Software as a service (SaaS) rocks for lots of people but especially those who are somewhat allergic to costly software that generally impedes with the “modern” tech lifestyle were, among other things, several computers and platforms are used to access information and get the work done.

Throw online social networking, web-based intelligence gathering and “always on” high-speed net access to the mix and SaaS becomes even more relevant for smart IT strategists who tend to think “outside” their comparatively limited corporate realm.

So, why is SaaS so important, at this point?

Because the rise of open source programming languages like PHP and rock-solid database engines like MySQL (among others) make it possible for more people than ever to code applications which can be distributed, accessed and used from any “connected” device, as long as they’re properly authentified.

This flips the “software application” model on its head.

ERM, ERP, CRM, SFA, BAM, MRP, WMS and many more are now being offered online using the SaaS model.

A typical SaaS application required that users be properly (and securely) authentified. Then, once logged-in, different levels of “service” are made available so that work can get done… all without the need for more than a simple web browser!

From word processors, spreadsheets, email management and scheduling applications to online video games boasting expansive communities, SaaS is gaining ground so fast that it’s reached the point where being both “online” and “productive” is not only merely possible, it’s the new “standard”.

For an IT strategist looking to lay down a credible agenda towards the development of truly engaging technologies, SaaS means that users can basically access some “core application” from wherever they want, when they want it and with whatever device they prefer.

Thanks to SaaS, the IT side can (finally) focus on what’s important: the application!

As software as a service gains ground over the “software-only” solutions, IT strategists will have to think about the many opportunities that stem from this model since the online realm provides for countless inventive ways to mashup internal data with external “live trends” or, more generally, any other type of data getting generated elsewhere.

Of course, many software-based solutions still work just fine but information management and sharing sure flies online, especially within SaaS application frameworks.

As an IT strategist -but also- as a corporate manager, allow yourself to see SaaS for what it is: a fine technological opportunity to grow your business at a time when the world is moving towards much greater connectedness.

Tags: saas, software as a service, online services, online applications, software, web software, web browser, browser-based software, it, information technology, it strategists, it managers, it directors, deciding to move data online, web-based

The “change” and “yes we can” slogans have echoed deep within the hearts of many “Obama-fans” because it means that a single man —a well spoken, 47 years old, black husband and father of two and husband— could actually lead a great nation towards better times.

This message, though, obfuscates the fact that whatever changes are to come, they’ll fit with Obama’s agenda first and the American public next, if it’s even considered, at all.

You see, Obama has voted consistently to wage illegal wars against Irak, Aghanistan, terror and in the process, he’s also been a vibrant promoter for the deeply controversial Patriot Act which strips away all Constitutional Rights to any American citizen who happens to be suspected of “something” by any level of “authority” — the Marshall Law and police state are two concepts that fit perfectly with Obama’s vision of a “perfect” world so even though uninformed voters have bought into the Obama hype, other people are waking up to the fact that “change”, in Obama’s hands, could mean more wars, more laws, more restrictions and basically more heandaches for the honest citizens.

Obama is Wall Street’s favorite — nobody’s questionning that.

In turn, Wall Street has shown to be the epicenter of financial decadence taken to unprescedented heights with wild derivative schemes, completely irresponsible money management practices and ongoing fiscal manœuvering to hide astronomical sums of money in foreign tax havens.

Obama, with his many vague promises for “change” coupled with Wall Street, proud of its proven track record for savagely raping the American economy while laughing in everybody else’s face, could become the nightmarish “team” nobody really hoped for.

If Obama has an idea, that’s nice but if the American public also have an idea and it happens to be different, it should prevail because… it comes from the people!

Simple, right?

Wrong.

It’s unlikely to happen because Obama knows better than to mess with Wall Street’s bankers who control, among other things, the Federal Reserve —a 100% private company— which, in turn, controls the Presidency in a variety of ways, namely the monetary policies which affect EVERYTHING related to money!

So Barack isn’t rural America’s friend.

He isn’t the urban taxpayers’ friend, either.

In fact, he’s the ultimate covert hitman who will obey his masters’ every wish, at the drop of a dime. His predecessors at the White House have started a vicious war against the middle class, free speech and civil liberties and he’s likely been hired to continue down that exact path.

