So from this post forward my blog is going to be called “Looking to the Cloud”, and the old web address of www.collaborativeview.com will still point to it for a period as any that are following the blog make the transition to:

www.lookingtothecloud.com

Both addresses will get you here in the interim, and all the old content has been imported into the new site.

I’m looking forward to this journey as we look to the Cloud and all the interesting trends and new technologies, and the benefits (and challenges) that we face as we see the World make that transition as well.

Let me know what you think!

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@lookingtothecloud.com

Werner used an analogy of companies installing personal electricity generators when a public utility was available, also stating that much of this hype (read FUD) around Private Clouds was led by Hardware Vendors that stand to lose significantly in this space.

Read the ARN Article here:

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/347576/cebit_2010_amazon_dismisses_private_clouds/?eid=-4152

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

As of Wednesday this week, I have started as a Senior Sales Manager for Australia’s Leading Google Enterprise Business Partner, HEDLOC, looking after the Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australian territories.

This has been a while in the making and as you will have seen, many of my posts to this blog has been related to Google and its travels in the Collaboration World.

While my times with IBM and the Lotus Technologies in particular have been great, I believe Google has the next Enterprise Evolution, as far as collaboration technologies go, well and truly in it’s sights (and business model)

The Cloud Phenomenon is definitely gaining momentum, with many CEOs and CIOs coming on board with a Cloud Vision for their organisations.

In many cases, the numbers stack up, only too compellingly. I also believe Google has the greatest brand for the Cloud, and you have to admire their corporate vision and culture. The place oozes with Innovation.

So watch this space… You will definitely hear more from me as this trend gathers pace.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

Here are the key findings as summarised by the Dept of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Key findings and recommendations from the Implementation Study include:

• The NBN will deliver world class broadband infrastructure to all Australians;
• The $43 billion total capital cost of the NBN is a conservative estimate and there are opportunities to significantly reduce the build cost;
• The peak investment required by Government is estimated at $26 billion by the end of year 7, of which $18.3 billion will be required over the next four years;
• Government should retain full ownership of the NBN until the roll out is complete to ensure that its policy objectives are met – including its competition objectives;
• The fibre component of the NBN should be extended from 90 to 93 per cent and cover the 1.3 million new premises expected to be built by 2017-18;
• Entry level wholesale prices on the fibre should be set at around $30-35 per month for basic broadband 20Mbps plus voice service, to drive affordable retail prices and better value for money for consumers compared to what is available today;
• Fibre to the premise is widely accepted as the optimal future proof technology with wireless broadband a complementary rather than a substitute technology;
• Next generation wireless and satellite services will deliver peak speeds of at least 12 Mbps (and much higher for many wireless users). Satellite services will deliver average data rates which are more than 20 times higher than most users of these technologies experience today and much higher than average DSL usage today;
• NBN Co can build a strong and financially viable business case with the Study estimating it will be earnings positive by year six and able to pay significant distributions on its equity following completion of the rollout; and
• The Government can expect a return on its equity investment sufficient to fully cover its cost of funds.

The complete report is available for download here:

http://www.dbcde.gov.au/broadband/national_broadband_network/nbn_implementation_study

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

With a long term budget approximating $500M AUD, this is a clear signal to the market that Cloud Computing is well and truly past the “Trough of Disillusionment” on the Technology Adoption Curve.

The article mentions that this is one of the first Tier 1 Telcos to throw some serious weight behind Cloud Services. This could lead to Australia becoming one of the early adopters of Private Cloud solutions outside of the US.

With early announcements of the project in mid-2009, their announcement today explained that they are in the late stages before commercial release of the service due in mid-year 2010.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

I’m not the slightest bit surprised given this covers the worst of the GFC when organisations would have investigated lower-cost alternatives for their operations.

Even Google uses Salesforce for their CRM, so you don’t get a better endorsement for the product than from a company whose complete business model is built around Cloud operational models.

This article from ZDNet highlights the Salesforce release.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

In essence, marshaling the Global skills in Logo design, but with very low expectations on price.

I hosted a Logo Design competition for US$225 and attracted 85 Entries, most of which were very professional. Have a look at the Portfolio on the site…

Considering that I have seen large Corporates spend north of $10,000 just for a Logo, and there are quite a few Corporates already engaging this way as you can see from the list of existing competitions on the site, I expect this will be a very popular way to look at off-shoring the skills required for this type of work.

While this has been done for Software Coding for a while now, it is interesting to see that Australia is becoming quite a hub for the technologies used to make this happen.

While Googling for “Global Crowd Sourcing”, I noticed an article on PRLog.com that suggests there are at least 3 Global Crowd Sourcing Platforms that have been built in this country.

If my “customer experience” of using this type of service is anything to go by, and I might add, I’ve used a similar service for Professional Translation Services, all be it without the multi-designer/bidding paradigm, then this will be very popular for the small to mid-sized businesses and non-profits etc.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

If you read between the lines, you can see his powerful interest in the advent this year of Tablets like the (unmentioned by name) iPad and how the media will be targeting these devices.

If I’m not mistaken, you might see a potential veiled early announcement of an Android based Google Tablet as well.

Here’s the video:

Nice inclusion of the live machine transcribed subtitling (in Beta) and the translating!

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

As reported in CIO Magazine today, “This division has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars for two years (it reported a $466 million income loss for the last three months of 2009)”. Much of it due to the increased cost of gaining traffic. (Purchasing traffic through promotions and deals).

eg. the $10M USD recently spent to gain access to Twitter feeds mentioned in my recent post “2010: The Google v. Microsoft War to Intensify“

And during all of this they haven’t greatly touched Google Search’s business, mostly cannibalising the Yahoo Search marketshare instead.

With the Microsoft/Yahoo search partnership threatened by this performance, how much more will MS be willing to wear before they reconsider the strategy?

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

A statement on the apple.com website stated that “the iPad is not just a new product, it is a new category of product”.

Dubbed a slate device, with multitouch, the iPad is revolutionary compared to existing tablet computers.

Some significant research has gone into the underlying technologies to maximise battery life and display brilliance.

It will be interesting to see what developers now do with the SDK and all the legacy iPhone capabilities to really make this new product shine.

Steve Jobs announces the iPad

At US$499 (16GB), $599 (32GB), & $899 (64GB), the new device is expected to ship in 60 days Worldwide.

Have a look at the video on the new apple.com/ipad site:

Apple presents the iPad

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com