The forum was completed about Cloud-Services with the focus on the Windows Azure Services. The main speaker, David Chappell, has great eloquence. Sapo team were the most interceptive at the event making a lot of questions with the subject well study trying to see how Windows Azure Service can fit in our objectives/projects.

Windows Azure Services is on CTP and there’s a long way to go. In my personal opinion Windows Azure Services have nice features but for now shouldn’t be compared with AWS that are much more mature. The CTP release might have profound differences to the first deployment so I’m expecting great new stuff.

I’ll write a lot about windows Azure Services Be aware…

See http://mosttraveledpeople.com/

Last week I and my team a Sapo.pt (the biggest web portal of Portugal) gave a talk at Codebits (codebits.sapo.pt) about our Enterprise Service Bus (Sapo Service Bus – services.sapo.pt) that we are responsible for maintaining and develop. The Sapo Service bus is the front-end of all Sapo and other PT companies services and it abstract the services of:

• Authentication;
• Cache;
• Message transformation i.e. JSON to SOAP, POST to SOAP, JSON to POST;
• Security;
• Routing;
• Monitorization;

Our ESB support several bindings and it implements the services catalog very usefull for developer that want to use the services.

The session was recorded but for now is only available the slides.

Another great news is that Sapo Service Bus was release in Codebits as a Open Source product. In order to download you can go to:

- http://www.codeplex.com/SapoBus

- http://softwarelivre.sapo.pt/bus

You are free to use Sapo Service Bus and give us your feedback.

You can see our presentation here:

http://www.martinfowler.com/ieeeSoftware/published.pdf

Enjoy it and discus it J

This Friday morning I gave a talk at Shift08 about SaaS/Cloud-Computing. The goal was to give an overview in 40 min about what is the paradigm that SaaS/Cloud-Computing is on, business models and some issues about SLA and BCP.

I was I little bit nervous (my last talk was in June) and my presentation was made on the fly because I have others threads that I’m handling right now.

In my personal opinion the talk went well but it was far away from my latest ones.

I hope everyone enjoy it.

For me Shift was just my talk. I didn’t managed time for enjoy it . However, for what I saw and heard it was AWESOME!

There’s been a long time that I didn’t write anything. I saw my statics at Google Analytics and I lost the blog dynamic. This happens because my life shifts to Lisbon to work at Sapo.pt (the main Portugal portal). For now I can’t speak about the project in public however it’s pretty cool.

Beyond my work at Sapo have others project running like the Executive Education Program that I manage in IPAM, the classes that I give at IPAM and the consulting that I’m giving to Catholic University.

My promise is that I will give more steam to this blog about the subjects: digital marketing, software developing, software engineering, software architecture, IT issues/trends, IT Business models and Cloud-Computing.

See you soon…

If you have iGoogle, login and paste in address bar javascript:_dlsetp(’v2=1′);

As you will see Google is developing iGoogle in order to integrate all Google Services in iGoogle.

To return to iGoogle “normal” paste in the address bar javascript:_dlsetp(’v2=0′);

Tell me if you like it J

Esta terça-feira dei uma entrevista ao Jornal de Noticias para o seu caderno de suplemento de Sábado JN:Negócios. A entrevista foi sobre redes sociais com ênfase em redes sociais profissionais. A entrevista foi muito agradável efectuada pelo Bruno Amorim e pela Alexandra Figueiredo.

Deixo a entrevista que dei! Espero não estar a quebrar um Direito de autor qualquer…

This decision is made because in the next weeks I’ll face two exams and I have to finish writing my look-a-like thesis in order to end my degree. This is my only concern and goal for the next two months.

The only distraction that I’ll have is Summer Supercomputing Institute in Coimbra University.

See you around… Don’t forget me

I re-wired my blog to another set of social communities and added some pretty cool features like firefly ! Try using firefly by clicking on the flash app in the top right corner. I’ve upgraded my wordpress to the latest version.

Thanks for your pattience and more upgrade will come!

Few days ago I had to speak with someone who knows a lot of architecture and services orientation (an architect… yes I was brave but it doesn’t matter the bravery only if you won in the end) about Software plus Services and my talk wasn’t as good as I liked it to be. Because I don’t lose a “battle” two times in a row I started to make a deeper study about Software plus Services. In this matter, by the way, I don’t have the knowledge needed… YET!!! Hope someday I’ll have it… I’ll work for it, that’s for sure…

Anyway, in this quest (if you have good information, please, send it for me…) I’ve stumbled across a challenge made by Gianpaolo Carraro (Director, Architecture Strategy at Microsoft): “Help us spread the word about Software-plus-Services. All you need is a video camera, this script, and lots of creativity!”

