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

saas

One Quick Note About Cloud

April 5, 2011

I keep reading all these projections for Cloud and I have to wonder: Has everyone forgotten that a good portion of this used to be Hosting? Shared Hosting; Managed Hosting; Dedicated Server; Collocation; Digital Hands. This isn't new. Plus it isn't like RackSpace doesn't door knock to see if a business has a server to move to their data center.

IBM's New(er) Strategies

March 29, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

At IBM's Lotusphere this year (Feb. 1), IBM rolled out strategies for Cloud and Social Media.

IBM identified 5 ways that partners could benefit from the Cloud. They are as follows:

  1. Cloud Application Providers - deliver business apps via a subscription model through the cloud such as SAAS
  2. Cloud Builders - design, build and manage clients’ cloud needs, typically integrating with existing infrastructure.
  3. Cloud Infrastructure Providers - provide a public cloud infrastructure or Platform as a Service (PaaS) on which app can be hosted.
  4. Cloud Services Solution Providers - resell multiple public cloud services and offer complementary services such as training and integration.
  5. Cloud Technology Providers - provide the tools, services, and technologies, such as cloud management, billing metering and monitoring — that help clients use the cloud more effectively.

These are ways for VAR's to stay in the business of providing applications and associated services.

According to some PR sent my way, " IBM is the largest consumer of social technologies.

How Important is Retention?

February 27, 2011

For service providers who understand the cost of customer acquisition, retention is an important metric. In fact, Wall Street calls it churn. It has to remain under 2% to be considered under control.

For agents, retention is just as important.

The Emergence of Cloud Telephony

February 2, 2011

So my panel this morning on Trends and Future of VoiP/Telco 2.0: the Emergence of Cloud Telephony with Cbeyond and Dialogic was standing room only. The slide deck is here:ITEXPO-East-2011-Emergence of Cloud Telephony.

We discussed the trend of SMB to move to the Cloud for not just Voice. We hit on deployment, security, Fax over IP, and benefits.

Changes in Customers, Changes in Attitude

January 30, 2011

In an article by Gary Kim, Matt Bramson, Inphonex chief marketing officer, sais some interesting things about telecom sales to SMB.

Bramson suggests that "People also increasingly are comfortable configuring their own solutions and are used to getting support from user communities. ...

Expectations in 2011 with Jon Arnold

December 15, 2010

What's It Take to be a VoIP Winner?

December 13, 2010

What does it take to run a successful VoIP services company? According to Report Linker, "the biggest VoIP providers are ostensibly run-of-the-mill telecom companies. This means smaller providers must innovate and take the role of pioneers whose marketing strategy doesn't rely only on offering the lowest price, since that's a game they can't win."

Lowest price is about scale.

8 Questions for Cloud Providers

November 22, 2010

I've done a couple of webinars lately for VAR's and Agents about the Cloud. I think that between SAAS and Cloud, vendors are forgetting that they are selling applications.

I think the disconnect right now is that Agents aren't comfortable selling apps. They aren't comfortable with many of the SAAS Providers.

Rural ILEC Strategy

November 12, 2010

You have probably read about the unemployment rate. I would love to know how many jobs that the ILEC's have shed in the last 3 years. 75,000? Probably more.

Not a Cloud in the Sky - Clear Sailing for M&A

November 4, 2010

The headline is goofy. I know. But another acquisition happened. Windstream grabbed some hosting.

We saw Cbeyond's purchase of both Aretta Communications and MaximumASP for what appears to be 3.5x anual revenue today.

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