Cast Your Vote Today
Check out the candidates for The Future Global Leaders awards and cast your vote today.
The Cloud & Enterprises
This is in continuation of the previous note:
Thomas Friedman makes the case that Value creation is becoming so complex that no single firm can master it without closely collaborating with a wide set of partners. John Hagel brings this up :” We are shifting from a world where the key source of strategic advantage was in protecting and extracting value from a given set of knowledge stocks — the sum total of what we know at any point in time, which is now depreciating at an accelerating pace — into a world in which the focus of value creation is effective participation in knowledge flows, which are constantly being renewed”. All these thoughts presuppose or recognize the role that information technology plays in making this shift happen. Extending the thought, once can see that from an infrastructural perspective, externalization of data and processes, for example through cloud computing, can create a secure foundation for collaboration that will eventually be indispensable. This flow and collaboration – critical components in the shift becomes so important that it is worth dwelling a little more into this theme.
With the global competitive forces getting more and more powerful one case that business around the world are keen to get more agile and more lean. With dependence in IT increasing with time, solutions centered on IT get more significant. With cloud as an enabler to such a change, one can see many things are coming together to make benefits get realized. As business tends to focus on getting the easy to do business with tag, the ease of provisioning extranets makes the organization more agile as it establishes lightweight, short term partnerships and outsources granular services to external providers. When information and goods flow across borders and enterprises, the concern of rising transactional cost is bound to arise. With well designed cloud solutions , transaction costs can be actually managed better. And by reducing the transaction costs of contractual collaboration the company can effectively leverage external resources without engaging in full scale mergers and acquisitions or setting up joint ventures.
How to engineer a seamless and reliable experience that can not only absorb changes in the external environment but also function as a critical enabler of such change? Look carefully and we can see that at the operational level , an increasing number of data sources are becoming available in the form of web services, truly interoperable and are easy to integrate. Enterprises move really aggressively to make gains on this count – some of them are able to leverage these effectively have an advantage over their competition. The real advantage comes by being able to extract context sensitive, pattern based business intelligence by combining the data sources with their internal information and that of their partners.
This in essence sets the stage of preparing to not only take advantage of emerging technology to stay competitive but also potentially help a set of enterprises to create new standards of competing and thereby create competitive advantage through differentiation. Talking of differentiation, form the perspective of business enabled through the cloud it can be seen that the increased service orientation of cloud squarely uplifts the importance of identifying and analyzing competitive differentiation. Once core functions are established inside enterprises likely centered around core competencies the next question to seek is : determining whether they lead to a business benefit and the larger question therein is whether they are indeed unique and whether the uniqueness is sustainable in the fast changing world?
In such critical turns and decisions, enterprises need to take a far more involvement in activities that may look too mundane and operational. For example, it is a perfectly valid question to ask and keep asking at regular intervals as to how much of IT should be delivered by internal sources. As the technology and technology enabled markets and business services mature, many viable and economical solutions become available for enterprises to consider. And if standardized services (preferably configurable) are available on the market on a more economical footing, then it is obligatory on the part of enterprises to investigate whether it would be possible to leverage them. There may also be alternate forms of delivering the services. Let’s see from an IT perspective - in such a scenario, very effective solutions delivered over the cloud are becoming more and more commonplace. For example, self service portals can reduce human involvement overhead and can thereby lower the costs of basic services. Add ability to configure and integrate – the potential multiplies. Such decisions help enterprises move resources to focus on efforts inside the enterprise that could yield far better returns and may help enterprises become more lean and efficient and in some cases can make them more innovative as well.
Then where does it leave genuinely core processes that are supposed to provide differentiation by design? Where these processes begin to get intertwined with undifferentiated tasks, the effectiveness definitely goes down. Many of the generic IT solutions with customized overlays clearly fall into this category. Such a scenarios also provides enterprises to examine objectively if it would be possible to isolate the generic functions and have them sourced from the most effective and efficient source. Obviously there may not be standard answers for every conceivable scenario but enterprises can think through and decide on embracing appropriate choices.
Now comes the question of horizontal scalability – can the core competencies be looked as a platform to provide a base for a broad range of solutions? Can most of the solutions be plausibly monetized? Too often we see that the competitive advantage can begin to help in gaining business in related areas as well – there cloud solutions can provide can help in providing quick entry and act as a simulation media before eventually becoming a core infrastructure for leverage in steady state on scale up. Similarly IP that can be enabled through cloud can facilitate embracing new business models for cross domain/ cross enterprise usage. Obviously these things don’t happen just by chance – every such possibility needs to be thought through and details worked out in a rigorous manner. When competencies get stretched to serve a more broad base of services, it would invariably call for a realignment of resources and focus inside enterprises. Enterprises then get sucked into taking decisions on designing organization structures ranging from divisions to horizontals.
With market shifts happening more frequently – the dynamism with which enterprises monitor and prepare for them increase more rapidly. Too often, today we see that corporate strategies are reflecting upon changes across all stakeholders – competition, suppliers, customers besides geographies and market segments. This is a more complex game but technology and cloud by extension can provide more strategic enabling support. Such changes can foist huge demands on enterprises –some of them could be very direct and some of them could bring in an indirect but overbearing expectations on the business. The utility model is not just limited to computing CPU cycles and counts the saving. Its actually about making a range of services available on demand – information consulting, data streams, business processes, real time collaboration etc. The reality is that almost all the industries would have a need to consume such services as they begin to navigate the effects of changes that are happening in their industries and in some case extend such services when they act the role as providers. The lesser recognized part of the equation viz. the indirect impact : this can be more powerful and with a larger reach. How? In this complex web of business, enterprises which don’t provide such services may have to engage in transactions with others that do provide such services. Now one will have run as fast as the ecosystem to at least hold on to the current competitive position ( in some cases –in fast changing industries, one will have to run faster to hold on to the position). So the moral here is : no enterprise is likely to be immune from this sort of change and this is going to create a series of cascading changes across the business landscape.
The fact remains cloud provides a very huge canvas. By its huge capabilities and reach , the cloud can effectively change the business dynamics along with the progressions that it creates and this can simply dominate careful setups laid inside enterprises. By attacking the cost structure of IT operations and being seen as business friendly, it can find more support in its absorption. And, the truly disruptive phenomenon that cloud is - shall influence this business ecosystem more rapidly and with greater reach : net result – cloud could become the harbinger of change that will accelerate the changes in the partner landscape in this interconnected world.
Permission to Take It On in 2011
"Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah.
It makes no difference what people think of you."
~Rumi
It makes no difference what people think of you."
~Rumi
As 2010 ends and we look ahead to a new, unknown year, I want to use this flicker of a moment of your at-least-partial attention to prod you to decide, right now, to take something creative on.
In this blog over the past couple of years, I've written dozens of articles about the state of creativity in our culture, about innovation in organizations, about tools and tips for opening yourself up to more creativity in your own life. I truly thank you for reading when you have and at times offering your own insights, feedback and appreciation.
