What Does It Mean to Successfully Operate in “The Cloud Era”?

We have entered “The Cloud Era”. But what precisely does this mean and how can enterprises adapt and maximise the benefits of this?

In a nutshell, the Cloud Era enterprises now face is revolutionising service delivery and it’s not an optional shift. It won’t just go away, it’s an irreversible series of trends. Competition demands that enterprises keep up with what consumers want, or they will fall behind their competitors.

The Cloud Era encompasses elements such as mobile over fixed computing, personal devices being used for work, rather than provided by the enterprises, wireless rather than wired, cloud hosting rather than on-premises models and applications, or ‘apps’ rather than program suites. The pace of change today is rapid; tablets did not exist until 2010, but now they are being used by growing number of employees for work across various of industries.

All of these contrast starkly with the traditional computing approach of even the mid to late 1990s.

Desktop shipments declining

Recent research by Gartner found that Worldwide PC shipments (particularly enterprise desktop PCs) totaled 71.7 million units in the first quarter of 2015, a 5.2% fall from the first quarter of 2014. At the same time, shipments of mobile PCs, including notebooks, hybrid and Windows tablets, grew compared with a year ago. Gartner forecasts that PC replacements will be driven by thin and light notebooks with tablet functionality. Their early study suggests strong growth of hybrid notebooks, especially in mature markets, in 1Q15.

Research house IDC found that in the US PC market shrank by about one percent from the previous year, with shipments totaling 14.2 million PCs in 1Q 2015. Again any growth centred on mobility devices, portables, particularly around emerging product categories such as Chromebooks, Bing, Ultraslims and Convertibles. IDC said desktop shipments were also relatively sluggish this quarter.

The push for organisations to encompass “The Cloud Era” is coming from consumers not businesses.

A recent article on the Citrix website puts it quite well: “The consumerisation of IT is letting today’s users connect to IT services using an array of devices — from desktops, to tablets, to mobile phones. Pervasive network connectivity, both wired and wireless, is driving anywhere access for mobile and remote workers. Multi-tenant data centres are more efficient and are powering entirely new business models. Elastic compute architectures are enabling web-like applications that automatically scale in response to fluctuations in demand.”

Consumers demanding more

So, highly tech-savvy consumers are now demanding that organisations cater for their mobile, connected lifestyles. They expect the same service responses from your business that they would get from Cloud giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google and eBay. If they are in any way disappointed, it is too easy to switch their business somewhere else. Forget consumer loyalty, ‘it’s the technology, stupid’. Organisations are now primarily measured on how successfully and easily they deliver their products and services to whatever personal device a consumer may choose to use.

The Cloud today offers many faces – public, private or hybrid – and it has become a very specialised and somewhat complicated IT aspect, explaining why organisations are turning to external service provides, expert in cloud management for enterprises, to ensure they keep up with the pack. It could be argued that the days are fading fast where enterprises, particularly large ones, could rely on internal IT departments and experts to configure and manage their complex IT diaspora.

Outsource providers popular

Just like organisations would not consider drilling for their own oil to power their equipment, or installing their own power stations [Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) aside, because this is another story] or necessarily building, operating and maintaining their own data centres, they now routinely outsource key IT services and facilities to external service providers, whose business it is to keep systems up to date and effectively operating.

Such outsourcing is popular because there are so many opportunities to benefit from ‘The Cloud Era’, particularly in partnership with expert outsourcers and managed service providers who know the market and thoroughly track the changes and trends.

It could be argued that only qualified and experienced external IT service providers have the skills, knowledge and expertise to properly enable enterprises to thrive in ‘The Cloud Era’. So, solid advice is to do your homework and find an outsourcing partner who can help you make the journey.

Logicalis is such a partner, to find out how Logicalis can support you and your business head to the Solutions and Services page.

The Overlooked Deep Impact of Mobile App Data

Just when CIOs and business executives were coming to terms with the concept of Big Data and Smart analytics, another important data source, currently mostly being overlooked, has been highlighted.

Research house Gartner has warned in a recent report that data from mobile apps, will have a deep impact on organisations’ information infrastructure.

The researcher advises that, whether deployed on the premises or in the cloud, data from mobile apps is generally not currently managed as part of an organisation’s information infrastructure, and data collected from mobile apps is often siloed.

Because digital business is now blurring the line between the physical and the digital worlds, and consumer-centric mobile apps are playing an increasingly important role. Gartner forecasts that by the end of this year, most mobile apps will sync, collect and analyse deep data about users and their social graphs.

Despite this growing consumer trend, most IT leaders are failing to consider the significant impact that mobile apps have on their information infrastructure.

