In researching our new book, Big Data for Dummies, it became clear that Big Data is not simply about a specific tool or technique for Big Data analytics.  You would never know this by examining the hype around this emerging market.  Yes, Hadoop is important but it not the entire big data ecosystem.  Big Data is not one tools or manipulating and analyzing huge volumes of data. And Big Data is not about calculating how many individuals on Twitter or Facebook mentioned a certain event.  It is easy to get caught up in the hype and focus on the tools and techniques and lose sight of the big picture.  My view is that Big Data is about how you leverage vast amounts of data from a variety of sources to impact outcomes in business, society, healthcare, and the environment  — to name but a few.

So, this leads me to a discussion of IBM’s Big Data strategy.  I think that the most important part of IBM’s Big Data strategy is its intersection with its Smarter Planet initiative.  To refresh your memory, the idea of Smarter Planet was introduced more than five years ago as the cornerstone of IBM’s business strategy.  IBM hoped to leverage this ambitious vision to focus its technology to support how organizations, cities, governments, corporations, etc. could leverage technology to innovate the way the world operates.  Over the years, IBM has evolved this strategy in the form of initiatives such as Smarter Cities, Smarter Commerce, and Smarter Traffic, etc.  While many of the aspects of these implementations are tied to complex business processes, data generated by sensors, transactions, systems of record, social media, and a variety of external data sources.  If managed well, this aggregate data can be used to improve complex interrelated systems.  It is becoming increasingly clear that everything on the planet is data driven.

It is my perception that the design point for IBM’s Big Data strategy is Smarter Planet.

Here is the way IBM describes Smarter Planet on its website:

For five years, IBMers have been working with companies, cities and communities around the world to build a Smarter Planet.

We’ve seen enormous advances, as leaders are using an explosion of data to transform their enterprises and institutions through analytics, mobile technology, social business and the cloud.

We’ve also seen how this new era is starting to create winners. They’re changing how their decisions are made. They’re redesigning how their teams work, reassessing how to serve their customers, and changing the very nature of business.

It’s the ability to harness data that gives these leaders their competitive advantage in the era of “smart.”

Today, conventions once universally held are giving way to new perspectives, new ways of working, and new solutions across industries. Roles are changing. And more than ever, leaders need a partner with their customers, suppliers and partners to be able to adapt and thrive.

 

The operative word in this description is data. IBM has been on a journey beginning with its Information On Demand strategy that evolved into its  Information Agenda.  The foundation of this evolving strategy was based on creating a consistent set of common underlying services that could support the way data is used to meet a variety of requirements.

Clearly, IBM evolution of its information management strategy began as a way to create a cohesive strategy to manage the large number of data products IBM was beginning and continues to buy.  Often these companies had overlapping components and architectural frameworks that were all different.  Now put this problem in context with the long term goal of turning IBM into a company focused on just on technology tools but on helping customers create a smarter planet – a dramatic new approach was required.

In my view, IBM Big Data strategy isn’t a tools strategy. Rather it is an expansive strategy is based on three concepts: data in motion (i.e., data coming from sensors or business transactions), data at rest (i.e., data stored in warehouses or marts based on systems of record, and the huge variety of data (i.e., structured, unstructured text data, unstructured from videos, networks, images, etc.) that are required for different requirements.   Surrounded by accelerators like IBM’s new BLU accelerators, and various offerings such as the Big Data platform in the form of Infosphere, and Big Data Insights.   These elements are combined to support different deployment models (private cloud, integrated expert systems, and on premises implementations), data integration frameworks, governance, and security frameworks.  The plan is a work in progress. But from my point of view, it is the right way to handle the complexity of data that has to be brought together to transform data into the core of business strategy and innovation.

IBM’s new generation of data strategy is centered around the ability to manage a dramatically changing data landscape where everything from the washing machine to the sensors that measure activity in a power plant. When you understand that data will drive the future then it is clear that you can’t look at data strategy as a set of tools.  Rather, we are seeing a new view of reality where data is the lynch pin of improving the way the world works.

