Latest News from Web 2.0 Journal

Cloud Expo New York: Ten Myths of Cloud Computing

Wed, 22 May 2013 02:00:00 EDT

Cloud computing is transforming the way businesses think about and leverage technology. As a result, the general understanding of cloud computing has come a long way in a short time. However, there are still many misconceptions about what cloud computing is and what it can do for businesses that adopt this game-changing computing model. In his General Session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Gene Eun, Senior Director, Oracle Cloud at Oracle, will discuss and dispel some of the common myths about cloud computing that still exist today. Attendees will learn about the flexibility and choice that cloud can offer so that they can make more informed decisions when choosing cloud for their businesses.

Yahoo Buys Tumblr for $1.1 Billion to Be Hip

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

Looking to hang with the cool kids, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, swearing “not to screw it up,” is buying Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion, a big chunk of her $5.4 billion pocketbook since it’s “substantially all” in cash. The New York-based acquisition will remain a separate business with its 26-year-old founder, David Karp, sticking around as CEO. To try to separate the acquisition from the taint of the aging Yahoo, which is scorned by many of Tumblr’s users, Yahoo said the “product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit and commitment to empower creators.” Karp, soon to be worth an estimated $250 million, said, “Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve – certainly isn’t changing. But we’re elated to have the support of Yahoo and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from.”

Cloud Expo NY: Interconnected Machines and the Future of Energy

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:00 EDT

In the face of rapidly increasing amounts of unstructured data, industry is investing heavily to turn machines into services and connect them to analytics engines that will extract an extraordinary amount of value and unleash a productivity revolution for both businesses and consumers. In the health care, transportation and energy sectors alone, the combination of machine diagnostics software and analytics will eliminate as much as $150 billion in waste. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Paul Rogers, chief development officer for GE’s Global Software Headquarters, will discuss how we can harness the interconnectivity of machines to increase efficiency of the energy market, and promote a cleaner world for the future.

Anatomy of an Internet-Scale Application

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:00:00 EDT

Planning scalable environments isn't terribly difficult, but it does require a change of perspective. During this session we'll broaden our views to think on an Internet Scale by dissecting a video publishing application built with The SoftLayer Platform, Message Queuing, Object Storage, and Drupal. By examining a scalable modular application build that can handle unpredictable traffic, you'll be able to grow your development arsenal and pick up a few strategies to apply to your own projects.

Twitter Buys Ubalo

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:15:00 EDT

Twitter has bought a little four-man Palo Alto start-up called Ubalo that was started in early 2011 “to make large-scale computing easier and more accessible to a technical audience” according to its web site. The object was to scale coding on multiple machines using the same widgetry used for a single machine with no more overhead. Its early technology could apparently “fetch 5,000 tweets and cluster them based on the topic of discussion in 21.2 seconds. On a single computer this task takes more than 10 minutes.” It said, “Scaling Twitter search and natural language processing tasks is easy with Ubalo.” It then moved on to R clusters and analyzed “sentiments corresponding to the latest Twitter trends, processing 25,000 tweets in parallel in 19.6 seconds.”

A–Z of Big Data, Cloud Computing, and SDN Speakers at Cloud Expo New York

Mon, 06 May 2013 01:00:00 EDT

Cloud Computing is booming and so is Cloud Expo – now with Big Data and Software-Defined Networking as fully integrated themes. Here are the nine tracks we are serving up for you June 10–13 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center and below this brief note from me is a complete A–Z of our upcoming speakers.

Fancy That. Somebody Believes in Microsoft

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:15:00 EDT

Sometimes activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital Management LLP has up and plopped something like $1.9 billion into Microsoft’s stock with the expectation that it will amass more on the theory that the company is fundamentally undervalued.

“Smart Antennas” vs. Fiber for Rural “Last-mile” Networks

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:08:00 EDT

A number of rural areas underserved by the telcos and cable companies are attempting to bridge the digital divide by independently bring "last-mile" fiber broadband to every business and residence. For example, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (http://broadband.masstech.org/) is bringing a middle-mile fiber optic backbone to community anchor institutions and fire towers throughout western Massachusetts. However, this doesn't get broadband to individual homes and businesses, leaving those not served by DSL or cable no better off than before. Thus, 42 towns in Western Massachusetts formed a WiredWest cooperative (http://wiredwest.net/) to deploy a fiber-optic network that would deliver high-bandwidth, affordable internet, phone, and TV to all interested residents and businesses in participating towns.

