ZDNet
In a new post, Chris Bruzzi and Nick Hamm, both with Appirio, a cloud services provider, share their experiences in cloud application development. They point to the five changes in mindset that needs to take place as application development and deployment evolves to the cloud world.
For architects and developers who have been working within the service-oriented architecture realm, most of these best practices will look terribly familiar. But Bruzzi and Hamm point out that SOA in the past was more constrained, since it typically stopped at the enterprise walls. Now, as more and more of IT gets hooked up into the cloud, it's time to really promote "service-oriented" thinking...
Appirio in the News
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The State of Social Media at Work In One Quick Infographic
Forbes
After surveying over 300 professionals, technology service provider Appirio determined that most people are far more social personally than they are at work.
Interestingly, 41% believe their company should be doing more to become a social enterprise, and twice as many managers are using social media compared to their employees they manage. So the takeaway here seems to be that employees either are not allowed to engage in social networking activities at work, or don't see the value in it.
Most importantly, as the survey suggests, enterprise workers now understand that culture and ownership of the social business transformation are key factors to the success of a social enterprise. That's a welcome shift from past surveys I have seen.
After surveying over 300 professionals, technology service provider Appirio determined that most people are far more social personally than they are at work.
Interestingly, 41% believe their company should be doing more to become a social enterprise, and twice as many managers are using social media compared to their employees they manage. So the takeaway here seems to be that employees either are not allowed to engage in social networking activities at work, or don't see the value in it.
Most importantly, as the survey suggests, enterprise workers now understand that culture and ownership of the social business transformation are key factors to the success of a social enterprise. That's a welcome shift from past surveys I have seen.
Appirio on the state of social at work: It needs more time
ZDNet
As Salesforce.com's annual Dreamforce conference continues this week, Appirio has released a new report examining the state of social technologies in the workplace.
The bottom line is that the social enterprise/revolution/whatever-you-want-to-call-it concept has a long way to go before it is consider the de facto way of doing business.
Before that can happen, the concept of social enterprise might need to be defined better as a recent Bluewolf survey also concluded that many businesses still don't understand what this means exactly.
Overall, Appirio's results concur with those of Bluewolf. For example, nearly a third of businesses surveyed had no idea what the term "social enterprise" meant.
That doesn't mean that businesses aren't on-board with the idea of integrating social media throughout work infrastructures. Researchers found that more than 35 percent of respondents said their companies had set aside budgets or resources to make business processes more social. Furthermore, 57 percent of respondents said they currently use social tools to do their job.
As Salesforce.com's annual Dreamforce conference continues this week, Appirio has released a new report examining the state of social technologies in the workplace.
The bottom line is that the social enterprise/revolution/whatever-you-want-to-call-it concept has a long way to go before it is consider the de facto way of doing business.
Before that can happen, the concept of social enterprise might need to be defined better as a recent Bluewolf survey also concluded that many businesses still don't understand what this means exactly.
Overall, Appirio's results concur with those of Bluewolf. For example, nearly a third of businesses surveyed had no idea what the term "social enterprise" meant.
That doesn't mean that businesses aren't on-board with the idea of integrating social media throughout work infrastructures. Researchers found that more than 35 percent of respondents said their companies had set aside budgets or resources to make business processes more social. Furthermore, 57 percent of respondents said they currently use social tools to do their job.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Appirio's CloudSpokes: an update
ZDNet
Apart from the fact that Appirio puts on by far the best party at Dreamforce, it also happens to be one of the real disrupters in the SI market. One of the ways it does this is through the CloudSpokes community. In this 4:04 minute video, co-founder Narinder Singh talks through how the company is going about disrupting cloud implementation and development consulting.
This is impressive by any standards. Off camera, Singh said the company has taken its foot off the gas a little bit as it manages community growth. Of greater interest to me was the Singh's claim that on certain projects, it doesn't make sense to use Appirio's own development teams but to turn the project over to CloudSpokes with Appirio maintaining a watching brief.
He gave the example of one project where CloudSpokes brought the project in at a significant reduction to the fully loaded cost that Appirio would have needed to charge but at higher margin. "We believe that if you're going to disrupt the SI market then you have to apply it to yourself in order for it to make sense. We're doing that by putting our own work into challenges. It's producing better results for us and customers. It's a genuine win-win," said Singh.
I asked about engagement given that of the reported 50,000 members it seems that there have only been some 2,600 submitted entries. "You've got to remember that developers sign up for communities for more than one reason. Money certainly helps but they like to learn from their peers. Despite what the numbers suggest, when we take out the skewed results. the median number of entries per challenge is four. That's four different ideas per challenge. We think that's pretty good going...
Apart from the fact that Appirio puts on by far the best party at Dreamforce, it also happens to be one of the real disrupters in the SI market. One of the ways it does this is through the CloudSpokes community. In this 4:04 minute video, co-founder Narinder Singh talks through how the company is going about disrupting cloud implementation and development consulting.
This is impressive by any standards. Off camera, Singh said the company has taken its foot off the gas a little bit as it manages community growth. Of greater interest to me was the Singh's claim that on certain projects, it doesn't make sense to use Appirio's own development teams but to turn the project over to CloudSpokes with Appirio maintaining a watching brief.
He gave the example of one project where CloudSpokes brought the project in at a significant reduction to the fully loaded cost that Appirio would have needed to charge but at higher margin. "We believe that if you're going to disrupt the SI market then you have to apply it to yourself in order for it to make sense. We're doing that by putting our own work into challenges. It's producing better results for us and customers. It's a genuine win-win," said Singh.
I asked about engagement given that of the reported 50,000 members it seems that there have only been some 2,600 submitted entries. "You've got to remember that developers sign up for communities for more than one reason. Money certainly helps but they like to learn from their peers. Despite what the numbers suggest, when we take out the skewed results. the median number of entries per challenge is four. That's four different ideas per challenge. We think that's pretty good going...
Appirio tallies the technical debt in your Salesforce instance
ZDNet
...Today, cloud integrator Appirio is unveiling a tool that for the first time allows Salesforce customers to quantify the technical debt built into their instances. Cloud Metrics is an automated test that uses OAuth credentials to access a Salesforce.com instance and compare it to Appirio's database of over 1,000 Salesforce implementations it has worked on. The tool generates a report that compares what it finds to the norms in its database, highlighting areas where the instance has become more complex or cumbersome than it probably needs to be. The basic tool is free at launch, and Appirio offers a paid service to assess and map out a plan for eliminating the debt. Whether the customer does so will depend on the business impact of the debt when set against other priorities.