Wearable devices and apps

And, as the Internet of Things (IoT) gains traction, the researchers maintain that by 2017, wearable devices will drive 50% of total interactions with apps, including desktop-based app interactions and mobile apps.

The punchline of the Gartner report is this: IT leaders should ensure they have infrastructure in place that takes into account data collected, not only via mobile apps, but also from apps running on wearable devices.

Researcher IDC also has some strong predictions about IoT. They say that within five years, 40% of wearables will have evolved into a viable consumer mass market alternative to smartphones. IDC says that by 2018, 16% of the population will be ‘Millennials’ and will be accelerating IoT adoption due to their reality of living in a connected world.

Under-used asset

“Personal data is often collected solely in support of a mobile app’s requirements and not considered an asset within an organisation’s overall information infrastructure,” said Roxane Edjlali, research director at Gartner. “Consequently, although this data is accessed and potentially stored in support of an app, it is not managed as a full ‘citizen’ of an enterprise’s information infrastructure.”

“Organisations should plan to manage information across cloud and on-premises implementations, as combining all data on the premises or on a single repository is no longer viable. It is important to understand the service-level agreements (SLAs) for various use cases that access mobile app data, and adapt the information capability accordingly,” said Ms Edjlali.

Gartner’s report has these tips relating to mobile app data:

• Co-location of data from mobile apps with other application data on the premises, can be a better option for use cases such as offline and near-line analyis.
• Using data virtualisation, to combine data in the cloud with data on the premises, can be a better option if co-location does not suit the governance or SLAs of a use case.
• Using integration-platform-as-a-service capabilities for cloud service integration can complement existing data integration strategies by moving data from the cloud to the premises, or from cloud to cloud as needed.

Personal data dangers

The report also warns of risks in over-enthusiastically collecting and distributing personal data because the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable use of consumer data can be very thin. It gets even thinner as the data collected becomes more detailed and personal. For example, organisations collecting biometric data through mobile apps, linked to wearable devices, could be tempted to monetise this data by reselling it.

“Even if personal or biometric data is anonymous, it could have a major impact on a person’s ability to get adequate health insurance, if they are identified as belonging to a risk category,” said Ms. Edjlali. “In addition, mobile apps that use third parties for authentication deliver data on customer behaviour to those third parties.”

These risks, relating to data collected from mobile apps, require organisations to rethink their governance policies and adjust their information infrastructure.

Gartner recommends that such organisations should:

• Manage the persistency and perishability of data collected from mobile apps.
• Monitor access to and control of this data. It is important to ensure that personal data collected from mobile apps remains private, and that it is secured, anonymised and accessed according to the organisation’s governance policies. Proper management of user agreements and opt-ins are important aspects of this.
• Control the sharing and reuse of mobile app data for other purposes.

It seems that data from mobile apps should now be considered as a carefully monitored and valuable asset in an enterprises information infrastructure.

To find out how Logicalis can support you and your business in this ever-evolving tech world, head to the Solutions & Services page.

Third Platform ITaaS – a Competitive Strategy

As we pass through the business-technology predictions and forecast season, there are strong indications that managed IT services providers will definitely be in great demand over the next few years.

The range of choices, complexity and demands stemming from the accelerating popularity of new business technology directions requires focused expertise and experience that generally can only come with the acquired knowledge and experience of professional managed service providers.

In recent research (January 2015) IDC has concluded that these 3rd Platform technologies – cloud computing, big data, social media, and mobile devices – are now fundamentally altering “how IT organisations function, how business is conducted, and how enterprises compete”.

IDC’s bold forecast is that by 2016, nearly two-thirds of global competitive strategies will require 3rd Platform IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS).

Nearly Half Favour External Service

Separate research by managed services provider Logicalis backs up this IDC finding. The Logicalis 2014 Optimal Services survey discovered that nearly (47%) want the majority (50% or more) of their IT services to be provided or managed by external service providers, including cloud (IaaS/PaaS & SaaS). Just 3% wanted all those services to be retained in-house.

IDC even goes as far as declaring that: “The ability of IT to immediately achieve a maturing business focus within its strategic planning and execution process is now an imperative”. There has even been one IDC forecast that 3rd platform technologies will drive 90% of global IT growth through to 2020.

And there’s this gem from the IDC report, which should jump out at CIOs, because it recommends a cost-effective, ‘step-by-step’ cautious approach to 3rd platform transformation:

IDC says: “Rather than tackle IT business-facing objectives through massive project implementations, IDC recommends companies take a ‘theory of constraints’ approach, frequently used within ITaaS to quickly identify, analyse, and resolve a prioritised impediment (constraint) to IT-business alignment, thereby empowering subsequent energy and action for a second and third IT-business alignment constraint.”

