Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout

December 25, 2016, 10:17 pm

≫ Next: Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

≪ Previous: Progress Report - MapR has platform ambitions - now it has to deliver

There is always time to try something new - and instead of writing one more year review on what happened in my research areas, I thought I make this more entertaining, and provider a 'playoff' of the news in each quarter.

Of course this is a personal exercise - anyone can come to an different result - here is what I did: I picked the top 8 events, news, acquisitions, conferences, analyst events etc. of the quarter, they had to have a blog post published by yours truly. Threw them in a bucket, draw them and then had them 'play' out the bracket... based on what myPOV was in regards of enterprise relevance and impact for our clients, the CxOs out there. Needless to say - some where easier, some harder.

Here you go for Q1 2016 - all related to NextGen Apps - the research area that covers when enterprises build new software - what are the use cases, the tools, the platforms, the players, the best practises etc.

[Apologies - time to market force me to play the bracket right to left.]

Round #1 Dropouts

Atos acquired Unify - This was one of the major surprises in Q1 2016, and by now the Atos strategy is clear - differentiate with more products (hardware - see Bull and software - see Unify). A bold move that made the Top 16, but a challenge from an organizational DNA (read more here). Future will tell more. And the IBM and VMware partnership had more impact on CxOs (read here).
Hortonworks Analyst Summit - Well done summit (read more here), compelling vision of bringing data at rest and in motion together. But Microsoft had more impact with Conversation as a Platform (CaaP) (more here).
Microsoft acquires Xamarin - A very important acquisition by Microsoft, that makes multi platform native development possible. but compare to Google's announcements at Google Cloud Platform Next (see here) not as relevant, a tough round #1 match up (more here).
SAP Vora GA - An important step for SAP, making Vora GA, but not as impactful as Oracle acquiring Ravello (more here) - being able to provide heterogeneous load through a nested hypervisor is key to Oracle's overall cloud strategy (more here).

Round #2 Dropouts

IBM and VMware partner - Great timing for an originally unlikely partnership, that is working well from what we hear (more here). But Microsoft CaaP captured more forward looking plans of CxOs, both events were Top 10 CxO topics in 2016, but Microsoft wins solid (more here).
Oracle acquires Ravello - A key move by Oracle, that will get even more valuable later in the year (more here), when Oracle will unveil its 2nd generation IaaS strategy. But Google Cloud Platform captures the imagination of CxOs worldwide with its analytical and Machine Learning capability (more here).

Q1 Finals - Microsoft CaaP wins with a buzzer beater

Tough to call with both impactful announcements but Google (see here) and Microsoft. Microsoft Conversation as a Platform wins as Microsoft is the first one out talking virtual assistants and bots in what will become the year when all vendors needs to have an AI story (more here). Very clear and defined positioning by Nadella at the Build developer conference. Very close to call. Congrats to Microsoft to make it to the 2016 Finals.

How would you have scored the Q1 2016 news? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

News Analysis - IBM and VMware announce partnership to accelerate enterprise hybrid cloud adoption >> Looking promising - read here
Market Move - Atos completes acqusition of Unify - moves more into IP - read here
Progress Report - Hortonworks wants to become the next generation data platform for the enterprise - a tall ask - read here
Event Report - Microsoft Build 2016 - A platform vision and plenty of tools for next generation applications - read here
News Analysis - Welcoming the Xamarin team to Microsoft - read here
Event Report - Google Cloud Platform Next - Key offerings for (some of the) enterprise - read here
Market Move - Oracle acquires Ravello Sysystems - makes good on nested hypervisor roadmap - read here
News Analysis - SAP Vora now GA - a key milestone for SAP - read here

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Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

December 26, 2016, 5:16 pm

≫ Next: Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

≪ Previous: Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout

Of course this is a personal exercise - anyone can come to an different result - here is what I did: I picked the top 8 events, news, acquisitions, conferences, analyst events etc. of the quarter, they had to have a blog post published by yours truly. Threw them in a bucket, draw them and then had them 'play' out the bracket... based on what myPOV was in regards of enterprise relevance and impact for our clients, the CxOs, with special weight to people leaders out there. Needless to say - some where easier, some harder.

Here you go for Q1 2016 - all related to Future of Work - the research area that covers how, when, what and if we work, what and how we get paid, stay motivated and balance the work / life relationship.

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

Round #1 Dropouts

Unit4 Assistant / Slack Integration - Assistants were the key new functionality talked about in 2016, Unit4 was the first traditional ERP vendor coming out with an across suite assistant. Slack with its instant chat tool never got out of the headlines, and many vendors have jumped on the Slack band wagon - again Unit4 was the first larger ERP vendor to provide an integration (read here). But Ceridian with its broad next generation capabilities wins this round (read more here), capturing more people leaders mind share.
Workday France Payroll - Announced for over two years, Workday delivered on is France payroll (read here), always good to deliver (read more here). But the impact was mainly with international and French clients, and pales compared to the cross suite innovation unveiled by SAP SuccessFactors. (more here).
VMware Workspace One - VMware EUC has been on a roll, capturing market share and delivering (finally) for the industry on the long time promise of VDI, which changes fundamentally the Human / Machine relationship, away from the traditional PC (read here). But the progress ADP showed at Meeting of the Minds was more relevant for people leaders across the country (see here).
Workato Bots - Workato kept innovating around its end user, no code integration platform, which changes the Future of Work as it enables business users to build their own work environment, solving the application integration problem (read here). However, Ultimate at UltiConnect provided more impact for people leaders in Q1 2016 (more here).

Round #2 Dropouts

SAP SuccessFactors platform innovation - SuccessFactors (finally went back to broad across suite platform enhancements (e.g. Intelligent Services, Machine Learning) and renovation (e.g. new UI), read more here. But Ceridian pushed the envelope even more on all fronts (read here), very close but Ceridian wins. After all the only vendor doing payroll conversion from old to new in the multiple 100s each month.
Ultimate UltiConnect - A good conference for Ultimate with a ton of innovation, interesting new approaches (e.g. Leadership Action) read more here, but ADP with Meeting of the Minds unwrapped their Data as a Service offering on pay grades and the ADP Data Cloud, a win by a buzzer beater here, too (read more here).

Q1 Finals - Ceridian wins over ADP

Well the semifinals were close, this one was even closer, both vendors pushed across the board, but Ceridian's push was even broader than ADP's (more here). Maybe because Analytics / Data as a Service and Benchmarking are still not the HR leaders best friend, but Ceridian got its user base a little more energized (more here). Congrats to Ceridian to making it to the 2016 finals!

How would you have scored the Q1 2016 news? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

News Analysis - Unit4 announces in integration with Slack - read here.
News Analysis - Workday delivers payroll for France customers - read here.
News Analysis - VMware unveils Workspace ONE - will the EUC adoption start now? Read here.
First Take - Workato WorkBot cuts business users some slack with Slack integration - read here.
News Analysis - SAP SuccessFactors innovates in Performance Management with continuous feedback powered by 1 to 1s - read here.
Event Report - Ultimate UltiConnect - Product, Platform and Services Innovation - read here.
Event Report - ADP MOTM - ADP delivers: New UI, Benchmarks, Market Place & More - read here.
Progress Report - Ceridian makes good progress, the basics are done now its about next gen capabilities - read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

December 27, 2016, 8:02 am

≫ Next: Q2 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

≪ Previous: Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

By now you know the idea I had to square off the top news and developments of each quarter of 2016 in playoff / bracket format... I started with NextGen Apps for Q1 2016 (won by Microsoft with its Conversation as a Platform (CaaP) launch - take a look here and Future of Work Q1 2016 - won by Ceridian with its overall suite wide push and next generation capabilities, read here.

Of course this is a personal exercise - anyone can come to an different result - here is what I did: I picked the top 8 events, news, acquisitions, conferences, analyst events etc. of the quarter, they had to have a blog post published by yours truly. Threw them in a bucket, draw them and then had them 'play' out the bracket... based on what myPOV was in regards of enterprise relevance and impact for our clients, the CxOs, with special weight to people leaders out there. Needless to say - some where easier, some harder.

Here you go for Q2 2016 - all related to NextGen Apps - the research area that covers when enterprises build new software - what are the use cases, the tools, the platforms, the players, the best practises etc.

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

Round #1 Dropouts

Unit4 Business World On - A complete, start from scratch, built on next gen capabilities that technology offers, ERP package was launched by Unit4. Runs on IaaS, uses BigData and Machine Learning, includes an assistant etc. (read more here). Unfortunately squared against CloudFoundry, which has seen broad adoption and mind-share amongst CxOs in 2016 (read here).
AWS in India - Few locations, maybe Germany, have garnered more anticipation and interest for AWS opening up a location for its IaaS services than the one in India (read here). Unfortunately the draw squared it against another big AWS announcement, the joint statement of both Salesforce and AWS of making AWS its production IaaS. Both are important for AWS, but getting load leads to opening locations, so the partnership wins this one (read here).
OpenStack Summit - What used to be the tangible, widely adopted alternative to public IaaS, OpenStack, showed signs of weakening at OpenStack Summit in Austin (read here), where no commercial company talked about usage in the keynote (ISVs and Telcos where there in force). SAP choosing Azure as the (or one? Not clear yet today.) IaaS partner for production loads eclipses this easily. (see here).
Infosys Confluence - Infosys laid down its vision on how enterprises will operate in the future, but most impressively laying out its vision on how to disrupt its own business for the better with Mana (read here). But Google I/O was a tough opponent and wins this round (see here).

Round #2 Dropouts

Salesforce and AWS - While an impressive partnership - that will show further announcements in the year (stay tuned, think foliage), it did resonate in the Salesforce ecosystem only (read here), but the CloudFoundry victory lap continued strong in 2016, dominating both CxO conversations and plans as well as IVS and IaaS uptake, read here (read here).
Google I/O - Google staged its yearly developer conference in Mountain View this time and it was loaded with announcements, mainly in Machine Learning (by now everyone said AI), VR / AR, Assistants and much more (read here). But the SAP / Microsoft partnership garnered more, probably immediate enterprise attention and squares the #1 enterprise load in the direction of the #2 IaaS vendor, read here.

Q2 Finals - CloudFoundry beats Microsoft Azure getting SAP load

Two key evens in Q2 2016, both operating at different levels of the stack. The Microsoft / SAP partnership on attracting load for Azure on the IaaS level, also marking (the not confirmed) end of SAP's in house IaaS ambition (read here). CloudFoundry is squarely on a PaaS level, with load portability across IaaS being one of the major reasons to attract enterprises (read here). Even if they may never move loads across IaaS - they still remain very attracted to the topic, trying to avoid the dreaded lock-in. Apps beat IaaS here, so congrats to CloudFoundry to win the Q2 Finals of 2016 in the NextGen Apps category. See you in the Finals.

How would you have scored the Q2 2016 news? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

News Analysis - Unit4 announces Business World On – A modern ERP offering - read here.
News Analysis - Amazon Web Services Cloud now speaks… Hindi - Indian AWS Data Centers available - read here.
Event Report - OpenStack Summit 2016 - Austin - OpenStack matures - read here.
Event Report - Infosys Confluence - The Future Watch is Software + People - read here.
News Analysis - Salesforce selects AWS as preferred Public Cloud Infrastructure Provider - Good move - read here.
Event Report - Google I/O 2016 - Android N soon, Google assistant sooner and VR / AR later - read here.
News Analysis - SAP and Microsoft usher in new era of partnership to accelerate digital transformation in the cloud - read here.
Event Report - Cloud Foundry Cloud Foundry Summit - It's good to be king of PaaS - read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Q2 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

December 28, 2016, 5:22 am

≫ Next: Q3 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

≪ Previous: Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

By now you will be familiar with my year end development and trends shootout, this one is about Future of Work trends and developments in Q2 2016. If you missed the Q1 Future of Work post - it can be found here.

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

Holger Mueller Enterprise Software Musings Constellation Research Microsoft Cornerstone Oracle SAP

Round #1 Dropouts

NGA HR - unshackled - NGA HR, the former NorthGate Arinso managed to renegotiate and shed itself of substantial debt, expecting a brighter future for the 'All Things HR' specialist - with a focus on Global HR BPO (read more here). Not enough to trump the Microsoft Hololens, but this was a match-up of non equals both in vendor size and announcement category (read here).
Equifax EFX Forum - Another got event for the compliance specialist, one of the few vendors who can solve one of the top concerns of CxOs, compliance, with a Compliance as a Service (CaaS) offering (more here). But Cornerstone adding to its HCM automaton portfolio with adding HR Core capabilities had more impact (read here).
SAP SuccessFactors Analyst Summit - SuccessFactors found a way forward, to lift all products with common horizontal and platform plans. Very important to consolidate the mixed acquisition history, and very welcome by customers and prospects (read here). But sparred against one of the biggest acquisitions in enterprise history, a clear win for Microsoft (read here).
HireVue Digital Disruption - HireVue keeps innovating in the area of video recruiting and Talent Acquisition overall (read here). Good progress and an interesting foray into the (bigger) coaching market - but no competition to the sheer breadth of announcements and progress made by Oracle at HCM World (read here).

