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Cloud computing is one of the hot sectors of the information technology space. Without a doubt it is emerging as a trend which has the potential to change the way corporations operate. Already consumers are becoming comfortable with clouds as they upload their photos, videos, email, blogs, documents and spreadsheets to a variety of services which live somewhere... everywhere. Just as consumers have pushed companies they work for into accelerating deployment of VoIP and smartphones, expect cloud computing to become popular in part because we are all comfortable using the technology in our personal lives.

Recently at Interop 2009 in Las Vegas I spent some time with Jason Liu the CEO of Univa, a company which is at the heart of the cloud computing market. A conversation with Jason - and I had two, one where I was taking notes and yet another which was on video camera and will be posted soon, is like drinking from a garden hose of valuable cloud-based information. This is Liu's fifth venture backed company (he came onboard 2 years ago) and being able to articulate a vision is obviously one of the reasons investors seem to be drawn to him.

Liu started the conversation with his definition of cloud computing - there are five categories...

1)      Boundless applications

2)      A pooled set of shared resources

3)      A service based approach

4)      A virtualized environment

5)      Metering (Liu says this is an addition from analyst firm Gartner Group and billing could be tied to this attribute)

He went on to explain that future clouds will be a mesh of private/public information and the primary driver for keeping private clouds will likely be security concerns.

His company is involved in providing intelligent dispatch, a term which describes cloud computing middleware which handles application prioritization. The founders of Univa were the founders of Grid and as such they have been at this game for a decade. And the experience counts as there are tremendous levels of complexity in dealing with masses of servers, software and users while trying to optimize application delivery and performance based on preset rules.

Univa adds intelligence to clouds and Liu feels carriers need a solution like their Reliance product so they can more rapidly roll out cloud-based offerings which offer the ability to more easily provide service-based pricing. Liu further explained Reliance 3.0 has decoupled the "brain" from the provisioning meaning you can now use their solutions on virtually any infrastructure.

Cloud computing has tremendous potential and is also one of the more complex solutions in the enterprise and carrier technology space. If there is one constant that came out of my conversation with Jason Liu it is that that as cloud computing becomes even more complex, laden with applications and users, you will eventually have to add intelligence. It would seem Univa is well-positioned as the world comes to it.

It seems the common sentiment is the lower amount of venture capital we see today is negative for the US economy. The New York Times even says we are in a VC crisis. Let me give you a contrarian point of view based on my experience in the late nineties. When the Telecom Act of 1996 was passed, VCs flooded the market with billions of dollars to create thousands of CLECS looking to take a piece of the communications market from the handful of incumbents.

What ended up happening was too many investment dollars chased too few sales dollars and the model disintegrated. Similar to what happened in the financial meltdown, the system collapsed under the sheer weight of the collective excess of investment. Do I need to even say the words dotcom crash ?

Did we need the competitive telecom market to increase from a few players to a few hundred in every medium-sized city overnight? Obviously not.

So when I read articles about VCs being cautious and companies spending less money to attain new patents and keep existing ones, I realize this is a good thing because it will become easier for companies with good ideas to become successful.

I would argue if the Telecom Act of 1996 were passed in this economic climate, there would be far fewer CLECs started and each new company would have far greater odds at success.

With the spread of information being so rapid, a good business idea circulates the world in nanoseconds meaning that competition is brutal for any industry which cannot sufficiently build barriers to entry.

I can't even imagine how tough it must be to launch a new green technology company today.

And when 50 companies are launched in the same market and all of them are building barriers to entry, the end-result is none of them really have the barriers they think they have.

Of course I am one of the biggest proponents of marketing your way through a recession. I also believe you need to innovate your way through. But the reality is there will be less spending on both these areas than there should be, which means if you have a good business model and can innovate and market while others are distracted, you could become the next IBM, Google or GE.

Yes we are in a tough economic climate but those that make it through without cutting themselves to the bone will be best positioned for rapid growth in the future.

For nearly 13 years, Greg Galitzine has been a tremendously valuable part of the TMC team. His career started as an editor for CTI Magazine in 1996. Where he reported on the collision of the computer and communications spaces including what we called IP telephony back in the day. In 1997 we convened a meeting with Greg to explore whether it made sense to launch a publication in the IP telephony space. The outcome of the meeting was to launch what we hoped would become a cornerstone of what we hoped would be a new industry - Internet Telephony Magazine.

Greg became the editor of this publication and had the vision to see this is where the industry was going. Many companies in the communications space told us we were nuts for launching this publication as at the time there was no industry, just a few nerds calling each other on softphones.

Lo and behold, over the past decade this nerdy, niche technology revolutionized telecom to the point where business models have changed, new entrants have come into the telecom market and entire industries were transformed through international outsourcing made possible by inexpensive VoIP-based telephony.

