TrueCloud

Is the Cloud cleaner than client/server? Really?

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:17:00 +0000

There are some that are questioning the footprint of big cloud companies. See the article below from the Mercury Observer for a perspective on that. I'm not too sure I agree with the thinking though. It's pretty green to be free of huge air conditioned server rooms in every building on the street.

What do you think?
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Cleaner clouds needed at Apple, Amazon and Twitter, Greenpeace says

By Jeremy C. Owens

In their race for the cloud, tech companies are leaving a trail of pollution from dirty energy sources, Greenpeace said Tuesday in a report that accused some of the world's biggest tech companies of failing to make clean energy a priority.
Cloud computing allows users to store and access data, programs and more on remote servers, preserving computing power. To offer this service, however, requires massive data centers that suck up electricity around the clock.
Three tech companies with popular cloud offerings -- Apple (AAPL), Amazon and Microsoft -- were singled out in Greenpeace's report for using coal and other fossil fuel energy for their data centers.

"Three of the largest IT companies building their business around the cloud -- Amazon, Apple and Microsoft -- are all rapidly expanding without adequate regard to source of electricity, and rely heavily on dirty energy to power their clouds," Gary Cook, senior IT policy analyst at Greenpeace International, wrote as the first key finding in his report.
Companies received letter grades in four categories in the Greenpeace report, and Amazon was given an "F" in three of them -- energy transparency, infrastructure siting and renewables & advocacy. The Seattle-based tech company received a "D" for energy efficiency and globalgreenhouse gas emissions.

Apple, which began offering its iCloud service to consumers in October, received three "D" grades and an "F" for infrastructure siting, or the locations companies choose for their data centers; the only company besides Amazon to score worse than Apple was San Francisco-based Twitter.

According to Greenpeace, Apple gets the highest percentage of its energy from coal out of the 14 tech companies studied for the report, 55.1 percent, and was the only company said to have received more than half of its electricity from coal. The No. 2 company in terms of proportion of coal usage, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), measured at 49.7 percent.

Greenpeace said in its report that Apple and Amazon had told the environmental advocacy group that its estimates of facility power demand were incorrect, but refused to provide alternative estimates.

In a written statement to Bloomberg News, a spokesman for Apple said Greenpeace had misstated the amount of power it will need for a massive data center the Cupertino company is building in western North Carolina. According to Apple, the data center will need 20 megawatts of electricity at a maximum, while Greenpeace estimated it would need as much as 100 megawatts.
Apple also pointed out that the North Carolina data center is "on track to supply more than 60 percent of that power on-site from renewable sources including a solar farm and fuel cell installation which will each be the largest of their kind in the country."

Singled out for praise in the Greenpeace report were three Silicon Valley companies: Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO) and Facebook.
"Yahoo and Google both continue to lead the sector in prioritizing access to renewable energy in their cloud expansion, and both have become more active in supporting policies to drive greater renewable energy investment," Cook wrote.
Google had the highest overall grade with an average score of a "B," including one of only two "A" grades given in any category, for its use of renewable energy and advocacy attempts. Yahoo was right behind Google in Greenpeace's grading system, with three "B" grades and one "C."

Facebook was cheered for committing to ensuring the use of renewable energy in the future, including "the construction of its latest data center in Sweden, which can be fully powered by renewable energy."

5 things that are driving cloud adoption in business today

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:12:00 +0000

Cloud – Starting to Grow-up in 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:47:00 +0000

Cloud – Starting to Grow-up in 2012

By Dave Rice

There is an old and very simple axiom, which applies to the Cloud just as it did to its predecessor — on-premise technology solutions.

The less complex a technology is to use, the more likely it is that it can be sold directly.

And conversely, the more complex the technology, the more likely it is that it will be sold through the channel which has the capacity and the resources to be able to fill the complexity gap between provider and end-customer. This is true whether or not a technology is a product or a service or both.

The arrival of Cloud means that many solutions that were heretofore too complex for customers to use without the assistance of in-house IT and / or the channel, are giving way to simpler services enabled via the Cloud, leading to a greater number of direct relationships between Cloud service providers and end customers then at anytime in the past.

The characteristics of simple versus complex services that result in either a direct or an indirect sales opportunity:

The ability for Public Cloud Service Providers to produce simple, direct and automated services for end - customers lays the groundwork for another major transformation. Cloud Service Providers are beginning to master the social media techniques that will allow them to gain an acute awareness of customer technology consumption behavior, which in turn will lead to greater refinement and automation of services and related processes.

This direct feedback mechanism can provide a much more profound understanding of how customers actually use these services, an insight that was never possible with traditional on premise solutions, creates for the first time the potential to drive ease of use into every aspect of the service, considerably more standardization and deeper penetration into customer bases as a result of more targeted and precise software development.

All of this offers a great opportunity for Cloud Service Providers and End-Customers of any size and part of any industry the opportunity to reap significant benefit at a lower cost, but it will inevitably result in fewer traditional service, support as and product opportunities for in-house IT organizations and in turn, the channel as well.

As an example, take a traditional on premise range of related support activities, a product upgrade involving version and release changes, testing, configuration management, training and change management which formerly rested on the backs of in-house IT organizations or in some cases 3^rd parties in the channel to manage using discrete tools and management practices.

