29The National Business Review / April 4, 2014

As the Ultrafast

Broadband (UFB)

rollout starts to gain

momentum, our

special feature looks

at what’s in it for

business. We also

check out the latest

developments, the

local vs multinational

cloud provider

debate, mobile

device management,

document

management and the

top technology trends

for next year and the

next 10 years.

Information Technology and ICT

Special Report

The war heats up: NZ cloud providers vs multinationalsChris Keall

The big service cloud providers have been in a full-blown price war over the past week and a half. Pricing for Google’s Cloud Platform was slashed last week. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure pricing was in turn chopped.

The big three in the cloud space have slashed pricing on various cloud services by between a third and a half in this latest round of jostling alone. Pundits expect the brutal price war to continue as Google, Amazon and Microsoft continue their land

grab in these early days of cloud computing.

They’re at war over pricing, and they’re also expanding as they build more and more huge data centres – and creep closer to New Zealand. Microsoft and Google’s nearest cloud data cen-tres are in Singapore but Ama-zon now has AWS cloud centres in Sydney – and has begun push it aggressively through New Zea-land based partners such as Data-com and the New Zealand office of Australasian company Vocus, which now offers a dedicated “Cloud Connect” link to AWS in Sydney.

Companies like e-tailer Fish-pond, Westpac, MetService, Victo-ria University, Snapper and online gaming SmallWorlds have signed up with AWS.

Before the latest round of price cuts, Fishpond general manager Ben Powles told NBR his compa-ny was paying around $30,000 to host its site with AWS – perhaps the bluntest measure of cloud pricing. A key point is that Mr Powles has discovered the best pricing by – up to 60% – is to be had with “reserved instances” or the more traditional model of tak-ing a punt on how much band-width you’ll need in the month

ahead rather than taking advan-tage of the flexibility of the cloud to throw more, or fewer, servers at a site as traffic and requirements like software testing demand. Still, that’s a very keen price given the etailer’s traffic (around 250,000 visitors generating nearly two million page impressions a day).

Now, it will be keener, and Google and Microsoft have pledged to match Amazon’s pric-ing (exact comparisons are tricky as each has different charges for services such as hosting, com-

Continued on P30

pute, storage and bandwidth, and bigger customers get offered better rates, and rates vary by region).

For the big three, and other multi-nationals, it’s all about scale and com-moditising the cloud. During a visit to Auckland, AWS chief technology officer Dr Werner Vogels told NBR Amazon has cut its pricing 33 times since it launched in 2006 and will continue to do so. The same goes for its rivals, which also include the likes of HP and IBM, playing catch up.

Some commentators wonder if local cloud providers will simply get steam-rolled. Some said privately-held local data centre operator Revera’s decision to sell itself to Telecom for $98.5 million in August last year was well timed.

“Moore’s law tells us that the cost of computing halves roughly every 18 months. Add to that the fact that we have multiple public cloud vendors competing for a massive market and you have a real recipe for continuing price cuts. For some time we’ve seen Google, AWS and Micro-soft take turns to set new price levels. This race looks likely to continue – a real boon for customer,” Christchurch-based cloud computing commentator and Forbes.com contributor Ben Kepes tells NBR.

“Any New Zealand organisation that has a requirement to have its data within New Zealand has no option but to look at a local provider since none of the large cloud vendors are here yet,” he says.

“The only other reason to go local is if there is a specific service need that a local vendor delivers. Large global vendors may not be as responsive to customer inquir-ies than a smaller local vendor will be.”

“But outside of that, there are few use cases that really demand a local provider –with most of the large vendors having ser-vices in Australia now, the concerns with regards latency [lag] have largely been removed. It should be noted that Xero, since its inception, has hosted in the US with Rackspace and it suffers no latency issues because of it.”

So can the locals cut it?Revera head of innovation Keith Archibald says, for starters, most larger organisa-tions have a patchwork of cloud services. Things will get neater but for now they have series of “cloud silos” – using some public cloud services, some private cloud

services, some local, some offshore – and with traditional on-premise services mixed in too.

“It’s not about the price war but how they’re going to manage the transition,” Mr Archibald says. Revera offers a dash-board interface that he says makes it easy for a company to manage a patchwork of different cloud services while they under-go the process of “cloud aggregation.”

He also pitches that Revera’s services help a company control costs as its staff use a stew of different cloud services.

Mr Archibald essays a couple of argu-ments NBR often hears about the large providers, including that there can be hidden costs, especially in terms of data egress – extracting data from the cloud – which he says often causes sticker shock for New Zealand customers. And that the likes of AWS, Google and Microsoft offer cloud platforms that are optimised for large companies, and those that have a lot of expertise inhouse (to return to our early example, Fishpond has two server experts inhouse (although it no longer has any servers at its Auckland headquarters), who keep an eye on its network, and AWS. Maintaining and tweaking a cloud setup with one of the big players is far beyond most small to medium businesses’ where-withal, Mr Archibald says.

Yet, like rival Datacom, which both maintains its own data centres in New Zealand and Australia and partners with AWS, Mr Archibald says there is a place for the multinationals (definitely the right answer now that his company is part of Telecom, which includes the vendor-neu-tral services division Gen-i).

Revera will soon add support for a number of the offshore providers’ cloud services to its dashboard interface, the head of innovation says.

The likes of Datacom and Revera have a natural bias toward local services, of course, with a dash of access to the mul-tinationals thrown in for good measure (shortly, for Revera).

But, from his independent perspective, IDC’s Adam Dodds says such a mix is a good approach.

“The global theme across all of the provider community is hybrid – whereby a mix of local, near shore and global will provide an organisation with the require-ments needed for each workload. Work-loads can be categorised by whether they are network intensive, storage-intensive or process-intensive,” he says.

Like all-comers, he adds that possible legal requirements to keep certain data in New Zealand, also weigh on the decision.

