Getting the quick wins!

How often is it that companies talk about quick wins, and then the project schedule shows 3-4 months before the first quick win can be realized in a production environment?   When it comes to ITSM projects – this is certainly not uncommon.  Defining your ITIL processes that align it to the capability of the underlying ITSM technology and business so often involves a significant amount of over-engineering and analysis paralysis – sometimes with good outcome, but mostly, just wasted time and effort that could’ve been spent doing something more productive.

As much as I’d like to attribute the ability to shorten project life-cycles and getting the quick wins to a technology choice (which certainly can assist), it really all boils down to a company’s culture, processes, the type of leaders, managers and the commitment to getting things done (GTD) within an organization.  Don’t forget that the same culture, leadership style, etc should also be reflected in the supplier organization culture so that gains made by one aren’t lost by the other. So how can using an efficient, simple and easy to use solution such as ServiceNow make a difference if your organization is prone to over-analyzing and procrastinating on everything?  Well the good news is, when you start the actual implementation, you won’t waste any more time.  The bad news is, the rest of the process is still going to be long and painful, and hopefully you’re not stuck in having to deal with this type of organization daily. But what if you are…

How do you change this type of culture? The answer is simple – but a lot of patience and persistence is required….   It happens one step at a time!   Start by demonstrating your own commitment to the culture change and how that change will benefit the organization if everyone adopts the same attitude.   In other words – focus on the quick wins, and do everything in your power to make them QUICK WINS – and then market the success of those quick wins, the benefits, and what’s needed to repeat the process on the next project.

I wish you the best of luck.

Bruce

CERN Delivers People-Centric Service Management Using Service-now.com

CERN, being one of the world’s most respected centres for scientific research, and now also a Service-now.com success story represents the essence of what we see Service-now.com as being.  A solution that drives people-centric service management through improved efficiency, effectiveness and innovation.

As with our own implementation, CERN are benefiting from the hugely beneficial service-culture that a Service-now.com solution is able to create.

Read the full press release here…

CloudWashing – a recurring topic

I can’t tell how many times I’ve read articles and blog posts about the differences between legacy vendors and “true” cloud vendors.

Legacy vendors tend to hop on the cloud bandwagon by simply hosting their legacy applications and then [sometimes] building some fancy wrapping and automation around it.  And then there are those that think because they’ve hosted their application on some virtual infrastructure (aka VMWare or other), that they now have a pure cloud offering?  (They even believe it themselves)

On the other side, [true] cloud vendors do things differently by taking the time to build their solutions from scratch.  They tend to use modern technology and programming techniques and most importantly, the tend to focus on the ease of use for the end-user.  The more modern paradigm is what cloud computing and Software as a Service is really about, but few of these new and small startups or vendors have the marketing budget to compete with the large legacy vendors that have managed to white-wash the cloud paradigm [or is it brain-wash their clients?] with a “hosting is also cloud computing” idea.  True cloud vendor’s products are simply better suited to the 21st century – they’re simpler to use, quicker to implement and give you better bang for your buck almost every time.

All the early adopters and thought leaders out there will know what I’m talking about…  The rest, well, I suppose we’ll see you onboard [or is that enlightened?] sometime in the future…  perhaps just in time to get confused by the next big thing.

 

Going Cloud… Thinking Security (part 2)

This series reviews 4 ‘things’ you should take seriously when considering cloud solutions.  Part 1 looked briefly at Application Integration – critical if your cloud solution needs to form part of an integrated IT strategy.

Now, we look at security.

Even though we have written about and discussed security a number of times it is still of extreme relevance and importance in the move to a cloud based service.

Most security consultants have had to deal with a huge shift in focus regarding security, but the basic security fundamentals for users of cloud services still apply. As a first step, assessing the risk in security and compliance is imperative. Core security topics such as control and manageability, tracking records of actions, trust and incident management, liability and support, misuse and data leakage, these are all more critical than ever.

According to Nico Popp, VP of product development at Verisign “This requires layers of security, including multifactor authentication, identity brokers, access management and, in some cases, an external service provider who can provide that high a level of administrative control”

“Security and cloud hosting are two separate things, but the cost of entry is so low, and often so simple, that customers may not do as much due diligence as they should to find out who’s responsible for security,” says Ezra Gottheil an analyst who covers server issues for Technology Business Research.

Too many times companies assume that their cloud provider is taking care of security – leaving themselves vulnerable to attack, and all too often, ignorant of the fact.

Customers must demand transparency, avoid vendors that refuse to provide detailed information on security programs. Ask questions related to the qualifications of policy makers, architects, risk-control processes and technical mechanisms and the level of testing that’s been done to verify that service and control processes are functioning as intended, and that vendors can identify unanticipated vulnerabilities.

Here are seven of the specific security issues Gartner says customers should raise with vendors before selecting a cloud vendor.

1. Privileged user access

Get as much information as you can about the people who manage your data. Ask providers to supply information on the hiring and oversight of privileged administrators, and the controls over their access.

