Leap Motion

Wow! How we will be interacting with computers in the 3D space in the very near future - pre-order for $80 on BestBuy.

Programmable Light-bulb - Philips Hue

I have not posted on this blog for a very long time. However, I could not resist recording my first introduction to Philips Hue. I came across the programmable light-bulb when I saw this article.

Philips is now launching a developer program and is opening the API to the bulb.


Very cool. Very Geeky!

My Interview on CIO Insight

Link to the article: Washington Post CTO Yuvi Kochar Wants Cloud Vendors to Give Him an Exit Strategy

My wide-ranging discussion with Jim Nash touches on where we are with the use of cloud services. We also talked about my strong desire to see the industry deliver more flexibility for us to make from one solution to the next. Integration, Vendor lock-in and security continue to top the list of things I worry about when I look at new SAAS solutions.

Google Consumer Surveys

Interesting new product from Google to conduct market research. Click here to learn more. This could become a significant tool for quick and inexpensive Market Research.

Obviously, it remains to be seen if Google can accurately target the right selection of consumers - potential use of the recently integrated profile that Google launched with its new Privacy Policy. Also, will media companies sign-up to embed these surveys on their sites?

Some sites are touting it as a "pay wall" replacement for media companies - I will be tracking that!

IT as a Service

Information Technology now plays a central role in the functioning of any business. Most, if not all, projects in a modern business have tasks related to technology. As product lifecycles have shortened and more and more business is conducted on-line, the volume of IT work has grown exponentially. IT departments have become a bottleneck in most companies. Business leaders are frustrated by the lack of agility and scalability of IT services and by the constant increase in cost.

Recent advances is Cloud services provide IT with a solution to deploy and scale technology infrastructure quickly and linearly with demand. Further, SAAS solutions like SalesForce and others have demonstrated that high-end technology solutions can be acquired as a subscription and deployed quickly. Further, these solutions are constantly updated with minimal additional cost. Given these experiences with IAAS and SAAS, business now expects internal IT solutions to be delivered in a similar manner. IT as a Service is a hot topic.

Over the past several years, we have developed a model to deliver Enterprise technology solutions as a service. We now have an organizational blueprint and an architecture template that allows us to develop and deliver new services quickly with no capital investment. I will share our experiences over the next several posts.

pic: our backyard, a couple of days ago!

On Sandhill.com

A short Q&A on our experience deploying Enterprise Collaboration Technology was posted today.

Recent Evolutions of the Internet

At the CTO Roundtable this morning, Steve Crocker, long-term CTO Roundtable member and Chairman of the Board of Directors of ICANN (the not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with global participants that coordinates the governance of the Internet) led the discussion with two of his colleagues: Leslie Daigle, Chief Internet Technology Officer for the Internet Society, and Jamie Hedlund, ICANN's Vice President of Government Affairs - Americas.

Jamie provided an overview of the new how ICANN is rolling out gTLDs (Generic Top Level Domains). This will allow the creation of a whole new set of domains like .bank, etc. The idea is to try and make the internet more open and create a pathway for further innovation. It reamins to be seen if this options will start expanding internet URLs away from .com, that now has over 100 Million names. The thinking is that communities built around these new top-level domains will develop enhanced features that better serve the goals of the community members. Also, ICANN, for the first time, is moving away the closed-door selection process that they followed to date to a more open and democratic process.

Leslie then talked about why she believes that 2012 will be the year of IPv6. As we have now allocated most of the 4Bn IPv4 addresses, the long-term way forward is IPv6. IPv4 addresses are bing sold at approximately $11 per address. She believes that this will drive adoption. Also, several large content providers are permanently moving to IPv6 as the default. Let us see if 2012 turns out to be the year of IPv6.


pic: sunset over first snow in 2012

Center for CIO Leadership Success Case
I have been a member of the Center for nearly 5 years now. The interview gave me a chance to reflect on my career and the experiences that prepared me for my current role. We discussed my thoughts on how IT needs to continue to evolve as an integral part of business.

Check out the blog post for an overview or read the full article (PDF).

BYOD

There is an irreversible trend in the workplace of employees owning the computing devices used for work. Given the accelerating rate of new and improved devices hitting the market, enterprises are finding it harder and harder to provide the latest and greatest tools to employees. Teleworkers frequently prefer to work on their home machines than maintain two machines at home.

I agree with the Information Week position that we need to move from protecting the network and the end-points to protecting Enterprise data. While networks and devices are assets that must be well managed and controlled, the true asset is information (data) and insights. So, enterprise IT must primarily focus on securing data. I believe that, for a long time in the future, we will be required to manage hybrid environments where some devices are owned by the enterprise while others are personal devices that employees will like to use for work as well. So, the only way to secure our assets is to secure and manage data.

I continue to look forward to a future innovation where security is embedded with the data and not is just a wrapper around it. That will make our job of securing enterprise data much easier.

Business drives technology today
My interview in the CIO Insights column of the Silicon India Magazine.