If your enterprise is committed to a long-term managed services or information technology outsourcing (ITO) contract, you might be looking longingly at the agility and efficiencies of cloud-based delivery models. If you’re like many enterprises that rely on managed services, you might be less than thrilled with the quality, responsiveness and flexibility you’re getting. Cloud seems like a better path, but you’re contractually obligated, potentially for several more years.

Meanwhile, your business users are continuing the drumbeat for more agility and flexibility — all at lower cost, of course. Adding to the pressure is the fact that your competitors are using cloud to reallocate capital and operating resources to driving innovation and value, placing your company in an untenable — and unsustainable — competitive position. It’s probably also the case that your service provider has no contractual, economic or technical incentives to suggest cloud migration strategies that might improve your position.

Seems you’re stuck. Right?

Maybe not. Just because you’re in a long-term relationship with a service provider does not mean you’re out of options. Most managed services agreements were written without cloud in mind. So, if you’re creative, you might find ways to renegotiate or possibly bring in a new vendor with cloud offerings that fit your business and workloads.

Four steps:

1. Review the contract. Make sure you know your contract before booking meetings with your service provider or a cloud vendor. Pay particular attention to the process for negotiating changes to the agreement, as well as minimum volume commitments and what happens if your workloads exceed those minimums. Your contract is probably silent on how new workloads are to be serviced, but check that as well.
2. Focus on work volume, not dollars. Most master services agreements are built around units of work performed in each time period rather than a dollar volume commitment. And once minimum volumes are met, most agreements allow customers to take additional volumes to other vendors and platforms.
3. Look for a high-value test case. Identify a basket of workloads that are well-suited to cloud migration. Public cloud examples might include dev/test or backup and archival. Private cloud examples might include high-volume transaction workloads running on legacy systems that can be forklifted to a virtualized environment. Use this list of workloads when engaging your service provider and/or cloud vendor. It will focus the conversations on specific, immediate paths forward and help you build financial and technical cases to support your eventual decision.
4. Amend, if it makes sense. It might not. The reality is that your current service provider likely is not technically equipped to deliver cost-effective, reliable cloud services. If that’s the case, they’ll do everything they can to discourage you from going down that path. Thus, the reality may be that in order to preserve your competitive position, you simply can’t wait for your current provider to figure it out. If that’s the case, you’ll want to move new workloads and cycles beyond your contractual minimums to a provider with the right cloud credentials.

A win/win?

Let’s assume your current provider is up to the task. Here’s where to look for the win/win:

Successfully migrating a set of workloads delivers value to you (increased agility, reduced costs, more productive employees), and also to your service provider (new capabilities and infrastructure roadmaps that they can sell to other customers). With a mutual win for both parties, the stage is set to work with your service provider to forge a contract amendment that makes the next workload migration more procedural. Sweeteners for a deal might include shared cost savings, bonuses for hitting KPI metrics, or a contract extension.

Of course, all of this assumes they can deliver the goods, and that’s probably a long shot.

This time it’s different

Start planning now for your next rebid. Cloud has so fundamentally changed the procurement landscape for managed IT services that your procurement process must fundamentally change as well. Map out your RFI/RFP game plan to:

a) attract service providers who “get” cloud

b) build a next-generation set of performance metrics and incentives into the contract, and

c) account for new elements of value that only cloud providers can offer.

In the next generation IT outsourcing world, service providers are going to look very different from what you find in today’s marketplace. There will be more of them, their capabilities will be different, and the value propositions they offer will need to be accounted for in how you evaluate your choices. Management and governance will follow new models, and metrics will be fundamentally different.

Today, the market is unsettled, and until that changes, the ball will be in your court to procure IT outsourcing agreements that put your company in the best position to reap the competitive benefits of cloud strategies.

Scott Bils is a partner at Everest Group and leads the firm’s Next-Generation IT practice.

