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Open Web Foundation Announced at OSCON

Open source types take heed: The Open Web Foundation has been announced at OSCON, reports Brady Forrest from O'Reilly. The goal is to extend out the work being done in groups like OpenID, OAuth, and several emerging opportunities.

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Upgrading to Exchange 2007? Consider This Guide

ZDNet posted a white paper that should help you understand what happens when you're ready to move to Microsoft Exchange 2007. It's estimated that 50% of companies using Exchange will be at 2007 by the end of the year. Will yours be one?

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Pushing the Envelope - a 15 Petabyte Network

Let's admit it to our geekier selves: hearing about really cool big monster computing platforms is fun. It's like hearing about Big Blue beating Kasparov. You suddenly start wondering when all that power will trickle down to YOUR enterprise platform. A great article over at CNET by Nick Heath reports on the world's largest particle accelerator.

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A Definition of Cloud Computing

We talk from time to time here about cloud computing, but I don't know that I've ever stopped to define it. Now, thanks to Irving Wladawsky-Berger, I won't have to do so. He covers it quite soundly in his post, "What is Cloud Computing, Anyway?"

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Capturing Customer Intent - A New Marketing Strategy

Recently, John Stone, president of CrossTech Partners and I conducted a webinar about marketing technology and strategy. You can view the archive for free here (after registering). During the creation of the presentation, I found myself realizing the gap between where traditional marketing has taken online digital marketing efforts, and where the potential to build stronger relationships for business could truly take one's business.

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Network and Infrastructure Considerations for the Next Data Center

Today's data center network environment and infrastructure require your consideration. Shifting data back and forth is easy compared to adding virtualization, storage virtualization, rich media like video and VoIP, and also software-as-a-service applications into the mix. From the infrastructure and power side, you're being pressured to do more with less energy to meet corporate responsibility goals for green IT initiatives, while lowering operations costs. Not only does your network require a more robust routing and class of service environment, your security and monitoring considerations must be refreshed to match this new world, too.

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Is Your Business Considering Social Software?

Social media tools like blogging, podcasting, and the use of social networks is often talked about from the consumer side, but businesses are deep into this game as well. From Intel to Zappos shoes to JetBlue Airlines and Comcast, there are new tools and new strategies that you can use today to build your business.

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What it Takes to Digg 26 Million Monthly Viewers

Systems Management News has an interesting article about how the popular social news site, Digg, was able to manage 26 million (!) users a month. What's notable is that a site receiving more traffic than BestBuy, LinkedIn, or Ask.com is built on a lot of fast-implemented ideas without a lot of architectural and operational red tape.

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How Google Will Pick Up Where Microsoft Has Left Off

Interesting news analysis from Steve Lohr at the New York Times gives us something to think about differently when it comes to technology. When you and I are in the trenches, worrying about server patches, zero day vulnerabilities, and whether or not we should buy two big servers, pizza boxes, or blades, there's an entire economic story playing out on a larger landscape that influences our decisions. It's worth considering Lohr's points.

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Thoughts on SEO Consultants

Aaron Wall from SEOBook doesn't mince words in his recent post about selling SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consulting services. In fact, he launches the post by telling you that most traditional SEO consulting sucks. There's lots more contained in this post than a rant against consultants, especially because Aaron still takes the occasional SEO project himself. So, what is there to learn?

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