Friday, June 25, 2010

Gold Rush – The return of the King

5:45pm – just as I was planning to head out to the Apple store I get the following alert:
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL... AS WELL AS DEADLY LIGHTNING AND TORRENTIAL RAIN. GET TO SAFE SHELTER NOW... INSIDE A STURDY BUILDING OR IN A VEHICLE. DO NOT SEEK SHELTER UNDER TREES. IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER... YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. DRIVERS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR PONDING OF WATER AND AVOID FLOODED ROADS.
A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT THURSDAY EVENING FOR NORTHERN CONNECTICUT AND MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE AND CENTRAL RHODE ISLAND.

You got to be kidding me!
If you really think a deadly thunderstorm storm will hold me back from getting the prize, then think again.

6:10pm got to the store (still alive) only 5 people in line (all with pre-orders or tickets). This obviously proves that you get a better treatment if you are invited to the party…

7:00pm returning home as a winner, I’m probably looking at a romantic evening where together each one is busy updating his new iPhone…

Not sure what the big excitement is all about – after all it is just a phone (and an ipod and an email device and an app platform probably the coolest gadget around…)

I have finally figured out the name “iPhone 4”, looks like you have to wait 4 hours to get an iPhone…

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Gold Rush

I have finally decided to walk the walk and make the commitment. Despite the nasty mother in law (AT&T) I’m getting an iPhone 4.
For the first time in my life I’m going to actually wake up early, stand in line and on the premiere be one on the lucky ones (as well as additional 1M people) to have the new majestic device!

So this is how it went (so far):
5:40am – woke up (going to get the iPhone 4 today, YEAH!)
5:55am – reports on the internet: already long lines (still optimistic)
6:15am – the Dinoor team is out on the road (cautiously optimistic)
6:20am – Dunkin Donuts, and we are ready for the action (carbs are always good for the spirit)
6:25am – the parking lot is half full, at 6:25 in the morning!? (Um, Oh...right)
6:30am – finally standing in line, practically at the mall’s entrance with probably 200-300 people in front of us (it is going to be a long day)
7:01am – we are moving! Actually the other line (pre-order) is moving (shall I cut my losses here and now, i.e. leave?)
7:30am – made 10 feet progress and rumors has it the pre-order line is getting in first (50:1 ratio between the lines)
8:45am – nothing (let’s pack our thing and leave, such a looser…)
9:00am – there is a God up there, I have made it! I’m the proud owner of a … ticket assuring me an iPhone (the line is still long, but who cares?)


9:15am – leaving the scene as a winner, I’ll be back later on tonight to pick it up

Stay tuned for more on how the saga ends!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Worth Repeating

I find myself quite often quoting expressions I hear at different places. Surprisingly people seem to enjoy it and even (God forbid) use it at later times...

As an entertaining exercise, I’m going to post these valuable quotes from time to time at the “Worth Repeating” section on the right (keep scrolling down).

To kick it off I’m going to start with a few I’ve heard recently:

1. “Security is like life insurance, you only win when you lose” Dr. Rainer Janßen, Munich Re CIO, EIC 2010, Munich May 2010

2. “The cloud is cloudy, not transparent” someone at EIC 2010, Munich May 2010. While discussing Cloud and security concerns

3. “The bits move faster than people, make sure to bring the people with you” Sanjay Mirchandani, (EMC CIO), EMC World, Boston May 2010. While discussing the journey to the cloud.

4. “The technology market is definitely accelerating - it took IBM 40 years to become the evil, Microsoft 25, Google 10, Facebook 5 and Twitter 2.5” JP Rangaswami, Enterprise 2.0 conference, Boston June 2010


Enjoy!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

ShaaS

Regardless of what people might say, the recent couple of years were great for the technology industry. We (technologists) exhausted the 3 and 4 letter acronyms, and at some point just when we thought 5 letters is the new 3 letter a miracle has happen.

The CLOUD was created enabling us to cloud wash everything by simply adding “aaS” as a suffix. This allowed us to start all over again with the 1-2 letters game.

As you can see I’m no different than the rest. So what is ShaaS (used in the title) all about? Is it simply Shlomi as a Service? Better guess again…

It is actually Sharing as a Service. A lot was said and written about collaboration and sharing of data but despite the chatter, solutions have not addressed some of the key challenges.

I’ll focus just on one of these challenges - modern collaboration and data sharing are dynamic by nature and cannot be controlled by static policies/controls.

Let’s follow a use case (as an example) – sharing a document with a group of people. The team can access the file, download it, read it, etc. But what happens two weeks from now when something has changed and I want to stop sharing the file with some members of the team? Using existing information protection techniques (such as DLP or DRM) will not allow me to do it as the file is already in possession of these people. Even if it was wrapped by some type of a shell (in the case of DRM), it is based on a static, outdated policy.

It is true Enterprise 2.0 guys say (rightfully) organizations should design for loss of control (including over data) as web 2.0 penetrates the enterprise. However while organizations promote sharing/collaboration they should protect their sensitive data.

Another interesting phenomenon is the different approach to data by enterprises and consumers. While the enterprise default is “secure first then ask questions”, for consumers it is all about sharing (security? privacy? No one cares!). It looks like consumers treat data as almost nonexistent unless it is shared.

It will be interesting to see a TTS (“Time To Share”) graph over time (i.e. time from actual event to when it is shared). I’m willing to bet TTS has dramatically gone down and is currently very low.

Evolution:
1. In the past one would take photos of an event, download it to the computer, upload it to your favorite social networking tool and share it with a selected audience.
2. Then it seems all devices introduced direct social networking posting capabilities.
3. Next using telepathy capabilities, thoughts will be automatically posted.
4. And finally, the ultimate sharing tool – the Twitter generator. Based on my interests and real events will automagically generate tweets in real-time (on my behalf). I will be perceived extremely smart, how cool is that?

The reality is probably somewhere in the middle, sharing of data is fundamental for the business, yet should be controlled to protect the business. Information protection systems should be morphed with data sharing tools taking its dynamic nature into consideration.

While I leave you with this, I’ll go back to think how to make Shlomi as a Service a viable business…