Cutter Consortium: Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Steering Business Technology Management in a 2.0 World

18 Jun 2009 20:03:26 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 18 June 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

The world of business technology is dramatically changing. Everything about it is changing, including what we acquire, deploy, support, the way we support it, and -- perhaps most important -- the way we manage it all.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090618.html

Wolfram|Alpha and the Future of Mathematics

11 Jun 2009 19:49:00 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 11 June 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

After a number of years of near-total dominance of the Internet search space by Google, there suddenly are a number of major new announcements. Microsoft, for example, has just introduced its new search engine called Bing, which is intended to be a more "semantic" search with greater focus on presenting the results to make them more relevant and useful to the user. And Wolfram Research has announced a tool called Wolfram|Alpha that I believe will change the face of mathematical teaching and research -- as well as science and engineering -- for perhaps decades to come.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090611.html

Mining Social Media Via Sentiment Analysis

9 Jun 2009 19:41:27 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 09 June 2009 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

I've been researching the state of the art in mining social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, CNET Reviews, Epicurious, IMDb, TripAdvisor, Yahoo! Finance, Amazon, and WebMD. Today, cutting-edge organizations -- especially their marketing and PR departments -- are struggling to make sense out of what's being said about their companies and products on a variety of social media sites, sites that are now responsible for incredible amounts of user-generated content. Basically, you can consider these sites interactive forums offering a wealth of information expressing consumer sentiment, preferences, and trends, which, in effect, are helping to shape consumer behavior.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia090609.html

When It Makes Sense to Throw Caution to the Wind

4 Jun 2009 16:18:25 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 04 June 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Technology adoption depends on context. When a company is in trouble, it tries lots of things to regain its competitive edge. When an industry sector is in trouble, it reinvents itself. But when trouble fails to distinguish among companies, sectors, or even continents, then drastic steps are necessary to right the ship. These days we find ourselves in a major economic crisis. Some companies are fighting themselves as they try to adapt to falling revenue and shrinking profits. Technology acquisition, deployment, and support are in the crosshairs of many companies. With technology budgets ranging anywhere from 2% to 10% of gross revenue, companies are understandably looking for ways to reduce technology costs -- despite the cultural idiosyncrasies that sometimes keep them from helping themselves.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090604.html

Consider Casting Into the System S Stream for "Perpetual Analysis"

2 Jun 2009 16:12:53 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 02 June 2009 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

IBM has announced the availability of what the company is calling "stream computing" software that can analyze high volumes of continuously streaming data -- both structured and unstructured -- in real time. "System S" is for implementing what IBM developers call "perpetual analytics." It uses a new streaming architecture and mathematical algorithms to create a forward-looking analysis of data, and to continuously refine its findings as additional data is made available.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia090602.html

For Hybrid Clouds, Fog of Confusion Is Burning Away

28 May 2009 16:05:28 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 28 May 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Sourcing & Vendor Relationships; Enterprise Architecture

Most of the attention being paid to cloud computing has focused on public cloud providers, such as Amazon and Google, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors, such as Salesforce.com. However, based on my research, including feedback I've received from readers, I believe that the future of corporate IT, especially when it comes to larger companies, will be based on "hybrid clouds" -- those employing both public and private clouds to meet business goals.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090528.html

10 Trends in Rethinking IT Management in a 2.0 World

21 May 2009 15:46:53 GMT

Andriole, Steve | E-Mail Advisors | 21 May 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Regardless of a company's objectives, it must invest in operational and strategic technology. Operational technology has obviously become commoditized as prices have dropped and the industry has consolidated, but if acquisition, deployment, and support best practices are ignored, all of the advantages of commoditization disappear. Strategic technology is discretionary technology -- the technology of choice -- that's selected based on specific business objectives. Good decisions here enable strategy; bad ones undermine it. Good management enables the business value of technology; bad management undermines IT.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090521.html

Dirty Little Secrets

20 May 2009 15:38:02 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | Executive Updates | 20 May 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

In the world in which we live, a world that changes almost daily, there are truths and untruths. There's hype, and there's reality. There are technologies that work, and there are technologies that stay forever in the trough of disillusionment. There are subtleties and nuances. There are smart people and nasty people.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2009/bttu0907.html

Obama Brings Internet Communications to World Diplomacy

14 May 2009 15:32:45 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 14 May 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Throughout history, major shifts in communication technology have brought on major changes in politics and business, exploited by imaginative politicians and businesspeople. In the 1930s, for example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Adolph Hitler reached out via the radio to far more people than had ever heard directly from politicians. Businesses quickly began to use radio to advertise. In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy did the same thing by grasping the power of TV to reach huge audiences. And in the last US presidential election, Barack Obama created a new kind of political campaign that made up for his lack of experience and deep pockets by exploiting the Internet in all its dimensions: e-mail, instant messaging, social networking, video over the Internet, and so on. Now we are just beginning to see the possibilities of using this new technology to change governing and foreign policy as well.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090514.html

Your Move: Client Options for Vendors That Have Raised Annual Support Fees

13 May 2009 15:31:37 GMT

Simon, Phil | E-Mail Advisors | 13 May 2009 | Business-IT Strategies; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Vendors such as Lawson and SAP have recently announced increases in their annual support fees to many already struggling clients. In any economy, organizations would meet these increases with skepticism. This article details options for organizations in response to these potential increases.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2009/bit090513.html

On-Demand, Cloud-Based BI and Data Warehousing: Prime-Time Players in a Down Economy or Over-Hyped Technologies?

12 May 2009 15:19:15 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 12 May 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Sourcing & Vendor Relationships; Business Intelligence

Organizations today may choose from a broad range of on-demand and "cloud-based" BI and data warehousing options, ranging from reporting, dashboards, and focused analytic applications (offered as licensable services) to hosted data integration services and full-blown managed data warehouses. These on-demand providers hope to benefit from a down economy by offering organizations a way to forgo having to implement costly data warehousing and BI applications inhouse, in effect offering to "rent" them a "solution" to help with their data integration, data management, and reporting and analysis needs.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia090512.html

A Flu Pandemic: To Risk or Not Risk -- That Is the Question

7 May 2009 16:04:14 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors | 07 May 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

As I write this Advisor, the news about a possible swine flu pandemic is changing almost by the hour. As of today, World Health Organization (WHO) officials and medical specialists in Mexico and the US are cautiously optimistic that the new strain of swine flu -- now officially called influenza A (H1N1) -- may turn out to be a mild form with health effects more typical of an influenza B-type virus.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm090507.html

Whole New Dimensions of Interaction: Microsoft Surface, Nintendo Wii-Fit, and Apple

7 May 2009 16:03:15 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 07 May 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Innovation

Recently, I was in Tampa and Chicago during the same week to speak at data management and business process conferences. It gave me a chance to find out what some of the best and brightest in the business were forecasting for the future of technology. I would imagine that all told there were more than 1,000 technology folks at these conferences. The numbers were down from last year, but still impressive. Despite the brainpower at these conferences, however, I was most taken by the breakthrough technologies that I stumbled onto in a hotel lobby and in a friend's exercise room.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090507.html

Harnessing Your Architecture Repository to Value

30 Apr 2009 15:52:20 GMT

Rosen, Michael | E-Mail Advisors | 30 April 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Enterprise Architecture

As more and more enterprises realize a need for architecture, the vendors of tools that support architecture are jumping on the opportunity. I'm seeing a growing trend in the acquisition of enterprise architecture repositories. Unfortunately, I haven't yet seen most organizations realize the value that these tools can bring. As always, technology itself does not provide business value; it only enables solutions. It is how you use the technology that brings value, and repositories are no exception.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090430.html

Oracle Buys Sun: So What Happens with MySQL?

28 Apr 2009 15:47:04 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 28 April 2009 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

In a strange twist of fate, the annual MySQL Conference was just getting underway in Santa Clara, California, USA, when news hit that Oracle Corporation was acquiring Sun and, along with it, MySQL. That the most aggressive enterprise software company was buying the world's leading open source database struck like lightning. After all, it had been only about 16 months since Sun had acquired MySQL for US $1 billion, and proponents of the open source database were still griping about Sun's efforts to steer and develop the technology. So it's quite understandable that MySQL fans should be a bit apprehensive about what Oracle might have in store for the database. Here's what I think will happen with MySQL under Oracle's stewardship.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia090428.html

Googleplex, We Have a Problem!

