I attended the recent Salesforce.com Users conference last week which is now aptly called Dreamforce. Aptly because the overwhelming theme this year, was the ‘Cloud’ and I suppose most dreaming takes place in the clouds.
It’s a gathering that attracts almost 10,000 which is held in San Francisco. This is my second trip there, but the first as an attendee, and in particular for their Partner Summit. The perspective as an attendee is certainly a different one for me, running from one session to another, makes exhibiting actually seem like a breeze.
Salesforce.com marketers rank among some of the best in B2B marketing, and the best practices sessions were very good. These marketers know how to run campaigns, and measure everything. Email marketing is assumed, and marketing automation like ActiveConversion is quickly being adopted. Aggressive doesn’t even describe the kind of energy that the marketers here exude. You wouldn’t want to be marketing against these guys, unless you’re a Salesforce.com marketer as well.
With over 220+ booths, and a packed schedule, it was hard just to get 2 hours in to do the expo justice, as aisle after aisle of Salesforce.com AppExhange partners hustled their SaaS offerings. AppExchange partners integrate their offering with Salesforce.com to produce marketing automation solutions, hosting, integrated email, data cleansing etc. You name it, and it was probably here. Award for the newest innovation at the expo from me goes to Zuora, which is a billing platform for Appexchange partners.
Force.com, which is their platform for creating applications in the cloud, is still a primary focus. I was at the introduction last year, but now I’ve seen and met people actually on it. It has traction, if for no other reason than Microsoft, IBM, Google or anyone else really has a platform for Cloud Computing. Microsoft has announced, but without a credible presence in SaaS, they will need to do some catching up.
There didn’t seem to be much Canadian representation at the expo, except for the CRMfusion guys from Toronto who do a great job of data cleansing with their product. I did meet a number of Canadians that were attendees. Ian Hayes of Breakeven Solutions was particularly noteworthy, as he runs a company that helps non-profits (exclusively) use Salesforce.com effectively. A great idea, and in a way, a great cause.
There were 3 keynote speeches, each taking 2 hours by Marc Benioff (Salesforce CEO), Michael Dell and Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point). And the ‘Global Gala’ featured the Foo Fighters for 2 hours of classic rock. An absolutely packed agenda.
A lot to Dream in 2.5 days. But if you ever get the chance, and particularly if you're a Salesforce.com user, it’s well worth going.
ActiveConversion is the technology leader in total marketing measurement (TMM) and demand generation for SMBs. We help companies manage marketing... [more]
Salesforce.com is the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) services. More companies trust their vital customer and... [more]
Renton, WA-based Etelos recently launched Etelos Platform Suite, which lets companies move their application to the cloud. The twist? No coding required. Etelos has offered a CRM and a marketplace for selling apps in the past, but after recently canning their CEO, founder and new CEO Danny Kolke has refocused on more (hopefully for Etelos) profitable ventures.
Etelos is responding to what their customers want, says Kolke.
"Our larger partners want the opportunity to have their own marketplaces and tools to manage distribution channels. Additionally, they have applications that they need to move to the web for implementation and scalability. The future of all software is moving to the Web for distribution, and we are proud to have Etelos powering part of that shift," Kolke says.
There are four components to the Etelos Platform Suite - the SaaS Application Platform enables tech companies to move their application or service to web-based SaaS distribution and the SaaS Marketplace Platform lets you market suites of SaaS applications and developer kits. The SaaS Distribution Platform allows tech companies and service providers sell additional SaaS/web apps to customers - distributors can purchase the marketplace and apps. The SaaS Syndication Platform lets SaaS providers distribute their app to a growing network of marketplaces.
Etelos is revolutionizing the way Web-based applications are developed, distributed and consumed to empower organizations to use Web-based... [more]
Toronto-based online invoicing up-start FreshBooks announced today the release of quarterly industry benchmarks based on anonymized aggregate data of all FreshBooks users. And with over 500,000 users to date, this data is going to have real value for small business people.
We’re releasing these benchmarks because the professionals that FreshBooks serves do not have access to the kind of performance information most other industries take for granted. The service oriented professionals that FreshBooks serves - web designers, copy writers, dog walkers, management consultants, magicians, interior designers, ISPs, computer technicians - can’t go to places like Dun and Bradstreet and buy a report about their industry. Even if they did, they’d find the metrics covered to be mostly useless to their way of evaluating the day to day performance of their business, so I’m hopeful that business owners will use this data to steer their business in the right direction in any kind of weather.
