Piers Daniell

Interesting piece on thinkbroadband.com with regards to router speeds over the O2/Be network we did a few months back. Basically as part of the wholesale offering for ADSL2+ we had to collate data on all the types of routers they may use and test them under lab conditions.

Although the Cisco’s came out near the bottom they did perform well with upload and in my mind have proved the most reliable and still what I would recommend to customers.

I was speaking to a client yesterday on the merits of virtualisation and what needed to be considered before moving his company ‘into the cloud’. A lot has been said in the press and by manufacturers about the benefits of hosting services, however little covers the specific problems that you are inevitably left with. In this client’s case the business was at a junction in terms of IT investment as it evaluated its creaking server infrastructure and to plan the next steps.

With eight separate servers, each carrying out a specific function it was easy to recommend sharing one larger server using something like Vmware to convert each server into a virtual environment. My word of caution came with trying to share resources between servers and better instead to over specify the base machine to ensure each server got exactly what it needed. Modern virtualisation software is clever in sharing resources but in my experience if you have a Microsoft Exchange server gobbling up 4 GB of RAM then it isn’t going to share very well with a Microsoft SQL server requiring the same. Better to ensure there is at least 8 GB on the base machine and allocated 4 to each. The same goes with processors, only hard drives can really be shared, and with RAID, reliably too. So now instead of buying eight cheap servers the client can instead buy one or two (for extra redundancy) high specification servers to carry out the same role.

The next problem is where to host the platform. While the customer knows it should be in the cloud so that it can be accessed from everywhere and highly secure it does mean handing over parts of the business to a third-party. This can be done by fully outsourcing the virtual machines and not even owning the hardware, however without full due diligence what could appear to be a good service today, could fall over when another hundred customers have the same idea. Also no SLA will ever compensate your business should the worse happen so I believe it is better plan as though everything is about to go very wrong. Therefore a good solution would be to collocate some hardware in a datacentre but also maintain a local version and replicate between the two. That way there is maximum resilience should the internet fail, supplier go bust or office burn down.

While the industry will remain very positive on the concept of the cloud it is important not to loose sight of the technical challenges your company will face and how that would impact your ability to do business.

I had a meeting last week with our Health & Safety advisors in respect to Fluidata’s new environmental commitments and working towards our ISO 14001 standard. This accreditation is a relatively new one to come out of BSI and provides businesses with the guidelines necessary to measure their impact on the environment and measures to take to reduce pollution.

As a young company I felt it was better to go for such accreditations early on than wait until the inevitable legislation when it would be harder to implement. As it is, we seem to be doing a lot right in recycling over 50% of our daily office waste, minimising electricity usage and ensuring everyone uses public transport where possible when commuting. Further advances in high definition video conferencing and a new modern office will help us reduce this impact even further. Hopefully we will become a beacon of light for other businesses to follow and a demonstrator in how embracing the green revolution can deliver long-term cost savings.

Apparently in all the waste currently generated in the UK only 9% is recycled, the majority of which is met by households. Businesses currently have it far too easy and unless you are producing something like a washing machine or a car can remain under the radar of our EU mentalist masters. One of the big issues is actually in a services economy such as ours, where it is very easy to show no local issues but instead outsource all the pollution problems to a third party. In much the same way manufacturers can outsource to China and hence produce very little pollution in the UK; our industry relies on datacentres consuming vast quantities of fossil driven electricity away from our offices.

Over 1% of all global datacentre consumption comes from datacentres which just goes to show how power hungry the information age is. Our addition of a new datacentre last year in Hemel not only met all the economic needs in terms of scalability but also meant we could offer our clients even more efficient hosting. By building a new site from a blank sheet of paper savings could be made in the thermal efficiencies of the site to ensure a reduction in power consumption. And I am sure further advances will be made in the coming years as electricity becomes even more expensive and IT progressively more powerful.

Interesting announcement by Google that they plan to pull out of China if the government can’t curb the hacking of email accounts on it’s free service offering, Gmail. It appears that there is a lot of activity with human right activist’s email accounts specifically, being compromised.

Being in the communist state has always gone against the grain for Google but with the promise of increased advertising revenues (for a business with a motto of ‘don’t do evil’) they were very happy to restrict content for Chinese users. However as time has gone on revenues haven’t increased and many believe China is still a loss leader for Google.

