Customer Reviews

The Next Wave of Technologies: Opportunities in Chaos

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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.

*********

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.

Full disclosure - I have come to know Phil over last few months as a fellow Wiley author. I also know many of the contributors who wrote various chapters in the book.

Building such a compendium may seem easy, but making so many voices consistent and keeping content updated with the fast changing tech world is very difficult and Phil deserves plenty of kudos. It's an easy read and will help catch readers quickly to many of the major trends in enterprise IT.

If you make a living in IT, you MUST read this book. It's the cutting-edge download on how software is built today. What I like most about it is the realistic narrative Simon weaves, being very clear about the dangers of overzealous IT departments and giving very practical advice about how far to jump and when. It's so nice to find a technology guy who can actually write. If you have anything to do with building scalable software today, you really should get and read this book.

Phil Simon collaborated with an impressive network of experts to write about a wide spectrum of Enterprise 2.0 technologies. The book demystifies topics you may have thought were hands-off to you: SaaS (software as a service), enterprise search and retrieval (ESR), service-oriented architecture (SOA). The book also covers topics which may feel more mainstream at this point such as cloud computing, mobile technologies, and social networking.

The Next Wave of Technologies is a must-read for IT professionals who are scrambling to keep up with the implications of new technologies and a book for their colleagues who need to interface with them. Students and consulting firms will also benefit from reading the book. Simon writes, "...it does not provide all of the answers to any one technology, but summarizes the questions that readers should be asking themselves."

One thing is clear, we can't bury our head in the sand until the next wave of technologies settle. All of us who want to stay current and competitive need to have a good picture of the choices out there today and the effects they will have on the ways we communicate professionally and personally.

The next wave of technologies is now!

Let me start this review with two disclaimers: first, I am a contributor to this book, and wrote the chapter on social networking. Second, I'm not an IT guy, and tend to be bored by heavy tech topics. So I was more than a little surprised at how interesting this book was.

I particularly enjoyed the structure of The Next Wave. The collaborative approach that Phil has taken, along with his own contributions, makes this more engaging than many books in the space. Not only does it make it a more interesting read by breaking up the narrative voice, it helps illustrate a necessary tactical element that many other books tend to miss, by showing how different experts approach relevant topics. Phil Simon clearly knows his stuff, demonstrated not only by his own contributions to the book, but in his selections of other authors.

It's a great read, provides real insight and practical knowledge, and I would highly recommend it to anybody working in or around the IT industry.

Very well written, worth the price.
Highly recommended for consulting.

Alexandra

I have over 15 years of experience in computer science disciplines using technology to help organizations, large and small, implement solutions, which support the ongoing management of their decision-critical information that drives all of their tactical and strategic business initiatives.

The constant challenge faced by these organizations is that the business world of information technology can never afford to remain static, but instead, must dynamically evolve and adapt, in order to protect and serve the enterprise's continuing mission to survive and thrive in today's highly competitive and rapidly changing marketplace.

This book is required reading if your organization wishes to avoid common mistakes and realize the full potential of new technologies--especially before your competitors do.

No, I'm not an IT specialist. But I did find Phil Simon's book, "The Next Wave of Technologies," an unusually easy to understand resource, one that makes sense out of the latest technological advances. Each of its chapters is concise, easy to digest. Simon's book helped me make sense out of otherwise chaos. I recommend it for any manager that must clearly understand the changing world of information technology.

This is a great guide to what you need to know about current information technology. Highly recommended for anyone who needs to understand current issues in this field.