And Obama will mimick Third Reich tactics to gain control over all aspects of the life of his flock of economic slaves, pushing a heavy rock up a never-ending slope, thanks to debt traps, strategic social inequities and the heavy veil of secrecy on everything flavor of information bearing any “true value”.

Yes, the war is on against… the American people!

And it opposes a vicious elite seeking complete control at all costs against the average folks, many of them too deep in the current “social control matrix” to even comprehend what’s going on.

So, why is there a war against common American citizens, in the first place?

Because the “commoners” are still too rich, free and openly opinionated — according to the elite, still sleazing their way up and down Wall Street, creating nothing and abusing anything they touch. America’s middle class “wealth” represents a threat to their current (and future) hegemony. A very small threat indeed but still, too much of a risk for them to take.

So they sent in Obama with a clever disguise: the “change” horse and pony show.

Anything Obama does from this point on will, one way or another, be along the lines of unilateral decisions (seemingly) taken by him and imposed on everyone else but expect that he’ll sugarcoat every single one of his actions will lots of “change is good” superlatives, to further convert those who have stopped applying their own version of common sense to issues where their “messiah from Illinois” appears to have all the answers.

People need to figure this one out (by themselves) before it gets even uglier.

Mind control.

Population control.

It’s all about total CONTROL over everyone… and everything.

The more the average “middle class” Americans buy into “Obama’s dream”, the faster and the deeper they’ll fall into a trap they may never be able to pull themselves out — unless they decide to resort to something radical and unwanted like a civil war against the bankers and their “friends” who have made life such a pointless pursuit for so many with an endless string of wars, lies, deception and profound inequalities that have apparently taken over peace, truth, innocence and a general sense of “good”.

Meanwhile, whatever happened to the will of the people?

How about a slogan like “what we want” instead of Obama’s favorite “yes we can”? Wouldn’t that be closer to the TRUE WILL OF THE PEOPLE who build America with their sweat, tears and blood, on a daily basis?

People in America and elsewhere, around the world, are yearning for “something more”, a common dream of collectively working for everybody’s good instead of unilaterally feeding the rich while getting poorer and poorer, in the process.

Can this vision of a better world ever rise to the point that it can crush the elite’s plan for world domination?

If naive people continue to believe in “a leader” before they believe in themselves, it’s highly unlikely.

However, if more people wake up and break free from the propaganda-injected “big media” information stream to start thinking for themselves instead of buying into the “mainstream lies”, they’ll start asking for what they want instead of accepting a President’s agenda… just because he happens to be “the man in the Oval Office” which, in the end, shouldn’t mean that much since the job should be about obeying the will of the people and not the will of some shady elite.

Keep in mind that Obama doesn’t want you to “think”, he just wants you to chant “yes we can” in some crowded stadium while he basically robs you blind.

So do yourself a favor: think for yourself.

And reclaim your human dignity by demanding “what YOU want”, starting now.

Tags: barack hussein obama, barack obama, obama the new president, elite, shadow government, global elite bankers, power, control, domination, economic slavery, debt, americans, middle class, average citizens, politics, think for yourself, demand action, what you want, wall street, corruption, theft, lies, wars, deception, change, yes we can, disguise

1. Water
2. Sunlight
3. Oxygen
4. Carbon Dioxyde

Do you have the answer?

Those are the four (4) basic building blocks for all carbon-based life on Earth.

Humans, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects and anything that breathes needs all four (4) of those to exist.

And carbon dioxyde is especially important as it’s the stuff plants breathe to grow (and exist). Once they’ve breathed carbon dioxyde, plants exhale oxygen which we, carbon-based living lifeforms breathe to then exhale the carbon dioxyde that’s essential to all plants on this Earth — it’s a perfect symbiosis.

So why am I bringing these elements up, today?

Because some idiots that work in politics, in morally challenged companies and even in self-proclaimed environmental groups want to —tax— carbon dioxyde!

That’s right.

Moronic individuals (with way too much power) want to -tax- the air that ALL carbon-based lifeforms on Earth breathe — the same carbon dioxyde all plants need (so badly) to exist — these profoundly deranged individuals are working hard, lobbying and playing dirty tricks behind the scenes to tax one of the four basic elements that serves as the basis of all life on this planet.

