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from #TheVARGuy, update on “whassup with HP and #cloud?” – HP Software and HP Cloud: Starting 2013 On the Right Foot”

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Even as Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) spars with former Autonomyexecutives, the technology giant is striving to get its software house in order for 2013. A solid first step: Key HP Software executives Subbu Iyer (pictured, l.) and Matt Morgan (r.) are hitting the road and meeting key industry influencers to discuss the company’s on-premises, hybrid cloud and software strategies. Rumor has it there could even be a cup of coffee with The VAR Guy. Smart move. Here’s why.

Iyer is VP, products and strategy, applications, HP Software. Morgan is VP, hybrid IT and cloud product Marketing, HP Software. Together, Iyer and Morgan will attempt to put HP Software’s message in proper context to partners and customers.

The past two years have been turbulent for HP. In 2011 the company pushed former CEO Leo Apotheker out the door, killed WebOS hardware, considered then abandoned plans to spin-off its PC business, and paid a lofty premium for Autonomy. In 2012, current CEO Meg Whitman said HP would require several years to complete a turnaround, and the company began writing down the EDS and Autonomy buyouts.

Money Matters

Still, there are signs of progress within HP Software. During its fiscal Q4 2012 results, announced in Nov. 2012, HP said software revenue of $1.2 billion was up 14% from the prior year period. License revenue was up 9% year-over-year, and support and services each saw strong growth at 9% and 48%, respectively. Plus, HP had its largest SaaS bookings quarter in history. Overall, fourth quarter operating profit for software was $318 million or 27% of revenue, HP concluded.

A lot of those figures and milestones got lost in all the Autonomy noise. Now, it’s up to HP’s Iyer and Morgan to put the software momentum — and next steps — in context. Iyer is a five-year veteran of HP Software who also has extensive start-up experience. Morgan, meanwhile, plays a key role evangelizing HP Cloud — which achieved several business milestones in December 2012.

The bottom line: For most of 2012, HP Software was on the defensive — explaining the massive Autonomy write-down and striving to differentiate from emerging cloud rivals. For 2013, Iyer and Morgan are trying to put HP Software on the offensive. The VAR Guy hopes to hear more later this month…

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Dimension Data Chooses Desktone to Deliver Desktops as a Cloud Service

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Global Service Provider Expands Cloud Offerings with Cost-Effective Virtual Desktops

LEXINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dimension Data New Zealand, part of the global IT solutions and services provider, today announced it has partnered withDesktone, Inc., the pioneer of Desktops as a Service (DaaS), to offer cost-effective, full-featured virtual desktops as a cloud service. Dimension Data will leverage theDesktone virtual desktop Platform to help New Zealand companies and government agencies to better support corporate and remote workers, the rapid adoption of mobile computing and other enterprise initiatives in a way that’s scalable and reduces operational costs and complexity.

“Organizations are increasingly embracing cloud computing for its flexibility, efficiency and ease of use”

Dimension Data is a specialist ICT services and solutions provider working with clients in 51 countries to plan, build, support and manage their ICT infrastructures. They have been recognized by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service1.

IT departments are facing increased demands: their employees are more mobile and often work remotely, they are facing significant time and budget pressures and they are constantly asked to improve end user productivity. On-site virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) offers a partial solution to these challenges, but many organizations are deterred by the high capital expenditures and complex infrastructure requirements. Dimension Data are turning instead to desktops delivered as a cloud service to reduce capital expenditure while allowing workers to take their desktop experience anywhere on any device. This allows corporate and government departments to flex their infrastructure to align with demand and changes in business.

“Organizations are increasingly embracing cloud computing for its flexibility, efficiency and ease of use,” said Leigh Jackson, Technology Manager for Dimension Data New Zealand. “At Dimension Data we’ve been aggressively building our portfolio of cloud services with solutions like Desktone’s multi-tenant virtual desktop platform that help customers improve performance and lower IT costs.”

By leveraging a local cloud, Dimension Data can allow organizations to easily provision, deploy and scale desktops on demand without the expense and complexity of building and maintaining on-premise infrastructure. End users can access all of the programs and applications they need on any device from any location, and desktop quantities can be easily scaled up and down to meet changing business needs.

