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IT Project Failures

Michael Krigsman
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What's the cloud? Ask a ten-year old.

By | December 2, 2010, 6:17am PST

Summary: In this interesting video, huge consulting firm, Accenture, asks ten-year old kids about the cloud. The results may surprise you.

In this fun and interesting video, huge consulting firm, Accenture, asks ten-year old kids what they think of cloud computing. The results are enlightening for a few reasons.

These kids are true digital natives, who have grown up with computers since birth, so their views lack posturing or discomfort with non-cloud alternatives. Although they’re just children, we know that out of the mouths of babes sometimes does come the truth.

And yeah, it’s obvious Accenture believes its own money trail leads into the cloud.

Related: For a deeper perspective on the impact of cloud computing, take a look at Cloud impact: A state of the art discussion (podcast).

[Thanks to ReadWriteWeb for the pointer to this video.]

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Topics

Consulting Company, Accenture Ltd., Consulting, Outsourcing, Corporate Communications, It Operations, Business Operations, Outsourcing & Subcontracting, Marketing, Michael Krigsman

Michael Krigsman is a recognized authority on the causes and prevention of IT failures.

Disclosure

Michael Krigsman

Michael Krigsman writes and speaks about technology in a manner that most observers consider to be fair and balanced. Michael believes that writing about IT failures, which often have complex causes, creates a unique obligation to be reasonable and accurate in both reporting and analysis.

Michael maintains active personal and professional relationships with enterprise technology buyers, vendors, analyst firms (or individual analysts), consultants, and system integrators. As CEO of Asuret, Michael sells and delivers paid services to members of these same groups.

Vendors regularly reimburse Michael's out-of-pocket travel expenses to attend industry conferences and events. Conference organizers frequently waive entry fees when Michael attends industry events. Michael often speaks at industry conferences and events.

He is a member of the Enterprise Irregulars, a loose association of consultants, investors, industry representatives, analysts, and users of enterprise software.

For daily updates on Michael's activities, follow him on Twitter.

Biography

Michael Krigsman

Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a consulting company dedicated to reducing technology implementation failures. Asuret's suite of software tools improve the success rate of enterprise software deployments by quantifying and measuring governance issues that cause most project failures. Michael led the research effort underlying Asuret's model of collective intelligence and its practical application to reducing IT failures in consulting environments. He is a recognized authority on the causes and prevention of IT failures and is frequently quoted in the press on IT project and related CIO issues. He is considered an enterprise software industry "influencer" and provides advice to technology buyers, vendors, and services firms.

Previously, Michael served as CEO of Cambridge Publications, which develops tools and processes for software implementations and related business practice automation projects. Michael has been involved with hundreds of software development projects, for companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 organizations. Michael graduated with an M.B.A. from Boston University and a B.A. from Bard College. He is a Board member of the America's Cup Hall of Fame and the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, RI.

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RE: What's the cloud? Ask a ten-year old.
scott2010au 18th Dec 2010
@jshaw4343 [Applauds]

How do I flag you as awesome?
View in thread
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adnet is becoming tech-twitter
FADS_z 2nd Dec 2010
with short blogs.

It used to be much better.
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RE: What's the cloud? Ask a ten-year old.
BubbaJones_ 2nd Dec 2010
Whether or not it is an add I do like the video. Those children expressed interesting observations.
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RE: What's the cloud? Ask a ten-year old.
philsimonsystems 2nd Dec 2010
I saw this as well. Brilliant. Kids know better than many adults.
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Perfect ad
wackoae 2nd Dec 2010
.... specially since you have to have the brain of a 10 year old to actually buy into the BS called "cloud".
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We're they talking about the cloud...
jshaw4343 3rd Dec 2010
or Web 2.0?

What the 10 year olds also didn't talk about - which they don't understand - the security, privacy, legal impacts associated with the cloud.
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RE: What's the cloud? Ask a ten-year old.
scott2010au 18th Dec 2010
@jshaw4343 [Applauds]
0 Votes
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RE: What's the cloud? Ask a ten-year old.
scott2010au 18th Dec 2010
@jshaw4343 [Applauds]

How do I flag you as awesome?
0 Votes
+ -
Out of the mouths of babes ...
Dr_Zinj 3rd Dec 2010
comes poorly digested Gerbers puree'd peas.

10 year olds have no idea about what to do when the system goes down.

10 year olds have no idea how to do the work without the system.

People who don't know how to work without the system are even more useless than 10 year olds when it comes to disaster preparedness, emergency operations, and disaster recovery.

This video by Accenture just hammered the last nail in their coffin for any work at our company.
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Marketing: cloud = internet
Peter Kretzman 3rd Dec 2010
Come on. I'm a big proponent of cloud computing's possibilities, and this is of course a cute video. But like so much in the mainstream media, it's just equating the cloud with the internet, and falling over in wonder and enthusiasm about all the possibilities. IBM did a similar film (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB2hJPAQY-k), ?My Cloud: Virtual Servers on the Horizon?. As I noted in my blog, it was "a commercial which would work just as well if it were titled ?the incredible power of the Internet?, or even, ?aren?t computers cool?? "

Films like these, however cute and compelling, don't help anyone understand what cloud computing is all about. They're basically just using cloud as a new compelling marketing buzzword for the same old internet.

My blog post, "Cloud computing: misunderstood, but really not that complicated a concept" covers what truly differentiates cloud computing from the same-as-ever internet. See http://www.peterkretzman.com/2009/09/29/cloud-computing-misunderstood-but-really-not-that-complicated-a-concept/

Peter Kretzman
http://www.peterkretzman.com
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RE: What's the cloud? Ask a ten-year old.
swardley@... 7th Dec 2010
I've always suspected that Accenture Technology Experts were kids with no experience, it's finally good to see some proof at last.

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