Software multitenancy drives operational efficiency

By Nick Hortovanyi

Over the last week, I've been evolving a presentation regarding our multitenancy commercialisation efforts through Business Portal Server. For the most part it has been received positively.

In one session that I gave though, a VC (Venture Capitalist) who was participating in the group, stated that we gave an excellent presentation but our business model was flawed. I of course disagreed prefusely. The argument presented was the classic of the internet as a disintermediation agent between organisations who provide SaaS services and the consumers there of. However, the model I see, is that new channels will evolve through eco systems of organisations working together. These organisations will focus in their particular areas of expertise be it software application focused or technical infrastructure to form stronger composite services.

The larger organisations that I deal with for on-premise consulting are continuously trying to reduce the number of vendors that they interact with. The lower the number, the less points of interactions. The argument being here the more efficient the internal procurement process. I believe also, that there is limits to the number of meaningful relationships that can be maintained to add value.

The complexity of development and support of production SaaS infrastructure is growing rapidly in complexity. Its only natural for consolidation and specialisation to follow. How these organisations work together will form the new software channels. It will also be shaped, rightly or wrongly, by procurement processes which drive how organisations purchase.

Giving up on Microsoft software for work - it was easy

By Nick Hortovanyi

I no longer use any Microsoft software at all to perform my daily activities. Am now completely Micrsoft free!

I've been able to be productive on both a Linux desktop as well as on a Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard desktop. Who would have thought it would be that easy? So this will be my last blog entry on "Giving up on Microsoft software for work".

The Mac Book Pro is performing very well. Even have a 3G USB modem so I can be connected from anywhere.

This week, I imported one of my Powerpoint presentations into Keynote. Tweaked it a little, with 3D transitions! Using the mouse caused me a little grief, so am now using the Apple remote. Works like a charm. Everyone has loved the presentations in Keynote, yes my content was good as well!

If you have been holding off, maybe give it a try. I think you will find that a lot of what you do, is through a browser now anyway. So go for it!

Giving up on Microsoft software for work - Mac Book Pro arrives

By Nick Hortovanyi

After a long wait, it finally arrived last week. I'm now the proud owner of an Apple Mac Book Pro.

I had ordered close to the top of the line Mac Book Pro (MBP), 4GB of Ram, High Resolution 17" monitor, 7200 RPM 200GB hard drive.  This meant that the order had to be assembled in China, because it was a CTO (Configure To Order) as there was no stock in Australia. It did take approximately three and half weeks for it to arrive. Maybe the earthquake in China had impacted on production.

I unpacked the machine, plugged in the power and turned it on. I watched the introduction animation, and then proceeded to fill out the details for it's setup. It all just seemed to work. The monitor was very crisp and the LED backlighting makes for a very bright and readable display. The only mistake I made, was that I should have shortened my home directory name to nick, instead of using the default of the concatenation of the first and last names giving nickhortovanyi (if anybody knows how to change this, please let me know).

I turned on the Wireless Mighty Mouse and connected it. You have to change the configuration, to get the right mouse button to work. I also noticed that with the touchpad, that by default, not all the new touch movements and gestures are available. You need to enable them manually, which was a good thing as I could see the video instructions on how to use them.

Now for some connectivity, I turned on the Time Capsule and installed the AirPort Utilities program that came on the Timecapsule Disk. Started the AirPort Utility and configured network connectivity on the Time Capsule, established WiFi security and then I had internet access from my MBP. I proceeded to download some videos, (no guess here, it was the PC vs MAC ones in HD) to test out the connectivity speed. I was getting near maximum throughput of the ADSL 2+ link, so was happy with the WiFi performance. I had also plugged my Cannon printer into the USB port of the Time Capsule, where the printer was immediately recognised.

Next, I turned on Time Machine and pointed it to the Time Capsule. There was ~18 GB to backup, which got interrupted a couple of times as I was playing with the machine. It had completed by the next morning and every now and then I do notice the icon moving, signaling that it is backing up. One hopes, that in the advent that it is really needed, that I will be able to use it for recovery.