23 Apr 2009 15:40:26 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 23 April 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business Intelligence

Before you do anything else, please go and read the Boston Globe article headlined "Electronic Health Records Raise Doubt" (13 April 2009). It is the story of one fellow who decided to take advantage of Google's vaunted Google Health free health records systems -- and it is not encouraging. The Globe's story revolves around one Dave deBronkart, who decided to transfer his medical records from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to Google Health. When he went to look at his records, he was shocked to find a large number of serious mistakes:

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090423.html

As the 'Net Kills Newspapers, Who Pays for Free?

16 Apr 2009 15:04:35 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 16 April 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

I am, by all accounts, a news junkie. I take two papers every day and three on Sundays. I subscribe to a number of magazines and any number of news feeds. My startup page on the Internet is "Google News." I have the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist as my favorites. I watch CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC on a regular basis. Earlier in my life, I contemplated moving to a college town with a good library for my retirement. Not anymore; I have the world's greatest library at my fingertips and better yet the world's greatest library index system: Google.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090416.html

"The Web as Platform": What Does It Mean? -- Part III

16 Apr 2009 15:03:46 GMT

Feller, Joseph | Executive Updates | 16 April 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

This is the final Executive Update in a series exploring the idea of "the Web as platform," one of the cornerstone concepts of Web 2.0.1 In Part I,2 I discussed what it means to view the Web -- in its entirety -- as a platform. Then, in Part II,3 I presented the idea of individual Web sites as platforms.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2009/bttu0906.html

In Today's Economic Jungle, Time to Take on BPR Tiger Again

14 Apr 2009 13:19:59 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 09 April 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business-IT Strategies

It's déjà vu all over again. The cycle has repeated. The economy is and will continue to shed jobs. Businesses are trying to get leaner. Again, IT is expected to not only shrink itself, but help other units in the firm shrink themselves. A key approach for doing so involves reengineering the business process (BPR).

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090409.html

In Time of Testing, Remember Values, Communication, Slack, Part I

26 Mar 2009 14:31:40 GMT

Spica, Daniel | E-Mail Advisors | 26 March 2009 | Agile Project Management; Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business-IT Strategies; Innovation

It is sad but true that the economic crisis has now also appeared in Poland. Somehow, many of us here in Poland have been under the mistaken assumption that we would be undisturbed by the current economic crisis; that this was only an American and Western European problem. Of course, it couldn't remain that way. The unfortunate side of globalization is that the entire globe experiences the good with the bad. No one can predict how long the current crisis will last, just as no one was able to predict that the catastrophe would occur. The experience shows, however, that we should not count on the economic wizards or at least not to worry too much about their words. In my opinion, the best solution is to work hard and wisely. And while you are working, continue to think about a few rules that remain true.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090326.html

Reality Mining: Analyzing Data About Everything

26 Mar 2009 14:29:26 GMT

Berry, John | E-Mail Advisors | 26 March 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business Intelligence

The biggest trend to hit business intelligence (BI) since the days of executive information systems may not be an innovation in the technology itself but in the kinds of data the technology analyzes. The new BI foreshadows a time when, for example, a disease epidemic will be stopped because data can reveal to health officials the movements of infected people. Welcome to the world of "reality mining."

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090326.html

Semantics Is Hot; Data and Objects Are Not, Part I: The Emergence of the Semantic Web

19 Mar 2009 14:13:32 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 19 March 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business Intelligence; Enterprise Architecture

(This is the first in a series of Trends Advisors that will deal with the complex landscape of content, unstructured and structured, that confront organizations and individuals as we move from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 and beyond. Future Advisors will deal with the growing schism between developers and database experts.)

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090319.html

"The Web as Platform": What Does It Mean? -- Part II

18 Mar 2009 14:07:37 GMT

Feller, Joseph | Executive Updates | 18 March 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

This is the second Executive Update in a three-part series that explores the idea of "the Web as platform," one of the cornerstone concepts of Web 2.0 popularized by Tim O'Reilly,1 among others. In Part I, I argued that we could divide and conquer by looking at the concept from three perspectives:2

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2009/bttu0905.html

The Vexed Files: Sharing a Web of Insecurity

12 Mar 2009 19:59:41 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors | 12 March 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

The past week saw several news stories that remind us how fragile IT security has become and how the opportunities created by the tremendous power of the Internet to share information can also create major risks.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm090312.html

iPhone Rocks, BlackBerry Rolls, but Usability Matters

12 Mar 2009 19:58:34 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 12 March 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

