Cloud computing and mobile access driving the ‘Instant-On’ enterprise In November, a group of CIOs met to discuss “Creating a ServiceOriented IT Operation,” at a roundtable in Hong Kong hosted by HP
CIOs and HP executives gather for the November roundtable
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s the economic downturn fades, CIOs are more optimistic about the future. But the environment for IT services is evolving with the emphasis on fast results. “HP recently launched its global vision for the ‘Instant-On Enterprise’,” said Cally Chan, Managing Director, Hewlett-Packard HK SAR Ltd. “The younger generation use mobile phones to take photos, so they can post them on social networks. Companies re-
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cruiting staff don’t want to wait for classified advertisements or even online databases – they are beginning to use Facebook. It’s part of an ongoing transformation to automate the valuechain, but it only works if you have the technology to perform anytime, anywhere, through any channel, and that’s what HP plans to deliver.”
Users expect instant “IT people may have to do their jobs
Instant-on IT
ntensive technology use is a sign of the times according to HP. “Cloud computing and mobile access has conditioned people in every industry to demand a rapid response all the time,” said Cally Chan. “HP’s integrated solutions, based on hardware, software, service and intellectual property, deliver the Instant-On enterprise by leveraging five strategies. The first is HP Application Transformation solutions, where HP helps enterprises gain control over aging applications and inflexible processes that challenge innovation and agility. The second is HP Converged Infrastructure solutions, Computerworld Hong Kong
in a different way,” suggested some of the CIOs. “When users demand ‘instant-on’ technology like iPhones and social networking, can IT people still make the rules and ask them to accept an IT timeline?” One CIO had no doubt about the answer to that. “Telling users what they can’t do disappeared in the 1990s – a CIO who tried that today would only last a couple of hours!” said Sundi Balu, CIO at Reach, the wholesale telecoms provider. “But we are going to have more disruptive technologies in a faster timeframe, not every five years, but every quarter. The dilemma is how CIOs can keep up with the adoption of disruptive technology, while maintaining a close eye on revenue and cost savings, and also maintaining the same risk profile for their enterprises?” Balu questioned. “We can’t be reactive – the solution lies in better planning.” “Which is echoed by HP’s vision for the ‘Instant-On Enterprise’ with technology streamlined to deliver value instantly to the users. With such infrastructure, we not only enable the users with flexible system that meet ever-broadening requirements, but
which break down traditional IT silos to drive down costs and provide a foundation for agile service delivery. The third is HP Enterprise Security solutions, which secure the entire IT infrastructure by addressing all aspects of security: people, processes, technology and content. The fourth is HP Information Optimization solutions, which harness the power of information and ensures its integrity and protection. And the fifth is Hybrid Delivery. It helps the customers to select the best service delivery method to get what they need.” www.cw.com.hk
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also interact with users with greater personalization,” said Cally Chan.
Application transformation Inevitably, the tension between users and IT staff means spending more time on people and less on technology. “Most of what I do day-to-day is about people,” said Alison Dack, CIO and VP of IT, FedEx Express, Asia Pacific. She noted that in the recent financial downturn, the company was scaling back in certain areas, so she encouraged the IT team to use this period as an opportunity to get a better understanding of the business by sitting in with the services groups to understand how they use the systems and their needs. This would enable individuals to develop their skills while adding value to the business. “The metrics we use to evaluate IT performance are not just about keeping the systems up 99.999% of the time, but also what needs to be done to meet business goals,” she said. “This approach helps to build trust and collaboration with our business partners. They are more likely to pick up the phone and invite us to planning meetings, rather than calling us in at the end to order boxes.” ‘Consumerization’ of IT can be a problem; but occasionally it may be a solution, suggested Dack. “For exam-
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structure the charging plan. The ideal is for users to estimate, for example, how many database cycles they need and when they are charged accordingly they will understand how it has been calculated. It’s hard to achieve 100% chargeback, but we can take steps towards it.”
