When the phenomenon called Cloud made appearance on the IT landscape, it promised to disrupt many existing paradigms. It was touted to be the silver bullet to solve all the budgeting challenges of the CIO including getting rid of the CIO. But as the landscape evolved, so did the confusion and complexity. Today, apart from just private or public, there's a Hybrid - the term that has stuck on. Does it work? 

Technology evolution creates many opportunities and challenges for IT departments and CIOs. The pace of change in recent times has been exponential with obsolescence setting in faster than the adoption curve maturity. IT forces the CIOs to evolve or perish. Are you moving with time or making an Early Retirement Plan (ERP)? 

Any business or IT-led program survives on initiatives aimed at consumers. With increased importance of social media, it is vital for organizations to have strategies to analyze social media content. Comments on the social sites are extremely important as the views are uncontrolled, and if analyzed properly, can help the business. Tata Motors is doing some key experiments in social media analytics area.  

When it comes to big data, anyone can 'do' big data. Anyone can identify, collect, analyze and use the analysis to run their business. The key to 'doing' big data is to find the context and the tools to make it work for you and your organization. To identify the 'right' data, you've got to understand your data and how your data fits into your business. 

Last week when I wrote about orphaned projects, applications and solutions that find no takers despite them having started life as perceived business critical process or need, many of the readers wrote back with their stories of orphanages within their companies. The problem has been around for a long time since the time IT departments started developing software forever changing stated and unstated business needs.  

Enterprises are now deploying process-focused applications with predictive capabilities. These applications are also aligned with the specific business strategies. This helps them to acquire the opportunities early on. For example, the retailers are required to know their customers' needs in advance. This helps them in planning their sourcing and inventory availability for replenishment. 

To 'do' big data like the 'big boys' might be out of reach for most small businesses but the ability to collect, analyze and use data is available to anyone. Tools are available via open source for the technically inclined to build their own data analysis platforms. For those that aren't technically inclined, there are analytics platforms available for use, but you'll still need to identify and collect data to analyze. 

What is Big Data? Who needs Big Data ? Where does it fit into the maturity curve of an enterprise using BI or Analytics ? How do you partner with business who is still swamped by reports or dashboards at best? Actionable insights? When does a data warehouse become inadequate and Big Data become necessary? Are CIOs getting tangled by this elephant?  

This post is about discussing the very real Build vs. Buy problem many CISOs are running into. Whether it's for lack of available talent, time, or simply priorities, CISOs have to make this decision nearly every day so this post discusses some of those choices, their consequence and rationale. 

For the past 30-plus years, technology has tortured us. It's always too little, too late, and costs too much. In the anticipation and excitement of the new, it's easy to forget the past. Don't. Never forgive. Never forget. Make sure the gain is worth the pain. Wait to upgrade existing technology until you can hardly stand it.