"We think about, is it worth paying down that technical debt now? How that plays out is very situationally dependent," Appirio's chief strategy officer Narinder Singh explained to me in a pre-briefing late last week. "By running our tool, you can count your technical debt. [We give you] a path that shows you where you're at, where you're going and lets you take corrective action where appropriate...
...Today, cloud integrator Appirio is unveiling a tool that for the first time allows Salesforce customers to quantify the technical debt built into their instances. Cloud Metrics is an automated test that uses OAuth credentials to access a Salesforce.com instance and compare it to Appirio's database of over 1,000 Salesforce implementations it has worked on. The tool generates a report that compares what it finds to the norms in its database, highlighting areas where the instance has become more complex or cumbersome than it probably needs to be. The basic tool is free at launch, and Appirio offers a paid service to assess and map out a plan for eliminating the debt. Whether the customer does so will depend on the business impact of the debt when set against other priorities.
"We think about, is it worth paying down that technical debt now? How that plays out is very situationally dependent," Appirio's chief strategy officer Narinder Singh explained to me in a pre-briefing late last week. "By running our tool, you can count your technical debt. [We give you] a path that shows you where you're at, where you're going and lets you take corrective action where appropriate...
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Employees See Big Potential For Social Business
InformationWeek
Appirio study shows disconnect between how companies and individuals use social technologies.
Employees are interested in the potential of social business, but often unclear about what their employer is doing to take advantage of it, according to a survey.
The study sponsored by Appirio, a services firm that helps organizations with their cloud computing initiatives, was conducted by the independent research firm iTracks based on responses from 300 managers and employees from across the U.S. and U.K.
Although the study showed awareness of the potential of social media and social tools, only 57% of respondents said they used social tools in their daily work, whereas about 90% used them in their personal lives. Thirteen percent of respondents would go as far as to label their company "anti-social," meaning it is making no investment in social. Forty-four percent say their company is still just researching or testing social tools or strategies, and 43% are using one or more social tools.
Appirio study shows disconnect between how companies and individuals use social technologies.
Employees are interested in the potential of social business, but often unclear about what their employer is doing to take advantage of it, according to a survey.
The study sponsored by Appirio, a services firm that helps organizations with their cloud computing initiatives, was conducted by the independent research firm iTracks based on responses from 300 managers and employees from across the U.S. and U.K.
Although the study showed awareness of the potential of social media and social tools, only 57% of respondents said they used social tools in their daily work, whereas about 90% used them in their personal lives. Thirteen percent of respondents would go as far as to label their company "anti-social," meaning it is making no investment in social. Forty-four percent say their company is still just researching or testing social tools or strategies, and 43% are using one or more social tools.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Top 4 gamification apps
NetworkWorld
Companies should not attempt to jump into gamification all at once. Here are four specific applications that are excellent places to start your gamification program...
...3. Crowdsourcing
Appirio is a 500-person Silicon Valley cloud solutions vendor that was trying to compete against much larger consulting firms, like Accenture and Deloitte. Two years ago the company launched CloudSpokes, an online community that now counts around 45,000 developers as members - developers who compete to solve programming challenges.
To make it work, the company involved the developers themselves in making sure that there were no loopholes in the contests and in judging the results, says Narinder Singh, the company's chief strategy officer...
Companies should not attempt to jump into gamification all at once. Here are four specific applications that are excellent places to start your gamification program...
...3. Crowdsourcing
Appirio is a 500-person Silicon Valley cloud solutions vendor that was trying to compete against much larger consulting firms, like Accenture and Deloitte. Two years ago the company launched CloudSpokes, an online community that now counts around 45,000 developers as members - developers who compete to solve programming challenges.
To make it work, the company involved the developers themselves in making sure that there were no loopholes in the contests and in judging the results, says Narinder Singh, the company's chief strategy officer...
Friday, September 7, 2012
Appirio Defining Systems Integration in the Cloud
SaaS in the enterprise
Ever wonder why a business looking to adopt a cloud-based application would need a systems integrator? Doesn't the cloud shift systems complexity to the provider?
Appirio, a six-year old cloud integrator, is not just redefining systems integration, it is in the hunt for a big chunk of the $500 billion spent globally on SI services.
Cloud systems integration (SI) is very different from traditional SI. SI in the cloud does not require a team of engineers at the customer site. In fact, the engineers or developers could be anywhere in the world. In the case of San Francisco-based Appirio, the engineer or developer could be working on a customer's Workday or a Salesforce.com instance from Singapore, Ireland, India, UK, or Japan. One of the sharp differences between cloud SI and traditional SI is the fact that everyone's Salesforce.com or Workday application is the same. There are no trade secrets buried in the configuration.
"A developer anywhere in the world can spin up an instance of a Google App engine or whatever and you can start building code for me," Nara Balakrishna, Appirio's senior director of strategy and business operations, told SaaS in the Enterprise. "You could not do that if you had SAP. There is no way I can expose my configuration to you somewhere in the world where I don't even know you."
That allowed Appirio to assemble a cloud-sourcing community of 45,000 developers located all over the world to supplement its staff of 500.
Ever wonder why a business looking to adopt a cloud-based application would need a systems integrator? Doesn't the cloud shift systems complexity to the provider?
Appirio, a six-year old cloud integrator, is not just redefining systems integration, it is in the hunt for a big chunk of the $500 billion spent globally on SI services.
Cloud systems integration (SI) is very different from traditional SI. SI in the cloud does not require a team of engineers at the customer site. In fact, the engineers or developers could be anywhere in the world. In the case of San Francisco-based Appirio, the engineer or developer could be working on a customer's Workday or a Salesforce.com instance from Singapore, Ireland, India, UK, or Japan. One of the sharp differences between cloud SI and traditional SI is the fact that everyone's Salesforce.com or Workday application is the same. There are no trade secrets buried in the configuration.
"A developer anywhere in the world can spin up an instance of a Google App engine or whatever and you can start building code for me," Nara Balakrishna, Appirio's senior director of strategy and business operations, told SaaS in the Enterprise. "You could not do that if you had SAP. There is no way I can expose my configuration to you somewhere in the world where I don't even know you."