Round #2 Dropouts

Microsoft Hololens - Much progress made by Microsoft Hololens in 2016, we had a chance to build a mini applicaiton during the developer conference Build in San Francisco (read here).The mixed reality vision is compelling - now Microsoft needs to convicne developers to build the apps for Hololens. More immediate impact by Cornerstone, and more direct talk of people leaders (read here).
Oracle HCM World - A broad push around the core was the key strategy and announcement trail at HCM World, with Helpdesk, Learning and more Work / Life offerings (read here). But more impact happened from the Microsoft and LinkedIn tie in (read here).

Q1 Finals - Microsoft / LInkedIn wins over Cornerstone

While Cornerstone portfolio enhancement move remains impressive (read here), the acqusition of LinkedIn by Microsoft garnered even more interest. Not a fair match-up - but it all happened in Q2. More questions than answers specifically on the HCM side, but Microsoft probably acquired a Top 3 HCM vendor with LinkedIn - without mentioning it (more here and here). Congrats to Microsoft / LinkedIn to making it to the 2016 finals!

How would you have scored the Q1 2016 news? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

Progress Report - NGA HR with new HR service offerings - unshackled read here.
Event Report - Equifax EFXForum16 Good progress and CaaS looming - read here.
Progress Report - SAP SuccessFactors makes good progress - now needs appeal beyond SAP - read here.
Event Report - HireVue Digital Disruption 2016 - More Recruiing and now... Coaching - read here.
Musings - Will Microsoft's Hololens transform the Future of Work? Read here.
Event Report - Oracle HCM World - Innovation around the Core - read here.
Progress Report - Cornerstone Convergence - HR Core debut, lot's of product, time to execute! Read here.
Market Move - Microsoft acquired Linked - Tons of synergies, start with Cortana, maybe too many - read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

Q2 Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Q3 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

December 29, 2016, 6:44 am

≫ Next: Q3 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

≪ Previous: Q2 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

By now you know the idea... Check out the Q1 (here) and Q2 (here) shootouts on Next Generation Applications. These quarters were won by Microsoft with Conversation as a Platform and Pivotal / Cloud Foundry.

In case you wonder about the methodology - check out the above links, too - no need to repeat here.

And here is Q3 2016 - all related to NextGen Apps - the research area that covers when enterprises build new software - what are the use cases, the tools, the platforms, the players, the best practises etc.

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

Round #1 Dropouts

Unit4 Business Prevero - 2016 was the year of predictive analytics morphing into Machine Learning, and for the aggressive messaging makers of the industry, into artificial intelligence. Unit4 did not miss out with the acquisition of prevero, strengthening the vendors BI and CPM capabilities (read here). But not a match to Dell's acquisition of EMC (read here).
AWS Enterprise Summit Frankfurt - AWS continues its progress around the world, and while interest and projects are high, in more conservative locations, like Frankfurt in Germany, enterprises were not comfortable to share their plans, status, projects on a keynote stage (more here). Box's move to AWS / the public cloud garnered more CxO attention and goes on (read here).
GE & Microsoft - It was also the year in which pretty all SaaS properties choose their IaaS partners. GE chose Azure in July, a good move by all vendors (read here). But compared to the massive announcement and progress of Oracle OpenWorld - not a fair match (read here).
Pivotal SpringOne - The Spring network gains more popularity again, never count anyone out in application development, certainly fostered also by the popularity of CloudFoundry (our Q2 winner - read here). Interesting to see what enterprises are building on SpringOne (read here). But compared to the many announcements and developments of the Microsoft Ignite conference not a match (read here).

Round #2 Dropouts

Box BoxWorks - BoxWorks was an impressive event - both from a Nextgen Apps perspective and Future of Work (see Q3 on Future of Work coming soon) - announcing new capabilities across the board (read here). But compared to the news of Dell Technology, the closure of the Dell / EMC deal not a close match (read here).
Microsoft Ignite - Ignite was a good event for Microsoft, where the vendor showed progress and made announcements across the board, in my view the FPGA Azure architecture stood out (read here). But compared to Oracle OpenWorld, where e.g. CTO Ellison announced nothing less than 18 substantial announcements, read here.

Q3 Finals - Oracle OpenWorld beats Dell Technology

Two key events for enterprise software, next generation applications in Q3 of 2016, with massive consequences for enterprises... more than 2/3 of enterprises have some sort of Dell / Oracle product / services in place. But while Dell merits kudos for the courage or the largest IT transaction ever (read here), the road forward is much less clear than for similar categorized vendor Oracle. Oracle is more advanced in its formulation of its future than Dell at the moment, and the massive R&D push coming our of the Redwood Shores headquartered company is impressive (read here).

So congrats to Oracle to win the Q3 2016 Next Generation Applications shootout.

How would you have scored the Q3 2016 news? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

News Analysis - Unit4 acquires prevero; gets more strategic and intelligent - read here.
Event report - AWS Enterprise Summit 2016 Frankfurt - The German Road to Cloud adoption is ... long - read here.
News Analysis - GE and Microsoft partner to bring Predix to Azure - Multi-Cloud becomes tangible for IoT - read here.
Event Report - Cloud Foundry Summit Europe - Europe & Cloud - A long path - read here.
Event Report - Box BoxWorks - Box is on the run - now with a platform - read here.
First Take - Microsoft Ignite - AI, Adobe and FPGA [From the Fences] read here.
Market Move - Dell Technologies is here - 3 scenarios and a bonus perspective - read here.
First Take - Early Oracle OpenWorld 2016 Keynotes - read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Q3 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

December 30, 2016, 5:13 am

≫ Next: Q4 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

≪ Previous: Q3 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

By now you know the idea... Check out the Q1 (here) and Q2 (here) shootouts on Next Generation Applications. These quarters were won by Ceridian and Microsoft (acquisition of LinkedIn).

In case you wonder about the methodology - check out the above links, too - no need to repeat here.

Here you go for Q3 2016 - all related to Future of Work - the research area that covers how, when, what and if we work, what and how we get paid, stay motivated and balance the work / life relationship:

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

Round #1 Dropouts

O.C. Tanner Analyst Day - Good to see a vendor which has a long history in reward and recognition to look further, mainly talent management software (read here). Not a fair match up with HR giant ADP and its analyst day (read here), but that's the luck of the draw. .
Box BoxWorks - Documents and files play a huge role in the way how we work, and Box has come up with substantial new capabilities (read here), also the only vendor to make it the last 8 in both my research areas. But Workday moving its development and test environments to IBM garnered even more attention from people leaders (read here).
NASSCOM HR Summit - I had the honor to keynote at the NASSCOM HR summit this summer and it was good to get a first hand pulse of where HR and people best practises are in India (read here). Not the same league as Oracle acquiring NetSuite, which gathered more CxO attention (read here).
Randstad acquires Monster - A key move by Randstad - moving more into HR automation, or more specifically Talent Management (read here) - the verdict will be out in 2017 (read here). Paired against SAP SucessFactor's user conference, a less impactful news item (read here).

Round #2 Dropouts

Workday & IBM - A key partnership for Workday, moving its internal development and test systems to IBM, hinting, but not confirming a more standardized and portable approach to its applications for its next application architecture (read here). But compared to the impact of ADP's analyst day, less a item that captured HR leaders around the world (read here).
Oracle acquires NetSuite - While probably the most impact full acquisition in the ERP market of 2016, it's Future of Work dimension is relatively small (read here). NetSuite partners and partnered with Ultimate and will keep doing so until further notice. The impact of the announcements and progress reported at SConnect eclipsed that impact for people leaders (read here).

Q3 Finals - SAP SuccessFactors beats ADP

Two key events for the Future of Work in Q3. And ADP launching its bench marking, salary review and overall Data Cloud offerings was a strong finalists (read here). Getting adoption of Vantage was key development for both vendor and customer base. The overall push that SuccessFactors is orchestrating across the product suite beat that narrowly (read here). Worthwhile mention on the side of the campaign to help eliminate bias with the help of Machine Learning.

So congrats to SAP SuccessFactors to win the Q3 2016 Future of Work shootout.

How would you have scored the Q3 2016 news? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

Progress Report - O.C. Tanner has software and wants to build more of it - read here.
Event Report - Box BoxWorks - Box is on the run - now with a platform - read here.
Event Report - 3 Indian HCM Market Takeaways from NASSCOM HR Summit 2016 - read here.
Market Move - Randstad to acquire Monster Worldwide - Bridges a moat, now it has to work - read here.
News Analysis - Workday, IBM Form Strategic Partnership on the IBM Cloud - The IaaS vendor race for SaaS load is on - read here.
Market Move - Oracle acquires NetSuite - Oddly consolidation means more options for customers - read here.
Progress Report - ADP Analyst Day 2016 - ADP has turned around Vantage HCM - read here.
Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors SConnect - Push on all fronts - read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q3 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Q4 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

December 31, 2016, 7:29 am

≫ Next: Q4 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

≪ Previous: Q3 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

By now you know the idea... Check out the Q1 (here), Q2 (here) and Q3 (here) shootouts on Next Generation Applications. These quarters were won by Microsoft with Conversation as a Platform, Pivotal / Cloud Foundry, and Oracle.

In case you wonder about the methodology - check out the above links, too - no need to repeat here.

And here is Q4 2016 - all related to NextGen Apps - the research area that covers when enterprises build new software - what are the use cases, the tools, the platforms, the players, the best practices etc. this quarter was so massive - I had to establish a 'play in' bracket for the low seeds...

Holger Mueller Constellation Research AWS VMware Cloud CxO PaaS IaaS

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

Play-in Dropouts

Google App Maker - Google's foray into low code and business user (with low technology affinity) application building debuted with App Maker. A good and differentiating start and a lot of interest among the three large cloud vendors (read here). But no match the updates and announcements shared at Microsoft Connect conference (read here).
MapR Analyst Summit - One of the very last events the year, the first analyst summit of MapR, and differentiation vs. the other two key Hadoop distributions with a software license DNA (read here). No comparison to IBM World of Watson (read here).
SAP TechEd Barcelona - A very good event for SAP customers with key HANA (HANA 2) and HANA Cloud Platform announcements. Necessary after the low profile of the Las Vegas edition (read here). Unfortunately paired against the probably most impactful news of the quarter, AWS reInvent (read here).

Round #1 Dropouts

CloudFoundry Summit (Europe) - Substantial interest by enterprises on CloudFoundry, at its European edition in Frankfurt, but quite a difference to the Q2 event in Santa Clara. Looks like European CxOs trust the established vendors (still) more than their North American counterparts (read here). Paired against the HANA 2 launch, the latter garnered more CxO attention in Europe (trying to be fair) and across the world (read here).
Microsoft Connect - Microsoft had a very good connect, making good on many announcements made at the Build conference in the year before (read here). But paired vs. the VMware / AWS partnership, not a match given how much of the world's IT load still runs on VMware (read here).
IBM World of Watson - There can be no doubt that IBM has opened the marketing spigots for Watson, if you attended the World of Watson conference you could see with your own eyes. 2017 will show if IBM can bring Watson to more of a product / license transaction vs a professional services engagement (more here). Paired against what was probably the best launch event I have ever attended - the SAP / TreniItalia IoT launch, not a match from an event perspective, and close to a CxO attention level (read here).
Salesforce Dreamforce - One of the biggest user and marketing events in the IT industry, Dreamforce not surprisingly focused on AI with the launch of Einstein (read here). But paired against AWS reInvent (more here) - not a match from an impact on CxOs perspective.

Round #2 Dropouts

SAP HANA 2 - While the HANA 2 "fork" is substantial good news for the SAP ecosystem and SAP customers (read here), the impact of VMware partnering with AWS was bigger on CxOs worldwide (read here).
SAP & TreniItalia - Probably the best launch event I have attended in 30 or so years in enterprise software. Looking at the 'thing' while riding the 'think' (a TreniItalia high speed FrecciaRossa train), from Rome to Naples, on a maiden voyage, to Italy's train museum, while educated live by a customer / vendor combo, with breaks on a custom launch app, CEO present etc. very well done (read here). Unfortunately no match to the key event of 2016 - AWS reInvent (read here).

Q4 Finals - AWS reInvent beats AWS & VMware

It can't get much better for AWS - with two events sparring with each other. And while the AWS and VMware partnership could be the latter vendor's 'last hurray' in regards of vitalization, it also shows the market influence AWS has by now (read here). But nothing showed that more than AWS reInvent. AWS is not slowing down and the conference has become the IT world get together, replacing VMworld (minus the hardware vendors) read here.

So congrats to AWS for winning the Q4 2016 Next Generation Applications shootout.

How would you have scored the Q4 2016 news and trends? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

New Analysis – Google enables citizen developers and developers with Google App Maker - read here.
Progress Report - MapR has platform ambitions - now it has to deliver - read here.
read here.
Event Report - Cloud Foundry Summit Europe - Europe & Cloud - A long path - read here.
Event Report - Salesforce Dreamforce - It's not about Einstein - but the platform - read here.
Event Report - Microsoft Connect - No April's Fools - Linux, Google and more -read here.
Event Report - IBM World of Watson - IBM's bets its future on Watson - read here.
News Analysis - SAP to unveil HANA 2 - New platform vs a fork's tine - read here.
Event Report - SAP / Trenitalia Digital Summit - SAP is serious about IoT- read here.
News Analysis - VMware has found AWS as its public cloud IaaS - read here.
Event Report - AWS reInvent 2016 - Growth at full speed -read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q3 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q3 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

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Q4 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

January 1, 2017, 11:14 am

≫ Next: Progress Report - Salesforce has a platform vision - 2017 it has to get real

≪ Previous: Q4 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

By now you know the idea... Check out the Q1 (here), Q2 (here) and Q3 (here) shootouts on Future of Work. These quarters were won by Ceridian, Microsoft (acquisition of LinkedIn) and SAP SuccessFactors SConnect event and related announcements.

