Business Technology Roundtable

Business technology can be the great enabler that differentiates an enterprise from their mainstream peer group. Make no mistake, delivering digital business value at scale can be achieved. The essential change management process begins with fearlessly embarking on a bold initiative. Granted, implementation has many steps and takes time. In fact, successful business transformations can take several years to complete. According to Boston Consulting Group ( BCG ) latest research findings, they require drawing on three key enablers: ensuring C-Suite alignment, developing the necessary capabilities, and maintaining always-on execution. Executive leaders who establish these key enablers will scale digital business solutions successfully and also embed digital transformation approaches and ways of working into their operating models. They will become the established market leaders in their sector to benefit from superior value creation. Leveraging Cloud Computing Services for Digital Growth ...

In many organizations today, Information Technology (IT) is more than a utility, it has become an essential platform for their ongoing business development. Therefore, they crave a superior IT experience for their employees and other key stakeholders. For most, cloud computing is a fundamental ingredient of the digital transformation agenda. The common commercial use cases for public cloud services have already been exploited by many organizations. Front-office applications -- such as customer relationship management, online commerce, and numerous consumer-facing apps -- constitute the bulk of the workloads that reside on cloud service provider shared infrastructure. These initial use cases have validated the proven benefits of cloud computing architectures that are appealing to software developers -- including speed of deployment, dynamic resource acquisition, application elasticity, and service reuse across workloads. Leveraging the inherent benefits of cloud service offerings,...

Guided by senior executive goals for digital transformation, more organizations are increasing their use of cloud computing technologies. The typical multi-cloud mix includes a blend of public cloud, private cloud and traditional IT services. Finding the best-fit service mix starts with the business requirements. The latest Global Cloud Index (GCI) 2016-2021 from Cisco focuses on the worldwide market outlook for enterprise data center virtualization and cloud computing services. Today's digital business is enabled by a Hybrid IT infrastructure that supports the deployment of cloud-based solutions. Driven by the surging enthusiasm for digital reinvention projects, data center traffic is growing fast. The market study authors forecast global cloud data center traffic will reach 19.5 zettabytes (ZB) per year by 2021 -- that's up from 6.0 ZB per year in 2016. Globally, cloud data center traffic will represent 95 percent of total data center traffic by 2021, compared to 88 per...

Hybrid IT is a catalyst of progressive organizations. In fact, two-thirds of surveyed leaders say a blend of traditional and cloud infrastructure enables a strategic competitive advantage, according to a market study by the IBM Center for Applied Insights . That said, savvy leaders are using hybrid cloud to power their digital transformation agenda, going beyond cost reductions and productivity gains. They’re also using cloud as a foundation for next-generation initiatives -- such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cognitive Computing. New Insights into Emerging Cloud Trends According to findings from the latest Cisco Global Cloud Index (GCI), cloud service traffic is expected to rise 3.7-fold -- that’s up from 3.9 zettabytes (ZB) per year in 2015 -- to 14.1 ZB per year by 2020. The ongoing growth of cloud computing is being partly driven by the increased migration to hybrid cloud architectures that support the evolving demand for combining IT systems of record and systems of...

The world of business is changing. Disruptive shifts in power are forcing everyone to question the established status quo. In particular, savvy chief executives are tasking IT organizations to help create compelling customer experiences, support new business models and adopt agile operational processes. That's why the vast majority of IT and business leaders are joining forces on the organizations’ most pressing commercial needs and wants. They seek an open and flexible business technology foundation that's an enabler, rather than an inhibitor, to meaningful and substantive workflow progress. Forward-thinking executives believe cloud services can empower them to achieve their strategic business outcomes. Moreover, they want their whole leadership team to collaborate across the business, developing a comprehensive IT strategy that utilizes existing infrastructure investments and the elasticity of cloud services. Innovation: Opportunities vs Challenges Meanwhile, CIOs are...

