June 2009 - Direct2Dell

With the recent buzz around the forthcoming TomTom navigation app for the iPhone and recent report that demand for GPS devices is expected to grow steadily over the next few years, there's no question that there's a lot of interest in the technology. We're betting that location services will be a hit in netbooks as well. Starting next week in the United States, we're offering the Dell Wireless 700 location solution for our Mini 10 netbook that is a combination of hardware and software.

The hardware part is an internal GPS card with built-in Wi-Fi locationing.  These two technologies work in tandem, which means the technology works both indoors and out. In other words, it can calculate your position using Wi-Fi access points or using GPS satellites. The Dell Wireless 700 is powered by Broadcom's A-GPS and Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi position solutions.

I asked our wireless team for a bit more about the underlying technology, and here's what they told me: The Dell Wireless 700 uses Wi-Fi access points and Long Term Orbit (LTO)-based Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) technology to determine location information. It provides a fast, accurate and reliable location source to applications and services by leveraging the strength of each underlying position technology.

 And here's how the wireless team explained Wi-Fi positioning:

The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) can determine the location of Wi-Fi enabled devices. All Wi-Fi Access Points broadcast a signal beacon known as a MAC address, notifying nearby devices of their presence. WPS refers to the mapped locations of millions of Wi-Fi MAC addresses to pinpoint the device location. WPS is complementary to GPS. It works best indoors and in urban areas, while GPS is limited by physical obstructions of ceilings and tall buildings.

On the software side, the Dell Wireless 700 location system features CoPilot navigation software to provide turn by turn directions. I offers things like 2D and 3D map views, lets you save up to 50 addresses for one trip, offers trip optimization to provide the most efficient route, can provide instant detour information when you encounter expected delays and provides continuously updated information about the trip.

Another piece of the location-based services that we're bringing to market is a location aware portal. For it, we've partnered with Skyhook Wireless and Loki.  Loki is a browser plugin that comes preconfigured for Internet Explorer and Firefox. It works with Loki-supported sites to improve local search functionality by providing you details from nearby restaurants store locations and your friends' location information from supported social media sites like Flickr, Loopt and  BrightKite.

In the OS department, initially, it will support Windows XP. Vista and Windows 7 support will come later. The Mini 10 is the first system that we'll offer with the optional Dell 700 Wireless location solution. Stay tuned for more details about more supported systems, accessories and more regions.

You’ve heard a lot in the past few weeks about Dell’s new enterprise solutions for small and medium businesses. At the other end of the spectrum, we’re also helping redefine the way small businesses think about mobile computing.

Business is no longer restricted to the office environment, and entrepreneurs need the flexibility to work wherever and however business requires – especially in today’s tough economy. For most small businesses across the globe, laptops continue to be the most critical tools that keep day-to-day business going and growing. That’s why we offer the industry’s broadest lineup of small-business laptops to meet the diverse needs of our customers on the go.

You may have already seen this sneak-peek, but let me give you some inside perspective on today’s announcement (insert link) of the new Vostro 1220 ultraportable 12.1” laptop – the industry’s only 12” designed especially for small business that packs the punch of a full-size laptop into a small package. Our competitors can’t make that claim nor do their small business systems offer the security options of the Vostro line – mobility solid state drives, fingerprint readers and encrypted hard drives.

We first launched a 12.1” Vostro in Asia in late 2007 with incredible success, and now the 11-12” panel size is growing in popularity among commercial customers everywhere. From the launch of our first Vostro 12.1” system to today, we learned a lot from our customers in Asia and made critical improvements based on their feedback and technology advancements that will now benefit customers worldwide. The biggest improvements since the last generation include:

• Improved performance with the latest generation Intel processors;
• Up to 8GB of memory and faster HDD options;
• More ways to secure your data – encrypted hard drives, solid state drives;
• Video conferencing;
• Faster connectivity with gigabit and wi-fi options, and
• Up to 9 hours of battery life.

Finally, let me add that this is just the beginning of what Dell is innovating for our small business customers! We’ll have more exciting news to share soon, so stay tuned to Direct2Dell for the latest scoop.

For more images of the Vostro 1220, check out the set on our Flickr page.

Dell’s first ever SMB Customer Advisory Council Meeting took place in the UK last week – and I’m delighted to say it was a big success!

We invited 13 of our medium-sized UK customers to our Executive Briefing Centre in Bracknell for an in-depth discussion with Aongus Hegarty and representatives from our sales and product group teams. The objective was simply to listen and understand the key issues on their minds.

We focused on three main areas:

1. Their feedback on Dell’s current and future SMB products

2. What future trends they were forecasting

3. How Dell can better engage with them to help meet their business objectives

We were able to gain some excellent insights on key subjects like Mobility and Enterprise requirements. For example, we learned that Latitude notebooks are seen as a really great and suitable product by Medium customers. We also received very valuable feedback on some of the IT complexities they faced – and how Dell can help them going forward in this critical area.

