The IT Melting Pot!

This blog post is not really supposed to give any clear message, just to confuse a bit more and see if anyone out there can assist in clearing the view going forward from a strategy point of view.

The main question is; how are users going to leverage and consume services so that they know where to store and get to their data, collaborate with it, archive it etc.? 

Right now I personally live in a very confused world, but I’m still a bit of a geek so I got a fairly good idea on how and where to store my data so that I can reach it and store it the best possible way. But just today I have the following services and capabilities that I consume;

• Personal Data
  • DropBox
  • iCloud
  • Local Macbook Air that is backed up to my TimeMachine
  • DVD’s etc…
• Corporate Data
  • ShareFile (On-premise and public ShareFile service)
  • DropBox
  • H:\ drive
  • SharePoint (Office 365)
  • Document management system

This picture is an ugly and quickly put together one but kind of highlight the problem we face as solution architects when we shall try and paint the way forward and the wanted position for our corporation in terms of how to provide cost effective, simple and intuitive storage services to our end-users.

So how are users going to know where to store which type of data, and where and when they can get to it, from which device and from which application? This is getting confusing for them…

How cool wouldn’t it be with “SmartAccess” capabilities for Podio and ShareFile features/content, all controlled by NetScaler/Access Gateway and the Receiver? 😉

And what does IT do? Well we are the middle of driving this cool new initiative to purchase everything as a service and introduce new collaboration tools like Podio, Office 365, ShareFile  etc. And does that simplify it all? Well, my personal view is YES and NO depending on how well you execute your new strategy around data services. Do you really go the whole way and provide a service that is self-explaining and integrated from all the apps, devices and contexts in which the user will need access to it? I guess NO…

Take an example; if you use both Podio and ShareFile; does the end-user then know which one to use for storing confidential data? And is that confidential data stored where it’s supposed to be stored (probably on your on-premise ShareFile storage or SharePoint site)?

And why does the user get two (2) interfaces/apps to get to the different data from Podio and ShareFile? And why does he need to use another interface to access the SharePoint data? And yet another way to access his H: drive data (I know about the ShareFile connector which solves this to a certain level)?

So I think that the company out there that can provide a “global storage bus” targeted for end-user data and information aggregation will be really successful. One that can allow the user to access the same data (when needed and allowed) in a secure and controlled way from both File Browsers like Explorer, web apps that connects to it using WebDAV or whatever, from mobile apps like ShareFile does etc., that company will be successful!

But who’s gonna win this battle of being the “User Data Connector/Bus” service of the future? Only time will tell but I think that Citrix has a good lead with ShareFile, and if just Podio could be integrated as well then that would be awesome. And of course you shall not forget the other features that we’re waiting on from Citrix like encryption on all devices (iOS, Android, Windows XP, 7, 8, Linux, OS X..) and also the possibility to hook in your own “cloud storage” like Amazon services in a fully integrated and secure manner.

One cool feature that was released now is; New feature: With Podio Share, you can collaborate on single Projects & Tasks with anyone 

Ok, I’ll once again stop rambling… but there are a lot of work to be done within this area I must say!

Cheers!

//Richard