Office 2010 Launch

Yesterday, I attended the launch of Office 2010 at Microsoft's headquarters in North Ryde, Sydney. I hadn't expected too much of the day as lets face it Office is a fully featured productivity suite that already has more features than most users can really use. My interest was in the launch of the Office Online tools as competition with the Google Apps suite and in particular, Google Docs.

I was actually very surprised with Office Online; although they are not exact copies of the desktop applications, they are very good and offer significantly more features than Google Docs. Microsoft have taken the approach of launching Office Online with a good set of the most used features whilst leaving out the advanced features (which most users do not use anyway).  Some of these more advanced features will no doubt make their way into the online version at some point as Microsoft evolve the products but for the moment, they are certainly very usable. With one step, Microsoft have leapfrogged their main competitors and in my opinion they now lead the market in the online office productivity tool category. Recognising how late Google are with some of the latest updates to Google Docs, I am sure Mountain View are watching this release with interest.

Another differentiator between Office Online and Google docs is that organisations can, if they choose, actually deploy Office Online within their own network which removes some of the issues organisations have with data sovereignty and security.  It remains to be seen whether this deployment model is taken up within medium and large enterprises but it could significantly shift the balance in the online productivity tool market.

Once again, the cloud market takes an unexpected turn which could have significant implications for both vendors and organisations looking to move to the cloud.

Learning Points from 6 Months of Life in Cloud Computing

Over the past six months I have taken a diversion away from my normal discipline of Enterprise Architecture to build up a Cloud Computing practice for my current employer. My focus has been on Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Force.com rather than my more normal Zachman, TOGAF, governance and architecture models. As a result I haven't posted much on enterprise architecture recently but I have learned a great deal. One of the most important things I have learnt is that many enterprises are really not ready to move to the cloud in any meaningful way. Yes, they might run the odd pilot to test the water but the implementation costs of most cloud projects mean that the ROI is just not there in the short term. The recognition that they can reduce their operational costs significantly in the longer term doesn't seem to be important enough quite yet.

Another learning point for me is that even allowing for the potential cost savings in the longer term, the leveraged platform nature of many cloud solutions means that there will be enough of a requirements gap to make most enterprises think twice before moving to the cloud. Often, it isn't the functional requirements that cause the problem, it is non-functional aspects like compliance, privacy, service and data location and even data sovereignty concerns that create the real adoption barrier. No doubt this will change over the medium term but it won't be this year.

Looking further ahead, I can see organisations initiating pilots this year but I can't see any large scale corporate adoptions until the tail end of this year and probably more so in 2010. In my view, the perception of the enterprise is that the cloud is just not quite there yet...

Google Launches Google Apps Reseller Program

With the recent release of Google's Google Apps Reseller Program and the improved economics that goes with a reseller model, I predict we will see a flood of companies offering Google Apps configuration, maintenance and support services.

This is good for Google and good for people who are considering moving over to Google's leveraged platform as the reseller margin will allow vendors to differentiate themselves with value add services whilst still being able to make a reasonable profit. What this means for the more established players in the market remains to be seen. When any product or service becomes a commodity, established players move upmarket to focus on the strategic side of the market. The only bit of the market left that has a high margin business model!

Enterprise Architecture in Troubled Times

It will be very interesting to see how the next chapter in the global financial crisis pan out over the next few months. In bad times it makes sense to spend time and money on Enterprise Architecture as there is an inevitable increase the need for reduced cost, consolidation, standardisation and integration within enterprises. In reality however, Enterprise Architecture is often one of the first casualties as consultants are retrenched, staff numbers cut and the focus moves on to tactical cost cutting and cashflow generation. The pressure to reduce cost often results in naive cost reductions that don't really make sense in the long term.

We could learn a lot from Warren Buffet and his quote “Be brave when others are afraid and afraid when others are brave.”. Spending time and money on enterprise architecture in bad times is a bold and brave move but probably one that will create a market advantage in the short to medium term. An advantage that will create a real differentiator when those who were afraid eventually become brave again.

Lunch with Steve Balmer

Yesterday, I (along with about 500 other people) had lunch with Steve Balmer, the Microsoft CEO at the Four Seasons hotel in the centre of Sydney. The function was a Q&A session with a well known Sydney celebrity. Steve showed why he is the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world. He was engaging, interesting, even funny at times. He certainly presented significantly better in front of a business audience than he did during the previous days presentation to developers. Maybe he is happier with a business audience? I didn't come away with an improved view of Microsoft, but I did come away with an improved opinion of Steve Balmer. Experience as they say, speaks for itself and Microsoft's experience over the past 20 years showed.

Microsoft's Vision for Cloud Computing

On Thursday, I went to see Microsoft present their new Azure cloud computing platform. Microsoft are arriving late to the party here with Amazon and Google well ahead. They are however, arriving with a different proposition and they have certainly learnt from the experiences of the two major players in the cloud computing market. Microsoft are pushing a Software + Services message rather than Software as a Service. What is the difference? Microsoft see this as putting the processing in the right place for the situation. Processing that moves, ubiquitously from desktop to server to cloud to suit the need and purpose.

This is a bold vision and a bold claim and one that their competitors do not even try to address. This maybe for good reason as Microsoft found out that evening. The live demos, only a simple text "Hello Cloud" application failed spectacularly. I never thought I would hear these words live on stage "On no, the cloud has crashed"!

Microsoft stressed many times over the course of the evening that this was early release code; they needn't have as this was clear to all 2500 developers in the conference centre!