mariodecristofano.com

I’m not actually as arrogant as I act, nor do I think I know as much as I may give the impression. In my still relatively young 31 years on this planet though, I’ve seen some things, and experienced things, a lot of things a lot of people simply havent. I’m always amazed & feel eternally grateful not only do I have some great friends, but they actually ask for my thoughts occasionally, so I do like to put effort into it.

I’ve recentley been asked about how you potentially tackle a quick step up to fill someone else’s shoes when you’ve only just started your job. It’s a complex one, full of politics, toe stepping, peoples feelings, and the whole ‘poisoned chalice’ potential. I recommend two rules, (two rules actually you can probably run with all your life & in every aspect of it) 1) tell the truth 2) be nice. You just can’t go wrong.

I used to work for a company whereby I had an option to look after a small part of it, or the entire organisation. At the time, being young, heady & ambitious, I chose the latter as soon as the opportunity presented itself. I never worried or gave second thought to other people, I just felt I was worthy. I wasnt.  I should have spent a few more years looking after the small part, nurturing it, building the part into something bigger all on it’s own. More importantly I should of spent time building me, into something bigger.  I was therefor shocked when I had the reigns of a much larger chunk of business, but with it, the loneliness, the stress, the feeling of letting all the people in the small part down, whom I was made to feel I’d turned my back on, for a quick fix of limelight and hero status.

The worse thing was, it was that opportunity I cut my teeth, and whilst ultimateley I made my future right there, right then, I would have perhaps taken it slower and with more sensitivity to other people with that deliciously wonderful thing called ‘hindsight’. Perhaps juggling so many parts of the business would be akin to trying to have several mistresses. At some point, they are all going to get jealous that your spending more time with the next, and before you know it, you have several mistresses wanting to serve your private bits up on a chopping board.

If I’d of known what it would be like to have several mistresses, before I actually took them on, perhaps it’d of been a smoother ride. Ultimately I was a virgin at the time, and I was eaten up & spat out. Without that experience however, I wouldnt be who I am.

My advice to anyone wanting to forge their career is by all means go forth, take into consideration other peoples feelings, dont step on peoples toes, and remember that two step rule 1) tell the truth 2) be nice. Learn the business, not just your ‘niche’. For IT people, that means whether you like it or not, your day’s are numbered. No one wants on premise kit, no one wants bearded Linux engineers (sorry no offence), no one wants complexity.

Technology & systems are commercial now, SaaS, PaaS, that Exchange server you’ve been holding together with sellotape & scissors, no one cares, because for £11 a month you can have hosted Exchange all backed up, secure, scalable, & simple. (check out servercentre.net by the way!) so if you want to add real value as an IT Pro, learn what the business does, and how IT can help it do ‘its’ business better.

If you work for a burger company, learn everything about burgers. Learn how to make IT help the company, make burgers quicker, faster, cheaper & better quality. Be seen to be doing that, & you’ll elevate yourself beyond just IT. Because whether you like it or not being an IT person in the future, means not being an IT person at all.

1) tell the truth 2) be nice.

Mario x

It’s been a hectic week in technology. Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! left this week, leaving pundits asking whether this is the beginning of the end for the Internet giant. Apple jump into education with self-publishing iBook’s & even starts to consider getting all social with us. Let’s not even speak again of PIPA & SOPA, the two imminent US passed bill’s which could re-arrange the landscape of the Internet forever! Until we killed them.  Oh, and I pass 600 followers on Twitter - whoop! (@mariodc)

There’s more happening in my life too, it would appear (some have said) that I could be on the verge of being very happy, I approach this with all the caution of a hunter approaching a grizzly bear, armed only with a pea-shooter however. I’ve got a couple of really big announcements which will come soon, & a couple of very big conversations I need to have with people, the front end of 2012 has been already eventful. It’s probably fair to thank @julianbdavis for late night discussions & advice, you should probably go & check him out on Twitter, as he’s one of the good ones!

