As I continue to meander through the early stages of our software-development
project, I've encountered a large measure of scope creep. Scope jog or scope
sprint might be a more accurate term. What started as a modest, internal
workflow project has been intertwined with a more ambitious, external content
delivery system.
One company, one vision, two seemingly unrelated projects. As I've written
before, we're hosting and streaming content for the content system from the
cloud, with one of the big public vendors. Separately, our internal data
workflows are also being considered for the cloud, but we've been stopped
dead in our tracks by concerns about Vendor Lock-in 2.0 in this case.
We don't mind being locked into a vendor to handle what may be terabytes of
data from the external project's customers, but we fear lock-in of our modest
amount of internal data.
However... (more)
I like to organize part of my life around Cloud Expo, coming up again in New
York June 10-13. One new tradition is to published our updated Tau Index
results at the event. We will be doing this in New York again this year.
We published our original Tau Index results in conjunction with Cloud Expo's
Fall 2010 Silicon Valley event.
The Tau Index takes a relative look at national ICT commitments throughout
the world. Our original algorithm relied significantly on World Bank
statistics regarding ICT spending, leavened by income disparity and cost of
living. The idea was that high inc... (more)
"Despite the lock-in...it's really not about the money but about the features
and the product offering." So states a blogpost I just read from a company
that is dissatisfied with one major cloud vendor and is moving to another.
Yet cloud vendor lock-in -- what I like to call Vendor Lock-In 2.0 -- seems
to me to be a major issue facing our industry.
I say this as I experience my own cloud build-out. I'll be spending a lot of
my time this year implementing a number of cloud-based solutions at a small
enterprise near by current base in northern Illinois. We are already hosted
by one... (more)
The bloviations of a wacko CEO in the US against French workers provided some
comic fodder this week. Making fun of the French is a bit of a national sport
in the US, and the expected barbed retorts have come back from France this
week.
More seriously, the "dirigiste" approach to government taken by France's
Fifth Republic since its founding in 1958 can seem to many Americans to be an
impediment to economic and societal growth. But the less varnished,
ostensible free-market approach taken by the US can seem barbaric to our
European friends.
Indeed, France trails several of its ... (more)
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has revealed her latest surprise, announcing that the
company "is now committed to great journalism."
"With almost 150 million unique visitors per month, our company is the most
dominant media presence in the world," she said. "It's time for us to commit
to serving this massive audience responsibly."
At least one media critic applauded the move. "The decline of American
journalism in the Internet Age is no secret," said Aprile DiPesce, Associate
Professor of Mass Communications at Manhattan State University. "When Yahoo
lost its dominance in search to Goog... (more)