Advanced analytics a priority

Competing research house Gartner adds ‘advanced analytics’ to the priority list that CIOs should be considering for 2015 and beyond.

Alexander Linden, research director at Gartner said: “Many of our clients assume that once they have mastered analytics, they can then progress to the next level with simply some learning and additional software tools. The reality is that advanced analytics isn’t just a more complex form of ‘normal’ analytics.

‘Normal’ analytics mainly reports what has happened (descriptive analytics), whereas advanced analytics solves problems using predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics, he said. Predictive analytics predicts future outcomes and behaviour, such as a customer’s shopping behaviour or a machine’s failure. Prescriptive analytics goes further, suggesting actions to take based on the predictions.

So important is data analytics to business success that Gartner points to new specialised executives being appointed in the near future to specifically manage this.

Citizen data scientists

One of Gartner’s latest predictions is that through to 2017, the number of ‘citizen data scientists’ will grow five times faster than the number of highly-skilled data scientists.

“Extracting value out of data is not a trivial task, and one of the key elements of any such “making sense out of data” program is the people, who must have the right skills,” said Gartner’s Linden. “Data scientists are not traditional business analysts, they are professionals with the rare capability to derive mathematical models from data to reap clear and hard-hitting business benefits. They need to network well across different business units and work at the intersection of business goals, constraints, processes, available data and analytical possibilities. ”

Linden said that many of Gartner’s most advanced clients are experimenting with the notions of chief data officers (CDOs) or chief analytics officers (CAOs).

“Sometimes the CDO/CAO will directly command a (virtual) data science lab”, he said. “We think that those labs must be orchestrated virtually, with the (citizen) data scientists distributed throughout the organization.”

Big data optimism

Other research (January 2015) by The Economist Intelligence Unit has also found much executive optimism for using advanced analytics and Big Data, but some concerns about its application.

Key findings of the EIU research included:

• Executives at the helm of organisations today are experimenting with ways that big data can be used to strategically add business value. Leadership is needed to bring about a cultural shift toward big data but disagreement exists about who should lead big-data adoption;
• Most top executives believe big data is a useful tool, with 23% claiming it will revolutionise the way business is managed;
• Business needs to take an integrated approach to big-data implementation;
• Customer insights and targeting are currently the highest priority for the application of big data — cited by 42% of C-level executives, but new uses of big data are spreading.

To find out more about how Logicalis can support you and your business in the future head to our Solutions & Services page.

Latest IT Trends force CIOs To Become Service Integration Experts

Outsourcing and managed services are cementing their place in the global business environment. Recent surveys clearly indicate that CIOs now acknowledge that they need to become experts in service integration.

One survey, of 177 CIOs spanning 24 countries, the second annual Optimal Services Study from Logicalis, found strong support for outsourcing. The survey involved CIOs and IT Directors from mid-market organisations across 24 countries spanning Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

The survey found that almost half (47%) want the majority (50% or more) of their IT services to be provided or managed by external service providers, including cloud (IaaS/PaaS & SaaS).

Over half the respondents agreed that by 2016, 80% of IT budgets will be based on providing service integration for a broad portfolio of internal and external sources of IT and business services.

A change in IT recruiting

The survey results pointed to a strong need to transform organisations’ IT skills base. This means they will have to recruit specialists with broader, business IT orientated skills.

They must actively reduce the level of technology their teams maintain in-house, and they must succeed where they have so far failed – in refocusing the CIO role on strategic activities.

This latest Optimal Services survey also found that CIOs recognise the need for them to become experts in service integration.

In a key pointer to the growing presence of outsourcing, the survey found that: “Line of Business will now want access to a growing number of market offerings delivering transformational line of business applications making the selection, integration, governance and management of ‘as a service’ as important as maintaining in-house technologies.”

Cloud deployments grow

Separate recent research by IDC pointed to the growing prevalence of the use of the cloud, both outsourced and internally. IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, for the third quarter of 2014 found that cloud deployments made up almost one third of combined worldwide server, disk storage and ethernet switch infrastructure spending.

The total cloud revenue grew 16% on the previous year, to US$6.5 billion.

“Public and private clouds represent the ‘compute factories’ and ‘digital content depots’ of the 3rd Platform era,” noted Richard Villars, Vice President, Datacentre and Cloud research at IDC.

“Whether internally owned or ‘rented’ from a service provider, cloud environments are strategic assets that organisations of all types must rely upon to quickly introduce new services of unprecedented scale, speed, and scope. Their effective use will garner first –mover advantage to any organisation in a hyper-competitive market.”

Managed service providers

The survey results and the positive future for outsourcing bode well for organisations such as Logicalis, an international IT solutions and managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in communications and collaboration; data centre and cloud services; and managed services.

Logicalis is now seeing managed services extend into the Cloud, where they manage a customer’s Cloud-based application environment.

Logicalis, with an average customer tenure of 5.3 years, deploys and manages secure, converged infrastructure that can increase agility, reduce risk for clients through a consistent and repeatable framework, with a record showing it can cut operating costs by 20-50%.

Range of managed services

Logicalis offers ‘traditional’ managed services around IT infrastructure, covering networks, data centre (compute, storage) and voice/collaboration. They can provide full management where the customer can’t make changes to their infrastructure; typically it’s co-management where the customer retains full visibility and control of their IT infrastruture, but rely on Logicalis to keep it all running.

In some cases, Logicalis has the flexibility to provide ‘out of hours’ management to augment a customer’s IT department, where they want to manage their environment during business hours.

Logicalis says that their advice to customers is not to focus on the technology, but to determine what service levels are required and what technical – technology skills are needed in-house (for example, for a business-critical application). Then to benchmark internal costs and investigate a managed service to take care of ‘keeping the lights on’. Watch our latest managed services video to learn what it takes to support business critical operations with mature managed services.

What to Ask Before Signing Up for a Service Desk

There are some important questions that should be asked of providers by organisations considering signing up for a full-equipped Service Desk solution. After all, this is an important decision with considerable ramifications.

Any organisation’s Service Desk provides a single point of contact and interface for both users and IT employees: it’s a window into the organisation’s entire IT environment, actively monitoring incidents and user questions and it should work to maximise service availability.

The Service Desk performance is a clear demonstration of competency, efficiency and professionalism. If it doesn’t leave customers satisfied, the organisation has a major problem.

Far from being a gloried help desk, the Service Desk should be measured, monitored and controlled within the discipline of IT Service Management, as defined by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

Disruptive trends

Research House IDC says:” The rapid proliferation of disruptive trends such as the consumerisation of IT, BYOD, mobility, and virtualisation is driving increasingly heterogeneous and hybrid IT environments that, in turn, are adding significant complexity to IT service delivery and support within the enterprise.

“As IT environments become ever more hybrid, Service Desk management solutions that offer advanced integration with both on-premises and cloud-based technologies will increasingly gain traction in the enterprise. Likewise, the need for better change control, discovery, software license management, and compliance tracking is also helping drive demand in this market,” says Robert Young, Research Manager, Client Device and IT Service Management Software.

“In addition, Service Desk software delivered through SaaS will also continue to be a growth driver as customers continue to seek solutions that reduce up-front capital expenditures as well as ongoing maintenance costs. What’s more, SaaS-based solutions can often offer faster procurement and delivery time frames than on-premises implementations.”

Questions to ask

• Relevant questions that should be asked of potential providers include:
• Is their Service Desk is dedicated to the task, or is it comprised on shared resources?
• Is an ITSM tool used, such as Remember or ServiceNow and are they properly configured?
• Is there a formal process in place for the Service Desk to use?
• Are any processes in place based on a methodology like ITIL?

Properly monitoring and reporting on the performance of the Service Desk is also important.

• Does the business have a clear understanding of what the Service Desk will deliver?
• Is there a Service Catalogue in place. Are there agreed service levels established and do they get regularly reported to the business?
• Do regular meetings happen with the business to discuss the Service Desk performance?

Another key indicator and predictor of Service Desk performance is staff satisfaction and contentment.

• What is the staff turnover of the Service Desk?
• Is there a career path available to the analysts?
• Do the staff receive proper on-going training in ITIL and CompTIA+?
• Does the provider have adequate strategies to cope with staff absences?

The best time to ask all these questions is before any agreement is signed, not after.

Staff turnover

Staff turnover has a direct relationship to Service Desk user satisfaction. Does the provider do regular customer satisfaction surveys and what are the results? A high level of customer satisfaction points to a well operating Service Desk.

Organisations seeking a Service Desk now have a variety of options and flexibility available, for example, Logicalis offers on-premise Service Desks for larger customers who want it outsourced, but in-house.

Customers can opt for a leveraged, on-shore Australian based Service Desk, located in a Logicalis office, or some form of hybrid using some or all of the options. Logicalis has a record of service excellence having deliver 1,000 project over the past decade, plus more than 100 managed services customers.

As to the overall future of the Service Desk and overall customer service, Research firm Gartner predicts that “By 2016, 35% of IT operations organisations will have 75% of IT service desk contacts from the business resolved by virtual assistants.”

To find out more about Logicalis’ Service Desk offering, go here.