Industry Buzz for January 4, 2010
Posted by Margaret Dawson on January 4, 2010
Every Monday, we look back over the past week at interesting blogs and news articles relating to business integration, cloud computing and SaaS. Summaries of our top articles are below with links to the complete story.
As you’d expect, the online tech community continues to review 2009 and make forecasts for 2010. One of our industries most important bloggers, Loraine Lawson from IT Business Edge, predicts customer data integration will continue to be a huge issue as part of a push to improve overall customer service. We could not agree more, as we consistently hear that customer data transformation and synchronization is a big issue. Our solutions help solve many customer integration issues, from overall business processes to specific challenges around punchout, e-invoicing or file transfer.
Eric Knorr of Network World called 2009 the year of cloud computing but stresses there still remains a great deal of confusion around what exactly cloud computing is and what companies should do with it. A Forbes article by Ed Sperling reinforces this point by stressing not everything should move to the cloud, with some applications better off staying on the ground in your internal network. Sperling interviews Rackspace CTO John Engates.
Tom Allison of eCommerce Times brings together the customer service and cloud themes by telling businesses to let the customer decide whether an application should be cloud-based or on the ground. Allison stresses that customers like doing business their way. Our customer Mayer Electric knows this well, as they’ve made some changes to their eCommerce infrastructure to make it easy for customers to do business with them.
Developers also have a say in the value of cloud computing. Rob Barry writes in SearchSOA that developers are bringing SOA applications into cloud architectures, but some teams are having challenges with this path.
NEWS SUMMARY
Date: December 30, 2009
Media: ITBusinessEdge
Writer: Loraine Lawson
Headline: First (IT) Step in Better Customer Service? Integration
Summary: Given the renewed interest in customer service, IT pros and regular readers of this blog can probably predict what else Band is predicting for 2010: a continued push for customer data integration.
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Date: January 4, 2010
Media: ITBusinessEdge
Writer: Loraine Lawson
Headline: Will 2010 Be a Year for Reaping ROI on What IT Has Sown?
Summary: SaaS integration related themes and trends are understood as a popular prediction for 2010, as forecasts predict that cloud data integration will become “the defining capability that drives cloud computing success.”
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Date: December 29, 2009
Media: SearchSOA.com
Writer: Rob Barry
Headline: Software developers bring SOA apps into cloud computing architectures
Summary: Due to rising demand, software architects and developers are currently hard at work bringing SOA apps and EBSes into cloud computing architectures. Unfortunately, early implementers have found some roadblocks, says Jeff Genender, a well-known IT book author and open source consultant. For instance, the difficulty of deploying component updates without rebooting is a big problem. He noted that familiar hot swap capabilities can’t be taken for granted up in the cloud; but frequent restarting may defeat the purpose of investing in the cloud at all. SearchSOA recently spoke with Genender to get a handle on this topic. Genender will be presenting at The ServerSide Java Symposium this March in Las Vegas.
URL: http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/news/interview/0,289202,sid26_gci1377801,00.html
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Date: January 4, 2010
Media: Forbes.com
Writer: Ed Sperling
Headline: Not Everything Will Move To The Cloud
Subhead: Some applications will be better off running on internal networks.
Summary: When Rackspace opened for business at the end of the last century, people thought it was a wannabe Electronic Data Systems. Since then it has evolved into one of the largest cloud operations on the planet with an estimated 60,000 servers and data storage that is increasing by a mind-boggling 1 petabyte a month. So what better place to look at how data management is changing? Forbes caught up with John Engates, Rackspace’s chief technology officer, to talk about the evolution and where things are likely to go in the future.
URL: http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/31/rackspace-cloud-computing-technology-cio-network-engates.html
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Date: December 31, 2009
Media: InfoWorld via Network World
Writer: Eric Knorr
Headline: A year in the clouds
Subhead: If we had a Trend of the Year award, cloud computing would be the lucky winner, even though what people mean by “cloud computing” remains up for grabs.
Summary: If there was one big trend in 2009 — and by that we mean the buzz phrase on the lips of every analyst and vendor — it was cloud computing. As with all new IT trends, levels of adoption were low. But adoption of what, exactly? The most interesting thing about cloud computing is that arguments over its definition continue to rage even as customers pay actual money for it.
URL: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/123109-a-year-in-the.html
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Date: December 21, 2009
Media: eCommerce Times
Writer: Tom Allason
Headline: Cloud or Ground? Let the Customer Decide
Summary: Offering both an on-demand and on-premise solution gives customers the ability to choose whichever platform they feel best suits their needs. Forcing one model upon customers and prospects doesn’t acknowledge the incredible disparities in size, function and composition that separate different groups.
URL: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Cloud-or-Ground-Let-the-Customer-Decide-68987.html
Tags: Cloud Computing, customer integration, Loraine Lawson
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