The Teckki Says

What is Cloud Computing?

If you have a public email account, understanding Cloud Computing is low pressure, because your emails, pictures and other information are stored in the Cloud Computing stratosphere. This, and your ability to access your account, is the basic gist of Cloud Computing. Google takes this a step further, allowing you to store documents and spreadsheets online.

Given this, many of you already trust the Cloud.

But some of you may have been introduced to a hail of issues in Cloud Computing if you owned a T-Mobile Sidekick and weren't able to restore your phone information from a backup after your battery went dead. In that instance, you understood it all too well - you got drenched.

Storms do occur in Cloud Computing, and there can be serious consequences.

In the future, I suspect that you will be flooded with marketing from companies touting Cloud Computing, sunny scenarios and all. Cloud Computing is relatively safe, considering that you've trusted your websites to such technology for years. However, are you ready to jet stream ahead and trust more of your company data and functionality to Cloud Computing?

It has the ability to transform the atmosphere in your business, reducing equipment costs and shifting labor to outsourced services. In the high pressure environment of survival, reducing costs is something in everyone's forecast. However I would think about this carefully, because the rules are still being written on Cloud Computing.

There is only so much information I personally am going to let go beyond my internal computers and servers. This mirrors my philosophy on business functions I will never outsource - finance, marketing and R/D. Yours may be different, but I feel that those three functions define so much of what a company is that they should be carefully guarded and secured. In the Cloud, I would give up this security.

I would also be more vigilant about what my own employees could do on the Cloud. In some cases, lapses and carelessness can be embarrassing, and in other cases, they can be considered crimes. If it happens on internal computers, it may just be a local issue. In the Cloud, you might have to fend off federal wire fraud charges. If you think this is a stretch, note what can happen to an underage kid who posts pictures of his under-dressed, underage girlfriend to Facebook. Prosecutors in some cases are upgrading charges to that of an adult sex offender.

You have been using the Cloud successfully for years, but those have been defined uses, and the companies you have been using have been fairly clear on how to use their technology. As you puff your Cloud with more of your information and functionality, the rules become more general, and your culpability increases. Keep that in mind as you use more Cloud Computing, how you weather the experience is prognosticated on how well you manage the climate. Sunny days can be many if you do this well.

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is over, and there are always announcements, along with outright speculation, over what will hit and what is hoped. The biggest specualtion right now is for a product that did not even appear at the show, nor did its manufacturer exhibit there. Everyone is waiting for Apple Computer to announce a tablet computing device.

Apple does not comment on speculation regarding product releases, and has been known to announce products that no one knew was coming. A lot of us are waiting for the "Apple Tablet", a device that is rumored to be a larger, non-cellular version of its iPhone product. Since Apple is extremely successful in guarding information about new products, we really don't know. Even if we did, should we rush out to go buy one?

We should remember the launch of the iPhone. It was cool back then, but we quickly forget that iPhones weren't selling for $99 or $199 with a two year phone contract. These 1.0 versions were selling for $499 and $599. They were no where near as capable as their successors today. One thing that seemed to be better back then than today was that no one was complaining about AT&T's data network and the drag it is on Internet browsing

If Apple does produce a tablet product, there is no doubt will it be drop gorgeous cool! But Apple also has a reputation of charging at the higher end for that cool. It won't mainstream at that higher price for some time. It is also rumored that it won’t be part of a wireless carrier's data plan, opting to be a wifi device, meaning there's no AT&T or Verizon to subsidize the cost. This is the biggest single reason that $99 iPhones exist. Certainly, Mac desktops and laptops aren't dropping as fast in price as iPhones did.

The question is how much are you willing to pay for cool that happens to be first generation? Cool wears off after use, and hardware doesn't have upgrade pricing like software. One thing I've learned about the tech industry is that it usually takes about three tries to get something right. Microsoft Windows didn't mainstream until version 3.0, and iPhones are flying off the shelves at 3.0. If Apple announces a tablet, I want one, but I don't get paid to be cool, I get paid to make sure my clients have the widest reach on mainstream Internet platforms, and the tablet won't satisfy this requirement just out of the gate.

Will you buy one if it is released? Will you be the leaders that show us the way, buy one for the eye-candy effect, or really make this device catch fire?

Let me know.

Do you bring items to a checkout line, only to make the decision not to purchase after the item has been rung up? Do you add an item to your online shopping cart, only later to abandon the sale?

I do this, but not necessarily out of a buyer's remorse.

In a recent AP article notes that during this recession, up to 25% of brick-and-mortar shoppers are abandoning purchases, while upwards of 70% are doing so online

I don't feel guilty about abandoning merchandise. In some cases, I was only looking to see what the price was. If taking it up to the register or going as far as I can in an online shopping process is the only way I can get the price, and I mean the NEAR FINAL PRICE, then I will do so with full intent of possibly abandoning the item.

I bet most of us have done this as well, but feel guilty about it. If we do it in front of a checkout person, we feel really guilty. This probably explains the rate differential between online and brick-and-mortar stores.

I'll cite two examples of places I shop in how, a large department store, and an online equipment retailer, helps it's customers with pricing information and lessens the chances of abandoned purchases. In the case of the department store, they have scanners in the aisles. They are generally very good about pricing on the shelves, but with tens of thousands of items, not everything is marked clearly all of the time. I think the in-store scanner was a fantastic idea, and one that saves money. Most likely, when a shopper is able to scan an item near its shelf, the unwanted item will go back on the shelf from whence it came. This means that a stock clerk doesn't have to restock it, or more importantly, won't spend time searching for it when the inventory screen says that there is one left, but someone who abandoned the item left it at the cash register or in another department.

As for the online retailer, the equivalent of this is a wish list, or a feature that calculates shipping and handling based on zip code. If I can get all of the pricing information prior to placing it into a cart, I won't abandon the cart later when I intend to buy. They beauty of this retailer's system is that I don't even have to log in to get an exact purchasing price, just enter in my zip code. There are no emails to hassle me about what I wasn't going to buy.

It seems to me that some of the most brilliant people in business forget that they shop like this. These same people will go over contracts and proposals with the finest tooth combs, and still not sign, but express exasperation when someone puts back a $3 item at the checkout counter, or abandon a $10 online purchase.

What they should understand is that if people will drive another mile or two to save a nickel per gallon on gasoline, they'll have no problem abandoning merchandise before a purchased.

Especially if all their customers wanted to know was the price.