5 details about Google's Cloud

Here is a post on GigaOm on 5 things your probably didn’t know about Google’s cloud.  Here is one.

1. Google Compute Engine Zones are probably in Ireland and Oklahoma

In 2012 Google released impressive internal photos of their data center facilities and mapped them out. However, the Compute Engine Zones are very non-specific, e.g. “europe-west1-a”. Indeed, they have only two geographical regions (Europe West and US Central) compared to Amazon’s nine. In addition to its 13 locations, SoftLayer has announced 15 new data centers just for this year.

Google’s networking is very opaque. If you traceroute an Amazon or SoftLayer instance, you can see where traffic is going, the network providers, and usually the locations of the routers. In contrast, Google goes into its network at the closest POP, and everything else is very hidden.

It’s possible to guess where Google is locating its cloud. A test of a Google Compute Engine instance showed round trip responses within 20ms from London, UK. If we compare that to pings from London to the three European countries where Google has facilities — Ireland, Belgium and Finland —  we can rule out Belgium and Finland because the ping round trip time is too high. Only the Ireland facility is close enough.

Google europe-west1-a	Amazon eu-west (Ireland)	Belgium 0.be.pool.ntp.org	Finland 0.fi.pool.ntp.org
20ms	22ms	38ms	49ms

Disclosure: I work part-time for GigaOm Research.

Better than getting VC involved, someone who has watched how VC's work and has new ideas

Being an old guy/gal you figure out it is sometimes better to learn from others who have seen a lot and they have figured out a better way to do things.  One example that just came up is engaging the VC community to go to market.  For some engaging VCs is a conclusion so they are looking for the best way to engage VCs and get money.

How to ace the VC pitch

 

Image Credit: Aspen Photo/Shutterstock

October 25, 2012 12:49 PM 
Bob Ackerman

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Many entrepreneurs, having wrapped their passion and intellect around their “next big thing,” can’t wait to hit the bricks and share their insights and enthusiasm with waiting investors, convinced that the check writers will “get it” and willingly part with their investment dollars. Unfortunately – and, in some ways, fortunately – the fundraising process is complex and requires focused preparation. Entrepreneurs who prepare carefully will be in a much stronger position, both to articulate their plans well and to execute on those plans when they secure investment capital.

I just talked to a friend about some ideas and he offered to help.  What I liked is he has seen lots of start-ups and VCs operate, and he jumps to the point beyond acquiring funding.  What does it take to be successful in a business.

Are you more worried about getting VC funding or whether your business will be successful.  Sometimes the right answer is not to get VC funding.  Consider this post on not getting VC funding.

I recently spoke on a panel in Santa Monica organized by my friend Jason Nazar, CEO of DocStoc, titled Startups Uncensored, Pitching Venture Capitalists.  There were about 200 people in the audience.

Jason started by asking the audience how many of them were start-ups – 90% of the hands went up.  He then asked for a show of hands of people who had already raised a round of Venture Capital – no hands.  I guess you’re thinking, “duh, that’s why they came to the panel discussion.” 

He next asked me specifically how many of these companies were likely to get VC funding (thanks, Jason) and I responded, “less than 5%,” to which I heard a big gasp.  I responded that I thought this was a good thing – not something nasty.  I contend that the vast majority of companies should never raise venture capital.

Raising venture capital is like adding rocket fuel to your business and for most businesses this a) isn’t warranted b) creates the wrong incentives and c) even if it is successful means that the founders don’t make enough personal money when the ultimate business is sold.

I repeat this advice on a very frequent basis to most entrepreneurs I meet and I find it usually surprises people.  ”You’re a VC – aren’t you supposed to want to give us money?”  No.  I want you to create a successful company that will be fulfilling to you and your employees and will make life better, faster and easier for your customers.

144,593 People Like Zuckerberg's Call to Obama to stop being a Threat to the Internet

Mark Zuckerberg has a post with 144,593 likes after 6 hours on Facebook.

I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.

So it's up to us -- all of us -- to build the internet we want. Together, we can build a space that is greater and a more important part of the world than anything we have today, but is also safe and secure. I'm committed to seeing this happen, and you can count on Facebook to do our part.

 

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  145,105 people like this.

Wonder what would happen if you could wind back time to 3 years ago when President Obama sat next to Zuckerberge at a Silicon Valley dinner.  Can you imagine what Zuckerberg would say to Obama now?

A White House official described the meeting as "part of our ongoing dialogue with the business community on how we can work together to win the future, strengthen our economy, support entrepreneurship, increasing our exports, and get the American people back to work," noting prior to the event, "The President and the business leaders will discuss our shared goal of promoting American innovation, and discuss his commitment to new investments in research and development, education and clean energy."

See the photos below, followed by the guest list.

Image credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Capitol One Data Centers follow the pattern of the Innovators, 8 locations consolidated into 3

Capitol One had a data center event not unlike a Google Data Center event.  The local press covered the event in Richmond, VA.  How does this look like Google.  The VA governor and Capitol One CEO are at a data center event.  

Daniel Sangjib Min

Capital One founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, Richard Fairbank, left, and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, right, connect symbolic cables with the help of Brian Cobb, center, managing vice president of Capital One, during a grand opening ceremony of Capital One's new data center in Chesterfield County on Wednesday, March 12, 2014.

5 years ago you would never see an event like this.  Now you see data center openings as PR events.

Operations had already started there. But on Wednesday, the McLean-based company held a ceremony to serve as symbolic opening for the center, located in a highly secured facility surrounded by a wooded area and tall, reinforced fencing.

The security is important because the Meadowville site is one of Capital One’s three primary data centers where the company stores and manages vast amounts of information produced by its business providing financial services to roughly 65 million customers.

The other pattern Capitol One has followed used by Google, eBay and others for high availability is three main data centers.

Capital One is consolidating operations at its eight data centers that it has been operating because of numerous recent acquisitions of other banks and credit card providers.

The data operations are being consolidated into three centers — the one in Chesterfield, one in Henrico County, and one near Chicago.

The latency to the customers isn’t as important as the latency between the data centers. The data centers are all located East of Mississippi.

And just like other efficient data center operators the headcount is low.

The center has about 50 employees now, but the company expects it will employ more than 100 eventually.

The Lean Construction Market, Insight into those who practice and those who don't

Many of you are familiar with Lean Construction, and I bet you run into people like I do who don’t know what Lean Construction is.  Your experience figuring who gets Lean Construction and who doesn’t is anecdotal and hard to gauge.  Thanks to folks at Dassault Systemes and McGraw-Hill a survey was conducted in Sept 2013 to understand the Lean Construction Market.  You can get a copy of the study here which requires you to register and will most likely get a call from a sales associate.  I did.

One of the eye opening statistics is that 55% of the market doesn’t know Lean Construction, and those who don’t practice Lean Construction have 4X the amount of people thinking they are “efficient/highly efficient.”  So, as long as you don’t practice Lean Construction you are unaware of how inefficient you are?  How much 4X more the people.  This explains the resistance to go Lean.  People believe they are already efficient, so why would they change.

If you are in that group that believes you are already efficient and Lean Construction isn’t for you, then ignore the rest of this post.

There in depth interviews  with insights from talking to those who use Lean Construction.

Even if you practice Lean Construction you are always looking to learn more. 

You use Lean Construction for many benefits.  Here is a nice list of benefits.