Dell is a company in transition. As we have seen with many companies that have a hardware legacy, Dell is transforming itself into what it calls “an end-to-end solutions and services company that services mid-sized enterprises”.  Software will clearly be the key to this executing on this strategy.    This is not a transition that can be undertaken lightly.  It is complicated not just to obtain the right software but also to change the culture of the organization at the same time.  Dell is moving full steam ahead into the software market under the leadership of John Swainson, a veteran of both IBM and Computer Associates.  I clearly expected that after living through the complexities of transforming Computer Associates that John would take a break.  But as many software leaders discover, transforming companies appears to be an addiction that is hard to break.

Creating Dell Software is a work in progress.  The goal of the emerging organization is beginning to come into focus based on Swainson’s leadership.  In essence, the foundation for Dell’s software strategy is centered on the acquisition of Quest Software last year in addition to a variety of software companies purchased over the years.  At its recent event to detail the progress of the software business, John Swainson provided a roadmap for turning Dell from primarily a PC company to a software and services company.

Here are my main takeaways from this meeting.

Dell is following the right approach by creating a unified software environment focused on end user computing, services, security, and cloud combined with servers, storage, and networking. With the various acquisitions including Quest (database management, performance monitoring, data protection, user workspace management, Windows server management, and identity and access management and Gale Technologies (infrastructure automation software).  The combination of these technologies transformed Dell software into a division with more than $1.5 billion in revenue.  Swainson’s goal is to weave these pieces of software together to create a unified and flexible solution that will tie the parts of the business together. Based on the various acquisitions it is not surprising that there are four components to the software strategy: cloud, security, and risk, big data, and mobility.  Dell will have to demonstrate that it can execute on this strategy since it will have to show the financial markets that it can replace revenue as the PC market continues to show.

How will Dell attack these four strategies? The plan is to leverage the technology components to create a unified stack.  For security Dell will leverage technologies that it purchased several years ago including SecureWorks and SonicWall as well as the security offerings from Quest and Credant.  For systems management, again Dell will leverage the depth of technology from the many acquisitions that Quest made over the years, the Wyse technologies, KACE, and AppAssure.  For information management, Boomi integration software is going to play an important role both for on premise environment and within cloud environments.  Dell’s biggest software acquisition, Quest has a huge portfolio of software that will take some time for Dell to incorporate into its platform.

But clearly this massive amount of software is not monolithic.  Dell will take advantage of its security management capabilities as an underlying support infrastructure for its emerging mobility strategy.  In addition, Dell intends to leverage its security capabilities for client side data encryption and firewalls to protect mobile data.  Like many competitors in the market, Dell is focusing tremendous energy on the cloud market.  Again, leveraging its desktop heritage, Dell is hoping its Desktop, as a Service offerings will be attractive to customers moving to the cloud.  In addition, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is becoming an important element of Dell’s security strategy that is increasingly important headache for IT organizations.

The strategy is clearly ambitious.  The ability to unify the elements of software into a well-architected environment is complicated.  Dell will have to demonstrate that it can add the types of standards based interfaces so that software components can be linked together to create solutions for customers.  Dell has the opportunity to try to differentiate itself by focusing on the mid-market rather than focusing on the high end of the market.  The mid-market has long been a complicated market for companies to leverage. Ironically, mid-market companies have the same complex problems to solve as the very large companies – with smaller budgets.   If Dell can create and deliver modular and flexible software that solves complex problems  more easily it will have an opportunity to emerge as a player in this very competitive market.

Normal

Were we normal yesterday before we heard about the bomb?

Will we ever be normal again?

Were we ever normal?

We live our lives in snapshots of joy, confusion, and fear.

We ache for normal

Will we be bored again?

Can we grab each other and hug and hope for normal?

Will we ever live small insular lives again? No and Yes.

April 15, 2013

In Hurwitz & Associates’ book, Hybrid Cloud for Dummies (Wiley & Sons, 2012) we point out that the role of the data center will change in the coming decade.  A little history is instructive to understand the impact of these changes.  The data center was developed as a fit-for-purpose environment to manage and protect systems of record.  In the early days, the data center was optimized for these workloads.  Things changed in the 1980s as more systems with different workloads and different operating systems, different hardware, and networks.  The result of this change was that the traditional data center was no longer the optimized and tightly controlled environment that it had been.  With this diversity of platforms came complications.  The IT operations staff had trouble pleasing its constituents.  This resulted in a data center that was ineffective and inefficient in meeting the dynamic changes impacting business.