While the decisive CEOs have a digital transformation agenda, those companies executing plans to re-imagine their business models are in the minority. And yet, the early-adopters now using cloud computing are enabled to respond quickly to changing market conditions. In contrast, the laggards are undecided and risk falling further behind. This is a global phenomena, where the industry and local market leaders are able to enact their transition with limited interference or threats from more traditional competitors. Just consider the current status-quo within the United Kingdom, as an example. The transformation of UK businesses is still relatively immature. Many organizations are aware of the potential of open hybrid cloud adoption, but they fail to actively address the technical debt that defines their legacy IT environment. Besides, they tend to narrowly focus on a small snapshot of the bigger picture. Clear Motivation to Overcome Inertia While some British leaders have progres...

Cloud enables IT agility, empowers DevOps teams and helps to transform legacy business models. The fifth annual Future of Cloud Computing survey investigates key trends in corporate cloud usage. This year's insightful survey findings offer perspective from cloud service practitioners across all industry sectors. "Cloud has been gaining momentum year­-over-­year since the Future of Cloud Computing survey was launched five years ago. Looking at the adoption rates and trends at such a detailed level, it's undeniable that the most successful technology leaders of today and tomorrow are scaling in the cloud," said Jim Moran, General Partner at North Bridge . "Last year, we discussed the second cloud front and the rise of cloud­-native companies. This year, we're seeing the pervasiveness of cloud disrupt industries across the board as companies look to maximize and implement cloud as a strategic and integral technology," Moran added. "We're also...

Today, CEOs in all industries and geographies recognize that in 2016 they'll have an important choice to make, regarding the development of a cohesive digital business transformation agenda -- either be empowered by superior cloud-enabled innovations, or risk being disrupted by more progressive market leaders. The savvy business technology application leaders are already moving from proof-of-concept cloud computing environments to trusting these platforms with their mission-critical workloads. According to the latest worldwide market study by Cisco Systems, this pervasive trend continues to accelerate as demand for cloud resources increase exponentially. The Cisco Global Cloud Index (2014-2019) forecasts that global cloud computing traffic will more than quadruple by the end of 2019, from 2.1 to 8.6 zettabytes (ZB), outpacing the growth of total global data center traffic, which is forecast to triple during the same time frame (from 3.4 to 10.4 ZB). Several factors are driv...

Worldwide, there's a growing appreciation for the many benefits of the Open Source way. Clearly, being truly Open is a frame of mind that can apply to just about anything in life -- including the development and nurture of a progressive company culture that's equipped for the challenges and opportunities of today's Global Networked Economy. Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, recently launched his new book entitled " The Open Organization " -- Igniting Passion and Performance. He says, "The conventional approach to business management was not designed to foster innovation, address the needs and expectations of the current workforce that demands more of jobs, or operate at the accelerated speed of business." Granted, savvy senior executives within numerous multinational companies across the globe have already embraced the open way, and others will surely follow. Why would any forward-thinking CEO settle for the constraints of a legacy organization model, ...

The rapid adoption of digital business transformation processes and the ongoing deployment of open hybrid cloud platforms are enabling the achievement of software development bold goals. But when management consultants and industry analysts talk about how IT innovation is changing many organizations, government leadership of this key trend typically isn't top of mind. That said, a new market study by MeriTalk reveals that approximately two-thirds of American federal government IT leaders say DevOps adoption will help agencies shift into the cloud computing fast lane. Agile methodologies, continuous integration and continuous delivery are improving IT collaboration and migration speed. But according to the findings, help is required -- with 66 percent of leaders saying that their agency needs to move IT services to the cloud faster to meet their mission and constituent needs. DevOps is a software development and IT management method that brings software engineering, quality a...

Digital  Business Transformation projects gained momentum in 2014, as more companies moved their legacy IT workloads to cloud computing platforms and launched a variety of new cloud-native applications. This pervasive trend will continue and accelerate for the duration of 2015. Total cloud IT infrastructure investment (server, storage systems , and ethernet switch) is forecast to grow by 21 percent year-over-year to reach $32 billion in 2015 -- accounting for about 33 percent of all IT infrastructure spending this year, which will be up from about 28 percent in 2014. Private cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow by 16 percent year-over-year to $12 billion, while public cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow by 25 percent in 2015 to $21 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). For the full year 2014, cloud IT infrastructure spending totaled $26.4 billion, up 18.7 percent year over year from $22.3 billion -- priva...

