See Inside a Google Data Center and a Google Server
Google has recently provided some unprecedented views into their data center operations and have even revealed current details of their server board. In the past they have only released information on old designs (like the 80 PC rack given to the computer history museum). It seems like every time photos would pop up of server parts it would end up being of a previous generation of equipment. For the most part, folks like me have only dreamed of being able to see inside a real Google data center and seeing real operational, current generation Google equipment. Read the rest of this entry »
What if you could show key Social Media/Web2.0 sites in one graphic?
Overdrive is a company that specializes in helping others leverage the social media landscape. They produced a great graphic that gives at least a high level overview of the key social media and web2.0 world. Click on the image here for a larger view download the PDF here: Download social-media-map.pdf (1330.3K)
I really like this graphic for a couple reasons. One is that like many other people I long for ways that can help me visualize and grasp things in this fast moving space. I know this does not capture all the social media sites and I know the categories are not as clean as depicted here. But still it is GREAT context and will be helpful to me in explaining to others some of the fast moving cloud based services out there (note to overdrive: please find room to add a section on cloud services, like cloud based office automation).
Another key reason I like this is it proves Overdrive's assertion that they are a company that can demystify online tools and help companies leverage these capabilities. The fact that they are letting any blogger anywhere post this graphic on their site is proof that they understand how these things work. Companies who want to make it in social spaces should give first then receive later.
How did I find this cool graphic? Friends at Facebook sent it to me. I found this cool social media reference through a cool social media site.
The Disruptive Power of Netbooks
The idea of light-weight, low-cost, but very powerful laptops designed for a smaller feature set than traditional laptops has been around for a decade or so. But all indications are that something has changed in the market place. Due to a convergence of many factors, netbooks are growing in sales. These factors include the continual improvement in wireless speeds, the more widespread availability of wifi, the continued drop in cost of hardware, the continued increase in performance of open source operating systems and open source applications, the unstoppable move to more thin-client solutions, and the dramatically increased capabilities of cloud computing services (including the entire web2.0 megatrend and of course the continued innovations of Google in the cloud computing and online applications space).
I just did a few searches on Amazon and Bestbuy for netbooks devices, and pulled up entries for small notebooks like the Acer Aspire One, an 8.9-inch mini laptop that runs Linux Lite and sells for under $300.00. It has plenty of capability and is very lightweight. It comes loaded with applications, including open source office automation packages (I think I would want to download the most recent version of open office if I purchased this). It also comes with a built in camera and is ready for high end video chat.
Will I buy one? There are clearly some of these in my future, I just don't know when. I have a MacBook and I really like it for everything I need in a laptop. I use it around the house and on travel. And, although it is over a year old now, it doesn't need replacement. When it does, however, I'm going to be asking myself why I would want to pay $1000 more for a Mac instead of a couple hundered for a Netbook. So much of what I do I do on the cloud anyway, and the many things I do locally can be done using the free Open Office.
If we assume the same sort of trades are being considered by other buyers, a conclusion starts to emerge. Netbooks are going to be a very disruptive force in the market.
And what is the market saying so far about this trend? Acer is reporting huge success with their netbooks approach, their sales have been growing significantly. They just reported a 78.8 percent growth rate over the same quarter in 2007. And this is during a huge market downturn. HP and Dell are reporting unit sales growth of 13.5 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively. Apple is just about flat.
If you are an enterprise CTO, what should you do with this information? For one, you should consider how to use laptops/netbooks like these in your organization. If done right, you can enhance the security of your enterprise by moving more of your data and applications to secure clouds, and you can also add security features to your netbooks and field a significant enhancement to your security posture. And, since the cost of these devices is far less than traditional laptops you can equip more of your workforce and save money at the same time, which is a very virtuous thing in this economic environment.
Note: I've previously written about several devices that qualify as netbooks, including:
Thin Client Laptops: Functionality, Security, Mobility A review of high end, enterprise quality wireless stateless thin clients using the Sun Microsystems approach;
and
The Future Is Changing Again A review of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative.
I also recommend a recent article at Economist.com called Small is Beautiful.
And, thanks to a friend on Twitter, I just got pointed to a post at GigaOm titled: Why Netbooks are Greener Than Laptops
Cloud computing and my small business
I run a small strategic consulting business, Crucial Point LLC.
My core business requires lots of hands on work and time of myself and partners and associates, and like in many other businesses, the less time I spend on admin for myself the more time I can spend being productive. I also need to watch costs and need to be as agile and mobile as possible. One of the approaches I have taken to address those needs is to maximize my use of Google Apps and other related Google capabilities.
Here is some more background on how I use them:
E-mail to my company is really handled by Google Apps. If you send a note to contact @ crucialpointllc .com, or any other active address at that domain, it is handled by the Google e-mail servers. I access the e-mail like you access your gmail. I get it through a browser and can access it anywhere. I can also use a client package to download the mail when I want to. And I use that on my blackberry when I'm on the move (which is just about always).
The e-mail for Crucial Point LLC is also well integrated with other capabilities like Google Calendar, and that calendar is also synchronized with my blackberry. My contacts are also synchronized between my blackberry and my gmail based mail contacts.
I use Google Docs at the site as well. This allows me to create, edit, read and collaborate over spreadsheets, documents and presentations. On most of my computers I run open office and on a couple I have Microsoft office and both of those packages work pretty well with Google Docs, but I try to default to Google Docs for reasons of mobility, security and sharing. I also use embedded forms to collect key info and process it in secure spreadsheets on my site. I get an alert when any of these forms are used. For example, when a company has a request for a tech assessment I refer them to my tech assessment request form at the bottom of the "what we do" page on my site.
