Modula

Every company wishes to be agile rather than slow and distracted. As the company grows so does the operational overhead. Infrastructure adds inertia and drag to your operation. It can be very rewarding to go bedouin.

As Wired puts it:

v. Downsizing a business by eliminating all but the core assets: employees and the communications links between them. A company that has gone completely bedouin lacks a physical location, operating simply as a network of engineering, sales, and support staff connected 24/7 by Internet and cell phone.

Adding simplicity

Usually the biggest challenge with implementing a bedouin approach is in getting people to overcome behavioral inertia. Many people get very comfortable with traditional approaches. Things often get done a certain way because “this is how we always did it” or “this is how everybody else does it”. Finally, the bottom line will tell you the difference.

A company is people with talent. All the other stuff are just necessary evils to support the people. Imagine the benefits if your company’s infrastructure could fit into a backpack. You don’t really need fixed facilities to socialize with your colleagues. Geography can be irrelevant.

1. Poor man’s solution

The simplest way to put your infrastructure on diet is to get rid of that old e-mail server and costly software licenses. Use free Google Apps instead to create and share documents and calendars. Gmail covers your email needs.

pros: Available everywhere. Platform independent. All you need is a browser.
cons: You don’t really own your data. Suitable only for small companies.

2. Calling home

Get a hosted or virtual server. Install some open source groupware and project management tools and use them over TSL/SSL or set up a VPN if possible.

pros: You have full or partial control over your software and data. More secure than completely hosted solutions.
cons: User authentications relies typically only on id/password schema. You still need some administrative personnel.

tools: Zimbra, Redmine, SugarCRM

3. Cloak and dagger

Set up a totally decentralized, secure F2F -network aka darknet to collaborate with your peers. Whether you are plotting new business strategies or planning a coup d’état this solution will leave big brother empty handed.

pros: There is no server. People are the network.
cons: Bulletproof security only if configured right

tools: WASTE, CSpace, Tahoe, Freenet

These examples are somewhat extreme. Your ideal solution lies somewhere in the middle.

The primary reason businesses don’t go bedouin is because they think they don’t have to. Fatness is easy. People like to settle in and nest. But obviously the status quo isn’t the way to the future. When are you going to take your business to the next level?