Workday Announces Learning Functionality to Complete Talent Management Solution - too little too late?

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…...

Earlier today we learned that Workday announced Learning, a new application to add to its portfolio of HCM applications. The announcement is key as it completes the native Talent Management portfolio offered by Workday – with Recruiting, Onboarding, Performance Management, Compensation and now Learning.

Let’s dissect the press release in our customary way – it can be found here:

PLEASANTON, CALIF. — Sept. 29, 2015 — Workday, Inc. (NYSE: WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today unveiled Workday Learning, a new application intended to offer a more personalized, meaningful learning experience for organizations to evolve and encourage career development at every stage of the employee lifecycle. Workday Learning will be built into the fabric of Workday’s unified suite of applications including Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) and Workday Financial Management, providing customers with a single system to cultivate their workforce, close talent gaps, and drive business growth.

MyPOV – Good to hear the general intention and direction here, not a general, 1st generation Learning offering, but a modern 21st century Learning product, that permeates beyond formal class room learning to all aspect of knowledge creation, distribution and consumption. No surprise that Workday stresses the unified platform. The organic approach puts an end to speculation on potential acquisitions in the Learning space. Interesting the stressing of Finance in the early part of the press release, we will pay more attention to that reading on.

Announced at Workday Rising Las Vegas 2015, Workday Learning embodies a shift from talent management to people enablement focused on engaging individuals with more rewarding, diverse work experiences that drive greater alignment between employee development, workforce productivity, and better business outcomes.

MyPOV – A good description of what the new generation of Learning products is all about. And we are attending Workday Rising – see our expectations here and catch us for the key takeaways Tuesday at 6 PM PST (more here).

A Continuous, Meaningful Learning Experience that Knows the Learner
Traditional learning management systems (LMS) are generally perceived as lackluster, tedious, and uninspiring. They sit outside of daily work, lack a connection to an employee’s day-to-day needs, and do not provide the kind of training that will help an individual progress in his or her current role.

MyPOV – Good description what happens with yesterday’s best practices in a fast pace environment. They quickly can look stale and inadequate. That said the ‘dreaded’ class room training will still have room on the 21st century and we will have to track when Workday will support that, too.

Built with the learner’s needs in mind and incorporating feedback from employees at organizations including athenahealth, California College of the Arts, Cornell University, and McKee Foods, Workday Learning will address the gaps that exist with current learning management systems. Taking advantage of rich data from Workday HCM, Workday Learning will offer an intuitive, meaningful learning experience that knows the learner and recognizes where the individual sits in the employee lifecycle – whether it’s the first day on the job, a new manager, or someone cultivating core skills and expertise in a current role.

MyPOV – Good to see that Workday has talked to its customers in regards of requirements for Learning, everything else would have been gross negligent, and in typical suite vendor functionality Workday points out the benefits of an integrated Learning solution, that is away of the ‘rest’ of people data and processes from the other HCM applications. This is in contrast to the best of breed / point solution vendors who need interfaces to unfold similar benefits. And interface turn out to be one of the most ‘dreaded’ things for HR practitioners.

Workday Learning is intended to provide customers with:
· A Collaborative Community to Gain and Share Knowledge – Leveraging the latest collaboration and social learning technologies, Workday will enable employees to consume, create, and share content on any device, at any time. Whether it’s shooting and sharing a video tutorial from a smartphone, or flipping through pages of training material on a tablet, Workday Learning will encourage an interactive community for learning, teaching, and coaching that meets the needs of today’s digital workforce.

MyPOV – No new Learning product since 2013 that does not stress social. Workday has not focussed on traditional social functionality in the past, so we will drill down to understand better how Workday will leverage this area and create compelling functionality.

· Content with Context – Workday Learning will be able to recognize users and make tailored learning recommendations based on who they are, what they do, and their stage in the employee lifecycle. For example, the system could recommend a video to a new manager, accounting for personal preferences and learning experiences completed by others in similar roles or at a similar stage in their career.

MyPOV – And a similar table stake of a 21st Learning solution, it is all about passing Learning content into the hands / screens of an employee the same way a beautiful pass reaches a wide receiver setting him up for a touchdown or 1st down (or a perfect corner the free player for a header for the ‘other’ football part of the world).

· Support for Diverse Learning Experiences – Workday Learning will enable customers to fully support a wide spectrum of developmental experiences spanning short, easy-to-digest micro learning activities and in-depth jumbo learning programs as well as mandatory certification and compliance training.

MyPOV – Good to learnt that Workday plans to apportion the learning volume and content, which is a key requirement for the multi-generational workforce that consumes information and learns in different ways across the generations of workers.

· Built-in Measurement and Insights – In combination with Workday HCM and Workday Financial Management, Workday Learning will equip customers with complete visibility into day-to-day learning activities and overall learning effectiveness. For example, a team manager could quickly understand how employees are tracking against individual development plans, and organizational leaders could better identify and optimize learning initiatives that positively impact business goals.

MyPOV –Good to see that Workday is leveraging suite wide benefits, interesting the stress on Finance. Good to see Workday addressing ‘Learning Effectiveness’. Borrowed from Marketing Effectiveness (what is an additional $ in Marketing going to give a business in return), Learning Effectiveness is asking the same question in regards of the allocation of Training dollars (or Euros etc.).

Availability
Workday plans to make Workday Learning generally available to customers in the second half of calendar year 2016.

MyPOV – Kudos for Workday to share a release time frame. But it is quite a way out there with 9-15 months till the product will be generally available.

Comments on the News
“Our customers have made it clear that they need a progressive solution that enables them to offer more personalized learning, development, and career opportunities in order to engage and retain their best people,” said Leighanne Levensaler, senior vice president, products, Workday. “Workday Learning will be seamlessly unified with Workday’s suite of applications to provide a smarter, more intuitive system that knows employees, what kind of work they do, and what they need to achieve job and career success. As a result, employees will be empowered to connect more and share relevant content with each other – creating a collaborative work environment where learning is continuous and ubiquitous.”

