EDP CFO & Cloud Computing

EDP was the origin of computing in business, it was the acronym for "Electronic Data Processing",
The  EDP department was a busy factory during salary computation, closing of the financial books and also month end sales and inventory management and finally MIS (Management Information System) .
There were no Microsoft workstation in those days, no lotus 123 just reams of printout in high speed printers which were transferred neatly into transparencies with marker pens !
The EDP was always under the control of the CFO - the chief financial office and EDP manager was a powerful person who had to be reliable and accomplished in technology.
EDP began with punched cards, then tapes and so on ; today they are relics, but the EDP department was the temple of information, it was the knowledge bank of the business and access to it was restricted.
The CFO was the lord and master of the EDP department because the first baby steps of data processing was accounting, later on it moved into costing, inventory management and subsequently into sales and marketing analysis.

CFO will lead Cloud Computing Adoption 

The EDP department was a centralized data processing center and the staff were some of the best paid for their knowledge of computing skills, even if it meant punching cards :-).
The Cloud Computing solutions today will need to be driven by the CFO and the CIO's role may diminish to that of the EDP manager if the CIO is not innovative and willing to adopt cloud computing in the organization.
The CFO community can beecome cloud evangelist, with a little education and they are the future  champions of cloud computing adoption, CFO's understand the value of utilities, operating expenses (opex), risk and finally economic value and often hav a seat in the Board or at least the attention of the Board.
Cultivate and educate the CFO  and the  Board of Directors if you want cloud computing adoption.
Welcome the new avatar of the EDP Manager, the Cloud Computing Director (CCD) also known as the CFO.
Fresh coffee and action is brewing for the new avatar of the CFO - CCD !
Welcome aboard to Cloud Computing CFO's of the World !
Your coffee mug embossed with the message "Future of computing is the Cloud" awaits you.

P.S. I offer training for CFO's and Board members on  cloud computing adoption if interested contact me at subramanianls@gmail.com

Cloud Computing Transformation in 2013

As we ring out 2012 which had its share of success and tribulation in cloud computing.
We can ring in 2013 as the year Cloud Computing will  transform into an everyday utility like electricity.
The Cloud will cease to be a novelty or a laboratory, it is for real and it has proved it can deliver reliably in 2012 despite the pessimists who  kept picking on every cloud disruption rather then seeing the totality of the benefits.
2013 will be the year when the cloud will be the utility that transform and drives the economy in a tough and recessionary year.
There will be large cloud utilities formed by merger and acquisition of fragmented cloud server providers and we we will have companies like Microsoft, HP, Dell, IBM, Cisco, EMC  embracing the cloud for their survival and relevance in the technology landscape.
More then 250 companies in the Fortune 500 can move to the cloud today based on their nature of their business and focus on growing their business in a recessionary 2013  rather then burn capital on their in-house computing infrastructure.
There will be companies that will emerge similar to EDS  who will sign contracts to take care of the computing needs of the business by acquiring their technology assets and people and migrate computing to the cloud. Both will benefit and grow with this synergistic relationship the allow them to  focus on their core competence in a recessionary economy.
The CEO & CFO aided by the CTO will lead the journey to cloud with the help of  the legal pundits who will be needed to legally mitigate the  cloud computing risks before the transition into the  cloud.
We will see a Ma Bell  emerge in cloud computing services, one possibility could be the merger of the year (if it every happens) when AWS merges with Microsoft, the technology and marketing synergies will be a Winner for all stake holders including end users.

Just like Thomas Edison's innovations saw the light of the day through GE and delivery of electricity and appliances to the common man.
WE will see a similar dynamo emerging in 2013 in the world of cloud computing which will transform the way we consume computing and disrupt the very way we compute.
FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google were the teasers, the main course in cloud computing will be in 2013.
Let us prepare ourselves and to enjoy the new order of computing in 2013 and beyond lead by the cloud.
Happy New Year.

Footnote : 
Thomas Edison  http://www.ge.com/company/history/thomas-edison
 http://www.ge.com/company/history/1878-1904
Ma Bell 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System 

Financial Exchanges Forecast 2012

Seasons Greetings and  Good Luck in 2012.

1. Many Financial Exchanges will declare bankruptcy in 2012 creating a flurry of transnational merger of exchanges.

2. Financial Exchanges will move their trading engines to a shared technology infrastructure like cloud computing to bring down their technology cost.

3. Rating Agencies will play a major role by stabilizing global equity markets after the regulator tames their independence by introducing reforms in their rating methodologies.

4. Cloud will be predominantly used for algorithmic and similar computer driven trading, which will make markets operations  cost effective and profitable. 

5. SAAS (Software as a Service Models) will emerge for financial exchanges to use as a service, though it may face resistance from regulators, but this paradigm shift will make technology solutions for financial trading engines a commodity with a Opex budget and will find large scale adoptions by exchanges globally in but developed and developing markets.

6. Traders will stay ahead of Regulators and Exchanges and will continue to make money thus sustaining  the joys and rewards of trading in financial markets.