Results

Oracle Buys Moat for Digital Ad Measurement In Key Addition to Its Data Cloud

Oracle Buys Moat for Digital Ad Measurement In Key Addition to Its Data Cloud

Chris Kanaracus
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. ...

Read more
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…...

Read more
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,…...

Read more

Constellation Insights

Oracle is continuing its acquisitive ways in 2017, with the latest purchase focusing on Moat, which makes a platform for measuring the effectiveness of digital advertising. It will become a key new feature of Oracle's Data Cloud service, which has expanded in functional scope and intent over the past couple of years.

Moat already partners with popular digital ad platforms such as Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Pandora and Snapchat and it lists major marketers including Unilever, Kellogg's, Nestle and the New York Times as customers. 

"Oracle's investing heavily to build a comprehensive suite of solutions targeted at marketers and advertisers," says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Cindy Zhou. "The convergence of adtech and martech is fueling the market consolidation. Moat brings additional digital advertising measurement and analytics capabilities to Oracle Data Cloud."

In a FAQ, Oracle said it would keep Moat "an open measurement and analytics platform, with deep integrations and partnerships across the entire digital publisher and adtech landscape."

Oracle built out Data Cloud beginning a few years ago with the acquisition of BlueKai, which provides a front end to hundreds of consumer data marts. BlueKai users can select and combine data sets from those sources based on their particular marketing and advertising needs.

Oracle touts Data Cloud's ability to provide consumer and B2B profile data that's updated in real time, rather than collected and aggregated on a monthly or quarterly basis. This means marketers can target at a more immediate level, such as by delivering messages when time a prospect is actively shopping for a new product or service.

Other acquisitions Oracle made in support of Data Cloud include DataLogix and AddThis. Those moves expanded the number of user profiles and targeted audiences available through Data Cloud, particularly for B2B scenarios. 

But it's important to note that today,  Data Cloud is far from just a data-as-a-service play, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Doug Henschen. "The real appeal is its combination of data and analytic services," he says. "Targeting and measurement are the lion’s share of the business, while straight-up data licensing is a smaller part of the business."

Television is the next frontier for targeted and measurable advertising, and that's squarely where Moat fits into Oracle's strategy, Henschen adds. "Streaming digital video—seen on desktops and connected TVs as well as mobile devices—is the fastest growing form of TV consumption, but advertisers have struggled to measure the impact of digital video." 

Moat focuses on providing "attention analytics" with its Moat Score, which measures the combination of an ad's length, how long it was visible, how long it was audible and the size of the video viewer relative to the size of the device screen, Henschen notes. 

The company says it measures attention analytics more than 19 billion times each day, a sizable figure that Oracle will surely look to scale ever higher.

"Conventional linear television still accounts for more than 90 percent of advertising spend, but addressable advertising, through set-top-boxes and on-demand offerings, and digital video advertising, through connected TVs, Web browsers and in-app viewing, are quickly growing a share of television ad spending," Henschen says. 

Oracle's move could spark competitors such as Adobe and Salesforce to scoop up other ad-tech companies in response. Possible targets include Integral Ad Science, comScore and AdClarity. 

 24/7 Access to Constellation Insights
Subscribe today for unrestricted access to expert analyst views on breaking news.

Data to Decisions Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Revenue Officer

Oracle Looks to Court Developers to Its Cloud with Wercker Acquisition

Oracle Looks to Court Developers to Its Cloud with Wercker Acquisition

Chris Kanaracus
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. ...

Read more
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…...

Read more

Constellation Insights

Oracle executives have been touting the growth of the company's PaaS (platform as a service) and IaaS (infrastructure as a service) offerings, but with a new acquisition have acknowledged it needs to do more to attract developers. This week, Oracle announced it had acquired Dutch startup Wercker, which makes a continuous integration and delivery platform centered around Docker container-based applications. Here are the key details from Oracle's announcement:

Oracle and Wercker share the view that developers greatly benefit from focusing on building great products and applications. Oracle is building a leading IaaS and PaaS platform as the foundation for a new generation of cloud computing. A leading cloud needs great tooling and adding Wercker’s container lifecycle management to Oracle’s Cloud provides engineering teams with the developer experience they deserve to build, launch and scale their applications. Together, Oracle and Wercker will democratize developer tooling for the modern cloud.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Formed in 2012, Docker has around 20 employees and had raised only about $8 million in funding over three rounds, suggesting that the price tag was likely on the modest side. Wercker is integrated with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Slack and Kubernetes. 

Wercker has tens of thousands of users, who have developed millions of build and deployment pipelines, according to a statement. It competes with the likes of CircleCI, Codeship and Jenkins. 

Its not clear whether Oracle will deprecate Wercker's integrations with rival cloud providers, particularly AWS, which has been a key target of competitive rhetoric from executive chairman Larry Ellison.

Oracle will continue offering a community edition of Wercker, according to an FAQ document. Support for GitHub and BitBucket will remain.

