz-rock concert was amazing because it was brilliantly improvised by four of the best fusion virtuosi. To get an idea of their skill on their instruments and at improvisation, watch this video.

Simon & Garfunkel

Getting musicians with so many commitments to play together is a little like getting your enterprise applications to display together; you can usually only see one or two on a screen. What if you were able to improvise a new screen to display data simultaneously from multiple applications, so that you and others in your company could see all the information you need to do your jobs on a single screen? That would have your business and your colleagues rocking with simultaneous, real-time information from all of your favorite applications for decision support, business performance monitoring, and customer service! No more switching between screens to get the information you need.

An enterprise mashup dashboard displaying data from six applications

All of your web-facing applications can play together on your screen using enterprise mashup dashboard products like mashmatrix Dashboard.  With mashmatrix, you can “improvise” dashboards as fast as you can drag and drop. That means that you can quickly personalize dashboards, giving users the information they want and need to see, on demand, live, and in one place. It’s like the ultimate concert of applications on your screen.

Bono, Fergie, Mick Jagger

What would be your ultimate concert? Which applications would you like to see performing together on your screen for improved efficiency, decision-making, business performance monitoring, and customer service?

The Pyramid to Business Success in the Cloud

This week I had the opportunity to prepare, present, and participate in sales-training sessions with an excellent, experienced group of enterprise IT sales professionals who are excited about the business goals that customers can achieve with enterprise cloud computing solutions.

Also this week, I found an excellent blog post by Justin Pirie about customer acquisition for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. Justin writes in his post about Sean Ellis’s startup pyramid, “the basic premise is that SaaS companies don’t put enough consideration into how they’re going to acquire customers when designing their product.” The foundation of Sean Ellis’s pyramid to business success is product/market fit and customer acquisition.

Enterprise cloud computing is certainly gaining acceptance due to its flexibility, rapid time to market, and cost-effectiveness. This and the low cost of starting a cloud company provide a positive environment for cloud start-ups. However, without product/market fit and an affordable way to scale sales as the foundation of their business strategy, SaaS start-ups and even more mature companies such as LucidEra will not remain in business.

Justin’s post was perfectly timed with our sales sessions. He also links to other excellent posts in his post. Enterprise SaaS sales executives are solving business problems for enterprise customers at a perfect time, when customers are looking for guidance for cloud products with product/market fit such as:

• Enterprise mashup dashboards such as mashmatrix Dashboard provide rapid, personalized development of dashboards from any web-facing data source; get a complete view of a customer or patient on one screen without having to switch between screens and applications.
• SaaS business intelligence (BI) applications from Birst and eiVia provide quick reporting and predictive analytics for decision-making.
• Enterprise relationship management solutions such as BranchIt help your business leverage relationships that colleagues may have with prospective customer or partner contacts.
• Price optimization applications from companies such as Mimiran help you avoid leaving money on the table in pricing your products or services.
• Enterprise brand management solutions from Biz360 aggregate, measure, and analyze news media and consumer opinion from print and social-media sources to yield insights that enable sales, marketing, PR, and executives to better understand their customers, competitors, influencer communities, industry trends and issues, the press, and the investment community.
• Enterprise cloud databases such as TrackVia help you quickly design and deploy cloud-based applications to solve business problems.
• Integration products from Pervasive Software and Sesame Software provide data exchange and interoperability between legacy on-premises and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.
• Cloud-based single sign-on systems from companies such as TriCipher provide a secure, single login for a user to access all authorized cloud-based applications.

What’s in your pyramid of business success with cloud-based solutions this year?

An Updated Collection of IT Predictions for 2010

Happy new year and happy new decade! Since I first compiled my collection of IT predictions for 2010 in mid-December, many more predictions for 2010 and retrospectives for 2009 came in. I thought it would be helpful to list the new ones in addition to the older ones that I compiled, so that you can see many more predictions and learn where IT may be heading in 2010, in one place. Re-use is okay in social media, right?

