To Tame the Onslaught of Big Data, Better Drink Your V8. It will make You Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

After a brief restful working vacation in India with my parents, things have become hectic.  In Feb-early March/2013, I had the privilege to attend several meetings focused on Emerging Computing Technology:

1. IBM Global Entrepreneur SmartCamp in New York City.
2. Wharton Emerging Technology Day
3. IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference
4. Pulse 2013

In our previous blog, we discussed, in some detail, several synergistic emerging computing technologies including #Social #Mobile #Cloud #HPC #BigData and #Analytics that will make profound business impact in 2013.  We articulate this coalescing rainbow shine in this video. Over the course of the next several weeks, as time permits, we plan to detail this mosaic of emerging computing technologies through several new blogs.

But now, I want to delve deeper into how you as an IT professional can make your organization wiser by leveraging #BigData, #Analytics and #Optimization.  This topic is vast, impacting many stakeholders and roles in the modern enterprise. But here, I restrict the discussion to areas most relevant to IT professionals – CIOs, Directors of IT and their staff.

V8: Combating the Challenging Attributes of Big Data

The IT professional must have a deep understanding of several Big Data attributes and invest in solutions to address these challenges.

In recent years, the following four (V4) attributes have been discussed extensively in the IT industry literature:

Volume: This is the amount of data generated in bytes and provides insights on how data is growing and/or expected to grow over time. Today, many enterprises generate tremendous amounts of data that is unstructured and the associated metadata alone can quickly reach thousands of terabytes.

Variety: This indicates the type of data generated including structured or unstructured. Understanding data variety aids in decision-making and provides greater process insights.

Velocity: It determines the speed and efficiency in capture, storage and retrieval of data and often drives performance and availability requirements.

Veracity: This establishes the authenticity of data that is available to perform analytics and to arrive at useful insights. Data veracity shapes the final strategic actions and is dependent on the accuracy of data.

To this list we add Vulnerability.  In today’s #mobile era, with a proliferation of numerous access points and devices and a distributed workforce, IT has become even more concerned with data security.

Vulnerability: This establishes how susceptible corporate data assets are to a plethora of possible malicious attacks. Very comprehensive security solutions are needed to protect strategic data assets.

Beyond deploying comprehensive security solutions, to combat all the Big Data challenges listed above, IT should also invest in solutions for:

Visualization: This helps IT Managers better fathom data growth and patterns and produce actionable insights to better optimize their IT environment. Users can also visualize and traverse enormous data quickly – even in real time – to draw actionable insights and steer subsequent analyses for better business outcomes.

Virtualization: This allows the integration of large data volumes with already-stored data to perform new forms of analyses and predictive modeling. All the data is typically stored in a centralized data warehouse that provides storage and integration for multiple data sources. Virtualization offers the right technique for reuse of datasets across multiple applications and improves data management efficiencies.

Finally, IT must enable users and the business to leverage data to create Value.

Value: Enterprises can unlock the business value by leveraging existing data assets to create information, insights, knowledge, and ultimately greater profits.  Using advanced software tools and technologies, enterprises can analyze huge amounts of data to reveal unseen patterns, links across various domains to drive new levels of innovation and customer intelligence.

“By drinking this V8”, IT can enable the entire organization to be more resilient; make faster, better and wiser decisions; and transform the business.

 

My Masticating Juicer 

Beyond V8: Veni Vidi Vici!

But to constantly enhance organizational Vitality, you must “drink fresh V8” and make it an organizational routine. Aged data is like canned juice which often loses many vital nutrients and Vitamins. When my son demands and drinks his fresh apple juice with a twist of ginger and lime from the masticating juicer shown above, he has a sated contended smile on his face. That smile makes all my angst from Big Data and life Vanish!

Cliff, Cliff on the Hill: Which Emerging Computing Technologies (ECT) to Watch in 2013?

Our best wishes to you, your families and friends for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. Much of 2012 was a stimulating hike through the emerging computing technology (ECT) landscape; with the last month or so being an exciting steep ascent culminating at the ECT Cliff. Our year-end climb started with our participation at the exciting annual Supercomputing 2012 event (#SC12) in Salt Lake City in Utah. Then, we attended the annual #IBM Software Analyst Insights conference in Stamford, CT. And finally, we attended the monthly Connecticut Chief Technology Officers (CTO) club in mid-December before winding down for our annual holiday in 2012.

