This program was recorded and is posted here.

Dave Sobel Joins Level Platforms

Podcast posted - A free-flowing discussion with Dave Sobel.

I caught up with Dave this week while he is in London, in a sweet little flat he rents by the week. As you may know, Dave has been a powerful member of the SMB community for some time. He has been a leader in the Microsoft MVP space, in the virtualization and cloud computing world, in HTG, and in the community at large.

Dave recently sold his managed service business and accepted a job with Level Platforms

https://www.facebook.com/djdave

https://twitter.com/#!/djdaveet

http://www.smbbooks.com/products/mssob01.htm

The book is Virtualization Defined - Now only $39.95

The DVD set is Designing, Implementing and Making Money with Virtual Environments - Now only $49.95

 . . .

Members download the podcast now.

Non-members can view the list of downloads and recorded shows at www.cloudservicesroundtable.com.  

:-)

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Interview Continued: Joyce Blonskij - Own the Clouds: The First Guide To Investing In Cloud Computing Companies

This is Part 2 of my interview with investment advisor and author Joyce Blonskij. Joyce is the author of Own the Clouds - The First Guide To Investing In Cloud Computing Companies. This book will be released on January 31st, 2012. For more information on the big "Virtual Launch Party" and a bunch of free give-aways, see http://owntheclouds.com/.

In this follow-up interview, Joyce gives some tips about getting started in Wall Stree investmenting. Joyce als introduced the four Key Cloud Elements - so you can identify cloud companies you want to own. She also introduces a chart called a Bollinger Band - her favorite kind of charting tool

The book will be only $24.95, and that prices includes a number of give-aways you can find out about at see http://owntheclouds.com/.

Joyce will be donating all proceeds from this book to charities, including Kiwanis House. http://www.kiwanisfamilyhouse.org/

Members can download this recording right now and get the year started off right with an introduction to investing. It's particularly cool to have such a great guide with a hook into our area of expertise. Check it out today.

:-)

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Interview: Joyce Blonskij - Own the Clouds: The First Guide To Investing In Cloud Computing Companies

I had a great interview with Joyce Blonskij, author of Own the Clouds - The First Guide To Investing In Cloud Computing Companies. This book will be released on January 31st, 2012. For more information on the big "Virtual Launch Party" and a bunch of free give-aways, see http://owntheclouds.com/.

Joyce's book is a great introduction to stock market investing generally, but her focus is specifically on Cloud and Internet companies. The book provides a four-layer view of investing, starting with the highest level "clouds" - The most visible companies. The second layer addresses the small companies that are flying under the radar. The third layer is the middle management view of investing. And the fourth layer covers low-level "technical" investment techniques.

The book will be only $24.95, and that prices includes a number of give-aways you can find out about at see http://owntheclouds.com/.

Joyce will be donating all proceeds from this book to charities, including Kiwanis House. http://www.kiwanisfamilyhouse.org/

Members can download this recording right now and get the year started off right with an introduction to investing. It's particularly cool to have such a great guide with a hook into our area of expertise. Check it out today.

:-)

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Description: Karl's 2012 "State of the Nation" Address on

- Cloud Services in the SMB Space

- Managed Services in the small business space

Recorded live January 4, 2012.

We're in the fourth year of a recession. We've been told the recovery is just around the corner. We've been told that for almost two years. So where are we and where are we going?

Karl's Managed Services and Cloud Services company - America's Tech Support - is going strong. He'll discuss how he looks at future prospects and works to keep his companies profitable.

Karl will also prognosticate about the future of the SMB Market, managed services, cloud computing, and your clients.

Karl is the author of nine book and is working on a second edition of his very popular Managed Services in a Month.

Note: Because this recording covers the year just passed and projections for the year ahead, it is being provided to members and non-members free of charge.

This program includes information on the changes ahead for the Cloud Services Roundtable / SMB Community Podcast.

Download today!

:-)

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Description: HP Cloud Discovery Workshops

Originally aired: December 07, 20ll

Karl is joined by HP's Alan Wilson, VP for Cloud and Converged Infrastructure Consulting for Technology Services.

