Cloud Standards Are Most Expensive When You Don’t Have Them

The idea and figure below came to me during a somewhat passionate discussion of software standards last night at IBM SWG’s Analyst Insight event.

(Great event, BTW, and kudos to group boss Steve Mills and an exceptional group of executives for ensuring a focus on pragmatism and vision over blather; and super kudos to Sarita Torres of IBM and her exception AR group for keeping us all both intent and content.)

For those looking for more detail and insight, the idea below will be built into an upcoming Strategic Perspective for ourpremium research clients that develops the idea further, and provides more depth and guidance for clients, especially within our Boundary-free Enterprise™ model.

My net position is that the higher we go in the Saugatuck Cloud provider/technology & services EcoStack™, the greater the need for – and business benefit of – standards, whether specific to a technology or, more importantly, how technologies are used and work together.

We started establishing this position in a great Research Alert earlier this month on the crying need for workload standards. Our key point then was as follows:

Saugatuck believes that most efforts of the #OpenStack group, as well as other Cloud-oriented “open” groups like #CloudStack, The Open Group, and even the Open Grid Forum, will deliver limited benefit to enterprise Cloud users, mainly because these efforts tend to miss a core enterprise user Cloud need for openness and standardization: The ability to migrate and utilize workloads in Clouds, between Clouds, and between Clouds and on-premises IT (i.e., hybridized environments). Without this, such groups, while doing great work, are not developing / delivering Interoperability for users, as much as they are defining, developing and delivering new products.

I know, the discussion and position is not completely new. But our core position certainly seems to be widely ignored in most discussions about Cloud, at least when it comes to the need and desirability of standards. The deepest and most-involved discussions tend to devolve quickly down-stack to tech-specific standards (especially as regards development techs and tools), rather than standards for their use and interaction. I’m thinking of it as ignoring the fact that we’re in a forest, while we try to figure out what to do with all these trees.

My net: The higher we go in the EcoStack™, the fewer applicable and useful standards exist, but the more they are needed – and the greater the relative cost to the enterprise of not having them becomes.

My first piece of guidance for Cloud providers: Look up, not down, to maximize opportunity/profit for integration and customization. My initial guidance for users/buyers: Be aware that relatively few standards exist to get this stuff to work well together within business processes, and be very aware that that will end up costing you a lot more than you think (or plan) to make everything work together, despite the fact that it may come from the Cloud.

Here’s my vision of the situation:

Source: Saugatuck Technology Inc.

Bruce Guptill

Most research firms can explain what happened; some can explain what is happening. Saugatuck Technology excels at understanding both in order to explain what else is likely to occur, and to guide its clients toward the actions that deliver them the greatest business value while enabling the safest business path.
To accomplish this, and to continually improve the value of Saugatuck’s work to clients in a Cloud-obscured marketplace, Saugatuck SVP and Head of Research Bruce Guptill pushes his team to continually re-examine and re-invent the company’s research programs to focus more on the costs, benefits, effects, and value of an ever-changing mix of technologies and providers in different markets.
Guptill’s own technology and business background laid a solid foundation for such a flexible, yet stable, approach to IT research value for clients. His technology research work includes mobility, collaborative IT, telecom, data networking, web commerce, and electronic marketplaces; his research work for enterprise IT and business clients includes return on IT investment, total cost of IT ownership, and business planning for IT. His research and guidance on vendor channel management, market identification and development, and buyer behavior analysis has enabled hundreds of established and startup IT providers to find, enter, and profit from new and traditional markets, while helping to guide user enterprise leaders toward optimal IT procurement and vendor management.
Guptill’s research background includes several years as a VP and research director with Gartner, senior positions with TeleChoice and Robert Frances Group, and editorial work within the IDG companies, including four years as a writer and editor with NetworkWorld. His marketing business focus was honed as VP of marketing for firms ranging from custom development providers to non-IT firms in aviation and other industries. His sales and channel experience started by traveling with a sample bag, then working for IT VARs, then advising telecom and wireless carriers on partner choices, to developing partner programs for traditional and Cloud-based software development firms and ISVs.
Guptill holds an MBA in marketing and finance, and a BA in the psychology and business of mass media communication. He is licensed to fly airplanes, drive boats, and sell houses; he is also a certified baseball coach, serves on the boards of regional civic groups, and is a serial home renovator. Married with three children, Guptill resides on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, and is a lifelong fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

Comment disabled by author.