Will users force the door open on the walled gardens of private Internets?

By Alex Veytsel and Tony Greenberg

In the hubbub over the Google and Verizon new net neutrality plan, a couple of things stand out:

1) There is no actual deal, just a proposed compromise that no one actually likes

2) Everyone seems to be confused about the new,  private Internet

While more viable than its critics suppose, this solution will implode in a wave of mistrust. Even if implemented, there is no equilibrium state possible between the public and private Internet. That’s because the new private Internet is not new – it’s what used to be called a walled garden. 

When there is a free and open alternative (think AOL versus a typical modern ISP), the garden eventually withers as every able-minded user scrambles over the wall. When there is no alternative (think iPhone’s app store), it’s a monopolistic cash cow. Either way, sustained equilibrium between the two is rarely achieved. Each side is likely counting on the loss of that balance betting on their own models of the wall between private and public. And that gets us back to the wave of mistrust that will sink this ship before it leaves harbor.

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Posted in CDN & Streaming, Cloud Computing, Content & Content Devices, Network & Bandwidth, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

A long time ago in a business not so far away, a king sat considering his fate. The weather had been poor during the last growing season, the peasants were getting restless, and neighboring kingdoms were either disappearing into the abyss or raising invasion armies that he couldn’t match. The King sat wistfully wondering what to do when the guards announced a visitor – a traveling Jester.

“Greetings, my King,” said the Jester. “I bring you notions, potions, and, most importantly, solutions far beyond your imagination. We have threads of the finest glass fiber, and crystal balls with centers of pure data, and trained gnomes to support any furniture you want – whether it’s a table, a server dish, or even your royal desk top.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in RFPs | No Comments »

“Money is the opposite of the weather. Nobody talks about it, but everybody does something about it.”

- Rebecca Johnson

In 1996, I recognized a problem in the way IT services were bought and sold. The sales process wasn’t set up to solve a customer’s problems. Instead, it was set up to close a deal. Unfortunately for IT buyers, there really weren’t any better alternatives.

And the process wasn’t much better for the sellers either. Vendors were burdened with trying to provide excess requirements for the least cost, regardless of market value or actual need. In the middle, a massive amount of cash was being lost as the two tried to come together. Where did that cash go? Mostly into sales and marketing, which is ultimately about bringing two sides together to do a deal?

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Posted in IT Market, RampRate News | 1 Comment »

I always have thought of Microsoft as Open Source in many ways. I know it may sound odd on several fronts, especially for a guy like me who has been using UNIX flavored operating systems since the early 1980s.

But I’ve also been using PC-Windows and Apple Macintoshes since the early 1980s, so I think my views are informed by a pretty wide set of data sources. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Cloud Computing, Managed Services | 3 Comments »

Trust is a double-edged sword.  If you trust in the right things and the right people, you can accomplish much more than you ever could alone.  In falling for myths and liars, you fail not only yourself, but also all those who trusted you.  Today’s subject is how our misplaced trust eats away at the crown jewels of American industry – putting IT services on the same complacent path that greatly contributed to the last mainstay of the country’s wealth — auto manufacturing. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in IT Market | No Comments »

Everyone loves a format war. These things happen once every five years or ten years. The last one that happened was about ten years ago during the Real Media vs. Windows Media wars for domination of Internet video streaming. Many of us are old enough to remember the battle between Sony’s Betmax and JVC’s VHS video tape format back in the 70s… And none of us can remember the ultimate format war: Tesla’s AC current vs Edison’s DC current for the electrical grid. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Content & Content Devices | 2 Comments »

Rigged Managed Services RFPs Harm Vendors and Buyers Alike

As a seller of IT managed services, you may spend hundreds of hours on a quote only to find that you really had no chance because the game was rigged. It can be obvious and heavy handed: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Managed Services | 1 Comment »

Force Majeure (less secularly known as “Act of God”) clauses are standard contract language and should be included in your data center checklist. Having your data center wiped out by a meteor strike means you’re not getting service credits and there’s not much you can do about it Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Data Center & Colocation | 2 Comments »

Craig Labovitz, at Arbor Networks, a company that makes packet inspection gear, released a great article about how much traffic Google serves.

It has a few key points that the content delivery, content, and telco companies should note:

1. Google is deploying cache servers in ISPs
2. Google generates upwards of 5% of all internet traffic
3. Upwards of 60% of Google’s traffic is delivered via peering

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Posted in CDN & Streaming | 3 Comments »

Today’s devious device is a playbook page that’s intentionally left blank. Omitting meaningful measurement from IT Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or leaving them to the discretion of the vendor can effectively nullify their effect along with service credits of 2%-5% of your monthly bill for a single violation up to 50% or more for serious / repeat violations Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in CDN & Streaming, Data Center & Colocation, Managed Services | 4 Comments »