Digital Transformation Digest: Oracle to Hit Gas Pedal On Java, Flat UI Design's Potential Pitfall, and More

Chris Kanaracus

Managing Editor, Constellation Insights
Constellation

Chris Kanaracus is managing editor of Constellation Insights.  Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members.  Prior to joining Constellation, Kanaracus spent seven years covering the enterprise software industry for IDG News Service, where he frequently broke exclusive stories with a focus on end-customer issues. Kanaracus has also held various managerial and reporting roles at newspapers in New England since 1998. Twitter: @chriskanaracus , Title: Big IdeasConstellation Insights Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members. ...

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Oracle's Java chief calls for faster innovation: A top Oracle employee in charge of Java says it is time to hit the gas pedal on the language's development by moving to a much more frequent release cadence. The changes are necessary to ensure Java remains competitive over the long term, chief platform architect Mark Reinhold said in a blog post.

For more than 20 years, Java SE and its counterpart JDK (Java Development Kit) "have evolved in large, ir­reg­u­lar, and some­what un­pre­dictable steps," he wrote. "Each fea­ture re­lease has been dri­ven by one or a few sig­nif­i­cant fea­tures, and so the sched­ule of each re­lease has been ad­justed as needed — some­times more than once! — in order to ac­com­mo­date the de­vel­op­ment of those fea­tures."

While this allowed the delivery of major, well-tested features, it held up the release of smaller ones, Reinhold added. Back when Java was one of a few platforms that evolved at a similar pace, this was acceptable, but the current landscape is much different, with many more nimble competitors, he argued: 

Java 9 will ship this month. Java 8 was released more than three years ago. Reinhold proposes that going forward, there should be a new Java feature release every six months, quarterly update releases and a "long-term support release" every three years.  

POV: Reinhold's proposal has been met largely with support from Java developers. It comes shortly after Oracle announced its intention to move Java Enterprise Edition to an as-yet unnamed open source foundation, a move that would significantly democratize the language's oversight.

The new release cadence for Java SE, which remains a widely used programming language, is thoughtful in that it keeps in mind the needs of early-adopter developers as well as more conservative enterprises, thanks to the inclusion of the long-term support release. It's always a good idea to balance innovation with stability and on its face, Reinhold has outlined a plan that delivers both.

Research pokes holes in flat design's efficacy: Flat design has been a preferred UI method for quite some time, first introduced broadly by Microsoft's Metro in the early 2000s and dramatically popularized with its introduction in iOS 7. 

It turns out—according to one study, at least—that flat design may have a clean, minimalist appeal, but it has a negative impact on a user's interaction with web pages and application screens. 

That's because flat design downplays the use of signifiers—elements that clearly indicate they are clickable or otherwise an interactive element of the page. UX consultancy Neilsen Norman Group decided to determine just how much. In a recent study, they wired up 71 users with eye-tracking equipment and presented them with the following:

We took 9 web pages from live websites and modified them to create two nearly identical versions of each page, with the same layout, content and visual style. The two versions differed only in the use of strong, weak, or absent signifiers for interactive elements (buttons, links, tabs, sliders).

In some cases, that meant taking an already flat page and adding shadows, gradients, and text treatments to add depth and increase the strength of the clickability signifiers. In other cases, we took a page that already had strong, traditional signifiers, and we created an ultraflat version. We were careful that the modifications we provided were reasonable and realistic.

NNG determined that users spent 22 percent more time on the web pages with weak signifiers, a finding it equated to slower task performance. 

POV: It should be noted that NNG doesn't conclude that flat design is a bad idea in all cases. Rather, it will more likely raise usability problems if a web page is crowded with many discrete elements. The full study is well worth a read and is particularly timely as enterprises refresh legacy application UIs and build next-generation applications. 

Accenture snaps up another boutique consultancy: The run on specialized tech consulting firms continues with Accenture's move to buy IBB Consulting, which provides services to communications, media and technology companies. 

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. After its completion, Accenture will gain about 160 consultants in North America and Australia. The move will help Accenture deliver strategy services "around key industry issues such as networks, digital video and IPTV, digital transformation, next generation mobility, internet of things (IoT), M&A, cloud, advanced advertising, data analytics and insights, marketing optimization, and international growth," according to a statement.

POV: Accenture has made a string of niche acquisitions over the past year in order to better position itself as an enterprise partner for digital transformation. As with other deals, IBB is not about adding rank-and-file IT talent, but rather to bring in seasoned advisors who can help enterprises conceive a broad-ranging digital transformation strategy. IBB has worked with some of the biggest companies in its space, including Comcast and Verizon, so it certainly fits that bill. 

 

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Digital Transformation Digest: Huawei's Global Cloud Ambitions, WhatsApp Cooking Up Business Edition, and More

Chris Kanaracus

Managing Editor, Constellation Insights
Constellation

Chris Kanaracus is managing editor of Constellation Insights.  Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members.  Prior to joining Constellation, Kanaracus spent seven years covering the enterprise software industry for IDG News Service, where he frequently broke exclusive stories with a focus on end-customer issues. Kanaracus has also held various managerial and reporting roles at newspapers in New England since 1998. Twitter: @chriskanaracus , Title: Big IdeasConstellation Insights Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members. ...

