June, 2011
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Common Cloud Myths
1. The Cloud is an IT “cure-all” The Cloud doesn’t solve every business problem. But growing adoption proves that cloud computing does address some common business issues and challenges, and helps a lot of our clients’ businesses achieve their larger goals. Today, more businesses want to enable remote and mobile workforces than ever before, but [...]
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The Problem with Mobile Privacy
Now that smartphones usage is driving mobile app development to new levels, it’s becoming apparent that there’s a serious “disconnect” between what app developers want and what the consumer ultimately demands. The consumer wants to feel safe, like they have some measure of privacy, but the average app developer has little-to-no incentive to give it [...]
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Flashback! Selling Managed Services, Again
I have a cousin who’s a designer. His firm has, along with so many others, had a rough couple of years trying to stay in business. Thankfully things are finally starting to improve in a real way this year. While the firm was struggling to keep the lights on, their IT was pretty low on [...]
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Checking Out: How to Take Advantage of Vacation Season
It’s vacation season. I just returned from mine; I took it earlier than usual this year. I had a fantastic time away from the “day-to-day” but was actually looking forward to diving back into the melee this morning. I’m weird like that; I actually love what I do. You can imagine my surprise, then, when [...]
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Apple and OnForce Tackle SMB Support
As reported this weekend on Channelnomics, Apple and OnForce have teamed up to deliver support to SMB Mac users. While no official announcement has been made about the partnership, Channelnomics quotes OnForce CEO Peter Cannone: “The Apple experience you get in the store is the same experience SMBs will get on-site with OnForce partners. By [...]
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Fear of the Unknown
When we bring up cloud computing with our clients, what kind of responses do we get? Are we met with skepticism and fear or with openness and willingness? Cloud Computing is a new and different way for technology. “The unknown” and “change” are concepts that inspire fear in many people. Are our clients afraid of [...]
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Rain Dances, The Weather Report
Almost Everybody Can Expect to Get Hacked
PC World reported yesterday on new data from a survey conducted by Ponemon Research on behalf of Juniper Networks. They found that 90% of the businesses surveyed said their computers had been breached by hackers in the past 12 months. Almost 60% reported two or more breaches in the past year. I was surprised at [...]
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Bye Bye Blackberry?
Today I’m considering some interesting effects of the consumerization of technology trend. Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry, is starting to look more like roadkill than a competitor in the mobile device market. In this rather scathing but accurate post on MobileCrunch, John Biggs summarily dismisses and predicts extinction for RIM. There’s no [...]
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Why Did the Turtle Cross the Road?
Yesterday I was driving with my family on a two lane rural highway when we happened upon a turtle slowly making his way across the road. My husband stopped the car, got out, picked up the turtle and delivered it safely to the other side of the road, and we drove away. The whole incident [...]
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June 20th, 2011: United Airlines Weekend Outage, ICANN, and Business Continuity
Here I sit, yet again, in this funny little coffee shop, reviewing the news of the world on this Monday morning. As I am on vacation and the sunshine is calling me, I’m going to try something a little different this week: I’ll attempt to condense the things I’d otherwise write in different blogs throughout [...]
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Mobile App Development Driving Increase in Smartphone Data Usage
Well, here I sit in a weird little coffee shop in Lake Leelanau, Michigan, where I’ve finally found a Wi-Fi connection. They tell me that if I get close enough to Traverse City I’ll be able to get a 3G connection on my iPhone, but I’m mostly crippled while I’m here. It was interesting, then, [...]
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A Vacation From The Cloud
As I embark with my family on our summer vacation, I am taking The Cloud with me. We are traveling, as usual, to my cottage on the lake in northern Michigan. Up North, as they say. Up north where DSL is a luxury and 3G is still the stuff of legend. Up north where snowmobiles [...]
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Microsoft Office 365: Half-Baked or Chocolate Teapot?
Nick Farrell of TechEye.net wrote this morning about the anticipated Office 365 launch. While Microsoft has committed to a June launch date (the product is in beta now,) there is concern among analysts that the product is simply not ready. Some think the product needs more time in development, but some are becoming convinced that [...]
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Who’s Your Number One Competitor?
I attended SMB Nation’s spring conference in Toronto on Friday and Saturday. About 250 people descended on International Centre for two days of great technology, business training, vendor networking, and plain fun around the theme “pivot to the cloud in a weekend.” It was also great to catch up with—and meet—some great friends. An item [...]
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Don’t miss today’s Live Webcast, “Consulting in the Cloud Era” at 2pm EDT
Our revenue model as VARs or MSPs is being turned on its head. A lot of us are accustomed to giving away the advice (calling it “pre-sales consulting”) about what technology solutions our clients should use because we make margins on some other part of the deal like attached services or hardware/software mark ups. With [...]
