Will the Cloud computing displace traditional IT outsourcing?

Browsing through the web last week I found an article with quite a strong title “The end of outsourcing?!”, written by my friend and fellow IT outsourcing expert. In the article he argued about the prediction made by the head of the outsourcing practice at consultancy A.T. Kearney. In its report “The End of IT Outsourcing As We Know It” Mr. Arjun Sethi states: "In the next five years, outsourcing as we know it will have disappeared." Well, I would say rather bold prediction, especially taking into account recent predictions about the “upcoming golden age of outsourcing”, nevertheless let’s try to find out the probability of such prediction.

There have been much said about the future of IT outsourcing lately. From the Cloud dominance to global shift in delivery and governance models to reverse sourcing and protectionism. Myself, I conducted several works and started a number of discussions here in LinkedIn with the relation to the Cloud computing and its potential affect on IT outsourcing industry. While I saw many experts predicted growing trend for pay-per-drink model there wasn’t concordance and obvious verdict for the shift inside the industry anytime soon. Of course there are some obvious benefits of this model, such as costs, agility and focus which can provide a whole new set of opportunities for both business and individuals. But for the corporate sector, bread and butter of IT outsourcing, all they don’t outweigh security, reliability and ownership of proprietary systems yet. Moreover, investments made by corporations into the existing infrastructure slow down adoption in the sector.

In his forecast, however Mr. Arjun Sethi associates massive reconfiguration of IT ousourcing industry, that according to him should take place in the nearest future precisely with the rise of the Cloud computing. The new era will be driven by Google, Amazon and bunch of new players, while powerhouses such as HP, Accenture and Xerox are in peril to lose their leading positions, and boutique Indian outsourcers poised to disappear at all. Well, it is quite truth that we are moving away from large multi-year full stack contracts towards more specialized, smaller service agreements, but with the current massive consolidation many of those specialized providers will be under umbrella of those big ones.

I also agree that the Cloud brings huge opportunities for highly-configurable systems that might fit needs of many sectors and industries, but standardization which, according to Sethi will feature the revolution in industry is unlikely. Although, today all major software houses and providers include cloud computing offerings in their portfolio, most of them just contemplate their core offerings with the Cloud options, even Microsoft - the company that announced a company-wide refocusing on cloud computing still fully relies on its software installed in physical assets. It will take more than a year or two or even three to change their model.

Although cloud computing experienced a phenomenal growth during last years, it's still in its infancy in corporate sector - cash cow of IT outsourcing industry. No doubts it will grow, grow fast, especially in SME sector, but it will take a good amount of time to make this transition to fully based pay-per... model. And still much should be done before we can signify the new era - meanwhile, forgive for my prejudice I don’t see end of traditional outsourcing.

Will be glad to know other opinions. Please join the conversation in Linkedin, click here.

During contest of recortadores raging bull leaps into stands injuring 30 spectators

A 10-year-old boy was in a serious condition with stomach wounds while another spectator was gored in the back according to Spanish media.

Most of the injuries were minor and were treated by medical staff on site but five were transported to hospital for further attention.

The incident comes at a time when the country is split over whether bullfighting should be completely outlawed.

Last month Catalonia became the first major Spanish region to ban the deadly sport after heated debate that pitted animal rights against a pillar of traditional culture.

The ban will take effect from 2010 in the northeastern coastal region whose capital is Barcelona.

Support me in developing digital industry in CEE

It was my honor to be invited as a member of Webit CEE Most Influential People online project commissioned by Webit Honorary Ambassadors Board. The Webit Ambassadors Programme is committed to facilitate the development of digital industry in Central and Eastern Europe.

Through the influence of each proactive person the project aims to raise the standards in digital industry of CEE and to endorse the most influential to work together on raising the awareness and developing the digital industry in Central and Eastern Europe.

The project is about Influence and motivation. It is about our impact over your network. I joined the project to give my support, so please help me fulfill my mission share my link http://bit.ly/bj1N1m

Enjoy and find out how influential you are online :)

What other business social networks (XING, Ecademy) you're active on?

