the frictionless enterprise 3072248

June 2014 $99

Report ID: R7960614

Next

reports

The Frictionless EnterpriseOur exclusive research and insights into cloud, hybrid cloud,

and mobile technologies can help CIOs build a fully integrated,

next-generation infrastructure.

By Art Wittmann

reports. informationweek.com

Special Research & Coverage Series

http://reports.informationweek.com/index

Previous Next

reports

3 Author’s Bio

4 Executive Summary

5 Research Synopsis

6 Frictionless IT

8 Old Habits Die Hard

9 Who Has This Nailed?

12 Software-As-A-Service: Inevitable

14 Frictionless IT: Hybrid Clouds

15 What’s The Challenge?

17 The IaaS Factor

18 Cloud On The Brain

20 From The Data Center To The Cloud

22 Frictionless IT: Going Mobile

22 The Simplicity Of Youth

24 Security Focuses On Sandboxes

24 BYOD: IT’s 5 Stages Of Grief

25 What’s New In Mobility Management?

28 Mobile App Dev Strategies

30 Speed Is Essential

32 Appendix

36 Related Reports

Figures

6 Figure 1: Origin of New Initiatives Requiring IT Resources

7 Figure 2: Business Needs vs. IT Delivery

8 Figure 3: Development Methodologies

10 Figure 4: IT Maintenance Budget

11 Figure 5: Benefits Realized Through Use of Cloud Services

12 Figure 6: Revenue Sources

14 Figure 7: Extent of Technology Use

15 Figure 8: In-House Apps and Services Running on VMs

16 Figure 9: Benefits Realized Through Virtualization

18 Figure 10: Extent of Cloud Use

19 Figure 11: Future Cloud Use

22 Figure 12: Technologies in Use

23 Figure 13: Platforms for Developed Applications

25 Figure 14: Resources for Internal App Development

26 Figure 15: Percentage of Applications for Internal Customers

27 Figure 16: Resources for External App Development

28 Figure 17: Percentage of Applications for External Customers

29 Figure 18: Importance of App Dev to Organization’s Success

32 Figure 19: Job Title

33 Figure 20: Industry

34 Figure 21: Revenue

35 Figure 22: Company SizeCONT

ENTS

reports.informationweek.com

TABLE OF

June 2014 2

T h e F r i c t i o n l e s s E n t e r p r i s e



June 2014 3

Previous Next

© 2014 InformationWeek, Reproduction Prohibited

reports


T h e F r i c t i o n l e s s E n t e r p r i s eTable of Contents

Art Wittmann is an independent IT analyst and writer with 30 years of experi-ence in IT and IT journalism. Formerly, he was VP of InformationWeek Reports,and has served as editor of InformationWeek and editor in chief of NetworkComputing and IT Architect magazines. Prior to his time in business technologyjournalism, he worked as an IT director for a major university.

Art WittmannInformationWeek Reports

FollowFollowFollowFollow

Want More?

Never Miss a Report!

FollowFollowFollowFollow



https://twitter.com/#!/IW_Reports

https://www.facebook.com/pages/InformationWeek-Reports/149825495070501

June 2014 4

Previous Next

To succeed today, businesses need fluid integration of mobile and cloud, partners andsuppliers, developers and big data, and security and governance. Designing, building, anddeploying such a fully integrated, next-gen infrastructure will be less complex if you fol-low some key principles: Don’t create new data silos; consider cloud and mobile as justpart of the stack. Remember: It’s not “mobile business,” it’s just “business.” Hew to theprinciple of “develop once and deploy many.” That means investing in reusable compo-nents, such as HTML5 and responsive design, that ensure that new client devices andplatforms don’t send developers back to the drawing board. Bake in security that focuseson the data, not the device. Add automation and use DevOps principles to managechange. In this InformationWeek special-focus series, we’ll combine exclusive research and in-

sights to help CIOs integrate all the data channels in use today.

EXECUTIVE


reports

SUM

MAR

Y




June 2014 5reports.informationweek.com

Previous Next

RESEARCH

Survey Name InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey

Survey Date May 2014

Region North America

Number of Respondents 362

Purpose To gauge the extent to which enterprises are embracing a new approach to information technology

Methodology InformationWeek surveyed business technology decision-makers atNorth American companies. The survey was conducted online, and respondents were recruited via an email invitation containing an embedded link to the survey. The email invitation was sent to qualified InformationWeek subscribers.

reports

SYNO

PSIS


ABOUT US

InformationWeek Reports’ an-

alysts arm business technology

decision-makers with real-world

perspective based on qualita-

tive and quantitative research,

business and technology as-

sessment and planning tools,

and adoption of best practices

gleaned from experience.

Our staff:

Lorna Garey, content director;

[email protected]

Heather Vallis,managing editor,

research; [email protected]

Find all of our reports at

reports.informationweek.com.



June 2014 6

Should IT pros consider themselves in an ex-istential crisis? At a time when technology’simportance in business is soaring, the IT de-partment in most companies is not benefitingfrom the klieg-light attention. In fact, as tech-nology becomes critical to more aspects ofthe business, the IT group is increasingly seenas an obstacle to be worked around. Avanadedid a survey of 1,003 business executives, line-of-business leaders, and IT executives. The sur-vey found that 71% of C-level executives andbusiness unit leaders believe they can maketechnology decisions for their departmentsbetter and faster without the involvement ofIT staff. The survey also reported that technol-ogy budgets increasingly reside outside of IT.That sure sounds like the makings of an exis-tential crisis to us. But when we asked IT pros, we got a san-

guine response. In our InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technol-ogy professionals done for this article, weasked how they would describe the align-

ment between what business unit customerswant and what IT delivers. Some 73% say theIT group is perfectly aligned or fairly wellaligned to the needs of the business. ClearlyIT pros are a bit more optimistic about theirability to serve the business than were the ex-

ecutives in Avanade’s survey.Yet even our IT pros admit that technology

leadership is slipping away from them. Weasked where new technology initiatives orig-inated within the business. Forty-two percentsay they come exclusively or mostly from busi-

Previous Next

When new initiatives arise that require additional IT resources, from where within your organization do they originate?

7% 6%

14%

36%

37%

Origin of New Initiatives Requiring IT Resources

Data: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014 R7960614/2

R

Exclusively from business units

Mostly from business units

Mostly from IT

Exclusively from IT

About equally from IT and business units


Frictionless IT

reports T h e F r i c t i o n l e s s E n t e r p r i s eTable of Contents

Figure 1



http://www.avanade.com/en-us/approach/research/Pages/it-without-boundaries.aspx

June 2014 7

ness units, only 37% say they come equallyfrom business and IT, and just 21% think IT isthe primary driver. As we look through the survey results and

listen to tech leaders, two facts seem appar-ent. The first fact: IT leaders know there’s anew game afoot for using technology in busi-ness. Businesses need a faster, more-respon-sive IT infrastructure and delivery process.That’s become brutally obvious, and IT leadersare taking steps to reshape what IT does in or-der to fit the new omnipresence of technol-ogy. The second fact: IT leaders aren’t chang-ing fast enough. And unlike at any pointbefore in the 40-plus years that IT has existedas a profession, business leaders now have analternative to in-house IT. In fact, software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, andother cloud offerings provide business lead-ers with a rich array of alternatives — many ofwhich can be used without IT’s involvement. The pressure to do more, faster isn’t a sur-

prise to IT leaders. In our 2014 Strategic CIOSurvey, we asked about concerns for the IT or-ganization’s ability to support business goals.