I’ve been busy working on virtualisation over the last few weeks, and re-iterating websites for a bunch of companies. I like being busy, & I love technology, but I still feel fairly unfulfilled with a bunch of the things I’m doing. I do crave mutual peer passion about technology & innovation, and yes I do bang on about it, but never has it been so important to me.

Virtualisation is pretty straight forward by the way, if you pay attention to the details. I notice the biggest issues are Microsoft licensing, so watch for that when planning your migrations. I should knock together a couple of blog posts on this very subject soon.

Recent #NHSExperience has been positive, with my blood pressure coming right down. I run 5k every other day now. That’s right, ‘run’. Who’d of thought it! I even like it, which has surprised me immensely. You can, if you’re interested, check out my routes via the great Runtastic app, here http://www.runtastic.com/en/users/Mario-De-Cristofano/dashboard

I’ve been spending time in my hometown of Nottingham more & more & remembering the great social scene I left behind, great place for eats including @thecurrylounge, bars like @houseofcocotang, @fatcatnotts & Pitcher & Piano, along with all my other old favourites like the Living Room, Saint, SaltWater & Brass Monkey. I do miss going out with friends, whom ultimately is who I miss the most. Can’t wait to be back next weekend.

So firstly, allow me to explain my blog posts are like buses, it would certainly seem so today! You wait ages for one, & then two come along at once. What can I say; it’s been a day of inspiration! I’ve typed my fingers to the bone, TO THE BONE I TEL YOU!

So, if you’ve been paying attention you’ll know at the arse end of 2011 I was for the first time ever, at the hospital, getting prodded, pocked & slapped (not in a good way mind you!) whilst people poured over me with sensors, ECG equipment, bio med sensors & large pointy sticks, which in summary, led to being diagnosed with some hypertension which is in effect, high blood pressure.

I had basically three month’s to turn things around. So whilst I felt a bit like a McLaren MP-55 in the garage whilst all manner of stuff was shoved into me (again not in a good way…ahem…too much!?) & it was that point it hit me, that if I don’t change what goes on in my head, and how I handle work, I’m actually going to end up in a ditch on the Motorway somewhere, having had some type of nervous breakdown. Probably in some ropey maroon coloured Ford Mondeo, Diesel!!!

I’ve tried to chase being good at what I do for so long, I needed to slow down & learn, step back, relax, in the words of Tony Soprano..’Heeeyyy forget about itttt’

So what did I do!? Well I always exercised. That was never the issue; the question was the Psychology behind that exercise. My weakness isn’t chips, or chocolate, or crisps, or anything bad for you actually because I just don’t like the taste of sweet things or anything heavily processed. My number one weakness was portion control. So yes I’d eat pasta, brown rice, home grown veg, a range of fish, not too much meat, pulses & lentils, but when I ate, I ate like a professional & that meant Man Vs Food style portions whilst all at the same time, thinking ‘well if I exercise, I can do this right?’ …wrong. Adam Richman I isn’t. (although we look frighteningly similar, which I didn’t realise until I just Googled that son’bitch to get this ol’ Photo

I cut down my portion size overnight, whilst at the same time stepping up the exercise. Going from consistent daily 6- 8 mile bike rides and CV work at the gym, to circa 16-20 miles every time I swung a leg over the bike. I do this now, whilst also having eliminated any salt (which I rarely had), and caffeine opting for Decaffe (thanks Faye) instead which all helps stop the trigger of high blood pressure.

Like everything I do I become obsessive, so I bought a small clinic’s worth of home Bio medical & technical equipment measuring everything from heart rate, sleep pattern, brain electrical impulses, blood pressure, that type of thing. It’s interesting being able to gather up all these reasonably accurate stats and put them into clinical software to look at your body’s performance from a raw performance perspective. A bit like overclocking your old Pentium 3, but no thermal paste required.

