Best Feature of Apple Pay, getting notifications within seconds of credit cards registered when swiped

There is all kinds of news on Apple Pay. Apple can do a simple logo that gets your attention.

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Almost all the attention is using the iPhone 6 to pay.  I haven’t tried it yet, but the best feature that makes it worthwhile to register your credit cards with Apple Pay is I get a notification of credit card swipes within seconds to my iPhone 6 for my credit cards that Apple Pay works with.

Update: others have not had this feature work.  I think why it works on my iPhone is I have the AMEX app.

Think about how cool this is. Any time your credit card company authorizes a transaction you get a notification of the merchant and amount on your phone.  Not just for those who have NFC for using Apple Pay.

 

DCIM Vendor Power Assure closes shop

DatacenterKnowledge post that DCIM vendor Power Assure has closed due to lack of funding.

Power Assure, a Santa Clara, California-based data center infrastructure management startup, has been dissolved, Clemens Pfeiffer, the company’s now former CTO, said.

The company failed to raise enough money to continue operating, he said, adding that he did not have any further details about what had led to the dissolution.

Below is the funding that Power Assure had.

It followed a $2.5 million Series A round in 2009 with an $11.25 million round the following year and a $14.5 million Series B in 2011. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the company a $5 million grant as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, also known as President Barack Obama’s “stimulus package.”

Investors in Power Assure included ABB Technology Ventures, Dominion Energy Technologies, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Good Energies and Point Judith Capital. The company had struck partnerships with numerous vendors, including VMware, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Intel, ABB, Raritan and In-Q-Tel.

Comparing Microsoft's VP of Cloud Infrastructure to Google's VP of Data Centers via LinkedIn Profiles

Microsoft has put a new VP in charge of its Cloud Infrastructure group retiring the role of VP of Global Foundation Services.  GFS’s logo looked like this.

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Global Foundation Services (GFS) is the engine that powers Microsoft's cloud services. Learn more.

When I Google Search “Microsoft Global Foundation Services” what shows is Microsoft Cloud Platform with little trace of Global Foundation Services and the words Global Foundation Services (GFS) are gone.

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So the changes have started in Microsoft’s data center group.  What changes are there in the future?

One way to look at what the future will be like is to compare the new Microsoft VP's public profile vs. a competitor.  I could pick Amazon as competitor, but Google is bigger in terms of a data center presence.  So let’s look at Microsoft’s Suresh Kumar, VP of Cloud Infrastructure and Operations vs. Google’s Joe Kava, VP of Data Centers.  The below is from their LinkedIn profiles as of Oct 21, 8:30p.  I am referencing the date and time of this post as things may change as profile get modified.  2 days ago Sumar’s picture was this.

sureshSuresh Kumar, via LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now on LinkedIn Suresh’s photo is below.

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Both Suresh and Joe have 500+ connections.

On Suresh’s profile his top skill at 27 in e-commerce.  Joe’s top skill at 117 is Strategy.

Joe has 66 for Data Centers.  Suresh has 0.

Here is Suresh’s top 10 skills.

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Here is Joe’s top 10 skills.

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The one area where Suresh and Joe are close is 11 and 14 for Cloud Computing.  

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When you look at the above numbers who would you choose to build your Cloud/Data Center Infrastructure?  This has been an interesting way to look at two different executives using LinkedIn profiles.  With fresh eyes I went and looked at my skills listed on my LinkedIn profile.  You may want to as well and think about how your skills are listed.

Oh the other area Suresh and Joe are equal is it looks like both of them now have photos that their corporate PR groups say is OK to have on a public facing site.

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Joe Kava, via LinkedIn

 

 

Microsoft puts ex-Amazon VP in charge of Cloud Infrastructure and Operations, including data centers

Last week Microsoft put an ex-Amazon.com VP in charge of Cloud Infrastructure and Operations.  I’ve had e-mail conversations on the changes with lots of people asking questions, but I couldn’t write anything.  Well, now I can blog something because of public disclosure.  Suresh Kumar, VP of Cloud Infrastructure and Operations updated his LinkedIn profile.

Last week Suresh’s linkedin profile only showed Suresh’s Amazon experience even though he had been at Microsoft for months and his job change to Microsoft was not added yet.

 

VP, Worldwide Retail Systems and Retail Services

Amazon

August 2008 – May 2014 (5 years 10 months)Greater Seattle Area

As the Vice President of Worldwide Retail Systems, managed a global team of 500 engineers across seven locations, including four Vice Presidents of Technology and twelve Engineering Directors. Responsible for technology that powers core retail functions such as pricing, promotions, catalog and vendor management for all Amazon properties worldwide. Responsible for all aspects of technology, including program management, software development, testing, support, operations and business analytics. 

As the Retail CTO, responsible for establishing software architecture standards, and maintaining consistency in hiring and leveling of senior engineering talent across all retail divisions. Responsible for setting architecture direction for all Amazon retail subsidiaries and integrating subsidiaries into the Amazon technology stack.

As head of Retail Services, currently managing a team of 2000 associates across nine centers and twenty product imaging studios worldwide, responsible for creating and maintaining all item information, including item images for products sold by Amazon retail.

Now there are these two entries.

Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and Operations

Microsoft
October 2014 – Present (1 month)Redmond, WA

Responsible for designing, building and operating the infrastructure that power's Microsoft's cloud; the engineering systems required for automating and optimizing the processes associated with the planning and management of the cloud infrastructure.

Corporate Vice President

Microsoft
June 2014 – September 2014 (4 months)Redmond, WA

There are many more details, but the above is all I could find that has been published.  

Will be interesting to see how Suresh does in his role at Microsoft. He has a background that is different than many and I didn’t find any data center experience in his background.

Princeton University

PhD, Engineering
1987 – 1992

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Bachelor of Technology (BTech), Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
1983 – 1987
...
· Ten patents on work related to mobile computers. Three patents on collaborative computing, one on cryptography and one on electronic auctions. Several patent applications on e-commerce are pending.