I like to do things with a purpose. I guess some would call it results orientated. I don't know about you, but whenever I find a blog I like, I go to the first post - just to figure out what the author intended. I like Fred Wilson's first page. I think I found paralllels with how I felt when I wrote the first post. I didn't know how much I would write or exactly from which perspective of the cloud I would want to from. I thought long and hard about it but realised the purpose would only come with time. I think Steve Jobs called it joining up the dots. So when I got really stuck with my first post I decided just write some content and that on my 10th post, I would come back and write my about page. So here we are.
It happens to be perfect timing as 2011 is just coming round the corner and I've got time to reflect on where to take this next. There are already many other cloud computing blogs and though I love thinking about this industry, I prefer a focus on where we need to improve the discussion. There are many authors already providing analysis on the trends but not so much material on how to execute. I struggle to find detailed discussion on the questions I'm interested in. That is, discussion of how the enterpise should adopt the cloud? what to use it for? how to source it? and when not to?
I also view these questions from the standpoint of an enterprise. My main reason for this is my background with enterprise work. I have been delivering transformational programmes to these clients for the past 12 years and this is the real proving ground for the cloud model. Sure SaaS is obvious for a start-up or even medium-sized businesses with only a little capital and who run more from costs than risks. But getting the model to work for in the complex business / technical landscapes of the enterprise is the real challenge. Landscapes with a backdrop of legacy inteface spaghetti, half-baked master data policies and serious responsibilities for security and data compliance. It's in this environment where it becomes tricky to unleash the promised business agility and cost efficiency of the cloud.
A final thought I want to sprinkle across this blog is the need to deliver business value. Having been part of technical deliveries on time and budget but which did zip for actual business change, my key criteria for success is deliveirng the business improvement is my goal. This stays with me with or without groovy cloud technology.
So that's what I will try to focus on this blog upon. Discussing the practical points of how to bring bring enterprise level cloud solutions to deliver business value.
Hope you'll find my posts input to your own thinking and work.
Victor (27-12-2011)
