Per on IT!

Great initiative from Vice-President Reding about the 'Right to be forgotten'

Today's announcement (ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/reding/multimedia/news/2012/01/20120124_en.htm) from the European Commission around an updated Data Protection Directive wins my support. In an online-always-connected world the right to have personal data deleted is an important step.

The 'Right to be forgotten' is important as it is you as a private citizen that owns your data and not Facebook, Google or someone else. I also like the right to be able to move your personal data from one place to another (like going from Google+ to Facebook).

The industry will of course discuss whether the 2% fine based on revenue is fair or not but regardless of where we land regarding the fine I applause the direction and the initiative around the 'Right to be forgotten' and the right to be able to move data as long as it is super easy for Mr. Joe Citizen.

Well done Vice-President Reding!

 

Regards, Per

Datacenters are great for Sweden but don't expect jobs!

I read in today's morning paper, Svenska Dagbladet, about the efforts made by my fellow countrymen up in the very North of Sweden (http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/it/facebook-i-norrland_6788607.svd) to convince North American companies to locate their datacentres to Luleå where Facebook are now establishing a big datacentre.

I think that having big datacentres provide many advantages. It sends an important signal and it can then attact other types of investments.

But the datacentre itself will never be a big job creator. Expect a handful of jobs after the datacentre is built and fully populated. Modern datacentres are not the cure for unemployment and I find that policymakers often miss that point.

Then again - let's treat datacentres as traditional industry taxwise. Why should it be a much lower tax on the electricity for building cars or ships than running datacentres? Our friends in Finland already treats datacentres the same way taxwise which is a huge differentiator and I want Sweden to match the Finnish offer.

Sweden has a lot to offer for people that wants to build a datacenter - we have stability in all aspects and easy access to electricity.

 

Regards, Per

Gartner revise the forecast for IT spending

Looks like Gartner feels that the spending mood is less favorable than previously forecasted (but still on the increase). In the latest 'Forecast Alert; IT Spending Worldwide, 2008-2015 - 4Q11 Update' (http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=1886414&ref=g_fromdoc) they paint a darker picture than before.

My take is simply that money spent on IT in a clever way will lower costs in other departments - or make the company more fit to win market shares.

A gloomy economy is a great opportunity to spend in IT and I must say that using [Private] Cloud Computing is a wonderful way to reduce cost.

Every time that I am engaged in a discussion with a potential customer I can guarantee them that they will reduce cost by making the shift to our Microsoft based Cloud Computing platform. Manual labor is costly and with Cloud Computing you save on cost for IT engineers and support staff.

And when I am talking about Cloud Computing for the Enterprise I am of course talking about Private Hosted Clouds because that is where both technology and customers are today when we are talking about more sensitive LOB Applications.

 

Regards, Per

IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service is sticky in a nice way!

The past year we have rebranded our offerings and now we are not talking about Hosting so much - instead we are talking about Infrastructure as a Service in a Private Cloud.

Of course we can argue the whole day about what a Cloud is - and we can argue around what differentiates Hosting from Cloud but that feels rather pointless and exhausting. That's why I love the term IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service because it really describes what we as a modern Hoster or Cloud Provider deliver to our customers (thank you IDC and Gartner!).

Simple as that! Everyone can understand!

Our take on Iaas is that the customer rent capacity and have a high flexibility built-in to the agreement so that they can at an instant add more servers, storage, RAM and CPU. Of course the underlying structure is built on virtual servers in fault tolerant clustered farms with storage in the same fault tolerant manner and everything is of course monitored and managed.

Right now the space of IaaS is a great place to be! Customers in all verticals see the benefits of higher availability and a lower cost when going for Infrastructure as a Service.

 

Regards, Per

Exciting times to bet on Microsoft technology and to be a partner!

When I look at the Microsoft technology available today - and when I look at the roadmap for future releases I must say that I am super excited! Never in time has it been better to be a Microsoft partner!

Microsoft have bounced back as a highly innovative vendor and on all fronts their products are gaining momentum and admiration.

Let's start with Windows 7 and the future Windows 8. We all know that the predessor Vista was not in high regard but the current Windows 7 is being deployed in a healthy pace and the future Windows 8 with the new Metro GUI will be a hit on slates/pads. Windows 7 brought Microsoft back and Windows 8 will take it beyond that!

It also looks like the first product with the Metro GUI, Windows Phone 7, is getting traction in its new Mango release (7.5) and Nokia is a great addition as a partner when it comes to win market share. I cannot recall that earlier attempts with Windows Mobile has ever attracted analysts the same way as the new Mango does. For the first time Microsoft stand a great chance getting to a top 3 position.