Google Enterprise, Mobility and Business Transformation at Woolworths

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:44:00 EDT

In my research on companies that are transforming themselves by adopting an integrated SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) strategy, I came across a recent blog article by the CIO of Woolworths Limited, Dan Beecham. I will share some excerpts from it here. Woolworths is an Australian company that was founded in 1924 in Sydney. Today Woolworths has more than 3,000 stores across Australia and New Zealand that span food, liquor, petrol, general merchandise, home improvement and hotels. Last fall I had the honor of being invited to teach a SMAC strategy session for Woolworths at their beautiful campus outside of Sydney. This is what Beecham said about their strategy, "We've decided to move to Google Apps and Chrome. Changing to a cloud-based suite of tools is a key part of our strategy to use technology to promote greater collaboration, productivity and effectiveness."

D.C. Company Launches Incubator for Tech Start-ups

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:07:38 EDT

1776 is a new company that has launched in Washington, D.C. meant to act as an incubator for area technology start-ups. The new company launched eight weeks ago on the 12th floor of an office building downtown and has had 75 companies sign up its space as part of its offerings. The tech oriented companies are focusing mostly on health, education, fashion and green energy, according a Washington Post article. “We’re only interested in helping scalable businesses,” said 1776 co-founder Donna Harris. “They don’t have to have funding, but they have to have the potential for funding.” To be included in the workspace, start-ups pay $500 per desk every month or $250 for roaming desk space. According to the article, 1776 received a $200,000 grant form the D.C. government which will help keep costs down. There were 200 applications to be a part of the program and another incubator deal is expected in the District in the next few months.

Cloud Expo New York: Is Cloud Safer Than Your Traditional Datacenter?

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:00:00 EDT

These days, it seems that every cloud provider claims that cloud is safer than your traditional datacenter. Is it though? In his general session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Rishi Bhargava, VP of Product Management for Datacenter and Server Security group at McAfee, will help you explore and address the security challenges and considerations for public cloud (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS). Rishi Bhargava is Vice President of Product Management for Datacenter and Server Security group at McAfee, Inc. He is responsible for Product management and strategy for datacenter solution. A visionary and technology enthusiast, he is also driving all Embedded Security Products Initiatives at McAfee. With over 12 years of diverse experience in product development and product management, he has a reputation for turning small ideas into successful market leading products.

Tapping in Women Tech Talent: Our Opportunity!

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 11:45:00 EDT

On March 27 2013 I had the opportunity to participate at Cisco’s Women in Technology Forum with the theme, “Think Big, Play Big!” The event was particularly poignant as it was held under the publicity from Sheryl Sandberg’s provocative book and movement “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” Our CEO John Chambers kicked the Forum off with a welcome video. There were 41 Cisco execs at this venue and what can I say, an excellent start! Moving forward, I am excited that Cisco will be active globally in the celebration of Girls in ICT Day on April 25 2013. Further, I will have an opportunity to represent Cisco at the afternoon session, European Parliamentary hearing on Women in ICT.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What’s the Best Start-Up Platform of Them All?

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:05:15 EDT

Having launched technology startups now for 10-plus years in Silicon Valley, I am asked by many entrepreneurs the same question over and over: Where, or rather, at what event should I launch my brainchild? The goal for entrepreneurs is usually the same: to get media coverage and meet as many investors or buyers as possible. Despite this-and I don't mean to sound like a smug agency PR chick-the answer is always the same: it depends. There are a lot of really great events for company debuts out there, whether established platforms like the bi-annual DEMO conference or the Red Herring Summit, or relative newcomers like Web 2.0, TechCrunch Disrupt or Startup Debut. Each one has its own pluses and minuses, but the one common element is that they all charge money to participate.