Here are the new predictions and retrospectives, in alphabetical order by media outlet, followed by many more in my initial post:

• Bank Information Security: Top 8 Security Threats of 2010 http://bit.ly/4KLGdJ
• BeyeNETWORK: Business Performance Management in 2010, Part 1 http://bit.ly/6JfA18
• Channel Insider: A Leaner IT to Get More Strategic in 2010 http://bit.ly/64BlCP
• ChannelWeb: The 10 Biggest Cloud Computing Stories Of 2009 http://bit.ly/7SyrQ5
• CIO: Software Development’s Winners and Losers, 2009 Edition http://bit.ly/5OIlvl
• CIO Insight: Cloud Computing, Mobility Gain Focus for 2010 – Research http://bit.ly/7G5xwL
• CIOL News Reports: Top Ten Cloud Computing Predictions for 2010  http://bit.ly/4zcaCW
• CNET News, The Open Road: 2010 the year of cloud-computing…M&A http://bit.ly/7zPlwj
• Computerworld: 6 hottest skills for 2010 http://bit.ly/8MMRqC
• Computerworld: 10 big cloud trends for 2010 http://bit.ly/8jJwKl
• Computerworld: Budget tips for the new year http://bit.ly/8oDzJE
• CSO Online: Ten 2010 IT Security Predictions, Part 2: http://bit.ly/4G9znS
• Dr. Dobb’s | What a Difference a Year Makes http://bit.ly/6025oF
• E-Commerce News: Top 10 Cloud Computing Flashpoints of 2009 http://bit.ly/7gp4tY
• E-Commerce News: Trends: 2010: The Year of Living Sustainably http://bit.ly/4uiG9G

• eWeek: Seven Ways to Make Your Security Budget Pay Off in 2010 http://bit.ly/4KAnnw
• eWeek: Symantec Discusses Security SAAS Plans for 2010 http://bit.ly/7HX3TF

• The Forrester Blog For Business Process & Applications Professionals – Advanced Analytics Predictions for 2010:  http://bit.ly/7y7fqL
• Gartner, Andrea DiMaio: A Year in Review: Top Ten for Government 2.0 in 2009 http://bit.ly/6SlOxx

• Global CIO: My 5 Favorite Cover Stories Of 2009 — InformationWeek http://bit.ly/62gNYT
• Global CIO: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison On The Future Of IT — InformationWeek http://bit.ly/8yMoDW
• Government Technology Year in Review: Cloud Computing Gains Government Foothold http://bit.ly/4×6wwQ
• Haut Tech » SaaS: 10 Trends for 2010 http://bit.ly/6g1sZx
• The Industry Standard: IDC’s top 10 tech predictions: cloud and analytics http://bit.ly/54VqYE
• Information Management: 10 Sustainability Predictions for 2010 http://bit.ly/6t02YA
• InfoWorld: 5 must-have IT management technologies for 2010 http://bit.ly/5D9LuO
• InfoWorld’s top 10 emerging enterprise technologies http://bit.ly/6vHQe1
• Intelligent Enterprise Top Stories of 2009 http://bit.ly/77aW1l
• Intelligent Enterprise: What’s in Store for SaaS in 2010?  http://bit.ly/5LWC3Q
• Internet Evolution – CIOs Focus on a Cloud-Filled Future http://bit.ly/5Iyxhd
• Network World: 2009 – A look back  http://bit.ly/5joGx9
• PC World: Top 10 Tech Stories of the Decade  http://bit.ly/8UzESJ

• RedMonk: James Governor’s Monkchips » 20 RedMonk Predictions for 2010 http://bit.ly/87LZsC
• RedMonk: James Governor’s Monkchips » What’s in store for 2010? 9 Trends, Quick Take http://bit.ly/5by5a0
• RedMonk » What’s in Store for 2010? A Few Predictions http://bit.ly/7Qdkc2

• Reuters: The top 10 security threats of 2009 http://bit.ly/8CL6HG
• SearchCRM.com: Expert CRM predictions for 2010 http://bit.ly/8nV5d8

• SearchDataCenter.com: The top data center 2010 trends http://bit.ly/7Z44BZ

• Software as Services | ZDNet.com: Cloud delusions at the turn of the decade http://bit.ly/7014fL
• Tekrati Research News: Intelligence and Analytics Services Will Remain a Hot Area of Investment During 2010, says TBR| http://bit.ly/8zKxbb
• THINK IT Services » Key Competitive Battlefields in the Clouds in 2010 http://bit.ly/8dnVxq
• THINK IT Services » Key Challenges Facing Cloud Computing in 2010 and Beyond http://bit.ly/6rpPko
• THINK IT Services » Thinking About the Decade Past http://bit.ly/6jIpdB
• THINK IT Services » A SaaS/Cloud Computing Scorecard for 2009 http://bit.ly/60JviN

