Cloud Integration and Data Management at Informatica World 2013

I recorded a brief video this week on the new Hybrid IT track that will be a big part of Informatica World 2013. It wasn’t too long ago that there were only a few sessions focused on the topic of cloud integration.

What’s changed?

Analyst firms like Gartner are publishing more and more research on the importance of integration platform as a service (see: Enterprises Should Use iPaaS for Cloud Integration) and enterprise IT organizations continue to seek new ways to keep up with the need for speed, while maintaining good governance practices as SaaS application adoption continues to accelerate.

Join the Informatica team in Las Vegas in June to learn more.

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Cloud Data Management in the Spotlight

This week I had the pleasure of hosting a webinar featuring two great subject matter experts on the topic of cloud data management in the era of hybrid IT:

• Mike West, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Saugatuck Research
• Andrew Bartels, former CIO, CTO and current Cloud consultant, guru and evangelist

Mike West outlined why “hybrid” (or highly interwoven) deployments are the new normal for enterprise IT. He reviewed how the coud is radically changing the role of enterprise IT and why data management must be a part of an overall cloud strategy. He identified 7 trends of the so-called Boundary Free Enterprise and pointed to these 5 best practices:

1. Commit to (Cloud) Data Management
2. Manage the Organizational Issues
3. Partner with a Data Management Provider
4. Manage Both Control and Access
5. Approach Data Management as Value Creation

Andrew Bartels shared the story of how he led the transition at his company to “cloud first” and drove Salesforce adoption from a peripheral system to a key driver of business performance and success. Andrew spoke passionately about the need to treat data as an asseet and concluded with the following words of advice:

• Communication is key
• Focus on real needs not just philosophy
• Establish a Data Committee
• Become a partner & not an obstacle
• Integration & accessibility is key
• Be prepared for a long road

I’ve embedded the video below and posted the slides on Slideshare. There’s some great insight here. I hope you find the discussion interesting and useful – I sure did!

Related articles

• Dirty Secret about Cloud and Data Integration (blogs.gartner.com)

Congratulations to the 2012 Best of AppExchange Award Winners

Every year Salesforce announces the top partners by AppExchange category based on the quantity and quality of reviews. Today they blogged the winners. Congratulations to these partners who continue to demonstrate such a high degree of cloud customer adoption and success.

Sales: There are multiple winners in this category based on functional area.

Overall winner: Adobe EchoSign (They have now won 7 years in a row!  I actually thought the award had only been around for 5 years. Hmmm…. They have an astounding 2040 reviews for their electronic signature application.)

• Reports and Dashboards: Hoopla Scoreboard by Hoopla Software (we have the big screens running in our office!)
• Methodologies: Opportunity Management Optimizer by Sales Optimizer
• Geolocation: Geopointe by Arrowpointe
• Quotes and Orders: Configurator by Big Machines
• Compensation: Xactly Incent by Xactly

Customer Service: Clicktools Surveys and Scripts by Clicktools

IT and Administration: Informatica Cloud Integration for Salesforce (Informatica has been recognized 5 years in a row as the top cloud integration solution!)

Marketing: Marketo (Big win over Eloqua in a very competitive category – congrats!)

Human Resources (HR): Jobscience for Professional Recruiting by Jobscience

ERP: Ascent by Precisio Business Solutions (I’m interested in feedback on this app. Thought you’d see Financial Force here.)

Collaboration: SpringCM Free Content Management from SpringCM

Analytics: Sales Pipeline Visualization by SalesClic (First I’ve heard of this app – looks interesting.)

Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to the Salesforce users who took the time to post their reviews!

 

Related Articles:

• AppExchange Customer Choice Award Winners 2012 (blogs.salesforce.com)
• Oracle Buys Eloqua: Winners and Losers for B2B Marketing Automation (customerthink.com)
• Top 10 Things You Can Do With Salesforce (blogs.salesforce.com)

In(tegrate) the Cloud 2012 Highlights

Every year WordPress sends a year in review summary of your blog. They do a nice job with it.

