So is it time for non-tech business, and especially small businesses (SMEs), to fully adopt the cloud, in terms of both security and connectivity?

Just this week, Transport for London (TfL) and the Greater London Authority (GLA – including the Metropolitan Police, the London Development Agency and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority), signed a five-year enterprise agreement to use collaborative software-as-a-service technology. With it, TfL and the GLA will have a single integrated data management solution for all aspects of the contract administration process across their significant on-going portfolio of construction and facilities management works.

A report from US research firm In-Stat this week says enterprise spending on public cloud computing services is set to expand 139% from 2010 to 2011 (see this link). So usage of the cloud appears to be a growing trend in the public sector.

For SMEs the jump is still to be made among many who are not sceptical about the security and availability of a fast enough connection. What’s clear is that providers of cloud-based services (ie: those that offer to hold and provide your company data securely through some service held on a remote server and which you can access via some secure connection) have to assure businesses that the data is secure and can be accessed only by those who are authorized within your business.

On the issue of security, the argument for cloud based services for SMEs is put very well by an analyst, Dr. Windsor Holden, at Juniper Research – see ‘Cloudbursting
– the key issues with cloud mobility’. He essentially says that while data security is paramount (for many enterprises the thought of placing data in the hands of a third-party, in a server remote from their premises, may create a feeling of unease), it is very likely that the cloud solution is probably more secure than an SME’s own set-up, where the data may simply be help on a laptop or laptops.

He says that cloud service providers are anxious to demonstrate the extent of the security arrangements; they need to show that their own data loss protection measures are better than everyone else’s and that therefore a business will choose it.

He does however point out that continuous and ubiquitous connectivity are essential if companies are to be able to access their data in the cloud at any time, and until that is guaranteed, businesses will also be slow to take up cloud services.

To answer the question in the title, it is time for businesses to embrace the cloud, since for SMEs the security is likely to be better than the business has in place, if any. However, until they can be certain of always-on fast connectivity, whether by fixed internet or mobile, it may not yet be time to ‘fully embrace’ the cloud.

The British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) said that conditions are
different. Speaking just before the Astia Investor’s forum in May 2011, Tim Hames, head of public affairs, communications and campaigns at the BVCA, said, “In recent months, and
heightened in the light of the Microsoft-Skype deal announced yesterday, a
claim has emerged that the dot com boom of a decade or so past and the
consequential bust are in the process of being repeated. This seems to me to
fly in the face of the evidence. The dot com boom was characterized by a glut,
indeed a veritable splurge, of IPOs of internet companies. Many of these
businesses were little more than a domain name, a website and a concept.”

“The false premise was that there would be a huge premium for whatever
companies could pitch their tent in a particular section of the market ahead of
any other possible rivals. Furthermore, this was a craze in which hundreds and
hundreds of companies attracted cash from thousands and thousands of
investors.” The full press statement is here.

An article entitled “The new tech bubble” in The Economist says those that claim
it’s not the same as the 2001 tech bubble are right: it says, “This time it is
indeed different, though not because the boom-and-bust cycle has miraculously
disappeared. It is different because the tech bubble-in-the-making is forming
largely out of sight in private markets and has a global dimension that its
predecessor lacked.”

The Economist adds:

“The bubble is being pumped partly by wealthy ‘angel’ investors, some of
whom made their fortunes in the late-1990s IPO boom. Their financial firepower
has increased and they are battling one another for stakes in web start-ups. In
some cases angels are skimping on due diligence to win deals. When it comes to
investing in more established companies like Facebook and the bigger web firms,
traditional venture capitalists now face competition from private-equity
companies and bank-led funds hunting for profits in a bleak investment
environment. Gucci-shod leveraged-buy-out kings may appear to be more
sophisticated than the waitresses buying dotcom shares a decade ago—but many of
the newcomers are no more knowledgeable about technology.”

The Economist concludes that with luck the latest web bubble will do less
damage than its predecessor.

The BVCA also relates its argument to the number of IPOs. In 1999 there were
308 technology IPOs in the United States. In 2010 there were 20. The companies
attracting attention today are well-established ones which have proved that
their technology is robust, that they have a large customer base and can
accumulate substantial revenues. Furthermore, the current deal pattern involves
a relatively small set of businesses being acquired by an even small set of
large businesses. This is a very different story.

Chris O’Brien at San Jose Mercury News also supports this broadly with his
article “Time for reality check on the return of IPOs”, claiming that
while Silicon Valley is getting all excited about the number of IPOs to date
this year being up (Renaissance Capital says there have been 21 so far this
year while the NVCA says there were 14 in the first three months of this year),
they should not consider the IPO drought being over – far from it, he says.