Senior executive expectations have been raised for traditional IT organizations that broker cloud computing services for their internal business stakeholders. Besides, there's a belief that the lack of dimension maturity can slow digital service innovation outcomes. As a result, International Data Corporation (IDC) now predicts that by 2016, 65 percent of global competitive strategies will require real-time IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) solutions. The ability of CIOs and their  IT organizations to grasp how business wants cloud computing services that serve actual business needs -- not traditional IT components -- is significantly altering the ways in which service management is achieving success. Quest for Competitive Strategic Advantage New business technologies are fundamentally altering how IT organizations function, how business is conducted, and how enterprises compete in the marketplace. IDC believes that this environment requires IT to deliver services that are focused o...

Back in 1982, many pundits in the business media were raving about the publication of " In Search of Excellence " – a book written by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. As you may recall, the topic wasn't about the typical mainstream company of that time. Instead, it was about forty-three selected companies that were deemed to be “excellent” by the two authors. Those companies were chosen to be profiled due to their superior organization and people processes. Today, it’s more likely for management consultants to write about business technology adoption – specifically, digital transformation and the role of DevOps practices within the evolving enterprise IT organization. But is DevOps really a significant trend, or merely a fad? International Data Corporation (IDC) believes that DevOps will be adopted -- in either practice or discipline -- by 80% of Global 1000 organizations by 2019. IDC released a summary the findings from their "2014 DevOps Benchmark Survey...

As this year comes to a close, let's take one last look at the most pervasive cloud computing trends -- including increased usage across the different cloud service models, the key business drivers and the impact of agile innovation strategies. Cloud computing adoption has matured, with 69 percent of survey respondents stating that at least a portion of their computing infrastructure is in the cloud. However, 56 percent of companies are still identifying IT operations that could potentially move to the cloud , according to the latest market study by IDG Enterprise. Survey respondents believe that business technology is a game changer, and cloud solutions are providing advantages from increasing IT agility (63 percent), IT innovation (61 percent) and improving the ability to access critical business data and digital service applications (58 percent). Removing the Barriers to Cloud Adoption That said, IT leaders perspective on barriers to bringing these advantages to fruition...

Here's the challenge. Your CEO won't accept anything less than a world-class IT infrastructure that meets the expectations of his most informed Line-of-Business leaders. If you're the CIO and you don't want to rely upon public cloud service providers, then are you ready to deliver the caliber of IT services that they can provision? Take a moment. Consider the implications. Ponder the impact of your actions. All the leading public cloud services providers routinely design and assemble their own data center infrastructure components, due to their extreme needs for scale and cost control. Regardless of the cloud services company, a common element among all these devices is a requirement to run an open-source operating system, such as Linux, and various other purpose-built open-source software components. Gartner, Inc. refers to this trend as the Web-scale IT phenomena. Why You Need to Adopt Web-scale IT Practices What is Web-scale IT? It's all of the things ha...

Senior executives at large multinational enterprises are already demanding that their CIO has a plan in place to ensure that they can effectively procure public and private cloud services for their organization. In smaller companies, some IT managers are now expected to acquire the knowledge and skills to perform a similar role. Are they prepared? To find out, let's review a current IT resource assessment. According to the findings from a recent market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), European IT departments still need to make significant improvements before they have fully embraced cloud architectures and transformed themselves into hybrid cloud service providers. When asked to evaluate their current readiness to execute on their cloud service brokering strategy -- where they become trusted internal advisers to their Line of Business leaders -- European respondents admitted to unexpectedly low levels of confidence that they're ready. As an example, 56 pe...

As the chief executive at your company, if you discovered that you had some major financial standards compliance issues within your organization, would you be concerned about the risks associated with that exposure? If your designated outside auditor had bypassed your internal finance department and chose instead to work directly with your individual Line of Business leaders, would you want to know why? Moreover, would you intervene? Yes, it's a rhetorical series of questions. And I think we all know the answers. Did you know there's a movement that's already in progress that could impact your company's provision and consumption of IT services, with a corresponding potential exposure concern that's related to compliance issues? Have you heard about the Shadow IT phenomenon? According to the assessment of several leading IT market analysts, it's a trend that's already quite pervasive across a broad cross-section of industries. It’s also been a hotly ...