But the truth remains that for most of us it's very hard to give ourselves much permission to be creative, to actually express our own unique perspective in some way, to play with ideas and each other with or without an end-product in mind. So...for your emotional and psychological health, for honoring your own amazing complexity as a human being, for being an active creator instead of just a passive spectator of life, why not decide, right now, that you will take at least a small sip of your huge and too-often-untapped internal cup of possibility in 2011 to work on something only you could do and/or bring into the world. Come on, take it on.
If you have difficulty deciding what creative project you'd like to tackle, let me suggest that you start small (unlike that huge cup in the picture above). Let's use the creative tool of constraints to help. It's winter right now, which constrains our options in many ways, so let's start by limiting ourselves to working on something inside. Look around your home now (or when you are there), and pick one location--just one place--that seems like a creatively comfortable spot for you to spend some time in. Clear and create one if you need to. Let that be your spot. And let that be the spot where you give yourself permission to try something you just want to try or do or make, secretly or not. Anoint that place as one where there is full, secret-smile permission to create something thathas a good chance of turning out lousy, that you may never share with anyone. What strikes your fancy: Write a short story? Make a mosaic collage out of rocks and lint? Make phone calls to famous people? Paint your cat? Build/invent/destroy/cook something you've never done before? Pick something that enters your mind and commit, right here and now, to try it. Choosing is the first, fertile step.
I'd like to help you in any way I can. Perhaps you know what it is you'd like to try, what project you want to work on--email me and I'll check in with you at a surprising time to see how you're doing on it. We all need support from others for our creative lives, so tell others you trust what you're going to do and ask for accountability or reminders. If you'd like ongoing help I might be just the one-on-one coach or music teacher you need; email me or call me at 773-388-2880 and let's talk about how we could make that work for you.
I write this right now recovering from an injury that has kept me homebound for more than a week. It has limited me and yet at the same time opened my eyes to opportunities in small places, to patience, and to help from others. 2011 looms as a long year full of opportunities, but that first step is often the hardest. Choose that one project, right now, that can get your creative self engaged and alive before the winter of possibilities melts like you know it will.
May you you lean into the new year with courage, creativity and cojones, Amigo.
Register for San Francisco Event Now to Avoid Price Increase
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| Price Increases on JAN 1st |
Special Event on Thursday, January 13th featuring Myrtle Potter as guest speaker. Hear Myrtle, renowned healthcare leader and innovator, speak on Leadership, listen to George Bickerstaff give an overview on "What to Expect in 2011" and mingle with Chief Executive Officers, Chairmen & Chairwomen, Chief Financial Officers, Managing Partners, Board Members and Presidents of some of the leading companies including bio-tech and investment firms. Current attendees lead over 50 companies and manage in excess of $2 Billion in investment funds. The networking reception provides the perfect setting for you to meet your global peers and discuss future business needs and opportunities in a relaxed environment. Register now to avoid the price increase.
One of America's Foremost Health Care Leaders and Innovators to speak at San Francisco Networking Event
Myrtle Potter, recognized as one of America's foremost health care leaders and innovators will be a featured speaker at our networking event in San Francisco on January 13th; Myrtle will share her thoughts on Leadershp and the lessons she has learned during her career. Named as one of the "25 Most Influential African Americans in Healthcare" (2010) by Black Health Magazine. To attend the event and meet Myrtle register at http://the-global-leader.eventbrite.com/.She founded Myrtle Potter & Company, LLC in 2005 and currently serves as CEO and President. As a trusted voice in healthcare, Myrtle has dedicated three decades of service and leadership to America's most successful global life science companies. She has leveraged her vast experience operating large pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses to better serve the needs of health care companies, consumers and patients worldwide.
Myrtle was president and chief operating officer of Genentech, Inc., from 2000 to 2005, where she helped steer the company through one of the most successful periods in its history. Genentech achieved record sales and earnings growth during each of the five years she led the company, and under her leadership the company launched seven breakthrough molecules including Avastin, the world's first antiangiogenesis product for the treatment of cancer.
Prior, Myrtle was president of Bristol-Myers Squibb's $4 billion, 3,500-person U.S. Cardiovascular/Metabolics business. Under her leadership this business was the largest, fastest growing and most profitable of all of the BMS divisions. This business also launched three new products including the blockbuster Plavix.
Before working for Bristol-Myers Squibb, Myrtle worked at Merck & Co., Inc. for fourteen years. During her tenure at Merck, she established the new pharmaceutical company, Astra/Merck, Inc. that later merged with Zeneca to form the company now known as AstraZeneca. Following that initiative, she directed the marketing of the blockbuster prescription drug Prilosec and set it on course to become the largest selling pharmaceutical product in the world at that time. Her last position at Merck was as vice president of an $800 million U.S. business unit.
Myrtle currently serves on the board of directors of Medco Health Solutions, Inc., 3G BioTech, LLC, and Everyday Health, Inc. Formerly Myrtle served on the boards of Amazon (2004 to 2009) and FoxHollow Technologies/Ev3 (2006-2007). She also served on the Dean's Advisory Board of the Stanford Business School (2006 to 2010) and on the Citizen's Financial Accountability Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Myrtle is a sought-after speaker and is represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau. She speaks frequently to business, academic and consumer audiences on healthcare, life science and leadership topics. She is also an on-air business contributor to the NBC television network including CNBC and MSNBC.
Myrtle's business and healthcare leadership has been hailed by America's most influential business publications. She was named by Black Health magazine as one of the “25 Most Influential African Americans in Healthcare” (2010), recognized one of "50 Directors Under 50" by Directorship Magazine (2008) and featured in BusinessWeek as "An Entrepreneur to Watch" (2007) and in The Wall Street Journal as one of its "50 Women to Watch" (2004 and 2005). Myrtle has been profiled in The Harvard Business Review article "What Great Leaders Do" (2005) recognized by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the "75 Most Powerful Blacks in Corporate America" (2005) and honored by Ebony magazine as one of "15 at the Top in Corporate America" (2004). She was also listed in FORTUNE Magazine's "Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business" (2003 and 2004) and "Most Powerful Black Executives in America" (2002), and named as one of TIME Magazine's "15 Young Global Business Influentials" (2002), as one of Forbes Magazine's "Magnetic 40" (2001) and as Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Business Women's Association (2000). Myrtle has also been referenced in more than 20 business and leadership books including, The 100-Mile Walk - A Quest to Find the Essence of Leadership by Sander and Jonathan Flaum (2006); The One Thing by Marcus Buckingham (2005) and The Cycle of Leadership by Noel Tichy (2004).