So the end result is my BP is now normal, I’ve lost a bunch of weight, and I’ll continue to do so. It’s really important to look after your body, and I’ll pay much more attention to that. You can follow these antics on Twitter, (hashtag #NHSexperience) I have to say, I want to thank everyone at St Georges who have not only been nothing short of fantastic, but it makes me feel very lucky we live in a country with a thorough medical service.

I’m pretty observant. Or Nosy! I’m not sure which, I’d like to hover around the former though for the sanctity of my ego. What I’ve observed over the last few weeks is people. London affords you such a good opportunity to people watch. I often sit in Coffee Shops (love you Costa!, other Coffee Shops available apparently!) & whilst I tip tap away on my computer, I find myself starring out across the busy hustle & bustle. Amongst the Soho hipsters, achingly cool on their fixed wheel bicycles & messenger bags, Wall St & other ‘City’ professionals in Oswald Boetang suits & ‘media’ types carrying a Latte in one hand, and an entire tree of paperwork in the other, there’s something common which stands out.

It’s come at us from behind, we knew it would, we did’nt really care, and it’s happened seemingly as quick yet perversely as slow as these things tend to. It wraps around us & our lives covering us in communicable warmth, allows us to ‘express’ ourselves (whatever that means) & it bring’s us together. What is it you cry!? It’s of course, technology.

It started off with the smartphone; its said that over (well over) half the UK own a smartphone (see here) & do you know what? I believe it! Walking across Waterloo concourse the other day, I spotted 13 people, (I counted) every single one of them as diverse as the next, but unifying them all was the 45 degree angle their heads were bent at, whilst they prodded & made masterbatory gestures into a glass coated screen of something they held in their hand (insert your own joke here – by coincidence, they were all iPhones but more on that later). Is this our evolution!? Perhaps we’ll give birth to children with 38% smaller fingers (easy to poke a screen with) and necks which bend like an owl, to acommodate the constant information overload we are exposed to.

Not one of them were looking up, they all had ear buds in, information about their environment being augemented into their earbuds and eyes as data I suspect, included Social Media, the News, a book, maps, Train times, all flashed before there eyes in a bite size 4.7″ retina display. How convienient!

How many times have you seen people walk along the street (in London anyway) navigating using GPS, staring into a 3d map, not once, NOT ONCE, actually bothering to look up and study their environment. Their surroundings. We have our own GPS, our own internal compass, and yet we rely soley, without exception on these ever powerful portable computers we have stuffed in our pockets.

Of course, it doesnt end with the smartphone. There’s now tablets, and whatever your preferred flavour, there’s nothing you can’t do with a smartphone & tablet combo. I see more and more tablets ‘in the wild’ and it’s quite a sight at night, to see thousands of bright beamed devices lighting up the landscape more so, than the landmarks around them. Not that anyone would notice the landmarks however, they are too busy reviewing them on Yelp, or Oink, or some other similiar service!

I guess what I’ve noticed more & more, is we don’t seem to mind this part of our evolution. The internet has seemingly grown out of its cabled tether, and it’s now ‘us’. The internet is’nt one way. We all create content. Blogs, Tweets, Facebook posts. We’re all our own reviewer, of products, drinks, cafes, Restaurants, PEOPLE! We recommend this content to others, with each blog post or tweet feeding the next in this self serving cycle of self promotion & publicity.

We’re changing . But for the better?

From the first day’s of the Internet, where information was silo’d into a single space, usually a page or several, and a few links, we’ve evolved. We all have our own online space, we recommend videos, build apps, and have the power to make anything ‘viral’ within an afternoon. We can throw a website together within minutes.  We rely on the Internet for every aspect of our social lives, and for those that are socially competent in the old fashioned real life world (World 1.0?) the Internet allows us to be extensions of ourselves. To almost be omnipotent.  It’s like Avatar I guess, without the 7ft Blue Aliens.

