/pcq/media/agency_attachments/L8pkS8gpnodJThOdAfv1.jpg)
Follow Us
New Update
http-equiv="Content-Type">
Mulholland, CTO,
day pretty well always starts, or ends, the same way, with a check
round the major manufacturers' press release sites, and some other
sites that general seem to cover all the small, but frequently pretty
innovative players. I have been doing this pretty well ever since it
became possible on the web, and before that I used various industry
magazines to note, yes really write down, what I considered important
enough that I wanted to make sure that I would remember. It's a
variation on the old trick of writing notes before exams to make sure
facts stick in your mind. Back in the mid-nineties some colleagues
asked if I would pass them a copy of these notes each month, and from
this it all built up to what Capgemini now publishes as the
Technology
Brief
on the first day of each month. align="LEFT">
If
you
have been tracking our industry month by month and including a
summary of some key topic each month you develop a pretty good feel
for what is really happening in a comprehensive and cohesive way from
assembling all the pieces and timescales. In the same way I examine
stories of how enterprises are applying the new technologies and at
the end of this post there is a striking example of moving 35,000
desktops onto mobility with services support. align="LEFT">
A
significant
change starts off with chips and development; goes into
start-ups (which these days get bought by the big players as a part
of their product portfolio changes), and emerges as new capabilities
adding to existing mainstream vendors' installed base. In parallel,
a pattern of losing business starts to show around some products as
their market gets overtaken. So what can we see in this year's late
summer/early autumn events? align="LEFT">
Starting
with
Intel, and a new partnership with Google over the development of
Android together with new development tools to support native
Android, coupled with changes in chip designs to strengthen graphics
and support multiple form factors. That's a game-change shift as
Intel has not been a mainstream player in the smartphone market so
clearly it sees tablets etc. as an important development. Add to that
its McAfee acquisition announcement of the DeepSAFE security platform
integrated at chip level to provide a revolution in Malware
protection for 'standalone' operations of devices consuming
'services' from many different sources in hybrid cloud situations
and the focus seems to be pretty clear. align="LEFT">
Meanwhile,
has announced a reduction in the numbers of products it
supports and is focusing on getting some 'second generation'
products like Google+ that really make use of the Android environment
as well as announcing new partnerships to the traditional providers
such as SAP signing up to embed Google Maps into its business
analytics offerings. IBM has added support for Android into its
social network platform, plus Apple and BlackBerry as well as
splitting its data storage operations into two parts; one to handle
the Big Data model of mass storage in a traditional sense, and the
other to handle a Big Data model of masses of small data with quick
real-time recovery and use. The summary being that the mobile device
and unstructured data world is rapidly converging with the
traditional IT world. align="LEFT">
HP
has
decided it doesn't want to be in the PC or tablet business, or
at least not around a competitive operating system to Apple and
Android with their webOS offering. In the meantime every other player
has introduced a tablet and other than Apple all are based on
Android, thus effectively creating a new de facto market standard
operating system. Talking of standards, Dell has increased its
support for Cloud services introducing their OpenStack Cloud Solution
based on the development of Cloud standards from the OpenStack
community, whilst the Open Data Center Alliance has got together with
the Open Compute group to really transform the resources delivery
model of data centers. It seems that we can see pretty clearly a new
era based on services delivered to mobility devices running Android,
supported by a new generation of data center capabilities. align="LEFT">
Not
so
fast though!! We are missing the not inconsiderable presence of
Microsoft, which has a comprehensive alternative with its Windows 8
approach to provide a common development and deploy platform for
devices, and the maturing Azure platform for development and
deployment of services. A comprehensive update in development tools
to support this creates an equally compelling picture. Equally
interesting are the product portfolio additions by SAP around its
HANA real-time platform, which now includes an upgraded Solution
Manager that handles orchestration of services as well as the
beginnings of a whole new portfolio of apps running on HANA. Plus a
new mobility platform based on its Sybase acquisition to change what
can be delivered to devices. align="LEFT">
Oracle,
and Cisco are all well into additions and changes to their
portfolios too, and a week or so back I covered
Salesforce.com and VMware moves into what they define as the
post-PC era
So, whichever products and partners make up your installed base, the
news is the same, and more interesting is the marketing shift into
whom and how these new capabilities are being taken to market. The
executive suite and the new capabilities to manage customers, events,
and real-time information in a tough market are the new sweet spot,
as much or even more than the focus on even more cost-cutting with
the CIO in the installed IT base. Oh and by the way the other point I
should make is that by counting the number of product changes month
by month the Monthly Technology Brief shows a continuing hockey stick
curve upwards reflective of the creation of a whole new environment
and use for technology that has been emerging over the last year. align="LEFT">
Are
people
buying into these changes? On one side some of the new leaders
show dramatic gains; Apple clearly, but so does Salesforce.com, which
illustrates a change in development practice from big applications
towards small apps with deployment as a service. Perhaps more telling
at this stage is what people are now buying less of as a sign that it
doesn't seem to be in their mainstream plans, and that includes
Nokia and BlackBerry smartphones, as well as PCs overall. The trouble
with much of the market figures is that they report on the basis of
the old market, and the gap that became apparent a couple of years
ago when CIOs reported low use of Software-as-a-Service and the
providers reported much higher figures is now probably true for the
device mobility market. The question is what should be measured when
use is unstructured and lacking in the conventional attributes that
are measured! Yup, back to the need for Social CRM in the front
office again! align="LEFT">
point? The CxO suite is asking for radical measures in one of the
toughest periods faced for many a year, and part of that package of
reforms requires more effective use of technology by support people,
process and real-time data in the turbulent trading markets of
various sectors. As an example, take a look at
radical approach the Australian airline Quantas is taking
with 35,000 staff being shifted from conventional desktop IT into
'bring your own' and connect as mobility to services. align="LEFT">
There
is
no less turbulence in the 'IT industry' itself in terms of the
products, services, methods etc. so it's time to reflect very
carefully on winners and losers and their product strategy when
considering how to deliver what the business is asking for beyond the
usual cost control. align="LEFT">
If you want to know what apps are being deployed to aid field
workers
using tablets and smartphones then there is a list that shows which
members of the USA Fortune 500 are running what. The summary is that
86% have one or more app already deployed, but it's interesting to
see exactly what they have deployed and in some cases how many apps
they have deployed already. Unfortunately, although I had the link it
has stopped responding, so if anyone has the list can you please
kindly share it on this page? Thanks.