Already, 2013 is shaping to be an exciting year here in Connecticut. Fortunately, we did not fall over the cliff – fiscal or otherwise. It is refreshingly cold and crisp here. And after this morning’s stimulating hike, I pause and reflect on what the hike through ECT landscape in 2013 may look like from the edge of this ECT cliff while relishing a breathtaking view that is truly amazing – gazing at the horizon taking in the first rays emanating from the rising sun. Reflections on what the ECT landscape may look like 2013 are almost as wondrous and awesome as the rising sun. But unlike the sunrise that can be predicted with great accuracy, ECT predictions even for a relatively near-term horizon i.e. only 2013 could be far off-target!

But rather than just provide my undoubtedly biased individual view, I thought, it may be valuable to share what a small group of Southern Connecticut CTOs viewed as key ECT items to watch in 2013.

December 2012 Connecticut CTO Club Meeting Informal Survey – 2013 will be the Year for Analytics!

At our last CTO club meeting for 2012, we had a vigorous and stimulating discussion on what the group assembled there considered were the key emerging computing technologies to watch in 2013. We put up a list and then this group of about 18 individuals representing technical leaders across various companies – large and small – in southern Connecticut and New York – voted on whether they thought these technologies were Over-Hyped, Under-Hyped, or Just Right.

Some items in the list were broad areas i.e. Storage and Analytics. While others were very specific technologies i.e. Automatic Identification Technologies, Personalized Genomic Testing, and In-Memory Computing. So, there was considerable variance in this list. Nevertheless, being an informal list, it covered considerable ground in the ECT landscape.  We even listed broad mature categories like Storage as they have emerging technologies to watch i.e. Solid State Disks, Flash Memory, etc. Clearly, Extreme Low-energy Servers are just emerging as a category.  Here are the informal survey results.

Some key observations from the above chart: The topics most thought were over-hyped were Cloud Computing and Tablets.  The ones they thought were most under-hyped was Software-Defined Networks, followed by Dynamic Simulation Models and Automatic Identification Technology, along with Non-Traditional Hardware Architectures (GPU computing and ARM) , Extreme Low-Energy Servers, In-Memory Computing, and the Internet of Things.

When asked what were the technologies that would have the most impact in 2013, Analytics won in a landslide (58% mentioned it).   Cloud Computing (35%), Big Data (29%) and BYOD (also 29%) also did well.   So perhaps, 2013 will be the year of Analytics!

Greater the Impacts When Several ECT Trends Combine …..

We are always awed by the potential impact of any one ECT trend, but we become ecstatic when several ECT trends combine together to significantly improve our personal and professional lives….each ray of the rising sun is lovely, but when these rays coalesce and illuminate the vast gorgeous valley below the cliff, that view is breathtakingly stunning!

First, let’s just consider four larger ECT category trends: mobile, cloud, analytics, and social. When mobile and cloud combine, we get the CloudMobile!  With Software Everyware and in the CloudMobile we can leverage the power of SocialAnalytics. Next, with a High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure, which someone aptly said is constantly emerging, we can support mankind’s ECT journey. And with Storage, Personalized Genomics Testing, and Non-Traditional Hardware Architectures capable of large In-Memory Computing, we could develop Novel Next Generation Genetic Sequencing solutions that could significantly change the Economics of Healthcare!

….. Under the Leadership of Enterprising Individuals

But we need enterprising doers, managers, and leaders to invent, develop, nurture, evangelize, adopt, and use these Emerging Computing Technologies. In 2012, we have been very fortunate to interact with several enterprising individuals. Clearly, the members of the Connecticut CTO club and the Faculty, Staff and Industry Members of the Wharton Emerging Technology Center are enterprising individuals with a passion for ECT. But I wanted to specifically call out others who we recently met or interacted with at #SC12 or the IBM Software Analyst Insights event. These individuals (doers, managers, and leaders all in one) have enriched our lives with their passion for ECT.

