Technology is Dead - Thoughts on Enterprise Infrastructure

Sydney vs. Melbourne, a Tale of 2 Cities in the South Pacific

John — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:26:33 +0000

At first, it’s subtle commentary from people on both sides. Nonchalant jabs to the groin, “I detest Melbourne”, “I’d never live in Sydney”. While I really don’t care, it’s amazing when you see both cities are brilliant in comparison to let’s say, MOST port cities in the rest of the world.

MindMapping for People Networks

John — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:46:38 +0000

...one of the questions I tabled to all the top business developers I could meet was 'what do you use to manage your business contacts and networks'? The responses varied from whiteboards, to weekly planners, to moleskins, to prodigious use of www.linkedin.com, all with their strengths and limits for keeping track of a rapidly expanding network of contacts and relationships.

Cats vs. Container

John — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:27:58 +0000

One of the shocking realizations of a global move is the cost of moving your animals, versus the cost of moving your belongings. In our case, we fit our ’stuff’ sans cars into a 20′ shipping container. The container contents wrapped, packed like an intricate puzzle, either scanned or unpacked by customs, then finally unloaded and [...]

So Long Boston, Hello Sydney

John — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:55:14 +0000

Boston is funny. When we first got here in 2002 the immediate reaction was 'crap, we just made a huge mistake'. It was cold, you had little old ladies driving Buicks and flipping you off with road rage, driving anywhere was insane, and the environs were 'crusty' in comparison to the old home Seattle, and the only view was of 'Uncle Buck' across the street. But with time we settled in and looking back, now our lives revolve merrily around city parks, coffee shops, and some great places to eat.

IBM Should Lead with XIV

John — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:26:02 +0000

Here's a thought: What if IBM made a bold move and decided to drop all storage OEM products and take a market position centered on XIV?

Free Equals Nothing in the Services Industry

John — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:57:27 +0000

Any way you cut it, Free Equals Nothing in the services industry. You must have skin in the game at some point, some time, some where, with somebody in the food-chain. Otherwise, free is nothing more than a LOST leader, a waste of time and talent.

The Cloud and Your Job

John — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:35:43 +0000

Yes, the cloud is a confusing marketing fueled circus at the moment, but I do think the impact on your traditional infrastructure roles will be noticeable over time.

Data Centers in Unlikely Spaces, Unlikely Places

John — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:49:45 +0000

Turns out the building historically served the wool industry as an inspection warehouse and was up for sale and was bought and retrofitted by the Global Switch team into a world-class data center. Again, not your typical estate choice for high-end DC infrastructure.

Deduplication Straight Talk from Slootman

John — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:30:34 +0000

It’s not often the EMC markitecture spiel breaks from the well worn rut. But Frank Slootman talking straight about the newly formed business unit at EMC is refreshing after years of EMC changing the deduplication party-line, spinning vague technical slants on product lines, siloed sales teams pushing all kit in all places, and generally confusing customers about their capabilities with deduplication.

When Outsourcers Run Your Infrastructure into Obsolescence

John — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:13:59 +0000

The problem with offloading infrastructure assets to an outsourcer is that there's absolutely no incentive for the outsourcer to run lean or maintain a modern estate. The result is at first, negligable, but over time incredibly risky.