I have been using two devices since they launched: the BlackBerry (since 1999) and the iPhone (since July 2007), and neither has left my side since its launch, except for a five-month trial separation from my BlackBerry. As I write this, two devices -- the BlackBerry 9000 and the iPhone 3G -- are charging.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090312.html

Pressured Now? Buy Time by Planning Long Term

5 Mar 2009 19:44:29 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 05 March 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Innovation

In general, it is easier to obtain money, even in these hard times, than it is to "buy time." Many times every year, I find someone pressuring me or some hapless CIO or project manager into committing to some schedule that everyone knows is so nearly impossible that agreement is tantamount to eventual failure. I often tell a story of a presentation that I made a few years ago to a financial organization that was on a long-term project to replace its 30-year-old core applications. At this management presentation, when pressed, I said that my best guesstimate was that it would cost more than US $20 million and take between five and eight years. The response was that the money was no problem, but couldn't we do it in less time? My answer was, "Yes, but it will take longer!"

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090305.html

Analysis by Amateurs

1 Feb 2009 19:34:59 GMT

Lister, Tim; The Cutter Business Technology Council | Executive Reports | 01 February 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Many organizations are depleting their systems analysis staff -- or have no systems analysts at all. This is not a matter of job titles; this is an important loss of systems skill sets. While the world is demanding IT efficiency and effectiveness, many IT organizations are turning to amateurs, yet expect these novices to somehow magically be professionals.

http://www.cutter.com/trends/fulltext/reports/2009/02/index.html

"We're Gonna Be in the Hudson": Risk Management Expertise to Live by in an Economic Downturn

27 Feb 2009 14:10:18 GMT

Stribrny, Scott | Executive Updates | 27 February 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

For leaders of corporations, risk management has become a top concern in the face of increasing demand for greater corporate accountability as well as world events that have changed the risk landscape and its impact on the business world. The continuing uncertainty of the economic environment has made it compulsory for corporations to rethink their approaches to identifying and managing risk. If you need evidence that applied risk management expertise pays, look no further than Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III. There are pilots, and then there's Sully.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2009/bttu0904.html

In a Down Economy, Proceed Incrementally to Avoid Whipsaw Effect

26 Feb 2009 14:07:13 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 26 February 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business Intelligence

The 3.8% contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of last year, while better than the 5.5% contraction that economists had been predicting, was still not good news. Why? Inventories increased. If you account for those increased inventories, GDP shrank 5.1%.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090226.html

Managing a New IT in Very Bad Times, Part I

19 Feb 2009 22:20:59 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 19 February 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Innovation

Many years ago, I was working for a subsidiary of General Electric (GE) and I found myself making a presentation to a gathering of executives from one of GE's financial divisions. Before I made my pitch, there was a video address from Jack Welch, GE's famous CEO of the time. In that speech, Welch made two observations that struck me then and have even more relevance in our current economy: (1) IT is too important to be left to the IT folks, and (2) it was the job of top executives at GE to make the hard decisions. Those statements need repeating during this winter of our discontent.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090219.html

Social Networking and Organizational Change

18 Feb 2009 22:16:20 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates | 18 February 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

While collaboration has been growing in the corporation, it has so far had only a modest impact on the working environment. Inefficient command-and-control mechanisms still abound in many industries. While command-and-control has come into increasing disrepute, the alternative is often difficult to embrace. Corporate leadership believes that it may be losing control, with anarchy the result.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2009/bttu0903.html

Reinvention: McDonald's Did, and Circuit City Didn't

12 Feb 2009 22:10:55 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors | 12 February 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business-IT Strategies; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

I am sitting here, sipping my free cup of coffee at McDonald's, looking across the parking lot at the huge going-out-of-business banners strung across the entrance to my local Circuit City store.

"I wonder," I joked with the McDonald's manager, who I know pretty well, "if they had to pay for those banners up front and in cash?"

