Atos

IT is from Mars, OT is from Venus

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One of the many roles I have in my work at Atos has to do with the partnership that Atos has established with Siemens. ITOT Valves

The challenge in my job is the fact that Atos, a pure IT service organization, needs to understand the position and the objectives of Siemens; a company focused on vertical IT that is amongst others oriented on manufacturing and industrial solutioning.

Simple terminologies like ‘services’ and ‘infrastructure’ have a fundamental different meaning when discussed as part of the Siemens or Atos portfolio.

Where parts of Siemens thinks of maintaining pumps and sensors, we think of process consulting and implementing software; and pipelines and manufacturing belts are not the same as networks, storage and servers.

Still Atos and Siemens believe there is additional value when we look to combine these elements in other and new services. Similar to our clients we are continuously looking to get this value through the convergence of OT and IT.

This topic is now also addressed in a whitepaper by the Atos Scientific community, which looks into the specific issues round IT/OT convergence and suggests methods to master the process.

“Implementing IT/OT Convergence successfully will imply that IT- and OT-Strategies will be harmonized, common governance and process models will be installed, security and data will be managed centrally and resources will be re-skilled to understand and know the requirements of both disciplines”

The quote above from the whitepaper indicates we are dealing with a multifaceted implementation that is by far not easily accomplished.

It is certainly not about tooling and seems to be more about organization and business processes. The whitepaper mentions at least 3 areas of expertise that support a successful IT/OT convergence:

  1. Strong change management; because IT and OT are domains on their own, we need to manage the convergence in such a way that we do not negatively influence the value that each domain has on its own.
  2. Process Harmonization; standardization of definitions and the way things ‘get done’ is necessary to avoid ad hoc solutions and costly mistakes.
  3. A service oriented architecture; standardization in technology and making sure no technology lock-in can happen allow for the necessary flexibility when change happens.

One could argue that IT/OT convergence is not a high priority; we have been very successful without it for a very long time.

But I think it was not by choice we have chosen to look away – it was simply too hard, too difficult to achieve. The authors of the whitepaper seem to agree:

“Now, new ideas and concepts are developing around IT/OT providing major opportunities for those who understand to leverage their IT know-how to the shop floor. Now is the time to capitalize on them! “

[This blog post is a repost of http://blog.atos.net/sc/2012/11/22/watch-this-space-it-is-from-mars-ot-is-from-venus/ ]

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How many batteries do you need to visit your mother?

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Detroit Electric car charging

Detroit Electric car charging (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I do not like batteries and I do not much like cars. So when my colleagues in the Atos Scientific Community talk about these two things in 1 whitepaper you can understand it is something I cannot ignore.

Batteries are empty when you need them most (look at any horror movie and you know what I mean). Cars are expensive and they pollute our planet.

There is a multitude of battery formats and you have to go to the store to buy them – or you need to charge them and that takes a lot of time (iPhone anybody?).

So, electric cars, cars fuelled by batteries, is something that I find an unlikely combination.

Charging them is time consuming and a charger is not available everywhere. The use of changeable batteries might seems like a good idea, but is it really convenient and what about formats and availability?

Exactly this dilemma of ‘Electromobility’ is described in a whitepaper of the Atos Scientific Community:

“The success of Electromobility depends on addressing two major challenges: User acceptance and the availability of supporting infrastructure and services.”

After looking into the subject it became clear that next to user acceptance and the support infrastructure, we can also see this as a huge area of new revenue possibilities and innovation.

Leasing and pay-for-use in mobility are much better business cases for both the vendor and the consumer. It also ‘fuels’ (sorry, I could not resist making that joke…), the innovation process because you take out the big capex investment for the end user.

“New business models like battery leasing, simple easy to use charging infrastructure and the involvement of all stakeholders are the key to a positive business case.”

Instead of buying a new car every 5 or 6 years, the consumer (and companies) can choose to either own a car or lease one according to his needs of today.

With the right infrastructure he can choose to just change battery or even change the whole car. And through some clever analysis the supplier can even predict the end user behavior.

This prediction leads to a more tailored offering and in itself will drive further innovation. Such analysis, combined with extending the eco system for example into insurance companies, food and beverage providers, holiday brokers and other leisure providers can create whole new commercial eco systems.

“Electromobility needs multi-sided flexible business platforms with open interfaces to create new value.”

This is of course all very much in the future and will mean we need to change our habits, both on the provider and the consumer side of driving a car.

But change is inevitable and with the right standardization to support ease of use, and a well-integrated system for payments and loyalty schemes, I might be persuaded to buy into such a solution for visiting my mother.

For now we just need to start to understand what is at stake, what is possible and which actions we need to take. For this the upcoming whitepaper is an excellent first step. 

[This blog post is a repost of http://blog.atos.net/sc/2012/11/13/watch-this-space-how-many-batteries-do-you-need-to-visit-your-mother/]

 

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3 reasons why you should embrace mobile payments

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iPhone Mobile Payment 100 Euro

iPhone Mobile Payment 100 Euro (Photo credit: monty.metzger)

I once had to go through a very intensive security check because I left a 1 euro coin in my pocket. The pocket had a hole. The euro coin found is way in the fabric and I was setting off all alarms.

The only thing that prevented me from having to strip, was a portable scanner that pinpointed the culprit.

A small knife (not mine) was used and the problem was taken away. It was like having public surgery.

This experience came to mind when I was reading a white paper download location of the Atos Scientific Community. The document explores the world of mobile payments.

"Mobile payment is not about printing money or inventing a new currency, but about a customer, a merchant (or both) using a mobile device during the payment of a transaction."

The paper describes in detail the technological challenges and looks into the way that business need to adapt themselves to accommodate the use of mobile devices for enabling payments.

Several business scenarios are explored in the paper showing the benefits of this way of handling transactions.

Normally when we introduce this concept we focus on the benefit for the customer.

Mobility, no need for cash and ease of use are obvious positive points.

It becomes interesting if we move our view to the merchant and look at what mobility can do at the ‘other side of the transaction’.

– Firstly a mobile point of sale introduces more flexibility in store concepts and a intimacy between sales person and buyer; this enhances the shopping experience and makes the transaction a more natural part of the shop visit.

– Secondly, the investment in the point of sale equipment is lower, any mobile device will do and there is a great choice available.

– Finally the digitalization allows for multiple payment scenarios including different levels of security (each with their own cost level), connecting loyalty schemes and ad hoc sales promotions.

Although the benefits look compelling there are still hurdles to overcome. These include the obvious security challenges as well as the physical capabilities of the devices such as encryption, local storage and Near Field Communication.

Also you do not want your roaming contract or mobile data plan to become an inhibitor when you see that once in a life time opportunity at the local market in that cute little village in Peru.

"Can technology make physical money irrelevant? That may be a statement that is too bold to make today, but it is certainly not too difficult to envision. One of the main enablers for such a zero-cash scenario is mobile payment."

 

This blog post is a repost of http://blog.atos.net/sc/2012/10/22/watch-this-space-3-reasons-why-you-should-embrace-mobile-payments/

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Ascent Journey 2016 – the future trends in IT and business explained

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Ascentjourney2016buildingblockssmallAtos just announced the publication of Ascent Journey 2016 – Enterprise Without Boundaries

"Ascent Journey 2016 is a unique and comprehensive document where Atos’ Scientific Community presents its predictions and vision for the technology that will shape business through to 2016.

It builds on Journey 2014 – Simplicity with Control and is enriched by the new challenges which have now
emerged in reshaping both society and business alike.

Our research suggests that the convergence of key issues affecting Demographics, Globalization and Economic Sustainability, underpinned by Trust, will see a new way of working emerge in which traditional barriers no longer exist, but where security and privacy are more important than ever."

Exiting stuff and I am honoured to say I was part of the editorial board who produced this document.

More information and download here.

Press release here.

 

 

The PaaS cloud computing lock-in and how to avoid it

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Cloud Computing changed from choosing an easy solution, into making a difficult decision.

The reason is the proliferation of cloud offerings at all layers; today we do not only find ‘everything-as-a-service’ cloud solutions, but also ‘everything-is-tailored-for-your-specific-situation-as-a-service’ tagged as cloud solutions.

Is this good? I do not think so.

My main objection is that you will end up with a cloud solution that is no different than any solution you have previously designed and installed yourself, at a cheaper rate and lower quality SLA.

True cloud solutions should not only focus on cost reduction, increased agility and flexible capabilities. You should also be buying something that supports portability between the private and public computing domain, and across different vendor platforms.

In early cloud solutions, mainly the ones focussing on Infrastructure-as-a-service, this portability has been heavily debated (remember the ‘Open Cloud Manifesto’?) and in the end we concluded that server virtualization solved a lot of the portability issues (I am simplifying of course).

We also had Software-as-a-service and some publications showed that the portability could be addressed by looking at standardized business process definitions and data normalisation (again, I am simplifying).
Now the Atos Scientific Community has published a whitepaper that looks at the most complex form of cloud computing; Platform-as-a-service.

“PaaS offerings today are diverse, but they share a vendor lock-in characteristic. As in any market for an emerging technology, there is a truly diverse array of capabilities being offered by PaaS providers, from supported programming tools (languages, frameworks, runtime environments, and databases) to various types of underlying infrastructure, even within the capabilities available for each PaaS”


So a common characteristic that can be extracted of all this diversity is the fact of PaaS users currently are being bound to the specific platform they use, making the portability of their software (and data) created on top of these platforms difficult.

As a result we see a slow adoption of PaaS in the enterprise; only those groups that have a very well defined end-user group are looking at PaaS – and mostly for the wrong reason: ‘just’ cost saving through standardization.

In the Atos Scientific Community whitepaper they are identified as:

“Two primary user groups which benefit from using Cloud at the Platform as a Service level: Enterprises with their own internal software development activities and ISVs interested in selling SaaS services on top of a hosted PaaS.”


The current situation where PaaS is mostly resulting in a vendor lock-in scenarios is holding back the full potential for applications on a PaaS.

By introducing a general purpose PaaS, we would allow a comprehensive, open, flexible, and interoperable solution that simplifies the process of developing, deploying, integrating, and managing applications both in public and private clouds.

Such an architecture is proposed and explained in detail in the whitepaper; it describes the desired capabilities and building blocks that need to be established and it also offers an analysis of market trends and existing solutions, in order to establish a future vision and direction for PaaS, as well as outlining the business potential of such a solution.

We can all continue to feel positive about the power and the business potential of cloud computing.

Changing your cost base from capex to opex, increasing your speed in your go-to-market strategies and the flexibility in capacity and location are very important for your business.

We should not however confuse vendor specific solutions with cloud solutions only because they promise flexibility in cost and easy deployment; being able to shift and shop around is always better – also in cloud computing.

This blog post is a repost of http://blog.atos.net/sc/2012/10/15/watch-this-space-the-paas-cloud-computing-lock-in-and-how-to-avoid-it/

 

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