NZ a laggardMr Dodds adds that, “New Zealand organ-

isations have been slow to migrate from an on-remises to hosted and cloud based solutions,” By IDC’s estimate, 66% of NZ racks are still on a customers’ premises.

Why are we behind?“It’s because of our traditional DIY

approach to everything,” Mr Dodds says.“In the new world of social, mobile,

cloud and big data organisations must choose what they are not going to do – and therefore buy from the market. Com-pute services such as hosted or cloud infrastructure are the easiest option as they are a scale based business model. All New Zealand chief executives should be asking their CIOs [chief information offic-ers] how they are going to leverage cloud solutions and providers.

“Google, AWS and Microsoft [public clouds] are all credible providers in the market. Arguably Amazon is significantly larger than that of its nearest competi-tion.” (IDC’s market research rival, Garner, estimates Amazon has 14 times the cloud capacity of its nearest 14 rivals com-bined).

“New Zealand organisations should be aware and knowledgeable about these solutions and the relative price differ-

30 SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT / The National Business ReviewApril 4, 2014

From P29

Continued on P38

KEITH ARCHIBALD: “I like to use the Starbucks vs your local independent café analogy.”

ADAM DODDS: The IDC researcher says NZ companies should keep their cloud contracts short during this time of change. And if you’re with a local provider, don’t be shy of trying to bargain cost decreases linked to global price decreases.

Know your cloud services

Most of us are now familiar with basic cloud services from online storage and fi le sharing services like Dropbox and Apple’s iCloud, to software-as-service offerings like Xero, Microsoft Offi ce 365 and Salesforce.com.

What about the next levels? Christchurch-based cloud computing commentator and Forbes.com contributor Ben Kepes explains the most common cloud acronyms:

“Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is method whereby large organisations can deliver a full desktop experience over the internet. The benefi t of DaaS as opposed to regular PCs is that enterprise IT has control over the applications that are used and can much more easily manage the upgrade process,” he says.

“Platform as a Service (PaaS) allows software developers to create an application and completely automate the deployment, scaling (increasing use) and management of that application. AWS and Microsoft are rapidly moving their IaaS offerings to be more PaaS-like.

“Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) can be thought of as replacing physical servers in your offi ce with servers that can be accessed over the internet. Rather than handling servers and storage themselves, enterprises can utilize “virtual servers and storage” delivered by an IaaS vendor.”

Spending all day in bars and restaurants isn’t often a recipe for productivity. But if your job involves supplying brands like Jim Beam, Cinzano and Stolen Rum throughout New Zealand, then productivity for your sales team can be measured by time spent interacting with bar and restaurant managers.

To keep the hospitality sector supplied, Beam Global has 20 “road warriors” who service the trade nationwide. By the very nature of their job they’re working remotely, but with an ongoing need to be tied into the company’s systems and IT infrastructure. The way Beam Global has tackled this challenge transformed its operations.

In 2012 the company’s IT Manager, Jason Croft, was looking to update its CRM solution. The brief was “easy, quick, and adding value to sales people’s day.” So Jason explored the possibility of mobilising CRM via iPads.

Taking tablets for productivityAt the time, many thought of iPads as interesting toys rather than business tools. However, Jason knew their portability, ease of use and long battery life could make them ideal for busy road warriors. Combined with the Sales Link CRM solution, a fleet of iPads could change the way Beam Global managed customer relationships at the coalface.

It certainly helped that the sales team were enthusiastic about their new productivity tools. Equipping them with iPads meant reps could easily update data on the go rather than waiting for tedious boot-up routines and programmes to do their thing. As every smart company knows, a business tool that employees enjoy using is a business tool that actually gets used.

There was just one thorny question. What about security?

Sensitive data under central controlBeam Global needed to be sure the company would retain

control of data even when the devices were away from base. Traditional IT thinking locks down access to data, but Beam Global’s reps needed easy access to commercially sensitive sales, pricing and customer details when they were out on the road. Making data hard to access would have contradicted the rationale for giving them iPads in the first place.

The solution lay in Vodafone Secure Device Manager (VSDM). Unique to Vodafone, it’s an IT management tool that gives every member of a team mobile access to the information and systems they need. At the same time, the IT Manager has complete control of what’s on each device.

With VSDM, Jason can set passwords and access privileges or install applications remotely. He can wipe data from anywhere and move information from tool to tool as required. When a car

was stolen with an iPad in the boot, Jason was able to remotely wipe the device, keeping the integrity of the confidential information intact.

The combination of iPads with VSDM has given Beam Global the right balance of user-friendliness with corporate security. The users are set free with a tool that makes them more productive while the company retains the ultimate power to access and control the device.

Say “Cheers” to a more secure systemWith VSDM linked to 30 iPads, Beam Global has revolutionised the way it looks after customers in the hospitality trade.

The sales team gets secure online access to their CRM and merchandising packs, saving up to 15,000 printed pages per year. Versioned information is sent to every device instantly and put in a secure document locker. It’s all under remote control, with bespoke information sent to a password-protected device.

Improved security is keeping Jason’s best people behind barsBeam Global is using tighter security on mobile devices to improve productivity.

When a car was stolen with an iPad in the boot, When a car was stolen with an iPad in the boot, Jason was able to remotely wipe the device.Jason was able to remotely wipe the device.“

”

And if the device is lost or damaged, the IT Manager can remotely wipe all content and set-up a new iPad so no time is lost.

With security under central control, Beam Global’s reps are liberated to do what they do best – sell. Sales reps have noticed a significant saving in time with the ability to enter information on the spot rather than write it up at the end of the day. The productivity gains amount to at least an hour a day for every rep, every day.

At the same time, Jason can report on the increases in

efficiency that the sales team are achieving by measuring time in store and other performance metrics.

