These Predicts 2011 Reports include (subscription required):

• Predicts 2011: Cloud Computing Is Still at the Peak of Inflated Expectations
• Predicts 2011: Application Integration: A Nimble Veteran of IT
• Predicts 2011: Platform as a Service: The Architectural Center of the Cloud

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

Gartner’s formal consolidated response to the Cast Iron acquisition will likely publish by end-of-day tomorrow.

We’re already working on a consolidated response to this acquisition as well, but shooting from the hip here’s a few initial reactions:

• Acquired by IBM WebSphere group, along with Cast Iron, Lombardi, etc. — they’re decisively assembling a lotta B2B horsepower
• The WebSphere group now has even *more* integration software — hey, has anyone seen my software roadmap GPS?
• Sterling Collaborative Network + Cast Iron Cloud == A viable integration as a service offering for both traditional ecommerce & Cloud services
• The WebSphere group now has a bunch of Apps — some inherently multi-enterprise Apps — that’s a lot *on top* of application infrastructure
• IBM has pitched this acquisition in the context of “Dynamic Business Networks” — more expansive, but builds upon business process networks

From an industry impact think about other IT mega-vendors and think about other ‘pure-play’ B2B vendors … what impact might this acquisition have on SAP’s alliance with Crossgate or Oracle’s alliance with E2open, etc.?

I’ve said it before and its worth saying again — these are interesting times in B2B!

Cheers,

- bjl

• My peer review of Eric Knipp‘s upcoming case study on New York Time’s Open WOA
• A client specifically asked me — “do any B2B integration vendors offer Cloud API’s?”
• I spoke with the folks at ECGridOS — who offer a full set of Cloud integration API’s

Eric’s research tends to focus on how IT end user companies use Open WOA API’s. The storyline he’s unfolding is that there’s real value in API’s both from the technology point of view — e.g., to lower technical barriers to implementing collaborative multienterprise processes — and the business point of view — e.g., how API’s help companies to tap into “The Collective” of their external constituents to increase insight into their customer’s needs — and even their own business.

The same week a Gartner client was speaking with me about their B2B consolidation project — a typical strategic IT initiative focused on consolidating various B2B and Cloud services integration projects onto one shared B2B infrastructure (either via on-premise software or via some form of B2B managed services outsourcing). In our conversation after we’d explored all their options they casually asked me whether any of the B2B integration vendors I cover day-to-day offer a full set of API’s into their integration services, much like those publicly available for Force.com, Amazon S3, etc.

That was a great question. I’ve been following the emerging role of Cloud API’s for some time now — see Will WOA API Adoption Kill Integration? and Are You a Victim of “API Slamming”? — but not many clients ask about API’s related to integration services in particular very often. A typical use of API’s for integration services that I’ve seen is where B2B providers (e.g., GXS and Hubspan) publish API’s for their provisioning engine, e.g., so that IT end users or channel partners can provision new trading partners electronically, e.g., from Microsoft BizTalk into the GXS Trading Network. Or API’s to support automated message tracking, i.e., instead of forcing the consumer of integration-as-a-service to login with a browser or run a report.

But most API’s for integration-as-a-service are limited in scope — I am not aware of any prominent B2B provider that publishes a full set of API’s for their integration services. But Loren Data Corp — a very small Ecommerce provider with a history of OEM’ing basic VAN transport capabilities — has recently deployed a comprehensive set of API’s for their integration-as-a-service offering at ECGridOS.net. (As a .NET developer myself I was struck my the breadth and readability of these integration-related API specifications).

Without promoting one provider over another, I found it intriguing to discover such a full set of API’s devoted to integration-as-a-service. I wonder if other providers of integration-as-a-service also publish such comprehensive API’s. It also makes me think that perhaps other providers — who, Boomi? Cast Iron? Hubspan? GXS? — should also do so in order to better serve the needs of their users.

I will be following this closely, and welcome hearing more from other providers who publish API’s specifically for integration as a service. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m not prone to hyperbole, and frankly I consider API’s to be simply another incremental opportunity to enhance your overall value to external constituents. But given that Cloud services and the SOA approach to integrating distributed functionality is an enduring, high impact IT scenario I believe that B2B providers *should* be developing an API strategy for exposing their integration as a service functionality. If not immediately, probably soon.

What do you think?

- bjl

• Tibco’s acquisition of Foresight on Friday (my colleagues and I are working on analysis)
• The GXS acquisition of Inovis in December — see my post and published research on that
• SPS Commerce’ December IPO filing with the SEC — analysis on that too available soon
• Oracle’s alliance with E2open on Business Process Networks in November (research here)

And so on, including other such moves in 2009 such as Elemica’s acquisition of Rubber Networks, Cast Iron’s alliance with Cloud providers such as Amazon and Google, and IBM’s alliance with Hubspan to offer business process networks for WebSphere.  As I recently noted this has recently attracted substantial investor interest, but as Jijesh Devan asked in one of his comments on that post: why “this renewed interest” in B2B? I attribute this (at least) to the following factors:

• Opportunistic M&A — in a perceived ‘bottom’ (let’s hope) market movers acquire, merge, etc
• B2B maturity – by customer, pricing, or reliability, integration solutions are getting better
• OPEX vs CAPX — when capital is tight, integration services look attractive relative to software
• Cloud proliferation — traditional ecommerce still rules, but Cloud computing needs integration

Many companies still (rightfully) run their own B2B hubs but it’s clear from client interest and the rapid growing managed services business that B2B integration outsourcing in particular is hitting its prime. I’m having discussions with Cloud computing / SaaS providers about how to address on-premise integration requirements. I’m also speaking to investors and CEO’s of B2B vendors citing “upcoming announcements” — war chests are being prepared … battle lines are being drawn … no doubt the B2B market in 2010 is gonna be fun.

But when you’re doing business activities like B2B integration, e-commerce or Cloud computing, understanding context is important – lest you get distracted by technology (“Web 2.0 — wow, cool”) and your day-to-day tasks (“please send me that file!”) and you lose sight of the whole point of why you’re doing such things.

Which brings me to my take-away observations from the Gartner BPM Summit here in Orlando that’s just winding down. I gave two presentations on the role of BPM technology in B2B / Ecommerce projects. Here’s a few bits of wisdom from conversations with our attendees:

Consume B2B in the form of processes!

Whatever you think you’re doing – “B2B integration”, “e-commerce”, “Cloud computing” – remember that you’re implementing PROCESS. Thus, if you’re implementing the procure-to-pay process for a supply chain look for solutions that are process-aware, e.g., pre-configured with the right B2B documents, maps for translation, process visibility rules and dashboards. One way of consuming B2B processes directly is in the form of “business process networks” (BPNs) – in his own blog David McCoy briefly mentions BPNs and here’s our formal definition of BPN’s for Gartner clients (login required). Though not available for all projects, BPNs are a direct way to implement B2B processes, increasingly available for e-procurement, financial services, logistics, etc.

Selectively model B2B processes!

Janelle Hill and I had a great conversation with some nice folks of an international B2B / Ecommerce services provider that attended my session and wanted to explore options for their increasing need of BPMS technology (including process modeling and a rules engine) specifically so they could deploy configurable ecommerce projects with scale for their customers. We agreed that for complex, high-value and fast-changing processes that can be leveraged across multiple B2B communities, BPMS technology would be a great addition. But that for more static, less-complex processes that traditional application development is still fine. Its important to apply BPMS technology judiciously — I’ve blogged before on the issue of when — and when not — to use BPMS technology.

Instrument the process!

Once you’ve automated a B2B process across your community don’t miss out on the opportunity to “mine” that flow of messages and transactions to expose key performance indicators and drive process improvement. I had great discussions with a few clients about its benefits – such as sharing multienterprise process insight amongst your B2B peers – and challenges – such as plugging a potentially CPU-intensive BPM rules engine on top of your high-throughput B2B traffic! But regardless, nearly everyone agrees that one way or another IT users are long overdue to benefit from the decade-long oft-failed promised of “mining” B2B / ecommerce (and now Cloud) traffic! I have recently spoken to a few reference customers that specifically cited the valuable impact that process visibility has on their B2B projects.

I welcome your thoughts on all this!

As I post this I’m preparing to head back from the BPM Summit. The event has come to a close, but its impact will endure. Look to me for more on the role of BPM technology and discipline in the domain of B2B, e-commerce and Cloud computing!

… but indeed the fires of bacteria were raging such that the first time I thrust my hand deep into the core it nearly burned. (Yeah, my wife thought that was a dumb thing to do too – but you know, I simply didn’t count on my first bacteria party being such a big hit!)

So last week I spent some time on the phone with folks at Google (I know, harsh transition – indulge me) getting an update on the Google App Engine (GAE) and in particular adoption patterns for its new Secure Data Connector (SDC), which I recently referenced on a blog post regarding Cloud and EDI – The Ultimate Mashup. Precious few public details so far from Google on enterprise adoption of GAE and SDC, but they claim there’s viable quiet early adopters and I’m willing to give the folks at Google the benefit of doubt and a bit more time to make good on future public examples.

