Keys to unlocking the Cloud.

Let me see if I can help you understand this. The keys are a lot like a how to win the lottery primer. Sounds a little far fetched I know but just go with me on this. 

The truest expression for winning the lottery is that "you have to be in it to win it". For Cloud Computing it is "the more you use the more you get". The benefits of Cloud computing are just like the benefits of the Personal Computer itself.  Its not one great application that makes the PC great. Its the buffet of applications that unlock its potential and give back its value and your ability to pick what you need.

So should we think that Cloud Computing is any different. In fact its really an extension of the PC paradigm which I'd like to state as: "the integration, personalization and use of applications with hardware that significantly enhances our performance and our experience." Now that that's said, you want to know what and how to get the benefits.

Well first thing you have to do is "believe" and trust that this new way will deliver to your expectations ... eventually. That means you might not hit a home run the first time up at bat.  Keep swinging anyway. Try out every application that you can. There's hundreds to choose from and the one someone else is using might not be the one that delivers the most value to you. Its like wearing someone else's shoes.  Don't! If you like the style, keep looking for something in your size that fits you, don't give up until it feels right. Compromising will only hurt you in the long run. Then if it works for awhile, don't be afraid to change when it doesn't feel right any longer. Migration is key and loyalty is a very selfish part of the equation.

Don't get discouraged and think you're not going to ever get any value out of the effort.  Its like exercise, you don't see the results immediately. Go ahead an get started, it will get you to finish line that much sooner.

How about sharing stuff with me?

The Cloud Computing model provides the ideal way to share information instantly with anyone. Most people are familiar with the photo sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa, BlueMelon, Shutterfly and a slew of other offerings that allow you to post your images in the Cloud and allow others to access to them. Its an example of a sweet way to allow a lot of folks to get to your images without emailing them files that are so big that it would take forever if everyone to download them. With these services you can view the images without downloading them and if you want one the is a variety of ways to get them. Since they are managed on another server, you never have to worry about loosing them when your disk crashes or you accidentally delete them. Its pure value. That's what I like.

With Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentation or Forms; you can get a link that allows anyone you choose (or not) to view any one of these and edit them it you want them to. This is really neat stuff. The most current version is always available to the viewer and for collaboration this approach is a necessity. Its just a nightmare to try to distribute and maintain documents that are constantly being updated.

The evolution is clear. We are not going to be storing stuff on our computers in the future unless we are just paranoid about security. Personally I'm looking forward to this. The last time my disk crashed it took me a week to get all of my files back. Say goodbye to heart burn.

Pope Benedict XVI has his head in the Cloud!

"The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul's exclamation: "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel." 


"Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a "soul" to the fabric of communications that makes up the "Web."


These words recently spoken by the current head of the Catholic Church let you know that there is the beginning of a new Holy War. I think this is a good thing.  No one is going to get killed this time around I hope but the encouragement of using modern digital communications to complement the work that helps so many is a giant leap and a great endorsement for what has been accomplished in modern day communication technology.


Most of us know the Google motto: "Do no evil" with the web and now it appears that there is a commitment to the positive: "Do good". I'm not sure where this is going but I'm guessing its going to take off.  With 2+ billion Christians (half of which are Catholic) in the world we could be talking major social networking!

Cloud Computing - Centrex, they both start with a "C". Coincidence or not?

Telecommunications has moved a long way in the last ten years and is headed to the Cloud like everything else. Is this a coincidence? I think not. It was about forty years ago that a service for business arrived on the scene called "Centrex" which took all of the telephone switching equipment and put it off premises in a central location. This did exactly what VoIP and hosted telephone services are doing today in the Cloud for phone systems. Its now called IP Centrex by some which is a perfectly accurate description. However, it is a little like referring an Aston Martin as a Model T.

Things that have happened between then and now made this just an eventuality. Like the rise of computing and the Internet. Centrex with all of it short comings did provide some of the some of the value that small growing businesses needed. It gave them the flexibility to add and take away phones easily. Being able to scale for your needs easily made it a clear choice when this was a priority. Also, the low CapEx made the decision making for a Centrex phone system something that was affordable by more companies. One of the major barriers to entry was removed. It became the classic "simplest" telephone system the business could choose. It allowed several offices to be linked together without special equipment and extra costs. There's also the fact that it took away the on site maintenance issues and expertise that was demanded when a phone system was put on premises.

