Benoit J. Lheureux
Research VP
8 years at Gartner
31 years IT industry
Benoit Lheureux is a research VP in Gartner Research and agenda manager for the Application Infrastructure group. He focuses on three areas: application integration, middleware and B2B e-commerce, with the emphasis on the latter. Read Full Bio
by Benoit Lheureux | December 13, 2011 | 1 Comment
Every company that consumes Cloud services from multiple providers must address a simple multi-sourcing decision: “Who’s throat are you going to choke”? CSB is not always the answer since many companies can and will consume cloud directly. No problem. But for companies that lack — or don’t want to be responsible for — Cloud-native technology, skills, and methodologies, Cloud services brokerage can help.
A key take-away from our recently published CSB Special Report (subscription required) is that in 2011 there was a proliferation of end-user interest in CSB and IT solutions leveraging CSB. In Cloud Services Brokerage Proliferates we introduce the following research:
This new research — published in corraboration with analysts across a wide range of Gartner research communities and core topic areas — builds upon our fast-growing body of CSB research. A complete list with brief descriptions for all the CSB research that we’ve published over the last three years is available here.
Here are some additional year-end 2011 take-aways from this year’s CSB research and our many client discussions:
- Cloud computing overall and CSB in particular is a high-impact scenario that will affect the entire $865m IT services industry.
- The three primary CSB roles are CSB aggregation, integration and customization brokerage, although there are other CSB roles (e.g., CSB arbitrage).
- Proliferating B2B integration modernization projects – which often require investments in new software and skills – are driving adoption of integration brokerage.
- Consumer adoption of the CSB role is proliferating overall, but intermediation is not necessarily required or appropriate for every company and Cloud project.
- The CSB role is rapidly being incorporated into IT services including consulting and system integration, application services, BPO/BPU, and B2B ecommerce.
- Deployment of multienterprise applications – which often requires combined B2B SaaS and integration services offerings – is driving CSB utilization.
- CSB aggregation, integration and customization can help companies to implement innovative multienterprise processes – e.g., see Mohawk case study above.
In 2011 we sought to further improve our definition and understanding of the emerging CSB scenario and deliver ever more specific and actionable research. In 2012 we’ll continue along this same trajectory – see Daryl Plummer’s latest CSB blog post for some thoughts about where he expects CSB to go in 2012. I’m looking forward to actively pursuing this line of research in 2012 and working with our clients, providers and my colleagues to further refine and deepen our understanding of the CSB phenomenon.
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | June 20, 2011 | 3 Comments
July 19th update — updated below with reference to 2nd of two CSB case studies, on Mohawk – bjl
June 28th update — updated below with reference to 1st of two CSB case studies, just published — bjl
————————————————— Original post follows:
I’ve just returned to the US from London where we held our annual Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit event, which this year prominantly featured a lot of research on cloud computing. One of my sessions was on cloud services brokerage, which I kicked-off with this picture:
It’s for a street I’d not seen before in a recently developed part of Phoenix, AZ (search for “Cloud Road, Queen Creek, AZ” in Google Maps). I took the pic right before my London trip, on my drive home after picking up dinner for my wife and I. She knows I cover Cloud computing and that I’m fond of metaphors so when I showed her the pic she immediately asked, “so, … are you running with ‘Stop!’ — or ‘Go!’?” Pithy, but indeed – which?
But it’s not like we have much choice, do we? Whether you believe the Gartner Cloud computing forcast (this and other Gartner research references require a subscription) or have simply been ‘following the money’ in the increasing supply-side investment in and — more importantly — IT consumer spend on cloud computing, it’s clear that answer is ‘Go!’. But the recent problems reported by many companies including respected organizations such as Amazon and Sony has many folks also calling for a ‘Stop!’ along the way to re-assess the risk / benefit trade-offs of this new IT consumption model. Nevertheless, there’s no compelling evidence that cloud computing adoption will be substantially inhibited by such IT (and mass consumer) ‘growing pains’. While no silver bullet for IT, Cloud computing is certainly here to stay and we expect rapid adoption to continue.
So what about my point above about “re-assessing the risk” of cloud computing adoption? One aspect of this is simple: if you need help, who are you gonna call?
Increasingly, system integrators, value-added resellers, B2B e-commerce and various other IT service providers are being tasked with answering this call. By creating new cloud-centric IT service offerings or cloud capabilities for traditional IT service offerings many IT service providers are quickly assuming the cloud services brokerage role — see Cool Vendors in Cloud Services Brokerage, 2011.