That allowed Appirio to assemble a cloud-sourcing community of 45,000 developers located all over the world to supplement its staff of 500.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Gov. Daniels announces new jobs
WISH TV 8
Governor Mitch Daniels and executives with Appirio, a global technology-enabled cloud service provider, to announce the company's plan to open a new office and cloud computing development center that would create 300 high-wage jobs by 2015.
The San Franciso-based company plans to invest more than $2 million to grow its team and presence in Indianapolis, including leasing, renovating, and equipping 12,500 square feet of space in the Pan American Office Tower in Indianapolis.
This new office is expected to open in October and will be the company's second U.S. office and a key location for training and developing its cloud architects.
Read More
Governor Mitch Daniels and executives with Appirio, a global technology-enabled cloud service provider, to announce the company's plan to open a new office and cloud computing development center that would create 300 high-wage jobs by 2015.
The San Franciso-based company plans to invest more than $2 million to grow its team and presence in Indianapolis, including leasing, renovating, and equipping 12,500 square feet of space in the Pan American Office Tower in Indianapolis.
This new office is expected to open in October and will be the company's second U.S. office and a key location for training and developing its cloud architects.
Read More
Cloud Computing Firm to Expand in Indy
WIBC 93.1FM
A cloud-computing firm is opening an Indianapolis office in the former home of the Hoosier Lottery.
San Francisco-based Appirio plans to hire 300 workers over the next three years to work out of offices in the Pan Am office tower downtown.
Company co-founder Narinder Singh says Appirio was drawn to the pipeline of fresh computing talent available from Purdue and other universities, and says by opening offices away from Silicon Valley, there will be less competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter to snap them up.
Appirio will receive five-point-six-million dollars in state tax credits if it fulfills its hiring promises.
Read More
A cloud-computing firm is opening an Indianapolis office in the former home of the Hoosier Lottery.
San Francisco-based Appirio plans to hire 300 workers over the next three years to work out of offices in the Pan Am office tower downtown.
Company co-founder Narinder Singh says Appirio was drawn to the pipeline of fresh computing talent available from Purdue and other universities, and says by opening offices away from Silicon Valley, there will be less competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter to snap them up.
Appirio will receive five-point-six-million dollars in state tax credits if it fulfills its hiring promises.
Read More
Tech company Appirio plans to open Downtown Indy office, hire 300 over 3 years
Indy Star
A California-based technology company plans to open an office and a cloud computing development center in Downtown Indianapolis in October, bringing about 300 jobs over the next three years.
Appirio said Wednesday it will occupy the 11th floor of the Pan American Plaza tower and has an option to expand to the 10th floor.
The company will invest about $2 million for leasing, renovation, equipment and hiring new employees. Executives said they hope to hire 100 employees each year for the next three years. Appirio now has about 20 workers in the Indianapolis area...
Read More
A California-based technology company plans to open an office and a cloud computing development center in Downtown Indianapolis in October, bringing about 300 jobs over the next three years.
Appirio said Wednesday it will occupy the 11th floor of the Pan American Plaza tower and has an option to expand to the 10th floor.
The company will invest about $2 million for leasing, renovation, equipment and hiring new employees. Executives said they hope to hire 100 employees each year for the next three years. Appirio now has about 20 workers in the Indianapolis area...
Read More
Web services firm plans downtown office, 300 jobs
Indianapolis Business Journal
Appirio Inc., a cloud-computing service provider, announced Wednesday morning that it plans to spend $2 million to open a downtown Indianapolis office that will employ 300 people by 2015.
The company, which has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific, will initially occupy 12,500 square feet on the 11th floor of the Pan American building. The investment will go toward leasing, renovating and equipping the space, the company said. The company has options to lease additional floors as it expands.
The Indianapolis location, expected to open in October, is the company's second in the United States.
"Opening an office and cloud development center in Indianapolis gives Appirio access to a large, highly educated talent base with close proximity to customers and partners," Appirio CEO Chris Barbin said in a prepared statement...
Read More
Appirio Inc., a cloud-computing service provider, announced Wednesday morning that it plans to spend $2 million to open a downtown Indianapolis office that will employ 300 people by 2015.
The company, which has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific, will initially occupy 12,500 square feet on the 11th floor of the Pan American building. The investment will go toward leasing, renovating and equipping the space, the company said. The company has options to lease additional floors as it expands.
The Indianapolis location, expected to open in October, is the company's second in the United States.
"Opening an office and cloud development center in Indianapolis gives Appirio access to a large, highly educated talent base with close proximity to customers and partners," Appirio CEO Chris Barbin said in a prepared statement...
Read More
Cloud computing firm to create 300 jobs, build local office
FOX 59
Governor Mitch Daniels announced Wednesday that cloud-computing firm Appirio would open a new office in Indianapolis, creating up to 300 high-wage jobs within the next three years.
The San Francisco-based company has offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Appirio will invest more than $2 million to grow in Indianapolis. The company will lease and renovate 12,500 square feet of space in the Pan American Office Tower.
The Indy office will be Appirio's second U.S. office. It's set to open in October....
Read More
Governor Mitch Daniels announced Wednesday that cloud-computing firm Appirio would open a new office in Indianapolis, creating up to 300 high-wage jobs within the next three years.
The San Francisco-based company has offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Appirio will invest more than $2 million to grow in Indianapolis. The company will lease and renovate 12,500 square feet of space in the Pan American Office Tower.
The Indy office will be Appirio's second U.S. office. It's set to open in October....
Read More
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Cloud service brokers must differentiate as cloud market matures
SearchCloudProvider
Cloud service brokers must be a trusted partner to the customer while maintaining strong ties with cloud providers, said Glenn Weinstein, chief technology officer of Appirio, a cloud service broker that offers its 300 enterprise customers cloud services and platforms from public cloud providers Google, Amazon, Salesforce and Workday.
Appirio works with its public cloud partners via consulting or technology partnerships. "We are recommending their services based on the customer's needs," Weinstein said, noting that their cloud provider partners recommend Appirio to prospective customers looking for a partner to do complex implementations.
"When [cloud providers and cloud service brokers] are working with large enterprises, there typically is a great deal of implantation work," he said.
Cloud service brokers should focus on cloud federation, said Weinstein, as some customers are usually shopping for more than one public cloud solution or application.
