IP EXPO The One Place To Be

As you will read elsewhere on the blog, at Copydyne we think IP EXPO 2012 was an outstanding event. As the show wound down on the final afternoon we took the opportunity to survey the floor, make some observations and engage with a variety of exhibitors.

A mix of major enterprise and mid-market service providers were interspersed with exhibitors providing specific niche expertise and ‘point’ solutions. As could be expected at the event billed as ‘the UK’s Number ONE Enterprise IT event, bringing everything you need to know about IT infrastructure under one roof’ the focus is on the platforms on which IT services are provided. Today, this means a major emphasis on cloud computing.

Despite this billing and emphasis, there were a wide range of ICT solutions and services providers exhibiting. Some exhibitors were clearly cloud infrastructure oriented; some offered turnkey cloud platform solutions and others productised cloud enabled services such as DR or remote back up; many offered expertise in discrete areas such as storage or load balancing.

Other vendors offering specialist enterprise services not related to infrastructure used IP EXPO as an opportunity to get on the radar of enterprise decision makers. Even then, the mix was diverse; high level services such as application control were tempered with those offering lower-level peripheral ICT services like printer management.

Focus on storage – Innovation Versus Proven

Naturally enough for an infrastructure event, IP EXPO presented delegates with an abundance of storage specialists to choose from. Weighing up cost against performance is an inescapable narrative that determines the value of almost everything; in the technology industry, big ticket prices, rapid obsolescence and asset depreciation heightens the awareness of value. Storage costs are readily expressed as cost per GB, reducing our understanding of value to a single figure that is easy to compare. However, it’s not the whole ‘value story’. For example, the case for Innovation V. Proven technology is not usually reflected within the £/GB figure.

Many perceive storage as boring and mundane, but this is wrong; storage decisions are of immense importance and have strategic implications that influence the systems development roadmap. Copydyne came across two exhibitors that seem to sit on opposite sides of the Innovation V. Proven divide.

Despite having nearly 30 years experience in designing proven infrastructure storage solutions, Dot Hill Systems is one storage brand that is not widely known. Dot Hill has been hidden behind OEM badges of global solution providers and has only emerged as a solution provider in its own right in the last three years.

Hardware Compatibility list certification for iSCSI SAN with VMware has been pivotal in helping Dot Hill to cast off its OEM chains, stand as a brand in its own right and succeed as the market for cloud infrastructure mushrooms.

Since being founded in 2008, Tintri was running in stealth mode until March 2011and is something of a storage innovator. It brings together expertise from the spheres of storage and virtualization to focus on storage solutions exclusively for VMs. The business describes its products as ‘VM-aware’ storage, and a ‘platform that finally understands virtualisation’.

With solutions optimised for four key storage specialisations – databases, development and test, VDI and workload consolidation. Unburdened by traditional orthodoxies and preconceptions Tintri’s approach avoids the need for SANs by utilising its proprietary VMstore file system and SSD flash storage technology.

Here are a few other exhibitors that caught our eye…

Well with a name like Splunk Inc. you just have to go talk to these guys and ask what they do! Big Data is the answer, and this topic was a major area of focus at IP EXPO this year. Splunk is one of those seizing on Big Data as an opportunity to innovate by finding value for enterprises through analysing the machine log files that most devices and many applications generate.

Load balancing and application acceleration is the specialist area of jetNEXUS. This doesn’t seem particularly exciting, until you hear about the impact that web page latency makes to online sales: For instance, more than £1.7 billion in sales are lost globally because of slow loading e-commerce sites.

jetNEXUS offers a narrow band of very specific ‘point’ solutions that addresses specific problems associated with server infrastructure. Some might see this as a weakness of the business. However, when you are as expert as jetNEXUS and as committed and passionate, it might just be a strength that helps you endure.

Bit9 is one of those big companies that not many have heard of… Specialising in application control, Bit9’s expertise is typically deployed as a part of an enterprise layered security strategy. The outstanding capability to log, track and control events on enterprise networks even protects against ‘zero day’ vulnerabilities that depend on executable malicious code.

Bit9 has a strong case study about how it prevented a Flame attack 5 months before the malware was properly described and a virus definition developed by AV vendors. The fact that Flame had been operating for at least two years under the noses of every major antivirus product underlines the need for a layered approach to security. With such a big feather in its cap, it is little wonder that traditional anti-virus vendors may be watching with envy and ‘champing at the Bit9’ to move into its space…

Stop Worrying and Love the Cloud

Seminar title of the show award

There were a record 260 seminars at IP EXPO. Time was short and Copydyne had the chance to pick just one to see live. Scanning the listings, the one that caught our eye was ‘How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cloud’ given by Phil Wainewright from Boston Limited.