With the advent of Public Cloud Services, the burden of these activities switches to the Cloud Services Provider who performs the service on behalf of thousands of customers and must therefore determine how these activities can be embedded into the service itself, so as to make it a turn-key experience for the customer. The Cloud Services Provider must contend with how to factor these capabilities into the cost and delivery of the overall service offering.

Really...Why? Business in 2011 and beyond.

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:06:00 +0000

So, I find myself in the middle of a really cool training session. The class is being run by webinar with a live instructor and it is 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Yes 40 hours of webinar. Oh joy! Truth be told, I am getting ready for today's session now. I've got 2 hours before class. What to do before I am forced to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours? I know...blog :)

Here's my "really....why?" moment. There are 16 students in this class and it is going really well. We're learning about a Cloud-based software business suite and how it is changing the lives of businesses and business people around the world. In the middle of the class, a few of us are taking advantage of the "private chat" feature of the webinar software.

As I am home, feet up on my patio table, with birds chirping and rabbits running, I get the answers to my question:

"My boss says I have to be here in the conference room because that's where business is done", says one. Another offers, "I was told that I would be paid for my time only if I took the class from my desk.".

Really? You're on a class about THE CLOUD. Really? Why? It occurs to me that Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms and software have been created in order to detach us from the need, the expense, the leash to our servers and our offices. If I may be so bold, to detach us from the past.

We are in a new environment with new rules and, more importantly, new employees. TrueCloud CEO Dave Rice likes to say that "if we try to keep today's employee satisfied with old technology and old rules, it simply will not work." The days of sitting down a new employee in front of a putty colored screen and a new ergo keyboard and wishing them good luck are gone! The days of your development genius going home early and pushing through a huge project at 1AM, filled with enthusiasm and Mountain Dew are here.

My advice? Get on the bus. Let the technology work for you. We must unhinge from our old in order to get to the new. We must be more willing to accept the new paradigm, the new tools and the new spirit that Cloud and SaaS permits us.

Now, I am not a proponent of complete telecommuting for everyone in every case, but a day or two outside the office is refreshing for everyone. It builds trust. It builds the feeling of independent ownership and more importantly, it builds success.

OK...I need to get my coffee brewing for today's session. I'm wearing shorts and a T-Shirt, my stereo has Pink Floyd oozing from the speakers, I have a bagel in the toaster and I'm ready for whatever the Cloud has to offer. Are you?

Please Insert 25 Cents

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:20:00 +0000

Do you remember life before cell phones? When you had to go home to listen to your messages? When you carried change for a pay phone?

I confess -- I was a late adopter of the cell phone, skipping the brick entirely. I also missed the early flip phones -- so small they fit right in a pocket … of a large backpack or fanny pack (yikes!).

Work demanded that I carry the phone after being one of the last with a beeper. They were no longer willing to tolerate the guy running the website having a 10 minute search for a phone after being paged.

Once I had the phone, everything changed. It was so convenient, being able to contact people quickly. Calling ahead for reservations, or talking with family. Getting directions without pulling over at a gas station.

The cell phone changed our lives, changed them to the point of it being difficult to remember when we didn’t have them.

Cloud computing is doing the same. Services like Apple’s iCloud are making us forget how cumbersome it was copying music, pictures, and other files between our devices. The loss of a hard drive is no longer catastrophic, provided you use a cloud backup system like Carbonite.

For business, software like NetSuite makes it easy to get real-time access your business system and eliminates the headaches associated with servers and IT upgrades. Google and others provide email and office productivity (documents, spreadsheets, chat, calendar, etc.). There are many more services, covering everything you need to move your business to the cloud.

Like the cell phone, cloud computing is changing everything. We will quickly forget the time before cloud computing because it just makes things so much more convenient.

If you are a late adopter like me, give us a call and we can help your business take advantage of the cloud. But please… don’t call from a pay phone.

Sorry. 1 year. $2 Million.

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Carnac the Magnificent was a Johnny Carson character (here is a refresher). He gave the answers first, and then revealed the questions.

Unfortunately Carnac is alive and well in businesses everywhere, where the not so funny joke in the IT organization to the answers “Sorry. 1 year. $2 Million,” address the questions:

Can our current systems do this important thing?
How long will it take to change the systems?
How much money will it cost?

Earlier in my career I worked with a Fortune 500 company. The company wanted to add additional currencies to their systems to purchase from some European vendors. The answers I had to deliver to the CEO were “Sorry. 1 year. $2 Million.”

Our Canadian company was required to have a website with French Canadian translations. The answers I gave to the Canadian company President were “Sorry. 1 year. $2 Million.”

We in the IT Department knew our systems were holding the company back. We knew the business needed to be more nimble. But knowing did not make the underlying problem go away.

Sure there were cases where we could be nimble and efficient. There were also occasions where the systems could easily perform certain new tasks. Far too often, however, the answers resulted in too much time and too much money.

Since we started TrueCloud in 2008, one of the most refreshing results is that we no longer say “Sorry. 1 year. $2 Million.”

A client called recently with a need for additional currencies. He asked the standard questions of can it be done, how long it would take and how much it would cost.

My answers: “Yes. Do you have 10 minutes now for me to talk you through it? We don’t charge clients for this small of a job.”

To the client needing a multi-language website, the answers were “Yes. It will take a few hours to import the translations. Your biggest cost will be having someone translate your content.”

Many companies, big and small, are still trapped with stifling IT systems. If you company is among them, please take the time to look at some cloud computing alternatives. In the cloud, the answers are usually:

“Yes. A few hours. An affordable amount.”