Social butterflies darting from place to place, our lifes enhanced with this infinite connectivity. Always on, always available, always there. Like the Energizer bunny, we just can’t stop & god dam we won’t!

But I fear for people that don’t have those real world skills. Those whom trust Sat Nav and subsequently drive into a lake, than actually look up and see the lake in front of them. Those that can’t speak to someone in a bar, but are quite happy to ‘frag’ a 18 year old American over some virtual battle field whilst driving a knife into the chest of a German Sniper.

I worry that the Internet has become a ‘publicity & reputation engine’ and whilst the content diverse, the value of the information diminishes as more & more people ‘add’ to the dirge of content. We’re all so busy Linking in, Klouting, Peer indexing, Facebooking, Tweeting, Yelping, Oinking, I mean, c’mon, this is getting silly….is’nt it?

Where will be be in a decades time? What about the next generation!? I was with friends over Christmas, whose children have grown up with Skype. They communicate with their respective families in far flung lands using Skype as an everyday tool. These children think nothing of seeing their loved ones appear in a perfectly ratio’d 14:9 high res screen, as opposed to real life. Perhaps to them it is real life? Perhaps this is real life?

Google’s been watching us for years, it allows them to make better recommendations. It allow’s them to be more accurate, to serve us better & provide better services. We won’t give our bank information to someone in the street called ‘Frank’ from ‘Protect the Sanctity of the slow grown Otter’ , but we’ll happily commit every personal & private snippet of data to a company we don’t know, and not only that, we’ll thank them for it!

Facebook, carefully aggregrates our lifes and publishes the content in superior detail like a life chronical. Every photograph, every experience, every interaction, logged for prosperity!? Or something else? To get a real glimpse into the future of this time of real world data archiving, watch the Black Mirror – The Entire History of You, by the great Charlie Brooker http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/4od#3267363

It’s been amazing to watch the Internet too, as we consume it in bite size chunks by way of an app, or a widget. We sync content to the cloud, it doesnt matter now what type of computer we use, as we just connect to the web, and carry out our tasks online. Writing documents, spreadsheets, web dev, our work, our lives, personal & business, is all done, typically via an App, & somewhere, usually online. We use Dropbox to move files from device to device, even the way we listen to music has changed. When was the last time you bought a CD? Tell the truth! Why steal it by illegally downloading when a Premium Spotify account can be yours with access to everything & anything (other music services available)

It’s the same with TV, I can’t remember the last time I watched any scheduled TV. We consume everything on demand. We watch the TV as we want, advert free and when it suits us, as we pause and time shift to get up off the couch to grab a beer and some crisps, recently delivered to us via our online Ocado account!

Anyway all I know is it’s interesting times, and that seem’s to be changing us, and the way we communicate. Think the next time you reach for the keyboard, …what exactly are you doing….and who exactly are you telling……

2011. Wow! What a year! It’s been about the best of times, & the worst of times. From 100% Goodtimes to pretty bad times, but what a chapter it’s been! That’s most definite.

It’s suggested at the end of each year & during spring, people typically take stock of where they ‘are’ in life. They assess ambition, moving forward, & how far along that journey they’ve typically gone.

That’s what I’m doing now.

You know, ticking off items in a bucket list if you like.

This year I felt I made tremendous progress in my career but at the expense of other areas of my life, including my recent #NHSExperience which to be frank, knocked me for six.

The back end of this year whilst I’d originally planned an indulgent ‘get a way from it all’ holiday a number of rather strange, some sad but also some amazing events happened which not only caused me to spend Christmas with my family and friends solely, but for the first time ever to value those people which matter the most. It’s people that make life, not 50″ plasma TVs, bottles of Belvedere & canapé.

So, amongst some of the sadder parts of Christmas which I won’t dwell on here, a number of exciting & amazing things also have happened which has realigned how I think about certain things.

