A view from the clouds

As we approach #Dreamforce it is important to understand how we got here. In 1982 I was doing Utility-Based computing with IBM essentially renting applications and storage on their mainframes through a “Private” Frame Relay network from our Data Center to IBM’s Sterling Forest Data Center. Nowadays @Salesforce uses SOAP over HTTP producing improved functionality using a more modern delivery mechanism than Frame Relay 🙂

Marc Benioff uses a few terms, “The Consumerization of IT” & “The Democratization of Software” and these are very telling because how many people remember the days when you couldn’t make personal phone calls at work? How many people remember when you couldn’t play games on your computer at work, no less on your phone!

The productivity impact of games and personal calls and social interactions during business hours was negative in the “Old Days” and the advent of the new technologies and the Pervasive Nature of Social Applications in business have “Blurred” the lines between business and personal time.

Privacy / Business / Personal?
We are encountering Generational Issues where younger workers feel they are “Entitled” to the same technology that they have access to in their personal lives. This speaks to the “Social Fabric” of America! Remember when interactions were face to face or even on a landline? There was a line between business and pleasure, privacy was important, personal, and not shared in business. Now we use social tools to decide who gets hired and the anonymity of interactions from behind a keyboard leaves us with constant questions about who we are interacting with. People are willing to say things that they would never say face to face! So now that the lines are blurred, where do social end and business begin? or vice versa…

A little on productivity:
Pro = The ubiquitous nature of the “Cloud” allows interactions to drive behaviors in like-minded individuals, improve processes and interactions in business as well as achieve efficiencies in communications where distance and time are a challenge.

Con = The availability of information through social tools is pervasive and in some cases counterproductive. Policies and Guidelines have not kept pace with the level of innovation in the “Cloud”

These are just a few things to think about as you prepare for Dreamforce and I look forward to seeing you there!

@1nyseguy @probizmix