Wercker's founder and CEO Micha Hernández van Leuffen provided a rationale for the deal in a blog post:

The world of software is changing and so is the world of enterprise. More than ever, we see incumbents in every sector feeling the heat from much smaller competitors who demonstrate an ability to more quickly respond to customers armed with more information and choices than ever before.

Wercker’s Docker-based platform has a strong, rapidly growing user base as companies, large and small, transition to container-based workloads. Developers will now have access to a strong Docker-based portfolio as part of Oracle PaaS and IaaS. 

"It's a good acqusition as Oracle needs to become more attractive for deploying containers and microservices, with the necessary DevOps scaffold around it," says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "Wercker brings this to them."

24/7 Access to Constellation Insights
Subscribe today for unrestricted access to expert analyst views on breaking news.

 
Tech Optimization Chief Information Officer

Research Summary: Artificial Intelligence Delivers Mass Personalization In Commerce

Research Summary: Artificial Intelligence Delivers Mass Personalization In Commerce

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…...

Read more

 

Why Mass Personalization Efforts Fail and Ten Simple Steps to Fix Them

Over the past four decades, valiant attempts at personalization have failed due to the lack of relevant and intelligent automation.  Moreover, expectations of consumers and prospects have only grown.  The result – an expectations gap in personalization that manifests itself in fickler consumers and greater unpredictability in revenues for brands and retailers.  The inability to relevantly connect and effectively engage with consumers reflects some underlying truths:

  1. Stakeholders expect mass personalization. In an age of digital disruption, customers, partners, suppliers, and employees have grown accustomed to massive market choice, a plethora of pricing and policy options, and convenient delivery. The rise in expectations creates an insatiable cycle of satisfaction and disappointment that an omni-channel approach alone cannot deliver.  Today, omni- channel plays only a temporary role as organizations must progress forward.
  2. Lack of relevance leads to lack of engagement. Contextual relevancy can be correlated to an immediate effect on the top line.   Constellation estimates that lack of content relevancy often results in 83 percent lower response rates in the average marketing campaign.  Conversely, personalized contextual relevancy by time of day, geo-spatial location, weather, and identity improves commerce conversions between two to three times over normal non-personalized campaigns.  Context provides brands and organizations with the relevancy to earn the permission to engage with customers.
  3. Context provides brands and organizations with the relevancy to earn the permission to engage with customers.  Manual management of personalization overwhelms most organizations.  Legacy approaches are not designed for creating large-scale individualization and cannot be retrofitted.  These systems classify individuals into forced-fit, binary segments.  Often, individuals who belong to multiple segments and use cases are frustrated with this approach.  Sadly, existing systems fail to handle the management of rules engines, policies, complex event processing, and preferences at the segment level – never mind on the individual level. Those who attempt manual personalization ultimately fail due to the complexities in managing personalization without using much technology. Moreover, sales, marketing and distribution systems must scale from hundreds of thousands to billions of customers.
  4. Static systems miss emerging market shifts.  Technologies can no longer be static.  Legacy personalization systems deceptively start out easy and end up as cumbersome anchors years later.  In an era of dynamic markets, supporting technology must identify new demand signals; assess, analyze, and act on new demand signals; and apply cognitive and machine learning capabilities to adapt.

Designing AI-Driven Smart Services Starts with the Orchestration of Trust

Currently, the fashionable approach is predictive.  Prediction does a great job of using past history to foretell future patterns.  An intention-driven system tests for shifts in patterns by setting up hypotheses and awaiting the results.  If one knows a person always gets a specific type of coffee at the same time every day, that’s predictive.  An intention-driven system will test to see what type of coffee is purchased based on time of day, weather, relationships, location, and even sentiment gathered from heart rate or actions. The test comes from an offer or from studying shifts in patterns and behaviors.  This self-learning and adjusting capability is powered by cognitive computing approaches.  In fact, this algorithm-driven intelligence eventually will think on its own.

Digital transformation describes a shift in business models and approaches to engagement with customers, prospects, partners, employees and suppliers.  AI-driven smart services provide the backbone behind these business model transformations.  Consequently, crafting AI-driven smart services requires a shift in thinking to atomic-driven smart services.  In fact, these new AI-driven smart services rely on five key components (see Figure 1):

Figure 1.  The Secret to Designing Atomic AI-Driven Services.