In case you wonder about the methodology - check out the above links, too - no need to repeat here.

Here you go for Q4 2016 - all related to Future of Work - the research area that covers how, when, what and if we work, what and how we get paid, stay motivated and balance the work / life relationship:

Holger Mueller Constellation Research Future of Work Oracle SAP SuccessFactors Workday

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

Round #1 Dropouts

Microsoft Teams - A key announcement given the ubiquity of Microsoft Office and an acknowledgment that more needs to be done for team / group productivity. A solid version one by Microsoft, 2017 will show how well the product will do against the mind share leader Slack (read here). A close call with the Google Job APIs, which are remarkable as Google dabbles into the enterprise software space in general and HCM more specific. The immediate impact and uptake of these APIs gives Google the edge (read here).
5 Lessons for CxOs - Based in the US elections, a musings post, really in here ias a filler to have a complete bracket, but worth a look (read here). Not really an opponent for Oracle's HCM related progress and announcements at Oracle OpenWorld (read here).
Zenefits Z2 Launch - A key event for Zenefits, unveiling licensed software for the first time and launching its payroll offering. 2017 will have to show how well the vendor, plagued by executive departures (2 CEOs leave in 12 months) will do (read here). Not the same class with 1.1B+ Time and Attendance / Workforce Management leader Kronos (read here).
Twitter Personas - Another musings post to complete the bracket (not much happened in Q4 in Future of Work apparently) on how to understand Twitter usage (read here). So no match for SAP's announcements that SuccessFactors will run on Microsoft Azure (read here).

Round #2 Dropouts

Google Jobs APIs - Though a key first offering for enterprise software, the Google Jobs API mainly garnered attention to where it is focused on - talent acquisition (read here). The Oracle HCM announcements were broader, so this one goes to Oracle (read here).
Kronos KronosWorks - A key event for Kronos, that keeps growing and growing, with an interesting partner (Switzerland for all vendors) and vertical strategy (events aligned with that), Kronos maybe breaching the Top5 HCM vendors in 2017 (read here). But more attention by people leaders on SAP SucessFactors, deciding to run SuccessFactors in Microsoft Azure (read here).

Q4 Finals - Oracle HCM beats SAP SuccessFactors

In a close finals match Oracle ekes out the win over SuccessFactors. While the IaaS decision for SuccessFactors for Azure will impact many SAP customers, Oracle has shown an overall push across the Oracle HCM suite, and most importantly acknowledged and shared that it is re-building the Taleo Recruiting capabilities on the Oracle Cloud technology stack, whenever Oracle completes that - it will be the most complete suite from a functionality perspective on a single platform.

So congrats to Oracle HCM to win the Q4 2016 Future of Work shootout.

How would you have scored the Q4 2016 news? Please comment!

Here are all blog posts:

Musings – Microsoft discovers teams - launches Microsoft Teams - read here.
5 lessons enterprises CxOs can learn from the US ElectionsFirst Take - read here.
Event Report - Zenefits Z2 event - Good start for the very SMB - read here.
Musings - What is your Twitter Persona? Read here.
First Take - Google enters enterprise software space with Google Jobs API - read here.
Event Report - Kronos KronosWorks - Solid progress and big things loom - read here.
News Analysis - Microsoft announces SAP's choice of Azure to help enterprises transform HR - The SaaS land grab is on - read here.
Event Report - Oracle OpenWorld - the HCM perspective - Almost no news, but wait. Read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q3 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q3 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
Q4 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Progress Report - Salesforce has a platform vision - 2017 it has to get real

January 6, 2017, 6:12 pm

≫ Next: Musings - Happy 10th Brthday iPhone - afraid the next 10 years will be harder

≪ Previous: Q4 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

We had the opportunity to attend the analyst meeting of Salesforce, held January 3rd till 5th nicely located at the Four Seasons in San Francisco. Despite the early time, Salesforce got an impressive range of influencers to the event, even travelling as far as Europe. And it was well worth it, as it was the most comprehensive insight into Salesforce I have experienced in my 3.5+ years covering the vendor.

So, take a look at my musings on the event here (pardon for the bad lighting, but I really liked the skyline and you know my face ...):
(if the video doesn’t show up, check here)

No time to watch – here is the one slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Progress Report - Salesforce Analyst Meeting January 2017 from Holger Mueller

Want to read on? Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top 3:

Platform Focus is CRM– Salesforce has a substantial PaaS business under the Salesforce App Cloud brand name. Like every traditional application vendor, it has the challenge to position itself as apps vs platform overall (this is more platform at the moment per Parker Harris) and add-on / extend PaaS vs all-purpose PaaS. The interesting insight courtesy of Adam Seligman was that now Salesforce sees itself as PaaS around customer, basically for CRM.

On the IaaS side of the platform (where Salesforce announced its partnership with AWS – read here), Salesforce is on track to run all its products on AWS in Montreal as announced. As Harris shared, the Oracle portion of the stack will also run on AWS (but on Oracle), though not in RAC mode. A very important step for Salesforce to reduce its CAPEX into infrastructure, a key move for data privacy and residency and last but least for performance of the applications.

Salesforce Constellation Research Holger Mueller Enterprise Software Musings

Salesforce co-founder Parker Harris with Bruce Richardson

Meta -Tenancy– A lot of confusion (still) exists around multi-tenancy – but Salesforce was not shy to introduce another tenancy term – Meta-Tenancy. With that Salesforce means the process of de-coupling products, exposing more services and allow an overall more composite (remember mesh?) application architecture. It allows Salesforce to e.g. centralize what the vendor runs under ‘trust’ (Security, Single Sign-On etc.) – all very important given the fact that Salesforce runs on a heterogenous system landscape. And that trend will not slow down, given e.g. that Salesforce acquired vendors at the rate of $4B last year. Moving to a more composite, layered, shared service architecture makes a of sense here.

5 Transformers of Enterprise Software per Salesforce

Platform perspective is key for Einstein– The most prominent service of recent time for Salesforce has been and remains Einstein, its AI ambition. So far Salesforce has largely brought together existing offerings, but also shared a roadmap of capabilities coming in the next 12 months related to Einstein. But the vendor understands that there is only a limited number of data scientists, so enabling business users on a platform level will be key. Good to see that understanding, 2017 will be interesting to follow how Salesforce will deliver these capabilities.

5 Gentlemen, 6 Clouds
(ltr Blitzer - Sales & Service, Tippets - Marketing, Karkhanis - Analytics, Micucci - Social, Seligman - App)

MyPOV

A good event for Salesforce, good to see the roadmaps for all the different Salesforce products, which were all reasonable, we think attainable and realistic and most importantly deliver value for Salesforce customers. On the differentiation side, we are not so sure if Salesforce has hit the mark, but that would require more detailed product roadmap / plan analysis than a 2 day analyst meeting can deliver. What is clear is that for the first-time Salesforce is offering a strategic path to rid itself of its in-house infrastructure. As founder Parker Harris correctly observed, IaaS was not around when Salesforce was started… but by now it is best practice for a SaaS (and PaaS) provider to be based on an IaaS and leave the heavy lifting (and investing) to the IaaS players. My back of a napkin calculation is that if Salesforce could stop all in-house infrastructure spending immediately, it would be a profitable company… but of course that process will take a few years (if Salesforce really pulls the switch), and I expect Salesforce to invest the infrastructure savings into product capability (as the rest of the industry does). It was also good to see the talent of the Salesforce product bench – we spoke generally with development leaders removed by one or two organization levels from the CEO, many coming from acquired entities and presenting their products in a positive, competent and appealing way. Product talent matter and it is good to see that Salesforce has it.

On the concern side, Salesforce needs to rev up its development speed. As an example, we are seeing Lightning slides and products moving to Lightning now since more than three (?) years. And though Salesforce sits on a massive system, it is probably challenging the record for the lengthiest UX conversion overall, certainly in the CRM industry. But to be fair – these things always take time, and with the competition not delivering superior product either, it is good for Salesforce to focus on platform capabilities, synergies and its internal TCO to operate all of Salesforce applications.

Overall time well spent, the best insight into Salesforce in my analyst career, lots of exciting and value creating capabilities in the bag for 2017. Stay tuned.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here).

More about Salesforce:

Event Report - Salesforce Dreamforce - It's not about Einstein - but the platform - read here

News Analysis - Salesforce selects AWS as preferred Public Cloud Infrastructure Provider - Good move - read here

Event Report - Salesforce Connections - Bringing together Builders and Studios for Marketing Success - read here

Event Scorecard - Salesforce Dreamforce 2015 - App, Analytics, IoT... - pre event thoughts assessment - read here

Event Report - Salesforce Dreamforce - Value for customers - but some concerns on direction - read here

News Analysis - Microsoft and Salesforce Strengthen Strategic Partnership at Dreamforce 2015 - Good for joint customers - read here

News Analysis - Salesforce Unveils Breakthrough Salesforce IoT Cloud, Powered by Salesforce Thunder - First dips into IoT - read here

News Analysis - Salesforce Unveils the Next Wave of Salesforce Analytics Cloud—Delivering Actionable Insights Across the Customer Success Platform - Glass half full - and half empty! Read / watch here

Event Preview - What I would like Salesforce to address this Dreamforce 2015 - read / watch here

News Analysis - Salesforce Announces Salesforce App Cloud - A Unified Platform for Building Connected Apps, Fast - It’s all coming together, across the clouds - read here

News Analysis - alesforce Delivers Salesforce1 Lightning Components and App Builder […] - More productivity for Admins and Developers - read here

News Analysis - News Analysis - Salesforce Launches Salesforce Shield - More PaaS capabilities coming to Salesforce1 Platform - read here

News Analysis - Salesforce Transforms Big Data Into Customer Success with the Salesforce Analytics Cloud - Read here

News Analysis - Market Move - Salesforce (re) enters HCM - will it rypple the market this time? - Read here

Event Report - Salesforce Dreamforce - A Customer Succes Platform, Analytics and Lightning - but really Salesforce is re-platforming - read here

Constellation Research Summary of Salesforce Dreamforce 2014 - read here

Research Summary - An in depth look at Salesforce1 - Better packaging or new offerng? Read here.

Dreamforce 2013 Platform Takeaways - All about the mobile platform - or more? Read here.

Platform ecosystems are hard - Salesforce grows it - FinancialForce shrinks it - read here.

Our take on Salesforce.com Identity Connect - from three angles - Identity, CRM and PaaS - read here.

Takeaways from the Salesforce and Workday Strategic Partnership - read here.

Act II - The Cloud changes everything - Oracle and Salesforce.com - read here.

How many Pivots make a Pirouette? Salesforce's last Pivot - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

View the story "Salesforce Analyst Meeting" on Storify

↧

Musings - Happy 10th Brthday iPhone - afraid the next 10 years will be harder

January 10, 2017, 4:41 pm

≫ Next: News Analysis -SAP Introduces Jump-Start Enablement Program for SAP Leonardo IoT Portfolio >> Bundling and Simplification matter for IoT

≪ Previous: Progress Report - Salesforce has a platform vision - 2017 it has to get real

The iPhone just turned 10 years, time for a musing on a piece of hardware that has probably transformed the way we work the most since … the PC. Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at MacWorld 2007 as (notice the sequence) a “wide screen iPod with touch controls, as a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communications device”.

So, let’s look what the iPhone ‘parents’ got right, and what concerns me for its next decade:

What Apple Got Right

Smartphones are Status Symbols– If there was one thing Steve Jobs got right, it was realizing that smartphones had the potential to be status symbols. For most of the life of the iPhone – first having an iPhone and then having the latest versions was a huge status symbol. Transferring the mobile phone / smartphone from a work utility (that was the then dominant Blackberry) to a status symbol that was new and innovative – is still fueling the Apple iPhone business today.

People wanted a full browser– Remember the ‘mobile web sites’? People never like them and another thing that Jobs got right was to realize that users wanted to have a full-fledged browser, with the same user experience like on a PC. Didn’t matter that the Telcos did not allow for that, Jobs and Apple managed to ‘break the rules’ with Cingular. And users did not mind the slow speed of Edge originally. They still flocked to the full website, preferring those to the mobile optimized ones.

Touch beat the keyboard – Jobs also bet on touch and allowing a larger screen, better form factor than the keyboard based competition of the time. And while it certainly provided a very appealing design – it cratered productivity. Doing email – once a key driver for a smartphone, took a back seat. Even on the Apple 10 year press release, Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing cites 11 capabilities … before email (and then mentions 8 more) (see here). Millions of “Crackberry” users with a “Blackberry thumb” became “lurkers” on their email (glance on mobile device, answer later PC), creating a texting boom as an informal outlet for previously working email communication.

Almost a PC replacement– And the iPhone almost became the PC replacement. Many users stating that the iPhone is the new PC. Apple tried to address form fact concerns with the iPad. But only ‘almost’ – as the Microsoft Surface has shown – most people still need a keyboard to function at work and at home – even if their smartphone / iPhone doesn’t have one.

