Video: Unlock your SAP Back Office with Force.com

This Salesforce.com demonstration  is a great example of the power of cloud integration.

 

Related articles

• Salesforce.com offers to ‘unlock’ SAP’s core (infoworld.com)
• Unlock the Power of Force.com @Salesforce (slideshare.net)
• Salesforce.com to ‘unlock’ SAP’s Core Software for ‘social Enterprises’ (pcworld.com)

Best of Both Worlds: Integrating Salesforce CRM and Oracle ERP #oow11

This week I participated in an Informatica Cloud webinar focused on a real-world customer example and demonstration of rapid cloud-based data integration between Salesforce CRM and Oracle E-Business Suite. Here is the presentation. You can also watch the entire webinar on YouTube.

Related articles

Cloud Integration: Oracle EBS and Salesforce.com

View more presentations from Darren Cunningham

• Salesforce.com to ‘unlock’ SAP’s Core Software for ‘social Enterprises’ (pcworld.com)
• After A Cancelled Keynote, Benioff Strikes Back; Talks Future Of The Cloud (From A Restaurant) (techcrunch.com)

#SIIA Interview from Dreamforce: Cloud Integration in the Spotlight

Here’s an interview from #df11 focused on cloud integration as well as industry trends.

Related articles

• Notes from Dreamforce 2012 (davidcummings.org)
• Appirio surveys Dreamforce attendees about mobile, social (zdnet.com)

Sandhill.com Interview: Talking Big Data and Cloud Computing

My interview with Dave Kellogg (aka Kellblog) was published today over on Sandhill.com: Big Data, Cloud Computing and Industry Perspectives with Dave Kellogg. I always enjoy catching up with Dave (especially if there’s a beer or two involved). In this interview he weighs in on Big Data and why it’s getting so much attention, the intersection between Big Data and Cloud Computing, and he even throws in some career advice – and it’s good news for any budding “data scientists“ out there…

Here’s what Dave has to say about cloud integration:

“IT used to buy and run computers. Then they used to build and run applications. Then they focused on weaving together packaged applications. Going forward, they will focus on tightly integrating cloud-based services. They will also continue to focus on company-proprietary analytics used to gain competitive advantage.”

Be sure to check out the entire interview here.

Related articles

• Jeff Kaplan on Cloud Integration (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Cloud in Action Interview: From Cloud Skeptical to Cloud First (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• 5 Requirements for a Big Data Integration Platform (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

Cloud Architect Anyone?

I thought this was interesting – why you need a cloud architect. “It’s orchestral.”  Go Arthur!

I then took a look at Indeed.com’s trending of cloud architect vs. cloud integration. Looks like cloud integration is in even higher demand…

cloud architect, cloud integration Job Trends

Cloud Architect jobs – Cloud Integration jobs

Speaking of cloud integration jobs, did I mention I’m hiring?

Related articles

• Considering the Cloud Architects (chucksblog.emc.com)
• Split enterprise architecture into five or more specialities: proposal (zdnet.com)

Cloud in Action Interview: From Cloud Skeptical to Cloud First

I posted an interview yesterday on the Sandhill.com blog with an IT thought leader in the financial services industry: From Cloud Skeptical to Cloud Curious to Cloud First. A few highlights:

“In the past I wasn’t building and managing infrastructure in the cloud, but rather using applications to perform end-user tasks. With the evolution of solutions like Amazon Web Services (AWS), salesforce.com and Informatica Cloud, my thinking has evolved to the point where I believe corporations can build out their entire application infrastructure in the Public Cloud. “

“….the only obstacles to businesses moving applications to the cloud right now are:

• Cost
• Connectivity Speed
• Lack of familiarity on behalf of in-house IT teams”

You can read the entire interview here.

Related articles

• Cloud Computing: Is Hybrid the New Black? (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Jeff Kaplan on Cloud Integration (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Next wave of middleware is PaaS: prediction (zdnet.com)

Video: Ron Papas Accepts Informatica Cloud CODiE Award

Here’s a short video of Ron Papas, GM of Informatica Cloud, accepting the 2011 CODiE Award for “Best Cloud Management Solution.”

Informatica Cloud Wins CODiE for Best Cloud Management Solution! from DreamSimplicity on Vimeo.