In the hospitality sector, a rep who spends time behind bars is building priceless relationships that ultimately shift product. With VSDM and iPads, Beam Global can maximise the impact of its sales force on the road while keeping security headaches at bay.

The sales reps are set free to spend more time where they should be – behind bars, talking to their customers.

To see how other Kiwi businesses are already making use of Vodafone technology to do business better, check out vodafone.co.nz/mobility

Jason Croft, IT Manager, Beam Global.

to your PowedafoneVo

Nikki Mandow and Chris Keall

A lot of coverage of the Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) fibre rollout is about Chorus’ regulatory problems.

Amid all the political problems, the everyday benefits of fibre have been lost – including how it can help everyday busi-nesses.

Digital Island general manager Blair Stewart tells NBR he has seen a big shift in Chorus’ focus recently from residential UFB installations to the business market, which he says, after a slow start uptake, is starting to snowball as companies twig to the benefits of fibre.

One example is Dominion Flooring. For this Christchurch-based company, getting UFB fibre was about making the best of its technology, increasing productivity and cutting costs. But it was also about retaining staff in a tight post-earthquake building market and preparing the business for the future.

Dominion Flooring owner and managing director Kevin Dore says UFB will help the company meet the growing demand in Christchurch.

If he’s said it once, he’s said it a hundred times: “Time is money” in Christchurch’s post-earthquake rebuilding boom. Mr Dore’s third-generation family-owned carpet and flooring business, Dominion Flooring, is busier than it has ever been. Its 20 employees, plus subcontractors, are flat out and the company has taken on four new admin staff over the past 12 months.

“Christchurch is humming along with the rebuild and we are in the thick of it. There have been some really big projects,

Bill Bennett and Chris Keall

There is no shortage of white papers and ana-lyst reports on the state of cloud computing. New material appears daily. And yet there’s precious lit-tle New Zealand specific research. Are things dif-ferent in a relatively small nation, distant from the world’s largest data centres?

A survey of 200 local IT managers, carried out by Horizon Research for Snap Business, gives a timely overview of the state of cloud computing in New Zealand.

One of the interesting things in the survey is that New Zealand IT manag-ers are fully aware of cloud benefits. They like the cloud’s flexibility and being able to scale quickly. Dis-aster recovery and support for remote working get a

big tick. However, they are not so impressed with the cost savings. That’s inter-esting, because cloud ven-dors tend to lead with the cost story, leaving the other benefits for later in their pitch.

Another theme to emerge from the survey is that companies with more

than 50 employees are far more likely to use cloud computing than smaller companies. Firms with more than 500 people are twice as likely to use cloud services than small firms.

What’s more, they deploy more cloud apps. As the survey points out, these larger companies are more likely to have a communi-cations infrastructure to better exploit the cloud.

And if they don’t already have the infrastructure, larger companies are more likely to make infrastruc-

ture changes after intro-ducing cloud services. This usually means buying more bandwidth.

When it comes to bar-riers to cloud adoption, Horizon lists the usual sus-pects: security, privacy and regulatory matters includ-ing data sovereignty.

That’s something the IITP has addressed with the cloud code of practice (www.thecloudcode.org).

Poor network perfor-mance also worries man-agers and a number of smaller companies spoke of the difficulty finding money for external IT ser-vices. The report says the Ultrafast Broadband net-work is likely to change fears about performance issues.

On the whole the report shows New Zealand is not too different from our overseas counterparts. There is more concern here about the state of net-work infrastructure, which, the authors point out is as much to do with percep-

tion as reality – New Zea-land’s domestic networks are no worse than in most other countries.

Survey highlightsThe Horizon survey found companies already using cloud services were posi-tive.

But it also found one in three New Zealand busi-nesses still use no cloud services. Of those who are onboard, 37% are using the cloud for storage and backup, 28% are using soft-ware-as-a-service (such as Xero or Salesforce), 15% are using business process as a service (outsourcing com-mon business tasks via the cloud) and 12% infrastruc-ture as a service.

What are the objections?Fifty percent of the

cloud hold-outs are wor-ried about security – an understandable psycholog-ical concern but one that doesn’t gel with reality that cloud providers are usually far more locked down than the average office’s on-premise setup.

If security is a concern, you can make sure your provider complies with the security provisions of the NZ Cloud Code (www.the-cloudcode.org), which is backed by the independ-ent Institute of IT Pro-fessionals, among other industry associations.

Thirty-one percent were worried about data sov-ereignty issues and 30% were worried about poor network performance, which can be addressed by upgrading to fibre, as long as it’s available in your area.

Bill Bennett is an Auckland fr eelance writer and contributor to the Institute of IT Professionals NZ.

32 SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT / The National Business ReviewApril 4, 2014

powered by

The cloud business phone system.

No CAPEX. Per user per month. Sorted.

digitalisland.co.nz/cloudpbx

When you would like to talk to the New Zealand cloud computing partner you can trust, call 0800 OneNet (66 36 38) or contact

www.OneNet.co.nz.

7928

“The point of moving to the cloud is to slash the unit costs of computing.”

Financial Times

March 6, 2014

Kiwi cloud snapshot

Kiwi firms like the cloud’s flexibility and being able to scale quickly.They are not so impressed with the cost savings

UFB gets down to business

ONLY AS FAST AS ITS WEAKEST LINK: You might have heard that with your home broadband, it’s no use getting fi bre or faster DSL if your home has ancient copper wiring, or you’ve got an out-of-date wi-fi modem or router. The same goes for company, only on a larger scale. ‘Businesses should check whether their local area or network router is limiting performance,’ Snap Business general manager Charlie Boyd

says. ‘Experience from some of the early UFB connections going live showed some companies reporting no change in their internet performance owing to poor wireless network connectivity or consumer-grade routers that cannot deliver the under the 100Mbit/s speeds of UFB. We encourage new customers to audit their existing connections – in some cases these can be upgraded to a faster link at no cost.’

like the Christchurch Airport and Canterbury University but the domestic side is busy too.”

