More than 25 percent of Yankee Group survey respondents say they expect at least a third of their infrastructure to move to cloud computing in the next 12 months, but company-wide adoption remains low. To uncover what lies ahead for cloud computing in 2010, Yankee Group interviewed executives from 25 cloud computing pioneers—including early cloud service providers, telecom operators, and infrastructure and software vendors. Their unique perspectives and key strategies tout the power of the cloud and offer a view into its impact: Will cloud computing be an evolution or a revolution?

Zeus Kerravala and I were delighted to have three cloud thought leaders join us for today’s webinar:

• Doug Hauger, General Manager, Microsoft Windows Azure
• Raj Nathan, Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer and Senior VP, Sybase
• Jayshree Ullal, President and CEO, Arista

The discussion was lively and thoughtful–a special thanks to each of them for taking the time do join us. A replay of the webinar is below. We’re also offering a complimentary download of the report that inspired this webinar: “Clouds in 2010: Vendor Optimism Meets Enterprise Realities.” Register as a guest for access.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

Thanks to everyone who joined us in the webinar today, officially launching our new book ANYWHERE: How Global Connectivity Is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business. For the discussion, I was joined by five terrific thought-leaders in the connectivity space:

• Glenn Lurie, President, Emerging Devices, AT&T
• Walter McCormick, President & CEO, U.S. Telecom Association
• Paul Sagan, President & CEO, Akamai Technologies
• Sriram Viswanathan, VP, Architecture Group, Intel
• Nigel Waller, Founder & CEO, Movirtu, Ltd.

A special thanks to each of them for taking the time to chat about Anywhere and illustrate their own business’ opportunities and challenges. If you missed the presentation, the replay is below–I would be delighted to hear your thoughts.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

As I’m heading down to New York City for a mobile technology investor event after CES, I was pleased and proud to see Scott Kirstner’s kind praise of Yankee Group’s Anywhere book printed in today’s Boston Globe. After helping out on weekends and off-hours for most of the last year on the book, ANYWHERE: How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business, it’s a treat to see that all those hours weren’t in vain. One of my favorite excerpts was:

I asked Green to highlight one of the counter-intuitive ideas from the book — aside from the notion that we’ll all be linked to the network through all kinds of new devices.

Green said that the old notion of a product being finished when it is sent to a customer is becoming obsolete. “Anywhere” products can evolve over time, thanks to software updates sent wirelessly. “Think about the Roku box,” Green said, mentioning a set-top box that can stream movies from Netflix. “That can get smarter over time, because it has a persistent connection to the Roku people. That’s a wake-up call for enterprises, which need to ask, ‘How do my products continue to evolve, and what are all the new paths I have to reach the consumer through all of these devices,’ whether it’s the Roku box or the Chumby or a connected blood pressure monitor?”

Green’s new book is a major marker that Yankee Group, founded in 1970, is now a reinvigorated player on the tech forecasting landscape.

Thanks Scott. We’re blushing (and clearly happy to see that conclusion).

However, as if to emphasize Emily’s point of nothing ever being done, I saw that the printed version of the Globe article and the online version blog entry are slightly different. The Innovations blog entry adds another couple of paragraphs to what was printed in this morning’s paper:

It’s interesting, I think, that neither Yankee founder Howard Anderson or George Colony, Green’s old boss, provided blurbs for back of the new book. Green tells me she didn’t ask either one for an endorsement, though she says Colony encouraged her to write the book. Instead, the quotes come from CEOs at Sprint, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Young & Rubicam.

Green is planning to do a book event at the Borders in Downtown Crossing later this month; the date isn’t set yet, but it should appear here once it is.

In my opinion, there’s no mystery about the choice of the promotional book blurbs: Emily gave preference to executives whose businesses are living and dying by Anywhere, instead of those forecasting it. Said another way, letting Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and Young and Rubicam North America President and CEO Tom Sebok speak about the book kept us from breathing too much of our own analytical exhaust.

And the book signing? That’s easy: it’s on January 26 at the Borders Downtown Crossing between 1 and 2 pm.

But you don’t have to take my word for this; you can hear Emily and some of the Anywhere luminaries interviewed for the book discuss this and other topics in the Anywhere book launch webinar on Thursday, January 14 at 11 am EST. Sign up here to attend; after all, you can join the conversation from pretty much Anywhere.