Source: Constellation Research

  1. Digital footprints and data exhaust use AI to build anonymous and explicit profiles. Every individual, device, or network provides some information. That digital footprint or exhaust could come from facial analysis, a network IP address, or even one’s walking gait. Using AI and cognitive reckoning, systems can start to analyze patterns and correlate identity. That means that AI services will recognize and know individuals across difference contexts and take an intention-driven approach.
  2. Immersive experiences go beyond omni-channel.  The combination of context, content, collaboration, and channels creates immersive experiences that cater to what each individual or node requires.   Context starts with attributes such as identity, relationship, roles time, location, weather, sentiment.  Content includes all content types from web pages, videos, product catalogs, community pages, product listings, knowledge bases, and documents.  Collaboration talks about the sense and respond feedback loops.  Channels are any delivery mechanism that can be accessed by a user from mobile devices, social media, kiosks, gesture, conversations as a service, augmented reality, and other AI driven UX experiences.
  3. Mass personalization at scale delivers intention-driven digital services.  Anticipatory analytics, catalysts, and choices interact to power mass personalization at scale.  Anticipatory analytics allow customers to “skate where the puck will be.”  Catalysts provide offers or triggers for response.  Choices allow customers to make their own decisions.  Each individual or machine will have its own experience in contexts depending on identity, historical preferences, and needs at the time. From choose-your-own-adventure journeys, context-driven offers, and multi-variable testing on available choices, the AI systems offer statistically-driven choices to incite action. With no real beginning nor ending, expect these systems to work like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Funnels fall aside as customers, partners, employees, and vendors jump in across processes, make their own decisions, and craft their own experiences on their own terms.  Journey maps must account for infinite journeys and support the customer-centric points of view.
  4. Value exchange completes the orchestration of trust. Once an action is taken, value exchange cements the transaction. Monetary, non-monetary, and consensus are three common forms of value exchange. While monetary value exchange might be the most obvious, non-monetary value exchange (including recognition, access, and influence) often provides a compelling form of value. Meanwhile, a simple consensus or agreement can also deliver value exchange, for instance, on the veracity of a land title or the terms of a patient treatment protocol.
  5. Cadence and feedback complete an AI-powered learning cycle. Powered by machine learning and other AI tools, smart services consider the cadence of delivery – one-time, ad hoc, repetitive, subscription-based, and threshold-driven. Using machine learning techniques, the system studies how the smart services are delivered and applies this to future interactions.

Bottom Line:  Mass Personalization At Scale Requires A Strong AI Foundation

The market need for mass personalization at scale and the technology advances in artificial intelligence (AI) enable brands and enterprises to finally deliver on the promises of digital transformation.   As new algorithm-driven intelligence improves, these AI-driven smart services have the capacity to deliver immersive experiences, mass personalization, and value exchange across different modes and cadences.  Further, these systems can apply machine learning to improve their capabilities in future interactions.

This report shows how AI-driven smart services deliver on the promises of mass personalization at scale, how organizations and brands can design their own AI-driven smart services, and highlight 10 recommendations to accelerate personalization success.

Click here to purchase the report and get the 10 recommendations to accelerate personalization success

Your POV.

Are your commerce systems old and creaky?  Ready to modernize commerce but don’t know how?  Do you have a digital transformation strategy?   Looking to apply matrix commerce?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com.

Please let us know if you need help with your Digital Business transformation efforts. Here’s how we can assist:

  • Developing your digital business strategy
  • Connecting with other pioneers
  • Sharing best practices
  • Vendor selection
  • Implementation partner selection
  • Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
  • Demystifying software licensing

 

 Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Next-Generation Customer Experience AI Agentic AI LLMs Generative AI ML Analytics Automation Machine Learning business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP finance Healthcare Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Leadership Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Experience Officer

Hyperledger, Ethereum Blockchain Projects Move Toward Cooperation, Not Competition

Hyperledger, Ethereum Blockchain Projects Move Toward Cooperation, Not Competition

Chris Kanaracus
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. ...

Read more
Andy Mulholland
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…...

Read more

Constellation Insights

As interest in blockchain/distributed ledger technologies grew in recent years, a number of powerful industry consortia have emerged. Two of the most prominent are Hyperledger, which is hosted at the Apache Software Foundation, and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. (The latter was only formed in February, but Ethereum already had a strong developer community.)

Now an important milestone has been reached between the Ethereum community and Hyperledger, which counts more than 100 members and is a major player in blockchain. Hyperledger project head Brian Behlendorf made the announcement in a blog post:

[T]he Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee (TSC) approved a proposal submitted by engineers at Monax and Intel, to incubate the community’s first Ethereum derived project – Burrow, a permissionable smart contract machine.

The Burrow project originated with Monax as eris-db, and has been open source since December 2014. The project has been relicensed to Apache Software License 2.0, in accordance with the Hyperledger governance requirements.

First, and foremost, having an Ethereum derived project under the Hyperledger umbrella should send a strong message that any positioning of the Hyperledger and Ethereum communities as competitive is incorrect.

Apart from that, there remain many technical challenges to solve with blockchain, and it makes sense for the community at large to collaborate in the name of solving them with production-ready code faster, Behlendorf wrote. 

An Apache-licensed Ethereum Virtual Machine also means that the variety of distributed ledger falling under the Hyperledger banner, such as Sawtooth Lake and Fabric, can work on integrating EVM, he added:

I know that many in the community have been looking forward to (and working towards!) this day. I think it will mark an important point in Hyperledger’s (and blockchain) history.

That isn't hyperbole, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Andy Mulholland. 

