August 5, 2008
cloud bottlenecks & humanification
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[Cartoon originally appeared in “The Hughtrain”.]
1. Sarah Blow left a nice note in the comments of yesterday’s “Cloud” post:
A cloud computing system is only as reliable as the hardware and software that it is built upon. I have a feeling people are going to get their fingers burnt a few times before the cloud becomes a permanent place of work.
It definitely has its uses though… Loving Evernote and a couple of other cloud systems. However most of them suck some whatpartially completed, little or no mobile interaction and no focus. They’ll learn one day.
[.…]
An interesting question for your readers… Where do they see the bottleneck in cloud computing…
Ummmm.… Bottlenecks. Anybody? Please leave a comment below, Thanks.
2. And a quasi-related story. This morning I received a kind letter from a PR guy who follows me on Twitter:
Hugh,
Saw your tweets about cloud computing. Thought you might be interested in the infrastructure side of the story. For there to be a dominant player(s), there has to be network infrastructure to support them. AT&T’s announcement this morning discusses that. Here is a link to a story today on Bloomberg about the announcement.
And, here is a link to the media kit on AT&T’s site.
And so forth.
An hour later I notice on Techmeme that the same story has already hit the mainstream press. It’s always interesting watching the PR machine in action in action.
Like I told my old PR buddy, Dave Parmet, I don’t mind PR flacks sending me stories, at least from the ones who aren’t clueless.
PR people are like advertising people: Everybody hates them, until they have a business that actually needs one [Note To Self: “People hate AT&T, until they need an iPhone.” Or something like that…].
3. I’m enjoying my new adventure with Dell. Like my schtick with Microsoft, I’m doing it for a reason, which I hinted at in a blog post I wrote last year:
4. You’ve already done “efficient”. We’re living in a post-efficiency world now. We already know how to make things better, cheaper and faster than the previous generation. We already know how to squeeze our suppliers till the pips squeak. We already know how to build systems that maximize profits at every stage of the production and selling process. We’re already outsourcing our stuff to China, and so is everyone else. Been there. Done that. So where does the growth need to come from? What needs to happen, in order to save your job?
THESIS:
5. The growth will come, I believe, not by yet more increased efficiencies, but by humanification. For example, take two well-known airlines. They both perform a useful service. They both deliver value. They both cost about the same to fly to New York or Hong Kong. Both have nice Boeings and Airbuses. Both serve peanuts and drinks. Both serve “airline food”. Both use the same airports. But one airline has friendly people working for them, the other airline has surly people working for them. One airline has a sense of fun and adventure about it, one has a tired, jaded business-commuter vibe about it. Guess which one takes the human dimension of their business more seriously than the other? Guess which one still will be around in twenty years? Guess which one will lose billions of dollars worth of shareholder value over the next twenty years? What parallels do you see in your own industry? In your own company?
It’s all about the “Humanification”, Folks.
How does a big company [like Dell, like Microsoft etc etc] “humanify” themselves? How do they “de-commodify” themselves? It’s a subject that never fails to fascinate me. That’s why I do what I do. Rock on.
[UPDATE:} The uber-intelligent Lee Byant from Headshift left a great comment below:
Hi Hugh,
I agree that the twin challenges of de-commoditisation and humanisation are part of the key to companies like this developing the kind of new relationships we all want to see.
You have tried the blue monster thing, which is a kind of internal advertising campaign, to galvanise people inside large companies. I think we need to complement this with a number of other techniques to humanise the organisation and take internal brand engagement to a new level if we are to move forward.
I wrote a longish post about this recently based on a talk I gave at Reboot: http://www.headshift.com/blog/2008/07/free-the-battery-humans.php
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Tags: Bloomberg, Cloud computing, Dave Parmet, Dell Computers, Evernote, Microsoft, Sarah Blow
“Humanification”? Yesiree. Spot on. M
Your comment on “humanification” made me think of the Wendy’s ad campaigns featuring Dave Thomas. A brilliant actor he was not, but giving customers a chance to get to know the head of the company was a smart way to make a giant fast-food chain appear less corporate and more like a family business.
Hi Hugh,
I agree that the twin challenges of de-commoditisation and humanisation are part of the key to companies like this developing the kind of new relationships we all want to see.
You have tried the blue monster thing, which is a kind of internal advertising campaign, to galvanise people inside large companies. I think we need to complement this with a number of other techniques to humanise the organisation and take internal brand engagement to a new level if we are to move forward.
I wrote a longish post about this recently based on a talk I gave at Reboot: http://www.headshift.com/blog/2008/07/free-the-battery-humans.php
Talk about a jumping off point for further exploration…
One reason small businesses have an advantage over big box stores and chains is that they are human-scaled, or in your term, humanified. At least they have that advantage if they given it away by trying to compete with the big stores by emulating the big stores. But even if they did, it’s a lot easier to come back from that precipice than it is for the big stores to reverse their momentum.
This is not to say that some big online stores haven’t simulated humanification to varying degrees. Amazon interacts with its customers almost as if they’re human. Just as the used bookstore owner may have recommendations for you based on what she’s sold you in the past, so too does Amazon. Amazon is probably pushier about it, but they understand the value of suggestive selling. Way better than fast food restaurants, where it was probably pioneered.
Excellent kernel for further thought and discussion. Thanks for putting it on our plates!
You may have noticed Dell is trying to trademark Cloud Computing for itself.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/04/dell_cloud_computing_trademark/
Thoughts?
Hi Hugh,
I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now, and although i’m online most of my days, i don’t care much about leaving ‘a footprint’ like a lot of the prominent web guys.
and i definitely don’t leave many comments on blogs despite my opinionated nature unless it really means something to me.
But I saw your cartoon today (utterly789.jpg) and although i saw it before, today it hit me at exactly the right time. I work for an online company in south africa (which i know you can locate on a map unlike some people) and i’m not getting rich doing it but your cartoon, simple as it is, just hit the target. I love what i do for exactly that reason. in fact, i put the cartoon up on the plasma screens at work to make a point.
anyway, what i wanted to ask is if there is any way for me to get/buy/license that specific cartoon from you in order to print it in A3 format and put it in my house as a reminder of what matters to me.
i would greatly appreciate it if you could help me out.
Tom
(ps: no need to post this comment on your site)
Hey Tomas!
Unless he’s changed his mind Hugh says on the front page
“If people want to use my cartoons for their own stuff, or just help support the cause, the best thing they can do in exchange is consider buying a bottle of Stormhoek, if and when they come across it. Or failing that, I really appreciate it when people add the gapingvoid widget to their blog. ”
They have that advantage if they given it away by trying to compete with the big stores by emulating the big stores.