Archive for the ‘Content & Content Devices’ Category

(Prove me wrong or shut the heck up.)

As pondered by Tony Greenberg and Alex Veytsel

1. Everything that’s old will be new again. Last year brought us the return of 3D from the 1950s, cloud (a.k.a. the new and improved mainframe), thin client (the dumb terminals for said mainframe), and iPad, the new and improved tablet PC. This year will bring us another batch of rebranded, repackaged technology sold as revolutionary. Which is ok because none of us are ready for true innovation (see #10)

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Posted in CDN & Streaming, Content & Content Devices, Data Center & Colocation, IT Market | 2 Comments »

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 | 2 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. (more…)

Posted in Content & Content Devices | 2 Comments »

The pending bankruptcy of MGM studios seems strange at a time when mega blockbuster films continue to defy the “old media industry” trend and bring in vast sums of money. What happened to the studio that owns James Bond, pending feature The Hobbit, and The Pink Panther? It got caught up in a downdraft created by being too closely reliant on revenue from the old forms of distribution, and not restructuring properly to focus on ownership of content in a world of fast changing technology.

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YouTube as a millstone around Google’s profitability is a mirage. Contrary to Credit Suisse’s estimates of a $470M annual loss, Google is more likely losing a fraction of that amount, due to peering for 73% of its traffic, buying bandwidth from some of the lowest-cost Tier 1 providers, using unprecedented bulk purchasing power to secure very favorable wholesale rates, and running data centers far away from

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