The top concern this year, just as it was in2013, is that IT can’t implement fast enoughto meet business goals. This is followed by atrifecta of not having: enough staff, enoughbudget, and the right skills. The frustration ispalpable.Bottom line, though, is that IT leaders need

to change their outlook and tactics, and em-

brace today as a time of golden opportunity.They need to borrow tactics and strategiesfrom digital-native businesses, and adaptthem to their needs, to create an infrastructurethat’s as responsive as the company demands. Yes, there are things holding IT back from all

it would like to do in serving and leading thebusiness, and certainly the demand for speed

Previous Next

FAST FACT

73%of business technology

pros responding to our

Next-Generation IT Survey

say the IT group is perfectly

aligned or fairly well

aligned to the needs of the

business.



How would you describe the alignment between what your business-side customers want and what your IT team delivers?

4% 5%1%

22%

68%

Business Needs vs. IT Delivery


R

Perfectly aligned

Fairly well-aligned

It’s hit or miss

Not good; IT frequently underdelivers

Bad; business users avoid IT whenever they can

Figure 2



http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/12315/IT-Business-Strategy/Research:-2014-Strategic-CIO-Priorities.html

June 2014 8

Previous Next

and lack of expertise should land high on thelist. But executive committees are speakingwith their dollars that they consider IT increas-ing critical. Our Strategic CIO Survey largelyfinds healthy increases in IT budgets, withonly 16% reporting a decrease in budget, 25%with flat budgets, and the rest reporting in-creases — and 17% with an increase of morethan 10%. This rosy view of IT budgets, to-gether with the knowledge that departmen-tal spending on technology is also increasing,indicates that for many businesses, there’s suf-ficient money to support the technologyneeds of the company. IT needs to understandhow to influence all that spending to get thebest results — and frankly needs to quit whin-ing about resources. In an economy that’s stillslow in its recovery, these budget numbersare about as good as you can expect.

Old Habits Die HardIf left to their own methods, IT groups would

prefer that businesses bring them opportuni-ties that demand technology for studied as-sessment. In a reasonably sized enterprise, the

IT team will assemble its best and brightest,possibly with some outside consulting and, af-ter a month or so for careful analysis, come upwith a plan that calls for gold-plated systemsfrom your long-standing infrastructure andsoftware suppliers. The plan will come with aseven- or eight-digit price tag and call for an18- to 24-month implementation window. Ifthis is the mind-set you’re still in, then sure, IT’sbudget, manpower, and skill set all seem lack-

ing, and of course new projects that get thistreatment don’t make for happy businessleaders.We’re not saying that using your established

vendors is a bad idea. They are proven, they arestable, they are moderately responsive (com-mensurate with the size of your checkbook),and by keeping your list of vendors relativelyshort, you’ve created substantial expertise inmaking their products work together. That

Research: 2014 StrategicCIO Priorities

One hundred fifty-five IT execu-tives weigh in on their roles, in-novation priorities, budgettrends — and why speed of exe-cution matters. A lot.

DownloadDownload



To what extent are the following development methodologies in use at your organization?

45% 30% 25%

31% 28% 41%

20% 23% 57%

15% 34% 51%

6

Primary methodology Secondary methodology Do not use

Agile development

Waterfall

Whatever the contractor wants

DevOps

Base: 311 respondents at organizations developing applications for internal or external customersData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/12

R

Development Methodologies

Figure 3



http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/12315/IT-Business-Strategy/Research:-2014-Strategic-CIO-Priorities.html

June 2014 9

made them good choices for critical, long-term production systems. The problem is thatmany of the things that make systems andsoftware from these vendors — as well as amethodical IT process for implementing them— a good choice for critical production sys-tems also make them a really bad choice whenyou’re trying to capitalize on a near-term busi-ness opportunity with an unknown ROI.These near-term business opportunities are

precisely where IT and the business unit lead-ers misalign. The thingthat most IT executivesdo best is managedown their risks. CIOspay top dollar for name-brand technology andbelieve it’s generallyworth it because they

do have limited staff and that staff has specificbut limited expertise. Each team within ITmonitors its respective systems and keepsthem up to date with little or no concern forwhat other teams are doing. So when it’s timeto tackle new initiatives, of course it takes

months to figure out how to do it. Even if youhave enterprise or IT architects on staff, gettingdown to a design you can price out and a sys-tem that everyone agrees to run simply takestime. Meanwhile, that line-of-business cus-tomer is off looking at other ways to capitalizeon this urgent, newfound opportunity.Again, the thing that’s changed is that

those line-of-business customers now havegood alternatives.

Who Has This Nailed?Let’s take a look at it from a different point

of view. There are certainly companies forwhich a focus on technology and the abilityto rapidly seize business opportunities is crit-ical. The two most-celebrated classes are Sili-con Valley startups, which typically use thecloud as their launching point, and hyperscaleInternet companies that eschew hardwareand software from the typical vendors in favorof their home-brewed systems. It’s wrong-headed to advise the typical mid-

size, or even enterprise-sized, company to re-make itself in either of these images, but there

are things to learn from both in terms of howIT can become a better business partner. Forstartups and for hyperscale companies likeGoogle, Amazon, and Facebook, the biggestrisk in seizing new business opportunitiesisn’t that the technology required will fail, it’sthat the opportunity doesn’t turn out to be aslucrative as hoped. The goal is to get in quick,test the business concept fairly cheaply, andthen see whether the market opportunity isbig enough to warrant a major investment.Take the example of Zynga. The Internet

game business is as tough as they come. Thecompany needs to predict the fickle desiresof Internet social gamers and produce what ithopes will be the next FarmVille, Angry Birds,or Words with Friends. The company startedout with its own infrastructure, servers resid-ing in hosting facilities. The model worked un-til FarmVille came along in 2009, and the com-pany wasn’t prepared for the enormoussuccess. Acting quickly, Zynga shifted Far-mVille, and eventually all of its operations, toAmazon Web Services. After careful analysis, the company realized

Previous Next



Near-term business opportunities

with unknown ROI are precisely

where IT and the business unit

leaders misalign.



June 2014 10

it would be more profitable to recast its owninfrastructure as a cloud and bring its mostsuccessful games back onto its own hardware.The result is a business model worth consid-ering for many companies and many applica-tions. Zynga uses the public cloud for rapiddeployment and proof of concept for newgames. Zynga can leave the game in the pub-lic cloud until it has a handle on how big it willbe. If it’s another FarmVille, it can resource forthat. If it’s a dud, it can kill it before the com-pany has spent too much money on it.For more typical businesses, there are good

lessons to be learned here. First, if time is ofthe essence for capitalizing on a business op-portunity, the public cloud is your friend. In2009 Werner Vogels — CTO of Amazon andthe father of its AWS infrastructure-as-a-ser-vice — spoke at the InformationWeek Confer-ence. One person in the audience of CIOs andVPs of IT asked whom Vogels meant when hereferred to his customers. “Developers,” wasVogels’ one-word answer. The environment isgeared for developers to rapidly create newapplications and to scale them. It’s perfect for

startups that haven’t invented their own en-vironment, and it’s perfect for enterprises thathave self-contained projects that require agood bit of resources but aren’t highly de-pendent on the rest of the IT infrastructure. Amazon has won a lot of business with that

definition, but our data also shows that a lotof potential customers don’t see a clear path

for how to use infrastructure-as-a-service of-ferings like AWS. In our Strategic CIO survey,we ask respondents about plans for incorpo-rating the public cloud into their technologyinfrastructure. In 2013, 14% said they’d al-ready incorporated public cloud, 21% saidthey’d do in the next 12 months, and 27%said they’d do it in 24 months. By those fig-

Previous Next



Approximately what percentage of your IT budget is spent to maintain existing services?

