Oh No! It’s Not An iPad! Enough of the Playbook Bashing Already.
It’s kind of funny the way the tech press will kick an incumbent around the block for perceived or imaginary shortcomings in their products. The Blackberry Playbook is a good example. You’d think that RIM went out and created a useless piece of garbage that was never going to see uptake no matter how large RIM’s enterprise market share was. The press and bloggers have leveled a whole slew of complaints against the Playbook that range from no out-of-the-box integration with mail servers to the power button not being convenient enough. Reading most of these articles and blogs leaves one with the distinct impression that the author is typing his article/post on his Mac while listening to his iPod and downloading pictures from his iPhone. Seriously. And I’m guessing for more than a few of the drooling naysayers that is exactly the case. Lori and I pre-ordered the 32 Gigabyte versions for each other for our anniversary, and they came a little over a week ago. By the time ours were in hand, people were making all sorts of ridiculous claims about how horrible the device was and why it was destined to fail. So we were naturally curious, since RIM doesn’t generally make a poor product, most of them are astounding. The device bears out as another quality RIM product, whining reviewers notwithstanding. The biggest complaint against the device is that it came without support for email built-in, which reviewers tried to pose as “not ready for prime time”. There’s a difference though, between a feature being left out to enhance overall experience and the entire device not being ready for prime time. A huge difference. And frankly, all this hand-wringing and screaming that the Playbook would never make it without this feature seems pretty silly in an age where a web browser gives you access to your email and calendar. The Apple Fanboys I know respond to that simple observation with “Yeah, but I like to be notified…” really? Did you intend to spend all of your time on a Playbook sized device? I doubt it, that sounds like a lame excuse to kick RIM. Other reviewers have said “it’s not intuitive! Put it in someone’s hands and they don’t know how to use it!” Well, if you try to use it like Windows that’s true, but it’s true of the iPad too – these devices have a different input paradigm than a full-blown computer does. It takes a minute or two and you figure out how to do everything you need to. Again, a lame attempt to undermine a solid product, in my opinion. I won’t grace any of the other flailing attempts to denigrate the device with an answer. I mean seriously, you’re complaining about the power button? It’s that thing with the industry standard on/off symbol on it, try pushing it. Not that it is all sunshine and unicorns… There are definitely things I don’t like about the Playbook. Like any other piece of complex equipment, it is better at some things than others. In the interest of giving you some real information instead of stammering attempts to undermine the product, here are the ugly bits. When both WLAN and Bluetooth are enabled, the battery doesn’t last as long as I’d like, but that’s one of those things you adjust to – my laptops, both work and home – don’t last as long as I’d like either. Tethering doesn’t bother me. I can get at mail and calendar in a browser, but wanted to try it out. I have a Blackberry Curve 8310, and I tried to tether the Playbook to it. No success. Now there were two possibilities here, I’m on AT&T who had some problems getting the tethering software for the Blackberry approved, and my Blackberry hadn’t been updated in forever. So I upgraded, then tried again. Nothing. I went out and found a work-around for AT&T’s network, and tried it. Nothing. So I went and did some research. It turns out that the version of the Blackberry OS required for the tethering software is not available on my phone… That was painful, the Playbook should just have a link you can click to find out if your phone can be used for tethering. There are a lot of applications out there, but alas, the cool, very productivity-enhancing applications like iPad’s “Cat Toy” and “Get me a beer” applications don’t exist yet for the Playbook. No doubt my work will suffer for the lack. Believe it or not, the spreadsheet included in the Playbook isn’t enough for me. I don’t need a full featured, astounding monstrosity like Excel, but I was hoping for a bit more than is supplied. Time will no doubt fix this and also provide integration with the major desktop spreadsheets, but for now, I can’t use it to do an inventory I was planning on because the spreadsheet application is weak, and the closest thing I’ve found to what I need is a database application that is more end-user than what I’m after. I think the Playbook is comparable to the other devices of its kind out there, and with Blackberry’s history of enterprise support it will no doubt continue to grow into exactly what I was looking for. I’m not too worried about all of the negative reviews because all they do is make the reviewer look like an idiot when they scream and holler about things that just aren’t mission-critical. What is a Playbook used for. Access when the laptop is a bit much to be booting up. Not for 100% of your workload. Maybe one day, but the entire space is too new for any decent percentage of workers to start using it as their primary tool. And F5, rocking our world yet again (we’re hiring… Check here), ordered us shiny new Blackberry Torches so that we can try out tethering. So maybe I’ll circle back if that turns out to be exceedingly cool or exceedingly painful. Yeah, I thought the iPad was very cool when it came out too… But we don’t allow Apple products into our house for personal reasons (much to our teenage daughter’s consternation). This is pretty much the same product, just with the polar opposite of press reviews.Controlling Cloud and iPad. Be the Usher, Not the Bouncer
