TomkoTek - Latest Comments

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

GS Pay Scale 2011 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:55:25 -0000

Oh!...that's
great helpful, it's so right to me! Million thanks for the article,

Re: Corporate Twitter? The Three S’s That Must Be Overcome

Remove Spyware — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 05:46:28 -0000

I can't agree with your points any more. 3 S:)

Re: Google: “..no brag, just fact”

A. Theisen — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:53:39 -0000

If you want every, EVERY aspect of your life seen and controlled by Google (therefore and thereafter the Government) by all means sell your soul to the devil and immerse yourself and all you own and hold dear with Google. Just never, EVER say you weren't warned!

Re: Corporate Twitter? The Three S’s That Must Be Overcome

Patrick Mooney — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:17:40 -0000

Interesting post. Twitter is evolving and with that comes management. I've noticed more and more of my original circle of twitter friends (some 4 years old) all going private. It's really the only way to keep twitter the way it was intended, not as a self promotional tool, but a microblog. I maintain two accounts, one public, one private. I have tightly control access on my private and have some 400 solid followers, who follow me back. I aim to convert public account holders over to my private where a strong bond/relationship can be had. Good lucking finding your own twitter balance :)

Re: Corporate Twitter? The Three S’s That Must Be Overcome

Chris Jones — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:24:59 -0000

I agree w/ Nigel. Inside the firewall, I think the time is now to start trusting employees to communicate openly on group topics, and to use their judgment when email, phone or (heaven forbid) F2F is more appropriate. We've all been buried by emails and distribution lists that would have been far better served as an "open wire" (behind the firewall) dialog or chat, creating the opportunistic "oh, I didn't know that was happening" communication that only Twitter (sorry, micro-blogging) can effectively spark electronically, in real-time.

I see Twitter and solutions like it will have an evolutionary impact on communications when they begin to take hold inside the firewall. And why wait for this? Security in the corporate setting has been solved.

Granted, when information is going outside and across the firewall, who uses Twitter and "safe ground" for tweet topics is a bit more complicated. There have been some great posts on the 'spectrum' of corporate views on how to interact with the public using Twitter including Marketing, PR & Customer Service guidance. This is evolving.

But let's not sacrifice the internal work group benefit to wait for the external Marketing & PR side to catch-up. It's time to get down to the business of effective 1:n corporate communication.

Twitter represents a powerful new medium for more effective enterprise collaboration.

Re: Corporate Twitter? The Three S’s That Must Be Overcome

nigellegg — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:21:32 -0000

Excellent post. I think twitter, facebook, etc are much the same way as any other channel of communications - just that, a channel. No one in a corporation would pick up a phone and tell people outside the corporation confidential information; in the same way, employees must know what they can and cannot say on twitter - and that must be clearly defined by the corporation.

Re: Are you ‘Chrome’d-out?

gmtomko — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:28:52 -0000

Bryan: thanks for your perspectives. I really hesitated before posting about Chrome, since there has been so much buzz. But, the reality is that we are seeing a grand chess game happening before us: Oracle acquiring Sun; Google with their Chrome franchise; Bing; Windows 7; Android; etc. etc. Then there is all of the 'cloud' nonsense. Since there is no clear 'winner' in this horse race, people are trying to size up the horses and make a reasonable bet. Me, I like to watch and take a more expansive view. Thanks again.

Re: Are you ‘Chrome’d-out?

bryanrbeal — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:57:47 -0000

Great analysis, like always. The Chrome OS is not too surprising as a lot of analysts and tech followers viewed the Chrome browser as the first step towards a "thin client" OS. And we all know that Google has its sites set on Microsoft's cash cow, and vice-versa. I think this first iteration of Chrome OS will get good penetration among early adopters and techies, but I expect it will be a while before we see the major notebook manufacturers selling a lot of Netbooks with the Chrome OS. It will happen, however, and will undoubtedly gain market share. What is to be seen is if Google's gain is at the loss of Linux or Microsoft. I think Microsoft is better positioned to hedge against Google and predict Linux desktop operating systems will be the hardest hit. Microsoft will hit back, and as a profit-driven company, has the resources needed to compete effectively against Google for desktop market share. Keep up the great analysis!

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Doug Menefee — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:17:26 -0000

Too much attention is paid to the term "cloud computing". Cloud Computing is the current buzz term and half the reps don't even understand it. We have been able to successfully leverage the cloud for 50-60 perecent of our processes and have been doing it for over 4 years now.

As a mid size business we are able to leverage data center solutions and "cloud" solutions. Our data center solutions end up becoming a "cloud" solution for businesses we outsource business processes to.

The greatest benifit we have gotten out of "cloud" solutions - Leverage the platform or product and build innovative solutions on top of it without having to worry about hardware infrastructure.

We utilize:
Salesforce.com, Force.com (Salesforce's platform), Workday, Eloqua, Google apps, apttus, ADP and Tangier. Each has its own benifits and all have had a solid delivery in regards to uptime. Most deliver features and functions every 2-3 months.

