On Tuesday the 7th of April I flew to London to attend Cloudforce 2009.  Cloudforce was a Cloud Computing event hosted by Salesforce one of the largest players in the Cloud Computing arena and certainly one of the longest standing

So firstly, why did Damson attend.  Well we are Salesforce customers and have been interested in reselling salesforce for some time now.  One of the main reasons we want to resell salesforce is that it integrates with Google Apps.  Google Apps is Damsons flagship “Cloud Computing” product.  Google are by any standards the world leaders in many area including web based applications and any product that integrates with Google is worth a look.

Well first off the conference itself was spectacular.  From the keynotes by Mark Bennioff (CEO of Salesforce) himeself to the giant foam Salesforce mascots running around attacking people!  It was a theatrical performance matched only by some of London westends best.  They had it all down to a tea.

I learnt alot about Salesforce in a relativley short space of time.  The most fundamental realisation I had was that it is not simpley a product accessible online like most other web apps.  It is actually a platform in which developers can create their own apps and run their own ideas, once they use force.com’s language of course.

This was amazing because we were shown how companies from all over the globe such as O2, Orange, Google, Dell and Starbucks were using Salesforce in very new and exciting ways.

What I realised from listening to customers is that salesforce works amazingly well for the big boys who have all the money to pay developers to make Salesforce do what they want and look the way they want but for the small business owner there is a crack which they fall through that Salesforce is not filling.  A gap that makes Salesforce too difficult, complex and expensive for small business owners to use because they don’t have developers who can make Salesforce look and feel the way they want.

This feedback was vital because it led to my conclusion that Salesforce albeit an amazing product and platform does not suit everyone and thats fine.  That is in essence our job a Damson, to match the product to the clients needs based off our analysis.  Salesforce is just another tool in Damsons Suite of products.  I look on Salesforce like the swiss army knife of CRM, it can do everything if you have the time to read the manual and learn how.  However, if you just want a knife, I’ll just sell you a knife (ie. a simpler CRM)

Every tool has its uses

I had a laptop order for an important client this week.  He needed something powerful, light weight, but with a decent screen. My answer was the ultra-slim Samsung X460.

It is a masterpiece of mobility and packed with a comprehensive spec list.  This machine is taking Samsungs proven ability to design portable netbooks and bringing it to the the people who need a “real laptop”.  It offers uncompromising portability, reliability and functionality, plus that all-important touch of elegance.

At a mere 1.84 kg, the X460 is one of the lightest notebooks in its 14.1″ class.  This does not however mean they have skimped on features, boasting the latest Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology, 3GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive this machine has alot of power under its sleek hood.

With Windows Vista it was good, but when I rebuilt the laptop with XP Pro it went from good to awesome!  With the spec being more than XP needed to run smoothly it flew through program installs, upgrades and was more than cabable of running many applications at once without the processor or 3GB of onboard RAM even noticing.  It was slick in design, fast in its movements and it wasn’t even trying that hard.  I look forward to getting feedback from my client on the X460 over the next few weeks as he puts it through its paces and will definitley be recommending it to future clients looking for a fully featured portable laptop.

Highlights of the Samsung X460

Intel Centrino 2 P8400 processor

3GB Memory

250GB Hard drive

Windows Vista Business (Also includes Windows XP Pro in the box)

14.1″ widescreen display

Bluetooth 2.0/7 in 1 card reader/P-Dock support/1.3 Megapixel camera

Fingerprint reader

As a cloud computing expert my constant job is not only to convince people of the merits of cloud computing but also in many cases explain what the hell it actually is.  Most of Damson‘s clients aren’t techies and they don’t like when you make it technical.  So finding real world examples of how cloud computing/WEB 2.0/SAAS can really change their working environment is vital in helping people to understand the true benefits.

Technical explanation:  With cloud computing your data is synchronised across all your devices and is always backed up.

Real world example:  When you create a file on your laptop at home it appears on your desktop in the office (instantly!).

I know what your thinking, sure that’s just sugarsync or dropbox or putplace.  That’s easy, right?  Well for a lot of people its not, in fact most techie’s would be shocked at the amount of people out there that don’t know about these technologies that we use everyday.  More importantly then that, trying to get across the actual benefits (not features) of these services can be a challenge.  So when I come across a real life example of how to explain a complicated technology I save it away in my data-bank of analogies and metaphors, for the next customer meeting.

So, while my  iPhone was  off for repair last month it was time to find a replacement.  I had temporarily began using my P910i, great phone, but old and it couldn’t handle SLL which ment no email for me, not acceptable.

The brother was kind enough to give me a lend of his slightly younger XDA Orbit from O2.  It was running windows mobile 6.

So with my new device I formatted it (deleted everything) just to be sure and went about adding mt email settings and Google sync settings.  After about 15 minutes of synchronisation I had 1200+ contacts,  1 year+ of calendar and 200 emails on the XDA.  Impressive and it was all thanks to keeping everything on the cloud.  The mobile was simple a photocopy of the real data held safely online.

Now using the windows mobile OS, is another days post.  However, I live safe in the knowledge that come rain, hail or thievery my data is safe…always.