“He’s an ideas man” says Darryl Kerrigan as he describes Steve, his innovative son who invented such things as the “Broom and Hose” and the “Motorcycle helmet with the built in brake light”, in the movie The Castle.
Steve was an ideas man, however one would argue that it was the low cost of entry that enabled him to see and act on things that others clearly couldn’t. One can only ponder what Steve might have developed if he had access to the Cloud.
My name’s James Vickery and this is my story.. kind of.
One of the lesser told stories of cloud computing is the ability to spark innovation at an extremely rapid rate compared to the modern innovation of just a few short years ago. Think about it, virtually every idea or concept dreamed up by individuals and corporations over at least the past 25 years or so has involved some element of IT and for that very reason, many great ideas have been knocked on the head simply because hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars would need to be spent upfront before the project could even get started, not to mention the ongoing maintenance and support costs. All of this on the assumption that the idea was even a good one.
Thus, up until recently innovation has been left to the very rich or to the very few concepts that don’t require hardware, software and large scale internal IT systems and processes.
In my role as a technology consultant I’ve met ideas people every day. I can’t begin to tell you how many extraordinarily passionate people there are out there with great ideas that would help move their industry forward or solve a problem for a sector of the community. I’ve participated in creative sessions, planning and strategic board meetings and i’ve listened, often just as wide eyed as the inventor himself as he describes how he can fill a void in the world.
Some of these projects have gone ahead quite successfully, however they are the few compared to those that were put to bed early – why? The cost of entry was simply too high in proportion to the risk.
Cloud us already creating an innovation tipping point and will continue to grow exponentially
We haven’t yet scratched the surface of how cloud computing will transform our businesses and the industries we work within. At present, cloud is discussed in the form of saving money, a way to leverage online systems such as Email or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) without the capital expenditure of purchasing hardware. All of this is true however it’s a rather slanted view focused on taking what we have now and reducing its operational cost. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this attitude and I encourage exploring new ways to solve old challenges however this is just the tip of the iceberg and few businesses are aware of how the competitive landscape is already changing in their industry.
Elastic technology means ideas (and their subsequent projects) no longer need to be static with rigid timeframes and outcomes
Public cloud technology such as Amazon Web Services, HP Cloud and Microsoft Azure provide what we describe as an Elastic Computing Model whereby a user of the service decides upon and orders precisely how much CPU, Memory, Hard Disk Storage and Internet Bandwidth he or she requires and can scale up or down as needed. The services work like ‘virtual hardware and software’ and provide a platform for users to build software and applications which, rather than being limited to a small geographic area, can be scaled globally at a rapid rate or kept in a small test environment at minimal cost.
While in the past one might have an idea say for a Social Network (let’s say Twitter), one might have calculated the cost of rolling out computer systems globally, then the cost of software and the resources required to put all of this together. Millions of dollars would have to be spent on a rather quirky and well.. kinda stupid idea by those days standards. Instead, Twitter and thousands of other obscure applications are tested, developed and launched in the cloud and gradually scaled up as they gain popularity eventually resulting in Twitter’s case, a global phenomenon. Rather than investing in hardware and software, venture capital can be directed at people, marketing and the pay-as-you-grow cloud.
Now perhaps you don’t see a value in Twitter, but maybe you’re a health services firm with a concept to transform the way people connect with their medical practitioners, or a legal specialist with a concept to share precedents amongst the industry faster. Either way, the cloud eliminates one major barrier which is the cost of the infrastructure allowing breathing room for the concept itself to grow, there are other barriers such as finding qualified software developers or marketing a concept that hasn’t been tested before, but these are business problems not IT problems and really this is where the ideas man or womanought to be able to centre his or her focus.
Cloud (in particular the elastic Public Cloud) has not yet been tapped by small to medium business and has largely been used by start ups and big business. When ideas people catch on to this technology we will see a fundamental shift in the way we do business.
In summary, next time someone says “tell him his dreamin’ ” let’s just remember that for a few dollars per hour, that ideas man could very well reshape an entire marketplace.
Law firms looking to purchase or upgrade LEAP LEgal Software may be wondering how they can take advantage of new, affordable technology like Cloud Computing. Cloud allows businesses to sign up for online services such as email and online backup on a user pays model rather than with upfront capital expenditure.
LEAP is the leading legal software for small law firms, and through its experience has developed a set of specifications for hardware and software that LEAP must run on. The advantage of this approach is that it reduces the risk of ongoing problems for its customers – the disadvantage to some is the upfront and ongoing cost of IT purchases and maintenance.