"One aspect that is part of the definition of interactive digital markets is that they consist of an ecosystem of trading enterprises, hence the requirement for a commercial ‘settlement’ system, and the hope that blockchain technology will be able to provide this," he says. "Though it is early days in the progress towards this goal, the importance of Hyperledger and Ethereum as major initiatives is understood. Therefore, this announcement of the two working in tandem introduces an important new impetus."

The addition of Monax to Hyperledger is a welcome measure, and could spark even more collaboration between the communities. Earlier this year, a proposal to relicense the Ethereum C++ client under the ASF's Apache 2.0 license and away from the more restrictive GPLv3 failed after resistance from some members of the Ethereum community. The addition of Monax and Burrow to Hyperledger could serve as a test bed for collaboration and thus a potential motivator for broader integration between Hyperledger and Ethereum in the future.

24/7 Access to Constellation Insights
Subscribe today for unrestricted access to expert analyst views on breaking news.

Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Chief Information Officer

News Analysis - SAP reshuffles Executive Board - sets up for next 5 years

News Analysis - SAP reshuffles Executive Board - sets up for next 5 years

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…...

Read more
This morning SAP surprised us with the news of re-organizing its executive board, largely initiated by the departure of Steve Singh. As often with organizational press releases – you have to read it from the bottom up, but we will follow our customary process of dissecting the press release.

 
 


Here you go – the press release can be found here:
WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced newly expanded responsibilities of key executives. Robert Enslin and Bernd Leukert will shift and expand their portfolios as members of the Executive Board of SAP SE. The Supervisory Board of SAP SE has named Adaire Fox-Martin and Jennifer Morgan to the Executive Board.

MyPOV – Neat summary. Good to see two women coming to the executive board.

The moves underscore SAP’s commitment to customers’ ongoing digital transformation and its effort to foster top talent.

MyPOV – Ok – important – but then how do these appointments support digital transformation?

“I am pleased that executives such as Rob, Bernd, Adaire and Jen are stepping into bigger leadership roles to transform the way we drive innovations with our customers,” said Hasso Plattner, chairman of the Supervisory Board.

MyPOV – Mandatory chairman of the supervisory board.
In addition, two new leadership assignments were announced for current EMEA President Franck Cohen and SAP Cloud Platform President Bjoern Goerke. Cohen will become chief commercial officer and Goerke chief technology officer.

MyPOV – Good to see the next level repercussions, too. I can’t assess Cohen’s impact – but Goerke’s appointment is a good move. A company of the size of SAP needs a CTO, needs the ying and yang between a development leader and a chief technologist… now it’s up to Goerke to show he is up for the job and might become a member of the executive board – some time. Cohen is key to keep the European customers happy from a representation perspective and channels is a key business for enterprise software.
 
“We have always considered it a privilege to nurture careers and leaders,” said Bill McDermott, CEO and member of the Executive Board. “SAP is a company focused on innovation, scale and growth. I’m proud of this leadership team and know they are poised to keep SAP on the rise.”

MyPOV – Good quote by McDermott. The new setup gives more scale (2 sales leaders instead of one) and has more room to streamline product development and services. I asked what it means for e.g. a SuccessFactors customer – and McDermott’s answers was ‘no change’. But I expect over time the matrix line of SuccessFactors product development to get a little stronger towards Leukert than to the SuccessFactors leader, Mike Ettling. My interpretation here.
 
The Supervisory Board has asked Enslin, head of Global Customer Operations, to be president of the new Cloud Business Group. He will oversee SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, Concur, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Hybris solutions as well as the SMB Solutions Group organization. Leukert, head of Products & Innovation at SAP, will expand his portfolio to accelerate SAP’s platform and digital transformation strategy. Enslin and Leukert will jointly lead key growth businesses at SAP, ensuring that development teams and customer-facing teams are in lockstep with one another from the design thinking and innovation process to customer-facing initiatives.

MyPOV – Enslin gets an entrepreneurial opportunity and also gets out of the grind and pressure of the global sales role, he has done that well for a long time, in a difficult product life cycle stage of SAP. Leukert will add responsibility on the development side, as a lot of innovation e.g. in platform (see Hybris choosing CloudFoundry 3+ years ago) happens in the acquired company’s products. Good to bring it all together… as mentioned I expect the line to Leukert / his team to become more solid – possibly the only one in 2 years or so from now. And that’s the course of all successful acquisitions over time, SAP has run Ariba, Hybris, SuccessFactors, FieldGlass etc. on a long leash on the product side for a long time.
 
With Enslin’s increased focus on cloud businesses at SAP, Fox-Martin and Morgan will ascend to the co-presidency of Global Customer Operations, overseeing all SAP regions and building on their success in the Asia-Pacific-Japan region and North America, respectively. Fox-Martin will oversee EMEA and Greater China. Morgan will oversee the Americas and Asia-Pacific-Japan regions. As chief commercial officer, Cohen will lead SAP’s channel business as well as assume responsibility for all sales processes and go-to-market initiatives across SAP. As CTO, Goerke will advance the company’s technology strategy and serve as a key external spokesperson.