MyPOV – Good quote by Levensaler – hitting all the key aspect and benefits of the new solution. Good to see the sharing aspect mentioned here, too – which is key in a modern Learning. Seeing successful content becoming ‘viral’ as the result of employees sharing what works is one of the new ‘highlights’ in 21st century Learning systems.

“Having the opportunity to help shape several Workday products over the years has proven that Workday not only cares about what we as customers need, but seeks to understand our experiences and create something far better than we had imagined,” said Mark Newsome, director of human resources, McKee Foods. “Workday delivers on what it promises and creates viable alternatives to some of the old, stale offerings we often see in the marketplace. I am confident Workday Learning will be a fresh, new approach that addresses the gaps that traditional learning environments have struggled with for so long, without sacrificing the core infrastructure needed in a learning system.”

“Workday Learning has the potential to solve distinct challenges higher education institutions face in meeting the training needs of their staff, faculty, and larger community,” said Mara Hancock, chief information officer and vice president of technology, California College of the Arts. “Learning built into Workday HCM will serve as a community-wide tool that can help overcome many of the boundary limitations found in a traditional LMS where the line between community members are hardened, and social and collaboration components are bolted on rather than unified in one system.”

MyPOV – Always good to see customer quotes in a new product press release, stating of early involvement and feedback cycles with practitioners. McKee is a long term Workday customer (if I had the time I’d check in how many product launch emails they gave a quote), so it is good to see customers staying at the forefront of best practices. And good to see a higher education organization here, which points to Learning playing a prominent role in Workday’s Student solutions (at some point).

Additional Information Please visit the Workday blog for additional perspective about Workday Learning:
Read the blog: An Inside Look at Workday Learning: Reinventing How Employees Learn with perspective from Leighanne Levensaler, senior vice president of products, and Amy Wilson, vice president of HCM products
Read the blog: 3 Questions with Paul Sparta, a Founding Father of Learning Management Systems

MyPOV – Worth to check out the additional resources mentioned here to get a more complete picture. Good to see Sparta mentioned here, truly one of the veterans of Learning, he most recently sold the company he co-founded, Plateau to SuccessFactors (now SAP).

Overall MyPOV

A good move by Workday, as it (finally!) clarifies the vendor’s strategy in regards of Learning, the last piece of Talent Management automation that was not addressed with a native Workday solution. It is overall important as it makes the overall Workday messaging of one organic suite application built on the same platform real, while addressing the integrations concerns and worries of HR professionals. Also good to see that Workday strikes all the right points in regards of key 21st century Learning system functionality like content discovery, creation and propagation, aware of what works and is needed by employees.

On the concern side it will be key to see how Workday addresses the ripple effects in the ecosystem, a number of Workday customers have partnered with a number of Learning vendors, and they will now have to re-asses their plans for the next 3-4 years. How Workday handles this for both customers and partners will be key going forward, as Workday will have to keep partnering for other aspects in its portfolio (e.g. Payroll). The announcement is also mute in regards of license costs, with its Insights analytical products Workday has for the 1st time opened a new licensing area for customers, it remains to be clarified where Learning stands. Lastly on the technology side, Learning solutions are very different ‘animals’ in regards of technical needs (unstructured content, social, context, streaming networking requirements and platforms served) – so it will be interesting to see how Workday can address these challenges. Overall timing with 2nd half of 2016 means that a functional showdown between the new Oracle Learning solution (more here) and the enhanced SAP / SuccessFactors solution (more here) will happening sooner than later. And of course existing partners, most prominent probably Cornerstone on Demand (more here) will not stand still. But competition is good for customers.

For now it is good news for customers of Workday, who now need to align their Learning plans with the vendor’s roadmap. From the press release Workday is announcing all the right capabilities for a modern, 21st century Learning solution and leveraging all Suite level benefits that can make the Learning solution better than a point solution. Stay tuned for more updates from Workday Rising 2015.

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I will share my takeaways and likely some smaller tidbits on September 29th at 6 PM PST - watch it here - even better - tune in!

And more on Workday

Event Preview - What I would like Workday to address this Rising read here
News Analysis – Workday to Expand Suite of Applications for Healthcare Industry - with a SCM twist - read here
News Analysis - Workday supports UK Payroll - now speaks (British English) Payroll - read here
Workday 24 - 'True' Analytics, a Vertical and more - now needs customer proof points - read here
First Take - Top 3 Takeaways from of Workday Rising Day 1 Keynote - The dawn of the analytics era - time to deliver Insight Apps - read here
Progress Report - Workday supports more cloud standard - but work remains - read here
Workday 22 - Recruiting and rich Workday 22 are here - read here
First Take - Why Workday acquired Identified - (real) Analytics matter - read here
Workday Update 21 - All about the user experience and some more - read here
Workday Update 20 - Mostly a technology release - read here
Takeaways from the Salesforce.com and Workday partnership - read here
Workday powers on - adds more to its plate - read here
What I would like Workday to address this Rising - read here
Workday Update 19 - you need to slow down to hurry up - read here
I am worried about... Workday - read here

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

Future of Work Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience New C-Suite Sales Marketing Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Data to Decisions SuccessFactors workday SAP Oracle AI Analytics Automation CX EX Employee Experience HCM Machine Learning ML SaaS PaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Enterprise Software Enterprise IT Leadership HR Chief People Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

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What We Hope To Learn At #BoxWorks 2015

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…...

My colleague Holger Mueller and I are in San Francisco this week attending BoxWorks, Box's annual user conference. Over the last few years Box has evolved their story from being just a cloud based file synchronization and storage (EFSS) company to more of a content-centric platform.

Here are the things I'd like to hear about at BoxWorks 2015:

- Collaboration: What’s happening with BoxNotes? How about basic features like commenting, annotating, sharing, etc.
- Task Management: One of the keys to collaboration is providing structure, organization and accountability. Today the task management features are very basic, what's coming?
- Metadata and workflow: These two architecture components are part of Box's great differentiation. What's happening with these features?
- What's In Box: The issue I have with Box is that unless someone sends you a link, it's pretty difficult to know what's in there. I want to know what's happening around analytics, dashboards, recommendations. (for people, content, actions, etc...)
- More than just files: I'd like to see Box be far more of an aggregation engine. Show files stored in other repositories, or perhaps not even files at all! ex: webclip a website to Box, share a link to a Youtube video or Google Map.

