Monday, May 18, 2009

InformationWeek: CIOs Seek Answers To Top Technology Questions At Interop


"I  could imagine a CIO framing out an Interop plan that includes these and similar questions to be pursued: --How much of cloud computing is hype, and how much is real capability? Which vendors are purely driving the hype, and which ones have real-world solutions? --We're in the middle of our developing a new data-center strategy – with so many IT vendors saying they have the best/fastest/safest/greenest and least-expensive approach, how can we be sure we're picking the right strategic partners and options? --And, how will developments in cloud computing affect that data-center strategy, and vice-versa? Do we need to get them both worked out before moving on either one? --How can I best articulate to the board the business value of these strategies? I know we have mountains of technical details to support the architectural plan, but what are the right business metrics for me to highlight so that I end up with not only funding but also their enthusiastic support for this plan to be a real business-changer? --Some of my top-50 IT partners have slipped in the past couple of years and I'd like to replace them with dynamic, hard-charging, and hungry young companies that'll crawl over broken glass to get my business, just the way some of these complacent ones used to. I need to make some of those changes so all of my top IT partners – not the commodity suppliers, but the strategic partners – will know that if they expect to keep my business, then they'd better be ready and eager to step up the value they're delivering. --Everybody on the board is talking about mobile, and the need for us to make advanced mobile capabilities one of the most-decisive criteria in evaluating those top-50 vendors. That covers everything from enterprise-software companies to networking companies to cloud services and security vendors: who's got nothing more than table stakes, and who's able to help my company become a breakthrough innovator for our customers? --SaaS possibilities seem to be getting less unusual and more mainstream – I see that Salesforce is getting more aggressive than ever as it adds new clients, Workday just landed $75 million in venture funding, and Oracle seems to be finally serious about the SaaS approach. We need to move beyond testing and take a significant project live – who's the right partner for us, and what's the right approach?"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

interesting article. it's all about the cloud