[kictanet] Fw: Re: Day 10/11 of 12- BPO Discussions, Strengths and Weaknesses (Observations from USA and UK); and Trends and Niches
Luvisia Bakuli
luvisia.bakuli at gmail.com
Mon Jun 15 23:52:59 EAT 2009
Thanks LK for your observations. You sent the message to me and not the
list. I am not sure if you wanted this to appear in public; but I think
you made an important contribution that needs to be shared, for you
might be speaking for the "silent majority."
For that reason, I will whiteout your ID to share your message.
You are right, I should have used a better metaphor for IBM than
Godfather. Let me try a different one:
IBM is like a hawk on the Serengeti. From its vantage point, 20/20
eyesight, and ease of movement it is capable of monitoring what's
happening on the vast terrain. So what others in the food chain, e.g.
hyenas, have learned to do when the undergrowth is thick and the prey
(e. g. antelopes) too fast for them is to look up in the sky for signs
of where there is a kill. They have learned that if they follow the hawk
they hare sure to have food albeit leftover bones. And if they arrive
early enough and are in a large group, they might even chase the lions
away and inherit the carcass. Okay that's enough for the metaphor lest
we overstretch it.
But we might miss the point of the discussion if we focus on who's
first, leader or right. I have read articles where IBM failed miserably
in its bit to manage outsourcing for the state of Texas and history
might teach us a lesson that not all visionaries are good at execution.
So our major task might be to find the visionaries and if they are goofy
in their execution, ignore their execution but go after the lucrative
markets they have identified.
I gotta go. It is raining, thundering, and I don't want to be the
lightning's conduit to earth.
Cheers,
Luvisia Bakuli
On Mon, 2009-06-15 at 10:07 -0700, LK wrote:
>
> Truth is IBM is NOT the Godfather of Cloud computing, in fact they are
> way behind newz... Look at what Microsoft is already selling to the
> federal government, my only objection is that they seem to be after
> Stimulus money -- yani fighting the small guys for federal bail out
> funds!
>
> http://www.publicsectorondemand.com/
>
> I think Cloud computing for disaster recovery makes sense but like
> everyone else I am concerned about data security until they come up
> with an encryption that hackers cant get perhaps in the next
> lifetime:-)
>
>
>
>
> --- On Mon, 6/15/09, Luvisia Bakuli <luvisia.bakuli at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Luvisia Bakuli <luvisia.bakuli at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 10/11 of 12- BPO Discussions,
> Strengths and Weaknesses (Observations from USA and UK); and
> Trends and Niches
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions"
> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Monday, June 15, 2009, 12:35 PM
>
> Thanks Catherine-- wil stick to the subject line next time.
> Had posted
> as I rushed out the door in the morning.
>
> The article that I forwarded addressed trends abd potential
> niche
> market as defined by IBM. Just like UNESCO leads the way in
> social
> culturall trends, IBM seems to pick winning markets. Luvisia
> Bakuli
>
> On 6/15/09, Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Thanks Luvisia,
> >
> > However, may I request all not to change the subject header
> for ease of
> > discussions, we will flesh out the relevant content as we go
> along. So note
> > inside the body of your discussion that you will focus on
> niche areas but do
> > not change the subject header.
> >
> > Thanks for your input, very insightful.
> >
> > Much appreciated,
> >
> > Nyaki (Moderator jointly with Walu)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Luvisia Bakuli <luvisia.bakuli at gmail.com>
> > To: elizaslider at yahoo.com
> > Cc: eMatete at gmail.com; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> > <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> > Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 2:45:19 PM
> > Subject: Re: [kictanet] Niche Markets
> >
> > For those looking for niche areas, the following article
> might generate
> > some ideas. DBL
> >
> > ____________________
> >
> >
> > June 15, 2009
> >
> > I.B.M. to Help Clients Fight Cost and Complexity
> > By STEVE LOHR
> >
> >
> > In 2000, the Linux operating system was a hot technology,
> but it had not
> > spread much beyond scientists, researchers and computer
> programmers.
> > Then I.B.M. declared that it would back Linux with
> investment, research
> > and marketing, and the technology moved swiftly into the
> corporate
> > mainstream.
> >
> > The same thing happened with the personal computer in the
> early 1980s,
> > when I.B.M. endorsed that upstart technology and entered the
> market.
> >
> > Starting this week, I.B.M. is returning to the same
> playbook,
> > introducing some initial products and services and a roadmap
> for its
> > stable of corporate and government customers to comfortably
> embrace
> > cloud computing.
> >
> > Cloud computing — in which vast stores of information and
> processing
> > resources can be tapped from afar, over the Internet, using
> a personal
> > computer, cellphone or other device — holds great promise in
> the
> > corporate market. The cloud model, analysts say, has the
> potential to
> > cut the costs, complexity and headaches of technology for
> companies and
> > government agencies.