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Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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Huawei says competing clouds should work like airlines: Chinese telecom Huawei believes there will ultimately be room for five major cloud infrastructure services in the world, and it intends to be part of that select group. Here's how rotating CEO Guo Ping described the vision during a keynote at the Huawei Connect 2017 event in Shanghai:

The cloud is a cornerstone of the intelligent world," he said. "Society is experiencing a tangible Matthew effect in digital technology development. Because of this, as well as economies of scale in investment, clouds around the world will begin to converge – becoming more and more centralized.

The company will build a global cloud network based on its own public clouds, as well as clouds that it has built together with partners. Guo likened Huawei's strategy to the three major airline alliances – SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and Oneworld – which take passengers wherever they need to go in the world. Huawei Cloud, he said, will open up the world to its users.

He went on to explain Huawei's business model for the cloud, emphasizing that Huawei will monetize technology and services, not data. He said, "Huawei's Cloud DNA is made of a unique combination of technology, security, services, and shared success."

POV: It's important to put Ping's remarks in the proper context, says Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "He's right that probably not more than three to five global clouds will remain, but they will interoperate anyway," Mueller says. Take for example the broad uptake of the container orchestration system Kubernetes, an open-source project that originated at Google.

"The truth is that the partner concept has so fair failed for cloud," Mueller adds. "It was tried by the telcos, it was tried by VMWare, and did not work. It doesn't that it may not work in the long run in some way or shape, but at the moment it's clear that the large IaaS vendors compete, and don't share, and the vendors who don't yet have a public offering and who could partner want to sell their own gear first."

Take the situation of a Huawei customer who could offload compute load to another partner, Mueller says: "That would be good for the partner but not good for Huawei." Finally, the airline analogy doesn't quite apply to a global cloud ecosystem as Huawei envisions. "The airline world was and is heavily regulated and has seen only regionally strong carriers," he says. "That's not the case with cloud."

HPE eyes AWS business with Cloud Technology Partners buy: After shuttering its own public cloud ambitions, HPE is looking to build a business through consulting services for leading public clouds, in particular Amazon Web Services, while making money selling kit and software for private clouds. Its goal was underscored this week with the acquisition of Cloud Technology Partners, a 200-person consultancy based in Boston.

CTP is one of only a relative few AWS Premier Consulting Partners in North America, and says it has completed hundreds of AWS projects for enterprises to date. Within that, CTP has found a niche consulting for financial services firms who want to move to AWS. It says it has built and migrated production applications for "dozens of the world's largest financial services firms."

While CTP is best known for its work with AWS, it presents itself as cloud neutral, offering services for Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and OpenStack environments.

POV: CTP will be moved under HPE's Nextpoint services division and it will benefit from greater scalability and resources. Although

While CTP is small in terms of headcount, it has ample experience working with Fortune 500 companies on complex cloud transformation projects. That kind of expertise can't be grown quickly, which is why HPE opened up its pocketbook for CTP. 

The question ahead lies in how HPE communicates its intentions for CTP to its partners, many of which are also in the cloud transformation and services game and as such, may find themselves in competition with HPE for that business. Meanwhile, existing CTP customers and prospects will have to wait and see how well CTP's culture and track record is preserved as part of a much larger services organization.

WhatsApp unveils business version of messaging app: The hugely popular WhatsApp messaging service is rolling out a paid version aimed at businesses.

Purchased by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, since then WhatsApp has served as a hugely popular counterpart—particularly outside of the U.S.—to Facebook Messenger, but until now hasn't had a clear monetization plan under Facebook's ownership. The social network giant has rolled out business-friendly features for Messenger and now is taking similar steps with WhatsApp. Here's how WhatsApp describes the plan, from an official blog post:

We know businesses have many different needs. For example, they want an official presence – a verified profile so people can identify a business from another person – and an easier way to respond to messages. We're building and testing new tools via a free WhatsApp Business app for small companies and an enterprise solution for bigger companies operating at a large scale with a global base of customers, like airlines, e-commerce sites, and banks. These businesses will be able to use our solutions to provide customers with useful notifications like flight times, delivery confirmations, and other updates.

The business versions are now in testing; WhatsApp says its goal is to maintain a high level of responsiveness and service.

POV: WhatsApp recently started a closed pilot program for verifying business accounts. The company says messages between customers and businesses will be encrypted end-to-end, although if a business uses a service provider to manage their messages, the latter may be able to read the messages.

News of WhatsApp's plans actually leaked as far back as March, but they seem much further along at this stage. Overall, the emergence of Messenger and WhatsApp as communications channels between businesses and customers is something for every sales, marketing and support organization to have on their radar.

