The coming cloud – April 30, 2008

Firebrand Announces 2017 Accelerated CloudMASTER® Dates

By G C Network | December 23, 2016

Firebrand, the leader in Accelerated Learning, has recently announced it’s 2017 delivery schedule for their accelerated CloudMASTER® training course. Delivered in partnership with Logical Operations and the NCTA, this unique…

TAP Accelerates Artificial Intelligence

By G C Network | December 21, 2016

Photo credit: Shutterstock Over the past few years, the use of artificial intelligence has expanded more rapidly than many of us could have imagined. While this may invoke fear and…

Cognitive on Cloud

By G C Network | December 20, 2016

Photo credit: Shutterstock According to the IBM Institute for Business Value the market will see a rapid adoption of initial cognitive systems. The most likely candidates have moved beyond descriptive…

Europe: NCTA CloudMASTER® Hotspot

By G C Network | November 29, 2016

The ongoing digital transformation continues to generate a steady demand for workers with increasingly sophisticated digital skills. This process is multi-dimensional and workers with these highly specialized skills are very…

Smart Manufacturing Is Cloud Computing

By G C Network | November 27, 2016

As cloud computing simultaneously transforms multiple industries many have wondered about how this trend will affect manufacturing. Often characterized as “staid”, this vertical is not often cited when leading edge…

George Youmans, Jr.: The CloudMASTER Fashionista!

By G C Network | November 23, 2016

So how could a NCTA Certified CloudMASTER accelerate his career in the fashion industry? To answer that question, you would need to catch up with George Youmans, Jr. He has…

Is Cloud Interoperability a Myth?

By G C Network | November 20, 2016

Photo credit: Shutterstock As the industry matures, cloud computing will increasingly rely on interoperability in order to grow and deliver more value to industry. Assuming this is a fact, what…

Should Data Centers Think?

By G C Network | November 10, 2016

As cloud computing becomes the information technology mainstream, data center technology is accelerating at a breakneck speed. Concepts like software define infrastructure, data center analytics and Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe)…

For Top Cyber Threats, Look in the Mirror

By G C Network | October 31, 2016

A recent report by Praetorian, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Austin, TX, focused on threats that resulted in data compromise or access to sensitive information. Based on a review of…

Your Choice: Cloud Technician or Digital Transformer

By G C Network | October 28, 2016

The CompTIA Cloud+certification validates the skills and expertise of IT practitioners in implementing and maintaining cloud technologies.  This is exactly what it takes to become a good cloud technician.  In…

I attended the IBM Public Sector briefing this morning. The IBM executives were clearly basking in a financial performance glow. After ending 2007 with increases in revenue, profit and earnings per share, IBM also turned in an impressive 1Q’08. This being a partner conference, a big highlight was the fact that 36% of IBM’s revenue came from partners. The first quarter saw a 15.5% year-on-year growth of partner channel revenue. The public sector business saw a 19% revenue growth. Looking into the future, public sector spending is expected to grow 4.8% in 2008 with over $1.5T in revenue opportunity through 2011. The big industry trends affecting the government customer are:

1) Changing demographics
2) Globalization
3) Environmental concerns
4) Societal relationships
5) Threats to social stability and order; and the
6) Impact of technology.

As far as technology goes, “Cloud Computing” is now the wave of the future. According to Frank Gens of IDC, the IT industry’s future is being shaped by disruptive customers, disruptive solutions and disruptive industry partnerships. Of particular note to me was his view on the “mash-up” of enterprise social networking and information. According to his studies, 14% of enterprises have already deployed social networking environments while 27% of these enterprises plan to do so in 2008. The proliferation of these collaboration platforms on top of the 10x growth in information over the next five years will result in “Eureka 2.0”, which I took as his description of an explosive use of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise.

Linking this back to my earlier blog, Mr. Gens also described a move to what I would describe as non-traditional solution platforms. In this world of open computing, instead of choosing between Microsoft or IBM, future IT infrastructures will be built on top of a Google or an Amazon platforms. In order to meet constituent expectation and budget constraints, Government 2.0 will also need to leverage this cloud.

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G C Network