Thursday, March 29, 2012

Ariba CMO Tim Minahan on how networked economy benefits spring from improved business commerce and cloud processes

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Read a full transcript or download a copy. Sponsor: Ariba.

It's impossible to factor the implications of cloud computing without examining the context of all the other major business and technology trends in play today.

To gauge the potential business benefits -- and threats -- from cloud, we also need to examine the confluence of these developments and how together they change businesses and business ecosystems.

The implications of companies collaborating more efficiently over extended information networks is appropriately then the theme for the upcoming Ariba LIVE Conference in Las Vegas, which kicks off on April 10.

To help better understand the complex drivers of the next wave of business productivity, BriefingsDirect interviewed Ariba’s Chief Marketing Officer, Tim Minahan, in advance of the conference. The networked economy comes as a consequence, says Minahan, of the major business and IT trends of the day -- those being cloud computing, mobile, social, and big data.

To appreciate the full impact of the networked economy, we need to recognize how previously internal processes are now becoming increasingly externalized. Cloud computing, the force behind a lot of this extended business process innovation, has let loose the imagination of businesses to consider how to do commerce anew.

The good news is that shaking up the status quo is enabling massive efficiencies with more active market benefits, shared by more participants, as they cooperate and collaborate in entirely new ways.

As a leader in cloud-based collaborative commerce, Ariba has a unique observation of where the networked economy is headed. To gain a better idea of how business networks will drive the future of commerce, Minahan recently sat down with BriefingsDirect's Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. [Disclosure: Ariba is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Here are some excerpts:

Minahan: We're experiencing another major shift in IT-generated productivity.
The next wave of productivity is going to allow companies to begin to extend those processes, extend that information, and extend alignment of their processes with their external partners.
The forces that you mentioned -- mobility and collaboration through communities or social networks -- are conspiring with cloud computing.

As a result, the next wave of productivity is going to allow companies to begin to extend those processes, extend that information, and extend alignment of their processes with their external partners, whether they be customers that they want to collaborate with more closely, or suppliers that they want to align with better and drive efficiencies with, or other partners, financial partners, logistics partners, etc., that take part in a process that the company needs to collaborate around.

We think this convergence of companies collaborating more efficiently over extended information networks is one that's going to drive this next wave of productivity.

Think about it. It’s here today. We still may be in our infancy, but you've got to think about what’s happening today. Think about it in your personal lives. That’s probably the best example. The magic of Facebook is not in its clean interface or in its news feed feature. The magic of Facebook is that it has created the world’s largest network of personal connections.

Register now for the April 10 Ariba LIVE conference in Las Vegas.

Similarly, the beauty of Amazon.com is not that it offers the best prices on books. It’s that it offers the world’s largest and most convenient network for personal shopping.

Enterprise phenomenon


This is not just a consumer phenomenon. It’s an enterprise one. More and more businesses are looking beyond the four walls of the enterprise to extend their processes and systems, to connect and collaborate more efficiently with their customers, with their suppliers, and other trading partners, whether they're across the street or around the world.

Gardner: What's fascinating to me about that, Tim, is we had Metcalfe’s Law, where the more participants on a network, the more valuable it becomes. We certainly see that with Facebook. But what’s happening in addition is that the amount of activity that these folks do, the commerce, their actions, their priorities, is all data that could be captured and analyzed, not just data individually, but collectively.

So we're not just getting value from the network on participation. We're getting insights that filters back to how we can conduct business. How important is this notion of captured analytics along the way in this networked environment?

Minahan: It’s absolutely critical. We'll go back to those models. If you look at any of the personal networks that we rely on everyday, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Google, Netflix, or Amazon, they have three things in common.

Number one, as you stated earlier, they're in the cloud. These are cloud-based applications. You don’t need to install hardware or custom-configure it. You don’t need to install or manage or maintain software. It is all accessible through a web browser, whether you are in Peoria or Paris.
That gives you an additional level of trust in the purchase decision you're about to make.


The second component, as we just stated, is that all of these are ultimately networks. They are large communities of individuals, and oftentimes companies, that are digitally connected.

