The Future of the CIO

Be sure to join me on November 2nd as I discuss our predictions for the future of the CIO with my colleagues. Registration is free! During this webinar we will discuss the key predictions that will impact CIOs and IT professionals over the next one to three years. Senior IT leaders and line-of-business executives will come away with guidance for managing the implications these predictions harbor for their IT investment priorities and implementation strategies.

IDC FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2017 Predictions

Hope you can join!

Mobile World Congress, can you describe it?

Wow, what a week. I just returned from Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona and all I can say is it was overwhelming! The changes that are coming over the course of the next year are really going to redefine how we look at mobility and devices overall. It was a week filled with great information, great people and great products starting with a half-day theater session with HP.

Read the full post here.

Mobilizing on the Med – HP Discover Barcelona

It seems like just yesterday I was on a plane back from Las Vegas after our last HP Discover, and I can’t believe Barcelona is now just around the corner! What I think is even more exciting is that in just that short time I’ve seen the mobile landscape change again. With the launch of the HP Chromebook, the Nexus5, the iPhone 5 (s and c). Too many new changes to count, oh and don’t get me started on the new companies, the mergers, the latest technologies, and it’s only been 5 months.

All this is just making the idea of heading out to Barcelona and meeting customers and industry peers to talk about what HP is doing in the mobile space that much more exciting. For the uninitiated, HP Discover is our big event we hold twice a year to showcase what we, and our partners, are doing. Attendees get to experience the latest hardware, software and services in a fantastic venue on the Mediterranean.  ( I have to admit, I’m going to be doing my best to sneak out and hit the beach. But,  I think I’m going to be pretty booked up.)

Currently I have four different sessions/panels that I’m going to be a part of.  I would love you to come join me at one or all of them as we discuss everything there is to discuss about mobility in the enterprise. Discussions will range from our own journey in HP IT to the entire enterprise mobility landscape. There’s a little something for everyone.

If you’re attending, please be sure to sign up for one of my sessions.  I’m always happy to meet with people that are working in the mobile space and answer questions, but also learn what you are up to. If you haven’t signed up for Discover,I encourage you to register here.  I promise  it’s an awesome conference that you won’t want to miss.

The following is a list of the sessions I’ll be a part of:

BB1682	Mobilizing HP: how to embrace BYOD
BB1683	Mobilizing your enterprise: an expert panel
BB2085	Lessons from HP IT and HP experts. Empowering your mobile workforce – BYOD and productivity
TB1895	Mobilizing the HP enterprise – The IT Journey

Hope to see you all in Barcelona!

A Great Weekend for Mobile Hacking

HP Anywhere Hackathon

I’ve been working in the Bay Area for the best part of the last almost 20 years and I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. I remember the days when Craigslist was simply run by Craig Newmark out of his loft in the city and he’d throw parties to bring together everyone working on the web. I also remember when we discussed merging our Web Development firm with a company that did WAP development back in 1999.  A lot has changed since those lofty days of the Internet Boom and we experienced quite a bust after that period. But as everyone knows, the Silicon Valley is based on a bust and boom, bust and boom economy. This is  not because we create bubbles, but because we create. And when we create the world takes notice.

Read the full article on HP’s Apps for Mobile site.

HP Discover Panel Discussion: Empowering the mobile workforce: BYOD and beyond

My panel discussion from HP Discover is now available on-demand from the HP Discover 2012 website. It was a great discussion led by Neil Miles, HP’s Mobility Solution Manager, with Kitty Chow from HP’s Technical Services Marketing, Lars Koelendorf  HP’s PSS Life Cycle Marketing Manager, Ajay Gupta the Director of Notebook Product Management and myself. We talked about everything from how to mobilize the enterprise to HP’s latest offerings in the mobile space.

If you attended the show, simply log in, otherwise a quick registration is required to view the content.

Link to Panel Discussion Video.

Will Open Source Win Out? – iPhone vs. Android (infographic)

Move from MEAP to DEAP Thinking: The Shift Needed in the Mobile Enterprise

I just finished reading yet another article telling me that this is the year of MEAP (Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms) and how the enterprise and developers need to get onboard or be left behind. Now don’t get me wrong, MEAPs are a huge part of the mobility revolution and they are an important aspect of the current deployment of mobile apps within the enterprise. However, I’m really seeing a convergence of the mobility platform with the rest of the enterprise and I am seeing this within our own enterprise today. Every day I get to work with some of the smartest people in the room and they are actively looking for ways to not only join in on but also shape the future of the revolution.

Consumerization of IT may be Ready for the PC but Employees Aren’t so Sure

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We talk so much lately about the consumerization of IT and the BYOD trend which is blurring the lines between company and personal use of devices but are employees ready to take that to the next level by bringing their own computers to work? Over the years, I’ve known a number of developers who work with Mac based systems that would fight tooth and nail to get them allowed into our PC based world, but have always known that the majority of people I worked with had their company computer and then their personal computer and never the twain shall meet. It’s not that these people had nefarious data on their personal computers, it just that they were “personal.”

There are many who are looking to change this trend, with Microsoft leading the way. In his recent blog post, Managing “BYO” PCs in the enterprise (including WOA), Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows and Windows Live division, said: “Our focus has been on how we can continue to deliver PCs and software that users need, like applications and data-access on any device, with enough IT control to assert that the device is trustworthy, while avoiding any compromise of the user’s privacy on their personal device.” The key here is that Microsoft is trying to offer the best of both worlds where employees can have their own personal computers, but connect them up to the networks in a fashion that is acceptable by IT organizations. However, even though this technology will be available, and it may even placate the IT side of things, the question remains as to whether or not this is something that employees will embrace.

Feels Like 1995 All Over Again, but Better this Time

You know that old saying; “I feel like a kid again.” We say it when things from our past remind us of how things once were. Maybe it’s the smell of a wood burning fire, or a song from a time past. Today, I’m feeling like a kid again when I look at what’s happening with Mobility. It’s the latest and greatest craze and everyone is jumping on board the mobility train. But for me, and I’m sure a lot of other people, it’s feeling very reminiscent of a time not so long ago. A kinder, gentler time when computers sat under desks and an SGI machine was something to get excited about. I’m talking about the dawn of the web and the changes it brought, not just to our everyday lives, but to our core existence. As we move into this new frontier of a mobile life, we can take a look at many lessons to be learned from the boom of the 1990’s when Mosaic changed the way we looked at our computers. In the early 90’s, computers were mainly used for functions such as email and finance in the corporate space, and for word processing and games in the home. With the onset of AOL and CompuServe, we began to see a quantum shift in the way people used computers, however. They were no longer just a functional tool; they were becoming part of the consumer landscape. This wasn’t lost on advertisers who flocked to spam and other functions during the AOL days. But what really changed this medium forever was the invention of a little application called Mosaic that brought the Internet to the masses in the form of the World Wide Web. People went from using their computers for basic work functions to turning it into an entertainment hub where they could find the latest news, movie info and restaurants. I was there in the early 90s and actively participated in the birth of an industry. Virtual everything sprouted up, some good, some not so good and we all rode a wave of excitement and prosperity. That is, until the bust.