Archive for November, 2010

Who’s in the buggy whip business in technology these days? By that, I mean, what companies are about to become obsolete thanks to major shifts in media delivery and consumption caused by the rise, the serious rise, of streaming?

More than a dozen years after the launch of the Streaming Media conference, which is now filled with dozens of content-management systems and practically no CDNs (content distribution networks), the show is creeping back to success showing its best growth numbers in years. Meanwhile, the CDN business is still a rug-dealer’s market, facing a death spiral toward $0 bandwidth, with individual vendors providing widely varying price, quality and value. “We’ve seen this all before,” observes Steve Lerner, RampRate’s Media Technology Specialist, “by 2003 there were over 25 dead CDNs all who followed the same pattern of selling ‘cheaper’ rather than selling ‘better’. It is hard to make a living marking up bandwidth that has a continuously collapsing marginal cost.” Thankfully, there’s still a market, as my firm, RampRate, mediates deals in this space).

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For casual readers, the one part of RampRate’s business that is externally visible and shines through in the blogs and articles is the SPY Index. With 137,000+ quotes it puts a real backing on our opinions, and gives some precision in estimating everything from power cost margins for vendors that charge per circuit to impact of poorly measured SLAs. It’s been RampRate’s flagship family of products for a decade now.

CIOs and CFOs that took the next step in working with us on an outsourcing or benchmark project know that there’s a second half of the equation churning behind the scenes – the previously nameless RampRate process and workflow that accomplishes much of the heavy lifting in a deal:

• Getting internal consensus on true needs
• Getting vendor quotes into an apples-to-apples format
• Balancing vendor strengths and weaknesses into an evaluation of optimal fit

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As costs of video and other content delivery are rocketing towards zero, it may be time to reinvigorate revenue models that were ahead of their time a decade ago. Measuring effect of streaming video on the audience – did they consume it, did they focus on it, did they take follow-on actions – can become the foundation for creating more value to the customer and drive margin against the tide of price and profit erosion. Watch Tony Greenberg discuss how he helped pioneer performance-based streaming in a previous venture and how RampRate is helping buyers develop cost models tied to results today.

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Paper vs. Plates just one question in the bigger picture

Part 2 in a series on conflicts between environmental and economical impulses in all of us, and how we resolve them. Entire article here

“How to be green? Many people have asked us this important question. It’s really very simple and requires no expert knowledge or complex skills. Here’s the answer: Consume less. Share more. Enjoy life.”  – Derek Wall

I was at a friend’s home recently when I noticed he had no paper napkins, towels or tissues, because, he said, he wanted to reduce impact on the planet. Meanwhile, his SubZero dishwasher was running full bore. Tug of War. Economics or Ethics?

And it got me thinking: In our pious zeal to feel better about the mess we’re collectively making of the planet, many of us have settled on personal steps to green things up a bit. But are those steps really worthwhile, or just sops to make us feel less guilty? What’s the real return on investment of these options compared to some alternative?

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