• Virtualization Review: 2010 a Boom Year for Cloud Computing? http://bit.ly/8jYEUK

• Ray Wang: 10 Cloud and SaaS Apps Strategies For 2010 http://bit.ly/4Cg0Hn
• The Wisdom of Clouds – CNET News: Seven businesses to look out for in 2010 http://bit.ly/8iMoqe
• Yankee Group 2010 Predictions: From Crisis Comes Opportunity | Business Wire http://bit.ly/6oCUeu

Below is my initial post, which contains many more predictions:

Now that we’re really gearing up for 2010 and the dawn of new decade, and since enterprise mashup dashboards and business intelligence are often cited as important IT initiatives for 2010, I thought it would be good to at least have a text mashup dashboard of the many IT predictions that are circulating, to enhance our own business intelligence.

Here are some IT predictions for 2010 that I’ve run across and found useful and insightful, in alphabetical order by author or organization:

• Nenshad Bardoliwanna: “The Top 10 Trends for 2010 in Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Performance Management.“ This is a great read from author and former CTO at SAP.
• Burton Group issued three news releases about 2010 IT predictions: for executive planning (externalization, consumerization, and democratization of IT); data management (database management, business intelligence, data governance, metrics); and IT(externalization, consumerization, globalization; cloud computing; data center transformation; social computing; wireless everything).
• Computerworld: “7 Smartphone predictions for 2010,” by Matt Hamblen. Among them: AT&T loses its iPhone exclusive deal.
• Dr. Dobb’s: “Other Voices: 8 IT Predictions for 2010,” by Jake Sorofman “2009 is a year we shouldn’t soon forget. In fact, it’s a year we ought to remember — as the year that changed enterprise IT.”
• eWeek: “IT security predictions for 2010.” “Researchers from IBM and Sophos shared their thoughts on what the security threat landscape will look like for enterprises and consumers alike in 2010. Their predictions run the gamut from threats to social networking sites to an increase in attackers targeting hosted services.”
• Forrester Research: “Cloud computing belongs on your three-year roadmap.” We get two bonus years with this post.
• Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2010: Cloud computing and advanced analytics top the list
• IDC Top 10 Predictions: “As we have for the past three decades, IDC ends the year with our outlook for the coming year in the information technology (IT) and telecommunications market. During the next 60 days, IDC will publish literally dozens of IDC Top 10 Predictions documents for 2010.” Keep checking this site for updates.
• IDG News Service, (Computerworld, Infoworld, etc.), “10 tech predictions for 2010,” by Nancy Weil: “We see modest economic recovery, e-reader buzz, new faces in old places, lots of mobile news, and more.”
• Todd Lane: My five predictions are in this post.
• Jennifer Leggio, Social Business writer for ZDNet, includes many social media predictions from luminaries such as Charlene Li and Nenshad Bardoliwanna in this post, “2010 Predictions: Will social media reach ubiquity?”
• Social Media Today: “Five Social Media Predictions for 2010,” by Joel Postman “Enterprise Social Software Applications Will Become Commonplace.”
• Trend Micro 2010 Future Threat Report: Virtualization, Cloud-Computing and a Shifting Internet Infrastructure Will Widen the Scope of Cybercrime
• Websense Security Labs Predictions for 2010: Smartphones, Windows 7, Search Engines and Legitimate Ads are Targets of Next Year’s Attacks

Also, here are links to great surveys this year by IBM and InformationWeek about the impact of business intelligence during the economic downturn, the top priorities of CIOs, and IT innovation:

• New IBM Study Uncovers Business Strategies For Weathering Economic Storm
• New IBM Study Highlights Analytics As Top Priority For Today’s CIO
• InformationWeek 500: A Year Of Relentless Innovation

I hope that this will provide plenty of reading about what may happen in IT in 2010. While you’re at it, here are some great cloud-computing companies that will continue to shine in the year ahead:

• Enterprise mashup dashboards such as mashmatrix Dashboard provide rapid, personalized development of dashboards from any web-facing data source; get a complete view of a customer or patient on one screen without having to switch between screens and applications.
• SaaS business intelligence (BI) applications from Birst and eiVia provide quick reporting and predictive analytics for decision-making.
• Enterprise relationship management solutions such as BranchIt help your business leverage relationships that colleagues may have with prospective customer or partner contacts.
• Price optimization applications from companies such as Mimiran help you avoid leaving money on the table in pricing your products or services.
• Enterprise brand management solutions from Biz360 aggregate, measure, and analyze news media and consumer opinion from print and social-media sources to yield insights that enable sales, marketing, PR, and executives to better understand their customers, competitors, influencer communities, industry trends and issues, the press, and the investment community.
• Enterprise cloud databases such as TrackVia help you quickly design and deploy cloud-based applications to solve business problems.
• Integration products from Pervasive Software and Sesame Software provide data exchange and interoperability between legacy on-premises and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.
• Cloud-based single sign-on systems from companies such as TriCipher provide a secure, single login for a user to access all authorized cloud-based applications.