Combining the promise of Big Data with the power of High Performance Computing and Analytics is Gord Sissons, Sr. Marketing Manager at IBM Platform Computing for the IBM Platform Symphony offering. Joe Landman, CEO of Scalable Informatics is pushing the envelope in very high performance storage. Gord and Joe are classic examples of entrepreneurs and technical innovators.  Chad Harrington, VP of Marketing at Adaptive Computing – a HPC and Cloud Software Company is a top-notch evangelizer of the business value of ECT as is Karl Freund, VP of Marketing at Calxeda, a company building extreme low-energy servers. Last but not the least is Jim Corgel, General Manager of IBM’s Developer Relations organization. At the IBM Analyst Insights event, I had the unique opportunity to listen to Jim talking about how he plans to expand the very successful IBM Global Entrepreneur Program. While I was definitely in agreement with the content and strategy of Jim’s presentation, I was even more impressed with Jim’s passion and zeal to drive innovation in the partner ecosystem with targeted initiatives around four ECT areas: cloud, social, mobile and analytics. Jim’s body language and presentation exuded the passion and optimism of a doer typically found in technology entrepreneurs and innovators. This, in my opinion, is rare especially given Jim’s immense responsibilities of managing a partner ecosystem worth over tens of billions of dollars to IBM.

2013: The Best Year for Emerging Computing Technologies Yet – Let’s All Smile.

Despite Connecticut’s (and the entire Tristate area’s) travails with the recent devastation caused by hurricane Sandy and the absolutely horrific shooting in Newtown, CT (this is just a few miles away from my home), 2013 will be good a year. This is almost as definite as tomorrow’s magnificent sunrise – I remember vividly sitting at the deck of my friend’s (Bob DeLuccia – a Biotech entrepreneur himself and now co-founder of DiPexium Pharmaceuticals ) home on the shore at Long Beach Island in New Jersey this past summer discussing how delightful it is to witness the splendor of the rising sun. Fortunately, Bob’s house suffered minimal damage from hurricane Sandy.

Entrepreneurs and the enterprising individuals involved with ECT are, by nature, optimistic. One of the greatest compliments I received, in a prior life as CEO of a startup software company, from our lead investor – just as he was pushing us towards a Chapter 11 bankruptcy – was that I remained optimistic about the immense market potential of our startup’s software technology. That is probably a manifestation of the Karmic values and the Gandhian outlook that were part of my upbringing. Gandhi was clearly a rare transformational leader in a millennium. But almost every day for an hour or so, he as a doer, sat silently and intensely concentrated on his manual task of making cloth with a Spinning Wheel.

Our job, as IT analysts, is to similarly concentrate and meticulously observe with awe and analyze and catalog the wonderful impacts of these marvelous emerging computing technologies in 2013. But nothing makes me more euphoric than to witness one of my twin boy’s mischievous smiles. And when both twin boys smile mischievously together, that euphoria more than doubles!

Ratcheting up the “Flops”, the US regains Supercomputing Leadership. Keep the Innovation Flame on!

This week’s big supercomputing story – It’s Red, White and Blue and … Green too!

This past Monday (June/17), as I was sitting outside; reading and enjoying the nice sunny weather on the East Coast, I received an email alert that delighted me and put me on a joyous reflective state. At ISC 2012, the Top500 list of supercomputers worldwide firmly established that, after a span of almost three years, the United States has regained that envious and prestigious floating point performance leadership position in supercomputing or High Performance Computing (#HPC) – wresting this away from other world-class manufacturers.

Blue is Green Too!

The fastest supercomputer in the world is the IBM BlueGene/Q (Sequoia), installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and achieved an impressive 16.32 petaflops/s on the Linpack benchmark using 1,572,864 cores. The BlueGene/Q is also the top system in the Graph500 list, which ranks supercomputers by a data intensive benchmark that mirrors workloads common in graph applications including social networks, cyber security, and medical informatics. And the BlueGene/Q is also the Greenest supercomputer according to the Green500 list that ranks supercomputers by energy-efficiency benchmarks! Moreover, the fastest supercomputer in Europe is the SuperMUC, an IBM iDataplex system installed at the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum in Germany and cooled by warm water.

You can get more details from the Top500, the Green500, and the Graph500 lists of supercomputers. But if you want to truly get a detailed (the what, how and why) perspective on the innovations that underpin these spectacular results, please read our recent papers on the BlueGene/Q and the iDataPlex:

1. IBM Blue Gene/Q: The Most Energy Efficient Green Solution for High Performance Computing
2. Beyond PetaFlops: Scalable, Energy Efficient IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M4 powered by Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 Product Family
3.  The IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M4: Superior Energy Efficiency and Total Cost of Ownership for Petascale Technical Computing

The Eternal Flame of Innovation

This is a great testament to US innovation in the computer industry. Going forward, one fundamental question/challenge in supercomputer design is; how can we keep heat away and cool these systems to run reliably and efficient as we scale up performance?  For this, innovations in cooling technologies, low-power processors, and the rest of the technologies must all come together to build that gigantic jigsaw puzzle – the exascale system! The center of gravity of this pursuit, while historically firmly entrenched in the US since the dawn of the information age, seems to be lately seesawing between the US and Asia. Today, it is in the US. One question is how can the US reinforce and sustain this edge and arrest this seesawing jigsaw?