It’s a camera, a media player, a game console ... and then a phone – Apple got (and probably still gets) the camera right, pushing resolution and capabilities of the camera. It never hurt the iPhone that for the longest time it could not take pictures in the dark. The form factor also makes for a great display for consuming video and playing games… basic phone functions taking a back seat. But that was the key secret about the iPhone – it is / was so much more than a mobile phone.

Innovation & Convenience are a powerful combo– The final gamble that Apple and Jobs took was that while being very innovative in the first half of the iPhone’s life – it needed a convenience factor, effectively creating the walled garden. And for the most of it, users have been happy. But it is easier to be happy when your smartphone is the object of envy with your friends and colleagues, then when it lacks behind in regards of what we think today are critical capabilities (e.g. speech). To some iPhone users the walled garden looks now less than a garden, but a closed encampment, if not worse. But creating the stickiness will keep iPhone users on the platform longer. Longer than e.g. Blackberry had the luxury to keep users because of e.g. media stickiness.

Holger Mueller Apple Constellation Research iPhone SmartPhone

10 years of iPhones (from here)

Concerns for the next 10 years

Here is what worries me for the next decade of the iPhone, looking at what the parent (Apple) can or cannot do for the next 10 years.

Voice is the new UI– As much as Jobs / Apple got it right that users will take a keyboard free phone, as much they missed the trend to voice. And to a certain point it is tragic – as Apple lead the space of voice recognition with Siri. But then Siri lost out to pretty much all other players, lacking extensibility (released last) and most importantly, neural network power to understand users. Probably closes related to the next worry.

The parent has no cloud– It is possible that Apple will go down in the history books as the most profitable, most cash rich firm that missed the all transforming trend of cloud infrastructure. It equals to a parent in real life that severely limits the further development of the child at age 10. Reckless abandonment comes to mind. Buying cloud capacity (as we learnt this year) from AWS and GCP is not a solution. But a modern, efficient cloud infrastructure is needed to run several modern services efficiently – e.g. voice recognition, AI etc.

The parent is behind on AI– Along the same lines as cloud, Google is behind in AI. Yes, a first paper has been published – but compare that to e.g. IBM and Google and you know the iPhone is in trouble because the parents missed an important, maybe game changing moment. No surprise – you need a cloud infrastructure to really run this efficiently. Apple makes the point that it can do things locally – but that has a direct cost and will be subpar to a cloud based AI offer.

The parent is behind on AR / VR– It’s like a parent who doesn’t have Internet at home but wants their kid to do well in school… not sure how Apple missed the trend, given the strength in display, owning the whole stack from the CPU upwards … should have been a home run. And the space is important as next are holographic interfaces, that make the small smartphone screen a shared experience. Content / platforms build today by ‘parents’ in the industry put their ‘kids’ on a spot for … high school and college.

The parent struggles with the enterprise– If the iPhone would not have seen success in the enterprise, it is doubtful it would have had the impact that it had. Consumerization of IT became a trend that is real in many other areas of IT. But today it looks like the one time shot that Apple had in the enterprise. iPads started strong but have since then started to fizzle. MacBooks never appealed to most enterprises. So, for the parent to remain relevant – it needs another enterprise success.

Unlimited plans change the handset spec – The rise of unlimited data plans, with all you can eat video, have changed the way what amounts of data can be consumed on mobile devices. Video calling, messaging, real time broadcasting all are setup for faster and continuous connectivity. All areas that a high price handset may not be required for, assuming improvements in compression algorithms. But probably the lowest concern for the iPhone parents at the moment.

The parent has run out of ideas– This one is the biggest concern. The Watch has underdelivered. Rumors of new goggles have spread – but others have tired (and so far, failed), I don’t’ see what Apple may do radically different. As a daily glasses wearer, I see the value add must be substantial for a non-glasses wearer (most of us) to adopt glasses. The bar can’t be much higher than sun glasses. For a 10 year, old that is … the parents have tried to get the kid motivated – but to no luck, and the world around them thinks they have given up.

Software beats beautiful hardware design– Andreesen said it – Software eats the world. When other vendor’s software gets too superior (think voice, AI, AR / VR etc.) a beautiful designed iPhone may no longer make the cut. Software trumps hardware design. Apple must ramp up its software skills and delivery results, as well as it quality efforts. Think for a historic perspective the Apple Maps false start, for recent the defect in Safari uncovered by the Consumer Reports (which basically is sloppy QA).

MyPOV

The iPhone is one of the most fundamental pieces of hardware and software that we have seen in our lifetime. Most readers won’t remember the time before PCs. The iPhone has made the smartphone as we know it popular – with great resolution, great camera, good media play, but bad battery life and mostly worse phone qualities than its predecessors.

The forces that worked for the rise of the iPhone are not as powerful as they used to be. Disruptors lurk, e.g. with voice. Apple’s stand on privacy is heroic, but I cannot help that it’s also a position out of weakness: That Apple has not been able to create its own cloud infrastructure. This may hurt Apple not only for AI, AR & VR, Cars and speech – but even more beyond.

The kid had a great 10 years, but the next 10 years don’t look so promising. Time for the grandparents (the Apple Board), the god parent (friends of Apple) to take the parents on the side, who are certainly trying hard to make the 10-year-old future look good, but don’t have a good track record for the last few years. And for now – from what we know – don’t seem to have an inspirational plan for the next 10 years. Let’s start with the next 2-3 years. Rome wasn’t built in one day either, and only what has not happened, can still happen. We will be watching.

More on Apple

News Analysis - Apple & SAP Partner to Revolutionize Work on iPhone & iPad - read here
First Take - Apple wants to change the Future of Work. Works with cloud apps vendors and Workato - read here
5 Questions for Apple - Or how good product development practices matters - read here
Musings - Implications for CxOs from the DoJ vs Apple tussle - read here
An evening with Gil Amelio - read here

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

News Analysis -SAP Introduces Jump-Start Enablement Program for SAP Leonardo IoT Portfolio >> Bundling and Simplification matter for IoT

January 11, 2017, 9:41 am

≫ Next: News Analysis - ADP Acquires The Marcus Buckingham Company to Expand Talent Portfolio

≪ Previous: Musings - Happy 10th Brthday iPhone - afraid the next 10 years will be harder

SAP bundled its IoT offerings under the umbrella name of Leonardo – combined with programs and tools to make it easier for enterprise to uptake its IoT portfolio.

Definitively news worth dissecting in our customary style – the press release can be found here:

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced a jump-start enablement program for its Internet of Things (IoT) innovation portfolio. The program is intended to help customers connect the emerging world of intelligent devices with people and processes to achieve tangible business outcomes.

MyPOV – States well what the news is about. IoT is probably the most complex next generation application scenario we are tracking, given data volume, costs, connectivity and sheer number of things.

Following through on SAP’s recently announced commitment to invest €2 billion in IoT over five years, the IoT portfolio combines adaptive applications, Big Data applications and connectivity in packaged solutions across line-of-business and industry use cases ranging from connected products, assets and infrastructure to vehicle fleets, markets and people.

MyPOV - Good reminder on the 2B Euro investment commitment (announced back at the IoT event in Naples / Rome – see here). Good to encompass the integration aspect into the SAP enterprise applications.

Named SAP Leonardo, SAP’s IoT portfolio takes its name from a figure known for ushering in a groundbreaking era of science and discovery. For more on the SAP Leonardo brand, please see here.

MyPOV – Good to see a ‘timeless’ and neutral portfolio branding name. Leonard (da Vinci) is certainly a good name giver. At the link, we can see the encompassing marketecture of Leonardo:

SAP IoT Holger Mueller Constellation Research Leonardo

SAP Leonardo Marketecture

“Moving from things to outcomes is about new business processes such as Industry 4.0, new business models and new ways for people to live and work,” said Dr. Tanja Rueckert, executive vice president, Digital Assets and IoT, SAP. “With SAP Leonardo, we connect ‘things’ with business processes that are instantaneous and proactive, and with people who can manage more effectively with augmented intelligence and autonomous systems. Our SAP Leonardo IoT portfolio delivers on SAP’s commitment to produce superior business value through enterprise IoT innovation.”

MyPOV – Good quote by Rueckert – emphasizing the bottom line for enterprise application vendors like SAP – connecting the Things with the People. Not to forget that the IoT applications by themselves must be at least good enough to get enterprises to adopt them.

Easier IoT Adoption: Jump-Start Pilot Program and Introductory Pricing
SAP is introducing a jump-start program to help organizations identify and validate IoT pilots and use cases. A consultative service staffed by SAP line-of-business and industry experts, the jump-start program is a multiphase engagement featuring design thinking to match IoT innovations with customer strategies and objectives in achievable pilots with a clear path to business value. Available worldwide, the jump-start program is intended to ease the first steps of the IoT journey, producing pilots that define business cases for full-scale IoT strategies and further deployment.

MyPOV – Always good to see when vendors help enterprises adopt new technology. Design Thinking has proven itself as a powerful methodology to have enterprises create the new best practices needed in IoT deployment scenarios. It speaks of SAP’s scale that it has a worldwide focus from the get go. And as with all break through innovations that effect business best practices – it is important to conclude this phase with working, minimum viable pilots – so enterprises and CxOs can see the impact, applicability and feasibility of the follow up projects.

SAP is also introducing promotional pricing for the IoT jump-start program featuring a simple, fixed cost for software and services to cover the pilot and first year of usage for SAP Leonardo IoT solutions including SAP Connected Goods, SAP Vehicle Insights, SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service and SAP Asset Intelligence Network. By setting a defined price for services and key solutions in the SAP Leonardo IoT portfolio, the introductory offer provides transparency and eliminates budget uncertainty, enabling customers to establish IoT pilots with clear scope, length and pricing. More information on the jump-start program and pricing offer can be found here.

MyPOV – Good to see SAP bringing together the sprawling IoT portfolio with Leonardo. Cross IoT solutions integration needs will be expected to be addressed – so this is an area to watch. And well done by SAP to reduce the commercial uncertainty of early versions and pilots.

A Unique Ability to Connect People, Things and Businesses
SAP Leonardo reaffirms an innovative value proposition, extending from SAP’s enterprise core into automation and intelligence at the edges where IoT data is created. With SAP HANA Cloud Platform, SAP Leonardo offers intelligent IoT applications, business services for development, technical services for processing high-velocity data and an intelligent edge to process information at the device level. SAP Leonardo combines SAP’s unique strengths, including 45 years of business process knowledge across 25 industries and leadership in Big Data management, in end-to-end offerings addressing the following areas:

MyPOV – Good to see SAP mentioning the integration scenario, which matters for most existing customers. Ultimately IoT automation affects humans, needs to be serviced and sold by humans, it is the interface between the things and humans which are a substantial use case for IoT that SAP is addressing here.

Connected products for new insights into lifecycle management, sourcing, response and supply, and digital supply networks; and the design, manufacturing and delivery of smart, connected products across all industries
Connected assets to track, monitor and analyze fixed assets, including manufacturing and maintenance business processes, to reduce costs and increase equipment uptime
Connected fleet to enable businesses and public service organizations owning moving assets (such as vehicles, robots, fork lifts and autonomous vehicles) to improve services and safety, visibility to logistics and service quality
Connected infrastructure for new digital operational intelligence from physical-infrastructure systems, construction and energy grids enabling improved service, efficient operations and compliance and risk mitigation
Connected markets to enable new production, and business models of local relevance and at the right timing for customer and marketing insights, digital agribusiness, smart ports and smart cities
Connected people for more insightful, collaborative work roles, health management and smart home environments connecting people and communities and providing better, more personalized lifestyle experiences

MyPOV – Good to see SAP offering the ‘Connected’ product / services family to integrate IoT solutions with its enterprise applications. This business area alone will be substantial business for SAP and significant piece of mind for SAP customers… assuming SAP build, prices and delivers these offerings successfully.

SAP Leonardo Event
SAP also announced plans for its first global SAP Leonardo event. Bringing together SAP customers, partners and IoT experts, the event will showcase the latest in IoT innovations and effective business strategies. The event will take place from July 11–12, 2017, in Frankfurt, Germany, at the KAP EUROPA. More information about the event, including the agenda and registration details, will be disclosed in the coming weeks.

MyPOV – New products need new events, good to see for SAP to have a separate event for IoT, still spaced away enough from Sapphire, in the heartland of most IoT interest, in Germany. Picking KAP EUROPA, the first congress center to be awarded the platinum certificate by the German Sustainable Building Council, makes appetite for a great event. SAP has big shoes to fill as it had a great, smaller scale IoT launch event in fall 2016 in Italy together with Vehicle Management customer Treni Italia (read here).

Overall MyPOV

Good to see SAP packaging up its IoT products and offerings under an umbrella brand, Leonardo seems to be a good choice. More importantly helping customers to come to terms with IoT with the help of Design Thinking lead workshops is key to help enterprises get up to speed and live with IoT projects. Equally good to see SAP thinking about the pricing challenges that are important to address commercial viability of IoT projects… as well as the connectivity between the existing enterprise applications and IoT projects. And lastly it is positive to see SAP announcing a dedicated IoT event – at a IoT rich location with KAP EUROPA in Frankfurt.

On the concern side, SAP needs to find ways to scale and grow its IoT portfolio which has done well in 2016 and now needs to be taken to the next level. SAP’s salesforce is kicking off the sales year as you read this, and we expect SAP to spend ample room on pushing SAP IoT. It is crucial to get create additional value from the traditional SAP manufacturing install base, often around the Industrie 4.0 moniker. To be fair SAP has positioned the IoT offering well, last but not least with this announcement, now it must execute in 2017.