Image courtesy of Flickr user NobMouse.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Quality of the cloud: best practices for ISVs
• Defining work in the digital age: an analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Migrating media applications to the private cloud: best practices for businesses

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Are there dinosaurs among us? If a new joint report from Regus and Unwired called VWork: Winning Strategies at Work  is to be believed, yes. The report on the future of the office in an age of increasingly agile work surveyed 600 businesspeople along with several heads of global real estate and will be released next week. Of course, the lumbering beasts it identifies aren’t giant reptiles, but instead traditional corporate buildings, which the report claims are underutilized, inflexible and a bad fit for the work of today.

But like the dinosaurs, which scientists tell us live on as chickens, the office building of the past is unlikely to become completely extinct, but rather to evolve to meet the demands of new kinds of workers, driven by technological advances and a desire for a lighter, cheaper real estate footprint. So what will this new paradigm look like? To find out, we spoke with Bob Gaudreau, Executive VP of Regus and Philip Ross, CEO of Unwired, about the changing meaning of the office in a wired world.

Jessica Stillman: One of the models for the future you explore in the report is the idea that employees will be allowed to buy their own office space. Can you explain how you envision that working?

Philp Ross: One of the core corporate drivers in the move to agility is a reduction in the cost of real estate. It’s a move from providing a container for work that tends not to be used towards a future where it’s on-demand — that work places are aligned with how people actually want to work.

We found that only 45 percent of desks in offices are used at any one point in time today. So what we’re doing is aligning the idea of “buy/bring-your-own,” which is beginning to get traction in the IT world, with the idea of just provisioning work, so that companies give their employers a stipend, a budget, and the budget is for all aspects of the provisioning of work to suit them and the way they work.

Bob Gandreau: We’re seeing it happen already. Companies like Yell in the UK had 20 properties that were sitting vacant 70 percent of the time. So what they did is they gave everyone a membership to be able to use any of the Regus locations, and these people can go into the location where they want, when they want and work how they want. It’s not totally the worker buying his own, but it is companies giving them a sum of money and allowing the worker to pick the right work setting depending on what the worker needs. What that means for Yell is they’re saving, I think, £1.5 million or 40 percent of all their property costs by working in a much more agile way.

Jessica: If you go super lean and cut back severely on space at traditional offices, how do you plan usage so if everyone wants to use the space, they can?

Ross: It’s a very important point. We identified only 12.3 percent of people want to work from home, but you can also see in the research that people want a very short commute. So I think what we’re identifying really is that people want to work locally. We’re seeing this kind of new hybrid model where there’s a bit of working from home, a bit of working from the corporate office, but also this move towards third space — new spaces that are in the community — and that’s a very exciting trend.

In terms of load-balancing the corporate building, we’ve seen it done around the world. We profiled companies like Macquarie Bank in Sydney who built a kind of on-demand, real-time building. Companies are looking at this to provide places to work, not desks or cubes, so that there is always somewhere to work and also reallocating space based on the work that people actually do, which is moving more and more towards collaborative work, not just working solo in a cube. Again, we found that not only are 55 percent of the cubes empty at any one point in time, people report they can’t get meeting rooms. So I think what we’re seeing is a wholesale reallocation of space in the corporate center, and that also looks like a 20-25 percent of reduction of space at the same time.

Gandreau: In the old days you might see 10 percent of the space as meeting room, lounge and collaboration, now it’s 20-30 percent of the space, because it becomes a destination for people to come together and do that kind of work, which is where the good ideas come from.

Jessica: So-called “third space” seems to play a big role in the future you’re imagining, but are they up to the task today? Are there enough quality spaces available, and if not, do you predict a big boom in the industry?

Ross: There is a mixed range out there – there are some very good ones and some very mediocre ones that don’t quite meet the needs of the corporates. You can see them meeting the needs of the freelancers, the contingent workers, who go in with their Macbook Airs and have a coffee and they’re online, but they don’t meet the confidentiality needs and other services needs that they will have to respond to if Fortune companies adopt third space. I see them becoming, perhaps, more like an airport lounge with tiers of membership where platinum cardholders can get advanced services with teleconferencing, privacy and other facilities. I think it’s got some way to go from the kind of café society to a much more sophisticated offering of the future.