Holger has lots of questions about Box's infrastructure, architecture, datacentres, app dev platform, and more.

Here's a short video from Holger and I discussing our hopes for BoxWorks. Enjoy...

Additional Reading

Box Hits Puberty and Starts the Journey From Product to Platform (BoxWorks 2014)

Up Up and Away. Box Makes Their Enteprise Application Vision A Reality (BoxWorks 2013)

Future of Work Sales Marketing Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer

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Strategy Before Systems

Russell Scibetti

Founding Editor, The Business of Sports
The Business of Sports

My name is Russell Scibetti and I have an extensive background in sports business, including CRM and database marketing, interactive and digital marketing, social media, corporate sponsorships and activation, and applied market research. From 2007 to 2014, I worked for Arizona State Athletics, Comcast-Spectacor (Philadelphia Flyers) and the New York Jets to manage and implement CRM, database marketing, market research and other technology-based sales and marketing initiatives. In 2014, I joined KORE Software as their VP of Product Strategy, where I am responsible for the strategic vision, planning and development of the KORE ProSports Ticketing, Sponsorship and Suites/Premium software products. I earned my MBA in Sports Business from the W.P. Carey…...

Today I am sharing an article that I wrote for the most recent issue of SEAT Magazine, a quarterly publication of the Association of Luxury Suite Directors.

Strategy Before Systems: IBM steps up to the plate in sports and entertainment with a new approach to technology decisions

Without question, the changing technology landscape impacts the relationship between sports and sports fans. Teams, colleges, and venues are consistently challenged with making sure the in-venue experience matches and exceeds the at-home experience. New social media channels seemingly appear out of thin air to provide more ways to create and distribute content for fans to consume. And data that used to be impossible to get pours out of every new platform, from loyalty systems to mobile ticketing.

When this rapid pace of technology development combines with the passions of sports fans, it becomes quite a challenge for team, college, and venue staffs to navigate these new technologies and find ways to integrate them across the fan experience in a consistent and beneficial manner. Luckily, along with challenges come opportunities, which leads us to IBM and its recent strategies with sports properties.

If I asked you what comes to mind when I say IBM, you might talk about servers, mainframes, and laptops (even though they don’t make those anymore), or about IBM being a pure technology services provider. However, as the company increases its presence in the sports and entertainment industry, it is taking a very different approach via its IBM Interactive Experience division, which is the largest digital agency in the world, according to Advertising Age’s (AdAge) 2015 Annual Agency Report. This division starts first and foremost with strategy, design, and data over a hardware and software driven approach.

To help direct the efforts in the sports space, IBM Interactive Experience has brought on industry veteran Jim Rushton as Global Leader/Partner for the Sports and Entertainment Practice. Rushton has over 20 years of hands-on sports and media experience from his time with WEEI, the Miami Dolphins, and the San Diego Padres. Rushton and I recently sat down together to discuss IBM’s strategy and its potential impact on sports and entertainment venues.

Building a Master Plan

From where Rushton sits now, there are lots of tools in the IBM technology tool belt at his disposal, but before anyone starts grabbing for hammers and wrenches, it’s critical to start with the larger goal in mind. So the typical starting point in any of his discussions with team executives is centered on building a plan.

“We develop a technology master plan that can evolve over time and react to how the fans are evolving but also can make sure the team isn’t stuck investing in a particular technology that a year or two later is out of date or irrelevant,” Rushton says.

The development of that master plan starts with defining the fan experience from driveway to seats and back for the ticket buyer across digital channels. The journey-mapping process helps identify different key customer personas, each with different needs that different technology can support.

As part of this mapping, IBM looks at different types of fan relationships. During a home game, a team has tens of thousands of ticket buyers in the building, but that’s a fraction of the millions of team fans engaging via other channels and formats. So a team’s overall engagement strategy should be designed for all phases of the team-fan relationship, which Rushton defines as:

Rented Relationships: Fans of the team without a direct connection to the organization, such as television viewers and Facebook likes.
Earned Relationships: Fans that the team has been able to “opt-in” to a more direct conversation, perhaps via emails, contests, merchandise, and other events.
Owned Relationships: Fans that have become ticket-buying customers that the team needs to both retain and grow.

From there, IBM identifies the key foundational platforms, including mobile, social, point-of-sale, ticketing, and access control. These platforms almost always involve multiple third-parties, which is encouraged by IBM so that it can help teams identify best of breed options for their unique needs. This process keeps the fan at the center, as teams should be providing that fan a unified brand presence, regardless of what vendor is providing each service.

Connectivity Required

With platform choices made, it’s time to focus on the infrastructure needed for these platforms to succeed. It should be clear to everyone by now that connectivity cannot be looked at as a value-added amenity. Fans think of Wi-Fi and cellular coverage the same way they think of food stands and video boards – they are required.

“[Fans] expect to be able to upload their selfies, text their friends, or check their fantasy teams,” says Rushton. “They expect to have that level of connectivity, so how can you design a connectivity plan and backend system that keeps the fan accessible to the outside world and the inside world of the arena, stadium, or ballpark.”

Beyond fan expectations, teams need to also weigh the demands of all other coexisting, independent business systems. These other providers rely more and more on the quality of the venue’s connectivity in order for their products to deliver value to the property and the fans. If that infrastructure can’t hold up, everyone suffers.

To this end, IBM is rolling out a Passive Optical Network (PON) for Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the under-construction new home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, that is entirely fiber-based, instead of copper, which allows the venue’s technology infrastructure to use less cooling, have a positive environmental effect, and take up less physical space. An all-fiber infrastructure provides maximum flexibility for future upgrades, since we all know the volume of data flowing through our buildings will only increase as the years pass.

