Faced with depressing predictions of looming budget cuts cloud computing has come to the fore of discussions to uncover relatively short-term economies in IT functions within the public sector. But how much of the cloud story is hype? How different are cloud architectures to the web-server farms that organizations have had the means to access for well over a decade? And how realistic is it that core business systems will move out of the data centre to the cloud?

1. WHITE PAPER
SITUATIONAL APPLICATIONS:
FIRST STEP TO THE CLOUD
November 2010
Ian Tomlin
www.encanvas.com

2. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
Contents
Overview ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Cloud computing versus web hosting .......................................................................................... 4
Why situational applications are the first step .......................................................................... 5
A typical roadmap ................................................................................................................................. 6
Why are situational applications the start-point for cloud initiatives? ............................ 7
Use case examples ................................................................................................................................ 8
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Contact information and intellectual property ....................................................................... 11
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3. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
DEPARTMENTAL
SITUATIONAL
APPLICATIONS
First step to the cloud
This article describes why situational applications are the obvious first step into
cloud computing for federal organizations.
Overview
Faced with depressing predictions of looming budget cuts cloud computing has come
to the fore of discussions to uncover relatively short-term economies in IT functions
within the public sector. But how much of the cloud story is hype? How different are
cloud architectures to the web-server farms that organizations have had the means to
access for well over a decade? And how realistic is it that core business systems will
move out of the data centre to the cloud?
Many CIOs are quite rightly sceptical of the real-world practicality of large-scale
porting of business critical apps to the cloud. They site concerns over data security,
business continuity, administration and the realistic challenges of running a
relationship with a vendor that will need to provide robust administrative tools to
manage day-to-day support activities.
Even those CIOs who brush through all of these concerns with optimistic verve, there
are still huge issues to take onboard about the scalability of databases and commercial
structures supporting cloud platforms.
And what about the proprietary nature of the various cloud platforms? It’s a very new
industry and the entire market is experiencing a sharp learning curve.
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4. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
Cloud computing versus web hosting
What’s the difference between cloud computing and traditional web hosting?
Experts of cloud computing will allude to a small number of very pointy differences
between cloud computing and traditional web server hosting. The first clear difference
is the potential for multi-tenancy – the ability for individuals and companies to buy
into a share of a computing platform that has a seemingly endless supply of processor
and storage capacity.
They will site dramatic advances in technology that have made possible new levels of
virtualization and scaling that is unprecedented in the industry.
Other enthusiasts of cloud computing will point to a step-change in the possibilities of
deploying virtualized applications made possible by the administrative tools and
technologies that the competitive bun-fight for cloud computing has inspired by the
major vendors.
Whilst these advances in the framework of tools for applications design, deployment
and administration might not be exclusively the domain of cloud computing, this is
most definitely the ‘flag’ that these new innovations fly under.
Having stepped through the minutia of the cloud debate we conclude that it doesn’t
really matter whether cloud architectures are fundamentally different; or whether the
software tools that cloud computing has levered to the surface are part of the cloud
computing story or not. What matters to hard-pressed IT leaders in the public sector
is that – thanks to cloud computing - more opportunities exist for virtualizing server
platforms, and achieving economies by adopting smarter means of running key
processes including the design, deployment and operation of business applications
than ever before.
Cloud computing provides a greater ability to leverage the competencies and
resources of third party vendors (with smarter technology) while organizations only
pay for what they use.
But with so many concerns over the robustness, database scalability, administrative
tools etc. of cloud computing, what is the first step that IT leaders should take on this
journey?
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5. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
Why situational applications are the best first step
While some private sector organizations like easyjet are taking the lead in cloud
computing by adopting policies whereby all future application should be considered
for deployment on the cloud before any other justification is considered, the majority
of public sector organizations are adopting a more cautious approach. The first
applications most organizations are considering for cloud deployment are the
departmental and ‘situational applications’ that we describe later in this article.
For departmental managers and executives, IT budgets have always been a lottery.
There are so many business processes that occur in any public sector organization, and
their operation is to tangentially different to the private sector, that most departments
have to make do with the majority of users gaining access to a core administrative
system while workers that need a bigger bag of different systems are required to make
do with spreadsheets, slides and flat-file databases to fill in the cracks in their
information management. The gap between information needs and information
systems capability is forever growing while IT teams lack the resources or budgets to
respond to every need with a shrink-wrapped software tool. Even today, most middle
managers report they lack the information they need to discharge their roles and the
information they do get is often not in the format (or completeness) to make it useful.
Developments in Rich Internet portals technology spearheaded by investments into
cloud computing are now reaching the market. They provide users with the level of
user interface experience and responsiveness to queries comparable (if not better)
than the systems resident applications they’re used to using. Rich Internet portal
platforms like Encanvas engineer a new marriage between so-called ‘data mashups’
technology, building block applications design and pain-free deployment and
operation needed to support near infinite numbers of secure and live community
spaces in the cloud.
