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Why Business Models need Cloud Computing

I have wondered for most of the last couple of years just how long ‘free’, meaning paid for by advertising, services on the web could go on for, and with a recession looming this seems to be the time that this could get cut back. However when I look into this a little more carefully I find that my impression of ‘free’ as a business model supported by advertising is perhaps already out of date as the successful players have used ‘free’ to reach either ‘freemium’ or ‘complementary’ models. Even more interesting it would seem that the ‘complementary’ models are an integral part of Cloud Computing.

Let’s start with ‘freemium’ as a business model, meaning give something away for free to create a market and demand, then charging those who are looking for more than the basic service. Adobe would be the grand daddy of this to me, just look at Flash, or PDF, to see what ‘free’ downloads have done to create a global market standardised around your technology, then consider what this has created in terms of a ‘locked in proprietary’ market for their professional products. Am I complaining? Well, no I am not, as in general I reckon we are all the beneficiaries of Adobe using the ‘freemium’ model. At one end as consumers and at the other by being able to build documents and graphics that we know people will be able to consume. In short ‘freemium’ models work when the balance is set to win- win.

The challenge is exactly how many areas can this work in? I mean is there an indefinite number of consumer end additions that a reasonable number of us are going to want? Take a look at Silicon Alley where they have compiled a list of companies who are working the ‘freemium’ model, try and see how many you are tempted to download from because it seems to offer reasonable value to you as a user. As this piece comments the interesting thing is some of the best known success stories such as Flickr and LinkedIn started as advertising supported and migrated into ‘freemium’ funding so perhaps I am thinking about this into too narrow a way and the model can apply more broadly to sites and services too.

Now, who's the President?!

You thought you got it all worked out. Used the Web 2.0 like no one else to mobilise a huge crowd of supporters. Announced to appoint a national CTO, in charge of using technology pro-actively to create new jobs and restore competiveness. Created an online dialogue with your citizens, even before your term began. Yes, you were going to be a geek in the best sense of the word, leveraging information technology to reach new innovative heights.

Then the IT guys at the White House told you that you can no longer keep your Blackberry. To start with. Unsafe, unreliable, uncontrollable. And besides, it is not a company standard.

What’s next? Probably handing in your MacBook.

Ah, some of these IT security experts (or should we call them the Innovation Prevention Unit?), they can put a damper on any new initiative. Their remedy against the dangers of the connected Internet: just pull the plug and don’t email ever again. Life is so simple, if you really want it.

Obama will soon face the same challenge that many frustrated business users already know all too well: to see your inspiring, new ideas being smashed to smithereens by the central IT department. Because these ideas don’t fit the organisational security policies and procurement rules or because the existing systems are too petrified to accommodate the change.

But unlike many of us, Obama is in the unique position to change this game. There is just one question he needs to ask. Let’s hope he does (and yes, he can).

Second Chance for Second Life, and other Virtual Worlds

A couple of years ago if you wanted a high impact post that would generate a lot of comments, all you had to do was post something on Second Life. It was very much the hype topic at the time and supporters and detractors were pretty well balanced in numbers thus guaranteeing a lively set of posts. Personally I was ambiguous in that I believed 3D was an important step forward that would benefit quite a few genuine business areas, but even though I possessed my very own avatar, (Andymulholland Hax is my name if you are asking), I didn’t find myself much attracted to the SL lifestyle. The novelty wore off for me and I confess to not having played around in SL for some time.

So it was with some surprise that I realised the SL is now five years old, and quite frankly the changes are pretty startling, and that goes for some other virtual worlds as well. The one thing that seems not to have changed is the polarisation between those who love it and those who hate it, or at least the way Linden Labs run SL, so in the interests of good reporting let’s turn to Reuters for a well reported review.

Digital Inclusion

Dr Chris Yapp has been working for some time with UK government on its Digital Inclusion agenda. As the digital economy expands, and its inter-relationships with the ‘real-economy’ deepen, the issues raised present important macro factors for our industry, the clients we serve and society at large. They also create some intriguing possibilities to enhance the general perception of the IT industry in this moment of downturn. I hope you find the read as thought-provoking as I did.

Digital Inclusion – guest post by Chris Yapp

A couple of weeks ago - Friday 24th October to be exact – saw the second “get online” day organised by the UK Online Centres.

I had the great pleasure to be there at Holborn library to see Paul Murphy, MP and Minister for Digital Inclusion launch a consultation document, the “Digital Inclusion Action Plan” as part of the day.

It has been a privilege to have contributed to this document and it lays out many challenges for all of us who believe passionately in the potential of IT to enrich society and the economy.