Converged infrastructure of the cloud
Information optimization in the new era
Some CIOs seem to feel that cloud computing has been over-hyped, but one aspect that continues to hold promise is resource allocation. “Has the emergence of the term ‘cloud computing’ accelerated the need to move towards a more dynamic pay-per-use model?” asked the moderator. “Utility computing, the need to be more responsive, agile, and simple to manage, seems to have been a long-term goal of IT. But has the sudden emergence of the cloud given it a new impetus?” “Chargeback is a financial paradigm that people have been requesting for a very long time,” said Balu. “At the end of the month, many organizations have a discussion about why particular business units get the IT allocation they do. CIOs can learn a lot from the pay-per-use models used by the public cloud providers. CIOs can analyze their own metrics and decide how to
Corporate information, previously controlled, is now being set free by cloud applications – but how do CIOs enable information use without information abuse? “What’s new about the cloud is how corporate information is flowing around inside it,” said Malick Aboobakar, CIO, The QI Group. “Previously we had rules to control corporate information and only a handful of people could get access to it. Now we realize that what we were asking people not to do is exactly what they want to do. The staff wants to use gadgets like iPhones, iPad, and Android. We’ve come up with guidelines that say that, before anyone uses a device, IT has to try it out and see how it impacts information management. We also build applications for internal users and customers and this helps us. These activities help us achieve a corporate buy-in for IT policy.”
Alison Dack, CIO and VP of IT, FedEx Express, Asia Pacific
Sundi Balu, CIO, Reach
Computerworld Hong Kong
December 2010
Cally Chan, Managing Director, Hewlett-Packard HK SAR Ltd
ple, when we load encryption and other security applications onto a user’s laptop, the user may ask why it takes five minutes to boot up,” said Dack. “By contrast, the iPad, which can run email and open attachments, is secure even if it’s left on the MTR, because there is no data on it to lose.”
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access management layer, noted HP’s Chan. But technology continues to be the driver for IT and CIOs must seek a buy-in for new projects. “We follow an 80-20 rule: 80% of what IT does is bread and butter and 20% is in creation or evaluation of new technology,” said Aboobakar, CIO. “We justify our investment in new technology by having a high success rate. If we have 10 projects, a minority will usually reach the pilot stage and from those pilots one or two will be utilized.”
gic focus and aligning the investment in human resources and finance are the same in any organization. Businesses have a simple way of assessing how well they are doing by their share price, but universities depends on reputation. Universities are in it for the long haul; how many businesses have been around for 400 years?” It’s important for a university to focus on strategy and purpose, but that is difficult because the university is not centrally managed, but has a distributed organization. “If a global company based in the
USA tries to apply standardized business practices in Asia, it will not work,” said Bahlman. “Flexibility and creativity are required and the strategic guidelines have to be very general to allow the creativity to happen. That’s distributed behavior and that’s counter-intuitive to people who are trying to build an infrastructure that is entirely standardized. In order to succeed, an organization has to utilize practices that are relevant to the community it serves.” This potential conflict is where a hybrid model is required to create standards where necessary but provide flexibility to enable an agile enterprise. HP’s “Hybrid Delivery” model helps enterprises build, manage and consume services using the right delivery medium to suit a particular need and time. “Leading enterprises recognize there is no “one” singular model of delivery that can be optimized to meet all core service needs,” said Chan. “Enterprises will continue to operate in environments containing traditional outsourced and cloud services for the foreseeable future.” To help customers on this journey, HP also announced two new HP Hybrid Delivery services. • HP Hybrid Delivery Strategy Service provides clients with a structured understanding of the programs, projects and main activities required to
Malick Aboobakar, CIO, The QI Group
Gerrit Bahlman, IT Director, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Thomas Lee, IT Operations Manager, IS Dept, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals
Enterprise Security
Hybrid delivery model
The emergence of this “consumerization of IT” raises further security issues to be considered. Today’s CIOs and CTOs know that security is not only a necessity but by delivering a secure enterprise that fosters agility and innovation it also puts businesses ahead of competitors and in better touch with constituents. Security needs must be reassessed across applications, information and in particular at the identity and