Freshbooks customers or fans are likely familiar with their report card service that gives FreshBooks account holders a quarterly snapshot of their business based on a handful of useful metrics (average time to collect payment, etc). These new industry benchmarks are similiar to the report card service however Freshbooks account holders will have access to far richer data - for example, at the profession level rather than just industry level.
Sounds like a great idea, especially when CEO Mike McDerment explains it:
Our mission is to deliver fast and simple invoicing and time tracking services that help you manage your business. We call these Unaccounting™... [more]
TechCrunch managed to post another incorrect story over the weekend. Serkan Toto made it to the last paragraph before he misspoke, calling Cambrian House “now-defunct”. Let me tidy up some facts: VenCorps, for those who follow these things, is a site built by the not-defunct Cambrian House.
Luckily, the “not-defunct at all” Cambrian House team was on top of the situation and released this blog post to combat the misinformation. This post contains an official letter from their counsel, a detailed FAQ, and the wit and humor we have come to expect from the Calgary company.
Thanks for clearing things up... again!
Launched in 2006, Cambrian House began as a crowdsourcing community using a wisdom of crowds based approach to discover new business and technology... [more]
The latest buzzword in the world of technology is "cloud computing", otherwise known as utility or sometimes on-demand computing. All the tech giants are getting into the game, and analysts are making bold predictions about the nascent industry. According to a recent BusinessWeek article, cloud computing represents "a sea change in the way computing is done in corporations" and Merrill Lynch estimates that the annual market for cloud computing will surge to $95 billion within the next five years.
Plenty of new industries will likely be created as a result of the growth of cloud computing, and a few existing ones will definitely shrink if not disappear altogether. Others stand to gain, such as the data centre industry. It had its last major growth spurt during the dotcom boom of the 90's, when companies spent large amounts of money to build their place on the web. Cloud computing could provide the industry with another major boost.
There are a few data centres located in Edmonton, perhaps the most well-known of which is the Tera-Byte facility in the basement of the CN Tower. The newest data centre was built in the west end by 4WEB.ca. I had a chance to speak with Ayman Hassan, President of 4WEB.ca, about the new facility, and was treated to a tour as well.
Located in the city's west end on 118th Avenue at 143rd Street, the 4WEB data centre doesn't look like much from the outside but inside is quite impressive. Thick doors, 24 hour monitored security, and 80kW UPS, 400Amp of available power, lots of A/C, workstations with outside connections (DSL, Cable), and top-of-the-line APC lockers and racks are just a few of the things you'll find. As we walked around and talked about the various hardware it struck me that 4WEB has spared no expense, purchasing the best equipment and making it completely redundant. Each system has a failover, and everything can be controlled and monitored from within the network operations centre (NOC). It's quite different than some of the other "data centres" you'll find in Edmonton.
Like most major construction projects, 4WEB's new data centre has been built in phases. The first phase was simply finding a suitable location. Phase two consisted of getting the NOC up and running. Phases three to five will be about adding additional capacity for power, backup runtime, and air conditioning. Phases six to ten will be focused on expansion - taking the new data centre to capacity and starting to look for additional locations at which to build.
Also like most major construction projects, I figured Ayman and his team must have run into some interesting challenges along the way. He confirmed there were several they had to overcome, and said "the biggest challenge was in finding a suitable location outside the downtown core that had ample fibre and power."
The most recent improvement to 4WEB's data centre was the installation of Terago wireless and BGP routing, so that if the fibre connection fails everything switches over to the wireless connection. The next target is additional cooling and a backup generator, which have a combined cost of nearly $300,000. You've got to be serious to play in the infrastructure game!
Ayman told me that demand for 4WEB's offering is strong, particularly given the strength of the Edmonton and Alberta economies. Data centres are expensive to build, and are simply out of reach for most small and medium sized enterprises. "Even corporate and government customers find it beneficial to outsource this service thus saving valuable resources that would have otherwise been tied up in building their own mini-data centers," Ayman said. He anticipates that all the lockers that have been setup so far will be rented within the next three months.
The grand opening will be sometime this fall, but Ayman has already given dozens of tours and continues to do so for anyone interested - simply call ahead and book a time. To learn more about 4WEB and for full contact information, visit their website. You can see more photos of the facility here.
4WEB.ca was created with the mandate to offer customers quality Internet related products and services that are easy to use and easy to maintain.... [more]