From a technical and commercial perspective, LEAPs approach is an understandable one and one which I continue to support as a LEAP IT Partner but it can restrict some firms from quickly adopting LEAP Legal Software while they budget for and await the installation of new computer equipment. There is a win/win however and that is through the use of “hybrid” cloud technologies delivered by law technology specialists, I Know IT. The team have developed a solution that supports a user-pay model whilst meeting all of LEAPs technical requirements. The solution provides additional value by enabling firms to run LEAP virtually from any device such as iPad, Mac, Windows and iPhone – the latter being a little restrictive on such a small screen of course.
There are numerous other benefits of hybrid cloud computing for law firms including no upfront capex costs
Last week I was invited as a guest blogger at HP Tech Day in Sydney, an event designed to communicate to the new media and create engaging conversations around HPs latest (and possibly riskiest) foray in technology – the cloud.
One of the difficult things I find about attending any event run by an IT vendor is that the information is often too technical and irrelevant to most people, or too salesy, leaving out key facts or relevant details in place of slogans and branding. HP recognised this and created the event to try and communicate their launch of HPs converged cloud. It wasn’t exactly free of commercialism but the ability to interact with executives and technology experts made it a valuable exercise none the less. in short, HP are launching their own Public Cloud and my aim in this article is to boil down what that means for you as a business and how you might leverage this technology in the future. [...]
An enormous amount of content and topics covered here at the HP cloud event, if you’re not following on Twitter that’s ok, you can check it out any time if you want to piece together the thoughts from the panel here which includes various HP execs and tech bloggers.
I’ll expand on the topics in later articles however wanted to push out some thoughts now and see if you would like me to build upon any of these.
Icon by icon – cloud will gradually become the norm
We talked today about the challenges and unlikely scenario where a company simply ‘goes to the cloud’ there is a strong belief that unless you’re a startup business with no legacy software and hardware in your business, you’ll adopt cloud ‘icon by icon’.
You can’t point at your IT anymore
In other words, you may have become accustomed to the ‘server shrine’ in your office somewhere, now your IT is (or will be) distributed all over the country or the world.
Businesses need cloud education
There’s a strong view here that most business owners don’t have the time or the energy to learn about cloud but that there are some enormous benefits which could solve some real business challenges.
Federated sign on – is this what innovation is all about?
Businesses are frustrated when they need to constantly sign on with different usernames and passwords , cloud is highly distributed and everyone has their own view on security and how to handle this, in the meantime businesses are stuck with some clunkiness when logging in to all of these services.
Businesses can innovate far more rapidly now that they aren’t limited by infrastructure costs
No longer limited by the need to purchase thousands of dollars in hardware, businesses can leverage cloud to ‘spin up’ virtually any IT environment they need and only pay for what they use.
IT CIOs and IT managers will rapidly lose relevance if they can’t shift from being integrators and maintainers of technology to procurers of services that meet business demands, the 80/20 rule has flipped
Again remember, I’ll expand on these points but in short, the ‘geeky’ IT guy will rapidly run out of things to do once the cloud is in full force and IT staff will need a business focus more than ever in order to stay relevant.
Lots of interesting stuff. I’d love to hear your thoughts and stay tuned for more on this over the next couple of days as I compile my notes.
If you’re thinking about starting a blog, or procrastinating about spending time on social media or Twitter, you’ve probably had things go through your mind such as “what if nobody reads” or “I don’t think I have the time to write or tweet” and you may be right except my experience has been the opposite. Having blogged and used social media (other than for updating my status on Facebook) going on 3 years now the number of unexpected friends, colleagues, business opportunities and small speaking engagements that have come as a direct result has been incredible. In short, it’s not my goal but it certainly is a testament to the power of connecting with people online.
This week I’m one of a handful of special guests at an HP event of which they are running to connect a small group of bloggers with HP executives surrounding HPs new Cloud services. The agenda includes discussions with Christian Verstraete (CTO of Cloud Strategy), Archie Reed (CTO for Enterprise Services), Paul Muller (Chief IT Management Evangelist) as they outline their strategy and interact directly with attendees.
So.. what this means is that this Thursday (12/4) I’ll be tweeting live from the Sydney event (@JamesVickery) and submitting quite a few questions on behalf of our clients and our own team here at I Know IT. If you have any questions about HP and the cloud, in particular how it might affect your business or what benefits you might see in the future then go ahead and comment below or send me a message on Twitter. In other words, I’m in the room with the people who can answer these questions so now is a great opportunity to ask..
