IE9 versus Chrome: which one blocks malware better? | ZDNet

IE9 versus Chrome: which one blocks malware better? | ZDNet

Private or public cloud?

What is the difference anyway?

Public :someone else owns it and you rent space that you share with the other renters

Private: you can own it and or rent it but don't share it with the other renters

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is defined by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as follows:

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable

computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and

released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction .”

Essentially, cloud computing is the provision of IT services that are on-demand and network accessible, using flexible pooled resources

that are simple to deploy and expand, with a low up-front, pay-asyou-go cost model. Cloud computing is typically delivered with

a combination of commodity hardware, virtualization, management.

I'm convinced that not all of our IT infrastructure will end up in the cloud. One of the main advantages of the whole "Cloud" idea is to have

applications and servers share resources. The advantage is that we can build more highly redundant hardware underneath the applications that we rely on.

My father who has been very successful investing in the stock market told me that when you see everyone jumping in that is when you should be thinking about jumping out. Thats not exactly how I feel about the cloud but it makes me think. What are the cloud providers not telling us? What have we not discovered or experienced that would make us more cautious? or make us ask better questions? Thats why I feel there is a lot of merit to the products we see coming out like the new HP servers. They are scalable and make the appropriate use of Memory, Processor, Disc, Power and cooling. The other important part. You can own your cloud.

both solutions have merit for the different types of customers out there. Right now I'm just trying to make sure I've got a handle on what all the options really are.  I'm pulling back a bit as I see more products coming to the market.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/DS_00168/DS_00168.pdf

Cisco shutters Flip business, takes consumer mulligan | ZDNet

Interesting to see Cisco moving away from the consumer business a bit. They still remain a giant in the routing and switching.

Cisco shutters Flip business, takes consumer mulligan | ZDNet

Microsoft takes its ERP technology to the cloud | Microsoft - CNET News

As I work with many different companies on their Infrastructure. Many have Dynamics embedded into their business but want to take it to the cloud. It looks like Microsoft is paying attention.

Microsoft takes its ERP technology to the cloud | Microsoft - CNET News

Amazing use of technology

Check out this really cool new use of technology.  With our world becoming flatter and solutions coming from a world wide economy I believe this kind of technology will take off.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20051924-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Here's a revealing web security article

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20046588-281.html?tag=topStories1

Cycles

One of the hardest lessons to learn as a salesperson is that customers buy on their own schedule not the salespersons.  This runs counterintuitive to the to the sales process and management of most companies.  I'm happy to be at the point in my career where I work for a company that works to respect the customers buying cycles.  Our challenge as technical advisors and consultants is to have our customer make a decision early enough in a cycle to allow enough time for a thorough implementation and training.  We also want to help our customers avoid and major down time or data loss due to failure of aging equipment or out dated software.

The only way to be fair in this process is to spend the time and energy to give our customers several choices along with the positives and negatives of each choice.  This often takes more time and there is not a guaranteed payoff at the end.  As a result consultants and advisors end up becoming product focused and limiting their options.  How do we provide our customers and prospects with enough information and options while not starving to death by giving out free consulting?  How can a customer or prospect assure they are getting enough options and not wasting time and energy of the consultants who are helping them out?

I surely am always learning new ideas on how to accomplish this from my end but I've got a couple of ideas

1. Be honest.  Talk about the competition up front and acknowledge the sales process for what it is.
2. Be ok with no.  The customer needs to be ok with saying "no" and the consultant needs to accept "no" up front.  Not everyone is a fit
3. Check in at each step.  Did we provide what you are looking for?  If no,  why go to the next step? If yes, lets set clear expectations for the next step

These Three ideas seem to be common sense but are very difficult to accomplish.  The reason is that we are all preconditioned by our own "bad" sales experiences.  It takes time to trust and make these ideas a priority but it is worth it.  

Thanks for reading ~pz