Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Author: Paul Wallbank

  • Tomorrow Starts Here

    Tomorrow Starts Here

    Today was the main day of the Melbourne Cisco Live Conference; the company’s annual Australian event.

    Much of the talk was around the Internet of Everything — which will be the basis of subsequent  posts — with a constant theme around the explosion of data.

    A favourite statistic was that of Cisco’s Executive Vice President who pointed out that US Department store Walmart collects 2.5 Petabytes of customers data every hour.

    The reason for this was pointed out by GE’s Australia and New Zealand CIO, Mark Sheppard, who pointed out that twenty years ago jet engines had few sensors while today they have hundreds, a point also made by Team Lotus’ Engineering Director Nick Chester to Networked Globe.

    Chester observes that when he started in Formula One racing two decades ago, there were four or five sensors on a racing car; today Lotus’ vehicles have over two hundred.

    All of these sensors are creating massive amounts of data and the big challenge for businesses is to manage all of this information, something we’ll be exploring over the next few weeks.

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  • ABC Nightlife Computers – The end of Windows XP

    ABC Nightlife Computers – The end of Windows XP

    Paul Wallbank joins Tony Delroy on ABC Nightlife across Australia to discuss how technology affects your business and life.

    For the March 2014 spot we’ll be looking at the end of Windows XP, Australia’s Privacy Act, the web turning 25 and the call for an Internet Magna Carta.

    If you missed the show, you can listen online at the Tony Delroy’s Nightlife homepage.

    One of the show’s listeners, Linda, called in about asking for Apple Mac security software; two free products for OsX users are Sophos Home Edition and Avira Free. While Macs are less prone to malware than Windows systems, it’s still a good idea to be protected.

    Another listener, Grant, described a problem with his computer which sounds like it’s infected with something. We recommend the free Malwarebytes as the first step to fixing the problem.

    The end of Windows XP

    After 13 years, Microsoft is retiring Windows XP; what does this mean for those of us still using it, or for our banks who still use it in their ATMs? Some of the questions we’ll cover include;

    • why is Microsoft pulling the pin on Windows XP now?
    • what happens on April 8 when Microsoft stops support?
    • are Windows XP users still protected from viruses?
    • what’s this story about bank ATMs running Windows XP?
    • the web turned 25 last week. Didn’t it turn twenty a year or so back?
    • inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, called for an Internet Magna Carta last week; what does he mean?
    • could such an idea work in today’s globalised world?
    • on similar topic, the new Privacy Act came into effect last week; what does this mean for the average person?

    We’d love to hear your views so join the conversation with your on-air questions, ideas or comments; phone in on the night on 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

    Tune in on your local ABC radio station from 10pm Eastern Summer time or listen online at www.abc.net.au/nightlife.

    You can SMS Nightlife’s talkback on 19922702, or through twitter to @paulwallbank using the #abcnightlife hashtag or visit the Nightlife Facebook page.

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  • Alibaba goes to the US

    Alibaba goes to the US

    One of the questions in the online business world for the last year was were would Chinese Internet giant Alibaba decide to list – the US or Hong Kong?

    Listing in Hong Kong would have been a coup for the Chinese territory and possibly marked a shift in Asian web properties away from listing in the United States.

    As it turned out, Hong Kong’s listing rules were too stringent for Alibaba’s Jack Ma who wanted to retain a controlling stake in the business in a way that isn’t allowed on the HK stock market so the company is going to the US for its IPO.

    Jack Ma and Ailbaba’s rise is a fascinating story partly told by Porter Erisman in his Crocodile on Yangtse who was interviewed for Decoding the New Economy last year.

    Alibaba’s listing on a US exchange, the announcement isn’t clear if its the NASDAQ or NYSE, will also be a test for the valuation of Asian internet properties in Western stockmarkets.

    With revenue of around a billion dollars this year, a Google like P/E of 30 would see the company  valued at around $30billion, although there could be arguments that a Facebook like valuation of 100 times earnings might be more appropriate.

    Regardless of how much it is valued, Alibaba is going to be blazing a trail for Asian and, specifically, Chinese companies over the next few years.

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  • Synergies aren’t easy money

    Synergies aren’t easy money

    Last year car rental giant AvisBudget acquired the vehicle sharing service Zipcar, at the time it looked like the established player was buying in the tech smarts of younger startup.

    Citing ‘synergies’ at the time of a takeover is always a warning sign that a corporate acquisition may not go well and so it has proved with Avis’ efforts with Zipcar as travel news site Skift reports;

    Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant & Leisure Management Access Forum in Las Vegas earlier this week, AvisBudget CEO Ron Nelson said fleet-sharing has turned out to be more complicated than the company thought because there’s a cost tied to moving the vehicles from one location to another.

    That’s a strange statement as a casual observer would be forgiven for thinking that if any organisation understood the costs of moving vehicles around it would be a car hire company.

    Apparently that’s not the case and the ‘synergies’ from acquisition will be pushed back to 2015.

    Synergies are elusive things and it may well prove that Ron Nelson would be better served by examining how Zipcar’s technology, algorithms and flat management structures can be applied to a more staid organisation like Avis.

    The real value in companies like Zipcar and Uber is the way they are applying technology to moving physical goods around – it’s no surprise that Uber’s Travis Kalanick describes his ambition for the future of his company as being the Amazon for logistics.

    For Avis, Zipcar’s opportunities lie in more that just enhancing the company’s fleet utilization; understanding the marketplace and predicting demand is where the real gains could be made.

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  • Eliminating the donkey work

    Eliminating the donkey work

    Mulesoft founder and CTO Ross Mason worries about how companies are going to manage the data generated by the Internet of Things.

    “I don’t think we’re ready for the amount of data that these devices are designed to build up,” Ross observes in the latest Decoding the New Economy video.

    Ross’ aim in founding Mulesoft was to eliminate the donkey work in connecting IT systems and he sees the data moving between enterprise applications being a challenge for organisations

    “We have energy companies that have connected their smart grid systems to their back end systems and most of them delete almost all the data because of the cost of storing that much data without doing anything with it.”

    “Big data is still in the realm of we’re figuring out the questions to ask.” Ross states, in echoing the views expressed by Tableau Software founder Pat Hanrahan a few weeks ago.

    “There’s a little bit of hype around big data right now, but it’s a very real trend;” Hanrahan said. “Just look at the increase in the amount of data that’s been going up exponentially and that’s just the natural result of technology; we have more sensors, we collect more data, we have faster computer and bigger disks.”

    The interview with Ross covers his journey from setting up Mulesoft to the future of big data and software. It was recorded a few days before the company announced a major capital raising.

    Mulesoft’s elimination of software ‘donkey work’ is another example of how the IT industry is changing as much of the inefficiencies are being worked out of the way developers and programmers work.

    In many ways, Ross Mason’s story illustrates how the software industry itself is being disrupted as much as any other sector.

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