You’d be writing a science fiction story and such a scenario would seem far fetched but a complete sellout to globalists like the Canadian Liberal leader, Stephane Dion, is at the forefront of a “carbon tax” proposal. He’s fighting tooth and nails to convince Canadians (and the world) that his tax will improve life, on Earth. He’s completely wrong on all fronts but don’t tell him that, he’ll label you as a polluter!

This is the kind of twisted logic people like Stephane Dion try to impose on others.

Around the world, people like Stephane Dion are saying that all flavors of carbon taxes are good but they’re actually attempting to impose a completely unacceptable (and unthinkable) tax on the air every carbon-based lifeform exhales!

Being so stupid doesn’t seem to stop these jokers because they talk like their idea makes sense — even though the idea, the context behind the idea and the outcomes of the idea all lead to a global catastrophe.

What Stephane Dion and their like will never tell you is that the real source of pollution comes from (largely man made or man handled) toxic chemicals like benzene, xylene, fluoride or chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that deplete the ozone layer (for real).

No, these clowns will never tell you the “real truth”.

They don’t respect you.

They see you as a herd of sheep with no intelligence, no common sense reasonning and above all, with no voice to counter their nonsense.

Well, thanks to the internet, we do have a voice.

And we do have our fact straight and apply rigourous common sense to our actions.

Furthermore, we’ll never turn into the sheep they want us to be and leave out intelligence at the door.

Stephane Dion and other carbon tax-pushing morons of all origins need to understand that all the free people who inhabit this wonderful planet will -NEVER- for their tax to be implemented, in full or in part, because it would be the single most backward step ever taken by humanity.

The effects of such a tax, milking boatloads of money on the back of life itself, would be nothing short of catastrophic. Life cannot occur without carbon dioxyde so taxing —in any way— would go against the basis laws that govern our universe.

For even bringing the idea of a carbon tax to Canada, Stephane Dion deserves to be destituted from his political position and tried by the people for his intent to commit one of the most horrible crimes against, more than just humanity, but life itself. This is very serious.

How would you feel if a politician taxed water, sunlight or oxygen?

Such a politician would probably be hanged high, in a town square, for attempting to destroy the very DNA of all known life.

Well, Stephan Dion is attacking carbon dioxyde, the 4th element.

He’s trying to demonize CO2 — of all things!

How utterly dumb…

No Canadian (or world citizen) can accept that.

Stand up and defend your inalienable right to exhale (and breathe… and exist)!

Don’t let ill intended people or groups convince you of the usefulness of insulting Mother Nature in such a preposterous way.

Defend yourself, defend life, defend nature and please, above all, defend common sense.

Tags: water, sunlight, oygen, carbon dioxyde, carbon, carbon lifeforms, all lifeforms, all life, nature, trees, co2, what we exhale, what plants breathe, carbon tax, stephane dion, environment, climate change, liberals, traitors, bad people, criminals against nature, common sense, human rights, ban carbon taxes, no carbon tax, the green shift, green shift, co2 emission, carbon dioxyde is natural

After all, these companies are big (in part) because we spend our money there!

In 2008’s edition to the Fortune 100 listing, the companies span many major industries, reflecting the current diversity of the world economy. Banking, mining, engineering, telecoms, energy, electronics, entertainment are all represented in the “best of the best” or, more simply said, the global companies with the biggest revenues.

Please note that the most impressive growth in revenue numbers, in 2007 compared to 2006, is held by the industries of (1) banking, growth and services, (2) mining and crude-oil production and (3) shipping.

Let’s jump right in and take a look at the list leaders:

Apart from instantly seeing if any of these companies made more or less money in 2007 than in 2006, this list is a great starting point to visit the lush web sites most of these companies have built, complete with investor information, media relations and lots of interactive features.

Surfing the company web sites, you may want to wander towards their various R&D-like sections where they explain their vision and how they intend to realize it, in the future. This could be your chance to offer them to help on one of their upcoming projects, thus helping your company score significant new business.

