networking-info

A few weeks ago I once again had the pleasure of participating in a private discussion on cloud computing with Mr. Vivek Kundra.  What struck me in this most recent meeting was his views on the need to infuse geospatial information into the national policy decision making process. To demonstrate this point, he highlighted that even though high rates of healthcare fraud can be linked to specific locations, our lack of a national geodata standard could potentially hamper the consistent enforcement of a national policy in this area. In their February blog post, " BI's Next Frontier: Geospatial Cloud Computing ", Margot Rudell and Krishna Kumar succinctly described this need: "Competitive superiority and prosperity require timely interpretation of space and time variables for contextual, condition-based decision making and timely action. Geospatial cockpits with cloud computing capabilities can now integrate the wealth of cloud data like macroeconomic indicators on the w

My appreciation and thanks goes out to Jeremy Geelan for including "Cloud Musings" on his list of the Top 50 Cloud Computing Blogs. Thanks is also in order for "HighTechDad" (Michael Sheehan) for his insightful suggestion to create this new "prism through which to view cloud computing". Congratulations to my fellow cloud enthusiasts! Dustin Amrhein  "A View from the Clouds" Randy Bias  "Cloudscaling" Rene Buest  http://www.clouduser.org/ Larry Carvalho "Robust Cloud" Sam Charrington  "Cloud Pulse" Colin Clark "Cloud Event Processing" Peter Coffee cloudblog.salesforce.com Reuven Cohen  "Elastic Vapor" Adrian Cole jclouds.tumblr.com Tim Crawford  "Cloud Computing & IT Optimization" James Downey  "Cloud of Innovation" William Fellows  blogs.the451group.com Stephen Foskett  "GestaltIT" Tim Freeman http://www.timfreeman.org/ Jay Fry  "Data Center Dialog" B

Cloud computing is disrupting the venture capital industry in a big way. One of the obvious changes we all have observed is the reduced up-front capital expenditure to start a new venture. Things that used to require an array of expensive servers and an army of people to maintain them have essentially been replaced by a bunch of EC2 instances and a few smart developers. The tools and the technology stack for today’s applications are designed for cheaper and faster experimentation allowing the entrepreneurs to follow the lean methodology and pivot as fast as they can. I agree that some investors underestimate the people cost and overestimate the capabilities of the cloud but regardless this has caused a major shift in how the companies are funded. The rise of an emergent category of super angel is all about leveraging the cloud computing. Fred Wilson closed a $30 million fund and Aydin Senkut closed a $40 million fund. These funds will invest into dozens of companies that can be boo

According to 1,250 ERP Software Advice readers that will be Oracle's next acquisition. Terradata came in a close second in this race, suggesting that Oracle will "...play it safe next time around and strengthen their already formidable data warehousing and business intelligence offerings". TIBCO roundes out the top three "fairly straightforward ideas".  For details on the other options visit ERP Software Advice . •Teradata. This data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) play would check a lot of boxes, augmenting Oracle’s strength in databases and BI. Moreover, Teradata brings strength in key verticals. At 21x P/E, the price might work. •Informatica. Another data warehousing play, Informatica would complement Oracle’s leadership in database and business intelligence. While the deal would be bite-sized, Oracle would have to eliminate a lot of costs to make it acretive. •TIBCO. Like the BEA Systems deal, TIBCO would bring the benefit of adding a middleware

Today Intel announced that it is buying McAfee for $7.7 billion. This acquisition made people scratch their heads. Why McAfee? The obvious arguments are that Intel has hit the growth wall and organic growth is not good enough to satisfy the shareholders. But this argument quickly falls apart from margin perspective. Why dilute their current nice gross margin even if McAfee has steady revenue stream? [Read my update at the end of the post] I believe there are two reasons. The first is that the companies need a balanced product and revenue mix regardless of different margins. Oracle bought Sun and HP bought EDS. Big companies do this all the time. The second, not so obvious, reason is a recognition that software is new hardware. The processors are processors – they are a commodity any which way you look at them. It is not news to anyone that the computing has become commodity which is the basis of utility style cloud computing. Software, embedded or otherwise, has significant potential

Watching Larry Ellison and Oracle over the years as it has morphed itself is a real study in market dynamics.  It's transformation from database company through middleware provider to now being a "cloud computing pioneer" is simply amazing. The only question now seems to be "What's next?". The image below dipicts the company's recent mergers and acquisitions. Stephen Jannise, ERP Market Analyst at ERP Software Advice , wants to know your prediction of  Oracle's next move.  Participate in the survey and read more by going to: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/enterprise/oracle-mergers-acquisitions-whos-next-1080310/ As one of the leading software providers to the government marketplace, this next move could be interesting.   ( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article , get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )

Earlier this week, my good fried and NCOIC colleage, Melvin Greer was interviewed by Rutrell Yasin of Government Computer News. In the interview , Mel focused on the importantance of entrprise architecture as an innovation enabler. " What I want to challenge EA practitioners to think about and to move toward is an environment where we use enterprise architecture not only for compliance to our chief information officer’s needs and to use it for alignment but [also] to drive EA as an enabler for innovation." As the director of Lockheed Martin Corporation's SOA Competency Center, Melvin is focused on ensuring that the awareness and applicability of service-oriented architecture in increased in all of the company's relevant government programs. In the article, Mel also address cloud computing and the use of trusted cloud services. "We are focusing the enterprise architecture for advanced innovation, but we can optimize advanced capabilities across an entire set of