Down to OpenStack Versus CloudStack?
May 5, 2012
Apparently, there’s now an open source cloud war. That’s what ZDNet declares in “OpenStack vs. CloudStack: The Beginning of the Open-Source Cloud Wars.” The opening volley, it says, was fired by Citrix when it announced it was moving from OpenStack to CloudStack. Then OpenStack fired back by declaring that it is launching with the big boys, like AT&T, IBM, Red Hat, and other heavy weights.
Writer Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols explains:
“So, what’s the conflict here? Simple, like open-source Eucalyptus, Citrix CloudStack’s application programming interface (API) provides compatibility with Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud(EC2), the world’s most popular public cloud. The OpenStack Foundation members would like businesses not to use EC2, thank you very much, but to use public clouds built by its major vendors—such as Dell, HP and IBM—instead. . . .
“The name of their game will be to try to offer corporate customers vertical software/hardware cloud stacks. Citrix, on the other hands, hopes that EC2 customers will use their CloudStack for their private clouds while using the EC2 APIs to integrate with Amazon’s public cloud.”
So, OpenStack partners on one side and the Amazon/ Citrix coalition in the other. Vaughn-Nichols posits that other competitors like Eucalyptus and Windows Azure will be left “scrambling to stay relevant.” Hmm. Perhaps it is just me, but it seems a little early to be narrowing the field so tightly just yet.
Cynthia Murrell, May 5, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Quote to Note: Possible Name for Search Vendor?
May 5, 2012
In the Louisville Courier Journal newspaper I saw a memorable phrase. Tucked into an advertisement for a local religious group was a great phrase. I wanted to capture it, and I thought my two or three readers might find it a thought starter.
The ad ran on April 29, 2012, on page B3. The religious group was soliciting members who wanted to join the founder of—get ready:
Team Sweaty Sheep
Only in Kentucky, gentle reader, only in Kentucky.
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2012
Sponsored by no one.
Visualization Roundup: Are Pictures Easier Than Math?
May 5, 2012
Want your data to have visual impact? Visualizations can be a great tool, and MakeUseOf provides some strong examples in “5 Coolest Places to Find Visualizations on the Web.” Be judicious in their use, though, some visualizations are just distracting.
MakeUseOf’s Ryan Dube writes:
“I went out in search of some other sites that offer cool and interesting ways to represent data in a non-text manner. Visualizations let you display a huge volume of information or statistics in a very small space, making them an excellent way to present study results or poll results in a way that is really easy to understand and to spot patterns.”
Dube returned from his search excited about five sites. IBM’s history flow graphically displays the editing history of Wikipedia pages. It clearly illustrates times when a page was spitefully deleted, as well as insight into the growth of certain topics. (It’s also kind of pretty.)
Despite its name, FleshMap is not R rated, though I’d give it a scholarly PG-13. This site focuses on human desire, exploring “the relationship between the body and its visual and verbal representation” in popular culture. It might be best explored after leaving the office.
The last three sites, IBM‘s Many Eyes, Visualizing.org sponsored by GE, and UC Berkeley‘s Visualization Gallery, each serve up large collections of visualizations. Much time could be wasted at any of these sites. Oh yeah, and if you want to create visualizations yourself, they can also provide a wealth of examples.
Cynthia Murrell, May 5, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Yahoo and Governance: Semel to Scott Thompson
May 4, 2012
Short honk: I don’t much, if any, attention to Yahoo. My last big analysis of Yahoo was shortly after its then Chief Technology Officer tried to explain to a financial services client of mine that Yahoo was ahead of Google in search. Crazy assertion from a crazy outfit. In my report, I included an image of Terry Semel as the captain of the Titanic. Got a laugh. Yahoo got zero positives from me. (By the way is that Wikipedia profile of Mr. Semel accurate? Check it out between conference calls and SMS texting.)
Navigate to “Scott Thompson Resume Scandal Is Not an Inadvertent Mistake—He Also Claimed Comp Sci Degree as CTO of PayPay.” I want to comment on the spelling of résumé but who cares? That’s my attitude to the coverage of an executive fudging a biography. Furthermore, in my analysis Yahoo is the type of outfit which lives in a world of illusion, silos, and confusion.
The fact that a senior executive would take the time to do a little digging is absolutely no surprise to me. I hear the phrase “I’m too busy” from people whom I know are not too busy. Some of these people ask me for work and then tell me, “We have a spring vacation.” I heard this phrase from a company president who is guiding a company which is losing millions of dollars each quarter. Right. Vacation. Spring break.