However, a bigger question is how can the US keep the flame and heat on the escalating tussle for an edge in innovation and on the seesawing race for leadership in today’s global knowledge economy? Today (June/21/2012) this heat is literally on.  It is not only the longest day in the northern hemisphere but it is also the hottest day here in Connecticut! The sprint towards exascale is just one proxy for this larger battle.

To win, we must flex our neurons. For this we need relentless focus and continuing investment in education – particularly in math, science, and language. Our teachers are our personal trainers and the classroom is the gym. But beyond, traditional classroom education, we must experiment, constantly learn on the job and not be afraid to make and learn from Brilliant Mistakes. Moving on and learning from these Brilliant Flops (a.k.a. Mistakes) is of greater benefit to innovation than merely ratcheting up the supercomputing Flops! May the Olympic Torch of Innovation continue to shine on the United States!

Simply Pure and Purely Simple – Systems, Stacks and Clouds

I recently attended the IBM IMPACT conference.  During the keynote, an IBM executive remarked (and I am paraphrasing) – It is very hard to make technology simple. This is a very profound observation.

This morning (May/2), comfortably perched in my aisle seat on the plane, as I return back to the wonderful state of Connecticut, several impressions from IMPACT start to swirl in my mind. So I thought I would clarify or purify these impressions and articulate them as simply as I can.  So that I can purge them from my conscious mind-cache yet make them persist in words through this blog post.  

Tomorrow, at the strike of dawn in Connecticut, I want to start with a clear and pure mind and continue with my day job (IT Analyst and Consultant) of gathering and analyzing and articulating additional ideas and thoughts to benefit my paying clients who sponsor my consulting projects. I must do that to make a living and ensure the continuing well-being of my children. This is pure and simple.  

PureSystems   - Patterning and Partnering

IMPACT was quite packed – over 8500 attendees. The solution center opened on April 29 in the evening. I was fortunate to leisurely examine the demos that perked my interest. I spent a significant amount of time examining the various PureSystems exhibits. In particular, I was very impressed seeing the internals of an operating PureFlex system with its dense packaging – servers, storage, and networks.

But I was even more impressed when I spent a significant amount of time with Manhattan Associates – a PureSystems Application Provider partner that focuses on delivering Supply Chain solutions – both for planning and execution. Their very smart and enthusiastic lead technical expert told me that Manhattan Associates has over 15 software products that they have been able to integrate with the PureApplication System using a combination of IBM patterns and Manhattan patterns. This simplicity, he said was a pure delight to clients in retail, logistics, and other areas where optimizing the supply chain is critical for enhancing operational efficiencies.

To date, IBM has over 100 such partnerships and expects to deliver hundreds more similar PurePatterns across various industries with even more partnerships. It will be interesting to quantify the collective ROI that clients receive both in ease of deployment and in ongoing operations from this PureEcosystem.

It is well known that IT operational costs in labor are one of the fastest growing components of the total cost of ownership (TCO).  What PureSystems along with the growing portfolio of PurePatterns do is to tackle this head on to make IT simpler to use –similar to the value proposition for cloud computing which has been front and center in the minds of IT organizations worldwide.  This brings me to my second set of takeaways from IMPACT.

Cloud OpenStack – Molecules Matter

During the IBM Analyst deep-dive sessions, I got the opportunity to understand the scale and focus of IBM’s Cloud OpenStack initiative. One primary motivation behind this open source initiative is to simplify and standardize Cloud Use Cases and Workloads by building a technology stack using open source and standards to instantiate these use cases. IBM used a very nice chemistry analogy to explain this: system components and their functions are like elements in the periodic table while real-life workloads are like molecules that provide higher level business function and are composed of several pre-wired components (elements).