What obviously isn't new is the notion of using electronic messages to reach customers, given the longstanding prominence of email and SMS. But WhatsApp and Messenger can provide a more robust experience, and it's an opportunity that enterprises should be careful not to squander through a lack of discipline. There's no need for spam to rear its ugly head in the multimedia messaging world.

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Digital Transformation Digest: Oracle Fleshes Out Its IoT Play, Salesforce and IBM Add Integrations, and Key Takeways from Workday's Q2

Chris Kanaracus

Managing Editor, Constellation Insights
Constellation

Chris Kanaracus is managing editor of Constellation Insights.  Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members.  Prior to joining Constellation, Kanaracus spent seven years covering the enterprise software industry for IDG News Service, where he frequently broke exclusive stories with a focus on end-customer issues. Kanaracus has also held various managerial and reporting roles at newspapers in New England since 1998. Twitter: @chriskanaracus , Title: Big IdeasConstellation Insights Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members. ...

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Doug Henschen

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Doug Henschen is former Vice President and Principal Analyst where he focused on data-driven decision making. Henschen’s Data-to-Decisions research examines how organizations employ data analysis to reimagine their business models and gain a deeper understanding of their customers. Henschen's research acknowledges the fact that innovative applications of data analysis requires a multi-disciplinary approach starting with information and orchestration technologies, continuing through business intelligence, data-visualization, and analytics, and moving into NoSQL and big-data analysis, third-party data enrichment, and decision-management technologies. Insight-driven business models are of interest to the entire C-suite, but most particularly chief executive officers, chief digital officers,…...

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Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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Oracle's big IoT play: Among large software vendors, Oracle hasn't made quite as much noise about IoT as some others. That has just changed with a pair of announcements it made this week that serve to flesh out its IoT strategy in some detail. 

The big news concerns new AI and machine learning capabilities in Oracle's IoT Cloud service. These power so-called digital twins—digital representations of an IoT device or process—as well as what Oracle calls "digital threads," which focus on supply chain:

Supply Chain practitioners have spent millions of dollars in implementing SCM and ERP systems, but most often, data is manually fed into these systems. Digital Thread is a connected business process framework that leverages IoT and creates a "system of systems" by connecting traditionally siloed elements in real-time throughout the digital supply chain.

Oracle also unveiled three new industry IoT applications covering field service, connected factories and fleet management scenarios. These join previously released IoT apps for asset monitoring, connected workforce and other areas.

In addition, Oracle announced it has worked with Mitsubishi Electric on an IoT platform for smart manufacturing. Dubbed FA-IT Open Platform, it employs edge computing to collect and analyze data from production sites, and is built with a number of Oracle technologies including its database, Java, BI, IoT and SOA cloud services.

POV: The Mitsubishi announcement may be more of a customer win story, but it's a significant one and should provide market validation for Oracle's IoT stack. Overall, the company is a bit overdue in fleshing out its IoT story, but clearly things have been in the works behind the scenes, says Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller.

"It's good to see the digital twin concept taking hold with all ERP vendors that have IoT offerings," he adds. "The digital thread is a new concept and makes sense. We will see where it goes from here. While Oracle's plans for IoT weren't that clear and tangible, they have become clearer now."

Expect IoT to be a big focus at Oracle's upcoming OpenWorld conference in early October.

Salesforce and IBM's practical partnership: Back in March, Salesforce and IBM announced a global strategic partnership and this week unveiled some fruits of that labor, which surprisingly, don't have the words Watson or Einstein printed anywhere on them.

Rather, the companies announced three joint offerings: An tie-up between Salesforce and IBM's cloud integration platform, for creating data flows in and out of Salesforce and both cloud and on-premises sources; Salesforce Garage, new customer engagement centers backed by IBM's Bluewolf consulting group, which was one of the largest Salesforce systems integrators before Big Blue bought it in 2016; and three Salesforce Lightning components that bring IBM's Weather Insights analytics services to Salesforce users.

POV: All three announcements are "devoid of AI sizzle and focus instead on practical solutions that will make it easier for joint IBM and Salesforce customers to do more in the cloud and drive data-driven insights," says Constellation VP and principal analyst Doug Henschen.

The cloud integration has obvious appeal, Henschen adds. "Many IBM customers began their cloud journeys by embracing Salesforce for front-office functionality," he says. "IBM's emphasis has been on bringing the rest of the enterprise into the cloud." With the new integration, it will be easier to bring back-office data and systems together with Salesforce's sales, service, marketing and communities applications.

IBM signaled its intent to work more closely with Salesforce when it bought Bluewolf, and the new garages will help Bluewolf more effectively deliver its design-thinking methodologies and project delivery experience. Finally, the weather analytics components "would seem to offer easy and practical ways to put weather insights to day-to-day use in contexts as obvious as insurance claims and as routine as scheduling sales and service calls," Henschen says.

Key takeaways from Workday's Q2: Workday released its second-quarter numbers this week and they were strong, with revenue rising 42 percent to $434.5 million while losses narrowed to 40 cents a share compared to 55 cents per share in the same quarter last year. Often some of the most telling news from a company's quarterly earnings comes not in the press release, but on the conference call with analysts. Here are a few highlights.