O’Brien says that according to Renaissance, tech IPOs this year have produced an 11.4 percent return, which is just so-so. One of the highest-profile tech IPOs, Demand
Media, is down 28 percent since its January IPO. NeoPhotonics of San Jose is
down 45 percent since its February IPO. A number of these companies have come
out the box and done OK for a week, but then tapered off, says one source in
the article.

He adds that there are the larger structural issues facing any company considering an IPO – “it’s going to remain incredibly difficult for smaller and mid-sized companies to go public. Investment banks are focused on the very largest deals, such as Facebook and
Zynga, and don’t have the staff to handle smaller potential IPOs.”

The conclusion from these and other reports is that we are indeed in a
different scenario altogether. While there may be some high-profile big deals,
it doesn’t seem that we’ve yet reached the dizzy heights of the dot-com boom.

The week – organised by Work Wise UK, a national not-for-profit initiative, now in its sixth year – culminates in a ‘National Work from Home Day’ on Friday 20th May 2011.  The press release from Work Wise UK says that “during the recession and current age of austerity, many organisations have realised the benefits of smarter working practices. Enabling staff to work more flexibly has saved costs and at the same time significantly increased staff wellbeing.”

The concept of working from home long-term is already familiar to an older generation of workers who may have been affected by previous recessions.  The trick with  an initiative  like this is surely to encourage discipline when working from home, and ensure factors like IT security area also addressed.

On the former point, for those who are new to working from home, they might find it difficult to get into a working day if there are no boundaries to the day (such as travelling to and from the office on the daily commute).  It also requires significant self-discipline to carry out tasks as if you would in an office.

On the second point related to IT security, with data losses and breaches causing potential havoc as seen by several examples in recent years, it is something employers may wish to take into account before letting workers and their data go wandering unchecked.

For further information about Work Wise Week and National Work from Home Day, visit the Work Wise UK website.

As mentioned it’s easy to follow the acitvity at CES, what with social media and the web, even though you don’t get the same buzz and excitement as actually being there.

In addition to the expected rush of tablet announcements, today’s news releases at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas seem to also have been dominated by numerous wireless and internet-connected announcements – from both the wireless operators as well as the hardware and network equipment providers.  This made me think:  is this Mobile World Congress or is it CES?  It almost puts the two conferences on par, but with CES focused on hardware side of the mobile technologies and MWC focused on the software side.  I know this might be very simplistic but that’s how it could look to some.

Last month I made some presentations on smart cities and smart grid. Today’s CES announcements from LG, Verizon Wireless, Netgear, RCA and many others would go a long way towards making the concepts that I and others talked about reality.

LG smart home

Although LG already tried the connected fridge some years ago, this time the company has come out with a range of products which may ‘improve’ on that experience.  Its range of smart appliances allows users to adapt their home appliances to their personal preference and control and monitor them via their smartphones or tablet PCs. For example, LG’s washing machine can automatically select the most cost-effective time to do the laundry and can also send detailed diagnoses of technical problems direct to a service centre, doing away with the need for service calls or in-home visits.

LG’s smart ovens can download a wide range of up-to-date recipes while the smart refrigerator makes it easy to keep track of what’s in the fridge, where it is and when it expires. What’s more, LG’s HOM-BOT robotic vacuum cleaner can not only tidy up the house, it can even keep watch over it while the owners are away.

Verizon and Marvell manage the home

Continuing on the smart and connected theme, a number of announcements today from Verizon Wireless include one which is a collaboration between Marvell and Verizon Wireless demonstrating how a mobile home server the size of a power plug combined with the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE mobile broadband network can manage home security features, lights, heat and air conditioning and integrate all the connected intelligent furnishings at home using a smartphone.

The ‘Control Point’ product announced acts as a mini Wi-Fi hotspot for connecting a multitude of devices throughout the home.  Marvell’s chips in this product give consumers seamless continuity across connected devices, and with Verizon Wireless delivers always on, always connected capabilities for consumers to manage all aspects of their lives.

Embedded connectivity innovations

Embedded connectivity was also in full force: Novatel Wireless announced its embedded 4G LTE module had been integrated with a wide variety of mobile computing, mobile Internet and media platforms with six OEM partners, including Cisco, Consert, Dell, HP, SerComm and TouchTunes, to work on Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network.  The Verizon Wireless LTE Innovation Centre at CES showcased the following examples from Novatel Wireless in mobile gaming, interactive media,  standalone LTE-enabled cameras, intelligent utility energy distribution and management, and an enterprise tablet.

