Friday, November 04, 2005

John Gallant Spotlights Top Network News and Issues in VORTEX Digest for Nov. 4, 2005

VORTEX Digest
John Gallant Spotlights Top Network News and Issues
Comments to: mailto:jgallant@vortex.net
Nov. 4, 2005
Volume 7, Number 6
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In This Issue:
* Thoughts from VORTEX 2005
* Focus on what's core to you
* Vendors and customers move forward together
* Subscription information
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"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have
ended up where I intended to be."

Douglas Adams

Dear Vorticians,

After spending months preparing for VORTEX 2005 and then two-and-
a-half whirlwind days at the conference with 30 speakers in 19
different interviews, panels and presentations, it's difficult to
put the whole shooting match into perspective. In a way, it's all
a blur that will take some time to sort out. Some real highlights
stand out in my mind and, as with any event, a couple of
disappointments. Some speakers and sessions exceeded expectations
in ways I couldn't have predicted, and some discussions or topics
didn't generate the spark I'd hoped.

As Douglas A. says above, VORTEX 2005 may not have always gone
where we expected it to go, but we certainly ended up where we
intended. That's because the two fundamental premises of VORTEX
were validated in resounding fashion.

First, Geoffrey Moore and I began our work together on this
project with the belief that the enterprise IT industry is
undergoing profound change, and that both IT customers and
providers are wrestling with the impact of that change. They're
trying to apply and deliver technology in new ways and struggling
with how to improve the value they deliver - either to customers
or, in the case of IT executives, to the business.

This came out in a variety of ways:

* Geoff's keynote focusing on how to spark innovation by
stripping away resource-draining contextual activities and
realigning people and money to where they will have far more
influence on the things that really make a difference for your
company - the things that are core to you. That theme was fleshed
out by CIOs from companies like Levi Strauss, Nortel, Electronic
Arts and Fidelity who talked about how they are dealing with the
core/context challenge every day. (Here's a link to Geoff's soon-
to-be-released book "Dealing with Darwin":
http://www.networkworld.com/nlvortexdarwin)

* Microsoft's Ray Ozzie and Sun's Greg Papadopoulos explored the
ramifications of the movement toward software as a service. This
was a great prelude to Microsoft's announcement this week of its
services plans. Read more here:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/110105-gates-ozzie.html.

* Cassatt's Bill Coleman and CIOs from Hasbro and DolphinSearch
debated and prognosticated on the inevitability of utility
computing and what it means for IT departments and the IT
industry.

* AT&T's Ed Amoroso talked about how security must change because
our current defenses are fundamentally flawed and cannot be
fixed. The security challenge rang out loud and clear during the
event, with CIOs in a roundtable discussion citing security as
their top concern and attendeess voting resoundingly that
security problems will be with us for a long, long time.

* Services oriented architecture is taking root in corporations
and the payoffs will be huge. In fact, some 80% of the VORTEX
attendees say SOA presents "rich opportunities for investors and
entrepreneurs."

* Mobility technologies are changing business dramatically, as
the CIOs on our wireless panel detailed. This seems particularly
true in the IT-challenged health care field, where the providers
we talked to are fundamentally rewriting the rules of their game.

The second premise of VORTEX is that it's imperative that both
vendors and IT executives explore these issues together in order
to speed the evolution of enterprise IT. This year, with help
from the new CIOs on our advisory board, our program better
reflected the concerns of the buy side and, as a result, we had
many, many more senior IT executives in the room. They, and the
top vendor executives in attendance, got a better understanding
of each other's needs and strategies. That may have been the most
important thing to come out of the event.

There's additional coverage of speakers and sessions in the
VORTEX Blog (http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/vortex/) and in
upcoming days I'll share some more thoughts as well as links to
coverage from the event.

Thanks for all the input you provided to help make VORTEX 2005 a
success. Bye for now.

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ABOUT VORTEX DIGEST
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VORTEX Digest is a weekly summary of the VORTEX Blogs written by
Executive Producer John Gallant and offers an ongoing dialogue
on matters raised at The VORTEX Conference, and within the VORTEX
Community.

VORTEX is an exclusive, invitation-only event for senior
executives that brings together all the key elements: leadership,
thought, funding, and regulatory expertise, to shape the future
of the network business and the technologies that drive it.
VORTEX shakes off the hype and helps you understand where you can
win new customers, and find new revenue in a time of dramatic and
seemingly unpredictable change.

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Copyright: Network World, Inc. 2005

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