If we started 2008 on uncertain ground, in both business and technology, the business outlook certainly hasn’t gotten more grounded, but Cloud Computing can flourish in 2009.
CIOs are deferring decisions to CFOs. I’d love to talk strategy, but it’ll be all about tactics for 2009: how to improve user productivity, derive more business value out of existing applications, and bridge the gap between new applications and services and the complex world of “everything else” in use across virtually every Global 2000 organization. 2009 will be about becoming more practical and doing more with less.
2009 Predictions
Integration challenges will re-appear as a central IT focus area. With large-scale SOA projects flat-lining, organizations will once again focus energies on integration projects key to major business initiatives. This is especially true within the financial services industry where major mergers are occurring almost weekly, causing forced marriages between incompatible application partners.
IT projects will require a 3-month (or less) ROI as organizations look to do more with less by optimizing existing applications to improve specific business practices.
Corporate desktops will be re-discovered. As enterprises move towards SOA, thin-client architectures and cloud computing, little attention has been paid to the desktop. Corporate desktops are at the intersection of customers, partners and employees. It’s the last mile that offers the biggest opportunity for both true business agility and cost savings.
2009 will see increased focus on the desktop from two directions. First, organizations will take a “top-down” approach, focusing on how new applications and services (from The Cloud) are consumed by users and integrated into existing desktop environments. Second, from a bottoms-up perspective, organizations will uncover huge productivity gains and increased business intelligence by tapping into the user interactions occurring at the desktop. Business process bottleneck root causes will be identified, workflows will be automated, fine-grained user metrics will be fed into business intelligence and business activity monitoring solutions; all by tapping into the power of the desktop.
Cloud Computing momentum will continue to grow. Today’s economic climate is a perfect storm for cloud computing: low barriers to entry, cost saving potential, simplified operations/management, enhanced security, and device independence all point towards a successful 2009 for Cloud Computing.
Challenges Ahead
But Cloud Computing challenges will appear. Integration challenges in particular will take centre stage. Integrating an application in the cloud with a web application via API’s is one thing. But integrating an application in the cloud with the rest of your enterprise applications is quite another, especially when you might not own or have access to source code. And copy-and-paste is not an integration solution.
Google Enterprise Application deployments will grow but not flourish until they are easier to integrate into the existing enterprise infrastructure. Integrating with existing enterprise applications is a must. Outlook, for example, does a respectable job, but even that took years. It’s very API-dependent.
Virtualization adoption will continue to grow given the (assumed) cost savings potential. The challenges of integrating virtualized applications with non-virtualized applications or even two virtualized applications hosted in different virtual environments will come to the fore-front. But virtualization is not a magic bullet. There are significant challenges when trying to integrate virtualized and non-virtualized applications, as well as when integrating virtualized applications built on different hypervisor technologies.
As virtualized environments become more prevalent, enterprises are starting to grapple with the challenges of integrating data between virtualized applications or between a virtualized application and any legacy application hosted outside of a virtualized environment.
Presentation-tier integration will emerge as a key enabling technology for cloud computing. Traditional integration techniques that rely upon APIs, connectors or web services will continue to be leveraged for traditional integration projects.
However, a different approach that leverages the user interface will solve some new integration challenges such as integrating virtualized application, third-party/SaaS/cloud applications without well constructed APIs or access to source code, and the wide range of desktop and closed legacy applications still in use across virtually every enterprise. With less funding for large-scale SOA projects, organizations will look to alternate technology solutions that allow them to leverage existing applications while still integrating the new applications and services. And unlike previous presentation-tier integration techniques, modern approaches provide a significant improvement in robustness and scalability.
In closing
Regardless of the popularity of, or the case for, cloud computing, I believe that in 2009 many businesses will choose to retain some control at the desktop level. Some have too much invested in client or native applications, too many legacy ties to mainframes and older technology. Some don’t trust (or lawyers advise against using) outside service providers to host or process sensitive data of a financial or sensitive nature. Another problem with third-party services can be surprises – a service provider that decides not to extend a platform even though the enterprise needs it, thereby throwing the investment into danger.
But let’s face it, many companies are still at earlier stages, contemplating or making limited virtualization steps, or continuing to cautiously think through SOA. In any case, the need for quick ROI will make integration a top priority.
By Francis Carden, Founder, OpenSpan, Inc.