Comments on: The world is ready for the consumer-grade enterprise

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:57:02 +0000

Technology unfortunately brings along the possibilities that in this way or another mean more and more ways of controlling others. One day we may wake up only to find out there’s nothing we can do to escape the grip of someone pulling strings and making us do whatever pleases him!

By: guest

guest — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:09:38 +0000

Bill – what in the world are you talking about? ASPs are the entire point of cloud. Giving IT the ability to provide platform, infrastructure and software as a service is the evolution of the ASP model. So far from a peak in a cyclical process that will turn back around, it’s a growth of the concept to broader domains.

By: mark hahn

mark hahn — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:55:20 +0000

bah. the vultures are circling IoT hoping to make a generous meal of consumer data in the cloud. is that really what consumers want, though?

I want my iThings reporting only to my a repository/response center that I control. whether it’s a widget in my house or not doesn’t matter: I should own all the data and decide who, if anyone, sees it. I may choose to rent a cloud service from someone who does a particularly good job of maintaining my privacy while providing me with insight about when to turn down the furnace or when to water my plants or whether someone is breaking into my house.

IoT is an opportunity, but not for enterprise-oriented monsters like VMware, EMC or (worse) Cisco.

By: Anthony Ondre

Anthony Ondre — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:59:02 +0000

Snooze fest. Lost me in the buzz word speak in first two paragraphs.

By: Weining Wang

Weining Wang — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:35:35 +0000

Just a FYI,

Bloomberg reported Amazon today signed a $600m contract with CIA on Cloud Computing.
It is clear that Amazon is getting the enterprise spaces in a way than what we thought.

“Would you trust a book seller with your infrastructure?”

I think Amazon already had a answer for this question.

By: Omar Nawaz

Omar Nawaz — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 05:54:20 +0000

Carrier-grade is/was consumer-grade. Scale changes due to increased requirement of storage and thus compute.

By: Bill Witten

Bill Witten — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:40:42 +0000

I have a long memory. I remember when folks were singing the praises of the ASP model. The cloud is no different. We will see everything seemingly move to the “cloud” and then it will decentralize again. It is a repeating pattern in computing. I won’t waste anyone’s time with a trip down memory lane but, just like the rise of China mimics the rise of Japan, so too does the rise of the “cloud” mimic the rise of the ASPs. Remember when Japan was going to “own US” and on-premises deployments were “on their way out” as the ASPs took the stage?

That said, I think Paul makes some interesting points here. If there is a benefit that outweighs the cost of making everyday objects “smart” and the truly intimidating amount of personal data smart things generate isn’t misused in the next 10 years, thus causing a serious backlash, then I believe that an average enterprise might need to digest the amounts of data he references above.

I think it is of far greater liklihood that a high-profile “cloud” provider takes a big security hit in the next several years and the enterprise and medium businesses will jerk their data out of the cloud (again). Microsoft and other folks going full speed “integrating the cloud” into their products better hope that the breach isn’t too bad or it may just cause a backlash so strong that they lose another chunk of their remaining toehold in computing.

Every time I hear about smart refrigerators, toasters, microwaves, washing machines and smart cabinetry I think of the folks that believed that the browser would be the only application needed on a computer in 10 years (back in 1992). The way forward is never so clear. I mean, really, we’re still talking about technology and the dirty places where technology meets users, right? It is good to look ahead and have a vision but it’s necessary to temper the sweetness of theory with the bitterness of reality, lest one wind up with a sugar headache.

What enterprises really need is to continue making their decisions based upon the hard realities of providing rich IT services to widely-dispersed user populations using disparate plaforms with a plethora of fast-changing form factors amid ever-increasing demands in regards to efficiency and richness of experience. Hmm. Maybe the browser-centric world will come-about after all. Now if only we had a unified store to take things offline……

By: Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:30:22 +0000

Excellent post from Paul who unquestionably understands the major shifts we’re seeing. The post is all the more interesting since Pivotal, the initiative he’s heading up, is owned by VMware and EMC, two companies whose executives break out in cold sweats when anyone even mentions anything around “consumer grade”. Maritz was, of course, formerly the CEO of VMware.

Witness VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger’s recent comments about Amazon Web Services (“would you trust a book seller with your infrastructure?”) as a taste of what these companies really think about consumer versus enterprise.

The only question now is whether his corporate overlords give Maritz the freedom to do the right things with Pivotal – time will tell…..

By: Henk Perdok

Henk Perdok — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:49:32 +0000

Interesting perspective but the consumer grade company sounds like the company is in the lead of the relation/ connection with the consumer. I see tendencies that require a fundamental shift away from the perspective that companies address consumers. Google, Facebook , amazon know more and more who you are, what you do, what you “perceived” interests are etc…. but it puts them in control over you as consumer. This invasiveness needs to reverse in the sense that the consumer becomes more in control of who he wants him to contact or not. THe individual wants to regain control and share very selectively his (internet) identity. Not massive loads of data are of its interest but defining an individual experience or a group/ community experience based on the action he/she wants to execute (search, select, define, choose, see, hear, get proposed,offer,…). A kind of wall/ hub where the big data owners and the consumers are anonymously interacting based on non fixed roles, but roles which get determined during the process. I.e. If I want a design chair, I’ll start a process to determine; do I want to buy or do I want to design myself; in the latter case I’ll search for a tool to design, later I draft a design, share it with a ad hoc community of consumers looking for a design chair, we determine the grades of freedom required in the design and bring it to the market of chair producers, here we select, negotiate, adjust etc (still individually anonymously; but as group/ community determinated (# of participants; units needed; when needed; currencies;… etc..) till the deal is accepted by the community and the producers and consum-designers get exposed. No fixed roles – dynamic interactions based on the needs of the moment – more investigation behaviour and new experiences supported by people who at that time feel the same need. Obviously not all of these endavours will be successful, but it opens peoples curiousity and provide the potential of unlimited experiences linking information tools to the real world. THis missing screen/ wall/ hub which must act as a kind of behaviour lab for individuals or communities is not yet existent but would cover a need of experimenting without opening up to the big companies and providing them anew with control.

By: Jawaid Ekram

Jawaid Ekram — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:31:21 +0000

This is an excellent article on where the industry is going. There is no shortage of high tech CEO but only very few have a clear vision of the future. I would Paul in the category of Bill and Steve. This change is very large and winners and losers of next generations would be decided by leaders who have the vision and the ability to execute. I would call this as a must read for all CTO and CIO.