Brace Rennels

This time of year everyone starts making technology predictions. So rather than making my own predictions for 2012 I thought it would be more fun to predict what 2020 could look like. Don’t worry even the Mayan’s don’t believe in the “End of the World” 2012 prophecy so I am fairly confident humans will still be inhabiting the earth. If you put it into perspective the Mayan calendar has cycled three times already and will do again. The earth is over 4 Billion years old so any disruption would be a microscopic blip on the historical radar. So what could we expect in 2020? Anyone remember 8-track tapes, vinyl albums or cassettes? This generation doesn’t. They don’t remember life without instant messaging. Every pre-teen has a cell phone and pre-schoolers have tablets. So, eight years from now how will they further the technology evolution? Social Media is not an option... (more)

What happened to #Twitter & Social Etiquette?

The continued growth of social media has led to wide spread adoption but something that seems to have been lost is the simple Thank You! As an early adopter of social engagement there was always an awareness to be courteous to others. I have noticed lately that it seems we have forgotten how to communicate and resulted in shouting at each other to see who can be the loudest. I think we underestimate the power of the simple Thank You. Thank you for the retweet, Thank you for the follow, Thank you for the mention. Isn’t this basic politeness that we were all taught as children? So ... (more)

Five Misconceptions About Social Media Marketing

Actually, it isn't funny it is kind of sad at the number of organizations who still don't understand the value of social media marketing. I have probably met with a dozen companies, founders and senior level executives who have all said. "I don't get it" or "Our company isn't ready for social media" or worse yet just aren't capitalizing on the social media programs they already have in place. So here are 5 misconceptions about social media marketing. 1.) It is a stand alone marketing program - Wrong. Social media is a complimentary marketing option to help supplement and promote... (more)

Backing Up Virtual Machines

Virtualization technology is continuing to be adopted for consolidating data center infrastructure and providing a more flexible platform for moving, provisioning and backing up workloads. This has put an emphasis on backup and recovery; because a single virtual host can contain several virtual machines and is even more important to not only protect the individual virtual machines but the entire virtual host. Virtualization has the same single point of failure as some cluster technologies and services: shared disk. What happens to your virtual infrastructure if you lose connectiv... (more)

Microsoft Revving as VMworld Approaches

The last few weeks Microsoft has been revving its engine and flexing its muscle all before VMworld approaches the starting line. What does it all mean for the future of the virtualization market? It all started a few weeks ago on February 4 when a Cnet article announced how EMC and Microsoft are extending their strategic partnership another three years since the initial agreement was forged in 2006. Then what seemed to be odd timing, Reuters released a story on February 12 which described Cisco’s interest in the virtualization player. A week later RedHat announced that they have... (more)