Think about Amazon. You don’t think about connecting to each individual merchant. Whether you want to buy a book or a blender, the merchants are all connected for you. You don’t think about settling out with Visa or MasterCard and how to integrate to them. They're all connected in there for you.

And to your last part, you have cloud-based technology, communities, and then capabilities. That's where the intelligence in the community comes in.

Again, think about Amazon. You want to buy something and you get expert opinions on "folks who have bought this product have also bought this product." That's community intelligence that helps you make a more informed decision.

Secondly, you get peer opinions, other participants in the community that rate the product that you are considering buying. That gives you an additional level of trust in the purchase decision you're about to make.

These are the types of things that are only available in a network-based model. These are the types of things that are also available to businesses in a business network-type model.

Behavioral shift

Gardner: Well, we've certainly seen a behavioral shift in people’s adoption, and even enthusiasm for these sorts of activities. We're seeing it in their personal lives. When we now apply this to enterprises, to B2B activities, to commerce, we can find that the processes are uniquely actionable and automated in the cloud, even more so than in an enterprise system of record, which could be fairly brittle.

But we're also seeing -- I think it's fairly unique -- is the ability to adjust on the fly. So we have automation and governance, but we also have exception management. We have a confluence of actionable automation that's governed and managed with insight, but we also can adjust these things on the go. I think that's something also that's fairly new to this networked environment.

Minahan: Absolutely. The power of a network using Metcalfe's Law is that each new member delivers incremental value to every existing member. Part of that is it does allow you as a business to be far more responsive. It allows you to make more informed decisions, as we talked about. You're not just making decisions based on your own input, but you're making decisions based on relationship and transaction history, as well as community opinion of a particular trading partner.

In a networked environment, you can quickly find new peers or partners that can help you execute a process. You can get informed community decision on how that partner or peer has performed in the past, so you can make a educated decision as to when and how to find alternative sources of supply, for example, or find new employees or potential employees that you could be matched with through this network.

Those are the types of things that a network model allows you to do, to make more informed decisions, to be much more responsive, and ultimately, have far greater transparency and visibility into the process.
Ariba is facilitating collaborative business commerce, allowing buyers, sellers, and other parties involved in the commerce process to reach outside their four walls.


Gardner: So we have gone into at least the business level, beyond this notion of individual networks to systems of record and core business functions being networked, being loosely coupled, and therefore part of a larger business process.

Ariba has, I think, some of the critical business functions in its sights to extend further into this networked value. Tell me a little bit about some of the core themes at Ariba LIVE and why networking -- taking advantage of some of these larger trends that we have talked about -- applies to business processes and some of the core business functions that all companies share?

Register now for Ariba LIVE.

Minahan: At the end of the day, Ariba is facilitating collaborative business commerce, allowing buyers, sellers, and other parties involved in the commerce process to reach outside their four walls, to connect their systems and their processes to get greater transparency into that. That's a theme that's carrying through to Ariba LIVE.

Ariba LIVE’s theme will be around this networked enterprise, and how you enable a networked enterprise and what it means for you as a buyer, as a seller, or as a chief financial officer.

Industry leading

When you look across the agenda for Ariba LIVE, it's filled with industry-leading companies that have already embraced this network approach. Whether it's Anglo American, one of the largest mining companies, talking about how they are leveraging a networked model to identify, develop, and collaborate with sources of supply and new suppliers in the most remote regions of the world, driving a sustainable supply chain.

Whether it's Sodexo, one of the largest food-service companies that's creating some innovative ways in which they are using the network to support their highly perishable, fast-churn supply chain, and gain insight, both for them and for their trading partners. Procurement and IT have worked together to develop a networked model that allows them to be highly responsive in a very perishable supply-chain type environment.

Or whether it's GlaxoSmithKline that's leveraging a network-based environment to not only automate its invoicing process, but to help optimize cash flow, both for them and their partners.

In addition, you have a host of other companies, that are driving this network supply chain model.

We have a spotlight keynote that has driven some innovation into the federal sector. The first CIO of the United States, Vivek Kundra, is going to talk about how he developed the Cloud First Policy within the Federal Government.
You have a host of other companies, that are driving this network supply chain model.


