ebizQ's Business Agility Watch

This is a pretty big category for ebizQ, as we include SaaS, Cloud, and Social Media under this rubric, and while we've had a number of healthy discussion on all topics, you can probably already guess that Cloud discussions finished on top!

So the top 5 discussions for 2009 follow:

1) What Impact Will Windows Azure have on Cloud Computing?

Comments:

Phil Ayers: "I think Microsoft may just be another face in the crowd at the big cloud event."

Brian Reale: "Microsoft is a little late to the game. Then again, being late is not always a bad thing and can often be an advantage."

Joe McKendrick: "For anyone in doubt about cloud.. Microsoft has just sprinkled 'holy water' on the concept."

2) Is Cloud All Hype?

Comments:

Miko Matsumura: "The good news is that SOA is climbing "slope of enlightenment" and that the positive momentum around Cloud is spawning a lot of innovation."

Jeff Kaplan: "Cloud computing is delivering tangible and measurable business benefits to a widening array of users."

Tarak Modi: "Cloud Computing is definitely not just all hype. Are there unreal expectations related to the "cloud"? Sure..."

3) Is Enterprise 2.0 Just a Waste of Time?

Comments:

JP Morgenthal: "In order to achieve greater levels of productivity, we are going to have to foster better means of communicating without having to lose time on face-to-face meetings."

Phil Wainewright: "Collaboration on unstructured processes does indeed make a huge contribution to the productive efficiency of an organization."

Erick Brethenoux: "For the first time ever we are allowing the true voice of the customer/employees to be heard and efficiently shared across enterprises."

4) What Will Be The Future of Application Development in Cloud Computing?

Comments:

Phil Wainewright: "There will be much more focus on business logic and much less need to spend time working on the underlying technology infrastructure."

K. Scott Morrison: "The cloud will change application development profoundly. The arguments for the cloud address a number of the cost and flexibility issues I run into every day."

John Power: "The Cloud offers some fantastic benefits in terms of making resources available easily and 'on demand', however, if the applications that are implemented within the cloud are using proprietary technologies to talk to each other, they will become locked to the one Cloud."

5) Where is the Revenue Stream in Cloud Computing?

Comments:

Phil Wainewright: "The mechanisms and business models for charging for services and sharing out revenues are still in their infancy."

Jeff Kaplan: "I think the cloud computing industry will borrow some of the best practices of previous generations of tech partnerships to solve today's revenue sharing challenge."

JP Morgenthal: "Apple with iTunes and iPhone have proved out a successful model for marketplace delivery of applications, but I believe the same model could be used to deliver a marketplace for services."