Box in Healthcare -- because what do docs know about security?
HIPAA regs require docs to protect patient data, but unfettered access to cloud storage can cross an important line, and most docs — however well-trained in their professions — have no clue about what constitutes good security and authentication processes. I was at a major university hospital recently when a doctor wanted to show a visitor a presentation she had created based on her experience with a particular disease. She signed on to a hospital PC in an examination room and immediately navigated to her personal (non-Box) cloud storage account, and pulled up the Powerpoint. I asked her if there was patient info in the preso, she said she was pretty sure there wasn’t any. Then I asked if that was the case for all the files in her cloud storage, and she paused…… Box is entering a crowded market, but one that desperately needs its services.
Charles Phillips on why #infor is building a new user experience #inforum2013 (thanks to Dan Sholler for the foto)
Wrapping Mobile Apps for Security
Met with Mocano today, heard about their MAP service for wrapping a security layer around IOS and Android apps. Good start on solving the security problems with BYOD — but enterprise would also need a device management function and some way to deal with an OS that leaks data (as in Android)
Collaboration, Communications, Process
Had a meeting with start-up Vyew — down the street from me in Berkeley. They have an interesting take on how to provide a communications-based collaboration workspace, with a specific focus on improving sales by helping to automate the white space that most CRM apps don’t handle. Great audit and trace capability — much better than any activity stream-based collaboration tool I’ve ever seen.
COBOL Lives
Interesting call with Blue Phoenix on their legacy transformation service. Moving some mainframe batch services into the cloud could be a good way to lower IT cost and complexity, as long as legacy software contract doesn’t punish the customer for migrating off the mainframe (talking about you, #IBM). I’ll be retired before legacy mainframes disappear, if ever. #ensw
Dotcom era trading networks are back
It’s an old story that’s looking good again. SAP’s Ariba has something to say about this, but they’re hardly alone. Recently spoke with Nipendo about their offering, and of course E2Open is still very much in the game. The threat is that proliferation will kill the opportunity — connect once, trade to many is the model. Connecting to multiple trading networks in a single micro-vertical -even in the era of web services — is too onerous for many suppliers.
Two Days with #Informatica
Before I write a much longer post on the Informatica analyst summit I attended this week, I want to put a few initial impressions into the blogosphere.
#1: Sohaib Abbasi is not just a great CEO (the numbers tell the story), but he’s also really funny. It’s actually a pleasure to watch him work the crowd. It never hurts to have a great story to tell too.
#2: Informatica has a huge opportunity all over the enterprise, and not just in the social media/Web 2.0 market that dominated many of the presentations. Dynamic data masking, if you haven’t heard of it, is one of those great opportunities. Master data management is another. Turning the scads of sensor data flooding the enterprise into usable information is another. Helping customers make sense out of the Hadoop wild west is another. Integration to and from the cloud is another amazing opportunity for Informatica. It’s a pretty long list, of which the above is just a sample.
#3: The team at Informatica is impressive partly because of their pedigree. The men and women come from a collection of successful startups (acquired by Informatica) and a who’s who of Silicon Valley hardware and software companies. HP, Sun, SAP, Oracle, are just a few of the names dropped in the course of the two days
#4: It’s hard to utter a buzzword and not see opportunity for Informatica: cloud, m. obile, analytics, search, social — if it’s got data, Informatica’s got a play.
I’ll fill this out more next week after the holidays. But suffice to say there’s a lot to say about Informatica, and as far I can see it’s all good.
