Richard Davies wrote: The UK has a good crop of technology pioneers in cloud computing - for example ElasticHosts, FlexiScale, Flexiant, OnApp - and also some strong government initiatives such as G-Cloud.
We will have to see whether this kind of technical leadership converts into swift mass-market adoption or not.
IBM's Smart Analytics announcement might have been overshadowed by its
planned $1.2 billion acquisition of analytic firm SPSS. However, it
arguably will have a greater impact on IBM's longer-term analytics
delivery strategy. At first glance, the Smart Analytics System seems to
be another take on BI and data warehousing appliances -pre-integrated
hardware and software combos that are calibrated to work smoothly
together.
Like appliances, IBM's system promises faster and lower-cost deployment
without compromising performance. There is also a smarter query
optimisation engine being built in. But the most important takeaway of
this announcement is how IBM is packaging the analytic system for
customers. The company seems to be reverting to a strategy of providing
vertically integrated systems sold as single, complete IBM offerings
aligned with the delivery of its consulting and professional services.
If the company gets the balance right, it could well shake up the
piecemeal integration that has characterised the BI and data warehousing
market.