Then we witnessed a very feature rich demo that depicted a fairly comprehensive cloud business use case. This consortium plans to produce many more of these cloud business use cases and members plan to contribute code and other resources to this initiative. In the next few months, IBM plans to work with other consortium members on governance and process related matters in addition to growing this Ecosystem to include more end-users and application providers.

All this will make these molecules matter even more in the industry. It will further that magical chemistry that continues to fuel the Open Source movement that was born at the dawn of the Internet era.  Are we poised to witness another spike in the IT industry with the impending confluence of open source solutions in Big Data, Analytics, and Cloud? The mathematics and technologies for this exist. The bigger question is do we have the knowledge and human capital and the collective wherewithal to leverage all of this? I think so. The first movers have already spoken. The rest will follow. It’s that simple!

OpenStack the PureSystem

IBM was asked several times during the analyst session if there was a plan to extend the Cloud OpenStack to PureSystems. While no formal commitments or announcements were made, I felt from a business strategy perspective, this is a purely simple matter. It will only enhance the PureEcosystem. This chemical bonding will deliver a macro-molecule that could help enterprises deploy clouds in much the same way Enterprise Linux did almost a decade ago. It should also further the collective benefits of Open Source for one and all – pure and simple.

The plane has landed at Westchester Airport. For me the simple act of comfortably flying will now be replaced by the laborious act of having to navigate the traffic on the busy highway (I – 684) that goes north to Danbury, Connecticut. Too bad automobiles are not yet self-navigating and autonomic. But this is bound to happen as cars increasingly become computers in the next decade or so and they get all the intelligent capabilities of sensing and responding in real-time. But this labor of driving through traffic will be very well worth it as I will experience the pure joy of being back at home. After all as a wise man once said Home is where the heart is!  That, my dear friend, is pure and simple!

To extend what the IBM executive said at IMPACT – Let us make technology homely!  We as IT analysts do – in our own small way – contribute to this goal by trying to communicate as best as we can the value of technology in simple terms.

The Pure Thing

Yesterday, I watched from the comfort of my home office, IBM’s PureSystem – “Unveiling of a New Computing Era” announcement in New York City. After the initial background business discussion by Mr. Steve Mills – Sr. Vice President and Group Executive for IBM Systems and Software, the curtain was lifted by Mr. Rod Adkins, IBM Senior Vice President, Systems and Technology Group. At that very instant, with a wide grin, Steve made a comment that I am paraphrasing, “Unlike software with systems, you can actually see the real thing”.  When the curtain was lifted, there stood that gleaming blue PureFlex system. This sparked a train of thought that gelled this morning under this spring’s cool Connecticut sun during my customary jog in the park.  

What is a Thing?

During my spare time and sometimes to get a real good night’s sleep, I read. One book that does an admirable and efficient job of “accelerating the time to deep slumber” is entitled “What is a Thing?, by Martin Heidegger, one of the greatest 20^th century philosophers. I’ve had the pleasure to be about 1/3 the way.

But this morning, reflecting on Steve’s comment, I thought: What is IT (information technology) today? Why is the word “Pure” so relevant? What does this all mean? This created an energizing stream of shedding “thought-vortices” whose trajectories like their fluid mechanics counterparts are difficult to model and predict much less tame and transcribe. But here is where Martin and some reflection come to rescue.

Material and Abstract Things

You see – a system like the PureSystem is something that you can see, touch, and feel. It’s a material thing. Data (even BigData) you cannot see, touch, or feel. But then you can visualize data through software. Software is not a material thing (actually like data it is an abstract thing) but it makes a material impact especially when grounded and optimized on a material thing like a system and then used to solve a business or scientific problem.

Likewise, mathematics (one of the most abstract things) has its profound impact when its “purest” form is applied to solve the challenging problems of the day especially those that have a material impact, for example, the impact of shedding vortices on aircraft operating performance or the calculation of the best available airfare between two cities. All this is of course done in software that runs on a system.

The Everything and Nothing Route to Profound and Pure Insights

But perhaps the most abstract thing, philosophy, and the philosophers who pursue these thought-vortices may take “this thing (whatever that thing is)” and argue that it’s nothing.  Just as their other philosopher colleagues could argue that it is everything. That is the duality of zero and infinity. For instance, the great Greek philosopher Aristotle was once asked how he was able to come up with such profound insights. It is rumored that Aristotle answered that he sat in a room and opened all the windows and an avalanche of thoughts came flying into his head which he then curated and came up with profound “pure” insights. That’s BigInsights from BigData.

