daniel flax - aventri · mobile web vs. desktop web mobile users > desktop internet users within...

Daniel FlaxCIO

TheStreetCloud Evolution

1

Outsource components that are commodity in nature and focus our personnel on areas

that can provide distinct business value and

competitive advantage.

2

How is this different for IT vs. Product

Development?

3

IT Themes

• Open Source

• Mobility

• As a Service

4

Open Source

• Open Source does NOT equal free!

• Mature products with phenomenal communities behind them

• Open Source can also provide new opportunities to mess up – just like proprietary technologies and products

• In 2010, Open Source deserves a seat at the grown up table when you are evaluating products for implementations

5

Mobility

• The mobile web is growing by leaps and bounds faster than the desktop web

Figure 1: Quantcast’s Mobile Pageview Observations

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Mobile Web vs. Desktop WebMobile Users > Desktop Internet Users

Within 5 Years

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400

800

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1,600

2,000

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Inte

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Mobile Internet Users

Desktop Internet Users

Global Mobile vs. Desktop Internet User Projection, 2007 – 2015E

Source: Morgan Stanley Research.

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Why?

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In the past, the mobile web sucked. It doesn’t

any more.

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Building for Mobile

• Users want easy

• But you’ve got less with which to build!

10

Building for Mobile

• Context

• Scale

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As a Service Offerings

• Going into the cloud

• Cloud computing is making the same journey that Open Source made!

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Outsourcing vs. Cloud Computing

• Where do you draw the line?

13

A Classic CIO might say:

“We do everything in house. It’s the only way we can be sure we’re getting <good enough>, <fast enough>, <security>, <control>….”

14

Really???

15

Does that CIO make their own:

• OS?

• Computer hardware?

• Telephone lines?

• Electricity?

16

Outsourcing provides:

• Shared access

• Some economies of scale

• Some process improvement

17

Outsourcing is paying someone else to do what you would

have done anyway.

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Cloud Computing

• Well done Cloud Computing takes your business needs and applies all of the lessons of the past 50 years of computing to provide you with services.

19

How can this be so?

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Platforms Moving to the Cloud

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21

Multi vs. Single Tenant Architecture

Dedicated App Stack for Each Application

Single-Tenant (On-Premise or Hosted)

Multi-Tenant

One Single App Stack for All Applications

22

Cloud Benefits

23

Physical and data security models

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World-wide reach and deployment

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Instant availability of features

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Seamless upgrades

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You get to leverage the highest common

denominator

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Cloud is a dial-tone for innovation.

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How do you get there from here?

30

Here’s the secret….

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It’s no different than any other IT project.

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Really. It’s no different.

33

Pick a project.

34

Pick any project.

35

Pick something today that you want to get

done soon.

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Example: Customer Service

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Understand your requirements

• Customer Service Representatives in multiple locations across the US

• CSRs need to access a knowledge base and generate tickets, with escalation when needed

• Integration with our VOIP phone system

• Capable of integration with our Proprietary Commerce Engine

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Understand your security needs

• Our Customer Service Platform doesn’t store PCI or HIPAA data

• For this use case, we need generally good security, not Fort Knox

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Understand your budget and time line

• We need it to be affordable!

• We need it yesterday

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Build it.

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Test it.

42

User Acceptance Test it.

43

Deploy it.

44

Sound familiar?

45

46

How about backup?

47

Why not?

48

TheStreet.com’s Production Facilities

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We currently backup to tapes.

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Why?

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I asked that very question when I got

here.

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Why does this stink?

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The hardware is expensive.

54

The tapes are expensive.

55

Changing tapes is expensive.

56

Shipping tapes offsite is expensive.

57

Managing tape libraries in multiple locations, some of

which are lights out for us, is very expensive.

58

Tape restores and testing is complicated, a hassle and … expensive

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There’s got to be a better model, right?

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Use a Cloud Backup Service Provider

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Cloud Backup Service Model

Courtesy of Iron Mountain

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A better operational model for:

• Managing backups

• Managing restores

• Managing our entire DR process

• Leveraging our bandwidth investment

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Cloud Evolution

• Outsource components that are commodity in nature and focus our personnel on areas that can provide distinct business value and competitive advantage.

• Key Themes: Open Source, Mobility, As a Service

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Thank You

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