Telkomtelstra - We are One!

It’s official. This little joint venture that went live in 2015 is now one year old! The day that we opened our doors to prospective customers, shared with them the immersive experience that they would have using our managed services through our Customer Experience Centre - and activated our first customer, is a day that will stay with me for a long time.

To have reached our launch day, it had already been an amazing journey from sitting in the basement of a hotel with a group of Telkom and Telstra folks asking ourselves what exactly this joint venture should look like. From those humble beginnings to get to where we are now is simply amazing.  It’s exciting to consider that since that first activation a year ago we have now contracted over 50 customers, recruited over one hundred employees and developed a suite of services across Managed Networks, Cloud Infrastructure and SaaS. All of this being built on a solely cloud enabled architecture across the operations and business systems, providing us with the ability to scale. However, equally important, was to ensure systems could be integrated and thus avoiding unnecessary rework or risk of inaccurate data.

I remain excited for the customer experience that we have been able to provide and the ongoing self-awareness that we can never stop improving our customer experience. We must always ensure that we hear the voice of our customers clearly.  The introduction of the telkomtelstra Infinity Portal has provided our customers with the first end-to-end view of the real time performance of their ICT services, in the form of an easy access web platform. I look forward to the day where we can leverage the value of Artificial Intelligence to inform customers, in a business language, of proposed actions, that seeks to continually improve their services. This means responding at a pace that will ensure ICT remains a business enabler for companies in an every changing economic landscape.

I am very proud to have been part of this team to establish a culture of collaboration, accelerated innovation and customer centricity. I am excited to see what the future holds for this joint venture – one which has overcome start-up challenges, sought to address customer challenges and provide both of its parents with a view into the possible, when it comes to Managed Services in Indonesia. I look forward to seeing telkomtelstra continue to set the standard on what managed services should be in a growth market like Indonesia. The validation of that is seen in the voice of our customers who remain our best advocates!

As a 1 year old, we have now learned to walk, we have had a few stumbles but we are on our feet. Now we are starting to show what we can do in a dynamic market like Indonesia and hopefully prove our value to both parents. My personal hope is that as managed services in markets like Indonesia over the years to come become more common, the market will continue to look to the likes of telkomtelstra as to what the next evolution of managed services could look like in these rapidly growing markets. So with that, I wish telkomtelstra a Happy Birthday and look forward to seeing it celebrate many more to come.

Driving Change in 2014

The internet as we once knew it is no more

The worldwide web used to be a “go to” location for all our information needs, where we would consume online content and play games has now become a recognised utility no different to electricity, transport infrastructure or water. Over time however, the internet has also evolved to become a critical delivery platform enabling a raft of new services. Where we once read news or simply sent emails, we now use this “utility” to bank, shop, access business applications hosted in the cloud, watch the latest TV shows and listen to music, as well as interact with our friends, family and peers (ok and for me play the occasional online game!)

APAC is experiencing rapid growth of connected devices. This proliferation of devices – such as smartphones, tablets and laptops – allows us to connect to our networks remotely, highlighting the fundamental alterations in how we use and interact with technology. So much so, many of us haven’t even noticed it has taken place. For instance, consider the younger generation (yes it seems I am no longer part of that group!) who no longer refer to “going online”, they are simply accessing applications and services with little or no regard to how they get there or where they exist.

Given our changing relationship with the online world and its growing importance to our general day-to-day lives, businesses are increasingly looking at how they can maximise its value and the consumer insight it delivers. This is driving significant technological change within IT platforms.

As organisations across APAC embrace the IT transformations that are underway – particularly in cloud, big data and mobile – and embark further along their journeys, there is a significant opportunity for businesses to better serve their customers through technological change while growing the bottom line.

A New Era of Cloud in 2014

We’re entering a really exciting era for cloud technology. Over the past year alone, cloud providers have increasingly discovered their individual and unique cloud plays – whether it’s supplying to specific industries or public, private or hybrid platforms – and have expanded their services accordingly.

One-size no longer fits all, and in 2014 businesses can expect to realise the benefits tailored cloud platforms deliver as providers begin to offer solutions designed to individual customer needs. As providers recognise their strengths, they will also identify partnership opportunities with vendors offering complimentary technology to their existing portfolios.