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm090212.html

Web 2.0 Future: CIOs Wrestle with Old Issues of 'Control'

12 Feb 2009 22:09:56 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 12 February 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

There's an embedded hierarchy in the deployment of Web 2.0 technology. Our interview, observation, and survey data all suggest that the lowest-hanging fruit -- surprise -- gets picked first.1 Wikis, blogs, and social networks -- perhaps because of their C2C origins -- have been deployed more than the other technologies. There's a fear of the unknown, which perhaps explains why virtual worlds, folksonomies, crowdsourcing, and even RSS filters have lagged the deployment of the wiki/blog/social network big three. There's a platform hierarchy of Web 2.0 tools that should be acknowledged. Some of the technologies are organizational and operational, and some are employee and customer-facing.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090212.html

Here Comes Cloud Computing

1 Jan 2009 14:22:07 GMT

Orr, Ken; Maher, Andy; The Cutter Business Technology Council | Executive Reports | 01 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

With more and more companies unwilling or unable to invest in up-front capital costs for projects, lots of noise is being made about cloud computing as a fast and efficient deployment environment. Most companies will be wary but willing. Can you afford not to get involved?

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/reports/2009/01/index.html

"The Web as Platform": What Does It Mean? -- Part I

9 Jan 2009 13:37:27 GMT

Feller, Joseph | Executive Updates | 09 February 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

This Executive Update is the first part of a three-part series in which I explore in detail the Web-as-platform meme. However, before we can answer the question, "What do we mean by 'the Web as Platform'?" we have to address a more fundamental question.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2009/bttu0902.html

Obama's BlackBerry Rides the Wave of the Future

29 Jan 2009 19:11:36 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 29 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

It is just over a week since US President Barack Obama's inauguration, and people are wondering what to talk about next. There are a number of obviously significant issues (war, global warming, the economy, etc.). All are of momentous concerns, and how Obama handles them will affect many of us. But sometimes it is issues that seem small and unimportant that say something deep about the person involved and the environment in which that person finds him or herself. This is how I see the issue of Obama's BlackBerry and the decision to allow him to keep it but with a strict set of rules surrounding its use.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090129.html

The King (SOA) Is Dead; Long Live the King

28 Jan 2009 19:05:40 GMT

Allen, Paul | E-Mail Advisors | 28 January 2009 | Enterprise Architecture; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

A recent blog post from the Burton Group on the alleged "Death of SOA" has been causing quite a stir.1 The contention is that the bad economic situation has finally finished the "SOAsaurus" off and that we must now concentrate on services, along with mashups, cloud computing, and software as a service (SaaS) -- and not service-oriented architecture (SOA).

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea090128.html

IT Workforce 2009: The Bad, the Good, and the Ugly

28 Jan 2009 19:03:03 GMT

Zwieg, Phil | Executive Updates | 28 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

With all due respect to Clint Eastwood and his fans, the IT workforce in early 2009 is clearly a mixture of the bad, the good, and the ugly.1 I hope the juxtaposition of the film's title will have meaning as you read on. I have been following workforce trends since 2000 and decided it might be interesting to see how things were unfolding in the US as we entered the New Year.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2009/bttu0901.html

Exploration Warehouses in the Cloud: Substance or Hot Air?

27 Jan 2009 19:02:02 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 27 January 2009 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

I think that many end-user organizations are going to have serious reservations about deploying their data warehouses permanently to the cloud, certainly at least initially. This is quite understandable, given that most companies tend to view their data -- especially customer data -- as a strategic asset. In fact, according to my research, the number-one reason that organizations do not use on-demand BI and data warehousing is that they deem data analysis simply too important a strategic function to outsource (see "Corporate Adoption of On-demand BI and Data Warehousing: Trends and Directions," Business Intelligence Executive Update, Vol. 7, No. 18). Moreover, let's face it: the concept of deploying large data warehouses in the cloud is still relatively new and unproved. That said, one application for which I do see end-user organizations trying out cloud-based data warehouses is to quickly launch exploration warehouses that analysts can use to run very complex queries on large data sets.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia090127.html

Cutter Council Missed Point in 'Cheaper, Better, Faster' Debate

22 Jan 2009 18:57:39 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 22 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business-IT Strategies; Innovation

While I am normally not one for tilting at windmills, I do have to take on the October 2008 Cutter Council opinion against the "cheaper, better, faster" (CBF) philosophy. In their 7-0 opinion (see "The Cheaper and Faster Tailspin," Vol. 9, No. 10), members of the Cutter Business Technology Council, including Christine Davis, Tom DeMarco, Mark Seiden, Ken Orr, Lou Mazzucchelli, Tim Lister, and Rob Austin, argued eloquently against CBF but failed to draw attention to the central concept of productivity, which they ought to have done.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090122.html

When Math Doesn't Add Up: Discontinuities and the Real World

15 Jan 2009 16:16:00 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 15 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Mathematics is a fine thing. Indeed, modern technology and society are based on whole ranges of mathematical models. But there are caveats. The most serious problem that I learned from developing simulation systems early in my career was the notion that "in simulation, it is not the things you get wrong that kill you; it is the things you don't get at all."

