Monthly Archives: October 2008

Cloud Computing – A Key Aspect of Next Generation IT


I loved this quote by George Gilder in Forbes.com’s Coming Creativity Boom, Referring to Cloud Computing, Gilder states, “The rule for the new architecture is that hardware softens on the edge and software hardens at the core.” For those who have tracked my uses of the terms “core” and “edge” in this blog over the last year, you will recognize why this quote so resonated with me.  For those that are not familiar with my use of those terms, please check out here and here, for examples.

I’ve referred to Cloud Computing a few times in this blog (who hasn’t), mostly in a tone that has been “pro” this important trend.  Lately, however, I’ve seen more negative commentary – more disbelievers and naysayers highlighting the reasons why Cloud Computing is not for all, or why it’s dangerous, or over-hyped, and so on.  Yes, the cautions are appropriate – like any paradigm shift, the technologies behind Cloud Computing are immature, our enterprise infrastructures for working in this new paradigm lag the new arhcutectures, and there are real and valid concerns about security, reliability, and serviceability.

However, I’m frankly puzzled that in October 2008, there is as much naysaying as there is!  From my perspective as one that has studied trends and patterns in enterprise computing for some 40 years, several truths seem to me, to coin a term, to be “self-evident.”  These include:

  1. In many respects, we’ve used Cloud Computing principles before – quite successfully.  In the 1960′s and 1970′s, service bureaus were an important part of the enterprise computing scene, especially as they evolved beyond overnight batch computing to the provisioning of on-line computer terminals.  These often supported innovative and extremely powerful forms of end user computing (what some of us refer to nowadays as “edge computing”) such as complex modeling and simulation, and data analytics.  In fact, many of these tasks could only be done through remote service bureaus – they had the computing power and the sophisticated software that the typical enterprise IT set up did not.
  2. Many of the services to which users need access – processing cycles, data storage – truly are commodities.  When communication bandwidth was limited and/or was expensive, we needed those processing cycles and data storage to be as physically close to the user as possible.  Today, as we approach 10 gigabits and more as the lower threshold in many parts of the world, this computing power can be anywhere – just as long as we have ubiquitous access to high bandwidth.  Yes, I know we are not there yet, but the rapid growth in high bandwidth telecommunications is a reality, and shows no sign of slowing down.  For the skeptics, you might dig into Gilder’s Law and how that is playing out in reality.
  3. Energy costs and climate change are impacting decisions about where to place data centers.  Compounding these issues is the need to make IT costs more elastic – to be able to react on demand to both increases and decreases in compute power.  Cloud computing satisfies this increasingly valuable requirement.
  4. We can do things in the Cloud that cannot easily be done in the enterprise computing environment.  Just as all those teletypes and green screens hooked up to service bureaus gave us access to powerful modeling languages such as APL, analytics software such as SAS and SPSS, and to the so-called Fourth Generation Languages like Focus and Nomad, so too will Cloud Computing give us access to capabilities for business innovation, and for participating in communities in ways that cannot be achieved within the enterprise firewalls.
  5. The Cloud is inherently collaborative and integrating.  The standards that make Cloud Computing feasible, also make it easy to “mash up” new capabilities, and to incorporate a geographically and thematically dispersed communities (customers, suppliers, interest groups, and so on).  By contrast, the vast majority of enterprise computing that has been developed over the last 20 years or so is inflexible, non-integrated and difficult or frequently impossible for users who were not part of the original design intent, or who are outside of the enterprise firewalls, to take advantage of.
  6. In a nod to the economic climate, I believe Cloud Computing is more cost effective – certainly, delivers a more flexible and palatable pricing model – one that is inherently value-based (pay “by the drink.)

My recommendation to IT leaders is this – stop reading about and worrying about all the reasons Cloud Computing might not work for you, and start identifying situations where it could work – and where it might in fact give you a business edge.  OK, to be realistic, do continue reading what the smarter and independent analysts are saying about pros and cons – you have to be educated on this rapidly evolving field, but my point is, find ways to make this work where it makes sense.  Experiment – one of the attributes of Cloud Computing is the ease with which you can get into it and play.  Don’t think in terms of a wholesale switch – you don’t need that, and it probably does not make sense for most of us today.  (Though if I were counseling a start-up, I’d think seriously about leveraging the Cloud to the full!)  Again, think of the “edgy” things you’d like to do for or with your business partners, and approach those as your learning opportunities for this new architecture.

