Comments
- 1-2 of 2
I agree that is early days although I think private clouds will be an integration of the virtualization going on in servers, storage, and networking (and perhaps a bit on the client side). As such, I think the cost benefit of doing all three together as a fabric will magnify the cost benefits and, as security issues are vetted in virtualization roll outs, private cloud challenges will be addressed. The tricky part will be in how provisioning gets handled, but the prospect of standing up a "virtual" instance of the ERP system to support a specific venture will be attractive enough to get buyers and vendors involved in figuring it out.
Thanks Jeff and Paula (Ms. Retail) for the thoughtful comments. The social network angle interests me - we are going have to throw out the old notions of zip code based demographics and look to "affinity codes" related to networks in the ether. Oddly enough, with the geo tagging in mobile devices we will also have to worry about an "individual zip code" - one that moves and is tied (perhaps) to an affinity code. The mind reels. What we know for sure is that nothing is going to move without an accurate demand repository and advanced analytic tools to guide us.
So let me ask the community this:
<Rod Sterling voice> Submitted for your approval. A shopper walks into a store with an Android phone. The camera on the phone snaps a picture of the bar code an immediately displays price and availability across a number of competing stores. The shopper is satisfied with that the retailer has a competitive price, but is the product any good? Tapping into her social network she asks her friends if anyone has bought one of these. An answer comes back from a friend that he bought one and it worked great but he no longer uses it. She can have his if she'd like, no need to buy one.
What should (or shouldn't) the retailer do in this scenario?
