On a vacation you often find that the best way to enjoy is to try and disconnect from the regular working day routine. Part of my blogging tasks include searching for knowledge resources and publishing news and articles to my followers. I maintain communication with my readers using social communication means such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Setting that in semi-automated state with twaitter (so I can spend my time with my lovely wife and not with my iPad …) brought me to imagine a living, breathing independent cloud creature that “feeds” itself with information.
Think out of the box and try to imagine the possibility that these lines were written by a smart algorithm utilizing the clouds and their enormous amount of information and logic. Imagine that humans don’t have keyboards but only screens to view what the “intelligent cloud creature” generates using smart BI algorithms running on a complex extremely wide integration. As we speak this integration is sprawling; basic logic routines and cross systems flows developed by humans as well as by machines.
The question “what I would like to eat for lunch ?” can be based on enormous amount of considerations such as who you are, who is connected to you, what you have already eaten today and how it fits with your diet, as well as what your best friend would like to eat because he can join you today while visiting nearby. All of these answers and more are already out there. The enormous growth in the number and the size of apps’ eco-systems, Big Data and the robust physical computing capabilities of the cloud leads to a form of intensive information calculation that can generate accurate intelligent results in an adaptive manner.
Traditional IT systems and logic were confined within their on-premise domain of variables. Collaboration wasn’t really an option and integration was (and still is) always a painful point with respect to huge investments and high risks. API deveopment task was one of the last things on the ISV priorities list. Today things can be different thanks to these clouds. The cloud accelerates the extension of eco-systems and can makes this fantasy a reality. I believe that we are heading straight into a second, even more exciting information technology revolution.
“Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. Siri is so easy to use and does so much, you’ll keep finding more and more ways to use it.”
The first time I checked this IPA (Intelligent Personal Assistant) agent was about less than two years ago. I was fascinated by the fact that besides the voice recognition and ease of use, Siri aims to generate its own intelligence using its great eco-system environment to generate suggestions and solve problems in a proactive and self-improvement manner. Eventually, I wasn’t surprised to hear that the most innovative company in the world integrated the solution inside its leading product operating system (I am just waiting for them to stop playing around and release it as part of the iOS, not only for the 4S version).
Another noteworthy example is Boomi. The company that was bought by Dell a year ago is a growing business for out-of-the-box “connectors” (the term they use for their integration widgets) platform.
“Remember Data Integration is the key to the cloudy future. By having Boomi in its pocket, Dell is well positioned to handle these needs” wrote the cloud evangelist Krishnan Subramanian, in his article Quick Thoughts: Dell Acquires Boomi
I had a great discussion with Rick Nucci, Founder and CTO of Boomi regarding the company’s positioning and its strategy to become the heart of the enterprise business flow. The company’s offering enables the IT Organization to generate a full solution assembled from several systems. The company develops a platform that enables rapid provisioning of “connectors” that enable systems.
“AtomSphere connects providers and customers of SaaS, cloud and on-premise applications via a pure SaaS integration platform that does not require software or appliances. .. Leading SaaS players and enterprise customers such as salesforce.com, NetSuite, RightNow, Marketo, Taleo, Zuora, Coupa, NASDAQ” Read more on Boomi’s site
Utilizing the cloud the company is able to host and maintain all of its customers’ connectors in its own cloud environment. The company takes responsibility for the connectors’ compatibly and provision them as a SaaS with a SLA. The traditional integration maintenance hassle becomes a small issue. SaaS start-ups are focusing on solving a specific problem and by so doing will not be able to solve a complete business flow. I believe that vendors such as Boomi can be positioned on top of the cloud food chain (I love that term – I encourage you to use it and comment what do you think about it), even before some of the above SaaS providers.
Traditional ISV must take action in regards to its eco-systems, both those it owns and those it participates in. Traditional ISVs have vast experience and owns data and logic that can be utilized by the new and agile SaaS developer. The ISV can leverage this experience in the cloud and take strategic steps to increase its public interface services to extend its eco-system and generate additional revenue stream.
> > > > > Back to Reality
Without the crowd input, the user collaboration and the contribution of the fast running web developer the cloud content, systems integration and eco-system can not evolve and grow. The next IT revolution combined from the connected world and big data is just outside knocking on our door and it lies on top of a rapid pace of cloud innovations and evolution.
> > > Don’t forget to comment – What are the layers of the “cloud food chain” ? < < <
