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Datacenter Network Design

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The Funkschau special edition „Datacenter 2011“ features an article about *server access technologies* (network design) within datacenters. The author elaborates on pros/cons of ToR vs EoR/MoR designs. Having read a couple of papers about this topic, to me, Top-or-Rack (ToR) seemed to be de-facto industry standard. Apparently, this is not the case.

Browsing the Web for some additional info I came across an excellent source on the overall topic (networks/datacenters/cloud computing/etc). Check, for instance, ToR vs EoR for a lengthy discussion on datacenter network design choices.

Another good source on the same / a similar topic
blog.scottlowe.org.

Cloud Computing in Switzerland

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Cloud computing seems to gain momentum in Switzerland.

Providers.
Cloud Sigma. A CC start-up located in Zurich offering innovative IaaS.

Associations.
Swiss EuroCloud
Swiss ICT CC Study Group


Read-worthy resources about CC in Switzerland.
EuroCloud Swiss Leitfaden Cloud Computing
Govermental adoption of CC in CH
IMAS report about CC in DACH
Computerworld: Cloud Computing in CH
IT Magazine: Cloud Computing in CH
ZHAW IT-Sourcing Studie 2011
Swiss ICT CC Publications
Cloud Research 2012

ICTurkey 2011: International Partnering and Collaboration Event in ICT

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FI-PPP

FI-PPP

Will be talking about FI-WARE and the FI-PPP at the ICTurkey event 2011.

Certainly a good time to talk. The project is getting in shape and partner contributions (to Generic Enablers and related Assets) are getting more concrete. First signs for potential FI-WARE Open Call topics are slowly showing up. Definitively worth to keep an eye on.

The slides are available for download: FI-WARE Open Calls

SAP Forum 2011, Mexico City

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Invited as speaker by SAPs Telco Industry Unit I had the pleasure to talk at the SAP Forum 2011 in Mexico City. Great event, well attended and even so organized.

The Telco Session was very well engaged and featured excellent speakers.
= Telco 2.0: New Business Models for Telco companies, Simon Terrance, CEO, STL Partners
= Sustainable Business for Telecom Industry, Jens Amail, SVP and Head of SAP Telecommunications Industry
= Monetizing Services in a hyper-connected World, Martin Schmid, Sales Director Convergent Charging, SAP
= Cloud Computing, New Technologies, and Co-Innovation, Thomas Michael Bohnert, Technical Director, SAP Research

An amazing speech with lots of insights was given by Simon. I especially enjoyed the discussion around Softbank, a telco that hands out femto cells plus DSL backhaul for FREE to its mobile subscribers in order to enhance mobile experience. A pure accident that femto cells were an element in my talk as well. Another interesting topic was the upstream-downstream business concept: Telcos as facilitator in the very heart of the Internet century.

Jens took on and presented SAPs strategy for the telco industry high-lightning convergent charging and and real-time analytics. Who says SAP does not have a reasonable telco footprint. With Highdeal first, and now Sybase, SAP took measures and if continued, may eventually exploit its huge experience and eco-system to become a true telco big-player.

And there was also Martin, an SAP telco veteran, making a strong case for convergent charging in a hyper-connected world, with cloud computing, mobile adds, services, or in general value-add at the forefront.

Finally, pleasure was mine to talk about tech transformations. To cut short, it was amazing to talk to an engaged crowed. The slides can be found here

YMHMNA

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Spring Festival in China. Since two days in Panyu/Guangzhou, wonderful weather, friendly and happy people, seasonal spirit all over the place.

Finally a dream came true. Roughly 20years ago I sold my much beloved Yamaha RD 350 as money was needed so painfully for studies. Ever since desire never really vanished. It lurked for this one day, yesterday. On the road again.

Mercy has it, it is a Yamaha, or at least something close to it, that picks up great legacy. The new treasure is named *YMHMNA*. And isn*t it a beauty of some kind?

YMNHMNA

Running a startup in Switzerland

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Inspired by Sean, from Dublin and some kind of startup insider, I loosely follow the Swiss startup scene. What surprised me is that Switzerland is under the top 5 innovative/supportive countries in Europe (even #1 according to some sources).

An excellent financial basis is definitively helping, but certainly only one aspect. What is needed is a community and comprehensive facilitation. A comprehensive overview about startup awards and support was recently published at startwerk.ch, which itself is a portal/blog around the Swiss startup scene.

Whenever reading about starting a company one of the first advices given is „understand your market“; obviously. So an immediate question would be about size, for instance size of the addressable market in Switzerland for business software (no surprise, I work for a biz software company). One interesting aspect in such research are birth-death rates (growth/shrink patterns). So the question comes down to: how many companies are taking off and how many file insolvency?

According to research by D&B Schweiz, the number of new Swiss company registrations in 2010 is 33550 and the number of insolvencies is 5619, with 1645 of them being a legal artifact with no immediate consequence, so to be ignored (details can be found in the report). Note, 4000 effective losses is a stable figure since 2006.

Given this one (slightly over-simplified) conclusion a healthy survival probability of p~(1-4000/33550)~0,88 along with a plus of 25000 companies per year in terms of market size.

Google Apps and KDE Kontact

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It is now roughly 11 years since I turned to Linux and ever since it stays as my one and only OS, for private and professional matters. Isnt that a long time?

Pointless to elaborate why Linux appeals to computer scientist. Yet besides all those nitty gritty technical merits of Linux, it was and still is the appeal of KDE that made up for quite some frustrations. Since the very begining I use KMail, for instance, and I don““t see any reason why this should change as long as the community sticks to its plain design and efficient usability.

So why writing this? I finally bought an HTC Nexus; the Android framework is truly impressive. Consequently, I am now using more of the Google universe since the integration of Android and the rest of Googles Apps/Services is compelling (let““s face it). So an pressing question was how to sync Android / Gmail Calendar with Kontact and the solution is GCALDeamon. The tool is pretty simple to install/use especially in view of the many configurations it supports. Very well done, definitively worth this post.

A good intro to started off can be found at How to make Kontact work with Google Apps. There is little detail though, in particular it doesnt tell explicitely whether to use „file-based“ or „http-based/http-server“ sync. Both options are possible (c.f. the manual of the tool). It works fine for me with the http-based option.

Product versus Service Business – Service Economies and the Internet

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A paper by my SAP colleague Andreas F. promotes the research discipline „Service Science“. His (well-known) point is that modern economies turn into service economies by market forces. So what distinguishes „services“ from „products“ and what are explicit/implicit features of „service economies“. But this what „Service Science“ is all about, right?

An interesting and valid observation especially exemplified in the telecom and software industry. Just watch the statement of NSN in an earlier blog post. It claims that „50% of NSNs business is operating networks“ (network-as-a-service). The same applies to Ericsson, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, and others with only the actual ratio different.

The question to therefore not whether „servicefication“ is a valid observation but rather a.) „What is the right strategy for the sector and b.) which role the Internet may hold (technology and business).

SAP Research has a long track record in investigating these questions under the umbrella-term „Internet-of-Services“. Essentially the idea is to extend the current Internet into a „Global Service Delivery Framework“ that supports „service-based economies“ that then turn into „web-based service economies“. This is a bold statement and no economy will turn fully web-based, definitively. But the broader concept is valid. Personally I favor the term „Internet Business Platform“, mostly since „Service Delivery Platform“ is associated with a long-lasting concept in the telco domain.

For more about SAP Research „Internet-of-Services“ check the IoS-Portal.