Here are a few highlights that I thought were worth sharing:

• The busiest day of the year was July 23rd, when I posted Cloud Data Replication for Better Business Intelligence.  I’m not sure if it’s the topic or the use of the Salesforce.com logo that drove the traffic that day.
• None of the posts that got the most views in 2012 were written in 2012.  Hmmm…I’m not sure I feel great about that.
• Twitter was the top referring site most in 2012. Alltop was number two.
• Cloud computing is the most popular topic I’ve written about, followed by SaaS, PaaS and Cloud Integration.

Here’s the most popular video first posted on the site. Thanks for reading – Happy New Year!

More 2013 Technology Predictions

I posted a few cloud data management predictions on the Informatica Perspectives blog this week:

1. Master Data Management will catch fire in the cloud
2. Cloud deployment options will extend the universal reach of MDM
3. Integration will help broaden PaaS adoption
4. “Governed self-service” will become the Hybrid IT mantra
5. Integration will surpass security as the primary barrier to cloud adoption in the enterprise

For the first time in a few years I didn’t mention anything about cloud-based analytics / business intelligence. In fact, I didn’t mention much about Social, Mobile, Analytics or Big Data. Seems like there’s not much more to say, beyond pointing to Mary Meekers technology forecast.

I must admit that I didn’t see this week’s Oracle acquisition of Eloqua coming. I thought Marketo would be a more likely target. In fact, that was the rumor circulating back at Dreamforce 2012. IDC predicts more aggressive spending on SaaS acquisitions by traditional enterprise software vendors in 2013. Here are the IDC Predictions: Competing on the 3rd Platform:

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Embedded Cloud Integration and the 3 V’s of SaaS Applications

I recorded an interview recently as part of the Cloud Channel Summit in Mountain View.  Industry analyst Jeff Kaplan from THINKstrategies posted his views on the event here and here.  In my interview I talk about the need for SaaS application and platform (PaaS) providers to either build, buy or partner when it comes to cloud integration. Everyone talks about the 3 V’s when it comes to Big Data. My belief is that IT organizations are equally overwhelmed with the volume, variety and velocity of SaaS applications coming into the enterprise.  This is why the topic of cloud integration will continue to it’s rise in relevance and strategic importance in 2013.

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• Platform as a Service emerges from shadows of SaaS and IaaS (zdnet.com)

Governed Self Service: Applying Lean Principles to Cloud Integration

Today I moderated a webinar focused on Eliminating SaaS Sprawl with Cloud Integration. We focused on the usual challenges of silos and data fragmentation, but also focused on the opportunity to apply Lean Integration principles in a next generation integration Center of Excellence (CoE) or integration competency center (ICC).  The conversation centered on the need for speed and business agility, while also maintaining strong governance and control in IT.  What I call “Governed Self Service.”

David Lyle, co-author of the book on Lean Integration, pointed out that integration is a concept that mirrors the “just-in-time” (JIT) manufacturing principles of the automotive industry. With JIT manufacturing, the necessary components to assemble a car are sourced throughout the supply chain and brought onto the factory floor just before they are needed thus minimizing the amount of time a worker has to wait for the necessary part. Lean Integration transforms organizational processes and relies on leading-edge technology for automation and reuse to systematically reduce costs and accelerate delivery. His presentation summarized how the objectives of cloud integration are one and the same as Lean Integration:

• Eliminate waste
• Increase value for end-user customers
• Drive continuous improvement

Mark Murray from the Informatica Cloud team, then delivered a powerful cloud integration demonstration that focused on re-usable templates and the concept of having a central instance and sub-instances that can be deployed out to the divisions and lines of business, while maintaining centralized administration  Pretty powerful stuff!

