A Businessman's View

Last week I wrote about how Google and "the cloud" seem to be synonymous due to the bevy of highly visible applications available by the company that are typically free for non-business use. I wanted to explore the topic a bit further, so I had an e-chat with Gabrielle Smith , VP of Enterprise Sales at LTech, a Google Applications Premier Edition (GAPE) reseller. Me: Cloud computing has always been a term that, in my opinion, has never had a concrete definition. Can you provide a definition? Gabrielle: I'm stealing this from NIST who defines it in the following way: "Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three deliv...

In college I worked for the collegiate computer department, chaperoning any of the various labs that peppered the campus several times a week. I would arrive for "work," collect Student ID cards in exchange for a 5 1/4" DOS floppy, and then do my homework or play Ultima III. (Yes, I'm dating myself.) One evening I was working in the lab that was located in the Finance building, when one young gentleman gave me his card and dutifully took his floppy disk to a computer a few rows back. Inserting the disk, he pressed the button on the computer monitor and waited. And he waited some more. And he waited even more, occasionally checking his surroundings to act like he knew what he was doing. After 20 minutes, I felt sorry for this person who was obviously a Mac user and went over to show him that you also had to turn on the power for the computer. Apple has consistently shown itself to be an innovator in design, whether in the grandiose things (iPod anyone?) or the tiny...

One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song? The song above, from Sesame Street , was a catchy one. And it ended up in the strangest places too. My brother was harassed with this song by his sergeant during Air Force boot camp when his dresser drawer wasn't organized properly. Lately, I've been noticing things in the strangest places too: - A sign on the wall of a Victoria's Secret that is under construction. "Reopening Fall 2009. Visit us at our temporary location next to The Disney Store." (Women's lingerie next to a children's toy store?) - A Chinese er hu (a two-stringed "violin") playing the melody to Dave Brubeck's famous anthem Take Five . (Paul Desmond be damned!) In the business world, we're in the midst of one of the largest acts of "out of place" ever witnessed. Specifically, a lot of compani...

My 9 year old daughter told me recently that she wants to "do something." When I asked her to clarify she said, "I want to get a job." Now that was interesting. I stifled the urge to laugh (because I can hear her as an adult saying how she wishes she didn't have a job, but I digress) and discussed it with her in a serious fashion. We decided that she could put her great imagination to use and start a "clothing line" that she would sell through CafePress.com or a similar site. I will proudly state that my 9 year old is extremely intelligent and has the vocabulary of a 15 year old, but even that doesn't mean she would automatically "get it." So, for several nights after she expressed her desire, we spent some time each night talking about concepts like product design, marketing, and sales. What I found was that I had to put an extraordinary effort into internalizing the functions of business so that I can synthesize new ways to desc...