Archive for category Opinion
On Web 3.0
Link to article by Salesforce.com CEO – Marc Benioff
http://www.techcrunchit.com/2008/08/01/welcome-to-web-30-now-your-other-computer-is-a-data-center/
The following is just a bulleted list of responses to both the article and user comments.
Agree – Web 3.0: Anyone Can Innovate
Maneuvering political waters
I must say, I didn’t know there were so many political moves one must make to upgrade a web hosting environment.
Technically, it is a sound move. Windows Server 2008, IIS 7 and .NET 3.5 are the latest generation Windows OS and web hosting environment. The site I am managing isn’t even that complex of a site.
Politically, it seems there are so many people you have to “sell” in order to make the move.
That’s fine, but it is teaching me a skill I didn’t think I would learn while trying to upgrade a web hosting environment – create a win for a customer, create a win for someone internally, and create a win for myself.
Our digital lives
Have you taken inventory lately on how much of a digital life we have?
For example, here is my inventory:
- This site (link)
- Family blog (link)
- Family pictures (link)
- My LinkedIn network (link)
- My amazon.com wish list (link)
- My bungie.net profile (link)
- My gamepsot.com blog (link)
- My salesforce.com profile (link)
And, if you are looking for it, I do not have a facebook or MySpace account.
Is it a bit hypocritical?
Just a thought here…
If the company is expecting “commitment” from the employee, should the employee expect “commitment” from the company?
I can’t help but think that if a company hits a down market or slow growth that the company won’t be so “commited” to the employee. Maybe the reason that the employee is moving between jobs every 3.5 years is that he/she needs to move across the country or hates his/her job enough that they are doing more harm to the company than good by staying. Lets not paint with a broad brush and say that the reason employees leave every 3.5 years is because they are “not commited.”
Vendor Management
Vendors are something we all have in our departments, either to a great extent or minimally. I’ve been on both sides of the vendor coin as vendor and vendor manager.
Here are my keys to the vendor relationship.
=== Regular Communication ===
A systematic and regular form of communication is important to establish early. This is important for two reasons:
Starbucks + Apple
For this post, read this Press Release
There are a lot of reasons why I like this story:
1. As a marketer, I am a big fan of Apple’s marketing strategy. This marketing move for both companies is, what I believe, real marketing. Its not a fluffy super bowl commercial that makes an undeliverable promise, or a billboard that I cannot react to, or a banner ad on a site that I will never click on. This story, in a way, creates the demand in me to have that new iPod Touch or iPhone and enjoy my technology over a great Latte.
2. As a person with a digital life including smart phone, blog, iPod, website and web 2.0 social network, I like that Starbucks is enabling me to carry on that digital life at every one of their stores. Apple’s marketing team, I believe, understood an affinity in their target market (ie, that they frequent Starbucks for the coffee and atmosphere) and developed a strategy to leverage that affinity knowledge and create more iTunes sales at the same time. Beautiful!
3. As a gadget geek, I am a big fan of Apple’s products all together – although I only own an iPod. I like that Apple is working to make its products more prevalent, regardless of the PC vs. Mac debate. Apple, in other words, is not spending its marketing dollars just trying to convince me of why they win the PC vs. Mac debate, but rather Apple is making it more and more enticing for me to buy the Mac or next iPod because I know I can use it everywhere. I know my Mac product will be supported.
All around, I like this story. The marketing and economic implications is what makes me deem this story blog-worhty.
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Is it a confirmation or rebuttal to government regulation on datacenters?
Posted by admin in Datacenters, Opinion on September 19, 2007
The DOE Joins The Green Grid – Data Center Knowledge
In my last post (which I realized I didn’t actually post the day I wrote it), I attempted to bring up a thought-provoking question about the inevitability of government regulation.
Today I read that the Department of Energy (see link above) has joined an industry-created organization called The Green Grid. By definition, “The Green Grid is a consortium of information technology companies and professionals
seeking to lower the overall consumption of power in data centers
around the globe.”
Some observation points:
- I like that a government agency is following the lead of a ‘market-created’ organization. Is that a reflection of a Republican being in office?
