Cloud Computing - Part II

You may recall - but probably don't - a piece I composed on the near legendary Cloud computing concept. I would still argue that it's not anything new but rather an evolution of ideas we all saw years ago - the "Application Service Provider" concept, for example. However, I believed then and still do that this is the model of the future - there are things to be worked out but the future will be built upon this type  of model with our local PC's - and other devices - being a means of consuming and generating online content.

I believe this has particular benefits for our Government IT systems, as it does for any large corporation in practically every industry. This article on SiliconRepublic.com concurs with that thought. John Ward, Accenture's senior manager their Irish cloud computing practice, touches on some of the key issues and concerns that are likely to be raised. The point is, this model could eliminate duplication of data, simplify the security aspect and provide a standard platform that people can leverage in the future when building applications. It could also be used to detect and eliminate fraud.

Of course, there is a cost to getting there but the cost of not getting there is potentially bigger and it will continue to grow! Is there a national IT strategy that brings together the data from the different depts, offers a cohesive user interface and a consistent user experience  for the general public?

Something tells me no!

Get the Job!!!

There's been a lot of publicity recently regarding the actions of one Mr. Alec  Brownstein. This very clever guy took out some ad's on Google so that when the creative directors that Mr. Brownstein had identified as those for whom he wanted to work googled themselves, his ad would appear. The picture below sum's it up nicely and there is a nice video explaining the whole "Google Experiment" here.

Obviously, it's very clever and while Brownstein probably isn't the first, it is certinaly the most highlighted incident of this nature. It raises a question in my mind - do we maximise, or at least use, our online presence for potential employment? How could we do it better? This is clearly one answer for the later question.
Perhaps, this will see a small shift in how the recruiting industry operates with a new Facebook app or Linked-In equivalent offering targeted google ad's? The rise of social networking sites has probably led to the demise of people managing their own domain, like "Alecbrownstein.com" - I say probably because I don't have any facts to back that statement up but it seems reasonable to assume there are more Facebook, MySpace and Bebo users than there are owners of their own, personal domains.
However, merely having a presence on one of the aforementioned social network sites may not be enough. Like in "real" life, most people like to keep their social and work lives somewhat seperate.  There are countless tales told of a Facebook entry or a shared picture which has cost the friend of a friend a job. This leads, of course, to the privacy and Facebook discussion but it also raises another point - Do we need a number of online persona's? While we choose to use Facebook, will we HAVE to use another for professional matters? If so, what is the relationship between those, if any? Is there, or should there be, some glue holding all of these together and, perhaps more importantly, how can we ensure the right people see the right content?

Technology in Life!

Given that technology figures so significantly in our lives now, I think it is strange how technology doesn't figure more in the world of politics. For example, it was interesting that during the recent election in the UK, there was a call from certain party leaders for the UK to "get back to making tangible things with our hands" - surely, in the Technology Age that we find ourselves in, the call should be for a nation to build more IP rather than cars!

Ireland has always positioned itself at the forefront of technology and, as such, has a supporting national strategy. It's available for public consumption, here. It was published in '09.

"The development of the ‘smart’ or innovation-based

economy is the key challenge facing Ireland, even within

the largely uncharted territory of the current financial

crisis. This publication outlines the progress made by

Ireland in developing the ‘smart’ economy through

strategic investment in R&D and how the implementation

of this strategy will serve as a key driver for future growth,

prosperity and employment."

The opening gambit reads well so I think I'll read it and post thoughts here. Maybe this will show me that Ireland is ready for and using technology to make the lives of everyday citizens better and not being led by people who think the future is in building things.... Like they seem to in the UK!!

Convergence in Practice!

I seem to spend a great deal of time wondering what the next big thing will be. If e-mail is the killer app of the information age thus far, what will the next one be. Is it social networking? Facebook, perhaps? I don't think so - I think there is potentially something else, notwithstanding the major impact of such social networking sites. However, the rise and fall of Facebook's fore-runners like MySpace and the soon to be forgotten Bebo, make me think that while the fate of Facebook is not clear, it is not going to rise to the throne of that killer application.

One potential area that I believe will grow is that of personal health management. There is already a notable rise in the number of online personal trainers available, as well as a substantial rise in the number of online pharma's offering medication - both of the approved and perhaps, not-so-approved variety. The point is the business of personal health management is a growing one and one which could potentially herald the next killer application.

An example of this is the recently developed, HeartPhone. I found an interesting article on the product on Silicon Republic. Developed at the National Digital Research Centre in collaboration with medical professionals from around Dublin, this is a product that "measures, monitors and manages the weight of congestive heart failure (CHF) patients in their own homes." The convergence of personal device technology with Bluetooth, the monitoring and management software with the service provided by the remote cardiac experts will provide patients with a level of re-assurance and confidence not previously available.

While this solution use bathroom scales to get the required patient data on a daily basis, it is easy to imagine an integration with a mobile phone becoming possible and subsequently, that device relaying critical readings to remote experts. The use of a mobile phone to relay this information is practically inevitable and re-enforces the growing importance of the phone as the device which connects people with the digital world. This ability to monitor a patient in real time could greatly increase the ability of medical professionals to provide healthcare services to people. The potential for this is huge and as real-time monitoring - such as that demonstrated by HeartPhone - becomes more mainstream, the medical profession, will be able to take advantage of it to provide innovative, life-enhancing applications.