I guess my relationship with London had been like a tempting mistress. I Always wanted the theatre and drama of working ‘ in the city’ but three years of hard graft felt like its left me treading water whilst those whom I’d once incorrectly judged as lesser, have fuller and richer life’s with out anyway near the stress i appear to have considering the effort I’ve put in, to seemingly achieve very little.

Perhaps I’m being hard on myself. Perhaps it’s the chemical cocktail of adrenaline, dopamine, and Oxytocin coursing through me brought on by Christmas emotion, I don’t know . . .

It’s the people which are key to being rich I think. Not life’s trinkets. I’ve alway’s known this, it’s just now, it’s hit me!

What I do however cherish is the great friendships and close bonds I’ve forged in London, some of my closest friends I simply wouldn’t of met if I’d not moved there. I’m thankful for that. Some of these people have absolutley helped shape me as a person! For sure!

On the reverse, I’ve also met some pretty dreadful people too, whom make it easier to see whats really important because they are just that, dreadful. Some people ‘give’ in life, they light up rooms when they smile, things happen you know!? whilst others just suck the living joy out of everything. These people are knowingly causing sadness and misery to those around them.

( the next time you look at yourself in the mirror, decide if your one of life’s givers, or a sucker, or perhaps a leech. If your not sure, your definitely the latter two and I sympathise with that, but I can’t spend my time on you, I’m sorry I just can’t)

I guess what Im trying to say was I came to London to make myself rich, I just never knew I already was.

It’s…been…as they say in Essex, ‘like totes emosh’!!!

Make 2012 count everyone, have a good one. X 

I advise a lot of companies on Social Media strategies, and having a ‘voice’ in the digital space. The same question always comes to light, ‘how can we monetize this’? & ‘how long will it take from forum post to cash in hand!?‘ My advice is always the same; it’s not always needed to monetize every message & you may not get rich from Social Media (unless your surnames Zuckerberg).

Every Tweet need not be plugging a service or offering a particular widget a company provides. Sometimes, community engagement & giving something back is enough value, and I akin it to taking a mate for a beer down the pub, and then charging him for the conversation! You would’nt do it in real life, so why do it online?

The same with Facebook or Blogs, its ok just to talk about passions, sector interests, and what’s happening in your industry, just to talk about it & not always to push your latest widget onto the public. If they want to buy your widget, they can go to your website. I’m not saying you should’nt integrate a sales message into your social media from time to time, I mean, its a good vehicle for that, but a company should realise there’s value in Social Media presense without that value being tangible.

Bringing like minded people together, to discuss a common interest is something Social Media is excellent at, and if that common interest happens to be your super duper A-class widget for the 21st century, then great. But selling products or services on social media needs to be elegant, like a business card being passed between people at a Champagne & Canape reception in Soho, not flogging stolen TV’s from the back of a van in a pub carpark in West Ham!

Think of Social Media as a very large pub, (sometimes selling quality ales, but on Friday nights £1 a pint & cheap alcho-pops for the ladies, banging music & underage teens throwing up outside), you wouldnt want to spend all your time there, but when you do, its with friends & you have a good time.

& you can’t put a price on that hey!

Some say I’m not a businessman. The reason!? Because I live in a world without grey’s. Without anything but on or off. Right or wrong. In or out, fat or thin. In paticular, I talk about the risk of reduced quality when delivering products or services driven by profit, as opposed to delivering the best product or service just for its own sake.

First off, some caveats; I know profitibility is one of the most important aspects of any business, & I understand this without question, but the one trend I’ve noticed from the most smallest company to the very largest, if they are the best, they let the fact they are the best speak for itself. Generating profit comes very much second. From Innocent (the Smoothie company), to other new modern companies, who have faith & belief in what they are doing, and how that will benefit their customers first and foremost.

