Oracle, AmberPoint, and the SOA Management ecosystem

Earlier this morning, Oracle announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire AmberPoint.  AmberPoint will be integrated and managed under Oracle’s Enterprise Manager division, and over time will be ported to the EM management framework.

For both existing customers and new prospects, this is positive news on many levels (i.e. broader/deeper capabilities after integration with EM, removing any doubts or concerns over vendor financial stability, product viability, solution’s strategic fit in the enterprise, etc).  AmberPoint will fill the gaps in Oracle’s SOA management capabilities today, and should play a key role for Oracle Cloud management in the future. With Oracle’s sales and distribution channels, AmberPoint will be able to reach new markets and extend market share.

In SOA management business, AmberPoint and SOA Software were the only key niche players left.  This acquisition puts Oracle in direct competition with SOA Software.  It will end the Oracle and SOA software partnership.  Looking forward, SOA Software is likely either going to get acquired – or - has to figure out a different product and partner strategy to compete. 

In terms of acquisition, the usual suspects for SOA Software include IBM, Microsoft, CA, HP, BMC or possibly even SAP.   Any of these vendors should be able to take their solutions and integrate them as part of a broader ESM/BSM solution.  SOA Software assets could help accelerate with that.  As far as product strategy, I think SOA Software will have to break away from just “SOA management” targeting enterprise customers into broader Cloud management also targeting Cloud service providers: self-service, asset/portfolio management, Cloud operational governance (quota, policies, SLA, billing, …) configuration, provisioning, automation…  They can do some of that on their own or go to market with new partners.

In summary, Oracle’s acquisition is definitely good for customers.  It also forces the other player to consider solutions and strategies.

What apps are likely to move to the Cloud…

Earlier this week, IDC published an interesting survey on what applications are likely to move to the Cloud.   I thought about blogging about this, because they made some good points & observations in their analysis, and it also follows my previous post on application and workload analysis for Cloud Computing nicely.  
I am not going to repeat what’s said in their survey, but wanted to add a couple of points before moving any application to the Cloud:

• Cost: What is the current annual cost of maintaining and running the existing application?   For most enterprises, cost reduction is the key driver for Cloud, so establishing the cost should probably be one of the first activities in any migration.  [N.B. If the Cloud is considered for new applications, a similar cost analysis should be performed to estimate the initial cost of building the application + estimating the annual ongoing maintenance and operation.  It would be best to breakdown the costs in terms of infrastructure, operation, and solution development & maintenance.]
• Cloud Selection: Different Clouds offer different capabilities and different charge-back models.  As an example, with Google App Engine, you can upload your web app to Google’s infrastructure.  You’re not charged unless the application serves requests.   Now, contrast that with EC2.  Obviously, you must launch your AMI to start your application, so you’re billed for CPU usage even if the application is sitting idle. Please note that I am not suggesting GAE is better than AWS.  They are different platforms for running different types of applications, and offer different capabilities.  So, Cloud selection is a very important consideration not only with regards to costs, but also in terms of building, delivery, and management of the target solution.

There are many other considerations such as service provider’s alignment with the enterprise in terms of operations, support, compliance, SLA, and technical fit of the Cloud service vis-a-vis the application, etc…
Finally, in the overblown world of Cloud Computing where “Cloud” is myopically restricted to only a few forms such as AWS, GAE, Force.com, etc, it should be noted that many companies have already been using Internet-based services routinely for more than a decade.  These services have been used to fulfill simple functional requirements such as address normalization or tax calculation to more complex business processes (i.e. risk analysis) or business process outsourcing (i.e. order fulfillment) where enterprise data is typically hosted on an external  service provider or tightly integrated with the service provider.  So, in addition to the list of application types that IDC has presented in their survey, hosted solutions and/or BPOs represents another class of candidate applications for “Cloud Computing”.

Do you have the right CoE model?

Rolling out new approaches and technologies require change to the existing ways that an organization operates. Implementing change is probably the toughest challenge any executive has to face. It is expensive and requires long-term commitment and perseverance. It also requires effective management of various emotional, political, and subterranean realities in the organization from left to right and top to bottom.

One of the common best practices for implementing change or rolling out new technologies is the concept of Center of Excellence (CoE). CoEs are modeled to facilitate transformation and accelerate adoption of new technologies. They do that by establishing a process framework, roadmaps, raising awareness, socializing the benefits, education and mentoring, guidelines to aid in critical decisions...

Enterprises fund different CoEs (i.e. Integration, SOA, Content Management…). They are proven to reduce the costs and risks associated with adopting new technologies.

While there are lots of commonalities and similarities with respect to the way different organizations operate, enterprises vary in terms of people, history, and culture. It is important to consider this when planning a CoE.

Many enterprises employ a central model of CoE:

This is more of an outbound model where a central group of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from CoE engages with Lines of Business (LOBs) to support the program and related projects/activities.

This works well when there is good alignment and cooperation between the CoE and the LOBs.

However, it may not be the best model in other organizations if the LOBs are more autonomous and have their own IT groups. It would be much more effective to deploy a more distributed model for the CoE where the CoE resources are actually part of the LOB team.

Regardless of the model, it is important to monitor the effectiveness of the CoE using specific metrics in areas such as program, projects, awareness, education...