Cloud Computing: What It Really Means for Your Business Monday, December 12, 2011 from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM Buy your tickets here. Having worked for years in the exciting space between business and cloud computing, we’re happy to announce a new class on the subject at New York City’s General Assembly. We’re teaching, meaning [...]
Tag Archives: Business-to-Business
Definitions for dummies: What is Cloud Computing?
We’ve been absent from the blogosphere for awhile now and thought we’d make our reentry with a simple definition. Cloud computing. What is it? How is it different from, well, normal computing? What does it mean for business owners? Where is it headed? Generally speaking, “cloud computing” is the use of the internet to run [...]
Guest post: Is the Cloud ready yet? Let’s ask the accountants
The following is a repost, used with the author’s permission, of Hunter Richards’s February 2nd post, “Is the Cloud ready yet? Let’s ask the accountants.” The original post can be found here. Check it out! —————————————————————————————- Technology enthusiasts have long praised the cost savings and simplicity of cloud computing. Early adopters have proven successful with [...]
No Tecknolegy: 5 costs of inaction, or why cloud computing makes sense
It’s easy to always say no. Your systems function, the processes are clear, it works. Why invest in cloud computing if nothing is broken? What’s wrong with inaction? We hear that sentiment all the time and it’s easily understood. Business owners are risk adverse and they don’t want to fall for short-term fads, especially with [...]
How To Avoid Being An A.S.S. (Affiliated Software Seller) – 3 Things Cloud Vanguards Should Do
To all the Cloud Vanguards (consultants, CIOs, etc.): Please, PLEASE, don’t be an Affiliated Software Seller. Don’t take kickbacks, don’t work off of the margin, don’t try to sell in volume. Why? Because THERE IS NOTHING TO RESELL. Falling back on a traditional reseller scheme is absolutely not going to work. There is absolutely no [...]
Yesterday is dangerous, live for tomorrow
It’s rare we get upset at prospective clients, but it happens sometimes, especially when they just don’t get it. Point in case: we recently visited the aging president of a mid-sized non-profit who insisted on retaining a decades-old IT infrastructure. Pointing at years of successful fund-raising, he downplayed the importance of replacing a decrepit website [...]
Cloud computing and the horseless carriage syndrome
Despite our recent(ish) blog post bashing Microsoft’s cloud initiatives, there’s a nugget of brilliance in “The Economics of The Cloud,” a recent paper published by Rolf Harms and Michael Yamartino, head corporate strategists at Microsoft. It’s a good paper, but the brilliance is in the opening metaphor: When cars emerged in the early 20th century, [...]
The top 5 unknown reasons why business belongs in the cloud
There are plenty of “Top 5 lists” with generic reasons for why businesses should migrate into SaaS and cloud computing. Scalability, cost, mobility – they’re good reasons, sure, but we’ve heard them before: what else does cloud computing offer? If you’re thinking about moving your business into the cloud but haven’t yet, here are five [...]
Nine upcoming Cloud Conferences worth checking out
Here at VM we’re planning our spring 2011 conference tour and we’re happy to say there’s a lot going on in the world of presentations and meetings about cloud-computing. Deadlines are fast-approaching though, so check out the list we’ve put together below and see if there’s something happening near you… hope to see you there! [...]
Lets get jargon out of the cloud
Jargon is everywhere: business and ‘the cloud’ are no exception (irony noted). It’s annoying stuff, but ask most people and they’ll say jargon is inevitable, even necessary. Anything technical or new wants for conversational “shortcuts” and those shortcuts become jargon. It’s a placeholder for complex and/or shiny new things and, we admit, we love it [...]