Weekly Packet: Cloudy with a Chance of Innovation

by Christine Cignoli on November 11, 2016

Cloud adoption just keeps increasing, with more to come, according to this recent IDG cloud survey. They found that the average company has 45% of their IT environment in the cloud, and that by the end of 2017, the average company expects it’ll be closer to 59%.

With all those numbers in hand and other signs that cloud computing is firmly entrenched in modern enterprises, IT will continue to be challenged by cloud. This report from Cloud Technology Partners sees cloud management and governance as one of the next must-haves for IT. Aside from products, they also see IT as getting more savvy about when to use containers, as well as how to migrate data to the cloud as seamlessly as possible.

We also came across some big-picture ideas this week, around choosing projects and paths forward in technology companies. The X division of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, works on “moonshot” projects like self-driving cars. The director of the division says that quick failure is better—not as an end result of every project, of course, but better than wasting time and money on something that won’t work.

And this piece on the “jobs to be done” concept of matching customers and products explains this new way of thinking about usefulness and success. It’s a complement to the idea of disruptive innovation, and the “jobs” in question offers a new way of thinking about what’s needed to address a certain need or problem. For IT teams, this will often mean finding the right tech product to fill a business need. One really interesting point is that real innovations solve problems that either had bad or no solutions before. That’s something to remember next time you’re ambushed with marketing speak!

Till next week, may all your jobs get done.