But if we see a huge change, a sea change, in the way that big corporates are working — if they do reduce their property footprint by 30 or 25 percent — we’ll see tens of thousands of new workers looking for someplace to work, especially in their communities, but no that hasn’t yet been provided for.

Gandreau: I see it happening before our eyes when you go out in the community. I was just back at my alma mater in Boston and I went to the library. In the old days, you couldn’t talk in the library, right? Now there are white boards and students collaborating, so I see more and more third spaces appearing in the places you’d least think they’d appear. Another place I’ve seen them, and Regus has looked at locating, is shopping malls. People are actually meeting in shopping malls. They’re naturally occurring in the places where large groups come together – sort of like the piazza in the old days. If you were in an Italian village people would go to the piazza and it was a beehive of activity. Third spaces are the piazzas of the modern century.

Jessica: Your report very much focuses on the cost savings of agile working and shies away from more holistic arguments, including commonly sited things like quality of life and environmental benefits. Why did you make that choice?

Ross: Over the years a lot of chat has been around about touchy-feely, nice-to-have issues around this, but corporates want to see the bottom line. They want to understand the impact on their business — how they can reduce costs, how they can improve efficiency. They are hard-nosed. We’re coming out of a climate of recession. Money is king. Doing more with less is top of the agenda.

Technology trends, the drivers from cloud to devices to connectivity, are enabling us to look at agility from a very different perspective, and in the report we’ve identified this idea of the agility dividend — how we can measure and monetize this, because I think what we found is companies are saying, we want to look at this but how do we present this to the board? The dividend looks at three key areas: reducing costs of real estate, a happiness dividend in work-life balance and improving the working lives of people, and the productivity dividend, making us more effective. If you sit back and look at this picture, it’s a no-brainer: there are lots of other spin-offs from environmental benefits through to the quality of life. We have to monetize it. We need a figure to produce a compelling business case to the CFO and the COO.

Gandreau: Our challenge has been for years to put a number to it. Once you can put a number to it, it becomes a really compelling argument. Once you have the bottom line, the flexibility you get by working in a more agile way just becomes the gravy. But it all starts with the numbers.

Image courtesy Flickr user Rich Anderson.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Making Coworking Corporate-Scale
• The Future of Workplaces
• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview

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When you are in the market for a luxury vehicle from Malibu used BMW dealer, you’re probably excited at the prospect of your new car. However, you may also be overwhelmed with the number of options available to you. There are simple things to keep in mind to ensure you buy the right car for your driving needs and personal preferences.

Start out by taking a look at your finances. How much do you want to spend on your new car? What is a comfortable price range? You probably don’t want to stretch your budget by purchasing a car you can’t afford. You want to drive luxury knowing full well you can afford it! So, avoid the financial stress and buy what you can afford.

Now that you know what your finances are looking like, consider what kind of features you want. Are you interested in safety, value, handling, speed, dependability, warranty, or prestige? Maybe you’re looking for all of these qualities? Now, list the makes or the model of the car you are interested in.

Now, its time to start researching the cars that you have an interest in. Many luxury vehicles, BMW included, have a great performance record and provide comfort and agility as well. However, in order to make sure you are getting value for the price you’re paying, doing your homework can help you avoid making mistakes. There are several websites and magazines devoted to car reviews. Read plenty of information on all the cars that have made your short-list.

Also keep in mind the statistics that are made available for crash-testing. This can give you a clear idea of how well your intended luxury car does in safety situations. Also look into how much it will cost to insure the vehicle you’re interested in. This is often time overlooked by candidates looking for luxury brands. Make sure you can afford the insurance!

Are you someone who enjoys selling your car for a new model every few years? If so, you can check out current resale values of cars to give you an idea on how much your potential car may depreciate in the coming years. Planning ahead may possibly save you money.

Do you have friends that have the same car you’re thinking about buying? Talk to them and ask for their advice. You’ll probably be able to get advice from your friends you wouldn’t normally get from any car magazine. Have your friend drive you around in the car a bit to get an idea of what it feels like as a passenger. When you go to the dealer, ask for a test drive so you can get a feel for what it’s like while driving. Are you in complete control? How does it feel while on the road?

Rank the makes that you are interested in by how they compare to your priorities. Then, rank them in terms of your budget. This should bring down your list considerably to at least two or three cars from Malibu BMW service center, making your final decision on buying your luxury car much easier. Next, head to BMW auto dealers Orange County and get on the road!

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I got up this morning and started thinking about the next thing I wanted to add to my PC. Like many of you, I’m into upgrading when I see fit to increase performance, and I think that putting Windows 7 on an SSD might be the way to go. So, like many of you, I decided to look at some of the most recent reviews and see what looked interesting from the price/performance standpoint.

So there’s a problem in general with buying an SSD, like any other component. You order it, the big brown truck arrives, you open the box and BAM! Press release announcing a newer, better, version of the drive you just bought. Not shocking, I know, but it makes doing this round-up thing a bit difficult.

Let’s take a look at the drives that got my attention:

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Name: WD Silicon Edge Blue
Capacity: 256GB
Cost: $999 (Cost per GB: $3.90)
What looks good: I liked the fact that it was was made by Western Digital, I liked the large capacity, and the reasonable performance. It was incredibly expensive though, and the cost per GB was a bit out of line compared to other products.

Name: OCZ Vertex, with the SandForce
Capacity: 100GB
Cost: $438 (Cost per GB: $4.38)
What looks good: OCZ has been pushing these things out at an incredible pace. The Vertex is the latest, and the fact that they claim to have a maintenance algorithm and increased durability really appeals to me. One of the concerns I have about an SSD product is the reliability, so this helps. It’s also, like most high capacity SSD drives, very expensive. This is the review I looked at when I was researching this unit.

Name: Micron RealSSD C300
Capacity: 256GB
Cost: $799 (Cost per GB: $3.12)
What looks good: Crucial knows memory, no doubt there, and the review that I read on this product was very positive. It’s a good all around performer, supports SATA III, and has great performance. Unfortunately it’s still silly expensive and it’s not out yet.

Name: OCZ Agility
Capacity: 60GB
Cost: $199, (Cost per GB: $3.31 after rebates)
What looks good: The price made me really have to think about this drive. For my project, I don’t need a ridiculously large drive, I’m just going to put the OS on there to try and squeeze out a little more performance. The OCZ has adequate speed, adequate transfer rates, and some more of the lovely algorithm that’s supposed to keep the drive running smoothly. The reviewer liked it too, and described it as a great drive for exactly what I have in mind.

Name: Kingston SSDNow V
Capacity: 40GB
Cost: $159 (Cost per GB: $3.97)
What looks good: Reasonable size, decent performance, lower price. The SSDNow V seems to have it all. There’s a reason for that though, it’s actually a relabeled Intel X25-M. That’s actually a good thing, as Intel’s controller chipset does provide a serious performance boost.

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So which one would I buy? Well, I’ve decided to go with the Kingston. I don’t have $500 to spend on a drive so it’s within reach, and the reviews were good. Now I just have to reorganize my system so I’m ready to upgrade when the drive gets here.

So NASA has developed these robots to basically do the work of humans. There was a previous version, which the R2 you see above (yes, “R2″) is a refinement of, and now as you can see he’s quite a performer. Is he doing a tango move there?

Check out this video. The money shot is at 3:30, where you can really see how gentle and precise the movements are.

How cool is this? It’s a joint operation with GM, since when you think about it, certain stages of car building and certain parts of space exploration are similar. Actually, I guess it’s kind of a stretch to put it like that. Really, it’s just nice for any hazardous operation in any industry to be handled by a robot with the same agility as a person.

Too bad it doesn’t have any legs, though — but at that point you’re pretty much just asking to be robo-strangled in your bed. Excellent, another addition to the Robocalypse tag. It’s been a while.

[via CNET]