Technology In Check

For medium sized companies with aspirations of becoming really big, this is one to play close attention to.

There’s a move by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to expand the name space used for what are called top-level domains. In short, there are a few top-level domain in the world, such as .com, .net, and .org. However in a news release today, ICANN announced that it is planning to expand the “real-estate” available at the top level.

What this means for business is that there will be a whole range of new names available. For example, if you’re willing to pony up the dough (and if you’re fast enough to get in on the application process) you might be able to acquire the top-level domain name of .acme. Or .yourname.

The possibilities here are staggering from a marketing perspective. Already, the news release cites certain cities that want to have access to their own names as a top level. So if you control the .van top level domain, you would then be able to market websites like canucks.van, dining.van, hotels.van …

The possibilities are staggering.

From a technical perspective, if you know what IPv6 means, then you’ll likely see that thjis new decision from ICANN will speed up adoption of the new protocol. Then again, if you don’t know what IPv6 means, then check back here again next week, and I’ll explain it.

I’m going to continue along the thread of Software as a Service that I started last week, and tell you about a problem that’s developed with one of the more common service offerings. The problem relates to online backup services, sometimes referred to as remote backup.

The basic premise is simple… as a business owner, you want to ensure that your data is backed up safely, and that it’s stored off-site. So you subscribe to a service to do this for you. The service you subscribe to enables you to select data that is sent encrypted over the Internet, so that it’s kept elsewhere in case something bad happens to your office premises. Everything is peachy-keen, right?

Maybe it is. Then again, maybe not.

Update: CPG Systems has started  doing remote/ online backups. Visit their website for more information

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As promised in last week’s item, we’re going to take a look today at Software as a Service, commonly referred to as SaaS (pronounced sass or sahz, depending on who you ask). Basically put, SaaS is when you pay someone for a service, where that service mimics a piece of software you can buy.

A good example is something like Salesforce, where you pay for a service, instead of buying the customer relationship management (CRM) software. This is something that can be of real value to a business that’s trying to save money. But it can also be a real problem in certain situations.

Let’s take a bit of a closer look at how SaaS relates to recession IT spending, as well as some of the pros and cons. Continue Reading »

Web 2.0 brought us social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, as well as popularizing blogs like this one. It was a dramatic shift in thinking about the interweb, changing it from being a tool to being a place to play.

Web 2.1 expanded on that functionality by adding mashups, web-based applications like Google Docs, and expanding the collaborative sphere with tools like Microsoft’s Sharepoint. People started to look at how they could expand the boundaries of what they were working on, and how they could do things on the Internet instead of the local machine.

And today I read about some new items coming out now that I think of as Web 2.2 because it again changes how the world will see computing.

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Any marketing person will tell you that appearances are priceless, and that you never get a chance to make a first impression. Cliche phrases, yes, but as with many there’s still a kernel of truth to it all.

Since one of business’ primary methods of communication is email, when you’re making a new contact people will take note of your email address - when you hand out a card, or when you tell them your email address by voice, people will make a mental note. But is the information you’re giving them going to help or hinder the impression they’re making of you?

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