Cloud service brokers must be a trusted partner to the customer while maintaining strong ties with cloud providers, said Glenn Weinstein, chief technology officer of Appirio, a cloud service broker that offers its 300 enterprise customers cloud services and platforms from public cloud providers Google, Amazon, Salesforce and Workday.
Appirio works with its public cloud partners via consulting or technology partnerships. "We are recommending their services based on the customer's needs," Weinstein said, noting that their cloud provider partners recommend Appirio to prospective customers looking for a partner to do complex implementations.
"When [cloud providers and cloud service brokers] are working with large enterprises, there typically is a great deal of implantation work," he said.
Cloud service brokers should focus on cloud federation, said Weinstein, as some customers are usually shopping for more than one public cloud solution or application.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Survival guide: Do's and don'ts for next-gen IT
Computerworld
"The first thing you need to realize is that your business customers can leave or go around you in any number of ways," says Singh. "If people have an iPhone, they're going to use that for work, whether you want them to or not. If IT doesn't provide cloud storage, they'll sign up for their own Dropbox account. They aren't going to wait six to eight weeks for you to provision something for them. You can no longer treat business users as a captive entity. Instead, you'll have to become a consultant to the business and prove to them the value of what IT can do."
IT departments that wish to stay relevant in a BYOD and cloud-based world will need to redefine themselves as service providers. They'll need to make the leap from being technicians responsible for maintaining systems to experts who offer a menu of services and offer intelligent recommendations about which ones will help drive the business forward...
"The first thing you need to realize is that your business customers can leave or go around you in any number of ways," says Singh. "If people have an iPhone, they're going to use that for work, whether you want them to or not. If IT doesn't provide cloud storage, they'll sign up for their own Dropbox account. They aren't going to wait six to eight weeks for you to provision something for them. You can no longer treat business users as a captive entity. Instead, you'll have to become a consultant to the business and prove to them the value of what IT can do."
IT departments that wish to stay relevant in a BYOD and cloud-based world will need to redefine themselves as service providers. They'll need to make the leap from being technicians responsible for maintaining systems to experts who offer a menu of services and offer intelligent recommendations about which ones will help drive the business forward...
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Memo From Appirio: Public Cloud Is A Partner Opportunity
Talkin' Cloud
How can you survive and thrive through the cloud revolution? Appirio Chief Strategic Officer Narinder Singh offered his views on public cloud computing opportunities during the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit today in Scottsdale, Ariz. Here is a live blog covering Singh’s views.
The keynote is especially interesting since so many pundits say VARs, MSPs and cloud consultants should focus on private cloud and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) opportunities. But Appirio offers a healthy reminder that IT projects involving the public cloud represent big opportunities. Here’s more…
How can you survive and thrive through the cloud revolution? Appirio Chief Strategic Officer Narinder Singh offered his views on public cloud computing opportunities during the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit today in Scottsdale, Ariz. Here is a live blog covering Singh’s views.
The keynote is especially interesting since so many pundits say VARs, MSPs and cloud consultants should focus on private cloud and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) opportunities. But Appirio offers a healthy reminder that IT projects involving the public cloud represent big opportunities. Here’s more…
Monday, June 4, 2012
Salesforce.com's front office suite play
ZDNet
Right now it is convenient for Salesforce.com to hammer home the ’social business’ play because that’s how it drives attention as the leader in that space. They also have the benefit of encouraging a large subset of otherwise under employed PR and marketing people to declare expertise in this field and so amplify the broader message. The projected numbers are impressive as well. From the Benioff conference call:
Gartner says that CRM is 15% of the purchase intention of global CIOs this year. That’s the number one global purchasing intention.
While I am usually down on Gartner I’m not going to argue about that prediction for several reasons. It is sufficiently near term for there to be good reasons to assume they’re not far off the mark and from soundings in the market, CRM as a broad category within the ERP framework is still a big draw. There are other factors in play that reinforce this idea....
3. The explosive growth in demand at Appirio for applications that stitch together elements of the marketing online puzzle with Salesforce.com implies there is much experimentation going on...
Right now it is convenient for Salesforce.com to hammer home the ’social business’ play because that’s how it drives attention as the leader in that space. They also have the benefit of encouraging a large subset of otherwise under employed PR and marketing people to declare expertise in this field and so amplify the broader message. The projected numbers are impressive as well. From the Benioff conference call:
Gartner says that CRM is 15% of the purchase intention of global CIOs this year. That’s the number one global purchasing intention.
While I am usually down on Gartner I’m not going to argue about that prediction for several reasons. It is sufficiently near term for there to be good reasons to assume they’re not far off the mark and from soundings in the market, CRM as a broad category within the ERP framework is still a big draw. There are other factors in play that reinforce this idea....
3. The explosive growth in demand at Appirio for applications that stitch together elements of the marketing online puzzle with Salesforce.com implies there is much experimentation going on...
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Inside the mind of a cloud consultant with Appirio
ZDNet
Earlier today I caught up with Narinder Singh, co-founder Appirio and a great sounding board for cloud consulting and implementation topics.
As background, Appirio has around 500 consultants and an ecosystem of around 42,000 developers on Cloudspokes. The company recently raised $60 million in its bid to become a one stop cloud integration and implementation shop.
This video is a prequel to a video conversation I shall be recording between Jon Reed and myself tomorrow evening (7pm CET. 6pm GMT, 1pm ET, 10am PT.) I want to put Jon on the spot to discuss what needs to happen and especially around the skillset and change management required. Both of us are very familiar with the SAP ecosystem as an example but this is not just about that company. The same challenges are going to hold true for other players like Oracle which is set to announce its public cloud offerings on 6th June. I wonder what they will have to say about this topic?...
Earlier today I caught up with Narinder Singh, co-founder Appirio and a great sounding board for cloud consulting and implementation topics.
As background, Appirio has around 500 consultants and an ecosystem of around 42,000 developers on Cloudspokes. The company recently raised $60 million in its bid to become a one stop cloud integration and implementation shop.
This video is a prequel to a video conversation I shall be recording between Jon Reed and myself tomorrow evening (7pm CET. 6pm GMT, 1pm ET, 10am PT.) I want to put Jon on the spot to discuss what needs to happen and especially around the skillset and change management required. Both of us are very familiar with the SAP ecosystem as an example but this is not just about that company. The same challenges are going to hold true for other players like Oracle which is set to announce its public cloud offerings on 6th June. I wonder what they will have to say about this topic?...