MyPOV – Good to see two executives in charge of SAP sales, with all the new products and solutions SAP is providing / has provided a good move to have more bandwidth on frankly, a brutal job. One question that was missed to be asked was if Fox-Martin (who is Irish) would move back to Europe. There is a long tradition of managing China directly from Walldorf / Europe – so that makes sense. And Morgan is on ‘McDermott’s track’ as he stated on the call. And of course, good to see SAP adding two women to the board, I hope and expect them to do better than two previous women appointed (and since then left) before. Finally, good to see women leadership in a key, revenue generating function.
 

All changes will be effective May 1, 2017.

MyPOV – No time to lose.

Steve Singh, president of Business Networks and Applications, will leave SAP SE at the end of this month. Singh collaborated closely with Enslin, and together they transitioned Concur solutions into the SAP product family. Singh built a strong foundation for business networks at SAP and plans to focus on other entrepreneurial interests outside of SAP.

MyPOV – And here we are to the action of the reactio (in Newton terms) – Singh retiring for a more entrepreneurial role. Frankly, I was surprised that Singh stuck around so long, his brother, Ariba co-founder ‘bolting’ right at acquisition time. Writing was on the wall, eg. with McDermott showing up at SAP Ariba Live, not Singh like last year. He will be missed as an outside SAP voice and influence, he probably holds the record (need to do some math) of hanging around the longest as a founder / CEO of a large acquisition (remember Business Objects, Sybase, SuccessFactors leaders leaving quickly).

“Steve Singh’s character and entrepreneurial spirit are greatly admired around the world,” McDermott said. “When SAP acquired Concur Technologies, we knew Steve would play a significant role in strengthening the SAP cloud portfolio. We also knew he would eventually go back to his start-up roots. We could not be more grateful for everything Steve has done.”

MyPOV – Good / nice quote for Singh. Will be interesting what he does next, we wish him a long break to recharge batteries and all the best.

 

Overall MyPOV

Gravity is a powerful force in organizations, and gravity comes back to the ‘mothership’ of SAP in the form strengthening product under Leukert and bringing all acquired ‘cloud’ properties together under Enslin. The ‘board’ structure under which e.g. SuccessFactors and hybris were gone are now making place for traditional (matrix) reporting lines. So, this comes as no surprise, as acquisitions always get somehow ‘reeled in’ to the mothership – timing is the delicate part here. Moving too early ‘brakes’ the acquired company DNA and unique value proposition, doing it too late leaves enterprise with no talent and customers with staling products. I think SAP got the timing right here, e.g. preluding the whole move with adding ‘SAP’ in front of the brands of the acquired parties, in case of doubt even let this run longer than needed separately.

For customers, it means an easier way to do business. Two sales leaders for one makes it more time with the sales leader, more product under one leader makes sure things fit better together, all acquired products under one leader makes sure synergies are tapped in. The next big organizational piece to watch is how SAP will organize the go to market of S4/HANA beyond the current stage of ‘incubation’ under Leukert. It can’t stay there ‘forever’. A focus on channels is good, as more and more enterprise software will be consumed from marketplaces and partners directly. If SAP does this right – it could mean less friction and faster software purchasing processes. Lastly good to see SAP has a CTO again, an important function for a technology vendor of the size of SAP. So, overall good news for customers, who get more capacity with sales leaders on the top, a more streamlined acquired product experience and more product synergies.

Finally – putting my career coach / succession planning / board power assessment hat on – it gives plenty of room to grow and prove themselves for all SAP leaders involved – a good setup to determine who will succeed McDermott – in a 5+ year time frame.

 
 
 Future of Work Tech Optimization New C-Suite Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity SuccessFactors SAP Leadership AR Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Let's talk about how we talk about blockchain

Let's talk about how we talk about blockchain

Steve Wilson
Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Steve Wilson is former VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, leading the business theme Digital Safety and Privacy. His coverage includes digital identity, data protection, data privacy, cryptography, and trust. His advisory services to CIOs, CISOs, CPOs and IT architects include identity product strategy, security practice benchmarking, Privacy by Design (PbD), privacy engineering and Privacy [or Data Protection] Impact Assessments (PIA, DPIA). Coverage Areas: -  Identity management, frameworks & governance-  Digital identity technologies-  Privacy by Design -  Big Data; “Big Privacy”-  Identity & privacy innovation Previous experience: Wilson has worked in ICT innovation, research, development and analysis for over 25 years. With double…...

Read more

In my last blog "IBM Blockchain as a Service and Hyperledger Fabric forge a new path", I mentioned how the language of blockchain technology is shifting.  Even the labels themselves are still fluid.  Debates rage over whether IBM and R3 should call their solutions “blockchains”.  For a year or two now, many writers have preferred Distributed Ledger Technologies, yet the increasingly dominant private blockchains aren’t very distributed at all.  So the thoughtful Dave Birch for one prefers to call them “shared” ledgers.  I like that, but who knows what terms will prevail? I do know that words matter and we should watch how they're used. 