Particularly in B2B ecommerce we’ve created a roadmap for providers to add the cloud services brokerages to their traditional B2B role. These providers are competing ever more aggressively to consolidate the traditional B2B integration services market and to better position themselves to also deliver cloud services brokerage. Some noteworthy events in 1H11 include:
On the consumption side of cloud services brokerage I’m having ever more discussions with clients who are looking for help on IT projects that involve a combination of traditional e-commerce integration and cloud services consumption. For example, in London I spoke with an architect from a European manufacturer. We first talked about traditional e-commerce B2B, then about SaaS integration — and then we talked about (to his surprise) the viability of single-sourcing a solution for both requirements from a B2B provider that was also a CSB. No, really.
And there-in lies the rub, doesn’t it? While most companies have a pretty good idea of what solutions are available to them for traditional e-commerce, few clearly understand what approaches are available to address SaaS integration. Even fewer, still, know how solutions like integration PaaS and cloud services brokerage can help. My colleague, Massimo Pezzini, has taken the lead on our iPaaS research to advise companies who prefer a technical (‘do it yourself’) approach to SaaS integration, and I’ve re-focused nearly all my attention on the IT services (‘outsourced’) approach, aka CSB.
We’ve already published a pretty good CSB body of research, addressing such basics such as our CSB definition, reference model, vendor landscape, etc. But we need to make it more ‘real’ — we need examples. Thus I’m happy to report that in the next couple of weeks we’ll be publishing two CSB case studies:
I’m grateful to both organizations for the time they’ve spent with me to understand their business, the problem they were solving, and the role that CSB had in helping address that and their adoption of cloud computing. These bits of research will provide insight into the CSB role and begin answering the cloud computing challenge question above — when you need help, who are you gonna call? In 3Q11 Daryl Plummer and I will also publish our 2nd annual CSB special report in which we’ll cast more light on CSB use case scenarios, the CSB landscape, the role of CSB in the cloud services value chain, etc.
So, yes, ‘Go!’ — cloud computing is here to stay. But, ‘Stop!’ — if you’re like many companies cloud computing will be a bit tricky to tackle alone. CSB can help.
Cheers,
– bjl
Category: B2B CSB Cloud Cloud Computing Cloud Services Brokerage Cloud Services Integration Ecommerce Integration Brokerage SaaS Integration Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | March 25, 2011 | 8 Comments
File this under “random datapoints on B2B”, or “things that make you go, ‘hmmmmm’…”
In the last few days I’ve had 3 research inquiries with Gartner clients on the IT topic: EDI.
And I mean, very specifically, “EDI”. Here’s the actual “Subject” submitted by clients captured from of our internal Gartner research inquiry tracking tool …
… which reveals that the actual client-specified subject for the research inquiry was, in fact, simply “EDI”. As it also had two other times in the last week. And as it comes up at least a few times a month throughout the year, as it has every year since the late 1990′s.
Just to be clear in the last few days — like all year ’round — I actually did a *bunch* of other calls on EDI, and of course calls on related topics such as B2B, Cloud services integration, integration managed services, cloud services brokerage and that sort of thing. But usually the subject line for the research inquiry will be something a bit more specific like “Help with EDI translator upgrade”, “EDI contract renewal”, “EDI standards”, “Leading EDI vendors”, “How to integrate EDI with SaaS”, ”Modernizing EDI”, or that sort of thing.
But just “EDI” — I mean *E* *D* *I* — really? I mean, is that IT-Sexy — like Cloud? Um, well … definitely not. But it is, remarkably, still IT Hot. Let me explain.
First, there’s something about a request to discuss just simply “EDI” that is powerfully crisp and pithy. And reveals the underlying assumptions of the person who submitted the research inquiry request. I *love* taking these calls! I am amused by the presumption that simply saying “EDI” says it all. That everything I do professionally (well, at least part of what I do) can be distilled into a 3-letter acronym. But in fact “EDI” is rich with meaning — and my upcoming call with a client on that topic has the potential to take any number of deep, related drill down topics. Will the client want to discuss EDI standards? Do they wanna “do” EDI? Meaning, possibly translation. Possibly exchanging EDI transactions with trading partners. Or possibly instrumenting EDI? Perhaps they just need help short-listing EDI vendors. Or modernizing their EDI infrastructure. Or identifying useful EDI metrics.
More likely even if they don’t know it the client is *really* asking about “B2B”. Think about it. Go up and replace every occurrance of “EDI” in the prior paragraph with “B2B” — and you’ll see that the topic both embraces and extends EDI into the world of XML, REST, Cloud computing, et al. Many “EDI” calls ultimately *become* calls about EDI + B2B + Cloud.
The fact is, I’m happy either way. EDI stand-alone. EDI to B2B to Cloud. Cloud to EDI (!) – no, really — ever more of my Cloud discussions in fact ultimate lead — in *back to the future* fashion — back to EDI. Watch carefully for announcement from innovative Cloud providers that will be offering — shock! — direct EDI support. Whoosh!
Look: for any *greenfield* IT project of course I’d recommend more innovative approaches and I’ve even predicted their emergence. But you gotta be realistic — and in any well established B2B community EDI is ubitquitous — and it works. It still delivers value to business because it automates B2B processes — and can be instrumented to help drive process improvement. What’s not to like about that?
Bottom line: EDI remains — and will remain for years to come — a high impact, valueable asset to business. More innovative approaches should be used for greenfield projects but EDI is a well-established approach that is still a vital component of most companies overall B2B strategy, and easily contributes to B2B, cloud computing, business intelligence, et al.
In other words EDI is — dare I say it? — still HOT.
No, really!
- bjl
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | January 31, 2011 | 2 Comments
I have been having more discussions with clients lately about integrating SaaS functionality from multiple providers. One recently described integrating five different SaaS applications. Many IT-savvy clients leverage a combination of on-premise or cloud-based integration technology to implement the solution themselves (e.g., using Boomi, IBM, Informatica, iWay, Jitterbit, Microsoft, Pervasive, WebSphere, Tibco, etc.). Although these projects include cloud services these are often nevertheless still perceived as “A2A integration” because the application functionality, e.g., HR, procurement, payroll, benefits, order management, etc., are considered an extension of “internal” IT infrastructure.
A recurring theme with users integrating multiple SaaS applications is whether to put the integration solution ‘center of gravity’ on-premise – or in the cloud. And whether to implement the solution themselves – or with the help of an external provider. Building upon our recent special report on cloud services brokerage we’ll deliver more research on the outsourcing option in 2011. For example, we just published our definition of integration brokerage [subscription required], a form of IT outsourcing focused on Cloud services integration often delivered via cloud services brokerage. B2B integration specialists (e.g., IBM, GXS, Hubspan, Liaison) and cloud-focused system integrators (e.g., Appirio, Bluewolf, Celigo) offer cloud services brokerage.
Most integration brokerage is still delivered in conjunction with traditional ecommerce supply chain integration, e.g., typically you turn over customer or supplier integration project to a B2B integration specialist or system integrator who implements and runs that for you. Some integration brokerage is delivered in conjunction with SaaS – for example you may have a system integrator doing SaaS integration in conjunction with some custom SaaS development. I am interested in hearing from those of you with integration projects that involve both traditional ecommerce integration *and* SaaS integration. Perhaps you implemented order management as SaaS – and now need to get orders electronically from your customers. Are you addressing this with integration technology or integration brokerage?
Category: B2B CSB Cloud Cloud Computing Cloud Services Brokerage Cloud Services Integration Integration Brokerage SaaS Integration Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | January 10, 2011 | 4 Comments
In the run-up to Year-End 2010 my colleagues and I published our annual 2011 Predicts reports, featuring a wide range of predictions related to integration, B2B and cloud computing.
These Predicts 2011 Reports include (subscription required):
These reports are chock full of predictions and detailed analysis — I hope you saw them. But in case you were a bit too busy with your own year-end activities to see these reports I’ve summarized a few choice bits here that underscore some of the fundamental changes in IT that are affecting companies that do B2B integration and are adopting Cloud services.
Select Strategic Planning Assumptions:
By 2014, the CSB vendor landscape will have grown from dozens to hundreds of providers.
Daryl Plummer and I have already identified a few dozen providers that deliver some form of CSB offering, but we believe that the proliferation of cloud adoption, combined with challenges of consuming cloud services for their IT users, will create demand for more CSB offerings to help facilitate consumption. In case the concept of CSB is new to you, we just recently published a bunch of research on CSB in our Special Report on Cloud Service Brokerages.
By 2015, 40% of integration projects involving A2A, B2B, MFT and cloud services will be implementing with one IT solution.
My colleagues and I predict that over time companies increasingly will use just one integration product or service to address all forms of application integration. This is because users increasingly wish to single-source their product or service to address various integration problems. In response, IT providers are doing substantial R&D and mergers and acquisitions, such that they can increasingly offer consolidated integration solutions that address A2A, B2B, MFT, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and cloud integration project requirements.
