Big Data is a Small Market Compared to Suburban Data
Big Data is all the rage, and seem to be one of the prime targets for new entrepreneurial ventures since VC-dom started to move from Consumer Internet to Enterprise recently. Yet, I remain skeptical about Big Data for a variety of reasons. As I’ve noted before, it seems to be a premature optimization for most companies. That post [...]
From Dreamliner to Nightmare
Complex systems fail in complex ways not anticipated by engineers. You can over-engineer the systems, test every imaginable scenario, build redundant system coverage, test again. and you can still fail. Boeing’s nightmare is just beginning, their latest generation airplane, the 787 Dreamliner, has been grounded because of fire danger in the lithium ion batteries [...]
Saw the Microsoft Surface Tablet and Liked It
I was at Houston’s Galleria mall during the Thanksgiving weekend and got a chance to spend some time in both the Microsoft and Apple stores there. I had read a few articles praising the device, such as Jeff Atwood’s piece (which fairly gushes), but was skeptical. I’m not at all an Apple Fan Boy nor [...]
The Two Most Desirable Features of a Platform as a Service
Big Data? Multitenancy? Uber DB scaling? Mad Hadoopishness? Faster app development? Universal Social Connectivity? Not so much. Some platform or other claims all of those things, but the two most desirable features of a PaaS appear to be revenue generation and commodity pricing, not necessarily in that order. Let me first say that I’ve come [...]
Conspiracy Theory: the Vista-ization of Windows 7 has Started…
Three years ago I wrote: Windows Seven in 2010. Does Anyone Still Care? I simply don’t get it: Vista is barely out, nobody seems to like it, CIO’s refuse to upgrade, analyst firms tell them to wait, individual users who tried it switch back to XP, others time their new PC purchase so they can [...]
Remember HP’s New Wave? Here We Go Again!
Sam Diaz has gotten clarification on the future of Windows in the light of their Web OS announcements. It should come as no surprise that Windows isn’t going anywhere, and certainly won’t be replaced by Web OS any time soon. Instead, HP is saying: HP will integrate the WebOS experience into Windows, but not through [...]
Scoble Discovers Developers are Schizo About New Platforms
I just listened to Scoble’s bar interview of @longview (Nick Long) and @renatto (Paul Robinett), two Dreamworks developers who are building a mobile app of their own. They’re talking about the Mobile World, and there are some great sound bites coming from the interview. BTW, the Cinchcast tool he used to do the interview was pretty [...]
Forget SaaS vs On-Prem, Here are 8 Application Styles to Consider
The EI discussion about Microsoft’s poor handling of Silverlight brought out the different viewpoints swinging. The “RIA was never a good idea” camp was in full force as was the “this confirms everything about HTML5″ and the “Flash is on the same train as Silverlight” camps. I don’t see these developments nor the evolution of [...]
Dell Buys Boomi: Right Inline With My Cloud Strategy
Image via CrunchBase Just read that Dell is buying Cloud data integration company Boomi. That’s right in line with the focus on data strategy I’ve recommended for Cloud vendors. I’m not sure how many more companies in this space are available to be picked up. IBM picked up Cast Iron Systems, which was another great [...]
What is the Sound of One Cloud Thunderclapping?
I just finished reading Randy Bias’s piece, “Elasticity is NOT #Cloud Computing … Just Ask Google“, and I must admit, it takes me back to all sorts of questions of a vaguely unsettling nature that have been bubbling below the surface of my cloudy thinking for some time. If Elasticity is NOT Cloud Computing, and [...]
