Continued from a previous blog post…

The Digital Age Will Save Us… Uh Huh

If you haven’t noticed our world of software is changing right from under us. We rarely receive CDs or DVDs when you buy software. All the Microsoft products I use in my business all come direct via the web, downloading an installer or the ISO image of the DVD to my computer. We buy and download our music through Amazon and iTunes. Now customers have much greater access to products, and we have instant delivery of online services and software products to our customers. 

Fall 2008 at the Microsoft developer’s conference, Microsoft announced Windows Azure, their strategy for bringing applications and infrastructure services into the cloud. It’s a bold step but nothing short of bold will do to be able to compete against the lead created by Google and Amazon. We’re entering an age where computing power, storage and network bandwidth are services we can spin up or wind down as needed. That’s a product manager’s digital dream, right? Well, it’s never that easy.

Yes there are automated processes for provisioning services and bringing new servers online, and they work, but not always in peak situations. There’s always ... read more >>

You’ve been laid off, or fired, or you can’t get a job, or you’re plain bored, or you’re a new immigrant, or you simply can’t make it on your salary, so you strut off to the local franchise show or business broker, risk your house, your life savings, and your aged parent’s retirement funds, and you buy a business. Bad idea. There’s a reason why he’s called a business BROKEr, and he’s not the one that’s going to go broke. Worse still, you attend ... read more >>

One of the big topics that came up on the panel I was on today at the DNC was the issue surrounding the labor supply in the US in computer science and IT.  There is a growing shortage of software engineers in the US that is getting worse as every year passes.  I've talked about this in the past as my main motivation for being involved in the National Center for Women & Information Technology as one of the ways to build the long ter... read more >>

Reports last week indicated that Siemens, the German conglomerate, was looking to end its partnership with Fujitsu Siemens Computer.  According to CNET News.com, the nine-year-old joint venture could be valued at between $3.12 billion and $4.65 billion.

With numbers like that, it's crucial to have a clearly-defined exit strategy. 

Especially without numbers like that, you need to have a clearly-defined exit strategy.  Both... read more >>