‘Converged
Engagement’ Platform – This is all SMAC Talk! (Social, Mobile, Analytics and
Cloud)
Folks,
Past few weeks have been interesting, I got to learn
so much from my peers at TechSpark (IBM Internal Event) several client
engagements and workshop. In this
weeks post I’d like to continue our previous discussion around Digital
Strategy, Cloud and Mobile. I see this come up in many Mobile or Digital Strategy
discussions as an enterprise faces an interesting challenge to address the
confluence in a meaningful way and harness of promise of ‘converged Engagement’
Platform while exploiting the individual investments made into Cloud, Social,
Mobile and Big Data Analytics platform.
Let us look at a few examples that will help me set
stage for our discussion:
Looking
at
companies like StackMob (Paypal), FatFRACTAL, Parse (Facebook), Kinvey,
Kii and Mobile Applications on AWS
and many more provide a framework and environment that does the following:
a. Provides a subscription based SaaS model for all engagement types. – This is not only attractive from a price
point but also provides predictive pricing models.
b. Decouples the Mobile client and MBaaS – Mobile Backend as a service – There by
providing the flexibility on
developer choice and different levels of enterprise integration
c. Provide a Marketplace --- this enables partner
interaction and cross-marketing opportunities
d. Mobile Specific Services --- Push, Analytics, Data Sync services, Push API,
GeoLocation etc.
e. Application Architecture Neutrality – Multi device Support via SDK, HTML hosting
and Custom Code Support etc.
f. Enterprise QoS Features – Deploy and Management Platform Services, Access
Control, Authentication and IDaaS –
Identity as a Service support
g. External Ecosystem Integration – Provide Authentication support from popular social media ( B2C Apps), and related
analytics.
This makes we wonder on the Mobile Trends that are tipping the scale
when it comes to cloud services adoption
-Software
and Data Ownership
-Burden
of System Management
-Continually
evolving Mobile Eco-system
-Ephemeral
nature of Mobile Application landscape
-Changing
mindset around investment and consumerization of Mobile platforms
-Social
’ization’ of Mobile APIs
Question
that I now ponder upon - Is Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) different part of an enterprise Digital strategy? Or is all ONE thing and should we just call it some thing!
So
I am going to label it - ‘Converged
Engagement’ Platform ( this is SMAC Talk!).
This thinking
IMHO will not only enable us to position our products better but enforced
understanding in the marketplace arms us with the advantages AND challenges ( yes even MBaaS have their
own set of challenges—which we will discuss in due course of time) posed by
these new and emerging frameworks and competitors alike.
Many
of these new and emerging players in Mobile/cloud space are hosting their
environment on AWS/EC2 and Rackspace like cloud environment and utilizing the
capabilities such as S3 and Cloud
storage with NO-SQL like database such as a Mongo/Couch etc. Where each of the
components such as Storage, Access Controls, Analytics etc are exposed as APIs
– By Cloud Providers, Market Place
offerings is also exposed as APIs and enables a capability for partner
to advertise their service as APIs --- So
we are looking at a Converged
model where Mobility is a conduit for exploiting services enabled by Cloud,
exposed by API management making a ‘composite Mobile App’ utilizing ‘Modular
services’ – to attain a ‘Converged
Engagement’ Platform.
So how do we connect with our enterprise customers that we
have helped over decades with their enterprise application strategy.?
How
do we compete with this new and emerging landscape that may seem to have cost
advantage and advantage of new ( at times low cost Talent)?
IMHO
- IBM MobileFirst Portfolio combined with our Application Infrastructure
Portfolio and Softlayer enabled
cloud services portfolio gives us enough ammunition to compete. But we need
a better understanding, surgical strategy to better compete and provide a compelling
value to our clients. I also
realized that our tradition competitors such Oracles, VMWare and Open Source
Software (OSS) are not the only
primary threat but we now operate in an environment that is rapidly changing
and evolving.
I will reiterate this, we ought to spend more time
in understanding why our client invest in Mobility, or for that matter
‘Converged Engagement Platform’
a. Monetize
b. Enhance
People Productivity
c. Better
Customer Service
d. Others..
Cost of doing business/stay relevant etc.
I think when competing with
surgical ability and solution centric approach – we provide more than fluid and
ephemeral services framework. I do think context is vital.
Have
a great Week ahead!
:)
Nitin
Some
Notable References:
