CNN-YouTube Primary Debate

A few days ago, democratic presidential hopefuls took the stage in South Carolina for a debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube in which all of the questions were submitted by users of YouTube. I wonder if this is a one off or if we are going to see more of these web/TV join activities. The quality of the videos were not good, this will be fixed next time in 4 years for sure. By then, the entire debate might be only on YouTube. In the meantime, YouTube could become the media of choice for developing democracies as a platform for expression. You can block a website, but you can't block a wireless network without significantly impacting your own communications and economy. Digital content will find a way out to the open.

Apple reinvents the phone

People have lined up in front of Apple stores all around the country to get their hands on Apple's new device, the iPhone. There are many things that make the iPhone a truly innovative device and much has been written about it already. I'm really interested in seeing how Apple can work with the developer community to create new applications for the iPhone. This has the potential to create a significant ecosystem and get innovative applications quickly. What Apple has been able to achieve with the iPhone is no small feat. It is incredibly hard to line up gorgeous design, cutting edge hardware, and flawless software together. Apple has been able to achieve this because they control all the elements. It is even harder when you only control software for instance.

Apple is moving in the same direction as Google to better control the user experience.
At the same time RIM, the smart phone leader, hasn't come up with anything close to this kind of innovation. A blackberry phone with a simple messaging application is going to look very bad very quickly compared to an iPhone. RIM and Nokia should be afraid, very afraid of this new product.

Frost & Sullivan Acclaims Omnitrol Networks

Based on its recent analysis of the North American RFID middleware and software market, Frost & Sullivan has presented Omnitrol Networks with the 2007 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation. This is a significant recognition from a leading influencer in the industry.

It feels good to see our value proposition resonate with customers (i.e. Boeing) and industry subject matter experts as we are building the Ubiquitous Network infrastructure. Here are a few quotes from their press release:

• "The OMNITROL was designed as a Telco-grade network appliance with as many applications and standard protocol options as possible, giving it unique versatility compared to other products in the market," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Brendon Ouimette.


• "The Omnitrol EASE software platform is built to be able to create and manage business process applications and to be able to develop and implement new ones from a Web-based interface," stated Ouimette.


• "When new applications for RFID technology become available, the OMNITROL is capable of being quickly upgraded to meet these new business demands by virtue of its devices adaptation and services deployment software application layers and its panoply of I/O hardware interfaces."

Facebook Launches Facebook Platform

I haven't had the time to cover much of the social network phenomenon, but I believe it's part of the ubiquitous network as it allows people to communicate. This announcement probably marks the end of MySpace or any other web property who wanted to capture some big slices of the social media pie. I always believed in finding application innovation outside of the four walls. Trying to innovate and build your own application, like MySpace has done so far. So unless MySpace is already working on such an open platform, they can kiss their leader position good-bye.

Facebook could easily become the most important portal for your internet experience as Yahoo or MySpace were. I would call them the internet operating system.

Boeing Phantom Works uses Omnitrol Networks' Open Application Network Appliance

As Boeing has transitioned to being a leader in systems integration, it has created an extensive network of internal and partner manufacturing operations. The cognitive factory includes a complex global supply chain, numerous Boeing sites, and interaction with multiple customers’ logistic locations. A network-enabled manufacturing approach will minimize infrastructure needs, ensure rapid deployment of productivity enhancements, and provide for unlimited incremental expansion through the newly-created lean supplier network. Read the complete news release here.

Cisco to Acquire WebEx

This is a very bold move from the networking giant. Cisco is not only dominating the network corner of the triangle, they are looking at owning the content side (or supply side). How serious are they? Well, $3 billion looks like serious to me. What better strategy to sell more of their routers and Unified Communications products than to provide applications that will create a demand for higher bandwidth (voice and video) and quality of service. Microsoft will have to respond and will probably lower their prices or bundle office and VoIP applications with their Live Meeting offer.

What is the play for the Service Providers? Will they just resell either webex or livemeeting? The center of gravity of the network triangle is clearly shifting on one side away from them.

Evolution of the Data Center

As I am looking at the triangle to explain the transformations happening around content, networks, and devices I can't help thinking about the other changes happening in the IT industry. Is one driving or enabling the other?

In the past, I talked about utility or cloud computing and it seems that cloud computing is becoming the new buzz word. It is true that content providers, service providers and network infrastructure manufacturers believe in the same shared network service architecture. Cloud computing meets all the scalability, reliability, flexibility and performance (one could argue with this last one :-) required to deliver these services over the web.

Big players like Sun, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Oracle and Amazon are already offering cloud computing services to other companies to run their software. Like email and web hosting in the past, this is not for everyone. Large companies still see their data centers as a competitive weapon and won't let anyone running it outside their four walls. They are using the same convergent infrastructure (server, storage, software) to make their own data centers much more flexible but it will be a while before they transition. This explains the success of VMware ($700M of revenue can't lie).

In the meantime, more cash-sensitive companies will buy computing resources on the web to run some of their software (or buy the service outright from salesforce.com). The data center is evolving to better server the business model outlined in the triangle.