Per on IT!

Why is Hosting/Private Cloud so domestic? Let's open up for competition!

I fully realise, respect and understand that there are many customers that have compelling reasons for finding a Hosting/private Cloud provider in their own country. There are legal reasons as well as the fear of data being stored in a country that does not respect privacy or IP.

But here in the European Union I know that there are great opportunities for customers to save money and get better SLAs just by being open to finding their next Hosting/Private Cloud partner outside their own country.

We at IDENET (www.idenet.com) have seen a slight increase of customer from other countries and after having interviewed customers I hear that the number one reason is that customers are afraid of latency and bad data communication links. The notion about latency is easy to get rid by just showing the customer that is not an issue and data communication is something to discuss as that is always the weakest link regardless if it is a domestic or international solution.

However, the Public Sector seems to be very reluctant to open up their RFPs for providers in other countries. Of course it is theoretically possible to bid on their tenders but realistically only a handful will notice the RFPs and it is often stated that replies needs to be written in the local language.

That's my appeal to the European Commission - please help us get a true internal market in the EU where Cloud Computing leads the way. Please encourage the Public Sector to seek replies from other countries and take away the barriers about only the local language being allowed in the RFP replies. This will benefit everyone!

 

Regards, Per

Samsung buying HP's PC business?

Will Samsung make an offer for HP's PC business?

Well, such a step would make Samsung overnight a gigantic player also when it comes to older types of devices!

Now Samsung are strong in the area of modern types of devices such as Slates and SmartPhones.

And our clever friends in South Corea have done some great hedging by using both their own operating system Bada and the market leading Android as well as Microsoft's great Windows Phone 7. Little known is that they are also a vital supplier to Apple! That's hedging if you ask me!

What problably makes sense for Samsung if they buy HP's PC business is that they would get access to a gigantic network of distributors and partners. That might be more worth than anything else!

My guess is that the corporate jet packed with lawyers and VPs has aldready taken off from Seoul with destination Silicon Valley, California!

Or is the jet enroute for Canada where RIM (Blackberry) might be open for a take over? Who knows!

 

Good luck Samsung!

Arctic cool is great for datacenters!

A few months ago it was revealed that Facebook are planning to locate their next datacenter to the city of Luleå in the norther parts of Sweden and now it looks like locating your datacenter to Sweden is really in fashion!

Now we see that investments in the datacenters in Sweden is on the rise. In yesterday's issue on Sweden's business daily - Dagens Industri - it was revealed that ITT have chosen Sweden as the location for their next datacenter.

Sweden is a rare combination of cold climate, great infrastructure for reliable connectivity, skilled people, no earth quakes, no tsunamis, and no revolutions or wars for the past 200+ years so I can understand why Sweden is so competitive.

If we only could persuade the government to subsidise the electricity by lowering the energy tax also for datacenters - and not just for traditional industry production - then we would have an even better business case. It must be better with high-tech datacenters than old traditional industry like car manufacturing! :-)

 

Regards, Per

Virtualization is not necessarily Consolidation!

A common mistake that I see is that customers (and sometimes partners) virtualize everything without thinking about the opportunity to reduce the number of servers by consolidating workloads. And when consolidating you can also focus on elevating the platform and get rid of older versions of operating systems and database engines that are no longer supported. You cannot believe how many SQL 2000 Servers there are still out there!

Let me give you two examples of consolidation opportunities: -

- Most companies use too many database servers. By carefully looking at consolidating the databases to fewer server you will reduce the number of servers and in many times also reduce the licensing costs associated with it.

- Another example is the number of web servers. This is an excellent workload for careful consolidation and in many times also an opportunity to reduce the variety of web server software and concentrate on one (or two).

 

Too many times I see crappy servers being virtualized and that way they will be saved for eternity but it is just a way to bury the problem and not realising the opportunities. Just saying!

 

Regards, Per

Physical servers belongs to yesterday!