By 2015, 50% of “Integration as a Service” (IaaS) will be consumed as an embedded feature of other IT offerings.
Today, we estimate that over 90% of IaaS functionality is consumed directly by IT users or IT services providers as a stand-alone solution for traditional e-commerce or cloud integration requirements. But we believe that over time, IaaS will increasingly be embedded and consumed in conjunction with other IT solutions — for example, as an embedded feature of ERP, SaaS, PaaS, Integration Brokerage, iPaaS or cloud services brokerages (CSBs).
What All This Means
As companies do more ecommerce B2B integration and consume more cloud services they will be looking for more complete and more highly evolved forms of B2B products and services to help them achieve their IT and business goals. Consolidated integration solutions, embedded integration, and Cloud services brokerage are examples of how IT solutions are evolving to meet more demanding IT user requirements.
In 2011 my colleagues and I are substantially evolving our B2B research agenda which, amongst other things, will increase our emphasis on these areas of innovation. What can you expect from us in 2011?
- Look for research on “integration brokerage”, an evolved form of managed services for B2B/EDI that is relevant to both traditional ecommerce and cloud computing projects. I am putting the final touches on a 2011 research plan for my colleagues and I to address how the market is evolving, how to choose vendors, etc.
- Look for research on “integration platform as a service” (iPaaS), an evolved form of integration as a service (IaaS) that delivers a hybrid combination of integration, governance, security and other interoperability capabilities delivered in the Cloud to link applications, SOA services and Cloud services. in 2011 Massimo Pezzini will lead a group of analysts including myself in an active 2011 research agenda on this concept.
- Look for more research on Cloud services brokerage, a form of Cloud-enabled IT services offering specifically designed to aggregate and add value to proliferating Cloud services. Besides individual research throughout the year Daryl Plummer and I and other contributors will publish another special report later in the year.
I’ve been covering B2B integration with Gartner for over 10 years and its been a good run (you can find abstracts for most of my research online here — yeah I know it ain’t pretty, but its efficient). I’ve helped users and vendors navigate and adapt to fundamental changes in B2B before, e.g., when B2B software emerged and when the EDI VANs evolved into Integration Service Providers. But the changes to B2B occurring now — driven by Cloud computing, IT consolidation, outsourcing and vendor M&A activity — are having a higher impact on B2B than anything I’ve ever seen before.
Which is why we’re making so many changes to our research. You’ve gotta adapt. We’ve gotta adapt. That’s the consequence of perpetual innovation. But in the end we’ll get through these changes — too — together. 
Cheers and Happy New Year!
- bjl
Category: B2B CSB Cloud Cloud Computing Cloud Services Cloud Services Brokerage Cloud Services Integration EDI Ecommerce IaaS Integration SaaS Integration Uncategorized Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | November 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
What do you believe?
Will every company on earth *always* consume Cloud services directly?
Governance. Integration. Security. Just a few of the issues companies must address when consuming Cloud services (not the easier browser-based services, the more sophisticated API-based Cloud services — for an example checkout http://developer.force.com/).
Before you object, … YES … I get it. One of the great things about Cloud computing is just that — the massive proliferation and promiscuous consumption of Cloud services. Innovation. Mashups. Cloud sourcing. Et al. I really get it!
But … despite the wonderful innovative opportunities that Cloud services consumption delivers to business it is still very technical, fraught with non-trivial regulatory and compliance issues, and — at the end of the day — at lest some companies are going to want and need help (think: services).
Gartner’s Cloud services forecast heralds a new age of IT where on-premise and Cloud-based business functionality will thrive and co-exist. And by necessity Cloud services will also heralds a new age of intermediation. Cloud services brokerages will help many companies to leverage Cloud computing.
Daryl Plummer and I, along with a bunch of colleagues, have published a special report on Cloud services brokerage soon to be featured on Gartner.com. The landing page for the CSB special report will be up soon but all of the research is already available so I’m posting the list here for anyone who is interested. Once the special report landing page is up I’ll post that link here too.
I’ve been doing or covering B2B most all my professional life. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not prone to hyperbole. But, indeed, even if there are some tie-ins to the way things have been done in the past Cloud computing B2B is different than traditional ecommerce B2B.
