Did you know?

Thanks @Smina who emailed this over, worth taking 5 minutes of your time. Video presentation on the progression of information technology, researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman.

"By 2049 a $1000 computer will have more computational capacity than the whole human race". Get your head around the consequences of *that*!

Amazon Web Services provisioning 50,000 EC2 server instances PER DAY

Picked this up from Reuven Cohen @ Enomaly's blog: The Business of Cloud Computing is booming:

"An analysis by Guy Rosen also sheds some light on the cloud opportunity in which he estimates that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is provisioning 50,000 EC2 server instances per day. A 50K/day run rate would imply a yearly total of over 18 million provisioned instances. "

Read the rest of @ruv's post: this confirms something that we've noticed is that cloud provisioning provides up to 90% cost savings relative to traditional outsourced data centre hosting, PLUS with no vendor lock-in or minimum contract terms. Bring it on.

Memia is hiring: Senior SaaS Test Analyst

We're hiring a number of roles at Memia - first up, Senior SaaS Test Analyst:

Play a key role in the next global SaaS success story from New Zealand

Memia Cloud Consulting is focussed on building and deploying Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications and solutions - we are currently developing the next global SaaS success stories from our base in central Christchurch, Canterbury.

We are looking for key people to fill a number of roles on our team, either on a Contract or Permanent basis:

Senior SaaS / Web 2.0 Test Analyst

Are you an experienced software QA analyst with formal Enterprise Application testing knowledge, an understanding of how the best SaaS applications should work, and experience of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) processes?

If so, we would like to hear from you.

You will need:

* Over 3 years of professional experience as a Software Test (QA) Analyst
* A deep understanding of web-based applications and SaaS delivery models
* Ideally experience with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and processes
* Ability to work closely with customers, software developers and business analysts in an Agile software development environment
* Strong written documentation skills
* Rigorous attention to detail
* Ability to bring creativity and new ideas to the job, and to be willing to put in the extra effort to help the team meet deadlines
* Above all, we are looking for you to be a self-starter who delivers results from day one.

What we can offer:

* Market-competitive remuneration
* Work from our great City Centre offices on Cashel Mall
* Relaxed flexible working environment
* Get to be part of a world class team using the latest Cloud-based technology
* Be part of the next great global SaaS success story born right here in Canterbury

If this role describes you and fits in with *your* career ambitions, please send your CV in confidence to Smina Vanlerberghe, Director: smina@memia.com

Note: You have to be able to work in New Zealand to apply for this job.
There's visa information at New Zealand Immigration Service.

Upcoming Cloud Conferences: Auckland, San Jose

End of a long blogging hiatus - Memia has been in vertical lift off over the last couple of months and things only just settling down again. Lots of stuff going on! ;-)

Just a quick shout out for a couple of upcoming conferences I'm going to be attending in the next few months, would be good to catch up with anyone else who's going to be there:

New Zealand Cloud Computing Summit: 5th October, Rendezvous Hotel Auckland NZ.

See: http://www.brightstar.co.nz/nz/cloud-computing-summit.html#


Software Vendors SaaS Migration Conference 2009: 7-8 December, San Jose

See: http://www.cloudfutures.com/usa/

Microsoft Office 2010: The Movie

I like this from Microsoft.



"Watch your margins!" ;-)

The software business: your risk model, should you need one.

I was just going back over Microsoft's announcement from January when they announced their "cost cutting initiatives" (it was referenced in a friend's "my last day at Microsoft" email), when I noticed at the bottom the bit about "forward looking statements".

These sections are usually pretty bland and generic - however, what is fascinating is that Microsoft have actually broken out all of their downside risks into a list for everyone to see: check out the list below. If you're running a software business and don't have a risk model, here you go. ;-)

•	challenges to Microsoft’s business model;
•	intense competition in all of Microsoft’s markets;
•	Microsoft’s continued ability to protect its intellectual property rights;
•	claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property rights of others;
•	the possibility of unauthorized disclosure of significant portions of Microsoft’s source code;
•	actual or perceived security vulnerabilities in Microsoft products that could reduce revenue or lead to liability;
•	government litigation and regulation affecting how Microsoft designs and markets its products;
•	Microsoft’s ability to attract and retain talented employees;
•	delays in product development and related product release schedules;
•	significant business investments that may not gain customer acceptance and produce offsetting increases in revenue;
•	changes in general economic conditions or the availability of credit that affect the value of our investment portfolio or demand for Microsoft’s products and services;
•	adverse results in legal disputes;
•	unanticipated tax liabilities;
•	quality or supply problems in Microsoft’s consumer hardware or other vertically integrated hardware and software products;
•	impairment of goodwill or amortizable intangible assets causing a charge to earnings;
•	exposure to increased economic and regulatory uncertainties from operating a global business;
•	geopolitical conditions, natural disaster, cyberattack or other catastrophic events disrupting Microsoft’s business;
•	acquisitions and joint ventures that adversely affect the business;
•	improper disclosure of personal data could result in liability and harm to Microsoft’s reputation;
•	outages and disruptions of online services if Microsoft fails to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure;
•	sales channel disruption, such as the bankruptcy of a major distributor; and
•	Microsoft’s ability to implement operating cost structures that align with revenue growth.

Ray Ozzie: Cloud lowers margins shocker

Ray Ozzie at Microsoft has gone and said the unsayable: the economics of Cloud Services will yield lower margins than packaged software for Microsoft. Uh, yeah. The company’s gross margin for the quarter ended March 31 was 79% - is that sustainable in a new industry paradigm which is relentlessly driving out efficiencies and economies of scale?

On the other hand, as Google and others have shown, when your technology scales to 1.4 billion users and counting, and supports a significant percentage of global commerce, then margins aren't everything.

Perhaps of most relevance is Microsoft’s key incumbent strength in this space: an estimated 5 million to 7 million developers who write software based on Microsoft technology (mainly .NET these days). MS isn't going away any time soon - however they will need to work out how to monetize Azure differently to the open source / EC2 crowd.