13%5%

9%

4%

26%

16%

27%

IT Maintenance Budget


R

Less than 20%

20% to 40%

41% to 60%

61% to 80%

81% to 90%

More than 90%

Don’t know

Figure 4



June 2014 11

ures, this should be a big transitional year forthe public cloud, with around one-third ofcompanies using public cloud. It didn’t hap-pen, and instead, the numbers are nearly thesame in 2014: Only 18% have already done it,20% say it’s a year away, while 23% say it’s 24months away. There are good intentions, butlittle movement into IaaS, and it’s been thatway for years. To make progress, IT leaders must think of

the cloud differently. While most IT architectsget that it can be powerful place for test anddevelopment, it often feels like the applica-tions will end up stranded in a public cloud —and thus the lackluster adoption. But just asZynga starts apps in the cloud with the inten-tion of bringing them back on its own hard-ware, so can you. Whether you carve out partof your infrastructure and structure it morelike your public cloud service of choice, or yousimply put restrictions on your cloud use —such as avoiding AWS-specific features forwhich your own infrastructure has no analog— that facilitate bringing software developedthere back into your environment, the cloud

can be a great way to give your business theedge it needs for rapid development.Those with a more conservative bent are

asking themselves questions like “What about

security?” and “What about availability?”Those are really good questions, and your ba-sic design methodology should offer someanswers. Fundamentally you should use en-

Previous Next



LikeLike TweetTweetTweet

ShareShare

Like This Report?

Share it!

To what degree have you realized the following benefits by using cloud services? Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is “no improvement” and 5 is “significant improvement.”

Benefits Realized Through Use of Cloud Services

1 No improvement Significant improvement 5Improved infrastructure fault tolerance

Eased IT staff workload

Improved app performance

Quickly deliver new apps to internal customers

Quickly deliver new apps or new features to external customers

Improved customer relations through new or better apps

Create new revenue streams for the company

Note: Mean average ratingsBase: 172 respondents at organizations using cloud servicesData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/18

3.4

3.2

3.1

2.9

2.9

2.9

2.5

Figure 5



http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ubm-tech/87/293/4b5

http://twitter.com/home/?status=The+Frictionless+Enterprise+http://ubm.io/TcoWFd @IW_Reports

http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/12522/IT-Business-Strategy/the-frictionless-enterprise.html&t=The+Frictionless+Enterprise&src=sp

June 2014 12

cryption, a scale-out design, and orchestrationsoftware so that things like security and avail-ability happen as part of the developmentprocess. But more importantly, those aren’tnecessarily the questions to be primarily con-cerned with at this point. Even if you bar thecloud, developers will happily ignore ques-tions about security and availability as theypack in the features that the line-of-businesscustomer wants, doing it quickly through Ag-ile development techniques. And at the out-set — when you don’t even know if the busi-ness opportunity is real or how exactly tocapitalize on it — that’s OK. The main question to answer at this point is

whether there’s truly a business opportunityat hand. As the answer to that becomes ap-parent, it’s time to do the hard work of figur-ing out security, performance, availability, andthe other things that will make this servicebulletproof. What we’re addressing here is theneed for speed and proof of a real opportu-nity — that’s what that 71% of dissatisfied ex-ecutives in Avanade’s survey are looking forand not getting from IT.

Software-As-A-Service: InevitableDevelopment isn’t the only place where the

public cloud should play a role in helping ITto be more responsive. Software-as-a-serviceplays a surprisingly light role in the eyes of

CIOs. In 2013 22% of CIOs said they had a ma-jor initiative in place to increase use of SaaS,and that percentage is 20% in 2014. Doesn’tthat strike you as odd? It may be partially dueto the way the question was asked, but it

Previous Next

To what degree do the following represent revenue streams for your organization? Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is, “not a revenue stream” and 5 is “substantial revenue stream.” If your organization is not using a particular technology, please select "not in use."

Revenue Sources

Browser-based applications

Applications delivering identical capabilities across many platforms

Conventional analytics improved through new technologies like in-memory databases

Applications developed natively for mobile platforms

Extensive presence on social networks and marketing and customer support

Hadoop-style big data analytics

Note: Mean average ratingsData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/5

2.9

2.6

2.5

2.3

2.2

2.2

1 Not a revenue stream Substantial revenue stream 5



Figure 6



June 2014 13

seems impossible to believe that less than aquarter of businesses use SaaS. Take marketing departments, where SaaS is

the dominant form for strategic platforms. Ifthey’re big believers in a digital strategy, thenthey’re going to use something like Marketoor Eloqua to track their email and online pro-grams and nurture their leads. If they’re not-quite-so-big believers, then perhaps Adobe’sOmniture is good enough. Mildly interested,then Google Analytics might do the trick. Andif they’re not interested in any of those? Youneed a new marketing department. SaaS apps are potentially everywhere. Box

or Google docs or HR apps or sales-force au-tomation or analytics services or spam filter-ing, or dozens of other nonstrategic servicesare probably being provided by SaaS some-where in most companies. And if not, thenthey should be. In our CIO survey, we askedwhat prevents the IT team from innovating forthe company. Seventy percent cite a focus onday-to-day IT operations, and nothing elsecomes close — the second most-cited con-cern is lack of budget, cited by 45%. SaaS is a

way out of at least some of the day-to-day op-erations issues. IT teams must be involved in picking the

right SaaS products and integrating them into the existing authentication system, so thatadministration is straightforward and securityis acceptable. But for that to happen, IT mustassert itself and prove to business units it hassomething to offer, or else SaaS will continueto sneak into the company without IT’s ap-proval. A quick look at the marketing for anySaaS product will show that those vendorsaren’t marketing to IT. They’re marketing tothe end user — whether it be sales, market-ing, HR, or some other function within thecompany. IT organizations need to find waysto say yes to SaaS, because it can lighten theday-to-day workload, and also benefit the endusers by providing a regular flow of updatesand enhancements without IT’s involvementin the way that on-premises software wouldrequire.The public cloud remains a lightning rod

topic among IT pros. Some will swear that it’sthe only way services should be delivered,

and some believe cloud computing is theleast useful thing to come long since the ASPcraze of the previous decade. Both extremesare wrong. But whatever the public cloud willeventually be for IT operations, right now it isan excellent tool to have at your disposal, andone that you must learn how to use effec-tively for your organization.

Previous Next





June 2014 14

Anyone who’s ever set up a virtual machine,and many who haven’t, can understand thenirvana appeal of the hybrid cloud that virtu-alization inspires. A pool of virtual machinesrunning in either the public cloud or a privatecloud, and all monitored and managed fromone software console, gives IT pros the abilityto configure and reconfigure their resourceswithout physically touching a thing. And justas important, they can manage an appthrough its life, from development to deploy-ment to maintenance and enhancement toretirement — all without ever stepping footin a data center.That’s the ideal scenario. Everyone from de-

velopers to testers to server and storage op-erators to security teams uses the same or-chestration software to manage applicationsand resources, whether it’s adding features,optimizing performance, ensuring integrityand security, or minimizing cost and down-time. Through a close partnership amongthese teams, new features can be rolled out

on a regular basis and applications can bemoved from private to public clouds and backagain, all with a few mouse clicks.Achieving this ideal, however, means com-

pletely remaking your environment, and theskill set and attitudes of your teams — some-

thing that’s nearly impossible in the shortrun. But like every transition IT has evermade, the important thing is to start theprocess and show that your new methodol-ogy and technology have merit. For the hy-brid cloud, increasingly there is a hard return-

Previous Next

To what extent are the following technologies in use at your organization?

