Cautiously, I stepped on the scale the other day – a little over 30 days since I read and adopted some of the principles in Jonathan Bailor’s book The Smarter Science of Slim.  To my utter delight, I was down 22lbs!  To say I was amazed is an understatement.  It’s not only the scale that was giving me good news, it was the mirror as well –  my shirts were looser and my paints less tight.  I’ll be damned, but Jonathan Bailor had it right!

Back in the fall of 2011 Jonathan had contacted me to write a review of his book.  He had found me over on Amazon and saw that I had written about other health and exercise related books so reached out to see if I would be interested in reading a pre-release copy of his.  I did so, and wrote a review, and that was that.  I agreed with everything in the book and thought it made some very solid points about weight loss and the obesity problem that is rampant nowadays.  However, I just never found the time to put into practice what I read – the holidays came, then the winter months.  Before I knew it I had packed on close to 35lbs out of nowhere.

So in late February of 2012 I pulled the book back off the shelf, re-read it, and decided it was worth a shot.  I’d been a big guy all my life (though pretty healthy).  I was fairly active but it seemed that no matter what I did – whenever I managed to take the weight off, it would come right back.  It was like I was fighting a teeter-totter.

I hate diets – hate them with a passion.  I believe firmly the moment you deny yourself anything, no matter how small, you are setting yourself up for failure.  So it was great that in Mr. Bailor’s book he said that you shouldn’t deny yourself carbohydrates – just don’t make them the main part of your meal.  Fill yourself up with lean proteins, non-starchy vegetables, nuts, dairy, etc – and minimize (but don’t 100% eliminate) the carbs and sweets.  It’s not so much a diet but rather it’s the way we should be eating period!

The proof is in the results – I’m 22lbs lighter, dropped a waist size and am feeling great.  I still would like to get rid of about 50 more pounds and drop another size in the waist to be “satisfied” with my body.  I think it’s not only achievable – I know it is!

Thanks Jonathan for the excellent book – next time I’ll make sure I apply what I read instead of just merely reading it and nodding my head!

Of course reading about something is one thing, seeing it in action and working is another.  For the past 5 weeks I’ve been on a DevOps hybrid team – we’ve got developers, change control, DBAs, web admins, monitoring, network and automation (me) folks all together in the same physical space.  The results so far?

• More conversations that have merit instead of endless meetings that drag on forever.  We talk, we debate, we decide.
• Expanded knowledge.  In the past 5 weeks I’ve discovered Puppet, GitHub and JMeter – all thanks to being near to and involved with the development teams.
• No more “we do it this way because…”.  Since we are all together, we don’t accept the old mantra of we’ve always done it this way because nonsense.
• Stuff gets done.  No more waiting around for weeks for something to happen – we have all interested parties in the room who can make things happen.
• We see the big picture.  We are all seeing the big picture now.  We know the goal and the road to get to it.  We are no longer taking 15 different roads trying to get toward the same goal and falling in the ditch.

So that’s the first 5 weeks of what will hopefully be many more.  You can argue all you want for your silos, and how it won’t work in your organization because, and whatever other excuses you want to make.  However, it’s clear to me that it’s working, it’s working well, and this is the future of IT.

As a recent blog entry by Avichal Garg put it, perhaps instead of hiring 10x people, we should instead focus on a 10x team – and that is just what we have done.

#DevOps rules!

The problem with being social is that unless you have a unique message, people really don’t need to see that you are “Going out for pizza at the new place” on 10 different social networks.  For one, it gets to be a chore to update them all and second, if you have time to post the same thing to all 10 different networks I’m going to start to question just how much free time (and creativity) you have!   Pretty soon people really get tired of seeing your message repeated your message repeated your message repeated.  Not to mention the fact that some networks are there for professional/business opportunities, and that potential employer or your current boss probably doesn’t need to know that you are “kicking it at the club” every Wednesday night.

This is the dilemma I found myself in.  I had a lot of great social networks going with various folks – some that overlapped, but many were becoming unique to that particular community – and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just copying and pasting the same information over and over.  So I decided it was time to segment out the social networks and take the strengths of each to define what I wanted to use them for. 

