The 3rd International WebRTC Summit, to be held Nov. 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, announces that its Call for Papers is now open. Topics include all aspects of improving IT delivery by eliminating waste through automated business models leveraging cloud technologies. WebRTC Summit is co-located with 15th International Cloud Expo, 6th International Big Data Expo, 3rd International DevOps Summit and 2nd Internet of @ThingsExpo. WebRTC (Web-based Real-Time Communication) is an open source project supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera that aims to enable browser-to-browser applications for voice calling, video chat, and P2P file sharing without plugins. Its mission is “To enable rich, high quality, RTC applications to be developed in the browser via simple JavaScript APIs and HTML5.”
Help plant your flag in the fast-expanding business opportunity that is WebRTC: submit your speaking proposal today!
Monthly Archives: September 2015
[session] Don’t Quit, IoT Retrofit | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #API #BigData #InternetOfThings
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Lee Williams, a producer of the first smartphones and tablets, will talk about how he is now applying his experience in mobile technology to the design and development of the next generation of Environmental and Sustainability Services at ETwater.
He will explain how M2M controllers work through wirelessly connected remote controls; and specifically delve into a retrofit option that reverse-engineers control codes of existing conventional controller systems so they don’t have to be replaced and are instantly converted to become smart, connected devices.
[session] On-Premise to Cloud IaaS Migration Roadmap By @RichardAWeiss | @CloudExpo #Cloud
Moving an existing on-premise infrastructure into the cloud can be a complex and daunting proposition. It is critical to understand the benefits as well as the challenges associated with either a full or hybrid approach.
In his session at 17th Cloud Expo, Richard Weiss, Principal Consultant at Pythian, will present a roadmap that can be leveraged by any organization to plan, analyze, evaluate and execute on a cloud migration solution. He will review the five major cloud transformation phases and provide attendees with a roadmap that can be utilized to begin planning their organizations migration strategy today.
The 2016 Big Data Prediction | @BigDataExpo #BigData #IoT #RTC #Java #InternetOfThings
Today, there is countless data collected and analyzed by companies. Just a few years ago, that data was useless, now data is collected and used to provide answers and solve problems.
As big data use cases continue to evolve, there will be an increasing number of business missions that will be served by new approaches to data. With the adoption of an enterprise data hub, developers are finding new agility to create services and applications, as well as decision-making that leads to market dominating strategies. According to Cognitio’s co-founder and partner Bob Gourley, this adoption will lead to two types of companies: those who will use big data to dominate in the market, and those who will ultimately be dominated by others.
API-Driven Digital Healthcare Solution By @AkanaInc | @DevOpsSummit #API #IoT #DevOps #Microservices
Akana has announced the availability of the new Akana Healthcare Solution. The API-driven solution helps healthcare organizations accelerate their transition to being secure, digitally interoperable businesses. It leverages the Health Level Seven International Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR) standard to enable broader business use of medical data. Akana developed the Healthcare Solution in response to healthcare businesses that want to increase electronic, multi-device access to health records while reducing operating costs and complying with government regulations.
[session] The Cloud Platform Battle By @Cloudyn_Buzz | @CloudExpo #Cloud #IoT #BigData #DevOps
In 2014, the market witnessed a massive migration to the cloud as enterprises finally overcame their fears of the cloud’s viability, security, etc.
Over the past 18 months, AWS, Google and Microsoft have waged an ongoing battle through a wave of price cuts and new features. For IT executives, sorting through all the noise to make the best cloud investment decisions has become daunting.
Enterprises can and are moving away from a “one size fits all” cloud approach. The new competitive field has been a boon to small and large businesses as cloud prices have plummeted. Companies now have the option to distribute their cloud workloads across multiple clouds from different vendors. With the emergence and growing adoption of multi-cloud, enterprises can gain a new level of flexibility around the cloud services they may need based on preferences and requirements, ranging from security, reliability, performance and cost reduction.