Douglas Menefee
CIO
Schumacher Group

Re: Google: “..no brag, just fact”

charlie rein — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:20:27 -0000

I agree with your comments, google is like apple and microsoft and how they commanded their markets. I am trying to transition all my files and applications over, they keep raising the bar and changing the landscape as to how business is done and how we communicate. I started looking at WAVE, and trying to figure out all their apps.

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Lance Walter — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:10:38 -0000

Just about anything that gets over-hyped draws instinctive skepticism from the grizzled-vet crowd, and I agree with some of the comments that this may be natural and good and part of any potentially-disruptive, exciting new technology or model entering the market.

Sure - people are confused, skeptical, have imaginary as well as legitimate concerns. But wasn't that true in the early days of client-server? or the internet? open source? web 2.0? SaaS apps? I'd wager that it might even go back to disruptive technologies like PC word-processing although I wasn't an IT person back then. As the skeptics raise questions, the proponents will attempt to address them (either through debate or through refinement of the technology/model) and it will succeed..... or fail. We'll see.

And there may be more of an assumption of "black and white" opinions amongst cloud proponents and skeptics. I'm personally incredibly optimistic about the value and impact of cloud computing, but also completely agree that no giant enterprise is going to flip a switch and go all-cloud any time soon for many of the reasons you mention.

Thx for a good post.

-Lance

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

gmtomko — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:56:58 -0000

The conversation has been great but a few things should be noted. I think that the presumption that folks lining up against what has been a marketing "mess" -- you know, those looking for the steak in all the sizzle -- are grizzled veterans in their own right. In terms of operations, standards, etc. We know how to run data centers and found out a long time ago that people that specialize in doing so can do it better, faster, cheaper. I was an early ASP adopter and also negotiated and presided over global outsourcing agreements with contract values in the hundreds of millions. As for job security, what IT person in their right mind feels job secure? Most became mercenary years ago driven by big demand spikes (i.e. year 2000) that put them at odds with a differential between the market and what employers were willing to pay. If anything, many would welcome a shift to create a new market for hard to find skills.

Having said all of that, the value proposition has not been clearly stated and resonated. Right now, it's a reduce cost play and a buy as a service instead of having an asset on your books. Security is HUGE for companies that deal with personal data, health care, military (i.e. ITAR), etc.

So, if someone wants to offer me an outsourcing deal and lower my costs by connecting data centers from varying suppliers together, running grids, enabling me to ARC and RRC storage and processing (virtual servers) on the fly and call it a "cloud" so be it. But, at the end of the day they slapped a label on everything they already had in the first place.

And as the customer, I get to have that resold to me. In some cases, I may have already paid for it once before.

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Christofer Hoff — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:34:31 -0000

Hey George.

As I responded to you in Twitter, I have a little different perspective. I don't see how the Cloud can be considered to be turning when it's barely even started to come in. ;)

What do I mean?

I think I summarized it fairly well in my blog post here titled "Most CIO’s Not Sold On Cloud? Good, They Shouldn’t Be…": http://www.rationalsurvivabili... <-- I do not think that means what you think that means ;)

Good food for thought.

/Hoff

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Jeff Beardsley — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:33:20 -0000

I'm much in agreement with Peter's perspective. I really wonder why people get so religiously wrapped around the axel, either pro or con, when it comes to cloud. It's a tool folks - use it where it's appropriate, and don't use it where it's not.]

I believe the fundamental difference of cloud computing isn't the technology per se, but that cloud is a completely different economic/cost model, and that difference drives (when properly/efficiently used) an *evolutionary* architectural/operational model. Of course there are some additional differences to more traditional models as Peter points out (security, data ownership, location, SLAs, etc). However I frequently wonder when I hear all the complaining about the additional time/risks/costs to ensure compliance, data integrity & security issues are taken care of in the cloud - how many were also performing those same steps on their internal systems, and at what cost? I think for too many, cloud computing would *force* them to take steps in those areas they've ignored in their own shops, and that's when the additional costs come in - costs that should have been there all along in reality. Having been on both sides, I can say SaaS and cloud vendors get asked those questions every single day, and they can't just pay lip service to the answers.

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Drew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:32:15 -0000

As noted above, the BIG concern about cloud computing is SECURITY most importantly job security for traditional IT shops. Suddenly they aren't necessarily the gatekeepers for the corporation. For new tasks especially they have to compete with outsiders who don't have legacy costs or mindsets. Cloud computing isn't going to sweep away the old ways in a year or two. After all GM still makes Buicks right? Don't they?

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Steve Friedberg — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:18:33 -0000

Points well taken all around, folks. I'd refer you to the McKinsey report (yes, I know), which insists on differentiating between the cloud and cloud services. Let's clarify and know exactly what we're talking about.

In addition, the *hype* has been significant, and George's post is one more sign that we may be progressing toward the "Trough of Disillusionment." This is not a bad thing; someone needs to be crying loud and long that too many emperors in this space ain't wearing no clothes.