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From Penny Farthings to Cadillacs – More Notes From the UK


Continuing my reflections on our recent return to the UK for a 2-week vacation.  To recap, my wife and I were born in the UK, moving to the US 30 years ago (originally for a 1-year tour of duty!) and my mother-in-law moving to the US about 20 years ago.  I’ve got back to the UK frequently over the years, but through business travel.  This was the first time in quite a while to see the country up close and stay with “real Brits” (friends and relatives) all over England, as well as in some fine old country inns and one West End London hotel. (For earlier posts on this, see here and here .)

So, what else did we find?

  • People still ride Penny-Farthing bicycles out in the countryside!  Just kidding – but I did have a delightful cream tea in a cafe in Knutsford, Cheshire, that had a magnificent collection of these strange machines!
  • People are generally much more environmentally aware than in the US.  For example, they mostly use cloth bags for groceries – taking them with on trips to the stores just the way I recall my mother doing all those years ago!  My very good university friend Bob Bailey (a partner in environmental consulting firm Quantum Strategy & Technology) told me about several innovative government programs that are helping with climate and sustainability, and are driving some worthy small-business innovations.  Behaviors such as trash disposal in landfills are heavily taxed, incenting people to me more creative in how they design, use and dispose of stuff.  Similarly, local incentives are increasing bicycle ridership (no, not the penny-farthing style) and helping both the environment and health care!
  • Britain has inevitably become even more Americanized than when I was living in the US.  Like in the US, television programming appears to be mostly puerile rubbish – a similar “all about me” TV syndrome.
  • Ubiquity of Fast Food and ‘all you can eat’ restaurants has led to a burgeoning obesity problem – something that was not seen until the last 15 or 20 years.  The good news is that the food across the UK is mostly really good, and often excellent.  The bad news is the gargantuan portions and the toll those are taking on waistlines!
  • Apparently, there’s a lot of crime, but knives seem to be the weapon of choice given the lack of availability of handguns.  We saw a large metal container in a suburban high street, labeled “Bin-a-knife” – a repository with amnesty for people to dump their knives.
  • Just about everyone we spoke to in the UK is ecstatic about the upcoming exit of George Bush! However, they would like Gordon Brown to accompany him into obscurity (The two GBs!)

Social Networking in a Downturn…


My esteemed colleague Susan Scrupski had a great post the other day entitled “The trouble with social media is, well, people” where she captured something quite important.  It has always been clear that social networking can be both a positive and negative force – but Susan nicely connected the potential and impact of social media to global mindsets, and how our attitudes to social networking (and ways to use it) might shift in a recession.

As Susan says, “Social media was great when it ran on positive mental attitude and a go-go economy, but now that people (the stuff networks are made of) are acting like humans, well, harrumph, it’s time to re-examine this social media phenomenon, eh?”

My take on this is that ultimately, you have to believe that increased transparency is positive – though there will be a period while companies and individuals adjust to the facts that:

  • Anyone can say just about anything – whether you like it or not!
  • Anything you do say (or is said about you), anywhere on the web, might come back to haunt you!
  • Expect a free flowing and open dialog – now how are you going to (a) live with it, and (b) take advantage of it?

A Tale of 2 CIO’s: Proactive Innovator vs. Reactive Operator


I had the privilege of participating as both a speaker and an attendee at one of nGenera’s joint IT/HR Summits in Austin last week on ‘Next Generation Technologies for Next Generation Enterprises.’  These are 3-day sessions where CIO’s and VP’s of HR come together to share and learn about key business issues on their joint agendas.  It truly was a privilege to be part of this event which included presentations by Andrew McAfee (Harvard Business School), Don Tapscott (nGenera Insight), David Ulrich (University of Michigan), Tammy Erickson (nGenera Insight) and yours truly.  I got a lot out of the speaker sessions, but also found the dialog and networking to be highly stimulating and informative.  Inevitably, many of the conversations steered to the global economy and the role of IT leadership in a recessionary climate.

With a nod to Professor John Henderson’s old joke (“there are two kinds of people – those who believe there are two kinds of people, and those that do not”), I did find two sharply divided worldviews among the many engaging CIO conversations I was involved in.  I will, with some poetic license, represent those opposing worldviews below.  These represent the extremes – most of the CIO’s I spoke to at the event were closer to a middle ground – but examining the extremes may stimulate your own thinking about this issue.  What do you believe is the proper role of IT leadership today?

