Cloud Integration Evolution: From Outside in to Inside Out?

A few years ago Informatica’s Ron Papas wrote a blog post called – Salesforce.com Integration – Inside Out or Outside In.  He defined an “outside in” cloud integration solution as, ” ideal for organizations with limited IT resources that will rely on their Salesforce Administrator or a line of business analyst to do that work.”

I was recently interviewed by Ron Powell of the ByeNetwork about the evolution of cloud-based data  integration  and noted that increasingly enterprise IT organizations are seeking to take advantage of this model to complement and extend their on-premise deployments in order to delver well-governed self-service to the business.

Chris Boorman, Informatica’s CMO, also picked up this theme in an update – Unification: Enterprise Integration meets Departmental Integration via the Cloud. He highlighted 4 key guiding Informatica Cloud principles:

1. Simplicity
2. Rapid Deployment
3. Security
4. Unification

So how much has really changed when it comes to cloud data integration in the enterprise?

Do you agree with this statement from my interview:

“Fast forward to 2012, and it’s amazing to see the tipping point we have reached. It has become cloud first. Now, in many – if not most – IT organizations, you have to justify why an application, platform, or infrastructure investment isn’t cloud based. It’s been an interesting transition over the last few years, and I think it has accelerated faster than anyone would have guessed.”

Related articles

• Cloud Data Integration: Real-Life Experiences and Best Practices (ebizq.net)

Talking About Hybrid IT with @LoraineLawson

Over at ITBusinessEdge, Loraine Lawson published a discussion we had recently, which was primarily focused on the Informatica Cloud Winter 2012 release. The conversation ended up getting into the topic of “hybrid IT.” I was asked if companies are really pursuing Private Clouds and had this to say:

“If you’re Salesforce.com, you say that private cloud is like a unicorn, it doesn’t really exist and it’s everyone liking the benefits of cloud computing but feeling like there’s too much risk in terms of security and data privacy and those sorts of things. At Oracle Open World, I had several enterprise architects come up to me and say there’s two things I want to talk about: cloud computing and Big Data. And I said, so you’re an enterprise architect and you’re trying to figure out a blueprint for your company? Absolutely.

When it comes to cloud, one guy went so far as to say, “We will not do any public cloud in our company. It’s going to be 100 percent private.” And then you ask him are there any SaaS applications in your business? “Oh, yeah, they’re all over the place.” Well, good luck, right? Good luck shutting all that down and going 100 percent private, it’s just not going to happen. That’s why I think it is going to be a mix. It is going to be hybrid, whether it’s public-private, whether it’s cloud and on-premise. Hybrid is the new black.”

Accurate? Way off? I’m interested in the discussion.

Related articles

• Top 10 Cloud Computing Experts to Follow on Twitter (backupify.com)
• Big data in the cloud……..the ability to make business decisions (bi24.co.uk)
• Cloud Predictions for 2012 from a Researcher’s Eye (clean-clouds.com)
• 2012 outlook for enterprise architecture (zdnet.com)

#GartnerAADI Tweet Stream in Review

This past week I attended Gartner’s Application Architecture, Development and Integration (AADI) summit in Vegas. The tagline for the conference was:  “Cloud, Web, Mobile and Social: Rocking Your Enterprise Application Strategy.” To illustrate how “All In” Gartner when it comes to cloud computing adoption, the conference featured two tracks on the topic:

• The Business of the Cloud
• Cloud Infrastructure

There was also a track with significant cloud content called: Architecture for Postmodern IT: SOA, WOA, EDA, and Cloud.

I plan to post some observations and notes on the Perspectives blog next week, but just looking at the #gartnerAADI stream of tweets from the conference tells the story. Here are few of my favorites:

That’s to Gartner for a fantastic event! Lots of great sessions, customer and analyst discussions. With SAP’s announcement of their acquisition of SuccessFactors, 2012 is definitely shaping up to be the biggest year yet for cloud computing adoption in the enterprise and cloud integration will continue to be a hot topic.

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)

SIIA’s Vision from the Top

Want to know what CEOs at leading technologies think about trends in security, enterprise mobility, social media, government technology, various industry verticals and horizontal markets, and more? Be sure to download SIIA’s Vision from the Top.

From Informatica’s CEO Sohaib Abbasi:

“The growing adoption of the three new platforms – Cloud Computing, Social Computing and Mobile Computing – will elevate the strategic role of a comprehensive data integration platform to leverage the wealth of information assets.”