In equating the cloud with the cold war hysteria surrounding nuclear war and the superpower strategy of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) so ruthlessly satirised in ‘Dr Strangelove’, it certainly made an impression, and gets Copydyne’s vote for ‘Seminar title of IP EXPO 2012’.

Although it alludes to the fears that many have around the cloud’s big security and privacy issues that prevent some from embracing the cloud whole-heartedly, it was in fact a pitch for CA’s AppLogic product running on Boston’s server platform, which offers a pre-packaged point and click solution to configuring and delivering virtualised cloud platforms. You can catch Phil Wainewright’s blogs at http://www.zdnet.com/blog/saas/

Record breaking IP EXPO London 2012

Overall, the view of exhibitor’s was that day one was busier than day two and the mood was very positive. In line with the ambitions of the architects of IP EXPO 2012 , and with record breaking figures for exhibitors, seminars and delegates, the event shared a synergy with London 2012 Olympic Games.

The variety of services and solutions represented by exhibitors at IP EXPO proves that the technology sector is reasonably buoyant. As long as the economic outlook remains one of uncertainty, and cloud services continue to provide the opportunity to slash the costs of providing or outsourcing ICT services, then the technology sector should remain healthy and ready to boom when prosperity returns.

Why not tell us your view on IP EXPO 2012? Follow this link and complete the contact form to send us an email.

Warren East, CEO ARM Holdings © 2102 Imago Techmedia.
Click image to stream keynote ‘Enabling Innovation in Next Generation Enterprise Technology’ from IP EXPO online.

IP EXPO 2012 was an outstanding show, with top marks to organisers Imago Techmedia for making sure that it hit the mark as the UK’s top infrastructure event. Copydyne caught up with one of the architects of the show while queuing for coffee in the press lounge.

“It was hard for Team Imago not to be inspired by the success of Team GB at London 2012. National pride and technology came together to shape the theme of IP EXPO this year. We decided to focus on the best of British technology,” says the rather appropriately named Mike England, Content Director at Imago Techmedia.

The high water mark in the British technology industry throws up the potential to go after some pretty big technology beasts to target as speakers. However, it was not easy to secure opening keynotes from two of Britain’s most successful technology leaders:

• Dr Mike Lynch, the man who co-founded Autonomy and steered it to acquisition by HP for $11 billion

• Warren East, CEO of ARM Holdings, the global leader in designing system-on-chip technology and processors for mobile devices

Mike England explains, “I was able to connect with Mike Lynch through one of the tech businesses in which he has invested,” says Mike England. “With Warren East it was slightly different. It was more a case of diary clashes. I thought I had completely lost him when his PA called me up and said ‘OK, I’ll give you Warren.’”

The razzamatazz around last year’s closing day keynote speaker, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was a little distracting. At the time Woz’s appearance was highly newsworthy, given the proximity of Steve Jobs death on 5 October, 2011. With 24 hour rolling news channel Sky News filming an interview, and fans lining up for a photo opportunity there was almost a touch of showbiz to last year’s event.

For some, this didn’t feel quite right for an infrastructure event, while for others there was almost a ‘well, now top that’ expectation for this year. Mike England puts it into perspective by saying: “Last year we wanted to put IP EXPO on the map, and Woz helped us do that. This year we knew we couldn’t top it and we didn’t really want to. It was time to do something different, to build on rather than outdo last year’s achievements.”

With a record number of visitors, 260 seminars and 240 exhibitors, 2012’s IP EXPO is a gold medal performance and certainly built on the achievements of 2011. Let’s hope 2013 continues the trend.

Follow Mike England on Twitter: mikeeng1and

Pfmpe invokes Thomas Jefferson: ...hostility against every form of tyranny...

Some 20 years ago Ben Bernanke now Chairman of the US Federal Reserve co-authored a text book.

Macroeconomics, now in its 7th Edition, gave the definition of the title as ‘the study of the structure and performance of national economies and of the policies that governments use to try to affect economic performance’. Today the key operative definition words on Wikipedia’s Economics page are ‘analyzes’ and ‘examines’.

And this says it all. Despite all the big numbers, it is not maths; and being untested theories, it is not science. The global economic system is really a live experiment and no one is in control or really knows what is going to happen. Macroeconomists know this, as do the politicians whom they advise. Now you’d think such a critical system to which the future of the whole human race is indexed would be operated with just a little more caution.

Perhaps if we ever escape from the global economic mess perhaps we could find a better way? Does it not seem sensible to open the discussion by considering alternative ideas for organising finance? 

For instance, the mathematically perfected economy is a bit like Nostradamus in places and, indeed, may be the ramblings of a madman. However, some of the greatest geniuses are technically ‘mad’. A science of a mathematically perfect economy may be crazy. It may be true. But what if it’s both? And how are we to know unless we discuss it?