‘This ideology is an expensive luxury most small businesses can’t afford to have!’, I hear you say, mouth agape, and shaking your head in dissaproval! Alas NO! I will take that objection and throw it right back at you though – for if your not profitable, & spending all your time trying to be through the most profitable if not always the ‘right’ solutions, you don’t have a business anyway, so what’s the risk!? Your product or services will always come back to haunt you. You have nothing to start with! No business. Zilch, nada, zip.

From IT, to Satsuma’s, to a Banana store, it doesnt matter. Make them the best Banana’s they can be. The shiniest most perfectly rotund Satsuma’s ever made, or the very best in IT, but most importantly, make them the best for the people who consume them, not for the profitibility those solutions may generate. The banana’s need to be delicious, the Satsuma’s  juicy, you get the picture. I mean, who want’s an overipe Banana that tastes of slightly warm wallpaper paste? Or a Satsuma with all the qualities of a stagnant glass of water?

When business people put profitability before being the best, then the business ceases to be valid. Whereas concentration on being the best, will in turn generate profitibility as a by-product. It takes balls’ to have this approach, but that’s what all successful companies are doing. Business, your business, is likley to fail regardless, so why not give it the best chance from the start.

I’m not suggesting we all go out tommorrow in a renegade fashion and throw a financially unviable business together, with enough holes in it to make a grown accountant blush, but dont forget the banana eating, Satsuma muching customers. Get them talking about how delish your fruit is, & they will be back. With their friends. Lot’s of friends. Who all want fruit.

DISCLAIMER

Oh, and as always, the views above, & those others on my blog or anything else, are that of my own, & not representative of any of the companies I’m afflilliated with

It’s been a long ol’ month, and busy in both IT & my personal life. At the start of this month, I was full of beans  feeling good. A few trips to the GP and a diganosis of High Blood Pressure later however (follow events on Twitter, search for #NHSExperience), & I felt a bit bummed out I had to say. I’m also getting a bit fed up with London, the people, the hustle & bustle, the expense! £500 a month on travel, & yet its still cheaper than a car! Welcome to the UK!

A trip back ‘oop North to see my good friend @ahartconsulting & my parents, and a little perspective setting seemed to help though. I’ve been making some pretty radical changes to the things I do in terms of work, my attitude & the way I think about getting things done.  I’ve taken up Meditation & Yoga, along with upping my exercise reigime (I’m about to start spinning classes – good lord) & I’ve absolutley stopped eating monster portions of food once a day. Never thought Breakfast would be so good!

In technology its been busy, I’ve attended the IPExpo 2011 at Earls Court, along with taking @jamesjhedges along to the Soho Hotel for a Mortimer Spinks event, both were pretty good, & I’ve blogged about them here, & at my company site, Leading Edge  I’m about to start #ChristmasBytes podcast with @julianbdavis & @kwasig which I’m totally stoked about, and we’ll be rounding up the year in technology & our respective careers in IT, Social Media & Finance. It’ll be jovial, there’ll be beer & we may even sing carols! Check it out on the Digibyte website, and head over to @kwasigs 100% Goodtime Blog Solution. Thankfully my other companies all seem to run themselves now which is very good!

So with blogging, round the clock work with Leading Edge developing everything from their organisation, their process & there social media, its been pretty busy & nice to sit back in Costa, (as per usual), grab a green tea & catch up with myself & thoughts. I never managed to actually celebrate my 31st birthday this year, which I was totally bummed about, but do get together with buddies from all my old companies like Libertine, Ticketmaster, and such like, so its nice to see pals. That reminds me, I must catch up with @TBev0 pretty soon (reading this!?)

I’m not quite sure what 2012 will bring, I’ve been overall pretty happy with 2011, but perhaps just perhaps I’ll learn to spend a little time on me. I’m hoping to next year;

- Get to 1000 followers on Twitter (@mariodc if your interested!)

- Travel More again (including Whistler, Vegas, Singapore & Miami)

- Stress out less (harder than I thought)

- Stay in more hotels, I love hotels, don’t know why, just my ‘thing’

- Learn to switch off, including leaving the iPad, iPhone & laptop out the bedroom!