Rich Internet portal solutions for the Microsoft® Azure™ cloud like Encanvas
Secure&Live™ are purposely designed to meet enterprise requirements for situational
applications; described by thought-leader Luca Cherbakov of IBM as “applications
developed by small teams in response to new business situations that possess the
economics that mean once used they can be discarded”. Experiences gained in the
last decade on the use and deployment of situational applications suggest that while
situational applications start simply as a robust IT answer to a business problem,
generally solutions mature into business critical IT systems as users and stakeholders
benefit from their use and start to mature their role. Many of these applications start
within a department (to serve a departmental need) and grow because of their
usefulness and practical rewards.
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6. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
A typical roadmap
The way communities and teams tend to mature their situational applications takes on
a common roadmap:
 Applications start with the need for ‘secure and live’ community spaces
providing access to collaboration and participant interaction.
 Then the need to acquire data from different data sources emerges.
 Next, users call for more enquiry and analysis screens and capabilities.
 The need for more formalized business processes materialises.
 Finally, (and only in some cases) requirements for predictive engines emerge–
providing the ability to anticipate the likelihood of events and impacting
scenarios that might impact on the community.
While the majority of IT users are adequately supplied by a small number of systems
(such as sales administrators that will spend all of their time on a CRM system, or an
accounting clerk who will live in their SAP or Oracle portals) there are a smaller
number of department managers, marketers, R&D and creatives that demand robust
IT solutions to serve themselves with richer sources of insights and smarter tools to
rationalise the information overload of the digital age.
Situational applications are seen as the remedy to the ‘long tail of demand’ for
business applications coming from this very important minority community of IT users
scattered across the enterprise that make innovation happen and spark competitive
advantage. Unfortunately, at the outset of these departmental and situational
software development projects, it’s often not clear what the return-on-investment
might be for investing in the development of a robust IT solution. Equally, there can be
relationship and organizational pressures surrounding a software development project
that mean cooperation is not assured and data acquisition and aggregation may be
prohibited by practical IT roadblocks or the unwillingness of parties to play ball.
It’s in this complex arena of information change management that the unique blend of
economics and functionality manifested in cloud computing platforms like Encanvas
comes to the fore; where the cloud represents a more neutral zone for cooperation
(with each contributing party owning its own data and ability to regulate access
permissions while sharing the same technology platform).
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7. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
Why are situational applications the start-point for cloud initiatives?
The main reasons are these:
 Most organizations have too many software products and supplier
relationships. Reducing the number of discrete software applications through
harmonisation offers a direct route to savings in IT expenditure while the
ability to deliver more applications right first time through situational
applications is assured.
 Cloud architectures provide a faster and more painless means of designing,
deploying and operating custom built applications. They’re more economic
and can scale to whatever size they need to grow so there’s no risk of
outgrowing the hardware platform.
 The cloud is seen to be a secure and live ‘neutral territory’ for organizations
seeking to share data and collaborate with their communities – there is less of
an emotional issue towards where data resides.
 Making a start on the cloud journey with situational applications addresses the
‘long-tail of demand’ for business applications so IT teams can be seen to
deliver responsive IT solutions to emergent business needs by serving up
robust IT solutions at very low cost.
 While situational applications can grow to become business critical, there’s a
big difference between starting from day one with new applications on the
cloud and attempting to port the much less numerous core transactional
platforms that are critical to business continuity.
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8. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
Use case examples
Here are three use case examples that show how situational applications can mature
into best-fit business critical information systems; ideal early stage candidates for
cloud computing.
1. Streetworks (local government department)
At the introduction of the Traffic Management Act in 2004, the Traffic Manager of
West Sussex County Council identified that the current information management of
the department was unworkable if all aspects of the new legislation (calling for
improved cooperation with streetworks undertakers and demonstration of parity on
planning decisions) were to be met. With the current IT systems, no mapping
functionality existed that could provide a single page view of all planning aspects.
Engineers were required to reference six different internal systems to build a clear
picture of the planning considerations – and even then mistakes could be easily made.
Another major challenge was the impact of TMA legislation on the administrative
overheads of the department demanding that the Council input all of its own
streetwork assets, activities and events in order to demonstrate parity with other
streetworks undertakers (before TMA 2004 this information was not reported).
An urgent solution was needed to comply with the TMA requirements – otherwise the
Traffic Manager estimated that at least 2 additional FTEs would be required simply to
keep up with the administrative overheads (at a time when skilled staff with
appropriate qualifications were scarce due to demand driven by the new legislator
framework). An interim situational application was developed by IS consultants NDMC
and West Sussex County Council to provide a bridging solution to respond to the new
information demands of the TMA 2004 legislation in advance of core business systems
being brought up to date.
The project team identified the sources of data from across the department and
mapped out a requirements specification. Samples of each of the data sources were
gathered and a ‘start-point’ proof of concept was developed.