The opening of a new venue or major renovation provides an ideal opportunity for this type of strategic technology process. It is a rare time to work from a nearly blank slate when redesigning a fan experience, which is why IBM has been involved heavily with the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“We know that creating the ultimate fan experience means meeting fans where they are, providing them with the platform to interact in a seamless way, and introducing them to new offerings that exceed expectations,” says Rich McKay, President and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons. “IBM understands the commitment we are making to our fans and will help us reset the bar in terms of fan experience, technology, and sustainability for sports and entertainment complexes globally.”

However, venues of all ages also have to go through a steady stream of technology-related innovations, so there is always the opportunity to develop and refine a team’s technology and fan engagement strategy. For example, IBM has been an active partner with the US Open, Wimbledon, and the USGA over the years, and those relationships have had a strong emphasis on mobile technology and immersive, on-site fan experiences.

Premium Expectations

In my conversation with Rushton, I specifically asked him about how the premium customer fits into this process. We discussed two key elements that have extra weight for this audience: the increased value of relationships and higher expectations for the stadium experience.

Relationships matter for any customer segment. As someone whose background is heavily focused on CRM, I can vouch for this. But the impact of relationship building as it affects sales, retention, and referrals only escalates as the cost of the purchase grows. An organization’s technology strategy has a significant impact on the ability to collect, store, analyze, and act on customer data that can be used to develop deeper, personalized connections with premium customers.

“Because of the amount of dollars people are investing in premium, there is an expectation that that section of the stadium, ballpark, or arena is going to be upgraded continuously,” says Rushton.

Where IBM comes into play with its approach to both strategy and infrastructure is by making design and platform decisions that allow premium spaces to evolve faster without the need for custom-designed hardware or ripping physical systems in and out.

“You’re updating the application platform rather than having to update the electronics,” Rushton adds. This approach can have significant long-term cost savings that go along with higher customer satisfaction from suite and club seat holders.

The common theme throughout IBM’s approach is the idea of putting an organization and its staff in a better position to make better business decisions via technology and data. It’s not about servers and software, it’s about people and processes. Technology options will continue to evolve at a rapid pace, so we need to put ourselves in the right position to evolve along with them in order to succeed and create the optimal experience for every type of fan.

For more information about SEAT Magazine, visit www.alsd.com/seat. Thanks to Jared Frank for letting me share this article with you all here.

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

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Microsoft expands Azure Data Lake to unleash big data productivity

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Earlier today Microsoft announced new capabilities for its BigData products. Not a surprise regarding the timing as the marquee Hadoop gathering, Strata, is happening this week.

So let's dissect the press release in our customary style:

In July of this year, Satya Nadella shared our broad vision for big data and analytics when he announced Cortana Analytics. Building on this vision, today we’re announcing a new and expanded Azure Data Lake that makes big data processing and analytics simpler and more accessible.

MyPOV - Good to see Microsoft executing fast on announcements, I'd peg the Data Lake even all the way back to May at Build Win. But then there is some need of urgency as enterprises are building next generation applications at increased pace these days and it is important for Microsoft to be there as a strategic technology partner.

The expanded Microsoft Azure Data Lake includes the following:
Azure Data Lake Store, previously announced as Azure Data Lake, will be available in preview later this year. The Data Lake Store provides a single repository where you can easily capture data of any size, type and speed without forcing changes to your application as data scales. In the store, data can be securely shared for collaboration and is accessible for processing and analytics from HDFS applications and tools.
Azure Data Lake Analytics, a new service built on Apache YARN that dynamically scales so you can focus on your business goals, not on distributed infrastructure. This service will be available in preview later this year and includes U-SQL, a language that unifies the benefits of SQL with the expressive power of user code. U-SQL’s scalable distributed query capability enables you to efficiently analyze data in the store and across SQL Servers in Azure, Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse.
Azure HDInsight, our fully managed Apache Hadoop cluster service with a broad range of open source analytics engines including Hive, Spark, HBase and Storm. Today, we are announcing general availability of managed clusters on Linux with an industry-leading 99.9% uptime SLA. HDInsight will be able to take advantage of capabilities in the Store for increased throughput, scale and security.
Supporting the Azure Data Lake:
Azure Data Lake Tools for Visual Studio, provide an integrated development environment that spans the Azure Data Lake, dramatically simplifying authoring, debugging and optimization for processing and analytics at any scale.
Leading Hadoop ISV applications that span security, governance, data preparation and analytics can be easily deployed from the Azure Marketplace on top of Azure Data Lake.

MyPOV - Kudos to Microsoft for defining and thus bringing clarity to what the Azure Data Lake is from a product portfolio perspective. Too often vendors create more confusion with announcements, so this definition is helpful. So let's dissect more below.

Azure Data Lake
Azure Data Lake includes all the capabilities required to make it easy for developers, data scientists, and analysts to store data of any size, shape and speed, and do all types of processing and analytics across platforms and languages. It removes the complexities of ingesting and storing all of your data while making it faster to get up and running with batch, streaming, and interactive analytics. Azure Data Lake works with existing IT investments for identity, management, and security for simplified data management and governance. It also integrates seamlessly with operational stores and data warehouses so you can extend current data applications. We’ve drawn on the experience of working with enterprise customers and running some of the largest scale processing and analytics in the world for Microsoft businesses like Office 365, Xbox Live, Azure, Windows, Bing and Skype. Azure Data Lake solves many of the productivity and scalability challenges that prevent you from maximizing the value of your data assets with a service that’s ready to meet your current and future business needs.

MyPOV - Well that reads almost all too good to be true. Removing complexities is always a good thing, but reading 'seamless' integration always makes the alarm bells ring... we will have to dig a little deeper here. On the flip side Microsoft can claim a broad level of experience working with the data of its different divisions. If Microsoft can showcase how 'it is drinking its own champagne' with Azure Data Lake - that would be very powerful showcase and adding immediate credibility to the overall offering.

“Hortonworks and Microsoft have partnered closely over many years to further the Hadoop platform for big data analytics, including contributions to YARN, Hive, and other Apache projects,” said Rob Bearden, CEO at Hortonworks. “Azure Data Lake, including Azure HDInsight powered by Hortonworks Data Platform, demonstrates our shared commitment to make it easier for everyone to work with big data.”