I will refer to the opposing views as Ivan Innovator and Cecil Controller.  Here are their contrasting positions:

Ivan Innovator

A recession is a time for the IT function to shine by showing leadership and fostering innovation.  To do that, and to buy ourselves both business credibility and IT bandwidth, we have to aggressively cut costs, but also need to shift IT resources from low to higher value activity.   The cost cutting actions are something we’ve wanted to do for some time, but now the economic climate provides the air cover we need.  So, our value proposition to the business is double-edged:  we are going to agressively retire IT systems and assets that are no longer critical to running or growing the business, and will redirect the resources that are freed up by this rationalization and consolidation of our technology platform and focus them on more innovative and higher value initiatives.

We recognize that some people are going to be inconvenienced by the cost-cutting – they are on the obsolete systems because of a particular report or function they like to use.  Unfortunately, we can no longer afford the luxury of keeping old, redundant systems around.  While they were written down long ago, they are a drain on resources – keeping them running and the constant need to build and maintain interfaces with other systems.

The other side of this is that our business partners have never needed us to focus on growth and innovation more than they do today.  There’s been a literal sea change in available technologies, and we have to find value-producing ways to tap these new technologies.  If we can beat our competitors to the punch, we can turn the economic climate to our advantage.  And that is our focus.

Cecil Controller

Economic conditions spell a period of retrenchment for IT.  We have to take out costs to help the business weather this downturn.  As such, many of the initiatives we have started or were planning are being put on hold.  This is hunker down time – we don’t know how long it will last, but we’re betting at least a year.  Optics are all important here – I need to show my business partners that I understand the economic climate, and that this is a time for IT to take a low profile, cut back its spending, and do our part to help the company weather the down market.

I find it interesting to think about the drivers of these opposing views.  Are some CIO’s inherently more optimistic, and therefore proactive?  Or is it the company and its leadership that sets the tone – either empowering the optimists to grow and innovate their way out of a recession, or scaring the pessimists to step into the shadows and idle till the clouds pass by?  Like the nature/nurture arguments, there is no simple answer.  But I feel the energy and sense a more positive outcome around the proactive innovators compared with the reactive controllers.  I know who I’d sooner be around and work with, and, if I were a CEO, who I’d like to have on my team as CIO.

When Strategy Becomes Continuous


I have been working with a team preparing for a new multi-company research project – Continuous Business Strategy – that will kick-off in mid-November.  I think this will prove to be an interesting project, to say the least!  Certainly, the research team has already engaged in several heated discussions and come across some intriguing information in our secondary literature research.

For IT leaders, I can’t think of many topics that are more pressing or deserving of a fresh look than business/IT strategy.  I’ve been involved in many strategy efforts over the years – from strategy planning for my own company when that was my gig, to business and IT strategy planning for clients, strategy reviews, strategy refreshes, and so on.  I’ve seen a lot of problems and dysfunctional behaviors in the name of strategy over the years.  Even the term ‘strategic planning’ takes on all sorts of meanings – some deserving of the label ‘strategy’ but many not.  When the issue is “IT strategy,” the level of dysfunction increases significantly.  In this post, I will take a couple of common dysfunctions I come across frequently that I think will improve at strategy shifts from a periodic to a continuous management tool.

1.  IT strategy is not the point – it’s all about business strategy.

I recall a session many years ago (I’m guessing it was around the mid-80′s) where I was speaking at a CIO conference in Phoenix (it could have been a Society for Information Management event) following the illustrious Professor Warren McFarlan. After his presentation on IT strategy, during Q&A a CIO asked, “In my company, if there were a business strategy, I could craft a dynamite IT strategy.  But there is no business strategy – what should I do?”

Warren, who could be sometimes be pretty blunt and confrontational and an ‘in your face’ kind of teacher, virtually attacked the hapless CIO.  “You CIO’s are always complaining about lack of business strategy,” taunted McFarlan.  “You draw two boxes, one above the other.  The top box you label ‘business strategy’ and the lower box ‘IT strategy’ and you grumble that the business strategy box is empty.  Listen up – the business strategy box is always empty!  And it’s your job to fill it!”

This was one of those frame-changing moments for me.  I was well aware of the reality, but McFarlan’s blunt and visual description of the circumstances validated my worldview around strategic planning.  Most of my IT strategy development work with clients has been business strategy development in disguise.  In fact, over the years we developed a business outcomes-based approach to IT strategy that on the one hand forced business strategy to the surface, while on the other hand avoiding offending anybody by insinuating they did not have an actionable business strategy.  I think we will find that shifting to a more continuous strategy process will have the effect of better integrating business and IT strategy formulation activities.  Their separation has always been for me an unhealthy dysfunction – business strategy formulated in a way that is devoid of appreciation for the information and IT possibilities.

