Hi Mohan
You’ve not been writing on the MOIT blog, wanted to check with you if you plan to write or I should get the blog archived.
Thanks/Rahil

Reading the note, I realized how long it had been since I posted on this blog; I obviously had a decision to make: should I get this blog archived or should I get back to continually posting here?

• In the short run the pandamic will certainly impact trade and business as people become hesitant to get on a plane, travel and attend critical meetings. Companies, especially multinationals, will send out travel advisories based on their individual corporate risk assessments. More governments may issue travel advisories. Cross-continental and international travellers may have to undergo additional screening. . . . etc . etc.

Given that Piracy is noteworthy and the pirates at sea are operate offshore, I am surprised that some smart alec writer or blogger hasn’t picked up on offshoring piracy. It is probably because large software services firms, Infosys included, take Intellectual property rights seriously. Most have strong policies and guidelines preventing employees, consultants and service providers from indulging in such acts and violations are not tolerated.

As we head into the easter holidays, I decided to catch up on the chatter on cloud computing. I began with Kris Gopalakrishnan`s views express during his trip to Davos for WEF earlier this (Infosys CEO Sees Brightness in Clouds) Wall Street Journal recently featured a story (The Internet Industry Is on a Cloud -- Whatever That May Mean) that begins by explaining “Ever since Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt publicly uttered the term "cloud computing" in 2006, a storm has been gathering over Silicon Valley.”
 

Michael, sure my perspective has changed . . .  in more ways than one. This said, it is fascinating - though not amusing - to see fellow techies suddenly transform into armchair experts in macro-economics, finance, globalization, free-trade etc etc, all the while wondering “what hit us?,” and “where to go from here?” and most importantly “what does this all mean to me?”

Here is a cross-post from my recent entry on our EA blog based on the recently published Enterprise Architecture Survey which I helped conduct and author.

I will be back soon to continue my observations on Offshoring, Globalization and sourcing

Middle-managers in sourcing organizations and offshoring firms probably read about the incidents in the news and realized that the disruption to their operations was (thankfully) minimal, reflected on it a bit and went back to their operational challenges. However, technology executives, consultants and sourcing specialists, risk management consultants and others are taking a harder look at the risks and associated risk mitigation strategies

It is one thing to get an existing client to agree to use a reference to the work we have done as a case study but getting them to actually talk with another prospect; well that’s where things get interesting.

Enterprise Architects, many of whom report into a CIO/CTO organization are also under continual pressure to ensure that the organization derives an optimal ROI from their IT investments, which means they need to ‘sell’ the value of robust, scalable architecture, planning and roadmaps to their stakeholders, some of whom may be focused on the tactical: ensuring that the quarterly targets are met, budgets balanced and operational challenges addressed. Even the ‘strategic’ focus may sometime involve reacting to external trends (read between the lines: it is the economy, slowdown etc)

Anyway, back to the theme of this blog; while reading Andrew Manning’s blog entry on “Enterprise Architects: Time for more job titles?”  I began thinking about a barbeque I attended at a friend's place few weeks ago where colleagues and peers had gathered. It was interesting to observe that folks who had gathered were finding it hard to pick on neutral topics beyond the day’s weather and the difficulty in maintaining the lawn, using the host’s backyard as a case-in-point. It was not hard to see why.  A few were from the ‘sales’ side of our business – account managers, engagement leaders and the like – and others from the consulting side - IT architects and consultants. And not surprisingly, it was the few Marchitectects in our midstwho were trying to find an icebreaker.