Sun Oracle and WWT

Tuesday was an historic day in the IT industry with the completion of Oracle’s acquisition of Sun.

World Wide owes a great deal to Sun.  Over 15 years ago, Sun was the first major manufacturer to partner with us as a very, very small reseller.   Like most long-term relationships, we’ve had our ups and downs but through the years our partnership has grown and prospered.  Today, WWT is one of Sun’s largest partners serving the federal government.

I had a recent post on Acquisitions and Culture and

Acquisitions, Core Values & Cultural Fit

This week we announced the acquisition of Performance Technology Group (PTG).  I wanted to be one of the first to publicly welcome the PTG Employees to the World Wide Team!  We’re excited by the synergy and complementary capabilities that the PTG Team brings to WWT.  They have a wealth of systems engineering and managed services capabilities that

2,000 Toys for Tots!

Kim Vallero, chief Toys for Tots coordinator, just emailed all of us that we raised over 2,000 toys in our Annual Toys for Tots Drive.  Our Lakeview location in Edwardsville, Illinois was the winner in our annual competition and took top honors in raising over 1,000 toys!

Toys for Tots is one of my favorite activities this time of year.  It’s a great reflection WWT’s company culture and highlights our teamwork, competitive drive, and generosity to those in need.

Ultimately, though, it’s about the “tots” and the Drive is our small part in helping children in our community experience the joy and happiness of Christmas and the season.

A tip of the hat and a sincere “thank you” to all the employees at World Wide!  And thanks to the United States Marine Corps who have been at this for over 50 years and helping millions of kids. (… as if they don’t already have enough to do defending our Country!)

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone enjoys the holidays.  I’m looking forward to spending time with family and friends.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas to all!

CloudCamp St. Louis & Three Views of the Cloud

I attended a CloudCamp St. Louis this week at SAVVIS Corporate Headquarters.

Thanks to all of the sponsors and to Sam Charrington of Appistry, Benson Schliesser of Savvis, and Ken Owens of Savvis who drove the bulk of the effort.  And, finally, thanks Savvis for hosting the event in their fantastic headquarters.

The format was an “unconference” where the attendees to determine the content in real-time.  I thought it was interesting, however, I think it could have been more productive if even more of the content and presenters were better defined in advance.   Maybe a simple poll to the attendees ahead of time would allow the organizers to quickly prioritize the topics.

The CloudCamp sessions were informative.  

Reflecting on the Top 10 CIO Issues For 2009

Here are the Top 10 CIO Issues from earlier this year as compiled by InformationWeek.  Global CIO: The Top 10 CIO Issues For 2009 — Global CIO — InformationWeek.

Customer-Facing Innovation.

Attacking The 80/20 Ratio.

The Challenging Economy.

The Strategic CIO.

Security Is Not an Insurmountable Obstacle to Cloud Computing

Another article, Security Is Chief Obstacle To Cloud Computing Adoption, on cloud computing and security.  Last month Gartner had an excellent post.  A Google search on “cloud computing” & “security” yields over 53 millions results.  So, the concerns abound regarding security and I have posted before on how security is one of two critical issues, particularly with CIOs, with cloud computing.  (The other being the “End User Experience.”)

The security concerns are valid and range from loss of control, compliance & legal, data

Pass it on….Thanks, Veterans & All Service Men and Women!

A couple weeks ago Pat Finn at Cisco sent a number of us at World Wide a note ago regarding Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving.    In the email, Pat gave his well wishes to his team and partners and expressed the gratitude he felt for America’s Veterans.  Pat also passed along a couple of emails he had received that reflected the generosity and gratitude that many Americans feel towards our service men and women.

I include those emails below and have my own story to pass along…

Are you V-Ready? More Importantly are your People & Processes Ready?

Whether you’re at a dead stop (there are very few of you out there) or 15 percent there (like most of you) enterprises appear to be at a virtualization plateau and driving to the next level of relies more on an IT organization’s ability to evolve their people and processes versus deciding on the technology.

Don’t get me wrong, picking the right technology is extremely important–just ask any manufacturer!

Cisco Partner Velocity

I’ve attended dozens of partner and industry conferences in the past 25 years, and the Cisco Velocity Summit in Paris was by far the best.   The entire event was dedicated to helping channel partners become better marketers and business leaders.