Cloud by Choice

The 6 P’s of Product Management

Why the Marketing Mix of 4 P’s is insufficient for Product Managers

The Marketing Mix (or 4 P’s) is a concept being taught in one of the first lectures of any marketing or MBA programs. According to this framework, the marketing person should consider four specific areas to ensure product success: the Product and its capabilities, its Price, the Place where it will be available (e.g. in stores, online ordering etc.) and the Promotion (marketing campaign) that would raise awareness to it in the market. However, during my career in product management, I found this model to be somewhat biased towards the “outbound” marketing of the product, and not specific enough to address the needs of a product manager who drives the product from inception. Something was missing…

How Coronavirus Caught Organizational IT Unprepared

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) hit the world hard without warning and spread quickly across countries and continents. In their attempts to limit the spread of the virus, governments and individuals have changed the way we interacted with each other, and the way we worked and did business. This had a significant impact on the organizational IT systems, their infrastructure and applications. Unfortunately, many organizations were caught by surprise and were ill-prepared to handle this new environment, which required a massive and immediate transition to a work-from-home model. Continue reading “How Coronavirus Caught Organizational IT Unprepared”

Future Technology Mega-Trends and How They Impact Data Protection

It’s been a while since I last blogged on my personal website, but I have not been idle. One of my main tasks last year as a lead technologist for data protection strategy at the office of the CTO was to analyze the future technology mega-trends that will shape IT (information technology) in the next decade and understand their implications on data protection solutions. It was an exciting journey, Continue reading “Future Technology Mega-Trends and How They Impact Data Protection”

“Crossing the chasms” – Yes, there are more than one

The classical “crossing the chasm” model ignores critical challenges in the product life cycle. There are more than one chasms you need to cross on your way to success.

Since Geoffrey Moore introduced the concept of the Chasm for marketing and selling high-tech products in 1991, the conversation was mostly focused on moving from Early Adopters to Mainstream customers, and building strategies that will enable that success. The planning was aimed to take a fully developed, market-ready product to the market, and winning various market segments and customer types while building the organization to growth. Not surprisingly, the sub-title of Moore’s book is: “Marketing and selling disruptive products to mainstream customers”. He focused his book on the marketing and selling of completed products and not on the development of those products. This was illustrated in the well-known chasm drawing that presented the chasm between the early adopters and the mainstream customers. Continue reading ““Crossing the chasms” – Yes, there are more than one”

Multi-Cloud or Cross-Cloud Strategy? Which one do you really need? – Part 2

Implementing multi-cloud or cross-cloud strategy requires proper planning and using the right tools and environments to make it viable. It won’t happen by itself.

In Part 1 we compared multi-cloud with cross-cloud strategies and have identified the reasons to use each of them, with the complexities they introduce. In order to properly enable seamless operation between the clouds, multiple technologies and architectures can be used. Continue reading “Multi-Cloud or Cross-Cloud Strategy? Which one do you really need? – Part 2”

Multi-Cloud or Cross-Cloud Strategy? Which one do you really need? – Part 1

Many people confuse multi-cloud with cross-cloud strategy. Make sure you know what you ask for, and why.

One of the hottest topics in IT is multi-cloud strategy. It seems like only yesterday people had to be convinced that a public cloud could be a viable alternative to run production workloads, and now organizations are looking into using even more than one clouds. According to Enterprise Strategy Group, over 81% of organizations are using more than two cloud providers or more, and this trend does not seem to slow down. So if you are using a public cloud, should you also adopt a multi-cloud strategy? Maybe you should even have a cross-cloud strategy? And what is the difference between those two? Continue reading “Multi-Cloud or Cross-Cloud Strategy? Which one do you really need? – Part 1”

When should you not listen to your customers’ requests?

Product managers are always taught to drive their product direction based on their customers’ requirements, but that is not always the right approach.

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According to a famous legend, Henry Ford once said: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse”. Although it is likely that Henry Ford have never really said those exact words (see here), they represent an approach that many innovators (including Ford) took, and used to change the world. Continue reading “When should you not listen to your customers’ requests?”

Three assumptions you cannot make about Public Clouds

Public clouds provide great value to many use cases, but do not forget to protect your data – it will not happen by itself.

The public cloud has transformed the way we use and consume IT resources. It also impacted the way we develop applications and how those interact with the underlying infrastructure on which they run. While public clouds are attractive for many users and organizations due to the many benefits they bring, several myths have emerged about data protection in the cloud, which should be understood by anyone using public clouds. Continue reading “Three assumptions you cannot make about Public Clouds”