Looks like Microsoft is betting everything they have on the Cloud these days. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO gave a talk last week at the University of Washington, parts of which you can view below.
Stripped of Microsoft's self-promotion, this was an excellent talk that once again highlights the benefits of the Cloud model, particularly for the enterprise.
In today's business environment where time to market is everything and cost-efficiency is even more, Cloud computing allows any size business to build new offerings and capture new market share without the need for a large up-front investment in IT systems and infrastructure.
Ballmer also speaks about the influence of the Cloud on the mobile market. From Magic Software's perspective, the advent of the Cloud and in particular Rich Internet Applications (RIA), has been a major technological breakthrough that's now driving the uptake of the mobile enterprise market. Mobile handsets can now display a myriad of rich information compiled from a range of heavy back-end systems (this requires a combination of a RIA application development platform with a data integration platform).
This capability to host powerful and rich enterprise resources despite the limited size of mobile devices is rapidly making the desktop PC redundant and is enabling a small revolution in field services - particularly sales and industries such as manufacturing, fleet management, logistics and distribution.
Ballmer also spoke about Microsoft's new Azure platform, which I'm a little sceptical about. I'm sticking to my guns on this one in believing that while nice, the Azure platform will not be a game changer, not overnight anyhow. Businesses will continue to host their applications on their own servers for many years to come. No CEO or CFO is going to sign away a company's exisiting IT infrastructure to Microsoft's Cloud if their on-premise systems continue to perform well and support existing business.
However, there can be no denying the force of the Cloud for providing a cost-efficient means of developing your market presence. Companies are going to need a means of keeping their on-premise systems current will also providing a Public or Private Cloud application version.
For that they will be needing a platform such as uniPaaS, which to date, is the only application development platform that can offer both Cloud and on-premise deployment modes using the same single codebase.
Integrating business applications was always an on-premise issue. And then the Cloud came along and made the situation more complicated:
Businesses now need to consider how to adequately integrate and synchronize applications, some of which are on the company's own servers or premises (ERP systems for example), and some of which are accessed via the internet/browser(CRM systems or email systems are highly popular among enterprises).
With around 70% of firms already using SaaS/Cloud apps or considering moving to the Cloud, research by Mimecast (http://www.mimecast.com/) finds that security and integration are two of the main fears of those companies contemplating moving to the Cloud.
Despite the conceptual difficulties involved in thinking about an on-premise to on-demand integration, the reality is that it's no more complex or difficult to achieve than a common on-premise to on-premise integration scenario. Especially if you're using a tool such as iBOLT that comes with pre-written code (saving companies from having to manually write code such as C#) and specially created adaptors for common on-demand systems such as Salesforce.com as well as on-premise adaptors for systems such as SAP, IBM i, JDE, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, HL7 and more..
So at the end of the day, firms considering the acquisition of Cloud and SaaS applications can already strike integration fears off their list of concerns.
Here's a common on-premise to on-demand integration scenario explained visually - enjoy.
Since we've recently written a number of new white papers, I thought I'd take the opportunity to consolidate them all in a single post for all our readers.
They are all completely free to download. Happy reading!
A nice business profile here with a useful insight into SaaS trends for 2010 with Regev Yativ, our President and CEO for the Americas.
Regev provides a consise overview of Magic Software's SaaS offering and the Company's unique technology advantage for enterprises and software vendors looking to move into the SaaS space.
Browsing through the site, I also came across a very easy to understand video explaining the differences between SaaS and Cloud Computing.
I've added it here.
I recently discovered a new technology blog by QA professional Jonathan Ross (no relation to the UK broadcaster with questionable taste in jokes).
Even though the blog has only been on air for a month, it already contains a nice range and depth of articles from the in's and out's of social networking security to application design and functionality to current affairs.
I wonder if I can convince him to download a free trial of the uniPaaS Discovery Edition and then let me know what he thinks?
Microsoft Dyamics is a powerful and multi-lingual software package for both on-premise and on-demand CRM requirements.
The system is also part of a wider Microsoft Dynamics family that includes ERP applications (Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV) and an accounting application (Microsoft Dynamics GP).
Of course, the company's CRM application is designed to be used in conjunction with these other packages - providing a broad sales, marketing and managment information solution for the enterprise.
But what if you already own an ERP system - say SAP for example, and what about an email system that isn't based on Microsoft, such as Lotus Notes or Google's Gmail?
How do you ensure that your Microsoft CRM system is integrated with these and other non-Microsoft products without undertaking a complex and expensive integration effort?
Well, Magic Software has of course now created another dedicated iBOLT connector - enabling fast and code-free integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with other IT applications including ERP, calendars, email and databases.
iBOLT for Microsoft Dynamics is now available and is worth looking into. The product is easy to learn and use and, particularly important - it enables users to quickly and easily add new applications or business processes as the company's demands and organizational set-up inevitably change.
Have a look at the iBOLT demo on YouTube, or read more about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration challenge in the white paper just out.
The Field Service Management (FSM) market is in rapid growth phase and is set to reach over $500 million in the next two years.
That means that software suppliers of FSM solutions have their work cut out for them as requirements for customization, integration and mobile applications make older systems rapidly obsolete.
Add to this the fact that specific industries and individual companies are requiring more custom capabilities to increase efficiency in the current downturn and fill any remaining gaps in their customer service provision.
For the full business argument and how metadata application platforms and business integration solutions can lower costs and improve service innovation - hear our latest webinar or have a look at the following webpage and white paper.
Manufacturingtalk has now published our article which examines how to upgrade IT application functionality for the manufacturing industry.
In particular, the article examines subsribing to a SaaS vs. custom-building the software application in-house using rich internet application platforms such as uniPaaS.
For a more in-depth look at the application technology needs of the manufacturing sector and how they can be solved have a look at the following web page and white paper.
As healthcare organizations such as hospitals and clinics are under more pressure to effectively manage and use their IT applications, much of this pressure is offset to those IT vendors tasked with supplying healthcare organizations with their IT applications.
With the introduction of National Electronic Patient Records (such as the AORTA system in the Netherlands) it turns out that IT suppliers often have little more than a few months to get their IT applications fully converted to the HL7 standard. So what are the options for IT vendors looking to adapt their applications quickly and cost-efficiently to the HL7 protocol? First let's look at the conventional hard-coding approach to integration:
Challenge 1: Become an HL7 Expert
First off, to manually adapt your healthcare application to the HL7 protocol you need to swat up and become fully versatile in all the bits and bytes of the HL7 protocol. This includes becoming familiar with all the various formats; from where you insert your healthcare patient's ID, to every field you need to pass or retrieve.
Challenge 2: Build a New Application Layer
Once these formats are fully understood, IT vendors then have to create a whole new layer to their existing healthcare applications. This layer must read and then extract the application data in the HL7 format, or vice versa. It would then have to embed that information into the existing application. Just incorporating the HL7 lingo into an existing application is by itself an IT project of significant magnitude.
Challenge 3: Future Maintenance
Every time the IT vendor updates, changes or modernizes their healthcare application, they also have to update and maintain the new HL7 layer. In an average appliation's life cycle, maintenance can use around 70% of the IT team's total work hours - this becomes a significant undertaking which of course entails greater costs to the vendor.
Challenge 4: Multiple HL7 Versions!
Also to consider are the various versions of the HL7 protocol - so ideally you would want to be as loosely coupled with the HL7 specifications - to allow for simple integration and organizational changes (whether its from the HL7 side or from the application end).
Integration Platforms such as the iBOLT integration suite can offer a number of advantages compared to hard coding:
Metadata engine - The iBOLT suite contains pre-compiled business logic that enables IT vendors and developers to bypass challenges 1 and 2. There's no need to learn the full HL7 format before you start, and no need to manually build and then maintain a seperate HL7 layer on top of the original application.
Graphical Studio and Wizards that enable IT teams to intuitively view and design their integration linkages. This makes the entire project easier to build and therefore easier to adapt to future demands (answering challenge 3). It also helps ensure that the entire project is loosely coupled - so the IT vendor can easily and cost-efficiently adapt to new HL7 standards (answering challenge 4) as and when they roll out.
As promised some time ago, I have now written a new HL7 White Paper on how to improve the HL7 integration process for healthcare providers.
The paper outlines the purpose of the HL7 protocol, details the various healthcare settings in which HL7 is required, and describes how metadata integration platforms such as iBOLT can provide a faster and smoother process than manual coding.
As always, feedback and questions are welcome!