Ready For the Next Computing Platform? It's Ringing Now.

If you think the iPhone is all about listening to music and taking calls, think again. The device's ability to allow rich web-based business applications to run on your phone has raised the bar and is ushering in the cell phone as the next major computing device.

Some people use it to play music. Others marvel at the photo-browsing interface, and some of its users just want to look cool. I don't care about any of those things when I look at the iPhone. What I see is the breakout of the next major enterprise computing platform.

Not the humble cell phone, you say? It's too small, too weak, too underpowered for serious productivity? If history matters, new computing platforms have always emerged from the low-end of the marketplace. The Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) minicomputer supplanted the IBM mainframe, then Sun’s Unix Workstations replaced DEC, and the PC replaced Sun. Now, the phone is going to surpass the PC.

Continue reading "Ready For the Next Computing Platform? It's Ringing Now."

A top-notch IT infrastructure is essential for any business to be competitive. Get an expert's take on how with a little planning and foresight, it's now possible to appear big while paying little.

The information technology revolution in business is as cruel as it is kind. Any one of us can operate an international business from anywhere in the world, at any time. That power comes at a price -- without a top-notch IT infrastructure, no business can hope to compete.

Fortunately, with a little planning and the foresight to spend money where it matters most, growing businesses can build the infrastructure they need without having to attempt to clone the mega-million dollar technology budgets of the S&P 500. When you stop looking at your IT as a monster in need of constant care and feeding, and start thinking of it as a critical business service, the path to streamlining your IT spending becomes clear.

Why has technology historically been so expensive? Think about the model. In the old model of IT infrastructure design and delivery, developers shipped their customers a disk and practically dared them to install it. Day-to-day maintenance and care were the responsibility of the end user organization, not the developers, leading to an "over the wall" design mentality that created a lot of headaches (and a lot of billable hours for on-site consultants.)

Continue reading "Right-Sizing Your IT Infrastructure"