Facebook – It’s the social gathering spot for your friends and family.  The beauty of it is you can control your social circle, but still it’s meant to be more of “what’s happening” network instead of something you probably want to build up a professional resume on.  Interesting articles I read about social issues, what I’m doing (as if anyone cares), and where I’m going all end up on here.

Twitter – Used mostly for interaction with companies I do business with and as a broadcast tool at conferences.  Twitter has a unique ability to “evolve on the spot” to whatever situation you are in thanks to #hashtags, etc.  It’s not unusual to get a bunch of new followers that are all at the same event you are, and then to have them unfollow the next week.  That’s cool – I consider that one of its strengths.

Linkedin – This is a no brainer.  Professional references and colleagues only.  If I don’t know you, you aren’t a thought leader in professional areas I am interested in, or someone who I have worked with then I don’t add you.  I consider Linkedin to be the professional side of me and not a catch-all.

Google+ – I used this for my more professional social networking.  I tend to post more technical stuff here, things I’m working on or researching at the moment.  I keep all the “fluff” and social/economic stuff off there.  It’s open for all, but definitely more geek-tech-business oriented.

Pinterest – This social network exploded out of nowhere and really is burning up the social atmosphere right now.  This is a place where I share what interests me visually.  I tend to connect to folks on here that I may not know, but who share my same tastes in home décor, clothing, etc.  The few friends I do know on here I follow because we share similar tastes and/or backgrounds.

Flickr – I use Flickr as my primary photo album.  It’s open to all, and can be pictures of anything I have personally taken about things that interest me.  It also makes a good place to store pictures that I don’t want to lose.  I’ll also use it for a place to find Creative Commons licensed pictures I can use in my blog and other places.

My Blog (this website) – I don’t blog quite as much as I used to, only when I have something I feel needs saying.  I use my personal blog and web space for promoting things that interest me – such as hobbies, interests and professional material.  It’s my “index” on the web.

There are of course other social sites that I use on a less frequent basis such as Foursquare, Tumblr, etc.  It seems like each week a new social startup is launched.  The problem is that I simply don’t have enough time – or interests – to be active on all of them.  By narrowing down each one to a specific purpose I feel I can get my “brand” (personal image if you will) out to more people more effectively.  In the end, that is what social media should be all about – your brand, whether you are a person or a business promoting a product.  You have to use the tools available to communicate most effectively in a voice that people want to hear in order for your message to ever be heard.

One last thing before we call this blog post quits.  No matter which social site you are on I always recommend that you use a consistent username.  As long as your content is safe for public consumption, and you want to build up an online reputation, I always recommend grabbing your own name as a username.  You’ll find that on most sites I’ve used my name (Robert Stinnett) as my public ID, or a variant close to it.  Keep in mind that as long as you are conscientious about what your posting, this has a lot of benefits because it allows you to build up a presence and following online.  However, the drawback is that if you are trying to keep stuff private and not linked back to who you really are then this isn’t the answer.  Of course, remember, no matter who you are or what you say, the Internet has a way of unmasking us all…

See you on the social channels!

Sears has always stood for customer service.  I remember as a kid growing up in the 80s and early 90s that Sears was “the” place for my parents to shop.  Everything from my school clothes to the washing machine came from Sears – and when something went wrong, Sears was always there to take care of things.  Didn’t have the right size?  They’d get it.  Needed advice on what to buy?  They knew their stuff.  Something broke?  They’d knock themselves over to fix it.  They were the hallmark of customer service and if you ask many folks, especially older folks, they will tell you that Sears stood 110% behind the motto, “Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back.”

Today, a quick search around the ‘net and you’ll see that the  biggest gripe with many folks about Sears is their lack of customer service.  Phone calls that never get returned; orders that disappear into the ether; items that break that take month to get fixed; folks in the stores who just don’t understand what they are selling.  It’s frustrating for them, and as anyone in marketing can tell you, once you get a customer unhappy with you it’s almost impossible to turn them back into a loyal, satisfied customer.

I myself have recently went through this with two orders I placed on the Sears.com website.  Both orders ran into problems – and while I understand that issues come up, what really got me was that nobody really knew (or seemed to care) how to resolve the problem.  Endless phone calls that never produced a successful resolution.  Even when the person at the other end of the phone wanted to help, tried in desperation to help, they often hit a roadblock.  One lady I was talking to tried in vain for over 15 minutes to get the store to answer the phone.

