Links for July 28th through August 2nd

A little something extra…

I was in the Yosemite/Fresno area for a wedding this weekend. As the picture above shows, it was a great chance to get an In-n-Out burger – it was my son’s first time there, though he’s much too young to enjoy them, tragically. Man, they are so delicious.

The wedding itself was wonderful, with an old west, vaudeville theme. Check out some of the pictures.

The Links

• Eli Lilly ends talks to expand Amazon Web Services use
  Just talked with a reporter about the Eli Lilly not expanding use of Amazon cloud due to liability problems –
• Why Most Cloud Contracts Shouldn’t Be Negotiable
  "If self-service cloud providers, such as AWS, really want enterprise customers, they must consider how far they’re willing to bend to earn that business. In some cases, negotiation might be an option. Enterprises, in turn, need to figure out what they actually want from the cloud, because with most cloud providers, they can’t have their cake and eat it too. There are plenty of cloud options offering negotiable contracts, meaningful SLAs and even dedicated resources, but they don’t accept American Express."
• VA set to spend billions on IT
  $12 billion over five years, and a new procurement system…. looks like blood in the water for snarky vendors.
• AlcaLu in Recovery Mode
  they like the potential
• Burton Group: Avoid Office 2010 lock-in, stick with Office 2007 | Applications – InfoWorld
  I wonder what good examples of software that don't lock you in are.
• Surgient Acquired By Quest Software
• Swinging Big
  GWOS ads and update.
• RealNetworks Scrambling For New Products Now That Restructuring Is Complete
  whoa!
• Microsoft: We are focusing on eight core businesses | ZDNet
• Austin Cloud User Group – DataSolutions Blog
  I'll be speaking at the second Austin Cloud User Group meeting, kicking off the topic of cloud, hopefully.
• A private cloud is still a giant computer for VMware
  VMWare indicates it will go after mainframe money, including application modernization.
• Where IT budget dollars will be spent in 2010
• SpiceHeads In The Clouds
  SMB data on cloud usage. Low with concerns of security holding some back.
• Open Core is Dead
• Mainframes drive strong Q2 for Unisys
• Time Inc.’s iPad Problem is Trouble for Every Magazine Publisher
  They should just make a mobile web version behind a paywall if Time wants cash.
• Convirture goes open core with 2.0 virt tools • The Register
• Eric Schmidt on Google’s Next Tricks
  Kind of a dicey quote here when it comes to open source feel goodies, hopefully there's something kind of missing context: '“If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” Schmidt asked rhetorically.'
• Today in Infrastructure
  "I think cloud providers will settle for average-scale applications in the near term."
• 100 million Facebook pages leaked on torrent site | THINQ.co.uk
  I predict no one will really care long term.
• Citrix fluffed by XenDesktop virt in Q2 • The Register
  Much detail on revenue breakouts and on XenDesktop sales for desktop virtualization.
• HP confirms Windows 7 and WebOS tablet plans | Mobilize – InfoWorld
  Strange strategy: different OSes for consumer vs. business. I'm pretty sure business users would like the same flashiness & UX of the consumer device.
• TechCrunch
  Well, I guess they're not going to buy Quora.com

Disclosure: see the RedMonk client list for clients mentioned.