In the last few years, Greg did a great job helping transform TMCnet into a major web force in communications and technology news. We are grateful to him for the years he has put in.

I am very happy for Greg as recently he has been given a great opportunity which involves a move to a new industry altogether. Galitzine has accepted a position with ISA, Inc., a prime contractor to the National Nuclear Security Administration and working in about 18 countries through Central and Eastern Europe to identify and interdict the illegal movement of materials for weapons of mass destruction. Greg will be taking his analytical and editorial skills to a higher level, contributing to national-level policy and operational support analysis for these major international nonproliferation undertakings.

While we all selfishly wish Greg wouldn't move on, we are happy for him and are sure he will make a tremendous impact in his new position.

If you look at TMC from the outside and find yourself asking how you can get a job as an intern at this global integrated media company which builds communities online, in print and in person while gaining marketshare regardless of economic climate, I have some great news to share. We are looking for a small army of interns who want to learn what it's like to take on major multibillion dollar media companies with infinite resources and consistently win.

We will teach you how to sell collaboratively - how to listen and to be loved by your customers (well most of them anyway).

We will teach you integrated marketing and online marketing - not theory but ever-evolving practice.

If you love media and want to work at the company that is light years ahead online, contact us ASAP. We are very picky so if you aren't a super-hard worker and collaboration and hat-wearing are not your middle names, let's end our relationship now as friends (it's not you it's me).

One last thought about TMC - our culture is unusual - we have the financial stability of a 37 year-old company with the energy and enthusiasm of a start-up.

Let's just say if you're thinking of contacting us, please don't delay


Here's more:

The Sales & Marketing internship position at TMC is designed to provide hands-on experience that will be mutually beneficial for both the intern and the organization. The internship position is designed to challenge students and provide them with practical experience in the advertising and media industry.

TMC is looking for a dynamic, creative, enthusiastic, high energy professional to support the Sales organization, to help build advertising and marketing presentations for prospects and clients.

• Work with sales & marketing team to assist in the implementation of various campaigns
• Contribute to the creative input in building campaigns and support the campaigns
• Copyediting and proofreading
• Communicate with customers and peers
• Minimum Qualifications:
• Working towards completion of a college degree program in business, marketing or communication
• Excellent communication skills verbal and written
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite, specifically PowerPoint and Excel
• Excellent communication skills
• Detail Oriented
• Initiative and proactive thinking
• Team player
• Ability to multi-task and work in a fast paced environment meeting deadlines

As TMCnet has expanded I have to admit it is tough to keep track of all the sites we have which can help you in your job. To that end I decided to take a moment and list some of them which you may not be aware of. I thought this entry made sense as I have received some comments about how TMC should launch some of the sites listed below. This shows me there are just so many things we do that our 2-3 million unique visitors each month may not be aware of. I hope you find these sites of use:

• Europe
• Asia
• Africa
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Australia

• Mobile site
• iPhone site
• iphone news site

• Information technology
• Cable technology
• Robotics
• Satellite
• Green Solutions

• Jobs Site

The Upcoming Era of Deep Telephony Personalization and How Tellabs Wants to Help Carriers make it Happen

As the global population grows it seems the desire for each of us to do things differently from others will only grow. Just as this trend is responsible for billions of dollars on fashion spending, millions of tattoos and custom cars, expect it to take over the worlds of tech and telecom as well. Don't believe me? Then how do you explain consumers sporting music players of different colors which match their outfits?

This trend was a major theme of a recent meeting I had with Robert Pullen the CEO of Tellabs in the company's Illinois headquarters. According to Pullen, his company will help carriers succeed by assisting them as they provide customized services to their customers.

He further went on to describe the evolution of communications which started with humans sending information over water, roads, railroads and planes. He feels the internet and now personalization and customization are the most recent embodiments of communications.

Interviewing Pullen was made pretty enjoyable by his use of frequent and succinct statements which quickly show where his company adds value. For example, a one-liner which was particularly memorable was that Tellabs Enriches peoples' lives by innovating the way the world connects.

Pullen explained his company is transforming first from TDM to IP and now the next layer of applications and content. From there he touched on parental controls as a potential area of personalization.

Other important nuggets include the idea that you need to sell your way through the downturn and he pointed to emerging economies as one area where they are doing this. Latin America sales for example were up 60-70% at the time of this interview. Another interesting factoid is the company's R&D spend which is currently a significant 16-17% of sales.

Some of the focus areas of the company are mobile backhaul, optical, business and professional services. The future of the company is certainly going to be more closely tied to mobile devices and Pullen acknowledges they are positioning the company to take advantage of this trend.