Connected internet through the home – powerline

Keeping everything connected to the Internet throughout the home through the power plug sockets is another aspect of the smart home, and RCA announced its Powerlink Internet Media Kit today – this turns an electrical power outlet into a high-speed Ethernet connection. This enables streaming HD movies, video games and more from the web to an internet-capable TV or electronic device.

This is not a new concept, but it gives the ability to easily put a high-speed Internet connection wherever you need it: behind your TV, next to your Blu-ray player, anywhere you’ve got an electrical power outlet.

There were many more examples of mobile, connected products announced today, including the ability to broadcast mobile TV to any Wi-Fi connected device, smartphone or tablet.

With this trend at CES today, it’s clear that the ‘internet of things’, and ‘connected everywhere’ is a concept that is coming to fruition in many aspects of our daily lives – and will do so sooner than we think.  The question is – how far will we as consumers want to go with this level of connectivity, particularly when being on the connected network opens up a whole host of potential security challenges.

With web feeds from key magazines and newspapers, virtual press offices, Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare, I am constantly bombarded with newsbytes of what someone is doing or what new technology or gadget has been launched.

Utilization of the latest electronics technology for real world applications has always excited me, which is probably why I studied electronics but went straight into journalism after graduating. While others designed new systems and chips, I wrote about them. So what’s caught my eye in the last couple of days?  Here’s a selection of what I have seen – ranging from the fun to the useful, plus some market  indicators.

‘Quadricopter’ for augmented reality video games piloted by Wi-Fi:

One of the demos that impressed many at last year’s CES was the flying quadricopter powered by an iPhone app.  This year, the company that makes it, Parrot , is showing the final version of the Parrot AR.Drone quadricopter for augmented reality gaming –  where you pilot the device using wireless via your iPhone or iPad.  The press release says: “You are piloting a one-of-a-kind quadricopter, where real and virtual worlds meet to offer unparalleled gaming experiences… The front-camera broadcasts and streams what the drone is seeing onto the iPod touch or iPhone screen; and the image processing allows integrating real-time special effects of augmented reality…”

3D without glasses – TV, picture frame, and PC, all in 3D

Stream TV Networks announced a new line of eLocity 3D Without Glasses devices at CES, including TVs, digital picture frame and the 3D desktop computer. The company says it is a technological breakthrough with resolution that surpasses all the other 3D display products. These products will all be available to consumers by Q4 of 2011.

Wet iPhone, iPad, smartphone, and tablet emergency kit

The video that goes with this announcement dunks a phone in water and shows how it can be dried with an emergency kit available to purchase for about US$ 30. The new technology from DRY-ALL absorbs all of the moisture in your phone quickly, allowing the phone to continue working as normal without losing your valuable information.  This new kit has hyperfast dry time and a patent pending absorption chamber that dries wet cell phones in as little as six  hours. Using DRY-ALLs proprietary blue bead technology™ you can use one Smartphone Emergency Kit to dry multiple phones. The Wet Smartphone Emergency Kit is guaranteed to dry all types of Smartphones and iPhones that have been exposed to any type of moisture.

3G connected blood glucose meters

Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Telcare Incorporated announced plans to integrate Qualcomm’s wireless Internet of Everything Module (IEM) into the Telcare 3GM™ blood glucose meter being developed by Telcare. Telcare 3GM, currently in prototype phase, is designed to transfer blood glucose readings to a patient’s family members or physician with each test.  ”One in 10 American adults today has diabetes, and experts estimate the disease’s prevalence could triple in the next 40 years,” said Jonathan Javitt, Telcare’s CEO. “Using Qualcomm’s IEM technology, we are developing Telcare 3GM as an evolutionary leap beyond today’s glucose meters. Real-time engagement with caregivers is particularly beneficial for parents and family members looking after diabetic children and elderly people, where family support can mean the difference between a good day and a trip to the emergency room.”

Asus Eee Pad and Eee Slate (claimed to be ‘the most powerful tablet ever’)

ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih introduced a family of four new tablet/slate products. The Eee Pad MeMO has a 7-inch capacitive screen powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ mobile processor and will ship with Android® 3.0 (Honeycomb) featuring HD playback capabilities, mobile gaming, an exciting Web experience and is accompanied by a stylus pen for taking handwritten notes.

The Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider are equipped with 10.1” IPS touchscreens, NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 mobile processor technology and will ship with Android® 3.0. The Transformer comes with a docking option that incorporates a QWERTY keyboard and serves as a battery extension station for up-to 16 hours of non-stop computing. The Slider is equipped with a sliding keyboard.

And lastly, for consumers who value productivity, entertainment and desktop power on-the-go, ASUS unveiled the Eee Slate EP121 which boasts a 12.1” multi-touch screen with Intel® Core™ i5 processor technology running on Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium operating system. The Eee Slate EP121 is the most powerful tablet ever introduced and allows the user to run a variety of desktop applications on its 64GB SSD drive while offering various data input options.

Tablets and the decline of PCs

Tablets seem to be all the rage at this year’s CES. In addition to the Asus announcement, there were also announcements of tablets from Wacom and Netbook Navigator, among others in the last day.  Supporting the tablet theme, an Accenture  (NYSE: ACN) survey predicts that consumer purchase rates for personal computers and mobile phones (excluding smartphones) will decline by 39 percent and 56 percent this year compared with last year, respectively. By contrast, buying rates of 3DTVs are expected to rise 500 percent; tablet computers 160 percent; ebook readers 133 percent; and smartphones 26 percent.

The annual survey focused on usage and spending on 19 different consumer electronics technologies among more than 8,000 consumers in eight countries in both emerging markets and developed economies: Brazil, China, India, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. Survey respondents in emerging countries represent key urban markets rather than the population as a whole.  The survey found that only 17 percent of survey respondents plan to buy a desktop or laptop computer in 2011– a 39 percent drop from 2010. The research also showed that respondents are using multiple devices such as tablet PCs for activities that used to be done on traditional PCs. For example, on at least a weekly basis, 40 percent of the respondents email from a tablet PC. In addition to checking email, respondents are using tablet PCs for browsing the web, watching videos and reading books, newspapers and magazines.

Storage standard: we’ve had USB, now we’ll have USM for portable storage

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) announced it is developing the SATA Universal Storage Module (USM™) specification for portable storage applications. The USM specification will enable developers to incorporate slots into televisions, game consoles, set-top boxes, computers, docking stations and other consumer electronics applications that will accept powered, cable free storage modules with integrated standard powered SATA interfaces for expanding storage capacity with an external storage module. By utilizing SATA, the world’s most widely implemented storage interface, USM devices extend the speed and reliability of volume storage I/O to the consumer electronics market, and eliminate the need for a separate cable or power supply.

The SATA USM specification is the first standard specification to define slots to accept a complete, powered external storage device into consumer electronic devices. Modules, slots and interfaces designed according to the SATA USM specification will enable consumers to instantly access their music, movies, photos and other content from a variety of consumer electronics products, and to seamlessly transfer content between devices without the aid of additional power or cables. The integrated SATA interface supports transfer speeds up to 6 GB/s, offering users the same speed and reliability they’ve come to expect from their hard drives and other SATA-based devices.

———-

That’s all for now. I’ll update this if anything else catches my eye in the next few days from CES..

As the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (often referred to as one of the world’s largest foundations devoted to entrepreneurship) said in its letter to president-elect Obama, “Entrepreneurs invent, innovate, and advance living standards for society. They are the growth-drivers and job-creators of our economy.”

So entrepreneurs will be the key to bringing a turnaround, and to date, many successful entrepreneurs around the globe got to where they are through their strong desire to do something different, make a major impact or to create something new. And whether they are in North America, Europe, or Asia, the message always tends to be the same: they make many upfront sacrifices for deferred rewards, and often have no idea how successful they are going to be when starting out.Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys – India’s second largest software and services exporter which now employs over 91,000 employees in more than 40 offices and development centres in India, China, Australia, the Czech Republic, Poland, the UK, Canada and Japan – not only forms an excellent role model, but personifies and embodies all those noble qualities of a successful entrepreneur.

In an interview that I carried out for him on behalf of The Chilli, we covered various topics – from the start-up spirit and what it was like then in 1981, to what it is like now for start-ups and also his tips for other start-ups. We also talked about what he would do differently if he were to start again, and also his mentoring and philanthropic values.

The start-up spirit – the obstacles and the perseverance

When asked about the mood during the start-up days, he talks about how in those days India was a closed country and where there was a tremendous ‘friction’ towards business.He contrasts the conditions then with those now – and in particular, how India was an unfriendly environment for start-ups looking to operate globally. While they encountered many difficulties, he said that entrepreneurship is all about a passion that drives you to overcome those hurdles. Mr. Murthy says, “We saw every bottleneck as an obstacle race, as a chance to show we were smart and perseverant and we were optimistic.”