Widely recognized for her community service and leadership, Myrtle has been hailed as an "Everyday Icon" by Glamour Magazine (2009), "Woman of Distinction" by the Girl Scouts of America of Greater New York (2009), "Woman of the Year" by Legal Momentum, the legal defense fund for the National Organization for Women (2007) and "Woman of the Year" by the American Diabetes Association (2006). Myrtle has also received the Girls Scouts of America's highest honor by being named its "National Woman of Distinction" (2004).
In 2002, Myrtle created a charitable fund to consolidate the many aspects of her philanthropic work aimed at advancing the status of women and children. In addition to supporting numerous non-profit organizations, she is actively involved as a mentor with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula.
Myrtle is a graduate of the University of Chicago.
Embracing your Inner Outcast
This week I was at the southernmost point of the United States where I got a chance to mingle with outcasts and drunks on one of the coldest days in the warmest place in the country. Ah, Key West. If you ever make it to Rick's Bar on Duval Street, watch out for the most foul-mouthed and offensive "folk" singer on the planet.
But I spent even more time in Hollywood, FL, which got me thinking about the other Hollywood, where creative, talented outcasts can sometimes make it big. Though I was not much of an early fan, it's time to give credit the latest crossover Hollywood success, Justin Timberlake. Yes, it was surprising to see his acting chops in the recent movie Social Network but he has
also earned his creative distinction with his ongoing appearances on Saturday Night Live, where he has proven to be one of the most unpredictable and funny performers in years. Check out his versatility in the video below (Facebook readers click here). Just like the previously praised Tina Fey, what makes Timberlake so extraordinary is his combination of cool talent--yes, he can sing and act--and willingness not to be cool at all. I mean, at all. He has somehow managed to give himself complete permission to be a fool--which we all need at least sometimes to be at our most creative.
"I was an outcast in a lot of ways," he recently told Ellen Degeneres on the Ellen Show. To kids: "Everything that you get picked on [for], or you feel makes you weird, is essentially what's going to make you sexy as an adult...I would not be here if I listened to the kids who said I was a terrible singer or a sissy. Be different." Now that might be easy for someone of such talent to say (and some weird things about us will never be sexy), but there is in an inner outcast in all of us that is sexy, or at least talented and worthy of much more exploration. The question is how to engage it and love it rather than give in to the conformist voices all around us that want to squelch and homogenize.
Originality is a hallmark (and key competency) for creativity, and anyone who embraces her
own originality must at times accept--if not revel in--being an outcast. I particularly like what Mira Nair, the groundbreaking director of Monsoon Wedding, said when she was in Chicago earlier in the year speaking at Columbia College (see right). In many ways an outcast herself--an Indian woman director who found a way to bring stories of non-Hollywood-type outsiders to American screens--she explained that she thrives by putting herself in uncomfortable situations. “I like to do things I’m terrified by,” she said. "I don’t like to do things I’ve done before. I try to do things I don’t know if I can do." That's one way to embrace your inner outcast.
The truth is, when Timberlake released his "SexyBack" song a few years ago, I thought there was no way he would get away with his claim of "bringing sexy back." I mean, come on. But that song is passing the test of time and, frankly, it's a winner. I'm sure he was warned against it again and again, just as I'm sure advisors and commentators have questioned his decision to act or risk foolishness on SNL. Undoubtedly his outcast experience as a small town Tennessee boy ridiculed for singing like Michael Jackson has empowered him to follow his inner compass of creativity. Where is yours pointing you these days?
But I spent even more time in Hollywood, FL, which got me thinking about the other Hollywood, where creative, talented outcasts can sometimes make it big. Though I was not much of an early fan, it's time to give credit the latest crossover Hollywood success, Justin Timberlake. Yes, it was surprising to see his acting chops in the recent movie Social Network but he has
also earned his creative distinction with his ongoing appearances on Saturday Night Live, where he has proven to be one of the most unpredictable and funny performers in years. Check out his versatility in the video below (Facebook readers click here). Just like the previously praised Tina Fey, what makes Timberlake so extraordinary is his combination of cool talent--yes, he can sing and act--and willingness not to be cool at all. I mean, at all. He has somehow managed to give himself complete permission to be a fool--which we all need at least sometimes to be at our most creative."I was an outcast in a lot of ways," he recently told Ellen Degeneres on the Ellen Show. To kids: "Everything that you get picked on [for], or you feel makes you weird, is essentially what's going to make you sexy as an adult...I would not be here if I listened to the kids who said I was a terrible singer or a sissy. Be different." Now that might be easy for someone of such talent to say (and some weird things about us will never be sexy), but there is in an inner outcast in all of us that is sexy, or at least talented and worthy of much more exploration. The question is how to engage it and love it rather than give in to the conformist voices all around us that want to squelch and homogenize.
Originality is a hallmark (and key competency) for creativity, and anyone who embraces her
own originality must at times accept--if not revel in--being an outcast. I particularly like what Mira Nair, the groundbreaking director of Monsoon Wedding, said when she was in Chicago earlier in the year speaking at Columbia College (see right). In many ways an outcast herself--an Indian woman director who found a way to bring stories of non-Hollywood-type outsiders to American screens--she explained that she thrives by putting herself in uncomfortable situations. “I like to do things I’m terrified by,” she said. "I don’t like to do things I’ve done before. I try to do things I don’t know if I can do." That's one way to embrace your inner outcast.The truth is, when Timberlake released his "SexyBack" song a few years ago, I thought there was no way he would get away with his claim of "bringing sexy back." I mean, come on. But that song is passing the test of time and, frankly, it's a winner. I'm sure he was warned against it again and again, just as I'm sure advisors and commentators have questioned his decision to act or risk foolishness on SNL. Undoubtedly his outcast experience as a small town Tennessee boy ridiculed for singing like Michael Jackson has empowered him to follow his inner compass of creativity. Where is yours pointing you these days?
Attendees at San Francisco Networking Event a “Who’s Who of Leadership & Influence”
While RSVPs are still being accepted at http://the-global-leader.eventbrite.com/, the current confirmed attendees have led over 300 companies, headquartered in 18 countries, supporting 47 industries, with revenue exceeding $250 billion, and employing almost 1 million. The majority of attendees has held or holds the position of Vice President, CFO, CEO, President, or Member of the Board of Directors of their current or prior organization.
