You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Innovation’ category.
I was playing around with QR codes a bit and managed to create this code with the word “cloud” embedded into it. Apparently these codes have strong enough error-correction to counteract minor image manipulation.
I had never even heard of these codes until a few months ago when I read an article about them in one of the local newspapers. Apparently they are huge in Japan but really haven’t caught on in a big way in other parts of the world. Personally I can’t even take advantage of this technology yet since my phone (Blackberry 8830) doesn’t sport a camera.
Here’s another QR code I created with a scuba diving flag in the middle. I’m tempted to make some stickers out of this and hand them out at the upcoming scuba show in the Twin Cities. Again note how the introduction of the logo does not impact the readability of the QR code due to the error correction algorithm.
I used software from QuickMark to validate these codes using the embedded video camera on my Dell laptop.
I was fortunate enough to be a keynote presenter at the Cloud VISION 2009 event in Minneapolis this past Wednesday. My presentation, “Getting Ready for the VISI Cloud”, was focused on the new ReliaCloud service platform — and specifically Cloud Servers, the first product to be launched on this new platform.
We had a couple hundred people attend the morning seminars. That’s a pretty amazing turnout on a cold and rainy October morning. It is obvious to me that cloud computing services have gained traction in the hearts and minds of IT people across the Twin Cities region.
Chris Howard from the Burton Group gave the first keynote speech. He focused on cloud computing from a very strategic standpoint — explaining how the cloud was reshaping IT within enterprises. I thought Chris gave one of the best cloud computing presentations I have heard in the past year. His presentation was clear and insightful. He skillfully blended cloud computing and socioeconomic trends. Well done Chris!
I’ve spent the past nine months working on ReliaCloud and I’m excited to see all the hard come together in a very solid service offering. Of course none of this would have been possible without a great team of application developers, system and network admins, and product managers. VISI has never launched a product with this level of automation, self-service capability, and scalability. It represents the evolution of our business and the way customers buy infrastructure.
You can check out a great synopsis of the event at the Minnov8 website. You can also find the presentations online at the VISI Blog. Here are YouTube videos of the presentations from the event: videos.
Thank you to the hundreds of people that attended the event. I really enjoyed talking with you and hearing your feedback. VISI is still accepting beta testers for the new ReliaCloud platform. The beta testing will start in early November — probably the second week of the month.
With almost a touch of schadenfreude Gartner explains that cloud computing has reached the peak of inflated expectations and is now headed towards the trough of disillusionment.
I think this is all a matter of perspective. Yes, cloud computing is way over hyped in technology circles. But business — especially SMB’s — are at a different point in the hype cycle.
The SMB’s still don’t understand cloud computing or why it matters to their business. Most SMB’s aren’t trying to be social networks or coding web 2.0 jockeys or building the next iphone app. They are manufacturing, designing, installing, and servicing stuff in the real world. What they care about most is cost; and then reliability. They don’t care if the service is called shared hosting, or VPS, or cloud computing — as long as it just works.
I don’t blame service providers for the hype. I blame software vendors that are trying to sell cloud computing-in-a-box and editors that are looking for more clicks.
I sat down with fellow Minnesota entrepreneur and Internet strategist Steve Borsch this week to talk about my company VISI. He wrote a very nice summarization of our conversation on the increasingly popular Minnov8 blog. Thanks Steve!
If you’ve been in IT long enough you probably remember the famous motto stated by Sun CEO Scott McNealy in the 90′s: “The network is the computer”. McNealy’s promise was a decade ahead of its time. I think it is safe to say that today the network is a big part of the computer. But is the network ready to fully supplant our local computing devices? Despite recent proclamations that “everything is a service” I believe that technologies such as cloud computing have a long way to grow before replacing traditional computing architectures.
A number of trends are pushing the development of cloud computing:
– Consumer technology innovation is pushing business technology innovation
– Businesses are adopting collaboration and team-oriented work methodologies
– Cloud computing is driving down CapEX and OpEx for businesses
– Barriers to entry such as connectivity, reliability, and security are decreasing
These trends are great for small businesses and start-up companies. But I believe that cloud computing faces a number of adoption challenges in medium and large enterprises. Here are just a few:
No standards. All the big guys (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc…) are building out cloud computing platforms today. The problem is that all of these application publishing platforms are different. I can easily move my Windows applications from a local Dell server to a local HP server. I can’t move my application from Google’s cloud to Amazon’s cloud. I can’t see enterprises betting the farm on a single cloud computing platform.
Legacy code. Large enterprises are running legacy code written decades ago. Cloud computing does not offer the cost savings to justify a rewrite of these legacy applications yet.
Performance. A cloud storage technology like Amazon’s S3 will not come close to matching the performance of local storage resources like a NetApp SAN in the foreseeable future. The use of cloud storage is limited to applications with low performance requirements.
Security. Cloud computing and storage vendors will have a tough time convincing large enterprises (and their auditors) that data is securely managed in their cloud infrastructure. I work with businesses every week that dismiss shared computing architectures in favor of dedicated computing resources. Until businesses are comfortable “crossing the streams” we won’t see large adoption of cloud computing by enterprises.
I read a good article in the Star Tribune this morning about staying motivated in a slow-changing business environment. It’s hard to stay motivated as a visionary if people around you are afraid to change or people are content with the status quo. The article was written from the perspective of a counselor but it could easily apply to any CTO or technology leader.
I attended the PUSH 2008 conference earlier this week and promised to report back.
I enjoyed the conference setting at the Walker Art Center. I had never been inside the center before even after living in Minnesota for 17 years. I celebrated my wedding at the adjacent Minneapolis Sculpture Garden so the area held special significance for me.
This conference is designed as a conduit for networking and exchanging ideas. I attend at least a half-dozen technology conferences each year. PUSH was a refreshing change because I didn’t have to listen to discussions on Microsoft, virtualization, or datacenters.
Most of the attendees I met were from non-profits, government, product development or marketing companies. Everyone was there for a different reason.
The presenters came from private companies (Target), UN humanitarian organizations, governmental trade agencies, Al Jazeera, and academia.
You can find more information about some of the topics and speakers on the Fast Company blog.
So was it worth it?
I was entertained and stimulated on a personal level by the presentations and stories I heard. I networked with people that I probably would not have encountered at typical industry networking events. I was exposed to dynamic trends that are shaping our world.
But the real question is how will I take this new found knowledge and apply it to my business? Or maybe I should ask a bigger question. How will I apply this knowledge to the way I live my life, and therefore by extension, my business? I will be pondering this question for some time. I think the conference was worth it. But I don’t think it is easy to quantify in terms of ROI for a business.
One thing is clear. I need to travel more and experience places like Africa, India, and Asia.
Here’s a wonderful blog post from Mr. Icahn titled Corporate Democracy is a Myth. Public CEOs earn 520 times that of the average worker. CEOs and their boards are no longer accountable to their shareholders.
I have no problem with CEO earnings. I do have a problem with extravagant employment separation packages. CEOs should not be rewarded for overseeing a company driven into the ground. Say it like you believe it, “Yes Icahn!”.
I’m attending the Push 2008 conference over the next two days in Minneapolis. I met Cecily Sommers, the founder of PUSH, at a Minnesota High Tech Association event several months ago. I’m not sure what to expect. I signed up because the conference seems like a mini version of TED. I’ll report back later this week.
I wrote an article in my company’s blog 6 months ago questioning “green” policy efforts. I’ve been doing some more thinking about this subject lately as I’ve come across articles about taxing energy producers to offset global warming.
Let’s think about this logically.
Energy is required to innovate. Physicists need to run simulations on grid supercomputers. Large disk systems are required to store testing data. Email and collaboration tools are required to coordinate project teams. All of these activities require power.
As you increase the cost of power you increase the cost to innovate. Increasing the cost of innovation will likely slow innovation and decrease the number of companies pursuing innovation.
I believe we should focus on decreasing the cost of energy versus building an artificial energy market using tax credits or carbon caps. What we have today is a situation where government is manipulating the energy market to force changes in energy production and costs.
I agree that we should minimize our impact to the planet by reducing waste. I want to leave my children a cleaner world than my grandparents left me (which actually won’t be hard to do). But making it harder to innovate and solve energy production problems at a time we need it most is kind of like cutting off our nose to spite our face. I would rather increase pollution over the next 10 years and keep energy costs low if that meant we could find a longterm energy solution faster.
Many proponents of artificially inflating the cost of energy believe that this will spur change in the market. I agree that this will create change: even more companies moving manufacturing and operations to countries like China and India that are building power plants like mad. But even if you believe that artificially increasing energy costs will drive companies to look for new forms of energy you have to make a big bet: new and cheaper forms of energy will be found.
Maybe instead of creating a carbon trading system people should be buying stock in companies that are researching new forms of energy production. At least they would be putting their money where their mouth is. They could be part of the solution versus becoming a barrier.