The Cloud Effect...Who is Threatened by it?

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:36:00 +0000

I've been finding myself defending "The Cloud" and the use of it lately. It's kind of a surprising phenomenon since it seems that just last week "Cloud Computing" was a buzz phrase that needed to be spoken in order to get your "coolness card".

The folks I have been chatting with are (again surprisingly) Information Technology folks. One said to me just Monday, "If this Cloud thing really takes off, people like me will become dinosaurs." Another mentioned that he felt more than a little anxious about not being the source of sales info at the company.

As I put on my corporate hat, I do understand it. Business folks have carried a double-edged sword around for a while now. You know the weapon. It's the one where, on one hand we love having an IT Director follow us around in case we need a new report or want to see data in a different way; and on the other hand, we get to complain that the system won't let us do anything without waiting days, weeks or worse to get my result.

My two friends are basically reporting that they have become accustomed to the lives we've made for them. That of the "single source" of information. Now, as Cloud-based ERP and CRM systems are seeing double digit growth, information is much more readily available for business owners and CXOs. Cloud-based business suites such as NetSuite are configured to a business' needs and the configuration can be changed at the user level. It's truly a freeing experience.

The "Dinosaur' mentality would make you believe that IT jobs will be going away in direct proportion to the advancing Cloud.

As CIO Magazine's Bernard Golden tells us, "The net effect is that any loss of jobs caused by the move to cloud computing will be more than made up by the overall growth of computing that the cloud causes and the resulting growth of jobs associated with cloud environments and applications."

(Mr. Golden's article can be found here: http://www.cio.com/article/692542/The_IT_Jobs_Cloud_Computing_Will_Create?page=3&taxonomyId=3112)

The truth is that IT professionals, at least the best ones, were never really valued to their access to the information. It wasn't and isn't even their ability to configure or code to get the information out of the systems. The biggest and most valuable attribute of a solid IT citizen is that, in many cases she just understands how the business works better than the department heads running the business. The IT pro knows where the processes breakdown, where the profit is made, what moves and how it moves. They know where the bodies really are buried. The Cloud does not eliminate their importance. It amplifies it!

With owners and CEOs having more information and configuration abilities at their fingertips, they can stop waiting for their IT person to "get me that". The same owners and CEOs are now realizing that they have a tremendous source of knowledge and expertise. New roles are being created and the old roles are evolving. Last year's Database Analyst is next year's Capacity Planner. Last quarter's Director of Applications is this quarter's VP of Business Process.

It's an exciting time. It's been quite a while since we'had a change as large as what Cloud Computing is going to make to international business in the coming decade.

Put your seat-belt on and open your arms to new possibilities. They are all around us. We only need to open our eyes and minds to them. "Cloud" will be a cool word for some time. I have my Coolness Card. Do you?

Steve Jobs is dead. Long live Steve Jobs.

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:31:00 +0000

If I want to tell you there's a spot on your shirt, I'm not going to do it linguistically: "There's a spot on your shirt 14 centimeters down from the collar and three centimeters to the left of your button." If you have a spot––"There!" [He points]––I'll point to it. Pointing is a metaphor we all know. We've done a lot of studies and tests on that, and it's much faster to do all kinds of functions, such as cutting and pasting, with a mouse, so it's not only easier to use but more efficient.

Above is Steve Jobs defending the mouse. Yep, there was a time when the computer mouse required a defense.

Computers will be essential in most homes….The most compelling reason for most people to buy a competitor [sic] for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people––as remarkable as the telephone.

At the time it was very rare to see a computer in someone's home. The market for computers in homes was still "conceptual".

When was Mr. Jobs asked to defend the mouse and make visionary statements the home computer? Was it 1967? 1977?

Nope.

It was only 24 years ago, in 1987, that Steve Jobs made the above statements.

Ten years later in 1997, computers (with mice) were common in homes and many were connected to the internet. Today, many computers have moved beyond the mouse, but most of us have several computers in our home.

These days the "debate" has moved to cloud computing. We are frequently asked if the benefits of cloud computing are real or just hype. "We have studies that show you will save over 30% in IT cost, that it will pay for itself while making your business more flexible, more efficient, and make your systems and data more secure," we say.

Our new answer will be, "In 1987 Steve Jobs was asked to defend the computer mouse."

Steve Jobs either created the device you are using to read this post, or he strongly influenced it. He died today, and he will be missed. You should take 10 minutes to read the entire 1987 Steve Jobs interview.

Moneybusiness: Beane, Business, and Cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:34:00 +0000

Like several million people this weekend, I went to see the movie Moneyball. The movie is based on the book of the same name written by Michael Lewis. It’s a baseball movie that isn’t about baseball -- well, not much anyway.

In 2001, Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane saw his team lose in the playoffs to the New York Yankees. The Yankees had a payroll of $125 million compared with the Oakland’s $41 million. Beane knew the economics were not going to change – Oakland was a small market team that would have small market salary limitations.

Rather than settle for mediocrity, Beane decides to adopt an unused and unproven strategy based on statistical analysis as a primary means of selecting players rather than traditional scouting techniques.

The statistical analysis methods, called sabermetrics, and developed by Bill James, allows Beane to find undervalued players with winning skills and potential – it allows Beane to field a playoff caliber team within Oakland’s budget.

Beneath the baseball overtones, the movie is about the struggle and drive to create fundamental change. The traditional method of using a stable of paid team scouts to select players did not like the change. The scouts dismissed Beane’s approach flatly.

