Google may launch more than one “fiber city” in America. This cyberinfrastructure project could will be a tipping point for a few lucky cities.
Tags: experimental network, Google, Network, internet access, Research, Internet2, Broadbandt, gigabit, high speed, trends,
Today small K12 school districts and colleges with less than 1,000 students are accustomed to accessing email around the clock. Email is habit forming at best and compulsive at worst. The digital economy proves funding in-house email services can be staggering. Hidden IT costs remain as budgets are slashed.
Annual IT costs to run legacy back-end email servers, software licensing including (anti-spam, anti-virus, filtering and backup) must run 24/7 from multiple vendors. Annual people costs include training and technical support especially in a high turnover environment.
Some legacy email solutions actually require a dedicated server that cannibalizes the CPU. They are not virtualization friendly. Think OpenText’s WorstClass FirstClass email server.
So what is the largest overlooked annual cost forgotten by IT and financial managers? Electricity. The cost to power all enterprise servers 24/7 can be rather shocking. The first time I collaborated on a private college’s annual budget I was surprised to learn total energy costs for just three buildings on a small campus ran above $260,000/year. Same rates apply for K12 districts with multiple buildings.
If your organization is running real industrial servers (1U or even 3U units) there are significant costs, regardless of rack, blade or tower servers. Many schools on tight budgets re-purpose legacy Pentium desktops into “servers” along with old, energy sucking CRT monitors. Not a good idea. Don’t be swayed by marketing and PR efforts for “green” servers because they run all day and still cost a surprising amount over a five year lease….you do lease your servers right?
Last year Google announced it would provide industrial strength email anti-spam & anti virus (Postini) to K12 schools for FREE. Act Now – Deploy later. Google’s offer ends July 2010
As budgets have been cut across the country for education, this is a smart move for many financially strapped school districts. Does it pay for a District to force taxpayers to pay for expensive, legacy email programs like FirstClass and Novell when cloud based solutions with robust feature sets are being embraced by K12 and Colleges around the country.
Tags: Google, Google Apps for Education, education, Postini, anti-virus, K12, trends
So what happens when Apple’s $500 iPad sells like mad? Well a price war of course between the Nook and Amazon’s Kindle.
It appears that Apple has produced a product that consumers have been wanting and are willing to pay quite a premium. But at the same time Apple has cut into Amazon’s ownership of eBook sales. The problem with both of the above devices – they are not color. Think about purchasing a dedicated eReader that cannot produce color, and is only available for, well….reading….despite Amazon’s attempts to open the Kindle platform with an API and goals of an iTunes-like store.
Amazon left their newer Kindle DX at $500.00
Tags: iPad, Kindle, Nook, price war, ebook sales, reading, trends
Wired Magazine has arrived for the iPad. Initial reports indicate each issue is ~500MB and will be $4.99/episode app via iTunes. Wired will be shipping additional tablet formats in the coming weeks.
As initial reports are indicate this is a new, in depth re-birth of magazines for the digital world. By exploiting the iPad’s technologies the premier issue is loaded with interactive multimedia extras simply not available in print.
So now comes the business end of the release: $5 an for each app issue while you can get a full year print subscription for just $10.
–Since I have a print subscription — can get all my back issues on the iPad? Doubt it. Lets not be foolish – publishers are setting elegant revenue models for their print to iPad app conversions…..
Reviews:
Wired’s internal review (duh) – Wall Street Journal review – Business Insider review – Gizmodo review
Tags: iPad, publishing, design, trends,