I know it might be not the best place to ask such questions, don't get me wrong, LinkedIn is a paramount social media business tool for me.

However being a social media strategist it might be stupid to exclude other services and not to revisit your strategy from time to time. Several years ago I have been active on another business network called Xing, former OpenBC network and some others which were known as a good place for social networking in their respective regions.

Since then however, Linkedin gained so much of everything and became one-stop-shop tool for business social networking so I almost lost pulse of those networks, just rarely spending some maintenance time and checking inbox. I think it was not the best thing to ignore them, but LinkedIn grew with such a pace :)

Recently I spend some time on my Xing profile and found some good things about it, including it still close geographical orientation on Europe, that's actually was always known about Xing. Also, I found it more alive and dynamically these days, with discussions, questions and active groups.

Taking into account the expansion of my geographical preferences towards Europe, Xing might be a good supplementary force to social media strategy. But before jump into I would appreciate opinion of other professionals.

What other than LI networks do you appreciate enough to invest your precious time?


Please leave your opinions in comments to these post, or join respective discussion on Linkedin here

Technology reached Zombies - City Quest Games - Zombiland Series

This weekend I took a part in City Quest - Zombiland Series. Amazing Experience!!! Don't even think how cool it could be!!! Adventure in its pure form with marvelous entourage. Look at these charming guys on the left !!! They were not only so kind not to take a part of your body from the first glance, but even showed their gentleness and respect to ask your name before jump on you. However, this post I'll be talking not about zombies themselves, but about technology and its bearing on all of us, including zombies :)

Just look at the first picture in the column, seems like that gentlemen was chatting with some pretty Zombi lady. I mean seriously there wasn't a moment without excessive use of technology during the quest game. Passers with heavy imagination or under the bearing of alcohol or drugs might have been confused to see a zombi with laptop, iPhone or other modern gadget, something wrong with zombies these days :) kidding, but it might be a good idea for boutique companies such as Apple, "Look even Zombies are easy to go with our amazing interface and touch-screen" - :)

Although having played for the first time, I didn't feel pinched, maybe this day it's not as essential to have a real practical experience or knowing much about city or place you're playing in as it used to be, maybe it's more about your equipment and geeky skills, as many tasks we've mostly done online, through Google search, Maps, Wikipedia and other resources. And I felt really offended when the battery on my HTC Desire went down in the last series of challenges. I wasn't prepared properly :(

No, of course I admit that technology wasn't the key to the victory, as being equipped quite well we took just 24 place from 35. There were many other parts of challenge requiring your intelligence, skills, know-how, agility and other crafts, but what I found is that technology played a key role in team agility. Technology also incredibly changed the pace and quality of game itself as all instructions, interactions were done online. So, technology seems to be great, well except the fact that it also make us in some way zombies :) Thank you for reading! Cheers!

Google Social Circle - How to use it?

Apparently you already noticed the new section in the bottom of Google search results, called "My Social Circle", which provides social activity of your connections relevant to your query. You can also look at how much Google knows about you and your online connections through the next to social results "My Social Circle"

You'll marvel when first look at the list of your social circle, mine was just tremendous! The page also provides information of your circle online destinations and Google - NonGoogle services your connections use.

The list contains people you talk or chat with using Gmail or Google Talk, plus your social networking connections from a Twitter and other services. For each person in your circle, it then shows the services they use, and also their blogs and other streams. Quite a lot of information from the first glance, so how to use it for your benefit. Here is some good ways:

1. Check what you're sharing and who you share with - Social Circle allows you to see all connections you're making public on your Google profile, so you can check if there are connections you don't want to be associated with, you can easily filter them.

2. Find new connections through 2nd degree - There is a "Secondary connections" section on top. Like in LinkedIn you can find new interesting people to follow through your first connections.

3. Find new information, blogs, and services - there are many interesting people within your network, so it might be a good idea to look at what services they use, and what they write about. If you follow a Social Media guru on Twitter you can also check his blog and buzz thread.

Hope we can find more use of Social Circle, and Google it wouldn't abandon it as it did with Wave!