You need to read the story that Gianpaolo made to make clear what S+S is all about and make a movie of it. The win prizes are: S+S t-shirt, Microsoft LifeCam, the top 10 viewed videos will be shown at Tech-Ed SEA and the winner a weekend in Macau!!! Death line 31 of July.

I’m not very good as a “movie maker” L If you need any help you be my guest and mailme!!!

The link is here: http://www.bringitalltogether.asia/

Today Microsoft announced that will buy Mobicomp a Portuguese company created in 2000 in Braga that develops software for mobile devices.

Mobicomp portfolio of products is:

Protect it:

MobileKeeper™ Backup & Restore is the most comprehensive ‘over the air’ mobile backup and restore solution in the marketplace. It can protect any kind of content held on a mobile device from contacts, calendars, text messages, photos, videos, music, bookmarks,
ring tones and applications to business files like Microsoft Word and Excel. The backup takes place automatically, direct to a secure web site, so that data can be easily recovered - and managed - via a simple, secure web interface.

Share it:
MobileKeeper™ Sharing & Communities is the perfect tool for the burgeoning trend of mobile social networking. Users can create, share and download content, while building their personal communities and networks or publish content direct to blogs and social networking sites such as Flickr and Hi5 on the move, with ease.

Discover it:
Mobilekeeper™ Service Discovery includes the latest product in the suite, the Active mTicker™ - a zero-click application that pushes aggregated, personalised information at subscribers via an always-on, scrolling ‘ticker’ that runs along the bottom of the screen when the device is in idle mode. It’s a win-win that provides a direct and powerful channel for:

• Operators to push personalised, high-value content and services (as well as advertising) direct to customers;
• Customers to discover and subscribe to new services and products - from RSS feeds to blogs.

In addition, MobiComp offers Active mTicker, “a mobile, “zero-click” application that pushes personalised information at subscribers via an always-on, scrolling ticker that runs along the bottom of the screen when the device is in idle mode”.

Source: http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2008/06/26/microsoft-plans-acquisition-of-mobicomp-portugese-mobile-services-company.aspx

My opinion!!!

I’ve posted last 24 of June that “Microsoft announce the biggest direct foreign investment in Portugal” and this is the outcome.

I don’t have any kind of inside information whatsoever but I bet that it has relationship with Internet or Yahoo nom acquisition. It was awesome if Microsoft builds a datacenter in Portugal or maybe a webteam for livemesh/live. And if it both…

I was clearly wrong. My wishes for an enormous infrastructure and staff for Portugal fogged up my pragmatic vision.

Microsoft tend centralize all the development and big decisions on the Corp and the subsidiaries just have to deliver and implement. Microsoft Portugal is a great example how to be a big subsidiary with a small market. They are implementing the “Blue Ocean Strategy”. From a “red ocean” they created their “blue ocean” with high level of results. This “blue ocean” has the operational results, MLDC (Microsoft Language Development Center) the only outside the Corp and now a Mobicomp with mobile solution.

Mobicomp with all directs and indirects outcomes will be a cheap and profitable business because Microsoft will integrate a good portfolio of products and costumers will be largely appreciated by Portuguese government and great branding in Portugal and in the world.

Great job!

The official link is

http://www.microsoft.com/portugal/presspass/imprensavirtual/investimento.mspx

Other links:

http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9978036-2.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware

http://mashable.com/2008/06/26/microsoft-mobicomp/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsoft_to_acquire_mobicomp.php

I share with you a great presentation made by Guy Kawasaki…

Link: http://www.guykawasaki.com/files/rules/Rules.pdf

I couldn’t wait for the nest Thursday to blog about the news that came out on a Portuguese newspaper “Jornal de Negócios” that I follow.

“Jornal de Negócios” announced that Microsoft will invest a tremendous capital in Portugal in such way that will be the biggest investment till now made in Portugal. But the good news is that the money will be invested directly by Microsoft. This means that Portugal will have a staff and infrastructures for something.

I don’t have any kind of inside information whatsoever but I bet that it has relationship with Internet or Yahoo nom acquisition. It was awesome if Microsoft builds a datacenter in Portugal or maybe a webteam for livemesh/live. And if it both…

Tick, tack, tick, tack… Thursday never comes… I anxious for next Thursday…

Hoje é véspera de São João aqui pelo Porto. Hoje à noite comesse umas sardinhas assadas com batata e broa com a família e vai-se para a zona ribeirinha ver o fogo de artificio à meia-noite. Depois, é diversão toda a noite com os amigos!

Contudo, o ultimo S. João que realmente comemorei foi há 4 anos atrás. Exacto, no Euro 2004! Foi um fantástico S. João com a rua cheia de estrangeiros, Porto campeão europeu e eu sem trabalhar! Adorei os holandeses… e holandesas…

2005, 2006 e 2007 tenho estado sempre a trabalhar de uma forma ou de outra. Desde a Vodafone até trabalhos académicos tudo me impediu de gozar uma das noites mais interessantes do Porto.

Este ano não necessito de trabalhar e já está tudo marcado para uma noite de arromba! Sim, mais vale gozar o que se tem porque para o ano com o ritmo que levo não deve dar…

Pela hora deste post já devem percebem que eu vou agora para a jantarada.

See you arround…

You certainly you already hear about the sue that Viacom a media company made to Youtube. Viacom is asking 1 billion dollars. The issue is that Viacom sees Internet as a way of broadcasting content and Google see it as a form of communication. You can say that’s a philosophical issue however in the eyes of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) it’s not. DMCA says that the medium isn’t responsible but the broadcaster is. Hence, if Youtube is consider a broadcasting content company it has to pay 1 billion dollars to Viacom and I guess that all media companies will do the same, sue Youtube.

Google, is saying that Viacom is “trying to break Internet” because if Viacom wins all websites will be seeing in the light of DMCA as a broadcasting company and them all website have to pay the copyrights. I agree with Google in this point because the life of Internet is contents. However, Youtube it’s developing a new way of publicity called “buzz targeting”.

Youtube “buzz targeting” is:

YouTube’s product and engineering team tapped into this core ethos by creating an algorithm that determines which YouTube partner videos are quickly becoming popular on the site and about to go viral. The algorithm looks at several factors, such as acceleration of views, favorites, and ratings activity, and then allows advertisers to target their ads specifically to these videos on YouTube.

In the end of this press release Youtube writes:

“Buzz Targeting was an amazing opportunity for us to capitalize on the most popular videos on the site,” said DePalma.

So in this point of view Youtube is a Broadcast Content and not a medium.

In the true meaning of the word Internet is a communication system that connects computers. You can think in a website as a medium to display content however when you take profit of the content you are displaying you are not a medium but a media company. This is my opinion about the subject however American courts will have to balance if these arguments are strong enough to break Internet.

I didn’t do backups till now! What changed?

Not a long time ago, making backups was a task that I had to burn some CD/DVD or buy an external disk. In both cases I had to buy something and the true reliability wasn’t very good because I sooner or later will need the disk space or I’ll lose the track of by CD/DVD backups. If you think in a SMB (Small, Medium Business) you will not buy a robot like ADIC and Veritas software to do it. You will use tapes and some kind of less expensive backup software. Typically the backups were only made to servers and clients have to push and pull their files into a file server.

This architectural model has its benefices but it has some big disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is that the end user is the one that will choose if he will put the file locally or in the server. Ok, you can use for example Sync Center of Microsoft and if you are, it’s right, because if most of the work is made on ERPs, CRMs, Intranets (SharePoint), Intranet Apps, etc, there are lots of files that are in the chain of business but not on constrained to client-server architecture.  Another huge disadvantage is that if you really want to be certain about your data security you will need real Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and be willing to worry/pay for the infrastructures (co-allocation, outsourced or indoor) – it depend what tier that you chose to work with from your BCP and scalability issues.

Off course we continue to talk about SMB because if you want I can speak about Citrix and other systems that give to an organization a higher adaptability and some “bullet proof” systems.

So, I mentioned some disadvantages about “local” backups and I’ll give some reasons to have an indoor backup system. I think that they are quite obvious. It’s faster to recover the data and apps (depend of the tier); SLA (Service Level Agreement) is mostly at 99.99%; the security worries are mostly physical because typically you have all in tapes or in some kind of data storage equipment.

Back to track! I think I made my point of view and this post it’s not about “traditional business continuance or personal backup systems VS Cloud backup” it’s about Cloud Backup.

Cloud backup is a business that emerged from the Cloud Computing business a technological model. Indeed, I didn’t define Cloud Computing but I’ll do it in a couple of days. Don’t worry… One of the foundations of Cloud Computing is large scale advocate cheap storage and computing. In this case we are only interested in Cloud Storage and more accurate Cloud Simple Storage or as some people call it D2C (disk-to-cloud). To contextualize a little more, in the next computing paradigm universe it will exists two major types of computing: Cloud Computing and Proximity Computing. Cloud the Cloud is a place that storage, process and delivers information and Proximity Computing is more for Human-Machine interaction. This means that your files will be on the Cloud and not in your terminal (PC, mobile, whatever… ) because them will be asked to display information and interact with you. I’m sure that you are not seeing where I’m going!?!

In nowadays, as I said before, you have your files in your PC (any device you use) and in a working context in your company server. So, it will be great if you can make a backup without any effort or even worry about all the issues that I wrote above, isn’t it?

The key points that support Cloud Storage are:

- Is very cheap or free

- Large amount of storage (it can be unlimited)

- Automatic

- Incremental

- Access anywhere

- Simple

- Organize

- Instant

- Secure (encryption 448-bit and so one, datacenter with high BCP tier level)

The Cloud Backup market is growing at a huge velocity and for that I’ll talking about some of these players. Most of the companies that are selling D2D solutions based on an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) of AWS (Amazon Web Services). These companies are ISV (Independent Sales Vendors) of IaaSs providers and even if it isn’t built they can mashup with several IaaS. ISVs mount their business by making a webbase contract with AWS, developing a synchronization software and developing a website that can be using AWS with EC2 too – as simple as that! However, HP (Hewlett Parckard) with the project HP upline already have it own infrastructure and service! Yes, Dell, HP, Sun, IBM, Microsoft and other are turning their business to the cloud…

Mozy, Carbonite, PutPlace and HP upline are some of the companies offering D2D solutions. Architecturally it’s quite different, though, and it has a different pricing structure. Mozy and PutPlace (beta for now) are given 2Gb of backup storage but with PutPlace you can share your files through the web (they are expanding their services). Carbonite, HP upline, MozyPro, PutPlace provide Cloud Storage for a price and they have a pretty good pricing plan!

The biggest disadvantage it can be the bandwidth and latency of the connection for making the backup and the restore. However, in some of these services you have a web application (SaaS) to where it possible to browse the backup files and download use them.

Ok, but how Cloud backup works? I’ll let for later how IaaS are working therefore I’ll talk how a SMB and individual user can use it.

As an individual user I’m using Mozy! I had to sign up in their website, the usual registration procedure, and install an application “MozyHome Remote” that’s responsible of making the management of my files. Before, I had to configure “MozyHome Remote” declaring what kind of files and folders that I want to backup! Now, Mozy will be responsible for time to time seeing if there were some modification on my files and make the respectively synchronization. As simple as that.

As SMB IT Consultant, first I’ll do the same above for each collaborator. Afterwards I’ll calculate if my bandwidth and amount of data to backup can be synchronized in the established timeframe for backups. If not, I have two choices: is possible backup only the critical data or data that can’t be used in a nom VPN to share; or hiring others ISP to performed the upload in different networks. Even so, it’s possible that, for now, making this kind of backup doesn’t bring the glamour that brings for end users. As application are being built, I’m sure, that will make the synchronization with servers-clients.

Microsoft developed Live Mesh and I’m anxious to see it working not just because of these features but because of the implementations of S+S

Ohh… If every data will be processed, storage and delivered by the Cloud why do we need backups? Our Cloud provider should be the one that has to worry about it! I don’t think so! Now you see where I’m going!?! In the Cloud you are able to make mashups and this approach can be the 99,99% of reliability that everyone is asking for. You will be able to have your Live Mesh, Mozy, EC2, Google App Engine, online CRM/ERP, etc and still when you want to change of service provider you will be doing that in a click! That’s the future… halleluiah…

My look-a-like sabbatical to finish my degree in computing engineering is about to over and I have to define what I’m going to do in the future. In the last weeks some people are asking me that. For me this is a very hard decision. I’ll try to explain why.

70% of the issue is opportunity. Opportunities are made not born! So, I have to create my opportunity, be aware and be available for it. |Drilldown >> |However, to create an opportunity I have to be on the right place at the right time with the right skills. | Drilldown >> |To have the right skills I have to chose where I’ll invest my time and money for afterwards promote them in order to be on the right place and right time. | Drillup >> Drillup >> |To be aware of an opportunity I have to manage time to do it.| Drilldown >> | To have time, I have to define my priorities and the main thing that I’ll be doing. | Drillup >> Drillup >> |To be available I have to not accept concurrent opportunities or tasks. | Drilldown >> | So, I have to define my priorities and what I want to do in the following years.

As you may see it all comes to the definition what I like and want to do in order to create an ecosystem that allows professional and personal realization.

I think that for most people defining what to do is easier because they let the flow take them and only have to pray and work to not drawn. In other words, if you chose to follow a computer engineering degree you will be an engineer of something that comes out or you like in that particular field. In my case is not so simple.

I like programming, consulting, management, marketing and teaching! I don’t know any job that included all this fields in a way that you do some programming stuff, some IT consulting, assets (people and resources) management, marketing and some academic teaching. Ohhh… I almost forgot, I like to give talks! In my life I did all of this in several very different jobs.

Now you see what I’m through! I the top of this I want to take my master degree (second stage of Bolonha) and a MBA. Hummm… You certain are thinking that it’s impossible to find the job and company that can provide/facilitate all this! I’m not so naive and therefore I have to define.

I arrived to a point of my life that I need to have a main job (and not a bunch) that support my lifestyle and trying to continue studying. What to do??? What field to chose???

20% is your skills! With no false modesty I can say I’m pretty good in everything that I want to do! I ask myself what I like more and the answer is: I like everything but I like more if everything has technology and computer science on it!

10% is age! I’m almost 25 years and my youth is passing by! Opportunities are indexed to the age.

I have some invitations and I’ll have to take one! Can someone help me???

PS: as a dear professor of mine said: Bruno your world is not here (Portugal)! I’m starting to think so…

First of all this post is an opinion based on my perspective of the new actual Microsoft and my knowledge about Cloud Computing! It’s important that you understand that I don’t have any inside information or whatsoever!

Currently, the big earning of Microsoft is licensing. Their customer has to pay a licensing fee, buy their own computer/servers and hire their own technology staff. So, the TCO (Total Cost of ownership) is high and, worse, this business model is not so flexible and so adaptable to the necessities that the organizations have to face in a global village.

If you think in a software/infrastructures view you have to answer two questions: Is your software/ infrastructures supporting and adding real/full value to the organization? Will your software/ infrastructures support/handle the organization needs in medium/long term? It’s now, that we start to think that scalability, elasticity and adaptability is very important for the life of an organization/enterprise. This issues are so important that organizations don’t bother to lost some of the in-plan features that some software architectural models like componentry, three-tier, event driven, etc , implemented. Instead, a conceptual view that software should be looked as a service brought SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) the mother of business models like: SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), S+S (Software plus Services), WOA (Webservices plus objects), etc…

So, in a Service business world, Microsoft business model (till now the traditional model) has not the same importance and in consequence the same revenue! However, Microsoft is not alone in the market. Microsoft has to count with their partners, ISVs (Independent Sales Vendors), final customer s, etc… It’s a really complex equation with heavy calculations! I’m not saying that is an impossible equation, I’m only saying that it’s a little messy and the approach has to be well designed in order to a continuous win-win relation can be guaranteed.

Microsoft didn’t pass right to SaaS and innovates the actual business model adding a kind of SaaS. The result was a new business model that mixes traditional software with cloud based software – Services plus Software (later on I will talk more deeply about this business model). Ok, we can see that this model is a way to not lose the old business model and it opens doors to the future. In my personal point of view and actual Microsoft state is the right approach.

However, we need to think that if we are speaking of Services, a service is not bought, is rented. A service business model is extremely demanding to an organization because the customer s will not pay a license fee plus maintenance, instead will be made a contract to the customer and is paid from time to time. This means that you will not receive a bucket of money and “bye, bye customer… see you in the next version” but you will need to have a true customer orientation and your earnings will be a reflection of this relationship. Your service it really has to be an asset to your customer and therefore the two questions above, without any doubt, need to be answer: YES, YES!!!

So, how Microsoft can make money in a world which is not the leader or the only huge player?

(In a next post

Principles of writing: SaaS\Cloud-Computing )