What’s your take on SAP IoT? Please share, we will be watching.

Check out my colleagues Chris Canarakus and Andy Mulholland here.

News Analysis - ADP Acquires The Marcus Buckingham Company to Expand Talent Portfolio

January 18, 2017, 5:12 am

≫ Next: Event Report - Acumatica Summit - Acumatica grows and expands portfolio

≪ Previous: News Analysis -SAP Introduces Jump-Start Enablement Program for SAP Leonardo IoT Portfolio >> Bundling and Simplification matter for IoT

Earlier this week ADP shared that it has acquired The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC), a player in the Talent Management space.

Worth to dissect the press release in our custom approach - it can be found here:

ROSELAND, NJ 01/17/17 -- ADP has acquired The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC), an innovator in human capital management (HCM), to bring to ADP clients a more scientific approach to employee engagement and performance. TMBC, and its founder Marcus Buckingham, are pioneers in using data and research to drive talent management practices that help managers build engagement and increase performance in their teams. Their unique approach empowers managers to coach employees based on their strengths and custom-design teams based on those strengths.

MyPOV – Good summary on what ADP will get with TMBC.

TMBC's cloud-based performance and talent management solution, StandOut, couples applications with coaching and education to give team leaders the tools, insights and data needed to turn talent into better employee performance. Built on decades of groundbreaking research that has uncovered the factors that differentiate high-performing teams, this solution will now be offered as ADP StandOut. TMBC has a global client roster that spans a broad range of industries from professional services to hospitality and includes many companies in the Fortune 100.

MyPOV – So it is not about consulting / services – but about IP / product assets, too as TMBC StandOut gets a paragraph here. Bringing data together with tools to help companies manage talent better is an interesting combination. The question will be if ADP can keep getting the same quality and amounts of data that an independent TMBC used to get.

"At its core, the strength and differentiation of any company lies in its talent," said Carlos Rodriguez, president and CEO, ADP. "That is why we are continuing to invest in data-driven talent management solutions with the acquisition of TMBC. The company's technology and renowned research will add to our existing talent portfolio and puts ADP in a position to better serve the growing number of innovative organizations who are thinking differently about how they manage and engage their talent. We are thrilled to welcome both TMBC's associates and Marcus into the ADP family."

MyPOV – Good quote by Rodriguez. ADP has huge upsell potential in its install base – that is mainly using HR Core and Payroll products from ADP. Now ADP has data and tool to continue the upsell as well as a chance to sell to the few hundred existing ADP Talent Management customers. Plenty of ways to monetize TMBC assets, know-how and services.

According to the Deloitte Global Human Capital Management Trends 2016 report1, 77 percent of executives say that people analytics are a priority, but only 29 percent think that they are successfully using outside data to predict workforce trends and target the right talent to meet those trends. With that in mind, the acquisition of TMBC helps ADP further deliver on its talent management strategy of helping companies build better workforces through the strategic use of data and research.

MyPOV – All about how ADP tries to position Talent Management. When you come late to the ‘party’ you better have some differentiators and ADP is using a data / research approach to Talent Management to differentiate the offering.

Marcus Buckingham is a noted author and speaker and has been featured as a thought leader on talent management and leadership trends in a range of outlets that span The Harvard Business Review and Forbes to Oprah and Larry King.

MyPOV – Indeed ADP gets a thought leader on Talent Management, it will be interesting to see how Buckingham’s ideas and concepts will be received by the ADP customer base. It’s not only ideas that are needed by ADP, ADP also needs to connect with a different buyer. But with TMBC in the pocket, doors may open more easily than ever before. Lastly an interesting culture mix, TMBC was all centered around the 'star' CEO - vs. ADP is all about the 'machine team'. Will be interesting to watch.

"In the world of people-at-work, everyone trusts ADP data, so I leapt at the chance to bring to the ADP ecosystem StandOut's data-based insights and tools on people's talents, engagement and performance," said Marcus Buckingham, co-head, the ADP Research Institute. "At a time when so many companies are clamoring for real-time and reliable people data, when they crave tools that leaders and team members actually want to use, the combination of ADP's scale, security and data-integrity with StandOut's focus on real-world teams, is unique and powerful. I'm so excited to see how many companies and people we can serve."

MyPOV – Good quote by Buckingham, we also learn about his new ‘home’ with the co-head position at the ADP Research Institute. And indeed, we know getting the ‘hard’ compensation data is always a challenge for talent management related engagement. So, this is a win / win for ADP customers.

ADP has helped organizations of all types and sizes for more than 60 years unlock the potential of their workforces. ADP's cloud-based talent portfolio -- which includes recruiting, recruiter training, outsourcing, screening and selection, onboarding, learning, goals, performance, data analytics, succession and compensation -- is expanded in breadth and depth with TMBC's technology, consulting and research.

MyPOV – Good summary of what customers can now expect from ADP + TMBC in Talent Management.

Overall MyPOV

ADP customers have for a long time looked beyond ADP for Talent Management. First because of a lack of ADP offering, then because of lack of competitiveness of the ADP Talent Management capabilities. That has changed since approximately two years (read more here) and ADP is showing success in selling Talent Management into its install base, with increasing momentum. The acquisition of TMBC should help this development, as ADP has more talking points and value drivers to start a conversation with Talent Management.

On the concern side, ADP will have to open doors that have not been open or have been shut for the vendor. Never an easy re-targeting effort. But a saturated install base on the Payroll / HR Core side forces the ADP go to market machine to focus on upsell and cross-sell anyway and the success rate of that market effort overall will determine much of ADP’s future success. And after install base - there is always the green field - a very different challenge for any vendor and here for ADP.

Overall a good move by ADP, good news for ADP customers, too – as we know that in the long run – suites always win. HR practitioners dread nothing more than integration issues, getting more automation from a single vendor is good for businesses, as suite level benefits come to play, and possible differentiators that matter (see e.g. ADP’s ‘data driven angle). We will be there to watch, stay tuned.

And more on ADP:

Progress Report - ADP Analyst Day 2016 - ADP has turned around Vantage HCM - read here
Event Report - Event Report - ADP MOTM - ADP delivers: New UI, Benchmarks, Market Place & More - read here
News Analysis - Workday and ADP partner to Deliver a Seamless Customer Experience for Global Payroll - read here
Progress Report - ADP Analyst Day - ADP executes, kills (most) ghosts from the past - read here
Event Report - ADP Meeting of the Minds - It’s all coming together for ADP in 2015 - product wise - read here
First Take - ADP Meeting of the Minds - Day #1 Keynote - read here
Progress Report - ADP shows great vision, delivers product innovation - now it needs adoption - read here
Site Visit - ADP's new innovation lab in Chelsea - read here
News Analysis - ADP announces Spin-Off plans for Dealer Services, sharpens ADP's focus on HCM - read here.
Event Report - ADP's Meeting of the Minds - ADP has made up its mind (almost) - customers not yet - read here.
First take - 3 Key Takeaways from ADP's Meeting of the Minds Conference Day 1 Keynote - read here.
ADP innovates with with verve and good timing – read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Event Report - Acumatica Summit - Acumatica grows and expands portfolio

January 31, 2017, 5:13 pm

≫ Next: Event Report – ADP ReThink – Great event and great value coming for customers

≪ Previous: News Analysis - ADP Acquires The Marcus Buckingham Company to Expand Talent Portfolio

We had the opportunity to attend Acumatica Summit, held in San Diego from January 29th and going till February 2nd 2017, in lovely San Diego. The event was well attended, with substantial growth of attendees and partners. [For the record – on the Mueller / Reed / Sommer (MRS) scale the conference was even “exceptionally well attended” as we all were there (see here).

So take a look at my musings on the event here (if the video doesn’t show up, check here):

No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Event Report - Acumatica Summit 2017 from Holger Mueller

Want to read on?

Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top 3:

Acumatica steams on– All signs for Acumatica are on growth. Customers, partners, employees, revenues, product etc. 80% YoY growth does not come easy for anyone. So, it is clear the vendor is sitting on something that works – which at the core is a finance centered ERP suite, that goes beyond the traditional SaaS package with several platform like capabilities (e.g. with APIs and platform capabilities).

Holger Mueller Constellation Research Acumatica NextGenApps Future of Work

Demo Time at Acumatica Summit - race the CEO

Acumatica adds key automation area– Acumatica announced both Field Service and Commerce as new offerings. Both have been areas that larger competitors have made a focus in, it looks like Acumatica felt it had to respond, possibly in regards to NetSuite even attack. Good to see also the realization that HR matters, with a partnership with InfinityHR: Acumatica will add the InfinityHR payroll to its price list and demoed a REST based integration between the two vendors.

Acumatica Summit 2017 Keynote - in 1 Slide

Bi-Dimensional partner traction– Traditionally Acumatica has focused on having partners to take its products to market. The most important ones are the ones who OEM the product, and Acumatica has managed to double that number, though with a total of six still at a low level. The other dimension are technology partners, and Acumatica highlight its partnership with IaaS powerhouses AWS and Microsoft Azure. Acumatica goes beyond the ‘bare metal’ approach to IaaS – up-taking platform capabilities e.g. around Aurora (AWS) and Outlook (Microsoft).

Acumatica Growth in 2016

MyPOV

A very good event for Acumatica, a vendor that is on a roll. We had little time at the event – but the participants are all energized by the vendor’s success. Anything that grows by over 50% a year – a number Acumatica has eclipsed consistently – creates its own energy force field, as seen at Acumatica Summit.

On the concern side, growth has to be managed and scale. It looks like under the hood Acumatica is doing the right things, but on the visible side, their user experience needs to be bolted to the 21st century. Timeless ‘Windows’ gray is very 20th century.

But overall it is clear Acumatica has something going in the SMB market. With the largest and longest term player in the market with NetSuite now being part of Oracle – Acumatica is ready to take advantage, should NetSuite show any signs of weakness. Stay tuned – we will be watching.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here).

More on Acumatica

Progress Report - Acumatica shows good progress on its unique path - read here

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

View the story "Acumatica Summit 2017" on Storify

↧

Event Report – ADP ReThink – Great event and great value coming for customers

February 4, 2017, 4:45 pm

≫ Next: Event Report - SAP Capital Markets and S/4HANA Update - Good Plan - Execution matters in 2017

≪ Previous: Event Report - Acumatica Summit - Acumatica grows and expands portfolio

We had the opportunity to attend ADP’s ReThink conference, held in Barcelona January 31st till February 2nd 2017. The event is for global customers and prospects of GlobalView, ADP’s global HCM product with a strong foundation in payroll. It was a record event in attendance, the combined companies have a total of 3.5T US$ in revenue… that’s almost the GDP of Germany.

So take a look at my musings on the event here: (if the video doesn’t show up, check here)

No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Event Report - ADP ReThink 2017 from Holger Mueller

Want to read on? Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my most important ones:

Great Keynotes– Thought leaders and Thought provokers – There are plenty of good keynote speakers, it is tough to find great ones. ADP did not only find great ones, it also had the courage to have them express views and topics out of the mainstream of the usual HCM conferences. You don’t hear a speaker advocate that you need to pay your over performers so much more that it feels wrong. Or have a speaker share that the end of globalization is coming – to an audience that operates global enterprises. Or about the importance of human rights for long time sustainability of enterprises. So, kudos to have controversial speakers, taking alternate views, which ultimately is rewarding for any audience, as it triggers thoughts and ideas that are not coming when listening to the regular ideas of the usual speaker crowd. Moreover, ADP got the mix between product presentation and customers right. Nothing is more powerful than customers learning and hearing from customers and the ADP had at least six global enterprises present from peer to peer.

ADP ReThink Constellation Research Holger Mueller Future of Work FoW NextGenHCM

Total Revenue and Employees of ADP ReThink attending enterprises

Global Cloud Connect looms – Not surprisingly, ADP’s earlier announced product Global Cloud Connect was the core product message of the conference. The product promises to solve the epic integration challenge that HR professionals face, which is even more pronounced when working on a global level. ADP plans to make Global Cloud Connect not another technical / IT integration tool – but a tool that can be used by the (mildly technology savvy) HR professional. That is an ambitious goal for a challenging problem, but ADP has the experience in the field, operating many of its customers with a BPO offering. It never hurts for software vendors to have the firsthand experience and users in house, wearing the same security badge. Global Cloud Connect is slated to be available early in 2018, so we will have plenty of opportunities to monitor the progress and forthcoming of this key product for ADP customers.

TMBC for the global audience– ADP recently acquired The Markus Buckingham Company (TMBC) (read my take here), I missed Buckingham’s presentation due to flight schedule, unsurprisingly it was well received. Next to the TMBC software IP, ADP has now a thought leader and accomplished speaker to ramp up the ADP game in the Talent Management market. The TMBC StandUp product, that ADP will keep selling, has good functionality in the areas of Engagement, Learning and Performance Management. Over time ADP will have to consolidate these capabilities with its Vantage portfolio, but in the short run it is good to see ADP leaving TMBC in place, making sure positioning and culture of TMBC stays preserved if possible / needed.