Good luck in 2010, and may all the good predictions come true!

What are your IT predictions for 2010?  Are there any sources you would add to the above lists?

Michigan in the Cloud

Happy holidays from my home state, Michigan! I traded the Mediterranean climate of San Francisco for the possibility of a white Christmas here, and got it.

When I was growing up, Michigan was still near the top of its game in the automotive industry, and a manufacturing mecca for the industry and its suppliers.  It was like Silicon Valley is in the computer industry. Now, Michigan leads the nation in unemployment, largely because the state is heavily tied to the struggling automotive industry. Just as the automotive industry brought jobs, wealth, and talent to Michigan, I hope something else will replace or supplement it to help compensate for the nearly 1,000,000 jobs that Michigan will have lost between 2000 and 2011, according to this forecast by the University of Michigan.

Michigan’s present and future do indeed seem a little cloudy. Michigan CIO Ken Theis announced in September plans to build a data center up to 100,000 square feet that will provide storage and cloud-computing services to all levels of government in the state and to private industry as well. Theis positions the data center as a competitive alternative to offshore hosting for large companies; as a cost-effective hosting and cloud-computing environment for start-ups; and as a service that will standardize and streamline government computing environments, cut costs, and improve services.

As this article by Steve Towns of Government Technology indicates, Ken Theis is also working hard to bring IT jobs to the state, and he is succeeding. In September IBM opened a new software development facility in East Lansing that’s expected to generate as many as 1,500 new jobs over the next five years; in June General Electric announced it will build an advanced technology and training center in Wayne County that will employ 1,200 people.

Furthermore, in the Center for Digital Government’s biennial Digital States Survey, Michigan ranked first overall in 2004 and 2006, and second in 2008 and 2002.

Michigan provides a good example of a state that is working hard to innovate with technology and create new jobs during difficult economic times. Many businesses have similar goals and initiatives with cloud computing. Consider these innovative solutions as your company works toward improving its business performance next year:

• Enterprise mashup dashboards such as mashmatrix Dashboard provide rapid, personalized development of dashboards from any web-facing data source; get a complete view of a customer or patient on one screen without having to switch between screens and applications.
• SaaS business intelligence (BI) applications from Birst and eiVia provide quick reporting and predictive analytics for decision-making.
• Enterprise relationship management solutions such as BranchIt help your business leverage relationships that colleagues may have with prospective customer or partner contacts.
• Price optimization applications from companies such as Mimiran help you avoid leaving money on the table in pricing your products or services.
• Enterprise brand management solutions from Biz360 aggregate, measure, and analyze news media and consumer opinion from print and social-media sources to yield insights that enable sales, marketing, PR, and executives to better understand their customers, competitors, influencer communities, industry trends and issues, the press, and the investment community.
• Enterprise cloud databases such as TrackVia help you quickly design and deploy cloud-based applications to solve business problems.
• Integration products from Pervasive Software and Sesame Software provide data exchange and interoperability between legacy on-premises and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.
• Cloud-based single sign-on systems from companies such as TriCipher provide a secure, single login for a user to access all authorized cloud-based applications.

Innovation has continually helped us through challenges in the past, and it will be key to better decision-making and a better business climate ahead.

Potluck in the Cloud

Yesterday my colleagues and I had a potluck dinner for our holiday party. It was excellent: char-grilled tri-tip and chicken, al pastor tacos, yams, potato and rice casseroles, asparagus, salad, cheesecake, cookies, cheese and crackers, chips and salsa and dip, hot dogs, cocktails, and wine.

The obvious advantages of potlucks are that they give everyone a chance to participate in meal preparation; bring what they want to contribute; try new dishes or new recipes of familiar dishes; and enjoy more dishes than would normally be the case if it were catered or if the group ordered individually at a restaurant. There’s a spirit of collaboration and satisfaction in a successful group effort resulting in the pleasure of a great meal.