So the best way to gain more market share? To publically humiliate the Chinese government and get more column inches in every paper globally than any marketing campaign could achieve. I am sure Google couldn’t give to hoots about the compromised email accounts, but by voicing it’s concern publically not only wins public support but also dramatically increases advertising revenue as people flock to the website.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating China’s way of doing business, but to suggest Google is taking a stand for human rights and not commercial gain is short sighted. I wouldn’t be surprised if more western businesses join the bandwagon as China beating becomes more popular. It is a communist state with appalling human rights abuses – what do they expect?

As we are in the depths of another snow storm I thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss the merits of my car again! I have covered the engine and DSG gearbox in previous posts but now there is another part which is making a real impact at the moment. Audi has always had a reputation for rallying and one of their major developments out of the sport in 1980 was their Quattro technology.

By delivering power only to the wheels that have the most grip means it is one of the most intelligent four-wheel-drive systems currently available. Driving back from the Cotswolds on the weekend I was wondering if it was working as I hadn’t seen any flashy lights on the dash, until I got out of the car and promptly slipped over. I honestly struggled to get back in the car and had driven, at not an insignificant pace, across the country without realising exactly how treacherous it was.

The secret behind Quattro is the Hadlex clutch which moves power between the front and rear axles as required. ESP and other systems then brake each wheel to ensure only those with grip actually spin. It is a similar system deployed on soft roaders from VW and other manufactures, Volvo for one, I know have used this technology extensively with their AWD and XC cars. It is a brilliant piece of technology and one I am surprised more people don’t invest in. Mercedes for example have ‘4matic’ and BMW ‘xdrive’ which are available in all their salon models on the continent but unavailable, for some reason, in the UK.

If as a country we aren’t going to switch to winter tyres during these now wintery months then I believe there is going to be more of a demand for four-wheel-drive in our regular cars. It is incredible what a difference it makes and now will reduce my choice for future cars when I look for a replacement – happily though both the R8 and Bugatti have this system in place as standard.

Cinema will never be the same again as 3D technology finally makes it mainstream. I have just spent another enjoyable evening watching Avatar in 3D and believe we have another movie classic. In the same way that Star Wars, Terminator and The Matrix each set the standard in technical innovation, Avatar takes the game to a whole new level.

Obviously we have seen 3D before, but this film like none before it, brings the technology and story together in such a way that makes it truly ground breaking. Personally I enjoyed the story and cinematography but it is the 3D that really makes the impact. As the whole film is 3D you soon forget you are sitting next to a popcorn munching goliath and feel part of the action. Even after ten minutes your eyes don’t ache and forget about the fetching glasses on your face. This coupled with the CGI that is so photorealistic that you are not sure what is and not real means you get sucked straight into the world of Pandora wishing for the film not to end.

For those of you who listen to cinema critics and decided not to go, may I suggest you make up your own mind? Because otherwise you are missing out on a ground breaking piece of cinema which will, I am sure, become the measure on how all future films are made during this next decade.

As 2010 rolls in, I am reminded that a decade is a significant period of time and a good one to reflect on, especially in the world of IT and Telecoms. What have we achieved in the past ten years, and what, if any, predictions can be made about the next ten years? Well, for one, Fluidata couldn’t exist until 2004 on the back of ADSL technology, to launch as its own business until early 2006. Which means that the last decade has seen great advances in internet connectivity speeds and brought the word ‘broadband’ into common parlance.

We might be far behind many other countries in this race, but don’t forget in 2000 dialup was the norm and businesses like Freeserve dominated internet access with products offering up to 56 Kb/s. Now people have the choice of ADSL2+ offering up to 24 Mb/s (24,000 Kb/s in old money) or even 50 Mb/s with certain cable broadband offerings. Fluidata, for one, became a leader in bonding technology providing services over multiple carrier networks at speeds up to 60 Mb/s down and 8 Mb/s up with PureFluid. Even gigabit (1,000,000 Kb/s) speed is achievable with the use of fibre, as well as more affordable especially in urban areas.

Networks not only got faster, but also more intelligent, with quality of service, large wide area private networks and MPLS protocols. Businesses put voice over the internet and now video is seeing a resurgence with advances in HD video conferencing. Which begs the question - what will happen in the next ten years?

With the industry talking about FTTH (Fibre to the Home) and FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) more people will be able to experience the high speeds that fibre can deliver. But remember this isn’t like the previous decade when the main infrastructure (the cables) remained the same. This technology requires something new which not only will absorb huge amounts of money, but also time and resource. The cynic in me would say BT’s 21CN (to provide ADSL2+ and more IP services) offering is aimed purely at the LLU carriers such as Tiscali, Carphone Warehouse, Cable & Wireless and O2. I am sure its reach won’t extend over 2,000 exchanges by the end of the next decade. So FTTH or FTTC products are purely to take the fight to the cable operators such as Virgin. And what will quench our thirst for data? I believe there will still be some advances in DSL with products such as VDSL, but also other completely different technologies which will see in excess of 100 Mb/s over copper. Bonding will become more prevalent and give rise to a larger number of niche ISPs able to aggregate multiple networks together, not only to improve performance, but also reliability. Fibre will of course continue to grow in popularity and while still not being within easy reach of home users, will hit more of the SME market as costs reduce.

Other technologies such as WiMAX will become more widespread as companies such as Intel start to bundle the protocols into their mobile chipsets. I know of one company soon to come to market with a 3 GHz service which, if widely adopted, could bridge the gap between broadband and 3G mobile networks. Another product I am looking forward to seeing more of is BPL (Broadband Power Line), which has the potential to deliver many hundreds of Mb/s anywhere in the country over a normal power line. It has been a long time in the making, but I believe this decade will see its widespread adoption.

Mobile broadband still has a long way to go so that future services, such as cloud computing, can be widely used. And what else is in store? Well to be honest, it can be anybody’s guess. The great thing about this industry is the fact it continues to innovate and change - I’m, for one, looking forward to the next decade.

It’s all very well going away for Christmas but as this year shows it can be a real pain even before your feet have left the ground. I am in an enviable position of having family around the world and while my brother enjoys Christmas in New York, where he works, with our father, I am heading out tomorrow to Austria to spend it with my mother and step father in winter wonderland. And while I do feel privilege the joy has been somewhat taken out of it by strikes and bad weather. I most likely will be able to make it but there will be thousands across the UK and Europe suffering as staff strike, trains break down and the arctic wind bears down on us.

Not much we can do about the weather but pathetic how everything seems to grind to a halt. Austria I am told is sitting under a good two meters of snow and my brother is braving minus ten degree weather in New York but everything appears to continue. We are not so lucky and while planes freeze over and trains fail to operate we have a hardcore section of the population eager to strike to protect their working conditions. Or should I say union who believe they are talking on behalf of the majority of their members?

British Airways’ recent fiasco with the union was appalling and while it was called off has done untold damage to the airline. I love BA, always have, always will. However there will be a number of customers who have been loyal but won’t forgive the potential ruining of their Christmas by the company this year. They will be off, and while there isn’t much out there providing a better service will stay away because it isn’t BA. Obviously because I like BA so much they managed to call off the strike and award me with 10,000 air miles, which was nice.

So next year I might give up on the travelling and just stay at home. At least I will know that I am going to be having Christmas even if it might be a rather damp quiet one.

My world has come to an end. Not because of flight chaos caused by overpaid and under worked BA cabin crew (due to fly to Austria in a few days), as the jury is still out on that one. No, I am considering suicide on the basis of my dealings with a little Oxfordshire enterprise, Powwow Water. You might have seen there vans busy delivering water up and down the country to thirsty office workers. However I don’t believe they are actually delivering any water because our office has been without it for two weeks and counting.

I thought we might have an issue when it was escalated to me and I gave them a call to find out what was up. ‘Our systems have been down for two weeks, we can’t do anything’, was the response I was greeted with. That means no finance, sales, credit control, provisioning and all the other things that go with an IT system. But I think with my dealings with them over the last few days have confirmed that is the least of their problems. I am surprised this business still operates following a recession but probably that is why they sold to Nestlé.

Some advice, if you are reviewing your water contracts don’t ever consider Powwow, even if their machines do look quite sexy you’ll regret it and end up six feet under with me.

With Christmas just around the corner a debate has opened up between the companies sending greeting cards by email and those making an effort and sending out a real card. Which is more green?

I would argue the latter is actually more environmentally friendly than an email, let alone the fact that the customer/supplier thinks that you care rather than spamming you with a thoughtless email. My reasoning is sound. If a tree takes in carbon as it grows then it is acting like a sponge cleaning our air and locking it within its trunk. When the tree is felled and turned into paper this carbon remains locked within the material making it an effective form of carbon capture. By not burning the tree the carbon isn’t released, so by sending Christmas cards out you are in fact cleaning the air.

Not only that you don’t come across as a thoughtless organisation who can’t be bothered to write a personal message to all its customers and suppliers.