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.)
...
What is Happening? — Saugatuck Technology research among enterprise business and IT executives makes clear one of the most substantial and disruptive trends seen since the advent of the Web, email, and distributed computing:
The pace of Cloud-driven business innovation is outstripping even the accelerating pace of IT innovation – and therefore is outpacing the abilities of established IT and business management organizations and structures.
...
What is Happening? To great fanfare, Microsoft announced its new Surface tablets this week. The demonstrations showed a well-designed piece of hardware that shows tremendous promise to help Microsoft establish and grow a user presence, and therefore ecosystem and revenue presences, in the fastest-growing computing segment today.
The Surface tablets offer a few innovations, including a built-in kickstand and combined keyboard/face cover, along with a solid set of functional capabilities that should be expected in any competitive tablet device today. Pricing has not been set, nor has availability. Given that the tablets will require the widespread availability and use of Windows 8, and that Windows 8 has not been released (and is still building early developer and support ecosystem presence), it’s really up in the air right now as to whether or not the Surface line will succeed. It certainly looks competitive from our point of view. The Surface specs and functional details are outside the scope of this Research Alert.
...
The shift away from 19th-century business organizations and 20th century IT is a shift toward boundary-free enterprises that requires significant change, fundamental change, in IT and business architectures and models. As we move from the pre-Cloud era into and through a relatively short transitory period that emphasizes a blending, hybridized IT environment, we have to consider the massive impact this shift has and will have on enterprise IT organizations. It will change the mission, roles, and goals of IT organizations not only as they transition now, but again in a few years as they shift toward even more, new, Cloud IT.
IT organizations will be challenged by the need for Cloud speed versus the need to avoid the stumbles that come with an accelerated approach. Starting with a comprehensive vision of enterprise Cloud use is key to achieving this balance, and to enabling the scale of guidance that business orgs and users will require to understand what they have, how to use it, and how to work with IT to achieve that.
...
What is Happening? Earlier this week, several trade media outlets reported that Dell was in talks to acquire one of its core software partners, Quest Software. Quest offers solutions designed to “simplify the management of IT across physical, virtual and cloud environments,” according to its website. Regardless of whether or not the acquisition occurs, Saugatuck sees this type of activity as another indicator of two key trends:
Why is it Happening? Leading, competitive IT providers constantly acquire and divest other providers, technologies, and services to maintain and improve their competitive positioning. They follow trends based on what they see a critical mass of enterprise customers doing. And what the providers see their customers doing now is not only moving to Cloud, but changing – really, re-architecting – their IT and business infrastructures to reflect changing ways of doing business, and to reflect increasing/changing business opportunities.
...