There are similar advantages to cloud-based computing systems. Since they’re usually easy to prepare, scale, and serve to users, you don’t need a master chef and numerous other chefs to architect, provision, and configure them. You and your department can collaborate on ideas among the many niche cloud applications that you want to bring to the table. Cloud-based solutions are also less expensive and leaner than on-premises systems.

One issue you may have with cloud-based solutions is that they are new to you, just like dishes you never tried. If that is the case, try these delicacies; we put them through a rigorous vetting process to ensure that they have the right recipe for success:

• Enterprise mashup dashboards such as mashmatrix Dashboard provide rapid, personalized development of dashboards from any web-facing data source; get a complete view of a customer or patient on one screen without having to switch between screens and applications.
• SaaS business intelligence (BI) applications from Birst and eiVia provide quick reporting and predictive analytics for decision-making.
• Enterprise relationship management solutions such as BranchIt help your business leverage relationships that colleagues may have with prospective customer or partner contacts.
• Price optimization applications from companies such as Mimiran help you avoid leaving money on the table in pricing your products or services.
• Enterprise brand management solutions from Biz360 aggregate, measure, and analyze news media and consumer opinion from print and social-media sources to yield insights that enable sales, marketing, PR, and executives to better understand their customers, competitors, influencer communities, industry trends and issues, the press, and the investment community.
• Enterprise cloud databases such as TrackVia help you quickly design and deploy cloud-based applications to solve business problems.
• Integration products from Pervasive Software and Sesame Software provide data exchange and interoperability between legacy on-premises and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.
• Cloud-based single sign-on systems from companies such as TriCipher provide a secure, single login for a user to access all authorized cloud-based applications.

Happy holidays! May your culinary experiences during this festive time all attain the satisfaction I had at the holiday potluck, and may your cloud-based systems bring good cheer in the coming year!

Cloud Computing and Freedom of Expression

Led Zeppelin

I just spent an hour doing what was unthinkable 10 years ago: I recorded a Led Zeppelin song, “Ten Years Gone,” on my doubleneck acoustic guitar using my pocket-size digital video camera, and uploaded it to YouTube for anyone to view (here it is). In the past, I or anyone would have needed to weave through various entertainment-industry channels to get a video recorded and distributed to a large audience. There are many contingencies, dependencies, and expenses involved in that process!

With YouTube and other video sites, the audience is now limitless and timeless for anyone who wants to create and share videos. Social media has created an unprecedented freedom of expression and ability to connect; it has also expanded our ability to learn in ways many of us couldn’t imagine 10 years ago. For example, I can watch many of the great guitar masters and learn from them anytime.

Enterprise cloud computing has an appeal similar to the freedom of expression that social media has created. Rather than having to deal with many contingencies, dependencies, and expenses, like building a data center, buying and configuring expensive hardware and software, and waiting months or years for the result, cloud computing provides nearly instant access to the applications and data that businesses and users need for success.

In the past, it was difficult to get a dashboard or a report created; it often took months and considerable expense. Now, as author and former CTO at SAP Nenshad Bardoliwalla points out in point five in this post, “basic reporting is now a commodity” because of software-as-a-service business intelligence (SaaS BI).

Cloud computing also provides freedom of expression in that more end users who could benefit from a business-intelligence application, for example, can actually access one because SaaS BI can be turned on and off instantly for end users. It also allows companies the freedom to try new applications, such as eiVia for predictive analytics; Mimiran for price optimization; BranchIt for enterprise relationship management; and mashmatrix Dashboard for enterprise mashup dashboards that can reveal new insights that were unthinkable even five years ago. In this post, “BI for the Front Lines,” Birst Founder and CEO Brad Peters illustrates how SaaS BI can be rolled out to more users for better business performance.

The Led Zeppelin song, “Ten Years Gone,” is about a decision between a girlfriend and a career in music. Fewer than 10 years ago, enterprise IT, finance, and line-of-business executives needed to decide between requests for important information services. Now, the lower cost and rapid deployment of cloud-based systems make those decisions easier or eliminate them altogether, resulting in a freedom of expression that I think will lead to a better business climate and business performance ahead.

Thousands of years have gone to get us to this point; I wonder what insights and capabilities we will have 10 years from now that are unthinkable today.