> >
> > Already, Amazon.com, Google and Salesforce.com, among
> others, offer
> > cloud-based Web services to companies, including e-mail,
> computer
> > storage and customer management software. But many big
> companies and
> > government agencies have been reluctant to get on board
> because of
> > traditional corporate-computing concerns like the security
> of data,
> > reliability of service and regulatory compliance.
> >
> > “I.B.M. knows how to do all of those things,” said Frank
> Gens, chief
> > analyst for IDC, a technology research firm. “Its strategy
> is all about
> > making cloud computing safe for enterprise customers.”
> >
> > Even if I.B.M. succeeds in its bid to make cloud computing
> more
> > palatable for big corporations, there is no guarantee that
> it will be
> > the main beneficiary of the trend. After I.B.M. helped
> create the PC
> > industry, lower-cost competitors ended up dominating the
> business.
> >
> > In the cloud market, I.B.M. plans to take a tailored
> approach. The
> > hardware and software in its cloud offerings will be meant
> for specific
> > computing chores. Just as Google runs a computing cloud
> optimized for
> > Internet search, I.B.M. will make bespoke clouds for
> computing workloads
> > in business.
> >
> > Its early cloud entries, to be announced on Monday, follow
> that model.
> > One set of offerings is focused on streamlining the
> technology used by
> > corporate software developers and testers, which can consume
> 30 percent
> > or more of a company’s technology resources.
> >
> > The second set is virtual desktop services, in which
> personal computer
> > software, either from Microsoft or open-source alternatives,
> is run on
> > remote servers and piped to simple desktop machines equipped
> with
> > screens and keyboards. I.B.M. found in tests with clients
> that such
> > virtual PCs, with little desktop processing or storage, can
> use 70
> > percent less power than conventional PCs and reduce
> technical support
> > costs by up to 40 percent,.
> >
> > Both the software development and desktop services are being
> offered as
> > an integrated bundle of hardware and software for a cloud
> running inside
> > a corporate or government data center, or as a cloud service
> hosted in
> > an I.B.M. data center.
> >
> > Other offerings are planned, I.B.M. executives said,
> including clouds
> > fine-tuned for data storage, and clouds for business
> analytics, which is
> > software that analyzes data for patterns of customer
> behavior, market
> > trends and other potentially valuable information.
> >
> > I.B.M. calls its approach of fine-tuning hardware and
> software for
> > specific jobs “hybrid computing.” And it will open a Hybrid
> Computing
> > Research lab later this year, inviting industry and
> university
> > scientists to work cooperatively on new application-specific
> designs
> > intended to improve performance by 100 to 1,000 times
> compared with
> > today’s systems.
> >
> > The fresh look at computer design is being prompted by the
> surge in
> > Internet data, from social networking to smartphone
> applications to
> > sensors monitoring food shipments and electrical use. By
> 2011, IDC
> > estimates, there will be one trillion Internet-connected
> devices, up
> > from 500 million in 2006.
> >
> > “This huge explosion of data is driving a movement to design
> systems
> > around workloads because it is the only way to deliver the
> computation
> > needed, and it’s far more energy-efficient,” said Kunle
> Olukotun, a
> > computer scientist at Stanford.
> >
> > I.B.M. had an initiative, begun in early 2008, called Blue
> Cloud, which
> > mainly involved adapting its server computers for cloud
> technology. Most
> > major technology suppliers have cloud-related hardware and
> software
> > products, including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems
> and Dell.
> > But I.B.M., analysts say, is going further by offering
> simplified,
> > integrated stacks of hardware and software, as well as cloud
> services.
> >
> > I.B.M.’s cloud strategy, the company said, is the
> culmination of 100
> > prototype projects with companies and government agencies
> over the last
> > year, and its research partnership with Google.
> >
> > “The information technology infrastructure is under stress
> already, and
> > the data flood is just accelerating,” said Samuel J.
> Palmisano, I.B.M.’s
> > chief executive. “We’ve decided that how you solve that
> starts by
> > organizing technology around the workload.”
> >
> > One of I.B.M.’s test beds for cloud computing has been the
> Interior
> > Department’s National Business Center, a service center that
> handles
> > payroll, human relations, financial reporting, contracting
> services and
> > other computing tasks for dozens of federal agencies. The
> center runs
> > two large data centers, one in Northern Virginia and another
> outside
> > Denver.
> >
> > Douglas J. Bourgeois, the center’s director, said he is
> introducing
> > several cloud-style applications over the next nine months
> including
> > Web-based training, and staffing and recruitment software.
> And in tests
> > with financial and procurement software, the cloud-computing
> environment
> > has delivered efficiencies of 40 to 60 percent in
> productivity and power
> > consumption, he said.
> >
> > “For us, like other data centers, the volume of data
> continues to
> > explode,” Mr. Bourgeois said. “We want to solve some of
> those problems
> > with cloud computing, so we don’t have to build another $20
> million data
> > center.”
> >
> >
> > Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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>
> --
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