5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
EXCELLENT BUNDLE OF INFORMATION !!!, October 3, 2010
This review is from: The Next Wave of Technologies: Opportunities in Chaos (Hardcover)
The next wave of Technologies is a very rich, and up to date, source of information. Chances are the reader has already heard, read and possibly work with some of these technologies. And of course we can always search for information on the internet. But this book bundles it all together in a consistent and comprehensive way. It also provides information that one can use as a starting point to investigate further. This book will also serve as an excellent reference book.
Next to describing and explaining the technologies, the reader gets an insight on:
- when and how these technologies and concepts, evolved to there current status
- benefits, costs, risks, limitations, and challenges
- who are (current) players (form vendor- as well as user and customer side)
- role and strategies of vendors/suppliers, and customer/user expectations
- impact on organizations
- best practices, key factors, models and frameworks
- development, management and deployment
- references to specific research done, literature, articles, whitepapers etc. (can serve as point for further study)
Phil Simon has done a great job in bringing together 15 other authors and there knowledge and expertise to form this excellent bundle of information. Each author writes a chapter on his/her specific area of expertise. One of the things I like of books written by different authors, is that each chapter has a bit different writing style, which to me makes it more interesting to read. Every chapter is written with a bit different style, while still maintaining an overall general structure. Nicely done!
Each chapter ends with a summary and a `next steps' section. The `next steps' section is intended to help the reader think about steps he/she can take when considering using, or is already using, the specific technology in their organization.
The book is structured in 4 parts:
Part1 - Introduction, Background and Definitions
Part2 - Architecture, Software Development, and Frameworks
Part3 - Data, Information, and Knowledge
Part4 - Management and Deployment
Part5 - Conclusion
the chapters are:
Part-1
Ch1 - The changing Landscape of Business and Technologies
Ch2 - How the Game has changed
Ch3 - The role of IT in an Enterprise 2.0 World
Part-2
Ch4 - Cloud Computing
Ch5 - Opens Source: The War that both Sides Won
Ch6 - Software as a Service
Ch7 - Service Oriented Architecture
Ch8 - Managing Mobile Business
Ch9 - Social Networking
Part-3
Ch10 - Enterprise Searc and Retrieval
Ch11 - Enterprise 2.0 Business Inteligence
Ch12 - Master Data Management
Ch13 - Procurement in Chaos
Part-4
Ch14 - Agile Software Development
Ch15 - Enterprise Risk Management
Ch16 - Implementing Open Source Software
Ch17 - Global Engineering
Ch18 - Enterprise 2.0 IT Project Failure
Ch19 - Readying the troops for Battle
Ch20 - Sustainability and Green IT
Part-5
Ch21 - Finding Opportunity in Chaos
That's it for my review. I hope it gives an insight of what to expect from the book.
Thansk fo reading the review.
*********
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Competitiveness Comes From "Opportunities in Chaos", June 27, 2010
This review is from: The Next Wave of Technologies: Opportunities in Chaos (Hardcover)
As Jill Dyche points out in her succinct forward to Phil Simon's new book, "The New Wave of Technologies", IT is integral to the success of just about any company or organization. Technology has changed for the better how everyone works. And technology can play important roles in company competitiveness - provided company management understands which new technologies are the ones needed. Phil Simon's book provides an excellent platform for that understanding, by providing not only insight on these new technologies, but also on the roles of people, practices and processes that make a difference for effective implementation of technology.
The deliberate choice of an anthology approach for exploring this topic works very well. While Phil Simon provides a great deal of his expertise, he shows how important collaboration is to cover complex material by looking to experts in their fields for insight and guidance. He wears his consultant's hat by showing that it can take several professional viewpoints to understand and make good decisions about technology. And as a good consultant, Phil guides the reader on the "What, Why, and How" of current technologies that can make a big difference for many enterprises, with wonderfully thorough inclusion of guidelines, case studies, exercises, and the "right" questions to be asked of many teams
I think it's interesting that this book captures the knowledge-sharing experience of the web: in some ways structured as a well-formed mash-up, where the reader can pick-&-choose how to use the expert content for specific needs. Many roles in companies will gain a lot from reading and using "The New Wave of Technologies", from taking the high level view across these technologies to understand how they might interoperate, to drilling deeper into individual technologies to understand how they work and what value they might bring. While this book is a smooth read, it has plenty of the rich content you would expect from technology experts.
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