2. Regulatory compliance

Traditional service providers are subjected to external audits and security certifications. Cloud computing providers who refuse to undergo this type of scrutiny must only be used for the most trivial functions.

3. Data location

Ask providers where your data will be stored, and if this data centre has sufficient security measures in place to obey local privacy requirements on behalf of their customers.

4. Data segregation

The cloud provider should provide evidence that encryption schemes were designed and tested by experienced specialists to ensure data integrity.

5. Recovery

Even if you don’t know where your data is, a cloud provider should tell you what will happen to your data and service in case of a disaster.

6. Investigative support.

The vendor needs to assure you that they can investigating inappropriate activity and must show that they have already successfully supported such activities.

7. Long-term viability

Ideally, your cloud computing provider will never go broke or get acquired and swallowed up by a larger company. But you must be sure your data will remain available even after such an event.

Remember we need to qualify the vendors we want to do business with, that is why Marutech and Cornastone have invested a considerable amount of time to cut through all the hype and get to the point. To ensure that our customers know full well that the solutions in our stable really do meet the above requirements.

In the next article we look at storage, which continues to be one of the weak points of many a provider.

Going Cloud… Thinking App Integration (part 1)

As many new and upcoming markets are drifting away from the norm of IT, Cloud based services are continuing to grow and grow fairly quickly in the market place, according to IDC’s Cloud Services Overview Report “Sales of Cloud-related technologies are growing at an average of 26 percent a year”.

That is roughly six times the rate of IT spending overall, the report goes on to state that in 2009 estimated spending on cloud technologies was just over US $17 billion and will grow to a whopping US$44 billion by 2013.

So as you start to review your future IT budget and prepare for the move to cloud based services, there are 4 critical elements to understanding the true value of the service being offered – Application Integration, Security, Storage and Virtual I/O.

In today’s article – we touch on Application Integration.

A number of companies have already invested a considerable amount of money into solutions that can assist in managing their network and platform infrastructure, these solutions are an integral part of your business and should not be ignored when moving to a Cloud based Solution.

The complexities involved in implementing a solution and ensuring that your current products’ potential is maximized requires integration.  We spend considerable effort in ensuring that our cloud based offerings, like Service-now.com can support the integrations required to tap this potential, and as leading systems integrators in our field, we provide the necessary skills and resources to make the integration between systems seamless.

Integration means more than just batch-processing chunks of data being traded between applications once or twice per day the way that was done on mainframes, according to Tom Fisher, vice president of cloud computing at SuccessFactors.com, a business-application SaaS provider in San Mateo, California

Being able to provision and manage user identities from a single location across a range of applications is critical, especially for companies that have never been in the software-providing business before and don’t view their IT as a primary product, he says.

So remember you don’t want to lose the capex on that expensive software solution you bought a few years ago, find out if your existing solutions can work hand in hand with the cloud based offering. And will these solutions be able to communicate and forward information between the varying platforms successfully ?

In the next article, we’ll consider the underlying security required as basis of this service.

Tips on choosing IT Management solutions

Here are 3 high-level tips on choosing solutions for your IT Management.   These are aimed at the not-so-versed IT manager, senior manager, business owner or entrepreneur looking to expand his business and with it establish a more mature IT environment…

1.       Start by defining or at least understanding [fully] what the business or IT process is.   If you don’t understand the process – you can’t properly identify the broader problem and how that problem can potentially be solved. In the world of IT (or IT Management), make sure you’re working according to some model and broader vision – whether that be by adopting an FCAPS model, the Meta Group model for E/DSM, your own proprietary model or simply by aligning to ITIL guidelines for managing your processes.  Whatever your preference, you have to work towards a model.

2.       Choose software or solution components that will contribute to the solution you intend to adopt.  Choosing a solution is not just about choosing a good piece of software, hardware or service.   You must take some time to understand the vendor and supplier of choice.   You should take into consideration their culture, their success (and reputation) in the market, satisfaction of existing customers and whether they could get maximum value from solutions they’ve purchased.   You should look at how the local partners are empowered to support you, how willing they are to understand your needs and grow with you.   Most importantly, choose a partner that will support you through the tough times, a partner that’s knowledgeable and can give you the appropriate advise, a partner that puts your interests before his (i.e. your business objectives) because he realizes that he’ll only be successful if your business is successful.    When making your buying decision – consider all these aspects – and spend time developing a relationship so that you can actually gain an understanding of these aspects.

3.       Lastly, it’s important to consider what your definition of a solution is.  Many people have a wrong perception – partly due to vendors selling “solutions” when all they’re selling is software or hardware.   Ask yourself “when is a solution a solution?”.   A solution is note something that comes in a box.  It’s not something you buy and now have to wonder what you’re going to do with it.  You only have a solution when the software, hardware, service and whatever else you purchase is fully implemented, integrated, supported and utilized (i.e. users are empowered and educated), and when it is adding maximum value according to your original definition of the problem that needed to be solved.