No amount of money can fix bad customer service.  Sure, some of the stores could use some TLC, but you can have the fanciest, most modern store in the world and it doesn’t matter if your customer experience is lacking.  Customers will leave in droves never to return again no matter how shiny the tile is or how fresh the paint smells.

Of course there are stores that try, and some that succeed, in still delivering the customer service that Sears was once known for.  One store that does this amazingly well is the Sears mall store located in Columbia, Missouri.  In my travels throughout the US I have visited Sears stores in over 12 different states.  I can say that hands down, this store far surpasses any other store I’ve been to in the customer relationship department.  It’s not the fanciest or biggest store Sears has (it’s classified as a “B” store), but the people there are truly amazing.

Take for instance a gentleman named Miles.  Miles has been with this store since – well, as long as I can remember.  He’s an appliance salesman, but he’s more than just someone who wants to sell you something.  He listens to the customers, he asks them about what their needs are – and then he recommends a product to fit their needs.  I would drive halfway across the state to buy something from Miles.  I remember a time when I was having a tough time tracking down a light bulb for the water dispenser in our refrigerator.  It used a non-standard design and I went in the store looking to see if they could possibly order one.  Miles listened, then he went into the backroom and came out with one – no charge.  I wasn’t looking for a freebie that day, but he wanted me to leave a happy customer and so he performed a small gesture that meant a lot to me.  That’s what customer service is all about.

Sears corporate would do well to send some of their top brass to this store to find out how to do things right.  They could learn a lot from spending just a few days on the floor with not only Miles, but many of the other employees there.  Even the manager of this store is amazing – I happened to be in the hardware department one day when she overheard me talking with an employee giving my name so he could send me some information to my email.  She came up to me and engaged me in conversation and thanked me for the positive comments I had put in for the store.  Again, here was a gesture that cost the company absolutely nothing but meant a lot to me, the customer.  To this day when I’m in the store if she sees me she will say hello and ask how I am doing – you can’t buy customer satisfaction like that.

My partner Keith worked for Sears for most of his early adult life.  He was a former employee of the Sears in Columbia, leaving 6 years ago to finally get his college degree.  To this day he looks for any opportunity to return to Sears because he, like me, believes in Sears.  He really misses the customers and the interaction he had; and though sometimes I think that perhaps he is seeing Sears with rose colored glasses, I think in the end he really understands what it will take to make Sears great again. 

If anyone from Sears is reading this, believe me when I say there are those of us out here who still believe in the company.  We want to see you survive, to thrive, and to be the American icon you once were.  Money alone won’t make that happen – because in my opinion what can really help turn Sears around is something that costs very little, yet has enormous returns on investment – customer service.

While watching a WebEx about cloud functionality in Control-M from the folks at BMC Software, they used an analogy of a private fleet of airplanes to explain it. I thought they were onto something rather good, and decided to take that analogy and expand upon it. Having said that let me welcome you to…

Cloud International Airport (CIA, no relation to the other guys – maybe, perhaps, we’re not telling)

Imagine that you work for a company (I know, hard, huh?) and you take frequent trips for business purposes. Your company can either book your flight on the company fleet of planes or they can choose to use a public carrier, such as Delta, Southwest, etc. You don’t really care what method they use to get you to your destination, just as long as you get there.

This is analogous to the cloud in many ways – the private planes that your company maintains are the servers that exist within your organization today. There are only so many of them, and they can only carry so many people to so many destinations at a time. If you have 15 people who need to fly to 15 different destinations, and there are only 5 company planes then you have a problem. You have run out of capacity. Someone will have to wait similar to how when you run out of capacity on those internal servers some program or process is going to have to wait or the company will have to buy more planes or maybe figure out a way to optimize the flight routes.

Let’s say that you are one of the unlucky 10 that there simply isn’t any capacity for on the private planes (the private cloud or traditional server farm) your company owns. Instead you book your flight on Delta and arrive at your destination on time and ready to rock and roll. This is similar to how the public cloud works – you have a workload (yourself) that needs to complete a task (get to Denver by 10AM Tuesday) and you just need to the resources (plane) to do that. You go out into the public cloud (the airlines) and ask for capacity (buy a ticket) and they provide it (the ticket and the plane) and process the workload (get you to Denver). In fact you might fly on Southwest, American, Alaskan Air — you don’t care, you just want to get to Denver. All those different airlines are analogous to the public cloud providers out there today (Amazon EC2, Windows Azure, etc).