It is easy to glibly slip into such claims as “the internet is ubiquitous”, “everybody’s on the net” or as in Clay Shirky’s book title “Here Comes Everybody”. The problem is that sadly it just isn’t true.

In the UK alone 17 million people are not enjoying the benefits of digital technologies today.

For those of us who shop, bank, communicate and play online these technologies have become common place and part of the fabric of our lives.

The work of the UK Online centres has shown over the years that these technologies can benefit all the sectors that make up the major parts of that 17 million. On the first Get Online day 10,000 people made their first step into the digital world. We will shortly know how many have taken that step this year.

This isn’t just about Government. The private sector and the third sector (charities, NGOs and social enterprises) have a major part to play in ensuring that everyone who can benefit from digital technologies is in a position to do so.

And this is not just about social justice but has a hard economic edge. Many of the digitally excluded are in hard to reach and expensive to serve communities.

Let me illustrate with a few examples. There is now the first cohort of people retiring who have used computers at work but become excluded in retirement. We have tended to see inclusion as a one directional process. As the economy slows we will see others become excluded through loss of employment.

The challenge for us in industry is that if we can make these technologies pervasive then new business model innovations and innovative applications can contribute to areas such as learning, telemedicine and telecare, access to benefits and employment, entertainment, banking and shopping just to name a few.

There is another hard economic edge to this too. Social policy may in the end mandate digital inclusion and this could then see some of the assumptions of current Web business models severely challenged. The trick, as ever, is to turn the problem into the opportunity.

Whether your perspective is economic, societal or both, I hope you will take the chance to read the document and reflect on the issues it raises.

In difficult economic times, our industry’s capacity to innovate will give us a chance to show our full potential for the economy and society.

Often we feel in IT as if we are not taken seriously or understood. On this agenda I think we have a chance to show what professional IT can really contribute. The question is, are we up for it?

The Digital Inclusion Action Plan

Microsoft gets on to the Cloud with Azure Services Platform

Steve Ballmer has been building up the role of Cloud Computing in Microsoft’s view of the future during the last few months, and now we see the first concrete result; the Azure Services Platform. The description, taken from the Azure website, describes it as;

The Azure™ Services Platform is an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centres. The Azure Services Platform provides a range of functionality to build applications that span from consumer web to enterprise scenarios and includes a cloud operating system and a set of developer services. Fully interoperable through the support of industry standards and web protocols such as REST and SOAP, you can use the Azure services individually or together, either to build new applications or to extend existing ones.

That’s the blah blah bit that doesn’t really seem to differentiate, but it does have a lot in it. A bundle of Microsoft services covering everything from the ‘Live Suite’, through to SharePoint, and Dynamics CRM, and if that wasn’t enough we get .Net Services and SQL Services and integration with Visual Studio to make a consistent development environment. All contained within ‘Windows Azure’ which from the announcement seems to be able to tie Microsoft environments with non Microsoft environments and is claimed to be an ‘open platform’. So it looks pretty ‘peachy’ and in a credit crunch society could be an instant cost saver, except that Microsoft didn’t release any ideas on prices.

Testing Times from the Credit Crunch

I had a task flag to take a look at the proceedings from the annual International Conference for Software Process Improvement, ICSPI 2008, but on visiting their site I was pretty amazed to find this message. Due to severe cuts in education and travel budgets across most organizations, the International Conference on Software Process Improvement (ICSPI) 2008, which was scheduled to take place October 20 th -24th , is regretfully being postponed until October, 2009. Yup a casualty of the credit crunch it would seem.

Okay maybe this isn’t one of the biggest events around, but it has been a good ‘working’ event by the people involved in the topic for the people who are involved in the topic, but maybe that’s been its downfall, no big names and publicity just the kind of good feedback and discussions we all feel the need for from time to time. The major reason I was interested was in the ‘how’ software development processes can be improved. It’s part of my own feelings that development tools are improving, but on the other side of the fence smaller, faster, is likely to be the way increasingly, and this, particularly in ‘tough times’ is likely to put pressure on time which all to often means quality suffers.

So if the credit crunch is changing the projects what about the testing side? After all testing tools are expense, often expansive, and their use can be complex, all of which seems to be going in the opposite direction to the trend towards smaller simpler better defined projects where presumably the risks are also better clarified. Sure enough there are some companies out there who have recognised the opportunity with single user testing suites.

Obama's CTO

Despite all the serenity I predicted for 2009, I followed the US election night in that typical mashup style of now: on the couch with my Apple laptop, one window open with Google Docs (I was writing a column for a magazine), EyeTV television in another, a few additional news sites open and – of course – a live Twitter feed.