MyPOV - Always good to have partner and ecosystem presence in a press release and Hortonworks is key for the proper working of the Azure Data Lake.

Azure Data Lake Store – A hyper-scale repository for big data processing and analytic workloads
The value of a data lake resides in the ability to develop solutions across data of all types – unstructured, semi-structured and structured. This begins with the Azure Data Lake Store, a single repository to capture and access any type of data for high-performance processing and analytics and low latency workloads with enterprise-grade security. For example, data can be ingested in real-time from sensors and devices for IoT solutions, or from online shopping websites into the store without the restriction of fixed limits on account or file size unlike current offerings in the market. As part of Azure Data Lake, the store supports development of your big data solutions with the language or framework of your choice. The store in Azure Data Lake is HDFS compatible so Hadoop distributions like Cloudera, Hortonworks®, and MapR can readily access the data for processing and analytics.

MyPOV - Storage capabilities have become core to next gen Application persistence needs, if e.g. IoT data cannot be ingested fast enough, the finest analytics tool set on top of it doesn't create value. We will have to see what scalability numbers and use cases Microsoft can offer, a good move is to be 'agnostic' in regards of the Hadoop distribution partnering with the 'Big 3' - Cloudera, Hortonworks and MapR.

"Cloudera is pleased to be working closely with Microsoft to integrate our enterprise data hub with the Azure Data Lake Store,” said Mike Olson, founder and chief strategy officer at Cloudera. “Cloudera on Azure benefits from the Data Lake Store which acts as a cloud-based landing zone for data in your enterprise data hub. Because the store is compatible with WebHDFS, Cloudera can leverage Data Lake and provide customers with a secure and flexible big data solution."

MyPOV - Good quote by Olsen, making things tangible is always appreciated. It reads like Cloudera depending applications and code can be deployed with Microsoft Data Lake a which is a win for customers and of course allows Microsoft to position the Azure Data Lake as alternate storage to other large data storage options in the market.

Azure Data Lake Analytics – a new distributed processing and analytics service
Azure Data Lake Analytics lets you focus on the logic of your application, not the distributed infrastructure running it. Instead of deploying, configuring and tuning hardware, you write queries to transform your data and extract valuable insight. Built on Apache YARN, and designed for the cloud, the analytics service can handle jobs of any scale instantly by simply setting the dial for how much power you need. The analytics service for Azure Data Lake is cost-efficient because you only pay for your job when it is running, and support for Azure Active Directory lets you manage access and roles simply and integrates with your on-premises identity system.

MyPOV - Always good to reduce complexity and taking away the details and intricacies of infrastructure is a huge draw for enterprises to deploy next gen application to cloud based platforms. And good for Microsoft to point out usage based billing, one of the key value propositions of cloud-based offerings. Finally smart from Microsoft to keep pay using the 'higher ground' the on premise Active Directory integration is one of the big differentiators for Microsoft when moving services from on premise to the cloud or provisioning users for next generation applications.

We know that many developers and data scientists struggle to be successful with big data using existing technologies and tools. Code-based solutions offer great power, but require significant investments to master, while SQL-based tools make it easy to get started but are difficult to extend. We've faced the same problems inside Microsoft and that’s why we introduced, U-SQL, a new query language that unifies the ease of use of SQL with the expressive power of C#. The U-SQL language is built on the same distributed runtime that powers the big data systems inside Microsoft. Millions of SQL and .NET developers can now process and analyze all of their data with the skills they already have. The U-SQL support in Azure Data Lake Tools for Visual Studio includes state of the art support for authoring, debugging and advanced performance analysis features for increased productivity when optimizing jobs running across thousands of nodes.

MyPOV - I am always concerned when new programming languages get created. In my view the world has enough programming languages already. That said - there are new use cases that developers and enterprises have to build applications for. So it comes back to understand what benefits U-SQL brings developers. It's good to see Microsoft has used it for its internal use cases and deployments, so before coming to a first verdict in U-SQL, let's understand more details about it.

“U-SQL was especially helpful because we were able to get up and running using our existing skills with .NET and SQL,” says Sam Vanhoutte, Chief Technology Officer at Codit. “This made big data easy because we didn’t have to learn a whole new paradigm. With Azure Data Lake, we were able to process data coming in from smart meters and combine it with the energy spot market prices to give our customers the ability to optimize their energy consumption and potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

MyPOV - Well that's a strong endorsement of U-SQL, good point to see the compatibility with C# and NET. This is one of the key advantages of Micro in next generation applications, leverage the existing ecosystem and developer community. Making integration to C# easier, taps in the 2nd largest developer community out there (after Java).

Azure HDInsight - Fully Managed Hadoop, Spark, Storm and HBase
Azure Data Lake also includes HDInsight, our Apache Hadoop-based service that allows you spin up any number of nodes in minutes. As one of the fastest growing services in Azure, HDInsight gives you the breadth of the Hadoop ecosystem in a managed service that’s monitored and supported by Microsoft. Furthering our commitment to productivity, we’ve updated our Visual Studio Tools for authoring, advanced debugging, and tuning for Hive queries and Storm topologies running in HDInsight.

MyPOV – Also a good move, HDInsight has been popular in the Microsoft ecosystem already, as enterprises struggle with standing up and operating Hadoop distributions. And finding synergies with Visual Studio will help this offering further.

Today, we are announcing the general availability of HDInsight on Linux. We work closely with Hortonworks and Canonical to provide the HDP™ distribution on the Ubuntu Operating System that powers the Linux version of HDInsight in the Data Lake. This is another strategic step by Microsoft to meet customers where they are and make it easier for you run Hadoop workloads in the cloud.

MyPOV – That’s probably one of the bigger news in the release. It is not too long ago when Microsoft was a Windows only shop. By endorsing more Linux based offerings, Microsoft is looking at what developers are familiar with, and what is more of a preferred platform. Being Linux based has also become more and more a requirement for RfP for the data side of next gen Application platforms, as enterprises still see the need to potentially move these platforms back on premise. Finally TCO to run Hadoop on Linux vs Windows may be different, starting with the availability of distributions, but likely a topic Microsoft will not be as eager to address.