It may be that a group of 5 of you need to get to Denver, and the company has the capacity to fly 2 of you there on the company fleet, but the other 3 have to book through the airlines. This is similar to how a hybrid cloud environment works – some private, some public, but the results are the same. It’s fairly transparent to the end user. You all get to Denver, on time (the work gets done, the processes process!)

But wait, there’s more to an airport than just the airlines!

Take a look around CIA and you’ll see similarities to the cloud everywhere. As you walk into the airport the first thing you encounter in the ticketing counter and agents. They are there to figure out where you are going, find you a seat on a plane, and get you scheduled to get to your destination. This is similar to how products such as BMC’s Control-M for Cloud work. It helps direct the workloads (the people) to the appropriate servers (airplanes) and makes sure that we aren’t trying to put 200 jobs on a server that can only support 20 (number of seats on the plane). Just as the ticketing agent can help direct folks to the gate and get them on the right type of plane going to the right destination, workload management software helps make sure your workloads and business processes are getting to the right servers and completing on time. It also knows how to direct the workloads (the people) to the right type of servers (private fleet, public airline, cargo jet, etc.) and to make sure that all the resources that the data that is needed to run the workload is available for use (the luggage actually makes it to the same place you are going).

While the ticketing agents and gate folks at getting people onto the planes someone needs to make sure we get the planes fueled up, they have those tiny packets of peanuts fully stocked, and that your luggage actually gets on board. This is where our ground crew comes into play. Companies such as Zenoss play this role. They are constantly monitoring the resources available in the cloud (the number of planes at the gates, and the right plane is at the right gate), the right hardware is available (the peanuts are fully stocked, and for the 1^st class passengers the little bottles of wine) and that you can take the appropriate actions to help alleviate problems before they turn into critical outages (the planes get fully fueled so that they can safely make it to their destinations).

Security is big at airports, and it’s one of the first factors that companies should think about when considering the cloud. Just as the airport isn’t going to let just anyone walk in and get on a plane, companies have to make sure that when they use the cloud that their data isn’t just walking off. Like the security checkpoints in the airport that screen passengers and check tickets, companies like Anx help you to secure your data in the cloud and to make sure that your private business processes running in the cloud remain just that – private. As the airplanes take off and leave; luggage is loaded and unloaded; they are there to make sure that only the right people are on that plane and that nobody else tries to sneak off with your luggage when you aren’t looking. The same concept applies here – we want to make sure that your data gets to the cloud, processed, and back to your company without anyone rifling through it. Just like security is first and foremost the biggest concern at the airport, so should it be with your data and your move to the cloud.

As you stroll down the moving walkway to your gate you glance out the window and notice the air traffic control tower. These guys are making sure that planes are taking off and landing safely, and that each one of them has their own “lane” in the sky. They are the traffic cops of the air. In the cloud the air traffic controllers are the cloud providers themselves – the Microsoft’s and the Amazon’s of the world. They are making sure that servers and services get provisioned, you get assigned the right configuration for your needs and that if something should happen to the systems you are using, you can get rerouted around the problem (much like how planes get re-routed due to weather).

Of course we can’t leave our airport just yet without taking a stroll through the food court and all the shops. I mean, really, who needs a mall when some airports have shopping centers that make malls look quaint by comparison? We can get everything from fresh baked cookies, the latest book on cloud computing and a new laptop before we get to our gate! All these shops and vendors in the airport represent the concepts of agility and independence the cloud brings to services, software and processes that are running in the cloud. As we walk through the shopping areas our choices are so varied and many that if one shop is out of our favorite magazine we simply go the next one (if we no longer need a server we can re-provision it on the fly) or if we don’t like the selection of shops in this concourse we can walk over to the next one (if I don’t like the quality of service a cloud provider is providing me I can switch with relative ease to a new provider). When we finally get to Denver we can use that new laptop to get to our data and infrastructure regardless of our physical location. If my laptop runs out of power, I can use my tablet or smart phone.