The purpose of an usher, be it at an old time movie theater or a wedding, is to take people to suitable seats and see that they’re comfortable. The purpose of a bouncer is to throw out bums and keep the peace. These two words conjure pictures in your head of similar folks, but their function is completely opposite. Many of the things confronting IT today that are as much driven by the business and buzz as by IT and requirements are Cloud Computing and Wireless Devices. Look back historically and find parallels to these things, they’ll help you decide how to handle both phenomenon. The business user that says “I don’t need you, I can go to cloud provider X” doesn’t realize what he is saying any more than the business user who said the same about SaaS vendors did. You can block him or you can educate him. He does indeed need you, for all the reasons we’ve talked about before – Data Security, Access Control, Integration, and meaningful Reporting. He may not realize that, but he does. Even if “Cloud Provider X” is really just a SaaS vendor with a fresh coat of paint that offers a “complete” solution, we all know that “complete” is not the same as “integrated” and certainly doesn’t imply “secure”. You just have to help the hot-head understand that fact. The business user that wants his iPad to have 100% access to corporate resources yesterday has a similar issue. We saw this problem with Palms when they first came out. The problem is that they want access without the inherent security. It is your job to educate them on what steps are necessary and how long it will take to set things up in a secure manner, so that when they leave their iPad in a coffee shop – and some will, that is the other bit we learned about devices from the first Palm wave – your corporate systems are protected. In both of the previous cases – SaaS and Palm – most IT shops played the bouncer, enforcing an artificial rule by locking out non-approved Palms and denying attempts to use SaaS products. And the lesson we learn from that tidbit is that those who did paid for it dearly. People don’t forget that you “roadblocked” them. And honestly, that is 100% about politics and not technology. Since IT is about giving users reasonable access to technology to do their jobs, being the usher is a better solution in the long run. New technology comes and goes like the wind, but politics has a nasty habit of sticking around to haunt you. In both cases, emotions will run high, so short circuit that problem with the simple expedient of having a plan and sticking to it. Ask the business to prioritize iPad access versus revamping the website, or whatever other major projects you have going on, then dedicate resources accordingly. Meet “it already almost works!” claims by iPad users with calm responses that “works” and “works securely” are not the same thing, nor is “almost works” the same as “ready for prime time”. Ask them if their phone “almost worked” if they would use it, then explain to them what the plan created above is, and when you’ll be ready to roll out access. Cloud follows a similar vein. Ask the business to clearly state their goals in using Cloud Computing. If the goal is to be more adaptable or agile, there are a lot of routes to that destination and they don’t all fly through the clouds. Plenty of organizations are achieving a greater agility with virtualization today, without moving into the cloud and increasing complexity in an already complex world. If the answer is to meet a specific need with a specific “SaaS sold as cloud” solution, then get the vendor name and check them out the way you would check out your own apps – do they conform to your security policies, can they integrate with your applications, etc. And present a plan to use them, or alternative solutions that will solve the same business problem. If the stated goal is to remove the roadblock of IT, well you have your work cut out for you. You’re going to have to show them how your work integrates and secures their systems, and it’s not a roadblock but a cost of doing business. You’re also going to have to listen to demands that will sometimes be reasonable… And sometimes not. The point is, if you’re the bouncer, you’ll spend a lot more time winning back the goodwill of the business. If you’re the usher, you are taking their arm and leading them to the seat that they believe will help them grow the business. Since you work for the same business, usher is a better answer, as long as your corporate data is protected, and when someone asks for data from that “cloud” provider to be included in the data warehouse or weekly reports you have a way to meet that need. That is to say it is integrated or at least accessible. You won’t regret it, I promise. IT is the only place that can vouchsafe for the level of security these products support and can take steps to make them more secure. IT is the only place that can verify the ability to get data in and out of a given cloud provider in a manner the business can use, and IT is the only place where contingency planning for when/if a cloud provider doesn’t work out can take place. So usher. Me? I’m already wondering how long it will take IT to support the Blackberry Playbook because as soon as they have wifi, I want one.A Taste of Blackberries
No, not the kiddie lit favorite by Doris Buchanan Smith, I mean the smart phones. I was not a member of the smart phone club when I started at F5. In fact, my first week on the job was at our international sales conference and I remember watching Jeff and Joe scroll, click, and type like the wind and Jeff leaned over and said, “They’re addicting, you’ll see.” I got my first Blackberry, the Curve 8310, a week later. I liked having all the keys for typing, as the limited texts I’d written with the basic phones was a chore, but the buttons were pretty small for my stubby fingers, and given that I h