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090115.html

Three New Year's Resolutions

14 Jan 2009 16:05:21 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | Executive Updates | 14 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

New Year's resolutions are annoying. Most of us make them and break them almost immediately. Is it easier to make professional New Year's resolutions, or will they, like all the personal ones we make every year, fall victim to the same forces that derail our best intentions?

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2008/bttu0823.html

The Yin and Yang of Data-Driven Decision Making

8 Jan 2009 15:55:47 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 08 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management; Business Intelligence

IT is sort of caught in the middle of a debate. In one corner stands a group of researchers and enthusiasts who look at the marvels of how the human mind can make quick, accurate judgments and decisions. This group tends to look optimistically at the capabilities of the human mind to work effectively in the environment. In the other corner stands a group that sees our minds as limited, prone to errors, and in need of improvement with logic, training, and tools.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090108.html

Bailing Out IT's Infrastructure

7 Jan 2009 15:53:33 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 07 January 2009 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

This is the time of year when everyone makes resolutions and projects what they'd like to see in the new year. As I thought about what CIOs could wish for, it occurred to me that they might wish for inclusion of US President Elect Barack Obama's Infrastructure Investment Program for 2009. Clearly, we need to "invest" in roads, bridges, and electrical and telecommunications networks; why not some investment in one of the most significant portions of the economy: business enterprise architecture infrastructures and knowledge management.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea090107.html

Business Performance Management Tops '09 Strategy List

6 Jan 2009 15:48:45 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 06 January 2009 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

The most important BI-related initiative for organizations in 2009 will be business performance management. In fact, I recommend that you consider business performance management a strategic application. Yes, I know, there's the ever-looming specter of a worsening economy. And, of course, the downturn is undoubtedly negatively affecting some organizations' corporate performance management efforts. But I believe that most organizations are not going to abandon their initiatives. Here's why.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia090106.html

In Turbulent Times, Sustain Strategic Investments With Tactical Maneuvers

31 Dec 2008 15:40:39 GMT

van Tyn, Jeroen | E-Mail Advisors | 31 December 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business-IT Strategies

The recent downward economic spiral has predictably put IT in the spotlight as a target for cost reduction. As I've noted in past years,1 the fact that IT has historically been viewed as an expense while at the same bearing the expectation of delivering strategic value has caused a long-lasting macro-headache that still plagues corporate IT across all industries.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt081231.html

Forget the Naysayers -- Web 2.0 Is Making an Impact in the Enterprise

30 Dec 2008 14:18:59 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 30 December 2008 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

In the light of the hype over Web 2.0 this past year, I want to stress that organizations are making use of the techniques to improve the collaboration capabilities of their BI and business performance management initiatives. In fact, according to the results of our latest survey, slightly more than one-quarter of end-user organizations are currently using Web 2.0 techniques to support their BI users. This finding comes from a survey conducted in October 2008 of 85 end-user organizations based worldwide. It was designed to measure the extent that organizations are implementing various types of BI, data warehousing, and other analytic technologies and practices.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia081230.html

In Memoriam: Geary Rummler, Systems Thinker

24 Dec 2008 19:49:16 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 24 December 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Dr. Geary A. Rummler passed away on 29 October 2008. Geary Rummler was the real thing. There were not many people like Geary in business process management. In a world increasingly dominated by radical management ideas and radical technological innovation, Geary was a researcher, writer, and consultant who focused on organizational change, management control, and motivation. Geary was a methodologist whose methodologies were clear and thoughtful and based on systems models that provided depth. Most important, they worked. Geary was a man who provided simple tools that influenced (tens of) thousands by providing those really interested in business process a way to model -- really model -- business processes.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt081224.html

As Open Source BI and Data Warehousing Grow, Downturn Raises Questions

23 Dec 2008 19:45:01 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 23 December 2008 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

There have been a lot of announcements pertaining to open source BI (e.g., query, reporting, OLAP, dashboards) and data warehousing (data integration, data cleansing, etc.) tools over the past few years. But the big question on everyone's minds remains: to what extent are end-user organizations actually adopting open source BI and data warehousing tools?