That means, not just lowering the TCO of deploying technology to automate existing processes, but creating a new community, a new interface, a new way for the US Federal Government to connect and share information, and big data with their constituents. And that's the type of thing that's going on in the public sector, as well as in the private sector.

I have the honor of being the MC this year, and it is an honor when you look out across the keynotes that we have and see what they've been able to accomplish by adopting this networked model and how it has allowed them to drive not just their supply chain strategy, but their business strategy. We think it's going to be a phenomenal show.

High-profile innovations
In addition to that content, obviously because it is Ariba LIVE, we'll be launching some very interesting and high-profile innovations, as well as partnerships that will help buyers and sellers simplify their commerce process and get more easily connected to their trading partners.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Read a full transcript or download a copy. Sponsor: Ariba. Register for Arive LIVE.
You may also be interested in:

Friday, March 23, 2012

Join me for a deep-dive live discussion on why IT's role may never be the same

Now is a fascinating time for businesses the world over, and the role and impact of IT is a big part of what's causing the changes that all of us are feeling and adjusting to.

Many of the changes involve the speed of change and rapid adaptation to dynamic markets. Clearly, the speed of business has never been faster, and it's getting even faster. Those that can't keep up are in a perilous situation.

Register now for this free online discussion.

It's therefore up to IT to help companies move at the pace of the market, or IT risks being passed over by cloud-based outside providers.

The stakes have never been higher for keeping applications and businesses up and running.


One way IT can hasten their responsiveness to business requirements is in their ability to deliver applications to PC faster, better and cheaper.

Join me and Embarcadero Technologies next Tuesday, March 27, for a deep-dive, live discussion (registration required) on how the major business and IT trends of the day -- cloud computing, mobile, social networks, and Big Data -- are changing the role of IT, and ways that IT can fight back. [Disclosure: Embarcadero Technologies is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Register now for this free online discussion.

You may also be interested in:

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Study: Cloud computing becoming pervasive, and IT needs to take control now

Cloud computing may be taking the business world by storm, but its success could mean a "perfect storm" that endangers the role of IT.

As a result, IT needs to step up now and change its approach to cloud services. This includes building trust with the lines of business, beginning to manage public cloud services, and pursuing increased automation for service provisioning and operations.

These are the key findings of a survey commissioned by BMC Software and conducted by Forrester Research. The study, "Delivering on High Cloud Expectations," shows that business units' demand for speed and agility is leading them to circumvent IT and acquire cloud services, more than half of them from what were termed "unmanaged" clouds.

Brian Singer, Lead Solutions Marketing Manager for BMC, said his company commissioned the survey in an effort to confirm what the company was hearing anecdotally from customers. "Cloud and software as a service (SaaS) are in enterprises in a big way," Singer said, "and we wanted to see how IT was dealing with them."

Cloud and SaaS are in enterprises in a big way and we wanted to see how IT was dealing with them.



For the study, researchers polled 327 enterprise infrastructure executives and architects in the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Among the key findings:
  • Today, 58 percent run mission critical workloads in unmanaged public clouds, regardless of policy. The researchers use "unmanaged" to describe clouds that are managed by the cloud operators, but not by the company buying the service.
  • In the next two years, 79 percent plan to run mission-critical workloads on unmanaged cloud services.
  • Nearly three out of four responders, 71 percent, thought that IT should be responsible for public cloud services.
  • Seventy two percent of CIOs believe that the business sees cloud computing as a way to circumvent IT.
Wake-up call

"This is a wake-up call," Singer said. "They know that this is going on and they understand that cloud is a way to go around monolithic IT." According to the survey, 81 percent of respondents said that a comprehensive cloud strategy is a high priority for the next year.

While cost is a major driver in the C-suite, the lines of business respondents put cost way down on their list of priorities. Instead they are seeking higher availability, faster delivery of services, more agility, and options and flexibility.

The researchers suggested a three-prong approach for IT to get a handle on this:
  • Build trust with the users and create a better user experience -- have an honest conversation about needs of the business, incorporate business requirements into a cloud strategy, and demonstrate progress toward them.