ADP GlobalView

ADP Technology Vision hits the mark– ADP’s ‘secret weapon’ (the introduction), Masiero gave an interesting presentation on the technology vision and direction. It looks like the ADP assistant has made substantial progress since the analyst day (see here) and is being used internally. That the future of ESS and MSS is not a traditional UI but chat and voice, powered by AI is a direction we see materializing as well. ADP has ambitions in Machine Learning that should come to fruition in 2017, combined with ADP’s large trove of data, that comes along when you e.g. pay one out of six people in the US. The spreadsheet direction for the HR professional is ambitious, but plausible. In general, the clock has started ticking on the traditional user interface as we know it, and while the direction for the casual user seems clear (voice), the UX for the professional user (here in HR) is not so certain yet. But good to see ADP having a bold (and unique) vision.

MyPOV

A very good event for ADP, probably the best executive, small scale event in HR that I have attended during my analyst career. As mentioned very good speakers in general, customer presenting to customer and speakers being thought provoking and contrarian. Can’t expect much more from a speaker line up. On the product side, Global Cloud Connect looms, customers and prospects are genuinely excited about the direction and product, possible overseeing that a few more things will have to happen and will happen for GlobalView in the next 12 months, before Global Cloud Connect will be available.

On the concern side, ADP will have to deliver the ‘holy grail’ of HCM, that is traditionally plagued by integration woes. These can be of course solved with the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ of smart professionals in the field of HR and IT, but integration is a living beast, that needs constant attention and creates regular nightmares for those in charge of them. Making the ‘n to m’ connect tool Global Cloud Connect end user friendly is the right ambition, but it certainly does not make the product development task for ADP easier. Rest assured we will follow this one closely.

Overall almost nothing not to like, a great event for ADP customers and prospects, that certainly took home from Barcelona that ADP cares, listens and has solutions to help them with their global HR needs and with running their global HR operations. We will be watching – stay tuned.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here). A day #1 Storify collection is here. - Finally here is a Twitter Moment of Day #1.

And more on ADP:

News Analysis - ADP Acquires The Marcus Buckingham Company to Expand Talent Portfolio - read here
Progress Report - ADP Analyst Day 2016 - ADP has turned around Vantage HCM - read here
Event Report - Event Report - ADP MOTM - ADP delivers: New UI, Benchmarks, Market Place & More - read here
News Analysis - Workday and ADP partner to Deliver a Seamless Customer Experience for Global Payroll - read here
Progress Report - ADP Analyst Day - ADP executes, kills (most) ghosts from the past - read here
Event Report - ADP Meeting of the Minds - It’s all coming together for ADP in 2015 - product wise - read here
First Take - ADP Meeting of the Minds - Day #1 Keynote - read here
Progress Report - ADP shows great vision, delivers product innovation - now it needs adoption - read here
Site Visit - ADP's new innovation lab in Chelsea - read here
News Analysis - ADP announces Spin-Off plans for Dealer Services, sharpens ADP's focus on HCM - read here.
Event Report - ADP's Meeting of the Minds - ADP has made up its mind (almost) - customers not yet - read here.
First take - 3 Key Takeaways from ADP's Meeting of the Minds Conference Day 1 Keynote - read here.
ADP innovates with with verve and good timing – read here.

View the story "ADP ReThink - Day #2" on Storify

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Event Report - SAP Capital Markets and S/4HANA Update - Good Plan - Execution matters in 2017

February 9, 2017, 9:08 pm

≫ Next: Progress Report - Oracle HCM Analyst Summit 2017 - Oracle HCM stronger and stronger

≪ Previous: Event Report – ADP ReThink – Great event and great value coming for customers

We had the opportunity to attend the SAP Capital Market event, held February 9th 2017 at the New York Stock Exchange. The event is for the analyst community, mainly for the financial colleagues, but with a good representation from the industry side, too Traditionally SAP unveils some product news at the event – as SAP did two years ago with the launch of S/4HANA (my blog of the event is here).

So take a look at my musings on the event here: (if the video doesn’t show up, check here)

No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Event Report - SAP Capital Markets and S/4HANA Cloud Update 2017 from Holger Mueller

Want to read on? Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top takeaways:

S/4HANA setup for success – now needs execution– When SAP launched S/4 HANA two years ago, there were substantial expectations that S/4 HANA would be widely adopted in its public cloud deployment option. Reality panned out differently, with almost all adoption happening with the on premises version of S/4HANA. We are beyond the reasons of why this happened, for this blog let’s look why this will work now, which we asked the new S/4 HANA leader, Darren Roos. In his view, public cloud adoption is more mature in the enterprise, at the same time enterprises face disruption and know they need to become more agile. Consumerization of IT helps, too – as cloud based products are more easily consumed. But what will really change the fate of the S4/HANA public cloud business is the establishment of a S/4 HANA public cloud salesforce. Focus always helps and sales professionals who have one product, will work hard to earn their commissions – and sell that very one product. On the value proposition side, SAP has stronger arguments – with contextual analytics, a digital assistant, Machine Learning capabilities and a Fiori user experience. Moreover, SAP talked about IoT and blockchain plans, but I somehow missed the briefing on this Certainly even without the latter, enough value proposition to make customers and prospects consider S/4 HANA. And no surprise – both McDermott and Roos share that most S/4HANA cloud customers, are net new customers.

SAP Capital Markets S/4HANA Constellation Research Holger Mueller

Bartiromo and McDemott

SAP unveils SAP Clea, the Machine Learning Sister of HANA and Leonardo– During Bernd Leukert’s presentation he unveiled SAP Clea, SAP’s new offering to bring Machine Learning to enterprise applications, an overdue move. We just came out of the ‘Fall of AI’ in 2016, so it’s key for all enterprise system vendors to make sense of the technology for better usage of enterprise software. Not many more details were shared, this will be a key area to watch, not only for S/4 HANA – but the SAP product portfolio overall.

Leukert announces SAP Clea

SAP talks more PaaS– SAP Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) is now rebranded to SAP Cloud Platform – It seems more and more that SAP has understood the importance of PaaS, the insurance policy for all enterprise software vendors in the era of business best practices innovation and related uncertainty. As enterprises experiment with new digital technologies, seek opportunities for digital disruption, they need to build software in house again. It’s too early to know what the business best practices of the 21st century is, so it is key to have a competitive and agile PaaS product, which SAP Cloud Platform is. A name change is only a name change, but it is interesting for SAP to drop the coveted HANA brand name. On the positive side, SAP, has created enough confusion with branding too many things with HANA – so this maybe a start of reducing the confusion created.

Roos and Pedersen (rtl)

SAP hints to BigData / Hadoop / OpenSource and SWIFT– One of the long-term issue SAP has had is its lack of support for the most important technology of the 21st century so far – the enablement of cheap, massive storage of any electronic information, with almost total ignorance at storage time, how it could be analyzed, in other words Hadoop / HDFS based solutions. And while SAP has added Vora, a Spark based BigData capability, it still remains memory based, but today we know that business relevant data grows faster than memory prices fall, putting all in memory only solutions on a losing path when it comes to deployment decisions of next generation Applications, e.g. in IoT, Machine Learning, etc. So, when Leukert has Hadoop on slides and hints to Hadoop support, it is an encouraging sign that SAP will address this challenge, hopefully soon. More support for OpenSource is always a good strategy, and key partners Apple gets support and a shout out with SWIFT. With Apple CEO Tim Cook calling out SAP (then still HANA) Cloud Platform on the Apple earnings call last week, the ‘love’ between these two players appears to be strong.

MyPOV

A good event for SAP, that looks like having addressed the challenges it faced initially with S/4 HANA for cloud, most prominently a small functional footprint, lack of complete self-service setup, a sales force with the choice of selling easier products to sell etc. SAP has now addressed these issues and added new capabilities with e.g. Machine Learning that create a better value proposition for enterprises to consider S/4 HANA implementations and migrations. But the most important one is the establishment of a dedicated salesforce. Also, good to see SAP working on Machine Learning with SAP Clea, talking more about BigData in general and Open Source in more specifics

On the concern side, talk is cheap and slides are patient. SAP must deliver and execute in 2017 to get S/4 HANA cloud out of a sleeping beauty style deep sleep. Bigdata capabilities, PaaS functionality and Machine Learning are quickly becoming table stakes for enterprises, so speed is of the essence.

We will be watching, stay tuned.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here).

Progress Report - Oracle HCM Analyst Summit 2017 - Oracle HCM stronger and stronger

February 24, 2017, 8:23 pm

≫ Next: Progress Report - CenturyLink offers a new value proposition at Ascend 2017

≪ Previous: Event Report - SAP Capital Markets and S/4HANA Update - Good Plan - Execution matters in 2017

We had the opportunity to attend the Oracle HCM analyst meeting on February 22nd 2017, held at the beautiful Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay. The meeting was well attended with 20 analysts participating.

So take a look at my musings on the event here: (if the video doesn’t show up, check here)

No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Progress Report - Oracle HCM Analyst Summit 2017 from Holger Mueller

Want to read on? Here you go: Tough to pick the top takeaways – but here are my top 3:

Oracle HCM has Momentum– Not surprisingly, the momentum of Oracle HCM is continuing. A few years ago, Oracle was challenged with references for Oracle HCM (mid 2013), what a difference 3.5 years make: Now more than 100 enterprises go live with Oracle HCM every quarter. More stats around Oracle HCM below.

Oracle Cloud HCM Momentum

Single Platform for all HCM – As we shared as a major takeaway from Oracle OpenWorld 2016 (see here), Oracle has long time ago (silently till then) started to build Recruiting functionality on the Oracle (Fusion) Cloud platform, same schema, APIs, standards etc. like all the Oracle SaaS suite. So the days of the duopoly of Oracle HCM on the one side and Taleo on the other side are counted, Leone shared at the meeting that usual, large customers could use the new Recruiting capability by end of 2017. Replacing acquired capabilities on a new platform is never easy for any vendor, executd in totality has only been done on very few occasions in enterprise software history. So Oracle has taken some key steps into this direction – looking forward to learn about the first live customers on the new Talent Acquisition capabilities.

Oracle HCM Cloud in one slide

Learning Progress – Almost two years ago, Oracle surprised the market with the announcement of Oracle Learning at HCM World in 2014. Since then the module has made good progress, adding key new capabilities (e.g. Learning Communities) and more traditional ones (like Classroom Training). 100 customers live today is a good milestone, when one remembers that the product is only sold as part of the overall Oracle HCM Suite and not stand alone.

Oracle Learning Cloud - Customer Characteristics

MyPOV

Good progress by Oracle, which is gaining relative strength in regards of its two key competitors, likely to culminate when all its HCM capabilities are on a single platform. Operational efficiencies and organizational agility increase when that point is reached, a win / win for customers and vendors, a key milestone to monitor.

On the concern side, Oracle needs to become clear on its approach of Machine Learning (ML, if you like AI) in regards of HCM. Too much potential here and while we heard the Oracle Adaptive Intelligence story once more as it pertains web display ads / next best action – it is not clear where and how ML will make a difference for Oracle HCM users overall. But there is time to address this, maybe at HCM World. Oracle has made progress and additions to the user interface like e.g. QuickActions and Smart Overlays – but it still feels like an aging user experience. Kudos to Oracle for letting (once again) the analysts use the software – this time the mobile version, which is well done and rounded, it has only a few kinks. What may prevent Oracle from a UI revision could be an aggressive adoption of voice that should replace most ESS and MSS screens. An area to watch.

But overall good progress by Oracle that is pushing its HCM offering forward on all fronts. What the adoption of the IaaS Gen 2 may mean for SaaS products like Oracle HCM remains to be seen. It is clear that adoption and sales challenges are not with the product side for the year to come – at least from the general perceptive, so it looks like if there are challenges for Oracle HCM in 2017, they will be more on the Marketing, Sales and Services side. Always a good place to be for a SaaS product vendor. We will be watching.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here).

Recent blog posts on Oracle:

Event Report - Oracle OpenWorld - the HCM perspective - Almost no news, but wait... - read here.

First Take - Early Oracle OpenWorld 2016 Keynotes - read here

Event Preview - Oracle OpenWorld 2016 - What to expect, what to watch for ... will IaaS start Clicking? - read here

Market Move - Oracle acquires NetSuite - Oddly consolidation means more options for customers - read here

News Analysis - Oracle Unveils Suite of Breakthrough Services.. or short: Oracle Cloud Machine - read here

Progress Report - Oracle Cloud - More ready than ever, now needs adoption - read here

Event Report - Oracle Openworld 2015 - Top 3 Takeaways, Top 3 Positives & Concerns - read here

News Analysis - Quick Take on all 22 press releases of Oracle OpenWorld Day #1 - #3 - read here

First Take - Oracle OpenWorld - Day 1 Keynote - Top 3 Takeaways - read here

Event Preview - Oracle Openworld - watch here

Future of Work / HCM / SaaS research:

Event Report - Oracle HCM World - Innovation around the Core - read here

Event Report - Oracle HCM World - Full Steam ahead, a Learning surprise and potential growth challenges - read here

First Take - Oracle HCM World Day #1 Keynote - off to a good start - read here

Progress Report - Oracle HCM gathers momentum - now it needs to build on that - read here

Oracle pushes modern HR - there is more than technology - read here. (Takeaways from the recent HCMWorld conference).

Why Applications Unlimited is good a good strategy for Oracle customers and Oracle - read here.

