Will the 2010 AIIM expo + conference be cloudy? – Repost From AIIM ERM Community

This is a repost from my blog post on the AIIM ERM Community Expert Blog…

Will the 2010 AIIM expo + conference be cloudy?

I am looking forward to the 2010 AIIM expo + conference this year after missing the conference the last two years. I always learn something new and it is a great chance to meet some really smart people.

One topic I am interested exploring extensively is how the ECM market is responding to the “Cloud Computing”. There has been quite a bit of hype over the last couple of years and it will be interesting to see how far the ECM vendors have gone to close the gap between myth and reality.

First let’s make sure we are all on the same page. I will use Forrester’s definition for cloud computing: “A standardized IT capability, such as software, application platform, or infrastructure, delivered via Internet technologies in a pay-per-use and self-service way.” Pretty straight forward, right, then why all the confusion?

Microsoft and the Cloud

Microsoft has been heavily promoting both their Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Windows Azure. These are two distinctly different offerings with BPOS delivered as software as a service (SaaS) and Windows Azure delivered as an infrastructure as a service (IaaS). So how are these two offerings different? Here is a simple definition of these two offerings:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):

IaaS (Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Microsoft’s Azure) provide virtual computing environments allowing customers to use web service interfaces to launch instances of operating systems and associated blocks of storage on demand. Customers use the provider’s administrative console to start, stop, and access and configure their virtual servers and storage.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS):

With SaaS the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure and their software product over the internet for use as a service on demand. Good examples of SaaS offerings include web-based email and applications from Google, CRM (sales management & reporting) from SalesForce.com, SharePoint, Exchange Email and Office Communicator from Microsoft with BPOS.

Other ECM Vendors and The Cloud

No doubt the other ECM vendors at the 2010 AIIM conference will be talking about their Cloud offerings. Looking at the conference agenda and reading the descriptions of the keynote sessions the only session which discusses the Cloud is the keynote entitled “Reinvent Work, Collaboration, and Innovation in the 21st Century” by Google’s Cyrus Mistry.

Reviewing the conference sessions, I did not really see many sessions (only a few) addressing ECM in the Cloud. So it will be interesting to see what is being talked about on the exposition floor by the ECM vendors. When I searched for “Cloud Strategy” on EMC’s website the recommended link in the search results was Virtual Computing Environment coalition (VCE) which looks like it is targeted at enterprises who want to create a “cloud-like” utility computing capability within their firewalls also known as a “Private Cloud”. I will be interested to see if EMC is working on a similar SaaS offerings to Microsoft’s BPOS.

My goal this week will be to see who really “get’s it” and understands the implications and challenges of managing your corporate information in the Cloud. I want to see who has already thought through the personal data privacy and e-Discovery implications. I will be really excited if I find someone who has gone the extra mile and defined an implementation pattern and methodology for leveraging the Cloud for ECM. I am not holding my breath on this one.

I’ll let you know what I find out this week.

Technorati Tags: AIIM,BetterECM,SharePoint,ECM

Presenting Keynote at LegalTech 2010: Don’t Build your E-Discovery Program on a Digital Landfill

I will be presenting the opening keynote at LegalTech 2010 in New York city on February 1st.

My presentation entitled "Don’t Build Your E-Discovery Program on a Digital Landfill" will highlight some of the challenges in addressing information management within the EDRM model, show the correlation between sound practices and successful E-Discovery programs, and to provide specific action steps attendees can use to manage digital information overflow.

I feel like I will be preaching to the choir since most attendees already know how challenging this problem is but they will come away from my session with some actionable recommendations to help get control of the mounds of information at their companies.

Hope to see you there…

Technorati Tags: EDRM,LegalTech,E-Discovery

One of The Best Industry Events I’ve Participated In…

Hat tip to the organizers, Stacey Cripps and Joyce Osborne, of the  ECM Professional Development Executive Forum held last week in Chicago. Both are committee members in the Chicago AIIM Chapter.

I participated on the morning panel, “ECM as a Career – Defining the Profession”, with Connie Moore from Forrester and Stuart Hubbard with Schiff Hardin. Jeetu Patel from Doculabs moderated and did a good job of keeping things moving.

One way I judge the value of events I am asked to participate in is if I learn something new. I learned a lot and found the questions from the over 100 attendees in the audience thought provoking and interesting. As panelists we strived to share our experiences and provide help and guidance for those looking to advance their careers in what I called “Information Governance”.

Stacey and Joyce did a fantastic job organizing the event by inviting interesting panelists and providing a great opportunity for the attendees to learn and network with others in the industry.

They are planning to do this next year and I encourage anyone to who is interested in advancing their Information Governance career to plan and attend.

Well done!

Technorati Tags: AIIM,ECM

AIIM Webinar: SharePoint and Your Information Infrastructure

I was the speaker for this webinar last week with AIIM and EMC. Here is the synopsis:

On the surface, implementing SharePoint as an enterprise content management solution seems simple and straightforward. After all, pop in your disk and, voila, SharePoint is installed. Yet, like every other single piece of information technology, deciding the proper role for SharePoint in your organization becomes complicated. Fast. How do you determine the role that SharePoint can play in your ECM strategy? We’re here to help.

SharePoint can, and will, play a key role in many organizations’ enterprise content management strategy. However, other than for some smaller companies, SharePoint is not an ECM infrastructure in and of itself; it needs to integrate with and be extended by other products for issues such as compliance, storage management, document imaging, etc. Discover how to leverage the capabilities of both SharePoint and ECM tools, including issues around interoperability. We’ll conclude with a look at potential return on investment.

To view the archived event click HERE. Hope you find it useful.

Technorati Tags: MOSS 2007,ECM,AIIM,SharePoint

Slight Redesign: New Presentations Page Added

I added a new page to BetterECM today which has all the presentations I have uploaded to slideshare last year.

I hope my readers find this new feature useful. Let me know what you think.

 

 

Technorati Tags: BetterECM