This is a very interesting slide deck on Internet Trends. Specifically when you dissect digital media into audio, photo, video and audio you see we are just at the beginning of a huge growth in demand for Cloud Services to support our digital lifestyle. When you combine what we want digitally with how we use it and socialize using it, the volume of digital content will grow at an unbelievable rate through 2035. internettrends052913final-130529094939-phpapp02
As enterprises come to grips with Cloud Computing demands (both internal and external) the IT groups will soon realize that the Hybrid model is the “best fit” for the new Enterprise IT organization. This will also force a closer alignment with various business units and provoke a rethink of the costing models for IT. can IT really stay a coast center given the inevitable variable demand curve of Cloud Services? Enterprise IT shops will consider various vendors (E.G., Azure, HP, VMware, Amazon & others) in light of the matrix created by matching customers service type needs to flexibility of leveraging a vendors Cloud Service offerings to suit the enterprise’s complex business needs. the ease of entrance and exit will be the driving forces behind vendor selection not just cost but ease of achieving true operational excellence.
Finance, Corporate Strategy, Biz Units and IT will collaborate to determine which “flavor” of Cloud Services are needed. For example the SaaS, IaaS or PaaS models may all be needed in the view of the business objectives. The decision of what kind of service offerings to implement will drive IT’s customers to do a functional decomposition of existing applications and distil what services are used today. This will lead to an “applicability analysis” of which type of Cloud implementation makes good business sense. Some may choose from Cloud Platform as a Service, Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Cloud as a Software Service model. These may also include convent “off ramp & on ramp” strategies to allow customers to switch as circumstances dictate. An example of the choices is illustrated below:
As we look at today’s complex product, business and end-user requirements, some key ideas must be addressed to achieve profit margin goals. Almost all electronic products today utilize software, hardware and multiple suppliers/vendors to complete product functionality. The chart below is meant to trigger thinking about key items that must be included in the today’s electronic product engineering process.
As enterprises with regulatory concerns/mandates migrate to the Cloud (Private, Public, or Hybrid) compliance with regards to privacy and security will ether be barriers or demand enabling technologies.
Tricks like leveraging encryption of data at rest while keeping active keys elsewhere will allow immediate use of the IaaS platform’s compliance methods and limit the application’s need to make drastic changes in code to accommodate compliance monitoring logic.
I have a controversial view that the new SaaS adoption rates will be served more by focusing on user benefits VS “tech-selling” buzzwords. A practical example of this would be that I believe the growth in numbers of the “boomer” generation is going to drive more customers to the SaaS/IaaS platform providers. E.G., MyGait below offers not only a computer system tuned to older user needs (magnification, large keys, etc.) but also a service program and financing that essentially signs up the buyer to a SaaS model by selling features and benefits they need.
A combination of color coding and Input Method Editor (IME) options is perfectly suited for the older user in the US and international community.
A good working example of this is the lighting fast adoption rate in Mobile TelCo of the Windows Phone & Android applications.
HIPAA Network Architecture Using MSFT Azure
An example of leveraging Cloud Services is to deploy an application that services the healthcare industry by ultilizing the Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS) model E.G., Azure: