In early January, we launched the internal nominations process for identifying Cool Vendors candidates. After a month of interaction, we finally reviewed and selected from a list of over 400 vendors. Unfortunately, many Vendors want to know how they can apply for Cool Vendors’ selection. The answer is that they cannot apply directly. Instead, analysts within the Gartner community are the only ones who can nominate a vendor for selection. In addition, we get asked frequently why large vendor with nice products (e.g. IBM, Apple, or Google) are not listed. The answer is simply that we are trying to highlight little-known vendors who are relatively small (1-100 million in annual revenues is ideal even though we allow exceptions).

The next stage is to move from selection to writing of the notes. This will happen during February and March, culminating with the publishing of the pieces in April. This year, we will do a look back to previous Cool Vendors selection in a retrospective piece. We will examine some key statistics about Cool Vendors as a whole over the years since 2004.

With almost 1500 Cool Vendors listed since 2004 the Cool Vendors process has benefitted many companies by allowing them to be seen by vendors looking for acquisition targets, investors seeking a new investment opportunity, and enterprise customers trying to find vendors to work with. Cool Vendors is a great resource for mining innovation.

So, keep an eye out as Cool Vendors reports begin to hit the street over the next few months.

So, in the definitional piece called “Defining Cloud Services Brokerage: Taking Intermediation to the Next Level”, we said (free peek):

Since CSB is not a technology. It is necessary to describe it in terms of a business model, providers, deliverables, functions and enablers:

• CSB business model: A model where a business acts on behalf of consumers of one or more cloud services to intermediate and add value to the service being consumed. Providers of cloud services can benefit as well through establishment of an ecosystem of partners, such as brokerages, who enhance the provider’s service and draw customers to it.
• CSB providers: Specific companies or other legal entities that offer CSB.
• CSB deliverables and functions: Business and technical value-added capabilities delivered by a CSB provider.
• CSB enablers and enabling technology: Various IT services, software or hardware assets used to deliver CSB.

But that wasn’t enough. We had to go on and provide a logical reference model (See “A Logical Reference Model for Cloud Services Brokerage“, by me - sorry about the pay wall) and some basis for the judgement that CSB is going to be big Big BIG! So, we used simple logic. We looked at the companies entering the CSB-related markets and companies that were already there. Now, from here, you can do the math.

Use whomever’s market numbers you want. Add up the custom development markets for SIs, SI application and integration projects, B2B integration markets, Process outsourcing (BPO) markets, API governance markets, context brokerage markets, security brokerage markets, value-added reseller markets, internet performance acceleration/content delivery markets, backup and recovery markets and…well, I could keep going but you get the point – we’re getting into the range where there is a “tr-” in front of the “-illion”. Now, let’s go conservative and attribute just 10% (that’s only one customer in 10 doing cloud stuff) of those market totals to companies in those markets doing what they do – but doing it for cloud services. And, if the number you come out with isn’t BIG, then I’ll ask you to count again.

Cloud services brokerage is not one market. It is a composition of parts of markets that are really significant in size. I’m not saying that all the revenue in those (and more) markets will be CSB revenue. I am saying that a non-trivial part will be. If cloud computing will be big, brokerage will flow right along with it. And just like the accessories markets for your iPod, Android phone, PC, and Honda accord, you will find the value-added intermediaries (brokerages) may command the lions share of the spend happening in cloud computing.

Some people feel intermediaries needlessly complicate things in the cloud. I feel the opposite. And, opportunity awaits.

A lot more is coming on this, so join the dialog!

Cheers, Daryl

In the past 8 months, I’ve worked with a number of industry players to try to put into words some of the issues that can erode that necessary trust between providers and consumers in the cloud. That effort is part of Gartner’s Global IT Council where we not only looked at the issues, but actually sought to propose some basic approaches to addressing those issues.

The Gartner Global IT Council for Cloud Computing consists of CIOs and senior IT leaders of large global enterprises who work together to create actionable real-world recommendations and drive fundamental changes in the way the IT industry works. 

The Council’s list of Rights and Responsibilities for Cloud Computing identifies some of the more interesting “basic truths” that should be self-evident but often are not. It seeks to establish a checklist of elements that should be addressed in any contractual agreement between cloud service providers and consumers. Once that checklist is in hand, a proper discussion of how to most effectively evaluate, select, and consume cloud services can be started. This is necessary even for simple cloud services, but is essential for the most mission critical of business processes supported by cloud computing.

The Councils preliminary findings and a detailed overview of their Charters can be found athttp://www.gartner.com/technology/research/reports/global-it-council.jsp. Join the discussion and help the list grow and change over time as the industry evolves the dialog.

Bill Baker did a quick piece on this last year in “Don’t Overlook Legal Issues in the Cloud”, as did Chris Edwards in “Uncovering the legal issues behind cloud computing”, and a host of others.

And yet, even with all those pieces out there, where is the firestorm that should be building? Most customers want to talk about public and private cloud but when I bring up the legal side I get blank stares half the time. Its like they know there is a party going on, but either they weren’t invited or they don’t want to hangout with Denny Crane and Alan Shore any longer than they have to.

The legal party is heating up around “Guarantees” – like what will, and what will not be guaranteed a consumer of cloud services by the provider?

-         Will they guarantee where your data is?

-         Will they guarantee that the regulations of your home area will be applied to their services delivered from another part of the world?

-         Will they guarantee up-time, privacy, security, bandwidth, or anything having to do with living up to your expectations?

Denny Crane would probably just ignore those issues and bribe the judge whenever he was challenged. But back in the real world, those are still outstanding questions among many others that might relate to future legal action in the cloud.

But don’t worry, it may not be as gloomy as it might seem assuming you don’t like to party with those esteemed and educated jurist jockeys. Just keep in mind that, in many ways, the lawyers will be the ones who urge cloud providers to get off their collective “briefs” and start providing some of the guarantees Enterprises need from cloud services.

So, I recommend this – if your cloud planning meetings do not include legal staff, get them there now. If your legal staff is not rapidly coming up to speed on cloud computing issues, get them on the phone with me before breakfast. And, if you don’t think you need legal representation in cloud computing efforts, get ready to be deposed.

For the few things we adults see as thankful-giving are echoed in the heart of the giving that came when we were put together as children.

So conceive again the child…

Conceive every day the living breath…

Conceive again the joy of light seen through eyes not blinded by fear…

Conceive of the hollow emptiness that exists when we don’t notice the little things of God around our every breath and beat.

The days of thanks are leading our steps and following our lives.

I am thankful just to know that.

Happy turkey day!

Here is the scenario. Clear opens business promising to speed you through airport security in seconds or minutes without the hassle of long lines. This is like a Cloud service provider who says – give me your information and I will use it to get you great deals! For frequent travelers it was a godsend (And besides, getting to watch the faces of all those people as you were whisked to the front of the line was decadent but a little fun – admit it!). But unlike true godsends, it was not without risk. All you had to do to get it was to pay the devil to take your soul. In this case, the soul is represented by some pretty sensitive personal information. Your finger prints (all of them), social security number, some financial information, even a retina scan! We paid them two to four hundred dollars per year and gave the keys for our personal lockbox to a company none of us had ever heard of a year prior to its existence. But it was worth it – just to watch those faces – oh, and to get to your fourth flight in two days before they gave away your seats (I still think frequent flyers and casual flyers should have separate terminals – or better yet, separate airports!).

But what happens when the devil calls in your marker? What happens when, all of a sudden, Clear ceases operations? All that sensitive information is now floating around who knows where and us smug Clear customers are left standing around tasting egg on our faces? I mean, they actually charged some people their renewal fees the day before the announced that they would close their lanes!

Well, when this all happens, privacy questions begin to become a little bit more than just an academic exercise. But, fear not, for fear is the true enemy – the only enemy. I subscribe to Scott McNealy’s comment “you have no privacy – get over it!” (James Freeman had some interesting thoughts on this back in 1999), but in case you can’t go out on that limb with us, consider what Clear did to protect that extremely sensitive personal information. If they can do it, why not cloud service providers? Below is what you will find at flyclear.com. It illustrates that a service provider can and often will go to great lengths to make sure that large groups of customers do not rise up and throttle whatever legal entities are left after the cloud comes crashing to the ground. Read on…

Clear Lanes Are No Longer Available.

At 11:00 p.m. PST on June 22, 2009, Clear ceased operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc., was unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations. Verified Identity Pass regrets that Clear will not be able to continue operations.

How is Clear securing personal information?