Top 20 Industries Represented
1. Pharmaceuticals (58 companies)
2. Biotechnology (46 companies)
3. Asset Management and Custody Banks (37 companies)
4. Healthcare Equipment (20 companies)
5. Investment Banking and Brokerage (17 companies)
6. Life Sciences Tools and Services (13 companies)
7. Application Software (10 companies)
8. Internet Software and Services (9 companies)
9. Health Care Technology (7 companies)
10. Research and Consulting Services (7 companies)
11. Human Resource and Employment Services (6 companies)
12. Advertising (5 companies)
13. Communications Equipment (5 companies)
14. Office Services and Supplies (5 companies)
15. Electrical Components and Equipment (4 companies)
16. Healthcare Services (4 companies)
17. Auto Parts and Equipment (3 companies)
18. Diversified Support Services (3 companies)
19. Healthcare Supplies (3 companies)
20. Heavy Electrical Equipment (3 companies)
Top 20 Companies by Revenue*
*where attendees hold or have held board of directors or other key executive positions
1. General Electric Co. • NYSE:GE • $151.4 B
2. The Goldman Sachs Group • NYSE:GS • $43.4 B
3. Morgan Stanley • NYSE:MS • $30.3 B
4. BofA Merrill Lynch • $25.4 B
5. Accenture plc • NYSE:ACN • $23.1 B
6. Mylan, Inc. • NasdaqGS:MYL • $5.4 B
7. International Game Technology • NYSE:IGT • $2.2 B
8. Catalent Pharma Solutions, Inc. • $2.2 B
9. Dun & Bradstreet Corp • NYSE:GE • $2.2 B
10. Pharmaceutical Product Development • NasdaqGS:PPDI • $1.7 B
11. Elan Corp plc • NYSE:ELN • $1.7 B
12. Westway Gropu, Inc. • NasdaqCM:WWAY • $1.7 B
13. PDL BioPharma, Inc. • NasdaqGS:PDLI • $1.4 B
14. Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Inc. • $1.2 B
15. Landec Corp. • NasdaqGS:LNDC • $0.3 B
16. Insight Health Services Holdings Corp. • OTCBB:ISGT.Q • $0.3 B
17. Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. • NasdaqGM:ARIA • $0.3 B
18. NeoPhotonics Corporation • $0.2 B
19. BMP Sunstone Corporation • NasdaqGM:BJGP • $0.2 B
20. Merchant Investors Assurance Co Ltd. • $0.2 B
To register or to review to see a partial list of attendees go to http://the-global-leader.eventbrite.com/ or contact Jayme Porkolab at jayme.porkolab@tgleaders.com for more information.
Don't Forget to Register for San Francisco Networking Event
Who is Attending and Why You Should Register. Chief Executive Officers, Chairmen & Chairwomen, Chief Financial Officers, Managing Partners, Board Members and Presidents of some of the leading companies including bio-tech and investment firms. Current attendees lead over 50 companies and manage in excess of $2 Billion in investment funds. The networking reception provides the perfect setting for you to meet your global peers and discuss future business needs and opportunities in a relaxed environment.
The list of attendees is growing and a limited number of spaces remain before we will need a larger room; triggering a price increase. Act by December 15th to avoid the price increase and enjoy an evening with The Global Leaders at the historic Marines' Memorial Club near Union Square. Mingle, relax and enjoy an evening of cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and thought provoking conversation. This is TGL's first event of 2011 and the first time we have hosted an event on The West Coast. Even if you are not a member of The Global Leaders, you are invited to come and bring your friends.
Evening activities will include two special guest speakers including George Bickerstaff, Managing Director, CRT Investment Banking LLC, and Co-Founder of The Global Leaders Holdings LLC, who will give a short presentation on "What We Can Expect in 2011; a Look at the Capital Markets" and the introduction of three outstanding young "Future Global Leaders" from the greater San Francisco Area who are being recognized for their innovation, leadership and service to community.
See you in San Francisco!
Evening activities will include two special guest speakers including George Bickerstaff, Managing Director, CRT Investment Banking LLC, and Co-Founder of The Global Leaders Holdings LLC, who will give a short presentation on "What We Can Expect in 2011; a Look at the Capital Markets" and the introduction of three outstanding young "Future Global Leaders" from the greater San Francisco Area who are being recognized for their innovation, leadership and service to community.
See you in San Francisco!
Interested in Sponsoring Tungsten Open Source Features?
Over the last few months I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of people using open source builds of Tungsten. My company, Continuent, has therefore started to offer support for open source users and will likely expand these services to meet demand.
There have also been a number of requests to add specific features to open source builds, especially for replication. We have added a few already but are now considering pushing even more features into open source if we can find sponsors. These add to a number of great features already in open source like global transaction IDs, MySQL 5.0/5.1, basic drizzle replication, transaction filtering, and many others.
Do you have special replication or clustering features you would like to see added to Tungsten? Specialized MySQL to PostgreSQL replication? Management and monitoring commands? Cool parallel replication problems? High-performance logging? Weird multi-master topologies? Talk to us about sponsoring new open source features. We're happy to do projects that solve interesting problems, benefit the open source databases community, and help grow Tungsten as a product.
Visit the Continuent website or send email directly to robert dot hodges at continuent dot com.
There have also been a number of requests to add specific features to open source builds, especially for replication. We have added a few already but are now considering pushing even more features into open source if we can find sponsors. These add to a number of great features already in open source like global transaction IDs, MySQL 5.0/5.1, basic drizzle replication, transaction filtering, and many others.
Do you have special replication or clustering features you would like to see added to Tungsten? Specialized MySQL to PostgreSQL replication? Management and monitoring commands? Cool parallel replication problems? High-performance logging? Weird multi-master topologies? Talk to us about sponsoring new open source features. We're happy to do projects that solve interesting problems, benefit the open source databases community, and help grow Tungsten as a product.
Visit the Continuent website or send email directly to robert dot hodges at continuent dot com.
Creative Collaboration: the Art of Following
If you listen to any great collaborators--take, for example, your favorite sports announcing duo--they demonstrate a form of cooperation that is quite rare among adults in most discussions. They are speaking with, not against, each other, in a verbal dance of give-and-take, knowing how and when to follow and build on what their collaborator has offered, and how and when to drive the conversation forward themselves. Following, Building and Driving--these are the skills of creative collaboration most important to learn.
Our ability to collaborate is crucial for innovation and for moving forward in what we want to do in the world. "We hear about collaboration and how important it is in all we do," a Panasonic business development manager told me before a two-day innovation program I led last week in New Jersey. "But the truth is we have so little time and so much is virtual that collaboration seems more like a wish than a reality." The time-limited nature of all our interactions means that when we do talk with collaborators, live or on the phone, we need to do so with skill and purpose. Instead of our typical way of interacting--I report, you report, she reports, meeting over; or you suggest an idea and I tell you eloquently what's wrong with it--we need to learn the art well known to improvisors: To fully support your collaborators' ideas, no matter how wacky they might seem. The key is to consciously shift to following.
We practiced this distinction at the Big Ooga networking event I facilitated Tuesday night. Instead of half-listening to someone else, waiting to interrupt with the agenda/conversation you want, let this be the time that your partner drives and you follow. To follow means that your job is to hear what the other is saying and to follow their course of conversation instead of stopping it or redirecting it. Following is often difficult because we are so invested in showing that we are smart, right, good at judging and fond of protecting ourselves. Someone might suggest: Hey, we could try this or we could create that... and many of us are likely to respond, Yeah, but here's why it won't work or what's wrong with the idea. As adults--particularly during work hours--we are particularly good at the "but"s. Men in particular never learned how to follow on the dance floor so the whole idea of waiting for and following the steps of another can be quite foreign.