Q: The Safest Mobile Device? A: Depends

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EDT

Depends?!? Well, isn’t that the answer to a lot of things in this world? Often our answer depends on the context of the question. Sometimes the answer depends on who you ask since it may only be an opinion or a feeling. Sometimes the answer is based on a survey, which is a moment in time, and might change a day later. I write a lot about secure mobile access, especially to the enterprise, so I’m obviously interested in any stories about the risks of mobile devices. There were a couple over the last few weeks that really caught my attention since they seemed to completely contradict each other. Earlier in the month, SC Magazine had a story titled, RSA 2013: iOS safer than Android due to open app model, patching delays which covered much of what many already feel – due to Apple’s controlled ecosystem, the apps that are available are less of a risk to a user. They made note of the McAfee Threats Report which says Android malware almost doubled from the 2nd to 3rd quarter of 2012.

AkimboCards Offers Prepaid Cards for the Social Millennial Generation

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:45:59 EDT

Akimbo offers a compelling approach unmatched in the payments and financial services sector by combining electronic money transfers with the Akimbo Visa®Prepaid Debit Card. Users can send funds instantly, and the recipient has immediate access everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, as well as at ATMs. Akimbo is a bank account alternative that offers a free and instant money transfer network. We utilize a prepaid account and physical Visa debit card to enable "direct to wallet" money transfers. For example, once you and a friend or family member have Akimbo Cards, you are able to send money between those cards at the click of a button online or with our iPhone app - the funds are available to the recipient immediately and can be accessed everywhere Visa debit is accepted and at ATMs. Instant transfers can be processed between any two Akimbo Cards, but we've also empowered users to create up to 5 ‘sub-cards' with any name. Order the cards online and then hand them out to whoever you need to send money to on a regular basis. It's great for paying your kid's allowance, sending money to the babysitter or other household helper.

Twitter’s Seventh Birthday: The "Global Town Square" Celebrates

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 06:15:00 EDT

200 million active users now create over 400 million Tweets each day - something @jack, @ev and @biz only dreamed about back in 2006. Karen Wickre (@kvox), Twitter's editorial director blogs to the entire Twittersphere: "Thank you for making Twitter everything it is today."

From Creative Cloud to iCloud – Kevin Lynch Leaves Adobe for Apple

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 07:15:00 EDT

"We wish Kevin well in this new chapter of his career," said Adobe - somewhat sparingly - in a statement released as the company behind PDF and Acrobat confirmed that just four days after offering his resignation as CTO on March 18, Kevin Lynch will be leaving the company he joined in 2005. From March 22 Adobe executive Bryan Lamkin will assume Lynch's responsibilities for cross-company research and technology initiatives.

Seven Reasons We MIGHT Open The Doors of Our Lives to Others

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:21:54 EDT

With iPhones, Droids, e-mail, and Internet networks we can extend our work to every moment of our lives no matter where we may be. It may be time to stop letting everyone else run your life. Find out who and what are truly important to you; then give them the best that you have. I'm showing my age here, but there is an old country song performed by the late Tennessee Ernie Ford titled "Sixteen Tons." The song is about a miserable coal miner who could never seem to get ahead no matter how much Number 9 coal he could haul out of the mine.

"@GoogleCloud Hasn't Tweeted Yet" – But It Surely Will Very Soon!

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 09:15:00 EDT

On 19 November 2010, according to www.whendidyoujointwitter.com, the account @GoogleCloud was registered with Twitter. 848 days later it has yet to tweet. But that may be about to change...

How to Master Linkedin, Salesforce.com AND Google+

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:15:00 EDT

For any modern entrepreneur I`d suggest the sweet spot of Cloud applications you should master is the holy trinity of these three killer apps – Linkedin, Salesforce.com and Google+ Apps. In short these cater for the end-to-end requirements of a sales operation, so you can begin selling and closing deals. Establishing successful sales teams is [...]

Cloud Expo New York: Requirements of a Cloud Database

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:30:00 EDT

The traditional databases of the 20th century were never designed to scale to meet 21st century data demands. Google alone processes about 24 petabytes of data/day. With the added complexity of heavily virtualized hardware and storage plus apps being moved in and out of private, hybrid and public clouds, application developers, SaaS vendors, ISVs and enterprise IT all need a better answer. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Barry Morris, CEO & Co-Founder of NuoDB, Inc., will through customer examples and performance benchmarks explore the new rules for a 21st century Cloud Data Management System and discuss the critical new roles databases play in customers’ strategies and how to resolve today's web-scale challenges.

