Archive for month: March, 2009

Google announced that they are offering on-line courses and a certification test for Google Analytics. This is a good start in helping business owners understand if they are engaging qualified resources.

We look forward to Google expanding the program to their other product lines. We also encourage Google to consider a practicum or customer references to further validate skill sets.

As part of it’s open source initiatives, Google has released Google Blog Converters 1.0.

Kudos to Google for helping users move from as well as to Google’s Blogger service.

In a blog from the Cloud Computing Expo, Walter Pinson asks, “Is Cloud Computing Like Teenage Sex?“. His premise is that while everybody is talking about Cloud Computing, few corporations are actually doing it. Here is what he is not seeing.

Cloud Computing covers a variety of types of services, which I generally divide into three categories: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Systems like Salesforce.com, eBid, and FirePond demonstrate that corporations are more than willing to put critical business processes in the cloud and that these applications can and will integrate with other corporate systems.

37Signals, the developer of award-winning Web 2.0 solutions such as Basecamp replaced their internal data center with the Amazon cloud. Similarly, our friends at ten24web have built a platform for integrated email/web marketing in the cloud.

When innovative companies are forsaking infrastructure for cloud-resident platforms and infrastructure, and companies of all sizes rely on cloud-resident applications and systems for revenue-critical services, Cloud Computing is real and in use.

Granted, cloud computing vendors may not be publicizing their users. Then again, corporate customers may not want their competitors knowing their technology strategy

While Steve Ballmer failed to mention Google Apps as a threat to Microsoft’s email and collaboration products and services during a recent strategy meeting, the corporate VP of Microsoft Online Services sounds like he is fighting a street brawl.

Phil Wainewright provides the blow-by-blow in is blog, Microsoft pumps cloud, trumps Google with GSK.

What are your thoughts?

In his blog, Stop Buying Servers, David Schrag agrees with TechRepublic’s Jason Hiner’s view that NetBooks are driving users to cloud computing.

I have a slightly different take

Netbooks are not driving users to Cloud Computing. Rather, the growth in Cloud Computing options makes netbooks more feasible.

Low and mid-range netbooks, those under the $600, are not for the power users. Screens and keyboards are too small and the processors lack “umph”. They do, however, meet the needs of many users, and not just road warriors. High-end netbooks, with larger (up to 15″) screen sizes and more local storage, overcome some of these limitations and still provide savings of 30% to 60% over traditional notebooks.

Netbooks would fail in the market unless users can lighten their application load. Cloud Computing, and the growth of Software-as-a-Services solutions, lets users move some of the heavy processing and storage load off the local system.

The range of applications and services available in the cloud gives users access to capabilities without the hundreds or even tens of gigabytes often used by locally installed applications. Similarly, cloud computing puts the processing burden on the service, leveraging local resources for the user interface and communications.

Yes, cost is a factor. We see the true driver towards netbooks being their ability to let organizations match the true needs of the users to the most cost-effective solution.