Cheers,
JV
It’s a given that you need the Internet to run your business right? I dare say few businesses, if any, would consider operating without the Internet. Indeed, few would survive long without connecting to their customers, peers, colleagues and suppliers without an Internet presence. Yet, today, most businesses rarely talk in terms of ‘the internet’ but rather, we speak in terms of what the Internet delivers. “I went online and ordered the New iPad”, “I logged in and checked my email”, “I connected to work so I could check in on our sales figures”. Occasionally we might discuss the Internet with a technical slant “the Internet is slow today”, “We’re getting a new broadband internet connection next week” and so forth but rarely do we delve into the intricacies of global telecommunications unless something is wrong or a financial decision is being made.
The cloud on the other hand, continues to be talked about like the early days of the Internet, it’s been referred to as something that one can take or leave, something to be discussed as a possibility or a “maybe” or a flat out “no”. The cloud terminology is so new that it’s viewed in many circles as something to be possibly avoided altogether. Yet, [...]
What is cloud? The cloud is the Internet. Before cloud was a buzz word, cloud was (and still is) illustrated on a network diagram signifying access to a service or a device outside the company LAN (local area network). Really, it’s just a picture of a cloud that is used as a communication tool for what the network looks like.
Before discussing, debating or digesting terms like private cloud,
public cloud or hybrid cloud, in simple terms “the cloud” is any service you use outside your 4 walls. This blog is in the cloud. Your Internet banking is in the cloud and, one day perhaps, many of your business tools you use today within your company network will be in the cloud too.
Wow! What a week it has been over at I Know IT. When we decided to launch an event demonstrating the real side of the cloud – the data center – we had no idea the kind of response we would get. To have such an enthusiastic group of CEO’s, MD’s and CIO’s attend this I Know IT event certainly says a lot about cloud and how keen leaders are to learn about this technology and how it impacts their business.
The event, titled Down to Earth Cloud Computing was sponsored by PACNet and attendees enjoyed lunch followed by an exclusive behind the scenes tour of PACNet’s new data center in Liverpool St, Sydney.
I think attendees took away different outcomes from the event, but certainly the common theme was “cloud is here to stay”. With such a massive investment in data center’s like PACNet’s $40m facility, and to see empty floors just ready to be converted into more rack space for servers I think many within the group were blown away by the sheer investment in cloud computing.
Post event it has been really interesting to see and hear the shift from “what is the cloud?” to talking about how their own individual needs can be met by the cloud. This really resonated for me because you often wonder running an IT event if it will be too technical or too dull for attendees. In this case the conversation is now moving toward a constructive discussion about what services may be suitable in the data center versus on premise.
This has certainly been a great “lunch ‘n learn” and I most definitely look forward to hosting many more.
If you’re thinking about shifting to the cloud, or you’re already dabbling in Cloud technologies to drive your business perhaps you’ve wondered what kind of IT support you’ll need in the future. After all, if Cloud shifts your technology from your office to a data center either onshore or offshore, surely this will reduce if not negate the need for IT support in the future?
The answer to this again lies in how cloud is adopted within an organisation. Like any fundamental shift in the way you work and do business, there often needs to be cost benefits to make it worthwhile. The ability to reduce server infrastructure will mean that server management and server outages can be dealt with offsite and away from your business (and hopefully such outages are short lived). On the other hand, managing a potentially ever growing number of vendors, an increased number of devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets (iPad, Android Tablet, Blackberry Playbook) and mobile phones the modern office isn’t getting any simpler but rather, the technology is shifting and moving around more frequently requiring an IT professional with a broad base of knowledge to ensure it all fits together and plays nicely.
The IT support professionals who understand that IT isn’t necessarily about selling and maintaining servers [...]
With all of this talk of Cloud Computing you’d be forgiven for pricking your ears up and wondering if you should be taking immediate or long term action if any at all, in relation to cloud for your own business IT needs.
Like many investments, there are always personal circumstances to take into consideration before recommending a shift to cloud. The limiting factor in many cases is not whether you can shift to cloud, but whether your applications will be cloud friendly. As well as this, there needs to be a cost benefit or a value add for shifting to the cloud. We discussed the value of cloud in an earlier article in this series and we also have covered some other important topics about Cloud in the entire series if you’d like to start from the beginning.
Although there are many reasons one may decide to shift to the cloud, there are some typical circumstances that often make it a good time to make the decision. [...]
