RecentlyBPM:redux posted an interview with our very own Wes Chung. Wes is one of Lombardi’s Alliances Managers. In the post, Theo Priestley discusses various topics with Wes about Lombardi’s vision for BPM, its evolution to date and more.  There are some really great comments worth summarizing here in Process People.

Expectations for 2010 After a Fairly Turbulent 2009

We saw companies strategically select BPM as a means to improve their operating efficiency and also to position themselves competitively for eventual market condition improvements. In 2010, we are expecting that there will be an increased oversight and due diligence on how money actually gets spent.

Training and Education Services

We have expanded our offerings for both on-site and virtual classroom-style skills enhancement. Lombardi University covers all of the roles needed in a BPM program and at all of the skill levels for different responsibilities that exist.

Blueprint

Our customers are using the tool to improve their understanding of their processes and to drive process changes.  Blueprint has the ability to:

• Identify differences between operating branches or geographical units
• Standardize best practices and operating procedures
• Manage candidate projects across the portfolio of BPM initiatives

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As an application that leverages all the agility and reach that the cloud provides, we thought it only appropriate that Lombardi Blueprint help sponsor Cloud Camp Austin 2009.

Along with lesser known companies like Microsoft, Sun and Rackspace :-) , Lombardi Blueprint is a gold sponsor of the event (actually since I took the screenshot to the left, Aserver, Rightscale and Zeus have also joined the golden ranks).

As a gold sponsor we get to deliver a 5-7 minute lightening talk at the beginning of the event.  The only restrictions are that it be cloud related and it can’t be a product pitch.  I will be talking about the cloud and democratization of information.

What, When, Where…

The event takes place next Saturday, April 25th from 10AM – 4PM down at Austin City Limits on the UT campus. Here’s how the webpage sums up the event:

CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged you to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.

(Here are a few more thoughts regarding the event from co-organizer and Red Monk analyst Michael Cote.)

Free for All

The cost of the event is FREE and all you need to do is register online so they know how many folks are coming (heck, I bet if you showed up that day they probably wouldn’t turn you away.)  So come on down next Saturday and enjoy and learn.  And remember, since its an unconference that means anyone can propose and lead a session and we all learn from each other.

For those who will be in the Austin area then, hope to see you there!

These days when people describe cloud computing you’ll often hear them dividing it into three basic groups:

1. Application Clouds (aka Software as a Service or SaaS)
2. Platform Clouds (aka Platform as a Service or PaaS)
3. Infrastructure Clouds (aka Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS)

Besides self-interest (a cloud-based app helps me pay my bills), I find the first group above the most interesting as well as the most tangible for the average bear.

So what does the board think?

A couple of weeks ago the Data Center Advisory board over at Searchdatacenter.com was asked to weigh in with their thoughts on cloud computing.  RedMonk analyst Michael Cote offered up his SaaSy perspective as follows:

IT managers should be looking at converting their on-premise infrastructure to what we recently called “Software-as-a-Service” and now the bucket of “cloud computing.” If your email isn’t in the cloud already, there should be a fantastically good reason, like regulations that prevent off-premises email.

Can you host your instant messaging in the cloud? How about file sharing and basic intranet functions? Even things like SharePoint look attractive. Essentially, you want to inventory all of the low-priority items you have on your intranet and ask if it’s cheaper to move them off-premise.

Although I would have chosen a less pejorative term than “low-priority items,” I think Cote’s advice is spot on.  He then goes on, while warning against irrational cloud exuberance, to clearly list the key advantages of move apps to the cloud:

Top of the list tends to be cost (both up-front and ongoing, especially when it comes to upgrading and maintenance) but also flexibility and new functionality that come with cloud-based applications.

How cloudy is your IT set-up?

Last week, before the Thanksgiving break here in the States, I recorded an interview with Paul Bell of Dell (Paul reports to CEO Michael Dell and is responsible for all business operations for Dell in North and South America).

I had heard Paul speak at the RackSpace Customer event back at the end of September and had been impressed with his comments on Cloud Computing and the economy (two very popular topics these days).  I followed up with him afterwords and the result is the interview which you can find here.

(FYI Lombardi is a Dell customer and Dell is a Lombardi Teamworks customer)

There has been a lot of buzz about cloud computing lately but what exactly is it?  Everyone seems to have their own slightly different definition.

My belief is that if you draw on compute resources, be they apps or platforms, from a source you don’t own or manage and that you can scale up or down as needed and you are billed accordingly… that’s cloud computing. The biggest advantages of this as a customer are the ability to get started immediately, no software to load and maintain, expand as needed and even turn the service off if its not useful.  Also because there is not a big Capex outlay to get started, you are not bogged down in approval cycles.

What do some of the experts in the field think?  I went to the Rackspace customer event a couple of weeks ago to find out.  (In case your wondering, Lombardi Blueprint, our cloud-based process modeling tool is hosted by Rackspace and will soon be making use of its cloud files in its next release.)

This is what I learned about the past, present and future of Cloud Computing:

• My podcast with John Engates, Rackspace CTO and John’s presentation
• My podcast with Lanham Napier, Rackspace CEO
• My podcast with Jonathan Bryce, Mosso (Rackspace’s cloud division) founder

BTW, if you don’t recognize the building in the clouds above, its the Alamo located in San Antonio where the event was held.