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Judy Mottl (bio)

May 12, 2008, 5:20 PM

Just Java, Hold The Wireless, At Starbucks

It sounded too good to be true.

Free wireless while you're enjoying a java decaffe latte supremo bean grande with whip cream. (Ok, I made the drink up. I'm an instant whatever's on sale high caffer myself).

A news release said AT&T would be deploying free wireless to AT&T subscribers at 7,000 Starbucks nationwide as of May 1st. I wrote about it on Feb. 13th.

Well, it's May 12th.

The Starbucks near me doesn't have it. People have come in for it, tried logging on and had no luck getting in. The baristas don't know anything except it was supposed to be on, and now it isn't, and they don't know when it will be.

AT&T, when contacted today, said it wasn't commenting on reports that the service wasn't available. I'm waiting on further clarification. Starbucks hasn't returned my call or email as yet.

Meanwhile there's no mention on the Starbucks site, though AT&T still has its official release up on its site.

So something hit a snag. What's the big deal in just saying what and why and when it's coming?

Posted by Judy Mottl at 5:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Share

May 5, 2008, 4:34 PM

Data's Latest Threat: Can You Say 'iPod'?

Think enterprise storage and visions of white boxes, tall server farms, sprawling data centers come to mind.

I doubt the iPod, a MP3 player or that cute blue USB flash drive hanging around your colleague's neck come to mind.

But given the results of a new report from Credant Technologies, they all should pop into view as all could be posing the newest threat to data today.

Take a gander at some top findings from a Credant study about these little technology terrors:

86% polled say the USB flash drive is most often used to store data exchanged between computers, data-centric phones with SD cards came in second.

Yet, when it comes to serving as a source of data leakage, the iPod is emerging as a main threat, with data-centric phones just slightly ahead.

While the iPod is used to store lots of data, it seems enterprises don't seem too knowledgeable about the posed threat as 61% have never heard of “pod slurping” — the downloading of corporate data to an iPod.

Most surprisingly, though, is while tech leaders acknowledge the threat the devices pose, nearly half polled -- 49% of all respondents -- aren't ready to take any preventative action until they know that the devices are more widely used to store business data on them.

Hmmmm.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 4:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

April 29, 2008, 11:30 AM

Canada & Its BlackBerry Crisis

What is it about the air in Canada that makes people so attached to their BlackBerrys?

Is it the cold? The hundreds of thousands of trees and densely untouched rugged terrain?

Do the lights go out at 6pm up there?

What the heck is going on?

First the Canadian government ministry issued an 'advisory' to its employees to lay off the smartphone devices on nights, weekends and holidays. The effort by Citizenship and Immigration Canada was focused on getting a good balance between work and life demands.

It actually specified turning off BlackBerrys between 7pm and 7am and says doing so will spur productivity and even attract employees. It also asked employees not to use them during meetings or during lunch times.

Now another Canadian enterprise, DDB Canada, a marketing company, has taken the "quell BlackBerry use" movement even further.

Calling the overuse of devices a "personal digital assistant pandemic" CEO Frank Palmer has issued a company wide policy that "creatively" discourages PDA and Black Berry use at certain times in the workday.

In published reports (several attempts to talk with Palmer or get email questions answered were unfruitful -- maybe he's having issues with his BlackBerry?) the company leader stated:

"Over the past year, I've become increasingly aware of and annoyed by staff who use their BlackBerries during meetings. Whether it's done openly or covertly under the table, using a PDA during a meeting is completely unacceptable, disrespectful and hinders the progress of the meeting. While these devices are considered time-savers, they’re also extremely intrusive."

The policy is sort of a take-off of soccer rules.

Employees caught using a PDA in a meeting are issued a yellow warning card (by a fellow staff member at the same meeting)

A second yellow offense will result in the issuing of a red penalty card.

A red penalty card means the employee must pay for their PDA invoice for that month.

"While most staff are attentive and courteous during meetings, there are a few that continue to use their PDAs when they shouldn't. This could turn out to be an expensive, yet worthwhile etiquette lesson for those who continue to use their BlackBerry in the boardroom," stated the CEO.

I see two direct results from the BlackBerry crackdown: fewer CrackBerry thumb injuries and very likely a huge baby boom in Canada come next year.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 11:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Share

April 22, 2008, 9:06 AM

The Power of the BlackBerry

Research in Motion couldn't have asked for a better product endorsement than a research effort coming out of the Australian School of Business and Sydney University which claims that its popular email device, the BlackBerry, can increasingly "make or break a business."

Research authors Judi MacCormick and Kristine Dery spent time exploring how the smartphone device can help businesses achieve what a press release claims is the "newest Holy Grail" -- organizational ambidexterity, or OA for short.

The researchers define OA a company's ability to balance often conflicting internal and external demands at the same time as balancing the need for flexibility and control.

MacCormick reports businesses that successfully juggle multiple "climates," which includes involvement, adaptability, consistency and mission perform better.

In simple terms, multitasking pays off and can pay off big.

At least that's my interpretation, though given I have no formal business degree, I could be wrong.

But I don't think I am.

