By David Brown
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March 9, 2010
I’ve had two articles recently published and thought I’d share them with you…
In Missouri Venture Forum’s March newsletter, there’s an article on page 10 that I wrote. It’s titled “Clouds Mean Sunny Days for Organizations.” In it, I discuss cloud computing and its benefits for business owners.
In addition, in St. Louis Small Business Monthly’s March issue, I wrote an article titled “Know the Bridge Before You Come to It.” The article focuses on “Single Points of Failure” (SPOFs), which I define as “anything that can cause an organization’s communications operations to temporarily cease or slow down.” I chose this topic because it’s my business to provide highly available technology environments for Datotel’s clients and as such, I’m always looking out for possible SPOFs in Datotel’s infrastructure. Why? Because any one failure point could be disastrous.
In this article, I explain that while SPOFs can exist in a hardware system, they also exist in every organization. And while one of the easiest ways to identify a SPOF is to wait until it strikes, I point out that this reactive approach is not ideal.
If you want to learn how your organization could benefit from the cloud or to make sure SPOFs don’t close you down, read my articles and let me know what you think.
@ddbrown
By Andy Belval
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March 1, 2010
In today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tim Barker wrote a story on the uncertainty in the world technology with regards to the next hot gadget or application. While it’s tough to predict what will take off in the eyes of consumers, one thing is certain: the evolution of apps for today’s smart phones continues to be a subject that is top of mind for app users, app designers and the consumer technology analysts and media intermediaries. With that in mind, here’s a rundown of some of the more interesting recent pieces we’ve read on mobile apps and their relationship to the cloud. Read More »
By Andy Belval
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February 23, 2010
The Winter Olympics: the slice of blades against the ice, the cool gliding of the curling stone towards the button, the “hum” of data as it travels through the cables. Just as integral as any other component of the Games (and what brings it live to the world,) the tech infrastructure for the Vancouver Games is an intriguing part of the festivities that you probably haven’t thought about before.
From CNET:
“In here, our objective is to be bored,” said Atos Origin’s Magnus Alvarsson, one of those in charge of overseeing the Olympics’ IT setup. And from where he sits, just outside the computer-filled room that is the equivalent of NASA’s mission control, things have been just about as uneventful as he could hope for.
Among the biggest problems have been minor things such as people forgetting their password or moving computers from one location to another at a venue. “It shows up on our monitoring that someone is unplugging something,” Alvarsson said.
But it’s more than just set-up-and-go. Engineers had to be quick on their feet during the Games, including after the tragic death of the Georgian luger. Network cables needed to be rerouted since the starting position on the track changed, something that most of us probably didn’t think about. Read More »
By Andy Belval
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February 1, 2010
Earlier this week, the St. Louis Business Journal posted that 57 percent of St. Louis small businesses planned to hire in the first quarter of 2010 (full article here: http://bit.ly/94T0LX). Also, if you’ve been following David and my Twitter feeds (@ddbrown and @abelval), you’ve noticed that Datotel is among the 57 percent hiring. St. Louis Public Radio also noted that several downtown St. Louis developments will continue in 2010 (story here: http://bit.ly/daVRyi).
From the Business Journal:
“I think these poll numbers are a great sign of how local small businesses have persevered, even in tough economic times,” said Dan Curran, communications chairman of EO St. Louis, in a statement. “Despite the recent downturn in the economy, it’s very encouraging to see how many local entrepreneurs are feeling optimistic enough about their businesses to hire new employees.”
As a small business that is hiring, and one that has its headquarters downtown, we’re excited to see that other St. Louis small businesses are continuing to grow even as economic conditions are still uncertain. Do you expect the small businesses mentioned in the article to continue hiring as we enter the second quarter of 2010? What is your St. Louis small business forecast?
By Andy Belval
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January 26, 2010
How long have you been in this industry and how did you get into it?
I have been in IT for ten years. Russ Bryant recruited me from another department because of my charming personality! He thought I would be good with our users.
Please explain what you do at Datotel.
