MIST 7500 - Fall 2013 Executive Summary 3: Hybrid IT

Cloud computing has become the new “hot trend” in the data storage and bandwidth aspect of companies. As the volumes of data and analytics grow, so must a company’s ability to store, access, and use this data effectively. Storing in a central location exposes the company to system outages and slow connection speeds.

Why Cloud Computing?
• Pooling the resources of numerous remote storage locations reduces the risk of bandwidth limitations and increases our ability to access data.
• Pay-per-use can greatly reduce costs.
• Offers increased flexibility to users outside the office.
• With the proper security protocols, it can handle any device (BYOD) and platform safely.
• Reduces the risk of a regional disaster affecting daily operations.

Risks with using the cloud
• When using a fully public cloud service, there is a risk of security breaches.
• Unsure of the physical location of the data storage facility and the security risks involved with the physical systems.
• Too much data access of redundant files could create an avoidable expense that is reduced by centralized storage.

How to overcome these limitations and fully realize the technology
• Use a hybrid system of public and private cloud services.
• We control sensitive content and have fixed costs associated with accessing this data.
• Utilize the speeds, reliability and accessibility of cloud computing without the risk of sensitive data being compromised.

By taking the best features of the classic centralized system (private cloud) and big data storage (public cloud), our company can save money and increase productivity. The storage systems will be managed remotely and on a per-use basis which will reduce our fixed costs. The company will be shielded from outages and will open the door for BYOD flexibility in the future.

MIST 7500 - Fall 2013 Executive Summary 2: BYOD

Handheld devices and laptops become more ubiquitous in our personal lives. In theory, employees that bring these devices into the workplace (BYOD) may seem like an innovative idea that could potentially make them more productive. In reality, this could lead to more problems for the company and the employees.

Potential opportunities
• Reduced up-front costs to the company. The individual is purchasing the device with their own money.
• More access to the employee. They are no longer tied down to an office phone and desktop PC.
• Potential for employee to be more productive because they are using a device of their choosing. The average person feels comfort in learning one device.

Challenges to adapt
• The company won’t benefit from the reduced costs of buying a bulk quantity of devices and bundling the data and voice packages.
• The company is paying for personal data and voice usage as well.
• Security issues may arise because these devices are being used outside the office environment.
• The IT Department will have to be familiar with a multitude of devices, rather than a core manufacturer, make and model.
• Employee could find it hard to “disconnect” from work and could lead to mental “burn-out”.
• Because this is an individual’s personal device, it is unclear what the legal ramifications are in regards to an employee’s privacy and the company’s trade secrets.

The negatives and overall cost currently outweigh the potential productivity gains from BYOD. Until the platforms become more uniform (allowing for easier management of security) and better services emerge that can track the actual corporate data and voice usage (for billing purposes), it would be best to maintain the current strategy of one-source devices and vendors.

MIST 7500 - Fall 2013 Executive Summary 1: Data Visualization

Making the switch from traditional data analysis to a real-time data analytics can mean the difference between being a market leader or yesterday’s news. As big data grows in the business world, companies are struggling to make sense of and properly utilize the petabytes of data that are being parsed. There are tools that can help us expunge this data to make us better prepared for the market’s unknowns.

Challenges of current data analysis tools
• Unable to process the large volumes of data created today, in a timely fashion.
• Gives us a snapshot of yesterday’s information, not real-time.
• A small, centralized team is carrying the workload.

Solutions to improve analytics and efficiencies
• Visualize the data to make it easier to search, organize and analyze trends.
• Utilize mobile devices and cloud technologies to increase the response of insights and improve collaboration in the workforce.
• Real-time creation of dynamic, interactive presentations.
• Allows for better collaboration amongst business units.
How to make big data visualization a reality
• Invest in IBM’s Rapidly Adaptive Visualization Engine (RAVE) and SmartCloud Analytics-Predictive Insights software.
• Train a diverse team of employees to interpret the data.

Making the switch to big data visualization will empower the employees and business to achieve greater revenues, create market innovations, and improve our clients’ experience. Our mission statement specifies that we are to be the market leader, and adopting this cutting-edge technology will allow us to carry on that principle.

MIST 7500 - Fall 2013 Cloud Computing

Define Cloud Computing:
• A type of computing that pools the resources of numerous network-based components (like server storage, server time, network bandwidth, etc.) so that programs can run from a remote location, and allocates these resources based on demand for said programs. Cloud is a loose reference to the term “internet”.

Discuss the benefits of Cloud Computing
• Computing resources can be allocated as needed to handle higher or lower demands (elasticity). The programs and data can be stored and run remotely (virtualization) which can lead to reduced operating expenses at the local level. It can also reduce total overhead costs because the cloud services are charged by metered usage, rather than fixed and variable operating costs (metered billing).

Who are the top Cloud providers?

1. Rackspace – Offers discounts for customers who demand high storage volumes.

2. Amazon (AWS) – Offers flexible, free services and caters to individual users.

3. Just Cloud – Caters to medical providers.

4. Cloud Flare – Offers top security, hosting and support features.

5. VMWare – Revered on a more global scale for their quality services.

Some companies that are re-focusing their businesses around cloud computing.
• Intercontinental Hotels Group (Holiday Inn hotel chain) – They are using it for their CRM software which used to be on bulky mainframes that were hard to access on the go. Cloud computing allows their sales staff to access their internal systems without being tied down at the office. They are planning to move their hotel reservation systems to the cloud in the near future.
• RehabCare Group – Cloud computing has allowed their nationwide workforce of physical therapists to access patient records and share rehabilitation practices.
• NVoicePay – Uses cloud computing to process B2B invoice payments for small businesses.
• ServiceMax – Uses the cloud to create software for handheld devices that manage field technicians and sales employees.

