CIO 100 Conference

CIO 100 Conference: ""

So this week I'm off to the CIO 100 Conference at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, CO. Celestica was selected as one of the award winners so I'm going to pick-up the hardware.

This is the second time I've been CIO or CTO of an organization that won, having received the award soon after I joined Getty Images in 2004.

I take no credit for that one. This time around, I'll take some credit. No credit is due me for dreaming up the winning application. If I can take credit for anything it is for ensuring that the great work done by my team and Celestica's Supply Chain organization, including Exec VP John Boucher received the appropriate recognition within the IT community.

Too many CIO's still don't understand the value of marketing their team's wins. Whether it's participating in or as I prefer to think of it, competing in the Information Week 500 or the CIO 100 awards, there's great value for your organization's morale and self-esteem.

Everyone inside the organization, both users and IT professionals, knows all the ways and places that things could be better. Often though, when you really benchmark, you can find many things to be proud off. Receiving an Information Week 500 ranking or winning a CIO 100 award is one way of demonstrating that your team is succeeding. Winning has a way of making everyone feel a little better about the place they work and their role in the team. Just like in sports, when you feel like you are successful and capable, you become more so. There's definitely a halo effect which can be leveraged with your team, your business partners, customers and suppliers.

I hope to see you there!

Google Blasted over Gmail, Google Apps Outages - Cloud Computing

Hello! Long time no write! I suppose I should have posted a "Gone for the summer" banner on the blog site. That, however, would have made it seem like I've been on vacation. Basically, I've been busy! Enough people have pinged me about not writing that I figured I better get back to it. Not only that but having Net News Reader show my blog as a dinosaur hurt. So here we go....

I've seen a number of posts in the blogosphere this week discussing whether the very public problems of Gmail/Google Apps and Apple's MobileMe signify that SaaS (Software as a Service) is not yet ready for prime time. Given that I'm headed to Colorado Springs, CO in a ten days to pick up a CIO 100 award on behalf of Celestica for a SaaS application built on top of e2open, I thought I'd raise the topic here.

Seems to me that this area of innovation is no different than any other. Risk must be explicitly considered in the adoption of any technology, new or not. A simple formula I use when planning a personal flight is: risk of something bad happening times the impact when it does. Small risk times big potential impact makes it a big risk and likely a bad idea without a lot of thought being given to mitigation. The same brief calculation can save your project and maybe your job.

It never ceases to amaze me how rarely this simple bit of planning is done by technologists at all levels. Failing to do so, failing to ask this question in project reviews at least obliquely can cost your company dearly. Often it seems that we just don't want to discuss the risk level for fear of getting a project cancelled. We're invested in seeing it through to the end. We WANT it to succeed. Discussing the risk, planning for the potential for failure is a way to decrease the probability for significant impact in the event your risk comes to light.

Clearly Salesforce.com has proved that SaaS can work. e2open as well. Right tools for the right application.

What's your take?

Google Blasted over Gmail, Google Apps Outages - Cloud Computing: "
Cloud Computing - eWeek

Google Blasted over Gmail, Google Apps Outages
( Page 1 of 13 )

Google isn't supposed to go down. Yet Google Gmail and Google Apps went down for 15 hours Aug. 6 and 7. And on Aug. 11, Gmail went down for 2 hours. Users made their discontent known in discussion boards and blogs, raising the broader question: If they can't rely on Google as their Web platform, who can they rely on?
by Clint Boulton


Google Blasted over Gmail,
Google Apps Outages
By Clint Boulton
Next: Has Google Set the Bar Too High? >>



Discuss Google Blasted Over Gmail, Google Apps Outages
 
Clint Boulton here. Are users making too much of these "

(Via .)