It was really interesting to see just how diverse the customers were. We had Jagex, a developer and publisher of online games, Pole Star, a company providing tracking, security and asset management systems to help prevent the threat of shipping piracy in hostile environments, and Pensions First, an innovative financial solutions firm. The one thing they all had in common was a genuine desire to grow their business and reduce IT inefficiencies.

All of the companies certainly appreciated the opportunity to engage with their peers and also felt extremely valued by Dell for creating this M-specific event for them – helping cement our position as a trusted adviser.

Our plan is to now roll-out this event across EMEA/Global, and run on a bi-annual basis in our key countries. Watch this space for more details.

Last week I had the opportunity to join my colleagues at Rackspace at a customer event at the New York Stock Exchange where they shared their vision for the future of cloud computing.

The evening began with cocktails on The NYSE Trading Floor where @kiwilark and I mingled with @scobleizer, @rocmanUSA and @rjamestaylor, among many others.

From there we moved to The Historic NYSE Boardroom for an intimate dinner with Rackspace customers and prospects where we heard from RackSpace Chief Technology Officer John Engates (@jengates) discuss Rackspace's business and their view on cloud computing.

One of the issues many IT managers and CIOs face today is continued pressure to lower their capital expenditure, even if that means that operating expenses increase in the short term. This is where Rackspace's view that companies won't move everything to the cloud immediately comes in.

 In the current economic environment, they may choose to pilot cloud hosting for their e-mail services or to host a blog or wiki. Their view is that they use these smaller projects to essentially kick the tires of cloud computing, which may eventually lead them to move more of their computing requirements to the cloud. This seems practical to me. I imagine many CIOs and IT managers are pretty conservative in their approach to making technology available to their clients, their employees. Why risk your company's life-blood, it's data, because it sits in a cloud somewhere under someone else's watchful eye. I imagine cloud computing will see a crawl, walk, run approach in the coming years. This mirrors much of what our own Data Center Solutions team is seeing as develop optimized systems for hyper-scale, search engine and other types of data center customers.

Rackspace's Chief Strategy Officer and President of its Cloud Business, Lew Moorman, was recently interviewed by Larry Dignan on their vision: "The theory: Customers will begin toggling between hosted data centers and cloud computing resources as standard operating procedure." He also blogged about it here.

One of John's slides resonated with many in the audience. It said: "Cloud is part of a computing strategy: Everyone, NOT Everything." I take that to mean that leveraging the power and ubiquity of cloud computing IS for every one or every company, but not necessarily for every single application.

Rackspace is clearly a force to be reckoned with in the hosting and cloud computing space and they have some big goals. As an example of how they're pushing the envelope, they recently hired Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica to build out a community of Internet fanatics called building43. Michael Arrington recently wrote an article describing exactly what Robert will be doing with building43

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If you haven't been to the site, it's really cool and has recently featured interviews Robert and team have done with leading Internet companies, industry thought leaders and people and companies that are using technology in unique and cool ways.

Some of those interviews include Luke Kilpatrick who runs Fire On The Bay, an Adobe Fireworks Users Group; Don Tapscott, author of "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" as well as eleven other books on the Internet and other topics; and, Kelly Nelson, director of marketing at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto, who is the first person within the Four Seasons family to use Twitter on behalf of the hotel chain.

While it might seem contrary, starting a business in a recession can actually be a good idea. With so many people getting laid off, people are struggling to find sources of income. Many with that entrepreneurial drive are starting new businesses.

Is it time for you to start a new business? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Can this type of business thrive in this economy? You know people aren't spending on luxury items, so that pet spa idea might not be ready to bear fruit. But think about what people are spending money on, or how you could save them money with a business idea, and then you have a winner.
• Do I know how to start a business? It's not necessary you know all the ins and outs of running a business, but starting one in a recession means you need to be better prepared than at any other time. Read some books on business, or take a class or two at your local community college. It's important that you see beyond the idea to the accounting, hiring, marketing and labor that will go into your business. If you'll have a retail or office location, overhead may be more than you originally guesstimated. Do your homework first.
• Do I have resources to help me? Resources might mean money or an organization that helps small businesses, like SCORE. Or maybe it's staff. Is your husband willing to help you get started until you can afford to hire help?
• Do I truly want to start a business? If you're just looking for a way to make some quick money, starting a business probably isn't your best option. You might not even make money (most don't for a few years; factor in the economy, and, well, you get the picture). But if you genuinely have passion for something, and are willing to put in the time and tears, by all means, get a plan and get going.

If you're still reading, I'll assume you found that you really do want to start that business. Start with a plan before anything. Figure out what kind of investment you need, how you'll market it, who your customers are. Talk to others about the idea to see what they think of it. And most of all: good luck!