At one time I had a backup service (business) where I provided secure, remote backup for corporations running their own data centers. The local client software was easy to use, HIPAA, GLB and SOX compliant. I had servers in racks when I started and then migrated it all to AWS . However, I got out of the business for several reasons, foremost being I was not passionate about it.

And there were so many companies that provided a good service, just like I did … or better.

You’d expect a company to promote their own products and expertise, and Axosoft has done that well over the years. Recently they’ve produced a new version of their educational video ‘Scrum Master In Under 10 Minutes’ and they tongue in cheek ask if the associated explanatory diagram is the best ever.

I can’t be the judge of that however the video is well done.

I read about a new service in late December of 2011 and thought it was a very useful idea, Cloudsizer. Although there are other entries into the market for tools/services to calculate cloud computing costs of the public providers Cloudsizer has more than a dozen different cloud providers covered. It is simple and easy to use, and you can start out with a free trial of its "express" service immediately, and upgrade to a paid "pro" account.

I'm an optimist and always have been.

It's nice to know there are associated economic benefits that accrue to me and those I partner with. See this Inc. magazine article on the benefits of being positive to you and your employer. (And unfortunately, as the article points out, there are adverse effects for pessimists.)

We all hear about how cloud computing has changed and is changing I.T. and business in general – for enterprises and enterprising entrepreneurs. But what does that mean?

CSC performed a global survey in 2011 and the results have been summarized in this very well done ‘infographic' (below).

Google Apps are a boon for individual productivity as well as corporate cost reduction, as they provide great features and functionality that help end users (e.g., document collaboration) as well as reduce the footprint of I.T.

But moving your productivity suite to Google’s cloud does not come without risk, and one type of risk is cataclysmic failure.

If you are an inbound marketer, or frankly anyone who is trying to communicate effectively with humans, you often rely on infographics. Creating these graphic images that also convey useful data in a self evident and visible manner is sometimes a challenge.

Here are several handy tools for you to utilize.

In the direct mail world A/B testing has long been used to increase success rates of campaigns. In the world of inbound marketing on the Web it’s (obviously) much newer.

That stated, there is a relatively recent entry that’s simple to use, not prohibitively expensive and executes the concept well.

In this article from the NY Times from a few years ago (yes, I know it’s old) a small business owner of an online remote backup company discusses the various techniques her company uses to differentiate from Mozy or Carbonite.

In particular is a quote that I highlight:

'Fast, Good, Cheap...pick two' is a rather crude reference to the more elegantly described project triangle as elucidated by the Project Management Institute.

It describes the fact that you can't achieve all three of these project characteristics at the same time.