When confronting the scouts about why he was essentially ignoring their recommendations for players selected using traditional scouting methods, and exasperated Beane concludes, “adapt or die.”

The sabermetrics model proved to be a better model. Every major league baseball team now uses the methods described in Moneyball. Beane, James, and a handful of others fundamentally changed baseball.

A similar transition is happening today in cloud computing. The cloud is simply a better way for most businesses to operate. The old methods require discrete purchases of software, hardware, and system integration to provide basic business IT function. They require on-site or hosted server rooms, and the expense and headaches that come along.

The new way collapses the hardware, software, integration, and hosting into a single capability provided by a single vendor. It lowers cost, reduces complexity, and provides unprecedented scalability and flexibility.

The message for business owners is as clear as Beane’s message to the scouts – adapt or die.

Getting Out of the Way

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:54:00 +0000

“Gamers solve decades-old scientific problem” was the headline. It turns out this internet thing might be more than a global delivery system for bad jokes and pornography, was our jaded yet optimistic response.

It so happened that researchers and programmers at the University of Washington recently created an online game called Foldit (http://fold.it). Gamers are posed spatial puzzles and the solutions to the puzzles address protein design and protein structure prediction.

Through their solutions, the gamers “provided the crucial insights to solve the structure of a protein-sniping enzyme critical for reproduction of the AIDS virus. With help from game-players' strategies, researchers revealed the enzymes' structure within three weeks and identified targets for drugs to neutralize it” (source: Fast Company).

The researchers have been publishing the results, most recently in the September 18^th journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

It is a profound example of computer technology becoming mature enough to get out of the way.

For most of our lives computer technology has been entirely too present. Users were forced to understand hard drives, processors, servers, disks, modems and the associated bits that made everything happen. We never really cared about these things of course; we just wanted the result – the abstraction.

It is true in business as well. Owners and leaders do not want server rooms, servers, upgrades, hardware, and the like. They also do not want hosting, which moves those headaches and expenses to a remote location. Owners want the complexity and expense to get out of the way – they want cloud-based, integrated, software.

Facebook gets out of the way, just ask your parents and grandparents who are using it to share photos and keep in touch.

Foldit gets out of the way, decades old scientific problems solved in 3 weeks.

NetSuite gets out of the way for business, integrating all the necessary functions for business owners, showing real-time integrated data from across the business, and keeping the focus on the business rather than the technology.

XChange: Charting The Channel's Path To The Cloud By Rob Wright, CRN

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:09:00 +0000

From our friends at CRN.com

XChange: Charting The Channel's Path To The Cloud
By Rob Wright, CRN
August 11, 2011 2:44 PM ET
Ten years ago at XChange Americas, all of the discussions were around channel conflict and VARs' concerns over their vendor partners selling direct.

"Those days are over," said Everything Channel CEO Robert Faletra during his general session address at XChange Americas 2011.

Instead of channel conflict, solution providers are talking about cloud computing and trying to figure out how to transform their business models and adapt to new technologies like virtualization. And these discussions are taking place during a time of extreme tumult in the channel; Faletra presented data from Everything Channel's research that showed the number of North American solution providers has fallen from 250,000 to approximately 189,000 this year.

But Faletra said he expects that number to climb back up over 200,000 soon as more channel startups are launched around cloud. "Solution providers, we believe, at least in the near future will be focused on building private clouds," he said. "We see a new ecosystem forming."

The weakened economic recovery has led to businesses and government agencies to leverage cloud computing to reduce costs, while the transition from capital expenditure spending to operational expenditures has enabled companies to invest more in cloud solutions and other business transformation services.

Faletra also said another trend is shaking up the industry: the massive proliferation of mobile devices, both at the consumer and commercial levels. "Mobility is just taking over," he said. "It's a huge opportunity for everyone in this room."

But cloud is the key force that's causing VARs to rethink their entire business models. Faletra explained that Everything Channel, based on extensive research, has grouped solution providers into three groups: vintage, which consists of traditional resellers that take title of vendor products and sell them on-premise to clients; progressive, which includes solution providers that focus more on selling services, with some on-premise services and some off-premise cloud and hosting services; and transformative, which consists of newer companies that focus virtually all of their business on off-premise services like cloud.

The path that leads traditional VARs to the cloud, Faletra explained, starts with on-premise product reselling, which then moves to on-premise services, and later some off-premise services like hosting and managed services, and then finally to off-premise cloud services and cloud building.

Faletra invited two solution providers with cloud experience on stage to share their stories. Dave Rice, CEO of TrueCloud, a former Fortune 500 CIO, started his company three years with the goal of creating a cloud-focused IT services firm. Rice said he got the idea after playing the popular PC game World of WarCraft with his son and realized that if a complex game can be delivered to millions of people over the Internet, then the same could be done with enterprise applications.

Meanwhile, Paul Hilbert, partner at Network Doctor said his company was started as a managed service provider nine years ago. But when he heard about cloud computing at a session during XChange Americas 2009, he began looking at transforming his business. Soon, Network Doctor was building private clouds for clients, which led to double the revenue the solution provider earned through traditional managed services.

Despite achieving success with new cloud models, both Rice and Hilbert gave XChange attendees words of cautioun. Hilbert said building private clouds independently with no third party support was extremely difficult in terms of the costs and training involved. Meanwhile, Rice warned of "cloud washing" – companies falsely claiming they offer cloud solutions. "I think it's a confusing time right now in terms of choosing vendors," Rice said. "Basically anything moved off-premise is being called cloud, which can make things confusing."

