The industry reflects, looks ahead

Teresa Lim, managing director, IBM Singapore

	Teresa Lim, IBM
	The viability of open source software has become the subject of a great debate: Will open source really reduce costs and is there a workable support model?

Q. What is the biggest myth about virtualization, and why?
Lim: There are many myths about virtualization. For example, many people believe that virtualization exists mainly as standalone service products. In fact, virtualization is an important component of Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) and IT resource optimization infrastructure solutions. As companies seek to grow, having a secure, well-managed and fully virtualized IT infrastructure will help them do just that. SOA is one key tool to help drive change in a company and innovate quickly.

Clients around the world are rapidly embracing SOA to integrate business processes and business process data because it dramatically improves the way they do business. As customers move beyond their base SOA implementations via entry points, they realize the need to take a more structured and programmatic approach to the infrastructure and management that supports their SOA projects.

Virtualization solutions can play a key role in how clients prepare their IT infrastructure for SOA but also help clients who want to take a logical rather than a physical view of their computing environment. Server virtualization is the foundation of a scalable, efficient and resilient IT infrastructure. Server virtualization solutions help clients simplify their IT infrastructure by reducing over- or under-provisioning problems, responding more quickly to load changes, and bringing new resources on line more quickly.

Together, server virtualization and software virtualization can drive up IT efficiency and drive down IT costs for clients looking to optimize IT operations.

The debate on open source is...
... The viability of open source software has become the subject of a great debate: Will open source really reduce costs and is there a workable support model?

Open source is critical to delivering an organization's brand of innovation, which is open, collaborative, global, and multi-disciplinary.

The open source community comprises so many experts, with a wide range of ideas and creativity, that it generates more collaborative innovation than any single vendor ever could. It has disrupted markets and created growth opportunities for those who recognize its advantages.

Moving ahead in 2008

 

 

1.	Socializing goes big in 2008
2.	The urge to merge in 2008
3.	New chips on the block
4.	Web threats dominate security landscape
5.	Battle for the mobile platform space in 2008
6.	The industry reflects, looks ahead

Looking back on 2007

 

 

1.	Looking back at 2007 with envy
2.	Predictions that went right and wrong
3.	2007's movers and shakers

Open source projects, such as Linux, have gained strength in mainstream businesses by serving as low-cost alternatives to commercial software. The capabilities rival those of proprietary software, thanks to support from a large developer community.

Popular open source projects can also accelerate open standards, the collective building blocks for products, by serving as the common implementation. Businesses and vendors using open standards free up development and services budgets for items that offer higher value and competitive advantage.

Open source has certainly built too much interest to be ignored any more. Many developing countries, including Brazil, China and India, are adopting open source to save money on licensing and maintain control over government IT environments. Centers to train developers in open source technology are also springing up around the globe.

The adoption of open source in Singapore is certainly expected to accelerate. Many organizations are getting past the '"discovery phase" and real adoption is beginning to take place. The industry is certainly promoting it and a broad line of solutions from most vendors are being supported.

Open source has driven tremendous innovation everywhere. It is creating new opportunities for both start up companies as well as enterprise customers to find new ways of doing business, save cost and drive better value. In this regard, Singapore will specifically benefit from its adoption as it aligns well to the nation's agenda of fostering entrepreneurship.

Social networking sites...
... YouTube, MySpace, Linked-In, Facebook, Second Life, Xing hold the promise of revolutionizing the way we interact with one another. Online social networks are transforming the idea of community. It doesn't matter whether you're a Gen X-er or a retiree, staying connected is critical for everybody.

In the age of Web 2.0, Internet users are rewriting the rules of social interaction by harnessing a range of new technologies to create and sustain virtual communities forged around common interests. Communications channels like powerful Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, video and online forums, amplified by collaborative technologies like social bookmarking, provide powerful tools for sharing information and sustaining relationships across geographic borders and industry silos.

The result is a new breed of interaction. Instead of telling people what we want to talk to them about, we're trying to engage with them. People are out there meeting and learning from one another. The stories that they tell are assets. It's a phenomenon that has a life of its own, and it's becoming part of the way we work now.

In a 2006 study, more than 700 CEOs worldwide told IBM that finding new areas of growth, new products and services, and engineering new in-house processes and business models were ranked as top strategies for staying competitive. In the same study, the ability to collaborate was identified as a key competitive factor that separates out-performers from under-performers in terms of their ability to innovate.

Moving ahead, social networks need to interoperate. Information disclosed on one network needs to be able to travel to another network freely. This requires open standards for exchanging social information as well as fine-tuned publication mechanisms where one can select who and where information is accessible, not just 'all contacts' and 'public'. Furthermore, e-mail vendors and social software sites should come together to share a synchronisation standard. It will be great if you are able to add someone from, for example, Facebook into any e-mail address book and/or use the Linked-In contact list as an address book in any e-mail application. When someone moves on, the address book should notify the user and update the users' particulars automatically.

Work-life balance is...
... IBM's internal survey data have indicated that employees feel that balancing the responsibilities between work, family, and other commitments is becoming increasingly difficult under traditional work schedules. The ability to address work and family becomes a critical factor in a decision to join or stay with a company.

There are many ways an organization can help employees balance their work and personal lives by offering a wide range of work-life balance programs that address concerns like mental health counseling, dependent child care, educational scholarships, elder care programs, and more. In addition, employers can also offer a range of Workforce Flexibility options, such as flexible work week schedules, part-time employment, leaves of absence programs, and opportunities to work from home or a remote location.

Work-life balance will be achieved differently by each employee. It can be achieved with or without a combination of work-life balance programs and workforce flexibility options. In some cases there may be business reasons that prevent employees from using certain flexible work options, such as personal leaves of absence, reduced work schedules, flexible work weeks, and working from home, and so on. This does not mean that employees cannot achieve work-life balance. Rather, employees and their managers need to discuss alternative work-life balance solutions where appropriate.

Work-life balance will combine work-life programs and workforce flexibility options. These work-life programs and workforce flexibility options help employees better manage their work and personal lives and accomplish balance by creating a flexible work environment that is sensitive to an individual's needs and responsibilities. These programs and options allow employees to be more productive because their personal issues can be more easily addressed.

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