Search Results for: business model

A Cautionary Tale

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Heard an interesting story recently, from a software developer advocating Scrum. I shall omit the names of the companies and individuals, and I may get a few of the details wrong, to avoid embarrassing anyone.

Our hero was working for a mobile device …

Power-issues in EA – tread carefully…

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Continuing with the series on power and politics in enterprise-architecture, a brief summary-so-far, some practical suggestions on modelling of power-issues, and a very important warning… The quick summary is as follows: the practice of enterprise-architecture is often ‘relentlessly political’ one…

The Evolution of PaaS in the Enterprise

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This morning I was part of a panel at the GigaOM Structure:Europe 2012 conference in Amsterdam., titled: The Evolution of Private PaaS solutions. The abstract:

Enterprises are starting to take interest in running PaaS solutions virtually, as app developers want to focus on building apps rather than dealing with infrastructure issues. Enterprises that use PaaS solutions almost always go down the private route. In this session we focus on private PaaS offerings and look at the considerations and what will happen if one day enterprises want to use PaaS solutions in the public cloud.

The idea was to discuss private vs. public PaaS and, as it was a theme throughout the conference, the differences in adoption rates in the US vs. Europe.

You can view the full video coverage of the panel at the GigaOM website.

GigaOM Structure 2012 - PaaS Panel

Here is an overview of some statements made during the panel to
highlight some of the discussions (in my own words, so could be biased,
but you can watch the video to make up your own mind 😉 ):

Public vs. Private PaaS

Enterprises want PaaS within their own environment, behind their firewall, i.e. Private PaaS.

Public PaaS is focused on the lowest common denominator, limited to certain framework, database, etc. Private PaaS adapts (can/should adapt) to everything used in the enterprise, any language, framework, database, etc.

In our customer base we roughly see a 50%-50% split between applications deployed on our Public PaaS vs applications deployed on our Private PaaS. It mainly depends on data, integrations, and policies.

Mobile is actually helping public PaaS adoption. It is a new subject, and within such a new space enterprise seem to be more open to new ideas.

PaaS and productivity

PaaS is a huge enabler for Cloud Computing. PaaS is “clicky-clicky”: development and deployment that took months brought down to minutes.

PaaS is more driven by productivity gains than the need to move to “the cloud”. The business wants a solution for a business problem. Fast. Keep evolving with the changing business. PaaS should cover the complete application lifecycle.

A PaaS covering the application lifecycle in this way requires a new way of thinking. Connected to agile, continuous integration, etc.

PaaS can help to transfer old way of working seamlessly to cloud. It is just a small step.

No, you need to change the way you work. Modularize applications, no application silos.
If you really want to speed-up. We should also stop programming, start doing MDD.

MDD is possible now… no programming involved perse (also read: Why aren’t we all doing Model-Driven Development yet?).
Enterprise are adopting it.

PaaS should add a layer of abstraction. It should add a software layer. Key is that it is just the first step. New language constructs will abstract even further.

PaaS and the application lifecycle

PaaS can bring harmony between operations and development.

The opportunity is even bigger: it can bring all stakeholders in the application delivery process together. Even end-users providing feedback, and business owners collaborating on requirements. The complete application lifecycle should be covered by PaaS. Not only covered, also speed-up.

Even end-users doing app development and deployment?

Back to private vs public. I believe in hybrid. Even if enterprises want to go with private PaaS, they often want to have development and test environments in the public cloud. Once they start using production data in acceptance or actual production they move the app within the premise of the company.

Real-time updates and modularity

OSGi has been mentioned a couple of times, what is it? A dynamic modularity system for Java. The only industry standard that enables modularity, currently in the Java space but will become available for different languages.

But… enterprises are not asking for OSGi or these kinds of standards.

No, they do not ask for OSGi specifically. But if an enterprise starts to user your PaaS you will encounter something like this: build first small app fast, in an agile way with a small team.

If they start to build a huge app, i.e. with a lot of functional components, people will start to think about modularisation. If you want to release a new feature you do not want to redeploy the complete app. But only the changed component, and if needed the dependencies of this component.

Customer ask indeed about real-time updates in PaaS.

Version/configuration management becomes important: what version of my software is running. And what versions of all the components?