“DaaS is outpacing onsite enterprise VDI as the simple and affordable solution to market demands for device independence and controllable IT costs,” said Peter McKay, CEO, Desktone. “With cloud-hosted virtual desktops, Dimension Data can deliver complete virtual desktops in a truly scalable cloud environment that’s easy to manage, without worrying about hardware or software costs.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.dimensiondata.com/Microsites/DesktopVirtualisation.

About Dimension Data

Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is an ICT services and solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Group.

In Asia Pacific, we operate in over 60 offices across 13 countries. We help clients plan, build, support, manage, improve and innovate their ICT infrastructures. It combines an expertise in networking, security, data centre solutions, Microsoft solutions and converged communications and contact centre technologies, with advanced skills in consulting, integration, training and managed services. www.dimensiondata.com

About Desktone

Desktone provides the only unified platform for delivering desktops and applications as a cloud service, enabling the deployment of Windows desktops and applications from the cloud to any end user device. Desktone enables IT service providers to rapidly provision desktops and applications to users connected on any device, anywhere, without the upfront costs and complexity of traditional desktop virtualization – transforming desktops from a CAPEX to OPEX item. Leading service providers, such as Dell, Fujitsu, NEC Corporation of America, Time Warner Cable and Dimension Data, have selected Desktone’s Platform to offer desktops and apps as a cloud service. Founded in 2007, Desktone is funded by Highland Capital and Softbank and is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, visitwww.desktone.com.

1 Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service” by Lydia Leong, Douglas Toombs, Bob Gill, Gregor Petri, Tiny Haynes, 18 October 2012

Contacts

Press Contact for Desktone:
Schwartz MSL
Kristin Villiotte, 781-684-0770
desktone@schwartzmsl.com
or
Press Contact for Dimension Data New Zealand:
Dimension Data NZ
Phil Goodwin, +64 4 4701678
phil.goodwin@dimensiondata.com

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Christmas puddings, and Raspberry Pi | IT PRO

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Christmas puddings, and Raspberry Pi | IT PRO.  Absolutely the coolest thing in a LONG time to get someone started on appdev…..

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Desktone vs Citrix or another reason of why VaaS is important

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Today Desktone “took off the gloves” in competing with Citrix.  Those within Desktone have long known their definitive value-prop as compared to Citrix but have been cautious in promoting this.  Given Citrix’s “market-tectural” attempt to slow down the virtual workspace marketplace with Project Avalon, Service Provider CTO’s and enterprise CIO’s would only have been aware of this if they had their own focused/dedicated innovation lab, or were using what I call VaaS, vendor management as a service.

…it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

With Microsoft’s RDS providing much of Citrix XenApp functionality, and with Desktone providing superior functionality to XenDesktop (and to Project Avalon), are Citrix users going to remain Citrix users?

Or will the Citrix prop of “migrate or lose support” for v4.5 of XenApp next year combined with the significantly lower cost-per-virtual workspace of Desktone and RDS prompt a widespread relook of Desktone?

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Study: IT Doesn’t Live Up to Full Potential

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Study: IT Doesn’t Live Up to Full Potential.  Larry Walsh’s article below is, in the end, spot on.  Calling IT a growth catalyst is not quite accurate however; in my dealings with IT, they have played two roles, one of which is supporting the company’s growth catalysts ,who are by and large line of business people.  Don’t get me wrong, without IT, a lot of the growth programs don’t get off the ground. Its just not that often that IT has taken it upon themselves to uncover/define a brand-new business value, definitely not without a new technology driving this.  The 2nd role IT has recently played, especially since 9/11 and the financial meltdown of last decade, is that of corporate steward….security and privacy being their responsibility and creating a pervasive, and often unfair perspective as a business “disabler” rather than enabler.

Given the momentum of cloud and BYOD, both initially driven by non-IT, IT’s role can return to the days of helping decouple users from the mainframe.  Remember the days of Novell LANs?  IT departments that “got it” became the go-to partners of business units wanting to use that technology to help them with their business value.  Cloud and BYOD gives IT the same opportunity, and challenge.

