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Remember server virtualization? You know, that technology that was the buzz of the technology world just a few short years ago. The one that got supplanted by the “cloud”. You do remember the cloud don’t you? It’s that thing that turned the economics of IT services upside down and and unshackled us from the surly bonds of IT departments and Ops managers. READ MORE »
Network Virtualization is Getting Interesting
Are we still at the dawn of the age of cloud computing?
It’s been an interesting week, culminated by a request from a colleague, Dr. John Levy. John asked me if I would substitute teach one of his lectures for the Fromm Institute, which is part of the University of San Francisco. Fromm was established to provide ongoing educational opportunities for retired adults over the age of 50. The lecture John has asked me to give is on Cloud Computing and Big Data, and is part of an 8-lecture series titled Digital World – Invisible Computers. As I’ve started preparing for this lecture a stream of thoughts have unfolded around how I can present the current and future state of Cloud Computing and Big Data, along with a lead-in of the path that has gotten us here. I even thought about using a Gartner “hype cycle” model to demonstrate where we are in the life cycle. Shouldn’t be too complex. After all, we’ve crossed the “hump” – right? READ MORE »
The speed of light and other important stuff…
For some time now one of the companies I’ve been working with has been designing a product for software defined networking. With the advent of cloud computing and highly distributed services based computing models, the whole area of networking is enjoying somewhat of a technological renaissance. As you can imagine, we delve into some pretty interesting areas of networking topology, connectivity, latency and other geeky subjects. My good friend Harry Quackenboss, who is CEO of the company, is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in the area of network design. Having been CEO at a couple of networking and server companies before joining LAYERZngn, Harry is no stranger to dealing with some pretty technical issues. READ MORE »
The power of groundswell and how it affects your brand
How many times lately have we seen this scenario: Big company “X” decides to change a policy or implement a new fee for something. Then a few days later they do a complete “180”, stating that they are being sensitive to the desires and wants of their customers. All in the spirit of promoting the highest levels of customer satisfaction…
Let’s take a look at a few real world examples. Bank of America implements a $5 per month fee for debit card use. After a vitriolic public outcry, BofA reverses its decision, stating “Our customers’ voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.” GoDaddy.com publicly announces support for the Stop Online Piracy Act, and suffers a huge backlash, with well-organized “boycott GoDaddy” campaigns on communities such as Reddit. READ MORE »
The ever changing economics of all that IT stuff…
The IT world is changing around us as we speak. While the global economy may be stalled, innovation in information technology continues at a healthy clip. Along with this change comes the challenge of understanding not only how all the new moving parts fit together, but also how the economics associated with traditional IT architectures and service delivery models are being reshaped.
I’ve penned a few thoughts over at SummaLogic on some of the key factors that are driving changes in the economic model of the technologies that make up the underpinnings of the next generation data centers and cloud computing services. Read my thoughts on this subject here…
