Nick Carr’s ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’ still matters – Network World

Nick Carr’s ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’ still matters – Network World

I recently spoke with one of my favorite commentators, Network World journalist/editor Ann Bednarz (@annbednarz), on the 10th anniversary of the publication of Nick Carr’s seminal article, “IT Doesn’t Matter’.  Carr’s article shook the foundations of IT – not entirely for the right reasons, or in the right way. In her new article, Ann does a great job tapping into the zeitgeist of that time, reviewing the surprisingly long tail of this article. I am honored that she chose to include some of my thoughts too: The jarring headline of Carr’s May 2003 article, “IT Doesn’t Matter,” is what many people remember, and it tends to overshadow his more thought-provoking thesis: that companies have overestimated the strategic value of IT, which is becoming ubiquitous and therefore diminishing as a source of competitive differentiation. … “He didn’t look into the future. He looked at the present state and saw a lethargic,…

Read more »

CIOs Must Break Down Knowledge Barriers To Spur Innovation – Heller Report

CIOs Must Break Down Knowledge Barriers To Spur Innovation – Heller Report

Today I had the honor to have a guest blog published over at The Heller Report’s regular column, “You and Your CIO Career“. This is an excellent blog for CIOs  from Martha Heller, President of Heller Search Associates (‘the premier source for CIO and executive technology talent’), contributing editor for CIO magazine, and author of The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership. My guest blog, ‘CIOs Must Break Down Knowledge Barriers To Spur…

Read more »

Live Interview – The Changing Role of IT and the CIO

Live Interview – The Changing Role of IT and the CIO

Last week at CA World, I had the privilege to be interviewed by Al Perlman, one of the excellent Tech Target moderators who hosted the Broadcast Center – part of the CA World Virtual Conference. Al and I discussed my views on a rage of topics relevant to the disruptive trends in IT today. In a short but hopefully interesting video, I describe our amazing Luminaries Live! sessions at CA World (you can see the…

Read more »

Trying to Be Brilliant in 5 Minutes or Less

Trying to Be Brilliant in 5 Minutes or Less

Mark Twain famously said “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” I wonder what Mark Twain would say today in the era of tweets and vines. These new platforms challenge us to distill our thoughts into a concise message that will engage our audience without overburdening them. If you’re familiar with TED talks or Ignite, you’ve seen experts across various fields share complex ideas and visions in a…

Read more »

The Top Five Can’t-Miss Cloud Sessions at CA World 2013

The Top Five Can’t-Miss Cloud Sessions at CA World 2013

As most of you are well aware (unless you’ve been living under a rock), CA World is just days away. And the hype leading up to the event is palpable. With so many things to see, people to meet, and fun to be had, I thought it would be a good time to tell you about some of the most coveted sessions you won’t want to miss. While there are many sessions planned around those…

Read more »

Why Boring Data Centers Are the Best – Slashdot

Why Boring Data Centers Are the Best – Slashdot

Data center designers should take a page from the High Performance Computing (HPC) market. I have always enjoyed talking with my mate Andy Patrizio, about all things tech. I recently had a chance to talk with him about standardization in the data center. He wrote up a great article on the how IT should approach uniformity, with some interesting case studies from Zynga and Southwest Airlines, and viewpoints from Peter ffoulkes, senior analyst with TheInfoPro…

Read more »

CloudViews Unplugged: April 2013

CloudViews Unplugged: April 2013

In this episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss the hard truths of cloud computing, cloud tax laws, robots leveraging the cloud to complete complex tasks and more!  

Read more »

Let’s Redefine “IoT” to Mean “The Innovation of Things”

Let’s Redefine “IoT” to Mean “The Innovation of Things”

When pundits first began talking about the Internet of Things-also known as “IoT“-the buzz was around applications consumers would use as zillions of devices connected to the Internet. Who doesn’t remember the breathless articles about how our refrigerators would scan product bar codes as we moved items in and about, and automatically manage a shopping list at our favorite market. Ten years on, most of us are still using paper and pen, or maybe our…

Read more »

#AskBranson at CA World 2013 about Innovation

#AskBranson at CA World 2013 about Innovation

If you follow me on Twitter (@AndiMann), you will already know how excited I am that Sir Richard Branson is our keynote speaker at CA World 2013. To start with, Branson is a fantastic communicator with whom I share deep interests in innovation, transformation, information, and technology. He is a captivating and lighthearted speaker with a wealth of experience and insight, both interested and interesting. His passion is as infectious as his full-faced grin. If…

Read more »

CloudViews Unplugged: March 2013

CloudViews Unplugged: March 2013

In this episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss migration to the cloud, IBM’s Watson helps oncologists develop cancer treatments, green cloud algorithms, and the zombie alert issued over the Emergency Alert System.

Read more »

How to use the rogue cloud to innovate the right cloud – Network World

How to use the rogue cloud to innovate the right cloud – Network World

I was privileged to recently have my byline published in Network World, about why rogue cloud is actually a good thing, not something to be scared of. Despite obvious dangers, we should view the rogue cloud as a positive thing and use it to IT’s advantage. It’s an opportunity for us to learn what’s really important to the business. People are using the rogue cloud because it solves real problems that IT hasn’t addressed. We…

Read more »

Forrester: 70% of “private clouds” aren’t really clouds at all – Network World

Forrester: 70% of “private clouds” aren’t really clouds at all – Network World

The illustrious Brandon Butler of Network World recently took up the debate about cloudwashing, and what exactly makes up a ‘real’ private cloud. While James Staten of Forrester take a reasonably strict line with cloudwashing I tend to be a little more pragmatics. If it delivers value, then maybe we don’t need to be so strict on terminology? Andi Mann, a vice president of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies and cloud pundit, pumps the brakes…

Read more »

Private Cloud Roundtable: Issues and Challenges

Private Cloud Roundtable: Issues and Challenges

On February 19th, I was invited to join a great Google+ Hangout roundtable to talk about private cloud issues and challenges, with some really smart experts, including: Kurt Milne, Director of CloudOps Marketing, VMware (my ‘Visible Ops – Private Cloud‘ co-author) Gordon Haff, Cloud Evangelist, Red Hat Sam Charrington, Principal Analyst, CloudPulse Strategies Mark Thiele, EVP of Data Center Technology, Switch Andi Mann, VP of Strategic Solutions, CA Technologies Hosted by James Maguire, managing editor…

Read more »