Also worth a look for the full picture

Event Report - Oracle PaaS Event - 6 PaaS Services become available, many more announced - read here

Progress Report - Oracle Cloud makes progress - but key work remains in the cellar - read here

News Analysis - Oracle discovers the power of the two socket server - or: A pivot that wasn't one - TCO still rules - read here

Market Move - Oracle buys Datalogix - moves more into DaaS - read here

Event Report - Oracle Openworld - Oracle's vision and remaining work become clear - they are both big - read here

Constellation Research Video Takeaways of Oracle Openworld 2014 - watch here

Is it all coming together for Oracle in 2014? Read here.

From the fences - Oracle AR Meeting takeaways - read here (this was the last analyst meeting in spring 2013)

Takeaways from Oracle CloudWorld LA - read here (this was one of the first cloud world events overall, in January 2013)

And if you want to read more of my findings on Oracle technology - I suggest:

Progress Report - Good cloud progress at Oracle and a two step program - read here.

Oracle integrates products to create its Foundation for Cloud Applications - read here.

Java grows up to the enterprise - read here.

1st take - Oracle in memory option for its database - very organic - read here.

Oracle 12c makes the database elastic - read here.

How the cloud can make the unlikeliest bedfellows - read here.

Act I - Oracle and Microsoft partner for the cloud - read here.

Act II - The cloud changes everything - Oracle and Salesforce.com - read here.

Act III - The cloud changes everything - Oracle and Netsuite with a touch of Deloitte - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

View the story "Oracle HCM Analyst Summit" on Storify

Progress Report - CenturyLink offers a new value proposition at Ascend 2017

March 1, 2017, 6:43 am

≫ Next: Progress Report - Pitney Bowes Technology Analyst Summit 2017

≪ Previous: Progress Report - Oracle HCM Analyst Summit 2017 - Oracle HCM stronger and stronger

We had the opportunity to attend the partner kickoff meeting of CenturyLink, Ascend, held in San Diego from February 22nd to 24th. The event was well attended with a large number of partners present, both from traditional CenturyLink partners and newer kind of partners (see below).

So take a look at my musings on the event here: (if the video doesn’t show up, check here)

No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Event Report - CenturyLink Ascend 2017 from Holger Mueller

Want to read on?

Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top 3:

From DCs to Software and Services– CenturyLink has already since some time communicated the shift from owning and operating data centers to a more software and services oriented future business. This Ascend conference was all about getting the partners ready for that new future, where they don’t sell traditional ‘stovepipe’ – all things CenturyLink, but a CenturyLink service that spans across multiple cloud / IaaS providers. CenturyLink even previewed and talked about the just yesterday officially release Cloud Application Manager (see press release here). It also means CenturyLink needs partners in new categories, e.g. the vendor announced a new Software Alliances Program.

"Monster Fire" side chat with Douglas and Corbin

Partners Wanted– CenturyLink (like all providers in the space) has relied on partners, but needs them even more with the new go to market offerings: It needs to understand applications better when positioning Cloud Application Manager, that takes time and requires a thorough understanding of what enterprises run, something that takes time and partners usually have that know how already. With the ‘carrot’ of cloud optimization becoming possibly real, it is also key for partners to understand that rival IaaS offerings of the past are the new partners of the future.

The new CenturyLink Software Alliance Program

Big opportunity for partners– CenturyLink is offering a very different value proposition to its partners, who have to understand what CenturyLink now offers and then chart their strategy. Not an easy change, but doable. Easier to, as it is a change for the better, as workload portability, IaaS agnostic capabilities and multi cloud are highly desirable qualities that enterprises seek for their cloud deployments.

MultiCloud panel with Patel (VMware), Bosserman (Azure),
Shacochis (CenturyLink) and yours truly

MyPOV

A good partner kickoff for CenturyLink, that not only has a new value proposition for partners, but a mostly new partner / channel management team, that had to be introduced to the partners, share its ideas and vision going forward. CenturyLink did well on all accounts, as well as you can do when you have new leaders taking partners to terra incognita. Terra firma in these regards is CenturyLink’s networking offerings, which offer the opportunity to differentiate vendor and offering compare to other vendors who have made a switch to services and multi cloud.

On the concern side, this is quite a transformation for both CenturyLink and its partner ecosystem, and while doable, needs to be successfully executed. The key new product, Cloud Application Manager is a new product and must prove itself and gain partner trusty. Customer show cases, case studies, road shows etc. are the tools in the arsenal to have partners gain trust in a new direction. Pricing has to be right, wasn’t shared but we are pretty certain CenturyLink will get that right.

So, it’s a new approach and strategy of CenturyLink, that was telegraphed earlier, but now taking shape in the real world of 2017. Partners are still orienting themselves. Now real revenues and real customers on a new product and service offering have to follow - we will be watching. Stay tuned.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here).

Progress Report - Pitney Bowes Technology Analyst Summit 2017

March 1, 2017, 8:44 pm

≫ Next: Event Report - Google Next 2017 - Google makes progress - but is it fast enough?

≪ Previous: Progress Report - CenturyLink offers a new value proposition at Ascend 2017

We had the opportunity to attend Pitney Bowes Tech Analyst meeting held at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, February 28th and March 1st 2017. The event was well attended with close to 30 analysts, many from oversees, in attendance.

So take a look at my musings on the event here: (if the video doesn’t show up, check here)

No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Event Report - Pitney Bowes Tech Analysts 2017 from Holger Mueller

Want to read on?

Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top ones:

Pitney Bowes goes beyond the mailroom– If Pitney Bowes wanted to make one thing clear, they certainly succeeded: It’s no longer the mailroom automation vendor, but a sizeable software vendor that has the magical 1B US$ in sales in the cross hairs.

Pitney Bowes Constellation Research Holger Mueller

Pitney Bowes Growth Potential

Data, Identity, Location, Communicate– Next to its ecommerce business, which is roughly half of the Pitney Bowes’ software portfolio, three major areas of activity were shared: Underpinning all with data, Pitney Bowes has an Identity. Location and Communication portfolio. We looked at the letter, focused primarily to customer engagement through modern interactions, most prominently video with the EngageOne product. Overall the focus on 4 product areas makes sense, the company has recovered from the over 80+ acquisition spree that was going on from 2002 till 2008.

Software Direction and Portfolio

Wanted – a category– It’s always hard for vendors when they don’t stick into traditional categories, usually based on how enterprise buy, license and subscribe to software. In Pitney Bowes case, the vendor is partially responsible for the dilemma, as it doesn’t want to play in some categories: E.g. Pitney Bowes acquired MapInfo about 10 years ago – but we never heard an utter of “GIS” as a category. Some products are also hard to categorize, as they are working as APIs or standalone modules (e.g. Checkout) or are services (e.g. Pitney Bowes can act as merchant of record to enable borderless commerce).

Expanding Footprint

Partners needed for DaaS / API Economy– Pitney Bowers has realized it needs partners as force multipliers to be successful with its data and API centric approach. And it certainly has shown partner traction – but still must sign up approximately 50% more partners this year. If the conventional partners can give Pitney Bowes that multiplier will be an interesting aspect to be seen. Getting closer to where people use data / APIs would also be a good alley to explore, so developer outreach / evangelism maybe a chapter in the strategy book to consider.

MyPOV

A good analyst meeting, that at times stayed too high level, but made abundantly clear that it is not your grandfathers Pitney Bowers and that the company is committed to grow its software business. The four product areas are in good hands and the vendor has well working Indian developer organization, an asset not too many software vendors have. It also has a cash flow generating, but shrinking traditional business that allows it to invest in product and go to market, a good setup for a software business, that is traditionally cash hungry in its early phases. Finally Pitney Bowes executives were more than willing to learn, improve and get feedback, always a good strategy for an analyst day, that was operationally flawless.

On the concern side Pitney Bowes is in unchartered waters when it comes to the business model of its software portfolio. While vendors have figured out to make a living from data (e.g. Nielsen, IMS, Dun & Bradstreet etc.) – no vendor has created a billion and more business on the base of APIs. And while there is no technological discussion that APIs are the way how software will be offered and consumed going forward, the business model, monetization model outside the traditional transactional APIs (e.g. orders, invoices, paychecks) has not been established. And Pitney Bowes needs to grow the software business faster than its traditional mailroom related business shrinks.

A vendor under transformation, making good progress and certainly to watch, we will keep analyzing.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here).

More NextGenApps related blog posts:

Q4 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here
New Analysis - AWS has now data centers in Canada. Or is it data centres? Speaks "Canadian" now. - read here
Event Report - AWS reInvent 2016 - Growth at full speed - read here
News Analysis - New IBM Bluemix Services Help Organizations Accelerate Data Migration to the Cloud - read here
News Analysis - Microsoft announces SAP's choice of Azure to help enterprises transform HR - The SaaS land grab is on - read here
NewsAnalysis - VMware has found AWS as its public cloud IaaS - read here
Event Report - Cloud Foundry Summit Europe - Europe & Cloud - A long path - read here
Event report - AWS Enterprise Summit 2016 Frankfurt - The German Road to Cloud adoption is ... long - read here
Event Report - Google I/O 2016 - Android N soon, Google assistant sooner and VR / AR later - read here
Event Report - OpenStack Summit 2016 - Austin - OpenStack matures - read here
Event Report - Microsoft Build 2016 - A platform vision and plenty of tools for next generation applications - read here
Event Report – Google Google Cloud Platform Next – Key Offerings for (some of) the enterprise - read here

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

View the story "Pitney Bowes Tech Analyst Summit" on Storify

↧

Event Report - Google Next 2017 - Google makes progress - but is it fast enough?

March 9, 2017, 8:04 am

≫ Next: Down Report - Human error takes AWS S3 down in US-EAST-1 - and it is felt - 3.8 Cloud Load Toads

≪ Previous: Progress Report - Pitney Bowes Technology Analyst Summit 2017

We had the opportunity to attend Google’s Google Next conference, happening in San Francisco from March 7th till 11th at Moscone West. San Francisco ‘dressed’ up in Google Next colors already way ahead of the event, it was clear that this would be a much bigger event than last year’s Google Cloud Platform event. And a difference it was, also aided by the combination of Google Cloud and GSuite, the number of analysts jumped from 20 or so to estimated 80+. No official attendee numbers, with a lot of Googlers lining up to attend, too, my estimate is well over 2000, when all are counted.

So take a look at my musings on the event here: (if the video doesn’t show up, check here)

No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation (if the slide doesn’t show up, check here):

Event Report - Google Next 2017 - Good progress by Google - but is it enough? from Holger Mueller

Want to read on?

Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top 3:

Google Next 2017 Holger Mueller Event Report Constellation Research SAP HANA Schmidt Greene Leukert

Schmidt shares his 3 step program for moving to the cloud

Google is serious about Enterprise– It was already clear from the hiring of Greene and last year’s event. But it’s one thing to say it and then to deliver on it. Greene shared that the division is the fastest growing in headcount with over 1000 new hires, Schmidt shared today that over time Google has invested 30B+ US$ into the cloud infrastructure. As Greene shared earlier the ‘business’ things are easy – the basic ‘blocking and tackling’ – but it still needs to be executed. So Google for the first time had a partner event with the conference and showed it has attracted interest from all the large SIs. It’s a lot of progress on the partner numbers, but a totally different ball game than with the other two key players. It was also good to have more enterprise customers on stage, talking to Greene on different carefully selected use cases – Disney for an ‘All in’, HSBC for a data warehouse decommission an move to cloud, Home Depot as a website / commerce reference and eBay as an enterprise showcase for an inhouse built next gen app – a Google Home powered eBay application.

Greene talks Google Cloud

Machine Learning remains the carrot – Not surprisingly, Machine Learning remains the core attraction for Google Cloud. Disney’s CTO clearly labelled it as the reason why Disney is building apps on Google Cloud. Newly minted head of AI / Machine Learning Fei Fei Li shared the visions and unveiled (next to the Cloud Speech, Vision, Translate and Natural Language APIs) the new Video Intelligence API. No surprise given YouTube is part of Alphabet, but very powerful to index and find things in video, e.g. all the beach scenes in your vacation videos. Can’t wait for it to come to Google Photos. Or find out how many of my videos where in cars, at airports or somewhere else. But the key announcement – with long term impact – is Google’s acquisition of Kaggle, the analytics, machine learning, AI community, famous for its competitions. A key acquisition that could – if well executed – further bolster the Machine Learning / AI leadership of Google: It’s not enough to have great software capabilities, you also need to educate people about them and win their hearts and minds as a community. The strategy is clear here, now Google will have to show that it can create, foster a vendor independent ecosystem around Machine Learning.

Google'e Fei Fei Li announces the Kaggle acquisition

Google gets SAP HANA– The major news in regards of ‘meeting the enterprise, where the enterprise is’ (the slogan from last year) was that SAP HANA is now certified on Google Cloud. Leukert was there to unveil the news with Greene, certainly a good move, that shows SAP’s multi vendor cloud strategy. You can / will be able to run SAP products on all three major IaaS. The SAP Hana Express developer product is available, too, with SAP Cloud platform coming later. And when Colgate came on stage, it was clear that SAP to GSuite integration is also on the roadmap. More options for SAP customers is a good development, it may make it easier for SAP to sell more HANA going forward. And Google gets load for Google Cloud. The usual ‘SaaS vendor picks IaaS’ move. The only downside: SAP is working hard to get its customers to HANA – so it is not the bulk of the current load where SAP customers are from an on premises install base. That would be SAP customers running mySAP ERP etc. – mostly on Oracle.

