Backblog

My colleague Kevin Smilie wrote last month about the need, when evaluating a Cloud Computing offering, to understand how the services are priced and how that price compares to your current costs. The general perception of Cloud is that it follows a simple P-x-Q (price times quantity) model, that is, you pay for only what you use. What could be difficult about that, you ask?

Unknown to many, figure skating is the original Olympic event. Gracefully merging the athleticism of ice skating with the artistry of ballet, figure skating dates back to the 1908 Games in London. However, it wasn’t until the 2002 Salt Lake City Games that judges had access to instant video replay.

I was asked to contribute to a book that was being pulled together by Terry O’Hanlon from Reliabilityweb.com (a thought leader in our space).  Terry did a great job of collecting thoughts from many senior and very experienced folks in the Operations and Maintenance industry.  My particular piece of insight is on page 23 but I hope you’ll take a minute and flip through the book and I hope and expect you will find some nugget of knowledge that will be applicable to your daily life regardless of whether you are on the Maintenance and Ops side of a business or in a completely technology focussed industry.

In the Coastal Mountains of BC, skiing has become almost second nature. But it didn’t start there. By adapting cross-country techniques, widening skis, and developing different ways to use ski poles and new turning techniques to match the more vertical terrain of the high mountains, alpine skiing has been practiced for over 150 years in the European Alps.

HP just opened the large 360,000 sq. ft. Wynyard data center. This Green Data Center project was underway at EDS before the HP purchase. It uses the continuously blowing cool North Sea air and a unique multilevel low pressure airflow design to minimize the cost of cooling.

No high sticking on the hockey rink
If we had to hazard a guess, we’d estimate that a very small portion of the planet knows the word “Zamboni.” For those of you who don’t hail from geographically cold climates, a Zamboni – note it is a proper name with a capital “Z” – is the tractor-like machine that floods the ice. Still not sure what we are talking about? Take a look here: http://www.zamboni.com/. The Zamboni plays a big role in the sport of hockey and it has a catchy-sounding name, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the IT we’ve installed at Canada Hockey Place. However, just as the Zamboni keeps the ice clean and fast, our IT systems ensure a flawless transmission of the hockey games; penalty times, power plays and shoot outs included.

I was catching up on my reading the other day and I came across an article on using Swarm Intelligence techniques to identify computer malware, describing research from Wake Forest University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). In my predictions for 2010 I listed security as one of the areas where significantly different techniques are going to be required. This article reinforced that perspective.

Unfortunately, it's coming to be called the Spring Olympics .. but seriously, there's lots of snow at Whistler. Also ... the 2101 Winter Olympics will be the first in history to have an independent media centre.  The rise of social media over the last five years means that the accreditation of various people-and-purpose users of social media has been a hotly-debated issue in the months coming up to the opening of the Games. Vancouver's new inner-city arts and media delopment W2 Community Media Arts Centre opened yesterday.

Patrick Adibia, Executive VP, Olympic Games and Major Events, talks technology, preparation, organization, and sustainability. Everything is just about in place and we're ready for Opening Ceremonies.

Effective contract negotiations leverage comes from developing viable alternatives that are financially, technically, and tactically feasible and desirable; and from being ready, willing and able to execute against them. Here are the TPI Top 5 tips for maximizing leverage in your contract renewals:

AppleInsider - This week, Epocrates Inc., the developer of mobile applications used by more than 900,000 healthcare professionals worldwide, revealed a new study of more than 350 clinicians conducted in the wake of Apple's iPad announcement. Among those surveyed, 9 percent said they plan to buy an iPad when it is immediately available, and another 13 percent intend to purchase one in the first year.

HP Labs' Nick Wainwright has been appointed Chair of the UK Future Internet Strategy Group, which will consider next-generation technologies, applications and services. They are going to hold a meeting on February 26^th in London - and it's free when you register.

I came across this blog entry: Can the Cloud Catalyze Change in International Data Laws? It discussed how International laws can severely limit the flow of data across borders -- based on the type of data. Although this doesn't prevent the use of cloud computing techniques on a local level, it does limit global resource utilization and competition.