Currency pile up wreaks economic carnage

So we stagger on, from the likely Greek default and sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone, to the downgrade of bank credit ratings that is set to pitch us headlong into a credit crunch. (What, another one? Or is it the previous one being replayed?)

The disaster that is the world’s financial system is looking a bit like a motorway pile up in super slow motion with rewind and frame by frame advance added in for good measure. It seems that the financial system is way over the heads of mere mortals and it begs the question: Is global finance too complex for its own good?          

Global finance, similar to the IT industry where we have our own highly specialised area of human knowledge, is a field where we have to rely on experts.  But that’s mostly where the similarity ends.  

Technology is applied science while much in macroeconomics is theoretical and untested. It is opinion based and expert ‘witnesses’ can be bought to support virtually any point of view. And you can always find two macroeconomists to gleefully argue the finer points of a global financial meltdown.  

Many macroeconomists as well as politicians appear detached from the fact that the trillions of $, €, ¥ and £ over which they intellectually tussle are actually indexed to the futures of billions of people. Despite the best efforts of the experts at the wheel, the global financial juggernaut is quite clearly not under the control of anyone*. If we survive the wreck, is it not time to dismantle this doomsday machine? 

Have a look at this companion post about how the perfect economy may be truly crazy. 

* Except perhaps Richard Dawkins’ blind watchmaker? But that’s another discussion…

Cooking up a storm – Credit Crunch Pie topped with Global Economic Recession

1. Layer the portions of Debt Mountain with bundles of indeterminate risk.

2. Use productisation to create ‘complex financial instruments’.

3. Half-bake for a few years and distribute liberally to precipitate global economic mayhem. Bon appétit!

This is a simplified – and hopefully a digestible if somewhat unpalatable – view of the causes of the credit crunch. (OK, foodie puns stop now!)

One of the hallmarks of the finance industry is that it is heavily laden – some would say veiled – in specialised terminology. And some suggest that the technology industry is no different.

While technology communicators may not be practising a deliberate policy of jargon based confusion, it is clear that there is still way too much technobabble in communications that are designed to promote technology businesses and services. This criticism of technical content in sales and marketing materials invariably spills over to include ‘management speak’.

Some criticise the levels of MBA influenced management speak that exist in business communication, labelling it as ‘corporate mumbo jumbo’. Whatever the perception, communication created for business decision makers needs to be written in a language that is readily understood by the target audience.

It’s about audience relevance. If communications are to capture the minds of business decision makers, then the use of high level business terminology is necessary. The aim, after all, is to create content that attracts and resonates with an audience that is conversant with the language of business.

So the lesson for the technology industry is clear. Clean up the techie jargon in sales and promotional material, but don’t neglect those formally schooled in business. Or go the way of high finance and be reviled for generations to come!

If things continue as they are then it is not too great a leap of the imagination to envision a world where people of working age have to ask their grandparents “Do you remember the time when the majority of people had jobs and worked for a living?”

The job market seems to be shrinking; cost base reduction continues to shape the headcount equation for many larger businesses; tuition fees and competition for university places is playing its part in soaring 18-24 year old unemployment; the prospects for young people look bleak. As many of us face the task of preparing our children for a world without jobs, it seems that the most progressive organisations are not going to give up on the next generation just yet.

Growth and job creation are in the hands of SMB and SME scale organisations and Atlanta Technology realises the dangers of not answering this call. Atlanta is a dynamic band of dedicated experts that punches way above its weight when it comes to delivering business-class cloud services to mid-market enterprises.

Atlanta uses a transparent, merit based Academy system to fast-track the development of tomorrow’s IT professionals. This is reminiscent of the apprentice system and dumps the poor image resulting from nepotism that is often associated with internships. Atlanta’s Junior Sales Academy programme demonstrates the leadership that businesses must follow if they are to capitalise when prosperity returns – it is imperative to bring the next generation of skilled workers through. Take a look at Atlanta on Linkedin if you want to know more.

Steve Wozniak © 2011 Sky News.
Click image to stream interview ‘Apple Co-Founder: Legacy of Jobs lives’ IP EXPO 2011.

IP EXPO 2011 certainly provided a media coup for event organisers Imago Techmedia this week by featuring Steve Wozniak as a keynote speaker. Announced months ago, few could have realised just how media-worthy Woz’s appearance at the show would be due to the death of Steve Jobs just two weeks ago.

It was important not to let the downbeat economic outlook colour the mood of the event and IP EXPO 2011 took innovation as the theme with which to inspire exhibitors and delegates. There was a hushed expectation in a packed keynote theatre as the audience awaited the 2nd day curtain raiser from The Woz and his foil, Rick White both representing Fusion-io.