- Finish off my long awaited charity bike ride, remember that Mario!? Check it out here

- Stress out less, oh wait a minute, I’ve said that!

Stay tuned!

Love, Mario x

So after a rather badly organised door entrance procedure, we got to IPExpo 2011 & must say, we were delighted at some of the stands that made it. Isilon/EMC, BlueArc, HP & Citrix were all there. We were first met by Titan, the robot you may have seen from the Gadget Show. On first look, Titan looks like the most incredible Robot you’ve ever seen, walking, talking, cracking jokes, and impersonating everyone from Frank Sinatra to Pat from EastEnders. We however, still think there’s a man inside. You can judge from yourself, by watching the video later in this post.

The highlight of the day was a keynote with Steve Wozniak (of Apple) from I.O-Fusion. After his Banana’s and monkey analogy (that ol’ chestnut you can see here )We felt sorry that he was trying to discuss new pathway electronics, their revolutionary add-on cards for increased data I/O & all anyone wanted to talk about was Apple. The fan boys were there, and in the Q&A session, when poor old Steve caveated “please, I don’t want to talk about Steve Jobs“, the first question was “so do you think Apple can still innovate now Steve Jobs has died“…oh dear. We were pretty sad to learn also there were plenty of non tech journalists at IPExpo, taking up valuable space from the people who really needed to be there, but we digress…

Steve highlighted after one rather interesting audience question (ahem), about whether bedroom innovation is still possible in todays world, whereby every youngster now learns ‘apps’ and not programming in the traditional sense. “dont be scared to innovate, its still possible, and dont be scared to question why things are done the way they are, and ensure you are always your worst critic” was some of Steve’s very interesting insights.

Other interesting stands & keynotes were Citrix, who were demonstrating the power of their VDI & Distributed desktops – really interesting to see the power of the new platforms & how seemless distributed desktops can be. Showcasing the ability to ‘bind’ computing power to specific VM’s, using a technology called Flexcast. Perhaps your organisation has 80% admin/office use, but 20% niche high end, you can bind dedicated hardware such as graphics cards & increased RAM to that 20%, whilst still using the same desktop image for everyone else. In effect, modifying the build as its distributed, depending on usage requirements. Incredible really.

On the subject of virtualisation, and in lieu of a recent upcoming virtualisation project we’re working on here at LET, we toddled across to Microsoft’s stand (one of many) who were showcasing there latest incarnation of System Manager & System Monitor, which ties in to Hyper V. I’m still sure that Hyper V is a very immature technology, but in a demo environment, they showcased building an infrastructure using a GUI, dragging across CPU horsepower, Hard disc space, Apps, (Office, etc), The version of Windows, and then publishing that as a VM which became live. You could potentially in effect, build a ‘private’ cloud for a companys IT infrastructure.

Then System Monitor took over, managing deep level monitoring across the VM down to component and app level, even understanding and highlighting when an App crashed, exactly where, & what it was doing. One of the key features was its ability to tie in to a Visio-Style diagram. Perhaps you could publish this to a sharepoint site. As you build your infrastructure & deploy, it documents itself – we all know documentation is the bane of an IT Pro’s life!

Other points to note were Wyse’s thin clients, we know about Wyse, they’ve been around for over a decade, but are now working with Citrix and delivering true thin based computing both as PCoIP, (PC over IP), along with dedicated dumb terminals such as notebooks & such like, which can boot from a Citrix syncronisiation server.

All at IPExpo this year acknowledged the power of the cloud, and stands were everywhere showcasing distributed & cloud based technology. If your a business wondering whether to adopt this technology, really you should. Its going nowhere. Other points which regulary cropped up & acknowledged to further back the future of the cloud;

- Most IT use is now ‘App’ driven, we don’t paticularly use high density software anymore, just single use Apps.

- Tablet computing adoption – making the workforce truly mobile and in effect turning your screen into a computer without the need for a computer.

-iCloud in paticular, let’s get one thing straight, iCloud represents the single biggest potential change in computing for the last five years. As more and more data is synced to iCloud (and various other manufacturers iterations of it), we will only start needing tablets, and smart-phones (basically just screens) and we’ll do all our computing .. without the computing! Not only pictures/photos/music/personal settings, but entire desktop delivery, apps, office suites etc. This was also highlighted with products such as MS Azure, Microsoft Lync & Office 365.

All in all, a good morning. We could of spent all day getting lost talking to manufacturers, getting excited at all the new equipment & such like, so we’ve registered for 2012. Who knows, we may even get a stand there next year!

On Twitter? Search for @leadingedgeuk & hashtag #LETIPExpo, or me personally at @mariodc, hashtag #IPExpo

Well if you’ve been following me on Twitter (@mariodc) in paticular my hashtag #NHSexperience, you’ll know I’ve not been well of late. At thirty one years of age, having been fortunate enough to never have anything wrong with me, for the first time in my life, I felt ‘odd’.

At first I thought it was diabetes, my father had diabetes, and the symptoms I’d managed  to convince myself I was going through, was a need to pee. Thing is, I dont have diabetes. It turns about my need to pee we thing is a small minor imflammatory infection, I blame it on some dodgy Camembert (how very middle class, up their with spilling Chateux Neuf  De-Pape on my iPad) Thats a good thing. (not having diabetes, spilling wine on my iPad would be a fckn disaster) Besides, I dont paticular eat vast amounts of sweet sugary processed foods (correction – never) and after a test of my wee wee, it wasnt that.

So as part of the troubleshooting (sorry, diagnosis), turns out I have high blood pressure. Us humans should have around 120-130, mine at certain levels was 170-180! It doesnt help that I’m so nervous when I go to the GP, I end up a sweating wobbly anxious mess, so both myself & my GP arent convinced true readings are being given.

So I find myself with a 24 hour BP monitor attached to me, in some Part Man, Part BP machine meld, which will take my BP every twenty minutes and report that telemetry back to my GP, you know, I feel like an F1 car at the moment talking to the pit crew – just precautionary my GP tells me, to see if we can do some trend analysis (this is my blood we’re talking about here, not Social Media!)

Oh, I also have to go in and have an ECG test, again, just precautionary, but still quite unnerving when you’ve never had to go to the doctors before.

My GP is not to be messed wtih, he told me ‘cut out the salt’ and god dam that’s what I am going to do. I think with a combination of salt, (not because I eat lots of salt, I dont, but my portion sizes are bananas!), and my stress, I need to make some changes. Meditation, thats what Im going to do, my jobs mental, I dont want to be one of these white collar bozo’s with a bunch of cash in the bank, but a heart attack at 36.

If I hadnt of seen my Gp  Id of never had my BP measured, and it could of been a ticking time bomb, so I recommend to anyone (even if your healthy) get the occasional MOT – and watch that stress – especially in high level IT, cant spend the money if your dead hey!

In terms of technology Id like to see the same hardware they use for F1 drivers, whereby (they dont often publicize this, they do it with a lot of professional sportsmen) you swallow a transmittor pill (which is basically a bunch of dyamic sensors on a RFID chip embedded in something the size of a paracetomol) and this then bluetooths or wifi’s the data back to say, an iPad app within range.

Watch this TED talk on this very subject (above), so you know I’m not making it up

They do actually do this, some people even have wafer thin RFID transmittors embedded under the dermis, and you simply get scanned like a bag of frozen peas at the supermarket. Imagine this technology in healthcare, and not just sports. Instead, I’m going to be bolted to a machine for 24 hours like the  Borg – we are one!

Follow me on Twitter @mariodc and check out hashtag #NHSexperience for more information. I’m doing fine, just!