I've spent a good deal of time lately with partners. Mostly System Integrators (SIs) and Service Providers (SPs), these are EMC partners that intend to use EMC technology in offerings to their own customers. Some, not all, are focused heavily on cloud services.
Roughly, these services fall into three big categories: helping customers to create their own private cloud, providing customers a selection of cloud-delivered options such as infrastructure, platform, storage etc., or transition of some existing capability to cloud form - say migrating SAP to a cloiud implementation.
Now, because it is core to our business, EMC spends a lot of energy on the technology pieces - our storage, software, services etc.. And there are lots of bits and pieces that are essential to make up the cloud. Some are supplied by other technology partners like Cisco, VMware, SAP.
All needed to make the cloud work and none certain to make it effective.
For a long time, I have believed that a comprehensive approach - systems thinking - is essential to successfully achieve efficient and sustainable IT. That thinking surely carries forward to the cloud. But the potential impacts reach way beyond the obvious costs and predictable IT or business implications. Now I'm thinking that the scope of the "system" is much bigger than I imagined.
So, forget the technology, once you have a cloud, what can you do with it?
Virtual everything?
Using technology, workers have been working remotely for a long time. The April issue of Inc. was all about the virtual company. But that has been mostly limited to a few edgy start-ups, right? Well it's getting more mainstream when EMC expands working from home and now we are planning a virtual work week for my entire department - just to see what it's like.
How about virtual schools? Yes, I know that colleges have been doing on-line learning for years and that all sorts of education gets delivered over the web. But today's Boston Globe features a front page story of a new virtual school - Kindegarten through High School - opening this fall in Massachusetts. And come to find that the company, K12 Inc., that they have hired to help run it is already doing this in 25 states.
I had a recent conversation with a service provider that offers virtual city government from their cloud.
News to me that these businesses even exist. Guess I have to get out more.
Expanded Thinking
Awhile ago I attended a presentation by Daniel Esty, co-author of the book “Green to Gold”. It was fascinating on several levels, in particular in his emphasis on long-term systems thinking for those seeking to take advantage of green business mainstreaming.
Esty told a story from his days as an EPA administrator, helping to create the Clean Air Act. He spent thousands of hours engaged with the best and brightest from government and industry on the minutia, technology and theory of how to improve air quality. In all that time and exchange, nobody ever made the connection to what ultimately was the biggest single factor in improved air quality – the deregulation of railroads.
It seems that with all of the debated smokestack scrubbers and pollution controls installed, the biggest impact came from the economic viability of railroads delivering cleaner, low-sulfur coal from the mid-west’s Wind River basin to the coal-fired power plants in the east.
The biggest influence but totally unforeseen.
Two things struck me about this story. First, expand what you include in your “system” to achieve breakthrough thinking. Second, you are on the right track when you see positive benefits from unintended results.
None of this happens without our action and intent to improve but every "improvement" has potential to unintended negative side effects as well. Still, what we have to hope for are those best results you didn’t see coming. That's why this whole cloud thing is so very interesting.
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