What’s in a Title?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:08:00 +0000

In 1921, Milkman would have been a viable career choice -- by 1985, not so much. There was a time with travel agent jobs were posted in newspapers, when video store clerk was a job aspiration for a high school graduate.

I suppose it has always been the case that some jobs and careers have gone away while others sprung into existence. It is notable that as technological advancement accelerates, so do new career opportunities.

A few actual jobs that did not exist broadly in 2000 include:

Social Media Coordinator
Energy Auditor
Game Level Designer
Search Engine Optimization Specialist
Drone Pilot
Mobile Phone Application Developer
Undersea Robot Operator
Cloud Computing Implementer

The last job on the list has special meaning because we have a few people with that job title at TrueCloud. Real jobs reflecting a changing, more technologically advanced age.

Cloud computing careers are growing as more and more businesses transition to the cloud. The transition is picking up speed according to Gartner, IDC and other industry analysts. Businesses are realizing the benefits of the cloud – lower costs of ownership, increased security, increased systems viability, ease of use to name a few.

If job titles are a leading indicator, it is time to consider how cloud computing can help your business.

TrueCloud wins Prestigious Next-Gen 250 Award from CRN

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:37:00 +0000

TrueCloud Named to CRN’s Inaugural Next-Gen 250 List
Ranking Highlights the Up and Coming VARS in North America

Tempe, Arizona, August 31, 2011 – TrueCloud, www.TrueCloud.com, today announced Everything Channel has named the company to the first ever 2011 CRN Next-Gen 250 list. The CRN Next-Gen 250 is an annual listing of innovative and nimble business and technology integrators, solution providers, and resellers in North America offering solutions and services in cloud computing, mobility, unified communications, virtualization and other emerging technologies.

The CRN Next-Generation 250 list is comprised of the most exciting new solution provider organizations (founded 2000-2011) bringing new and emerging implementation ideas and business models to the market. TrueCloud was selected for its performance with taking small to medium businesses to “The Cloud” and saving them 30% or more while adding robust performance features.

“This award from CRN Next-Generation is especially exciting for TrueCloud since it recognizes not only the consistent performers, but those companies on the cutting edge of the computer industry.”, said Dave Rice, CEO, TrueCloud

“In today’s competitive environment solution providers have to do more than just talk about innovation. The ability to quickly implement new processes, models and technologies is what drives margins and the bottom line,” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, Everything Channel. “The CRN Next-gen 250 highlights the most interesting new solution providers who are demonstrating such innovation and uncovers the new techniques and technologies that are driving their success.”

TrueCloud
www.TrueCloud.com

TrueCloud was founded in 2008 by David Rice and Mark Wenig, two former Fortune 500 executives. In their search for a better method of IT delivery, David and Mark found their solution “in the cloud.” Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, TrueCloud aims to be the leading provider of cloud computing solutions for emerging and mid-sized business.

Everything Channel
Everything Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With over 30 years of experience and engagement, Everything Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. Everything Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about Everything Channel, visit us at http://www.everythingchannel.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/everythingchnl.

UBM plc (www.ubm.com)
UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 6,000 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.

###

August is (thankfully) almost over - Cloud Computing in the 115-degree desert

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:06:00 +0000

“June, she'll change her tune. In restless walks she'll prowl the night. July, she will fly. And give no warning to her flight. August, die she must” …Paul Simon

From debt ceilings to earthquakes in the east to an economy that looks to be headed for a double dip recession, one thing is for sure. August, 2011 just can’t depart fast enough.

Oh and for those of us in the valley of the sun. This 115-degree blast furnace is no picnic either.

But on the topic of this miserable economy, will we see a decrease in cloud momentum?

Don’t even give it a second thought. Here’s all you need to remember.

We’ve seen this spend profile in IT year after year since the 90’s. Several trillion dollars worldwide (I’ve read that the number is 4 but I don’t believe it) of cost, three quarters of which is devoted to keeping the lights flickering.

Sunk cost in infrastructure and manpower doesn’t add a nickel to the bottom line and it doesn’t matter whether it’s opex or capex. When it comes to IT that’s where all the money is spent.

And as long as it remains that way, business leaders are going to lean in heavy towards the cloud because it represents for them the one true alternative with the promise for righting the ship (did somebody say true and cloud in the same sentence?)

Investment and business agility has to overtake the cost of maintaining IT and business leaders from every size business in the world are demanding this result and they won’t rest until they have it.

A stronger likelihood is that the worse the economy gets, the more this ugly IT spend proposition is going to be staring everyone in the face.

Meanwhile let’s hope for a better September

Goodbye August

noreply@blogger.com (Glen Davis) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:56:00 +0000

“June, she'll change her tune. In restless walks she'll prowl the night. July, she will fly. And give no warning to her flight. August, die she must” …Paul Simon

From debt ceilings to earthquakes in the east to an economy that looks to be headed for a double dip recession, one thing is for sure. August, 2011 just can’t depart fast enough.

Oh and for those of us in the valley of the sun. This 115-degree blast furnace is no picnic either.

But on the topic of this miserable economy, will we see a decrease in cloud momentum?

Don’t even give it a second thought. Here’s all you need to remember.