In the evolutionary process more than the letters "IP" have been added to make the new generation of Centrex systems an important part of our business landscape. Some of things that make the new wave offerings even more attractive are the number of choices, the number of suppliers and number of features that have been thrown into the mix making it simpler and cheaper than ever. It might seem sort of lame to call what has happened a major improvement over the offerings of the past, but most technologies that stick are 90% evolutionary and 10% revolutionary don't forget.

Maybe we should call these new offerings IP Simplex and not IP Centrex. Simpler is always better and if you haven't looked into what is available then maybe you are missing out?

Is the Cloud free?

One of the attractive sides of the Cloud Computing movement is that the price for so many things is zero which begs the question how is anyone going to make money.  Monetizing the new businesses that drive the Cloud or exist in the Cloud is in its early stages.  The players that are trying to get market share like Amazon's EC2 or Rackspace are going to battle with aggressive pricing models for their infrastructure. This is to the benefit of the customer who can now make decisions easier about developing, deploying, or just running their applications at lower costs than ownership would be without any of the hassle associated with ownership.

The question is whether or not this model will survive and if it does, what are the margins that will now be associated with it. Like most developments of the past, being early out in the race is a good thing, but doesn't guarantee your survival. Also, typically in a new and disruptive market, a new player arrives and figures the business model while the fight of the original stakeholders rages on.


One thing for sure, someone will be paying for all of the free stuff.  Everyone is looking for the sponsorship that will be needed to not only make these businesses profitable, but lucrative as well as attractive to the customers. I've got to believe it will be worked out, but not without some losers along the way and I'm hoping its not the customer. 

Is Cloud Computing a healthy choice?

The analogies that come to mind every time I think about Cloud Computing aways seem to create trite metaphors. Despite this there does seem to be something amazingly simple in relating to the paradigm that has become the moniker everything IT related. One of the challenges is to figure out what someone is talking about when they use the term "Cloud Computing".  Its a little like saying "fast food". Everyone wants it, it is presumed that its going to save you money, and it seems to be everywhere in every different flavor and food type. So how do I figure out the particular benefits to me? You really have to get pretty self centered and try it on to make sure its what you want and will it satisfy what you want to accomplish. Its certainly not a one size fits all remedy for business. Its more like a healthy life style for business than a miracle cure for running your business.

I like a term was coined a few years ago by Avaya (I think) called CEBP  which stands for Computer Enabled Business Processes. I thought this was a fairly straight forward modern view of what should be the end game for all IT development in the 21st century. I was sort of surprised that it came from a telecommunication technology company and not one of the Goliath computer software companies.

It seems to me using a well balanced IT model and quickly implementing processes that benefit and facilitate a company's bottom line whether they be in the Cloud or not should be the objective. What we know about fast food is that its not always the most satisfying and nutritious and a steady diet might just shorten your life.  This is probably something to reflect on when we look at the options that we have when looking for an IT solution to improve our business.

Will Google leave China?

離開谷歌中國(translation: Google is leaving China)

So what does Google leaving China mean? Well it sounds like it means something of significance doesn't it?  The consideration to do just that isn't what Google would like I am sure and the reasons for considering may not be fully understood by everyone. Having done business in China I had  to face a set of realities that drive the business decisions in a foreign culture. The simplest way for me to figure out what I could do is ask the question will the government approve of what I am doing.  If not its a non-starter.  I also discovered that there weren't negotiations like I was familiar with. If the first answer to the proposal was no, negotiating on the point was over. If the answer was we will have to look into it, then there was some opportunity to negotiate.  That's the primer on Chinese negotiations. Also a decision can come up late in the game to trump everything and reset the negotiation.  That what makes it kind of crazy for American companies to do business there.

Since Google has been constantly having to modify their business philosophy,  products and business model to operate in China it might have finally run up against things that were not negotiable and counter to their business model. Since search is Google's core product, if the Chinese government wanted them to totally control what is searched for, which is likely, then the Execs at Google may have decided to throw in the towel. Google hasn't given this kind of control to the US Government, or any government that I know of despite all of the conspiracy theories. 

It will be interesting to watch and see if Google has a gambit to keep themselves in China. I'd never bet against Google, but this time I'm holding off betting on anyone.

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Is Google doomed?