One of the key things that came out from the discussion with him about starting up is that he wanted to prove that entrepreneurship could find a place in India.

When I asked him about his tips for start-ups today, whether they are in Europe, the USA or India, he was very enthusiastic about the opportunities for entrepreneurs today.  “The issues today are not infrastructure, or bureaucracy. The issue today is the market, competition, and how smart you are.”

The full interview and audio podcast is available on The Chilli’s web site – click here.

During the week of one of the biggest electronics components trade fairs in the world, which took place in Munich a couple of weeks ago, you would be hard-pressed to see where were the signs of the down-turn that we’d been hearing about for several weeks.  OK, so visitor numbers were down by about 6,000, hitting around 72,000, but for anyone who was there it was both difficult to get hotel rooms, and book travel to get there in the first place, unless you’d booked months or even a year or more prior to the event.

So what’s the story?  Why didn’t we see everyone drowning their sorrows at the show or whingeing about the bleak future? And is it really bleak or is there a silver lining? 

Well there could be many reasons for the enthusiasm at the trade fair – for example, the financial markets feel the impact straight away, but in areas like technology businesses, where the design cycle (the time it takes from initial concept of a design to actually producing the product) can be anything from several months to several years, so the filter-through to all parts of the value chain could still take a while longer.

If you listen to the CEOs of the technology companies though, then the story is very similar across the board: we’ll see a dire 2009, and the downturn may even linger into 2010, but there are many opportunities within this period.

For example, Harriet Green, CEO of Premier Farnell, a company that had sales of £745 million in its last financial year and is a distributor of electronic components and industrial products globally, said that the recession would be quite deep among the developed countries and last well into 2009 and maybe even 2010, but that she is excited about the opportunities that this presents.

She thinks that growth over this period will come from China, Eastern Europe, and probably India, commenting, “The Chinese have laid out a very detailed plan around liquidity and exports, real estate and development in rural areas. They are already quite well advanced in spending their five trillion dollars to keep their economy strong. I am quite excited about the opportunities we started two years ago developing our engineering and web capabilities there.”

Green believes that the next three years is going to be one of quite considerable change and challenge and is excited about the opportunities from internationalization in China, India and Eastern Europe, and also the web.

She thinks that the web is a place where we have yet to see more new developments – for example, in the tech field, engineers doing more collaboration over the internet, and in particular, evolving these possibly over and beyond some of the social networks. There will be a lot more around customization and personalization on the web.  She says that you only have to look at the trends we can see already among young engineers – and the average age of a design engineer in China is 27 – who live their lives around social networks.

So maybe we will see the work environment evolving on top of the social environment. Maybe corporate organizations will embrace social networks and build their own applications on top of these specifically for their own companies or associations or networks?

Another interesting view of the opportunities in 2009 was from Dave Bell, president and CEO of Intersil.  This is a company that makes chips for displays, recordable media like CDs and DVDs, and power management (for the batteries in your gadgets).

He said that the downturn of 2009 will be a great year for companies that want to acquire smaller companies within their sector to give them an advantage in areas where they may need to add key technologies or competencies. So instead of going to a VC (venture capitalist) for money, don’t be surprised if small start-ups go to large corporate and get acquired by them

The interviews with these and other CEOs can be found on the Technology Leaders TV web site, which interviews the movers and shakers from the technology industry to allow them to give their views in their own words.

While news of acquisitions, tie-ups, and consolidation may be good for India Inc., will it actually mean anything for driving innovation? Or will the story continue to be an evolution of India’s past – of taking technology from other parts of the world and simply re-assembling it? In this blog/column ‘Nitin’s tech view’ aimed at Indian electronics industry professionals and eengineers, there is a perspective that says India now needs to move on and maybe drive innovativion rather than simply implementing ‘screwdriver technology’.. Click here to read the column.

The 10 questions below, which are part of a framework called The Chilli Value Test™, are a good start for you to be able to validate your business idea, to see if it will form the basis of a sustainable business.

Not only will these questions help flesh out your thought process, strengthening the idea, but it will also prepare a would-be entrepreneur for the creation of the business plan and the due diligence from potential investors.

The questions to ask are:

1. What problem are you solving?
2. What value are you adding?
3. Is the market big enough and growing?
4. How will you make money?
5. What are the barriers and paths to entry?
6. What is the competition?
7. Have you validated your idea?
8. How will you overcome customer inertia?
9. Risk analysis.
10. Key ingredients for a business plan.

For the full details of this test, click here.