Sunk cost in infrastructure and manpower doesn’t add a nickel to the bottom line and it doesn’t matter whether it’s opex or capex. When it comes to IT that’s where all the money is spent.

A stronger likelihood is that the worse the economy gets, the more this ugly IT spend proposition is going to be staring everyone in the face.

Meanwhile let’s hope for a better September

Lebron James and the Lesson of Remaining Viable in Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:10:00 +0000

As I watched last Thursday evening, the ESPN circus involving "The Decision" of Lebron James to take his talents to Miami, I was struck by how the Cleveland Cavalier's had been caught so completely flat footed by this outcome.

Business is chess not checkers. Success depends on your ability to plan a number of moves ahead as well as to create a variety of alternatives in the event that those anticipated steps play out differently then you anticipated.

The Cleveland NBA franchise had seven years to convince James that they were one of the best run organizations in the league and they didn't do enough to achieve that result.

To be successful, most businesses, not just NBA franchises, have to assemble an excellent staff, made up of well respected leaders both inside and outside of the company. They have to have one of the best products in the industry along with a reputation for sparing no detail in their pursuit of maintaining the best. And they have to have a world class working environment which is the envy of the industry they are in.

But in addition businesses have to make their companies into special places to work. Valuable employees have always had options in terms of where they work. Most people don't leave their jobs when they're satisfied that their employer seriously cares about created the best possible situation they can for them.

Businesses who don't modernize their operations until their forced to. Who don't continuously look out into the future and recognize that they have to change now if they expect to remain viable, inevitably don't succeed. And they lose their best people to the competition as a result.

When Lebron James looked at the product that was the Cleveland Cavaliers, he didn't see an organization that was led by the best people in the industry, both in terms of coaches and general management. He didn't see an organization that had done everything possible to make their product the best, in terms of personnel moves that could have put the organization in a better position to win a championship.

What he saw was seven years of his career invested in a company and a product that still hadn't reached it's promised potential. A company that only offered him the opportunity to continue toiling for what most likely would be the same or similar result.

But the difference was that he had finally seen what the rest of the industry had to offer. How other, better companies pursued excellence, and he concluded that there was a better place where he should be spending his valuable time in terms of his career.

It's shocking the number of businesses who aren't actively striving to improve the way they conduct business, who aren't striving for operational excellence by moderninising their systems and their business processes, demonstrating to their staff everyday that they are fully utilizing their talent and their potential to achieve the best result possible.

The moral to this story is that you won't keep your best people unless you show a willingness to continuously invest and improve your company across the board.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud www.truecloud.com

Investing in Improvements in a Sluggish Ecomony

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:48:00 +0000

I don'[t know about you, but we've noticed in our business a general re-emergence of sluggish growth since the first quarter of this year.

It feels as if companies are tending to hunker down again much like a year ago, playing more of a wait and see game with respect to the investments they're prepared to make for improved performance.

But we now have plenty of real data which shows that companies that have invested in cloud-based IT solution improvements since the beginning of the great recession have realized legitimate return on their investment.

A wholesale distribution customer of ours recently noted, that after a year plus in operation using NetSuite and having displaced their former on premise system, the following results:

- 20% Year over Year overall reduction in cost.

- 10% Year over Year increase in sales due to a consolidated information approach.
(Elimination of disparate systems (i.e. Excel, multiple systems, manual processes)

- 500% increase in customer touches due to an integrated sales and marketing model.

- 50% reduction in on premise and IT support.

These are just the immediate, low hanging fruit type of improvements, that our customers are telling us they begin to experience in their business, just a few short months following deployment of the cloud-based NetSuite ERP solution.

If you think your business is different or unique and these improvements couldn't be realized in your company the way they have for others, then please contact me at TrueCloud. I'll arrange for you to talk to my customers yourself.

Like many of you, they too were once skeptical about making the change during these uncertain times. But the improvements for them has brought dramatic results and you can have the same result in your business.

Reach out to us at TrueCloud. We can help.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud www.truecloud.com

Transforming the Way We Get Work Done

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Cloud computing is shaping up to be the biggest transformational event in information technology and management since the personal computer was introduced to corporate businesses in the 1980s. This is because like the personal computer revolution, cloud computing has everything to do with how businesses will utilize these new capabilities, not how IT will.

Cloud computing has been loosely defined as the aspirin that will cure whatever ails you as it has come to mean just about anything related to the Internet. While we all can't entirely agree on what the cloud is or isn't, one thing is clear: At it's essence the cloud deliberately intends to complete the abstraction of technology infrastructures in the modern business setting.

Companies don't care about CPUs, storage, bandwidth or the facilities and resources required to house those things. They also don't care about software maintenance, patching and upgrades or database management and tuning. The truth is they never really did; it was a prerequisite to reaching their business automation objectives and nothing more.

Cloud computing ushers in a new generation of information management solutions, packaged as all encompassing, pay-as-you-go subscription offerings that are scalable for businesses of all sizes. All are delivered via the Internet. Businesses won't be required to understand the nuances of these services any more than they concern themselves with how phone calls are completed through the infrastructure of one or more carrier providers today. You dial the number, it rings on the far end and someone answers. It's a complete abstraction as far as the user of the service is concerned.

Once upon a time in the not so distant past, businesses employed telecom experts on their staff to ensure that those services were provisioned affordably and reliably. Except for a very small number of companies today, this is no longer the case. In particular, decision-makers for small and midsize businesses have improved information system alternatives to slect from that didn't exist as recently as five years ago because of the advent of the cloud.

