Cloud Politics Remain Top of Mind

A few weeks ago I wrote about cloud politics and the role of data integration. The post clearly struck a chord as it continues to be the most popular week after week. No comments, but lots of hits. Maybe people don’t want to expose their own politics…

CIO.com also wrote about the Politics of Cloud Apps. Their warning – Beware of IT Unrest! Well today I read an interesting post that hit many of the same themes:  SaaS Vendor Selection/Implementation Tips: Avoid Having the Cloud Pulled Over Your Eyes (Part 2).

“The biggest challenge with integration (especially SaaS integration) is that the devil is always — and we mean always — in the spend details. When considering specific solutions, especially in a transactional environment, we suggest spending as much time on understanding the integration capabilities of the SaaS/cloud solution (e.g., receiving and providing the types of data discussed above to and from your organization’s legacy systems) as any other area. In plain terms, you need to discover how open, extensible and simplified the integration layer is of the SaaS solution. Marketing speak may make it sound simple and straightforward, but trust us, we’ve seen this exact detail cause significant angst in many organizations that have had the cloud pulled over their eyes, especially when it comes to managing complicated integration flows and system updates. For example, the ongoing management of supplier lifecycle data — especially when combined with transactional data — can be a significant SaaS integration hurdle that your friendly vendor salesperson isn’t likely to highlight until after the ink on the contract is dry.”

Good stuff. Any experiences to share?

Phase Two Cloud Integration

Interesting article in InformationWeek today called Practical Analysis:  How to Lead in Cloud Adoption. It’s a summary of a recent panel that featured Informatica’s CIO Tony Young and James Barrese, who’s the VP of Architecture, Platforms and Systems at eBay. Sounds like it was a wide-ranging discussion about all things cloud. This paragraph is particularly relevant to the topic of cloud data integration:

“For both panelists, there were other concerns for maturity. One that I found particularly interesting is the way many SaaS vendors sell their products–convincing line of business owners of their product’s value by demonstrating whizbang user interfaces and cool features, while essentially daring the IT department to stop the sale with their esoteric concerns like data integration capabilities, user management, and data security models (you know the little stuff). The threat of this sort of adoption alone should make IT execs very amenable to discussions about adopting SaaS applications. Better to help vet them upfront than to try to unseat them after the fact.”

I wrote about a phenomenon I call “phase two cloud integration” in this post:  The Dangers of Delaying Cloud Integration. Possible reasons for delaying integration in the initial phases of a SaaS application roll out include:

1. SaaS application sales reps want to check the integration box and avoid slowing the deal down with potentially complex integration discussions
2. Prospects are told that data migration, synchronization and replication are easy thanks to a few free tools, Excel spreadsheets, and a Web Services API
3. LOB either doesn’t have technical resources or simply don’t want to have to get IT involved as they’ll slow things down

With all of the talk about the importance of data integration in the era of cloud computing, I think we’re going to see the role of integration (and even IT) change and evolve. Stay tuned…

Cloud Politics and the Role of Data Integration

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called, “Avoiding a Cloud Data Disaster.” The post made the following recommendations to organizations investing in software as a service (SaaS) applications and platforms like Salesforce CRM and Force.com:

1. Don’t Wait to Integrate
2. Make Data Quality a Top Priority
3. Get IT Involved Early
4. Think Big, Start Small
5. Beware of Point Solutions

Recently I’ve been involved in a number of discussions with people in IT organizations where #3 was clearly not followed, which typically means that #1 was ignored as well. There’s been a lot written about why SaaS applications are well suited and appealing to the line of business (easy to use, rapid deployment, capex vs. opex, etc.). But how is IT’s role evolving as cloud-based applications continue to proliferate? One IT director put it this way, “our job is to make sure that the business doesn’t hurt themselves!”

According to IDC’s survey research, security, availability, and performance are the primary barriers to success in the cloud. But from my experience, internal politics can often be a much bigger hurdle to get over. I  find that there are generally three common scenarios when it comes to the IT dynamic, roles, and responsibilities:

• The Edge of the Enterprise: Okay, I didn’t coin the term, but I like it and I think it’s appropriate for cloud computing in 2010.  SaaS application adoption in larger organizations often begins with an under-served department or business unit (also known as data silos!). Line of business (LOB) then selects a point application that is unsupported by IT and attempts to hand-code basic integration. At some point IT will need to get involved to find a way to stitch it all together.  I spoke to a new Salesforce.com customer recently that is planning to roll out 1000 seats with no IT involvement whatsoever! In this case, the IT department is too busy trying to figure out Oracle (con)Fusion. This is when LOB often “goes rogue” (Sarah Palin style I guess). The fireworks on calls that I’ve been on involving both sides are always interestig and the need for a comprehensive integration strategy that will deliver timely, relevant, and trustworthy data is often the forcing function that brings them together.
• The No-IT Approach: This is another reason for the phenomenal growth of cloud-based applications. SMB is where SaaS apps have their roots. But this is where #1 and #4 are critical. The sooner integration gets on the radar of the SaaS application implementation, whether there are IT resources or not, the better. Look for a mulitenant integration as a service solution that won’t hit the ceiling as your data volumes, sources, and complexity grow over time. Limited IT resources doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice scalability and performance – two of the cornerstones of enterprise-class data integration solutions.
• The LOB Self-Service / IT Trust and Control Approach: Okay, I know that this may be the Holy Grail for most organizations, but the good news is that integration delivered as a true on-demand service can actually play a critical role in making this dream a reality. What if IT and LOB cloud actually collaborate to create a trusted source of integrated data that is controlled and managed by IT, but accessible by non-technical people who either don’t have time to wait for their requirements to be met or they don’t have IT resources in the first place. Recently David Linthicum and I did a podcast on the topic based on this post:  Staging or Direct – SaaS Integration Best Practices. He then wrote his own post on the topic where he made the following point:

“The use of intermediary staging where the data can be viewed, manipulated, and cleaned, insures that the data quality and any data governance required occurs consistently.”

The CIO post, “10 Big Cloud Trends for 2010” didn’t call out politics as a big trend, but they did concede that:

“Politics will drive decisions:  Cloud-based services have demystified compute services and increasingly business executives will ask IT managers about the cloud.”

So what are the cloud politics in your organization? Do you see a role for data integration to help bridge the IT and LOB divide as it relates to self-service, governance, trust, and control? Am I overstating the problem? Got any best practices and/or anecdotes to share?