    They know that this is going on and they understand that cloud is a way to go around monolithic IT.


  • Shift from unmanaged to managed public cloud services. Many cloud vendors allow IT operations to monitor and manage services. This will help mitigate the risk and complexity that unmanaged clouds now introduce.
  • Develop ways to provision and operate internal services so that users get experiences similar to those they get from outside. This requires more automation to rapidly deploy solutions.
The full study results will be announced April 26 at 11 a.m. CST as part of a BMC webinar, registration required.

You may also be interested in:

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

New HP application transformation offerings help enterprises tackle growing use of mobile computing and social media

HP this week announced a suite of products and services aimed at overcoming the challenges presented by the convergence of some of today's hottest business trends, mobile computing and social media.

The four software products and three services are designed to help enterprises leverage traditional systems of record, while creating an improved and extended presence and engaging better with customers, partners, and even employees.

IT-driven systems of record, while they serve up useful information, are usually commodities and in themselves don't create business differentiation. The new offerings, however, provide systems of engagement, which change the way enterprises interact with those people now using tablets and smartphones in increasing numbers, as well as through social media. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

"Unless we worry about a system of engagement, then we're in trouble," said Paul Evans, HPs Worldwide Lead for Application Transformation. "It's a question of how to create a competitive advantage. We still require traditional apps on the back end, and will still look for the opportunity to reduce cost, but our focus is going to change to systems of engagement. We've had a lot of clients say, 'How do I do that?' It's not a traditional skill."

Evans also pointed out that time-frames have collapsed as well. "Apps have to be built in a time-frame that clients aren't used to. It's got to be a quality app, and it has to be well-tested. But it also has to be done in six days."

New offerings


In an effort to meet this mounting challenge, HP is now offering:
  • HP Application Lifecycle Intelligence (ALI), which improves collaboration among delivery teams and reduces cycle times. While traditional systems of record are built and maintained every six months, ALI can automate the process and reduce the time to days.
  • HP Unified Functional Testing, offered with Perfecto Mobile, allows developers to emulate and test the user experience of mobile applications across devices as well as different networks. This is to ensure that all users have the same experience no matter what mobile carrier they're using.

    We still require traditional apps on the back end and will still look for the opportunity to reduce cost, but our focus is going to change to systems of engagement.


  • HP Anywhere, which enables clients to manage IT on the go. Mobile-based applications perform operations such as portfolio request management, defect tracking, service health monitoring and the composition of an executive scorecard, where IT managers can look at all of attributes in real time.
  • HP Enterprise Collaboration enhances knowledge sharing and accelerates application development through a social collaboration environment that enables real-time, context-based conversations traced back to actions and work items. This allows developers to communicate in new ways that take previously unstructured conversations and puts structure to them.
Additionally, among the new services are:
You may also be interested in:

Thursday, March 15, 2012

HP engineers support to better target multi-vendor, cloud environments

In a move to help enterprises address problems before they arise, HP this week rolled out IT support services architected for modern IT infrastructures.

Dubbed HP Always On Support, the new services integrate tech built into the HP Converged Infrastructure with services to help enterprises realize 95 percent first-time resolution rates and hasten the restoration of system interruptions. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

HP is taking a different approach from the break/fix model that legacy support services offer for individual pieces of equipment in technology silos. With Always On Support Services, HP is acknowledging the new data center paradigm: virtualized, multivendor and clouds with interdependencies across the IT infrastructure.

With HP Always On Support Services, the tech giant said it is taking a proactive stance, which includes providing a single point of contact for problem resolution -- problems that could otherwise lead to downtime the firm estimates costs average enterprises $10 million an hour.

Move to innovation

“Organizations can’t survive in today’s business climate without shifting time and resources from problem resolution to innovation,” says Antonio Neri, senior vice president and general manager of HP’s Technology Services group. “The traditional reactive IT support model is no longer effective -- the industry needs to change the way it delivers support to offer proactive solutions and customized service offerings -- and HP is leading that charge.”