Sunday, May 20, 2012
In One Adjective, Please Tell Me Who You Are
The New York Times
This interview with Chris Barbin, chief executive of Appirio, an information technology company that focuses on cloud services, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. What are some important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. I would start with transparency — it is a huge part of our culture, and what I think makes a company and team really thrive and work. You should never surprise an employee. I’ve had experiences in my career where you’re building something, you think everything’s great and all of a sudden there’s a layoff. That should never happen. The team should know. We have meetings every other week in the company, and we use a system of red light, yellow light, green light on the key attributes of the business, like financials, customers and team.
From my experience at bigger companies, I think there’s a tendency to overanalyze, with too many metrics. It can be confusing, so you have to boil it down to simple, crisp goals that you hammer and repeat. That’s part of transparency, too...
This interview with Chris Barbin, chief executive of Appirio, an information technology company that focuses on cloud services, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. What are some important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. I would start with transparency — it is a huge part of our culture, and what I think makes a company and team really thrive and work. You should never surprise an employee. I’ve had experiences in my career where you’re building something, you think everything’s great and all of a sudden there’s a layoff. That should never happen. The team should know. We have meetings every other week in the company, and we use a system of red light, yellow light, green light on the key attributes of the business, like financials, customers and team.
From my experience at bigger companies, I think there’s a tendency to overanalyze, with too many metrics. It can be confusing, so you have to boil it down to simple, crisp goals that you hammer and repeat. That’s part of transparency, too...
Thursday, May 17, 2012
10 More Hot Products From Interop 2012
CRN
Cloud provider Appirio introduced new features for its CloudFactor application, which is a part of its Cloud Enablement Suite of applications, analytics and a crowdsourcing community for managing enterprise cloud initiatives.
CloudFactor brings Salesforce.com information into Google Apps and allows users to access Salesforce CRM information in Gmail. CloudFactor was first introduced in 2010 as CloudWorks.
CloudFactor allows users to access and manage relevant customer information to improve data quality and decision making. The application supports Group and Professional Edition Salesforce tenants and is available to install via the Salesforce AppExchange and Google Apps Marketplace.
The CloudFactor upgrades include Salesforce.com Chatter integration, an embedded Twitter search widget, and customization and administration options.
Cloud provider Appirio introduced new features for its CloudFactor application, which is a part of its Cloud Enablement Suite of applications, analytics and a crowdsourcing community for managing enterprise cloud initiatives.
CloudFactor brings Salesforce.com information into Google Apps and allows users to access Salesforce CRM information in Gmail. CloudFactor was first introduced in 2010 as CloudWorks.
CloudFactor allows users to access and manage relevant customer information to improve data quality and decision making. The application supports Group and Professional Edition Salesforce tenants and is available to install via the Salesforce AppExchange and Google Apps Marketplace.
The CloudFactor upgrades include Salesforce.com Chatter integration, an embedded Twitter search widget, and customization and administration options.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
6 Tools to Build a Mobile App on the Cheap
Mashable
Dave Messinger, chief architect of CloudSpokes, says his company is "the first developer community that matches the cloud with the crowd — a true market where businesses tap into skills and pay for results versus effort, and where developers get access to a new world of opportunity to earn money for cloud development.”
The service, built by cloud solutions brand Appirio, allows companies to outsource any form of public cloud development work — entire mobile applications, Facebook pages and technical components for enterprises — in the form of a competition. After customers post a deadline alongside technical specifications, developers in the community submit entries, which are then judged by the customer or the CloudSpokes team.
“For developers, this approach creates a market for their talents, lets them develop new skills with real world assignments and transitions their careers to the cloud while establishing street cred as skilled practitioners,” Messinger says. “For companies (including Appirio), this means tapping into a developer ecosystem and paying only for the components of work that meet pre-agreed upon requirements.”
The success of CloudSpokes reflects the effectiveness an entirely unique approach to app development: A gamified network of freelance contributors. Current challenges range from the bizarre — a Python-based app that can create a route guiding users to every train station on a given system within 24 hours — to the highly practical, including an app to facilitate financial aid application processes by extracting information from existing tax files. (Original Article)
Dave Messinger, chief architect of CloudSpokes, says his company is "the first developer community that matches the cloud with the crowd — a true market where businesses tap into skills and pay for results versus effort, and where developers get access to a new world of opportunity to earn money for cloud development.”
The service, built by cloud solutions brand Appirio, allows companies to outsource any form of public cloud development work — entire mobile applications, Facebook pages and technical components for enterprises — in the form of a competition. After customers post a deadline alongside technical specifications, developers in the community submit entries, which are then judged by the customer or the CloudSpokes team.
“For developers, this approach creates a market for their talents, lets them develop new skills with real world assignments and transitions their careers to the cloud while establishing street cred as skilled practitioners,” Messinger says. “For companies (including Appirio), this means tapping into a developer ecosystem and paying only for the components of work that meet pre-agreed upon requirements.”
The success of CloudSpokes reflects the effectiveness an entirely unique approach to app development: A gamified network of freelance contributors. Current challenges range from the bizarre — a Python-based app that can create a route guiding users to every train station on a given system within 24 hours — to the highly practical, including an app to facilitate financial aid application processes by extracting information from existing tax files. (Original Article)
Monday, April 23, 2012
These Newly Funded Start-Ups Are Hiring
The Wall Street Journal
...After six years in business with a staff of 500, it’s questionable whether Appirio is still a start-up, but after raising $60 million in March it’s got a lot of job openings. The San Mateo, Calif., company is hiring 200 this year as it cashes in on what it calls the “cloud [computing] gold rush.” Appirio helps companies plan their cloud strategies and migrate onto remote servers. It’ll be hiring engineers with cloud experience, quality assurance engineers and architects. Administrative jobs in finance, human resources and corporate development are also available...
Friday, April 13, 2012
Appirio to Hire 200 New Employees for Cloud Biz
FINS
Cloud computing consultancy Appirio plans to hire 200 new employees this year after raising $60 million in venture capital financing last month. The funding round was led by General Atlantic. Founded in 2006, the company currently has about 500 employees.
Appirio sees itself as displacing consulting companies as businesses increasingly move their operations into the cloud. The company helps businesses identify a cloud strategy, move data into the cloud, develop custom cloud applications and provide cloud management services.