- There is something fundamentally different between the energy-consuming companies in the datacenter industry when compared to other large energy-consuming industries. Many of the regulation tactics mentioned in the articles I have read are all reminiscent of government’s attempt at regulating other environmentally harmful industries (see: carbon credits, tax implications, standard metrics, etc.)
- The market found profit in self-regulation. Why have the leaders in the datacenter industry decided to self-regulate? You know it must be because they found gain in it. Therefore, its nice to see that the industry leaders took that marketing lesson on the political environment back in their college days seriously.
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Government regulation on datacenters?
Posted by admin in Datacenters, Opinion on September 19, 2007
Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives : ENERGY STAR
I’ll admit to you right now that I have not read or investigated the Energy Star report delivered to congress in detail, but I ran across an interesting blog entry over at Data Center Knowledge debriefing the report.
My gut reaction is that the industry *without government intervention* was already beginning to regulate itself (to which I applaud). See: the recent creation of the The Green Grid, or see the recent webinar by Digital Realty Trust on “Green Datacenters”, and 365 Main’s marketing efforts on becoming “green” certified.
I have my hesitations about any further government intervention – at the same time, know it is inevitable when you reflect on the startling fact that datacenters make up between 1 and 1.5% of the U.S.’s entire energy consumption.
I saw mention of tax credits, standardized metrics and utility rebates and don’t have any faith in the government actually being able to regulate accordingly. When we discuss datacenters, we’re essentially talking about one of the most innovative areas in our entire economy (on the part of the companies that consume datacenters such as Google and other major internet properties). Therefore, I must ask, “what would it take for a government agency to regulate such innovation?”
If there is one thing that the government does well, its definitely not regulation – now taxation, on the other hand, is another story.
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Government regulation on datacenters?
Posted by admin in Datacenters, Opinion on August 16, 2007
Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives : ENERGY STAR
I’ll admit to you right now that I have not read or investigated the Energy Star report delivered to congress in detail, but I ran across an interesting blog entry over at Data Center Knowledge debriefing the report.
My gut reaction is that the industry *without government intervention* was already beginning to regulate itself (to which I applaud). See: the recent creation of the The Green Grid, or see the recent webinar by Digital Realty Trust on “Green Datacenters”, and 365 Main’s marketing efforts on becoming “green” certified.
I have my hesitations about any further government intervention – at the same time, know it is inevitable when you reflect on the startling fact that datacenters make up between 1 and 1.5% of the U.S.’s entire energy consumption.
I saw mention of tax credits, standardized metrics and utility rebates and don’t have any faith in the government actually being able regulate accordingly. When we discuss datacenters, we’re essentially talking about one of the most innovative areas in our entire economy (on the part of the companies that consume datacenters). therefore, I must ask, “what would it take for a government agency to regulate such innovation?”
If there is one thing that the government does well, its definitely not regulation – taxation is another story.
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A different way of serving ads to me
Official Google Blog: Online ad-serving tests
Have you heard of Google’s new ad-serving tests? See the link above.
A couple of quick points:
I like that it is targeted. SEM should be a part of any company’s “meat and potatoes” marketing tactics.
I like that you can opt-out. Are people afraid of Google collecting data still? If so, they can opt-out.
I like that Google is attempting to ONLY deliver ads that are relevant and pertinent to the buyer in the context of that buyer expressing his/her own affinities. Meaning, if that buyer is on the sharperimage website, then Google only displays ads contextually relevant to what that buyer is looking at (if that user has cookies enabled).
Quote from the blog post above: “giving users the ability to provide feedback to us about the ads they like and don’t like.”
How often have you gone to a site just to look to see if their advertisements were posted? Have you done that with Apple’s ads? What if you could now choose which ads are delivered to you in the place you (probably) spend the most amount of time – the Internet?
It’s interesting food for thought and I seem to like what Google is doing here. So why does it feel a little awkward to have ads customized to me on the Internet?
…don’t know. Probably all of those years I have been told by marketers what I should like; now, evidently, I get to choose what I like.
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