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JamesNT
Moderator
    
USA
3150 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/27/2012 : 09:19:27 AM
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Is anyone else around here getting tired of hearing about "The Cloud" all the time?
JamesNT
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James Summerlin www.jamessummerlin.com |
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Playwell
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
    
Netherlands
4819 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/27/2012 : 09:48:34 AM
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| Is that a sequence to 'The Net'? |
'People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. ' Quote by Isaac Asimov

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Polymath5
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
    
USA
2385 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/27/2012 : 09:51:06 AM
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| Yes! It's become like a management mantra. "Can't the cloud do it, save us all the money we spend on IT, be faster, better, cheaper, yada yada..." |
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Jazzy
Administrator
    
Netherlands
1929 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/27/2012 : 10:05:14 AM
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| No, I'm not. Business are desperately looking for consultants who can show them where the real opportunities are, what parts of cloud computing are not mature enough yet or not suitable and what parts of cloud are absolutely nonsense. I made sure that I can cover that, and thus make money of this. Basically exact the same as we all did with other hypes like mainframe, client/server, internet, mobile, server based computing and virtualisation. |
Jetze Mellema
Exchange specialist Former MVP (2005-2012) My blog: http://jetzemellema.blogspot.com (Dutch) My company: http://www.imara-ict.nl/ |
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JamesNT
Moderator
    
USA
3150 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/27/2012 : 11:03:30 AM
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Playwell,
Yes, it is.
Polymath5,
The biggest thing I'm afraid of is all the management guys falling for the marketing hype, moving all their stuff to the cloud, and then realizing its a) more expensive b) not as responsive to change requests c) possibly detrimental to their business and then we have to clean up the mess.
Jazzy,
Of course, I fully expect someone to get a handle on any given situation. Kudos to you for turning this into an opportunity. For me, however, it's just one more thing to deal with that is making messes for me to clean up.
JamesNT |
James Summerlin www.jamessummerlin.com |
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Playwell
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
    
Netherlands
4819 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/27/2012 : 4:20:21 PM
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Of course you can act as a broker between you and 'The Cloud' (Enter scary Vincent Price voice).
The revenue however is pocket money. Enough to get 2 kids icecream without the disco toppings. However, there is much said for out placing those services and be the man in the middle and support client issues.
It's not for me. I think you need a short, clear and none technical overview what the cloud really is and which risks and benefits accompany the solution, so you can point at it and say: 'This what you are thinking about?' |
'People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. ' Quote by Isaac Asimov

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ukinahan
Moderator
   
USA
822 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/27/2012 : 5:58:57 PM
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Job security James :) Clouds are the way forward - embracequote: Originally posted by JamesNT
Playwell,
Yes, it is.
Polymath5,
The biggest thing I'm afraid of is all the management guys falling for the marketing hype, moving all their stuff to the cloud, and then realizing its a) more expensive b) not as responsive to change requests c) possibly detrimental to their business and then we have to clean up the mess.
Jazzy,
Of course, I fully expect someone to get a handle on any given situation. Kudos to you for turning this into an opportunity. For me, however, it's just one more thing to deal with that is making messes for me to clean up.
JamesNT
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----------------- Ultan Kinahan MSFT - OSO SE |
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Jazzy
Administrator
    
Netherlands
1929 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 03:17:16 AM
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quote: Originally posted by Playwell
Of course you can act as a broker between you and 'The Cloud' (Enter scary Vincent Price voice).
I'm not talking about being a broker. In my opinion cloud is not a product or a service, it's just a label. In my portfolio I have both on-premises and cloud solutions, the word cloud merely defines some charactaristics with make a solution a cloud solution or not. Exchange <-> Exchange Online, SCOM/WSUS/FEP <-> Windows Intune, Lync <-> Lync Online, etc.
For me every gig is the same, first help customer to understand his own requirements, then find a suitable product and then implement the new solution. For 90% of the cases we end up doing the traditional stuff, for 10% we see a match with a cloud solution.
It's as simple as that.
quote: It's not for me. I think you need a short, clear and none technical overview what the cloud really is and which risks and benefits accompany the solution, so you can point at it and say: 'This what you are thinking about?'
There isn't. What I like to do is to start every talk with customer with: - have a look at one of the thousands of definitions of cloud computing, I like to use Gartner's or the one on Wikipedia - focus on that an talk about 5 common charactaristics (elastic, scalable, hosted, internet protocols, pay per use) - explain SaaS, PaaS and IaaS and talk about who manages what (you or the cloud provider) - then talk about the actual subject (email, monitoring, whatever) and make sure customer understand the relation to cloud and if it's SaaS, PaaS or IaaS
Now if every thing goes well, later in the project customer chooses for either a cloud or an on-premises solution and I help him to implement it. |
Jetze Mellema
Exchange specialist Former MVP (2005-2012) My blog: http://jetzemellema.blogspot.com (Dutch) My company: http://www.imara-ict.nl/ |
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Playwell
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
    
