tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23156228984700109342024-02-02T13:14:00.414-05:00In2CloudsThoughts about cloud computing, analytics and the programmable webUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-82528792890622603212010-04-28T21:23:00.011-04:002010-04-30T21:46:30.822-04:00The Integrated CloudsCloud Computing continues to grow at an unprecedented pace; MSFT's Azure is live and gaining momentum, SAP is taking it seriously, vmforce is coming this fall, AWS has a region in Singapore and even some of the larger banks in the world have the cloud on their radar.
Ubiquitous and affordable broadband along with the evolution of social networks, real time and mobile technologies emphasize the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-90024723057599326012010-01-26T13:17:00.006-05:002010-01-26T15:05:55.546-05:00Cloud Computing Lessons LearnedThe beginning of a new year has brought along a large number of predictions regarding the impact adoption of disruptive technologies like Cloud Computing. The art of the possible is certainly exciting, it drives innovation and shapes the future. While I believe that innovation can't be stopped, I recognize that expectations and change management are largely responsible for the ultimate adoption Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-15471641291540787142009-10-29T19:58:00.003-04:002009-10-29T21:26:41.050-04:00Decision Management and the CloudLast week Predictive Analytics World brought together a fantastic collection of minds to share case studies and expertise. A theme echoed in multiple sessions and conversations was that analytics are a necessary but not sufficient ingredient for success. To succeed it is critical to have a strong alignment and integration of technology, processes and corporate strategy. Not an easy task but the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-16827654081301603152009-09-02T13:07:00.003-04:002009-10-30T08:53:08.321-04:00Doing more with lessChristopher Musico wrote a well timed piece for DestinationCRM describing how some companies are leveraging predictive analytics to become more competitive. It comes as no surprise that during challenging economic times companies try to be more efficient by making better use of their assets. And what better asset than their internal databases?I think it is safe to say that by now most companies (Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-25761804977555418482009-08-31T21:17:00.002-04:002009-08-31T21:45:16.600-04:00What if the Cloud never makes it to the enterprise?David Linthicum wrote an interesting piece about the cloud reality setting in. The enterprise is cautious and a bit skeptical about the Cloud; as it should. Frederic Paul at bmighty.com writes about the Forrester report that asks "Why not run with the Cloud". There seems to be a general agreement that when it comes to the Cloud the question is not IF but rather WHEN and HOW.But what if the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-48512348259056050752009-07-31T19:49:00.002-04:002009-07-31T20:20:37.944-04:00Gartner and the CloudBack in may there was some controversy with the estimates by Gartner of the Cloud Computing market size. Earlier this month Gartner announced the results of a survey of SaaS users where findings did not exactly provide a ringing endorsement of SaaS. Needless to say these results also caused controversy and a very articulate response from Jeff Kaplan from THINKstrategies.Gartner's press release ofUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-62038465798332580762009-07-31T19:09:00.003-04:002009-07-31T20:20:58.477-04:00More Blue AnalyticsIBM continues to position itself as the absolute leader in Business Analytics and Optimization. With the acquisition of SPSS IBM has the deepest portfolio of products and services available under one roof. Oracle also has quality products but it lacks IBM's depth in Business Consulting. On the other hand SAS software and consulting is top notch but IBM's offering is superior because it can Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-17501034015059781412009-06-25T19:46:00.003-04:002009-06-25T20:44:38.078-04:00BI and the CloudWayne Eckerson from The Data Warehouse Institute has an interesting post about Implementing BI in the Cloud. He mentions that BI in the Cloud faces four constraints:1) Customization or application fit2) Ongoing cost of transferring data to the Cloud 3) Data Security4) Vendor viabilityWayne wraps up his post with the following conclusion:BI for SaaS offers a lot of promise to reduce costs and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-21002512597744751442009-06-23T19:46:00.003-04:002009-06-23T20:14:14.426-04:00Federated ApplicationsIntuit recently launched a new ambitious program to deliver Federated Applications on their platform. These applications will be available to Intuit customers via a "marketplace" (my term not Intuit's). Intuit has a number of SDKs to use their Cloud platform (Flex seems to be a strategic platform for them) but Federated Applications will not be constrained to a specific technology because they Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-59264833148188914602009-06-04T19:53:00.007-04:002009-06-05T20:29:52.491-04:00The Cloud is Crossing the ChasmCloud Computing is crossing the chasm. Every other week you hear about the deployment of Cloud Computing applications to thousands of users by leading corporations and governments. These deployments go hand in hand with the announcement of new Cloud offerings by leading technology vendors and service providers. You can still find disagreements about the size of the market or the actual definitionUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-55807329151819628322009-05-28T19:38:00.003-04:002009-05-28T20:02:42.925-04:00HTML5Today Google dominated the spotlight with with the announcement of Google Wave. The idea and implementation appear superb while the approach to open a lot of its code is very intriguing. However what I found just as important was HTML5 and how much Google is embracing it.Google has an impressive portfolio of APIs and products for developers. They have created and embraced a large number of open Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-58958120965846936652009-05-21T09:27:00.002-04:002009-05-21T09:31:04.013-04:00Are we answering the wrong questions?Lyndsay Wise wrote a good article on about different types of Business Intelligence (BI) and how organizations adopt them based on their level of BI maturity. It reminded me of a recent user group meeting where several people from a Fortune500 company discussed their difficulty managing the ever growing list of sales reports requested by their users. The business users were not finding the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-86014535723938774052009-05-07T19:18:00.002-04:002009-05-07T19:48:10.287-04:00Customer Experience beyond Customer FeedbackCustomer Experience analysis and management has gained a lot of popularity as a business intelligence application. This popularity is due in part to advances in text processing technology as well as the exponential growth of unstructured data (i.e. blogs, email, IM, twitter, etc.)A common analysis parses customer feedback to identify problems or causes of dissatisfaction. For example measuring Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-78925393248701081092009-04-23T08:11:00.004-04:002009-04-23T08:39:35.635-04:00Relentless InnovationThe mantra at Google is 'release early, iterate often'. This constant evolution inevitably leads to constant innovation. It would be easy to argue that their ability to innovate is a natural result of their size and financial resources but that conclusion is short sighted. Joining companies like 3M and Apple as icons of creativity, Google continues to shape business and society all over the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-19503147257982926132009-04-21T05:20:00.003-04:002009-04-21T05:26:49.474-04:00Booz Allen Comments on McKinsey's Cloud ReportBooz Allen makes several interesting remarks about McKinsey's Cloud Report. The following two jumped at me. First:They state that cloud offerings “are most attractive” to small and medium sized business, and “there are significant hurdles to the adoption of cloud services by large enterprises.” That would come as quite a shock to Target, Eli Lily, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-53491221508287226742009-04-16T17:35:00.003-04:002009-04-16T17:51:08.210-04:00McKinsey and the CloudMcKinsey&Company just released an interesting document on Cloud Computing: Clearing the air on cloud computing. Very interesting thoughts. I agree with the idea that over hyping Cloud Computing (and any other new technology) is risky and when done on purpose, irresponsible. I also liked their Cloud definition, it seemed pragmatic, down to earth.I was surprised by their conclusion that AWS Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-16165901401772685922009-04-14T12:46:00.002-04:002009-04-14T12:55:22.689-04:00Blue AnalyticsIBM is launching a new consulting organization to focus on Business Analytics. This is a very significant move that should bring a lot of positive developments to the industry. IBM has tremendous experience in business consulting and unmatched technology assets to deliver a complete an actionable solution. I am convinced that Analytics will be a key differentiator in years to come. Companies willUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-41714888428462098892009-04-09T08:12:00.007-04:002009-04-09T08:31:55.862-04:00SDC is what really mattersTwo days ago Google announced several enhancements to the AppEngine. The support for Java grabbed most of the headlines. It was the number one feature request from developers and it certainly opens new possibilities for JRuby, Scala and others. Personally, I prefer non strongly typed languages like Python but I digress. During this announcement Google also introduced the Secure Data Connector (Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-91413825673329853182009-04-03T07:54:00.003-04:002009-04-03T08:08:56.208-04:00AMZN AWSomeWell, Amazon strikes again. MapReduce (Hadoop) on demand. Although AMZN already offered some Hadoop pre-configured AMIs, the simplicity of this new packaging makes it much easier. Furthermore, it is synergistic with EC2 and S3.I have been using Amazon Web Services for close to a year now and they continue to surpass my expectations. I wouldn't be surprised if AMZN spun off AWS and filed for an Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-32243767813800440802009-04-02T07:45:00.004-04:002009-04-03T08:10:57.135-04:00Cloud ManifestoThe Open Cloud Manifesto was published earlier this week. I have been following this the development of this Manifesto along with the activity in the Cloud Interoperability Forum for several weeks now. Inevitably I have mixed feelings about a lot of the concepts being discussed.What does it really mean to have an Open Cloud and why does that matter?Advocates of Cloud Interoperability would like Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-21885111891619878932009-03-31T09:03:00.004-04:002009-03-31T09:31:50.183-04:00Seybold and the CloudAndrew Seybold wrote an interesting piece on Cloud Computing: Cloud Computing -- a new version of an old idea. He identifies a few similarities between the centralized nature of cloud computing and the mainframes from many decades ago. Andrew's comments are centered mostly around centralizing data and making it available to a variety of clients. One of Andrew's biggest concerns is that he might Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-7734082910707027212009-03-29T20:02:00.002-04:002009-03-29T20:20:12.505-04:00SAS, analytics and the cloudSAS got a lot of press coverage when it announced it would invest $70M in a new data center. There is no doubt SAS is a world class company, clear market leader. In a 2008 survey by Rexer Analytics, 45% of respondents reported they use SAS. Almost 1 in 2 data miners? not bad.I did not know SAS had a hosting service. As they said, their hosting business has grown with almost no advertising but Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-52438477467233187882009-03-29T19:42:00.003-04:002009-03-29T19:59:36.044-04:00Force.com thoughts, 2nd partThis is a short follow up to a previous post about Salesforce.com (SFDC) development platform. The more I work with this platform the more impressed I become: SFDC is fantastic. I have talked about their documentation and support in the past. Well, their technology is quite impressive as well.The force.com platform has been built on a very consistent and predictable multi-tenant architecture. A Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-12681925802670331272009-03-29T19:18:00.002-04:002009-03-29T19:30:54.665-04:00ClouderaCloudera has created quite a buzz with its recent launch: great talent and great backers without a doubt. Business plan? I'm just not as excited as everybody else. I like Hadoop and what I have read about Cloudera makes it look like a solid business. Game changer? I find it hard to believe. This launch and press coverage reminds me of another startup from many years ago: e-pinions.com -and I'm Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315622898470010934.post-8769829191096636212009-03-17T20:15:00.002-04:002009-03-17T20:29:55.109-04:00Customer Experience and AnalyticsLast year I spent some time learning about Customer Experience and Customer Interaction Management. I enjoy both topics quite a bit. More recently due to my work with predictive analytics I have come across a number of Text Analytics companies that are focusing on improving the Customer Experience. From my experience in the Automotive and Pharmaceutical industry I know there are vast amounts of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1