Rick White was a little bit like a forgotten man in the run up to this much anticipated event. Steve Wozniak’s place in technology history has long been undisputed; with the passing of Jobs, the surviving half of the DNA that went into the birth of Apple Computer is even more precious.

As Chief Marketing Officer, Rick White is a natural showman and isn’t over-awed; his performance provided a contrast against which to understand perfectly why Steve Jobs was the focal point of Apple. The Woz looks less comfortable in the spotlight; however, when he has to take centre stage, like all of those that top the bill, he benefits from a good warm up act.

Rick White’s rap around ‘this monkey’s never been wet’ offered us an entertaining reminder of a key mechanism behind one of the major barriers to innovation – we are often reluctant or discouraged from thinking out of the box ‘because that’s the way it’s always been done’.

The Woz, no stranger to innovation, offered some observations on the subject of his own. One of these was that it is not easy to innovate by committee. The obvious interpretation of this is that innovation may not lend itself readily to the democratic process. Certainly in the legend of Apple, there is more than a hint that it takes a force of personality to get things done quickly and efficiently, in line with the single vision of a brilliant leader.

The titles of the TV series ‘Triumph of the Nerds’ and the book upon which it was based, ‘Accidental Empires’, celebrate those that shaped today’s tech industry but that may lack social and leadership skills.

The Woz’s discomfort out front reminded us that those that may be less relaxed in the spotlight, and not as highly qualified in business, can by virtue of innovation and pure brilliance still shine as intensely as anyone.

How about I buy Microsoft and re-brand it as 'iComforts'?

The world is not short of Steve Jobs tributes, so this is in danger of being a ‘me too’. However when you are compelled to say something, then you just have to say it…

Success in business can meet with disapproval, as if there’s something dishonourable about organising people for prosperity. To the younger generation business is un-cool – it’s not acting or music or fashion, media or sport.

Not so Steve Jobs, who in many ways became a ‘pop star’ business person. He had mass appeal across the divides, capturing the imagination of young hipsters and the business savvy a like. Apple Computer is synonymous with cool, user friendly products; iTunes gave the world a new model for music consumption and for a moment the business became the highest capitalised public company in the world.

As I entered the technology industry in the wake of the DTP revolution, my journey through life has in some measure been influenced by this man. When we think about it, this is where we really come to appreciate the significance of Steve Jobs. He had the power to touch lives.

Steve Jobs passing is sad. But it is wonderful that he lived to see his ideas triumph in the face of adversity in what is perhaps the most challenging commercial battle ground of our age – the tech industry.

There are many takeaways from the Steve Jobs story. Some include:

•   Never give up  – Not even when a 500lb gorilla going by the name of ‘iComforts’ holds most of the cards!

•   Some weekend consumers influence corporate purchasing decisions on weekdays  – Win the hearts and minds of the masses and corporations follow

•  For a standout user experience it’s imperative to apply creativity – Usability and design conquers enterprise preference for low cost functionality

Steve Jobs has passed into history before his time. I believe he stands out in the Legend of Silicon Valley because more clearly than any of his contemporaries he saw what was coming and made it happen. In time he will be bracketed with great inventors, thinkers and artists such as Edison, Leonardo or Picasso, that also shaped the future. For all of us involved in creating and marketing technology products, Steve Jobs’ most important legacy is that he remains the most inspirational innovator of the age.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Cheating search engine spiders – or at least creating the perception that you know how to do it – equates to big fat bucks for the SEO industry. Don’t get taken for a ride…

But that’s another story.  >> Fast forward…

Investment made, site optimised. OK. What happens next?

Just because your page rank has gone up and the site is nearer the top of the natural search results doesn’t mean your business success will grow. In the short term site visits may see an uplift. But does that translate into increased levels of business in the medium term and beyond?

You want your SEO investment to pay off…

Some things you should consider… If you are selling solutions and consulting, like organisations providing business technology and IT services, then a website needs to have real substance for visitors.

Good content – This places an emphasis on organisations operating in such markets to have high quality content. It needs to be constantly refreshed. Regular updates help the site to become  ‘sticky’ – that is it offers compelling reasons for visitors to comeback frequently.

Socialised – The use of tools like blogs and business social networks like Linkedin, and especially Twitter, are driving presence and the demand for immediacy. If you can remember the impact email made 15 years ago, then look at where we are now…

Integrated – internet marketing efforts need to be properly integrated with each other as well as  traditional channels and activities.

Take control of content hunger and channel complexity – plug in external marketing specialists

These considerations place an emphasis on organisations to take control of content hunger and channel complexity. It is too much to expect marketing managers that do not have access to an internal team of marketers to be able to execute each element expertly. In this case organisations need to find the best external specialists and plug them in to deliver the marketing experience that modern businesses need to provide to customers.