Layers

PaaS is about virtualising away lower layers. However, PaaS can also bring back to the table an understanding (and management of) what an application actually needs with respect to the underlying infrastructure, e.g. data needs to go over the same switch, caching is sensitive for locality, etc.

There is no clear distinction between layers. IaaS and PaaS players are moving into each others space. Amazon started out as IaaS, but nowadays delivers a lot of higher level services that you could categorise as begin part of the platform layer. Microsoft Azure and Google are moving the other way around: from PaaS player to also delivering IaaS.

Is there room for language specific PaaS?

It depends: if you only have .Net it makes sense to have a .Net specific PaaS. However, most organisations are heterogenous. So you need to support multiple languages.

You see that because we are in a transition, people still use their current methodologies. As PaaS becomes stronger, full stack, there will become PaaSes that focus on one language. That will need a different way to build the application. Because you need advantages like auto-scaling, dealing with locality, etc.

If you really want to change, you need to disrupt. Do not cling to your existing methodologies and languages. I truly believe there is a big opportunity for PaaSes with focused languages.

Forrester defined space within PaaS: new productivity platform. Step to higher level languages. Different roles that build applications.

Platform should run components defined in all kinds of languages.

It depends on how you define PaaS. It is not just a deployment platform. It should also cover the other aspects of the application lifecycle like development and maybe even requirements/feedback management.

If you really want to disrupt the field and make it a lot easier and faster to build applications (that’s in the end what businesses are looking for), than you also need to change the way you develop applications not just the way you deploy it.

PaaS adoption in Europe vs. North America

Interesting thing last 2 years: not really a difference. Everywhere businesses are looking to improve their software delivery. There is no business innovation nowadays without software delivery involved. Businesses want improvement, productivity gains.

Then the question is will it be a private or public PaaS. We see the same thing in US and Europe: it depends on the kind of data and the kind of company. Banks will probably go for private. But a lot of other companies will go with public PaaS, especially for their customer facing portals.

It all depends on the usecase. Not on region.

PaaS often starts small.

That’s an opportunity. We take a week to create a working app for new customers and they have something tangible to show within their own organization.

No difference between Europe and US. Almost all private PaaS.

It seems like we are saying that if you are an enterprise of course you will have private PaaS. That’s not true. A lot of big companies are using public PaaS. Of course there are enterprises that go with private PaaS, but it is use case dependent. Not dependent on the size of organizations.

Why do we see so much private PaaS? Well, it could be that if you product supports private PaaS that it is a lot easier to sell that.
People feel comfortable with private PaaS, that’s what they are used too. If they get used to the idea of cloud and see advantages they will move.

The Evolution of PaaS in the Enterprise

by

This morning I was part of a panel at the GigaOM Structure:Europe 2012 conference in Amsterdam., titled: The Evolution of Private PaaS solutions. The abstract: Enterprises are starting to take interest in running PaaS solutions virtually, as app developers want to focus on building apps rather than dealing with infrastructure issues. Enterprises that use PaaS solutions almost always go down the private route. In this session we focus on private.

The post The Evolution of PaaS in the Enterprise appeared first on The Enterprise Architect.

What are the benefits of Benefits Maps?

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I have been to a couple of JISC-sponsored events previously at which benefits maps were presented. It was claimed that they can be useful in helping a University to think about return on investment (ROI) in terms of strategic planning. So I suggested benefits maps as being of potential use when I ran an Enterprise […]

