Enterprise hits and misses - cybersecurity leaks, privacy falters, and Google Cloud raises their enterprise bet
- Summary:
- This week, in a travel version of hits/misses - cybersecurity stats that startle, and privacy gaffes that irritate. Plus: Google Cloud ups their enterprise game - and analysts weigh in. Your whiffs include the triumph of fussy babies in flight.
- Cyber-security and internal data leakage – make it 'our' fault, not 'their' fault - Martin probes a new cyber-security study, which contains some startling stats: "23% of employees who intentionally shared company data took it with them to a new job, and more, 29%, believe they have ownership of the data they have worked on. This raises some interesting areas for business owners." I'll say!
- McKesson on cloud, identity and the digital transformation of healthcare - Michelle Swan delves into cloud adoption attitudes in the health care industry, the role of identity and more. The focus? An Okta use case with McKesson: "Zitney estimates 80% of McKesson’s systems are still on-premise, stitched together with a federated architecture. His goal to modernize McKesson’s entire technology stack over the next 5 years with a much smaller on-premise footprint and public cloud technologies at the front end."
- Bed, Bath & Beyond's omni-channel transformation needs more proof points as "detached from reality" management comes under fire - It's another bad night's sleep over at Bed Bath & Beyond, as omni-channeling runs into
the molasses of executive stasis obstacles. Stuart's got the story: "The last thing management needs to be worrying about at the moment is fending off a boardroom coup, but that’s looking like exactly what they’ve got." - Brian Sommer's Month in Brief - March 2019 - Brian unfastens his seat belt and unravels his enterprise month, doing his darndest to protect us from vendor buzzword overdose. After alerting us to the dangers of "cloudsplaining," Brian coins some phrases of his own, including "omni-corn." Not to be confused with the "omni-cornballing" we've heard on the keynote stage this spring, as vendors scramble to
sell more widgetsprove their customer experience bonafides.
Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here's our Google Cloud Next content roundup:
- Don’t be fooled into thinking Google Cloud wants to compete on infrastructure alone - Derek kicks things off with Google's freshly-
spunpolished enterprise intent: "Recently appointed Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian is setting his sights on becoming a ‘strategic enterprise partner’ for digital organisations." - A conversation with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian - Solving the enterprise multi-cloud problem - Derek then heard from Kurian directly. Beyond the expected "make Google easier to deal with" bromides, notable talking points include Google Cloud as a digital transformation platform, and plans for industry-specific functionality.
- How Google Cloud aims to stay relevant as AWS momentum plows on - Kurt puts Google's ambitions in an AWS context. It's not the first time we've heard this from Google. Kurt says that with new leadership and mojo, "the message seems to have more teeth behind it this year."
- Unilever is using Google Cloud to help it create 1 billion one-to-one relationships with its consumers - Derek wraps it with a customer use case.
Meanwhile, I was at a milestone Zoho user event:
- Zoholics 2019 review - Zoho One customer Purolite shares lessons on cloud adoption and adapting to change - 45 million users and counting, but Zoho is aiming higher.
- Zoholics 2019 show review - assessing Zoho's big market play and learning from Zoho Analytics customers - More show review, and a look at how analytics pursuits earn more buy-in.
A few more vendor picks, without the quips:
- In 15 countries and 103 to go, NetSuite encapsulates the challenge of EMEA - Phil
- Nutanix and HPE partner to open up the hybrid cloud PaaS market - what to expect - Martin
- The CIO at Del Monte Foods, he says yes to IT cost savings from cloud migration - an Accenture/AWS story by Jessica
Jon's grab bag - The collision of politics and global trade are some of the darkest clouds in our macro-economic sky. Stuart updates in: The US escalates its war of words with India and China over digital trade barriers. Politics takes on a different dimension in Cath's Tech investors and the 'Weinstein Clause' - avoiding tomorrow's #MeToo moments. Cath isn't sure protective investment clauses will make a difference - but she explains why more inclusive cultures could.
Which leads us to Mark Samuel's Why social inclusion requires a collective approach to spread the benefits of digital transformation. One highlight? Learning how the IAMTHECODE foundation has taught 13,500 young girls how to code. Finally, Stuart dissects the latest round of well-meaning but problematic legislation in Taming the internet - 'something must be done', but is the UK's plan really the something we need?
Best of the rest
More on Google Cloud Next - analyzing Google's enterprise ambitionsAdam Mansfield of UpperEdge also found Google's enterprise pitch at Cloud Next persuasive (Google Cloud Next 2019: Google is Enterprise-Ready). He writes:
The overarching goal of this year’s Google Cloud Next was clearly to send the message that moving forward, Google should be considered as a strategic digital transformation partner that focuses more on the enterprise’s desired outcomes, and less on simply being an infrastructure (IaaS) provider that the enterprise uses.
Mansfield notes there are prioritized industries, e.g. retail, media and entertainment. Another factor: the much-ridiculed and then ignored newly-departed Google+ has been repurposed for enterprises as Currents, to compete with Microsoft Teams, etc.
In What’s Next for Google?, RedMonk's Stephen O'Grady assesses the bigger Google picture. As for the Kurian-led enterprise push, O'Grady says:
From high level approach to minute levels of detail, progress is being made. The primary question is less intent, then, than the ability to execute.
O'Grady poses talent as a potential obstacle to Google Cloud's growth. I'll add Google's own techno-wiz "We cancel products whenever we feel like" culture to the mix. Kurian looks like he's changing the tone, but the further Google moves from IaaS services into digital transformation, the more skeptical I get.
Honorable mention
- Repositioning as an agile manager - McKinsey's got some advice for managers looking for that elusive title of "agile manager." Compensation, hierarchy, and training are all covered.
- Who Will Win? - Lora Cecere has an industrial love letter of sorts - for venture capitalists asking which upstarts will triumph in the supply chain space.
- The Story We Don't Tell - But Should - Gartner's Hank Barnes cautions vendors against the
gummy bears and cotton candy routinehappy talk that obscures more relatable stories. Start with this: "Why do we pretend problems don't happen?" Words to win by: "Build confidence in the buying team that issues can be overcome. Be the vendor that is not only ambitious, but also authentic." - The Secrets to Designing a Curiosity-Driven Career - If you can elude the ever-obnoxious exit pop-up, FirstRound has a solid piece on framing careers from curiosity.
- Global AI Talent Report 2019 - This international opus from jgagne deserves a deeper analysis, but for now, let's go with: "There is strong evidence that the supply of top-tier AI talent does not meet the demand. Yet there is little visibility on precisely how scarce this talent is or where it is concentrated around the world."
Whiffs
The "money can't fix stupid" award goes to the chap who got busted for stealing $300 in goods from Kmart (a felony grand theft) just a week after buying an $8 million island in the Florida Keys.Lots of laugh-or-you-might-cry privacy whiffs per usual. On the light side, Facebook Accidentally Hid Phrases Like 'Big Brother Is Watching' in Oculus Touch VR Controllers (I liked "This Space for Rent").
Not so light: American Businesses Stayed Quiet On Chinese Hackers, Amid Concerns For Profits (yuck) and Homeland Security warns of security flaws in enterprise VPN apps (yikes).
Whoops:
A toddler locked his father's iPad for 48 years, here's what to do if that happens to you https://t.co/GbVppPPGOh
-> I recommend a tech detox from time to time but maybe not for 48 years :)— Jon Reed (@jonerp) April 11, 2019
Oh, and the poll results are in:
Who would you rather sit next to on your next flight?
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) April 12, 2019
The poll fostered good-natured debate - and many spirited defenses of the fussy baby, who was rightly vindicated by the results.
yes I think that is why the fussy baby option is faring so well in this poll. Also, babies' honest/loud displeasure tends to speak for all of us on the flight
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) April 12, 2019
Glad to see someone stepped up on behalf of the athlete, the runaway early leader and ultimate loser/winner. All the choices were based on recent passenger encounters, but as Vinnie Mirchandani said to me, most passengers are pretty cool and coping with the same BS pretty well.
Gabriel Gheorghiu flipped the script with a clever nudge about sitting next to analyst/bloggers, which I resemble. Good one - and via Scavo, a good reminder that travel goes better if we err on the side of being helpful over aloof. See you on the tarmac...
If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does.
Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.