Study: IT Doesn’t Live Up to Full Potential

December 6th, 2012 | Author: 
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In theory, technology is an enabler of business growth, as it automated processes and expedites time to value. Since the dawn of the PC era, IT has been the catalyst for improving product development, customer communications and sales performance.

As technology evolves and cloud services become more readily available, technology continues to be seen as the catalyst for business development. A new survey commissioned by Juniper Networks, nearly 80 percent of the 500 IT and business executives surveyed said their IT departments are growth drivers.

However, the effectiveness of IT departments and technology investments often get lost in the growth equation. One in five business executives say their IT departments are “somewhat prepared or very unprepared” to contribute to business growth. Only 19 percent say IT is helping to pinpoint customer needs; only 20 percent say IT helps develop new products, and only 28 percent accredit the development of new services to the IT department.

Even as IT is seen as a growth catalyst, these numbers are an indictment against the value (or lack of value) delivered by technology.

And it should come as no surprise. IT has never, if ever, lived up to its full expectations. Previous studies over the years finds that the tenure of enterprise CIOs is 12 to 18 months, whereas the average major IT project takes 18 to 24 months to implement. Projects are often shelved or greatly modified during leadership transitions.

Budget cycles and software licensing requirements often hinder IT effectiveness. IT departments will buy licenses that sit on shelves for months because they’re forced to acquire packages they don’t need, they don’t have budget to effectively integrate or they simply do not have buy-in from other departments to implement.

Worse, though, is IT simply does not have a seat at the management tablet. Business and IT management rarely align their goals, operations and expectations. Line of business managers are more concerned about product shipments and sales performance than the infrastructure; and they’ll take any route that avoids cost centers, such as IT. For its part, IT often overlooks the business needs, building systems that meet their operational expectations rather than solving for the business outcome.

Expectations, though, are changing. By 2016, 38 percent of businesses expect IT to have a greater role in business development and problem solving. This is up from the 5 percent currently contributing to growth and 6 percent identifying new business opportunities.

The results of the Juniper study is a call to arms for solution providers, who are in the best positions to partner with customer IT departments in identifying trends and reaching business objectives. Because solution providers operate outside the corporate construct, they can convey best practices and replicate the systems successfully implemented by others.

Equally incumbent upon solution providers is to think beyond the single product sale. Too often IT fails not because of the technology, but the lack of complete systems. Solution providers need to push their business customers to avoid making decisions on price and comfort, and more on business objectives and expected outcomes.

Too often, businesses negotiate IT acquisitions on price; they want to reduce the expenditures. The correct approach is a net-gain calculation of return on investment. In other words, solution providers need to show how each dollar in IT spend will equate into X-dollars in performance improvements. This goes beyond cost savings, the old ROI standby; it’s about revenue expansion, not just expense cuts.

The Juniper study, conducted by business analyst firm Economist Intelligence Unit, doesn’t just show disconnects between business and IT management, but the implied disconnects between IT departments and their technology suppliers. Making IT a business enabler should be the top job of every solution provider.

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before moving onto IVIS (Implement), here’s more validation from Marc Andreessen….

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Before diving back into the IVIS model, a great article was written for Wall Street Journal Online recently by Marc Andreessen (link follows)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html?mod=wsj_share_in_bot

The article describes how innovative new software is “taking over the world.”  Effectively, the whole premise of IVIS is to formalize an approach where medium-sized to global companies gain visibility and understand applicability of new technologies to their firms’ businesses.  The focus of the effort is less relevant than “just doing it.”

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IVIS’ Validate phase…

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The next key activity in the IVIS “IT Innovation” process is Validate, which immediately follows the Innovate activity. 

I – Innovate

V – Validate

I – Implement

S – Sustain.

As discussed in my last post, the Innovate portion of IVIS really should have minimal, if any constraints.  Goals for Innovation should be both broad and deep rather than merely changing something that already exists.  The days of  looking within only your industry or only within your geography are long gone.  Apple is no longer a computer company and who knows what Google will become after their recent acquisition of Motorola.

As the Innovation process moves from the Innovate phase to the Validate phase, and only at that time, borders can be established to focus the process.  While there are external non-market factors that will help dictate some of this (e.g. regulatory), this focusing should be aligned back to the original Innovation driver. 