I installed and setup all the software that I need for daily work, such as Sametime, Twhirl (a twitter client), Open Office and Firefox. I choose to use the current Open Office 3 beta version, as it is Cocoa based, and also for Fire Fox, version 3 Release Candidate 2. The main reason I prefer Fire Fox over Safari, is that I could not find good integration with del.icio.us in Safari, for my shared bookmarks. For email, I decided to try the standard Mail client, instead of installing Thunderbird. Am still at this point trying to work out how to add a HTML email signature, but believe I may have a means through a link from the Feedburner site.

The Address Book and iCal (Calendar), integrated nicely with my Nokia N73 through the USB cable using iSync. I downloaded the latest software from the Nokia site and was then able to also gain access to my music and photos on the Nokia phone. Now, one thing that I wanted to do was integrate, my Google Calendar and found this article. It worked, I now had my Google Calendar entries on my phone. It would be nice, to be able to add a calendar entry locally and have it also sync with Google Calendar.

Having also purchased iWork '08 (for the price why not?), I thought I'd best install it. The applications Keynote, Pages and Numbers all seem to do their respective jobs with the Apple elegance that you expect. As I'm giving up on Microsoft software, I decided not to purchase and install Office 2008 for the Mac. I haven't proven a need for it yet. Open Office and iWork should be more then sufficient for my work activities. I'd already proven that Open Office on the OpenSuSe linux desktop was a viable alternative.

The Finder in Mac OS X 10.5.3 picked up the Samba shares, that our Linux server were publishing and I was able to mount the drives. I could also access all the web based applications that I needed.

The big question that I needed to answer, was could I use my new MBP as my primary work vehicle? The answer was Yes, if I used a Linux virtual machine for Java development for some of the IBM software that I support. Thus I tried out VM Ware Fusion for the Mac. I didn't try Parallels as it does not have support for multi-cores CPUs, that I could find.

There are a few less keys on the keyboard, and some difference for where the menus are located on the Mac for a particular application. Thus I'm finding that I'm using more keyboard shortcuts. I asked on twitter how to do alt+PrtScr and was pointed towards this handy link.

I've had no need to power on my old Windows XP based notebook. In fact, I've unplugged it and put it to one side. Having taken the plunge to give up on Microsoft software for work, I'm finding a wealth of new software that works and enables me to achieve the tasks I set out to do.

All in all, I have found my new Apple Mac Book Pro to just work.

Connection is King

By Nick Hortovanyi

You've all heard the term "Content is King". Well Mark Pesce has coined a new term "Connection is King" to describe the importance of the global connections that are forming between people.

These connections are at various levels, and are created and reinforced with social messaging services such as twitter. In his blog post here, Mark gives examples of how this can empower people in a fashion not seen previously. We are finding out about things and events before the classical media or "Command-and-Control" organizational structure has even acknowledged them.

Now I wrote some time ago, a blog entry "What is Content?". In it, I eluded to the implications of controlling content, but also after I watched Mark's presentation, on the subject, I can equally see the implications of controlling connections. The internet is allowing connections to be formed, especially in areas of similar interest, quickly.

In the late 80s, when I entered the workforce, outside of my social connections, my connections in my profession were formed first through education and then secondly through the people that I interacted with to perform my daily work. This set of connections has grown steadily as I have moved between various positions and been involved with different technologies. I've commented about the strength of these connections, when I was discussing my Spheres of Influence, previously.

What is true now is that the current set of social messaging services, is allowing me to accelerate the connections that I am making. Some are within my geographic location, and others are within Australia, and more importantly many are bridging the great divide of distance from Australia.

Every now and then, I'm reminded that I live at the edge. That is, that many people working in organizations have these social tools blocked. A couple of weeks ago, I learned one organisation had banned LinkedIn, a business connections tool, from behind their firewall. I'd found a previous work associate, and had wandered why the person had not responded to my connection request. Phoned the company, ask for the person, started talking (he was pleased to hear from me) and then found out about the LinkedIn issue. I was amazed!

Organisations perceive these social tools, as lost productivity. In essence, they are saying use classical means to maintain these connections and keep the connections related specifically for your current work. Mark, in the prementioned blog, introduced the possible repercussions to business executives, if they misbehave, through these connected communities. The more access, and the more extended the connections, the more quickly the information will be transmitted. This can have long lasting repercussion, for those business executives. Blocking access to these social tools, during the work day, does not stop the transmission it merely delays it temporarily.