Introducing Containers & Microservices Bootcamp at @CloudExpo Silicon Valley | #Containers #Microservices
SYS-CON Events announced today the Containers & Microservices Bootcamp, being held November 3-4, 2015, in conjunction with 17th Cloud Expo, @ThingsExpo, and @DevOpsSummit at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
This is your chance to get started with the latest technology in the industry. Combined with real-world scenarios and use cases, the Containers and Microservices Bootcamp, led by Janakiram MSV, a Microsoft Regional Director, will include presentations as well as hands-on demos and comprehensive walkthroughs.
Cloud vendor Apttus raises $108m to fund new services and features
Cloud software vendor Apttus has raised a further $108 million to fund the growth of its quote and renewals management business.
The new investment comes only seven months after it secured $41m in February 2015, as investor confidence in its e-commerce, contract management and renewals management software has surged. Founded in 2006, it received its first series of investment funding in 2013, when it received $37 million.
The Series C funding round was led by KIA. Previous investment rounds have been led by Salesforce’s venture capital arm Salesforce Ventures, which also contributed to this round of investment. Investors in this latest round also included Iconiq Capital and K1 Capital.
The Apttus cloud systems integrate with Salesforce’s CRM platform and are used to develop sales and renewal quotes within Salesforce’s system.
The funds will be used to develop new systems and provide new services to Apttus customers and prospects. According to Apttus, the main targets will be in the manufacturing, life sciences, financial services and telecommunications industries.
Apttus aims to give clients a better system of demand management by giving its users more information about their clients. The intelligence it curates allows sales staff to identify and concentrate their efforts on the most likely sales prospects. This information is gathered by the system by assessing the online track record of the potential customer. By monitoring and managing every transaction, this system gives the seller an ‘unbroken funnel’ throughout the sales cycle. This channelling of the customer is known as the Quote-to-Cash process.
The Apttus system was built on the Salesforce1 platform and it claims to have been an active partner of Salesforce since its foundation in 2006, with participation in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Apttus has 70 customers in the Fortune 500 and is projected tohave 1,000 employees by the end of 2015, a 400% growth in headcount since 2013. It now has offices in London, Sydney and Chicago with a Japanese location planned.
Apttus’s cloud software has re-defined the Quote-to-Cash process and the flow of money, said Farouq Bastaki, Executive Director of Alternative Investments at KIA. “We believe they have developed the future of how organizations manage their entire revenue operation with a modern front office, in the cloud,” said Bastaki.
What IT Support Used to Look Like… By @JaqTech | @CloudExpo #Cloud
If you ever saw the classic SNL sketch in which Jimmy Fallon portrays “Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy” you’re probably familiar with the pain and humiliation he causes the end users he is tasked with supporting.
Condescending.
Impatient.
Way smarter than everyone else.
Unfortunately, this is how people used to perceive MSPs and IT solutions providers. It used to be guys like Nick were just what small-to-medium-sized business had to endure if they wanted to get their computers to work. Snide remarks and Cheeto breath aside (or maybe not), there was some truth to Fallon’s character. IT support was inefficient and arduous.
But man oh man… That is SO ’90’s.
Digital Transformation: Crossing the Skills Chasm By @DHDeans | @CloudExpo #Cloud
Most informed CEOs seem to know intuitively that the most qualified person to lead their forward-looking business technology advancement isn’t likely to have the profile of a typical legacy CIO. In contrast, the role of a Digital Business Transformation innovator has very different requirements to the traditional IT utility infrastructure custodian of the past.
That said, some progressive CIOs are already making the transition to lead the digital competitiveness quest, and others will surely follow. Moreover, a few multinational companies currently have a CIO in a highly strategic, visible and collaborative position within the company. Their challenge is to guide the rest of the organization’s leadership to attain the required skills that will enable them to actively participate in the planning and execution of a new strategy – empowered by digital technologies.
The Harvard Business Review (HBR) market research team recently completed a global study of the path that several organizations have taken to develop and deliver the digital learning support resources that their key internal stakeholders both need and want. The results of this research portrays an environment that may be familiar to many CEOs that have, or are about to, embark upon a similar journey.
The HBR survey found that companies that rate highly in both digital leadership and management have better business results than their peers, with stronger revenue growth and greater profit margins.