Reaping the Benefits from Next-Generation Workspaces

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:15:00 EDT

Are businesses truly prepared to adopt the most productive practices of high-performance ICT enabled work environments? In search of answers, Cisco commissioned independent research among IT decision makers in enterprise and SME organizations across the UK and Ireland -- to better understand how businesses are responding to macro trends in the marketplace.

Next-generation workspaces will be a reality for 76 percent of businesses by 2016, according to the latest market study by Cisco Systems. Their study found that while IT decision makers are primarily focused on reducing IT complexity and balancing investment against cost-cutting, they still must tackle the more forward-looking core IT challenges.

In particular, now they need to support investing in new technologies which enable new distributed working environments and thereby create these next-generation workspaces.

CIOs face a myriad of trends which challenge and test current IT infrastructure and communication networks. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD), cloud computing and big data trends motivate end users to become increasingly more demanding with the ICT-enabled experiences they expect to have while at work.

The typical IT department is under pressure to carefully manage these growing trends, but there remains the need to balance investment against cost-cutting.

Ian Foddering, CTO Cisco UKI, comments on the TechWatch 2013 report, "In 2013 we can expect to see IT get back to basics. The macro challenges which IT decision makers face are clear and well defined, but what TechWatch shows us is how IT intends to meet these challenges. The research shows us that whilst cost-cutting and reducing complexity is important, creating an environment where IT can support – or indeed drive – innovation within the business is paramount."

He added, "The IT department is more crucial now to future development than ever before. Three key pillars emerge: Simplify, Protect and Change & Grow. Get the first two right, and you pave the way for innovation, greater connectivity, next-generation workspaces and ultimately a shift towards the Internet of Everything."

Other key findings from the TechWatch report include:

Network performance (51%) and increased security threats (48% enterprises, 44% SMEs) are the most significant challenges facing businesses over the next 12 months.

After reducing overall IT costs (60% enterprises, 56% SMEs), improving IT security (60%, 55%) and maintaining or improving IT infrastructure (56%) are the main priorities over the coming 12 months.
Within the next three years, 76% of companies think operations in their organization will be structured on the basis of the most efficient use of skills and resources, regardless of where they are located – 15% (1 in 7) say this is already happening.
This is reflected in terms of technology investment: enterprises are more likely to have deployed collaborative software (79%) and network performance management (78%), but both enterprises and SMEs have prioritized the investment of remote access technology (78% and 77% respectively).
Organizations are likely to have reviewed, or are planning to review, operational simplicity (89%) and operational savings (87%).

Cisco believes that there is overwhelming support for greater remote working, and it is encouraging that most businesses are taking measures to protect important information and help maximize data security.

However, simplifying and protecting an organization's infrastructure is not enough to thrive in the Global Networked Economy. Savvy executive leaders must prepare themselves for the future. Moreover, they must be willing to embrace change and use it to drive, rather than inhibit, forward-thinking progress.

Let's Talk about Social and Mobile Integration with SAP

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:37:00 EST

In this interview from my Mobile World Congress 2013 Interview series with SAP's Vishy Gopalakrishnan, Vice President, Global Center of Excellence - Mobile Solutions, we discuss the integration of social with mobile, enterprise systems and processes. Grab some popcorn!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/GQg43tAI4ic

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

How to Deliver Compelling Presentations

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:45:00 EST

This article is a summary of a seminar I attended on the key to an engaging presentation. Following up on my prior article, how to deliver effective demos, here are some guidelines how to deliver effective presentations. This is a summary of an excellent seminar I attended, given by Tom Sant of Hydeparkpartnerscal We have all sat through PowerPoint presentations crammed with text in 10point font which the presenter often just reads; within a few minutes most of the audience are thumbing their mobile devices or engaged with their laptops. So, in the age of five minute attention spans, how do we keep our audience engaged? Avoid this pitfall: Do not start the presentation with an introduction to your company, all your customers, latest earnings, partnerships, shareholders, where you or your CEO are featured, "corporate ra ra".