The Rise and Rise of BYOD

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Amazon Kindle V Apple iPad
As the festive and gift season approaches, our favourite consumer technology vendors are gearing up to release a range of new gadgets and consumer devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod for instance have dominated many a wish lists and gift lists for the past years. And Apple competitors are not far behind with Google, Samsung and lately Amazon with Kindle trying to steal the market share from Apple in this lucrative and ever-increasing consumer technology segment. This year in particular the tablet segment is abuzz with not one not two but three high-profile product launches just weeks ahead of the festive season. Apple iPad mini, Amazon’s new Kindle and the eagerly anticipated Microsoft tablet, all are slated to make blockbuster debut and coming after our share of gift season wallet. 
Apple iPhone V Samsung S3
And many of us, technology geeks or not are eagerly awaiting release and availability of such devices along with new smartphone models from Samsung’s new small S3 and Apple’s new big iPhone 5. But not everyone is happy with this onslaught of new consumer technology devices. And its not just the print media who is worried about losing yet another batch of potential traditional readers to these new breed of ebook and emagazine readers. A couple of my CIO and CTO friends who look after a large number of IT users for instance, are not particularly happy at these developments and the new flood of such devices. Why? The answer is simple….the rise and rise of the phenomenon called BYOD!
The rise of bring your own device (BYOD) programs is the single most radical shift in the economics of client computing for business since PCs invaded the workplace, according to Gartner. So really what is BYOD? Gartner defines BYOD as an alternative strategy that allows employees, business partners and other users to use personally selected and purchased client devices to execute enterprise applications and access data. For most organizations, the program is currently limited to smartphones and tablets, but the strategy may also be used for PCs and may include subsidies for equipment or service fees.
A recent survey of 578 senior-level executives commissioned by Cisco found that despite concerns from corporate officials, companies increasingly are allowing, in varying degrees, employees to use their own mobile devices – in particular, smartphones and tablets – in the workplace, and to access the corporate network and data. “Overall, the results found that although many executives are uneasy about the security of corporate information on mobile devices, the trend is largely unstoppable and proper policies must be initiated to underpin access to this sensitive information,” Chuck Robbins, Cisco’s newly promoted senior vice president of worldwide sales, wrote in an 10 October post on Cisco’s blog.
Tablets are fast becoming media consumers
The rise of smartphones and, more recently, tablets – fueled by Apple’s wildly popular iPad – have been the key drivers in the BYOD trend, where rather than accepting company-issued technology, workers have pushed to use their own devices for work. Cisco and a host of other vendors have for more than a year been rolling out solutions designed to make it easier for businesses to identify and manage employee-owned devices on the network, and to secure the companies’ information.  
According to the Cisco survey, conducted last month by Economist Intelligence Unit, most executives are uneasy about their companies’ mobile data-access policies, and while 42 percent said that C-level executives need secure and timely access to strategic data, only 28 percent said it’s appropriate to access this information from mobile devices. Forty-nine percent said that the complexity of securing so many different devices and a lack of knowledge about the security and risks involved with mobile access are top challenges for their firms.
This trend is set to grow exponentially next year – whether businesses actively manage it or not, according to a latest industry report published in IT Business Canada. Two-thirds of businesses already are seen some form of BYOD phenomenon in their office, but just one in four have actively created a policy that allows for consumer devices to be used in the workplace. The report quotes the findings of an Info-Tech Indaba survey sponsored by Telus Corp. This could cause problems raising security issues and complicating IT environments with multiple devices and operating systems. For 2013, the most popular technology for BYOD efforts is smartphones with 72 per cent of firms expressing at least some interest, according to Info-Tech. The next most popular is tablets with 64 per cent of businesses expressing interest, and then laptops with 59 per cent showing interest. 
As a recent CIO article has articulated, the best practice seems to be to centralize the purchase and deployment of tablets and smartphones. In addition to simplifying device management, this strategy gave the companies more leverage with their preferred carriers. When individual employees paid their monthly phone bills and submitted them on expense reports, the companies had no clout to negotiate with. When all the monthly bills were rolled into one, they got lower rates. As Gartner suggests IT’s best strategy to deal with the rise of BYOD is to address it with a combination of policy, software, infrastructure controls and education in the near term; and with application management and appropriate cloud services in the longer term. Policies must be built in conjunction with legal and HR departments for the tax, labor, corporate liability and employee privacy implications.