Contrast this with Buddha who sat in total isolation and completely “emptied” his mind of all thoughts and meditated and came up with yet another set of profound and “pure” insights. That’s starting with a “clean slate”.

The surest (and perhaps purest) thing that I think I know is that I am. But do I really know that? That’s an entirely new and different question for another day.

When Aristotle (West) Meets Buddha (East) in the Cloud

I was told during the IBM PureSystems announcements that IBM worked on this initiative over the last four years; taking input and learnings from thousands of client engagements around the world and came up with this highly optimized, cloud and analytics ready family of systems and platforms. I was also told that the technical architects started with a “clean slate”. That is like marrying East with West to get the best of both worlds and this should be great for clients everyware!

Now lest I get fired from my day job of doing IT analyst work, I must move on to my next “thing” which is finishing up the white paper that my employer wants me to write! That is very material my dear friend! To my children – who read my blogs – note your survival and well-being depend on my finishing this next thing!

The Taming of Data – On the Value Train from Insights to Knowledge to Wisdom to perhaps Happiness?

I recently attended the IBM #SmarterAnalytics Summit in New York City that focused on #Analytics and #Optimization. The sessions and the client panel in particular were superb and enlightening. Beyond, the typical discussions on technology, the IBM client panel repeatedly emphasized that organizational and cultural changes were critical to properly implement and integrate #Analytics and #Optimization as core business process.

This re-sparked a train of thoughts in my mind. I even got to test these thoughts a bit later at the evening reception. On my train ride back home, this train of thoughts on how to tame this avalanche of data for mankind’s (including corporations) benefit continued to escalate. I thought I should transcribe this train of thoughts quickly before it crashes and bursts into some forgotten cloud! For this my Cloud Mobile (iPhone) with Speech Recognition Software (Dragon) came to my rescue.

On Data, Words and Deeds, and Ephemeral Social Media

It’s well recognized by IT industry experts that data by itself has little value. It’s what you do with it that generates the value. It reminds me of Lech Walesa’s quote “The supply of words in the world market is plentiful but the demand is falling. Let deeds follow words now.”  Or simply put, in an anonymous quote, “talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand”.

I am not suggesting that we clamp down on the supply of words. That would be tantamount to curtailing free speech. We must take a thoughtful approach and critically examine the hype around #Bigdata – primarily perpetuated by the IT industry for which, as an analyst, I am also guilty.

Also guilty – contributing to the excess supply of data – is the recent spate of growth of “unstructured” data: images, video, voice, pictures and others. Probably because many believe that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. And a video even more! Every time I hear this oft used cliché, I think REALLY? WHY? Why are we creating all these quantities of image/video data and spending our precious resources (our time) doing so? More importantly, why are we so enamored with transmitting this data to others?

Yes, new social media and the underlying technologies give each and every individual enormous capability for creative expression and even contribute to the overthrow of oppressive regimes e.g. the Arab Spring. But aren’t we collectively trampling on another form of creative expression – the thoughtful reflective kind by drowning each other in all this data? Or aren’t we being distracted by all these images that like fast foods fill us up to sated exhaustion but have very little nutritional value?

But Some Words do Matter. Some Words are better than Exabytes of Pictures (or Words) and they Persist!

Here are some poignant examples. This is what the great contemporary Scandinavian poet, Tomas Tranströmer (translated by Robin Robertson), wrote about words:

FROM MARCH 1979

Sick of those who come with words, words but no language,

I make my way to the snow-covered island.

Wilderness has no words. The unwritten pages

Stretch out in all directions. 

I come across this line of deer-slots in the snow: a language,

language without words.

And the great 20^th century Mexican poet, Octavio Paz (translated by J. M. Cohen), wrote:

CERTAINTY

If the white light of this lamp

is real, and real

the hand that writes,

are the eyes real

that look at what I write?

 

One word follows another.

What I saw vanishes.

I know that I am alive,

and living between parentheses.