The Technology Nomad

As anyone who has struggled in the European no-fly zone in the last few days will declare - we are truly living in the Internet age. From the German rail operators (Bahn) to Eurostar to practically every ferry operator, you had to have a confirmed booking completed on their website to getting anything approaching assistance from the representatives on the ground. In short, unless you were technology savvy enough to overcome the constant crashing of their often-pathetic but inundated booking systems, their people didn't want to know or help you. Which is both enlightening and, on some levels, disturbing. For example, I saw a Eurostar rep in Brussels tell a stooped lady in her 80's (or maybe more.... I'm being kind!) that she should go to the hotel and book a ticket online using her online account, and then print the confirmation mail before returning to the station. I'm not certain she even knew what the internet was, let alone how to print something.

While this sort of operating model highlights the growing importance and reliance of technology to business, it does also mark the evolution of business - is this the end of the "personal touch" era? It means that to do business with those companies, I needed my laptop to talk to their servers and database which sent me an email that I printed. Clearly, they need to work on their side of the equation - Eurostar was the worst offender. It took 2 hours and about 100 attempts (no exaggeration) to get a single booking completed on their site! But while I was sitting in my Hilton room - it's good to rough it! - struggling with their sites, I was listening to my music on my iPhone. When it was all done, I watched a movie on my laptop and then checked on the progress of friends via email. Oh, and the movement of a load of ash!

In short, everything I needed was in my laptop bag for my "home" life to continue with minimal interruption. My life is now sufficiently digital that I can exist with nothing but a laptop and an Internet connection. In fact, to overcome the obstacle of buying a train and ferry ticket, these tools were essential! Which, when you consider it, makes me location independent. So, I can work equally well from a beach hut with wi-fi as I can from my home office and with this new found freedom, many opportunites open up.

It makes me wonder how many people take advantage of this situation - and how? Is it just working from a nicer location or is for tax exemption reasons? Could this be the way of the future? Or perhaps, could the drive to this model see the arrival of the next killer application? In the same way, mail and internet access have given rise to the freedom outlined above, could there be another application which will remove any remaining boundaries ?

reBlog from Pat Phelan: Pat Phelan: Bits, bytes and telecoms

Stumbled across this mention of the Groupon website today on the blog of Pat Phelan. It's a great site that seems to be going from strength to strength and I think there's a case to be made for a similar service in Europe!

Groupon is a combination of the words group and coupon. Each day, we offer an unbeatable deal on the best of Your City: restaurants, spas, sporting events, theater, and more. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, we get discounts you won’t find anywhere else. We call it “collective buying power.”

Pat Phelan, Pat Phelan: Bits, bytes and telecoms, Apr 2010

You should read the whole article.

The Cloud - A Solution for Public Services

It rains a lot in Ireland - we all know that. But what if a cloud of a different sort was an answer for a problem we are starting to endure but will have for a long time to come? What if we could do something innovative that highlighted our nations foresight and reduced the cost running the country while alleviating the risk of a citizens privacy being invaded? I believe we can achieve all this.

When I took on my first role in a more sales orientated environment, I made a conscious effort to watch and learn from the better people I was working with. One of those people - a particularly wise man who, over time became a friend and, perhaps unknowingly, something of a mentor - once responded to a particular difficult client with a firm statement.

"Getting us to do this work (their Software Management activities) will allow you to focus on your company's core business. Right now, you're a bank who dabble in IT - why not focus on what you do best and let us do what we do best on your behalf!"

It always stuck in my mind that the core competency of company should be it's only focus. There are suppliers for practically every supporting service that will vie with one another for the business and deliver it cheaper anyway. So it is with that concept in mind that I wonder if our government departments need to review their operating model.

Right now, practically every nation is trying to reduce their "operating cost" through reduced spending in the public sector. In Ireland, we will endeavour to do this while attempting to satisfy the demands of the union tribes! I'm not aware of all of the facts but certainly the promise of a job for 4 years combined with a guaruntee of no salary reductions is not something forthcoming in the private sector!

But it is not the union squabbles that interest me but rather the opportunity that exists to reduce the IT cost. Ireland has a self-proclaimed innovative, knowledge driven workforce but I wonder if this is being used to help the nation itself. Certainly, we continue to see data-loss through the use of removable media (USB, CD, DVD, etc), portable hard drives and laptops. This is almost an inevitability in the current computing environment. But what if we had something different.

Rather than attempting to encrypt and add complexity to the working day of our public servants, we should instead be using technology to make their job's better and our private information safer. We should decouple the data from the local machines - desktops and laptops - of the public sector and centralise the data into our a cloud computing solution. By centralising the data, we create a unique opportunity to showcase Ireland as a Green conscious nation by using an environmentally friendly data centre - a good example of such is this facility in Cork. People might question the security of data in a single location, but this is a typical solution used by large corporations already and one for which the appropriate back-up methodology and technology exists. In fact, I would be surprised if a subsets of the government data  is not already in this model.

My concept goes further. I envision a scenario where data is stored once, shared by all departments and secure from any malicious users. While I would argue the applications should be virtualised and provisioned to users via a technology such as VMWare View, the location of the applications  is somewhat irrelevant if the data is stored in a single location and shared ubiquitously. Clearly, a number of challenges and obstacles exist but often the biggest prevention to change such as this is the unwillingness of people to investigate it and pursue it more. I believe this is a reasonable model that  can be achieved in a relatively short time and the savings would easily ensure the initial cost of transformation is recouped.

The implementation of solution such as this would showcase Ireland's ability to embrace new technology, highlight the expertise available within the country and put Ireland at the forefront of operating models that provide security and cost efficiency for data management. If the government are to win the battle to re-establish Ireland to the heights of the Celtic Tiger, forward thinking is a must.