Using Taxonomy to Drive Online Contextual Advertising with Sophializer

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:23:47 EST

Online advertising is a huge market and prodigious amounts of money are spent by companies to connect with customers. Where can, and do, approaches based on taxonomy plus semantics add value to this dance of moving (emotional and semantic) parts between the intentful consumer poised to shop and the intentful marketer with honed content? These are prodigious amounts of money for companies to spend to connect with customers. But … surely it’s easy to connect online customers to web content featuring, or suggesting, products? And surely, online is “better”? Where can, and do, taxonomy-based approaches add value to this dance of moving (emotional and semantic) parts between the intentful consumer poised to shop and the intentful marketer with honed content?

Five Steps Toward Achieving Better Compliance with Identity Analytics

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:00:00 EST

Identity management just isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when knowing who had access to what was simply enough. In today’s world of increasing government and industry regulation; networked communications and collaboration; and pervasive mobility, the requirements have fundamentally changed. Effective identity management and access governance requires insight into not only what employees are doing with their access to systems and applications, but also how well an organization is managing and securing that access. Such a comprehensive understanding of an organization’s access matrix is essential to reducing the risks that employees, partners, customers, and even malicious third parties can introduce. It is also critical to efforts to comply with regulations that mandate access controls. In fact, without it companies have no way to provide meaningful evidence to auditors explaining how and why they assign access.

Curious Story of Software Outsourcing

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:30:00 EST

Have you heard the story of the person who outsourced his work for US$ 50,000, which was just one fifth of what he was earning! His complete work was done by somebody in China (not India) while he spent his workdays surfing the web, watching cat videos on YouTube and browsing Reddit and eBay. He was also considered one of the best software developers in the company! Here is the blog post from Verizon Business Security which gives detail of what happened and how it was discovered.

Compuware APM Helped Things Remembered Prepare for Online Holiday Rush

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:37:00 EST

Compuware Corporation has announced that Things Remembered, the nation’s largest and most prominent retailer of personalized gifts, had a successful online holiday season in part as the result of the optimal performance of its website. Things Remembered has more than 600 retail stores in 48 states, primarily located in shopping malls. Customers can also shop online through its website and through mail order catalogs. As consumers continually shift their spending to the web for its convenience, price savings and efficiencies, Things Remembered needed to ensure that its website had all the elements in place to meet growing consumer demand and expectations in order to best position the company for holiday sales success.

Compuware to Keynote at ConFoo.ca Web Techno 2013 Conference

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:49:00 EST

Compuware Corporation on Wednesday announced that Klaus Enzenhofer, a Technology Strategist for Compuware’s application performance management (APM) business, will deliver the day-one closing keynote address titled: “My Favorite App Performance Challenges solved last year!” at the ConFoo.ca Web Techno 2013 Conference in Montréal. Enzenhofer will discuss and provide best practices on how organizations can overcome application performance challenges. Sooner or later every organization runs into an application performance challenge, whether it is during development, testing or in production. During this session, attendees will learn about real-world application performance challenges that have occurred within the banking, telecommunication and ecommerce industries and how they were overcome. Attendees will also learn about best practices on how organizations can avoid running into similar issues with their applications. View session details here.

Big Data, the Next Big King?

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 07:00:00 EST

In an amusing article titled Thank Hillary Clinton (and leave your data too), authors Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman reveal at what lengths some organizations will go to collect and expand their data. In recent weeks, advocacy organizations have bombarded voters with requests to send Hilary Clinton a virtual thank you card for her position as Secretary of State.

An Inconvenient Truth: Free Up Market Forces to Tackle Climate Change

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:36:00 EST

Heavy handed Government Legislation will not lead to a healthier planet. Companies, and indeed consumers, must be given both the choice and the chance to adopt a ‘green’ model that suits their needs and that they can personally engage with on an emotional and fiscal level. It was former Presidential Candidate and founder of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Ross Perot who famously said “The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.” A quote which may strike resonance with the world’s politicians as they continue to wrestle with the major challenge of setting a global green agenda whilst battling tough economic conditions. President Obama’s second term inaugural speech certainly won plaudits for his determination to tackle climate change, his powerful statements deliberately pitched to be emotive on a global stage, whilst reassuring an American nation still reeling from the effects of hurricane Sandy.