• More than 30 percent of the Fortune 500 and 17 of the Fortune 50 are now Workday core HR customers, CEO Aneel Bhusri said on the call.
• Siemens is replacing its current HR system with Workday HCM, Bhusri said. A massive customer win to say the least.
• Workday is continuously refining its implementation methodology and is now seeing Fortune 500 companies going into production in about a year.
• In July, Workday announced its PaaS strategy. This was of note, since Workday's platform historically has been tightly closed off. Since then, Workday has held two hackathons and the interest level in those from customers and partners has validated the move toward PaaS, Bhusri said.
• Initially, Workday will focus its PaaS on customers extending its applications, but in the longer term "we definitely see an independent software vendor opportunity," Bhusri said. "I think we will be very careful with that. We know we are not looking to get into a whole host of different areas, but as an example, if we came across a group that wanted to build supply chain and manufacturing systems or another industry-specific system that we have a long-term view on ... we know we would welcome that."

POV: The Workday Rising conference is coming up in October and that's where customers can expect to hear many more specifics about Workday's PaaS, perhaps including pricing and availability. Constellation will be in attendance; expect our full report after the event.

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Digital Transformation Digest: Google's New Augmented Reality Tech, Coding Bootcamp Market Feels Growing Pains, and More

Chris Kanaracus

Managing Editor, Constellation Insights
Constellation

Chris Kanaracus is managing editor of Constellation Insights.  Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members.  Prior to joining Constellation, Kanaracus spent seven years covering the enterprise software industry for IDG News Service, where he frequently broke exclusive stories with a focus on end-customer issues. Kanaracus has also held various managerial and reporting roles at newspapers in New England since 1998. Twitter: @chriskanaracus , Title: Big IdeasConstellation Insights Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members. ...

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Andy Mulholland

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Andy Mulholland is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on cloud business models. Formerly the Global Chief Technology Officer for the Capgemini Group from 2001 to 2011, Mulholland successfully led the organization through a period of mass disruption. Mulholland brings this experience to Constellation’s clients seeking to understand how Digital Business models will be built and deployed in conjunction with existing IT systems. Coverage Areas Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite: BYOD, Internet of Things, IoT, technology and business use Previous experience: Mulholland co authored four major books that chronicled the change and its impact on Enterprises starting in 2006 with the well-recognised book ‘Mashup Corporations’ with Chris Thomas of Intel. This was followed in…...

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Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Google introduces AR Core, its new augmented reality tech for Android: It's not often that Google finds itself playing catchup to rivals, but in the case of augmented reality, it has. Now the company has taken its AR play a significant step forward with the preview release of ARCore, a new software development kit that can be used to create augmented reality experiences on both existing and future Android phones. 

ARCore builds on Tango, an AR tech that Google had been working on for a few years. It had rolled out a phone and tablet built to work with Tango, and in 2016 Lenovo released a Tango-compatible phone. The big difference with ARCore is that it doesn't require any additional hardware, Google said in a blog post:

ARCore will run on millions of devices, starting today with the Pixel and Samsung’s S8, running 7.0 Nougat and above. We’re targeting 100 million devices at the end of the preview. We’re working with manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, LG, ASUS and others to make this possible with a consistent bar for quality and high performance.

POV: It's not clear how long the ARCore preview period will last, but developers can get their hands on the code now. Meanwhile, Apple's iOS11 is now in beta (and expected to be generally available in conjunction with the iPhone 8 launch in a few weeks) comes with an augmented reality SDK called ARKit and there are already developers showing off new applications.

"Google at least got something out the door for Android," says Constellation founder and CEO R "Ray" Wang. "Now, to be fair, Apple had a head start, as it acquired Metaio, one of the industry leaders in AR, about three years ago," he adds. "In conversations with Apple a few weeks back, we can say that the apps on ARKit are pretty advanced."

Coding school startup lays off 11 percent of staff: A Denver startup called Galvanize, which has raised more than $60 million in venture capital for its coding schools, has laid off 11 percent of its staff as it seeks to retrench and focus more on online training programs, Reuters reports:

The layoffs come a month after two other so-called “coding boot camps,” Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco and Iron Yard of Greenville, South Carolina, announced plans to shut down by the end of 2017. In the past year, eight coding schools have closed, up from years past, according to review website Course Report. Currently there are 95 coding schools in the United States.

Course Report, which tracks the coding bootcamp industry, says the market will grow 52 percent this year, generating $266 million across 95 bootcamps in all. Nearly 23,000 students will graduate from bootcamps this year, up from about 15,000 last year.

POV: Bootcamps by nature are for-profit businesses unaffiliated with an accredited college or university. They're often positioned as a way for early or mid-career professionals to get a quick jumpstart into the coding game. The rapid growth of bootcamps in the past several years has the whiff of a gold rush about it; the closings of Dev Bootcamp and several others, along with the woes of well-established players such as Galvanize, suggests the market is seeing a correction due to saturation and quality control.

