BTC Logic to Release its Q1 2010 Cloud Top Ten Companies List Beginning 3/15. Why is this List Different?

Who is the number one player in the Cloud? This is a frequently asked question, but one that is difficult to answer. There have been several attempts to classify companies in the Cloud (such as the top 150 Cloud companies to watch) and these are definitely helpful in increasing awareness of newer or smaller companies that have an interesting cloud offering. However, the resulting lists are usually sorted by alphabetical order, and may not be a good starting point for an enterprise decision-maker looking to use the Cloud to solve a specific business problem.

Most recently, Peter Laird [...]

Do You Know Where Your Data Is In The Cloud?

Do You Know Where Your Data Is In The Cloud?

www.forrester.com/cloudprivacyheatmap

As the specific regulations governing privacy and data protection vary greatly. To help grasp this issue at a high level, Forrester created “Interactive Data Protection Map” that denotes the degree of legal strictness across a range of nations.

It is easy to see by users lose control of their information when they place applications, and their data files, on cloud computers that can be located wherever there is electrical power and internet hookup. Critical and sometimes sensitive information that was once safely stored on local devices computers now resides on [...]

“Software maker blasts 'vigilantism' in Pa. school spying case”

Absolute Software will update its LANRev to disable camera feature

Gregg Keizer, gkeizer@ix.netcom.com. February 22, 2010 article in Computerworld

Computers present new considerations for both legal and illegal privacy invasions. Cloud Computing exasperates the problem by allowing minimal barriers to startup and connectivity. Many companies believe they are under no moral obligation to challenge the appropriate balance between privacy rights and criminal investigations. Technologist have a tendency to look at their services as objective It is particularly problematic with respect to judgment errors like what happened at the Pennsylvania school , since serious issues can [...]

Thoughts on Marc Levinson’s “The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger”

I recently took a closer look at container shipping. I came across an interesting book: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, written by Marc Levinson in 2006. This is a fascinating book, exposing a disruptive technology that radically changed the shipping industry from labor intensive and costly into something more diverse, more efficient and more cost effective.
We have Malcolm Mclean to thank for challenging the norm – an exception based solution in place from the start of vessel shipping. The inefficiencies in commercial shipping, including ineffective packaging and crating, “break-bulk’ or [...]

How do You Know When Going into the Public Cloud Makes Financial Sense?

Much is being written about (public) cloud computing and its financial benefits. Typically, stated benefits arise from more efficient server utilization and reduced power consumption, as well as from the ability to manage more server capacity with existing IT resources. We find that many of these analyses paint too narrowly focused a picture, and are thus offering a few observations to help quantify more completely and accurately the costs and benefits of a planned cloud computing [...]

Back to the Future

As part of the “C” in BTC Logic I am continually surprised to find large respected businesses paying so little attention to people using their products and services. After all what is the User Experience if not the building block of any business process.

There are many discussions taking place around UX, is it relevant today or it is marketing hype?  After all some say the experience is completing the intended user goal. If s/he can accomplish the goal the experience is perceived as a good one, right? As with most things the devil is in the details, particularly when Web [...]

The Death of the Data Center

I was reading through David Linthicum’s posting on the death of the data center, and have to mostly agree with him. Read the article here.

While companies are showing a significant move to virtualization within the data center and a clear shift to adding resources in the Cloud rather than an in-house data center, the short term effect will likely be to increase the number of data centers – Amazon being a good example of this.

However, I do believe that the ownership and location of the new data centers represents a dramatic shift. It will be [...]

Mashups on the Move

Over the last decade, the term mashup has been coined to describe a software product generated from integrating a number of disparate open source products to make a new product or service. The most familiar probably is the combination of Craig’s List with Google Maps. Years ago one could simultaneously find an apartment on Craig’s list, locate the address on a street map and explore Google Earth to check out the street view – all without stepping outside to (gasp) purchase a newspaper.

Today the same mashup development is transcending from digital to hardware products. Chris Anderson, recently wrote about this [...]

Art Imitating Life: New Design Trends for the Web

Like a lot of others, I read the 2010 predicted web design trends, from both a designer’s and developer’s point of view.  At first, I thought that most of these creations were designer driven; site designs using bold graphics, large typography, magazine layouts and edgy artistic styles, and trendy technologies like rich media and mashup capable applications developers are enjoying coming up with.  But after watching how these new trends were being implemented, I realized that they are actually stemming from the evolving needs of companies competing for internet eyeballs.  With corporations progressively vying for search engine status [...]

The Challenge of Growing Revenues in 2010

The number one challenge for most of our clients in 2010 remains finding ways to lift revenue while maintaining or increasing profit margins. There are still attractive segments in new geographical markets such as China, India, and Brazil, but expansion there can cause unusual problems such as the censorship issue in China, or heavy regulation in India.

The US and European markets are still very sluggish –the strength of countries like Germany and Norway is offset by continuing weakness in the UK, Spain, Greece, and Portugal. The removal of government stimuli in developing markets such as China will slow [...]