2011 was a very busy year for us at RampRate. I’ve spent nearly 20 years, on many sides, of the technology business and I enjoy reflecting across large swaths of time to see if there are patterns, lessons, and advice, so let’s see what we get from 2011.

Cloud Computing Won’t Whisk Us Away to Oz

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Posted in CDN & Streaming, Cloud Computing, Data Center & Colocation, Outsourcing Advisory, RampRate News | No Comments »

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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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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Posted in Cloud Computing, Data Center & Colocation, Outsource/Insource, RampRate News | 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 | 2 Comments »