Context-aware technology

I just read an excellent special report on Business Week about context-aware computing. You can read most of the report here. Context-aware software tracks a person's location, interests, buying habits and other information. Smartphones are the perfect device to collect and aggregate that kind of information.
Early 2000, Location Based Services (LBS) already promised unimaginable smart services to serve coupon to shoppers walking by a store and other innovative applications. Handheld location was determined by triangulation based on signal strength from each base station. That architecture never delivered. Several reasons to this failure: hype cycle, precision was not good, wireless service providers controlled the information and wanted their own applications to use that data (not external applications). It is my opinion that the first incarnation of presence services went the same way for the exact same reasons.
Fast-forward nearly 10 years and we have a completely different environment. Apple (and its developers/partners), and Google are in total control of the user experience. Multiple applications are able to use location information to provide advanced services to the users. Yelp provides a unique example of combined use of location and camera with the Monocle feature (augmented reality).

The more source of data you can integrate (social media, CRM), the more phone features you can leverage (camera, accelerometer), the best experience you can provide and the more information about the user you get to track. Good and bad. Best way to enable this is to open up the phone platform (Android, iOS, RIM, Windows) to as many developers as possible. Java was a great example of a rapid and pervasive adoption.

What is cloud computing?

There is so much chatter about cloud computing these days that it is really hard to get people to agree on a common definition not only for cloud computing but also for SaaS and other acronyms. Fnally, I found a presentation from the NIST that is probably the best overview of cloud computing , its economics, standards and case studies. I can't recommend these slides enough to anyone involved with cloud computing.

A quick summary of this great material:

"Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."

This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of

Five essential characteristics:

1. On-demand self-service
2. Broad network access
3. Resource pooling and Location independence
4. Rapid elasticity
5. Measured service

Three service models:

1. Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS): Use provider’s applications over a network
2. Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS): Deploy customer-created applications to a cloud
3. Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Rent processing, storage, network capacity, and other fundamental computing resources

Four deployment models:

1. Private cloud: enterprise owned or leased
2. Community cloud: shared infrastructure for specific community
3. Public cloud: Sold to the public, mega-scale infrastructure
4. Hybrid cloud: composition of two or more clouds

Cloud computing often leverages:

• Massive scale
• Homogeneity
• Virtualization
• Resilient computing
• Low cost software
• Geographic distribution
• Service orientation
• Advanced security technologies

It looks like we have now a common ground to discuss cloud computing!

HP to Acquire 3Com

HP is buying its way into the edge by acquiring 3Com. The acquisition makes sense in order to offer a complete edge-to-the-data-center solution. HP and Cisco have been on a collision course for some time now and this purchase is accelerating things. Read this blog entry from Cisco.
What it means for the other network equipment providers? Nokia Siemens, Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent. Is there room for independent network equipment providers to the enterprise market. Let's watch IBM and Oracle's next move.

It seems to me that the network and the applications will meet somewhere in the cloud and IT giants are positioning themselves accordingly. I need to draw another triangle that would show the infrastructure supporting my first triangle. The developer community should be the focus for all these IT companies to develop a vibrant, interoperable ecosystem. Google and Apple are doing exactly see with their platforms. Equipment providers

Omnitrol Networks releases Retail Shop-Floor Inventory Tracking Solution for Apparel

Another great example of collaboration, we are now ready to release this solution to our partners and channels. Large retail companies can offer wide selections of clothing and have advantages in purchasing, distribution, and marketing while smaller stores can compete by offering unique merchandise, targeting a specific demographic, providing superior customer service, or serving a local market. All retail stores across the industry share a similar and very labor-intensive model when it comes to inventory tracking and inventory replenishment. New competition in recent years has come from discounters and from catalog and Internet retailers. Cost reduction is a key goal for apparel retailers.

Until now, solutions were "tailored" solutions. Thanks to our partner, we have been able to bring up an easy-to-install solution that can provide immediate visibility on apparel item movement and address the out-of-stock problem. Out of stock situations cost the industry nearly $90 billion every year.

Custom Apparel Manufacturer Goes Live With Omnitrol Networks Real-Time Manufacturing Visibility Solution

Another customer example of the benefits of using intelligence from the network to drive profitability. I'm really fascinated by the innovation that some of our customers bring to the table when it comes to deploying technology for their own specific requirements.

The learning curve for employees at Bay Creek Manufacturing was minimal and they were able to start using the new system very quickly. Operational managers were immediately able to start viewing the real-time order location and status using web-based interfaces. They were able to quickly identify bottlenecks by noting any manufacturing workstations with longer-than-expected production cycles. By analyzing the order histories, Bay Creek could start mapping out buying patterns which enabled them to plan for the future by anticipating client needs thereby improving the client/supplier relationship.

You can read the entire news release here.