72% 4% 5%19%

44% 34% 11% 11%

24% 38% 17% 21%

21% 30% 22% 27%

10% 26% 24% 40%

6

Extensive use Limited use Testing/evaluating

Server virtualization

Storage virtualization

Network virtualization

Private cloud architecture

Hybrid cloud architecture

Base: 287 respondents at organizations using server, storage, and/or network virtualizationData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/14

R

Extent of Technology Use

No use


Frictionless IT: Hybrid Clouds


Figure 7



June 2014 15

on-investment proof point, even be-fore you start factoring in the hard-to-measure value of improving the re-sponsiveness of IT for the business.

What’s The Challenge?IT teams have two avenues of pursuit

in their quest to be a better businesspartner, and the hybrid cloud can con-tribute to both. First, they must findways to be more immediately respon-sive to the needs of business partners.In both our 2013 and 2014 StrategicCIO surveys, the No. 1 lament amongCIOs was that they simply can’t imple-ment fast enough to satisfy the busi-ness. The second avenue is to improveIT efficiency — to cut IT operatingcosts, or at least do considerably morefor the company with the resourcesthat it has. More with less is a refrain that IT pros are

plenty familiar with, since C-level execs havebeen saying it for as about as long as therehave been CIOs. There’s new urgency to this

old refrain, though. In one way or another theInternet of Things juggernaut, along with thedesire to apply analytics to everything thebusiness does, will eventually hit your IT or-

ganization. Gone will be storage growth of30% to 50% more a year, and in its place willbe storage needs that increase by factors offour and five times a year. Throw in the sys-

Previous Next

FAST FACT

72%of Next-Generation IT Survey

respondents say they have

server virtualization in

extensive production use,

but only 21% have a private

cloud in extensive use.



Currently In two years

What percentage of your in-house applications and services are currently run on virtual machines? What do you estimate the percentage will be in two years?

In-House Apps and Services Running on VMs

Less than 20%

21% to 40%

41% to 60%

61% to 80%

More than 80%

Base: 287 respondents at organizations using server, storage, and/or network virtualizationData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/13

19%10%

15%8%

19%13%

19%22%

28%47%

Figure 8



June 2014 16

tems to process all that good data, and youhave a challenge that IT can’t possibly meetwith the way it currently does business. But it gets better — and by better, we mean

worse. The marketing department has its eyesfirmly set on your turf. In IDC’s Top 10 CMOpredictions for 2013, prediction five statesthat 50% of new marketing hires will havetechnical backgrounds. With all that will comea new title, that of “chief marketing technolo-gist.” Feeling queasy yet?A hybrid cloud architecture isn’t going to fix

all these problems, and we wouldn’t be socavalier as to suggest that, but it can certainlyhelp. Forward-thinking IT architects get this,and even in Fortune 500 companies, they’rerealizing that in order to meet the needs ofthe data and technology onslaught that’sabout to come, everything possible that cango will need to move into the cloud.Before getting into the particulars of the

challenges of hybrid clouds, it’s worth takinga look at just how well IT is doing on the foun-dation for the hybrid cloud — which our datashows is in the very early stages.

In our survey of 362 business technologypros for this report, we asked about the use ofvirtualization, and 79% are using some formof virtualization. Of those, we asked what per-centage of in-house applications and services

are running in virtual machines. Almost halfsay that more than 60% of their apps are vir-tualized. One-third say less than 40% are vir-tualized. In two years almost half expect to beat 80% of apps virtualized. The primary bene-

Previous Next

To what degree have you realized the following benefits through your virtualization efforts? Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is “no improvement” and 5 is “significant improvement.”

Benefits Realized Through Virtualization

1 No improvement Significant improvement 5Better use of resources

Better able to meet the needs of internal users

More reliable service

Easier to manage than nonvirtualized infrastructure

Faster deployment of new applications and app revisions

Improved development and test results

Better able to meet the needs of external customers

Note: Mean average ratingsBase: 287 respondents at organizations using server, storage, and/or network virtualizationData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/15

4.0

3.7

3.6

3.6

3.3

3.2

3.2



Figure 9



June 2014 17

fit reported for virtualization is better use ofresources — in other words, the payoff fromconsolidation. The majority of virtualization users have not

gone deeply into creating a private or hybridcloud. While 72% have server virtualization inextensive production use, only 21% have aprivate cloud in extensive use, and just 10%report extensive hybrid cloud use. Much ofthe hesitation for virtualization resides insmaller companies. One consultant to SMBsput it this way: “Our client base is still highlyresistant to many virtualization/cloud ser -vices’ development aspects. We are primarilystill in testing and light usage phases at thepresent, but promoting services such as Sales-force.com as potential entry points for ourclientele.” Among the companies ranked in the Infor-

mationWeek Elite 100 this year, just 15% saythey’re able to switch between a public cloudand in-house data center based on demand;43% have no plans to explore that option.Thus for many organizations, moving to a hy-brid cloud is still years off.

That makes today’s hybrid cloud usersearly adopters, and one of the primary piecesthey’ve found missing is good managementsoftware to make their hybrid cloud a reality.Or at least the good software they havefound comes with a steep learning curve.Many have spent significant time and moneyto build a private cloud based on VMwarevSphere only to find that vCloud — now onlya year old — is an expensive and less matureinfrastructure service than those offered byAmazon, Microsoft, and even Google. In ourrecent Hybrid Cloud Survey, only 7% of thosewho say they’re using the public cloud re-port using vCloud Hybrid Service.

The IaaS FactorThe statistics around public infrastructure-

as-a-service usage tell another importantpart of the story. Gartner recently released itsreport on hybrid clouds and found that Ama-zon Web Services had a near monopoly withmore than 80% of the market. However, whenwe asked about public cloud usage as part ofInformationWeek’s Hybrid Cloud Survey,

among hybrid cloud users or planners, thetop answer was Azure (48%), followed byAWS (39%), Google (23%), and Rackspace(15%). Our poll only asked about usage, it did-n’t ask about the quantity of use. So AWS’susers could be much larger users than Mi-crosoft’s, Google’s or Rackspace’s. It also ap-pears that Microsoft’s “software + service”strategy is appealing to early hybrid cloudadopters. Microsoft’s Windows Azure Pack contains all

of the necessary pieces and parts to makeyour data center look like Azure, with thesame self-service management portals andAPI services. In choosing that route, Microsofthas taken the opposite approach to VMware,which created its vCloud to look like and beaccessed from the same tools that enterpriseops teams are used to for their noncloud datacenter infrastructure. Azure Pack is intendedfor large IT organizations that serve a wide va-riety of business units or for service providersthat want to provide their own cloud services.To serve the needs of these audiences, AzurePack is a full multitenant implementation, in-

Previous Next



FAST FACT

79%of respondents to our

Next-Gen IT Survey say

they use some form of

virtualization.



http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/12195/IT-Business-Strategy/InformationWeek-Elite-100.html

