Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

cloud computing

Will Reliability Be a Factor?

January 11, 2010

I see many folks asking if SAAS (software-as-a-service) will be hurt by data center outages. So I figured I would take a shot at it.

Anything over the IP network is going to be slightly less reliable than the TDM network. The TDM network had 100 years to create the 5 nines reliability that customers have come to expect. IP networks have not had that long - 15 years max to design some kind of reliability.

One big difference is that IP networks have more points of failure. Routers and switches on each end.



Will You Be Extinct?

December 9, 2009

Yesterday I had lunch with XO's Tom Gorey and Peter Davis. We spoke about the fast changes taking place in the channel space. Tom used to work for Ingram Micro, so he understands the VAR space as well. 

The big issue for both VAR's and Agents is that the price pressure on hardware and telecom services is shrinking margins and commissions fast. We all remember when Internet T1's were $1500.

A Few Words with COLOTRAQ

December 1, 2009

Dany Bouchedid is not only the President of the Technology Channel Association, the only not-for-profit association for channel partners, but he is the CEO of COLOTRAQ. Colotraq is a sort of master agency for collocation worldwide, that has direct agreements with over 400 facilities globally. I asked Dany a few questions about colocation, since I think it is an area that some agents (channel partners) are mystified about. However, with worker mobility and the significance of always available data (reasons cloud computing, SAAS and virtualization are buzzing), colocation becomes important to businesses.

Were There Highlights in 2009?

November 25, 2009

Ken Camp's Year in Review prompted me to write this. It's been an interesting year. SIP, UC, Cloud, Merger. That's really how I see the blur that was 2009. I attended so many conferences this year.

A Collision is Coming

October 26, 2009

Another point Nicholas Carr made was that IT and telecom are colliding. A new landscape is coming. 

My thoughts immediately went to GV. Who will be replaced by Google Voice?
  • Who is the commodity?  
  • Who will add Value to the User Experience?
People will pay for easy and reliable. (Not all of them will, but more than enough will.


Cloud Computing Keynote Thoughts

October 26, 2009

Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, was the keynote this morning. He spoke about Computing becoming a Utility. Cloud computing is all about computing becoming a utility to be delivered like electricity -- and how this will change the shape of business.

My thoughts on "The Cloud":

Is Information Technology (or computer architecture) too challenging and or too much overhead for many businesses? 

Cloud computing and Virtualization are just new names for Managed Servers and Hosting and Managed Services.

When data shows that businesses are using cloud services, the term is so general (much like the term UC, unified communications), that it includes data storage/backup, managed email, web conferencing and hosting. (think about that the next time you see the data).

Moore's law has outpaced Grove's Law, Carr showed.









Top Trends for Agents

October 11, 2009

I'm in Atlanta speaking at the Microcorp One-on-One event about Trends in 2010. The three trends that I see for agents are the following: Applications, Quality of Service (QOS), and Mobile Broadband (MBB). But they are kind of inter-dependent. Ubiquious broadband leads to innovative uses and applications.

Is the BSA Relevant?

August 26, 2009

I received yet another press release from the BSA (Business Software Alliance). It was about a funny video. Why the PR firm thought it was relevant to me is astounding.

It got me thinking. Is the BSA losing relevancy?  Two things are shaping the commercial software world:  SAAS and Open Source.

The BSA's job is to stop piracy - in the US mainly.



Trends for 2010

August 24, 2009

In speaking with Microcorp today about their agent event in October in Atlanta, we were discussing a panel on Trends for 2010.  It's not so much about the vendors, it's about the services that the vendors are offering that will become the next revenue stream for the channel.

This ties in with a TCA listserv discussion about Alternative Streams of Revenue for the Channel Agents. TCA will be hosting an agent call about Electricity with a couple of agents who have been selling electricity to businesses in unregulated states for a while. (Paetec offers this to agents as well).  Other topics include Web Strategy (like Lead Generation through Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Marketing); SAAS; 4G; the Cloud; and Managed Services.

It won't be enough to just sell TDM in the future, you will need partners to offer Telecom Expense Management (TEM) and Auditing as well as all the new services coming down the pipe (electricity, SAAS, cloud, 4G, VOIP, SIP Trunking, etc.). 

Maybe we are heading into Master Agency 2.0 - the dawn of an era when the master agent will have to be more than a collection of carrier contracts. What do you see that you might need from your Master Agency in the future?





Developing Profitable Web 2.0 Solutions

August 14, 2009

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