Social Intranets and Knowledge Management

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:45:00 EST

We tend to get carried away in the mood of the moment. As enterprise social networks started to pick up, weren’t we a little too quick to grab our shovels, prepare tearful eulogies post the “death of intranets” in the manner of “intranets were great BUT…..”, and start to drag the intranet away? Not so quick. Admittedly, intranets have [...]

Social Sales | Ten Social Sales Leadership Tips

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:15:00 EST

Sales professionals are some of the earliest adopters and most annoying users of social networking. The problem is that most sales reps treat LinkedIn like a prospecting database for cold calling. It’s just too enticing when all your target prospects are out there showing off their company names, titles, areas of expertise, blogs, and opinions. You can use LinkedIn as a prospecting database, but it is probably the weakest and most professionally irritating use of the technology. To succeed at social sales, you must have something to offer beyond your product. You must be someone your customers want to know..

Why Are APIs So Popular?

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST

Kin Lane recently wrote a couple of blogs about why copyrighting an API is not common. I couldn’t agree more that copyrighting APIs is uncommon. First of all, the API definition is just an interface (It is the implementation detail … Continue reading →

One Line of Code That Changed the Web Forever

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:29:00 EST

After presenting to a partner of Kaazing last week I got asked what impact the emerging WebSocket standard would have on the Web, assuming we continue down the path that has already been laid out. The impact could be the … Continue reading →

Bernard Knox’s 1994 Backing into the Future Reviewed

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:45:00 EST

I picked up a copy of Bernard Knox’s 1994 Backing into the Future because somewhere I saw it referenced about the weird fact that the ancient Greeks thought that the future was behind them. Knox presents evidence from The Odyssey and Oedipus the King to back this up, so to speak.

Online Learning Pioneer Picks Up $103M in Funding

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 08:30:00 EST

Online learning company Lynda.com has gotten $103 million in funding from Accel Partners and equity investor Spectrum Equity. Meritech Capital Partners also participated. It’s the first money Lynda has taken from the outside and is meant to push the 17-year-old company into the international arena, which will mean localization, and add to its curriculum. It expects to scale its web and video platform. Its video learning platform, available in monthly and annual subscriptions, teaches computer skills such as 3D and animation, audio, business, design, development, home computing, photography, video and web and interactive design to individuals as well as corporate, government, school and university accounts.

The Cable Industry’s Machiavellian Hold on Consumers

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:47:00 EST

The Cable Industry has what could be characterized as a Machiavellian hold on consumers with its massive distribution system using opportunistic methods on outdated hardware. Yes, the technology being used, the notorious set-top-box (STB) can only be described as throw-back to what cable executives wish were the way things used to be. The STB is rudimentary at best, allowing limited functionality and connectedness with today's emerging technological innovations. The underlying reason for Cable's hold on a massive portion of consumers is the relatively ease of use, albeit limited functionality of its set-top-box. Consumers can easily channel surf and find their most enduring programs, but that is about it. Not only are consumers paying a premium via monthly fees for limited box functions, extra boxes are fee driven as well. Adding digital and HD access drives up the box price. In summary, the STB continues to be a throw-back to the early days of a now mature Cable Industry.

IP Communications Services Invests in Voxeet

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:20:49 EST

Bandwidth's inetwork division, the leading choice for innovative and scalable voice, 9-1-1 and SMS solutions, announced it selected Voxeet as the grand prize winner of the company's Voice App Igniter Challenge, developed to discover the next disruptive voice and messaging application. As the Challenge winner, Voxeet will receive up to $600,000 in IP communications services from inetwork. Voxeet will use this investment to support its efforts to replace outdated, traditional audio conferencing solutions with its breakthrough Natural Conferencing app. Bandwidth's inetwork recognizes the power phone numbers bring to social media, gaming and other applications people use daily, significantly shifting perceptions about a phone number's capabilities. This shift promises to significantly alter current perceptions about a phone number's capabilities. The company takes this metamorphosis into play as it provides users the freedom to launch and scale innovative communications solutions across a variety of platforms. While offering Voice, 9-1-1, and SMS services from a single source, the user-friendly customer portals allow real time updates backed by a reliable and responsive service team; customers include heavy hitters such as Skype, Google Voice and Pinger. For companies and application developers like these, voice is not an end unto itself but a component of something bigger, hence the new term "OTT Voice."