I think we have plenty of solid evidence of a core governance problem at Yahoo, but the same issue exists in many US organizations. Whether it is the confusion about the actions of US government employees or the unfortunate Google Street View incident, governance is not a core competency in many US organizations. Enron, Lehman Brothers, Tyco—remember these executive edifices?
Furthermore I don’t think governance can be fixed quickly, if at all.
When an individual professional does not do the basics like checking key facts, the egregious mistakes will continue and most likely increase.
Governance problems are not black swans.
Governance problems are a direct outcome of people who do not focus, gather information, analyze, and reflect.
Rushing to meetings, asking for others to collect information, and staring at mobile devices—these are flashing signals of trouble at Yahoo and elsewhere.
Fiddling with a biography is either effective public relations, impactful marketing, or the shortest distance between a person and the top of Maslow’s hierarchy. For me, Yahoo and fake credentials are no big deal.
Baloney is the business of many businesses.
Desperation marketing is the new normal marketing.
Stephen E Arnold, May 4, 2012
Sponsored by no one but me.
New Formotus Release Seeks to Provide Enhanced SharePoint Mobile Experience
May 4, 2012
Formotus recently announced a new version of its mobile business application platform with enhanced SharePoint integration and capabilities. The new release is discussed in the Virtual-Strategy.com press release, “Collaborate without Complexity: SharePoint Mobile Workflow Platform for iPad and Android Released by Formotus.”
The new release is summarized:
Formotus makes it possible for organizations to create and deploy custom mobile business applications built around Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ forms. The new feature set announced today enables companies to implement flexible collaboration frameworks with robust forms that can be routed and shared among mobile users in a wide variety of ways. Formotus mobile workflow forms require no SharePoint modifications and work with any version including on-premises, hosted, and Office 365 SharePoint Online.
The new possibilities, such as mobile workflow forms and social collaboration, are discussed in the release along with example scenarios that are now supported. Formotus CEO Adriana Neagu says that the new version is “a whole new task-oriented mobile experience that is easier, smarter, more beautiful, more powerful. The fact is, a person using our platform on an iPad or Android tablet, won’t be able to tell that there is any SharePoint behind the workflow.” These are big and exciting claims for not only workflows, but the whole mobile experience.
SharePoint is no doubt the go-to content management system for all kinds of organizations and enhanced mobile capabilities will surely be an appeal for users. But for complex workflows and successful social collaboration, users also need efficient and effective access to valuable business knowledge. It seems that the experts at Fabasoft Mindbreeze understand the value of powerful search and mobile access.
makes company knowledge available on all mobile devices. You can act freely, independently and yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: Search results are displayed homogenously to the web client with regards to clear design and intuitive navigation.
With the full functionality of Fabasoft Mindbreeze for Enterprise and united on-premise and Cloud data, users will be able to act quickly in business matters with smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Read more about the full suite of solutions at http://www.mindbreeze.com/.
More on Formotus: Founded in October 2005 by Adriana Neagu, co-inventor of Microsoft Office InfoPath, and serial entrepreneur Joe Verschueren, Formotus technology enables companies to rapidly create a business solution ? without any coding ? that works across platforms so companies can design once and deploy anywhere. Formotus looks to future-proof companies because the same forms that work on today’s devices will also work on the new devices that they will support tomorrow.
Philip West, May 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Governance Problem with Open Source Software
May 4, 2012
Open source is great, but licensees want everything to be easy. That’s our takeaway from ZDNet’s “Only 20% of Corporate OSS Users Manage Components.” The piece reports on a survey from Sonatype which surveyed about 2,500 developers at companies that use open source components. Writer Paula Rooney notes:
“Roughly 20 percent, or 500 respondents, said they were locked down and could only use corporate-approved components, compared to 13 percent in a similar but smaller survey performed a year ago.
Fewer than 50 percent — 49 percent — indicated they had a corporate policy in place and 63 percent acknowledged that corporate standards are not enforced or there are none in place. But that’s still up from last year’s survey, in which almost 90 percent said there were no corporate policies at all.”
So, most companies are still too lax with their open source policies, but that status is gradually improving. That’s a good thing, since employment of open source projects is growing apace.