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia081223.html

Recently Added

29 Dec 2008 19:28:55 GMT

The Technology Five-Step: Why You Need to Do the Strategy, Architecture, Delivery, Organization, and Efficiency Dance -- Now by Stephen J. Andriole

Focusing on Components Means Missing the Big Picture

18 Dec 2008 19:19:45 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 18 December 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Enterprise Architecture

I am always surprised to find myself in discussions with people who have architect titles and who have little feeling about the key concepts of architecture. Too many members of the current generation of technical experts have very little comprehension of what differentiates systems from programs or services. As a consequence, they and the companies that they counsel are doomed to a very limited set of options: 1) purchase and install packages, 2) hire outsourcers to develop systems that they are incapable of maintaining, or 3) make cosmetic changes to ever older core systems.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt081218.html

SaaS Market Proliferation: Buyer's Market or Industry Shakeout?

18 Dec 2008 19:17:27 GMT

Kaplan, Jeffrey M. | Executive Updates | 18 December 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

The rapid growth of the software as a service (SaaS) market, along with the closely related cloud computing industry, is attracting a proliferation of players that is creating a buyer's market for customers and raising concerns about an inevitable industry shakeout.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2008/bttu0822.html

Corporate Data Mart and Data Warehouse Consolidation Continues

16 Dec 2008 19:07:03 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 16 December 2008 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

The need to consolidate disparate data warehouses and data marts is a situation that many organizations have been forced to deal with. Based on our latest research, approximately 39% of organizations indicate that they have already conducted, or are involved in carrying out, some type of effort to consolidate data warehousing or data marts. It also appears that this trend has accelerated.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia081216.html

How Information Security, Privacy Training, and Awareness Benefit Business

9 Dec 2008 15:45:28 GMT

Herold, Rebecca | Executive Updates | 09 December 2008 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Training and awareness initiatives within organizations are like the dust bunnies hiding under your bed that you never want to think about. However, business leaders would be wise to realize that there is not a more effective information security and privacy defense than informed and aware personnel, as Part I of this three-part Executive Update series shows. Humans are the weakest link in the information security and privacy defense program. Building a culture of performing job responsibilities with information security and privacy in mind, every day, will help to dramatically reduce the number of security incidents and privacy breaches and will bring a much greater return on a comparatively small investment (of minimal time and modest dollars) than any expensive technology system can deliver.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/updates/2008/ermu0811.html

The Financial Mess

1 Nov 2008 15:44:00 GMT

The Cutter Business Technology Council | Executive Reports | 01 November 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Let's face it, nobody today is thinking about anything other than the unraveling global economy and its effect on our companies and our lives. So we'd be crazy to write about any other subject. Our topic is trends, and this is the mother of all trends. What's happening now is not a recession but a depression. The difference is that in a recession economies slow for a while; we hold our breath, tighten a few notches, and wait it out. A depression has an entirely different characteristic: money scurries for cover. Companies and individuals hoard cash; demand for everything dries up. Everyone is in wait-and-see mode. As the effect ripples through the economy, things look worse and worse. Prices go down as providers try desperately to resuscitate demand. The money stays off the table. The fear of fear depresses all progress. Ending the last depression took a Roosevelt and a war. Who knows what will end this one? So we've asked the Trends Council for advice about how to survive during the mess. The problem is hardly subject to easy (much less painless) solutions, so don't expect miracles. But for a few useful insights, read on ...

http://www.cutter.com/trends/fulltext/reports/2008/11/index.html

How Is Your Organization Responding to the Next Generation of Knowledge Workers?

11 Dec 2008 14:47:59 GMT

Mason, Robert M. | E-Mail Advisors | 11 December 2008 | Innovation; Business-IT Strategies; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Baby boomers, as everyone knows, are nearing retirement age. The next generation of knowledge workers (sometimes called "millennials") has grown up in a world surrounded by connectivity and digital tools. They are "net natives" or "digital natives," growing up in a digital world much different than the analog world of the mid-20th century and the boomers. Having never known a world without the Internet, instant messaging, online games, or the possibility of persistent digital presence with networks of people, members of this generation expect immediate access to information and see themselves as constantly connected. We reviewed research on this generation and concluded that they behave and work in significantly different ways when compared to baby boomers, as shown in the chart below.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2008/iea081211.html