More to come. For a taste, checkout Daryl’s related blog on Cloudstreams …
This is going to be fun…
- BJL
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | October 11, 2010 | 5 Comments
A few months back in my post Cloud Services Brokerage: Its Time to Move Beyond Integration as a Service I introduced the notion that Integration as a Service — despite its broad adoption and enduring usefulness — was simply not, by itself, a sufficient metaphor to describe what is really needed to facilitate the consumption of Cloud services.
At the time I alluded to forthcoming research that would formally define something new, Cloud services brokerage (CSB), and explore this new IT phenomenon from various points of view. I’m happy to announce the availability of our formal definition of CSB:
Defining Cloud Services Brokerage: Taking Intermediation to the Next Level (subscription required)
Daryl Plummer and I, and a bunch of our colleagues here at Gartner are also furiously working on nearly a dozen additional pieces of CSB-related research which will be published throughout the next few weeks including a CSB reference model, research that links CSB to governance, context aware computing, and business process outsourcing, that defines the role (and evolution) of integration as a service into CSB, and that assesses the emerging CSB provider landscape.
This set of research is just an initial installment on a substantial new line of research that will addresses this new and exciting Cloud phenomenon. While I will continue to publish on integration as a service I will concurrently be working with my colleagues to cover CSB as it continues to emerge and evolve. I’ll post again soon as more of our CSB-related research becomes available.
Cheers,
- bjl
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | August 19, 2010 | 1 Comment
So yesterday on the same day that my Ariba / Hubspan partnership analysis was published – see Ariba and Hubspan Partner to Scale Up Integration in the Cloud (subscription required) — Liaison announced its acquisition of Softshare. As I’ve said several times this year I can’t publish fast enough to keep up all the B2B vendor activity.
Liaison is nothing if not persistent — it keeps nibbling away at the B2B market, one small vendor at a time. Truth be told none of its many acquisitions over the last few years (the most recent was ADX in January — see Liaison Buys Advanced Data Exchange to Expand B2B Portfolio, subscription required) have rocked the B2B integration market, per se. But as we explained in our recently published Magic Quadrant for Integration Service Providers (subscription required) these acquisitions are helping to drive Liaison’s year-to-year growth, diversify its customer base, and strengthen its hybrid on-premises (A2A) and B2B approach to integration services. All likely a net plus for Liaison, Softshare and its customers, though we still believe that Liaison will need to do a bit more to substantially increase its B2B mind- and market-share.
Cheers,
- bjl
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | July 20, 2010 | 3 Comments
Ok, its not really *that* bad but for dramatic effect I could make a case that alliances and M&A activity involving IT providers in the B2B market segment are occurring faster than we can respond to them in our published research. Its been a busy year!
Recent events include:
- Ariba partners with Hubspan — Debbie Wilson and I are working on our response to this now (crisply: its synergistic)
- IBM acquiring Sterling Commerce — my thoughts here, our published analysis here (license required)
- Ipswitch acquiring MessageWay — Thomas Skybakmoen led our published analysis of that here
- GXS closed on the Inovis merger — my thoughts here, our detailed published analysis here
So,… why so much B2B activity?
Well, for one thing B2B integration — for too long a secondary concern for many IT end users previously focused on internal integration and SOA projects — is now a higher priority. Those companies need to modernize their B2B infrastructure to match recent investments in internal application infrastructure (middleware). An additional key factor is middleware convergence as companies increasingly seek one solution to support A2A, B2B, EDI, SOA, MFT and Cloud services (no, really). And there’s the increasing proliferation of multi-enterprises processes as companies increasingly shift from traditional “stove-piped” B2B process such as procure-to-pay to more collaborative ones such as VMI. IT providers are responding to these trends by filling gaps in their portfolio of B2B products or services and by forming alliances or consolidating the market to strengthen their position to better serve growing demand.
So,… is all this *good* for you?
That’s where the rubber hits the road, right? For better or worse IT end users are right to be concerned about the potential impact of these commercial activities on products or services they use — and the viability of their IT providers. Over the years we’ve published extensive research to assess the impact of commercial transactions on product / service roadmaps and vendor viability, often for major providers like Oracle / Sun, GXS / Inovis, and IBM / Sterling Commerce, but also for many events involving smaller vendors.
What I’ve learned from covering such events for 10+ years is that quality of execution matters, a lot. A good product roadmap helps all users on old consolidating product or service lines move forward. A bad one turns someone’s IT investment into a legacy. A viable merger or acquisition grows market share and drives revenue growth. A bad one simply doesn’t. It’s kind of that simple, coupled with Devil in the Detail. Which is why we advise our clients to ask for detailed roadmaps as soon as possible — and in some cases even to hold off on significant deals — until the provider offers enough roadmap details to ensure that end users can make informed buying decisions.
