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I asked a question to myself: "Why has Google been incredibly successful in defending and growing its core as well as introducing non-core disruptive innovations?". To answer my own question I ran down Google's innovation strategy through Clayton Christensen's concepts and framework as described in his book " Seeing What's Next ". Here is the analysis: Google's latest disruptive innovation is the introduction of free GPS on the Android phone. This has grave implications for Garmin. To put this innovation in the context it is a "sword and shield" style entrant strategy to beat an incumbent by serving the "overshot customers". The overshot customers are the ones who would stop paying for further improvements in performance that historically had merited attractive price premium. Google used its asymmetric skills and motivation - Android OS, mapping data, and no direct revenue expectations - as a shield to enter into the "GPS M

As it goes " on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog ". Actually people do. Recently AT&T asked their employees to fake the net neutrality . Employees were asked to use their personal email addresses to petition against net neutrality. The internal memo ended up on the blogs and Twitter in minutes. Forcing your brand down your employees' throats is not particularly a smart idea. Is your brand ready for the cloud? This is not a question that many companies ask until their brand gets caught in a cloud storm. The storm is about the customers, partners, and suppliers discussing your products and brand in the public using social media, report problems using the SaaS tools, and engage into the conversations in ways that you never anticipated. Recently Seth Godin announced an initiative to help companies launch brand in public . It stirred quite a controversy and created confusion. He had to pull back. The organizations are simply not ready. The organizations are uncl

During this week's Federal Executive Forum , key decision makers from DoD, DHS and FBI highlighted identity management interoperability as their key priority for 2010. Panelist included: Robert Mocny, Acting Director, US-VISIT Program Department of Homeland Security; Stephen Morris, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, FBI; and Thomas Dee, Director, Defense Biometrics, Office of the Secretary of Defense In fulfilling his responsibility for provide policy and programmatic oversight on DoD biometric programs, Mr. Dee indicated that his priority was to institutionalize proven identity management capabilities honed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Morris' top priority is to establish interoperability among DoD, FBI and DHS biometric databases even though information is already shared daily during millions of transactions. Citing the 10-finger print match capability with the FBI as a major improvement, Mr. Mocny echoed the other panelist adding that the next priority is to g

Congratulations to Pierre-Jose Billotte for the successful launch of EuroCloud !! Established as a pan European network, EuroCloud are communities that represent a knowledgeable network of companies engaged local and European activities related to SaaS and cloud computing. The network is organized in two tiers with a national level (France, Spain, England, Belgium, etc.) and a European level. The national level focuses on local topics while the European level addresses European topics,under the EuroCloud brand (or another if appropriate in a national setting). Only companies who have an interest in Cloud Computing and participate in the Cloud ecosystem can be members of the network. EuroCloud goals include: Building relationships with the European authorities (Commission and Parliament) to help recognise the Cloud Computing industry as the future of IT in Europe and to promote a stimulating environment for development and growth of the industry; Promote business relationships between

In the The Economics of Cloud Computing , Gwen Morton and Ted Alford have published an EXCELLENT economic evaluation of the federal government's push to cloud computing. Anyone interested in this market should definitely read it, analyse it, and believe it !! The conclusion acknowledges the value of cloud computing, but also offers these practical considerations: It will take, on average, 18-24 months for most agencies to redirect funding to support this transition, given the budget process. Some up-front investment will be required, even for agencies seeking to take advantage of public cloud options. Implementations may take several years, depending on the size of the agency and the complexity of the cloud model it selects (i.e., public, private, or hybrid). It could take as long as 4 years for the accumulated savings from agency investments in cloud computing to offset the initial investment costs; this timeframe could be longer if implementations are improperly planned or i

Jill Tummler Singer, Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is now a Ulitzer author . Appointed in November 2006, Ms Singer is responsible for ensuring CIA has the information, technology, and infrastructure necessary to effectively execute its missions. Prior to her appointment as Deputy CIO, she served as the Director of the Diplomatic Telecommunications Service (DTS), United States Department of State, and was responsible for global network services to US foreign missions. Speaking at the recent GovIT Expo in Washington DC, Ms Singer highlighted cloud computing as an important CIO tool for quick and rapid provisioning of infrastructure to support business needs. " Cloud computing makes all of this possible through inexpensive, commodity-based components that you can daisy chain together with a few clicks on the keyboard. You need temporary storage or fast dedication of storage to a new effort; the storage cloud can do that. If you need comp

Yesterday during the first annual Government IT Conference and Expo, tactical cloud computing was cited as a critical component within this new paradigm. Joining me to address the issue were: Kartik Mecheri, the Chief Technologist for a large government contract for Unisys Federal Division. He is a leader in designing transformational modernization strategies building on enterprise SOA, BPMS, and asset re-use; Melvin Greer, Senior Research Engineer, SOA / Cloud Computing Chief Architect, and Director SOA Competency Center, Lockheed Martin, Advanced Technologies Office; and David Ayoub, the CTO for the GEOINT Research Development & Technology Division of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in McLean, Virginia. Links to presentations from the event are below: Dataline SOA-R SAIC Next-Gen Transformational IT Unisys Service Oriented Self Adaptive Systems Lockheed Martin Deployment Cloud Design Patterns ( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article , get free updates by e

In a strong statement of focus, Carpathia Hosting has announced the formation of Carpathia Government Solutions , a unit dedicated to providing solutions specifically for federal civilian and defense agencies. This move was a direct result of the company's recent acquisition of ServerVault and looks to be a strong bid to provide secure managed cloud solutions to the federal marketplace. The new business unit boasts ATOs (Authority to Operate) for over 20 federal agencies, support for private agency networks and an active facility clearance. During my interview with General Manager Seth Finkel their intent to redefine the federal hosting market was clear. According to Seth, their solution portfolio will range from traditional co-location and managed hosting to federally-compliant cloud services delivered via the most secure, federally-compliant hosting facility in the world. "I’m thrilled to be leading an impressive team dedicated to the delivery of a comprehensive suite of s