Like an improvisor who sees her partner throw an imaginary ball and therefore puts up her arm to catch it, we follow by suspending judgment and fully accepting an offered idea as true, brilliant and full of possibility (regardless of what our "Yes, but," judging mind believes). Then we say, "Yes, And..." to the idea, building on rather than blocking or challenging what was offered. We use our imagination to heighten and bring to life the suggestion driven by the other person. Later, in a good collaboration, it will be our turn to drive and our partner's to follow and build on our idea. This give and take, where we support and expand what our collaborators suggest, and they do the same, sparks everyone's creativity, airs more possibilities and makes for more fruitful collaboration and brainstorming.
We get somewhere new together faster and also make our collaborators much happier when we spend time following--practice it and you'll see.
Our ability to collaborate is crucial for innovation and for moving forward in what we want to do in the world. "We hear about collaboration and how important it is in all we do," a Panasonic business development manager told me before a two-day innovation program I led last week in New Jersey. "But the truth is we have so little time and so much is virtual that collaboration seems more like a wish than a reality." The time-limited nature of all our interactions means that when we do talk with collaborators, live or on the phone, we need to do so with skill and purpose. Instead of our typical way of interacting--I report, you report, she reports, meeting over; or you suggest an idea and I tell you eloquently what's wrong with it--we need to learn the art well known to improvisors: To fully support your collaborators' ideas, no matter how wacky they might seem. The key is to consciously shift to following. We practiced this distinction at the Big Ooga networking event I facilitated Tuesday night. Instead of half-listening to someone else, waiting to interrupt with the agenda/conversation you want, let this be the time that your partner drives and you follow. To follow means that your job is to hear what the other is saying and to follow their course of conversation instead of stopping it or redirecting it. Following is often difficult because we are so invested in showing that we are smart, right, good at judging and fond of protecting ourselves. Someone might suggest: Hey, we could try this or we could create that... and many of us are likely to respond, Yeah, but here's why it won't work or what's wrong with the idea. As adults--particularly during work hours--we are particularly good at the "but"s. Men in particular never learned how to follow on the dance floor so the whole idea of waiting for and following the steps of another can be quite foreign.
Like an improvisor who sees her partner throw an imaginary ball and therefore puts up her arm to catch it, we follow by suspending judgment and fully accepting an offered idea as true, brilliant and full of possibility (regardless of what our "Yes, but," judging mind believes). Then we say, "Yes, And..." to the idea, building on rather than blocking or challenging what was offered. We use our imagination to heighten and bring to life the suggestion driven by the other person. Later, in a good collaboration, it will be our turn to drive and our partner's to follow and build on our idea. This give and take, where we support and expand what our collaborators suggest, and they do the same, sparks everyone's creativity, airs more possibilities and makes for more fruitful collaboration and brainstorming.
We get somewhere new together faster and also make our collaborators much happier when we spend time following--practice it and you'll see.
The Cloud & Its Impact!
Was on a long flight to Asia, when conversation with the co-passenger began to get centered around cloud computing and what could be its impact that an educated executive ought to know. I have seen the various definitions of cloud computing that include elements of the varied description of the term, yet they typically do not address every single aspect that is associated with cloud computing. The definitions vary from being seen as IT as a service independent of location by IT resources to massive scalable IT capabilities provided as service across the internet to multiple customers to infrastructure hosting of customer applications and billed by consumption.
My intent here is not to add confusion with yet another attempt at fine tuning the various definitions that are currently available. Each and every thought strand provides a good job at giving an idea of what is involved. Nothing of importance suggests to me that there is any particular value in having an authentic/authoritative/cardinal definition. The attributes provide a more meaningful way to provide a near close authentic touch : off premise, elasticity, pay-as-you go billing, virtualization, service delivery, universal access, centralized and distributed management, multi- tenancy etc.
For me, the way I see it, the innovation of the internet from a technical perspective lies in identifying the confluence of several technical trends , look forward and visualizing how these can combine with improving cost factors, a changing environment and evolving societal needs can combine to create a virtuous cycle that generate an ever increasing economies of scale and benefits from network effects. Look carefully. One can see that cloud computing is similar in nature while admittedly its difficult to isolate a single grain of technology strand triggering the cloud’s advent and progress. A number of incremental improvements in various areas ( notable among those fine grained metering, flexible billing, virtualization, broadband, SOA, service management) have all come together recently. Combined together they enable new business models that can dramatically affect cost and cash flow patterns and are therefore of direct great interest to the business . In the backdrop of economic changes affecting the business environment and a investment overhang of IT , cloud and the opportunities it presents look very significant to business.
If we examine further, the combined effect has reached a critical threshold by achieving sufficient scale to dramatically reduce prices, thus leading to a virtuous cycle of benefits (cost reduction for customers, profits for providers), exponential growth and ramifications that may reverberate across many of our lives, including technology, business, economic, social & political dimensions. As cloud computing establishes itself as primarily a service delivery channel, its likely to have a significant impact on the IT industry ( by maximizing service interconnectivity), by stimulating requirements that support it.
The Capex Vs Opex discussion is well known and I won’t repeat it here but would like to point out that the reduction in fixed costs also allows the company to become much more agile and aggressive in pursuing new revenue streams. Since resources can be elastically scaled up and down they can take advantage of unanticipated high demand but without being burdened with the excess costs when the market softens. The outsourcing of IT infrastructure reduces the responsibilities and help organizations focus in the area of delivering true value of IT. The shift can help IT to focus from Plan-Build-Run onto Source-Integrate- Manage mode of functioning.
Another form of business impact may be that the high level of service standardization that cloud computing brings may blur the traditional market segmentation. The conventional distinction that separates small and medium businesses from enterprises, based on their levels of customization & requirement for sales and service support may fade in favour of richer set of options & combinations of service offerings. Let’s zoom out and come back. In some ways, cloud computing is only a small part of a much larger trend that is taking over the business world. The transition to services centered economy is gaining momentum over the decades - the critical constraint had been on collaboration - if we do a root cause analysis we can find that the constraint is rooted on trans- enterprise barriers and a cohesive well geared technical infrastructure.
The difficulty rests on the fact that unlike in a tangible product, it is very difficult for one to break services into its elemental components that come together to provide a seamless efficient service. The transaction costs that are associated with identification, contracting, monitoring and collection were far too high to justify bringing different entities together. A s we progress towards an ecosystem where everything –as-a-service becomes a defined norm, the gamut expands to include a lot of business as well. From Human resources management to finance to logistics to manufacturing all can be potentially handled by a strategic partner. And cloud here can play a critical enabling role of providing an infrastructure that acts as a critical component of this transformation.