I find it amazing that people sometimes feel that a physical server is better than a virtual server! When I think about a server today it is always a virtual server. Of course there are some exceptions but they tend to be very rare [an endagered specie if you ask me!).

Virtual servers are more fault tolerant because they are independent of the physical host and their storage etc should always be in a multi fault tolerant Storage Area Network (SAN). With a physical server you need to build a cluster and when it is time to decommission the old hardware you will face a troublesome upgrade project. With a virtual server you are independent and can shift hardware without downtime - and you can increase/decrease capacity at an instant.

Everyone that runs data center on scale with great SLA will use a highly virtualized and dynamic environment. Virtualized datacenter will always offer better service than the ones that rely on physical servers like in the old days.

As a vendor (like www.idenet.com) you provide a service and of course you use the best technology in order to give your customers stellar service!

 

Regards, Per

Legal actions from Apple, HTC and others - patents are important

The recent acquisition (pending) by Google of Motorola's mobile phone business is partly for them to get hold of 17,000 patents (remember they lost the bid for Nortel's portfolio). We see that that the patent-hating Google is now making an U-turn and realize that patents are important. They understand that they need a big bag of patents to boost their bargaining power.

The drama around patents in recent months has apart from Google's acquisition been about who is Apple going to file a suit against next! And who is going to give the an counter-suit! Apple's attempt to ban Samsung for selling their slates in Europe, Apple's attempts towards HTC - and now HTC countering with some crossfire!

Is this good for consumers? YES - I believe that we will see more clarity in the future and I am sure that these patent battles will be sorted out by all parties agreeing to exchange patents and in some cases to pay royalities. That's the normal procedure! Patents are needed - but it is also important to be friendly and let patents be used for innovation.

Microsoft is a role model with their great programs that allows innovators to use many of their patented rights - and if the patents can be used for new products there is a way to pay royalty.

It is better to do it the Microsoft way and let patents be used than have them sit unused in waiting for someone to sue!

 

Regards, Per

HP leaves the PC hardware business! That's the right move!

Everyone must strive to specialize and to climb the 'ladder of value'.

HP's recent announcement is a bold move - but also a natural one! Of course many partners will be sad because they love HP's PCs and they make a great business out of it.

But this is just another sign of the big transformation in the ICT sector where differentiated and integrated services is key to future success!

More partners should adapt HPs thinking and move to services while abandoning traditional hardware selling! The future delivering great services is great!

At IDE (www.idenet.com) we are proud to ride the wave of this transformation! We sell IT as a Service and our customers just love it!

Regards, Per

Better Apps for Windows Phone!

Great news from Brandon Wilson at Microsoft Corp that they will encourage quality Apps instead of having as many Apps as possible available.

I think this is the right strategy and by encouraging quality and a higher price the developer community will start to see this as an even more viable business. We will all benefit from having really great Apps.

I categorize Apps in the following groups: -

• Commercial Consumer Apps where usage is sold to the end user
• Commercial Vendor Apps that are free to use and paid by a company that wants to drive traffic to his site
• Opportunistic Apps that are free to use and where the creator wants fame

 

Regards, Per

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook building datacenter in Luleå, Sweden?

The plot thickens!

Who is the owner of the three mega datacenters being built in the arctic city of Luleå? Read that the cost for electricity is approx 70 Million USD on an annual basis and that is big for Sweden! (or big for just about anyone...)

The Swedish press says that Facebook are behind it and the future will give us the verdict on that guess.

Anyway, it is great to see the interest for Sweden as a great place for datacenters. Sweden is a stabile democracy that has not been in war for 200 years and we have great data communication links as well as a reliable electric grid. The chillyness is free of charge!

Regards, Per

 

Read about new HP Elitebook 2560p and 2760p

Found this document on HP's website for everyone interested in the new HP Elitebook 2560p and 2760p.

Download Hp-professional-innovation

 

Regards, Per