How Cloud Computing Is Changing the World

A major shift in the way companies obtain software and computing capacity is under way as more companies tap into Web-based applications. The article includes a discussion of how some companies are moving aggessively to cloud computing using software from vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce.com and Google. Also, based on research, the market for cloud computing is going to surge to 95 billion in the next five years. It is very interesting to see how all this turns out in the long run, but things are moving fast in the corporate world.

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SAP and Microsoft, Watch Your Back according to BusinessWeek.com article today

Google Apps, Linux, and other free or inexpensive systems are winning more fans in the corporate world. I am very worried about the misconception of free software (does not exist) and true enterprise solutions. When comparing Microsoft and SAP to Google in enterprise computing, is is really an unfair comparison because Google lacks completely true enterprise solutions that has a critical role. Sure, Google has an online spreadsheet program that lacks everything that one would expect from a real application. Also, Google does not provide a platform for an independent software vendor to build true enterprise solutions. I have spoken with many very seasoned CIO's of large companies and they have yet to see open source or Google apps to have an impact on enterprise scale solutions. I am not taking into consideration Linux which is a differnet story.

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Microsoft's Ray Ozzie Talks Open Source, Azure and More: New information coming to surface every day

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie Talks Open Source, Azure and More Microsoft's chief software architect, Ray Ozzie, in an interview with eWEEK at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, delved into a series of subjects, most prominently open source and interoperability, software modeling, and the Windows Azure cloud operating system. What is very interesting in the interview with eWeek.com is the topics that are linked together: open source, interoperability, software modeling and domain-specific languages . I truly think Ray Ozzie is the right person to drive things, his innovation to the software world such as Lotus Notes, Groove and a bunch of other things has demonstrated that he is "a man walking his own path" and I believe that when he says interoperability is important it is also going to mean that going forward.
Ray Ozzie concludes about Microsoft modeling strategy and what it means to Windows Azure in following way:

In the abstract I'll just say the quest, the ultimate goal, is that we push the limits as much as we can to see how much we can abstract into modeling from the entire life cycle from the analyst to the developer to the person who understands ... from the person who understands the business problem to be solved to the developer who will probably in some cases have to wrap it with code, with some procedural code, to how it gets deployed, and to how it gets managed in an operational environment.

What is very interesting to me in the whole scenario about cloud computing combined with modeling is that domain-specific languages or domain-specific modeling (DSM) requires a platform with services so to me this is a non-brainer when thinking about the discussion whether DSL or DSM is needed. We need higher abstraction levels in our development, we need to get to a point where we can address the business issues and requirements in a way that we do not have to reinvent the wheel all over again. I like the article from eWeek.com. I highly recommend you to read it to learn more about Ray Ozzie's thoughts.
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Azure: Can Microsoft Meld Windows with the Web?

The giant's bid to join the world of cloud computing is likely to appeal most strongly to corporate users. Microsoft is hosting more than 6000 programmers in Los Angeles (PDC) and Ray Ozzie unveiled project Windows Azure to the audience. One of the pioneers in this movement is Amazon.com, headed by Jeff Bezos and Ozzie "tipped his hat" to Jeff for starting this movement. This is not just cloud computing, this is truly a move towards "computing as utility" as we see the use of electricity today. The timeline for full exposure for Windows Azure is five to ten years from now, so there is lots to be seen in the coming months and years. PDC unveiled some tools for programmers that can start testing some of the functionalities in the Azure platform. When I defended my doctoral dissertation about software product platforms, this is what I thought would happen and I am happy that it is now really coming to light even if it still will take years. Windows Azure, I am ready to explore the business opportunities!

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Nokia marketshare in smart phones is dropping according to lastest news

I have been blogging about mobility marketplace in my Finnish blog and today Nokia announced their results. Nokia's marketshare in the cellphone market has dropped from 40 percent to 38 percent. This drop is not huge, but an alarming trend for Nokia. Nokia has issues in the smart phone markets as well. I checked out the latest Nokia E71 and E90 phone while visiting Finland and I have to say that the keyboard in E71 is the best I have ever experienced.

However, based on our research (global call down to businesses), Nokia Symbian platform is not seen as a sexy platform to build things on. The platforms of choice today is Windows Mobile, RIM Blackberry for the corporate and Apple iPhone and Google Android for the consumer markets. This trend is specifically here in the US, but I expect the market to be very heated of getting developers to build solutions on their platform. The winner is going to be the one ruling both business and consumer markets. There is not a single vendor that can claim to have these both.

Top 10 Strategic Technologies of 2009--That Gartner Missed and I fully agree that they did

Gartner picks its choices for the top 10 strategic technologies of 2009, but Eric Lundquist has his own list--from mobile computing to green IT. I like Eric's articles. He brings very good issues to the public, so I highly recommend you all to follow his opinions.Eric lists following as his 10 that shoudl be part of it:
1) Mobile Computing
2) Thin Clients
3) Tune-ups
4) Data Center Design
5) Enterprise Sandbox
6) Intraprise Networks
7) Anti-social Nets
8) Com control
9) BLI
10) New Green
My company did recently a study on a global study and we also found out that mobility came out as a big player. Another one, that can relate back to BLI in Eric's terms is business intelligence where integration is still a huge issue in organizations. That came out very strongly in our research. I am kind of suprised about Anti-social Nets and I agree that organizations might limit the use of them going forward. Unified communications is such a large term and people are very confused about the whole thing. I would congratulate Eric on the article!

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Businesses Can`t Ignore Social Media: Wake-up call for businesses

Social networks will play a huge role in the way businesses find and attract talent, as well as burnish their corporate image. CIOs can play a crucial role in making it happen. Brian P. Watson reports in CIO Insight article that social networks are not just fad, but they are going to be crucial to do business in the future. The article is an interview of John Sviokla from Diamond Management & Technology Consultants. The article refers to Linkedin.com and how CIO's can impact the company's use of social networks. I am very intrigued about the social and physiological aspects of social networking and that is one of the reasons why I participate in this for both actor as well as a researcher.

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