The educational environment presents an additional challenge for IT alignment, because the corporate mission cannot be expressed in revenue or profits. “It’s easy for an organization to fall into practices that are ‘siloed’ and not collaborative or aligned with business issues,” said Gerrit Bahlman, IT Director, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “And while a university is not a business, the principles of strate-
My priority is to use technology to increase our business leadership rather than to increase the individual efficiency of the staff
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– Thomas Lee, HACTL
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move to, as well as manage, a hybrid delivery model and tips on introducing this hybrid delivery concept into their existing environments. • HP Hybrid Delivery Workload Analysis Service analyzes an enterprise’s complement of workloads and applications to determine the best fit and compatibility for hybrid environments. In a large business-to-business facility such as a cargo terminal, a focus on custom systems and in-house development may be necessary. “The goals for IT investment depend on the nature of the business,” said Thomas Lee, IT Operations Manager, IS Dept, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals. “At HACTL, we mostly focus on business to business technology, so we don’t see a lot of urgency in adopting mobility tools or social networking. Much of our workforce around the terminals and warehouses comprises blue-collar employees who are not big IT users. So my priority is to use technology to increase our business leadership rather than to increase the individual efficiency of the staff.”
Instant-on IT for better business alignment
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year period and we will soon have a significant new business competitor, so the first task for IT is to increase our operating efficiency by keeping our headcount down and spending less. To accelerate technology adoption, IT staff should seek a business buy-in by the management. But to achieve trust and collaborate at the strategy level, IT departments must show they are operating efficiently and avoid technical failures.”
Cloud start now
loud computing is seen as a future technology, but cloud infrastructure is apparently available right now.
“As end-users become smarter and more de-
manding, IT departments need faster results,” said Leslie Yeung, Business Manager for Technology Consulting, HP Hong Kong. “At HP, we have created a specialized service called CloudStart which leverages our products and architectural know-how to help our customers to create a pay-per-use portal
Leslie Yeung, Business Manager for Technology Consulting, HP Hong Kong
foundation within 30 days.” “Many customers want a private cloud solution for security reasons,” continued Yeung. “But they see cloud as a long-term project with payback over many years. At HP, the CloudStart solution is to implement a private cloud in 30 days. This imposes the discipline of good planning. Week one focuses on service definition, application requirements and planning the implementation. In week two, we build the matrix and storage systems, off-site. In week three, the HP team builds the infrastructure and installs the applications at the customer’s data center. That leaves hand-off and staff training for week four. When customers realize how fast it can be, they get pretty excited.” Clouds, of course, can be public or private. “HP believes the cloud will be a hybrid model,” said Cally Chan. “Some services will be available from a public cloud provider, but due to regulatory constraints and other issues, enterprises will need to keep some applications as legacy systems or private clouds.” Another CIO agreed that the public cloud may not be suitable for all corporate information. “We have evaluated cloud services, including Google and we allow some content, especially personal usage information, to go on the public cloud,” said Malick Aboobakar, CIO, The QI Group. “Corporate information which are public in nature can also be put on the public cloud, but only for internal audiences including staff and customers.”
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December 2010
For CIOs the challenge of alignment with the corporate mission has never been as important as it is today. “The issue is: do I sit at the table as an IT person or as a member of the Fedex team seeking to drive growth and revenue?” said Dack. “If CIOs understand the business and know what they are trying to achieve, then their role gets easier because there’s trust and relevance built into the relationship with the business.” “We do need technical people who are up to their waist in bits and bytes, building applications, but I decided back in the ‘90s that I wanted to be in the business of systems integration, not systems building,” continued Dack. “I visualized
an IT department that employed project managers, relationship managers and business analysts. Cloud technology may be wonderful, but the users may see it as a box at the end of a pipe.” In some industries, the intensive use of IT for business processing is taken for granted. “We use a lot of technology at the terminal and 75% of business processes are automated,” said Lee at HACTL. “We are entering a period of record tonnage in the current three-
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