How Can Green Web Hosting Benefit Your Business?

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:45:00 EST

As the number of web users continues to rapidly increase, there is greater demand for web hosting services. As a result of this the UK market alone is becoming saturated, and the strain on energy resources is a major concern. Web hosting providers are having to consider options to reduce their energy usage and find alternative hosting solutions. It is the use of energy efficient resources that has emerged as a solution to reducing the impact on the environment, namely Green Web Hosting. But how easy is it to go green? Several leading UK web hosting companies are employing green initiatives in their daily business, being such a contested issue in today's society. Going green is an education. Even the most basic initiatives contribute to the overall ethos of Green Web Hosting, most importantly by encouraging employees to not only go green in the workplace, but also in their daily lives.

Applying the Marketing Center of Excellence (MCOE)

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 05:00:00 EST

A Marketing Center of Excellence (MCOE) provides significant value—not just for reducing the risk of a “black swan fail,” but also for enabling innovation, effectiveness, and efficiency—from its enablement of a holistic, cross-disciplinary approach to marketing in the enterprise. In this article, we'll look at the HP TouchPad "fail," and see how a MCOE provides a useful framework for reducing the risk of those failures. The HP TouchPad was launched July 1, 2011, and was discontinued August 18, 2011. The Marketing Center of Excellence (MCOE) may provide a framework for understanding (and preventing) the sorts of “black swan” marketing failure that HP experienced with its TouchPad launch. I think the key value provided by a MCOE for reducing the risk of a “black swan fail” is its enablement of a holistic, cross-disciplinary approach to marketing at enterprise level. Leslie Ament, SVP at Hypatia Research Group, asked a great question that points towards the complexity underlying the situation, and the potential value of a MCOE: “Is this a failure of 1) product features, 2) timing of launch, 3) targeting of market segment and/or 4) demand generation, branding, and execution of campaigns?” In the framework of a MCOE, the operator here would be an “and,” rather than an “or.”

Retail Banks - Dinosaurs in an Online World

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 05:00:00 EST

This article explores the issues of running an Internet company whilst dealing with the impact that Retails Banks have on the business. First let me set the scenario. I am CEO of Storage Made Easy, a business that can be categorised (in bank speak) as an online internet business. We are a business that spends a fair amount on online advertising through various different channels and who also uses best of breed online services to make our life easier. Therefore we spend money with other online based internet companies including companies like Google, Amazon etc and we pay certain providers through merchant gateways such as Paypal. I suspect we are not that different to other similar businesses companies in this regards.

Snakes and Ladders

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:24:40 EST

The only thing you know for certain about the budget, said an old mentor of mine, is that it's wrong. One way or another, you're going to have issues with the plans you made in November for the year ahead. Not surprising, given that you aimed to somehow foresee the next year's market conditions, predict the performance of your customers and anticipate everything from super storms to the attrition of key personnel. Then you reconciled this guess work with your shareholders' aspirations - which are seldom modest or undemanding - to produce ‘the plan'. Beyond the obvious problem - the fact that you have no idea if the reality will render the theory absurd - which you can't waste your time worrying about, you have a major concern that you can and must address: How will the ever present plan, and perceptions of success and failure, affect your staff's actual performance? Whatever you business, and engineering staffing is a perfectly good example, you have some ladders to take advantage of and a number of snakes to avoid in managing productivity.

