Technology 2010

Well it is here, the new decade. The way we did things last decade, forget them, they are already old. What was normal then is not now. Goodbye old days.

Goodbye flip phones, hello Smartphones. Flip phones, just making cellular calls, are you kidding me, we need to Google stuff now and send e-mail more often. Goodbye voice, welcome data and VOIP. Remember those old analog lines, heck the FCC wants to ban them and go data only. Goodbye napping under a tree, hello GPS tracking. Business owners needs accountability to their bottom line and performance with the few employees they can even keep on payroll. Goodbye owning servers, hello hosted Exchange. Why would you spend $7,000 implementing an Exchange server when you can pay a couple hundred dollars a month to let those IT issues be someone else's problem? Goodbye travel, hello video conference. Let's see with budgets being slashed, Go To Meeting anyone?

It leaves me very optimistic to be honest. There are so many changing, evolving technologies, and businesses need help implementing them. Hello 2010.

Welcome to the Future.

Mike

Be Thankful for more than Technology

Yes I am thankful for my family, the people in my life, the blessings from above, we all should be. Tomorrow we can all slow down for a moment and reflect and be thankful.

But something tells me the Blackberries will still be working, the videos will be rolling, the high definition will be in focus and the laptops will be in full swing. It is amazing, this time we live in. Think about now versus 10 years ago. Cell phones, smartphones, IP phones, VOIP, high def TVs, memory cards, servers, e-mail, IT, GPS, flat panel PC screens to name a few. How will the elves keep up with this type of demand? It is everywhere, just look around and it looks so different than it did just a few years ago. Are we smarter, maybe, more efficient, probably, but there is still something better for all of us out there. What will it look like in 2020?

Yeah now that I think of it, I am appreciative for those simple things like family and health. They really do matter more than our space aged gadgets, at least for one or 2 days a year.

Welcome to the future.

Mike

Online etiquette

I mingle in social media more and more these days. Linked in, Inside 919, Twitter. They all have a good purpose. Meet people online, create introductions for people that are in your network, gather information, share ideas.

I like Linked in because you can get feedback in a group forum setting. You can ask a question (I believe you can ask 10 per month) and get real feedback from other professionals or people in your network. It can be very valuable. But there seems to be those few individuals out there that just cannot follow proper etiquette.

I recently was a part of a group discussion about hosted VOIP phones/Internet/voice services. We just had to have that one guy who cannot play nice. Rude comments, personal attacks, just in mature. They cannot help themselves. They are know it alls, they rub us the wrong way by delivering condescending comments. It seems to me out on the web and in your network, you would want people to like you, and to respect what you have to offer. I find it amazing when that one person in the group has to be disruptive. This person ripped multiple attendees and I am still not quite sure why. At the end of the day though that person completely discredited himself and now has a negative reputation with at least the folks that were in this discussion. I am sure he has done it before and will do it again. I guess my wish is for people using social media is to work with integrity within the forums. The old comment "Why can't we all get along?" idea. After all there is so much for all of us as vendors, buyers, end users, suppliers to gain from these discussions. As a person in communications technology, with this online tool, I have access to some great minds out there, great or input. Unfortunately since it is an open forum sometimes it comes with a price.

Welcome to the future

Mike

Hosted solutions

It is a new catchy term, hosted. It appears more and more in technology so get used to it. There are a few key areas in communications technology that this term is cementing itself. First of all database and application hosting. Up until know most businesses have tried to manage these services on their own. Hiring IT people, purchasing hardware, and maintaining services within a "telco" room. But it is becoming more attractive to move these services off premise (off location) and let someone else manage them for you. The end user pays a flat fee to have these services maintained.

Phone systems are also now becoming hosted. In the past companies would purchase hardware like routers and servers or PBX phone routing systems, and then deal with several carrier providers for local voice and data. Then the company would employ IT people to manage those services. The problem is the management of a network can bombard an IT person's day taking away the very thing they were hired to do which is provide Intelligence to c level folks. Plus it allows companies to preserve capital by lowering up front costs. Let's face it that is a major concern these days.

I am now allowing Intel to Host my Quickbooks data. It is a great feature for a small business. I do not have to worry about backing up the data manually or through a software purchase. Also for disaster relief scenarios, you cannot beat hosted services. What would happen to your business if a natural disaster like Katrina ruined your city? This hosting idea will be a valid market for businesses to take advantage of over the coming years.

Welcome to the future

Mike