Cloud: Threat and Opportunity to your IT Organization

Part 1: Technology is about people, not things.

For over three years our company has been on the phone, in the field, tweeting, blogging, presenting, and talking to anyone who will listen about how Cloud is the standard that is going to shake IT service delivery to its core, and why all organizations will ultimately (at least in part) choose the Cloud model over the legacy Client/Server model.

In the beginning computing in the Cloud sounded a lot like 'pie in the sky' theory. Since then, market forces (including a recession), rapid technological advancement, and the continued commoditization of IT over the past three years have proven we were right.

More than ever, organizations are asking themselves, "What business are we in?" For the most part, the answer has nothing to do with datacenter management or server support.

The Cloud provides a unique opportunity for organizations to re-focus on core competencies, or to work on building strategic advantages over the competition: being good at Patch Tuesday does not give you this. Worse, it detracts from it. And our clients are realizing this more and more.

Today, when we speak to organizations about the Cloud, there is no longer so much a question of "if." For the majority of organizations, only three questions remain:

1. When are we going to move our existing systems, and which move first?
2. Onto which platform do we move?
3. Who's going to help us get there?

Seems like a great victory for Cloud Computing and a big blow to the 'server huggers' of the old guard. We've now reached a level of awareness and recognition we had only hoped for back in late 2006, when our Cloud journey began.

But somehow I don't rejoice.

I think about all of the IT professionals out there who have built their careers on gaining expertise, certifications, and experience on the less and less important Client/Server model. These are good people; people with families, responsibilities. What will become of them and their careers?

The truth is both harsh and evident: As an IT professional, if you've build a career on things like "data backup," "antispam / antivirus," "patching," etc. the demand for your skills will decline exponentially over the next five years. There is already less and less glory to be had in what we've been doing up until now. Years ago, if you were able to recover data you were thought of as a hero; today, NOT being able to recover data may get you fired.

Focus on "keeping the lights on" was not something we chose, it was a factor of the previous paradigm. Gartner may have put it best: $8 out of $10 spent in IT add no business value:

The Cloud changes this. It makes "uptime" a given, which frees up people and resources and, unfortunately, leaves some people in IT with nothing to do.

What this trend enlightens us to is something we've always known, but may have lost sight of:

Technology is about people, not things.

It's not about is "system X" working or not working? Is it up, or is it down? It's about "how are our people using system X to maximize business value for our organization?"

Interestingly, this affects both IT solutions providers like SADA, and internal IT organizations in the same way. Herein lies the opportunity. What can the IT and systems engineers of today do, if they are no longer worrying about "uptime?"

One of SADA's clients, Mattson Technology, is setting a new standard. After moving to Google Apps, the systems engineers who previously spent their full time managing and maintaining their email systems are now doing something radical:

They are talking to, observing, and seeking to understand how their people use technology.

With each key observation, they are going back and putting new effort into re-engineering processes, and building value-added customizations that provide needed tools to their people. This is the type of skill that IT professionals of the future must master. If they do, it will ensure employ-ability and relevance for years to come.

The reality is most of today's engineers don't have these skills. To these engineers we recommend that it's never too early to start training, cross-training, and developing your resources to meet the IT needs of tomorrow. Make the natural shift from "keeping the lights on" to "adding business value." The shift is to a higher place in the value chain; it's simply worth more in the marketplace.

To be continued...

Happy Chinese New Year

Google Saves the Day with Consistency...

The lack of a witty title for this article speaks to shear practicality of the topic at hand. Google's recent step forward to level the playing field within applications with regards to saving your work.

There is nothing witty about the feature itself. This simple brilliance has become a simple expectation that we can save our work when we want, it automatically saves if we don't, and it saves us from saving our work by subtly notifying us that is currently being saved.

Did you follow?
Good.

Google is taking this saving functionality with its new 'saved' - 'saving' - 'save' buttons and sharing it. So the convenient and at times life saving feature currently available in Google Docs and Google Presentations is now expected to make its debut in Google Sheets.

Hats off to Google for leveling the playing field among its applications. We love the comfort of the save feature and we now love that we will soon be able to use it in Google Sheets and other applications too.

Can't wait to see the next feature they roll out with.
This saving feature is coming soon to a Google Sheet near you.

Forrester Research Inc. Shares the Love - It MUST be Valentine's

We are touched.

Forrester, in their January 5th 2010 issue, did a few pages on SasS but more specifically the several types of system integrators offering skills in SaaS from small specialists, to offshore Firms and MNCs.

How does this pertain to SADA?

Under the subheading "SaaS Specialist firms" Forrester discusses Google, and "its increasingly popular Google Apps offering, [which] has attracted the attention of specialists like...SADA Systems."

Here @SADASystems we are thrilled that Forrester, a top Forbes 200 -Fastest Growing Company for five consecutive years, noticed our hard work and pursuit of perfection and client satisfaction. We greatly appreciated the mention as a Google Apps Specialist and felt the love.

As a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm approaching our 10th birthday, we are grateful to have started out as a Google Partner for Google's search technology and proud to be one of the world's first 10 Google Partners for Apps.

We only strive to give Forrester more to write about.

Love is always a two way street,

Happy Valentine's Day Weekend.

SADA

Google Search Finds Love at the Super Bowl

Google has done little if any mass media advertising so that is why it was both interesting and exciting to see the company touting it's search services in their first ever commercial during Super Bowl XLIV.

The ad, Parisian Love, was originally created as a video success story for Google Search.  First released last fall the spot, which tells the story of a long distance romance via various Google Search efforts, was so warmly received that Google decided to share it with the Super Bowl audience, according to a blog post by Google CEO Eric Schmidt.  Even Schmidt acknowledged how unusual it was to see a Google TV commercial when he tweeted "Hell has indeed frozen over."

Here is the spot for your enjoyment.

Postini Powers Message Log Search for Google Apps

Administrators now have visibility into into how messages are delivered, processed and filtered. Access to this information provides insight into the the traffic patterns of the domain.

This now enables admins to track what happens to inbound and outbound messages and whether they were delivered, quarantined, archived, encrypted and see if the messages triggered and specific filters while simultaneously tracking messages for a specific sender, recipient, domain or IP address. Furthermore, admins can now use Message Log Search to run searches on message log data using a variety of criteria and queries while viewing the results and details about groups or individual messages.

The launch is included in Premier and qualifying Education Editions.

To learn more about Postinis' Message Log Search for Message Security for Google Apps click here.

Google wants your doodle!

...and by doodle we mean oodles of doodles.

Doodle 4 Google is a competition aimed at inspiring K-12 students to express their artistic creativities to help create new logos for Googles infamous changing logo. This years competition is aspirationally themed "If I Could Do Anything, I Would..."


The theme itself makes us feel 10 years old all over again. We are looking forward to the entries which should at very least be endearing, genuine, and inspiring to all of us. As a matter of fact we would love to see an album of all submissions!


The panel of judges assembled to critique and select the winners represent an impressive range of talent from well-known illustrators from The Sesame Street Workshop, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, The Charles Shulz/Peanuts Museum and Pixar Studios. However, for the lucky 40 that make it past these judges they will get the honor of being in the presence of the talent that selected them.


The 40 finalists will also be displayed in the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.


Registration for the contest closes at noon PST on March 17th, 2010 and entries are due by noon at the end of that month. The winning picture will grace Google.com on May 27th.

Live@edu hosted SSO tutorial - A first in the line of SADA Systems Productions

SADA Systems Productions' first release, and you are invited to the premier event.

Our SSO tool has made life simpler for many users and now we want everyone to enjoy the finer simplicities of life. Coming to a computer screen near you courtesy of YouTube you can enjoy a tutorial on our Live@ Edu Hosted SSO Solution any time you'd like. Its like having on demand cable - but better.

However, if you have no idea what on demand cable is you can always check out the video below:

If you enjoyed this short and sweet tutorial there will be many more to come. The best way to stay abreast of SADA Systems and our productions is to follow us on Twitter @SADASystems and continue to visit our blog, SADA Speaks, regularly.

Also many thanks to Johnny Chambers for the mention on his blog definitely a must read for anybody who wants to be in the know.

Delegation and Single Sign On supported in latest version of Google Apps Sync for Outlook

Google's latest release, Version 1.7, of their Apps Sync tool for Microsoft Outlook increases it's capabilities with new features.

Single Sign On is now supported by Google Apps Sync for Outlook. "When you log in, you have the option to log in with your Google Apps account and password, or instead use your company's SSO authentication if they have enabled that option." (Google)

Now when you delegate your email and calendar in Google Apps, the person you delegated to has the ability to handle messages, calendar events, answer emails, and create and respond to invitations on your behalf, all from Microsoft's Outlook client.

Google I/O Conference - SADA will be there, will you?

SADA Systems returns to San Francisco's Moscone center in May for Google I/O conference on the 19th-20th.

We at SADA are ecstatic to engage as part of the Developers Sandbox. We look forward to sharing our latest developments and upcoming applications utilizing Google's App Engine and APIs. One of the best parts of the Google I/O conference is the opportunity to learn more about the latest from the developing world regarding Google APIs, GWT, App Engine, Android, Chrome and more.

Look for us at Google's I/O conference in May we are looking forward to seeing you there.

Don't have tickets? Register here before it's too late.

Follow us on twitter at @SADASystems for all the latest on SADA and our involvememnt in the I/O conference #io2010