I’ve embedded the webinar in it’s entirety below:

Related articles

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Re-Imagining the Future of Software and Technology as We Know It

Image via CrunchBase

I wrote a summary of my 2012 cloud integration predictions on the Informatica Perspectives blog, but haven’t yet posted 2013 predictions. Today Mary Meeker’s slides are making their way through corporate boardrooms at most, if not all, technology companies, not to mention getting some great coverage across the web. Here’s the presentation. I really like the “re-imagine” section. There’s no doubt that cloud computing and software as a service (Saas) have forced a great deal of re-imagination in the traditional application, platform, middleware and infrastructure  markets. Marc Andreessen believes that 2012 Will Be Remembered As The Year Of SaaS. Some have said that “Cloud and Data are the New Black” (although black clouds are generally not a good thing, right?).

2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

One thing is for sure, whether it’s social, mobile, cloud, analytics, Big Data or [insert secular megatrend here], two words we’re going to hear a lot of in 2013 are:  ”re-imagine” and “disruption.”

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From SaaS Spree to SaaS Sprawl to SaaS Sanity?

I wrote earlier in the week that cloud integration suddenly seems cool. A few articles this week  reminded me that it’s not just about cloud integration, it’s about cloud data management. And in many cases, it’s about the need for Cloud Master Data Management.

• Cloud Services Becoming Foundational: “Through 2016, a hybrid model (cloud and captive systems) will become the platform of choice, a transitional platform en route to a future dominated by public and private clouds. By 2016, 75 percent or more of new enterprise spending will be cloud-based or hybrid according to Saugatuck’s research.”
• Geoffrey Moore: The Next Decade Will Be About Systems of Engagement: “Moore forecasts the emergence of an enterprise-focused tech industry that will offer workplace versions of consumer technologies that people actually will like to use. He imagines there will be enterprise versions of Facebook, Facetime, Twitter, etc.”
• And bringing it back to Cloud Master Data Management, Mike Vizard wrote about the concept of “Two-Tier MDM” noting:  ”as integration issues become more pressing in the cloud, IT organizations are once again going to discover many of the same MDM issues that have plagued their internal operations for so many years — only this time it will involve a lot more applications that they have less control over than ever.”

It seems we have we gone from a “SaaS spree” to “SaaS sprawl” and now finally to “SaaS sanity”?

Here are three brief videos that explain at a high-level how the key capabilities of a cloud master data management (MDM) solution can help deliver SaaS sanity:

 

Related articles

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Cloud Integration is Suddenly Cool

I started a blog post with an “is it me?” question once and got one comment:  ”Yes, it’s you.”

With that as an intro and a risk, let me ask: “Is it me or is cloud integration suddenly cool?”

Okay, maybe “cool” is the wrong word. But take a look at the trend:

So what’s so hot about cloud integration? In May 2010 I wrote about Phase Two Cloud Integration and The Dangers of Delaying Cloud Integration.

What’s changed?

Here’s how I answered the question in a recent interview:

“The first wave of cloud adoption was driven by software as a service (SaaS) applications. Pioneered by companies like salesforce.com, these applications typically were sold directly to the business, with minimal (if any) involvement from the traditional IT department. While there was a great deal of small to mid-sized company adoption early on, there was just as much departmental purchasing taking place in larger companies due to the benefits of ease of use, the promise of rapid deployments and the operational expense appeal of the subscription pricing model. On the IT side of the fence, I would characterize this as the “cloud skeptical” phase. On the business side, it was more like the Wild West. This is where cloud-based data integration first gained a foothold. Mid-sized companies and autonomous divisions and departments had limited technical resources but needed many of the same capabilities – data migration, synchronization, replication, and of course data quality.

Fast forward to today and IT organizations are increasingly becoming “cloud first.” Cloud deployments are becoming more complex, whether they are software, platform or infrastructure as a service; and the importance of broader cloud data management strategy is now recognized as the critical enabler of success. It’s a now truly a hybrid IT world. To avoid the perils of data fragmentation and “SaaS sprawl” business and IT organizations are starting to align around the need for trusted data.”

Do you agree? Disagree?  Anyone got a comment?

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