deal architect

The Gartner Hype Cycle Book

I ran in to my former Gartner colleague Jackie Fenn last week at the CFO Technology Summit - - she has developed then popularized the Hype Cycle concept over the last decade . 

I walked away with a copy of her new book on the topic -  and answers to some questions I should have asked her a decade ago.  Check out my post on New Florence.

Cloud Z

It has been a privilege to have Zoho as a charter sponsor of my blog. They continue to go from strength to strength and do so with their feet still firmly planted on the ground.

I have known Zoli for 3 years now (as a fellow Irregular), and have come to enjoy his insights on emerging software trends - and of course, his unique sense of humor.

So it is good to see Zoho sponsoring, and Zoli editing a new site called Cloud Avenue focused on SaaS and clouds.

I expect to be informed, educated, entertained, challenged. - so a bit better than I can do on Cloud 9.

Progress in Oracle Fusion Apps?

One of the major reasons I am not going to Oracle Open World next week is I did not expect to hear much progress on Fusion applications. I was disappointed with how little they showcased last year, and from everything I have heard Oracle continues to invest a lot more in Fusion middleware than in apps.

My friend Floyd Teter thinks otherwise, and I hope he is right and that Oracle pulls a Steve Jobs and showcases a lot more. I think next week there were will be a few light "applets" with social and analytical flavors. But no replacement applications that SAP would need to scamper to duplicate or that PeopleSoft, J.D.Edwards and other Oracle acquired customers would consider "next-gen".

Readers?

Does a browser deserve so many words?

My former colleague Jonathan Yarmis, now at AMR, got that reaction as he wrote about Google's launch of Chrome (saw it courtesy of Dennis Howlett).

Well, it's not just another browser - it is Google's. Indeed since launch a couple of weeks ago Chrome already accounts for 6% of my reader stats.

But when Jonathan says the launch was a major event because the NY Times put it on its editorial page I go "so what?". If anything, there is almost an inverse correlation between what the NY Times quotes and what enterprises (as different from consumers) utilize in technology

As Tom Foremski speculates, it is a move by Google to reduce its Traffic Acquisition Costs.

Worth a few words - not a whole bunch more.

But this - that my friend MR shared as Eric Schmidt spoke at his new conference format deserves Google a lot more words than it has received.

The Internet can hide!

In the AT&T Laptop Connect commercials, Bill Kurtis accesses the Internet from an island, the end of the rainbow, in snow-deep mountains and at the Fountain of Youth.

But, AT&T's own coverage maps say don't expect data coverage in most Mountain states (the light spaces in map below - click to enlarge).

Since AT&T now includes free Wi-Fi access in its Laptop Connect plans, I thought may be that would provide better coverage. Not really - only 22 Wi-Fi locations in the roughly 98,000 square miles in Wyoming.

Chances of meeting Amelia Earhart, a leprechaun or the Abominable Snowman seem better.

Weekend Stuff: Flying Virgin America from SFO

People who live in Tampa are airport snobs. Our airport wins awards each year and allows us to live on the water minutes away ( I once clocked home garage to airline gate in 14 minutes - normally it takes about 30 minutes - and we don't have Clear yet).  Southwest has non-stops to 30 cities from here. Because of Southwest our airfares are also some of the lowest of any major city. And free wi-fi at the airport and other goodies.

But this week flying out of San Francisco ( to Las Vegas) I was impressed because of 3 reasons

- BART to the airport. $ 5 from downtown. Clean. Lots of room for bags, bikes, Segways. Ends at the international terminal.( with shuttles to other terminals)

- The international terminal - huge, unhurried ( at least around 5 pm)

- My first flight on Virgin America - NICE! Phased mood lighting, live TV, flight status using Google maps and about to get better with Wi-fly

On the way back to Tampa I flew Southwest from Las Vegas. The only technology in sight on the plane was the new credit card swipers the attendants have.

I could get used to SFO. If I could find affordable waterfront property 14 minutes away :)

Alright, let me put in a more reasonable request: Sir Branson, how about flying into Tampa?

More Innovation

On the New Florence blog

A quick guide to Netbooks

"The Innovation Gap"

The first Blackberry President?

SAP tries more "crowd" innovation

Electronic House's Products of the Year

Weekend Stuff: Foot Notes

Courtesy of Guy Kawasaki, I saw this superb set of slides which show where Melanie Kahl's feet have taken her around the world.

Seems like every time I go to Veags (as I did this week for SAP TechEd) people complain about how much walking that city entails. Maybe like Melanie we should quit whining and just take pictures of our feet as we pass by the gondolas at the Venetian, the fountains at the Belaggio, and the hundreds of slot machines and card tables...

Wrong role for Accenture?

Courtesy of Jason Busch, I see Chrysler is suing Accenture for apparently not delivering savings on a low-cost country sourcing deal.

I am not privy to any of the details of what may have gone wrong, but I am a bit baffled they went with Accenture in the first place.

To me, even as their revenue mix shows a growing percentage of infrastructure, application and business process outsourcing, to me Accenture at heart is still a good project oriented, systems  integrator - not an outsourcer. They are still more comfortable talking "program management" than "continuous improvement"

Also, Accenture inspite of having a sizable Filipino work force for almost 2 decades now and a sizable Indian one for 5 years now has not consistently leveraged low-cost country sourcing in to its own service delivery - so why expect them to do that with a whole different bag of auto parts?

The Cloud is Falling

Another week, another on-premise vendor feels compelled to take shots at SaaS and cloud computing - this time it is Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy (saw it courtesy of Anshu Sharma who should also get credit for inspiring the title when he said "the sky is falling" for on-premise vendors). Using age-old FUD of security, availability  and scalability and using extreme examples like Amex and Visa's core transaction engines, the basic argument is "ain't going to happen" (BTW on a side note, companies like Alcoa which spend 1.29% of revenues on IT would go out of business if  they emulated Michael's examples and spent 10+% of revenues banks do)

I think a more realistic answer is found in the aircraft fleet of a global airline like BA. Of course, it has 747s for its trunk routes but it also has plenty of 737s for shorter routes.  Indeed, if you ask Boeing, it will confirm it has sold to airlines 5 times as many 737s as 747s.

In computing, the System 36 was never supposed to succeed in a world dominated by mainframes. PCs were supposed to be personal tools, not corporate ones. There were security, availability, scalability issues with them also. But there were cost, other overwhelming advantages which allowed them to succeed.

Every business has crown jewels it will not move to SaaS or cloud models, but there are plenty of SG&A activities that are already headed that way.

Through the clouds on a 737.