Omnitrol Networks: A Top 5 Manufacturing Intelligence Vendor, say Managing Automation readers

Omnitrol Networks has been named one of the Top 5 vendors in manufacturing intelligence by Manufacturing Automation readers. This is the result of Omnitrol offering a complete pre-integrated solution that provides predictive analytics based on information collected by sensors. The challenge is not only to manage the vast amount of data coming in real time from a multitude of automated sensors but to make sense of what needs to happen immediately versus what needs to be archived for further data mining.

You can learn more about this by reading a very recent white paper I authored.

Apple tablet launch expected in November

Nothing has been officially confirmed. If history is any indication, there will be delays, but the latest is that Apple will announce a tablet PC in September and release by November. There was a lot of talk at the last CES about tablet PCs. These devices have the potential to seriously disrupt the media and consumer electronics landscape. The convergence of microprocessor speeds, multi-touch screens, higher bandwidth and web 2.0 applications is changing the way we consume multi-media content.

As we are approaching 20 million iPhone shipped, the Apple tablet PC could become the ideal companion device in the living room and beyond. I don't think this is going to be a PC/laptop replacement. Nobody in his/her right mind would want to do advanced Excel work on a multi-touch screen. On the other hand, nobody would want to boot up a PC or laptop to do a quick search on the internet or watch videos or pictures.

Apple is solidly controlling two ends of the network triangle.

Oracle To Acquire Sun Microsystems For $7.4 Billion

It's sad to see an independent company like Sun Microsystems being acquired but Oracle is probably a better acquirer than IBM and this acquisition has a high probability of success.

First, there is no hardware overlap. The OS and hardware from Sun will create a lot of synergies for Oracle as they will be able to offer completely integrated (hardware and software) solutions to their customers. The goal here is to reduce the costs of integration. I'm still amazed that IT teams have to spend money (directly or through integrators) to install and configure operating systems, middleware and enterprise software packages. I've heard that Oracle is only acquiring Sun for Java. I don't think it's the case. IBM and HP are Oracle's competitors and Oracle needs hardware to fight them in the marketplace.

Second, these are two bay area companies with similar cultures, much easier to integrate. They have been partners for over 20 years. They have developed joint call centers, and engineers and marketers on each side are very familiar with the other company's portfolio. It's probably not a good example to bring back to the table but Sun and Oracle were viewed as two of the four horsemen of the new economy back in 2000.

There is a risk that software vendors who competing against Oracle in the enterprise software area, stop supporting the Sun HW platform. Interesting challenge for the market development teams!

Frost and Sullivan Acknowledges Omnitrol Networks’ Real-Time Network Infrastructure that Drives Operational Excellence for its End Users

As our software is getting traction in the supply chain, it is good to get more recognition from Frost & Sullivan. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has excelled in customer values through its products and services that offer increased profitability and reduced life cycle costs.

You can read more there. but here's a short excerpt:

“Omnitrol’s cutting-edge solution suite automatically collects information from a large variety of sensors and, through predictive analytics, delivers real-time visibility with accurate forecasting between business partner operations,” says Frost & Sullivan Program Manager Arunkumar J. “Potentially, any control system or middleware may help an end-user integrate back-end and shop-floor, but Omnitrol infrastructure extends business intelligence directly from the operations-floor without the complexity of multiple software layers, thereby minimizing total investment and improving ROI.”

Cisco buys Flip Video maker

I've a lot of respect for Cisco and its employees. Most of their innovation or acquisitions have turned into product leaders. I understand that their human network strategy needs a few major acquisitions in the consumer electronic market but I've considerable doubts about this recent acquisition and the price they paid for it ($590 million). I see a few reasons:

• With a price tag between $100 and $200, you could spend a little more and have a better designed iphone.
• The device can only do one thing: video. I'm quite sure the market is expecting something more versatile than that (mp3 player, geo tagging). This would have been a great product 5 years ago.
• Where is the connectivity (software and network) to your social media youtube or facebook?
• It has no wireless capability (WiFi or GPRS). Yes, they can add it later on, but why acquire something that is so much behind the curve and has zero appeal to developers.

On the other hand, PureVideo has gained a lot of market share with a simple product. This acquisition is very good news for them, not so much for the CSCO shareholders.

Omnitrol Networks enters relationship with BT Global Services to Deliver Real-Time Supply-Chain Visibility Solutions

We built our software with telco scale, performance and reliability in mind, it's only natural to see telco operators joining forces with us to deploy network-based solutions. But what's more exciting is to work with a leading technology integrator such as BT who has so much experience in the supply chain IT services area. You can read more here, but here's a short excerpt:

"We were previously developing customized solutions to address customer needs in the RFID market, which was quite costly and time consuming," Keith Sherry of BT Supply Chain Solutions told RFID Update. "Omnitrol gives us an appliance that can accept multiple sensor input and a platform for processing the data, which is enabling us to create solutions where we wouldn't otherwise be able to show a strong ROI."