2. Much ‘strategy’ effort is not very strategic.

A lot of work done in the name of strategy is in reality tactical – often more about budgeting than competitive positioning – more about status quo than change.  I’ve seen some extremely robust strategy planning efforts involving large numbers of teams from across the company on a several-month, once every three years effort.  On the face of it, this looks like a great idea.  In practice, it often is not very effective.  I recall one client where such a planning initiative was going on (I think the third of fourth time they’d run this kind of effort) and the management committee crafted the strategy over about 12 hours across three sessions.  The formal corporate initiative was largely ignored.  Again, I believe we will find that at its best, a more continuous approach to strategy formulation will improve the strategic quality of the result (though this will not necessarily be the case.)

3. Strategy formulation and execution are too loosely coupled.

Many scholars and researchers have commented on the formulation/execution gap.  Peter Weill differentiates appropriately between “strategic intent” and “current strategy,” and Gary Hamel provocatively suggests, “If you want to understand the real strategy, look at what people are doing!”  There are almost always disconnects between the strategy as formulated and the rewards and recognition systems and hidden organizational logic that drive management and employee behaviors.  Once again, I believe we will find that the shift to a more continuous strategy process will tighten many execution gaps.

I will delve deeper in future posts into strategic planning dysfunctional behaviors and the promise of leveraging Web 2.0 to move to a more continuous and productive strategy process.

The Real Sin of Email


WSJ’s Business Technology blog had an interesting post asking Why Do You Hate Email? The post quotes Michael Osterman, saying:

Email has been stretched far beyond its limits…

I agree based upon what I see in my consulting clients, but not just in the traditional ways we imagine ‘stretching’ to include (e.g., cc’ing the world, horrendously long tomes).  In many cases, Email has become a de facto work flow solution – a function for which is is horribly unsuitable.  This has happened due to the old “if the hammer is your only tool, every problem looks like a nail.”  Absent the tools or wherewithal to really think through workflow needs and opportunities, Email became the answer.  This is akin to the common mistake of automating bad business processes rather than re-engineering them in the light of automation possibilities.

I got more into this in a post a while back on The Myth of Information Overload.  Challenge every Email sent and recieved – is this something that belongs as an email, or should it be part of an automated work flow process?  I beleive that in the current economic conditions, we need to be digging deep to harness the next level of productivity and effectiveness gains – the technology is there – and there’s never been a better time to leverage it!

Notes From a Small Island (With Apologies to Bill Bryson)


Central London as seen from the incredible London Eye

Central London as seen from the incredible London Eye

I’m going to further explore the feelings and reactions my wife, mother-in-law and I felt in our recent return to the UK for a 2-week vacation.  To recap, we were all born there, my wife and I moving to the US 30 years ago (originally for a 1-year tour of duty!) and my mother-in-law moving to the US about 20 years ago.  I’ve got back to the UK frequently over the years, but through business travel.  This was the first time in quite a while to see the country up close, and stay with “real Brits” (friends and relatives) all over England, as well as in some fine old country inns and one West End London hotel.

So, what did we find?

  • After 30 years in the US, we were amazed how small England is and how close together places are.  Distances between towns that seemed gigantic in my youth have shrunk significantly (even though the time taken to travel those distances has not improved due to road traffic.)
  • Cars are everywhere – so much more visible in a country that was not built for cars the way most of America has evolved.  Unfortunately, like in Rome, Italy, cars are parked just about everywhere – often on both sides of narrow residential roads, rendering them single lane and hard to travel along.  Even major roads seem to have become parking lots.  This constant chain of parked cars detracts from the beauty of the fine old houses and buildings that characterize much of the UK.
  • Britain has it’s own immigration issues, though this seems to be largely Eastern European.  Most people we saw in the service industries (e.g., hotels, restaurants) were from Eastern Europe – often with heavy accents that were hard to decode.  Even in the excellent Marriott on London’s Grosvenor Square, my wife and I went through the check-in process largely mystified as to what we were being told due to impenetrable accents.  Where are the English, we wondered?
  • People seem much more helpful in shops, restaurants, etc. than we remember.  30 years ago, service in the UK was in a miserable state.  There was little to no sense of entrepreneurship, and service was surly and unhelpful.  I remember how pleased we were with the level and quality of service when we first visited the US.  Unfortunately, the US has lost much of that edge, while the UK has regained it.
  • Traveling through London’s Gatwick Airport within hours of either leaving or arriving at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is a shock to the system.  Gatwick seems to work well, efficiently and with smiling, helpful faces from airline, security and airport personnel.  Atlanta, by contrast, is inefficient, unpleasant, and makes travelers feel like criminals.  As an Atlanta resident for the last 25 years I’m ashamed of the face that the busiest airport in the world presents to travelers.  As an aside, last year I went to Jamaica for a reunion with a dozen of my university friends.  (The university was in the UK, but we meet every few years somewhere in the world where one of us is living, and it was Jamaica’s turn.)  Anyway, many of my alumns traveled through Atlanta’s airport, and all found it to be a horrendous experience!  We are currently planning our next reunion, and, regrettably but understandably, one of the parameters has become picking a location that does not require travel through Atlanta airport!
  • London seems to be much cleaner than we remembered, and certainly more affluent. Despite how expensive everything is, people still seem to be doing OK.  Of course remnants of the National Health and social services are still helping finances a lot.   As an example, I have a cousin who still lives with his mother in a council house (subsidized living).  He is now paid by social services to look after his mom!
  • There are a lot of innovative schemes for managing environmental issues.  We had the good fortune to stay with a university friend who has been in the energy management and environmental consulting business for most of his career, so I got some expert insight into how things work.  This is so interesting, I will make a separate post just on this issue.