Contributors this year:

• Ezequiel Steiner, CEO, Acumatica
• Eileen Boerger, President, Agilis Solutions
• David Roth, CEO & Co-Founder, AppFirst
• Chris Barbin, CEO, Appirio
• Gil Zimmerman, CEO & Co-Founder, Cloudlock
• Carmen Sebe, CEO, Avangate
• René Lacerte, CEO & Founder, Bill.com
• Steve Van Till, President, CEO & Co-Founder, Brivo Systems
• Paul Sorrentino, Founder & CEO, Centah
• Avinoam Nowogrodski, CEO & Co-Founder, Clarizen
• Feyzi Fatehi, CEO, Corent Technology, Inc.
• Joseph Payne, CEO, Eloqua Limited
• Kjell Backlund, CEO, Emillion Oy
• Jeremy Roche, CEO & President, FinancialForce.com
• Audrey Spangenberg, CEO & Chairperson, FPX
• Roman Stanek, Founder & CEO, GoodData
• Frank Traylor, CEO, Govascend
• Scott Burns, CEO & Co-Founder, GovDelivery
• Morris Panner, CEO, GroupFlier
• Jon Kondo, President & CEO, Host Analytics
• Sohaib Abbasi, Chairman & CEO, Informatica
• Umberto Milletti, CEO, InsideView
• Brad Smith, President & CEO, Intuit
• Umang Gupta, Chairman & CEO, Keynote Systems
• Phil Fernandez, President & CEO, Marketo
• Kevin Dobbs, Owner & Managing Partner, Montclair Advisors
• Zach Nelson, President & CEO, NetSuite, Inc.
• Neil Wainwright, CEO, Nexonia, Inc.
• Treb Ryan, CEO, OpSource, Inc.
• Andre Durand, Chairman & CEO, Ping Identity
• Mark Symonds, President & CEO, Plex Systems, Inc.
• Lars Björk, CEO, QlikView
• Jim Whitehurst, President & CEO, Red Hat
• Greg Gianforte, Founder & CEO, RightNow
• Markku Montonen, Chairman & CEO, RM5 Software Oy
• Bill Loss, CEO, SaaShr.com
• Mark Floyd, CEO, SafeNet
• Bill McNee, Founder & CEO, Saugatuck Technology
• Jan Aleman, CEO, Servoy
• Robert La Loggia, President, CEO & Founder, StormSource Software
• Enrique Salem, President & CEO, Symantec
• Marcellus Buchheit, President & CEO, Wibu-Systems USA, Inc.
• Christopher Cabrera, CEO, Xactly
• Paul Lambert, CTO & CEO, xAssets.com Ltd.
• Jerry Merritt, President & CEO, ZirMed, Inc.

Related articles

• IT As A Service Is The Future (informationweek.com)
• The Most Underrated Quality of a CEO (onstartups.com)

Cloud Computing: Is Hybrid the New Black?

I posted my second “Cloud in Action” article on Sandhill.com this week: “Is Hybrid “The New Black” in The Era of Cloud Computing?” It’s a summary of a conversation I had recently with an Informatica Cloud customer who spearheaded a line of business-driven cloud data integration implementation. The interview highlights how much things have changed in terms of SaaS acceptance and adoption in the enterprise and points to some best-practices that more and more enterprise IT organizations are embracing to improve alignment with the business.

“…we now receive corporate guidance on how SaaS should be evaluated and implemented. I no longer feel like IT is trying to slow me down. Instead, their goal has been made clear: facilitate business continuity with no risk. We’ve established guidelines, governance and processes, which are actually very helpful.”

I’m interested in your feedback and experiences. You can read the entire interview here.

Related Articles

• SaaS will dominate your cloud strategy (zdnet.com)
• TDWI Q&A: Data Integration and Cloud Computing (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

Unstoppable SaaS

Image via CrunchBase

Forrester’s Stefan Ried has published a fantastic report Sizing the Cloud.  Larry Dignan shared a few nuggets on his blog – my favorite is this one:

“Software as a service will be adopted by companies of all sizes. In 2011, SaaS will be a $21.2 billion market and grow to $92.8 billion in 2016. AT that point SaaS comes closer to saturation.”

Cloud integration anyone?

Related Articles

• SaaS will dominate your cloud strategy (zdnet.com)
• What is SaaS and when do you want it? | LexisNexis Firm Manager (cersys.wordpress.com)
• How to Integrate With the Cloud (pcworld.com)

Salesforce.com Video: The State of Cloud Computing

Image via CrunchBase

Fairly low key video from my friends @ Salesforce.com. I like that it’s less about selling the model (who still needs to be sold?) and more about what the cloud now makes possible.

“As Cloud Computing continues to grow, so does the realm of what’s possible.”

Has cloud marketing turned the corner from all hype to a more mainstream reality? Is the cloud becoming a little more, er,…grounded? We’ll see.

Related Articles

• salesforce.com Seeks to Subdue the Social Web (fool.com)
• Salesforce.com Worth $128 If It Doesn’t Overspend On R&D (blogs.forbes.com)
• VMware Launches Open-Source Cloud (q-ontech.blogspot.com)

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.