No surprise there, perhaps. What is more unexpected, is the crucial role technology and the internet play in what has tradition-ally been seen as a pretty tech-free business. These days commercial and industrial ten-ders are all downloaded electronically – and some of the tender documents, including plans and specifications, are big files, Mr Dore says.

Meanwhile, Dominion Flooring’s domestic quotes are also driven by technology. Instead of using a tape measure, the staff member visiting a customer’s house has a digital laser measuring device, which automatically gen-erates a floor plan on the operator’s tablet or laptop via Bluetooth technology. Back in the office all the details are then loaded into the company’s computer system.

Most employees have more screens than

tools on their desks, Mr Dore says.So when Ultra-Fast Broadband became

available at the company’s Sydenham offices (thanks to Enable, the Christchurch Coun-cil-owned company that holds the local UFB contract), Mr Dore says they jumped at the chance. The business signed up with

Christchurch-based retail service provider Snap about six months ago, Mr Dore says, and the switchover took just one day and was hassle free.

The company chose a Snap-managed UFB business connection with a Snap Busi-ness Connect Cloud PBX solution. Kevin says switching to UFB hasn’t increased the compa-ny’s telecommunications costs and the ben-efits are already visible.

“It’s a better system. It’s a faster system. We are always looking for things that can make us more efficient, take the paperwork out and

expedite what we do. UFB was definitely the way to go. You don’t want a slow connection. More time just means more frustration.”

Crucially, Mr Dore says UFB will prepare the company for technological advances in the future, including moving to a a state-of-the-art, cloud-based operating system next year. Built by Napier-based Bay Software Solutions and custom-designed for the carpet industry, the “Carpet and Curtain Manager” system will handle everything from costing to

SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT 33The National Business Review / April 4, 2014

Taking full advantage of this connected way of working can be complicated. FujiXerox is here to help with it’s consulting services to provide a mobile strategy.

Assess and optimise your organisations devices.Secure and integrate your IT, print and mobile environment.Automate and simplify your document management to support the changing workplace.

Keep your workplace connected and your enterprise moving forward. Call 0800 FUJI XEROX for more information.

1. The Mobile Worker, Socialist 2. The rise of the Mobile Workforce, Mashable 3. Aberdeen Group 4. Mobile Device Users/Non-Users , Print, Scan, Document Man-agement, IDC 5. GFI Wireless Survey, Opinion Matters: The insight agency 6. The rise of the Mobile Workforce, Mashable 7. The Cicso Unified Workplace, Cisco8. The rise of Mobility, IDC 9. Smarthone and table Adoption Expecyed to Drive 350% increase in Global wifi Hotspots bby 2015, Wireless Broadband Alliance

Why not faster copper? Lately, ISPs have been making a lot of buzz about VDSL – a turbocharged form of copper broadband that can deliver as much bandwidth as you get from the cheapest copper plans (as long as you’re lucky enough to be located within a couple of 2km of a phone exchange or roadside cabinet; unlike fi bre, bandwidth degrades with distance when copper is used for delivery).

TrueNet – an independent tester contracted to the Commerce Commission – has found VDSL can indeed achieve similar speeds to those offered on the cheapest UFB fi bre plans.

So if fi bre-like speed can be wrung from old copper lines using VDSL, which is typically only $20 more a month and often has little or no installation cost (a free VDSL modem is usually thrown in), why bother with the hassle of installing UFB fi bre? “The speed is great but it’s not all about speed,” says Digital Island general manager Blair Stewart. “It’s about reliability. With VDSL, you’re still using 50-year-old copper lines.”

Mr Stewart’s experience is that with a copper line, whether DSL or VDSL, the internet can go down for an hour a month. With UFB, it’s more like an hour a year. Copper is also a lot less vulnerable to contention, or getting overloaded at peak times. Mr Stewart says this is important when telephony services are moving to the cloud – including cloud PABXs. Unlike the old days when companies had a PABX in their offi ce, with the cloud “all of your eggs are in one basket,” the Digital Island GM says – so you want it to be reliable, and with not just speed but constant speed.

Every business should have a business plan for moving to the cloud within three years Mr Stewart maintains, “and step one of that plan should be getting connected to fi bre.”

A hitch in that plan: the UFB rollout is only about a quarter complete. A lot of areas won’t get fi bre over the next year; some will be waiting until 2019.

Mr Stewart says VDSL is a good stepping stone in the meantime.“The business drivers for moving either from ADSL to VDSL to UFB are less about the size of a customer and more about how they run their business,” Vodafone head of small business Lee Maddox says. “Customers that have requirements for high speed data might send a lot of large fi les, or use technologies like video conferencing to communicate with customers and suppliers in remote or international locations. These customers are as likely to be a one- or two-man band as they are a larger business.”

There will also be small business customers whose operating model will benefi t from high speed data, Mr Maddox says. “Increasingly customers are wanting to move cost out of their business by moving to an op-ex [operational expenditure] based pricing model. This involves moving a number of business processes and systems to the cloud using software like Microsoft Offi ce 365 and Xero, which high speed data also enables.”

UFB and VDSL’s high-speed data also enables IP features that aren’t available on DSL. “Vodafone’s Offi ce Net Hosted product is an example of this, where high speed data enables a call management system with a rich feature set that is hosted in the cloud. For customers, this removes the requirement for an upfront investment in physical infrastructure whilst enabling them to be increasingly contactable and responsive.”

Chris Keall

Continued on P36KEVIN DORE: UFB will help his company

LEE MADDOX: VDSL is a good stepping stone

/ The National Business ReviewApril 4, 2014

MON

Today’s forecast:increasing cloud.

34 SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT

David Cearley

Research company Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years.

Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dol-lar investment or the risk of being late to adopt.

The convergence of four powerful forces:

social, mobile, cloud and informa-tion continues to drive change and create new opportunities, creating demand for advanced programmable infrastructure that can execute at web-scale.

The top 10 strategic technology trends for the next 12 months are:

1Mobile device diversity and man-agement Through 2018, the growing

variety of devices, computing styles, user contexts and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable. The unexpected conse-quence of bring your own device (BYOD) programmes is a doubling or even tri-pling of the size of the mobile workforce. This is placing tremendous strain on IT and finance organisations. Enterprise policies on employee-owned hardware usage need to be thoroughly reviewed and, where necessary, updated and extended. Most companies only have pol-icies for employees accessing their net-works through devices that the enterprise owns and manages. Set policies to define clear expectations around what they can and can’t do. Balance flexibility with con-fidentiality and privacy requirements.

2 Mobile apps and applicationsGartner predicts that through 2014,

improved JavaScript performance will begin to push HTML5 and the browser as a mainstream enterprise application devel-opment environment. Gartner recom-mends that developers focus on creating expanded user interface models including richer voice and video that can connect people in new and different ways. Apps will continue to grow while applications will begin to shrink. Apps are smaller, and more targeted, while a larger application is more comprehensive. Developers should look for ways to snap together apps to cre-ate larger applications.

3 The internet of everythingThe internet is expanding beyond

PCs and mobile devices into enterprise assets such as field equipment, and con-sumer items such as cars and televisions. The problem is that most enterprises and technology vendors have yet to explore the possibilities of an expanded internet and are not operationally or organisation-ally ready. Imagine digitising the most important products, services and assets. The combination of data streams and services created by digitising everything creates four basic usage models – man-age; monetise; operate; extend. These four basic models can be applied to any of the four “internets” (people, things, informa-tion and places). Enterprises should not limit themselves to thinking that only the Internet of Things (assets and machines) has the potential to leverage these four models. Enterprises from all industries

(heavy, mixed, and weightless) can lever-age these four models.

4 Hybrid cloud and IT as service brokerBringing together personal clouds and

external private cloud services is an imper-ative. Enterprises should design private cloud services with a hybrid future in mind and make sure future integration/interop-erability is possible. Hybrid cloud services can be composed in many ways, vary-ing from relatively static to very dynamic. Managing this composition will often be the responsibility of something filling the role of cloud service broker (CSB), which handles aggregation, integration and cus-tomisation of services. Enterprises that are expanding into hybrid cloud computing from private cloud services are taking on the CSB role. Terms like “overdrafting” and “cloudbursting” are often used to describe what hybrid cloud computing will make possible. However, the vast majority of hybrid cloud services will initially be much less dynamic than that. Early hybrid cloud services will probably be more static, engi-neered compositions (such as integration between an internal private cloud and a public cloud service for certain functional-ity or data).

5 Cloud/client architectureCloud/client computing models are

shifting. In the cloud/client architecture, the client is a rich application running on an internet-connected device, and the server is a set of application services hosted in an increasingly elastically scal-able cloud computing platform. The cloud

The Top 10 strategic technology trends for the year ahead

is the control point and system or record and applications can span multiple client devices. The client environment may be a native application or browser-based; the increasing power of the browser is avail-able to many client devices, mobile and desktop alike. Robust capabilities in many mobile devices, the increased demand on networks, the cost of networks and the need to manage bandwidth use creates incentives, in some cases, to minimise the cloud application computing and storage footprint, and to exploit the intelligence and storage of the client device. How-ever, the increasingly complex demands of mobile users will drive apps to demand increasing amounts of server-side comput-ing and storage capacity.

6 The era of personal cloudThe personal cloud era will mark a

power shift away from devices toward ser-vices. In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organisation to worry about, although the devices will still be necessary. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared from the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself.

7 Software-defined anythingSoftware-defined anything (SDx) is

a collective term that encapsulates the growing market momentum for improved

standards for infrastructure program-mability and data centre interoperabil-ity driven by automation inherent to cloud computing, DevOps and fast infrastruc-ture provisioning. As a collective, SDx also incorporates various initiatives like OpenStack, OpenFlow, the Open Com-pute Project and Open Rack, which share similar visions. As individual SDx technol-ogy silos evolve and consortiums arise, look for emerging standards and bridging capabilities to benefit portfolios but chal-lenge individual technology suppliers to demonstrate their commitment to true interoperability standards within their spe-cific domains. While openness will always be a claimed vendor objective, different interpretations of SDx definitions may be anything but open. So vendors who domi-nate a sector of the infrastructure may only

reluctantly want to abide by standards that have the potential to lower margins and open broader competitive opportunities, even when the consumer will benefit by simplicity, cost reduction and consolida-tion efficiency.

8 Web-scale ITWeb-scale IT is a pattern of global-

class computing that delivers the capa-bilities of large cloud service providers within an enterprise IT setting by rethink-ing positions across several dimensions. Large cloud services providers such as Amazon, Google and Facebook are rein-venting the way in which IT services can be delivered. Their capabilities go beyond scale in terms of sheer size to also include scale as it pertains to speed and agility. If enterprises want to keep pace, then they

need to emulate the architectures, process-es and practices of these exemplary cloud providers. Gartner calls the combina-tion of all of these elements web-scale IT. Web-scale IT looks to change the IT value chain in a systemic fashion. Data centres are designed with an industrial engineer-ing perspective that looks for every oppor-tunity to reduce cost and waste. This goes beyond re-designing facilities to be more energy efficient to also include in-house design of key hardware components such as servers, storage and networks. Web-oriented architecture allows developers to build very flexible and resilient systems that recover from failure more quickly.