Distinctive Numbers – God’s Equation Then and Now – Hey It’s All Just Zeros and Ones

Just like profound and wise words, there are some distinctive numbers (data) that also matter: zero and the imaginary number i and those irrationals Pi and e. And then there’s Euler’s God’s Equation of centuries back:  e ^ i2π = 1. Thus, the “simplest” and most fundamental of all numbers (Numero Uno) is incredibly complex, made up of irrational, transcendent constants that extend to infinity. Now, the more contemporary version of God’s Equation (circa 2007) is the fourth album by the Norwegian progressive metal band Pagan’s Mind and contains video clips! But hey, today it’s all just digital data which are, at the end of the day, zeros and ones – the two most fundamental numbers. So why are we all making such a hoopla!

Because we must traverse that Divine Manifold from Data to Information to Insights to Knowledge to Wisdom and perhaps Happiness

Data is plentiful (all the data generated today can’t even be stored!), and left untamed is bound to be catastrophic. So we (corporations included) must harmonize all our assets and capabilities (people, process, data, technology, and culture) to navigate through this data onslaught and traverse the Value Train with the help of yet another God’s Equation: This new equation must transform Data to Information to Insights to Knowledge to Wisdom. One recent noteworthy technology asset for this journey to wisdom could be #IBMWatson.

That great wise soul, Mahatma Gandhi, once said: “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” So the Happy (and Wise) enterprises of the future in our data-driven world will be those that can act and culturally transform themselves through change and a complete re-think of strategy – just like the IBM client panel repeatedly emphasized – those were divine words! And they matter! Act on them! The customer is always right!

Tracking an IT Analyst’s Journey on the Cloud Mobile: My Musings after Attending IBM Pulse 2012.

The one key takeaway for me from the conference was IBM’s message on the confluence of private secure clouds to support an increasingly mobile world – employees, clients, partners, and other stakeholders. This is the Cloud Mobile (think Snow Mobile). It has to be safe, secure, and comfortable yet must perform, scale and deliver a high quality of service. IBM unveiled a set of solutions to support this vision and you can get all the detail from IBM Pulse 2012.

Very early morning on March/7 at the hotel, after a shower, I turned on the TV news. I heard that Apple planned to announce the iPad3 later in the day probably with the same pricing as the previous iPad2. It was expected that the price for the iPad2 would be reduced. This irked me as I had just bought an iPad2 a few weeks before. But I quickly got over that as I had already obtained significant business value from my iPad2 investment. This iPad2 and my iPhone4 are my most valuable mobile devices.  This fact would be further reinforced as that day’s events unfolded.  While checking out of my hotel to return home to Connecticut, a train of thoughts on my Cloud Mobile began to evolve in my mind that I want to share with you.

The Cloud Mobile has enhanced many professional pursuits in differing ways

Gone are the days when Mathematics was largely a solo-sport and the primary tools were just paper, pencil, extraordinary rigor, and amazing individual imagination.  In recent years, with the advent of the Internet and an unusual level of collaboration among mathematicians, it has increasingly become a team sport with just as much rigor and an even greater and more amazing group wisdom and imagination.

This has greatly advanced innovation and discovery in Mathematics even in such arcane areas as Number Theory that was once the province of individual brilliance. In fact, the famous Fermat’s Last Theorem was finally proved by Andrew Wiles in 1995 after centuries of sustained collaboration and inquiry.  And, yes computers were partly used as tools to arrive at this result just as they were largely used to resolve the Four Color Theorem in 1976.  With cloud computing, this level of collaboration will only increase. But then, in some sense, Mathematicians have always been on the cloud!

Painting/art is still largely a solitary activity with less technology impact. Yes there are new artistic areas impacted by technology and graphics but the most creative artists and painters still rely only on their traditional tools – canvas, paint, rigorous techniques, and an amazing imagination. And yes artists and painters are notorious for their nomadic and mobile lifestyles. They too have always been on the cloud!

While writers continue to primarily work solo, there is an increasing trend for them to work in groups particularly when creating complex technical or non-fiction content. Markup capabilities in modern word processors and capabilities in Google Docs further facilitate these group efforts particularly in the cloud!

But while painters and writers both possess amazing creative capabilities, they differ in at least one way – Can you imagine a painter giving up his/her brush to a collaborator to markup on his/her evolving work of art?! 

Technologists and Engineers tend to innovate better in groups and through collaboration. In fact, the industrial revolution and the subsequent rise of today’s large corporations depended heavily on this group collaboration. Today, this collaboration extends to other stakeholders including suppliers, customers, investors, and business partners. And Engineering Clouds are being adopted in the Manufacturing industry to improve productivity in design and development. So they too are getting on the cloud!   