"In the cloud gold rush, we're the picks and shovels," said Chief Executive Chris Barbin...
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
SAP database and mobility strategies: genius or madness?
ZDNet
...What I do know is that the new breed of SI like Appirio is able to deliver value based custom apps in the $100,000 range and is now working towards making that model repeatable as a service:
What Appirio has mastered is the automation of professional services using today’s global networked connections — part of a trend I call frictionless enterprise. It’s not just a matter of automating repeatable processes within the service model (though that’s a helpful starting point). It’s also breaking them down into more readily assembled components so that some can be productized or cloudsourced, as appropriate.
I don’t see evidence that SAP or its large SI partners have truly understood this model. Instead, I continue to see legal roadblocks that prevent developers from gaining easy and affordable platform access...
Monday, April 2, 2012
Diabetes Foundation Takes to the Cloud for More Donor Revenues
The Wall Street Journal
...Szmak said this software is much more intuitive, providing employees with dashboard views of customer’s past fundraising activities and preferences. The software also helps donors choose the information they want to receive at a time when software used by some non-profits spam donors with poorly targeted e-mails about fundraising activities.
This will help better serve existing and potential supporters, eventually enabling the agency to increase the money it’s able to spend on research to find a cure, develop treatments and prevent type-1 diabetes, he said. Salesforce.com also provides mobile support the previous application lacked.
Szmak and his small IT staff lacked the technical wherewithal to move the data created in file formats from their older application to Salesforce.com. So the foundation hired Appirio, a cloud service provider that capitalizes on data integration challenges...
3 Ways APIs are Changing IT Consulting
Silicon ANGLE
...Dave Messinger, chief architect and evangelist for CloudSpokes at Appirio, agrees with Pisoni and points out that most “custom” solutions that customers build are really not as custom as they’d like to think. “In software development, code re-use is a holy grail,” he says. “APIs take this to a whole new level.” SIs are now turning to integration-as-a-service providers like e SnapLogic, Talend and Informatica to make integration go quicker and easier...
Monday, March 26, 2012
A how-to guide for Web APIs
SD Times
...Narinder Singh, cofounder of Appirio and CloudSpokes, said there are more hard-and-fast rules regarding APIs than just not changing them. CloudSpokes is a site where developers collect bounties on application requirements. Companies put up requests, typically along the lines of “use Google Maps' API and our Salesforce application to make maps of deliveries.” Due to the nature of modern Web development, almost every CloudSpokes solution uses at least a few Web APIs.With all those developers building with Web APIs, Singh has seen what it takes to make a successful API. “[Cloud VOIP service] Twilio has done a good job with their API,” he said. “How do I know? Because every time we run a contest on CloudSpokes that has requirements like 'Pick two things and mash them up,' Twilio shows up a disproportionate number of times, even when the use case doesn't quite fit.”
For its Valentine’s Day contest, CloudSpokes asked developers to build applications that could get them a date. Three of the five final entries used Twilio. One of those applications, said Singh, automatically found potential suitors via dating sites, then connected the possible couple via VOIP using Twilio...
Monday, March 19, 2012
Appirio masters the automation of professional services
ZDNet
By now, we’re used to enterprise cloud application vendors paving their IPO roadmap with mega funding announcements, but last week saw the first such news for an enterprise cloud integrator. Appirio’s $60 million Series D round mostly from General Atlantic is a different order of funding from its previous total of $20 million. It’s especially notable in the context of my suggestion a week earlier that we might see “the virtual extinction of the traditional systems integrator” as the new breed of cloud integrators “scale up their own more customizable automation to address the high-end enterprise market.” Or as the Forbes headline more bluntly expressed it, Appirio Raises $60M to Take on Accenture...
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Appirio Rises As Businesses Gaze Into The Cloud
The Wall Street Journal
...Appirio will face competition from big systems integrators like Accenture and Deloitte Development LLC that are several times its size, but Barbin believes that his company’s experience and its intellectual property give it a head start.
His team has done deployments of Salesforce.com, Google, Amazon.com and Workday software, among others, and will continue to add other specialties, possibly including Service-now.com, which offers software for IT management. Barbin said he gets eight to 10 requests a week from potential partners wanting Appirio to set up a practice around their software.
Appirio has offices in Japan, India, Singapore and the U.K., which it entered in September through the acquisition of Saaspoint, a Salesforce and Google partner, and expects to make more acquisitions...
Appirio Raises $60M to Take on Accenture
Forbes
...this is the opportunity for Appirio, whose mission includes helping customers get the maximum value from cloud implementations.
But Appirio is not just a group of high-paid consultants. The company actually has some innovative systems, such as CloudSpokes — a community of more than 35,000 developers who submit their solutions, then are awarded prizes by a panel of judges.
“One of our clients ran a contest to implement complex timezone calculations in their Salesforce application that would have cost several thousand dollars for a traditional systems integrator to do,” Appirio CEO Chris Barbin said. “But with CloudSpokes, we got multiple working solutions for just $750 in prize money.”..
Appirio founder on cloud-services firm's latest funding round -- and Chicago as a startup hub
Crain's Chicago Business
Appirio Inc., which offers technology and professional services to companies' cloud applications, today announced a $60 million investment led by General Atlantic, with participation from Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital.
Appirio is based in San Mateo, Calif., but the company's chief executive, Chris Barbin, spends at least a third of his time in Chicago, where he calls Glenview home.
Mr. Barbin, 41, who early in his career worked for Lake Forest-based W.W. Grainger Inc., says the latest round of funding is the largest of its kind in a cloud services provider and will allow Appirio not only to continue developing its crowdsourcing development platform, CloudSpokes, but also will enable the company to snap up other consulting firms...
Appirio raises $60M to be your one-stop cloud service shop
VentureBeat
...“We are seeing more companies going cloud first, saying they’re not ever going to buy another server,” said Chris Barbin, Appirio chief executive, “We’re also seeing companies making the migration to 100% cloud to reduce costs and help them scale faster.”
The five-year-old company started out helping big companies adopt cloud services such as Google Apps, Salesforce, and Workday. It then turned its attention to cloud app development, creating apps that tie together multiple cloud services and social networks. For example, it developed an app that integrates Google Calendar and contacts with Salesforce calendar and contact lists.