9 Smart machinesThrough 2020, the smart machine

era will blossom with a proliferation of contextually aware, intelligent personal assistants, smart advisers (such as IBM Watson), advanced global industrial sys-tems and public availability of early exam-ples of autonomous vehicles. The smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT. New systems that begin to fulfill some of the earliest visions for what information technologies might accom-plish – doing what we thought only peo-ple could do and machines could not – are now finally emerging. Gartner expects individuals will invest in, control and use their own smart machines to become more successful. Enterprises will similarly invest in smart machines. Consumerisation ver-sus central control tensions will not abate

The National Business Review / April 4, 2014

Business Technology Conference 2014Aotea Centre, Auckland 1st May, 2014

Accelerate your shift to a digital future where solutions are more innovative, your team more empowered, your organisation more efficient, and greater numbers of your customers are served even better than today. Join Gen-i and partners at FWD_Live for a day of digital insights and inspiration. FWD_Live is free to attend so visit www.gen-i.co.nz/fwd_live to register today.

Keynote speakers will include:Geraldine McBride

Corporate Evolution Expert

Tim Longhurst Futurist & Trend Spotter

Nick Tuffley & Chris Tennent-BrownASB Economists

SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT 35

Continued on P36

REPLICATING NEARLY EVERYTHING: A MakerBot Digitizer 3D scanner ($2195) used to scan objects (such as the real shells, right) that can then be 3D printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2 ($3795), used to print the replicated shells on the left. No one wants spare shells but 3D printers can already be used for everything from car parts to whiteware parts today, and will rapidly get more complex. On March 7, NZ’s Callaghan Innovation put $100,000 toward a 3D printer that can replicate in metal

invoicing, job instruction sheets to inventory.

“Ultra-Fast Broadband is about giving us the capability to improve and embrace new things quickly. The way I see it, you have to be ahead of the play when it comes

to technology – you can’t be hang-ing around waiting to use the latest stuff.”

Snap Business general manager Charlie Boyd says the company has invested significantly in its net-work infrastructure to ensure it is on the front foot for both UFB and cloud solutions.

“We have optimised our net-works to ensure future scalability by securing dedicated capacity on the Southern Cross Cable and partnering with cloud providers like Amazon Web Services.”

UFB isn’t yet available at Mr Dore’s inner city apartment but, when it is, he says he will sign up. Although he can already connect to the work server from the PC at home, it’s “pretty slow”, he says, and that’s enough to put him off working from home.

Increased numbers of UFB connections throughout the city, plus the company’s new cloud-based computer system, will allow far more work flexibility for him and for others at Dominion Flooring – and that will be good in terms of staff retention, Kevin says.

“It’s a very competitive envi-ronment employee-wise and we have to look after our peo-ple. We’ve got a mainly young workforce and they like flexibility and they like the fact that we have the most advanced technology.

“They don’t want to be work-ing for the company where you are turning up with a tape meas-ure and doing a sketch on a pad. They want to be the guy with the lasers and the laptop.

“UFB is definitely part of that.”

Nikki Mandow is a freelance writer and media and communications lecturer at AUT University.

/ The National Business ReviewApril 4, 2014

Cloud computing. Web hosting. Dedicated servers. We’ve been providing robust, kiwi-powered web solutions every day for over 16 years. And with the forecast for business looking good, you want a hosting company that never lets you down, whatever the weather. To see what our customers say about us, visit webdrive.co.nz/case_studies

TUE

Good thing we deal with it daily.

FRIWED SATTHU SUN

36 SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT

in the era of smart-machine-driv-en disruption. If anything, smart machines will strengthen the forces of consumerization after the first surge of enterprise buying commences.

10 3D printing Worldwide shipments of

3D printers are expected to grow 75% in 2014 followed by a near doubling of unit shipments in 2015. While very expensive “addi-tive manufacturing” devices have been around for 20 years, the market for devices ranging from $50,000 to $500, and with com-mensurate material and build capabilities, is nascent, yet grow-ing rapidly. The consumer mar-ket hype has made organisations aware of the fact 3D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run manu-facturing.

“The 3D printing market is a rapidly developing market and many of the applications for main-stream businesses are yet to be created. Industries like design, engineering and manufacturing have already embraced 3D print-

ing as a core technology but we expect to see huge growth in sec-tors such as health and education where the application of the tech-nology has the ability to transform industries,” says Fuji Xerox NZ’s national sales operations general manager Gavin Pollard.

“At Fuji Xerox, we see a huge future for this technology and are investing in a range of best of breed technologies to offer our customers. There is definitely a place for it in the mainstream business landscape and the adop-tion will grow rapidly as the tech-nology further matures.”

See more on the first low-cost 3D printer to be released in New Zealand and some of the legal issues ahead, in the NBR Online article “3D printer fight will put music, movie copyright wars in the shade – lawyer” at www.nbr.co.nz/makerbot.

David Cearley is a vice president and Gartner Fellow in Gartner Research and is a leading authority on information technology. His current research is focused on cloud computing and how internet and web technologies,

standards and business models are impacting the IT landscape.

From P33

Get a wriggle onContractors have complained to NBR that UFB installations can a long time.

While a big fan of fi bre, Digital Island general manager Blair Stewart also says “don’t sit on your hands if you want to upgrade, because it can take months if you’re in a multi-dwelling unit.”

Last year, Chorus CEO Mark Ratcliffe told NBR that so-called non-standard UFB installations – those with a multi-tenanted building or right-of-way involved – could take up to three months.

A spokeswoman for the company says that’s still the case.“Chorus has a contractual agreement with Crown Fibre Holdings to complete

standard installations within four days and we consistently achieve this target. Due to the variable nature of complex installations, which often include multi-dwelling units where third-party consent is out of our control, there is no one set timeframe for these installations.”

ICT Minister Amy Adams knocked back a bid by Chorus to have UFB made a designated service under the Resource Management Act – meaning the company could go ahead with an installation without consulting all owners of a right-of-way or building.