My current profession – an IT Analyst – is a blend of several of the above professions. IT Analysts must possess the analytical rigor of the mathematician, the conceptual creativity of an artist, the story telling capabilities of a writer, and the knowledge of the technologist. Add to these, the experiences of a business professional – marketing, sales, management, etc. So naturally, IT Analysts should also benefit from the cloud! 

How on March 7, the Cloud Mobile helped this IT Analyst

Just as I was finishing up my breakfast at the MGM Grand with some of my colleagues, I saw a missed call from one of my key clients responsible for Business Analytics. So as I took the cab to the airport, I called him back.  He wanted to get an estimate of the size and growth of data in the financial services industry particularly financial markets. He had a good estimate of the total size and growth across all industries and had tried some internal sources but did not have an estimate for his particular area.  I told him that I was on the road and will try to do some investigation and get back to him the following day.

Now my firm, unlike some other major analyst firms, does not routinely provide these types of market estimates. There are other firms that specialize in these studies and make these reports available to their clients. I do not have access to these reports. But often, there is a lot of information on the web that one could often piece together to arrive at an informed estimate to such questions. So after checking in at the airport, I pulled out my iPad2 – fortunately the airport had free Wi Fi access – and began searching the web. After about ½ an hour, I had some relevant pieces of helpful information but was still nowhere near an estimate. I was a little disappointed and was almost planning to give up temporarily.

But then suddenly, I remembered that I had downloaded a very comprehensive Big Data report written by a major Global Think Tank in 2011. This report was on my secure private storage cloud. I had always planned to read it but never got the time to do so. So with my iPad2, I connected to my secure private cloud (protected by two levels of security), and pulled in the report into my iPad2’s iBook format.  Then I boarded the plane. And as the plane soared up above the clouds and the flight attendant announced that we could turn on electronic devices, I opened up the iPad2 and began reading the report.

In that report, after about three hours, I found the missing pieces of information in various places. Not only did I find the missing links to provide my client with an informed estimate, but I also read through this comprehensive Big Data report and was completely oblivious to the uncomfortable middle seat that I was sitting on.  Now that’s a ton of business value made possible by the cloud!

The plane landed at Charlotte, NC where I had to transfer to White Plains, NY. I was keen on composing the email to my Business Analytics client summarizing how I had arrived at the informed estimate and the rationale. But I got hungry. So I had a nice hot and spicy Mexican meal at Tequileria at the Charlotte airport. After the meal, I boarded my next flight and slept through the short flight to my destination. The next morning, I sent the email to my client with the informed estimate and rationale.

The Advantages of a Private Cloud Mobile

IBM’s notion of providing clients capabilities to build and deploy secure private clouds and connect as needed to hybrid clouds should help security (but also very cost) conscious enterprise executives make the transition to the cloud to support their very talented mobile workforce. Beyond, the obvious transactional mobile use cases i.e. procurement, sales force automation, invoicing that improve operational efficiency, the Cloud Mobile can (as depicted in my own personal use case) facilitate a level of analysis, collaboration, productivity and innovation, that can be a source of significant competitive advantage for enterprises while nurturing their talented mobile knowledge workers.

There’s a reason why I did not put that Big Data report on a public cloud i.e. Apple’s free iCloud service. These reports and other similar content are my sources of competitive advantage and differentiation. I like to keep these secure and private and protected through several layers of security yet accessible on demand. Also, through this private cloud, I can regulate access to my many collaborators in the cloud!

Back to the Cloud Mobile. The Music and the Pulsating Moves at Pulse 2012 and More.

Maroon 5’s concert at Pulse 2012 indeed made the Cloud Mobile move like Jagger! This built on some amazing fluid cloud like dance moves we witnessed earlier in the day by a group called iLuminate. Musicians and performers too are on the cloud! Performers collaborate and rehearse constantly. They are constantly on the road and mobile.  And while there are individual superstars, there is nothing like listening to a well-coordinated talented group either at a concert or in your Cloud Mobile (Automobile).

This weekend the weather was perfect in Connecticut. I had the great joy and pleasure of taking my younger twin son to his choir performance and concert in my Cloud Mobile (Car). Then we all witnessed the lovely performance of his dedicated choir culminating after weeks (and weekends) of group rehearsals and practice. It put this parent on the Cloud! And that feeling even the best IT Analyst can’t analyze! It can only be experienced – in the cloud!