To sum this up, a solution must support a process that solves a business problem, it must be integrated into existing systems and you should have a partner supporting you to gain maximum value from your investment so that you can focus your efforts on your own business and your customers’ businesses.

Mistakes made by cloud vendors… (insight #3)

David Linthicum wrote a great article on Infoworld’s Cloud Computing blog entitled “The top 5 mistakes cloud vendors make – and what you should watch for“.  It’s a long title, agreed, but its a great read – and not too long at that.

For the impatient and execs that don’t have 10 minutes to spare, here are the 5 points summarized:

1. Not focusing on API’s:  API’s are critical for adoption in the enterprise and shouldn’t be an afterthought.
2. No integration strategy:  Don’t treat integration as a bad word to be dealt with by the consultancy team.  Have a strategy that will enable customers to do it themselves.
3. Outage defensiveness:  As a service provider, don’t be naive and think you won’t ever have downtime.  And don’t go on the defensive when you do.
4. Confusing SLAs:  Lawyers tend to set these up – make sure they can talk English.
5. Spinning standards:  Don’t just talk and write about standards – make sure they’re implemented.

Looking at these points objectively, I think that David got it right.   In the same way that traditional software vendors out there are rushing to put forward their cloud computing alternatives (generally cloud-washed implementations of exactly the same stuff they sold before), both traditional software vendors and ‘pure’ cloud vendors that are making these mistakes seem to be all over the place.  The ones not making these mistakes are making huge strides into the enterprise market.

That being said – it’s easy to talk and criticize – but we’re also selling cloud computing solutions – and I have to admit that we don’t always get it right either.  But what I can say, is that when our solutions have shortcomings, we feel it our obligation to highlight these, as our integrity is more important to us than the deals we may lose by being honest.

Eassy goes live!!

Finally, the next big step forward in SA’s internet age is happening.   The East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is set to go live today, upping our international bandwidth capacity by another 1.4Tbps!

Read more here…

ITWeb – Eassy goes live today

TechCentral.com  – Seacom rival Eassy set to go live

Yeah!

Past views on network management…

I almost forgot.  Another very interesting thing I read this week was a 2008 ComputerWorld article which asked the question “What ever happened to network management?“.   Sometimes its great to look at opinions and identified trends from a few years ago and compare them to today.  I found a lot of points to be on the mark while others not so much (the same goes for comments btw), but some of the trends noted back in 2008 became like fulfilled prophesies by 2010.

I also found a conspicuous lack of cloud or SaaS terms in the article.  It’s a different story today with virtually every big and small player making a play for cloud models, but I’m not convinced that 50% of these vendors aren’t confused about what it is they’re competing for.  

Confusion in the cloud business model (Insights #2)

I find it quite interesting to see how this landscape is constantly changing…  the winds of change seem to be blowing more violently now than ever before, and there are a lot of people out there that are getting quite confused – and with good reason.

I received two news-type emails today with views that tell very different stories…   The first email from ITWeb referred to a Business World article stating that “EMC Philippines has unveiled a technology for ‘advanced virtual storage’”.   The very next email was from InfoWorld with the main article titled “Why some vendors regret becoming cloud providers“ , which talks about EMC’s regrets and why they are shutting down their Atmos  Online cloud storage service.

So who’s confused?   Everybody?

My personal opinion is that its everyone. EMC in my opinion is missing the point to an extent or don’t understand ‘the cloud’.  Sure the business model is tough and it might not make sense for a hardware vendor (or any vendor) to lose traditional business to its new cloud service offerings.  We’re face with exactly the same when our existing licensed solftware clients want to convert to SaaS solutions.

Here are a few points to consider if they don’t offer the service:

• Someone else will.  In my book, that’s lost opportunity.
• It doesn’t mean that existing customers will continue buying hardware forever (from EMC).  They may just consider alternatives at some point.
• They missing the potential parallel (backup) revenue stream – there are a lot of cloud adopters out there, and adoption is growing – fast.
• They shouldn’t be selling the same volumes ‘as a service’.  In other words: don’t sell the same volume – sell the same value!
• Cloud services may not generate the same revenue per customer in year 1, 2, 3 or 4, but by year 5 the scales start tipping.

That being said – I just need to emphasize that I don’t really understand the storage space – or the EMC Atmos model for that matter.  I’m merely commenting on the general premise of these articles that I find them both interesting and amusing that I should get these emails within 20 minutes of each other.  What these articles did do however is leave me wondering who’s not getting it – the vendors, reporters or me?

That being said – I think we might finally be coming out of the Gartner hype-cycle peak with regards to cloud computing.  People are starting to understand the value proposition as well as the long term cost implications.   Some of the vendors are starting to hit the stumbling blocks (alla EMC articles) and these are going to expose those that jumped on the bandwagon without a full understanding of what it’s all about….   Infoworld posted another worthy read that points to some of the potential shortfalls and realities of cloud computing and SaaS titled “Is the SaaS experiment finally over?”

Well, I hope you got some value from my ramblings…

Happy reading.