Customer Facing Web Apps With Peak Demands: Sweet Spot for Cloud Deployment

Every IT executives is looking at cloud solutions; the challenge is where to start. Well here is my suggestion. Identify customer facing web applications that have sharp variations in demand. Some notable examples are Domino’s Pizza and NFL.com on Super Bowl Sunday, IRS.gov around April 15th, online retailers right after Thanksgiving, etc. In the past IT professionals might have configured …

Prediction from Angelbeat 2012: Telephone/Handset Sales Will Drop Sharply by 2020, driven by BYOD

It seems clear that bring-your-own-device (byod) initiatives are being rapidly embraced by IT executives, who will increasingly spend money on thin client/VDI solutions and middleware software platforms to support consumer devices in the enterprise. Good news if you sell these solutions, potentially tricky for Microsoft and Intel who have grown accustomed to the 3-4 PC refresh over the past ten …

Lessons from Angelbeat 2012: Would You Buy A Server If Starting From Scratch

The first ten Angelbeat events in 2012 were absolutely fantastic and it gave me the chance to interact with over 1,000 senior IT executives throughout the southeast. At the end of each seminar, I asked the attendees “Let’s say you were building your IT infrastructure from scratch. Would you ever buy another server or storage hardware platform, or just go …

Cloud 2012 vs Broadband/Fiber 2000 Investments: Is Another Crash Looming, I Don’t Think So

The telecommunications sector suffered a major crash in 2000 as multi-billion investments in fiber optic infrastructure went unused. Take a look at the sharp decline in Corning’s stock price back then (Corning is among the world’s largest manufacturer of fiber optic cabling). It has only been in the last few years that much of this so-called dark fiber has been …

IT Insights from my 25th Harvard Business School Reunion

I recently attended my 25th Harvard Business School reunion and came away with three important insights:

Professors now ask students/alumni to follow them on twitter and do not actively promote/release their email address. Big change from my 20th reunion just 5 years ago. Obviously they still use e-mail, which is not going away as a communication method. But this is a …

About CEO – Ron Gerber

Ronald J. Gerber is the CEO of Angelbeat, Founder of Gerber & Company, and serves on the Board of Directors and is a former President of the Harvard Business School Club of Greater New York. Angelbeat has held over 350 technology symposiums on throughout North America since its founding in 1999. Angelbeat is the largest technology event company in North …

The Cloud to Any Device, & Everything In Between! Angelbeat 2011

Each one-day Angelbeat seminar focuses on the top two issues of 2011- leveraging cloud computing and integrating tablets & smartphones into your IT infrastructure – and helps you understand the impact from their deployment on security/compliance, network architecture and user performance. The proven Angelbeat methodology of concise and technical presentations across multiple/complementary areas is followed. CPE continuing education credits are provided. Get more details by …

Microsoft Nokia (not RIM) Partnership – Why It Might Work – Demise of the $100 Laptop

So I was right about Microsoft making a big deal to expand its mobile footprint but wrong about the partner (Nokia, not RIM). At first glance this partnership seems good on paper but would have too many executional problems to work: 1) Nokia-Microsoft cultural battles (entrenched Scandinavian workforce animosity towards Microsoft only grew with the hiring of the ex-Microsoft executive …

Cloud Risks to Client-based Apple iTune vs Microsoft Office

Cloud-based services present major challenges – and opportunities – for Apple’s iTune and Microsoft’s Office client platforms. If you could find all your songs at an Internet Radio site accessed via a 4G/WiFi connection, then do you really need to store all the songs on your iPod? Similarly, if all of your word processing and spreadsheets were available from a …

2011 IT Mergers & Acqusitions: Top Two Predictions

While generally hesitant to predict this rapidly changing IT world, I have been asked and now offer my two top acquisition predictions for 2011:

1. Cisco Buys a VAR/Systems Integrator: Cisco’s main competitors in servers/data center offerings – IBM, HP/EDS, Dell/Perot – all offer professional services to complement hardware. With these global giants now ex-Cisco customers and pushing their in-house brands, Cisco buys its …

IBM 1970, Apple 2010: The Value of Closed Systems

IBM achieved tremendous success in the 1970′s by creating a closed and highly integrated mainframe architecture, controlling all IT elements including chip-sets, hardware, terminals, middle-ware, application software, network connections, etc. Now look at Apple. Their strategy of controlling hardware design and underlying software worked great with the iMac. With the recent expansion into displaying mobile advertisements, designing iPad chip-sets and …