But on March 11, Ms Adams did announce a series of “UFB improvements” negotiated between Chorus and Crown Fibre Holdings (the vehicle for the government’s $929 million investment in Chorus). They include that Chorus can now run fi bre to a building rather than into a building, then utilise existing copper cabling from there. Chris Keall

UFB gets down to businessThe top 10 tech trendsFrom P35

The National Business Review / April 4, 2014

Cloud computing. Web hosting. Dedicated servers. We’ve been providing robust, kiwi-powered web solutions every day for over 16 years. And with the forecast for business looking good, you want a hosting company that never lets you down, whatever the weather. To see what our customers say about us, visit webdrive.co.nz/case_studies

TUE

Good thing we deal with it daily.

FRIWED SATTHU SUN

SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT 37

Chris Keall

“Emailing a document is tan-tamount to suicide,” says Tech-tonics Group chief operating officer Ian Patterson. Or, at least, it’s potential career death.

“Don’t send documents, send links to documents,” he advises.

Leaked document scandals at ACC and EQC were blamed on human error and an email pro-gramme’s autocomplete function leading to an email attachment being sent to the wrong person.

“But just the fact they were emailing spreadsheets means they failed Security 101,” Insti-tute of IT Professions CEO Paul Matthews tells NBR. “That’s Mickey Mouse stuff.”

Sensitive information should be stored on a central database that people have to log on to after being emailed a link to a docu-ment.

Mr Patterson says lots of large organisations are pondering the policy issues around storing data domestically, or offshore – and

data sovereignty is an impor-tant point. But at the same time, they’re unaware that a lot of their files are already stored overseas, by dint of staff using the likes of Gmail and Hotmail (which have US-based servers) to email the documents to themselves or oth-

ers. The key question is often not where you should store your doc-uments tomorrow, but “Do you know where they are today?”

Techtonics’ approach is tech-nology-agnostic, the COO says. Rather, his company works with a variety of partners to identify business process problems.

Increasingly, these involve staff who want access to work documents on their tablet or smartphone, home office PC or in a personal cloud service – and if their IT department hasn’t offered a solution, they simply rig something up themselves, Mr Patterson says.

Fuji Xerox national sales oper-ations general manager Gavin Pollard picks up on this point. “Yes it is true that businesses are storing information in multiple places, but why? Often it is the result of employees rather than employers leading the change to allow them to work remotely or access information quickly.”

Many organisations are using old systems and have not put

processes in place to accommo-date or embrace technological change, Mr Pollard says.

“We work with our custom-ers to help them overcome these challenges by understanding their existing processes, the technology and of course the people. We ena-ble businesses to leverage existing infrastructure, improve outdated work practices and provide a bet-ter means of access and collabo-ration to their information.”

The rise of cloud printing – sending a document from a device to a remote printer via the internet – is another cloud-era element that is extremely con-venient but also has potential for extreme chaos. If you send a doc-ument to the wrong printer, it’s not as though you can walk over to the in-tray and grab it.

Fuji Xero has a number of simple, effective ways to monitor cloud printing, Mr Pollard says, but he adds that companies also have to look at why it’s happen-ing in the first place.

“You will often find that

the need for cloud printing is a consequence of the inabil-ity to access documents when and where you need them. If a company has a means of mak-ing documents available to their employees in a secure and controlled way in the cloud or though mobile devices, printing is not as vital.”

Another key area of focus is how to bridge the gap between hardcopy and electronic docu-ments – often a time-consuming and onerous process and then make them more accessible.

“We have developed here in New Zealand a product called SolutionBuilder that enables the easy conversion of hard copy documents into electronic images directly from an enabled multifunction device, to be auto-matically routed to the correct workspaces and folders within an organisation’s electronic docu-ment storage, such as Microsoft SharePoint, Xero or a CRM-based solution,” Mr Pollard says.

ckeall@nbr.co.nz

Safeguarding your file in the cloud era: are you asking the right questions?

WORK PRACTICES: Fuji Xerox national sales operations general manager Gavin Pollard says documents are often all over the show because employees, rather than employers, are leading the charge.

ences between a local and

a global provider, “ Mr Dodds says. “There will be a premium for local which

is acceptable based on the additional ‘costs’ of a public cloud provider, for

example, the network costs, the risk cost of location and the variability costs (if the workload requirement is stable then buying some-thing that is scalable is not a high requirement).

Do a bit of bargaining“My guidance to New Zealand organisations is that they should look to link global pricing with the local pricing. That is, when the global goes down [from Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc], then so to should the local pricing. Develop rules for control-ling the costs of an opex [operational-expenditure]-based IT model, contract to shorter term agreements with hosted and cloud pro-viders [avoid being locked into agreements over two to three years and continu-ally evaluate what work-loads that can be deployed into the cloud to ensure that the environment is optimised].”

A guide through the mazeAppserv managing direc-tor Graham Clarke takes a more hardline approach in the local vs international hosted service debate.

“I remain firmly of the view that the dollar-focused, vanilla ice cream service will be fought by the international players,” he says. But, if you want end-to-end service, config-ured and managed to the specifics of your business ,there’s a strong place for us and now and in the future.”

Mr Clarke says that even if you’re just dip-ping your toes in the cloud

with, say the cloud version of Microsoft Office (Office 365), “You still need a local resource – someone in your own company or an integrator who can work with your business, and you existing applications, and guide you through the maze.”

He says the cloud mantra is that you can outsource all your com-puting to the internet, and focus on business. But in reality it’s still a very new frontier. And unless you have sharp inhouse skills, or help, the opposite could be the case

Webdrive general man-ager Robin Dickie agrees, saying ,”AWS and Google App Engine require spe-cialised skills to architect, deploy and manage. The reason for this is the utility nature of IaaS (infrastruc-ture as a service), where you pay for what you need and nothing else - including backups and support.