I will leave it there for now, and pick up on the environmental management schemes and other impressions in a future post.

My wife Gillian in the London Eye

My wife Gillian in the London Eye

A Brit Returns After 30 Years – What Does He Find?


Apologies for too long a gap between posts.  I took my wife and mother-in-law to the UK for a vacation.  I had hoped to keep active on the blog, but challenges with Internet access and constant travel (we traveled the UK for 15 days, often staying with friends or in several hundred year old inns, where Internet access was challenging, to say the least!) kept me off the blog.  Anyway, I’m back the the US now, and have quite a bit of new fodder I’m going to draw upon in the next few weeks based upon my reflections as a Brit now living in the US and returning after a long hiatus.

I left London, England with my wife and 2 year old daughter in 1978 to take up residence in Boston, Mass on a 12-month tour of duty.  At the time I was an executive with a British software company.  About 6 months into the stay, we upped the ante, and extended the tour to 2 years – we were thoroughly enjoying the US and it seemed like 12 months was not going to be sufficient.   Towards the end of the 2 years, we faced up to the fact that America had become our new home, and we sold our UK house, began a path to US citizenship, and began to settle down in our new home.

This week we are back in London for a vacation.  I get back to the UK (my place of birth and home for 31 years) every year or so on business, my wife much less frequently, and her mother even less so, so this was an important time to catch up on relatives and friends. So here we are, playing tourists, and making the inevitable comparisons.  Here are some initial impressions.

  1. We knew London would feel expensive – but we are still shocked.  IT’S REALLY EXPENSIVE!!!  The Marriott Grosvenor Square wants to charge me 20 British Pounds (about $37 US) for 24 hours of Internet!  I actually took the option for a 1 hour session (nearly $10, about the same as a Marriott in the US charges for a whole day!)
  2. London is looking great – very clean, and the air seems clear.  Many Americans have asked me over the years about the London fogs.  This is a myth established by all those Sherlock Holmes movies.  As a child, I do remember horrendous London fogs, but an early clean air campaign in the 1950′s took care of that, and today the air seems much cleaner than most major US cities – certainly when compared to Atlanta, GA where we now live.  (Note: The photo above is a stock picture thanks to Google Images.)
  3. It’s hard to find a Londoner in London.  It’s all tourists and, if you’ll excuse the term, foreigners.  Even the legendary London cab drivers no longer live in London – they live in the countryside and drive in for a day’s work.  (We have not taken many cabs – the London transport system is effective, though not nearly so as it was 30 years ago – way too much traffic for the buses and the “tube” is undergoing extensive renovations, so many lines are out of action, and delays seem rife.)
  4. The food is much better than it was – very much better.  All countries develop a certain mythology over time (e.g., London fogs!) and that is usually based on reality – at least a one-time reality.  England is not know for great food – that’s the myth and was the reality.  Of course, you could find great food, but you’d have to look hard.  And the service used to be very poor – Brits don’t do well serving others.  Well, that has changed.  Excellent food abounds, as does good (but not great) service.

Well, the above was actually written after our first 3 days, spent in London’s West End.  Since then we’ve traveled much of the country, and have more to say on the pros and cons of the UK versus the US, as seen through the eyes of a dual nationality (British and US) ex-pat.