Leading Hadoop ISVs on the Azure Data Lake

There are a growing set of leading data management applications for Azure Data Lake. This includes applications that provide end-to-end big data analytics like Datameer, technologies that address big data security and governance like Dataguise and BlueTalon, unified stream and batch with DataTorrent, and tools that give business users the ability to visualize and analyze data in compelling ways like AtScale and Zoomdata. Support from our partners ensures that you have the best applications available as you get started with Azure Data Lake.

MyPOV – Good to see the mention of a number if important ISVs that help enterprises to build, operate and maintain their next generation applications. The ISV investment is a further proof point that Microsoft’s BigData offering is being taken serious and sees traction in the enterprise (otherwise these ISVs would not invest to bring their platforms to Azure).

We will continue to invest in solutions for big data processing and analytics to make it easier for everyone to work with data of any type, size and speed using the tools, languages and frameworks they want to in a trusted cloud, hybrid or on premise environment. Our goal is to make big data technology simpler and more accessible to the greatest number of people possible: big data professionals: developers, data scientists, analysts, and application developers; but also businesspeople and mainstream IT managers.

MyPOV – Well that’s a nice mission statement. Let’s check in how Microsoft delivers along this vision and goals in the next quarters.

Overall MyPOV

Next gen Applications are key for enterprises to achieve differentiation and create disruption in their prospective industries. Almost all of the 7 generic use cases we have identified involve Hadoop style BigData elements, as well as analytics and machine learning capabilities. Microsoft knows this and is adding capabilities to Azure accordingly. Moreover BigData projects bring ‘load’ to platforms, which itself creates scale, which then creates economies of scale that reduce the cost to operate the platforms. Again BigData is great for platform vendors, due to the gravitational nature of BigData. It is not easy to move BigData across platforms.

On the concern side, Microsoft comes late to the overall cloud platform and BigData market. Enterprises had to look elsewhere and only around spring of this year, Microsoft has caught up in product capability and messaging. The capabilities of this press release are another major step forward, but the interested buyer needs to note the GA dates of most of these offerings.

On the brighter side Microsoft is catching up to the leaders in the space, and bringing a large ecosystem and synergy play to the next generation applications market. There are a lot of Microsoft centric enterprises out there, and for them these offerings are attractive.

Stay tuned for more about the exciting platform announcements for building next generation applications.

More about Microsoft:

News Analysis - Microsoft and Salesforce Strengthen Strategic Partnership at Dreamforce 2015 - Good for joint customers - read here
News Analyis - NetSuite announced Cloud Alliance with Microsoft - read here
Event Report - Microsoft Build - Microsoft really wants to make developers' lives easier - read here
First Hand with Microsoft Hololens - read here
Event Report - Microsoft TechEd - Top 3 Enterprise takeaways - read here
First Take - Microsoft discovers data ambience and delivers an organic approach to in memory database - read here
Event Report - Microsoft Build - Azure grows and blossoms - enough for enterprises (yet)? Read here.
Event Report - Microsoft Build Day 1 Keynote - Top Enterprise Takeaways - read here.
Microsoft gets even more serious about devices - acquire Nokia - read here.
Microsoft does not need one new CEO - but six - read here.
Microsoft makes the cloud a platform play - Or: Azure and her 7 friends - read here.
How the Cloud can make the unlikeliest bedfellows - read here.
How hard is multi-channel CRM in 2013? - Read here.
How hard is it to install Office 365? Or: The harsh reality of customer support - read here.

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

Data to Decisions Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Hadoop Microsoft developer PaaS Chief Information Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Technology Officer

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Cloudera Introduces RecordService For Security, Kudu For Streaming Data Analysis

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,…...

Cloudera announces access control layer and columnar storage engine for Hadoop. News analysis from Strata + Hadoop World 2015.

It’s going to be a big week for big data as Strata + Hodoop World 2015 kicks off this week at New York’s Jacob Javits Center. Ahead of the show there were two big announcements from Cloudera on Monday as it introduced RecordService and Kudu.

RecordService is an all-new security layer for Hadoop designed to ensure secure access to data and analysis engines that run on top of Hadoop, including MapReduce, Apache Spark, and Cloudera Impala. Where Cloudera’s previously available Sentry security component supported the definition of access-control permissions, RecordService complements Sentry by enforcing access down to the column and row level. It also supports dynamic data masking, according to Cloudera, brining uniform, granular access control to any framework or analysis engine that’s plugged into the RecordService API.

#Hadoop, @Cloudera, #bigdata, #analytics, #infosecurity, #streamingdata, #realtime

Ahead of Strata + Hadoop World 2015 in New York, Cloudera introduced the RecordService data-access layer and the columnar Kudu storage engine for Hadoop.

Kudu is a new storage engine that Cloudera has developed to complement the HDFS file system and HBase database. HDFS lets you add data at volume, but it doesn’t update data. The HBase database, meanwhile, supports random reading and writing, but it’s not a fit for fast scanning of aggregated data. Kudu brings a columnar data store to Hadoop that’s aimed at real-time analytical applications such as fraud detection, ad placement and distributed, Internet-of-Things-style apps.

RecordService and Kudu are both being released as beta software downloads this week, and Cloudera says it intends to donate both open-source projects to the Apache Software Foundation. General availability will depend on feedback and revisions required, according to Cloudera, and it did not specify when it will contribute the technologies to ASF.

MyPOV on RecordService and Kudu

Despite the open-source billing, there’s little doubt that both of these technologies will be promoted predominantly by Cloudera and used mostly by its customers. Cloudera rival Hortonworks previously introduced the open source Ranger project for data-access authorization, control and auditing within Hadoop. Which security project is likely see wider support? Cloudera mentioned MapR, which currently supports Impala, as showing interest in RecordService. Hortonworks, meanwhile, is a member of the Open Data Platform initiative (ODPi), which counts IBM, Pivotal, SAS and Teradata as founding members. But that group has yet to name Ranger as one of the components of the ODPi Common Core, which currently includes HDFS, YARN, MapReduce and Apache Ambari.