June 2014 18

cluding resource tracking and billing.While Microsoft gets bashed for its lack of

foresight with smartphones and tablets, itsdata center strategy is sound and somethingthat only it could pull off. The company willhelp you build a private cloud or your ownpublic or semipublic cloud, and while it wouldcertainly like you to use its public cloud, it getspaid no matter which route you take. So whileAmazon has the market share, it also contin-ues to struggle to show the sort of profits thatWall Street wants. Meanwhile, Microsoft hasmade the hybrid cloud into one more soft-ware sales opportunity, something it knowshow to exploit.That isn’t to say that Amazon is satisfied with

its commanding early lead in the public cloud.The company is well aware of VMware’s domi-nance in the data center and the potential thatrepresents as enterprise IT architects turn moreseriously to hybrid clouds. In late May, Amazonannounced AWS Management Portal for vCen-ter. The product is a plug-in for vCenter that al-lows operators to launch workloads from theirVMware management console into the AWS

cloud. The interface will be familiar to vCenterjockeys, and more important than that, accesscontrol and authentication are handledthrough integration with Active Directory. Ad-ministrators can create a directory structurewithin their AWS cloud and assign rights tousers within their organization. So ops usersmight have access to and responsibility for aproduction part of the tree, while developersand testers would have access to their part ofthe tree. That makes it an easy matter to importVMware images to Elastic Compute Cloud.

Cloud On The BrainIBM, too, has seen that the hybrid cloud is in-

creasingly on the minds of its customers. ItsSmartCloud Enterprise+ is intended for its ex-isting large-enterprise customers who are in-terested in cloud architectures but who de-mand IBM-like service-level agreements(99.95% in this case). The product has recentlybeen renamed IBM Cloud Managed Services,and unlike most of the cloud offerings we’vediscussed here, it’s less about a highly auto-mated on-demand self-service model, and

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next



To what degree does your organization use these cloud services?

31% 13% 11%45%

17% 31% 19% 33%

16% 30% 17% 37%

6%


Software-as-a-service (SaaS)

Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)

Base: 172 respondents at organizations using cloud servicesData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/16

R7960614_Nextgen_chart16

Extent of Cloud Use

No use

Figure 10



https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-management-portal-for-vcenter

June 2014 19

more about the SLA and its support for regu-lated environments such as HIPAA and PCI.IBM works with AT&T to offer preconfiguredWAN and VPN services. In short, it’s for bigcompanies with deep pockets and demand-ing needs.To augment its Cloud Managed Services,

IBM purchased SoftLayer for a cool $2 billionlast June. SoftLayer’s business model is theopposite of IBM’s Cloud Managed Services. Itis highly automated, web-centric, and aimedat SMBs. The thing that sets it apart is that italso offers very good SLAs, and will offer bare-metal servers for those who are cloud ori-ented and would rather use a managed serv-ice. Originally based on CloudStack, SoftLayernow offers OpenStack services as well, such asSwift object storage. It doesn’t appear asthough IBM plans to assimilate SoftLayer in itstypical Borg-like fashion. Rather, it is helpingthe company expand its operations so thatbetween SoftLayer and IBM CMS, it has ahigh-end offering that should be attractive toany company regardless of size, as long aswhat it’s looking for is more of a managed

service with high-end SLAs and less of a self-service cloud portal. As the vendors jockey to provide you with

the best single point of management for bothyour private and public cloud needs, it’s im-portant to be aware of what is and isn’t pos-sible in a hybrid cloud. If your typical virtualmachine image is in the 20 to 50 GB range,then there’s obviously no way to just click amouse and seconds later have that imagemove from running in your data center to run-ning in the cloud. Moving images of that size

will typically take hours — even if you havebig, fat Internet connections, because thepublic cloud provider is likely to slow theprocess down a bit. Not to mention you’ll beusing that pipe for other things. Automating workload mobility is a big part

of the puzzle, but an even bigger part isidentifying the workloads that you thinkmight run in both the public and privateclouds, and finding a way to keep imagesconsistent between the two environments.As is often the case, it’s not the computing

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next



Looking ahead two years, to what degree do you estimate your organization will be using these cloud services?

56% 5% 3%36%

38% 35% 12% 15%

35% 35% 13% 17%

6%


Software-as-a-service (SaaS)

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)

Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)

Base: 172 respondents at organizations using cloud servicesData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/17


Future Cloud Use

No use

Figure 11



http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/06/04/ibm-buys-privately-held-softlayer-for-2-billion

June 2014 20

resource that’s the hard thing to figure outin a hybrid cloud, it’s the storage. Getting theright images and the right data in the rightplace at the right time is not a trivial matter.Greg Ness, VP of marketing at CloudVelocity,a startup attacking the problem of hybridcloud automation, describes the problemthis way: “All of these public and privatecloud data centers are like airports, but wedon’t run planes between them. It’s more

like Pony Express.”The issue is com-

pounded by the natureof the object storage ar-chitecture used almostuniversally in IaaS envi-ronments. With an ob-ject store, the only op-erations available are

create, read, and delete. There’s no way to ap-pend to an existing object. If you need tochange it, you create a new instance anddelete the old one. So, clearly creating a VMimage as a single object is a bad idea. A bigpart of what automation software must do is

manage consistency of content between thevarious storage systems in use in the privateand public cloud.

From The Data Center To The CloudCloudVelocity is one of a handful of compa-

nies addressing the problem. The company’soriginal and continuing idea is to manage themigration of workloads — both virtual andphysical — from the data center to the cloud.An obvious application, and one with an im-mediate ROI, is to use the cloud for disaster re-covery. Every IT team worth its pay realizesthat critical systems need to be deployed atleast in an N+1 architecture. If your daily op-erations require three data centers, you’d bet-ter have a fourth, just in case. The bill for doingthis has given many a CFO cause to reach forthe Rolaids bottle. It’s a bit like saying that toensure the smooth and continued operationof your family, you need a second house justoutside of a local disaster zone. The N+1 architecture, when done with real

data centers or even with services from thelikes of SunGard, is an expensive insurance

policy, so the idea of using IaaS for backup isintriguing. By using AWS and mirroringchanges in storage systems as they happen,CloudVelocity claims it can reduce the cost ofdisaster recovery sites by more than 50%. Aswith most startups, its initial challenge wasconvincing anyone that it could be done. It’snow done that and claims that for one majorcustomer it was able to migrate 6 TB of appsand data over seven days. While that’s an im-pressive enough feat to get the companyGartner’s “Cool Vendor” designation in its an-nual disaster recovery roundup, it’s a far cryfrom push-button instant migration.As with most things that IT tackles these

days, software — and particularly automationsoftware — is a key to capitalizing on new ar-chitectures like the hybrid cloud. But just asimportant is a fundamental understanding ofthe new architecture and the shift in howteams work. To a certain degree, that uniqueand indispensable star performer on the ITteam, the one who could fix Cisco, Linux, orOracle problems solely on intuition and hard-earned knowledge, must disappear in favor of

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next



As the vendors jockey to provide

you with the best single point of

management for both your

private and public cloud needs,

be aware of what is and isn’t

possible in a hybrid cloud.



