One of Gartner’s VPs and a Distinguished Analyst has praised the Plan, noting a significant focus on promoting a “Cloud First” Policy.

The 25 Points are grouped under 6 headings as follows:

A. Apply “light Technology”and Shared Solutions

1. Complete detailed implementation plans to consolidate at least 800 data centers by 2015
2. Create a government-wide marketplace for data center availability
3. Shift to a “Cloud First” policy
4. Stand-up contract vehicles for secure IaaS solutions
5. Stand-up contract vehicles for commodity services
6. Develop a strategy for shared services

B. Strengthen Program management

1. Design a formal IT program management career path
2. Scale IT program management career path government-wide
3. Require integrated program teams
4. Launch a best practices collaboration platform
5. Launch technology fellows program
6. Enable IT program manager mobility across government and industry

C. Align the Acquisition Process with the Technology Cycle

1. Design and develop a cadre of specialized IT acquisition professionals
2. Identify IT acquisition best practices and adopt government-wide
3. Issue contracting guidance and templates to support modular development
4. Reduce barriers to entry for small innovative technology companies

D. Align the Budget Process with the Technology Cycle

1. Work with Congress to develop IT budget models that align with modular development
2. Develop supporting materials and guidance for flexible IT budget models
3. Work with Congress to scale flexible IT budget models more broadly
4. Work with Congress to consolidate commodity IT spending under Agency CIO

E. Streamline Governance and Improve Accountability

1. Reform and strengthen Investment Review Boards
2. Redefine role of Agency CIOs and Federal CIO Council
3. Rollout “TechStat” model at bureau-level

F. Increase Engagement with Industry

1. Launch “myth-busters” education campaign
2. Launch interactive platform for pre-RFP agency-industry collaboration

Have a look at the Announcement here. With some of the negative press on Government ICT projects in Australia at the moment, perhaps a good read of this by some of our Federal and State Government CIOs wouldn’t go astray.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

Integrated Streetview in Google Earth 6

Have a look by downloading the new version here!

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

Subsequent to this article, some 1.5 years later, I now have some additional comments:

1. George Negus recently stated that the NBN was far too important for our Nation to be divided on political lines at addressing the need, and a Bipartisan approach should be taken to find the most efficient means of providing this engineering task.
2. This is an engineering task and not an ICT one (in the main), many people in the ICT industry (and most other industries for that matter) don’t get it.
3. I’d like to expand on my last 2 points in the original article, as they are the most important. In Queensland specifically we have a significant problem with managing the infrastructure in the South-East corner due to the huge influx of people to that area. Broadband-based Rich Telecommuting opens up the tremendous opportunity to enable people to operate their businesses completely from a home office, or a suburban/town based “Hotdesk” office. This can and will lead to the decentralisation of cities, and in Queensland specifically, but generally in all of Australia, that has tremendous potential.
4. Australia’s Services Industry accounts for 70% of our economic activity. Don’t even tell me we are a mining Nation any more. In Queensland alone, there are more people in just the ICT Industry than in mining.

Australia is no longer an Agricultural society, and is close to the end of it’s Resources significance from an economic perspective. The services industry is booming and will ultimately become our major export, and a superior broadband infrastructure is critical for this boom to flourish.

This way we unlock the minds and talent in Regional centres and make them globally available. Desk-based video conferencing will be a key enabler for this.

Small businesses taking up Cloud delivered services and software solutions to make them more competitive and productive will need this infrastructure with high levels of redundancy for Business continuity.

The high business tempo in Australia at the moment is a bellwether to the fact that we do not have this infrastructure in place at the moment, and we are having to work harder to compete. Look at all the media comments about people taking less leave etc.

There are a few technologies that indicate a direction our economy will shift in the next 5-10 years and we need this infrastructure in place to meet that demand. Watch these developments:

1. The uptake of Electric Cars (Look at www.teslamotors.com and www.betterplace.com) will change the World’s dependance on Oil and LNG. If you think this is unlikely, look at the uptake on iPads and iPhones. Note: I am not talking hybrids here, total electric. And if you think Electric cars don’t perform, have a look at the youtube videos on the Tesla
2. Solar Store and Forward for the home. As homes move more and more towards being able to generate all the power they need (including charging the car) the greatest cost in providing energy (Not the actual generation, but maintaining the distribution network) will decrease. As this trend increases across the World, there will be less demand for Coal. Australia is one of the best positioned countries on the planet to take advantage of Solar energy. Consider that the amount spent on the stimulus package last year could have replaced every coal powered generator in our Country with Solar/Wind/Geothermal alternatives. Also consider the concept of “Peak Tellurium”. We have seen the Rare Earth shortage issue in China. Materials for generation of Solar Power will decrease over time. There is not enough tellurium (used in solar cells) on the planet to power the planet. Far better Australia gets in early.
3. The broad take-up of Video communication capability. Led by the games and social networking boom. (Look at the effect the XBox Kinect will have over this Christmas period) This technology uptake will feed the Telebusiness capabilities and use across the globe. On the critical path for this technology will be Ubiquitous Broadband. It will be a game changer for Telecommuting. Telecommuting will be the biggest enabler of Rural Business as more people in rural areas move to service industries. Rural towns will no longer rely on the ‘Local Mill’ or the ‘Local Mine’ for their economic survival. The growth of towns will be based on their suitability for Lifestyle choices, and Australia is well placed for that. I can currently work from home with the broadband that I have, including limited capability Video. But my clients aren’t using this technology necessitating the need for ‘Meetings’. When these people see what their children are doing on their Video connected games platforms, and as these teenagers enter the workforce (They introduced social technologies to the business world), this dynamic will change.

All of these technological changes will lead to Australia needing to enable the Services Industry and deemphasising the resources industries over the next decade. The key underpinning technology will be ubiquitous broadband.

So… Does the Government need to fund this project? Looking at the Coalition’s current policy there is more of a recognition that intervention is needed, and under Turnbull, that is shifting more. So I don’t think that is greatly under contention.

The primary difference is whether NBNCo should do it. Until the NBN came into being we suffered as a Nation under a Telco Monopoly which was a major roadblock. That is now history, and while the current Labor Government continues along the NBNCo path, this will become less of an issue. Until the next Federal election (3 years away short of a Constitutional Crisis) much of the rollout will be underway.

Another issue is the fact that people look at the $43B price tag and divide that by 22M Australians and come up with $1954 per person as the cost (or about $6000 for the average family). This is rubber economics or put simply, wrong. A good chunk (potentially up to two-thirds) of the NBN will be taken up by business and institutions who will foot the bill for this provision of service. In reality most homes will see a cost of service similar to Tasmania’s current offerings between $70 to $140 per month for the full 100MB service.

In Summary:

• Australia is racing towards a Services based Industry Economy
• Reliable Broadband Services will underpin that economy , well beyond the current, and recently released NBN Business Case White-paper suggests
• Telebusiness & Telecommuting will have City-changing and massive Transportation affecting benefits for our Economy
• Emerging Technologies will have a significant impact on these demands and the change of our Economic focus
• As we move through Labor’s second term, the contention about the NBN will dissipate
• Much education of the populous and industry and the politicians is still required

I hope this provides some insight into the National Broadband initiative underway in Australia. Always happy to discuss further.

Regards,
Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

The Google Wave Developer Blog announced last week that the server and web client technology will be ‘fleshed out’ into a stand-alone solution or “Wave in a Box”

The Project will include:

It will be interesting to watch as this develops over the next few months.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

Not only is it a comprehensive description, the mind-map approach to it makes it an interesting read.

The data centre section is very interesting!

Click on the image for a fullscreen view.

(Image courtesy of the PPC Blog)

How Google Search Works

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

Happy to say it meets nearly all of my needs, with the only change needed for my operations being a new bank account.

The Cloud offering allows me to administer attendances on an iPad at the Dojo on any given night, allowing great flexibility for mobility.

Here are a few shots of the iPad Mobility solution for managing students:

iPad Calendar in Zenplanner

iPad Attendance in Zenplanner

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com
glenn.irvine@kodomon.com.au

The three core areas in Google Enterprise, Collaboration, Search & Geospatial are all very interesting and have great promise.

We are working on some amazing projects that will bring all three areas together.  Some of the Geospatial work will be revolutionary here in Australia, and that is very exciting!

More to come on that, and we will be presenting on it at the World Computing Congress in September!

The Google and HEDLOC culture are compelling and worth mentioning. In this fast paced World, you can not look after your people enough, and when a company does, it is always commendable!

One thing I can encourage readers to look at… as a bit of a teaser…

Consider Geospatial Augmented Reality [Google it ], there is a World of possibility there. And in the meantime, have a look at this great TED presentation by John Underkoffler of MIT on the future of UI.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

Just a bit of a make-over for “A Collaborative View”… In line with my move into the World of Google, I am rebadging this blog and that brings with it a new name.

So from this post forward my blog is going to be called “Looking to the Cloud”, and the old web address of www.collaborativeview.com will still point to it for a period as any that are following the blog make the transition to:

www.lookingtothecloud.com

Both addresses will get you here in the interim, and all the old content has been imported into the new site.

I’m looking forward to this journey as we look to the Cloud and all the interesting trends and new technologies, and the benefits (and challenges) that we face as we see the World make that transition as well.

Let me know what you think!

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

Werner used an analogy of companies installing personal electricity generators when a public utility was available, also stating that much of this hype (read FUD) around Private Clouds was led by Hardware Vendors that stand to lose significantly in this space.

Read the ARN Article here:

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/347576/cebit_2010_amazon_dismisses_private_clouds/?eid=-4152

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

As of Wednesday this week, I have started as a Senior Sales Manager for Australia’s Leading Google Enterprise Business Partner, HEDLOC, looking after the Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australian territories.

This has been a while in the making and as you will have seen, many of my posts to this blog has been related to Google and its travels in the Collaboration World.

While my times with IBM and the Lotus Technologies in particular have been great, I believe Google has the next Enterprise Evolution, as far as collaboration technologies go, well and truly in it’s sights (and business model)

The Cloud Phenomenon is definitely gaining momentum, with many CEOs and CIOs coming on board with a Cloud Vision for their organisations.

In many cases, the numbers stack up, only too compellingly. I also believe Google has the greatest brand for the Cloud, and you have to admire their corporate vision and culture. The place oozes with Innovation.

So watch this space… You will definitely hear more from me as this trend gathers pace.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com