The characteristics of third generation DLTs are shifting markedly, and the blockchain vernacular is losing some of its mystique.  Decentralisation distinguished the first generation blockchain, and some still say it’s essential. But let’s remember that the public blockchains don’t actually produce decentralisation; they are designed with decentralization as a starting point.  Nakamoto rejected financial institutions, and the Bitcoin blockchain was designed to handle e-cash with no central authority. Yet nothing in the original design indicated that decentralisation could fit all types of business, nor that the blockchain could decentralise anything other than e-cash. 

Immutability is another word that’s becoming a bit stale.  In my nearly twenty years experience in cybersecurity prior to blockchain, I don’t recall “immutability” ever being expressed as a requirement.  The idea seems peculiar to blockchain.  And it’s not actually a requirement so much as a means to an end.  The real need in the Bitcoin blockchain is to have a community monitor all transactions and detect Double Spends, which they do by committing all agreed transactions to a permanent record.  Immutability is a result of the massive redundancy of the network. Yet there are many ways to achieve satisfactory permanence in a file system, most of which had been immutable enough until blockchain came along. 

But if just one word was to go from blockchain discourse, I’d vote off “trust”.  I’ve long thought that trust only confuses the field of identity management, but trust is truly the phlogiston* of blockchain.  One of the worst misrepresentations of the first generation blockchain was as the “Trust Machine”, as if trust somehow gets mined from the network and imparted on its outputs.  

No, blockchain was designed to enable parties who don’t know each other and who trust no one, to nevertheless exchange real irrefutable value.

Security is generally based on a triad of Technology, People and Process. When we say that blockchain is “trustless”, we mean the system is operationally secure without relying on people or process.  And that’s a rare feat, even if it’s strictly limited to purely digital assets. 

Blockchain enables people to do an important thing without trust.  With Bitcoin, senders and receivers walk away from their transactions without any new conviction in one another.  Strangers before, and strangers after.  

As Distributed (or shared) Ledger Technologies continue to evolve, I can see “trust” fading away.  Expectations of DLTs are becoming more complex and more sophisticated than the utopian beginnings of blockchain and Bitcoin, as serious applications emerge in trade, logistics, finance, and supply chain.  The words we use for these things need to be precise.  

In a forthcoming Constellation Research report, I will be analysing how the blockchain’s ideals of immutability, transparency and consensus are being refined and re-engineered in fresh DLTs for complex real world applications. 

 

* FOOTNOTE Before modern chemistry, fire was explained as the result of a special essence called phlogiston, present in combustible materials being released, leaving behind depleted and lifeless ash. 

Future of Work Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Distillation Aftershots Innovation & Product-led Growth Matrix Commerce Blockchain AI Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Product Officer

It will take a virtual village

It will take a virtual village

Steve Wilson
Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Steve Wilson is former VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, leading the business theme Digital Safety and Privacy. His coverage includes digital identity, data protection, data privacy, cryptography, and trust. His advisory services to CIOs, CISOs, CPOs and IT architects include identity product strategy, security practice benchmarking, Privacy by Design (PbD), privacy engineering and Privacy [or Data Protection] Impact Assessments (PIA, DPIA). Coverage Areas: -  Identity management, frameworks & governance-  Digital identity technologies-  Privacy by Design -  Big Data; “Big Privacy”-  Identity & privacy innovation Previous experience: Wilson has worked in ICT innovation, research, development and analysis for over 25 years. With double…...

Read more

In "We are hopelessly hooked" (New York Review of Books, February 25), political historian Jacob Weisberg canvasses the social impact of digital technology. He describes mobile and social media as “self-depleting and antisocial” but I would prefer different-social, not merely for the vernacular but because the new media's sadder side is a lot like what's gone before.

In reviewing four recent contributions to the field - from Sherry Turkle, Joseph Reagle and Nir Eyal - Weisberg dwells in various ways on the twee dichotomy of experience online and off.  For many of us, the distinction between digital and "IRL" (the sardonic abbreviation of "in real life") is becoming entirely arbitrary, which I like to show through an anecdote.
 
I was a mid-career technology researcher and management consultant when I joined Twitter in 2009. It quickly supplanted all my traditional newsfeeds and bulletin boards, by connecting me to individuals who I came to trust to pass on what really mattered.  More slowly, I curated my circles, built up a following, and came to enjoy the recognition that would ordinarily come from regular contact, if the travel was affordable from far flung Australia.  By 2013 I had made it as a member of the “identerati” – a loose international community of digital identity specialists.  Thus, on my first trip to the US in many years, I scored a cherished invitation to a private pre-conference party with 50 or so of these leaders. 

On the night, as I made my way through unfamiliar San Francisco streets, I had butterflies.  I had met just one of my virtual colleagues face-to-face. How would I be received “IRL”? The answer turned out to be: effortlessly.  Not one person asked the obvious question – Steve, tell us about yourself! – for everyone knew me already.  And this surprising ease wasn’t just about skipping formalities; I found we had genuine intimacy from years of sharing and caring, all on Twitter. 