This is likely one of the reasons for the recent hiring of Vikram Saksena, the ex-CTO of Sonus and ITEXPO keynoter. Saksena has impressed me greatly in the past as he understands how the next generation of services will transform telecom. Saksena and Pullen were busy strategizing when I spoke with them and I am very interested in seeing what new solutions this collaboration allows Tellabs to bring to market.

Greg Galitzine was in this meeting as well and we can expect a more detailed article from him in the May 2009 issue of NGN Magazine so be sure to subscribe today so you don't miss it.

Many people in the communications space have asked me recently what TMC's secret is. After all, we are in the toughest media environment of our lifetimes and we produced our best show ever and have more paying customers online than at virtually any other time in our history.

The answer may lie in a bit of luck and some skill. The lucky part is we built our first online community for a customer about a decade ago. And since this time we have invested a small fortune in building our own proprietary technology which allows us to build highly-ranked, viral, news-driven communities for customers. Well over 100 of these sponsored communities live on TMCnet and generally consist of the tabs at the top and down the left of most of our pages.

Moreover TMCnet now houses millions of pages of content which gives the site tremendous prominence. And we have ranked very high on search engines for many years which has generated a tremendous amount of links to the 100+ articles we write a day and other content such as blog entries on the site.

The community product is called a GOC or "gock" and stands for Global Online Community. When we launched the program the term "organic search results" was probably not common but now, these communities help our customers rank extremely high for a variety of keywords which are important to them.

I know what you are going to say. Rich, that is what those click ads are for. Well to be honest the value of an organic search result is much higher to the searcher because it is not blatantly paid for and moreover it is not in a sea of other ads. Most importantly, research shows less that 20% of people even click on search ads. What about the other 80%?

TMC's communities answer the request we have been hearing -- How do you recreate the best part of tradeshows online?(shots from last ITEXPO East February 2009 in Miami)

Finally, unlike search ads, these communities help your own site(s) rank high organically by providing links. Moreover they help companies build their brand and thought leadership.

In addition, as a news-driven entity, GOCs draw traffic from other pages on TMCnet, newsletters, the TMCnet home page, news search engines and traditional search services. They are multimedia in nature, allowing companies to interface with customers via audio, video and of course text.

Example of an IP-PBX GOC (click to see full screen image)

Many of you have told me over the years that there needs to be a way to combine the best part of trade shows online. The GOC program is exactly this as it brings in your potential customers from around the world and gives them a reason to come back and see your message as the news is constantly updated. It is a very busy 24x7 community consisting of the most targeted people available on the web. And it is targeted by the news you find important.

In addition, it is measurable, and includes a wealth of metrics which can be used to analyze your spend and justify it up the chain of command.

For the reader the benefit is clear. They come to the GOC and bookmark it so they can keep up to date on the latest happenings in the space. How many people come? Well our record is over 650,000 pages viewed on a GOC in one month but typical results are between 250,000-500,000 per month. Generally, each GOC will average about 100,000 unique visitors per month - and they are targeted exclusively by content. In other words, you can use this program to build a community of people interested in subjects such as colocation, IP communications, HD voice, next generation communications, fixed mobile convergence or anything else in virtually any field. Click on any of these above links to see how the design is different and mirrors the look and feel of the sponsor.

If you are interested in learning more, here is an updated (4/14/2009) video which describes the program. Feel free to drop me an email for more.

If you are interested in the stories and headlines I find useful, I invite you to bookmark my Google Reader feed which I update fairly regularly. I occasionally will add comments as well. In fact, since I started using this page, I have found myself blogging less. I hope you find this resource useful.

Last month I reached out to Greg Gianforte the CEO of RightNow

Technologies regarding how his company is doing. Why? Well the hosted communications/call center/CRM market seems to be doing better than others as a result of reduced CAPEX budgets and I know some others in the space are growing quickly. This was his response:

RightNow had record sales in Q4. For the year, our revenue was up 25% Y/Y and we generated nearly $15M in cash from operations while returning to GAAP profitability. We gave guidance for 2009 to grow recurring revenue an additional 10% - 15% in 2009 while expanding profit margins.

I believe this growth is due to the continued adoption of SaaS and the need of companies to keep the customers they have while reducing costs. One new customer last fall, a multi-billion dollar retailer, was able to eliminate 50% of inbound customer email and 18% of phone call volume in three weeks using our eService capabilities.

I believe we will see a continued increase in the adoption of SaaS and a continued focus on Customer Experience initiatives in the current environment.

This is great news for others who provide SaaS and moreover it is gratifying to see companies taking the time in a slower economy to focus more on customer acquisition and retention. During the last slowdown in 2001 many companies took the opportunity to offshore their sales and customer service which didn't always meet with increased customer satisfaction. This time they are investing in technology to keep current and existing customers happy.

For more from Greg check out our podcast from last winter.