Appirio’s current offerings run the gamut of cloud services. The company will help you decide which cloud service is right for your company, build custom apps to work with the cloud, move your data to the cloud, and manage the cloud services it’s set up for your business. Essentially, it hopes to move your business away from in-house IT departments and run it solely in the cloud...
New-look integrator Appirio raises $60M
GigaOM
...The company built its business by diving into the then-relatively new world of software as a service, helping companies deploy and customize services from Salesforce.com and Google and ensuring that they worked with customers’ older legacy software.
Appirio Chief Strategy Officer Narinder Singh said the company’s revenue has grown 80 percent every year since it was founded almost six years ago, but would not comment on profitability...
Appirio: Cloud Makes Global Systems Integrators Obsolete
SiliconANGLE
...Narinder Singh, co-founder of cloud integrator Appirio, reached out directly to CIOs in a blog entry today to explain in no uncertain terms just how critical the global cloud system integrator model is to the future of IT – and just how painfully obsolete the existing global systems integrator business has become.
“After the first World War, the French constructed the Maginot Line - a set of fortifications, tanks obstacles and other fixed positions to defend the country. It was ‘extolled as a work of genius‘ up until the point of World War II, when it became clear that armies were structurally more mobile and agile than ever before. The Maginot Line was essentially driven around and France was successfully invaded in just a few days. The global systems integrator model is the Maginot Line of the cloud world,” writes Singh...
Cloud-consulting company Appirio wins $60 million
Reuters
Cloud-consulting company Appirio said it raised $60 million, in a round of funding led by General Atlantic, that will allow it to buy other companies and build out its development platform, CloudSpokes.
The funding, from General Atlantic and existing investors Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital, underscores the venture's continuing belief in the cloud, which allows businesses to buy computing resources such as software applications and data management much as they buy utilities. Previously, companies typically maintained their own computing infrastructure.
Appirio helps companies such as Avon, Motorola and Starbucks move to cloud-based services offered by companies including Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com and Workday...
Appirio Receives $60 Million In VC Funding, Plans More Acquisitions
CRN
Cloud provider Appirio said it has received $60 million in venture funding, much of which it plans to use for mergers and acquisitions to bolster its worldwide cloud consulting practice.
The funding, one the largest of its kind according to Appirio, will also be invested in its technologies and in its CloudSpokes crowdsourcing developer community, which has more than 30,000 developers in more than 65 countries.
The Series D funding is being provided by the investment firm General Atlantic, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital, Appirio said...
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Appirio: Cloud Makes Global Systems Integrators Obsolete
SiliconANGLE
Narinder Singh, co-founder of cloud integrator Appirio, reached out directly to CIOs in a blog entry today to explain in no uncertain terms just how critical the global cloud system integrator model is to the future of IT – and just how painfully obsolete the existing global systems integrator business has become.
“After the first World War, the French constructed the Maginot Line - a set of fortifications, tanks obstacles and other fixed positions to defend the country. It was ‘extolled as a work of genius‘ up until the point of World War II, when it became clear that armies were structurally more mobile and agile than ever before. The Maginot Line was essentially driven around and France was successfully invaded in just a few days. The global systems integrator model is the Maginot Line of the cloud world,” writes Singh...
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Cloud Software Use Accelerates, Says Citi
Barron's
Citigroup‘s Walter Pritchard today writes that the software-as-a-service, or SaaS, market for enterprise applications has arrived at a “ripping point,” by which he means that the practice of ripping out older software and replacing it with cloud-based, hosted applications, appears to be accelerating.
Based on a conversation with Appirio, a San Mateo, California systems integrator for SaaS, Pritchard observed there is a hefty amount of removal being done of older enterprise resource planning, or “ERP,” applications...
Next-gen integrators automate how you buy IT
ZDNet
...There’s still a demand from larger customers for sophisticated custom capabilities, but the new generation of providers such as Cloud Sherpas, Appirio and others offer that custom service on top of a bedrock of highly automated processes. As CEO of the newly enlarged Cloud Sherpas David Northington confirmed to me this week, “Work can be carried out offsite, in many ways automated. There’s clearly an industrialized approach that works in many segments of the market and people are quite happy with that.”..
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
How to build a developer community from scratch
VentureBeat
Whether you’re a company in need of development work, or someone with an open source project that needs contributions, leveraging a developer community can seem like a simple and cost-effective solution.
The promise of having hundreds or even thousands of independent, talented workers solving your development problems around the clock appears to be a dream come true.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work that easily. You can’t add the word “developer” to your website and expect hundreds of developers to suddenly support your initiatives and grow organically.
Developer communities are called communities for a reason — they are beneficial to everyone involved and take a lot of work to both grow and maintain. Work that includes time, transparency, and in some cases, significant funding...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Gmail Integration Battle - Cirrus Insight vs Appirio Cloudworks
Trineo
...It’s great to see these products that customers have been craving finally come to market. It’s a shame that Salesforce.com didn’t build an official integration like this a long time ago.
After using the 2 products side by side (literally with Cirrus Insight to the right of an email and Cloudworks underneath) I’d give the slight edge to Cloudworks at this time. They are both very good products but Cloudworks is slightly cheaper and offers a little bit more functionality.
No longer can it be an excuse that it’s too hard to keep the CRM up to date!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Cloud service broker Appirio: Focus on fewer partners, avoid the hype
SearchCloudProvider
Editor's note: If there's any concrete evidence of how cloud computing is changing the channel, it might be the emergence of a new species of channel partner, the cloud service broker -- part consultant, part integrator and all cloud.
Glenn Weinstein, CTO of cloud service broker Appirio, shared his vision for 2012 in the third of our four-part Q&A series on cloud provider strategy for the year ahead. Appirio -- which partners with Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com and Workday -- is on a mission to expose what it sees as the market's biggest liability: cloud washers. The cloud service broker's tongue-in-cheek awards ceremony, the Cloud Washies, modeled after Hollywood's unofficial "Razzies" (honoring the worst movies of the year), took aim at Oracle and Microsoft as some of the worst offenders.
It's unclear what marketing tricks Appirio has up its sleeve for 2012, but Weinstein told SearchCloudProvider.com that its business and technical strategy as a cloud broker is well-defined: Go global and go enterprise...
Thursday, January 5, 2012
How Appirio can help transform your sales and business process
WWWireframe.com
Despite the countless advantages cloud computing offers to enterprises, adoption has been steady yet slow. Now one company in San Mateo is changing all that.