What can I say? it’s still 2008.

Whatever political preference, nobody can deny Barack Obama’s obvious charisma. One day before the elections I noticed him giving a speech, somewhere on a remote TV screen in a shopping street. There was no sound and there were no subtitles. It may be a platitude by now, but the sheer intensity of his appearance gave me goose bumps. It is the same intensity that stimulated many to vote for the first time in their life. It is the same intensity that makes you believe that change actually can occur. Just a bit more of that Obama-style leadership in our profession, and I am sure we would see many more successful transformation projects and programmes.

And obviously, there are other ways in which Obama inspires us business / technology people. He may not have invented the Internet himself (that was Al Gore) but he convincingly demonstrated how to use the Web 2.0 tool kit – social networks, viral video’s, blogs, RSS, to name just a few – to reach and mobilise an unprecedentedly big community. Indeed, elections will never be the same again (but please, don’t call it Elections 2.0). And now, in the transition period towards the new Administration, the Internet is used to engage with citizens and collect their ideas. Actually, people who aspire a position in the new Administration are urged to do this through the site, as “applying on-line is the fastest and most accurate way to get your information to us”.

Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin – the splits are the interesting feature

The O’Reilly Enterprises Web 2.0 Expo event is seen as the creator back in 2006 of Web 2.0 and its annual Web 2.0 Expo events in USA, Europe and Asia are in many ways the ‘pulse’ of the movement in adoption and use of Web 2.0. You would be inclined to think that the Web, and Web 2.0 in particular, is a flatting force that irons out localised differences in favour of ‘the earth is flat’ forces of globalisation. Yet the most striking thing to me as an attendee at the Europe event is the differences.

In the USA the driving force is clearly and obviously now with mainstream Business, where as in Europe it seems to be more with small businesses trying to level the playing field by using Web 2.0. So whereas in the USA the streams for Strategy and Business Models, and Marketing and Community were packed with smarter executive types frantically taking notes and using blackberries, in Europe the popular streams were Design and User Experience and Development and the crowd were happier working through their PCs.

Amazon Kindle demonstrates real ‘Intimacy’ or CRM 2.0

The Kindle is the Amazon eBook reader, it’s not the only eBook reader around, so the product, or perhaps I should say technology, is neither unique, nor even new. I could justifiably express my amazement at the clarity of the screen, nobody who has seen my Kindle has not been absolutely amazed by this feature. The ergonomics are great too, makes a real book seem heavy and clumsy, but what makes it so important is it’s a living breathing example of ‘intimacy’ or CRM 2.0, and an Enterprise 2.0 business model.

Let me start of by explaining what I understand ‘intimacy’ and CRM 2.0 to be, then its relationship to technology and finally why Amazon Kindle is such a great example of this and the concept of an Enterprise 2.0 business model innovation. Oh and by the way I just love my Kindle and the way it works for me too.

Tech Predictions 2009: Deliberately Disconnected

As we are well into November, it is high time we take a few peeks into what 2009 may bring. As the past months have proven though, anything can happen, anytime, anywhere. Volatility is a life style. Yep, and life was easy when we still thought that change was the only constant.

At least we had a constant.

So what can we do? Predict anyway, of course. Follow this blog in the forthcoming weeks to see what is boiling up in Capgemini’s CTO and Technology communities and let us know next year autumn if we were right. Or better still: join us right now in the comments and share your own predictions with the rest of us.

To kick off, here is my first prediction: being Deliberately Disconnected is something we will actively search for. And if not, others will force us. UK commuter train operator C2C already did it: they are using high tech film to block GSM mobile reception in their coaches. Imagine that ocean of calm, everybody having these introspective, meditative moments before embarking on yet another hectic working day. No shouting, no funny ringtones, no text beeps, just serenity. Hopefully this is a lesson to all the doomed airlines that are considering to allow the use of mobile phones on board of their planes: 2009 is going to be tough as it is anyway, so you may not want to chase away your remaining, loyal passengers (believe me, using mobile phones on a plane will lead to unbearable pandemonium, there will be blood).

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About the authors

Why Business Models need Cloud Computing

Now, who's the President?!

Second Chance for Second Life, and other Virtual Worlds

Digital Inclusion

Microsoft gets on to the Cloud with Azure Services Platform

Testing Times from the Credit Crunch

Obama's CTO

Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin – the splits are the interesting feature

Amazon Kindle demonstrates real ‘Intimacy’ or CRM 2.0

Tech Predictions 2009: Deliberately Disconnected

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