Founded in 2008, the relatively young Sonatype is a software company built on a powerful open source combination—Apache‘s Maven Build System and Central Repository. They are committed to supporting the open source community.
Cynthia Murrell, May 4, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Growing Need for Lifecycle Management
May 4, 2012
A recent report entitled “TechVision 2020” that was produced by business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan defines 50 innovative and transformative solutions across nine industry sectors, including information and computer technology as well as advanced manufacturing and automation, and confirms the supply chain’s need for more technology to support evolving business strategies.
The report’s comprehensive methodology is described in an article entitled “Technological Developments Gain Traction across Supply Chain” that recently appeared on the website for Supply & Demand Chain Executive:
“TechVision 2020 showcases each selected technology, closely assessing the potential of a given technology platform to understand the true market opportunities, while evaluating the risk-reward elements. It appraises technology maturity and adoption ratings, possible year of impact and patent landscape, examines private and government funding trends, and explores future technology and application roadmaps.”
Among those technologies recognized as vital in this report are those supporting product lifestyle management (PLM) as developments in such platforms continue to gain adoption worldwide. Ahead of the curve, Inforbix has created a cloud-based, scalable, and affordable PLM solution that enables companies to efficiently find, reuse, and share product data and to effectively respond to market changes.
Tonya Weikel, May 4, 2012
Lucid Imagination Announces New Search Technology for Salespeople
May 4, 2012
MarketWire recently published a news release announcing a new technology integration between Lucid Imagination, the commercial company for Apache Lucene/Solr enterprise search technology, and SugarCRM in the article “Lucid Imagination Technology Integration With SugarCRM Lets Customers Enjoy Improved Global Search Capabilities Wiht Apache Lucene/Solr.”
According to the release the new integration, first announced at SugarCRM’s 6th annual SugarCon event, allows customers to use Apache Lucene/Solr one of the world’s best open source search solution.
LucidWorks will help both salespeople and management find what they need more efficiently because it uses faceted and navigational search to improve the overall search experience. This new technology also brings better security, relevancy, management capabilities, scalability, and high availability than traditional SQL-based search products.
Clint Oram, CTO, vice president of product strategy and co-founder of SugarCRM said:
“LucidWorks accelerates and simplifies development of highly accurate, scalable, cost-effective search applications. The integration between LucidWorks and SugarCRM will enable users to work smarter and faster, and we are looking forward to seeing our customers experience positive results.”
Whereas most people question the relevance of search technology on their day-to-day lives, this exciting new search platform is made to help make the relationship between shoppers and customer service professionals more speedy and efficient.
Jasmine Ashton, May 4, 2012
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
Need to SearchQuark Files?
May 4, 2012
Need to search within Quark desktop publishing files? Here’s your solution—Quark File Search and Indexing 1.0, a Windows Search add-on. The product description reads:
“Quark File Search & Indexing is a plugin that enhances the Windows Search function in order to instantly find QuarkXpress documents.
“You can use this utility when you manage a big number or QuarkXpress documents and need to locate them quickly.”
The application works with QuarkXpress version 6 or higher, and is produced by MetaDesign Solutions. The company, headquartered in Haryana, India, custom-builds a wide variety of robust IT solutions for its customers. They pride themselves on their transparency and clear communication.
Cynthia Murrell, May 4, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
More Legal Hassles for Google
May 4, 2012
When you climb to the peak of a mountain, you either set up camp or go back down. It appears Google forgot to pack a tent and might be losing their foothold according to, Google target of new federal privacy probe – San Jose Mercury News. This behemoth in the industry has been facing one challenge after another due to inner issues they seem hesitant to correct.
Initially, their fall from grace harbored around hindering investigations. Apparently they didn’t learn from their mistakes as:
“Hard on the heels of being fined $25,000 for allegedly blocking a federal privacy investigation, Google is enmeshed in a second federal probe into its privacy practices that could soon bring a more painful hit to the search giant’s pocketbook, this newspaper has learned.
The Federal Trade Commission is deep into an investigation of Google’s actions in bypassing the default privacy settings of the Safari browser for Google users.”
A $25,000 fine is nothing compared to the revenue they generate, however, how many fines must they incur before they make the policy changes necessary to keep them out of legal trouble. Though they say their cooperating, one has to wonder if Google realizes the damage being done to their reputation. Will Google wise up, or continue to face more legal hassles.
Jennifer Shockley, May 4, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
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