Why I Joined Pivotal Software

Cross-posted from my first blog published on LinkedIn…

Not only did I recently join Pivotal Software, I found my way into the swag closet…

I’m proud to announce that I have joined the marketing team at Pivotal Software.

There’s a special kind of excitement in helping build a business that you know can change the world. I’m excited to have a chance to work with the many talented people here at Pivotal, and be part of an amazing company and culture dedicated to helping customers create new innovations in big data.

For Fun: If IT Products Were Marketed Like Cereal & Offbeat Analogies for IT Cloud Strategy

Found some pictures I made over the last couple of years as social media gags about the IT industry.

If IT products were marketed like cereal:

Where SAP HANA and SAP HANA One Fits Into Modern Application Architecture

Cross posted from my blog at SAP Community Network:

Yesterday Jeffrey Hammond, VP and Principal Analyst with Forrester, posted an excellent blog laying out a vision for modern custom enterprise application architecture.  In his blog, “The Best Way to Develop Mobile Apps? Don’t Develop Mobile Apps!”, Mr. Hammond makes the point that custom application projects shouldn’t just be thinking about an app that fits a mobile device, but take a system engineering approach considering modern technologies and architectural trends such as cloud computing, web services, and big data in addition to mobile device platforms. What I especially like about his blog is his simple explanation of how these fit to create applications with the following characteristics:

• Omnichannel
• Elastic
• API-oriented
• Responsive
• Organic
• Contextual

Modern application architecture based on mobile platforms, cloud computing, big data, and web services – reality or Munchkin Land?

Five Innovative Social, Mobile, Cloud, and Big Data Apps From the US 2012 Election Campaigns

Cross posted from my blog at the SAP Community Network…

With the US 2012 election campaign finally, thankfully, winding down, I wanted to share some interesting stories about the technology being used by the campaigns and super PACs to more effectively direct their field staff and target voters.  From the various news stories I’ve heard over the past few weeks on NPR, and read in articles, it seems that both the presidential campaigns and the big budget super PACs have been making heavy use of social media, mobile device applications, cloud platforms, and big data.

This blog isn’t meant to take a position in the campaign. I can’t even argue that one campaign has made more effective use of new technology than another. Whereas in 2008, the Obama campaign clearly made more effective use of social media than his opponent, it seems that both campaigns in 2012 have aggressively embraced emerging technologies.

Here are five descriptions of applications that I was able to find. I will add to this list as I run across more.  Please feel free to add any links to interesting stories that you know about as well in the comments. Also, the application of this technology is strictly an American perspective. I suspect many of my European colleagues will have an entirely different view of the acceptability, and even legality, of some of these applications. Please share your perspectives on this issue as well.

Interesting Feedback from SAP Customers About Hybrid Cloud in Recent Webinar

Cross posted from my blog at SAP Community Network…

Yesterday I had the pleasure to speak at an SAP webinar covering IT strategy for cloud computing and how customers are evolving a hybrid approach. This is a topic I’ve been working on since SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando this May, and I am gratified to find there is still a lot of interest in the subject. Since you can watch the recording of the webinar yourself I won’t repeat too much here.  However, the attendees were very generous with their participation by asking several good questions and sharing their opinions in two interesting polls.

Adoption of Cloud Computing

In the first poll we asked attendees a multiple answer question about which ways their company has adopted cloud computing. As a result, some responders answered in more than one category, so each answer is a % of total respondents clicking that category, and percentages to the question will add up to more than 100%. To my surprise almost 30% of respondents said their company is not leveraging cloud computing. That seems very high for me, even for the most conservative SAP customers. I suspect if the IT department did an audit of the different systems their lines of business used, they’d find at least a few software services – and this doesn’t include services brought in virally by employees on their own. Also interesting is that 15% of attendees reported that they are already supporting their developers through a platform as a service. This isn’t far off from a recent IBM survey that finds 16% of their respondents use PaaS and see strategic potential, while an additional 33% use PaaS incidentally. Not included in either poll is any indication as to what each respondent considers to be the definition of “platform as a service.”

Adding on New Capabilities with SaaS – Part III of Turning Cloudy Chaos into an IT Strategy

Cross posted from my blog at the SAP Community Network…

This blog continues the discussion started in Part I of Turning Cloudy Chaos into an IT Strategy and Part II – Retreading Existing Systems to Leverage Cloud Technology.  In this blog we examine how Software as a Service fits into a hybrid IT Strategy for cloud computing.

If your company has extensive investments in on premise ERP such as SAP Business Suite, then pursuing an add-on approach with Software as a Service can be an agile way for your company’s departments to roll out new systems of engagement to users. Such a strategy should consider the business needs being solved in relation to other needs within the company such as information management and integration of business processes.

Figure 1: SAP’s vision of end-to-end business processes supported by both on premise and cloud-based applications.

[Source: SAP]

Retreading On Premise Systems to Leverage Cloud Technology – Part II of Turning Cloudy Chaos into an IT Strategy

Cross posted from my blog at the SAP Community Network.

This blog continues the discussion we started with Turning Cloudy Chaos into an IT Strategy Part I.  Here we examine how existing on premise systems of record such as SAP Business Suite can be brought into a cloud-centered IT strategy.

Relationship of benefits of cloud computing to use cases
[SOURCE: (C) 2012 SAP, available under Creative Commons License, use with attribution]

Turning Cloudy Chaos into an IT Strategy Part I

Cross posted from my blog at the SAP Community Network…

Yep, cloud computing is here. In fact, the cloud is probably all over the place if your company is like many.

Now, your CEO sends you an email saying, “I need you to give a presentation to the board about our corporate strategy for moving to the cloud.” You think, “Uhh, Ma’am, we’re kind of already in the cloud. I guess we need a strategy now.”Your CFO is notes a significant rise in employee expense claims for Amazon, “Wow, they sure are reading a lot of books!” Each department head has their favorite software as a service application. You have no idea what server the HR’s department’s new custom employee vacation request application is running on. Already, the marketing department is complaining about out of synch customer data again after you cleaned up the on premise CRM system last year.

Get in front of the cloud mob and turn it into a
parade. [PHOTO SOURCE]

Nine Ways The Human Resources Department Should Be Connected to a Cloud IT Strategy

Cross posted from my blog at SAP Community Network…

A brief twitter chat session with Jarret Pazahanick, an HCM consultant and SAP Mentor with an interest in better HR processes, had me pondering how an HR department’s business strategy would relate to a comprehensive IT cloud strategy.  Developing a cloud-centered IT strategy is the subject of an ASUG pre-conference event that I’m helping organize the day before the ASUG 2012 / SAPPHIRE NOW conference on May 13.  Seats are still available if you are interested in signing up.