I am the Customer Advocate Manager, otherwise known as a “geek herder”. It is my responsibility to manage the Customer Advocates and Service Desk.
What is your greatest achievement (personal or professional)?
My wonderfully sweet son Griffin who just turned 6.
What person (alive or dead, industry or non-industry) would you most like to work with?
J.K. Rowling, to help me better understand my hidden talents.
Read More »
By Andy Belval
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January 18, 2010
The Datotel Annual Holiday Party is always a great event. It is an opportunity to celebrate the last year and look forward to the exciting things we have planned for our growth in the coming year. It is also a time to recognize those employees that have exemplified certain qualities and celebrate their effort; and standing above the rest at Datotel is no small task. The recipients of these awards are selected based upon a poll of our employees; a true “people’s choice award”.
We have three awards at Datotel, all related to our core values:
GLOBE AWARD: For the employee who has overall best exemplified all of our core values in their work.
EXTRA MILE AWARD: For the employee who has shown the greatest level of Customer Focus.
HELPING HAND AWARD: For the employee who has most exemplified our core value of giving back to the community in which we work and live.
WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE FOLLOWING WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S AWARDS……… Read More »
By Andy Belval
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January 8, 2010
Yesterday, the St. Louis Business Journal featured Datotel and its four newest cloud computing customers, which include: Accelerated Health Systems, Chamberlain College of Nursing, Missouri Venture Forum and Bakers Pride.
As the transition to cloud-based computing gains steam in 2010, these companies — as Datotel customers — are ahead of the technological curve and can better use their resources for other parts of their business, rather than on information technology.
For Accelerated Health Systems, Datotel will build an entire private cloud computing environment. For Chamberlain College of Nursing, Datotel tapped into their existing IT platform, moving the college onto the Datotel cloud computing environment while also providing disaster recovery services. Read More »
By David Brown
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January 4, 2010
The economy has caused organizations to focus on exploring ways to reduce total cost of ownership (TOC) and/or limit capital expenditures (CAPEX). Cloud computing certainly enables organizations to achieve these goals and maintain or gain competitive advantages among rivals.
Aside from the economy, many things are happening within the technology/IT industry. Connectivity to data centers, for example, has become much faster and cheaper than ever. In addition, today’s technology reliably and securely uses servers and other hardware across multiple uses and achieves higher utilization.
Compared with a traditional in-house IT deployment model, cloud computing offers Read More »
By Andy Belval
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December 23, 2009
Santa, if you’re reading this blog post, I’ve got a great idea for a present you can put under my tree.
I noticed that our president, David Brown, was recently reading “Behind the Cloud” by Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com. David told me that Benioff details how Salesforce.com grew from a start-up in a rented apartment into one of the world’s fastest growing software companies in less than a decade. Over the years, Salesforce.com has done a great job of showing how cloud computing is a better way to run your business. Cloud computing can have a huge impact on your business and as Datotel brings more customers into the cloud in 2010, I can’t think of a better present this holiday season.
Are there other books I should add to my holiday wish list?
By Andy Belval
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December 21, 2009
Datotel’s core values are at the heart of everything we do. One of those core values is improving the community in which we work. Tom Kohnen, Senior Engineer, has a story of giving that embodies that core value and captures the spirit of the season. Here is his story:
Well…..It all started when I moved to a little town in Southern Illinois (New Athens) which sponsored a Christmas Decorating Contest with winners receiving money for placing. I had just gotten married, bought a house with my wife and found out about this little contest and how the same people were always winning every year. I thought it was time for a change and decided to invest into a new hobby, although not knowing how expensive it could get. I started buying patterns to make Wooden decorations (Winfield Collection) that I could put out in the yard along with some of the lights I already owned. It then expended to wire frames, and finally to animation with computers.
The very first year I did it, my yard was fairly small and had stuff everywhere. However, it was good enough to place in the contest which was judged by a group of people from out of town. Not winning the Grand Prize seemed to motivate me even more and the next year I added the wire frames and put things into scenes, built a Happy Holiday’s sign to put on my roof and added more lights. This was the year the title shifted to a new face and the competition was on!!! Read More »