TDWI Q&A: Data Integration and Cloud Computing

Image via CrunchBase

I participated in a Q&A session with TDWI recently and provide my thoughts on the following questions:

• What impact is cloud computing having on traditional IT roles and responsibilities?
• What are some of the barriers to adoption of cloud-based applications and platforms?
• What is the role of data integration as it relates to cloud computing?
• Can companies move incrementally to the cloud without making a full-on commitment?
• What about service-level agreements? How should they be enforced with cloud vendors?
• What sort of architecture should companies look for, especially for BI and data warehousing applications?
• What about performance concerns, especially with large data sets?
• How is Informatica addressing the cloud computing opportunity and challenge?

As there doesn’t appear to be a comment section on the site, I’d appreciate any feedback or comments you might have on the discussion.

Related Articles

• SaaS will dominate your cloud strategy (zdnet.com)
• BBC News on Cloud Computing: Going Beyond Buzzwords (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• The Amazon Outage is OK, OK? (Well kind of) (diversity.net.nz)

Call for Nominations: Informatica 2011 Innovation Awards

Here are the categories for the 12th annual Informatica innovation awards – the judges will select winners in Business and Technical Enablement categories, as well as the Overall Award: A Strategic Approach to Data Integration:

1. Deliver Analytical Insight
2. Increase Business Agility
3. Improve Business Processes
4. Delivering trusted information to drive data governance,compliance and reduce risk
5. Accelerating shareholder value in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
6. Improve efficiency and reduce costs
7. Attract & retain customers
8. Increase partner network efficiency
9. Fortifying overall operations with data quality
10. Outsource non-core functions 
11. Enhancing the Marketplace

While I’m not sure why #10 isn’t simply called Cloud Computing or Cloud Data Integration, but the description is clear:

“Outsource non-core functions recognizes projects that utilize Informatica’s cloud-based data integration and data quality services to maximize the ROI on their cloud application investments. By integrating data from the cloud with existing enterprise data sources, nominated companies ensure that they have control of all of their data, regardless of where it resides.”

Last year’s winner in this category was Toshiba Americas Business Solutions. Here’s the case study and a picture of the award winner.

Be sure to submit your nomination no later than May 6th here.

IT Toolbox Discussion: Is the Cloud Concept Played Out?

I’m enjoying some of the comments on this IT Toolbox thread: Is the Cloud Concept Played Out? It’s a healthy debate. These days it’s always good to get some different opinions on all things cloud.

A few of my favorite points (and I felt it was worth sharing here):

• “The cloud concept now seems grounded in the mundane present rather than a wide-open, idealistic future.” (from the initial question/observation)
• “Is the cloud concept played out? Maybe, but only because in 10 years trying to explain what you mean by “The Cloud” to a new technology worker will be impossible because they won’t understand why it wouldn’t be like that. (well said!)
• “Take Microsoft’s “To The Cloud” ads. Unfortunately, many of these are simply regular, mundane server/server farms that have been around for years (seems like centuries). (ouch!)
• “We could be “leasing” cars by the week, the day, or even the hour but we refuse to give up the individuality we get from “owning” (or as I see it, having control of) our vehicles. (this analogy has legs – points to a long-term hybrid IT reality)
• I suspect that there are major B2B players that will be swept away because of a failure to embrace the cloud in the same way major retail/distribution players were swept away due to a failure to embrace the internet. (agreed!)
• I would argue that even if Salesforce.com was launched as an easy to install and configure on-premise software product it would have taken away Siebel business. (I don’t agree. Cloud isn’t just about subscription pricing.)
• “The problem with ‘cloud’ computing is that many large organizations have critical infrastructure which can not be ‘hosted’ on someone else infrastructure… and even when they do use a datacenter owned and managed by another organization, their part of the datacenter is silo’d off. networks are segregated logically or typically physically.” (Cloud data integration anyone?)
• “I wouldn’t personally run 100% of my business from a cloud, but unless my business is quite small, I would be unlikely to run 0% from the cloud either.” (true today, but why not someday?)
• “If, however, the public is fooled into believing that moving a legacy application to a Cloud provider consitutes the essence of this movement, then the Cloud concept will die out quickly.” (cloud washing anyone?)

Please join in! The IT Toolbox Cloud Computing Strategy and Planning Group has lots of great discussions.