Netherlands
4819 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 03:49:10 AM
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I was not talking in general, but to James and his situation. Sorry if that was not clear. |
'People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. ' Quote by Isaac Asimov

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lacrosseboy
Old Timer
  
550 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 07:13:02 AM
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Social Networking, Social Networking and more Social Networking. Ok, we get it! I return to thoughts of the IT Crowd and "FriendFace". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg
On the other hand, Jim could retire! |
Thomas Deimel Keeper of the Holy Potato |
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Jazzy
Administrator
    
Netherlands
1929 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 11:00:31 AM
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quote: Originally posted by Playwell
I was not talking in general, but to James and his situation. Sorry if that was not clear.
Sorry, I thought you were responding to what I wrote. :) |
Jetze Mellema
Exchange specialist Former MVP (2005-2012) My blog: http://jetzemellema.blogspot.com (Dutch) My company: http://www.imara-ict.nl/ |
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JamesNT
Moderator
    
USA
3150 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 11:02:45 AM
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Jazzy,
Remember, whenever anyone on this forum is throwing jabs, they are usually talking to me.
Que wobble_wobble RAID comment.
JamesNT |
James Summerlin www.jamessummerlin.com |
Edited by - JamesNT on 02/28/2012 11:02:59 AM |
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Jazzy
Administrator
    
Netherlands
1929 Posts
Status: offline |
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JSCLMEDAVE
Administrator
    
USA
6116 Posts
Status: online |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 11:15:07 AM
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I will SEE your Wobble_Wobble RAID Comment and RAISE you a Wobble_Wobble Aidan Comment.
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Tim-
“This too shall pass" |
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wobble_wobble
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
    
Ireland
4517 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 1:18:01 PM
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I just put coffee over 100K's worth of kit!
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Joe
After everything that has happened during the month of Jan 07, I do believe that pigs fly backwards!
http://whatismyv6.com/ |
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JamesNT
Moderator
    
USA
3150 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 1:22:43 PM
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Jazzy, are you CERTAIN you want them speaking to you?
JamesNT |
James Summerlin www.jamessummerlin.com |
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wobble_wobble
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
    
Ireland
4517 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 2:02:12 PM
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Holy batman....
The raid 5 raid 0 array is being held together by the little Dutch boy and Beaker is obviously not impressed!
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Joe
After everything that has happened during the month of Jan 07, I do believe that pigs fly backwards!
http://whatismyv6.com/ |
Edited by - wobble_wobble on 03/01/2012 5:37:22 PM |
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JamesNT
Moderator
    
USA
3150 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 02/28/2012 : 2:05:06 PM
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OMG!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
JamesNT |
James Summerlin www.jamessummerlin.com |
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wobble_wobble
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
    
Ireland
4517 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 5:30:20 PM
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Seriously, though.
If your going to the cloud, your going for a reason. Sometimes its because the sites are geographical. Sometimes its because you want hardware or network with 4, 5 or 6 nines, but you don't have the capital for a spend. Sometimes its because the business does not have the money for the upgrade, the bank won't give you the money, but he upgrade has to happen. Sometimes a good advisor, involves you in the options, and the cloud - public, private or hybrid suits. Sometimes the boss is convinced, has heard the hype and doesn't believe us IT people. Sometimes it just works.
Sometimes it doesn't.
But at least you've given the option's.
I will say, the biggest thing that will bite you on the backside, on going to the cloud, is the bandwidth or lack of. Second, software licensing, both MS and you applications. Third is the applications and their response to latency.
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Joe
After everything that has happened during the month of Jan 07, I do believe that pigs fly backwards!
http://whatismyv6.com/ |
Edited by - wobble_wobble on 03/01/2012 5:33:37 PM |
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Curt
Moderator
    
USA
6652 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 03/02/2012 : 8:01:33 PM
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Man , did I hear a lot about the cloud this week at the MVP summit.
Here is the question.
Do any of you see social content to be finacially valuble?
As things are now some systems will pick up a complaint on Twitter may get more attention than a complaint on the phone to customer service. Can you see this happening?
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Curt Spanburgh Microsoft Certified Business Solution Specialist. Dynamics CRM MVP Contributing Editor, Windows IT Pro He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly. Proverbs 13:20
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JSCLMEDAVE
Administrator
    
USA
6116 Posts
Status: online |
Posted - 03/02/2012 : 8:04:14 PM
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quote: Originally posted by Curt
Man , did I hear a lot about the cloud this week at the MVP summit.
Here is the question.
Do any of you see social content to be finacially valuble?
As things are now some systems will pick up a complaint on Twitter may get more attention than a complaint on the phone to customer service. Can you see this happening?
BINGO!!! "Sorry sir you have an SA but you are not allowed to talk directly to the engineer in Redmond,,, but tell me what you want to tell them and I will let them know." |
Tim-
“This too shall pass" |
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spam spam bacon spam
Old Timer
  