Hopefully this has given you a little better idea of what the cloud is all about – and some features, benefits and uses it might provide for your organization. Now you’ll have to excuse me – I have to catch my plane to Denver!

Now let me be straightforward here and say that this isn’t meant to be a Google bashing post.  Even though I argue that Google has lost its innovative spark over the past few years there are still products of theirs that I use on a daily basis – like Google Voice.  What I really wanted to find out, to ask of others, was not so much “Why didn’t Google+ succeed?” but rather “Why aren’t you using it?” – of course you can’t have one without the other, but for each question there are different answers.

So I e-mailed a few friends and talked to a few colleagues who had used, or are still using, Google+ and asked them their thoughts.  The answers I received back pretty much followed a single thread, mainly they saw nothing “exciting”, “different” or “new” about Google+ compared to their usual hangout (Facebook for almost all of them).  One colleague of mine put it this way, “It’s like driving a 2010 Toyota Camry with 20,000 miles on it and the car dealer calling you up and asking if you want to trade it in on an identical 2010 Toyota Camry with 20,000 miles – what’s the point?” 

Google+ never had anything that differentiated it from Facebook.  The one thing it did have going for it was the Google name – and true enough when it was first released we saw this massive frenzy of people who wanted to get in on the ground floor.  Nothing says prestige like exclusivity, and Google did a great job of making it a “you can only get in if you know someone who is already in” type affair.  This kept the initial momentum for the service high for a period of time, but people soon found out that once you were “in” there really wasn’t anything “cool” to keep you around.  Worse yet, the majority of your friends were still hanging out over on Facebook and a party of one gets very lonely after a while.

Meanwhile … In grocery stores marketers use a variety of techniques to watch what you buy and how you decide what brand of peanut butter to purchase.  They use everything from hidden cameras to researchers just blending in with other shoppers to observe your behavior.  I decided to borrow a page from the professional market research playbook then and sort of wandered the aisles of the Internet to see just how much people were using Google+.  It soon became apparent that this was one brand of peanut butter that people weren’t buying.

First I went seeking out popular news articles from some of the major news sites that have Google+ tie-ins.  My first stop was MSNBC where I checked out a number of popular news stories and decided to use one about the death of Andy Rooney as my example (full MSNBC article located at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45173371/ns/today-entertainment/).

Just take a quick look at the social media share statistics listed for this article.  Over 27,000 Facebook recommendations; 4,700 other shares (e-mail, LinkedIn, Newsvine, etc) – and only 58 Google+ shares.  Compared to Facebook that represents just two-tenths of one percent.  Not exactly a rip-roaring testament to the popularity of Google+.

It was recently announced that Google+ is throwing the doors wide open for everyone – including businesses to set up their own pages.  The exclusivity factory is now moot.  However, again I have to ask – where’s the innovation?  Sure, I can put my business page on Google+ but why?  What are you going to offer me that the other guy isn’t?  And why should I do it at all if all my customers are hanging out on another site?

It’s sad to see Google lose its way with innovation and become a “me too” player.  If you look at the history of both AOL and Yahoo you can see the same fate pretty much played out the same way with both of them.  Yahoo created a lot of firsts for the online world, but then they started slipping.  Instead of innovating they started to copy, acquire, play the “me too” game.  Now, they are pretty much known for only two products – Yahoo Mail and Flickr.  Some argue that these two pieces of Yahoo are the only real saleable assets they have left.  Sad.

What’s the future hold for Google+?  Without innovative new features I don’t see the need for Facebook to get worried about the competition anytime soon.  The problem is that people have already tried it out, kicked the tires, and left.  It’s going to be hard for Google to get them come take a test drive again.  It’s going to be even harder for them to convince people to try their brand of peanut butter.

So you might be thinking to yourself, “Wow!  I could access my photos and documents anywhere, anytime from any device?  Where do I sign up?”

No need to sign up – you’re already there.

Every day millions of people access their email through services such as Hotmal, Gmail or Yahoo Mail.  Thousands of photos are uploaded every hour to photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Facebook and others.  We tweet about what we are eating for lunch; we use services such as DropBox to store our files; and we upload our videos to Youtube.

And all the while, unknown to many, we are on “the cloud”.