When is the Data Center like your car garage?

I like to use the analogy of the car garage. When a family moves into a new house, the garage is a great way to easily store two cars.  The garage is neat and clean and effective. But over time, the family’s possessions expand. Soon other items are stored in the garage — lawn mowers, rakes, boxes, bikes, old lamps, and the like. Now the garage is no longer fit for the purpose it was designed for. Most likely, it can no longer even fit a single car.  The traditional data center has this same chaotic evolution.

Placate the business with the private cloud. 

The result of the inefficiency of the traditional data center is increasingly putting pressure on the IT organization to find ways to be more efficient and effective in meeting the needs of the business.  In fact, I would posit that many IT organizations initially adopted Cloud services as a way to placate the business.  Ironically, this stop gap measure has had a major impact on the business and now companies are forcing IT to adopt cloud services — both private and public services.  Companies worried about security typically are insisting on a private cloud.  Ironically, these same companies have no problem using publicly facing Software as a Service offerings such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce.com and SugarCRM.  Other companies are comfortable with public facing cloud services such as Amazon.com  and Rackspace to help alleviate some of the pressure on elasticity, and price.

The new data center: protecting the Systems of Record

But until this point the role of the traditional data center has not changed very much.  Virtualization solutions have helped somewhat to make the data center more efficient but it has not changed the underlying problems of workload management.  But it is inevitable that the role of the data center will not remain static. Rather, the data center will go back to its original purpose: an optimized environment that is fit for the purpose of supporting line of business applications that require low latency, tight control and governance, and  high levels of security.  These systems include on premises ERP and CRM systems as well as traditional databases that store and manage customer information.  Therefore, there will be fewer hardware platforms, fewer operating systems, and fewer applications in this new generation of data centers.   In essence, the new data center will become the environment that manages and supports mission critical Systems of Record.

The cloud data center: promoting dynamic Systems of Engagement

Increasingly, the business requires systems that that can change and morph as business requirements change.  These are in essence Systems of Engagement.  If the data center becomes optimized for systems of record, the cloud environment will become focused on an increasingly important systems of engagement.  A second environment based on cloud computing will support dynamic and changing needs of the business – what we can think of as Systems of Engagement.  These systems will be cloud and mobile-based because they will need to support changing workloads, changing interactions between customers, suppliers, and partners.  These two environments will not exist in isolation from each other. In fact, redefined data center, with its highly structured Systems of Record, will have to be seamlessly integrated dynamic and cloud based Systems of Engagement. These Systems of Engagement will exist in a hybrid cloud environment and therefore will take advantage of both public and private cloud services.  These systems will be designed to be a focal point for Big Data analysis as well.

Back to the Future

In essence, we are going back to the future where systems are designed to meet the needs of the workloads they need to deliver to constituents.  This will not be an instantaneous transition. It will take a number of years to evolve.  No company will move to this new world that bifurcates Systems of Records from Systems of Engagement. The transition will be gradual and will be primarily driven by business process changes.  But I predict that companies that begin this transition now will be in a better position to compete in changing markets.

On Oct. 3, Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) current and fourth chief executive in the past seven years, will meet with Wall Street analysts. Investors, customers, and employees better hope Whitman starts channeling Lou Gerstner, the former IBM (IBM) chairman who helped rescue that troubled icon.

HP, once one of the most trusted corporate brands, is in a similar weak position as Big Blue was in the early ’90s. As happened at IBM, Whitman has announced massive layoffs and a consolidation of facilities worldwide. But so far she has not indicated if the company will sell off assets or exit markets to secure its future as a more focused organization.

At this stage in HP’s 12-year decline, it will take more than slimming down the workforce and selling off assets for the company to succeed. I believe that by the end of the decade (if not before), HP will either become a holding company or be broken up and sold off—a fate Gerstner saved IBM from. HP’s only chance—albeit a slim one—would be to get back to its roots and focus on innovation and invention. (click here to access the rest of the article).

