People. Process. Platform.

The Challenges

In this new digital universe that we all now inhabit there are three principal challenges that must be addressed when launching any new initiative: 1) the people challenge; 2) the process challenge; and 3) the platform challenge. While a transition to cloud computing certainly has a well defined platform component, the success of  the initiative depends mostly on meeting the people and process challenges. That is, the principal challenges are not technology centric, but rather have much more to do with how we think about and interact with the platform. 1. People The first thing to recognize is that these are still uncharted waters, despite the volumes that have been written regarding enabling technologies, cloud computing, Web 2.0, etc. There is a generalized sense in many industries that something important is happening, but not many useful maps that will lead to the promised results. If, as is widely recognized, technology in and of itself is not the answer, then what is? Therein lies the dilemma (see our wicked problems discussion). Within any organization there are any number of stakeholder perspectives on what the real problem is and no shortage of confusion since even the experts can't seem to agree. This state of affairs produces angst, decision paralysis, and often a rush to buy a solution in a box that promises to solve the problem. While the enabling technologies we recommend hold significant promise, they do so only to the degree that an organization begins to acquire a different mindset about the problems that confront it. This is no small feat. 2. Process Even if an organization clearly recognizes that it must change the way it thinks in order to become more competitive, it must also recognize the need to change how it delivers value to the marketplace. That is, effective use of enabling technologies requires a change to internal processes. All of us become extremely attached to our work processes and we all find it disconcerting when they change. It is important to recognize just how powerful our innate resistance to change is, because we cannot ignore it and hope to overcome it simultaneously. Resistance to change is how we are wired, and it often serves us well. There is more than a little wisdom in "if it's not broke then don't fix it." However, our resistance often persists even when we know what we are doing is broken.Why is that? The answer to this question probably could fill a PhD dissertation (i.e. one which we are unqualified to deliver) and so we offer only a simple (thought hopefully not simplistic) response: we resist change even when we know our processes are broken because we have a hundred reasons why the new processes won't work. The truth is we are partly right. The processes that will work will only evolve over time, likely after some false starts, and therefore the platform that we select must be malleable. Any attempt to substitute one rigid set of processes with another has a low probability of success. 3. Platform Our use of the term “platform” refers to the combination of hardware, software and connectivity options that makeup the proposed computing infrastructure. Platform considerations have become more important now that knowledge workers are increasingly more “distributed”—requiring anywhere/anytime access. The platform needs to be as reliable as the nation’s electric grid so that users (and customers) can “plug in” on demand. It needs to be available 24/7 and 365 days a year. When industry pundits refer to the "cloud" they are mostly talking about the platform. Another term that is often used is "software as a service" (SaaS). We use the terms platform, cloud and SaaS interchangeably. Moving to the cloud is not a panacea. However, it can deliver a dramatic reduction in infrastructure costs and at the same time allow an organization to ride the cloud innovation wave created by the investment strategies of powerful players in the technology industry. In short, we believe that the movement to the cloud is inevitable, the real question is how do we get there and with whom? The following issues are often cited as key challenges that must be resolved before cloud computing becomes business ready: Security Backup & Recovery Offline access The "ebilities" (reliability, availability, scalability) User experience (i.e. rich applications) Have these challenges been completely resolved on the cloud? No. Are they completely resolved on any computing platform? The answer to this question is no as well. The critical considerations regarding the cloud as a platform, as we see it, are: 1) is there an acceptable level of resolution of these issues today? and 2) what value can be derived from the cloud platform vis-a-vis the available alternatives? The market reality is that unless you are a startup (and perhaps even then to a degree) your computing infrastructure will consist of a mix of cloud hosted and locally hosted applications and services. It is not an either/or proposition, but rather what is the appropriate mix between the two?