You can upload a picture to Flickr, leave your laptop at home, get on a plane and fly halfway around the world, go into a coffee shop in Belgium and login to Flickr and your photos are there waiting for you.  Just like magic – except it isn’t, it’s cloud technology at work.  Your data (the photos) is being stored on Flickr servers that are located around the world.  You don’ t have to worry about how much space you are taking up, keeping the original backed up or carrying a USB stick around with you.

The same goes with your mail.  No matter where you are you can fire up a browser, use a smartphone or tap on a tablet and access your Hotmail account.  You don’t have to worry about how the mail gets there, just know that it does.  This is a far cry from years ago when checking e-mail meant you had to launch a mail program such as Outlook; and if you decided to switch computers it was a chore to get everything set back up again – and even when you got it right your old email was gone, or rather stuck on the old machine.

In fact this webpage you are reading right now is hosted “in the cloud”.  The data is kept on servers “out there” and I don’t have to worry about maintaining them, backing them up, etc.  I can access my blog from anywhere, using any device.  It’s just “there” and that’s the way it should be.

For end-users like ourselves the cloud represents the ultimate in freedom.  It allows us to finally break the chains that bind us to one particular computer, a single laptop or a mobile phone.  We can now switch devices instantly, access our data from anywhere and never have to worry about backing up our files in case something unfortunate were to happen (and let’s face it, how many of us actually backed up our data on a regular basis, if at all?)

So the next time you hear someone talk about the cloud pat yourself on the back – you’re already here.

The file was stored on SkyDrive, in the cloud if you will, so getting to it wouldn’t be a problem – I just needed a way to get too it.  Then I remembered that one of the new features of Windows Phone Mango that I had recently upgraded too was that the Office Hub could connect up with SkyDrive.  I was on to something.

As I sat in the meeting I managed to use my Windows Phone (a Samsung Focus for the curious) to connect up with SkyDrive, edit the file in Word on the phone and then save it back to the cloud and e-mail it back to my colleague.

Now. Tell. Me. That. Isn’t. COOL!

Isn’t it amazing how far technology has come.  At the ripe young age of 37 I remember the evolutionary path of how we used to transport data.  It started with floppy disks, and I’m sure many of you remember stuffing them into your backpack and running off to the school or library to work on those papers (“Sneakernet we used to call it for the fact that you had to literally walk the data to wherever you wanted it”) – you know back in the days before we all had 3 PC’s in our homes.

Floppy disks stayed around for quite a while and then came ZIP drives.  They stored a lot more data, but their problem was that they were just too darn expensive.  They had a few glory years in there, but they didn’t quite kill the floppy disk just yet.

As more and more of us got connected we started using e-mail to mail files back and forth to ourselves.  It wasn’t perfect by any means but it was good for small documents. 

Along the way we also experimented with CD’s and such, but the fact that they could only be written once made it impractical to use for documents and files that were modified often.  Though somewhere around here I think I still have a stack of about 500 America Online CD’s if anyone needs a coaster.

For the true geeks we also experimented with FTPing our files back and forth.  I remember in college you weren’t a true geek unless you had your own FTP server running – preferably one with the latest warez to share with your college friends.

Finally we got to USB sticks – and their low cost and popularity has made them the favorite for data transport for quite a few years now.  The problem is that if you are like me, you tend to lose the things or find out when you are in a hotel 700 miles from home you left them laying on the kitchen table.  There was also an issue of data integrity – USB sticks do fail and only have a lifespan of so many read and write cycles. 

Now we have “the cloud” – or the ability to store data “out there” on the Internet somewhere and access it using any device we choose to an extent.  Services like Microsoft’s SkyDrive let people store data and access it from work, home or even halfway around the world.  Forget that important presentation?  No problem, just connect up and grab it.  The latest, greatest copy always waiting for you.

It was so cool to see that my Windows Phone could connect up to SkyDrive and not only access my documents, but let them edit them and store them back out there.  Most of the work I do is with Office products, and this has broken down some of the final barriers of me having to be chained to my desk.  Granted, I won’t be writing a Shakespearean play using my phone just yet, but it’s great for touching up documents and adding data to them on the go.

Somewhere around here I have some 5 1/4” floppy disks from my teenage years.  Perhaps its time to find an old drive and upload whatever data has survived on them to the cloud as well.  My childhood could be immortalized in the cloud for generations to come. Now that’s cool.