The economic crisis proved a major obstacle for consumers, enterprises and network builders, and each has had to evolve to survive. The changes from 2009 will create new opportunities in the Anywhere ecosystem, especially in the areas of cord-cutting, devices, cloud computing and network innovation.

Earlier today, I was joined by my colleagues Jon Paisner, Camille Mendler and Josh Holbrook to unveil Yankee Group’s top predictions for the 2010 communications industry. We discussed six of our eleven published predictions and took questions live from the audience. Check out the webinar replay below. You can also register as a Guest on the Yankee Group Web site to get the full report for free.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

Ubiquitous connectivity beckons this holiday season, bringing with it a new wave of Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce). Consumers can soon expect SMS and MMS coupons, the ability to run price comparisons in real time while at the store and even mobile phone shopping from the comfort of home.

According to a recent Yankee Group survey, 14 percent of consumers are interested in mobile transactions, and an additional 18 percent say they may be interested. Yankee Group predicts the mobile coupon market will reach 2.5 million North American consumers by 2013, ballooning the dollar-amount of the market to $2.3 billion.

Today, Andy Castonguay and I hosted a webinar where we dove into trends from our consumer surveys and explored the devices, conveniences and challenges of M-Commerce as mobile is integrated into the retail shopping experience this holiday season.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

With a rallying cry—”The Anywhere Enterprise^® is coming!”—the virtual desktop revolution is upon us, threatening to redefine the client computing experience for enterprise employees and challenge the status quo of existing corporate network, security and management infrastructures.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) represents the future of enterprise desktop computing and brings with it the detachment of OSs and applications from physical endpoints—a compelling trend that promises greater flexibility, scalability, cost savings and security benefits. The movement also represents radical, and possibly painful, changes in market dynamics for providers of endpoint hardware, software and services.

Ealier today, Zeus Kerravala and I hosted a webinar where we discussed the future of VDI and what the technology has to offer enterprises today.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

Twenty-six percent of you told us today that tech spending will grow in 2010, while 61 percent expect it to remain flat and just 13 percent believe it will go down. The economy and its effect on the communications ecosystem is top of mind for many. But there continues to be a positive vibe around innovation and what 2010 will bring in terms of global connectivity.

Yankee Group’s primary goal is to help you navigate the evolving landscape. Earlier, I sat down with Yankee Group Senior VP Zeus Kerravala to chat about Yankee Group, our research and our work this year, and took questions from clients about our Anywhere Scorecard initiatives, 2010 product direction and more. Tune in to the replay below.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

“What the hell is cloud computing?” After a year, those infamous words of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison still resonate. The definition of cloud computing is hazy at best, and many companies remain wary of the technology over concerns about infrastructure, security and regulation.

Cloud computing has unique potential to save the enterprise cost, reduce complexity and provide highly available service to the end-user or client. With such compelling benefits, companies should look to understand cloud better—what it is, what it isn’t and what it will be.

Earlier today, Agatha Poon and I hosted a webinar where we defined cloud computing, explored the capabilities and challenges of the technology and advised enterprises what cloud can do for them.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

With Internet and mobile media growing faster than we can consume it, the only way to capture really big audiences in the future will be to aggregate them across TV, Internet and mobile Internet screens. Yankee Group expects TV ad market revenue to drop by more than $2.2 billion in 2009, and not to bounce back past 2008 values until 2012. Just as the music industry was forced to reinvent itself when digital downloads undermined its physical distribution models, the Anywhere Network’s abundance of content and advertising inventory will similarly reshape the TV, video, print and mobile media industries.

Earlier today, I hosted a webinar that explored how to get consumers’ attention in the age of Anywhere media.

The webinar runs about an hour:  audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).

As the strategic value of online content assets continues to grow, chaos and confusion are rampant within the content delivery network (CDN) market. Challenging dynamics coupled with increased demand for content delivery solutions means that a diverse array of companies are keeping a close watch on the space and the relevant players within it.

Yankee Group has developed an Anywhere Scorecard for the CDN market that assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of the key global providers. The scorecard takes an objective look at how a provider’s Vision and Ability to Transform in the market influence the strength of its offering, and how these dynamics inform customer buying decisions.

Earlier today, I hosted a webinar were I explored the transformative trends affecting the CDN market and ranked 10 of its most significant players. The presentation also featured Yankee Group Senior Vice President Zeus Kerravala, who introduced the new Anywhere Scorecard concept. You can read more about the Anywhere Scorecards here.

The webinar runs about an hour: audio (mp3) and slides (pdf).