Greetings Tribe!

Welcome to the third edition of our monthly CloudSpeak newsletter.

As you likely know, cartoonists love to satire the political theater with inflated "caricature" images of elected officials. You might recall the oversized ears on GeorgeW. So by analogy, the term "cloud" has armed writers such as myself with countless "softballs" to describe the new computing paradigm. Cloudy, Partially Cloudy, Not a Cloud in the Sky, Storm Clouds, etc. Trust me – within a year or so, you’ll be clouded out! But for now – enjoy the ride, and my cloud humor and metaphors.

This issue offers you unique content and insights into the emerging outbreak between Google and Microsoft in the marketplace arena.

And don’t forget my monthly cloud podcast with Karl Palachuk at Cloud Services Roundtable. It’s on June 16th at 9:00AM PDT (UTC-7). Sign up at www.cloudservicesroundtable.com.

cheers....harrybbb
Harry Brelsford | CEO | SMB Nation, Inc. | www.smbnation.com

PS – Complete our SMB VoIP survey HERE.

PPS – Here is a funny on YouTube – "The Cloud Computing Consultant"

Compare and Contrast – Google and Microsoft

Last night I went to the Paramount Theater and watched the taping of the hit "Wait Wait Don’t Tell" National Public Radio show that will air tomorrow (check it out at www.npr.org). The guest was Tom Robbins, a local author known for his counter-culture roots ("Even Cow Girls Get The Blues"). He spoke about writing as a young man and it brought back vivid memories on my own journey as a writer. One of the writing formulas you and I both know is, "compare and contrast" and I will use it now to describe the Google Apps MarketPlace and the Microsoft Online Services Partner Showcase.

Google Apps MarketPlace is only two months old and has had over 25-million visitors. I found its strengths to be in the third-party realm, openly inviting applications, product and services that embrace, enhance and extend the Google Apps platform. It serves two customer groups: end-user customers and VARs/ISVs seeking to sell their wares. Located HERE, the Marketplace has the following characteristics:

1. $100 lifetime registration fee
   
2. Abide by trademarks and guidelines
   
3. Applications for sale - installable application must have a single sign-on
   
4. Revenue share requirement = 20% share

You can watch an interview HERE between Grace Schroeder (CEO, Idea2) and Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead held in Mountain View earlier this week. Grace is writing the cloud cover story for the next edition of SMB PC magazine.

Microsoft Online Services Partner Showcase

Microsoft’s offering in the marketplace area is a showcase for third-party applications and services that support the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can learn more about it HERE. When I interviewed Andrew Kisslo in Microsoft Redmond, he shared the following talking points:

• The Partner Showcase is free without a registration fee
  
• It is intended to have Microsoft Online Services-related services and applications. I witnessed a plethora of migration tools, etc.
  
• There is no revenue sharing arrangement with Microsoft

Chatting up BPOS on a lazy Thursday afternoon in Redmond with Andrew Kisslo

Pssst – You can download the Meetup deck from Microsoft HERE that describes the showcase better than I have just done. Just don’t tell anyone where you got it. Shhh…

Contrast

Let me clear up some confusion. Google Apps Marketplace is a transactional-based site where real business occurs. The Microsoft Online Services showcase is a "showcase" that highlights solutions. We’ll cover this more in-depth with our Cloud Pivot cover story in the next issue of SMB PC magazine – due early July.

The HEROguard TRIPLE PLAY! ®

1. Provide a tried-and-true Enterprise DR solution for your SMB clients
2. Make recurring revenue AND
3. Save your precious time

"That’s what I’m talking about!"

HEROware’s BCA and VBCA Cloud Solution, HEROguard -- the most robust business continuity/disaster recovery solution available to SMB’s!
99% of all “cloud solutions” for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery back-up the company’s data only. What does that mean? It means that the data might still be available, but it can take up to 48 hours to get the company back up and running. HEROware users are up and running in minutes!

"WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT DATA BACK-UP"

You already know about HEROware’s on-site appliances, the HERO BCA and HERO virtual VBCA-with T.R.I.M. Total Recovery in Minutes® (our secret sauce), powered by Double-Take Software. Both appliances make a mirrored copy of the client’s server or servers—on a byte-level basis. This full-replication allows your clients to be up-and-running in mere minutes after a full-blown server melt-down/"blue screen of death." In addition, HEROguard is there in the event of something even more catastrophic. Let’s say it rains for 40 days and 40 nights. When the flood comes in and washes your client’s entire facility down the river, which used to be known as Main Street, HEROware can spin-up your client’s replicated servers in minutes. No data is lost and the company continues to operate as before the disaster. Well, as much as a company can operate when people are using bathtubs as canoes to get around town. But, emails continue to go through and the client can access ALL applications via a Windows Remote Desktop.

Contact HEROware--Special Pricing available only to SMB Nation Members!

Harry Brelsford & Skip Coomber install HEROware BCA

HEROware, Inc.
info@heroware.com
139 Avenida Granada
San Clemente, CA. 92672
866-810-4376
www.heroware.com

"Total Recovery In Minutes"-T.R.I.M.

Six Step Cloud Framework

How many times have you seen someone or something that is ahead of its time in technology. We all have. That’s how I view Carl Meadow’s tenure in the SMB space. Several years ago, he was advocating hosted Small Business Server in his booth at an early SMB Nation fall conference. By all accounts he was ahead of his time.

Late last week Meadows returned to Seattle and hosted an afternoon reception titled “Cloud Is Not eh Revolution: Cloud Usage Is!” And by all appearances, the SMB world has now caught up to Carl. His speech had some humor (a review of the Gartner Hype Cycle) but the serious side of his presentation was the two fold. He defined cloud computing as three categories: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service. The second serious lecture area was the best part of the entire presentation: the Six Step Decision framework. This framework should be used as you make decisions about the Cloud!

1. Availability. Concerned SLA stuff and how you are refunded for downtime.
2. Performance Characteristics. Bottlenecks, workloads, scaling. Methodologies for allocating CPU and disk resources. Meadows compared CPU performance from several clouds including The Planet, TMrk, Amazon, Rackspace, Softlayer, ReliaCloud. This was all compared with a on-premises server with 2x Xeon 5520 that out performed all cloud-based infrastructures as you would expect.
3. Demand Volatility. Is the workload project-based or production-oriented. How predictable is the demand? Understand the elements that drive costs – (hint: bandwidth is the killer).
4. Management Needs. Most public cloud platforms provide zero sys admin support.
5. Integration Requirements. Does the workload need to integrate with any internal (non-cloud) system?
6. Security Profile. Read the SAS/70 document from the cloud provider. This designation does not necessarily equal protection.

Takeway? The Planet is currently running a “Server Cloud” beta program you can participate in for the next several weeks at theplanet.com/servers/beta.aspx

See my video interview with Carl Meadows HERE to learn more!

BTW – if you’re not aware – The Planet was founded in 1998 and is based in Houston, TX. They have over 18,000 customers and manage 46,000 servers. They have 800+ employees and 8 data centers. MSP Mentor recently covered The Planet HERE when they released their "momentum statement" showing impressive financial results!

Enterprise Class Disaster Recovery That Any Business Can Afford

SAVE THE DATE for the 8th Annual SMB Nation Fall Conference 2010

October 22nd-24th, 2010

The MBA for the "rest of us!"

I am thrilled to announce that we’ve teamed with Aspen University to create the accredited SMB Nation Pocket MBA certification. This is a graduate-level curriculum for the SMB Nation tribe that offers a bona fide educational opportunity and pathway to earning a real MBA. Here is my story. For the past couple of years, we have massively debated within the four walls at SMB Nation to offer a "starter kit" for new people to enter the wild and whacky world of SMB technology consulting – a basic career changer kit. We also thought of providing an advanced "starter kit" for our existing SMB Nation tribal members. But during the product research phase, we discovered a few things about us and you.

• Does the world need another starter kit? Starting with the burgeoning field of "business coaches" and ending with Robin Robin’s technology marketing toolkit, we concluded that the world doesn’t need another "How to Be a SMB Consultant toolkit", and we want to honor that sentiment.
  
• Our academic DNA! My professional background includes 12+ years as an evening adjunct instructor at some mighty fine academic institutions. Someday when I exit technology – say within the next ten years – I hope to return full-time to the academic community. But for today – providing the accredited Pocket MBA to our community with Aspen University, meets my need to help better the lives of others! By-the-way, I can happily report to you that I have joined Aspen University as the Dean of the School of Technology. I perform this role from my Bainbridge Island home base in addition to acting as CEO at SMB Nation. Yes – I’m trying to invent 25-hour days and 32-day months to fit it all in!
  
• You’re not a newbie! With the introduction of the Pocket MBA, we feel we’ve right-sized our academic offering to align with your experience level. As you will read shortly, you’re not a newbie! Rather, you need to reinvent yourself in a cloud-based computing world. And that’s where our Pocket MBA has maturity matching and mission fit for you, the SMB Nation tribal member!
  
• Life Learners. When you made a decision to be a technical professional, hopefully you were fully aware of how the game is played? It is incumbent and in your best interests that you are constantly learning both the technical and business- side of your craft. Our SMB Nation Spring and Fall events offer the in-person educational experience plus "Hallway 101" networking. The accredited Pocket MBA is a 16-week online educational experience.
  
• Room for both? Hey – the "kit sellers" are my friends, and I don’t mean to suggest that the Pocket MBA is better than the starter kits; it’s just different. In reality – you probably want to consider multiple educational resources. All of these opportunities are not mutually exclusive.

Want to learn more about our accredited Pocket MBA? Look under the Education menu at SMB Nation’s site (www.smbnation.com).

Q1 2010 SMB PC Magazine is HERE! Download NOW!

You can download here:
http://smbnation.com/Publications/Magazine/tabid/72/Default.aspx