Is there anyone in charge of the Cloud? Who's running the show anyway.  Usually by this time we could clearly see who it is. I think there are a few people who think they are running the show, Google for example. Let me pose the question with a statement: Did you know that IBM invented the smart phone and they didn't invent the computer; that Xerox Corp. invented the mouse driven computer and they beat out the established RCA in the copier business; that the company that invented the dot matrix printer, Centronics, and is responsible for the computer interface for printing, is no long in business and was formed by the company that invented word processing Wang Laboratories, who is no longer in business either and who also invented the first desktop personal computer?  How about this one: Compaq invented the first hand held digital audio player with disk storage.  Can you say iPod?  Exxon dominated the business fax market in the 1970's, then in the 1980's Rockwell invented the fax chip and neither of these companies developed into today's leader in business fax. It goes on and on and on.  Billion dollar businesses too!


Well the road to technology leadership is littered by innovative companies that failed to recognize the potential that their inventions had. Who missed the signals and why did someone else realize the potential? Are successful companies so drunk with their success they just can't move or what? So is Google doomed?  I hope not.  I'm in their corner all the way. I hope that they can realize that first and foremost they are an innovation company not a search company. They focus 70% on search and not enough on innovation. They are creating huge opportunities and we need that.  But in looking at history and  I realize that the odds are against them.  These other companies were billion dollar companies too!


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Smart phones make the Cloud rain.

Smart phones are becoming the fasted growing segment of the mobile phone market and there's a good reason. Its the Cloud.  Estimated at about 100 million and screaming toward the billion mark in 2-3 years, smart phones allow you to tap into the Cloud from anywhere. (or almost anywhere)  This phenomenon has created an overwhelming demand for application development that can reside in the Cloud.

The reason is obvious.  These little hand held devices have limitations on their power, processing capabilities ,display size and limited bandwidth.  Of course even though a single smart phone has tons more capabilities than the computers that got man to the moon, they require help from other servers to provide the functionality that is users have come to expect with our desktop and laptop computers that are a scale of magnitude more powerful.

Where's it going to end? Not of course.  When Compac Computers release their underpowered, limited portable computer in 1983 for $3,000 no one took them seriously.  When the first laptops came out, they were limited to what you could accomplish with them.  What happened? Technology caught up. So what's the future. You guessed it. The majority of our computing experience will be from smart phones.  There are now more applications for smart phones than applications for all computers put together since they were invented.  Try and figure that out. There's a history lesson in there somewhere.
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Will AT&T talk over the Cloud?

Something very interesting happen this week as  AT&T petitioned the FCC to get rid of its land line business. They say it is too costly to maintain and that in order for them to provide broadband access to 100% of the US it will cost them $300+billion and they won't have enough money to spend maintaining land lines.  That's a curious point since they deliver their broadband typically using ADSL/DSL which runs on the wires that they already have in place. Now it is true that there are distance limits the DSL has that other forms of broadband doesn't but I'm a little suspect as to what they are really up to.  Just call me a cynic, but I think they are getting ready to go head to head with the big ISPs... or maybe they have figured out what everyone else has figured out an the VoIP provides higher margins and less equipment than traditional TDM services. I'm sure that they see that businesses are moving rapidly away from wire line service to VoIP and it would be a way for them to move faster to pick up the lucrative business market.  Well this is all speculation and anything might happen.  All I know that when the giant starts moving it shakes the earth.  Let's watch and see what they do.  Maybe their's an iPhone play in it too!

More links: Buzzbox

2010 the "Year of the Cloud"

If there is one New Years Resolution  (go to the link and take the survey) for 2010 that you can count on following through on its that you will be using the Cloud more than ever this year. Exactly how, well I'm not sure I can tell anyone how or what they will be doing with it but its a sure bet none the less. Let's just call it the "Year of the Cloud". That has a nicer ring to it than the year of the "Tiger" I think.   And why?


Well let's face it.

1. In one year we got over 100k apps for the iPhone that are mostly Cloud driven.
2. Google has evolved Android to the point where it is delivering more cloud apps to the cell phone enabled with it than any phone so far in history.
3. Google released Chrome OS last year and promised a very inexpensive net book to be on the market in 2010.
4. Even the government has gotten into the act promising to put up more information in the Cloud and offer more cloud resources.
5. No one wants to spend more money on their existing equipment but just wants to get more out of it.
6. It if finally recognized that applications are easiest to develop and faster to deploy and train if they are in the Cloud.
7. We are still suffering from the recession/depression and it is more clear than ever that the cost benefits are in the Cloud.

I'll stop there for now.  Take a moment yourself to figure out if you see what I see.  I hope so.  I'm betting on it and so are a lot of folks.