I had inquiries this week about our research in two separate but similar places: Panama and Jordan.

How are they similar? Both have relatively small populations but central locations in major regions of the world, and both seem to be poised to emerge as leaders in their regions and income tiers.

The Fundamentals
Our two fundamental research algorithms at the Tau Institute examines the underlying keys to the IT and economic infrastructures of 102 nations throughout the world. We adjust our factors for local cost-of-living. Beyond that, we can factor in the effect of specific government policy actions such as the establishment of tech centers and regions, financial incentives to foreign investors, and the like.

Looking at our first fundamental measure – the overall ranking – we find Jordan in 30th place among the 102 nations surveyed, and Panama in 57th place. (The United States sits in 34th place in our overall rankings.)

Our second measure – the raw measure – is designed to tease out diamonds in the rough, ie, those countries with the most raw potential for IT development. It finds Jordan in 35th place and Panama in 58th place. (The United States, not surprisingly, is ranked near the bottom in this ranking.)

Regional Views
This view is brought into sharper relief by looking at the 102 nations by region and income tier. Jordan leads the Middle East region, immediately ahead of Israel and the UAE. Panama ties with Brazil for 4th place in Latin America, a region that’s headed by Chile.

But it’s important to note we’ve been able to look at 10 countries in the Middle East with a total population of about 250 million people, compared to 14 Latin American countries with a total population of more than 500 million. Furthermore, Panama is literally located at the nexus between North and South America and in essence uses the US dollar as its currency.

Jordan also leads its income-tier, a group of 21 nations with per capita incomes of between $2,000 and $6,000. Panama is hindered a bit in this ranking, as its per capita income of $8,590 reflects a relative wealth and reliance on the Panama Canal and all that goes with it. Yet it still ranks above larger Latin America countries such as Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina.

Leaders, Really
Looking at all the numbers, our research shows that Jordan is the place to take most seriously in the Middle East region. Coincidentally, the government is pushing hard on technology-driven initiatives, and recently held an election designed to strengthen its parliamentary, constitutional democracy.

Panama doesn’t rank as highly, but does emerge as a country to take seriously in the Americas.

It’s obvious that a Panama vs. Jordan comparison would be an apples-to-oranges comparison. Fortunately, this is not what we’re doing. Rather, our research shows that two similar-sized countries in different parts of the world, both of which may be overlooked in discussions of the major players in their regions, deserve some attention.

Our research shows that these are two nations in which companies and individuals looking for sources, locations, or investments should take a long look.

read more

SYS-CON Events announced today that Axis Communications, the world leader in network video, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
As the market leader in network video, Axis is leading the way to a smarter, safer, more secure world – driving the shift from analog to digital video surveillance. Offering network video solutions for professional installations, Axis’ products and solutions are based on an innovative, open technology platform.

read more

Here is a pretty common use case. You have an existing file server like windows 2003 or windows 2008 in the local office. Everyone in the local office is using a network share from the file server. There are some users from the branch office that may need to access the file server share from outside through VPN as well.
There are multiple pain points that worry you at this moment.
First is you are concerned about the life of the file sever and if the server stops functioning, you need to have a quick way to continue the work.

read more

Here is a pretty common use case. You have an existing file server like windows 2003 or windows 2008 in the local office. Everyone in the local office is using a network share from the file server. There are some users from the branch office that may need to access the file server share from outside through VPN as well.
There are multiple pain points that worry you at this moment.
First is you are concerned about the life of the file sever and if the server stops functioning, you need to have a quick way to continue the work.

read more

VMware’s top management vented at Amazon last week during the company’s annual Partner Exchange conference in Las Vegas, telling the audience that they’re all doomed if the corporate world moves to Amazon’s infrastructure.
“We want to own the corporate workload,” CEO Pat Gelsinger said at the event. “We all lose if they end up in these commodity public clouds. We want to extend our franchise from the private cloud into the public cloud and uniquely enable our customers with the benefits of both. Own the corporate workload now and forever.”
COO Carl Eschenbach told the resellers that he found it “really hard to believe that we cannot collectively beat a company that sells books.”

read more

enStratus is officially changing its name from enStratus Networks, Inc. to Enstratius, Inc. – for marketing purposes, simply “Enstratius.” Its product will be henceforth be called the Enstratius Cloud Management Platform.