And Hyper-V and System Center is a great combination that win new customers every day. VMware has a solid domination of already virtualized servers but Microsoft are winning big in new servers. The compelling total cost of Microsoft's offering has brought healthy competition to a market dominated by VMware.

And Sharepoint - in the world of Sharepoint there is no recession. Microsoft partners betting on Sharepoint see no end of customer demand. Everyone wants it and here the only problem is that there are to few specialists around.

Lastly let me speak about integration, interoperability and standards. A few years ago this was really hot in the eyes of the DoJ in the US and the EU Commission but now it is just a given that MIcrosoft are worth all the admiration in this field.

 

Regards, Per

I love the Digital Agenda for Europe - but I hate local flavors!

I love the initiative by the European Commission around a Digital Agenda for Europe (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm). There are 101 initiatives in the Digital Agenda and in general they make great sense.

I applaude Commissioner Ms. Neelie Kroes for driving this with such passion and determination - this is what Europe needs!

There are eight pillars in the Digital Agenda and they all have actionable items where progress is measured: -

• Digital Single Market
• Interoperability and Standards
• Trust and Security
• Very Fast Internet
• Research and Innovation
• Enhancing e-skills
• ICT for Social Challenges
• International

So I love the Digital Agenda and I see it as extra ordinary important because it will both make Europe feel more as one single market and it will also help Europe to take advantage of ICT in a better way than today. And it also involves a great portion of social responsibility.

The problem however is that we have 27 countries being part of the European Union and each and one of these countries will look at the Digital Agenda and implement it in their own way which will give it a local flavor. By doing it this way we will end up with 27 flavors of the Digital Agenda and that means that we will still have obstacles in pan-European trade.

And I wonder Ms. Kroes - wouldn't it be much more efficient if all countries in the European Union could actually sing the same song around the Digital Agenda and not try to do it their own way? I love cultural differences but sometimes they just make it harder.

 

Regards, Per

Today I was a small sponsor of Cloud Camp Sweden that took place in Stockholm. It was a great event with both vendors and potential customers. Some speakers were amazing but the funnies thing was the 'unconference' part with fireside chats around topics like infrastructure, security, databases, legal etc.

Big thank you to the organisers!

Well said Ms. Kroes about Spotify!

I fully agree with Ms. Neelie Kroes in her Twitter statement saying that with a working single digital market it shouldn't take until now for Spotify to reach Belgium!

As Commissioner Kroes heads the Digital Agenda for Europe I see it is exactly these type of challenges that we need to overcome in order for Europe to be really competitive.

Let's make it easier to legally sell digital services across Europe! Let's tear down the borders so that we create a single digital market.

 

Regards, Per

Gartner tells to reduce the number of applications!

Gartner said on their annual conference for CIOs in Barcelona that top priority (among many other things) for an CIO is to reduce the number of applications.

I fully agree!

Reducing the number of applications is a great way to save money and per definition everything left will be better integrated.

The cost for applications involves several components such as; infrastructure, licenses, maintenance, often consultants and internal costs for applications owners.

Sometimes companies forget to assign application ownership in a formal way but you can be pretty sure that the cost is there still (and probably higher) even if you do not have formal application owners.

I often find that clients that have acquired companies sit with applications that are duplicates more or less and I believe that focus should be to quickly get rid of these duplicats!

Step one for a CIO is too create a true list of all applications, where they are used and who is the application owner. It is surprising how hard that can be but it is a task that needs to be done.

I also believe that most LOB applications can be delivered from a central datacenter and while doing this a healthy bit of consolidation should happen.

 

Regards, Per

ISVs will win with virtualization - saying NO is saying NO to more business

I still meet ISVs that do not allow their application to run on virtual servers.

They will likely say that it is not a supported solution which gives their customers no options. I think that as an ISV there is a missed opportunity and a risk to be seen as obsolete if you turn down virtualization. Of course you should test your application but only in very rare circumstances should you be afraid.

Another funny observation is that some ISVs say that they support virtualization on VMware ESX but not on Microsoft Hyper-V. To me this is total craziness and I believe that there is no need to discriminate Microsoft when it comes to virtualization.

As an ISV you should embrace and support virtualization becasue that is where the industry is going and where your customers wants to be.

And of course you should support virtualization on borth VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Your customers will love you for support modern computing! And then you are halfway to the cloud!

 

Regards, Per