AV Technology - April 2009 - (Page 6)

perspective by Mark Mayfield april 2009 vol. 2 no. 3 EDITORIAL Mark Mayfield Editor mmayfield@nbmedia.com LOST IN THE CLOUD Unless your head has been literally in the clouds, you can’t help but notice that the hottest topic in IT today is “cloud computing.” But what is cloud computing? Like many of the trendy tech-speak terms of recent years, it has both no meaning at all, and a different meaning to everyone you ask. As industry insiders talk about it, it all feels very light and fluffy — like a cloud, I guess. CEO Larry Ellison has said that he can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s head honcho, says that cloud computing is putting data or content outside the firewall on potentially shared servers or storage systems, along with other companies. The best analogy I’ve heard relates to how the power industry evolved — from each organization having its own power generating station, to everyone buying power from a power grid. Some of the most recent concrete examples of in particular — are certainly contributing to the “digital tsunami,” and organizations need a way to manage them. Adding content storage capacity is a rather simple matter, but at some point the deluge could overwhelm any organization’s physical capacity. So why not outsource data storage and applications? Is it just me, or does anyone else see red flags? Sending an organization’s most valuable asset — its information — to something nicknamed the “cloud” just doesn’t feel right. Like so many tech trends in “these economic times,” a concept that converts capital expense to a variable operating cost while promising substantial savings seems awfully attractive. But already we’re seeing signs that the cloud’s silver lining might be a little tarnished. It was recently reported that Amazon.com’s S3 suffered an eight-hour failure last summer, causing outages at compa- Anthony Savona Managing Editor Ryan Abeling Associate Editor James Careless, Steve Cunningham, Joey D’Angelo, Gary L. Hall, Denise Harrison, Elaine Jones, Don Kreski, David Maldow, Ira M. Weinstein Contributors SALES & MARKETING Sue Horwitz Publisher 323-933-9485, sue@audientmarketing.com Stan Kashine National Sales Manager 516-626-2813, skashine@optonline.net ART & PRODUCTION Nicole Cobban Senior Art Director Annmarie LaScala Art Director Michelle Henning, Adrianne Knapp, Neel Patil Graphic Artists Fred Vega Production Director Aaron Stone Production Manager CIRCULATION Anne Drobish Associate Circulation Director, Audience Development Michele Fonville Circulation Coordinator Telephone: 888-266-5828 (U.S.A. only, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. est) 978-667-0352 (outside the U.S.) Fax: 978-671-0460 E-mail: newbay@computerfulfillment.com Web: MyAVTechmag.com Subscriptions: AV Technology P.O. Box 8692, Lowell, MA 01853 SENDING AN ORGANIZATION’S MOST VALUABLE ASSET — ITS INFORMATION — TO SOMETHING NICKNAMED THE “CLOUD” JUST DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT. NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE Steve Palm President & CEO Paul Mastronardi Chief Financial Officer Joe Ferrick Vice President of Web Developemnt Denise Robbins Group Circulation Director Greg Topf IT Director Jack Liedke Controller Ray Vollmer HR Director NEWBAY MEDIA SYSTEMS GROUP Adam Goldstein Vice President, Group Publishing Director Phil Holtberg Publisher Anthony Savona Editorial/Creative Director Jeremy Glowacki Editorial Director Rob Granger Online Production Manager Ragan Whiteside Web Manager David Leach Web Analyst Ashley Vermillion Web Production Specialist Lesley Keller Web Ad Production Specialist Published by NewBay Media L.L.C. 810 Seventh Avenue, 27th Floor New York, NY 10019 Tel: 212-378-0400 Fax: 212-378-0470 Reprints and permissions: For article reprints, please contact our Reprint Coordinator at Wright's Reprints: 877-652-5295 PRINTED IN THE USA. cloud computing are Google Apps, Force.com, and Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service (S3). Essentially, it’s another extension of the concept of outsourcing, except that you’re never really sure where your outsourced data is being serviced. It’s “out there” somewhere. There’s no question that organizations must do something to manage their increasing data management needs. As industry analyst firm IDC says in a recent whitepaper (sponsored by EMC), the digital universe is exploding. They estimate that there is over 281 exabytes of digital data in existence today, and that figure will compound 10 times in just the next 3 years. Applications for rich media — high definition video and high fidelity audio nies that depend on S3 for file storage. Google’s Gmail service has also experienced several well-publicized glitches. Sure, they’ve not lasted long, and have been fairly contained, but is any downtime acceptable when your business depends on it? Downtime is bad enough — what about security? Do we even want to go there? As our lives become just so many bits and bytes, we need to think carefully about the wisdom of storing all of those digital eggs in one basket — especially one that you can’t see or feel. Putting it all out there in the internet was one thing; entrusting our digital assets to the amorphous cloud just doesn’t hold water. www.avtechnologyonline.com 6 | AV TECHNOLOGY | april 2009 http://www.avtechnologyonline.com http://www.MyAVTechmag.com http://www.Amazon.com http://www.Force.com http://www.Amazon.com http://www.avtechnologyonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AV Technology - April 2009

AV Technology - April 2009 Contents Perspective: Lost in a Cloud Precedent Corporate: Seven Rules of Thumb for the AV Technology Manager Government: Collaboration Will Help Reshape Federal Agencies Education: Moving Day Managing Digital AV Content Audiovisual Untethered Irvine’s Mobile Command & Control Vehicle AV with a View Product Forum: Revolabs Fusion Wireless Mic System Product Spotlight: Network Test Equipment Tech Horizons: Ever Thinner New Products Ad Index AV MO: Power Consumption in AV Devices

AV Technology - April 2009

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