Appirio, founded in 2006 by Chris Barbin, Narinder Singh, Glenn Weinstein, and Mike O’Brien, offers a full range of cloud computing services that is helping businesses make the transition to cloud computing easier, faster and in a more cost-effective way. Apart from offering a predefined set of solutions and services — they’re also working on innovation in cloud integration, mobile cloud and social enterprise. And here’s the best part, they do all this serious work while still maintaining a very healthy sense of humor.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
5 Worst Cloud Washers Of 2011
InformationWeek
...That means that "cloud computing" is a new way of doing things that hasn't shaken down into a strict definition--it's still a moving target. At the same time, it's only fair to say that some vendors are exploiting that opening and cloud washing their products.
On Wednesday, Dec. 14, cloud consulting company Appirio will host the Cloudwashies—an "awards" event similar to the Razzies awards for bad movies. I've got my own list of nominees for top cloud washers--those parties who have done the most to try to make a previous generation product look and sound like cloud...
Friday, December 9, 2011
Appirio Storms European Cloud Market With Saaspoint Buy
CRN
Cloud provider Appirio extended its reach into Europe on Friday with the acquisition of Saaspoint, a cloud consulting services provider that gives Appirio a stronger arsenal of cloud consultants and a new physical presence in the U.K. and Ireland.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not divulged. The Saaspoint buy marks San Mateo, Calif.-based Appirio's fourth acquisition this year and beefs up its global presence with a foundation in Europe in addition to the U.S., Japan and India....
Red Robot Labs acquires Supermono, Appirio buys Saaspoint to expand to the UK
TechCrunch
...Cloud solutions company Appirio, which just raised funding from Salesforce.com and other strategic backers, has acquired Saaspoint, a provider of cloud consulting services.
Saaspoint brings Appirio experienced cloud consultants, as well as a physical presence in the UK and Ireland, in an effort to aggressively expand across Europe.
Founded in 2005 by early Salesforce.com employees, Saaspoint boasts offices in the UK and Ireland, and has served more than 100 global customers including companies such as British Gas, Dell, eBay, Paypal, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and UBM...
San Mateo's Appirio to buy Saaspoint
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
...San Mateo-based Appirio says it is a "technology-enabled services provider that helps enterprises power their businesses with the cloud." London-based Saaspoint provides cloud consulting services and gives Appirio a physical presence in the UK and Ireland.
The deal marks Appirio's fourth acquisition in 2011 and adds to the company's plans to expand further into Europe. It has an existing footprint in the United States and Japan...
Appirio enters UK market with Saaspoint buy
CloudPro
Appirio today revealed it has bought Irish firm Saaspoint for an undisclosed sum.
The US cloud services company announced back in September it wanted to grow its base across Europe and now hopes picking up the cloud consultancy will make the transition an easy one.
“With the acquisition of Saaspoint today, [we] are one step further in our quest to be THE pure-play global cloud integrator,” wrote Chris Barbin, chief executive (CEO) of Appirio, on the company’s blog...
Appirio acquires Saaspoint for push into Europe
ZDNet
In its fourth acquisition of the past 12 months, cloud integrator Appirio has announced it is buying long-established European pureplay Salesforce.com integrator Saaspoint. The acquisition is Appirio’s first significant foray into the European theater, delivering on the international expansion promised after GGV Capital and Salesforce.com invested in the company in August.
Saaspoint was founded in 2005 by the founders of salesforce.com’s European operations and has its corporate administration in rural offices near Dublin, Ireland, with headquarters in London. It is regarded as one of Europe’s leading Salesforce.com integrators (see previous coverage), although its activities are mainly limited to Ireland and the UK, where customers include well-known names such as British Gas, CitiLink and Rentokil...
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Shining the harsh light on Cloudwashing
Forrester blog
...Appirio, a cloud integration and customization solution provider has created the cloud computing equivalent of the Razzie Awards to recognize and call out those vendors it and its clients see as the most aggregious cloudwashing offenders. The first annual Washies will be announced next Wednesday night at The Cigar Bar in San Francisco and in true Razzie tradition, the nominees are invited to attend and pick up their dubious honors in person. I'm betting that Larry Ellison will be otherwise engaged.
While some will be offended to be nominated, the recognition here is meant to be a bit of a roast to those marketing ahead of their capabilities as well as a fun way to help spread market education about what truly is (and is not) cloud computing. It's understandable why the vendors who cloudwash their solutions do it, as the word can get you a meeting with a key customer and that customer at the end of the day may turn out not to need cloud at all and thus end up buying that vendor's traditional IT solution. Same with I&O pros. If calling your virtualized server environment cloud gets executive pressure off so you can better plan a real cloud strategy, mission accomplished. But this practice creates market confusion and can ultimately hurt the offender as their credibility takes a hit in comparison to true cloud efforts. I&O teams that claim private cloud for their VMware environment and aren't delivering self-service, cloud economics or automation, risk losing the trust with their developers who may just turn up their noses at IT and go straight to the public cloud. Try selling them on your true private cloud after that...
...Appirio, a cloud integration and customization solution provider has created the cloud computing equivalent of the Razzie Awards to recognize and call out those vendors it and its clients see as the most aggregious cloudwashing offenders. The first annual Washies will be announced next Wednesday night at The Cigar Bar in San Francisco and in true Razzie tradition, the nominees are invited to attend and pick up their dubious honors in person. I'm betting that Larry Ellison will be otherwise engaged.
While some will be offended to be nominated, the recognition here is meant to be a bit of a roast to those marketing ahead of their capabilities as well as a fun way to help spread market education about what truly is (and is not) cloud computing. It's understandable why the vendors who cloudwash their solutions do it, as the word can get you a meeting with a key customer and that customer at the end of the day may turn out not to need cloud at all and thus end up buying that vendor's traditional IT solution. Same with I&O pros. If calling your virtualized server environment cloud gets executive pressure off so you can better plan a real cloud strategy, mission accomplished. But this practice creates market confusion and can ultimately hurt the offender as their credibility takes a hit in comparison to true cloud efforts. I&O teams that claim private cloud for their VMware environment and aren't delivering self-service, cloud economics or automation, risk losing the trust with their developers who may just turn up their noses at IT and go straight to the public cloud. Try selling them on your true private cloud after that...
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Introduction to Appirio
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