For example, while Innovation is normally aligned with new products, services or markets, there are opportunities to Innovate a company’s cost basis.   As a matter of fact, Innovation with this specific focus can often lead to new revenue/profit solutions.  One good example of this would be enhancing a customer’s  or distributor’s ability to support  themselves through a superrior self-service solution.   Even though this may initially be envisioned to drive down ongoing costs, if visioned/designed/implemented correctly, the self-service solution can also become a dynamic market research tool and input into R&D.

While the Validate phase is the initial “constraint” phase, if the original Innovate goal is always focused on your customer’s needs, wants and satisfaction, the Validate phase will not prove to be restrictive.  Rather, it should begin shaping a target innovation that is realistically achievable.  The fact that neither IBM nor  HP are as associated with consumer entertainment as is Apple is understandable;  on the other hand, how companies such as Zipcar come to exist when the requisite infrastructure and customer base was already there for the traditional car rental companies is a sad commentary on corporate innovation. 

Next up in this IVIS process blog is the Implement phase.

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IVIS as an IT Innovation framework

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Innovation in IT requires a consistent process (call it approach or call it methodology, as long as its defined, utilized and adhered to). 

A term I like to use is IVIS –

I – Innovate

V – Validate

I – Implement

S – Sustain.

Regarding the “Innovate” portion of an IVIS process; the key is to have risk minimized at a personal level. When Implemented correctly, organizational risk can be qualified, quantified and planned/managed for.  However, risk at an individual level is where senior management attention needs to be paid.  

To successfully Innovate within IT, an organization WILL experience failures…not all new technologies perform as sold when actually Implemented.  For career purposes, its not sufficient that those chartered with IT Innovation be managed only within IT, even if at the CIO level.  A strategic CIO who views Innovation in his/her shop as a key mandate should recognize the need to build and share this specific function with the business head most likely to benefit from a successful Innovation initiative outcome.  If the Innovation driver is cost reduction, the corporate CFO could be that shared executive management.  If the Innovation driver is expanding products or markets, the head of sales or marketing would be a better choice.  

My Vendor Management article touches on one approach to this type of segregation for IT Innovation (viewable via Slideshare at  http://slidesha.re/pj6jny ).  The “best” businesses will innovate their business as much as they can, given regulatory, financial or IT constraints.  CIOs will Innovate the best they can, given their responsibilities of operations, business continuity, records management and compliance.  The key to successful IT Innovation is to formally structure an IT Innovation function to maximize IT and business understanding and minimze “personnel” risk.  This is where an outsourced approach could work best since at the Innovate phase of IVIS, there really should be no limitations on what or who is researched. 

This finetuning phase of IT Innovation, the Validate phase of IVIS, is really the first time any constraints should begin to be factored in…which will be discussed in the next blog post.

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Innovation – What about IT?

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FYI, UK startup focused on Innovation Outsourcing…similar to InnoCentive and yet2.com.  Again, more focused on a broader corporate innovation approach (macro view). 

via Read the Latest Management Consulting News on Top-Consultant.com.

For innovation in IT, this should require a more specialized and immediately actionable approach.  An acronym I would like to start to discuss in this blog is IVIS, where the first “I” is Innovate.  More to come.

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can this apply to IT as well?…..Innovation’s Nine Critical Success Factors – Vijay Govindarajan – Harvard Business Review

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Innovation’s Nine Critical Success Factors – Vijay Govindarajan – Harvard Business Review 

Great article on innovation, more at a corporate strategy level than at an IT department level. 

As IT’s role continues to evolve between operations, protecting corporations in the area of compliance and meeting new business requirements, how can IT stay at, or move to, the forefront of business strategy? 

While IT budgets have by and large been focused on operations and maintenance of existing systems (between 60-90% of IT spend), the promise of cloud could help drive down this percentage.   Unfortunately, rather than free up this budget for new business initiatives, the need for corporate-level governance around compliance and its many permutations seems to be moving towards being an IT “deliverable.”

If this is indeed what is happening in corporate IT today, how does an IT department address the need for innovation in IT?  Can, and how, can IT innovation become a key value-add for any enterprise CIO?

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