Alan outlines HP’s various cloud offerings, to include their Enterprise Cloud services and their public cloud, pay-as-you-go option. He shares HP's perspective on the various perceptions cloud consultants and businesses have on making the move to the cloud. He explains that these varying opinions and considerations are why HP's Cloud Discovery Workshops evolved. He says they aim to work with and educate financial executors, IT managers, and business users on how to make the right choices for their particular needs.

Alan talks about boundary issues across the globe, whereby the storage and managing of data is restricted in various territories/countries. He says this adds to the complexity of the decisions that are to be made by managed providers.

Alan discusses the ROI analysis managed providers need to consider when providing a cloud offering and costings to clients. He says there are indeed tremendous cost savings in shifting clients to the cloud if the correct applications for a specific client are best married. Managed providers need to understand what the financial environment is for the particular client and weigh that with what the company’s goals are vs how they want to use their IT. He says HP is best placed to help with that analysis through their workshops.

Alan does not believe that there has been a slowdown in decision makers’ shift to the cloud due to the downturned economy. He maintains they have been testing and really considering the option as a competitive advantage for the last few years. He says for some, the increase in IT choices are significant.

Alan concludes with some discussion on how cloud subproviders (Verizon, ATT, etc) are really changing, adopting, and accelerating in the cloud services space. He explains that HP has a role in this in developing vendor relationships.

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Description: IBM's LotusLive

Originally aired: November 16, 20ll

Karl and SMB Nation Co-host Harry Brelsford are joined by Rebecca Buisan, Director of Product Management and Marketing for IBM's Social Business Cloud.

Rebecca outlines several of the partner programs they offer in conjunction with LotusLive, to include a program that assists solely for technology integration. Rebecca also discusses LotusLive's re-seller partnership, noting that IBM is investing quite a bit in the program. She encourages listeners to check out IBM's Lotusphere 2012 for more information.

Rebecca confirms that LotusLive is available worldwide. She also details how compatible the offering is with various platforms, browsers and mobile devices. Rebecca says IBM is still investigating deployment models - to include private cloud offering models.

Rebecca shares several real-world examples of just how transformational cloud can be for small business. She also quotes from a recent SMB Nation survey, which revealed that cloud services are the number one I.T. priority for CIOs right now. Harry Brelsford talks about the opportunity and customer choice cloud services has brought to the industry.

Rebecca Buisan

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Description: Cloud Q & A

Originally aired: November 02, 20ll 9AM Pacific

Karl takes listener questions and offers timely advise for MSPs. He encouragingly asserts that managed services is not dead. The cloud does not threaten managed services. Going forward, somebody still needs to know how to manage Outlook, viruses, routers, etc.

Karl also suggests MSPs talk to their clients NOW regarding replacing their switches, firewalls, and routers to guarantee they are best placed for the faster bandwidth they will require for cloud services.

Here are the links related to cloud calculators that were mentioned on this podcast:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing-calculator/

—http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#pricing

—http://www.google.com/enterprise/cloud/appengine/pricing.html

—http://www.apple.com/icloud/

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Description: Cloud Nation 2011

Originally aired: October 19, 20ll

Karl is joined by SMB Nation / Cloud Nation's Tom Poole to introduce our listeners to Cloud Nation.

Earlier this year at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, SMB Nation announced the launch of a new company known as Cloud Nation. Cloud Nation is intended to educate and excite small-and-medium businesses on the cloud opportunity. Harry explained at the launch that "the Cloud Nation portal is intended to provide a community that acts as a single source of cloud information, news, educational events, resources, and reviews".

Harry is the CEO of SMB Nation and a long-time SMB channel partner who has served customers and mentored other partners.

Tom Poole, CEO of Cloud Nation, launched his first online community, Senior.com, in 1995. Under his leadership, Senior.com became a leading online community and won virtually every major industry award. In 1999 Senior.com had become a leading online destination for the mature demographic.