The Boundary-Free Enterprise and Anytime/Anyplace Hybrid Computing

An emerging and disruptive master architecture – combining Cloud, Mobile, Social and Data Analytics plus Integration to on-premises Data Assets – is now forming to enable the Boundary-free Enterprise™ that Saugatuck foresaw in 2008. The Boundary-free Enterprise will not be constrained by organizational boundaries and firewalls, but can enable a new model of work and facilitate new business relationships that are not bound by time or place. Nevertheless, there are new risks and challenges that must be managed for its rewards to be fully realized.

Table 1 - Convergence in the Cloud: 21st Century Organizations, Boundary Free and Global

20^th Century Organization *Largely Within Borders and Bounds*	21^st Century Organization *Boundary-Free and Global*
Economies of Scale	Speed of Response
Volume Production	Agile Economies
Industrial Workers	Knowledge Workers
Regional, National and International	Global Organizations
Vertical Integration	Virtual Integration
Hierarchical Structures	Distributed Networks
Planes, Trains and Automobiles	Mobile Devices, Browsers and the Web

Source: Saugatuck Technology

Expectations of creating – or participating in – a dominant Cloud platform today, as the Microsoft operating environment was in the PC era, are completely unrealistic. Successful Cloud providers will design their solutions to interoperate with as many other solutions as possible in order to enable the aggregate value from their combined utility. This is one of the defining characteristics of Cloud value – and the emerging master architecture – for the Boundary-free Enterprise. Business enterprises taking advantage of anytime / anyplace hybrid computing must understand the nature of their risks and of the potential rewards.

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Mike West

Michael West is Vice President with Saugatuck Technology. His areas of research and consulting expertise include Cloud Computing, “Enterprise Ready” SaaS, ISVs in transition to SaaS, Cloud Development platforms, SaaS Integration, Social Computing platforms, and GRC. In 2000, Mr. West joined Saugatuck as an early co-founder after leaving Gartner, Inc., where he served as Vice President and Research Director. In 2004-5, Mr. West spent a year in Washington, D.C. at the Corporate Executive Board as Practice Manager of the Information Risk Executive Council, before returning to work at Saugatuck and re-focusing his interests on Software-as-a-Service and Cloud platforms. Mr. West has over twenty years experience in Information Technology at John Hancock, Fidelity Investments, Apple Computer, and Gartner. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and other industry events on a wide range of topics concerning technology and business strategy. He has written and presented research on information management, data administration, applications development, application integration, object technology, client/server architectures, graphical user interface and usability strategies, web site development and Internet applications, network computing, electronic commerce, portals, hubs and communities. Mr. West has an A.B. from Williams College , M.A. from Johns Hopkins University and M.B.A. from the Boston College Graduate School of Management. He has taught IT Strategies in M.B.A. programs at the Boston College Graduate School of Management and at the Haas School of the University of California at Berkeley.

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