Regardless of whether a company seeks to adopt cloud computing, the technology may have a significant impact on the competitive landscape of many industries. Some enterprises may be forced to look at cloud computing simple keep pace with external efficiencies in their ecosystem. And for some, it could be the case that their core business is being eroded by the arrival of newer agile competitors. As a result, I think that it very likely that there will be a market shift as some companies leverage the benefits of cloud computing better than others. These may trigger a reshuffling of the competitive landscape, an event that may harbor high risks and huge opportunities. More on this theme later
Search for Talented Young Leaders in San Francisco Bay Area
The Global Leaders is accepting nominations for their “Future Global Leader” award and asking area San Francisco executives & educators to identify potential candidates.
The Global Leaders is hosting a special networking reception for senior level executives on January 13th at the historic Marines’ Memorial Club. In attendance will be CEOs, Partners and Managing Directors from leading Biotech, Pharmaceutical, Private Investment Banking and Technology companies. The evening’s activities will include guest speakers and introduction of three young leaders, recipients of the “Future Global Leader” award.
This award is given as recognition to young leaders who have made an impact thru innovation, leadership and service to community. “Our members recognize that with leadership comes responsibility, particularly a responsibility to mentor and develop tomorrow’s leaders”, stated Jim Gitney, CEO and Co-Founder of TGL. “As we conduct our meetings around the globe, we take advantage of the fact that we have gathered some of the greatest business minds and influential leaders; we are able to not only recognize young leaders for their contributions, but we can also introduce and have them speak one-on-one with seasoned leaders from all industries”.
The organization is asking their members, attendees and area executives & educators to identify potential candidates and have them submit a nomination form which is available at Future Global Leader Nominations . Final selections will be made the 1st week of January.
If you are interested in attending the networking reception, you can register at SFO Networking Reception. For more information or if you are interested in sponsorship, please contact Jayme Porkolab.
Listening to the Women
“The only difference between a creative person and an uncreative person is that a creative person takes her ideas seriously.” ~Mary Zimmerman
“We all have many hidden gifts within our own being, and they are all too frequently drowned in the negative and materialistic struggles on which we spend so much of our precious energy. Once we are able to get rid of our fears, once we have the courage to change from negative rebellion to positive noncomformist, once we have the faith in our own abilities to rise above fear, shame, guilt, and negativity—we emerge as much more creative and much freer souls.” ~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares to other expressions. It is your business…to keep the channel open.” ~Martha Graham
“If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and without soul, life ceases to have meaning.... The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the soul. And creativity is what makes life worth living.” ~Marion Woodman
“Remember that in order to recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.” ~Julia Cameron
“The ‘creator’ and the ‘editor’—two halves of the writer whole—should sleep in separate rooms.” ~Judith Guest
“It takes guts, ardor, and faith to cobble a new path from emerging insights instead of simply defending the person-I-already-am on the path already known.” ~Shoshana Luboff
“We all have many hidden gifts within our own being, and they are all too frequently drowned in the negative and materialistic struggles on which we spend so much of our precious energy. Once we are able to get rid of our fears, once we have the courage to change from negative rebellion to positive noncomformist, once we have the faith in our own abilities to rise above fear, shame, guilt, and negativity—we emerge as much more creative and much freer souls.” ~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares to other expressions. It is your business…to keep the channel open.” ~Martha Graham
“If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and without soul, life ceases to have meaning.... The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the soul. And creativity is what makes life worth living.” ~Marion Woodman
“Remember that in order to recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.” ~Julia Cameron
“The ‘creator’ and the ‘editor’—two halves of the writer whole—should sleep in separate rooms.” ~Judith Guest
“It takes guts, ardor, and faith to cobble a new path from emerging insights instead of simply defending the person-I-already-am on the path already known.” ~Shoshana Luboff
Does Your Business Have a Networking Strategy?
Written by Jim Gitney, CEO Group50 Consulting
Every leadership team is asking questions about their networking strategies for 2011 and beyond. They wonder how Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Buzz and others can be utilized for business development purposes. As we have worked on The Global Leaders, we have spoken with hundreds of companies, and have found a wide disparity between their efforts and the type of business they are in. Although not a formal study, our general findings are as follows:
- Media companies have the highest level of networking activity for sales and brand building. They should, given their business model.
- Retailers are next as they utilize networking activities as a compliment to their bricks and mortar business locations.
- Manufacturing companies have spotty usage of networks for building brand awareness and taking advantage of their long tail.
- Service providers utilize networks the least because they often don’t believe it will provide them with a significant advantage.
As we looked further, we found that the utilization of networks for business development is closely aligned with utilization of traditional advertising media. Companies who have significant advertising activities [and budgets] have the most clarity around what these new networks can provide for them. They recognize the need to continuously touch their current and potential customers with communications focused on maintaining existing relationships and building new ones. The age old rule of thumb is that you need to touch someone 7 times to build awareness of your company and its product offerings.
Advertising has been the principal method utilized by businesses, but as the number of advertising venues has exploded in recent years, we, as consumers have learned to tune these out, fast forward through them, or just ignore them all together. Banner ads on the internet are a classic example. In recent years, consumers [personal and professional] have become savvy. Although not a majority of consumers follow these steps, they soon will. They
- Go online
- Find the product or service that best fits their needs
- Shop for the best price4.
- Then decide to buy it online or at a bricks and mortar location. In the case of service providers, they call the one with the best location and expertise.
Media companies and retailers get it, so what is in it for manufacturers and service providers? There are several examples that are noteworthy. Recently, in a company that we did work for, we noticed that they had over 3,500 stock keeping units in their product offerings. About 700 made up 80% of the sales. 20% of their sales were made up of the other 2,800 units [their long tail] and were randomly stocked by distributors around the nation. The cost of keeping these units in stock was very high. The company was faced with the issue of consumers [in this case plumbers and home owners] wanting their product, but not being able to have it in stock when needed. So we embarked on a program to create a website that offered all of their products at list price, with the appropriate networking activities to spread the word. We found a website developer who was willing to put the site up and become the company’s web representative with a generous commission and realized an ROI of less than 10 months. There were a large number of customers who were not aware of the company’s full product offering and the myriad of new products the company was launching. The company was able to use this new resource for introducing new products, developing a large following and routinely sold products as list price plus shipping.
Service providers [legal firms, consultants, wealth managers, accounting firms, etc.] have a similar opportunity. They have a product to sell and usually get the majority of their business from the services they are most known for. In those companies, they too have a long tail and have difficulty getting the word out. Service providers get business because of their expertise. If you look at the large consulting and accounting firms, they are using networks extensively. They showcase their expertise on their websites and in their blogs. They routinely touch their contacts and gain new ones. Through the use of these methods, The Global Leaders has grown to over 300,000 high level professionals worldwide. Members of The Global Leaders have taken advantage of expertise, networking, events and deals with relatively little cost. They have been able to find resources they weren’t aware of and were able to expand their business or solve problems through this network.
These are just two example of how companies can make networks work for business development.