Weisberg quotes Joseph Reagle in "Reading the Comments..." looking for “intimate serendipity” in successful online communities.  It seems both authors are overlooking how serendipity catalyses all human relationships.  It’s always something random that turns acquaintances into friends. And happy accidents may be more frequent online, not in spite of all the noise but because of it.  We all live for chance happenings, and the much-derided Fear Of Missing Out is not specific to kids nor the Internet.  Down the generations, FOMO has always kept teenagers up past their bed time; but it’s also why we grown-ups outstay our welcome at dinner parties and hang out at dreary corporate functions. 

Weisberg considers Twitter’s decay into anarchy and despair to be inevitable, and he may be right, but is it simply for want of supervision?  We know sudden social decay all too well; just think of the terribly real-life “Lord of the Flies”. 

Sound moral bearings are set by good parents, good teachers, and – if we’re lucky – good peers.  At this point in history, parents and teachers are famously less adept than their charges in the new social medium, but this will change.  Digital decency will be better impressed on kids when all their important role models are online.  

It takes a village to raise a child. The main problem today is that virtual villages are still at version 1.0.

Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Marketing Transformation Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Customer Officer Chief People Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Marketing Officer

How Ensono Used Workday Finance And HR Cloud To Innovate And Save Money

How Ensono Used Workday Finance And HR Cloud To Innovate And Save Money

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…...

Read more

One Integrated, Global System For Finance And HR Delivers Business Success

This case study examines Ensono’s experience implementing Workday’s HR and Finance enterprise applications in the cloud. Ensono provides infrastructure management services for global companies. Ensono delivers next-generation IT solutions and helps organizations plan for optimized, future infrastructures. By implementing Workday, Ensono was able to save millions of dollars by replacing many software systems with just one system, and received many other tangible benefits.

Ensono, which was part of Acxiom, is now a standalone infrastructure management partner. Formerly known as Acxiom IT, it selected a new name to cement its identity as a company capable of supporting clients well beyond the mainframe. The name Ensono is a derivation of the Zen concept “enso”, which refers to strength and creativity, and the Italian expression “in sogno” which means “in dreams.” Ensono’s culture is based on looking at challenges from many different angles to arrive at unprecedented solutions and make unexpected connections. As Acxiom IT was rebranding itself to become Ensono, signifying its commitment to be innovative and to deliver on the brand promise, the hybrid IT solution leader also wanted to solve some internal challenges

Learn how Enson saved $1 million a year through consolidation and elimination of legacy systems.

Click here to purchase the report

Your POV.

Are you ready to transform your ERP? Do you expect cost savings from an upgrade?  Will the shift to the cloud be in your future?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

Please let us know if you need help with your Digital Business transformation efforts. Here’s how we can assist:

  • Developing your digital business strategy
  • Connecting with other pioneers
  • Sharing best practices
  • Vendor selection
  • Implementation partner selection
  • Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
  • Demystifying software licensing

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy,stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website. * Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Copyright © 2001 – 2017 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.

Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience

The post Research Summary: How Ensono Used Workday Finance And HR Cloud To Innovate And Save Money appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.

 Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth workday Leadership Chief People Officer Chief Experience Officer

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd Weighs In on HCM, Cloud Competition

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd Weighs In on HCM, Cloud Competition

Chris Kanaracus
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. ...

Read more

Constellation Insights

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd is generally a quotable guy, and came across no differently this week at Oracle's HCM World conference during keynotes and a session with press and analysts. Hurd took on a range of topics, from Oracle's philosophy around the HCM market to how it's competing with the likes of Amazon Web Services for infrastructure workloads. Here's a look at some of the highlights.

If you thought Oracle was only going after enterprise and midmarket customers with its HCM cloud, you'd be wrong, according to Hurd. In fact, "there is no customer too small we can't reach" with HCM cloud, he said during the opening keynote. Oracle's HCM cloud is growing three times as fast as its next closest competitor, he added, although not specifying whether that was Workday or SAP.

Oracle is learning how to do HCM better by that old standby: Dogfooding its own products. The company has 140,000 employees now and recruits about 20,000 per year. It's a highly complex process made harder by the fact Oracle is seeking out top technical talent in high demand, Hurd said. It also places great emphasis on training, particularly given the sizable numbers of workers it's been recruiting straight out of college.

Training extends to the management layer as well, in a crucial way, Hurd added. "People don't typically leave companies. They leave managers." There are 18,000 managers at Oracle today.

As a result, Oracle is battle-testing its HCM suite as much as any company could, he said. However, as he noted: "[HCM] is not an app. It's a strategy, it's a process."