At this time I don't really use Google's video or chat capabilities. But maybe in the future?
The Google Sites feature is pretty good too and I've used it a couple times to establish collaborative environments for topics like developing a strategic plan for a client. By using sites I was able to invite in just the right folks for collaborative work. I'm currently working on my new site for my Crucial Point LLC webpage and am doing that in Google Sites, so that will allow an even tighter integration and easier ability for me to edit my main public facing page from anywhere anytime. [Late Entry: my main site at http://www.crucialpointllc.com is now driven by Google Sites]
I can give e-mail addresses and account access to my business partners and can also invite in external folks to collaborate with me.
I also use Google's GrandCentral for key phone services, and I look forward to increasing levels of integration with other Google capabilities there.
I use these and many other Google services for many reasons, but the most important reasons have to do with reducing the risk to my small business. It is a fact of life that all computers fail, eventually, and we all relearn that lesson far too frequently (My almost brand new iMac failed not long ago and had to be totally replaced. Cleaning up the hard drive was no problem and my business continued ahead full steam since I'm leveraging a cloud). These services also make me more agile since I can access them anywhere and can rapidly configure/tailor them to meet my changing needs. They also help me keep the important stuff secure and the sharable stuff shared. I know I'm also saving energy by leveraging their cost effective/green data centers, but for a small company like mine I really have no idea how much/little I'm saving there.
For bigger firms there are far more capabilities, like integrations into Salesforce.com. I don't think I'll be using those capabilities anytime soon. But I plan on continuing to watch them.
(By the way, just as a disclaimer, Google is not a client of mine, but I sure wish they were, that would be cool).
Vivek Kundra: Democratizing Data and Putting it in the Public Domain
I'm hoping most enterprise CTOs have had a chance to learn more about Vivek Kundra's Apps for Democracy initiative. I'm really impressed by this activity for many reasons, but primarily because it got results of use to the citizens and visitors of DC. This initiative proved yet again that Vivek Kundra is a CTO who gets things done. From his bio:
to the Cabinet post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District
of Columbia. As CTO, Kundra leads the Office of the Chief Technology
Officer (OCTO), an organization of over 600 staff that provides
technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees,
residents, businesses, and millions of visitors.
Prior to this Vivek was getting things done in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the private sector, and in Arlington Virginia.
In his current position he became an instant hero to an entire enterprise when he took the bold step of moving his enterprise to a Google Apps foundation. The video below provides some background on this move.
An equally wise, and similarly bold move was Vivek's initiative called Apps For Democracy. This contest began with Vivek insuring that the DC government is being as open and transparent with data as possible, exposing data in a variety of common formats. This was no simple task, requiring vision, perseverance, and a dedication to plow through city hall obstacles that only a motivated leader could tackle. Vivek set the groundwork for success by working with a great thought leaders like Peter Corbett at iStrategyLabs and by coordinating with Internet enthusiasts like the crew at Mashable. The Strategy Labs team created a proposal for this project and brought this project to life in six days! created a page encouraging mashup entries, and the result was an incredible generation of capabilities that serve DC citizens and visitors to our Capital. 47 applications were created in a way that did not require long procurement processes or costly integration contracts. What do the apps do? Check them out yourself here: medal-winners
My favorite: DC Historic Tours. This is really really cool. Thanks Vivek!
For more see the video below:
Apps for Democracy from Shaun Farrell on Vimeo.
What else can I say about Vivek? He also has great models for internal program management. His approach is nothing like the one I learned from Gartner the everyone trys to implement. And it is better than the one I learned in the corporate world that worked very well for us at TRW and Northrop Grumman. His approach is nothing like the one we used at DIA. In fact, if I had it to do over again I would use his approach in my old enterprise. For more on his way, see the write up for his 2008 InfoWorld Top 25 CTO award.
So hey, what's next? My hope is that the methods and models of Vivek (and iStrategylabs) are applied across the nation and up to state and federal levels. Think of the good that could be done.
Android: Disruptive? Not enough info to say
Google and T-Mobile just announced the arrival of the G1 device today. This is the first cell phone to use Google's new open "Android" operating system. Android will almost certainly change the mobile computing fabric. It is the first open and free mobile platform and since it is backed by Google it is not going to be a flash-in-the-pan. But, now the question is, how disruptive will it be? There are over 3.3 Billion active cell phone subscribers in the globe. How many of those will eventually be on Android?
I'd appreciate any of your thoughts on that. For now, check out some of Android's features below. Looks pretty cool.
We still don't know when these will be in the local phone stores. But then again, we don't know when the Blackberry Bold will be here either. Anyway, I plan on evaluating an Android phone as soon as possible to see if it is for me.
More later.
Android: Disruptive? Not enough info to say
Google and T-Mobile just announced the arrival of the G1 device today. This is the first cell phone to use Google's new open "Android" operating system. Android will almost certainly change the mobile computing fabric. It is the first open and free mobile platform and since it is backed by Google it is not going to be a flash-in-the-pan. But, now the question is, how disruptive will it be? There are over 3.3 Billion active cell phone subscribers in the globe. How many of those will eventually be on Android?
I'd appreciate any of your thoughts on that. For now, check out some of Android's features below. Looks pretty cool.
We still don't know when these will be in the local phone stores. But then again, we don't know when the Blackberry Bold will be here either. Anyway, I plan on evaluating an Android phone as soon as possible to see if it is for me.
More later.
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