One of the many areas where IT concepts dovetail well with the rest of the world is a conversation about whether you should use Best-of-Breed products or use a suite of products that optimally integrate with each other. This is similar to decisions we make in the rest of our life where we decide if we want the best possible individual product or if we want to pick the best collection of products that will work together optimally.
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In the last blog, we defined the cloud and talked about what it was and wasn’t, various types of the cloud and so on. In this blog, let’s build on that and talk about the kinds of metrics and considerations you should make when considering whether or not to go into the cloud.
Continue ReadingWhen I first started my career, I ran into a problem as the organizations I worked for were content to keep me in a specific position indefinitely. I sought out my managers to find out how I could build a career path but was met with blank stares. I wasn’t content with this setup so I began looking around for what I call vacuums, places where there was a need and an absence of appropriate skills to fill that need.
Continue ReadingWhen we engage with new clients, one of the top issues is that their technology spending is not aligned with their business needs. While it is also common to see technology that isn’t working right, we find that this is usually an indicator that an organization’s technology spending is not tied to business needs. This misalignment results in money being wasted because it is spent in the wrong places or spending is held back until there’s an emergency, at which time, the solution is usually a patch and more expensive. When we work with clients, we seek to start with a solid understanding of business objectives and drivers. From those drivers, we factor cost vs reward to figure out if various solutions are justified or will be a waste of money. The beauty of this is that we avoid wasting money and, if we determine to move forward with a solution, we have a clear understanding of exactly why we are doing it and what we are getting out of the solution.
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