It seems that the way a BlackBerry is used can have a significant impact on boosting a company's weak areas such as market or employee focus.

Yet too much BlackBerry can be a bad thing. {This part of the research, I'm guessing, would not be welcome news to RIM}.

The researchers say connectivity can go sour -- especially when bosses expect employees to be as on-call 24x7.

"Positive climates of involvement and adaptability can quickly turn into over-involvement, addiction, and diffusion – where your sense of control becomes watered-down because you are in constant contact," states MacCormick in a press release.

But that doesn't mean IT or corporate leaders should ban BlackBerry use, warns MacCormick.

I'm definitely sure RIM would agree with that research consensus.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 9:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

April 14, 2008, 6:22 AM

There Once Was A Man From Nantucket....

Who says storage gurus aren't a creative bunch?

I certainly never did, and Wikibon.org's Dave Vellante certainly proved they are last week at Storage Networking World in Orlando.

While enjoying a cocktail, Vellante was sharing his own special limerick about green storage with a colleague when I overheard him. I politely interrupted his conversation to ask for a copy to share:

The guys in IT don't have the will

Cause it's the facilities people who pay the bill

But that's gonna change sooner than you think

We're out of power and on the brink

The CEO said 'spend 1/3 less; I want you to fix it. Clean up this mess!'

So we had a big meeting -- boy it was tough

We said: 'There's only one way…

'GET RID OF STUFF!'

Vellante, cofounder and principal contributor of wikibon.org, a worldwide community dedicated to improving the adoption of technology and business systems through an open source sharing of free advisory knowledge, also offered up some interesting tech tidbits:

Only 5% of CIOs pay the power budget for IT equipment (so no one seems to care unless they're out of power!)

The per sq. ft. annual costs of a data center are at least 50X more expensive than those of a typical office building (this from Gartner, PG&E and some Wikibon users)

The IT industry produces nearly 40 million metric tons of CO2 emissions from data centers (again from PG&E).

The electric bill now nearly exceeds server acquisition costs over the 3-4 year life of a box.

The worst place in the country to use outside air to cool a data center? Tampa, Florida (5% potential savings). The best place? Fairbanks, Alaska (67% potential savings).

Water chills 3 orders of magnitude faster than air.

The primary design point for data centers is most typically 125 Watts/sq. ft.

It's time to turn stuff off!!!!!

Thanks for sharing Dave :) See you at the next SNW!

Posted by Judy Mottl at 6:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1) | Share

April 10, 2008, 9:28 AM

Live From SNW: The SSD Has Arrived

There's no dispute that solid state disks have arrived and arrived big time at Storage Networking World.

An early morning presentation on solid state storage for the enterprise drew a packed room.

If it had been held earlier in the week presenter Woody Hutsell, VP at Texas Memory Systems, predicts the line for a seat would have been out the door.

"Last year I was the only one talking on SSD, this year there were three presentations," Hutsell told InternetNews.com. "And given this is the last day of the conference the attendance was amazing."

Hutsell shared his presentation duties with Brian McKean, a storage architect for LSI.

Asked if maybe SSD deserved its ownpanel work session at the next show, Hutsell shook his head.

"I want it all to myself," Hutsell said with a smile.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 9:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

April 10, 2008, 6:32 AM

Live From SNW: It's All In A Name, Or Is It?

Back on the Expo floor I met up with LSI.

I had been seeing their name and brand all over the conference hotel as their savvy marketing people got the company logo on room key cards for attendees and they also sponsored the Internet café.

As one attendee told me, the company even had a better approach at a past show. They sponsored the conference badges, displaying their logo on the underside of nametags. As the tags typically swing around all you could see throughout the conference was "LSI" on everyone you passed.

At the booth the company was raffling off a GPS unit. Describing themselves as "silicon and system storage," no one seemed too sure if "LSI" stood for anything in particular. Maybe large scale integration?

At the Data Domain booth the give-away was Amazon gift certificates. Attendees, all who received a "key" in their promotional packets, could come by and try to see if their key fit the 'treasure chest' at the booth. One attendee, Glen, actually one while InternetNews.com was talking to booth staff.

The HIFN boys explained their company name was a take-off of 'hyphenated,' meaning compressed data..compressed name. As I declined one of the company's token pens, someone pointed out I was already using a HIFN pen for note taking.

Riverbed, named for the company owners' love of fly fishing, was founded in 2002. There was a iPhone raffle and of course pens. The company booth staff says the company is all about 'thinking fast' and 'WAN like LAN.'

Four-year-old SanBlaze wasn't giving away anything.

Wasabi, obviously named for the hot ginger spice though a connection to spice and storage isn't too clear, was raffling off an Xbox 360 Rock Band package, as well as memory sticks and t-shirts.

Two-year-old Stormagic is "simple, smart storage' and Agami Systems, whose name means "that which is to come" both had a Wii promotion going.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 6:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

April 9, 2008, 7:07 PM

Live From SNW: The Allure of Mutton Chops

jered-1573-med.jpgPermabit CTO Jerod Floyd has been getting a little bit more attention than most tech leaders at this week's Storage Networking World in Orlando. And he has his barber to thank for it. Or his own steady hand.