The good news is that Cloudera customers can now look forward to granular data-access controls across data and analysis engines, something that’s crucial to secure use of the data in Hadoop in production environments. As for disunity on Hadoop, get used to Cloudera and Hortonworks going separate ways, much like Ford and Chevy or RedHat and Ubuntu.

The bottom line for Cloudera is that it’s the leading Hadoop distributor and a deep-pocketed partner of Intel. It can be confident that its technology will be see adoption even there are questions about vendor lock in and dependence on commercial Cloudera Manager software.

Streaming applications are another front on which Cloudera and Hortonworks are headed in different directions. Kudu looks like a promising complement to the current Hadoop stack, and it’s aimed at simplifying the complicated LAMBDA architectures that have emerged. Matt Brandwein, Cloudera’s director of product marketing, tells me Kudu will work with Apache tools including Kafka and Spark Streaming and will enable developers to remain within the Hadoop stack when building streaming applications.

That sounds like a jab at Hortonworks DataFlow, which is based on its recent Onyara acquisition and Apache NiFi. While both Kudu and DataFlow are aimed at streaming use cases, they are in no way comparable. While Kudu is a storage engine, DataFlow is a much more comprehensive platform aimed at managing streaming data flows from edge sensors and devices to core systems, ensuring tracking of data provenance, and ensure the secure delivery and flow of data across multiple systems despite bandwidth disruptions or offline conditions. It’s also separate from Hadoop and has yet to support YARN.

If Kudu and DataFlow have anything in common, it’s that it’s early days for both project. A lot of development and integration work lies ahead before either technology will see significant real-world adoption. The good news for practitioners is that the Hadoop ecosystem is maturing quickly to support a range of big data and streaming applications with all the security features needed for enterprise production deployments.

Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief Information Officer

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Event Preview - What I would like Workday to address at Rising 2015

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

This week one Workday will have their user conference in Las Vegas, Rising, so it's time to collect thoughts before the conference gets in full swing soon.

So take a peek, here you go:

In case you have no chance to watch - the key areas to watch here:

Workday Momentum - Workday is an exceptional growth story - it will be interesting to see how customers, prospects, the overall ecosystem is doing.
HCM - Time to see if and which more of analytical apps are shipping, good to check momentum of recruiting, how things are doing on Payroll both natively provided by Workday and then with the many partners and lastly how the Learning management partnerships are doing.
Finance - It really comes back to momentum, and what other capabilities Workday has added recently to convince customers of its capability to run BigFin.
SCM - SCM? Yes really SCM - Workday announced Inventory capabilities for Healthcare earlier this year. But inventory is as horizontal a ERP capability as the come - so it will be important to understand where Workday plans to apply Inventory beyond Healthcare and if this is going to become 'the third leg of the stool' for Workday.
Industry Momentum - Workday is seeking growth from more vertical functionality, time to check where things stand and what the plans are.
Technology - The objective from my side is to scoop up any platform innovation - may it be on the deployment side or user interface side and more.

And more on Workday

News Analysis – Workday to Expand Suite of Applications for Healthcare Industry - with a SCM twist - read here
News Analysis - Workday supports UK Payroll - now speaks (British English) Payroll - read here
Workday 24 - 'True' Analytics, a Vertical and more - now needs customer proof points - read here
First Take - Top 3 Takeaways from of Workday Rising Day 1 Keynote - The dawn of the analytics era - time to deliver Insight Apps - read here
Progress Report - Workday supports more cloud standard - but work remains - read here
Workday 22 - Recruiting and rich Workday 22 are here - read here
First Take - Why Workday acquired Identified - (real) Analytics matter - read here
Workday Update 21 - All about the user experience and some more - read here
Workday Update 20 - Mostly a technology release - read here
Takeaways from the Salesforce.com and Workday partnership - read here
Workday powers on - adds more to its plate - read here
What I would like Workday to address this Rising - read here
Workday Update 19 - you need to slow down to hurry up - read here
I am worried about... Workday - read here

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

Future of Work Matrix Commerce Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Revenue & Growth Effectiveness New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience workday AI Analytics Automation CX EX Employee Experience HCM Machine Learning ML SaaS PaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Enterprise Software Enterprise IT Leadership HR IaaS Disruptive Technology Enterprise Acceleration Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief People Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

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Dreamforce 2015 Winners and Losers

Founder, capioIT
calitolIT

Phil is the founder of capioIT, a research analyst firm focussed on driving change in the analyst and research market through innovation and collaboration, with a strong focus on IT services and BPO strategies in the Asia/Pacific region. He has 17 years' experience in corporate strategy, consulting and market intelligence, gained in a diverse range of organisations and industries. Prior to founding capioIT, he established the Australian and Services business units at Springboard Research. Prior to Springboard Research, Phil was responsible for driving analyst firm IDC's research in the services marketplace across the Asia/Pacific region. During his 6 years at IDC, Phil led a large multi-national team of analysts across a range of IT related services with a particular focus on IT…...

Dreamforce is over for another year. This year there were 170,000 attendees, 400 partners and 1,600 sessions. In any measure the event is a big deal and the Launchpad for Salesforce through the next year.

The winners for the event loomed large this year, as they tend to do.