Going back to the early days of Fusion Applications, Oracle has pushed a "co-existence" strategy, wherein customers with ample on-premises software implementations are encouraged to adopt cloud-based, complementary modules at their own pace. Hurd continued this messaging at HCM World, noting that PeopleSoft 9.2, which was initially released four years ago, saw many customers choose to undergo the on-premises upgrade. But those same customers have been adding cloud HCM apps to their mix, he added.

Oracle has been seeing HCM deals come together as add-ons to its cloud ERP sales, Hurd said. Fifty percent of Oracle's cloud ERP customers never had an Oracle ERP system before, and the deals are largely being driven by CFOs, he added.

While the event focused on applications, Hurd discussed Oracle's foray into IaaS (infrastructure as a service) during a session with analysts and press. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that while Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google collectively had more than $31 billion in capital expenditures last year, of which the bulk presumably went toward data center development. In contrast, Oracle had $1.7 billion in capex last year. 

Asked about the disparity, particularly when one considers how far behind those IaaS market leaders Oracle is at present, Hurd replied 

"It's an such an interesting thesis that whoever has the most capex wins," he said. Oracle's Gen2 data center infrastructure is so efficient that Oracle doesn't need to build out as much raw data center real estate as the competition, Hurd contended.

MyPOV: Hurd's job is to drive Oracle cloud sales and with HCM, the messaging needs to de-emphasize technical matters and focus on business value. Judging from Hurd and other Oracle executives' presentations at HCM World, they are succeeding.

It was also notable how much Oracle put HCM customers, and not corporate spokespeople, on the stage to discuss their projects. Oracle even launched an HCM customer innovation award program at the event, honoring dozens of companies spanning a wide variety of industries. Underscoring the human element, Hurd noted how important customer references are when it comes to HCM sales. "Customers would rather buy from another customer than from us."

24/7 Access to Constellation Insights
Subscribe today for unrestricted access to expert analyst views on breaking news.

Future of Work Tech Optimization Chief People Officer Chief Information Officer

Google's New Approach for Machine Learning Focuses on User Privacy, Efficiency

Google's New Approach for Machine Learning Focuses on User Privacy, Efficiency

Chris Kanaracus
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. ...

Read more
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,…...

Read more

Constellation Insights

Google researchers have come up with a method for machine learning that tackles two of the technology's biggest pain points to date: End-user privacy and device and network resource consumption.

It's called Federated Learning, and while still in the labs, could have a profound influence going forward. Here are the details from Google's official blog post:

Federated Learning enables mobile phones to collaboratively learn a shared prediction model while keeping all the training data on device, decoupling the ability to do machine learning from the need to store the data in the cloud. 

It works like this: your device downloads the current model, improves it by learning from data on your phone, and then summarizes the changes as a small focused update. Only this update to the model is sent to the cloud, using encrypted communication, where it is immediately averaged with other user updates to improve the shared model. All the training data remains on your device, and no individual updates are stored in the cloud. 

Careful scheduling ensures training happens only when the device is idle, plugged in, and on a free wireless connection, so there is no impact on the phone's performance.

Google is testing Federated Learning in Gboard, the Android keyboard. Gboard offers up suggested queries to users, and Federated Learning captures whether the user accepted the suggestion. It stores and processes this information locally. 

Google notes that Federated Learning, while innovative, presented new logistical challenges to overcome:

[I]n the Federated Learning setting, the data is distributed across millions of devices in a highly uneven fashion. In addition, these devices have significantly higher-latency, lower-throughput connections and are only intermittently available for training.

These bandwidth and latency limitations motivate our Federated Averaging algorithm, which can train deep networks using 10-100x less communication . The key idea is to use the powerful processors in modern mobile devices to compute higher quality updates than simple gradient steps. which excel on problems like click-through-rate prediction.

Google has thought through the potential benefits Federated Learning has for end-users quite thoroughly. It uses an aggregation protocol that requires 100s or thousands of users to have participated in an update before a server can decrypt the information, meaning no person's data can be exposed on its own.

There's much more detail in Google's full blog post, which is well worth a read. Here's a graphic illustrating Federated Learning's architecture (credit: Google).

 

One of the biggest challenges in machine learning is the task of collecting enough data to drive accurate predictions and decisions, and Federated Learning is aimed squarely at that target, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Doug Henschen.

Data federation, of course, is nothing new as a concept, but by applying a federated approach to machine learning training, Google is cleverly side-stepping the challenge of having to move data to one, centralized location for training, he adds. "The data-movement alone is a big challenge, and once centralized, data storage and analysis is a big expense." 

"This federated approach to training machine learning models seems to promise multiple advantages: eliminating data-movement requirements, taking advantage of remote computing capacity, and side-stepping privacy and security concerns all while delivering more accurate predictions thanks to the use of more data in the training process," Henschen says.

That said, there are tradeoffs, such as how long it might take to train a model, "but Federated Learning is a novel and promising approach to a big stumbling block to predictive success."

24/7 Access to Constellation Insights
Subscribe today for unrestricted access to expert analyst views on breaking news.

Data to Decisions Tech Optimization Chief Information Officer
Subscribe to