The change to Enstratius is to avoid brand confusion with other similarly named companies in the IT industry. The company said, in a statement announcing the change, that “Enstratius continues its commitment to deliver the leading enterprise cloud management solution to the market, supported by a team of experienced cloud professionals.”

We ask that you keep this information confidential until the official announcement is made on Friday, March 8 at 11:00am CT.

We will have an FAQ page up on our website with answers to the most commonly asked questions on Monday. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me directly.

read more

enStratus is officially changing its name from enStratus Networks, Inc. to Enstratius, Inc. – for marketing purposes, simply “Enstratius.” Its product will be henceforth be called the Enstratius Cloud Management Platform.

The change to Enstratius is to avoid brand confusion with other similarly named companies in the IT industry. The company said, in a statement announcing the change, that “Enstratius continues its commitment to deliver the leading enterprise cloud management solution to the market, supported by a team of experienced cloud professionals.”

We ask that you keep this information confidential until the official announcement is made on Friday, March 8 at 11:00am CT.

We will have an FAQ page up on our website with answers to the most commonly asked questions on Monday. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me directly.

read more

It may be terrifying for those caught in the vortex between the old and the new way of work. Most professionals earned the right degrees, responded to the demands of their professions, learned the intricacies of their industries and were rewarded under the old system. It feels like a massive betrayal that an entire system is falling away.
The truth is that the cube was moved in part by a new breed of professional. They are skilled and passionate global workers who want the freedom to choose the type of work, rather than choosing a job based on its proximity to their homes. Rather than being hindered by location, they are able to compete based on talent and passion. While most of us were sleeping, they unknowingly leveraged cloud and mobile technology and created the New World of Work. And it was their passion for work, rather than some indiscreet evil force, that caused work to seep across boundaries and find its way to this new breed of talent.
Let this chapter be a call to action for those most affected by the New World of Work. Professionals need to reinvent themselves in order to compete in the New World of Work. Conversely, companies need to wake up to the reality that competing for the best talent locally will soon be a thing of the past. The best person for a job no longer lives within a fifty-mile radius of your corporation.

read more

Simultaneous and complex trends, such as big data, cloud computing, security, and overall IT transformation, can be helped by the combined strengths of The Open Group Architecture Framework and the ArchiMate modeling language.
There is less of a focus on the traditional things we come to think of EA such as standards, governance and policies, but rather into emerging areas such as the soft skills, business architecture, and strategy.
To this end I see a lot in the realm of working directly with the executive chain to understand the key value drivers for the company and rationalize where they want to go with their business. So we’re moving into a business-transformation role in this practice.

At the same time, we’ve got to be mindful of the disruptive external technology forces coming in as well. EA can’t just divorce from the other aspects of architecture as well. So the role that enterprise architects play becomes more and more important and elevated in the organization.
Two examples of this disruptive technology that are being focused on at the conference are big data and cloud computing. Both are providing impacts to our businesses not because of some new business idea but because technology is available to enhance or provide new capabilities to our business. The EA’s still do have to understand these new technology innovations and determine how they will apply to the business.

read more

Simultaneous and complex trends, such as big data, cloud computing, security, and overall IT transformation, can be helped by the combined strengths of The Open Group Architecture Framework and the ArchiMate modeling language.
There is less of a focus on the traditional things we come to think of EA such as standards, governance and policies, but rather into emerging areas such as the soft skills, business architecture, and strategy.
To this end I see a lot in the realm of working directly with the executive chain to understand the key value drivers for the company and rationalize where they want to go with their business. So we’re moving into a business-transformation role in this practice.

At the same time, we’ve got to be mindful of the disruptive external technology forces coming in as well. EA can’t just divorce from the other aspects of architecture as well. So the role that enterprise architects play becomes more and more important and elevated in the organization.
Two examples of this disruptive technology that are being focused on at the conference are big data and cloud computing. Both are providing impacts to our businesses not because of some new business idea but because technology is available to enhance or provide new capabilities to our business. The EA’s still do have to understand these new technology innovations and determine how they will apply to the business.

read more