As part of my community manager role here at ebizQ, I author a monthly series of business process management (BPM) feature articles highlighting different BPM-enabling software trends. Recently those articles have included a look at the intersection of BPM and accounting as well as a look ahead at BPM in 2009. An article will be posted some time in April on BPM/Case Management.
Interestingly, when I did the 2009 lookahead in December 2008, cloud computing was hardly mentioned by the supplier community. Now you can't click on a web page on any IT site (and even the mainstream media) without finding all kinds of buzz about the concept. Last year it was the trend to talk about Soffware as a Service (SaaS) in the same context. See a trend here.
I believe in truth in advertising so let it be known that I don't think cloud computing is the next big thing. But that being said, as an analyst I cannot ignore the public demand to know more about cloud computing.
So in May I will be researching and preparing a feature article about the cloud computing aspects of BPM. In June we'll hold a "camp" on the subject (register here).
To prepare I am looking for examples of how BPM is used in the cloud, or even examples of where you might be thinking of using BPM in the cloud. I am interested in hearing from you whether you interpret cloud computing as SaaS or hosting or application service provision or timesharing--as I do--just a modern day version of service bureaus.
If you sell your BPM offering in a cloud environment, send me an email at dennis@ebizq.net to be included. I'll do some secondary research on your offering and meet up with you for an interview. Even if you have recently completed a survey for one of my earlier feature articles, please send me an email highlighting your cloud computing features (because I never asked about it in earlier surveys).
Or tell me you think BPM in the cloud is a lot of bunk if that is your opinion.
The article on BPM in the Cloud is tentatively scheduled for release in mid May 2009 so whether you are a user or a supplier, contact me by Monday May 4, 2009.
Thanks
-- Dennis Byron
Dennis,
I would approach the “BPM in the cloud� topic from a) a BPM reference model and b) an architectural framework for improving enterprise BPM systems.
see more -- http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.com/2009/04/bpm-in-action-calling-for-input-on-bpm.html
Besides the typical business reasons for PaaS/SaaS, there are some interesting technical properties for Inter-Enterprise (B2B) communication with a cloud based solution:
A hosted cloud service for B2B messaging has a number of advantages to integrate it into existing (enterprise) IT Landscapes:
- decoupled from internal network security restrictions
- typically multiple availability zones
- dynamic scale able for peak loads
- somebody else has to think about the DDoS risks
- pay as you grow (storage infrastructure!)
Typically when you run a B2B gateway in-house the disaster recovery and especially DOS resilience is depending on your infrastructure. Typically enterprise networks are not optimized to face the hostile internet. With a all-time-exposed platform, this is much less of an issue since large teams (which have better contact to upstream providers) handle all those incidents for you.
For smaller companies you are also decoupled from dynamic/static address assignment or single link connections. You company can use various fall back links to transfer the messages queued at your cloud broker for internal systems (only a few cases might have too strict SLA requirements). Microsoft is hyping this aspect of Azure pretty much (maybe a bit overrated, but nevertheless a positive aspect).
The major problem with offerings like Amazon EC2 or Google AppEngine is, that you might get a refund if your SLAs with Amazon have been violated, but there is no way to have stronger contractual bounds with your provider. Therefore you might have to use smaller, more specialized semi-private cloud offerings, and those again might be more subject to attacks.
However even with a private cloud a B2B gateway optimized for this deployment scenario can help.
On the downside, hosted services are very close to (good) VANs and the evaluation if VAN services are actually worth their cost or not is open for discussion. In-sourcing and Outsourcing are both heavily considered in this area. A pure technology hoster (like in clouds) has some advantages since you are free to run any software solution you like, on the other hand associated business consulting and services are still open. If you go to a dedicated exchange you get the full service, but usually either highly standardized or you are required to be a premium customer to get satisfying services.
Greetings
Bernd
Dennis,
I like to bring in another flavor of BPM in the cloud, that of modeling business processes. With BPMN we have for the first time an standard process modeling language. Process models are the key instrument for shared understanding of business processes.
When you read "in the cloud" as SaaS, then a process modeling SaaS solution is a game changer. Why? Because all stakeholders in process modeling can access the process models in the cloud and can collaboratively discuss and improve them. Rather than sending back and forth Visio files as mail attachments, we can now send a link to the process model stored in the cloud. Stakeholders subscribed to the model immediately see the modified version. Collaborative development facilitated by these types of solutions will create new possibilities for process modeling.
There is a startup called signavio.com that will launch the world's first web-based BPMN process editor next week at the Process Solution Day in Frankfurt, Germany. There will be a free trial available from http://www.signavio.com/en.html from May 20th, 2009
Best regards,
Mathias