Floyd has an impressive set of mutton chops -- a set that's caught the attention of more than a few people at the show.

This feedback isn't tied to any sort of informal survey I did. It came up in more than a few conversations I had and, ye, well, overhead.

"It's pretty courageous to wear those," one attendee told me, noting mutton chops were in fullforce long before Floyd, a 29-year-old, was likely even a twinkle in his mother's or father's eye.

Another attendee, male I might add, told me he's guessing Floyd doesn't have any children. "Otherwise he wouldn't have the time to keep them so sharp looking or so aligned."

I have to admit I agreed with that. I don't even get in my own bathroom before 8 am these days with one daughter in high school, another in middle school.

Floyd, the founder of Permabit, didn't just grow the facial hair for the fun of it. Or even the attention gained. He believes it helps get him a bit more respect as he tends to look quite a bit younger without them.

To prove his point, he pulled up a shot of himself on his smartphone. A photo of him at 21. Yes he surely did look young, but to be honest, the mohawk he wore at the time drew my attention away from his face.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 7:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

April 9, 2008, 3:17 PM

Live From SNW: Magic and Madness

I spent a few hours at Storage Networking World's Expo today, chatting up vendors, checking out freebies, asking companies to describe themselves in three words or less.

Pretty much enjoying myself like the rest of the few hundred attendees, though most seem to have come for the buffet lunch, which wasn't bad.

Copan, named after the Honduran ruins in which perfectly preserved "persistent" relics were discovered in the 1880s, offered visitors green squeegee balls.

F5, whose name stands for the 'force 5' hurricane power level, had red balls and t shirts.

Symantec doled out one of the neatest goodies -- a network ethernet cable in a hard protective case.

Thecus -- which is latin for storage -- was the only vendor to have a little bendable doll named "T Girl" depicting a curvy nurse carrying a tiny replica of the vendor's NAS box in one hand and a screwdriver in another.

You'd think the powerhouses would have the best toys and trinkets, but that doesn't seem to be the case. AMD gave away luggage tags, Fujitsu had little flashlights though it was raffling off a $100 Visa gift certificate.

Compellent had a compelling raffle -- a $250 Best Buy certificate, while 7-year-old InMage just had pens. Three-year-old DiscoveryBox had chocolates (macadamia) and colorful leis..not bad for its first time at the show.

Gresham, named for its parent company in England, had an iPod raffle going, while Xsigo (named for what, I have no clue, and neither did people near the booth) had a Wii raffle going, and decent looking mints. They did have some of the friendliest representatives at the show so they do get points for that.

NetApp had nothing, zip, nada, while IBM gave a little bit of "storage" in the form of a canvas bag to attendees.

QLogic, which describes itself as simple storage infrastructure, was raffling off a Mac Air laptop. Couldn't find out how it got the company got its name however.

As the Dell boys pointed out their company is 'green' given its green canvas totes on hand.

EMC2 was raffling off an iPod. I did finally find out why there's a '2' in the name -- it's a take off of Einstein's brilliant theory. Did you know the EMC referred to the first letter of the three original founder's last names? I didn't, and the booth people couldn't seem to name the founders.

Quantum, which means unit of measurement, had an iPhone raffle and fun foam missile guns and darts which booth people admitted shooting over at DataDomain staffers.

Tomorrow I'll have a few more to add to the list.

And while nothing quirky or wild was happening , though several people did mention Xiotech's "booth buddies" -- curvey, leggy, blond helpers..many seemed to enjoy the magician the vendor brought in to entertain.

The big question of the day though was why NEC didn't have anything about Hydra at the Expo.

A call into their marketing connection went unreturned.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 3:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

April 7, 2008, 11:12 PM

SNW Live: The Many Flavors of Deduplication

Put four high profile vendors of deduplication technologies side by side in front of a crowded audience and one can only hope for some debate, and hopefully even a few laughs.

That's exactly what attendees at a panel discussion late at SNW in Orlando yesterday were treated to when Taneja Group founder, analyst Arun Taneja, played moderator to a lively discussion about the many ways deduplication technologies can work.

Jered Floyd, CTO and founder of Permabit sat next to Jeff Tofano, CTO at Quantum who sat next to Mikios Sandorfi, CTO of SEPATON, who sat next to Neville Yates, CTO, of Diligent Technologies.

Sandorfi was the perfect person to put between Tofano and Yates it turned out as Yates put forth some heated and pointed words about Quantum's deduplication solution approach and drew a few laughs throughout most of the 45-minute session.

Given the back and forth between the CTOs of Quantum and Diligent one would have been led to believe the two had a long running feud.

But actually the two had only met briefly earlier in the day, and, in their initial short conversation they realized they shared a very close friend.

As Tofano explained after the panel, he was even perplexed about Neville's pointed words on Quantum's product focus and strategy.

"There's no rivalry. We hadn't even met before," Tofano told InternetNews.com after the panel.

P.S. As we all love to know company name origins, try guessing what SEPATON's company name is all about. You'll find out the answer here tomorrow.

Posted by Judy Mottl at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

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