"Building learning software is a risky business," says Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "It's a big budget and time investment that often gets overtaken by market dynamics and reality. It looks like that's what happened here. But the opportunity and need to develop more coders remains, so more competition, innovative thinking and alternate training approaches are all welcome."

BASF advances its digital transformation with SAP: German industrial giant BASF is working with SAP on a project aimed at forging closer operational ties with BASF's business partners. Here are the details from the companies' joint release:

SAP Asset Intelligence Network, a cloud-based collaborative network, will provide BASF with a digital data connection to multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers and their respective asset data. The project's goal is to establish a fully integrated and centrally managed asset information repository, helping ensure data consistency and availability.

By establishing such a single source of truth for asset information, BASF aims to further improve the efficiency of its engineering and maintenance processes throughout the asset lifecycle.

POV: The deal builds on SAP's existing relationship with BASF, which along with its close ties to Siemens gives it an even more prominent role in German and European industry.

But the broader point lies with BASF's goals for the project, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Andy Mulholland. " They want to develop a digital business ecosystem to support event-driven interactions around common data and business structures," he says. "That's a big issue and a strong move in the European digital business community."

(Go here for Mulholland's deep dive into how industrial technology and IT technology vendors are aligning and in some cases competing for stakes in the industrial IoT market.)

 

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Digital Transformation Digest: Apple and Accenture Team Up for Mobile Enterprise, VMWare and Pivotal's New Container Service, Facebook Wins Patent for Gesture Control System, and More

Chris Kanaracus

Managing Editor, Constellation Insights
Constellation

Chris Kanaracus is managing editor of Constellation Insights.  Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members.  Prior to joining Constellation, Kanaracus spent seven years covering the enterprise software industry for IDG News Service, where he frequently broke exclusive stories with a focus on end-customer issues. Kanaracus has also held various managerial and reporting roles at newspapers in New England since 1998. Twitter: @chriskanaracus , Title: Big IdeasConstellation Insights Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members. ...

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R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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Accenture and Apple's new enterprise mobility venture: Apple is making a new push into enterprise computing through a partnership with Accenture around iOS development. The deal is a true co-innovation effort and not something driven mostly by Accenture, as the companies' joint press release indicates:

Accenture will create a dedicated iOS practice within Accenture Digital Studios in select locations around the world. Experts from Apple will be co-located with this team. Working together, the two companies will launch a new set of tools and services that help enterprise clients transform how they engage with customers using iPhone and iPad. The experts will include visual and experience designers, programmers, data architects and scientists, and hardware and software designers.

“Starting 10 years ago with iPhone, and then with iPad, Apple has been transforming how work gets done, yet we believe that businesses have only just begun to scratch the surface of what they can do with our products,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Both Apple and Accenture are leaders in building incredible user experiences and together we can continue to truly modernize how businesses work through amazing solutions that take advantage of the incredible capabilities of Apple’s technologies.”

The release emphasizes three areas of focus for the partnership: back-end integration with iOS devices, tools and templates for IoT, and converting legacy applications to iOS.

POV: The deal is a smart move by both companies as it helps Apple drive further into the enterprise while Accenture can take advantage of the iOS skills shortage, says Constellation founder and CEO R "Ray" Wang. 

"The big areas are more than IoT," he adds. "Apple's augmented reality and virtual reality capabilities, and the new integrations with other devices such as HomeKit and Healthkit are where the future innovations lie ahead."

Apple's goal in lining up enterprise players like Accenture is to get more iOS devices sold into enterprises, notes Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "I am sure more SIs are in the wings," he adds. "But that cannot distract from the fact that the march to the enterprise for Apple is slow. Consumerization of IT via devices is one thing, getting enterprises to build on a platform is another."

VMWare, Google and Pivotal team up on container service: While software vendors involved with open-source software seek to find ways to offer commercial services around a given project, cooperation with other providers is crucial to the project's growth and customer success. That truism underlines this week's announcement from VMWare, Pivotal and Google around Pivotal Container Service (PKS), which will provide the Kubernetes software container orchestration platform on both VMWare vSphere and Google Cloud Platform.

The service is a commercial version of the open source Kubo project, which was founded by Pivotal and Google in November to bring Pivotal Cloud Foundry together with the increasingly popular Kubernetes. VMWare says it is committing significant engineering resources to the Kubo project in conjunction with the new container service's launch.

PKS will have ongoing compatibility with Google Container Engine, which is kept up to date with the latest Kubernetes releases (which to date have been rolling out every few months). VMWare plans to deeply integrate PKS with its other products, including vCloud Director, vRealize Automation and Wavefront for container monitoring. The initial release of PKS is expected in the fourth quarter. Pricing won't be available until then.

VMWare and Pivotal will be in charge of to go-to-market, aiming PKS at Global 2000 companies as well as service providers.