June 2014 21

automation software that can manage sys-tems many times larger than one person or asmall team could ever master. But in anothersense, the new star performer will be the onewho gets how and when to put to an applica-tion in the cloud, and how and when to mirrordata in the private and public cloud. We’re seeing the Internet of Things and the

analysis of everything, and the mobilization ofthe workforce and customers, and the democ-ratization of technological awareness in theform of that chief marketing technologist andothers like him, all come together. As they do,companies will need architects and other ITleaders who can see beyond the grind of IT’susual work and capitalize on automation andthe cloud to satisfy the needs of the businesswithout breaking the budget.

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next





June 2014 22

In most companies support of mobile de-vices hasn’t been IT’s finest hour, particularlywhen it comes to helping employees usenew devices. In fact, the process of embrac-ing mobility for workers in many companiesfollows painfully close to the Kübler-Rossmodel of the five stages of grief — denial,anger, bargaining, depression, and accept-ance. The process has been far from thewarm, welcoming embrace IT has given totechnologies such as virtualization or solidstate storage. When it comes to mobile support for exter-

nal customers, though, IT leaders are of an en-tirely different mind. For customers, IT hasjumped at the chance to build mobile appsand support connections via smartphonesand tablets, seeing this new link as the bestthing IT can build to contribute to the com-pany’s digital strategy.Supporting a mobile workforce and con-

necting to a mobile customer base both arecritical to companies looking to build what

we’re calling frictionless IT — an IT strategyand infrastructure that would allow compa-nies to quickly react to new opportunities. Be-cause mobility for internal users has taken amarkedly different path to acceptance thanmobile customer support has, we’ll look ateach separately. However, elements of the mo-bile strategy can and should be universal,even if the goals aren’t.

The Simplicity Of YouthIt’s hard to fault the grief process reaction to

bring-your-own-device smartphone policies.Prior to BYOD, most IT teams had it down. Lotsof people got laptops from the company, com-plete with security and management software.Fewer people got BlackBerrys from the com-pany, but the built-in security and managementand limited browsing capability made the

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

Which of the following technologies are in use at your organization?

Technologies in Use

Applications developed for internal customer use (i.e., for other employees)

Server, storage, and/or network virtualization

Applications developed for external customer use

Cloud services, including IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

Note: Multiple responses allowedData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/1

79%

79%

56%

48%



Frictionless IT: Going Mobile


Figure 12



June 2014 23

BlackBerry pretty easy to manage. The iPhone,iPad, and Android devices changed that in aninstant. IT went from supporting two or threeend-user systems to five or six — or perhapsdozens, depending on how you approachedAndroid. And from IT’s point of view, the com-pany got very little in return. Workers just gotto use a fancier device of their choosing.According to our 2014 Mobile Security Sur-

vey, two-thirds of organizations have a mobil-ity policy that allows employees to bring theirown devices. A similar percentage said theyhad such a policy in 2013. Policies are split be-tween allowing a limited range of devices(46%) and letting users bring any device aslong as they agree to abide by the company’spolicies (43%) — and the trend is toward sup-porting only a limited range of devices. Policies differ significantly between com-

pany-owned devices and personally ownedones. For company-owned devices, 86% of re-spondents said it is OK to store company dataon the device, though 41% require the use ofan encrypted container. For personally owneddevices, only 53% said it is OK to store com-

pany data, with a third requiring the use of en-crypted containers. This huge gap between letting data on com-

pany-owned versus personal phones is a bit of

a head-scratcher. IT’s main concern for mobiledevices is that they’ll be lost or stolen (72%), fol-lowed by users forwarding data to cloud-basedstorage like Google Drive or Dropbox. Whether

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

FAST FACT

86%of respondents to our

2014 Mobile Security

Survey said it is OK to

store company data on

company-owned devices.



For which platforms do you develop applications?

84% 11% 5%

29% 34% 37%

26% 36% 38%

14% 38% 48%

12% 37% 51%

7% 31% 62%

6% 29% 65%

Primary platform Secondary platform Do not develop apps for platform

Windows

HTML5

HTML4

iOS

Android

Mac OS

Windows Mobile


R7960614/10


Platforms for Developed Applications

Figure 13



June 2014 24

or not the device is owned by the company, itcan easily be left in a cab or at a restaurant. Poli-cies around security need to be shaped aroundthe data people are using, not based on the de-vice or who owns it. The goal for IT should be the ability to say

“yes” to allowing data on most any mobile de-vice; if business users have a legitimate use,then they should have access to their data. Af-ter all, it’s their data, not IT’s. Policies on en-cryption and the shareability of data need tobe predicated on the data’s nature and valueto the company. IT needs to look on securityat the device level as enabling data access.Unfortunately, while that mindset leads to agood consistent policy, device makers arenow going to extra lengths to make their de-vices safer. All in all that’s a good thing — butwhen each device maker gives IT a differentset of protection mechanisms, it’s all but im-possible to craft and enforce a consistent pol-icy. The bottom line is that you’ll need somesort of enterprise mobility management soft-ware that works on all devices and operatingsystems that you’re going to support.

Security Focuses On SandboxesBefore we get into the latest trends, it’s

worth reviewing the dominant approach tosecurity. Most all security products deploy on

the mobile device a container or sandbox inwhich enterprise apps run. There are dozensof players in the mobility management mar-ket these days. The major difference between

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next



Denial: “No, you can’t bring your iPadinto the office. The company policyis we only support company owned

devices. Period.”Anger: “What do you mean you still

brought your iPad in and loaded sales pre-sentations on it? And who gave you emailaccess?!?”Bargaining: “OK, you can bring your iPad in,

but we will manage it as though we own it.You’ll be subject to our password policies,we’ll be able to remotely wipe your device,and you’ll abide by our acceptable-use poli-cies. And you can only do email on it; we’renot porting apps to that thing.”Depression: “These iPads are impossible

to secure. Executives want to view the com-pany’s most closely held private data onthem, and then they leave the things in acab to the airport. We’re going to end up onthe front page of the WSJ, and not in agood way.”Acceptance: “We need to manage iPads as

part of our overall data-centric security strat-egy. I bet people would like to get their en-terprise apps on these. What about analyticsdashboards? What could our sales team doif we put all our product data on these? It’stime to form a team, choose a managementapproach, and find ways to make thesethings a business advantage.”

—Art Wittmann

BYOD: IT’s 5 Stages Of GriefCOMING AROUND



June 2014 25

these vendors is whether the sandbox is ap-plied an app at a time or is a permanent spacecarved out on the device. The drawback to thecontainer method is that you can end up witha limited set of applications that will run in thecontainer. Some vendors wrap familiar email and cal-

endaring apps that are native to the deviceso that users will have two instances, one forwork and one for personal use. Other ven-dors provide enterprise apps for things likecalendaring and email so that the experi-ence for enterprise use is different than forpersonal use. Depending on the nature ofthe user’s needs, that might be just fine, butcertainly some power users will want a broadset of native tools for which the device isknown. A subset of products uses the acronym

MAM for mobile application management(sometimes with an “E” thrown in there forenterprise). These systems wrap a broader setof applications in a container that allows IT togrant or revoke access to the application andwipe just its data as it sees fit. These systems

help manage licensing as well as data accessand can be useful when roles or project par-ticipation changes regularly and dictateswhich applications can be accessed. Othersystems seek to limit what the device can do,including limiting the function of the cameraand email attachments.

What’s New In Mobility Management?Particularly in BYOD uses, it’s critical that the

security software in use be able to distinguishbetween what is personal data and what iscorporate data. A couple years ago, this was ahard feature to find, but now it’s becomingcommonplace. Forcing corporate policies on

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

What resources does your organization use to develop unique applications for internal customers, that is, other employees?