Here’s an example of HP Always On Support Services in action: The service continuously monitors the 1,600 diagnostic data points HP ProActive Insight architecture collects. (This architecture is embedded in HP ProLiant Gen8 servers and is soon to be integrated across the HP Converged Infrastructure.)

Through its HP Foundation Care feature, HP Always On offers direct communication with an expert who already knows the client, the details of the client’s environment, and what the client’s system is experiencing. By leveraging relationships with leading independent software vendors (ISVs), HP promises to expedite problem resolution and eliminate the finger pointing typical of legacy support models.

Organizations can’t survive in today’s business climate without shifting time and resources from problem resolution to innovation.



Meanwhile, HP Proactive Care works to minimize downtime and optimize performance by addressing problems before they occur. HP Datacenter Care offers customized support for a client’s multivendor environment with a single point of contact at HP. Finally, HP Lifecycle Event Services work to augment the HP Care portfolio with HP expertise throughout the technology life cycle for client’s IT projects, including strategy, design, implementation and education services, allowing clients to select services a la carte.

BriefingsDirect contributor Jennifer LeClaire provided editorial assistance and research on this post. She can be reached at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jleclaire and http://www.jenniferleclaire.com.

You may also be interested in:

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Join HP security expert Tari Schreider for a deep-dive live chat on cloud protection

Business leaders want to exploit cloud computing values fast, but they also fear the security risks in moving to cloud models too quickly.

Just at the time that companies want to leverage cloud, they know that security threats are growing. Indeed, according to recent HP-sponsored research, the volume and complexity of security threats has continued to escalate. Analyst firms such as Forrester place security and privacy as the top reasons for not adopting cloud.

Yet by better understanding cloud security risks, gaining detailed understanding of your own infrastructure and following proven reference architectures and methods, security can move from an inhibitor of cloud adoption to an enabler.

Indeed, CIOs must find the ways to make extended services use secure for their operations, data, processes, intellectual property, employees and customers – even as security threats ramp up.

And so these cloud services from both inside and outside the enterprise are rapidly compelling companies to rethink how they use and exploit technology securely. Cloud computing trends are now driving the need for a better approach to security.

Live discussion

On March 22, in a free, online, live multimedia "Expert Chat," I'll be interviewing Tari Schreider, Chief Security Architect, HP Technology Consulting. We'll also be taking live questions from the online audience. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

The stakes have never been higher for keeping applications and businesses up and running.

Register now as seats are limited for this free HP Expert Chat.

In this free discussion (registration required), hear recommendations from Schreider on how to prevent security concerns from holding up cloud adoption. We'll further explore what it takes to mitigate risks and prepare your organization for secure hybrid cloud computing.

Moreover, the entire presentation, as well as questions and answers, will be automatically translated into 13 major languages. Viewers can easily choose the language of their choice. They will also be able to download the presentation and listen and watch Schreider's chat on-demand after the live event.

Register now as seats are limited for this free HP Expert Chat.

You may also be interested in:

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

HP announces first servers in the Gen8 family for improving management, ROI, and energy conservation in the data center

HP today announced general availability of the first batch of servers in its ProLiant Gen8 series, which the company unveiled last month.

The new generation of servers, part of a two-year, $300-million effort, benefit from ProActive Insight archtecture, including lifecycle automation, dynamic workload acceleration, automated energy optimization, and proactive service and support. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Manual operations and facilities management can cost companies more than $24 million over three years, while unplanned downtime is estimated to cost companies as much as $10 million an hour. As a result, data center managers must rely on more intelligent, self-sufficient technologies that eliminate the time-consuming, error-prone processes that consume valuable resources and can cause both failure and data loss.

ProLiant now includes the Intel Xeon E5-2600 processor family, which beta testing has indicated can provide a return on investment (ROI) in as little as five months, while tripling administrators' productivity.

HP developed the new generation of servers in collaboration with HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, to offer data center-wide, end-to-end energy management including HP 3D Sea of Sensors and HP Location Discovery Services. As a result, the new energy optimized technology included in the servers delivers nearly double data center capacity per watt.