USA
487 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 03/13/2012 : 06:26:59 AM
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quote: Originally posted by Curt
Do any of you see social content to be finacially valuble?
As things are now some systems will pick up a complaint on Twitter may get more attention than a complaint on the phone to customer service. Can you see this happening?
Curt,
I personally saw this exact thing happen happen YEARS ago. (sans Twitter, of course :)
In my previous life :) I belonged to a private "cloud" :) forum for automotive industry professionals.
Many years ago, my ex posted a query about a specific brand of oil filters -- he felt they were having a higher failure rate than "normal"... he asked the group (60K + members) if anyone else was experiencing this sort of failure rate with this brand?
He was very thorough and so, he posted pictures of cut apart filters and meticulous measurements of the differences he saw between filters that were replaced through normal routine maintenance and filters that had failed prematurely.
(He suspected the failing filters were being manufactured by another, cheaper company and being re-branded by the main company)
Now, he posted this query only AFTER we had made many attempts to contact the filter manufacturer through our supplier. Our supplier seemed to be earnest in trying to help, but we received delay after delay in trying to find out what was going on... (remember...a failed oil filter could == seized engine... not something you ignore :)
It was only after 6 months of trying "privately" to get answers that he posted his question(s) to the forum group.
A day after posting, we rec'd a call from our supplier saying the company would be contacting us.
The second day, the company contacted us.
The next week, they flew a rep out to see us in person. He spent a day with us.
He gave us a check, which we declined. (We'd mentioned in the initial post about how we'd spent maybe $4-5 thousand dollars warranty'ing various problems, but had escaped any major engine failures, thank goodness!) We declined the $$ to avoid looking like we took a kickback.
We were happy with the results we rec'd from the company. They admitted some filters were not theirs, but just reboxed. Now knowing which part numbers were reboxed, we could avoid those and feel safe knowing we were not having customers stranded on the side of the road.
And yes, my ex posted posted a follow-up, with how the company responded after his initial query to the group.
I think it's smart for a company to respond to public comments with more effort than they would to a phoned-in complaint. As consumers, we'll never know about that phoned-in complaint, but the "teh google" will expose that Twitter complaint to us in .04 seconds flat :)
~spammy |
“One has to conclude that it is no great matter for someone with access to a PDP-11 to test all lower-case alphabetic strings up to length five and, given access to the machine for, say, several weekends, to test all such strings up to six characters in length.”
Password Security: A Case History Robert Morris Ken Thompson Bell Laboratories Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974 April 3, 1978
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Curt
Moderator
    
USA
6652 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 03/13/2012 : 09:47:04 AM
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OK, thats a great example of how posting a business issue on a forum gets results.
I think I will forward that in a repackaged manner.
Thanks.
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Curt Spanburgh Microsoft Certified Business Solution Specialist. Dynamics CRM MVP Contributing Editor, Windows IT Pro He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly. Proverbs 13:20
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DennisMCSE
Moderator
    
Canada
2400 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 03/13/2012 : 3:15:51 PM
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quote: Originally posted by Curt
Man , did I hear a lot about the cloud this week at the MVP summit.
Here is the question.
Do any of you see social content to be finacially valuble?
As things are now some systems will pick up a complaint on Twitter may get more attention than a complaint on the phone to customer service. Can you see this happening?
Curt, if I have an issue with something and the company has a Twitter customer service account, I usually contact that before I phone into a company now. I have no patience to sit on hold for hours while someone is researching something on my account.
For my cell phone service, cable, Internet, etc., I send a Twitter message to the company's support and add some hashtags to the comment. I usually hear from the company within 30 minutes, more often than not within 10 minutes. I usually then deal with them using Direct Messaging until the issue is resolved. While they are checking into the matter, I do whatever else I need to until I hear back from them and we carry on the conversation using Direct Messaging in Twitter.
By adding a hashtag to my initial message, I usually hear responses from other people about how to resolve the issue, or things to keep in mind when talking with the company. I add that info to the conversation with the company.
I've found that I get a quicker response from the company when the conversation starts in a public forum such as Twitter. And it usually takes up less of my time than sitting on hold with someone reading through a customer service script that they have to follow. And I've been happier with the results as well.
Because Twitter, and other social media, are a public forum, companies tend to repond much quicker becuase it is so open. They know that bad feedback will spread very quickly, so it's best for them to get a positive result in an open forum than getting a negative result.
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DennisMCSE
Blog: http://itprofirewalker.wordpress.com/

Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/Firewalker96
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spam spam bacon spam
Old Timer
  
USA
487 Posts
Status: offline |
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