The last great single tenant, client server business application of the 1990s has already been delivered to the marketplace. With very few exceptions, every substantial, sustainable, commercially viable iece of business software constructed in the days and years ahead will be engineered to leverage the attributes of the cloud.

It's the owner-operators and the decision-makers for the small and midsize companies who either have already redeployed their information technology systems into the cloud or are presently planning to do so shortly, who will be the winners and the champions of cloud computing.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud www.truecloud.com

Business in the Clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:29:00 +0000

Cloud computing is shaping up to be the single largest transformational event in information technology and management since the personal computer was introduced to corporate businesses in the mid to late eighties. This is because like the personal computer revolution, cloud computing has everything to do with how businesses will utilize these new capabilities. Not how IT will.

Cloud computing has been loosely defined as the aspirin that will cure whatever ails you, having come to mean just about anything related to the internet. While we all can’t entirely agree on what the cloud is or isn’t, one thing is clear. At it’s essence, the cloud deliberately intends to complete the abstraction of technology infrastructures in the modern business setting. Companies don’t care about CPU’s and storage, and bandwidth, or the facilities and resources required to house those things. They don’t care about software maintenance, patching and upgrades or database management and tuning either. The truth is they never really did. It was a prerequisite to reaching their business automation objectives and nothing more.

Cloud computing ushers in a new generation of information management solutions packaged as all encompassing, consumption based, scalable, pay as you go subscription offerings for businesses of all sizes, delivered via the internet. Businesses won’t be required to understand the nuances of these services anymore then they concern themselves with how phone calls are completed through the infrastructure of one or more carrier service providers today. You dial the number, it rings on the far end and someone answers. It’s an abstraction as far as the customer is concerned. Once upon a time in the not so very distant past, businesses employed telecom experts on their staff to ensure that those services were provisioned affordably and reliably. Except for a very small number of businesses today, this is no longer the case.

Decision makers for small and mid sized businesses in particular, have a set of improved information system alternatives to choose from that for the most part didn’t exist as recent as five years ago as a result of the advent of the cloud. The last great 1990’s single tenant, client server business application has already been delivered to the marketplace. With very few exceptions, every substantial, sustainable, commercially viable piece of business software constructed in the days and years ahead, will be engineered to leverage the attributes of the cloud.
It’s the owner operators and the decision makers for the small and mid sized companies who have either already redeployed their information technology systems into the cloud or are presently planning to do so shortly, that will be the winners and the champions for cloud computing.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com

Why the Cloud fits best in 2010 with SMB

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:33:00 +0000

Clould is quite simply the single most important advancement of the computing age since the introduction of personal computers into corporate America.

But the big guys (large enterprises with 500 employees and above), see this recent phenomenon as amounting to little more than the next progression in outsourcing IT infrastructure. A more elaborate incarnation of a hosted service, so to speak, and therefore another cost reduction opportunity.

Why is this true? Well, large enterprises have CIOs who in turn have huge intellectual property investments in people, product and footprint that will require several years to unravel from.

Even if a large enterprise CIO was predisposed to redeploy all of his IT services to the cloud, a relatively elaborate blueprint defining how to get from here to there would be required first.

And most large enterprise CIOs are not thinking that way. Most are going to be quite deliberate in targeting appropriate workloads for redeployment over time. It's my belief they will be forced to make the leap before they're entirely comfortable with the idea.

In a any case, there's nothing wrong with the cost cutting perspective although it's a gross underestimation of the power of the cloud.

SMBs on the other hand, are embracing the cloud as a atrategic differentiator, bringing capability to them that was previously unaffordable and in turn leveling the playing field dramatically between them and the much larger companies who heretofore were the only ones who could afford these capabilities.

SMBs are not encumbered with decades of commitment to in house IT innovation.

But this is just the beginning. What we're seeing is that as more and more SMB companies redeploy their IT services into the cloud, the collaborative aspects of the internet are beginning to take hold. The result is that the community aspects of the cloud for the services that can and should reside outside the firewall are paving the way for the rapid advancement of entirely new capability for the businesses wise enough to take advantage.

I've said before that the last great single tenant client server type, 1990's application has already been built. Up and down the eastern and western seaboards where new technology offerings are spawning, every new company is adopting cloud and developing new capabilities using it's model.

If your an SMB business with 500 employees or less, it's time for you to give serious consideration to redeploying your IT services into the cloud.

Call us! We can get you there!!

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com

The Times They Are a Changing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:40:00 +0000

I was a presenter to a local group of CIO's last week, the majority of whom had been displaced and were looking for a new opportunity in the greater Phoenix area.

I had planned to deliver a power point presentation outlining the present landscape for Cloud Computing, but as we went around the room and made introductions, it became obvious to me that I should scrap the presentation and speak from the heart about my journey and the perspective I've obtained about the way forward for Information Technology and how it's going to be changed forever as a result of Cloud Computing.

My discussion became largely interactive and centered on these points.

In the first place there are fewer opportunities for IT executives in corporate America today, not just because of a poor economy. Poor economies are more often than not, the impetus for most companies to make the necessary adjustments in terms of jobs, which is long overdue.

The truth is that most of those jobs aren't coming back anytime soon, if ever.

When you look at the employment landscape in this country, it's readily apparent where the opportunity lies.