MIST 7500 - Fall 2013 G2; Trending technology group presentation

Here's a copy of our group presentation on Energy Storage.

If for some reason the presentation doesn't show up on my blog. Click Here.

MIST 7500 - Fall 2013 G1; Trending technology and disruptive innovation

Innovation is the commercialization of an invention. Our society is based on innovation, technological advances and the adoption of these technologies. There have been many theories and models used to analyze innovation over the years. The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter pioneered innovation management in the 1930's. He theorized on how the capitalist system was affected by market innovation. His book "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy" spawned increased awareness into this theory.

Over the next six decades, more analyses and models surfaced which refined his theories. Incremental vs. Radical Innovation, the Henderson-Clark Model, and the Abernathy-Utterback Model (to name a few) led to the 1997 best-seller "The Innovator's Dilemma" written by Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen. Christensen studied how innovation can lead to a disruption in the marketplace that can either benefit the incumbent (sustaining innovation: improving an existing product) or allow new competitors to gain a foothold in an existing market (disruptive innovation: An alternative, usually cheaper, that brings new customers to the marketplace).

We were tasked with researching a trending technology and applying one of these models. I chose energy storage based on a professional document written by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). Scientists have been working on energy storage since the 1700’s (approximately a century before electricity became widely used). Today the technology has grown leaps and bounds since its inception. lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have become the mainstay in electric and hybrid vehicles, and mobile electronic devices. Advances in energy storage could bring the cost of electric-powered vehicles (EV) down to a more competitive price point against its internal combustion (ICE) brethren. It could also allow electricity to be offered to remote parts of the emerging world and increase the efficiencies of existing power grids in industrialized society. Energy storage systems convert electricity into a form that can be stored and converted back into electrical energy for later use, providing energy on demand.

The traditional ICE automotive industry stands to be disrupted by breakthroughs in energy storage. Major advancements in battery component technologies are expected to increase storage capacities by 2025. Next generation cathodes (the positive terminal on the battery) incorporate a “layered-layered” structure which will increase chemical efficiencies within the battery as well as voltage outputs. Cell capacity could increase by 30-50%. Total cost of ownership is expected to drop from $560 kWh (in 2011) to $165 kWh. Also, more efficient production processes will lead to the reduction in cost to manufacture EV cars. Based on these efficiencies, future EV cars could have a break-even point with their ICE counterparts when gas prices are at $2.85/gallon. Given these factors, the potential economic impact in the automotive industry could be approximately $415 billion up from the current $20 billion market.

I used Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation model to analyze energy storage. I feel that once the energy storage costs drop and performance levels increase to eclipse the efficiencies of ICE vehicles, customers will flock to the reduced total cost of ownership that will be realized from an EV. It will be a “low end disruption”, because the shift will occur as the improvements are proven to the mass consumer.

Our grandchildren’s generation could very well be the last generation to utilize ICE technology in their daily-driven vehicles. All we have to do is embrace the technology and shift our confidence in proven energy storage technologies to those of the EV.

MIST 7500 - Fall 2013; D1 Connecting business and IS/IT

 The internet has been in a transition for the last 10 years to a more interactive entity. The term Web 2.0 was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999 and popularized by Tim O’Reilly at a web conference in 2004. The advent of cloud computing and web connectivity has reduced business costs, opened collaboration efforts around the globe, offered more resources, and improved supply chains (to name a few). The emergence of “digital firms” has allowed for greater flexibility in organizations and management and accomplishing core business processes. Companies have been shifting their financial resources to improve on their information systems because they can see a quicker return on investment.

Here are six strategic business objectives:

• Operational excellence – improving operations to increase profitability.
• New products and services – New technology-based tools like tablet computing.
• Customer and supplier intimacy – Customer-focused services that bring return business.
• Improved decision making – More accurate information available so management can make informed decisions.
• Competitive advantage – Offering better products and services for less.
• Survival – Maintaining or increasing market share in an uncertain world.

What are information systems?
They are a set of components that are interrelated. They collect, process and store data that is distributed into a meaningful format (called information) for business decision-makers. It makes sense out of a multitude of confusing data. Some enterprise-level systems that are currently in use:

• TPS: Transaction Processing System – Transactional tool like “Square”.
• CRM: Customer Relations Management – Records customer information like “SalesForce”.
• SCM: Supply Chain Management system – Records supply chain information like “Logility Voyager Solutions”.
• ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – Integrates all company stakeholders and the systems like “SAP”.
• BPM: Business Process Management – Allows employees to document, automate and improve processes like “Process Maker”.
• BI: Business Intelligence system – Cost effective analytics and reporting systems like “JasperSoft”.

We also looked at a software package that connects our existing business models to the infrastructure side of business. It is called ArchiMate. It allows managers to identify key activities and resources that support the business model. It also highlights assets that might not be properly utilized. This modeling software breaks down the model into three distinct "layers".

• Business Layer - The business model
• Application Layer - The software and applications that are used in the business
• Technology Layer - The hardware infrastructure of the business

There are many systems that help companies and their stakeholders succeed in the market today. Finding the tools that work best for your organization is the challenge as businesses move into the “Web 2.0” era.