Sunny Lee, CIO, Hong Kong Jockey Club
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| I'm looking at pay-as-you-use options, and how we can leverage on service oriented approaches to promote reusability and also be able to engage more utility models. | ||
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Q: What technology innovation or product are you looking forward to this year?
The Web is one area. I think we will see further interesting or drastic development in the Web space. Even though the Internet has been around for a number of years [and] we've already entered into the Web 2.0 [era], consumers are getting excited and there are a lot of models being proven. I'm keen to see that being leveraged to serve our customers, and bring that sort of technology as a means to enable [better] efficiency through collaborating internally, for example.
Mobility--that ties back to the Web--[is important for users], especially those in Hong Kong, Singapore and [other] more advanced economies. The infrastructure is getting ever so mature, with wireless connectivity options everywhere and at very affordable pricing. And devices are widely available. This is when people are staying connected wherever they go.
[We want to continuously explore] how we can offer to people on-the-go, experience as good as the home or the office. There will be more intelligent phones with better browsing and Internet connections, with more security [features] built into them. Also, with netbooks quickly becoming popular, and wireless hotspots everywhere, this is an area I'm watching for new developments.
I'm looking at what we call pay-as-you-use type of options, and how we can leverage on service orientation type of approach so we can promote reusability and also be able to engage more utility models.
I'm also looking at virtualization to optimize our asset utilization--we're already have a trial in our testing environment so we'll continue to roll that out to the production area. We're working on server virtualization first, and I'm also actively looking at desktop virtualization. On the desktop side, we have been for a number of years looking at thin client-type desktop virtualization. This technology is maturing--a few years back we didn't find good solutions, but we're hopeful that in the coming year we will be able to see some good breakthrough in that space.
Was there any technology that disappointed you, or you felt didn't live up to its hype?
I have to say, service oriented architecture (SOA). It was heading there but not totally there. It has been talked about for a long time, and at least in Asia we're not seeing a whole lot of success stories. I'm hopeful that it'll mature further, with standards in place, services being offered by different vendors, and frameworks being in place.
Another thing on my mind--it's not so much about technology but more of a concern. The recent consolidation through vendor acquisitions, concern me. From a buyer [point of view], I'm seeing that I have less and less choice. I used to have different products, and now it's one product. I don't know whether this affects healthy competition and the ability to not put all eggs in one basket.
I also have some disappointment regarding talent--the ability of our vendors to be able to have qualified people to help us deploy, not bleeding edge, but relatively new technology. In this part of the world, whenever there's a new product that's introduced usually by a company in the western world, the support doesn't come so fast. And the professional know-how, the talent and the consultancy usually lag behind, and as such it creates some unnecessary hiccups from time-to-time. Local people are still catching up with the new products, or the whole bug-fixing cycle is not satisfactory or not up to my expectations.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing IT departments this year?
The biggest challenge is being able to perform in an uncertain business environment. In stable times, businesses will be able to tell you what's going to happen next. But now, everyone says 'I don't know what will happen next' or 'I don't know if we need to cut a product'...We're still suffering from the big shock of this financial tsunami, and everyone is off-balance. People are still trying to figure out a strategy moving forward...so if that's the case, then it's a big confusion for IT.
The challenge moving forward is how IT can be agile and respond to these uncertainties, while at the same time being able to deliver quickly the enabling technologies to help businesses cope with these changes. This translates to a lot of requirements--it translates to having the right people; right management, operational and project processes; right technology approach; how the IT organization is being structured and what sort of alignment with the business; and how well you understand and are up to date with the business.
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