To accelerate virtualized and data-intensive application performance, engineers balanced the system architecture while unifying storage, I/O and compute resources to create a converged system platform, designed for the needs of virtualized environments, cloud deployments and the most demanding data center and workloads available.

Lots of excitement

"W
e've seen lots of excitement among customers during the beta testing and not only in performance," said John Gromala, Director, Product Marketing, Industry Standard Servers and Software for HP. "We focused on their IT needs and we're helping them deal with runaway costs. That's the piece that people are more excited about than anything. If they can get those costs in line, then IT can make it."

The comprehensive portfolio of HP ProLiant Gen8 servers include:
  • ProLiant BL460c, the world’s leading server blade, is ideal for a data center’s transition to the cloud

    That's the piece that people are more excited about than anything. If they can get those costs in line, then IT can make it.


  • ProLiant DL360p, versatile, rack-optimized server that offers high performance, efficiency and reliability in a 1U space
  • ProLiant DL380p, supports the broadest spectrum of workloads and provides for future scalability as needs change
  • ProLiant ML350p, expandable tower server well suited for remote and branch offices
  • ProLiant SL230s, a multi-node server for maximum performance of high density scale-out and high performance computing (HPC) environments
  • ProLiant SL250s, ideal for heterogeneous and custom data centers focused on graphics processing unit (GPU) computing
  • ProLiant DL160, ultra-dense rack server designed for web serving and memory-intensive applications.
Tested in more than 100 data centers by real-world customers, the new platforms are expected to ship worldwide in late March. Starting prices will range from $1,723 to $2,878 and vary based on configurations.

You may also be interested in:

Open Group's OTTF 'snapshot' addresses risks from counterfeit and tainted products

The Open Group has announced the publication of the Open Trusted Technology Provider Standard (O-TTPS) Snapshot, a preview of what is intended to become the first standard developed by The Open Group Trusted Technology Forum (OTTF).

Geared toward global providers and acquirers of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) information and communication technology (ICT) products, the O-TTPS is designed to provide an open standard for organizational best practices to enhance the security of the global supply chain and help assure the integrity of COTS ICT products worldwide. [Disclosure: The Open Group is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Standards such as O-TTPS will have a significant impact on how organizations procure COTS ICT products over the next few years.



The snapshot provides an early look at the standard so providers, suppliers and integrators can begin planning how to implement the standard in their organizations, and so customers, including government acquirers, can differentiate those providers who adopt the standard's practices.

Version 1.0 of the standard is expected to be published in late 2012. The Open Group is planning an accreditation program to help provide assurance that providers conform to the standard.

Increasing threats

"With the increasing threats posed by cyberattacks worldwide, technology buyers at large enterprises and government agencies across the globe need assurance the products they source come from trusted technology suppliers and providers who have met set criteria for securing their supply chains," said David Lounsbury, chief technology officer, The Open Group. "Standards such as O-TTPS will have a significant impact on how organizations procure COTS ICT products over the next few years and how business is done across the global supply chain."

The Trusted Technology Forum was formed in late 2010 under the auspices of The Open Group to help technology companies, customers, government and supplier organizations create and promote guidelines for manufacturing, sourcing and integrating trusted, secure technology products as they move through the global supply chain.

The two risks being addressed in the snapshot are tainted and counterfeit products. Each pose significant risk to organizations because altered or non-genuine products introduce the possibility of untracked malicious behavior or poor performance. Both product risks can damage customers and suppliers resulting in failed or inferior products, revenue and brand equity loss, and disclosure of intellectual property.

Additional resources are available on line:
  • For more information on the O-TTPS Snapshot or to download, visit The Open Group Bookstore click here.
  • For more information on The Open Group Trusted Technology Forum, click here.
  • To view a video featuring OTTF Co-Chair and Cisco's chief security strategist for the Global Value Chain Edna Conway discussing the work of the OTTF, click here.
  • To attend a Webinar on the O-TTPS Snapshot entitled "Developing Standards that Secure the Global Supply Chain, Enabling Suppliers Globally to Raise the Bar on Security and Integrity," on March 15, 2012 at register here.
You may also be interested in: