I just penned a guest post for Parallel’s Enterprise blog. It talks to the impact BYOD and CoIT has enabled Apple in the enterprise market. You can view the post here:
Gaining visibility to application performance is key. Application Performance Management (APM) solutions are not new and provide insight to tiers within an application stack. With the entry of cloud based computing in the past couple of years, the APM world got a bit more complex.
APM is mature enough to consider cloud-based providers in the application stack. In the classic model, an application has three layers in the stack: 1) Database layer, 2), Application layer and 3) Web layer. Depending on the complexity of the application, it may have 5 or more layers in the mix. Today, a cloud service provider may serve one or more of these layers.
Several solutions exist that support cloud-based APM. New Relic, OPNET, and CA are just a few examples. At the Under the Radar conference, Tracelytics presented their approach to APM. Tracelytics started two years ago by a small team of three to address a growing problem they observed in research from Brown University. I met with Spiros Eliopoulos, Co-Founder and CTO to discuss how Tracelytic’s approach differs from the competition.
So, what’s different? Bottom line: It has to do with the flexibility of the solution. As the application stack gets increasingly more complex, so does the management. The number of providers and shared resources is growing exponentially. According to Spiros, their solution “looks at each layer individually, then ties together the different layers to provide a complete view.” Tracelytics allows APM visibility through “drilldown performance across layers.” Their clever approach uses heat maps to visually find problem spots. Managing APM within layers and up/down the entire stack is key to providing clear visibility to correct problem areas quickly.
Many providers struggle with pricing strategies in today’s cloud and virtualized world. In the traditional computing world, it was easy to license solutions. Tracelytic’s approach continues to provide flexibility by focusing on the tracing volume rather than hosts or layers. The entire stack of an application is considered one application. So, whether you engage one application to report 10x per hour or 10 applications once per hour, the cost is the same. This is true regardless of the number of layers within the application stack. Nice!
Shadow IT is a good thing for IT organizations…and here’s why…
It is important to first understand what Shadow IT is and why it happens. Shadow IT is commonly referred to when non-IT organizations delve into the delivery of technology solutions…without IT’s involvement. It happens for a number of reasons. But the most common is when there is demand for a technology solution and it is believed (right or wrong) that IT is not able to assist or deliver the solution. This could be due to timing, availability, experience, bureaucracy, or a number of other factors. The bottom line is that the non-IT organization believes they can address a need better than the IT organization can.
In general, is Shadow IT a bad thing? Yes, but has the opportunity to evolve into a very good thing. Shadow IT (as it is often implemented today) is a reaction to a problem with a solution that is not ideal. The solution is a non-IT or trying to provide IT services. Unfortunately, this is often not their core competency and furthermore distracts from their core mission.
So, why is this new? In the past, it was hard for non-IT organizations to leverage technology without the assistance of IT. People were also not as familiar with technology. In the cloud-based world, leveraging technology is far easier. In addition, knowledge workers today are more familiar with technology than in past generations. For those that build shadow IT organizations, the believe is that it is the path of least resistance; build yourself or leverage IT. While not an ideal situation, it is often the only choice.
At the Forrester CIO Forum yesterday, 79% of business decision makers say they rely on technology to innovate in the business. 42% say IT is too bureaucratic and 11% of those business decision makers are bypassing IT.
The move to shadow IT is a good thing for IT. Why? It is a wake-up call. It provides a clear message that IT is not meeting the requirements of the business. IT leaders need to rethink how to transform the IT organization to better serve the business and get ahead of the requirements. There is a significant opportunity for IT play a leading role in business today. However, it goes beyond just the nuts and bolts of support and technology. It requires IT to get more involved in understanding how business units operate and proactively seek opportunities to advance their objectives. It requires IT to reach beyond the cultural norms that have been built over the past 10, 20, 30 years.
A new type of IT organization is required. A fresh coat of paint won’t cut it. Change is hard, but the opportunities are significant. This is more of a story about moving from a reactive state to a proactive state for IT. It does require a significant change in the way IT operates for many. That includes both internally within the IT organization and externally in the non-IT organizations. The opportunities can radically transform the value IT brings to driving the business forward.
Shadow IT is a turning point for IT. Embrace it and leverage the best that it can deliver while transforming how technology solutions are delivered. Look for ways to embrace the amplitude in change of technology, process and organization. Embrace change and look for ways to transform IT to better serve the business. Cloud is a significant opportunity to leverage for this change. Shed the ways of old and adopt the new. Opportunity awaits.
Moving workloads into Cloud Computing environments is on everyone’s task list. As one evaluates the choices between public and private cloud, the sizing of an environment quickly comes into view. How large or small should an environment be? Once you get started, how does one “rightsize” their cloud environment? As the cloud based environment, or environments start to grow, sizing them correctly will ensure that performance and financial objectives are kept in check.
Last week at the Under The Radar conference, I had a chance to meet with one company that addresses this need. I met with the Founder and CEO of Cloudyn, Sharon Wagner. Cloudyn’s approach is to evaluate cloud details and provide a set of recommendations. But that is just the start. Cloudyn’s approach is to ingest a number of variables via provider APIs from cost information to performance characteristics. Their solution is able to do this automatically even if negotiated pricing is in play with public cloud providers. The engine ingests cost elements from both public and private clouds. According to Sharon, the SaaS-based solution uses “a predefined algorithm that the user can modify to produce actionable recommendations. The recommendations provide specific details on the action to take and why”. Understanding the reason behind a decision puts users in a better position to make informed decisions. Armed with this information, users can size cloud environments more accurately and manage costs. Cloudyn’s solution takes it a step further to tie business metrics with technical metrics to derive metrics like ‘cost per transaction’.
Taking it a different direction, users can leverage the recommended actions to feed into the orchestration layer of their cloud. While this step may be a bit too automated for some, those with a clear understanding of their workloads and capable of setting boundaries might enjoy this valuable perk.
We all know data is growing at an astronomical pace. By many accounts, the sheer amount of data coming at us is overwhelming. According to one survey, enterprises today create only 8% of the entire data set they consume. That leaves quite a bit of external data to collect and process. Increasingly, for many this data is coming from Social Media. The concept of Big Data does address these large, growing datasets. However, challenges still await the social media data landscape.
Enter DataSift, a UK-based startup launched in November 2011. Since then, they’ve covered quite a bit of ground and just secured an additional $7.2M this week. I had the opportunity to sit down with Rob Bailey, CEO of DataSift at the Under The Radar conference last week to discuss the company and their value proposition. Rob confirmed that “data is exploding” and while many companies are able to track sentiment of social networks, DataSift is able to provide the “metadata of social data platforms through the aggregation of social data platforms.” Simply screen-scraping data from social networks provides one level of value to users. By using “augmentations of the data using geo, sentiment, meaning and context”, DataSift is able to provide a much richer context to clients. It is this very metadata or relationships between data, over time that starts to get interesting.
According to Rob, the challenge facing DataSift is people understanding the space. Bringing different data elements and considering the metadata of social networks is an exercise in thought. Integration of massive data streams and context on the data present an interesting challenge. These challenges could be addressed over time with adequate resources. However, providing trending information from the variety of data social media sources, with context, in real-time is valuable.
Analytics of data performed by data scientists is one approach. For everyone else, gaining ready access to valuable data sources and making sense of them in real-time is one area to watch very closely.
The Under The Radar (UTR) Conference (http://www.undertheradarblog.com/) is tomorrow, April 26, 2012. UTR is the intersection of hot up-and-coming startups, investors and judging. If the reception tonight was any indication, the conference and presentations should be very interesting. Here’s a sneak peak of my take of the hot areas and companies to watch:
Application Development Solutions
A few companies are presenting their solutions in the mobile and security space. In the era of cloud computing, these are two hot buttons that enterprises and service providers alike need to be keenly aware of. The move of the information worker from a stationary device to a mobile device is in process. CoIT and BYOD are both serious factors to the movement. Likewise, using traditional security paradigms in the new model run into serious complications. Tools are needed to help organizations make this move while managing and securing environments.
Companies: BitzerMobile, Cabana, Duo Security, Fabric Engine, Framehawk, StackMob
Platforms and Infrastructure
Building applications on top of infrastructure is nothing new. In the cloud era, the architecture…and options open up quite a bit. The cloud market is starting to mature and value is moving from core infrastructure to platforms and on to applications. Leveraging hosted platforms does require a different paradigm to succeed. In addition, when considering apps at scale, automation and orchestration become even more important. This is a very broad area with quite a bit of specialization. Moving forward, integration in the space will be the key to success…along with some consolidation.
Companies: Appfog, AppHarbor, CloudBees, CloudScaling, Drawn to Scale, ionGrid, Iron.io, MemSQL, MongoLab, Nodejitsu, NuoDB, Piston Cloud, Puppet Labs, Sauce Labs, ScaleArc, Zadara Storage
Monitoring and Analytics
One of the most interesting areas is how data is used and analyzed. And then taking action based on the information gleaned from the data. Players in this space range from aggregating data to understanding and analyzing it. Value increases as the data is moved into analytics and ultimately business actions taken based on the intelligence. While there is quite a bit of specialization in this area at different levels (application monitoring/ performance management to analytics and intelligence), added value will come when these can be tied together to drive business decisions.
Companies: Chart.io, Cloudability, Cloudyn, Datadog, DataSift, Infochimps, Metamarkets, Nodeable, Sumo Logic, Tracelytics
Interesting Areas to Watch
In today’s marketplace, there are the future-state solutions and concepts. And then there are the real-world solutions that solve today’s problems. Both states need to be understood and the ball needs to be moved forward…and fast! The increased amplitude of mobile devices along with cloud computing bring applications at scale into the forefront. Orchestration and automation becoming hallmarks to success to up-level the conversation and value IT brings to organizations. Ultimately, the play will be with data and analytics. But today, there are more fundamental issues on the table.
Of course, that’s just a cursory review of the upcoming presentations from the UTR conference. Look for more details in the UTR Twitter stream (#UTRconf) and posts after the conference.
Ok, so you’re selling technology products, solutions or services. You’re looking for the largest buyers and typically look to the enterprise market. You develop the strategy and start going to work. You setup a sales team, check. You setup a channel and partner program, check. Then you start leveraging the relationships, check. But how do you cover the consumer angle? Huh? Yes. Using consumers as a sort of ‘Trojan Horse’ into the enterprise space.
In just the past few years, we’ve seen an uptick in the impact of Consumerization of IT (CoIT) in the enterprise space. The movement shifts the power pendulum away from IT and toward users. BYOD is also making an impact on the movement too. For more info on BYOD vs. CoIT:
http://timcrawford.org/2012/02/10/the-difference-between-coit-and-byod-and-the-impact-for-it/
In the case of Apple, they’ve attempted entry into the enterprise market a few times. Each time, they’ve been unsuccessful in creating a beachhead and establishing momentum. In the past two years, their attempt to enter the enterprise has largely succeeded. According to Apple’s latest quarterly earnings call, “94% of the Fortune 500 and 75% of the global 500 are testing or deploying iPads”. Others are also in the testing phase (see link below). And that doesn’t take into account the number of devices already in play via the consumer angle. So, is Apple changing their strategy to enter the enterprise environment? Regardless of the specific answer, they are progressing. The move gives Apple an interesting beachhead into the enterprise space…whether they intended to or not.
Interestingly, if consumers are used to using a given technology, they’re more supportive of using it in their professional life too. And that is a good thing for IT organizations from an adoption standpoint. The question is how providers can help enable this process. Apple is a good use-case of a different approach.
The point is: If you’re a provider looking to make a beachhead, there are options to sell into enterprises beyond the traditional approaches. Consumers is one way…but doesn’t fit every company’s solution. If your solution does fit, it might be an interesting model to consider. And this doesn’t cover the other targets open to most providers. But more on that later…
Additional Links:
CIO Magazine – Is Apple changing Its Enterprise Tune?
http://blogs.cio.com/leadershipmanagement/17022/apple-changing-its-enterprise-tune
Many folks want to look in a crystal ball and magically profess what the future looks like. In the land of technology, it’s not that easy. Or is it? Sure, we do have the ability to control our destiny. We are limited by our own boundaries…artificially set or not. This may seem fairly straight forward, but it’s not. Businesses are looking for technology organizations to evolve and change. Even if that means they shift how they use services and applications on their own. Hence shadow IT.
Over the course of my career, I’ve seen many data centers in various countries. Even today, the level of sophistication varies greatly with Switch’s primary Las Vegas data center at one end of the spectrum and a 20-year old data center from a top data center/ cloud provider at the other end. I’ll leave them unnamed to avoid any potential embarrassment. To contrast, I’ve toured newer data centers in their portfolio that are much more innovative.
The advent of cloud computing has flipped the way computing resources are used on it’s head. How data centers are used is changing quickly. And what’s inside is becoming more relevant to those that manage data centers, but less relevant to those who use them. Let me explain.
Operating a data center is complex. It is no longer just four walls with additional power and cooling requirements. To add complexity, the line between facilities and IT has blurred greatly. How does an organization deal with this growing complexity on top of what they’re already dealing with? Furthermore, as the complexity of the applications and services increases, so do the expertise requirements within the organization. How is every company that currently operates a data center expected to meet these growing requirements? In reality, they can’t.
Only those that are able to bring the scale of their applications and services will warrant the continued operation of their facility. General purpose IT services (core applications, custom applications and the like) will move to alternative solutions. Sure, cloud is one option. Co-location is another. There are many clever solutions to this growing challenge. Are there exception cases? Yes. However, it is important to take an unbiased view at the maturing marketplace and how to best leverage the limited resources available internally.
In summary, unless you are 1) operating applications or services at scale or 2) have a specific use-case, possibly due to regulatory or compliance requirements, or 3) do not, realistically, have a viable alternative… then you should consider moving away from operating your own data center. The future data center for many is an empty one.
I’ve written about the Consumerization of IT (CoIT) in past missives. It seems that today, everyone flying on an airplane has some form of technology gadget. And the range varies from a cell phone to an iPod, to a tablet to a laptop.
Anyone who has been on an airplane in the past couple of decades has heard the warning to turn off their devices during takeoff and landing. “The main cabin door is closing, please turn off any device with an on-off switch. Airplane Mode is not acceptable.” Really? I mean, I understand ‘why’ they are saying to fully turn off and not just to airplane mode. But what happens at altitude? People just turn their devices back on…cellular radios and all! The bottom line is that while folks generally knew how to operate technology, the nuances still escape them.
In fact, on a recent flight from LAX to DFW, I flew on a United CRJ-700. The flight attendant comes on with the normal warning as the door closes. Everyone turns off their devices like they’re told and we’re off! 18,000 feet later, the double-chime alerts the cabin it is ok to turn on “approved” devices. But that’s where things go awry.
On this particular flight I was walking back from the restroom at the back of the plane. Which, I might say, was roomier than most narrow-body jets. But enough about the size of the bathroom. As I walked down the aisle back toward my seat, I always take note of the number and type of devices that people use. On this flight, there were an ample number of iPads in use. Nothing new there. What was a surprise was seeing “No Service” displayed in the upper left hand corner of the screen. And not just on one iPad. But I casually counted at least six of them in this state…and that was just the folks in aisle seats.
I would have expected to see the all to familiar airplane icon that notes the device is in “airplane mode”. Airplane mode, for those not familiar, is where the device turns off the transmitting radios (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth). Isn’t that what the announcements are intended to address?
This all got me thinking that the announcements really are not doing what they intended. Supposedly (and that’s a big supposedly), electronic devices can interfere with the navigation of an aircraft. Ok. So, which is worse? Finding out that a device onboard interferes with navigational equipment while you’re on the ground? Or finding out when you’re at altitude? Personally, I’d prefer the former.
Just last month, the NY Times learned that the FAA is going to take a “fresh look” at electronic devices on flights.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/disruptions-time-to-review-f-a-a-policy-on-gadgets/
I’m not going to hold my breath. It will probably take quite a long time before we see a list of approved devices …let alone a broader context of what is approved. What makes this all bizarre is that the FAA has already approved the use of iPads in the cockpit to replace the bulky flight manuals.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/f-a-a-approves-ipads-in-cockpits-but-not-for-passengers/
If we assume that folks other than the ones I observed are equally confused by the difference between airplane mode and turning off the device, then what are we really fighting against? Bureaucracy? I would bet good money that more devices are turned on and transmitting at altitude. As for when the FAA might lift the ban on using devices on landing and takeoff? My bet is that it’s right behind lifting the ban on liquids in carry on luggage. Again, I’m not holding my breath.
Regardless of the FAA regulations, my recommendation is to enable airplane mode while in-flight. Why? It saves on the battery life of the device. Plus, it just won’t connect to a cell tower.
The average cell tower covers an area of approximately 10 square miles (or a radius of approximately five miles). Five miles translates to 26,400 feet. And most commercial aircraft fly from 30,000 to 40,000 feet. That translates back to between 5.68 and 7.58 miles…well outside of the distance needed to connect. And because cell radios in devices are smart, they vary the power needed to connect to a cell tower. In flight, this means the cell radio is using full-power to attempt the connection…therefore draining precious battery power.
So, the next time you’re in the air, save yourself some headaches…and battery power. Just switch your device to airplane mode and then turn it off for takeoff and landing. When you’re back on the ground, switch it back to regular mode.
And let’s hope that the FAA does heed the sheer magnitude of growing user base that are using these devices by changing their rules.
I had the opportunity to write a post for SecureWorld Post’s site. You can view it at:
http://secureworldpost.secureworldexpo.com/crawford-cloud-computing-turns-infosec-upside-down/
