web 2.0 | Barton's Blog

Welcome the uber-dense AMD-based Cloud/ HPC machine

September 13, 2010

The last couple of Dell Data Center Solutions offerings I’ve talked about, Viking and MDC, have been from the custom side of the house. Both of these solutions are targeted specifically at a few select large customers.

The subject of today’s post however, the PowerEdge C6105 server, is available to anyone running a scaled out environment. It, alongside the recently available C410X expansion chassis, represent the latest additions to the PowerEdge C line that we launched back in March.

Efficiency is its middle name

Designed to maximize performance per watt per dollar, the C6105 is ideal for energy and budget constrained scale-out environments. Targets include: Scale-out Web 2.0, hosting, and HPC applications where core count and power efficiency are the priority.

Want a closer look? Click below and product manager Steve Croce will give you a quick overview.

Some of the points Steve touches on:

The 6105 is very dense: essentially four servers in a 2U chassis
The system leverages “shared infrastructure,” e.g two power supplies for all four servers, four 2U fans to cool it, etc., which results in weight and power savings and allows for an extremely dense system.
The 6105 features the Opteron 4000 series which are focused on power efficiency
It holds 12 3.5 inch disks. Each server gets 3 disks.

Extra-credit reading:

eWeek.com: Dell Targets Cloud, HPC with New Hardware
The Register: Dell launches Opteron 4100s into Boxes-o-Cloud
HPC Wire: Dell Revs Up HPC Strategy with New Products and Market Focus
Press Release — Overview of Dell systems and successes: Dell High Performance Computing (HPC) Solutions Enable Research from Leading Higher Education, Government and Industry Labs
Press Release — Early success with PowerEdge C in HPC: Universities Across the Country Deploy New Dell High-Performance Computing Solutions

Pau for now…

2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: amd, C6105, dcs, hosting, HPC, opteron 4000 series, poweredge C6105, steve croce, web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

“Accessing outside ideas is no longer optional”

May 26, 2009

The week before last I attended the APQC’s Knowledge Management (KM) Conference in Houston. A lot of the discussions focused on web 2.0 technologies as ways of transferring and sharing knowledge and process throughout organizations — wiki’s, blogs, chat and social networks came up a lot.

The conference also had a great line up of keynotes which was kicked off on the first day by Chris Meyer, “part economist, part technologist, part futurist, and the founder of Monitor Talent, a part of the Monitor Group.” I grabbed a few minutes with Chris while he was waiting for his cab to the airport.

Some of the topics Chris tackles:

The concept behind Monitor Talent
One of the trends that frame knowledge management is the availability of talent that doesn’t work for you. Accessing this talent isn’t optional any more, it’s the way to compete.
Those who see this merging of inside and outside as threatening still view business as a zero sum gain as it had been in the past compared to the positive sum gain that it is now.
The “wikification” of work
The book Chris is currently working on and how the growth in the next 15 years which will come from outside the G7 nations will affect mainstream capitalism as we know it.

Pau for now…

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: apqc, chris meyer, knowledge management, monitor group, monitor talent, web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

A Few Pics from San Francisco

April 15, 2009

Coming out of the Powel street BART station

I love taking pictures of San Francisco, I think its one of the most photogenic cities in the world. I was back in the Bay Area a couple of weeks ago for Web 2.0 and I got a few shots as I was walking around downtown.

The obligatory cable car picture.

The Apple store on Market, conveniently located next to the Men's Wearhouse.

SF MoMA and the Bay Bridge thru my dirty hotel window.

SF MoMA up close the next day.

Ooops, time to reboot the elevator.

Pau for now…

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: san francisco, web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

IBM leverages Web 2.0 for Knowledge Sharing

April 14, 2009

Next month I’ll be heading over to Houston to attend APQC’s knowledge management conference. One of the talks I’m interested in checking out will be given by Bryant Clevenger, the global leader for IBM GBS’s knowledge sharing strategy.

On the KMedge blog, Bryant explains what they’ve been up to:

At IBM, leveraging knowledge has always been an important part of our business. Last year, we undertook a massive overhaul of the technology and approach we use for knowledge management, moving from a centrally managed, linear, taxonomy- and repository-based system to one that leverages the best of Web 2.0, including social software, user participation, and key market-driven concepts like sponsored links.

As a promo for his talk, Bryant put together the following video, complete with a rockin’ BTO instrumental soundtrack :).

Some of the topics the video addresses:

How do you harness the expertise and leverage the knowledge that is spread across 387,000 people located in 170 countries?
1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than 12 months.
People are using web 2.0 in their daily lives, they expect the same tools in the workplace.
The IBM employee knowledge portal allows users to
- Search across multiple content repositories
- Create social tags, peer ratings and tag content
- Locate experts and contact them.
The portal surfaces: 1) the highest rated internal content, 2) Leadership priorities and 3 external competitor info.
Bryant’s “modest” vision for the portal: Unprecedented access to content and experts will shorten the sales cycle and will expand the reach of information…removing country and organization barriers and enabling the globally integrated enterprise.