The progress we’re seeing in the cloud will also filter into the business network itself in 2014, where we’ll increasingly see networks being defined by dynamic needs of business functions and the introduction of business process service level agreements (SLAs). For instance, cloud platforms will be linked with traditional on premise applications, such as a CRM or SCM environment. This will enable the network to reshape itself and categorise its applications based on current activity levels so that network traffic and the needs of remote workers can be easily managed and prioritised.

Innovate in the Cloud

This year we’re also going to see a growing number of applications developed by businesses, a trend enabled by the fail-fast culture of cloud. Today, businesses are more willing to develop their own business applications as they are educated on the flexibility offered by the cloud.  They simply need to buy the relevant computing space to test an idea, and then shut if off again when the idea has run its course. This means less risk and the cost of exposure for the business is greatly reduced when compared to the previous options and methods available.

With the cycle of applications being delivered and created gathering momentum in 2014, the Enterprise App store will arrive on the scene as CIOs provide employees with a selection of applications endorsed and supported by the organisation. Until now this has had limited success, but with widespread adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and publicly hosted secure applications it will be an increasing focus for businesses seeking to enhance productivity.

Collaborate and Share

Businesses that deploy application programming interfaces (APIs), allowing developers to design products based on an organisation’s services, will also achieve success this year. For instance, businesses can build their web conferencing capabilities into another web-based application, such as instant messaging, enabling seamless collaboration and communication between individuals.  

The reality is that organisations rarely use applications in siloes, meaning those vendors offering API solutions this year that increase collaboration with complementary products and markets stand to benefit from increased sales with their customers.

Intelligent Insights Deliver Results

In recent times, big data has been more akin to trying to drink from a fire hydrant - we can access a lot of it but have little time to digest it. In 2014 however, businesses will start applying different lenses to data sets so that they can identify what is relevant to them or impacting upon their business. By focusing on the data that is relevant to them, businesses will be well placed to optimise their services and customer experience, similar to that same fire hydrant being attached to a water dispenser allowing us to choose what type of water, colour, and temperature we are interested in extracting at any point in time.

Looking further ahead into 2015, businesses will start to use the data they are collecting to predict future activity or the impact of unforeseen circumstances.  This will be driven by the ability of Smart Data platforms assessing patterns and delivering forecast and trending data enabling improved business planning. For example, if a customer pays for their movie tickets via near field communication (NFC), the mobile operator could identify the most frequent days the user visits the cinema, and send them discount codes for these dates. Over the coming years, this approach to data analytics will become an extension of who businesses are and their operations.

Drive Change

Today, businesses across APAC have access to an unprecedented amount of tools and services from a variety of IT vendors, which is driving greater confidence in identifying innovative ways to address business challenges. Additionally, businesses are being forced to understand and adapt to the way consumers use and interact with technology from the devices we use to the ways in which we choose to engage with vendors and service providers.

Encouragingly, businesses are being very proactive and the next 12 months will be telling as more and more companies come to grips with the technologies making a real difference to their operations. Ultimately, the approaches being adopted will introduce increased business elasticity which will aid in addressing the two biggest ongoing challenges of business today: risk mitigation and bottom line profitability.

Well that's my view on the world, what's your's? Feel free to share by commenting on this blog!

The reality of privacy

Recently I had the exciting opportunity to meet Retired General Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was discussing some of the trends he is seeing, as well as, the global developments that are taking place with regards to security. There were a lot of questions from the audience regarding privacy and espionage; whether state/governments or corporations were responsible; in addition to a discussion around understanding the evolution towards cyber security. Ultimately, an interesting discussion, however I left the event asking myself one simple question – “Who is now responsible for our privacy?”

 In the good ole’ days, before the time of the Internet and social media and “cloud services”, we were confident that our governments could and were protecting our privacy, whether that was our home address, phone number, or banking details. All of this information was under strict government policies to ensure a countries citizens were protected.  Of course, in many of these instances, we had to opt in, i.e. to remove our phone number from the directory or to ensure our address didn’t appear in the phone book.  But, it was definitely a simpler time and one in which we felt secure in the geographic boundaries that our country protected.

 Fast forward back to today and oh how the world has changed. Our home phone and home address have become the least of our concerns as our online identities are increasingly coming under threat. The knowledge that is available on each of us today is like nothing we have ever seen - your credit card details, your email address, your social media contacts and even what you store in the cloud.  All of this information is now worth much more than our home phone number ever was.

 It is interesting then that the responsibility of our Privacy is moving away from our respective governments and into the hands of local and global corporations.  When we contemplate what that means for each of us we may feel a shiver of fear or doubt, I know I did. Consider for a moment your purchases online or simple sharing of your hobby’s or interests with your friends in social media gatherings… Where does that data go?  Who sees it? Do you use a tablet or smart phone - guess where you’re phone numbers and any personal data is backed up? Certainly your local government has no involvement in the storage and safe keeping of this data.   So, at what point did we start relying on corporations – or in many cases “Over The Top” providers – to ensure our privacy and protect our identities? What do you think happens to that data?  Where does it go?  Who can see it?  What can they do with it?  What will they do with it?  I could go on, but I think you get the point.

 I am not sure about you, but I don’t recall being provided a location as to where all of this information was going, or being assured it was even remaining in my country of origin…  We need to remind ourselves that these are businesses, not governments.  There has been no signing of a memorandum between our governments and these businesses to officially hand over responsibility and accountability for the maintaining of our privacy.  Therefore, there is no assurance that any of our data is not being used to create profiles or not being shared with others – ever heard of people’s photo’s being hijacked for other uses? 

 I recently shared with a group of people the fact that it is easy to find out a whole raft of information about someone’s profile.  They were a little surprised at the ease with which I could get the data and one of them said that is why he doesn’t have an online presence – well at least one that he wasn’t aware of! These online businesses we are now relying on to protect our privacy, are in fact providing some privacy services (some of these we even pay for) however, you will actually find that many of them, in their fine print, inform you they are not responsible for your data and if this information is stolen or “lost” they will attempt to retrieve it but cannot promise anything.

 There have been some interesting cases recently where regulatory bodies have attempted to reign in these businesses, either in terms of how they are using our information, or how they were trying to access more.  But ultimately, what do you do when that business operates on a global scale? Given today’s environment, I am not surprised that we are hearing more and more about governments trying to tap into the Internet to listen and read what is going on. As I am sure you all know, we are really no longer sending letters via post office or making fixed line phone calls, in fact almost everything we use in terms of communications is somehow connected to the Internet.

 Interestingly, one business has recently been talking about the “connectedness of everything”, where we expect there to be some 50 billion devices connected to the “internet” in the next 5-7 years. Consider for a moment, 50 billion devices, which would include your car, refrigerator, TV, home security, washing machine, even our children (this actually happens today where a Sim card, combined with GPS, is used to track a child’s movements).  Do we really think all of this data will simply go onto a storage device in our homes? Of course not! Many of these devices being connected to the Internet will be incredibly useful to us.  Just think about it… knowing what to buy at the supermarket when you have forgotten your list or knowing when your car needs service –without worrying that something might break before you service or repair it. So, with the convenience and help that all of these devices can bring us, the concern still remains - what else would this data be used for?  Where will it go?  Who will see it?  What will they do with it?

 This is where I come back to the original question, who is responsible for our privacy? Well ultimately we are.  We need to ensure we are always checking the policy of the online providers we are using and understand what the fine print means. We need to ensure we are lobbying regulatory bodies and governments to ensure they only issue business licenses for online services to those providing clarity on what our data is used for and more importantly, for those who are intending to share our data that they MUST have an “opt-in” clause so we know what we are getting ourselves into. I don’t know exactly when governments became no longer responsible for our privacy, but ultimately we need to be aware of what we are signing up to and using the Internet for.

 Now some of you will be thinking – ok Nathan, so what are you saying turn off the Internet and resort back to mailing letters and using the landline phone for communication? Not at all! We are already far down the path to an Internet enabled world, and there is not much we can do about that. What I am saying though, is that we need to be aware of the risks, understand what we are signing up for, read the fine print and always think about what we are posting online or sharing with our online communities.  At the end of the day, we are now responsible for how we interact with our online world more so than ever before, and we need to ensure we do not assume that someone will protect our privacy or our governments will come riding in on white horses to save the day.

Our information has moved online and we must define our own individual policies.  We choose how to interact with “the net”.  We protect ourselves.  This is the new reality of privacy.

I Believe I Can Fly!

Seriously, I really do believe I can fly and one day I am sure we will figure out how. Me losing some weight would probably be a good start, that and lots and lots of technology! I am often asked about my open mindset approach when going into meetings to work out challenges and how I achieve this. Well, like the title, if you believe you can fly and you have a desire to achieve the outcome, it will happen in one way or another!


I have been watching, with great interest, at how two very different types of businesses attempt to adopt innovative approaches to new technologies. The first is the “start-up mentality” and the second is what I would call the “large business mindset” group. The “start-up mentality” companies are the ones who give the appearance of not facing the challenges of large businesses –but I can tell you those challenges exist! The “large business mindset” group have a tendency to look at business change or confronting challenges as “baggage that must be addressed” whilst managing the day to day aspects of a business operation.

In today’s market, businesses face many challenges and it is interesting to watch how the “people factor” of problem solving always gets in the way of solving the actual problem – I know weird, right? For many people, problem solving is a clinical discussion. “We can do it” or “we can’t”, simple as that. Yet, when “we can’t do it” is the only solution or answer, who wants to inform the organization, who owns the problem, that they cannot be helped? Consider that for a moment. Recognize yourself there already, sighing as you go into your next workshop, anticipating a hard slog or another round table debate? It is, for this reason, why many large businesses tend to look at start-ups with a great degree of jealousy. They see start-ups appearing to act nimble and addressing solutions, while they claim that they cannot move as quickly due to their size, scale and complexity. Well, I am here to tell you that a large part of that claim is simply crap. I have seen and worked in my share of complex IT systems or business processes. If you really want to achieve something you can, it may not look or work the way you thought it would, but the goal is always achievable.

What makes these start ups more successful in addressing business issues? Their attitude! They are walking into a room, not to attend a meeting, but to solve a problem. That mindset is what is driving the first aspect of their success. The second has to do with people – ever had the feeling, during a meeting that people are simply brought in to make sure everyone is represented? It happens often. People are fearful of what decisions might get made, on their behalf, that could impact how they work or what they need to do. In a start-up environment, yes of course everyone wants to chip in and be involved, but there is too much going on to have everyone involved, hence, more often than not, you will hear of meetings with only 2 or3 people looking to solve a problem, informing others of the recommendation to validate if there are any “serious” impacts or risks in moving forward. Plain and simple. So, if you ever sat in one of those meetings asking yourself – “what am I doing here?” well, more often than not, with all of those people, more actions are created and more delays become the outcome and ultimately the problem is not solved. It is then merely a case of how we plan to progress forward. Again, within a start up environment, time is literally money, hence a meeting to agree to have another meeting is not an outcome, and it means delaying a decision which ultimately could mean failure of the business. (This too should and could be applied to large business, but you already know that.)

Here in resides the ultimate challenge of large businesses, “how do you drive a sense of urgency?” – not to have everyone work harder – but an understanding that we simply must walk out of this room with an agreed view on what will be done and by whom and by when to resolve the problem or challenge. Can you imagine having the confidence in your colleagues knowing that as a team you had not only solved the problem but that you and your colleagues are about to go out of that room and make that outcome happen? Imagine achieving that same result four, five or even six times? At what point does it become business practice when staff start walking into a meeting with: a. fewer people and b. the confidence knowing they have been chosen to solve a problem? This would surely start to drive a sense of ownership in solving a problem and ultimately contributing to the success of a business.

I surely hope those of you reading this are not thinking “Well of course Nathan, it is merely a case of throwing money at it!” because that is absolutely not my point at all. If it was, then in most businesses this would result in just one aspect of the decision… where some parts would require reallocating funds. What then happens when the actions require reengaging the customer or supplier, or managing a process differently, or finding work arounds? What then? Can you just throw money at it? I think not. Having worked in both start up businesses and more mature organizations, the challenges remain the same - it is the mindset and approach we take and the people we choose to engage with which ultimately drives the right types of outcomes.

For these reasons I always encourage an organization to have a mix of people who have worked in start up businesses and understand the risks of failure, combined with people who have worked within large corporate for some time and know where the proverbial “skeleton’s” are hidden. It is very rarely the case when business challenges or problems cannot be solved. We simply need the right people around the table, combined with the right mindset, and the focus on business outcome and success. I appreciate the “easier said than done” factor, however, look at who you have sitting around your table. Do they truly believe in what you are trying to achieve? Do you have the right balance of passion and insights? A balance of managing risk vs. ability to execute? And most importantly, can you see one common agenda and view on how your business / team / or idea will succeed – if not, you are in for one hell of a journey or a path to continuous frustration.

The most important attribute of all though, don’t give up! I have met some phenomenal problem solvers out there which I can break into two groups:
• Those that can solve the problem but feel they face a wave of nay sayers or blockers making the outcome all but inevitable;
• and, those that can solve the problem and in the face of setbacks, identify a different path to get to the outcome that is right for the business.

Now, obviously I am not saying those in the 2nd category always succeed, but if you can look inside yourself and honestly say you have tried different approaches and are still not getting anywhere, then you are trying to solve the problem in the wrong place and we are back to the initial challenge of having the right people involved to begin with. No business is perfect, they all have their ups and downs but it is the businesses that have the ability to rally to a cause, empower their teams to lead where their expertise lies and drive business outcomes that ultimately succeed.

One day I am sure I will find the right group of people to solve my challenge, “I believe I can fly!” I just need some bright people to help me figure out how and then I will need to decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks? Believe in yourself and believe in the fact that there is always an answer. Your answer simply depends on your understanding of the outcomes and ensuring you have the right mindset and ownership around the table – now, if you will excuse me whilst I prepare for my first flight!

Business Augmentation – Back to Basic

I was asked a couple of weeks ago what is this augmentation I keep talking about, and why does it apply to businesses? Augmentation is not new, if you think about augmented reality, augment glasses, augmented amusement park rides – yes they exist!

The reason I apply it to businesses today is simply that like the other examples above they are seeking to maximize existing components and add additional capability and or scale to it that can adapt to their current market environment. Anyone familiar with augmented reality knows this is a powerful tool which can understand the current context of what you see and add additional information to it such as where a bus is headed to, availability of properties and reviews of your favourite restaurants. Now in the context of these examples you would say well of course it has to use the current capability we would be blind otherwise (literally!), fair enough, but why not use the same concepts for business? The current platforms work, it is not a case of them being no longer fit for purpose, more likely they are functionally or scale limited by the platforms they were built on and if a business knew that by adding to their existing capability they could actually extend the life of their assets and as such turn a depreciating item into a value creation item they might change their views on them.

Woah … what? Ok let’s go through an example. A business has an existing telephony system they would look to replace it or upgrade to a new platform when it is either end of life (financially), has reached maximum capacity or last but not least is no longer able to meet the functionality needs of the business. In any of these circumstances you might think a business needs to request quotations for new platforms, and previously this is most likely what a business would do. Consider equally businesses looking to grow through acquisition in a market where just about everyone has some form of video conferencing, yet there is always that concern on integration cost of communication platforms. In both of these examples any vendor would love you to rip and replace the old assets and convert to a new platform, but this only adds cost to your business which would be better spent on systems and tools upgrades/integration which tend to be more customized. Hence having access to a virtual “bridge” that allows you to leverage the assets of the existing business that can be integrated whilst using cloud based IP Telephony or video for new or temporary users/sites provides an alternative avenue and drives a philosophy of business led outcomes. i.e. decide what your business needs to do first and assume the technology is there to make it viable second.

Equally the current economic environment with its rapid changes of growth and decline across multiple markets at different times has resulted in concerns on making the right decision and timing of business decisions. Particularly when it relates to ICT investments where businesses are struggling to understand how they can find a balance between driving business improvement or growth goals against managing cost and mitigating risk. The Business Augmentation approach here creates a fundamental shift in defining the business outcome first, knowing that technology will adapt to your requirements rather than being limited by your current ICT capabilities both in terms of functionality and cost.  Think about it for a moment – how often have you considered that accelerating the growth of your business through expanded ICT and other resources could derive your next wave of growth, yet at the same time being concerns on managing risk. What if the market changes? What if competitors flood the market? What if my supply chain can’t keep up? Business Augmentation is about removing this risk, leveraging existing assets, adding new functionality – preferably through the cloud – with the confidence to unwind that functionality at a moment’s notice should market dynamics require it.

I am a big advocate of Business Augmentation mainly because it directs the discussion between people and technology where it belongs – Technology as an enabler to business and consumers and that through reducing (or even better, removing!) the risk businesses can create, innovate and drive growth with greater confidence. Technology change is increasingly regarded as a disabler as “rip and replace” or full transformation of platforms offers little or highly complex roll back to legacy platform options. Imagine for moment that your ICT architecture was linked to cloud based platforms which were used to facilitate your growth, and as you continued to grow you realized your business had established a new baseline, this could then justify longer term investment and encourage the business to stretch further with the confidence that it was suddenly in a stronger position to adapt to change.

Now this is all great in principle but we need to be able to realize these ideas, the great news is these platforms are out there today, whether it be around Collaboration, Cloud Computing, Networking and Security, we simply need to drive Service Providers, vendors and SI’s to be more disruptive and challenge the norms of upfront payments linked to capex towards a more sustainable and elastic business model which will deliver self fulfilling growth as risks become more manageable and businesses in turn take increasingly creative steps forward.

Challenge yourself, your business and your ICT relationships to change the way we work by leveraging Augment capabilities and you will quickly find there are a growing number of opportunities to create, innovate and grow your business! Hence get back to basics define your need and challenge your ecosystem to deliver!

ALERT – Internet is full! – Or is it?

Now that I have your attention, had to share this great discussion with you that I heard on Belgian radio a month ago … yes that’s right, Belgian! J … The News Reporter was talking about how the world was coming to an end because the Internet was full and an expert on the topic suggested that without drastic action businesses and consumers alike would start to see they were no longer able to connect to the internet or for new businesses even worse might not be able to establish a web presence at all!

What am I talking about? Every device that connects to the Internet requires an IP address, sort of like a unique identifier so as when communicating with web pages and other web based services the end point your computer is contacting knows where to send the data back to that you are requesting. At the moment we are hearing more about how the Domain registries no longer have IP addresses to allocate out to new businesses seeking to establish a presence, instead suggesting they establish a smaller web presence or speak to a provider about a managed service where they can bundle IP address space with other services.

So why is this an issue, well simply put when we accelerated into the big bad world of the internet, everybody thought we would have more than enough time to manage the growth of IP enabled end points. Today we all register onto the Net with a platform known as IPv4, which has a pre-determined set of IP addresses based on variants of 255.255.255.255. However the acceleration of businesses requiring visibility on the internet (because let’s face it, if you don’t have a web presence these days as a business, then don’t bother starting a business!), the number of worldwide users which have exploded over the years and last but not least the rapid expansion of IP enabled mobile devices and services all requiring IP address space in order to manage. So we can all acknowledge there has clearly been an enormous increase in the demand for IP address space, but are we really full?

Much like the early days of the Olympics when we were told that all tickets were sold you can see empty seats (I know this was quickly resolved – before anyone thinks this is an article on that happy topic!), similarly is it for the Internet. Although we are told internet addresses are all used up, we have to ask the question, if that were the case then how is it we are still seeing the growth of businesses and additional mobile devices being added? Well if you look behind the curtains you will see that although Domain Co-ordinators have run out of IP addresses to allocate – or nearly, there are a large number of Telecom, IT and even businesses that have kept a large number of IP addresses “in case they need them later” to support the expansion of their businesses. Hence in reality we still have a large number of IP addresses which if released back into the pool could allow the various organizations to manage the allocation in the most optimal way. Similar to the way airlines over book flights, if you don’t turn up to use your seat it will be allocated to someone else.

Of course those familiar with discussions around IP addresses will know that the industry has come up with a solution to the problem in the form of IPv6, which among greater functionality and flexibility will meet the growing needs of our increasingly digital world in the form of considerably more IP address space. However I would challenge the industry to look at other industries where the assumption of simply adding more capacity will solve the problems of accessibility and continue to cope with the growing demands of volume – which usually results in only accelerating the problem. Ultimately a different approach is required, as occurs with all growth industries, it can no longer be about simply adding more.

We need a new model which allocates IP addresses based on actual demand (i.e. active utilization), every single device doesn’t need its unique IP address merely those that are active. Because IP addresses do not have a price they normally are not viewed as an incremental cost by businesses acquiring them. Unlike all other aspects of infrastructure that a business would have to pay for IP addresses are not one of them, if a business had to pay for them then all of a sudden we would see a more efficient utilization. I am not suggesting here that we turn IP addresses into a profit item, but merely to derive a value and change the approach to how they are utilized.

Perhaps one way to approach this would be to have any revenue made from the sale of IP addresses to go to an Innovation Forum targeted at introducing new solutions which will enable businesses and consumers to realize the ongoing benefits of the Internet and how it can contribute to collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing.  The Internet is one thing which connects us all, and will be a crucial vehicle for businesses and consumers alike to engage with each other, but we must give it the breathing room to continue to evolve and treat it like any other asset – Simple! … Right?

This blog is dedicated to a friend who likes to keep things simple – hopefully this is simple enough! J

Shift from a Flat world to a Virtual world

We have always talked about globalization as enabling businesses to leverage resources whether they are material, people or systems; these three components are crucial to support our businesses in meeting the changing and expanding needs of our Customers. Globalization used to demand the expansion into new markets with offices, systems and staff, in essence globalization used to mean businesses had to be physically global. Two key trends though have led to a significant shift in what is required to meet the needs of customers in a market where they seek to maximize the benefits of Globalization. This shift has resulted in businesses being in growth markets without having to actually be on the ground something which up until a few years ago would have been considered impossible.

I have been a big fan of Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat”, which reinforced the trends that I had been seeing in Asia with the growth of international business from key geographies beyond the traditional business centre’s of US, Europe and Japan. The increasingly flat world is one of the key trends which are altering globalization; one important outcome of the “world being flat” is that quality and performance of businesses have improved significantly in what were regarded historically as emerging markets which have recently evolved into growth markets. Why would I call these growth markets? Well quite simply the development of business models have become more sophisticated and as a result have provided an improving foundation for economic growth. This development has meant that the market entry approach global System Integrator’s (SI) or Service Provider’s (SP) had taken previously can either face growing local competition or challenges in other markets as SI’s and SP’s from growth markets continue to expand their own borders of service delivery – you only need to look at the SI’s and Telco’s from India expanding internationally to see how this change has accelerated.

The other key trend is the increased capability of cloud based services and a reduced requirement for premise based solutions. This trend is creating new opportunities and extending the reach of service providers without the need for resourcing to the same extent as with premise based platforms. To give you a few examples, consider Telephony, something which has historically always been a service and a platform which would be built on the premises of the customer, yet with a evolution towards IP Telephony, making a phone call becomes the same as accessing any application on the web and in so doing creates new opportunities to look at how these services can be provided to end customers.  Likewise for our personal communication, media and entertainment tools through the web and mobile phones, as I had mentioned in a previous blog the diversity of where applications are developed and can be hosted result in traffic crisscrossing the globe and our growing acceptance of the same only validates the fact that a good chunk of our consumer IT requirements coming from the cloud will only continue to grow.

With these two key trends an exciting evolution of globalization is starting to happen, globalization is no longer about being global, it is about being able to support your end customer wherever they may be and where they expand, shift or evolve to. This is an important evolution, as many businesses have always looked to truly global providers or integrators thinking that only they can meet their needs, but with the evolution of emerging markets to growth markets as well as the expanding capability of cloud based services, the landscape and solutions to address business challenges are changing, to the point that the world is no longer flat it is now virtual.

So what does working in a virtual world actually mean? It comes down to the blending of a partner ecosystem to provide an integrated network solution whilst incorporating cloud based services which provide accessibility beyond the traditional physical limitations of a network. Many people out there will read this and suggest that you cannot own something unless you can see it, I would counter that with understanding the evolution of software – do you know where your browser is pulling down data from? A Cached server engine or a mirror website? What about the applications you run on your phone have you ever checked where the data stored is hosted from? To a large degree the consumer side of communications and IT has already started the transition to a virtual environment; the question is how quickly the business market can follow.

For many businesses the benefits of virtualization (aka cloud computing) are clear however, so are the risks and as such many remain cautious as to how to progress whilst mitigating those risks. Many businesses though, are now testing the benefits of a virtual world yet remain overtly cautious as this represents a fundamental shift from their traditional supply chain management of IT and Communications Services.  Therefore the lead must come from providers who are able to extend their capabilities beyond their traditional physical limitations and demonstrate that this new virtual world doesn’t mean that quality and performance are put at risk. The misperception that businesses without global presence cannot meet the needs of the customer independent of where they are located vs. where their customer is located remains the biggest challenge but one which can be overcome through key partnerships.

The last question we must ask is why should service providers with the ambition and capability to extend globally on a “virtual” basis want to challenge the traditional global providers? Simply put because the world is changing. Okay that is a fairly obvious point however the change stems from the improvements in technology, the quality of networks in domestic or regional markets and the increasing urgency for businesses to be able to adapt to the changing market whilst balancing the need for sustainable growth. All of these changes combined represent a evolution in the market landscape creating a new opportunity which regional providers seeking to serve their customers beyond their traditional reach are well placed to serve through the creation of new partnerships and the introduction of platforms which leverage cloud computing, in so doing providing them with the business agility to ensure their own sustainable growth place. The world was flat, now we are transitioning to virtual, the next step? Perhaps an augmented reality of being instantly virtual in a flat world – but that’s a whole other blog waiting to be written!