Ultimately the covergence of B2B capabilities from point solutions into more holistic solutions will be good for IT end users — this leads to more product / service feature and price bundling, and it also reduces the number of vendors you need to manage. But as business wages its battle in B2B this also means there will occaisonally be some product and service casualties of war. Though we can’t prevent that, we can help you along the way with timely, informed speculation on the likely long-term impact to B2B product and service roadmaps, and with predictions on the likely long-term impact to vendor viability. We can also offer you advice on how you can best protect and evolve your own B2B investments throughout this volitale period of B2B vendor activity.
- bjl
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Benoit Lheureux | June 12, 2010 | 1 Comment
This morning I depart for London to present at our Gartner SOA & Application Development and Integration Summit next week. Its the first time I’m leaving my wife and our now 10-week old Tiger Twins, Oliver and Charlotte, behind …
… for a business trip. I’ve just come out of extended paternity leave and its tough to leave and I’m going to miss my family for a week on the road, but as my understanding wife observed, “life goes on”. That attitude is not only healthy for us as we transition into a new chapter of family life and work / life balance, its also a fitting metaphor for how my own B2B research agenda is evolving.
In London for the first time I will not only continue to cast a light on my favorite topic, integration as a service (IaaS) — a phrase I coined in research in April, 2004 — I’ll also be casting light on Cloud services brokerage (CSB). In fact this London trip is a turning point because rather than just referencing CSB in my B2B integration scenario pitch — “It’s Time To Desegregate Cloud Services and E-Commerce Integration” — I’m building the case for why IaaS — as good and as important as it is — is not by itself the right metaphor for how Cloud services will be intermediated.
Wish I’d done so myself, but in fact Daryl Plummer was the first to publish research on “Cloud services brokerage” — for Gartner clients you can find and access that research here. The initial research laid out basic concepts and some of the more recent follow-on research — to which I and others contributed — filled out a few bits. But frankly we hadn’t yet pulled together a formal research plan. That, is about to change.
In the next few months you will see a more comprehensive set of research from Daryl, myself and others on the topic of CSB. Our working draft elevator pitch on CSB is as follows:
Cloud service consumers will need help to ensure they get good value from the services they consume. Given the rapid proliferation of Cloud services there will at times be a need for service providers to intermediate between service consumers and the originating service providers. These Value-added brokerages will integrate, customize, enhance, secure, aggregate, and add trust and value to Cloud services on behalf of those consumers. Examples of this are www.StrikeIron.com – which aggregates and adds value to a wide range of business information services – and www.OxygenCloud.com – which aggregates and adds value to various Cloud storage capabilities. Types of value include integration, aggregation, governance, enrichment, and any function that can be provided by a third party to ensure good service performance.
We plan to publish a research plan (in Gartner parlance that means publishing a “Key Issues” research note to lay out the research topic on CSB), publish an updated, more comprehensive definition of CSB, address how the CSB vendor landscape will emerge (and evolve from other markets, such as integration as a service, governance, etc.), and we’ll link this to other directly related IT scenarios including, of course, the emerging Cloud computing scenario, but also other directly related IT scenarios such as IT sourcing strategy.
Simply stated, it’s time to move beyond integration as a service. Don’t get me wrong … IaaS is and will remain an enduring fixture in the Cloud computing scenario for many years to comer. And my colleagues and I who cover B2B integration will continue to publish a lot on that topic, including the upcoming update to our Magic Quadrant for Integration Service Providers in 1Q11. And we will also continue to publish on B2B integration software, B2B integration outsourcing (managed services for B2B), business process networks (to be offered by CSBs – more on that later), and so on. Integration will be tightly weaved into the emerging CSB scenario. But its not like CSB will just be an evolutionary path for IaaS. Its a different business model. It social. It involves functionality like governance not generally associated with integration. And the scope of CSB impact on IT will far exceed integration.
After eight years Esther and I have moved on from being just a couple — with the Tiger Twins we’re now a family. And professionally I’m moving beyond just integration. Its all good, folks
I look forward to meeting with attendees, clients and vendors to discuss Cloud, CSB, integration and everything else that’s interesting and fun about IT at our event in London!
Cheers,
- bjl
Category: B2B Business Process Networks CSB Cloud Services Brokerage Cloud Services Integration Community Management Governance IBM IaaS Tiger Twins Tags:
