Best Buy is best-known for selling stuff, not buying it. That all changed recently when the electronics retailer thought is was best to buy mindShIFT for a cool $167 million (that's a lot of flat screens).
What makes mindSHIFT so valuable and how does it fit in with Best Buy? It all starts with Geek Squad, which Best Buy also bought rather than built. As you know, the Geeks support small businesses and individuals. They have saved the bacon of tech newbies and power users alike. Meanwhile, mindSHIFT aims at the enterprise, offering SharePoint consulting, app development, cloud infrastructure and cloud-based apps.
One of the best things going for Best Buy is its brand recognition and reputation, which I think are pretty darn good. I have only one question: Does mindSHIFT come with an extended warranty?
Actually, I have another one: Would you buy cloud services from Best Buy? Send your best guess to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/15/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
I don't anyone who would argue that the U.S. government is the most efficient organization in the world. But it does have hundreds of thousands of well-educated employees with plenty of time -- at least, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (or 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., depending on their department) -- to study various issues.
Lately, government brain cells have been working on how best to move to the cloud. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is leading the charge. Two of the group's three planned volumes on the subject are now out for public comment.
Here are the key concerns. Government clouds must be secure, interoperate with other agencies as well as the outside world, and offer data and application portability. Achieving this can only be done with the proper standards and applications that have been built based on agreed-upon guidelines.
NIST is also detailing exactly how these items are actually implemented and managed -- information that can serve as the basis of yet-to-be-built government clouds.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
We think of VMware largely as a software infrastructure and virtualization management concern. But the company is also getting into apps, and most recently banged the drum in support of Socialcast, a collaboration tool with similarities to Facebook. Unlike Facebook, Socialcast can be deployed as a service or installed as an on-premise application.
This is just the beginning. VMware also bought Shavlik and can offer patching over the cloud. VMware is also working on sharing slides over the Web through SlideRocket, and groupware and e-mail through Zimbra. With these kinds of moves, we may see a very different VMware in years to come.
What is your take on VMware's direction? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
Microsoft has been battling with Google over all the big cloud productivity deals. Redmond has already lost deals to the federal government and the city of Los Angeles. Recently, General Motors was up for grabs; looks like Google also won this one.
The Wall Street Journal is saying that GM has a deal to use Google Apps enterprisewide, but that the actual rollout is still not 100 percent defined -- or perhaps official. The deal could mean 100,000 users for Google and one huge Google Apps reference account.
Google claims over 4 million Google Apps users, but it remains to be seen how active these are. Do you use Google Apps? If so, fire up the e-mail and let me know why at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
I was a fan of Netflix until it split its service in two and jacked up prices. With cable, DVDs, a DVR and a cellar full of VHS tapes, I guess I don't need Netflix after all. The Internet could also do without Netflix as a staggering one-third of all 'Net traffic is actually Netflix traffic.
The scary part is that Netflix and such services are still in their infancy. Add video, VoIP, mobile and cloud apps, and you can see the strain our favorite network is under.
Telecom and network providers continue to beef up the Internet, and IT is adding WAN bandwidth like mad, but how can we keep up? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/01/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
Stephen Herrod spent the last decade driving technology at VMware, where he now serves as CTO. Herrod spoke with Bruce Hoard, editor in chief of Virtualization Review, about application development, the cloud and, of course, more than a sprinkle of virtualization.
Herrod believes that virtualization is easier than it used to be since the products are so much better. That said, it still takes a lot of prep work. You can't just virtualize a dysfunctional IT shop.
To help speed adoption, VMware has a new hosted service, VMware Go. Using auto-discovery, the service locates your hardware and layers hypervisors on top of it. No fuss, no muss. While it's pretty bare-bones now, the service will gain the ability to patch and do some management in future revs.
Finally, Herrod talked about a cloud on a stick. Micro Clouds, based on Cloud Foundry, puts the whole stack on a USB stick, a great way to develop and test quick-and-dirty cloud apps.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/01/2011 at 12:47 PM6 comments
VMware may get the bulk of cloud headlines, but let's face it -- most of this is server virtualization and, now, the cloud. Citrix is no slouch, either, and has ruled the desktop virtualization roost for over two decades (has it really been that long?).
Citrix is taking that expertise to the cloud, looking to serve up virtual desktops from the cloud as opposed to in-house servers. Citrix has also been on a big buying binge, including App-DNA, a company that eases the migration to either Windows 7 or virtual desktops. ShareFile is also in Citrix's pocket, helping users store files in the cloud -- similar to Google Docs, Carbonite (for backup) or Skyline. Finally, Citrix can help build "personal vDisks" through its purchase of RingCube.
What do you think of Citrix? Shoot me a note at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/01/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
Google crowed and crowed when it beat out Microsoft for an epic deal to move much of the city of Los Angeles from the aging GroupWise (does anyone remember GroupWise?) to Google's cloud apps. After two years of effort, Los Angeles is as miffed as Lindsay Lohan visiting her probation officer.
The problem is not performance, though cloud productivity apps are rarely as fast as on-premise. The issue is security -- or lack thereof. Google argues that its apps are secure, but that Los Angeles changed the rules midstream. Los Angeles is refusing to pay for all the work called for in the contract.
My guess? The Google apps are basically secure, but city government needs it all to be ultra-safe.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/25/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
In an earlier item, I talked about an impressive cloud startup called Piston Cloud. Now I'm going to talk about Engine Yard Cloud.
The venture-funded Engine Yard is aimed at helping programmers write cloud apps. Founded five years ago, its initial foray was a Platform as a Service (PaaS) tool for Ruby on Rails developers.
Last month, Engine Yard embraced JRuby developers. JRuby is a Java-based rev of Ruby, and these apps can now run on the Engine Yard cloud infrastructure. Engine Cloud can also support PHP apps.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/25/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
On Oct. 6, I got a market-sized notice from the Market Intel Group arguing that in five years, the cloud market will exceed $300 billion. Thirteen days later, I got a market-sized notice from the Market Intel Group arguing that in five years, the virtualization market will exceed $250 billion. I know these markets are intertwined but had no idea they were so similar.
Here's the logic: On the cloud side, the company argues that lower costs due to economies of scale will drive market growth. The virt market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6 percent over the next five years. The company argues that much of this expansion will come from desktop virtualization, which is in its infancy. It also believes that the further preponderance of server virtualization will shrink demand for physical servers.
The markets, based on these predictions, are remarkably similar. But virtualization is fairly mature, which is why it will only grow less than 9 percent per year. The cloud is expected to rain fire, with average growth of 23.4 percent.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/25/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
Piston Cloud Computing, a brand-new company founded in part by Joshua McKenty, who served as chief technical architect for Nebula at NASA, is designed to help IT adopt the OpenStack cloud operating system. Nebula is a NASA-backed Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform, while OpenStack is a full OS aimed at massive scalability. Other founders were involved with OpenStack as former Rackspace employees.
Before I get into the technology, I want to talk about the company itself. The executive team is not only highly accomplished, but the exec photos are, um, unusual to say the least. Their bios talk about eclectic interests such as juggling, making handmade instruments, reading 16th- and 17th-century philosophy, and engaging "in any recreational and/or social activity that doesn't involve direct exposure to sunlight."
The company offers an OpenStack-based OS called pentOS, which it claims can be set up and running in 10 minutes. Like Windows, software updates are delivered automatically. Perhaps the biggest part of the business is enterprise support, which is offered every day, 24 hours a day.
Do you have a favorite cloud startup? If so, sing their praises by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/11/2011 at 12:47 PM3 comments
Overlooked in all the hype surrounding the new iPhone 4S is the announcement that the Apple iCloud service will debut tomorrow. Much of the service is aimed at consumers who want to share and store music, photos, video and so on. More interesting to the masses could be Documents in the Cloud, which, as the name implies, lets you store documents in the cloud.
Enterprise workers who spend their days stuck to a seat and then go home, watch TV and drink beer tend to have backup at work. But most of us these days work in various places -- airports, offices, home offices, back porches and sometimes beaches. And when it comes to home and remote offices, IT is not always able to offer enterprise-class backup. Some, like me, use a service such as Carbonite. At $55 a year, it is about the same price as an external drive, but Carbonite is automatic so you really can't forget to back up.
Free services such as SkyDrive and now iCloud could be a nice solution for those who are often remote, maybe use multiple machines and don't have a half-terabyte they just have to back up.
One cool iCloud feature? The storage comes with access to Apple iWorks so you can edit and create remotely. It can also be set up, through iCloud Backup, to back up files you specify. At an entry-level basis, iCloud is free. If you need more than 5 gigs -- and who doesn't -- you'll pay $20 a year for 10 gigs and double that for 40.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/11/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments