Posts in "longform"

OpenStack vs. Amazon

The differentiation [between Amazon and OpenStack] is that OpenStack technology is driving an initiative, throughout the world, which can be adopted and molded in a non-proprietary way. If you, as a user, want to integrate some proprietary technology into OpenStack, you can do that very easily. It's basically an open system. The companies and brand names you trust are there to make sure the technology works in a reference architecture.

OpenStack vs. Amazon

The differentiation [between Amazon and OpenStack] is that OpenStack technology is driving an initiative, throughout the world, which can be adopted and molded in a non-proprietary way. If you, as a user, want to integrate some proprietary technology into OpenStack, you can do that very easily. It's basically an open system. The companies and brand names you trust are there to make sure the technology works in a reference architecture.

Amazon Staff Meetings: “No PowerPoint”

The traditional kind of corporate meeting starts with a presentation. Somebody gets up in front of the room and presents with a powerpoint presentation, some type of slide show. In our view you get very little information, you get bullet points. This is easy for the presenter, but difficult for the audience. And so instead, all of our meetings are structured around a 6 page narrative memo. --Jeff Bezos, Amazon Also notice that everyone actually uses the first part of the meeting time (30 minutes?

Amazon Staff Meetings: “No PowerPoint”

The traditional kind of corporate meeting starts with a presentation. Somebody gets up in front of the room and presents with a powerpoint presentation, some type of slide show. In our view you get very little information, you get bullet points. This is easy for the presenter, but difficult for the audience. And so instead, all of our meetings are structured around a 6 page narrative memo. --Jeff Bezos, Amazon Also notice that everyone actually uses the first part of the meeting time (30 minutes?

The 100 person limit

Size and internal vs. external coordination costs matter a lot. North of 100 people in a company, employees don’t all know each other. Politics become important. Incentives change. Signaling that work is being done may become more important than actually doing work. These costs are almost always underestimated. Yet they are so prevalent that professional investors should and do seriously reconsider before investing in companies that have more than one office.

Upcoming talk on Dell's New Cloud Strategy

I'll have a little cameo on a webinar tomorrow, speaking broadly to Dell's cloud strategy. It'd a good chance to see what we're up to now-a-days and how we think about it. This will be one of the first, public overviews of our cloud approach since we announced we were no longer building and running our own public cloud. And, it's got a snappy title: Is Cloud Meeting Your Expectations? Today’s Results….

Microsoft keeps fast following to the cloud

In addition to Azure, Microsoft is offering other cloud services through Intune, its Internet-based computer management service. Developed for small offices with limited IT help, Intune provides a set of automated updating and management functionality for keeping Windows-based business computers in operating order. A quiet success for Microsoft, Intune now is used by more than 35,000 organizations, according to the company. –Microsoft TechEd focuses IT pros on the 'Cloud OS'

Building a Great Team (Dell buys Enstratius)

With the Enstratius acquisition, Dell is getting a group of people with deep influence in the community. Founder George Reese is an O'Reilly author and a cloud pioneer. He is supported by James Urquhart, Bernard Golden and John Willis, all recognized as influencers in the cloud community. --Alex Williams, TechCruch cloud strength.Welcome @botchagalupe @davidajbagley @georgereese @jamesurquhart @bernardgolden and the entire @enstratius team — Rob Hirschfeld (@zehicle) May 6, 2013 This is the part I'm most excited about.

Sputnik launches as the Dell XPS 13 Laptop

Today is an exciting day for me: Dell is launching a product that I’ve helped put together and create along with a team of people across the company and, of course, the leader of the project, Barton George. We’ve been calling it Project Sputnik, and it’s got a real name now, “XPS 13 developer edition.” I’ll of course probably always refer to it as Sputnik. I help run the internal incubation program we have at Dell, and this was the first project we accepted and the one that I’ve been “managing.

Sputnik launches as the Dell XPS 13 Laptop

Today is an exciting day for me: Dell is launching a product that I’ve helped put together and create along with a team of people across the company and, of course, the leader of the project, Barton George. We’ve been calling it Project Sputnik, and it’s got a real name now, “XPS 13 developer edition.” I’ll of course probably always refer to it as Sputnik. I help run the internal incubation program we have at Dell, and this was the first project we accepted and the one that I’ve been “managing.