But let's not lose sight of cloud computing's proven benefits for any number of companies. The ability to design, implement and operate a system in a fraction of the time and cost is an ability that must not be overlooked, hype notwithstanding.

The message, I guess, is that companies should take all this stuff with a grain of salt, but not rule it out. Depending on their needs, ranging from Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in a production environment to Data Warehousing as a Service (DaaS), they should do their due diligence and see if it makes financial and operational sense. If it does, cloud computing should be heartily embraced. If not, move on. Just like any other technology.

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Peter Kretzman — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:15:50 -0000

I'm seeing a huge and disturbing backlash here, more disturbing (to me) than the excessive hype surrounding cloud computing. As people have long pointed out on Slashdot, one oh-so-typical reaction to a new technology or approach is for industry veterans to loftily claim that they've been doing it for years (this happened, for example, with object-oriented programming, in spades).

But cloud computing is NOT just another name for ASP or timesharing or network computing, and it's not by any means limited to SaaS. When BusinessWeek publishes a major article on the phenomenon (last week) and gets it COMPLETELY wrong, that tells me that the trend hasn't come close to any kind of peak, much less having turned the tide.

Cloud computing's compelling case (sorry for the alliteration) is one of COST reduction and elasticity and flexibility, not one of sudden new functionality per se. BusinessWeek got this entirely wrong. It honestly isn't about "taking out your credit card and ringing up Amazon to stand up some servers real quick", either. eHarmony recently did a project where they took a monthly expense of $5K down to $1.5K with cloud computing. (http://bit.ly/z7uQy). Here's another study of a startup using cloud approaches and reaping a lot of benefits: http://bit.ly/4vQX9D

None of that is to say that there aren't legitimate concerns and issues to be worked through: security, avoiding vendor lock-in, establishing process, etc. These are real and large. But I honestly don't understand when people claim that cloud computing is just the same old stuff with a different name.

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

BobMarche — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:03:54 -0000

Thanks for the useful info. It's so interesting

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Richard Tibbetts — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:50:52 -0000

I agree we are seeing excessive hype. That's hard to argue. The missing link for any cloud deployment is applications that can take advantage of elasticity. Without elasticity, cloud computing is just another way to lease servers or manage virtual machines.

But elasticity is real work. You legacy applications were not built to scale across a variable number of servers. Most likely they run on a single machine. If they scale at all, it is across a fixed set of carefully configured servers.

For most business applications, the value of hour-by-hour scale up and scale down are low. The applications you have are valuable enough to run in a fixed deployment, or you wouldn't have them. The potential savings aren't going to be enought to drive the required investment to make legacy apps eslastic.

That sounds like bad news, but it will work out in the long term. Slowly but surely, customers are going to demand that new applications and platforms be elastic from the start. Even if they don't deploy them in a private cloud, it is going to start out as a checkbox in the evaluation project and eventually grow into a real deployment requirement.

So cloud computing will work in the long run. But there is not going to be a tornado of adoption in the short term. The economics won't justify it.

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

George Moraetes, CISM, CGEIT — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:19:11 -0000

Another way I view this cloud computing model, it evolved from the outsourcing madness as no one wants to build out and maintain data centers and the IT personnel to run them. Instead, they pay as they go using the facilities of a far and distant data center since it is cheap and one gets what they pay for.

Security is a HUGE issue and here are some of the issues I see when computing, data, authentication/authorization to access the data and ownership:

1. Privileged user access. Sensitive data processed outside the enterprise brings with it an inherent level of risk, because outsourced services bypass the physical, logical and personnel controls big time. IT shops exert over in-house programs and imagine the legalities if a serious breach occurred and your "cloud" is in India or China, who knows where!

2. Data location. When you use the cloud, nobody knows exactly where the data is hosted. In fact, you might not even know what country it will be stored in.

2. Regulatory compliance. Customers are ultimately responsible for the security and integrity of their own data, even when it is held by a service provider. Traditional service providers are subjected to external audits and security certifications. See #1 above who owns your data and where is it located physically?

Tons more of security issues involved and everyone seems hell bent to gravitate and adopt this model which is gravely wrong. Executives never see the ramifications of serious security breaches, loss of control over computing and the data that pins the foundation of their company.

George Moraetes, CISM, CGEIT
Information Security Executive
http://www.moraetes.com
Twitter, AIM, MSN & Yahoo IM: TriumphCISO

Re: Is the Tide turning against Cloud Computing?

Jim Kenzig — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:51:22 -0000

I wholeheartedly agree call it ASP, call it OnDeman computing, call it virtual computing or a big puffy Cloud but whatever you call it, stop trying to shove it down my throat! Look SOME people will give up their destops but you will never get the numbers these "visionaries" are claiming. It isnt going to happen. It didnt work when they tried to call it ASP 14 years ago and it isnt going to now.
I consider myself to be a leader in embracing technologies. The cloud can only serve a small niche market and that market is already saturated by app vendors who have got it right and have already been doing it a long time . (SAP, ADP, etc.) The only ones who are making money with cloud are the marketing guys coming up with the names for this stuff.