Now this concept reminded me, about the change that is occurring today in content, there is the traditional media, those that control channels of content delivery, and citizen journalist, the voice of the millions on the internet. The same issues are arising with connections, except it is business who maybe are looking to control those connections, much the same way as traditional media, controls mainstream content.

I would say it is better for organisations to look to harness this capability in a way that is beneficial to them. These connections will keep forming, regardless of measures that may be implemented during the working day.

Giving up on Microsoft software for work - initial status report

By Nick Hortovanyi

My monitor blanked out on my Windows XP based IBM T42p Thinkpad. Worry crossed my mind, as I thought the machine had died. Quickly, I realised that the monitor had turned itself off for no reason. I rebooted (as it was a Windows machine) and the system came back.

I didn't think much more about it, until about two and half weeks ago, when it started happening again. I would press FN+F3 and eventually the display would return. This worked for a couple of days, until I was performing the reset every few minutes. At that point the system was no longer usable.

I moved over to my OpenSuSe 10.3 Linux desktop and decided to retire the Windows XP Thinkpad. We already run all our servers on Linux. So "Yes", I decided to make the move away from Microsoft software for work as well as general desktop computing. This was going to be interesting.

Now, I had a Desktop back and quickly got my Email, Lotus Sametime and Skype working. I hit a little bit of a hurdle with twhirl, an Adobe AIR based application, for twitter. I'd become fond of this product, but I couldn't seem to find an install for Linux. I raised a question on twitter and @aqualung came up with the solution. Adobe had an Alpha version of the product for Linux. Downloaded and setup the Linux version and then proceeded to install twhirl. It worked, I was now happy to hear those little beeps again.

This was completed on 3rd May 2008, I raised it on twitter that I was going Microsoft Free. Of course there was someone, @NickHodge who responded that they would try and be the opposite. Just for information, I questioned him a day later and he was not able to work exclusively with Microsoft software.

I was very surprised with the improvements in Open Office and have been able to perform all activities necessary with it for a full work week, two weeks straight. I love the ability to be able to produce a PDF from within it. One thing that I would have liked was integration with WebSphere Portal - PDM (Portal Document Manager) and Open Office/Nautilus File Manager. IBM is this going to be available in the next version of WebSphere Portal?

Working virtual, I need to be able to pick up my work environment and go on-premise on the odd occasion. Either for consulting work or to give a presentation. So I wanted to get a new notebook. What was I going to do? Buy a standard notebook with Windows Vista installed or look at an Apple Mac Book Pro?

It would be a big commitment going down the Apple path, but I knew if I absolutely needed to I could also run the Windows operating systems through either Parallels or VMWare Fusion for Mac OS X. So I thought, well lets go get some pricing for a Mac Book Pro. (wow uncanny, as I'm writing this, the Apple commercial - PC vs Mac just came on the TV - Prime Time).

I've ordered a 17" Mac Book Pro with the higher resolution screen, 4 GB of memory and the 7200 RPM 200GB hard drive (got a good price). I've also purchased the Apple Time Capsule, which acts as a back up drive and a WiFi router.  Information on your notebook is so valuable, and this in conjunction with the Time Machine capability of Mac OS X, seemed to address the worry that crossed my mind previously.

Through my investigations into who is using Mac OS X based machines, I have found that within certain circles of associates, that I know, I will be the last person to acquire a Mac Book Pro. Now this surprised me, as normally I try and be at the leading edge. I'm not normally known as being a laggard.

Did I fire up the Windows XP Notebook over the last couple of weeks and use it through the external monitor? Yes, a couple of times, to retrieve some data that I had not copied off and also to gather some user ids and passwords for some sites stored in Mozilla Firefox. However, I performed the actual work activity on the Linux machine.

So after two weeks, I have been able to work without Microsoft software to perform my normal business activities. I've had some teething problems, but have always been able to solve the problem myself or gain assistance to find a resolution.

I'm looking forward to using the Mac OS X on the Mac Book Pro, it should be a little more productive then the OpenSuSE Linux Desktop. Next status report will be on my experiences with Apple.