Also seeking to more easily link Cloud-based services to on-premise enterprise Apps, Amazon recently announced the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud to help drive adoption of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). It has partnered with Cast Iron to provide for Cloud-enabling integration as a service (IaaS) capabilities to help accelerate adoption of Amazon EC2. Here again adoption of IaaS to solve Cloud computing / SaaS integration problems is still light, but given the potential for Amazon to get real traction on EC2 I’m willing to give this new market time to mature.

So back to our steaming compost heap … of traditional B2B.  EDI tenaciously persists; as well do the providers of supply chain-enabling IaaS that carry huge chunks of EDI-based B2B traffic such as GXS, EasyLink, Inovis, and Sterling Commerce. While Cloud computing providers steal IT headlines and forge relationships with Boomi, Cast Iron, Informatica, Pervasive and other emerging purveyors of Cloud-enabling IaaS, the large providers of supply chain-enabling IaaS are quietly modernizing their networks and laying business intelligence across billions of transactions. (Follow the money)

Cloud-enabling IaaS. Supply chain-enabling IaaS. A delicate new sprout. The compost heap that nurtures its growth. Cloud. EDI. The point I made in my Cloud and EDI – The Ultimate Mashup post was that the Cloud and EDI world will soon be IT’s biggest Mashup ever. Expect some cross-pollination. But who ultimately will be the IaaS winners? Native members of the new Cloud eco-system? Incumbent carriers of most supply chain traffic today? Or yet others, jostling now to govern Cloud interactions? In the end, will the steaming compost heap of B2B nurture the Cloud?

One take-away from all these discussions is that despite cautious spending in this economny companies across all industries are still investing in B2B modernization projects. Investments include simplifying and improving the way they do B2B integration — for example, using community management and visibility to drive B2B process improvements (to reduce costs and drive growth).

On Friday I was chatting with Greg Faubert – CEO of Messageway Solutions – about the barriers to successful implementation of B2B integration projects and – shooting from the hip – I claimed that “the only barriers to successful B2B projects are politics and ignorance”.

Pithy, indeed.

But my point was that technology itself isn’t usually a barrier anymore. It might have been five years ago, but not anymore. Whether you’re still using EDI or SOA, doing traditional ecommerce or Cloud computing, there are plenty of B2B products and services availabile to help. Rather than technology, the barriers to success for B2B projects are usually non-technical, such as internal politics (IT group in-fighting and no shared B2B strategy), unrealistic expectations (trying to force one method of B2B onto customers — good luck), or simply ignorance (unaware of innovations like Cloud governance or packaged integration).

Similar barriers to success impact higher-order IT initiatives such as SOA and BPM initiatives, so perhaps its no surprise that B2B integration projects have similar challenges. Yet I still have quite a few conversations with companies who aren’t aware of the opportunity to succeed in B2B. No, not every technical challenge has been resolve (e.g., ubiquitous authentication – *sigh*), but, really, your challenges are less likely technical and more likely politics and ignorance — no friends of B2B.

I welcome your comments.

No, integration isn’t cool – as it was 10 years go – but it still rocks. Without it even cloud computing – IT’s latest darling – is just another set of IT “stove pipes”, reminiscent of the Circa mid-1990’s “stove pipes” of internal applications that took us a decade to integrate.

A few weeks ago Google announced enhancements to its Google App Engine (GAE), which included its new Secure Data Connector to integrate its cloud-based stove-pipes, with those in your data center – see Google App Engine Comes Closer to Enterprise Adoption. This week IBM and Hubspan announced WebSpan (I’d suggested “HubSphere”, but – hey – I only do marketing as a hobby) – an integration services offering using integration as a service (IaaS) that links stove-pipes of on-premise applications with trading partners and cloud-based functionality (my analysis of that should be published next week).

Interesting that for both IT mega-vendors these announcements were part of larger PR initiatives, GAE enhancements overall for Google, and one of many partnerships for IBM announced at its IMPACT event. By itself that makes my point. Integration isn’t the goal – it’s an IT pinch-hitter, an enabler for higher-order IT objectives like process improvement or cost containment.

A large retailer with 4,500 suppliers recently asked whether they should integrate their suppliers in-house or outsource the project; either way the goal is to automate then later improve the procurement process. A small biometric solutions company recently installed a packaged integrating process to synchronize sales orders between Salesforce.com and Quickbooks to lower costs and improve customer service (I’m publishing a case study on this). In both cases integration itself wasn’t the goal – it’s a means to an end. Context, not core. It adds value – like a beautiful patina on the coin of IT.