Just under a fifth of survey respondents fell into this early-adopter or “Digital Leader” category, while over a third were deemed to be “Laggards” – i.e. an organization that’s weak in both digital leadership and management. Moreover, nearly half of the survey respondents had mixed scores and were rated as “Followers.”
What set the leaders apart from their peer group, in laggard or follower organizations? These proactive CIOs help their business colleagues to understand which digital knowledge and skills need to reside in their function, and which they can defer to the IT support team. The CIOs and their staff typically communicate in language that makes sense to a Line of Business (LoB) leader that’s focused on achieving outcomes.
Why Superior Digital Acumen Matters Most
According to the HBR study findings, digital acumen has become a critical component of all forward-thinking senior leadership teams. But there’s often a significant gap between what’s needed to succeed, and the current state inside many mainstream companies today.
About 23 percent of the survey respondents indicated that they’re confident their organizations have the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in the digital aspects of their business transformation.
However, the recognized Digital Leaders in the respondent group were significantly more confident that their organizations have the both the required knowledge and skills they need — in fact, 67 percent were extremely confident, compared with only 19 percent of the Followers and 5 percent of Laggards.
Clearly, there’s no substitute for the credibility and confidence that comes from having qualified digital-savvy executive talent at your disposal. Put simply, HBR discovered that the lack of leadership is the number-one issue holding most companies back, when it came to determining their digital business readiness; particularly among the Laggard companies.
Business Imperative for Digital Competency
Perhaps you’re wondering, is the skills development effort really worth the trouble? Does the payback justify the investment in time and energy? Let’s now explore the primary motivation for attaining digital supremacy, and you can decide what’s best for your company, within your industry.
The Digital Leaders in the survey were significantly more likely to have seen revenue growth of 10 percent, or more, over the past two years (58 percent of the Leaders vs. 43 percent of the Followers and 38 percent of the Laggards).
There’s no reward for taking a wait-and-see approach, even if the conservative late-adopter posture was taken with the best of intentions. The Laggards reported that they were twice as likely to have seen revenues decline (18 percent vs. 9 percent).
Fostering Collaboration and Shared Objectives
The CIOs at Digital Leaders are much more likely to be characterized as digital coaches or masters (45 percent of respondents, compared with 26 percent at Follower companies, and only 14 percent at Laggard companies).
By comparison, 45 percent of the Laggard companies had a CIO that’s been characterized as a “turf protector” that inhibits or resists collaboration — or they merely had no designated CIO role at all.
A full 74 percent of the Digital Leaders have CIOs who support business-led IT projects. That is, when Line of Business leaders directly fund, contract, and/or develop technology capabilities themselves. This response compares with 64 percent of the Followers and only 40 percent of the Laggards.
Furthermore, the respondents who characterized their CIO as a digital coach or master had significantly higher scores — over 80 percent of those respondents said their CIO supports business-led IT projects. This doesn’t mean, however, that those CIOs are ceding procurement control — rather, they’re willingly sharing it in order to achieve the desired business outcome objectives of the whole leadership team.
Digital Skills Education and Mentoring
According to the HBR assessment, there’s little doubt that organizations need to do more to increase their business leader’s digital acumen. In the past, learning new skills might be a task that was assigned to the internal Training group or the Human Resources department. In this scenario, the education and mentoring responsibility should go to those who have mastered the digital transformation craft.
That said, finding a role model(s) for digital acumen knowledge transfer can be problematic. While 46 percent of respondents said they would like to learn more about digital trends from their CIO, close to two-fifths said their CIO doesn’t seek to educate and empower LoB leaders when it comes to digital skills.
Besides, over a third of the respondents said their IT team doesn’t provide useful knowledge about technology applications or understand which digital knowledge is most important to specific functions or lines of business.
In a follow-on editorial I’ll share more details about the illuminating findings from this study, and the associated recommendations for a plan of action. HBR Analytic Services interviewed a total of 436 business leaders from across the globe. The survey was sponsored by Red Hat, Inc., as part of The Enterprisers Project.