The Rise and Rise of BYOD

by
Amazon Kindle V Apple iPad
As the festive and gift season approaches, our favourite consumer technology vendors are gearing up to release a range of new gadgets and consumer devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod for instance have dominated many a wish lists and gift lists for the past years. And Apple competitors are not far behind with Google, Samsung and lately Amazon with Kindle trying to steal the market share from Apple in this lucrative and ever-increasing consumer technology segment. This year in particular the tablet segment is abuzz with not one not two but three high-profile product launches just weeks ahead of the festive season. Apple iPad mini, Amazon’s new Kindle and the eagerly anticipated Microsoft tablet, all are slated to make blockbuster debut and coming after our share of gift season wallet. 
Apple iPhone V Samsung S3
And many of us, technology geeks or not are eagerly awaiting release and availability of such devices along with new smartphone models from Samsung’s new small S3 and Apple’s new big iPhone 5. But not everyone is happy with this onslaught of new consumer technology devices. And its not just the print media who is worried about losing yet another batch of potential traditional readers to these new breed of ebook and emagazine readers. A couple of my CIO and CTO friends who look after a large number of IT users for instance, are not particularly happy at these developments and the new flood of such devices. Why? The answer is simple….the rise and rise of the phenomenon called BYOD!
The rise of bring your own device (BYOD) programs is the single most radical shift in the economics of client computing for business since PCs invaded the workplace, according to Gartner. So really what is BYOD? Gartner defines BYOD as an alternative strategy that allows employees, business partners and other users to use personally selected and purchased client devices to execute enterprise applications and access data. For most organizations, the program is currently limited to smartphones and tablets, but the strategy may also be used for PCs and may include subsidies for equipment or service fees.
A recent survey of 578 senior-level executives commissioned by Cisco found that despite concerns from corporate officials, companies increasingly are allowing, in varying degrees, employees to use their own mobile devices – in particular, smartphones and tablets – in the workplace, and to access the corporate network and data. “Overall, the results found that although many executives are uneasy about the security of corporate information on mobile devices, the trend is largely unstoppable and proper policies must be initiated to underpin access to this sensitive information,” Chuck Robbins, Cisco’s newly promoted senior vice president of worldwide sales, wrote in an 10 October post on Cisco’s blog.
Tablets are fast becoming media consumers
The rise of smartphones and, more recently, tablets – fueled by Apple’s wildly popular iPad – have been the key drivers in the BYOD trend, where rather than accepting company-issued technology, workers have pushed to use their own devices for work. Cisco and a host of other vendors have for more than a year been rolling out solutions designed to make it easier for businesses to identify and manage employee-owned devices on the network, and to secure the companies’ information.  
According to the Cisco survey, conducted last month by Economist Intelligence Unit, most executives are uneasy about their companies’ mobile data-access policies, and while 42 percent said that C-level executives need secure and timely access to strategic data, only 28 percent said it’s appropriate to access this information from mobile devices. Forty-nine percent said that the complexity of securing so many different devices and a lack of knowledge about the security and risks involved with mobile access are top challenges for their firms.
This trend is set to grow exponentially next year – whether businesses actively manage it or not, according to a latest industry report published in IT Business Canada. Two-thirds of businesses already are seen some form of BYOD phenomenon in their office, but just one in four have actively created a policy that allows for consumer devices to be used in the workplace. The report quotes the findings of an Info-Tech Indaba survey sponsored by Telus Corp. This could cause problems raising security issues and complicating IT environments with multiple devices and operating systems. For 2013, the most popular technology for BYOD efforts is smartphones with 72 per cent of firms expressing at least some interest, according to Info-Tech. The next most popular is tablets with 64 per cent of businesses expressing interest, and then laptops with 59 per cent showing interest. 
As a recent CIO article has articulated, the best practice seems to be to centralize the purchase and deployment of tablets and smartphones. In addition to simplifying device management, this strategy gave the companies more leverage with their preferred carriers. When individual employees paid their monthly phone bills and submitted them on expense reports, the companies had no clout to negotiate with. When all the monthly bills were rolled into one, they got lower rates. As Gartner suggests IT’s best strategy to deal with the rise of BYOD is to address it with a combination of policy, software, infrastructure controls and education in the near term; and with application management and appropriate cloud services in the longer term. Policies must be built in conjunction with legal and HR departments for the tax, labor, corporate liability and employee privacy implications.

Embracing Ignorance and Failure to Innovate

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What drives scientists to venture unflinchingly into the unknown without any guarantee of discovering the next big breakthrough that will generate headlines? Ignorance, according to Stuart Firestein, author of a compelling book, Ignorance: How It Drives Science. Firestein reveals that “ignorance propels scientific discovery” and asks the provocative question: “What if we cultivated ignorance instead of fearing it?” Even more stunning is that he says the most predictable thing about predictions is how often they […]