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)

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?

Related articles

• Cloud app integration: Incredibly important, but also problematic (cloudave.com)
• Are Enterprises Embracing Cloud? (cloudcomputing.sys-con.com)
• Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

#DF12 Presentation: Power the Connected Enterprise with Cloud MDM and Integration

The video of 3 great enterprise customers sharing their Salesforce integration and master data management stories at Dreamforce 2012 is now posted. You can read a blog post on two of the companies that presented so far:

• OppenheimerFunds Dreamforce Story: Lay a Foundation of Trusted and Complete Customer Information for Salesforce
• Interstate Batteries Dreamforce Story: How Can You Be #1 Without Trusted Customer Information?

And here’s the video (slides are here):

Related articles

• Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Cloud Master Data Management from Informatica (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Stuck in the Post Dreamforce Cloud #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Informatica Positioned in Leaders Quadrant in 2012 Master Data Management of Customer Data Solutions Report (virtual-strategy.com)

Cloud Connect 2012 Conference Highlights

The day before Dreamforce 2012, Informatica hosted the first annual Cloud Connect Conference.  The event kicked off with a keynote outlining the company’s cloud integration vision, a deep-dive roadmap session with product management, a customer and partner panel, hands-on labs with the cloud integration gurus, and the 2012 Cloudy Awards ceremony.  Here is a video highlight reel from the event:

Related articles

• Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Cloud Master Data Management from Informatica (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12

Two things stuck out for me at Dreamforce 2012:

1. What an amazing ecosystem Salesforce has built. The Cloud expo was packed with high-quality booths and there were over 3000 people at the partner keynote! Congratulations to the partner success team and kudos on the newly designed Appexchange.
2. How important cloud integration / enterprise connectivity has become to Salesforce customers, partners and prospects. These two slides from that same partner keynote say it all:

When it comes to the back-office, Big Data Management apps top the list of Salesforce customer requirements. Oh, and by the way, all new cloud applications must connect across the business.

Today two post-Dreamforce 2012 articles caught my attention that address the need for cloud integration head on. In his post – Plumbing the Salesforce Clouds is Your Business, Mark Smith from Ventana Research notes:

“The challenges your organization faces with data are getting larger, and the financial benefits of data in the cloud, such as reduced TCO and reduced implementation fees, are substantive. Too much time and too many resources are wasted in manual approaches where data is transitioned inconsistently and incorrectly. Automation helps organizations rationalize their overall information management efforts.”

Joshua Greenbaum at Enterprise Applications Consulting has this to say his his article, Salesforce.com, Enterprise Platforms, and the End of the End of Software:

“And the tools are there, or on the way. Hence the refrigerator pitch, though it was interestingly devoid of details on just how easy it will be to build an integration framework that could tie together a Pandora-like pure cloud environment or a more common hybrid cloud/on-premise environment. But heck, that’s really hard. It took SAP years to get NetWeaver out of slideware mode and into simple and easy to implement mode, despite all their efforts. So I don’t expect Saleforce.com to settle this issue in just one Dreamforce. It will take a while, no doubt.”

I’ll write about the Informatica Cloud integration and MDM session later this week on the Perspective blog. In the meantime, I’ve embedded the slides below so you can see for yourself how three enterprise organizations have taken advantage of data integration, data quality and master data management technology to drive overall Salesforce adoption and success. It’s Big Cloud Data Management in action!

Power the Connected Enterprise with Cloud Integration and Master Data Management (MDM) from Darren Cunningham

Related articles

• Salesforce.com reveals brief roadmap for AppExchange through 2013 (zdnet.com)
• Dreamforce 2012: Salesforce.com Launches Dropbox Enterprise Rival Chatterbox (techweekeurope.co.uk)
• Dreamforce 2012: Betting On Social Enterprise (cloudave.com)
• Salesforce.com’s New Social Strategy is Brilliant, Here’s Why (studentforce.wordpress.com)

Cloud Integration vs. SaaS Integration vs. Salesforce Integration

I did a quick comparison on Google Insights on a few keywords I track and thought I’d share the results. A few observations:

• “Salesforce Integration” was first out of the gate in May 2006. This is roughly when AppExchange was first launched.
• “SaaS Integration” entered into the vernacular in 2008. About the same time the term “on-demand” died I suspect. SaaS integration hasn’t done so well as a term, however. I put in SaaS application integration and it only made matters worse. This was a bit of a surprise I must admit.
• “Cloud Integration” made a dent in October 2008 and has been on a steady climb ever since.