Back when computers were a shiny new concept, the hardware and software were tightly linked together. This tight coupling was mandatory because of the costs and technical immaturity of computing. The most powerful computers in the 1970s had less computing power than a smartphone has today.  Over time as systems became more powerful and less expensive vendors began decoupling hardware from software. This gave rise to both the minicomputer and the PC markets.  Business leaders loved the new freedom presented by being able to own and control their own systems.  As a result, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a renaissance of innovation in software – both in terms of packaged applications, tools, and software development technologies.  I write extensively about this technology transitions brought about with these changes in my book, Smart or Lucky? How Technology Leaders Turn Chance into Success. 

This innovation also gave rise to innovative distributed computing technologies like client/server and web based approaches that transformed both the technology industry and business itself.  As with any industrial change, there were unintended consequences to the new frontier of distributed computing.  Suddenly there were thousands of independent systems inside data centers that were difficult to manage. Ironically, in the aggregate these distributed systems were as complicated and costly as the mainframe systems that businesses were rebelling against.  So, it is not surprising that an interesting trend that is taking hold that is upending the computer industry again. Let’s call it back to the future. We are now seeing a transition back to vertically integrated systems.

Apple has adhered to vertical integration for most of its history.  The company has been able to distinguish itself in the market and avoid the commodity trap by vertically integrating its hardware with its operating system. By doing this, Apple was able to achieve a seamless customer experience – at a premium price – that its competitors have not been able to match. But what about in the enterprise market? There is a profound change emerging.  Vendors including IBM, HP, Oracle, and EMC are increasing tuning their hardware and software to work as optimized systems.

Why is this necessary? After all, systems have become more powerful and capable than ever. There is also the assumption that hardware has become a commodity. Therefore, if hardware is a commodity there is no problem with simply adding more and more systems into the mix until the right amount of power is available. So, why the need to change? The answer is actually quite simple. The more moving parts you add into a system, the more energy, time, and money you have to spend making the parts work as a unified system.

This is not a new problem. In fact, it has been addressed over the past decade with virtualization technology that in essence provides an operating system layer on top of systems so that individual systems can be managed and controlled more efficiently.  Virtualization has begun to dramatically transform distributing computing, making it possible to leverage the available resources in an effective manner.  But virtualization in isolation is still not enough because it can have unintended consequences. For example, virtualization works by creating images of resources that can be used to execute a variety of processes.  These copies consume space and resources on a system. In addition, these orphaned images potentially open holes in a company’s security firewall.  When not removed after they are not needed,  they will consume the system, impact security and undo all the benefits.

The consequences of complexities of managing piece parts has led to a new trend—vendors beginning to package and optimize their hardware with software. If software can be injected into hardware it becomes much more flexible and can be changed and modified on demand. Ironically, in many ways the very nature of hardware is changing so that it has the modularity and flexibility that we used to only associate with software.  With the added flexibility, hardware is now being coupled more directly with the supporting software elements to create a new generation of vertically integrated systems.  Focus isn’t just based on the underlying performance of the hardware but the systems incorporate best practices for a specific industry.  For example, a vertically integrated system could be optimized for the needs of a healthcare research firm that needs to manage massive amounts of data but does not need strong transaction management support.  Therefore, the hardware would be optimized to handle large amounts of data. The system would then include the software elements needed by that organization including software designs that have proven effective to support this type of business requirement.

The result of this approach is a tighter integration of hardware with software that are now designed not as independent elements that happen to be force fit together but an orchestrated system. As with anything else, there are hitches.  This is a trend that should serve customers well, but a vertically integrated system has to be designed with modularity at the core.  The system must be able to support change.  Of course, it is much easier to create a tightly integrated system but it could be dangerous because of its rigidity.  When you look to solve business problems through vertical integration make sure that it is implemented as a set of modular services that can evolve with business needs.

The ability to analyze mountains of data is important, but managers need to be wary of suppliers relabeling a traditional product as new technology

Can Facebook Remain Faceless?

