THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

On one hand I'm glad I'm not the only one who is getting tired of these types of posts / blogs/ tweets / etc.

On the other hand, I just can't be bothered by their stupidity anymore.

So I'm glad someone has the strength to but I just don't ever want to hear about them again.

"But I'm starting to get real tired of the "premise" versus the "cloud" fights"

You won't stop it. Trying to is a waste of time. Everyone in the industry will continue with the fights until far into the future or until they have converted as many companies to the cloud as they can and any future talk is throwing money down the drain. There is big money in it so it is to their advantage to do so. The only way you could stop it is to take the money out of it. And you can't do that.

Think of business as a piston in an engine. Like in your Mini. You start the piston (business) on the upward stroke with some idea. Eventually the idea will generate as much power (revenue) as it can and then the piston will be at the top of it's stroke. So now to generate more power (money) you have to force the piston back down. To do that you need a new idea. The new idea forces the piston back down and generates more power (revenue) and starts the cycle again.

The Cloud is the new idea forcing the piston back down. In order to get everyone on board with the new idea you have to use mind control. That's what the fights and all of the hype is for.

Oh Susan,

You miss me, don't you :)

-Vlad

Perhaps poor Joe needs a laxative

How's Life?

 Their are Mac Fanboys and now Cloud Fanboys :(

I don't see cloud computing as a benefit to the customer.

It's for lazy IT people.

Either you're lazy, and you don't want to do the work and have someone else do it, and get paid for their work, or on the other hand, you're lazy, and you want to set up your clients in a turnkey solution and walk away and aren't smart enough to get recurring payments.  In the first example, if you're good enough, you can convince a business that they're better off spending more for you to work less, or in the second example, you want to build a large client base for bragging rights alone, and don't care to have a constant rapport with your clients.  Google lends itself to the latter.

Tierney, and most of the Google Apps faithful I've met certainly fit the bill.

Funny post. You didn't even let me know though :-(

Richard - it's "there"

You're doing what's best for your customer or your outdated business model?

This isn't about on-premise or cloud. This is about small business. Small businesses that have been over paying for technology for long enough. The client/server model was adopted because it provided the widest range of technology services to the widest range of people at the lowest cost. This is no longer the case. The Internet and new multi-tenant architectures allow for business owners to consume an even wider range of services at less cost.

It's not hype. It's fundamental changes in how technology services are consumed and delivered. Yes, all business applications are available in the cloud.

I certainly don't mind being criticized but it would have been nice if you had given me a chance to answer your catchy post.

"Yes, all business applications are available in the cloud."

Funny, but I don't see anyone offering Autodesk software in the cloud yet.

I have two clients that are architects (one is in the building next to me).  Both use Autodesk products - that is their "LOB" app.

One has over 2TB of data, most of which is render jobs from AutoCAD and SketchUp.  Have you ever seen the cost of having 2TB of online storage and/or backup space, not to mention the cost of bandwidth needed to stream multi-hundred megabyte files at local disk speeds???

It doesn't cost less than their brand new server with multiple levels of redundancy, let me tell you!  In fact, when I looked at cloud offerings, the cost that they spent on the entire setup including 3 years of maintenance would equate to only about 3 months in cloud services that meet their needs.  Cloud backup isn't even economical for them.  They still do it the old fashioned way:  one drive on-site, one in a fire-proof safe, and one off-site (remember what I said about cloud IT being for lazy people).

Let's look at it from a performance-to-cost standpoint:  

Cable Internet here is the best Internet around for the money, bar none.  Anything faster, and the price skyrockets.  30Mbps downstream is $124.95/mth on a 1yr contract, or $1500 for the year.  I can buy a sh@tload of hard drives for that and have money to spare, and they sure as hell ought to last longer than a year.  Not only that, but they'll be running at 100x the speed.  Oh, sure I could get some kind of dedicated fiber line up to about 100Mbps in the area, but that's still not even close to the speed that is required, and I'd have to sacrifice my first borne to afford it.

How is that "more services for less money"?

Who do you get your 100Mbps service from for less than the cost of a server every year?

blog.smallbizthoughts.com/.../reality-of-offsite-backup.html

"Are some of my applications in the cloud?  Absolutely.  Online research for one.  Large secure file transfers for another"

Which online service do you use for your secure file transfers ?

Here is a good example of a company jumping on the Cloud bandwagon. They don't seem to have put much thought into it but rather it seems they just want to have something Cloudy to sell so that they are not left out of the revenue stream. All they seem to be selling is storing your data on some server somewhere.

"We are an IT solutions provider focused on end to end Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions. We partner with our clients to identify the business and technology choices that will drive complexity out of their infrastructure and provide the greatest return on investments for their organization. We are currently looking for a motivated, system admistrator to help drive sales for our growing Cloud Services division.

The System Administrator will serve as the primary resource to demonstrate the product to interested prospects. This person should be able to clearly communicate the advantages of our service over alternative backup and recovery methods. In addition, this person should have knowledge of servers, systems, and network. You should have experience, or be eager to learn how to architect, design, deliver, and train customers on the use of this solution. You will work independently to help our customers and troubleshoot issues. The environment is fast-paced, deadline driven, while supporting multiple, concurrent projects. The rewards include working in a HOT industry that is only poised to grow. The position reports to the technical manager of Cloud services.

Job Responsibilities:

1. Demonstrate our solution via webex and face to face presentations to interested prospects.

2. Design and deploy implementations after the sale has been closed.

3. Upgrades, installs and troubleshooting for existing customer base.

4. Develop strong relationships with prospective clients and existing customers.

5. Working with sales team to plan, set and achieve goals each week and month. "

For a company specializing in cloud services, advertising for a sales position looks bad, because every fly-by-night, out-of-college blogger and their friend wants to get into cloud IT services for a quick buck (read my rant on cloud services being for lazy IT's).  I've seen these companies come (and more importantly, go) many times before.  They shouldn't have a problem making sales in a market where the new stuff is hip and trendy and BDM's will buy any snake oil.  Keeping customers, on the other hand....that's a different story.

Still no reply from our “friend” Joe the “IT Pro”…..