Google's Greene and SAP's Leukert on SAP HANA coming to GCP

MyPOV

A lot of good progress from Google on the Google products for the enterprise, both Cloud and GSuite. The conference has only started – so more is going to come for both products in the days to come. The Google Enterprise team is working hard, no doubt and has made progress in the last 12 months with partners, support and create more unique offerings e.g. the site reliability engineer for customers, a start up program etc. etc.

On the concern side, it is not clear if this will be enough, I asked the Greene leadership team on what they will do to catchup from ‘Bronze to Gold’ and they all came up with good and plausible answers (check out my Storify of the analyst event here). But in a year where we may see VMware running on AWS and Oracle making its cloud work first time – this may not be enough for Google to get on premises load of scale. So it all comes back to the speed of Google being able to attract enterprise load for the next few years, and the speed of the enterprise moving to cloud.

In the meantime, when enterprises have to build new software, the Google capabilities are very attractive for the next generation application use cases the 21st century demands. So in the short run this could well mean that Google can attract more next generation application use cases than attract traditional enterprise IT loads. We will be watching, stay tuned.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below (if it doesn’t show up – check here). And if interested in the Analyst Summit from Tuesday this week - there is a Storify collection here.

More about Google:

New Analysis – Google enables citizen developers and developers with Google App Maker - read here
First Take - Google enters enterprise software space with Google Jobs API - read here
Event Report - Google I/O 2016 - Android N soon, Google assistant sooner and VR / AR later - read here
First Take - Google Google I/O 2016 - Day #1 Keynote - Enterprise Takeaways - read here
Event Preview - Google's Google I/O 2016 - read here
Event Report – Google Google Cloud Platform Next – Key Offerings for (some of) the enterprise - read here
First Take - Google Cloud Platform - Takeaways Day #1 Keynote - read here
News Analysis - Google launches Cloud Dataproc - read here
Musings - Google re-organizes - will it be about Alpha or Alphabet Soup? Read here
Event Report - Google I/O - Google wants developers to first & foremost build more Android apps - read here
First Take - Google I/O Day #1 Keynote - it is all about Android - read here
News Analysis - Google does it again (lower prices for Google Cloud Platform), enterprises take notice - read here
News Analyse - Google I/O Takeaways Value Propositions for the enterprise - read here
Google gets serious about the cloud and it is different - read here
A tale of two clouds - Google and HP - read here
Why Google acquired Talaria - efficiency matters - read here

View the story "Google Next 2017 - Day #1 Keynote" on Storify

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

↧

Down Report - Human error takes AWS S3 down in US-EAST-1 - and it is felt - 3.8 Cloud Load Toads

March 13, 2017, 8:08 am

≫ Next: Event Report - WorkForce Vision 2017 - After restart and takeoff, time for the boosters

≪ Previous: Event Report - Google Next 2017 - Google makes progress - but is it fast enough?

The Cloud / IaaS industry has grown rapidly in the last years, and providers have been solidifying their systems over the years. Outages are always unfortunate and by large the cloud has shown that it is more resilient than pretty much any on premises computing setup. Nonetheless outages happen – and we are adding a new blog post type for these events – the “Down Report” – where we plan to dissect and rate what has gone wrong, and especially focus on the lessons learnt for the provider affected, the industry, but most importantly for their customers.

To make the effort a little more fun – we assign ‘Cloud Load Toads” to the overall event and each circumstance. We mean no disrespect to the ‘load toads’ that work valiantly in the worlds air forces, but liked the suggestion of our colleague Alan Lepofsky (@alanlepo), who came up with the term ‘Cloud Load Toad”.

On the ‘Cloud Load Toad’ scala that goes from 1 (bad but ok, can happen) to 5 (very bad, should never ever happen) we rate the severity off the event overall and the events that lead to it.

AWS S3 Down in US-EAST-1

First of all, kudos to AWS, who published the post mortem post (see here) in about 48 hour past the event, faster than usual, judging from other downtime events in the past. But then each cloud outage is different, the root cause – manual error – is easier to establish than e.g. trouble shooting a battery fire, that destroys its very evidence (think Samsung).

But let’s dissect the post mortem report:

We’d like to give you some additional information about the service disruption that occurred in the Northern Virginia (US-EAST-1) Region on the morning of February 28th. The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) team was debugging an issue causing the S3 billing system to progress more slowly than expected.

MyPOV – Certainly production and billing systems need to be connected, and in many scenarios the production system can create issues with the load triggered for the billing system. But a production system should never be able to be stopped by an administrative system, like a billing system. Production should be kept running, billing can be worried about later. It is likely that the S3 billing system (my speculation, but keep reading) is using S3, too – creating a potential recursive dependency. Needless to say – these systems should be isolated.

Rating: 3 Cloud Load Toads

At 9:37AM PST, an authorized S3 team member using an established playbook executed a command which was intended to remove a small number of servers for one of the S3 subsystems that is used by the S3 billing process.

MyPOV – Related to above, obvious that the billing system is also using S3 now. Good to drink your own champagne, but when it goes bad because of a mistake by the champagne maker – never good and not only the customers but the champagne maker gets food poisoning – not what you want to have happen. But humans can make mistakes.

Unfortunately, one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended. The servers that were inadvertently removed supported two other S3 subsystems. One of these subsystems, the index subsystem, manages the metadata and location information of all S3 objects in the region. This subsystem is necessary to serve all GET, LIST, PUT, and DELETE requests. The second subsystem, the placement subsystem, manages allocation of new storage and requires the index subsystem to be functioning properly to correctly operate. The placement subsystem is used during PUT requests to allocate storage for new objects. Removing a significant portion of the capacity caused each of these systems to require a full restart. While these subsystems were being restarted, S3 was unable to service requests.

MyPOV – Kudos to AWS for transparency. But any attendee to its reInvent user conference knows how much the vendor prides itself of not letting humans make mistakes, but putting key / vital processes into code. Certainly, the approach and philosophy wasn’t followed here. Would be good to chat with AWS CTO Werner Vogels about this one… I am sure that enough people in Seattle are pondering that in the future typos, manual human error should not take systems down. Of course, we still need a kill switch for the humans…

Rating: 4 Cloud Load Toads.

Other AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region that rely on S3 for storage, including the S3 console, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) new instance launches, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes (when data was needed from a S3 snapshot), and AWS Lambda were also impacted while the S3 APIs were unavailable.

MyPOV – AWS suggests to write critical processes to span across regions. Its own website – amazon.com and subsidiary zappos.com did not go down, and were probably coded correctly. The question is (and sorry if I have not read the fine print) – could an AWS client still use the US-EAST-1 services like EC2, EBS, AWS Lambda etc. if pointed to other S3 stores – or does an S3 failure take the whole region out? This is a deeply critical issue for any IaaS techstack in a IaaS data center. So, did customers have a chance here? A question to follow up with AWS. Not Rated.

S3 subsystems are designed to support the removal or failure of significant capacity with little or no customer impact. We build our systems with the assumption that things will occasionally fail, and we rely on the ability to remove and replace capacity as one of our core operational processes. While this is an operation that we have relied on to maintain our systems since the launch of S3, we have not completely restarted the index subsystem or the placement subsystem in our larger regions for many years. S3 has experienced massive growth over the last several years and the process of restarting these services and running the necessary safety checks to validate the integrity of the metadata took longer than expected. The index subsystem was the first of the two affected subsystems that needed to be restarted. By 12:26PM PST, the index subsystem had activated enough capacity to begin servicing S3 GET, LIST, and DELETE requests. By 1:18PM PST, the index subsystem was fully recovered and GET, LIST, and DELETE APIs were functioning normally. The S3 PUT API also required the placement subsystem. The placement subsystem began recovery when the index subsystem was functional and finished recovery at 1:54PM PST. At this point, S3 was operating normally. Other AWS services that were impacted by this event began recovering. Some of these services had accumulated a backlog of work during the S3 disruption and required additional time to fully recover.

MyPOV – AWS describes well that things break all the time, and they can even go down. But IaaS providers need to be certain they can come back up, and part of that coming back is also to understand how long it will take to come back up. S3 has been very popular, so the harder to take it down, test (or simulate) time for it to come back, but certainly something AWS could and should have done and known. When you run IT, and don’t know when a system that is down will come back up more or less for sure, the IT professionals are in a bad spot.

Rating: 4 Cloud Load Toads

We are making several changes as a result of this operational event. While removal of capacity is a key operational practice, in this instance, the tool used allowed too much capacity to be removed too quickly. We have modified this tool to remove capacity more slowly and added safeguards to prevent capacity from being removed when it will take any subsystem below its minimum required capacity level. This will prevent an incorrect input from triggering a similar event in the future.

MyPOV – This section read like there was a software tool – but it malfunctioned. That of course is not good. Granted hard to simulate and test with systems of this scale – but not a good enough answer.

Rating: 3 Cloud Load Toads

We are also auditing our other operational tools to ensure we have similar safety checks. We will also make changes to improve the recovery time of key S3 subsystems. We employ multiple techniques to allow our services to recover from any failure quickly. One of the most important involves breaking services into small partitions which we call cells. By factoring services into cells, engineering teams can assess and thoroughly test recovery processes of even the largest service or subsystem. As S3 has scaled, the team has done considerable work to refactor parts of the service into smaller cells to reduce blast radius and improve recovery. During this event, the recovery time of the index subsystem still took longer than we expected. The S3 team had planned further partitioning of the index subsystem later this year. We are reprioritizing that work to begin immediately.

MyPOV – Kudos to AWS for transparency, explaining that it has a solution and committing to get better going forward. School book response that all vendors with an outage should share – not all have.

From the beginning of this event until 11:37AM PST, we were unable to update the individual services’ status on the AWS Service Health Dashboard (SHD) because of a dependency the SHD administration console has on Amazon S3. Instead, we used the AWS Twitter feed (@AWSCloud) and SHD banner text to communicate status until we were able to update the individual services’ status on the SHD. We understand that the SHD provides important visibility to our customers during operational events and we have changed the SHD administration console to run across multiple AWS regions.

MyPOV – This is probably the worst finding, a too optimistic implementation of the key dashboard on AWS overall status. It should never have a single point of failure, but yet we see this happening over and over in outages. Vendors need to learn not to rely on their services to communicate with clients in an outage situation – as they may not be able to respond, a cardinal mistake (see e.g. for another outage issue here)... but yet vendors keep doing so.

Rating: 5 Cloud Load Toads

Finally, we want to apologize for the impact this event caused for our customers. While we are proud of our long track record of availability with Amazon S3, we know how critical this service is to our customers, their applications and end users, and their businesses. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to improve our availability even further.

MyPOV – Kudos for acknowledging and owning the issue. No blame game and scape goating (that is often seen here too, the most common scape goat being the network / network provider).

A pretty severe event

When doing the tally across the cloud load toads, assuming I did the math right - then I count 19 total toads, across 5 events - bringing the event to 3.8 cloud load toads. I am sure AWS will be the first to agree that this wasn't an insignificant event. But let's look at the lessons learnt. But customers could have coded their loads to avoid the down time.

Lessons for IaaS Customers

Here are the key aspects for customers to learn from the AWS S3 outage:

Have you built for resilience? Sure, it costs, but all major IaaS providers offer strategies on how to avoid single location / data center failures. Way too many prominent internet properties did not chose to do so – so if ‘born on the web’ properties miss this – its key to check regular enterprises do not miss this. Uptime has a price, make it a rational decision, now is a good time to get budget / investment approved, when warranted and needed.

Ask your IaaS vendor a few questions: Enterprises should not be shy to ask IaaS providers if they have done a few things:

Do your run your systems by hand or with software
Could the same issue that happened with AWS S3 in US-EAST-1 happen to you?
How do you test your operational software?
When have you taken your most popular services down last time?
What is the expected up time of your most popular services?
When did your produce that test of expected up time last and how has the system usage increased since then?
How can we code for resilience – and what does it cost?
What kind of renumeration / payment / cost relief can be expected with a downtime?
What single point of failure should we be aware of?
How are your operation consoles built?
How do you communicate in a downtime situation with customers?
How often and when do you refresh your older datacenters, servers?
How often have your reviewed and improved your operational procedures in the last 12 months? Give us a few examples how you have increased resilience.

And some key internal questions, customers of IaaS vendors have to ask themselves:

What are your customer / employee communication tools?
When your IaaS vendor goes down, so may your customer and employee facing apps. How do you communicate then?
Make sure to learn from AWS mistake – do not rely on the same point of failure / architecture as the production systems – as it will not be available. Simple, but always good to check and better even monitor.

MyPOV

Outages are always unfortunate. The key thing is to learn from them, knowing AWS they will be ruthless to address issues (and hopefully update customers and analysts on status progress). Kudos for a fast past mortem, taking responsibility and sharing first strategies to avoid another occurrence. And AWS already has made customers available to teach other customers on how to use AWS inbuilt HA methods (e.g. CloudFront) to avoid major impact from down times like what happened to S3 in this case.

On the concern side AWS needs to ask itself how it recycles and reviews architecture and servers. US-EAST is a behemoth that is nonetheless popular, but may need more rejuvenation than AWS may expect / have planned. In the cloud location monopoly race it is possible that vendors might stretch aging infrastructure beyond the breaking point. Of course, afterwards it is easy to armchair everything, but this remains an area to watch.

Overall hopefully plenty of lessons learnt all around, for AWS, other IaaS providers and customers.

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