The multinationals offer a blunt set of services – as they have to, with hundreds of thousands of customers. A local provider has more scope to start with what your business needs to do, and where, then work back-wards to the technologies you need to achieve it.

Another point of local flavour: like other local hosting and cloud compa-nies, Appserve will work with you optimising your network and internet con-nection, including a UFB upgrade.

Two international optionsAustralia’s Vocus – an

Amazon Web Services Partner – bought Auck-land’s Maxnet in 2012, giving it a local data cen-tre presence, and a foot in both camps.

Vocus spruced up and expanded Maxnet’s data cente on the North Shore, which was reopened by ICT Minister Amy Adams last year – complete with a pledge form the Aus-sie company that it will increasingly use the Auck-land facility to manage cloud services for its Aus-tralian clients – especially once the Tasman Global Access submarine cable goes live next year (a joint venture between Telecom, Telstra and Vodafone that will give New Zealand, finally, a second major transtasman broadband link).

Vocus’ Steven Stan-ford says data sovereignty regulations should be one of the primary factors in deciding whether you want to go with a local or international provider.

If you do decide to go offshore, he says it’s important to note that “International connectiv-ity comes in two major flavours. Standard internet connectivity (where a service provider sells the same bandwidth you are using to others) and point-to-point connectivity.

“For larger companies moving significant data point-to-point services are recommended. These dedicated links allow for consistent, secure, unin-terrupted data move-ment.”

ckeall@nbr.co.nz

/ The National Business ReviewApril 4, 2014

It’s not a matter of if your business adopts a mobile strategy; it’s when.

Sush Mobile develops powerful enterprise mobile solutions with forward-thinking market leaders.

Get ready for tomorrow at www.sushmobile.co.nz or call us at 0800 123 277See Case Studies at http://www.sushmobile.co.nz/case-studies/

business adopts a mobile

Some of our clients

38 SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT

The war heats up: NZ cloud providers vs multinationalsFrom P30

The National Business Review / April 4, 2014

11-12 JUNE 2014, SKYCITY AUCKLAND

Media partner

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Diamond Sponsor

THE CIO AGENDA

INNOVATE | LEAD | CONNECT

Super-Saver closes 9th April 2014 Join the CIO community and be part of the ongoing conversation on LinkedIn

New Zealand CIO Summit Network

Explore the new insight videos and revisit some of the outstanding presentations from 2013: ciosummit.co.nz/videos

CH015 CIO Summit Half Page - April.indd 1 1/04/14 4:09 pm

SPECIAL REPORT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ICT 39

Chris Keall

The cloud computing boom is changing the way we use our mobiles. Once our work files are in the cloud, we want to access them from anywhere, and on any device.

A second major trends is that where companies used to have a handful of work-related apps, they often now have dozens, with some readying to deploy hun-dreds, notes Gen-i head of mobil-ity Dave Shennan.

The Telecom services unit has partnered with SAP to offer com-panies access to more than 300 mobile apps for iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry), covering com-mon business workflow process-es. The partnership also allows companies to customise standard apps, or get their own apps cre-ated. This “mobile as a service” offering also lets you control how apps are deployed across your organisation, and how they’re used, and secured.

Data in peril is also a point of focus for Vodafone. Head of secu-rity Colin James says his com-

pany’s VSDM (Vodafone Secure Device Manager) service can be used to manage mobiles across an organisation, whether they’re a company’s own devices or per-sonal devices brought to the office. Features include options to beef up security (including a six digit password instead of the standard four), and the ability to remotely wipe a device if it’s lost or stolen or a staff member leaves.

The latter feature can be prob-lematic in the age of bring-your-own device and a lot of personal files being on phones and tablets too. You can’t remotely zap work files without remotely wiping the whole phone. Here, both Gen-i and Vodafone push the Knox technology developed by Sam-sung for its latest Android phones. Knox allows for work-related apps and files be quarantined in one or more work “containers” on a per-sonal device. Each container can be remotely controlled, or wiped, without touching personal files on a smartphone or tablet.

Mobile-firstSheenu Chawla, managing direc-

tor of app developer Sush Mobile, says companies are getting increasingly serious about the space. “People have started realis-ing it’s not a matter of if they have to do it, it’s a matter of when.”

Sush has been in the news for creating high profile apps like Orcon’s Genius Go and the new My Warehouse app for The Ware-house.

But Ms Chawla says she’s also seeing growing interest in busi-ness-to-business apps.

Companies who to organise their field forces are among those leading this “b2b” boom says Gen-I’s Mr Shennan. Mobile b2b apps are being used for schedul-ing jobs, keeping tabs on mobile staff, and collecting payment from customers. One of Sush’s

largest clients in b2b is cleaning company Jae, which has 36 offices around NZ.

Ms Chawla says that while companies are now often spend-ing a serious amount of money on mobile development, it’s not always being allocated correctly.

Until recently, creating a mobile app meant an iPhone app. Sush takes a multiplatform approach, developing an app to work across iOS, Android and in some cases Windows Phone and BlackBerry too, with a “respon-sive” version of an app (that is, one that automatically reformats to fit a smartphone, tablet or laptop screen, depending on how it’s being accessed).

The Sush Mobile MD also sees a lot of companies putting a big budget behind an app, but put-ting relatively little interface on user experience and the user interface. Ms Chawla says her company puts a lot of emphasis on these elements, taking a col-laborative, workshop approach with clients – both during initial development and with continu-ous updates.

ckeall@nbr.co.nz

The rise and rise of mobile

SHARE CHECK: Sush Mobile has several pairs of Google Glass and has developed a prototype app for Craigs Investment Partners for checking share prices with voice commands. Managing Director Sheenu Chawla sees such wearable devices heading for the mainstream.