Why Does Enterprise Tech Marketing Keep Failing

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:45:00 EST

Just as "one does not simply walk into Mordor," one does not simply walk into an Enterprise Marketing Center of Excellence (MCOE). This article discusses the stages and process for evolving a MCOE. There are useful transitional stages to evolve a MCOE. These involve identifying Key Areas of Practice, and then the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with influence within the marketing organization. Once these areas and influencers are identified, they can be invited to charter Communities of Practice, and those Communities become the core of the newly-chartered MCOE.

SYS-CON.tv Interview: Social Business Portals

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:00:00 EST

“We’re a social business portal company. We created a set of software with which you can create new portals based on information in your business systems and combined with social media,” explained Robert Browne, CEO of Silver Solutions, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 11th International Cloud Expo, held November 5-8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Cloud Expo 2013 New York, June 10–13, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

Is TV’s Warm Glowing Warming Glow Fading?

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:30:00 EST

If Homer only knew back in 1994 that smartphone mobile apps would someday start to creep into precious TV viewing time, he probably would have written, ‘No Smartphone and No Specialty Beer Make Homer Go Crazy,’ in the Simpson’s classic Treehouse of Horror V. It’s no surprise that time spent on mobile apps have overtaken time spent on desktop web usage. Typical smartphone owners have an average of 41 apps per device, 9 more than they had last year according to the Nielsen report, State of the Appnation – A Year of Change and Growth in U.S. Smartphones. Mobile app usage has jumped 35% from 94 minutes a day a year ago to almost 130 minutes a day today while desktop web usage dropped from 72 to 70 minutes a day, according to Flurry. Almost twice as much time mobile app’ing than web browsing. Many of us probably spend more than two hours a day fiddling with mobile apps. And the time spent doing that is now challenging our beloved TV viewing time. Typical smartphone owners have an average of 41 apps per device, 9 more than they had last year according to the recent Nielsen report, State of the Appnation – A Year of Change and Growth in U.S. Smartphones.

Is Facebook Clueless About How to Justify Its IPO Price?

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 13:00:00 EST

Why did Instagram modify its Terms of Use policy? The new policy says: …to help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you…” There is no surprise that there was a furor on the web – everybody protested. Such reaction is expected. What is surprising is the response from Instagram: “…the language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question…” BUT “…some of the data you produce — like the actions you take (eg, following the account) and your profile photo — might show up if you are following this business…”

Blogging Tips – Three Things that Have Worked for Me

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 01:30:00 EST

Synergize … Differentiate … Aggregate That is what has worked for me in my four and a half years of blogging endeavor. These are in addition to several mandatory practices that you should follow to give you a chance to have a large readership. So, I have included links to posts which very clearly explains what you need to do. Before I explain what I really mean let me add a word of caution. I write about technology … technology trend as I see it from an Indian perspective. I write to convey my thoughts to a wider audience. I never had any intention to monetize my writing. It feels great when I come to know that you have read and have liked my post.

Enterprise Tech Marketing Failure and the Marketing Center of Excellence

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:41:00 EST

Being a revenue-focused, data-driven tech marketer is no longer a best practice—it is, to use Hollis Tibbetts' pithy wording, "table stakes." But even if a marketing organization can't quite raise the stakes to get a seat among their best-performing peers (many marketers lag behind according to Hypatia Research Group) all still must improve outcomes. Despite an intense focus on improving outcomes, enterprise technology marketers’ best efforts at consistently increasing their return on marketing investment (ROMI) too often fail. (One of the most notable recently? HP's tablet launch fail, which we will discuss in the last of these three posts.) Even after we implement platforms for marketing automation and models like SiriusDecision’s new Demand Waterfall, even after we tune our SEO and campaigns, our employers/clients still don’t get consistent value from their investment in marketing.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace Being Wrong

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:00:00 EST

Richard Spragg examines an alternative view to one of his previous blogs, and accepts that he may just have been wrong. There are times in life when you have to put your hands up to being in the minority, especially when you're in the business of putting your opinions out there in the market for all to see. As a lifelong holder of minority opinions, this is not new to me. So effusive was the disagreement with my first blog in this series, that arrived from all corners of our growing community here, that I feel compelled to present the opposite view. I will wipe the spit and fumes from my face and in all probability convince myself that I was actually wrong in the first place. The source of our disagreement all comes down to this question: How long should you take making decisions about people?