This application was presented to a workshop of users and stakeholders who spent a
day discussing the format and operation of the system. By the end of this one-day
workshop, the majority of the systems design was completed and a fully functioning
test system was deployed onto the Encanvas system within 2 days.
As the result of this project, the WSCC streetworks team was comfortably able to
service the anticipated peak in demand for noticing of works without needing to
create new posts and West Sussex County Council became the first local authority in
the southeast, outside London, to operate and full EToN3 compliant system.
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9. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
2. Credentials Management (professional services)
A global professional services organization found that it was unable to satisfactorily
provide credentials of past projects in support of new client engagement bids owing
to the lack of retained information. While some detail of contact information was held
on a Lotus Notes intranet, project information was either not captured or was to be
found in different systems. The current situation meant that evidencing capabilities
was proving to be difficult and was risking future business growth.
In response to this challenge, the organization worked with IS consultants NDMC to
create a suitable application using Encanvas. This was created in 6-days with the
project team developed through workshops. Data integrations technology built into
Encanvas was used to acquire data from disparate sources – including the Lotus Notes
Intranet, a third party database (held in .CSV format) and project systems. User search
and enquiry forms were created that used drop-down filters and free-text weighted
search to simplify the enquiry process. Once filtered queries were returned, the
resulting records could be downloaded in a templated form for instant inclusion into
bid documents and proposals. As the result of the deployment, senior partners could
harness the credentials of the global knowledge center operations in support of future
bids. An ROI was achieved within the first 6-weeks of use.
3. Compliance Management (electronics sector)
A global electronics company found that in order to comply with new regulatory
demands from its parent in Japan, it needed to install a license management and
reporting solution. The European operation was afforded scant notice of this new
requirement and was challenged to get a system in-place within 6-weeks!
The project manager elected to work with IS consultants NDMC to design and deploy
an interim situational application using the Encanvas Rich Internet platform. Through a
one-day workshop the project team devised a data model and website design. Taking
advantage of the data connectors provided by the Encanvas platform, the project team
was able to import historical licensing data held in MS Access and spreadsheet files to
deploy a working solution within five days.
Following a period of user testing, a second workshop was initiated to recommend
iterative changes that were subsequently implemented using the code-free design
environment of Encanvas; changes that took only a ½ day to implement.
Having the license management system on a web hosted environment meant that the
Japanese parent company is now able to access report data for compliance purposes
directly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This interim solution has now been running
since 2005 and continues to satisfactorily meet compliance reporting requirements.
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10. WHITE PAPER | Situational Applications: First step to the Cloud
Conclusion
The idea that IT functions will achieve step-change reductions in operational costs is
unlikely to happen without harmonising the hundreds of software applications
organizations use down to a manageable number. Migrating the many homemade
and spreadsheet systems to a common ‘secure and live’ cloud architecture presents
immediate opportunities for short-term cashable economies.
Platform-as-a-Service solutions like Encanvas Secure&Live provide a mechanism to
economically serve the long-tail of applications demand that exists within all
organizations today; improving internal customer satisfaction towards IT.
So if you’re looking to make the move to cloud computing, consider taking baby steps
first with situational and departmental applications - and just make sure you’re able to
reach the cloud before you leap!
© 2010 Encanvas Inc. 10

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Contact information
About the Author
Previously holding a series of Sales and Marketing Management and Directorship
positions in the European IT industry, in 2002 Ian Tomlin co-founded the
International Management Consultancy NDMC Ltd whose portfolio of clients includes
some of the world’s largest public and private sector organizations. With Nick
Lawrie he co-authored ‘Agilization’, a guide to regenerating competitiveness for
Western World companies. Ian Tomlin has authored several other business books
and hundreds of articles on business strategy, IT and organizational design including
‘Cloud Coffee House’, a guide to the impact of cloud social networking on business
and ‘Social Operating Systems’, an exploration into the next generation of enterprise
computing platform.
About Encanvas
Encanvas® software makes the workplace work better. We bring added value to the
Microsoft® enterprise platform by creating the technologies organizations need to
spend less and receive more from their software investments. We’ve created the
world’s first Integrated Computer-Aided-Applications-Design (CAAD) Software
Platform. Our Secure&Live™ platform enables the near-real-time design, deployment
and operation of applications without coding in workshop environments all made
possible by a single tightly coupled architecture. It facilitates the massive scaling of
portal architectures; so users can communicate, share information and their
applications in real-time while operating in ‘secure spaces’ that protect systems,
data, identity and intellectual property.
Encanvas Inc.
2710 Thomas Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001 USA.
(Americas) +1 201 777 3398
(Europe) +44 1865 596151
www.encanvas.com
All information of whatever kind and which is contained in this documentation shall be called for the purposes of this
project ‘Confidential Information’ and remains the property of Encanvas Inc. All trademarks and trade names used
within this document are acknowledged as belonging to their respective owners.
© 2010 Encanvas Inc. 11