I have been a consistent user of social media for many years. I’ve used Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and now Google+ to conduct research, network, and generally connect with friends and colleagues. I confess I am guilty of not changing my passwords often enough and using similar passwords for different accounts. I am not the first person, nor will I be the last, to forget or choose ease of access over security. After all, how many passwords can our human brains contend with?

more

1. Cloud computing is the new Internet.  Only ten years ago companies talked about having an Internet strategy – today Internet is simply part of the fabric of organizations.  Likewise, I am predicting that within 10 years we won’t hear customers talk about their cloud strategy — it will simply be the way business is done.
2. Analytics is one of the most important trends – being able to anticipate what will happen next – whether it is a retailer trying to determine what products will be hot or a business trying to anticipate where a problem will emerge.
3. The best new ideas are old ideas re-envisioned. The greatest and hottest companies will be based on taking existing ideas and products and revamping them with newer technologies and inventive go to market initiatives.
4. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the next hot thing in cloud this coming year. This market will have a rocky evolution since existing Infrastructure as a Service vendors and Software as a Service vendors will all create their version of PaaS tied to their existing offerings.  Needless to say, this will confuse customers.
5. Service Management becomes the defining differentiator for all types of cloud service providers.  Especially as the hybrid cloud becomes the norm, providers will have to provide a required level of privacy, security, and governance depending on the customer need. I expect to see a flood of cloud service management products.
6. While 2011 was the year of innovation, 2012 will be the year of the customer experience. Apple’s success and huge market cap can be, at least in part, attributed to its ability to delight customer with well-executed and well-designed products.  The best new products do not simply give customers what they said they wanted, but anticipate what they didn’t know they wanted until it becomes available.
7. The number of vendors focused on cloud security, governance, and compliance will expand dramatically. The successful companies will focus on protecting all end points – including mobile.
8. Big data will be the most important silver bullet of 2012.  It will indeed be overhyped to the point where every aspect of computing will be tagged as a part of the big data ecosystem.  With that said, it is one of the most important trends because it will provide a set of techniques to enable companies to gain knowledge and insight in new ways from the huge volumes of unstructured data.  The successful companies are those that create solutions focused on solving specific industry problems.  One size does not fit all.
9. Many copycat companies will tank.  Companies like Groupon and Zynga simply do not have the depth of technology or differentiation to have sustainability.  But that will not stop hundreds or perhaps thousands of copycat companies with equally weak value propositions from setting up shop.
10. 10.  It is probably redundant to say that this will be the year of the mobile app. In fast the same could be said for 2011.  But there is a subtle difference. This year will see sophisticated developers focusing on creating applications that can easily move across tablets, laptops, and phones.  The successful companies will make it easy to synchronize data across these devices as well as integrating with related applications. A healthy ecosystem will make the difference between success and failure.

When I started working on my latest book, Smart or Lucky? How Technology Leaders Turn Chance into Success, I thought a lot about what makes one company sustain itself over decades while other companies fade away.  What does innovation really mean and how does it happen? Innovation is not an easy achievement. Many companies that find themselves in trouble proclaim that they will improve their fortunes by through innovation.  While it makes sense it can be somewhat perplexing.  Shouldn’t companies always be focused on innovation? Isn’t it logical to assume that if a company were consistently innovating that they would not get themselves into a mess? One of the biggest problems with companies attempting to innovate is that they often don’t ask the right questions.  What do I mean? Here is the type of questions companies ask customers:

• What features would you like to see in the next rev of our product?
• Are you happy with the products we sell you?
• What is your reaction to our product roadmap?
• How could the roadmap be improved?

Many companies spend lots of money and time establishing customer advisory boards, setting up focus groups and the like to make sure that they are prepared for future customer requirements.  Don’t get me wrong – I think it is important to keep in touch with customers and ask them about the products and services that they use on a regular basis.  For example, every time I go to my local Apple store I get a survey about how satisfied I was with the service I got. If I wasn’t happy, I get a phone call from the store manager.  It’s a nice touch and certainly makes me feel good.  But that alone will not have any influence on whether I buy a new Apple product or not.

So, what should companies be asking customers about what they want? I think they need to focus on customer pain and the white space in the market.  So, if I were that company looking to be innovative here is what I would ask:

• What problems are you looking to solve that you can’t solve right now?
• What is most annoying about working with our company?
• If you could wave a magic wand and three things would change about us, what would they be?
• What direction is your company headed and how can our company help you achieve your aspirations with less pain?

Does your company ask these types of questions? I would guess that the answer is probably no.  Most companies have a well-honed machine of internal and external individuals that focus 100 percent of their attention on surveying customers.  They produce reports so that they can prove to their management and shareholders that they are focused on the customer.  If a company wants to innovate it has to change the way it thinks about innovation and satisfying customers. Isn’t that what innovation is all about?