Salesforce itself is clearly a winner to garner the attention of the technology community to the extent that Dreamforce is arguably the highest profile tech event and is a creator of cloud energy like no other vendor with the possible exception of AWS
The integration of Microsoft and Salesforce, was very significant. Clearly the relationship is very deep between the two vendors. The integration of Salesforce into the Microsoft platform is very clear, the interface is consistent and user friendly. This was the biggest deal for Dreamforce for mine.
Microsoft second coming as a device and platform agnostic software provider now.
The increasing horizontal depth of SF with IOT and Analytics. Whilst the IOT capability in particular is immature and still a lot of slide-ware, the intent is real, and the history of Salesforce is clear in suggesting that it can execute.
Salesforce increased focus on Industry based solutions. This will continue to become a critical agent of the strategy as it matures in the next 12 months.
The depth of collaboration of the Salesforce ISV ecosystem that is unmatched in other major software vendors
Independent System Integrators providers – The acquisition of Cloud Sherpas by Accenture just changed their dynamic, and increased their value in the eyes of investment bankers

The losers for the event were just as clear

The keynotes. They need some reinvigoration, the customer examples, in particular Cisco was cringe worthy from both a script and “acting” perspective. Just get new Cisco CEO, Chuck Robbins up there, not Salesforce execs in tech coats.
Large SI’s. capioIT has highlighted the strength of Accenture in the SI space for cloud services. The acquisition of Cloud Sherpas only reinforces this. A lot of the legacy SI’s risk being left behind, and quickly unless they act soon. IBM, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys are at the front of the queue of vulnerable providers.
The Salesforce “No Software” Logo. If Co-founder Mark Benioff is correct and Salesforce becomes the 4^th largest software provider next year, then the gimmick, whilst successful has more than run overtime.
The Microsoft Dynamics team. I understand co-opetition better than most, but this was not a good moment for Dynamics. Microsoft clearly, and rightfully considers Office to be the primary application to protect, not Dynamics.
Stevie Wonder – You are the Dreamforce of my life. Part of my soul died with that line. “Everyone has a price” is more true today, than at any other time in human society

Focus Point

Dreamforce is clearly one of the most important events on the calendar for the integration of technology and business. It captures the attention of millions of professionals. In 2015, the clear winners were Microsoft and Salesforce. Expect these two vendors to get even closer before we hit Dreamforce 2016.

If you require further information, please contact Phil Hassey, Founder capioIT. capioIT is an advisory firm focused on helping organisations to understand emerging technology as the world becomes Digital.

Tech Optimization Dreamforce salesforce Chief Information Officer

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Does government have the innovation appetite?

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…...

Under new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, innovation for once is the policy du jour in Australia. Innovation is associated with risk taking, but too often, government wants others to take the risk. It wants venture capitalists to take investment risk, and start-ups to take R&D risks. Is it time now for government to walk the talk?

State and federal agencies remain the most important buyers of IT in Australia. To stimulate domestic R&D and advance an innovation culture, governments should be taking some bold procurement risk, punting to some degree on new trechnology. Major projects like driver licence technology upgrades, the erstwhile Human Services Access Card, the national broadband rollout, and national e-health systems, would be ideal environments in which to preferentially select next generation, home-grown products.

Obviously government must be prudent spending public money on new technology. Yet at the same time, there is a public interest argument for selecting newer solutions: in the rapidly changing online environment, citizens stand to benefit from the latest innovations, bred in response to current challenges.

What do entrepreneurs need most to help them innovate and prosper? It's metaphorical oxygen!

Innovators need:

access to prospective customers, so we may showcase disruptive technologies
procurement processes that admit, nay encourage, some technology risk taking
agile tender specifications that call for the unexpected in responses - disruptive technologies
open-mindedness from big prime contractors, who too often are deaf to inventive SMEs
curiosity for innovation amongst business people
optimism amongst buyers that small local players might have something special to offer
and a reversal of the classic Australian taboo against sales.

Too often, innovative Australian entrepreneurs are met with the admonition "you're only trying to sell us something". Well yes we are, but it's because we believe we have something to meet real needs, and that customers actually need to buy something.

Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Chief Customer Officer

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Cloud Computing Dominates Deloitte’s 2015 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey

Cloud computing is the strongest technology investment sector for the third year in a row.
Biopharmaceuticals and robotics are the two sectors that have gained the greatest venture capital confidence from 2014 to 2015.
U.S. technology hubs (Silicon Valley/San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los Angeles & Chicago), Israel and Canada dominate while confidence continues to fall in Brazil and other emerging markets.

These and other insights are from Deloitte’s 2015 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey. You can download a copy here (PDF, no opt-in, 70 pp.). Deloitte has also produced and made available infographics of the key findings here (PDF, no opt-in, 4 pp.). Deloitte & Touche LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) collaborated on the eleventh annual survey, which was conducted in May & June of this year. The study assesses investor confidence in the global venture capital environment, market factors shaping industries and investments on specific geographies and industry sectors. Please see page 4 of the study for a description of the methodology.

Key take-aways include the following:

Global venture capital investors are most confident in cloud computing (4.18). Investors were asked to rate their confidence level in each sector. Confidence levels were measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 representing the most confidence. Basis points indicate year-over-year changes. Mobile (4.05), Internet of Things (3.95) and enterprise software (3.82) are the top four sectors venture capitalists are the most confident in today. Biopharmaceuticals are experiencing the greatest increase in venture capital confidence today. Please the the graphic below for additional details.

The United States (4.17), Israel (3.90) and Canada (3.60) dominate venture capital investors’ confidence while emerging markets including Brazil continues to fall. U.S. technology hubs including Silicon Valley/San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago continue to retain and reinforce global venture capital investor confidence. The following graphic illustrates global venture capital investor’s confidence by nation.

Silicon Valley/San Francisco (4.28), New York (3.86) and Boston (3.77) are the top three U.S. metros global venture capital investors have the greatest confidence in. Los Angeles (3.43) and Chicago (3.22) are the fourth and fifth most trusted U.S. metros that venture capitalists have confidence in. $15.2B was invested by global venture capital investors in Silicon Valley/San Francisco according to the Deloitte study. The following graphic compares venture capitalist confidence levels and venture capital investment dollars received in 2015 through Q2.

Immigration reform (61%) and patent demand reform (36%) are the top two initiatives U.S.-based venture capitalists want addressed by policy leaders. For non-U.S. venture capitalists, tax incentives/credits (50%), infrastructure and job creation (both 41%) are the top two initiatives they would like to see public policy leaders take on in their home country.

top two

Cloud computing continues across all sectors as the area global venture capital investors have the greatest confidence in. Confidence in biopharmaceuticals grew the fastest of any sector measured by the survey between 2014 and 2015, and this is the first year Deloitte is tracking investor confidence in the Internet of Things (IoT). A sector comparison is provided below.