Clear stands by our commitment to protect our customer’s personally identifiable information – including fingerprints, iris images, photos, names, addresses, credit card numbers and other personal information provided to us – and to keep the privacy promises that we have made. Information is secured in accordance with the Transportation Security Administration’s Security, Privacy and Compliance Standards.

How is Clear securing any information at the airports?

Each hard disk at the airport, including the enrollment and verification kiosks, has now been wiped clean of all data and software. The triple wipe process we used automatically and completely overwrites the contents of the entire disk, including the operating system, the data and the file structure. This process also prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis.

How is Clear securing any information in central databases and corporate systems?

Lockheed Martin is the lead systems integrator for Clear, and is currently working with Verified Identity Pass, Inc. to ensure an orderly shutdown as the program closes. As Verified Identity Pass, Inc. and the Transportation Security Administration work through this process, Lockheed Martin remains committed to protecting the privacy of individuals’ personal information provided for the Clear Registered Traveler program. Lockheed’s work will also remain consistent with the Transportation Security Administration’s federal requirements and the enhanced security and privacy requirements of Verified Identity Pass, Inc.

The computers that Verified Identity Pass, Inc. assigned to its former corporate employees are being wiped using the same process described for computers at the airports.

Will personally identifiable information be sold?

The personally identifiable information that customers provided to Clear may not be used for any purpose other than a Registered Traveler program operated by a Transportation Security Administration authorized service provider. Any new service provider would need to maintain personally identifiable information in accordance with the Transportation Security Administration’s privacy and security requirements for Registered Traveler programs. If the information is not used for a Registered Traveler program, it will be deleted.

How will members be notified when information is deleted?

Clear intends to notify members in a final email message when the information is deleted.

Who is monitoring this process?

Clear is communicating with TSA, airport and airline sponsors, and subcontractors, to ensure that the security of the information and systems is maintained throughout the closure process. Clear thanks these partners for their continuing cooperation and diligence.

How can I contact Clear?

Please visit our website, www.flyclear.com, for the latest updates. Clear’s call center and customer support email service are no longer available.

Will I receive a refund for membership in Clear?

At the present time, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. cannot issue refunds due to the company’s financial condition.

Has Verified Identity Pass, Inc. filed for bankruptcy?

At the present time, Verified Identity Pass has not commenced any proceedings under the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Clear’s Privacy Policy

Clear’s Online Privacy Policy

So, even the nightmare scenario can work out – so far. Who knows what will happen next year?

Where Mike leaves off, I feel compelled to comment. Certainly, we are at greater risk of losing something we come to value when it is out of our control. But there are two things that Mike did not mention which leave me less concerned (Oh, and I had never heard of this Debbie Downer person but I ain’t inviting her to the next investors club meeting).

1 – The Ecosystem: Who is to say that when a cloud provider goes out of business that they don’t have assets to sell? If something is important enough to draw a lot of eyes or attention then somebody is usually willing to step in and to buy up whatever assets are left to capture those eyes for another purpose. So, providers may disappear, but content might not. Who is to say that a site we relied on won’t morph into something different while we move on to other sites? Many of the forums I have used over the years have morphed or changed membership or even content. I just keep following where the interesting noise is. Who is to say that our stuff stored in the cloud is not valuable to a number of potential suitors? Buyouts happen all the time in the physical storage word, why not in the cloud world? Imagine the brand-value of “Wikipedia”!

Sure, some providers will disappear with all our stuff or will lose it to bad processes (e.g. T-Mobile Sidekick) or something but those types will either correct their failures or be weeded out over a short time; and, the ones that remain will become much more reliable. That is the way of the market and business ecosystems. (Oh, and remember that the T-mobile failure was a process failure, not a cloud failure but we have to live with the results).

2 – Regulation: The dreaded R word. We hate it but we must acknowledge that some Cloud services or Web 2 sites may grow to a point where they become subject to regulation or government support. Perhaps not the Wikipedia of today but I suggest we are not far off from an online crowdsourced information utility that gets either industry or government regulation. If it becomes important to the masses and important to government, it will get regulated.

Don’t mistake my position. Mike has pointed out some practical realities of the Web 2 and cloud movements. He will undoubtedly be right and we should be cautious (especially about the backups). But let’s not forget that this stuff is still in its infancy. It is not a mirror of what happens with technology. It is a mirror of what happens in the real world – which has dealt with service-orientation for thousands of years. The mechanisms are out there. All we are waiting for is the cloud to catch up on how to use them and to discover new ways to reduce the risk.

In the mean time, back it up yourself, find a broker to protect you, or don’t use the cloud – not many other choices. I think the rewards will be well worth the risks and the inevitable failures.

Unlike “Go” which is a high productivity and fast system programming language, “Stop” is actually a low productivity and slow campaign to get people to stop asking for so much freakin innovation. In fact, Google executives have decided that the only way to stop the rampage of innovation and complaints from competitors is to cultivate a culture of sloth.

Said an unnamed Google executive, “I mean, with all these young people running around inventing new stuff all the time, we hardly have any time to figure out what to do with all of it, let alone figure out how to make money from it. So far, we just throw stuff out there and people lap it up like thirsty puppies. We don’t even test the stuff! I mean, that was fun at first but now it’s just a tedious job at an accelerated pace. With “Google Stop”, we hope to slow things down a bit and get back to more traditional growth of software companies…”

In trying to put “Google Stop” in perspective, we decided to talk to the development team that created “Go”. Unfortunately, by the time we got there everyone was so active that all we could see were the blurs of people going about their business at near-light-speed from such great productivity. It was like trying to dodge a colony of bats, and we considered bringing in San Antonio Spurs basketball guard Manu Genobili to swat one out of the air but he declined saying “…as fast as those guys are moving, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all rabid!”

But we did get a sense of why Google executives are so keen on slowing things down. It turns out that such near-light-speed productivity is subject to Einstein’s equations like everything else and all of the developers innovating on “Go” and many other Google projects were actually aging slower than the rest of us. Then the vicious cycle of innovation gets worse and those accustomed to simpler times were just getting tired while the young “turks” doing all the innovation just keep stirring the pot.

So, in comes Google Stop. The initiative centers on five key principles:

 1 – The Principle of “Whiny Competition”: Developers will only be allowed to create something new after it is approved by a competitor. This way, innovation proceeds in a collaborative style, giving others time to catch up and making Google seem much more in step with old times. It also lets competitors begin to figure out how to address new business models that Google innovations invariably expose before those models begin to erode price margins in the competitor’s traditional models.

2 – The Principle of “Closed Source”: It works for Apple and it worked for Microsoft. We could learn something from those guys, don’t you think? Droid does.

3 – The Principle of “Actually Leaving Beta”: All Google products will need to go through a full beta cycle with an actual end date before hitting the street. This is compared to the practice of products never leaving beta even after customers have paid for them for years. Certainly will slow things down a bit.

4 – The Principle of “Hiring Legacy People”: No problem with age discrimination here since elderly in Google means 25 years old. But even hiring those in their seventies now, with the aforementioned near-light-speed deal going on, they will stay sharp and fresh for years to come – or at least until they slow those danged young-uns down.  Besides, they remember history and can help us repeat it! – over, and over again.

5 – The Principle of “CEO Product Naming”: This is the kicker. Like with some other large vendors, the CEO will begin to name products. Not only will this slow down those productive people by making them hold releases until the CEO makes up his mind, but it will also make marketing a nightmare and get customers all tangled up in non-sense naming schemes.

So, Google Stop is set to sweep across the company in a far reaching attempt to turn the clock back to a time when slow and steady actually won the race. We asked a few more executives to comment and one said,

“With this new initiative, we will innovate on how to stop innovation. In fact, the only way we can survive is to stop trying to survive. When we figure that out we will have a real competitive edge because we can finally start figuring out all this cool stuff we have. Google Stop will…”

He actually never got to finish that sentence as a group of blurs moving at near-light-speed scooped him up and disappeared down a hallway. About 10 minutes later, Google announced the release of a new Hadoop based analytics system that will change the world. Man, that was fast!

>>> For those of you who have not figured it out yet, this article is totally fiction -  Child, please! Just Stop.

But for the moment, here are the original G-Men cartoons where we make it plain – “You run the risk of derailing your BPM effort if you don’t consider the impact of BOTH sides of your BPM psyche.

Click the image for a larger view. Enjoy.

See the Note for the deep dive:

• Don’t Let Emotions Blow Up Your BPM Effort: A Guide to Making Objective Decisions
• View Summary |

Business process management project work is composed of two work streams: analytical and emotional. Your project can be derailed by unanticipated reactions to the changes. If you are launching a BPM project, follow the tips in this research and stay on track.

Save + | Published: 4 September 2009 | 5 pages