1%

50%

39%

10%

Resources for Internal App Development

Base: 287 respondents at organizations developing applications for internal customersData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/6


We have a team of in-house developers for this purpose

We contract with outside developers to create such apps

We use contractors and in-house developers

Other



Figure 14



June 2014 26

personal data is a recipe for unhappy employ-ees, so increasingly vendors are trying to offeroptions to keep personal and company dataseparate. Tizen, the operating system co-developed

by Samsung and Intel, is just now coming tomarket and is said to use hardware virtualiza-tion to provide highly secure containers thatare a native concept to the operating system.At present iOS and Android can’t do this. Be-cause of its improved security, Samsung hassuggested that the OS will be appropriate fororganizations with special regulatory require-ments such as PCI and HIPAA, but it’s so newthat there really hasn’t been a chance to eval-uate these claims. Since Intel has been involved in the devel-

opment of Tizen, which is just now availableon the Samsung Z, it seems a safe bet thephone is using an Intel chip — though wecouldn’t find confirmation of that at publica-tion time. That means it’s a new task for de-velopers to bring apps to the OS — or thatthey must use a compatibility shim. Infrawareoffers one called Dalvik, but it too is quite

new. Whether Tizen will be an issue for ITplanners remains to be seen. It appears thatthe OS was designed to address shortcom-ings of Android and iOS, but even with thelargest handset maker behind it, that doesn’tguarantee success. Samsung also offers systems for separat-

ing business and personal data on Androidand iOS phones; it upgraded its Knox enter-prise mobility management earlier this yearand now supports cloud delivery of EMM management. Google got in on the act in May when it said

it was acquiring Divide (previously known as

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

What percentage of your applications are for internal customers?

22%

13%11%

23%14%

17%

Percentage of Applications for Internal Customers

Base: 287 respondents at organizations developing applications for internal customersData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/7


Less than 20%

20% to 40%

41% to 60%

100%

81% to 99%

61% to 80%



Figure 15



June 2014 27

Enterproid), whose enterprise mobile man-agement system also is called Divide. Dividetakes the container notion one step further bygiving the phone a dual persona — completewith multiple phone numbers, messagequeues, and so on. Google was an early in-vestor in the company, participating in “A”round financing. Google’s purchase is timelyas chipmaker ARM has incorporated hard-ware virtualization support into its latest de-signs, and chips supporting such divisions arenow coming to market. In the same way hard-ware support spurred virtualization perform-ance in the server market, it’s likely to havethe same effect on mobile devices. Along with some stellar technology, the Di-

vide purchase gives Google the company’sfounders, who were previously executives incharge of mobility and security at MorganStanley. Along with the dual persona capability,Divide provides business-appropriate apps forcalendaring and email. With the purchase, itlooks like Google may finally be getting seriousabout creating a more enterprise-friendly ver-sion of its mobile operating system.

When you start talking about virtualizationat the device level, VMware of course pops tomind. It is active in this market with its Hori-zon product. (One of its early deals was withcarrier Verizon, leading to the unfortunatecombination Verizon Horizon Mobile. Can’tmake this stuff up.) Horizon seeks to offer

end-user device management across laptops,smartphones, and tablets. It also can providea dual persona phone, thus the need to workwith Verizon to manage the phone numbers.Horizon also includes other typical enterprisesecurity features like encryption and usagelogging. Horizon is fairly expensive, starting at

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

What resources does your organization use to develop unique applications for external customers?

48%

1%

10%

41%

Resources for External App Development

Base: 201 respondents at organizations developing applications for external customersData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/8


We have a team of in-house developers for this purpose

We contract with outside developers to create such apps

We use contractors and in-house developers

Other

FAST FACT

79%of Next-Gen IT Survey

respondents said they

develop apps for internal

customers, while 56% are

creating them for

external customers.



Figure 16



June 2014 28

$125 per user for a perpetual license. Otherproducts will typically run $45 to $70 a yearper user. VMware also completed its purchase of Air-

Watch in February for about $2 billion incash and stock, which gives the company onone hand a proven EMM and MDM product(AirWatch along with Mobile Iron came ontop of Gartner’s EMM magic quadrant). Onthe other hand it sows some confusion withthe purchase of the highly successful Air-Watch and no clear statement on what willhappen with Horizon Mobile.

Mobile App Dev StrategiesSecurity is a big piece of what companies

want in mobile management, but it’s only onepiece. Data on mobile devices really requiresan application for it to be useful. Plowingthrough a spreadsheet on an iPhone is nottoo productive; you need an app, either HTMLbased or native, if people are actually goingto use data productively. In our Next Gen ITSurvey, conducted for this article, 79% of re-spondents said they develop apps for internal

customers, while 56% are creating them forexternal customers.Whether the customer is internal or external

bears heavily on the approach IT takes to cre-ating apps. Most respondents in our surveyare still creating Windows apps for internalcustomers to use on laptops. For external cus-

tomers the focus is on the web as a way touniversally support devices, and for informa-tional websites augmented by platform-spe-cific development. That makes Windows theprimary delivery platform; the No. 1 secondarydelivery platform is iOS (38%), followed by An-droid (37%) and HTML4 (36%) and HTML5

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

What percentage of your applications are for external customers?

19%

11%

3%

23%

23%

21%

Percentage of Applications for External Customers

Base: 201 respondents at organizations developing applications for external customersData: InformationWeek Next-Generation IT Survey of 362 business technology professionals, May 2014

R7960614/9


Less than 20%

20% to 40%

61% to 80%

41% to 60%

100%

81% to 99%



Figure 17



June 2014 29

(34%). So for all the talk of a “mobile first” de-velopment mindset, companies aren’t quitethere yet — particularly for internal users. However, when asked about contributors to

business success, respondents to our DigitalBusiness Survey at large companies rankedmobile apps for customers as their No. 1 con-tributor, with e-commerce websites coming insecond, followed by informational websitesfor customers. The importance of mobile apps is widely

agreed upon, then, but the debate aboutwhether to use native development or HTMLand JavaScript for end-user presentation isone where reasonable people will differ.Both have obvious benefits and drawbacks.

Native development will provide better ac-cess to the unique features of each device,and apps will perform better. However, there’sa constant need to do maintenance to keepup with native OS changes in functionalityand style. Apps that aren’t maintained quicklyshow their age. Then there’s the question ofwhere to stop. Android and iOS will certainlyget you most of the market, but Tizen could

take off if Samsung spends a few years push-ing it, and Microsoft seems to finally be win-ning some critical acclaim for the latest ver-sion of Surface Pro. That’s a lot of platforms tosupport. But HTML/JavaScript programming doesn’t

obviate the need to program for screen size

and touch-friendly input. There’s nothingmore off-putting than trying to use a smart-phone to view a website that isn’t mobile-aware. On top of that, HTML compliance is notperfect across browsers. Chrome usuallyscores best, Internet Explorer scores worst,and Firefox and the others are somewhere in

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

How critical is application development to the success of your organization?

20%

2%7%

38%

33%

Importance of App Dev to Organization's Success


R7960614/11


Critically important

Moderately important

Very important

Not at all important

Slightly important



Figure 18



http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/11877/IT-Business-Strategy/Research:-2014-Digital-Business-Survey.html

June 2014 30

between. So, while those who choose to gonative have to maintain independent code-bases for the devices they’ll support, thosewho go the HTML route must test against atleast four browsers (Chrome, IE, Firefox, andSafari) and include special code for smallscreen sizes and keyboardless devices.Cross-platform development environments

offer one way out of this mess, and there area bunch of them to choose from. But the ma-jority of developers are still using some form

of C++ such as Apple’sObjective-C or Micro -soft’s C#. Our Next GenIT Survey indicates thatmost application de-velopment for externalcustomers is done ei-ther by in-house teams

(41%) or by in-house teams in conjunctionwith contractors (48%). That may relegatecross-platform tools to development donefor rapid prototyping and for internal use,with the real deal for customer-facing appsleft to the C++ derived tools.

However, the complexity of C++ develop-ment is not lost on the device vendors. Thisyear at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Confer-ence, Apple surprised the industry by an-nouncing Swift, a more intuitive alternative toObjective-C, which has been its sole languageof preference for years. Apple says Swift codewill run significantly faster than Objective-Ccode, and it automates some of the moremundane development tasks. Google also of-fers more intuitive languages like Simple forAndroid and Dart for Chrome.

Speed Is EssentialIn terms of reducing the time to develop-

ment, there’s now more to it than simplypicking a good development environmentand committing to it by training your staff.The DevOps movement as started by the hy-perscale Internet companies and now heavilyused by startups is an important new con-cept that will be critical as companies outsidethe tech industry move from developingdozens of apps with a few updates a year tofielding potentially hundreds with an almost

continuous stream of updates, new features,and bug fixes.The central concept of DevOps is to bring

developers and operators together so thatthe path from concept to development totesting to deployment to maintenance ismapped out ahead of time and that depend-encies become part of the specificationprocess. Though one can certainly imaginecreating the process without the aid of or-chestration and automation tools, the realvalue comes when IT uses these tools well.Automation plus DevOps will mean, for exam-ple, that the testing environment for an appwill mirror the production environment sothat a new version can be rolled out under thecontrol of your orchestration system. Much of the development for mobile de-

vices will focus on the back-end systems thatfeed the mobile apps used to interact withyour company. The DevOps concepts are im-portant enough that companies like IBM arebuilding the notion into their platforms.BlueMix is IBM’s platform-as-a-service offeringthat runs on its recently acquired SoftLayer in-

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next



In BYOD, it’s critical that the

security software in use be able

to distinguish between personal

data and corporate data.



June 2014 31

frastructure-as-a-service platform. BlueMixpulls together tools from various IBM prod-ucts with the goal of helping companies com-bine Agile development and DevOps tech-niques. BlueMix includes what IBM callsboilerplates, which are templates that helpprogrammers get started in various tasks.Among the BlueMix boilerplates are ones tosupport mobility. This, together with the Soft-Layer platform and the system’s DevOps in-clusions, shows that IBM is seeing many of thesame issues we do — primarily that meetingfuture needs will take a rethinking and simpli-fication of how IT does its thing.IT organizations are facing rising demand

for faster development, thanks to the in-creased strategic importance of analytics, theInternet of Things, a mobile-equipped work-force and customer base, and increased ex-pectation that business will be done digitally.Mobility is an essential part of the equation. Itoffers great promise in terms of both em-ployee productivity and customer interactionand intimacy. But mobility can also be a huge resource

suck. The continued confused state of theEMM market shows just how far from maturityand efficiency we are in mobility. Even themost confident IT pros will have a hard timechoosing development standards and stickingwith them in an age where shadow IT opera-tions are in vogue and non-IT business part-ners can get an app built quickly by any ofhundreds of eager development shops. So,along with choosing development standardsand sticking with them — something IT ispretty good at — the bigger task will be sell-ing IT’s approach to the rest of the company.That campaign will provide the most signifi-cant challenge for IT for the foreseeable future.

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next





June 2014 32

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next


reports T h e F r i c t i o n l e s s E n t e r p r i s e

APPE

NDIX Which of the following best describes your job title?

5%

6%

5%

42%

6%

26%

10%

Job Title



IT executive management (C-level/VP)

IT director/manager

Non-IT executive management (C-level/VP)

IT/IS staff

Other

Line-of-business management

Consultant

Table of Contents

Figure 19



June 2014 33

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

What is your organization’s primary industry?

Industry

Cons

ultin

g an

d bu

sines

s ser

vice

s

Educ

atio

n

Elec

tron

ics

Fina

ncia

l ser

vice

s

Gove

rnm

ent

Heal

thca

re/m

edica

l

IT ve

ndor

s

Logi

stics

/tra

nspo

rtat

ion

Man

ufac

turin

g/in

dust

rial, n

onco

mpu

ter

Med

ia/e

nter

tain

men

t

Nonp

rofit

Reta

il/e-

com

mer

ce

Tele

com

mun

icatio

ns/IS

Ps

Utili

ties

Othe

r


7%

12%

3%

13%

16%

6%

4% 4%

7%

2% 2%

3%

4%

2%

15%




Figure 20



June 2014 34

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

Which of the following dollar ranges includes the annual revenue of your entire organization?

12%

11%

17%

10%

12%

13%

12%4%

9%

Revenue



Less than $6 million

$6 million to $49.9 million




Government/nonprofit

$1 billion to $4.9 billion

$5 billion or more

Don’t know/decline to say



Figure 21



June 2014 35

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

Approximately how many employees are in your organization?

8%

19%

4%

28%

22%

11%

8%

Company Size



Fewer than 50

50-99

100-499

500-9991,000-4,999

5,000-9,999

10,000 or more



Figure 22



Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next

Newsletter

Want to stay current on all newInformationWeek Reports? Subscribe to our weeklynewsletter and never miss a beat.

June 2014 36

Previous Next

Previous Next

DownloadDownload

RegisterRegister

SubscribeSubscribe

Previous Next

Previous Next


reports T h e F r i c t i o n l e s s E n t e r p r i s e

MOR

ELIKE THIS

Want More Like This?

InformationWeek creates more than 150 reports like this each year, and they’re all free toregistered users. We’ll help you sort through vendor claims, justify IT projects and imple-ment new systems by providing analysis and advice from IT professionals. Right now on oursite you’ll find:

InformationWeek Elite 100:Our data shows these innovators using digital technology intwo key areas: providing better products and cutting costs. Almost half of them expect to in-troduce a new IT-led product this year, and 46% are using technology to make businessprocesses more efficient.

Research: 2014 Digital Business Survey:We broke our 510 respondents down by com-pany size, and the differences are telling: 62% of smaller shops have digital strategies vs. 73%of large companies, and 28% of small orgs say IT is the primary driver of their digital strate-gies; that’s true of 38% of large shops.

Transformative CIOs Organize for Success: Trying to meet today’s business technologyneeds with yesterday’s IT organizational structure is like driving a Model T at the Indy 500.Time for a reset.

PLUS: Find signature reports, such as the InformationWeek Salary Survey, InformationWeek500 and the annual State of Security report; full issues; and much more.

Table of Contents



http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/12195/IT-Business-Strategy/InformationWeek-Elite-100.html

http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/11877/IT-Business-Strategy/Research:-2014-Digital-Business-Survey.html

http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/12135/IT-Business-Strategy/Transformative-CIOs-Organize-for-Success.html

http://links.techwebnewsletters.com/servlet/SignUpForm?f=491839


the frictionless enterprise 3072248

Documents

resources7 figure

use23 figure

delivery8 figure

vms16 figure

revenue35 figure

virtualization18 figure

external customers29

internal customers27