Category: Comments & opinions

I predict the end of business as we know it, the growth of internet connected devices will see a change so huge that those who are not ready will simply die. It’s without doubt that the internet is going to dominate our world even more than it is now, smart devices that connect to all of our lives will change everything. Today 40% of the world’s population has an Internet connection. In 1995, it was less than 1%.The number of internet users has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2013. The…

Popular photo-sharing site Instagram, which claims more than 150 million users worldwide, has been blocked in mainland China as Beijing goes head-to-head with pro-democracy protesters in the former British colony of Hong Kong, according to Reuters.   Reports suggest that many of the images and videos that had been taken and circulated by protesters had been tagged with the phrase “Occupy Central”, which was blocked earlier on Sunday on China’s version of Twitter, Weibo. Reuters said in its report that even if the Facebook-owned social networking site is blocked in…

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has just gone public. Find out what it means — and why it’s a big deal.  Image: Associated Press A Chinese company named Alibaba went public this past Friday, with shares opening at $92.70 — a 36% jump above the initial IPO price of $68. More than 100 million shares were traded within 20 minutes; the day’s total was over 271 million shares. All in all, Alibaba raised nearly 22 billion dollars so far, making it the biggest US IPO (Facebook brought in $16 billion when it went…

When it comes to soundbites, Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison is a pro. Reporters show up not just to hear what he says, but how he says it. Bill Gates, Microsoft, SAP, IBM, cloud, yachting, his own phenomenal success – all have been subject to Ellison’s barbs and meditations. Scheduled or off-the-cuff, his words turned a conference call with Wall Street, a stuffy Valley dinner, or an open mic at his company’s OpenWorld conference into the kind of affair where his PRs rocked on the edge of their seats in…

A while back I wrote a post about understanding cost in a virtual environment. This week in a chat with a customer this subject was identified as possibly the most crucial discussion that the teams are having with little or no information. The conversation goes something like this: Director of IT: “Can you tell me how much it costs if I want a Windows VM?” Techie: ” Not really, there are so many costs, first there is the OS, then there is the network, storage, hardware (well what the VM…

Sometimes when you have spent so much time working in an environment that has had upgrade after upgrade its good to just go back to basics. This struck me as important in the past few weeks as one of my customers have been discussing their upgrade with me. On the surface it seemed like a very simple scenario, move from the existing version to the new version and keep the status quo wherever possible. This is the easiest solution and I suppose the one we are most likely to go…

The social network will pay up to £100 to individuals who find security issues in its platform Twitter has offered individuals who find possible security flaws in its platform a $140 (£100) reward. However, that amount is not set in stone, according to the company. The social network said in a blog post: “Reward amounts may vary depending upon the severity of the vulnerability reported. Twitter will determine in its discretion whether a reward should be granted and the amount of the reward. “This is not a contest or competition. Rewards…