 

Google Trends has similar results. But when you go to Dice.com it’s a bit of a different story. There are:

• 246 “Salesforce Integration” jobs
• 387 “SaaS Integration” jobs
• 1102 “Cloud Integration” jobs

But back to the keywords. I put in the terms “Data Integration” and “Application Integration“ to compare and they’re an order of magnitude greater than all three, albeit with a much longer history. Of note, however, is that the trend line for both of these more mature terms was on the decline for a few years but now seems to have leveled off somewhat.

Cloud-Con Integration – Connecting Cloud, SaaS and On-Premise Data and Apps

I recently participated in the Cloud-Con event focused on integration. Run by the Integration Developer News team, I always find these events to be incredibly well run. Vance McCarthy does a great job keeping the dialog relevant, focused and engaging.

Each vendor was given the opportunity to share a case study and to provide an overview of their cloud integration solution. You can download all of the slides and view the sessions here.

The Informatica Cloud presentations are embedded below:

Informatica Cloud Customer Success: Uponor

View more PowerPoint from Darren Cunningham

Informatica Cloud Overview: Application Integration for the Cloud Era

View more PowerPoint from Darren Cunningham

Related articles

• Informatica Cloud Developer Edition Arrives (drdobbs.com)
• Informatica Upgrades Its iPaaS (web2.sys-con.com)
• In the cloud, integration is the competitive advantage (zdnet.com)
• Cloud Integration – Foundation for Successful Cloud SaaS Deployments (cloudcomputing.sys-con.com)

Salesforce Integration in Manufacturing: Getting Sales and Operations on the Same Page

I hosted a webinar this week with a CRM developer, Salesforce.com-focused systems integrator and cloud integration expert who provided a demonstration of Informatica Cloud. The focus of the discussion was the importance of data integration to CRM adoption and success in manufacturing. Here is the recording and the slides.

Salesforce Integration in Manufacturing: Getting Sales and Operations on the Same Page

View more PowerPoint from Darren Cunningham

Informatica World 2012: Return on Big Data

I’m spending the week at Informatica’s annual user conference in Vegas. The focus of the event is the new Informatica 9.5 release and the overall theme of Big Data and the Return on Data. The tweet stream is quite active – you can follow the conference at #IW2012.

Here’s the opening video from Informatica World. You might also find the Infographic interesting - Big Data, Big Returns.

Integration Platform as a Service Announced

Image via CrunchBase

Last week Informatica Cloud Summer 2012 was announced. The company’s award-winning multi-tenant integration service now processes more than 1 billion cloud integration transactions per day and this release introduces a Cloud Connector Toolkit and Cloud Integration Templates that will be be available in a new Developer Edition.

Gartner analyst Yefim Natis has this to say about the growing significance of integration platform as a service (iPaaS):

“Gartner expects iPaaS adoption to grow significantly during the next five years. Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) can provide a foundation for hybrid cloud computing, engaging old and new applications and data, on-premises and in the cloud. iPaaS is a key component of any comprehensive cloud application infrastructure offering and an essential requirement for future leadership in PaaS markets by any vendor.”

You can read more about the Informatica Cloud integration platform as a service (iPaaS) components on the Perspectives blog and read some of the coverage here. I’ve also embedded the webinar we delivered on the release below:

 

Related articles

• Informatica adds developer edition to cloud data-integration platform (techworld.com.au)
• Informatica Upgrades Its iPaaS (web2.sys-con.com)
• Informatica Upgrades Its iPaaS (sys-con.com)
• Informatica Launches Cloud Development Edition (devx.com)
• First Look at Informatica’s Cloud Data Integration Apps Store (readwriteweb.com)