Nicholas Carr summarises the need to better understand the digitisation of medicines (the focus of a joint research project I am part of – http://www.Digital-drugs.org) 

“…If you want to understand the complexities and pitfalls of automating medicine (and professional work in general), please read Bob Wachter’s story, adapted from his new book The Digital Doctor, of how Pablo Garcia, a 16-year-old patient at the University of California’s San Francisco Medical Center, came to be given a dose of 38 ½ antibiotic pills rather than the single pill he should have been given.”

See The robot pharmacist | ROUGH TYPE for the full article.

UK Cloud Awards 2015 finalists announced | Cloud Pro.

I look forward to meeting some of the finalists at the awards ceremony!

 

Max Cooter gives a great assessment of the UK Cloud Awards that I was one of the judges for…

 

“The judges have been busy looking through the entries and Max Cooter is pleased with the volume and quality of nominations

What are the trends within cloud computing?

There are several answers to this: you can look at what the marketing gurus say are the hot topics – these are generally areas that are not even close to impacting on CIOs’ in-box though. They’re great for the Gartner Hype Cycle, but are often found hovering around the Peak of Inflated Expectations and have not even touched the Trough of Disillusionment.

This is the second year of the awards (the UK Cloud Awards, brought to you by Cloud Pro in association with CIF and sponsors HP, Ingram Micro and Microsoft) and the most gratifying aspect of the entries is how well defined cloud is now. Last year, there were a few entries that had only a minimal cloud content – the inference seemed to be that if there was some internet connectivity, then there had to be cloud. That’s not to say that all were like that – the shortlisted projects were excellent – but there seemed to be little understanding of the NIST definition of cloud computing – and those were the criteria we were using to make our assessments….”

via UK Cloud Awards demonstrates health of cloud industry | Cloud Pro.

The CIO’s mission to create the ‘cloud corporation’ – I-CIO | I-CIO.

Another report on our book…

Last week Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £56m by the Financial Conduct Authority for its 2012 software challenges that deprived millions of customers of banking services^[1].  In a quote, FCA director Tracey McDermott said^[2]: “The problems arose due to failures at many levels within the RBS Group to identify and manage the risks which can flow from disruptive IT incidents and the result was that RBS customers were left exposed to these risks”.

What lessons might we draw from this for cloud computing? Within banking many of the core legacy systems are old mainframe applications developed decades ago. As the architecture of financial services IT changed, so these systems remained but the detailed skills and knowledge to manage and upgrade them was often lost.

Today many companies are contemplating another change in the fundamental architecture of IT in their move to the cloud. Within this debate there is wide discussion about moving innovative new services to the cloud, but keep core services on-premises on existing hardware. This hybrid-cloud model has huge appeal since it capitalise on the benefits of cloud but apparently limits the exposure to risk for those core applications of business (for example where customer data is exposed).

The challenges faced in financial services provide a stark warning for this strategy though. Quickly the on-premises services can become legacy, lacking the innovation and appeal of innovative cloud-based services. How are companies going to keep the skills and innovation then to manage this core long term – expensive skills now only targeted at a limited set of applications? How are they going to keep transitioning those applications and keeping them current? How will they attract new staff to manage this core resource?

Facing this risk will require an analysis of the cloud-hybrid decision which divorces the simplistic “Its safer to keep this bit on premises because it has customer data” to consider hybrid cloud as a long term architectural decision involving reorganising core IT capabilities. Or more succinctly – “be careful you don’t throw out the IT baby with the cloud-bathwater”!

[1] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3e8d7d5e-7084-11e4-9129-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz3KdUULrr0

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30125728

Microsoft takes clear lead in IaaS second place race, AWS still way out in front – Cloud Tech News.

I am very pleased to be a judge for this year’s UK Cloud Awards… below is a message about nominating your business for the award.

 

UK Cloud Awards 2015 – nominations are now open!

They’re back! We’re delighted to announce the return of the UK Cloud Awards following their success at our inaugural event earlier this year.

UKCA will showcase the leading vendors, customers and individuals who are setting the benchmark in the UK and beyond. Submissions for the awards are now open and will close on 23rd January 2015. A panel of highly respected and independent judges will produce a shortlist of the best products, projects and providers before deciding on an overall winner in each category.

Whether you’re a Cloud Service Provider, technology vendor or business using Cloud to deliver great outcomes for your company or customers, get your nomination in – see the links opposite for details.

The judging panel includes Cloud Pro journalists Max Cooter and Maggie Holland, as well as variety of experts from the world of cloud computing. These include consultants, analysts, CIOs, academics, venture capitalists and many more. The full list of judges can be found on the UK Cloud Award website.

We look forward to receiving your nominations – with 21 awards across 4 categories, all shortlisted nominees will receive an invitation to the awards venue in Canary Wharf on 11th March 2015 for a chance to celebrate with the best in the business.

Good luck!

Alex Hilton
Chief Executive

The Cloud Industry forum

http://www.cloudindustryforum.org

Government must be a platform entrepreneur to deliver ‘digital 2.0’

via Government must be a platform entrepreneur to deliver ‘digital 2.0’.

A thoughtful Forbes article on the market for cloud services today… except for the stupid line about Amazon investing in drones – surely nobody thought they were serious!!

Amazon Is Facing A Cloud Crisis, As Microsoft Muscles In.

“We are moving into big data, but it’s not because we want to become Google,” he says. “It’s because we are dramatically evolving manufacturing.”

Coining the term “the Industrial Internet” GE are demonstrating the importance of Cloud Computing and Big Data to manufacturers and industrial processes, where a 1% improvement in efficiency offers huge financial rewards,

via Why GE Invented the Industrial Internet | MIT Technology Review.