Mike Clough in his article, "America Runs On Small Business" noted the following:

"Only one-tenth of one percent of U.S. businesses have more than 500 employees. 98.2% have fewer than 100 employees. 89.3% have fewer than 20 employees. 78.6% have fewer than 10 employees and 60.8% have fewer than 5 employees."

Since the dawn of IT solutions, small and medium sized businesses have been on the outside looking when it comes to automation opportunities. Their needs almost always ignored by the manufacturers of IT solutions in favor of the bigger prize in the enterprize space.

To a certain extent the internet offered some hope, but in order to substantially narrow the gap it would have to mature beyond simple product catalogs and dropping merchandise into shopping carts.

Cloud Computing solutions have paved the way for the smaller businesses to begin leverage automation through affordable, pay-as-you-go solutions, but these solutions will also require help and guidance in terms of planning and blueprinting from experienced IT resources if their transformational characteristics are going to be fully realized and exploited.

The kind of experience that can be provided by the displaced senior IT types from the enterprise sector, if they can make the leap.

So my message to the IT community is that while the opportunity within the large enterprise space has substantially diminished in 2010, there is an equally sizeable opportunity for experienced IT resources willing to move down market and get acquainted with Cloud Computing.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com

New Year - It's time to Break out!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:04:00 +0000

The typical pattern in terms of a business reaction to a slowing economy is to cut expenses, sometimes very deep. We all know that.

This is followed with a period of no net new expenses of any kind for an extended period. I was reminded by a colleague of mine recently of an experience we shared with our past CEO, during the period immediately following the dot.com bubble burst a decade ago now.

Our CEO said, "I don't care what it is, we're not adding back any expense for anything right now. Don't talk to me about investment until we start to see some growth around here."

In the recent past, we've seen the expense reductions. For most of 2009, we've witnessed the post reduction freeze cycle, where new investment cannot be separated from additional expense. It all looks the same when you've just gone through a period of heavy cuts.

But gradually business leaders realize that they can't remain there. That they will have to lean in and make some net new investments or run the risk of becoming stale and uncompetitive.

With 2010, we're beginning to see signs of a break out for businesses who are making some targeted investments. They're looking for very near term ROI opportunities (roughly a year, give or take).

A transition of your IT services to the Cloud can give you that immediate return on investment by lowering your costs, reducing your dependency on expensive resources as well as a speedy, non disruptive implementation of the new services.

Give us a call at TrueCloud. We'll show how this can be done in your business.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com

2010 Predictions for Cloud Computing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:53:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

I'd like to kickoff 2010 with a blog that addresses the major trends that are unfolding in Cloud Computing:

1) The 2 to 3 year redeployment cycle to the cloud will begin it’s second year and will be in full swing, particularly amongst emerging and mid-sized businesses ranging from 5 to 500 employees. Businesses of this size that haven’t yet explored cloud-based alternatives will begin to feel the pressure of becoming more and more uncompetitive. Service providers will be much better at articulating their value proposition making them easier to do with business with moving forward.

2) The VAR Channel for the cloud will begin to emerge and become more prominent as businesses search for expertise to fill the gap leftover by providers who are understandably preoccupied with enhancing their product offerings.

3)Cloud Computing will begin to transition within businesses from a table stakes discussion to one of leveraging the new capabilities resulting in new practices, new roles and a repositioning of technology for businesses. The traditional role of a CIO will be revisited as the traditional nuts and bolts of IT diminish.

4)Use and adoption of Google Apps and Google Mail within businesses will be much more prevalent and the demand to integrate them with other cloud-based solutions (NetSuite and Salesforce) will increase dramatically.

5)The combined effect of more cloud, more mobile more video, and more social media all rolled up into one ubiquitous blur will create an explosion of collaborative offerings in the marketplace.

6)Green IT and the need to reduce carbon emission will become more of a driver for the adoption of cloud computing which is a more efficient use of servers, storage etc.

7)Cloud offerings suitable for the larger enterprise (infrastructure-as-a-service and storage-as-a-service) will see increased adoption by Fortune 500 companies across a myriad of industries.

8)More cloud adoption will give rise to more portfolio and services management, as businesses wrestle with how best to manage in an environment with multiple cloud vendors.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com

Some CIOs are embracing the shift to the Cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:16:00 +0000

I spoke with a CIO yesterday of 2 small businesses who is presently immersed in a large effort to right size one of them.

In order to remain viable in their industry, his company has shed the parts of the business that aren't able to produce results during these difficult times.

Now that they've done all of the external reshaping of the business, they're turning their attention in 2010 to the internal operations, re-evaluating and streamlining wherever they can to shave costs.

His on premises IT system isn't able to scale in this direction and under the circumstances is simply overbuilt and antiquated (excessive number of user licenses, excess compute capacity etc).

He's creating a plan to move out from under this system and into the flexible framework of a cloud-based solution where a much lower and predictable subscription fee will be the result.

It's not a question of technology as much as it is a question of keeping the business viable. Many CIOs are facing a similar dilemma and the choice they make could have profound implications for their companies.

A decision to remain with a legacy, on premises solution without fully investigating the opportunity to save considerable cost and streamline a business is not a prudent course of action these days.

TrueCloud can help you formulate your plan. Give us a call soon. 2010 approaches!

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com

New TrueCloud Conversations Video Blog - TCO and Cloud-Based Software Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:50:00 +0000

If you get a chance, please take a look at my recent video blog on the topic of the fantastic cost savings available by re-deploying your core systems into the cloud.

TCO Video.

Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com