Goodness for any size

Whether this project actually leads to the “enabling of the globally integrated enterprise” or not I think this effort will create considerable value. I also believe that you don’t have to be a huge multinational like IBM to benefit from the availability of Web 2.0-based tools in the workplace. Web 2.0 tools are built around the principles of linking, sharing, participation and collaboration — valuable elements for a company of any size.

Don’t touch that dial

BTW, If you are interested increasing linking, sharing, participation and collaboration in your organization you’ll want to check out our next Blueprint release, coming soon to a browser near you. Stay tuned 🙂

Pau for now…

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: apqc, blueprint, bryant clevenger, gbs, ibm, video, web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

Forrester Report on Blueprint now Available

March 17, 2009

A few weeks ago I blogged about the Forrester review of Blueprint that was published in early February.

We recently purchased licensing rights to the report, “Vendor Snapshot: Lombardi Blueprint Bridges Gap Between Process Discovery And Execution” and it is now available here.

Quotable Quotes

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the report:

Blueprint provides a process modeling and discovery platform that blends collaboration and documentation capabilities into an easy-to-use, low cost, software-as-a-service offering that can be used by beginner to expert process analysts.

Blueprint combines the best of both worlds for analysts: the “ready-to-use” feel of office productivity tools and the comprehensive knowledge repository found in traditional BPA tools.

Lombardi Blueprint represents a new way of developing, delivering, and interacting with software — the combination of SaaS, Web 2.0, and business process.

From the very beginning, BPM suite vendors sold business and process analysts on empty promises of easy-to-use modeling capabilities. Lombardi is one of the first BPM suite vendors to deliver on the promise of ease of use for process analysts. Lombardi Blueprint combines collaboration, ease of use, and a centralized process repository into an inexpensive and elegant SaaS-based offering.

But don’t take Forrester’s word for it…

And if those quotes don’t get you to sign-up for a free 30-day trial of Blueprint, I don’t know what will. 🙂 Check Blueprint out for yourself. Sign-up for a free trial here.

Pau for now…

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: blueprint, bpm, forrester, saas, web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

Forrester Posts Great Blueprint Review

February 10, 2009

At the end of last year, Blueprint Product Manager Dave Marquard and I had a call with Forrester analyst Clay Richardson to brief him on Lombardi Blueprint. The result of that call and a considerable amount of further research was a 6-page report that debuted last Friday — “Vendor Snapshot: Lombardi Blueprint Bridges Gap Between Process Discovery And Execution.”

Here is the Executive Summary from the Forrester site:

Austin-based Lombardi Software’s latest offering, Blueprint, positions the vendor to extend its leadership in human-centric business process management (BPM) and takes direct aim at Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Visio as the tools of choice for process analysts. Blueprint provides a process modeling and discovery platform that blends collaboration and documentation capabilities into an easy-to-use, low cost, software-as-a-service offering that can be used by beginner to expert process analysts. To stay ahead of the pack, the platform needs to continue extending its collaborative Web 2.0 functionality as other BPM suite vendors play catch-up by introducing similar offerings. Consider Lombardi Blueprint if you need a collaborative and lightweight process discovery tool that is tailored to support geographically dispersed process discovery teams.

We are in the process of licensing this report and as soon as we do, we will be making it available on the lombardi.com site. If you are already a Forrester client, you can log in access the report here.

Pau for now…

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: blueprint, clay richardson, forrester, process mapping, process modeling, visio, web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

Experience using Excel, Powerpoint…Lombardi Blueprint… a plus!

January 19, 2009

Last night when I was checking my Google Alerts, I came across a job description for a Process Modler/Analyst position. In the Requirements Section it stated: “Experience with Lombardi Blueprint a plus.” It looks like Blueprint has arrived 🙂

Blueprint recognized Across the Pond

In other Blueprint related news, at the end of last year there was an article in ComputerWeekly.com in the UK about how Blueprint was used by a “US dairy giant” to overhaul its processing. The article focused on the Web 2.0 nature of the solution:

A huge dairy cooperative in the US, which supplies the likes of Wal-Mart, Safeway and Costco, has taken hold of Web 2.0 technology in order to reengineer its whole business.

Change came with the arrival of a new chief executive officer, who identified that IT could bring massive efficiencies to Tillamook in the form of business process management (BPM).

He gave Burge and his IT team his backing to investigate Web 2.0 technology, to see how it could be used to identify, capture and optimise the firm’s “tribal knowledge”, and drive down inaccurate information.

Tillamook examined several applications, including diagramming tool Microsoft Visio – which the firm found too complicated for its needs – but eventually chose Lombardi Blueprint.

Blueprint is at an inflection point right now. With the economy in the shape its in right now, we are seeing quite a bit of interest in a solution that can be paid for on a monthly basis and help drive costs down and efficiencies up.

Here’s to saving money!

Pau for now…

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: bleuprint, bpm, process mapping, Tillamook, visio, web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

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