POV: The move looks like a good one, albeit far from surprising. While VMWare has selected Google rival Amazon Web Services as its preferred IaaS provider, Google cloud chief Diane Greene is a VMWare co-founder and former CEO, and partnering with her alma mater is an extension of her plan to push GCP deeper into enterprises. Google also remains a key player in the Kubernetes project, which it founded, despite having donated the code to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. For VMWare, the deal reflects another step in its hybrid cloud strategy—something it needs to develop wisely as its large installed base of on-premises customers gets more comfortable with the cloud.

"It's good to see these three vendors working together to help customers," says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "And it's another win in a long series of wins for Kubernetes to become the de facto container management standard at the moment."

Facebook awarded patent for gesture control system: While Facebook applies for more than 1,000 patents each year, it can take quite a while for a patent to be awarded This month, Facebook was awarded one it filed in 2012 for an in-air, gesture-based control system. Here are some of the key details of the invention, which is solely credited to Facebook's Robert Wang, who works on the company's Oculus VR team:

Because the system does not require instrumentation or gloves, it works well in a typical desktop computing environment. The user can switch between typing or using the mouse to gesturing by simply lifting up his or her hands, without having to put on a special glove or tracking device. Several configurations of the invention fit on top of a normal desk. The robust recognition of the pinching gesture enables the user to make comfortable input motions, reducing fatigue.

Other 3D manipulation applications include training applications for aircraft maintenance where the student virtually manipulates 3D tools to train muscle memory, design of 3D protein structures to match x-ray crystallography data for medical research, gaming applications where the user controls a virtual avatar or virtual hands, computer animation tasks where the user controls the configuration and timing of a virtual actor, and 3D sculpting for free-form modeling.

The hand tracking system described above can be used in conjunction with a variety of display systems including plasma, LCD, stereoscopic, and video wall displays. Processing can be performed either on the computer system connected to the display or on a remote networked computer system to which the camera image data is sent.

POV: You can read the patent in full at this link. A H/T goes to Patently Apple for initially spotting it. Facebook is far from the only company working on this type of technology—from startups such as Myo and Leapmotion to big players like Apple—but it's nonetheless of interest, particularly with respect to the implications it could have on application user experience.

"I believe human-to-machine interfaces will be a key component to helping us get work done more efficiently," says Constellation VP and principal analyst Alan Lepofsky. "We're quite limited by the keyboards and screens we use today. Facial recognition, eye tracing, sentiment analysis, hand motions and even things like heart rate and repository patterns will play a role in the future.

Rushed go-live blamed for rampant social service system woes: A new lawsuit alleges that potentially hundreds of Washington, D.C. residents who applied for food stamps had their benefits cancelled or delayed for months due to problems with a new computer system that federal officials warned wasn't ready for launch.

Families are going hungry as a result, says the lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the Washington Post reports:

The trouble began last year, advocates for the poor say, when the city transitioned to a new computer system despite warnings of potential problems from the federal government, which pays for the program.

Before the rollout, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials recommended more testing to avoid backlogs and delays, and told the city that proceeding was “against our best advice” and that the city was moving ahead “at its own risk,” court records show.

Once the system went live, many errors were reported and it took 90 minutes to process an application, compared to 20 minutes with the old system. The added overhead has been exacerbated by the fact that the D.C. program serves 120,000 people, and lines outside agencies to apply start forming as early as 5 a.m., the Post reports.

POV: It's not clear when the matter will be resolved, but in the meantime it holds an important cautionary tale for any enterprise IT shop about the importance of testing and the need to set realistic project timelines. The manner in which testing is done is crucial as well. According to a letter from federal officials to the District of Columbia Department of Human Services, the new system was never tested with a live production pilot. Rather, the old system remained the system of record, while the new one was tested in parallel. The District's methodology was insufficient, federal officials said. 

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Digital Transformation Digest: VMWare Now Live on AWS, Oracle's Cloud Hiring Spree, and More

Chris Kanaracus

Managing Editor, Constellation Insights
Constellation

Chris Kanaracus is managing editor of Constellation Insights.  Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members.  Prior to joining Constellation, Kanaracus spent seven years covering the enterprise software industry for IDG News Service, where he frequently broke exclusive stories with a focus on end-customer issues. Kanaracus has also held various managerial and reporting roles at newspapers in New England since 1998. Twitter: @chriskanaracus , Title: Big IdeasConstellation Insights Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members. ...

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Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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VMWare launches on Amazon Web Services: After shuttering its own public cloud plans, VMWare inked a deal last year with AWS to implement its software-defined data center computing fabric on the cloud giant's server farms. Now the first delivery of that plan has arrived:

VMware Cloud on AWS is powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, the unified SDDC platform that integrates vSphere, VMware VSAN, and VMware NSX® virtualization technologies with VMware vCenter management. This means customers can use familiar VMware tools to manage their applications, without having to purchase any new or custom hardware, rewrite applications, or modify their operating model. With VMware Cloud on AWS, customers can leverage AWS's breadth of services, including compute, databases, analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), security, mobile, deployment, application services, and more.

