The series of 7DEE presentations, which concluded Monday, gave us a breathtaking glimpse of the future of IT and computing in the enterprise.
As Mary Jander explained after the first two talks:
IT's identity is in crisis as it tries to keep pace with the onrush of an emerging infrastructure of mobile devices and applications, along with social networking and the challenge and opportunity of big-data and analytics.
IT faces the dilemma that it is devoting more and more time -- and budget -- to administration and management, and less to innovation, precisely when innovation is most needed.
The prospective solution examined by our presenters was the use of expert integrated systems to provide centralized governance of IT resources (although with the potential for decentralized execution). In essence, an expert integrated system provides:
Built-in expertise
Integration by design
A simplified IT experience
In 7DEE we learned how this was possible, using the example of IBM's PureSystems.
PureSystems captures and preserves IBM's extensive expertise in aligning many different combinations of software and applications and configuring the hardware to support them. Joe Clabby, founder of Clabby Analytics, showed us how applications can be seamlessly deployed across these systems with extreme optimization and simplified management.
IT staff no longer have to reinvent internal systems in order to integrate every new development in software and every novel application: The built-in expertise of the expert integrated system provides this service.
Integration by design tunes software and hardware components into one, purpose-built system, ready-optimized but also easily customized to respond to varying workloads. Expert integrated systems readily combine with cloud computing resources, as described by Mary E. Shacklett, President of Transworld Data, to provide capacity on demand.
Managing a unitary system through one interface, instead of a ragbag of hardware, software, and applications, leads to a simpler experience of IT management. Jason Gartner, VP of IBM PureSystems Product Management, explained how expert integrated systems untangle IT administration by providing a single point of platform and application management, as well as repeatable, self-service application provisioning.
Jason introduced us to the IBM PureApplication System, a pre-integrated system, pre-optimized for enterprise application workloads, which can be out of the box, up and running, in less than four hours. Hans J. Skalle, an IT investment specialist and leader of the IBM WebSphere Business Value Assessment team, demonstrated the reductions in IT costs arising from the reusable templates and iterative patterns these systems use to simplify the deployment, integration, and management of components.
In summary, Marie Wieck, General Manager of IBM's Application and Integration Middleware business, looked ahead to how expert integrated systems will change the face of computing, and bring tangible value to clients. For example:
The global UK bank, which consolidated 1,200 servers, seven application server versions, and 45 patch versions to achieve a 2 million pound reduction in IT costs over three years
The global aircraft industry company, which is implementing an integrated platform for the cloud delivery of complex services
The US insurance firm, which is aggressively rolling out new applications, yet anticipating millions of dollars of savings, not only in IT costs, but in the avoidance of outages and incident management
As Marie says, expert integrated systems promise a fundamental change in both the experience and economics of enterprise IT. It's going to be exciting to witness these shifts in the months and years ahead. You can find the archived classes, with links to the audio presentations and associated slide decks, here.
Ideally, Kim, the business and IT folks would work together so that the best of both worlds will lead to optimal changes. The disconnect between these two areas has as big an impact for the future as does breakthrough technology.
Great thoughts, Kim. And the comments about the usable service to non-IT personnel is a key dimension.
With the wide expansion of technology and its distributed tools providing us with more information, the focus has become how to enhance the capability to meet the organization's demands, and work with the multiple end users to provide the data they need to improve operational and strategic decision making.
If IT will embrace this virtual future, and build the systems and support that organizations need, they can become the vital link to competing for the future.
Yes, Joanne, I think a lot of the changes we discuss here also imply changes in the internal culture of the enterprise. One intended aspect of expert intregated systems is that non-IT staff should be allowed to configure performance in some respects. Scary for IT? Probably.
What strikes me the most from a non-technical view is the promise of IT focusing on innovation, should they get out from under the quagmire of technical issues they currently face. A solution such as IBM's won't necessarily be enough to reengineer an IT culture that clings to job security by favoring complexity. A top-down directive is needed within organizations to make this change happen.
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Neal Stephenson is best known as the author of science fiction novels such as SnowCrash and Anathem. But he does other things as well. Among them: He's assembled a team of scientists and engineers to figure out how to build a 20-kilometer-tall tower to use as a platform for launching rockets into space.
While interstellar travel presents huge challenges, it's "almost inevitable," according to a speaker at the Starship Century symposium here in San Diego.
Catch up on the week with one simple serving of Friday File. We've pieced together 10 interesting news bites you may have missed and put them together in bite-size morsels.
Big-data has become a big point of emphasis for many businesses. While the technology is available to deploy these applications, the needed personnel often is not. As a result, analytic engineers' salaries have blown past the six-figure mark, and hiring these experts has become a challenge for IT managers.
Network complexity, cloud-based architectures, the explosion of apps, and the growth of bandwidth needs are among the reasons enterprises need to improve insight into traffic and data.
Enterprises are discovering that using social networking within the secure setting of a SaaS provider's network gives them an unusual opportunity to freely collaborate with partners, suppliers, and even competitors.
Gil Elbaz, CEO of Factual, talks about the importance of data and analytics for marketers and how the technology is evolving to better assist automated, real-time decisions.
Today, most sites manually create scripts for virtual system image and deployment in the cloud. This consumes time and can introduce error. Now, systems vendors are coming to the rescue with new automation tools that expedite and bulletproof the process. This is good news for the cloud.
The problem with infrastructure these days is not the cost of the network but the cost of the people managing the network. Sebastian Stadil discusses how he'd like to see companies evolve towards a more manageable infrastructure using cloud computing.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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