About Group50 Consulting: Established in 2003, Group50 Consulting provides manufacturers and distributors with resources focused on speed, quality, cost, productivity and growth. Group50 has advised several companies on the utilization of business networks for business development. To find out more about our services, write info@group50.com, visit our website at www.group50.com, or call (909) 949-9083.
Videos that make your creative brain say "Ahh"
You may have been introduced to RSA Animate videos during the past couple years. They are extraordinary video drawings--known by some as graphic facilitation--of provocative talks hosted by the RSA, a 250-year-old British think-tank-of-sorts (see more below).
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving with these animated videos for two of my favorite speakers on creativity:
1. Sir Ken Robinson speaking on education. No one captures the need for teaching creativity and changing our worldwide education system like Robinson. (If you are reading this on Facebook or from an email, click here to go directly to my blog to see the videos or here for YouTube.)
2. Dan Pink speaking on motivation, based on his most recent book, Drive. Intrinsic motivation is key for our own creativity, and the principles for increased motivation and increased creativity are quite similar. (If you are reading this on Facebook or from an email, click here to go directly to my blog for the videos or here for YouTube.)
From the RSA website: "For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action."
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving with these animated videos for two of my favorite speakers on creativity:
1. Sir Ken Robinson speaking on education. No one captures the need for teaching creativity and changing our worldwide education system like Robinson. (If you are reading this on Facebook or from an email, click here to go directly to my blog to see the videos or here for YouTube.)
2. Dan Pink speaking on motivation, based on his most recent book, Drive. Intrinsic motivation is key for our own creativity, and the principles for increased motivation and increased creativity are quite similar. (If you are reading this on Facebook or from an email, click here to go directly to my blog for the videos or here for YouTube.)
From the RSA website: "For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action."
Making Time for Think Time and Passion Time, even at Work
"There is never a day we come in and there are only a few things we need to do," explains an Obama staffer in Newsweek's current cover story about how overwhelming presidential responsibilities have become. The story makes clear that, for the President and people working with him, there is not enough "bandwidth," not enough "time to catch your breath" during the day. "Lincoln had time to think," explains one history professor. "That kind of downtime just doesn't exist any more."
But for creativity to thrive in our lives--and for innovation to reign in any organization--we need that think time and downtime, that free time and play time, even at work. More than ever at work.
"We need to reinvent free time," writes Nancy Gibbs, in her excellent essay about invention for Time Magazine this week. Read it here. In the same issue, Time features the Best Inventions of 2010, celebrating the latest innovations of the year, ranging from jetpacks to spray-on hair, highlighting the very technological breakthroughs that require the time, experimentation and play that are too often in short supply. "One thing technology can't give us," writes Gibbs, "is time for serendipitous discovery." Here's more from Gibbs:
Many of us are too busy keeping up to pause for tinkering, conceiving, concocting or devising. Technology, that bullying child of progress and prosperity, gives us ever finer tools of invention even as it denies us the time to use them. We are so wired, so networked and so well equipped that one person now does the job five people used to, thus hoisting productivity while precluding creativity.
It seems we're on the verge of getting our jet packs--but no one has yet managed the time machine. Or better yet, the time expander. So we've got to play tricks on ourselves: schedule free time, however counterintuitive that may seem. Deep immersion in a task--no distractions, no interruptions--can give the illusion that time itself is receding. We feel lighter, braver, our brains more nimble; we free ourselves to try and fail and try again. I've always envied the Google engineers their "20% time": the one day a week they are told to allocate to a kind of intellectual R&D, working on projects that aren't part of their normal job description. This speaks to one of the ironies of innovation: too much freedom makes it harder, too little makes it impossible. But if we were ordered by our bosses to spend even one hour a week brainstorming, blue-skying, free-associating, I imagine the rest of the week would become more creative as well.
Dan Pink, the ever-insightful author who just spoke at the Creativity World Forum in Oklahoma last week, tackles the issue of play in this wide-ranging Blogtalkradio segment. Having time to play, to do things for their own sake on your own time, he says (start interview at 10:58), is essential both to human motivation and to creativity itself. "People are creative in situations where they have freedom and autonomy to explore," he explains, referring to Google's "20% Time," where unofficial projects became highly profitable innovations such as GoogleNews and Gmail. This is what I call "Passion Time," where employees are empowered to pursue passions during the workday along side their other work. Pink refers to this as a "form of recess from work," like a "Spring break," which is how he describes Twitter's recent "Hack Week," which allowed employees to work on whatever they wanted. He tells the story of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics invention of graphene, which came outside of regular work time research during "Friday night experiments," which was more of a play time.
As Pink explains, this idea of more autonomy, having the "passion time" to pursue creative ideas at work, is an "idea that is really spreading." Think Time, Free Time, Play time or Recess--whatever you want to call it--is becoming more common in the most innovative organizations, where leaders know their most creative resource comes from the unique brains and passions of their employees.
In these days of overload, we now need to be proactive about how we spend our time, actually scheduling it into our days. So give yourself--and/or your employees and collaborators--the gift of time set aside just to think, scheme, tinker and play. Give it a name, put it on your to-do list and see what happens.
Sound familiar? We are all our own president today--each of us the President of what every 21st century career counselor will refer to as the Brand called You--more than ever stretching our personal bandwidth to meet unceasing demands to get it all done. Time to think or downtime at work have become luxuries for most, and even much of what many of us consider free time is spent just trying to keep current: Checking our email, catching up with Facebook, gulping down some news, reading a blog like this (p.s. Thanks).
But for creativity to thrive in our lives--and for innovation to reign in any organization--we need that think time and downtime, that free time and play time, even at work. More than ever at work."We need to reinvent free time," writes Nancy Gibbs, in her excellent essay about invention for Time Magazine this week. Read it here. In the same issue, Time features the Best Inventions of 2010, celebrating the latest innovations of the year, ranging from jetpacks to spray-on hair, highlighting the very technological breakthroughs that require the time, experimentation and play that are too often in short supply. "One thing technology can't give us," writes Gibbs, "is time for serendipitous discovery." Here's more from Gibbs:
Many of us are too busy keeping up to pause for tinkering, conceiving, concocting or devising. Technology, that bullying child of progress and prosperity, gives us ever finer tools of invention even as it denies us the time to use them. We are so wired, so networked and so well equipped that one person now does the job five people used to, thus hoisting productivity while precluding creativity.
It seems we're on the verge of getting our jet packs--but no one has yet managed the time machine. Or better yet, the time expander. So we've got to play tricks on ourselves: schedule free time, however counterintuitive that may seem. Deep immersion in a task--no distractions, no interruptions--can give the illusion that time itself is receding. We feel lighter, braver, our brains more nimble; we free ourselves to try and fail and try again. I've always envied the Google engineers their "20% time": the one day a week they are told to allocate to a kind of intellectual R&D, working on projects that aren't part of their normal job description. This speaks to one of the ironies of innovation: too much freedom makes it harder, too little makes it impossible. But if we were ordered by our bosses to spend even one hour a week brainstorming, blue-skying, free-associating, I imagine the rest of the week would become more creative as well.
Dan Pink, the ever-insightful author who just spoke at the Creativity World Forum in Oklahoma last week, tackles the issue of play in this wide-ranging Blogtalkradio segment. Having time to play, to do things for their own sake on your own time, he says (start interview at 10:58), is essential both to human motivation and to creativity itself. "People are creative in situations where they have freedom and autonomy to explore," he explains, referring to Google's "20% Time," where unofficial projects became highly profitable innovations such as GoogleNews and Gmail. This is what I call "Passion Time," where employees are empowered to pursue passions during the workday along side their other work. Pink refers to this as a "form of recess from work," like a "Spring break," which is how he describes Twitter's recent "Hack Week," which allowed employees to work on whatever they wanted. He tells the story of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics invention of graphene, which came outside of regular work time research during "Friday night experiments," which was more of a play time.As Pink explains, this idea of more autonomy, having the "passion time" to pursue creative ideas at work, is an "idea that is really spreading." Think Time, Free Time, Play time or Recess--whatever you want to call it--is becoming more common in the most innovative organizations, where leaders know their most creative resource comes from the unique brains and passions of their employees.
In these days of overload, we now need to be proactive about how we spend our time, actually scheduling it into our days. So give yourself--and/or your employees and collaborators--the gift of time set aside just to think, scheme, tinker and play. Give it a name, put it on your to-do list and see what happens.
The Cloud Economics : Emerging Signals
Over the weekend, I finished reading the recently released Microsoft paper on the “Economics of the cloud”. As I head to Denver today for participating in the defrag panel on the impact of cloud computing in the enterprise irregulars track, I just wanted to share some thoughts on the theme which I want to discuss while at the conference both on and off the stage.
The Microsoft paper starts by connecting the dots between technology, economics, and disruption:
Economics are a powerful force in shaping industry transformations. Today‘s discussions on the cloud focus a great deal on technical complexities and adoption hurdles. While we acknowledge that such concerns exist and are important, historically, underlying economics have a much stronger impact on the direction and speed of disruptions, as technological challenges are resolved or overcome through the rapid innovation we‘ve grown accustomed to….
The pressures on IT & the engulfing sense of change in the IT landscape are hard to overlook. The pressures would mean more business begin to seriously look at SaaS, re-negotiating license terms, focusing on rapid adoption of virtualization etc. As part of this and beyond, internal IT would be forced more and more to show more bang for the buck and it is my view that organizations would begin to look more and more to question committed costs and begin to aggressively look at attacking them more systematically – earlier sporadic efforts marked their endeavors. This could also unlock additional resources that could potentially go towards funding new initiatives. There are enough number of enterprises going this route and their service partners are also in some cases prodding them to go this way.The emergence of cloud services is again fundamentally shifting the economics of IT. Cloud technology standardizes and pools IT resources and automates many of the maintenance tasks done manually today. Cloud architectures facilitate elastic consumption, self-service, and pay-as-you-go pricing.
The paper starts by highlighting that the basis for the economic advantage in the cloudosphere is the economy of scale available to cloud computing data centers. The paper identifies three areas of scale advantage:
1. Supply-side savings: Owing to scale, Cloud data centers have lower costs per server.
2. Demand-side aggregation: By aggregation, cloud can support an intermix of tenants and therefore directly contributing to higher server utilization rates ( this would be definitely higher than what can be achieved with single-tenant data centers).
3. Multi-tenancy efficiency: Hosting multiple tenants brings administrative cost overheads, and lowers server cost per tenant and by extension cost per data center user goes down.
On the demand side of things, the story is complementary and drives similar conclusions. By aggregating volume of compute usage, cloud service providers enable users to smooth out peaks and valleys. The contention here is that by pumping up large server volumes, corresponding increase in utilization can be achieved and this has the effect of reducing operational costs. Now extend this scenario : cloud service providers can potentially run a number of data centers while administratively support them through centralized NOCs, with the results the costs can get further spread across.
The paper notes,"public clouds are in a relatively early stage of development, so naturally critical areas like reliability and security will continue to improve. Data already suggests that public cloud email is more reliable than most on-premises implementations". In concluding the section on economies of scale, the white paper goes on to state that economies of scale are so significant that the TCO calculated server wise of a 100K server data center is 80% lower than that of a 1K server data center. While there are legitimate opportunities for a set of customers to pursue private cloud in certain periods of time in their cloud journey, strong indicators suggest that over time the cloud efforts would begin to coalesce around the public cloud given significant computing economic advantages – these need to be to be recognized, and in the process of this journey, vital concerns regarding security and reliability will get addressed (gradually melt away) thus feeding the momentum into the public cloud journey.
Clearly economics will begin to weigh its hand if the cost advantage of public cloud over the private ones are of the order of 10X as the paper seems to suggest . The paper also suggests that any SMB would be crazy to factor on-premise or private cloud into their future strategy when these options are going to cost up to 40x more than public cloud alternatives. I would love to see the complete data points on which the benefits have been quantified and inferences drawn - this will be very useful in advancing the body of knowledge and state of practice of cloud adoption inside enterprises. Lets examine from an organization standpoint : As I wrote earlier, setting up private cloud is a motherhood statement at best( in many organizational surveys, one can find setting private clouds is not in the CIO’s top three priorities – if anything virtualization finds a place-) to make this happen in a credible way means re-examining most parts of IT functioning and business –IT relationship inside enterprises. IT teams while conceptualizing private clouds are happy to retain existing architectural designs, happily propose a clasical DMZ/Perimeterized model for providing security and enabling access, too often leveraging a highly virtualized infrastructure. More often than not, it’s enabling virtualization, automation and self service and color it as private cloud. Do recognize the implicit differences in constructing a private cloud and a public cloud. Comfort with the status quo with some adjustments versus an opportunity to rethink architecture, security, privacy,compliance needs in a way summarizes the nature of thought process and expected results between the private and public clouds. Speaking more directly, public clouds present the opportunity for enterprises to review and achieve specific requirements in the areas like agility, flexibility and efficiency at optimal effort Versus a skewed , boxed implementation of private cloud setup. Taking advantage of the public cloud benefits would far outweigh the advantages of getting boxed inside with private clouds.
Most elements of the bedrock gets affected – the processes, culture, metrics, performance, funding, service levels etc. Well thought out frameworks, roadmaps need to be put in place to make this transition successful. These frameworks need to cater not only to setting up internal cloud but eventually help in embracing the public cloud over the years- not an easy task as it appears. A few of those organizations that master this transition may also look at making business out of these – so it’s a journey – that needs to be travelled onto embracing public clouds. Some business may take a staged approach and call it by private cloud, internal cloud or whatever but eventually the road may lead into public clouds!
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