VMWare made the announcement at its VMWorld conference in Las Vegas. Initially, the new service will be available in AWS's US West region with more to follow during 2018, according to a statement. Early customers include Cerner, MIT, Sysco and Moody.

POV: Along with full global availability, VMWare is still working out its pricing model for the service, which means many initial deals will be on the smaller side until enterprises get a better sense of both its robustness and how term pricing could benefit. Right now, it's priced hourly according to active usage, with one and three-year subscription options coming later. Customers would realize significant savings over on-demand pricing, with up to a 50 percent discount for a three-year deal, according to VMWare's pricing page. VMWare also wants to incentivize existing on-premises customers, as it will offer discounts to those with on-premises vSphere, NSX or vSAN licenses.

What enterprises should watch for now are the experiences of early adopters, says Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "If this fully works, CIOs have no excuse in regard to moving VMWare loads to the cloud," he says. "But let's see if this works." After all, he notes, customers weren't eager to adopt VMWare's failed attempt at public cloud, vCloud Air.

Oracle hiring up for the cloud: When it comes to accelerating cloud revenue growth, the best answer is attracting the right talent, and lots of it. That's what Oracle believes, in any case. The company said this week it will hire more than 5,000 engineers, consultants, sales and support personnel into its cloud business.

Under the direction of CEO Mark Hurd, Oracle had already been hiring and training new college graduates as cloud salespeople. That will continue, but the hiring push is also targeting experiences sales staff and engineers, Oracle EVP Joyce Westerdahl said in a statement.

POV: Cloud revenue shot up 58 percent to $1.4 billion in Oracle's most recent quarter. That represented 13 percent of Oracle's overall revenue. In contrast, new on-premises license sales were down 5 percent to $2.6 billion, but maintenance revenue actually rose 2 percent to $4.9 billion—46 percent of overall revenue.

In short, while Oracle is keen on growing cloud sales, on-premises licenses and maintenance remain lucrative and substantial businesses. Oracle has crafted its new-hire training program carefully, with seasoned account executives skilled at negotiating complex, multimillion-dollar on-premises deals essentially mentoring green salespeople while sharing in their success.

Constellation believes, however, that the best sales tool is the ability to point to successful customers. With Oracle's massive OpenWorld conference coming up in about a month, it will present an opportunity for the company to do just that.

Panelists resign from Trump's cybersecurity council: Eight members of the U.S. National Infrasructure Advisory Council have resigned, saying that recent actions by President Donald Trump have threatened the nation's cybersecurity. In a group letter obtained by Nextgov, the departing panelists explained their rationale:

Your actions have threatened the security of the homeland I took an oath to protect. These actions include your remarks given at a press conference on infrastructure reform on August 15,2017. When asked about the horrific violence in Charlottesville, you failed to denounce the intolerance and violence of hate groups, instead offering false equivalences and attacking the motives of the CEOs who had resigned from their advisory roles in protest. You have given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend.

POV: The departures represent more than 25 percent of the panel's membership, but are to some degree partisan in nature. At least three Obama-era officials are among the ones leaving. Trump has also taken recent steps to highlight cybersecurity as a priority, elevating the Pentagon's Cyber Command to a more prominent organizational status. Still, with cybersecurity being a more important topic by the day, any sort of political turmoil is counterproductive to the mission. Here's to hoping the panel can be restaffed quickly with a bipartisan mix of officials capable of working well together. 

 

 

 

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Digital Transformation Digest: Amazon Details Whole Foods Integration Plans, Marketo Teams Up with Google Cloud, VMWorld 2017 Preview

Chris Kanaracus

Managing Editor, Constellation Insights
Constellation

Chris Kanaracus is managing editor of Constellation Insights.  Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members.  Prior to joining Constellation, Kanaracus spent seven years covering the enterprise software industry for IDG News Service, where he frequently broke exclusive stories with a focus on end-customer issues. Kanaracus has also held various managerial and reporting roles at newspapers in New England since 1998. Twitter: @chriskanaracus , Title: Big IdeasConstellation Insights Insights delivers exclusive, daily analysis of breaking news across Constellation’s eight business research themes to Constellation Executive Network members. ...

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Cindy Zhou

CMO
Level Access

Cindy Zhou is a practicing CMO.  Prviously, she was Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Digital Marketing Transformation and Sales Effectiveness. With over 18 years of practitioner experience in corporate marketing, product marketing, product management, and sales operations, Zhou has spearheaded marketing transformation at multiple technology companies. She advised Constellation’s clients on strategies to light-up demand generation, prove revenue contribution, and maximize sales productivity. Prior to joining Constellation, Zhou was Global Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Operations at BackOffice Associates, a global provider of data quality and information governance solutions to the Fortune 1000 and SAP SolEx partner. Before…...

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Amazon-Whole Foods integration plans revealed: One of the highest-profile retail and e-commerce-related acquisitions in years, Amazon's $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market, is set to close on Monday. In advance of that date, the companies have released some details of their integration plans.

