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Using an open-source Linux platform, Red Hat Inc. (RHT) offers yet another approach, enabling its customers to enter the cloud incrementally, first by virtualizing their servers, then by automating a set of standardized software tools to allow self-service by both employees and customers, and finally by creating a hybrid environment of private and public cloud. “Most of the time, the public cloud is used for either specialized applications or burst capacity [when a company temporarily needs more data storage space],” explains Scott Crenshaw, vice president of Red Hat’s cloud business unit. “We make this utilization of the public cloud seamless, with the same management tools as the private cloud.”
As for P&G’s Passerini, once the company’s packaging tools were up and running, he says he went to work on installing “digital cockpits” now used by more than 38,000 employees. He explains that the cockpits are software interfaces that depict relevant, real-time information in easy-to-read visuals. “The goal is not just to look at data from last week, last month or last quarter,” Passerini says. “It is also to anticipate what is going to happen in the business.”
