Cloud Computing a Solution For Small Business

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220365

The attached article discusses how Salo, a small company from Minnesota, outsourced all of its IT to a cloud computing provider called mindShift Technologies out of Waltham, Mass. This allowed Salo to focus on the business of providing its customers the best finance, accounting, and human resoources staffing. mindShift Technologies offers its customers a total IT subscription cloud based solution. This gives the small business the bandwidth it needs to use its expertise to get the job done. It removes the need to have IT savvy resources on your payroll and costly infrastructure that need to be supported. The cloud is making it easy for companies large and small, to get out of the business of IT, and get on with the business that brings them revenue.

Steve Jobs - Design Your Own Life

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/steve_jobs_legacy_design_your.html#.To_RlA1IVIg.email

Like many of you, I too was touched by the passing of Steve Jobs this last week. I really liked the attached article, which discussed Steve Jobs philosophy about designing your own life. I believe it is what we all should strive for, but is very hard to do. Many of us follow the status quo and don't deviate from it, even if we feel differently. I particularly liked the line that Steve said about designing your own life and living it the way you want to, you can go from "Kiss-ass to Kick-ass". Because he lived his philosophy, there is a lot of technology out there for us to work with.

IBM's Thinking of the next four Big Things in Technology

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/qanda-ibms-tim-sheehy-on-the-next-four-big-things-in-tech/2011/10/04/gIQAZIOLLL_blog.html

In this Washington Post article, Tim Sheehy of IBM discusses the next four big things in technology which are:

1. Machines that think - Watson is the best example of this. These machines can learn and compile information the way you and I do, whether it’s through visual information, spoken information or graphics. Health care is the most immediate application where all doctors would have access to machines like this help improve patient care. The law is another application where all cases are online and Watson can help with litigation support. Many more possibilities exist.
2. Nanotechnology - This lets you have a system on a chip. Nanomedicine is one application, one could target and find strains of bacteria, like a laser-guided missile for bacteria that’s resistant to antibiotics. think of the possibilities.
3. Big Data Analysis - This is about squeezing out as much information from large amounts of data as is possible. It’s very good for prevention of fraud or just finding mistakes in government program. Right now there is work going on with New York to root out errors in their Medicare and Medicaid systems.
4. Exascale Supercomting Systems - Leveraging existing technologies to improve computing power by an order of magnitute. Working with the Department of Energy’s laboratories, IBM could look at the energy grid of the whole U.S. and find ways to make it more resistant to failure.

These are some of the technologies that is being worked on and will very important to the work I am doing with the Federal, State, and Local Governments.

Lines Between Business and IT is Disappearing

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/michael-dell-line-between-business-and-it-is-disappearing/59700

In the article Michael Dell, CEO and Founder of Dell Computers said "Technology is no longer the tool that enables business, but rather it’s actually embedded inside the business function itself. Cloud is enabling an even bigger change, and the line between business and IT is simply disappearing. Based on what’s happening with mobile, cloud and social computing these days, we’re in the midst of a “true paradigm shift.” Customers are looking for value not devices. IT, traditionally a cost center and still so, but they have started to look for ways to reduce cost and help with revenue  generation. They have become the driving force in most organizations leading the trasformation to the Cloud helping the company realize its goals.

Cloud Computing set to "Skyrocket" Driven by the Economy

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2011/10/04/cloud-computing-set-to-skyrocket-driven-by-economy-survey/

This article reports some very interesting results of a survey conducted by KPMG International and Forbes Insight of 900 executives. The survey reports that 81% say their organizations have already moved at least some business activities to the cloud and expect 2012 investment “to skyrocket, and economic factors were cited by 76% as an important driver for cloud adoption. The following statement sums it all up for me and as an entrepreneur, I find this very encouraging.

“Cloud is transformative in that it is creating new business opportunities as companies harness its power to efficiently facilitate new revenue, services and businesses. It is breaking down barriers in the supply chain, creating more effective and timely interaction between clients and suppliers. It is delivering speed, agility and cost reduction to IT and other functional areas within the enterprise. The transformative impact of cloud can readily be seen across the enterprise in areas from HR, CRM, and IT infrastructure.”

Increase Your Company's Productivity With Social Media

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/09/increase_your_companys_productiv.html#.Toi9O6yWa-s.email

I have always believed that if you get employees involved in discussions around company strategy and innovation, it makes for more productive output. This article reports that by using web 2.0 techniques with communities inside a company, it results in more innovation. Unisys has used this technique very successfully and it should be adopted by many more companies. The article states that "Done right, social tools can resolve longstanding issues of knowledge loss and inefficiency. To harness the productive power of social tools in your company, make sure you have the following eight elements in place as you roll out social network for your company: 

1. Strategy: Be sure there is buy-in and engagement from senior executives who are willing to lead by example.
2. Alignment: Get involvement from stakeholder groups across the company.
3. Technology: Determine the right mix of tools and technologies.
4. Pilot: Identify pilot groups like Unisys did with the sales team.
5. Governance: Establish guidelines for governance.
6. Communications: Develop a communications plan.
7. Metrics: Identify hard business metrics like increasing speed to innovation or speed for winning new business.
8. Implementation: Create process for enterprise wide implementation new skills needed for success like social media literacy

The Federal Government Using The Cloud

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinjackson/2011/10/01/homeland-security-moves-to-cloud-through-gsa-iaas-bpa/

This article discusses the use of cloud computing by the federal government. It discusses that standards are being put in place for use of the cloud by the many federal government organizations. Their strategy is to approve once and use many times, so all organizations will not have to put in place their own approval, selection, and deployment process. As an entrepreneur working government organizations from federal to state to local, this is very encouraging for business opportunities.