Much attention has been paid to discounts that will be immediately applied to some best-selling Whole Foods grocery items, such as salmon, eggs, bananas and ground beef. This is an effort to shed Whole Foods' longtime, disparaging nickname, "Whole Paycheck." These price cuts and future ones will be enabled by the technology integration timeline, which the companies describe as the following:

In addition, Amazon and Whole Foods Market technology teams will begin to integrate Amazon Prime into the Whole Foods Market point-of-sale system, and when this work is complete, Prime members will receive special savings and in-store benefits. The two companies will invent in additional areas over time, including in merchandising and logistics, to enable lower prices for Whole Foods Market customers.

“We’re determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone. Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality – we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market’s long-held commitment to the highest standards,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer. ... And this is just the beginning – we will make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together. There is significant work and opportunity ahead, and we’re thrilled to get started.”

A bit further down the road, Amazon Prime will actually become Whole Foods' customer rewards program.

POV: There are few surprises in the joint announcement. Amazon has long been prized for its competitive pricing and there was never any question it would seek to lower the cost of shopping at Whole Foods. However, it is also clearly going to take pains to preserve Whole Foods' culture, wanting to retain its valuable pool of higher-end shoppers. 

Whole Foods' brick-and-mortar presence in hundreds of heavily populated areas was another big reason for Amazon's decision to buy it, as the locations provide additional density to its supply chain footprint. To that end, the companies announced that "select" Whole Foods stores will have Amazon lockers, where they can pick up Amazon.com items ordered online or return them. Constellation believes that this is just a start, and over time more real estate within Whole Foods stores will be devoted to Amazon.com-related purchasing and returns.

Marketo teams up with Google Cloud: Another SaaS vendor has decided to rely on a public cloud provider rather than run its own infrastructure. Marketing software vendor Marketo has signed a multi-year deal with Google Cloud Platform that will also see an integration between Marketo's tools and Google G Suite and data analytics.

Marketo's marketing automation software will "run end-to-end" on Google Cloud, and Google, an existing Marketo customer, will also expand its usage of the product. Moving its infrastructure will give Marketo, which was acquired last year by Vista Equity Partners for $1.79 billion, more resources to focus on product innovation. In addition, Marketo plans to leverage GCP's machine learning capabilities.

POV: The integration of Marketo and Google's ad analytics will have some strong synergies, says Constellation VP and principal analyst Cindy Zhou. "This provides customers a unified view of marketing campaign and advertising ROI," she says. "Historically, customers have bought ads separately through an ad network, or through Google directly, and it has been a siloed process of ad data and marketing campaign data. There has been no easy way to look at holistic campaign ROI. Companies either manually try to consolidate the data or rely on agency reporting."

Examining VMWorld 2017: In just a few days, VMWare's WMWorld conference will kick off in Las Vegas. The show comes days after the company reported strong second-quarter results, with revenue up 12 percent to $1.9 billion and net income rising 30 percent to $334 million. Here are some of the things you can expect VMWare to discuss at the event.

• VMware and Amazon Web Services: Last October, VMware announced that it had chosen AWS as its public cloud provider, with the intention of creating a hybrid cloud offering that spans on-premises VMWare deployments and AWS, without having to rewrite applications. (Go here for Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller's deep-dive on the announcement.) At the time, VMWare said the offering would be generally available in the middle of this year; during the earnings conference call, CEO Pat Gelsinger didn't provide many specifics, but indicated the AWS deal will be a big focus at VMWorld. In response to a question, Gelsinger also characterized Microsoft's Azure Stack, which stands to provide stiff competition for VMWare in hybrid cloud, as taking a less customer-friendly approach. 
  
  VMware's AWS integration will allow customers to "seamlessly extend their position to the AWS environment as well as to be able to consume additional AWS services in a very effective manner," he said. "In contrast Azure Stack is about bringing Azure on premise, so it's really many respects the opposite and it's asking customers to fork or create a heterogenity in their on-premise environment just to take advantage of some services that they may want to consume from Microsoft."
   
• Cloud customers in abundance: Thirty VMWare cloud management software customers will appear at VMWorld next week and at its companion event next month in Barcelona. They include Credit Suisse, Box and Polaris Alpha. Topics to be covered include operations monitoring, capacity planning and network management. While vendor executives and product managers are highly knowledgable about their products, customer stories told in their own words are crucial fodder for any enterprise conference. It appears that VMWare has done a solid job of pulling together a lineup.
   
• Future directions: On the earnings call, Gelsinger noted the introduction in May of Pulse IoT Center, for managing, securing and monitoring IoT devices. "IoT and edge specific solutions are being developed with key strategic partners including Fujitsu, HARMAN and EuroTech, as customers look to VMware to help extend the capabilities of the datacenter to the edges of their businesses," he said. Gelsinger also revealed that VMWare and Fujitsu are helping Toyota create a "next-generation in-car platform." He didn't offer any specifics, but those could come during VMWorld keynotes and sessions next week.

 

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