Building Cloud Value: A Best Practice Guide, 2016 is a compendium of 10 best practices reports, covering issues that are critical to adoption and use of cloud computing. Each document was co-created by members of the Toronto Cloud Business Coalition, a group that spans many different cloud stakeholder communities: IT management from both enterprises and SMBs, global IT and cloud vendors, Canadian 'Born in the Cloud' (BITC) suppliers, ecosystem/channel firms, academics, corporate finance experts, training providers, associations, executives at large with deep experience in the cloud industry, and other experts interested in developing best practices in key areas.
Developed and delivered by InsightaaS principals Mary Allen and Michael O'Neil, Building Cloud Value: A Best Practice Guide, 2016 provides an essential reference for all of the key cloud stakeholder communities. The book addresses the need of non-IT executives to understand cloud in a business-relevant context (Cloud Business Models, Metrics and Imperatives); it provides essential guidance for IT managers and practitioners looking to build or expand current cloud activities (Planning for the Cloud/Cloud Strategy for enterprises or for SMBs, Delivering Cloud via Public, Private and Hybrid Environments, Advanced Cloud Application Adoption and Enablement, Cloud Security, Privacy and Reliability, Cloud Skills Requirements and Development); it illustrates alignment between corporate and IT responsibilities (Cloud Governance, Risk and Compliance); and it delivers insights needed by a supply chain looking to develop viable cloud business models (Cloud Go-to-Market, Financing Cloud Businesses). Readers can use any individual chapter to develop strategy in response to a specific business demand, or can absorb the entire work to understand how and why best practices in cloud lead to sustainable business success in the digital world.
Allen, Mary: - An IT trend watcher for over 18 years, Mary Allen has covered the full spectrum of ICT subjects as journalist, analyst and commentator. She began her professional involvement with the IT industry as a freelance Research Associate with IDC Canada, and authored executive-level research reports on the IT services industry and other hardware and software topics over a 10 year period. As the first lead author for IDC's IT Market Perspectives program, she commented on trends in Canadian IT in landmark reports on industry growth, the relative positions of leading market players, and on the deployment of IT solutions by Canadian public and private-sector businesses. After working on assignments for other clients (including Info-Tech Research Group), Mary helped found the pioneering IT in Canada social media website. As the site's News Editor, she was responsible for coverage of news and trends across the full range of Canadian industry issues, and posted thousands of articles to the site, while serving as Senior Editor for IT in Canada's bi-monthly print publication. Mary also supported IT in Canada's microsite strategy, acting as Editorial Director for specific content portals, including The Sustainability Platform, a microsite devoted to dialogue on ICT support for CSR goals. She leveraged this domain knowledge into a three year term as a columnist for Bloomberg BNA on green ICT innovation. Drawing on her long term experience with IT research and media, Mary now works as Managing Editor for InsightaaS, a boutique analyst firm that connects research, in-depth industry coverage and leading social platforms to uncover the "why" in enterprise technology. She also acts as a lead analyst for the Toronto Cloud Business Coalition, a cross disciplinary community of ICT professionals focused on developing best practices in the adoption of advanced cloud, IoT and analytics technologies. In these roles, Mary will continue to deliver insight into key trends shaping the global IT industry.
O'Neil, Michael: - "Michael O'Neil is Canada's leading IT industry analyst, recognized as an expert in the application of enterprise technologies (including, and especially, cloud) to business processes and requirements - and what that means for vendors and channel members looking to build viable businesses. As principal analyst for InsightaaS, O'Neil published the acclaimed management book "The Death of Core Competency: A management guide to cloud computing and the zero-friction future" in 2014, and managed the launch of the Toronto Cloud Business Coalition (www.businesscloud.to) in April 2015. TCBC links IT management from SMBs and enterprises, global and Canadian cloud services vendors, channel members, VCs/corporate finance professionals, management consultants, academics, and other experts in the development of best practices needed to accelerate adoption and use of cloud in Canada. Internationally, O'Neil is in demand both as an expert on building and optimizing channel and alliance relationships and networks, and (as a result of many years' worth of independent research, and two years spent as a Sustainable IT columnist for Bloomberg BNA) as an expert in sustainable IT. O'Neil started his career with IDC, where he had executive responsibility for the Canadian business, and for the launch and growth of the worldwide Software Business Strategies group. Today, O'Neil is actively working with clients in Canada, the US and the Caribbean on IT/business initiatives, and - with InsightaaS partner Mary Allen - on the launch of two new best practice communities, focused on IoT and analytics, in 2016."
