Yet another reason to move to Cloud... A study out this week has found that if companies adopt cloud computing, they can reduce the energy consumption of their IT and save money on energy bills. The report, created by research firm Verdantix and sponsored by AT&T, estimates that cloud computing could enable companies to save $12.3 billion off their energy bills.

Private cloud investment by Enterprise & Public Sector accelerating - will lead investment in Cloud over next 18 months

Not to restate the obvious but most enterprises and government entities are doing little or nothing with public cloud and heavily investing in private cloud initiatives. Two big reasons for this are that 1) IT organizations are able to more effectively articulate a quantifiable business case for deploying a private cloud based on a) increased agility, and b) increases in operational efficiency and staff productivity and 2) security concerns are still a major factor in curbing adoption of public cloud services and implementing hybrid cloud solutions that blend private and public cloud solutions.

A good article by Dave Gaeda provides more detail.

Cisco's Partner Summit in N'awlins!

Getting ready for another great Cisco Partner Summit next week. This year, it's all about the Cloud (isn't everything?) and how Partners can participate in the market transition to "IT as a Service" or "XaaS".

Here's a great "explainer" for those wanting to know more about how Cisco is enabling the benefits of cloud with our partner BMC Software.

Verizon and Cisco team up to bring 4G mobile collaboration to business

- posted from my iPhone

Taking Enterprise Mobility to the next level

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2011/prod_010511b.html?CMP=AF17154&vs_f=News@Cisco:+Press+Releases+and+Features&vs_p=News@Cisco:+Press+Releases+and+Features&vs_k=1


- posted from my iPhone

Location:Las Vegas

Mobile Visual Collaboration for Business is Here! Cisco's New CIUS Tablet

Time to buckle your seatbelts everyone! The much anticipated mobile visual collaboration CIUS platform has arrived! The Market Transition to the Mobile Enterprise is shifting into overdrive with this new product that enables mobile HD Video Conferencing anywhere.

This announcement is significant in many respects. First, this platform allows companies to use this tablet for all communications (voice, video, email, IM, etc.); providing a bigger screen for visual collaboration and allowing workers to stay connected wherever they are. Businesses can start cutting back on investments in wireline phones as this is the only device you'll need! At the office, the device uses low cost, high bandwidth WiFi, while on the road, will use 3G or 4G connectivity.

Great addition to the many announcements we've heard this past month that are fueling the transition to a mobile workspace!

One step closer to Broadband Internet as a Public Utility

A federal court ruled that the FCC lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.

While this is a blow to fans of Network Neutrality, and a short term win for the CableCos and Telcos providing broadband internet services, it's causing the government and FCC to rethink its strategy including acceleration of broadband as a regulated utility. With the belief that its every American Citizen's right to cost effective broadband internet, I believe we're only 5 short years away from "$75 for 100M broadband internet"; provided as a tariffed service with today's service providers reinventing themselves, creating new an innovative services riding on top of this infrastructure.

At the end of the day, this is very good news for business and consumers, its not such good news for service providers that don't "make the turn"; changing their service portfolios and revenue mix to favor value added services in lieu of commodity broadband internet network services.