If you can make these companies look good at the next shareholder meeting, it’s obvious that they want to hear from you so package your message so that’s what they end up hearing.

If the hat fits, use this list wisely to grow your business alongside these global heavyweights that typically have deep pockets but also an obligation to continuously keep up with competitors. This race towards more innovation and novel methods represents, among other things, your chance to become “interesting” for at least some of these Fortune 100 companies.

Tags: fortune 500, fortune 100, top 100 businesses, top 100 companies, biggest companies, global companies, worldwide companies, us companies, french companies, deutsch companies, rich companies, rich businesses, global businesses, revenues, profits, money, shareholders

The “revenue” and “profit” numbers accompanying each of the Fortune 500 listees tell a story bean counters love because in their view, numbers alone make or break companies, business models and entire industries. Of course, each company being presented in this prestigious list has its own story, way beyond the numbers that are often overly glorified as being the ultimate “scorecard” for companies.

For instance, some companies made less profit but invested more in their employees’ pension funds while others, with larger profits, have closed down factories in their home country, putting (decently paid) hard working individuals out of work, to finance the opening a sweatshop-factory in a some foreign country where salaries are a joke and the military run the show.

So even though we’re going to take a look at the numbers from pharmaceutical companies, keep in mind that each one of them has a story that you may want to look up, in order to better understand “the big picture”.

The title states that the pharmaceuticals are rich and that’s a known fact — let’s look at the numbers:

As you can see, the profits generated by these pharmaceutical companies is nothing short of astronomical and with the help of the FDA, making it easier than ever to patent and market drugs of all sorts, the money making “drug machine” seems set for many more “good years”.

Are you under the impression that these pharmaceutical companies are making too much profit, selling drugs that have, for the most part, been developed with public funding in university labs?

Everyone has an opinion about the rich pharmaceuticals but the one thing that everybody agrees on is that they generate more profit than you and me ever will… unless we decide to launch a successful pharmaceutical company of our own.

Tags: pharmaceuticals, us pharma, big pharma, american pharma, fortune 500, pharma industry, pills, drugs, chemicals, health, disease, illnesses, insured health, health cost, health debt, health profit, health revenue, hospitals, sick citizens, sick population, usa, money

Those two States have made it easy on us but some other ones, like Massachussetts have generally unknown demonyms like Massachusites which merely has a few hundred hits in the Google Search engine!

So in order to help everybody make sense of how people are called in the 50 US States, here’s the updated list, straight from the Wikipedia but with a few adjustments, here and there.

Now, you’ll be able to impress your “Mississippian” friends by merely knowing how they’re called.

Most of these names come from way back so if you do some research on them, you’re sure to learn a thing or two as to how they came about.

Tags: us states, americans, united states, 50 states, how americans are called, names of us state citizens

To protect your databases, you need to plan ahead because in a large measure, “failing to plan is planning to fail” and such failure could cost an organization time, money, productivity and reputation.

Above the obvious advice that every employee should be allowed access to information on a need to know basis, namely through role-based controls, monitoring all systems (including the mobile devices) for data leaks help a great deal.

Here are a few things serious IT professionals can do to protect their businesses against all flavors of potentially damaging data breaches:

• Directly monitor financial databases to keep on top of unusual activities;
• Assess and remediate weaknesses to guard against unauthorized access (even with proper authentication);
• Audit user access and use of resources;
• Learn how users are using the databases to detect unauthorized activities;
• Check transaction authenticity (cross-check with the paper trail);
• Sollicit independent reviews to get that all important second opinion;
• Automate as many controls as possible to reduce manual audit errors;
• Make use of encryption to protect the information.

Remember that different types of businesses need to brace for different types of data breaches so keep in mind that what works well for your neighbor might not work as well for you.

In any business, there needs to be a response team which can take decisions when a breach is identified and that can go as far as shutting down all the database systems until the threat is properly dealt with. The general counsel should be part of that “emergency team” and proper training should be given so they understand the importance of dealing swiftly with a threat to prevent aggravated damages.

IT forensics teams can be called in to properly trace the source of an attack that has lead to a data breach. This team can conduct triage which can include heavy activity monitoring and the temporary deactivation of key services, until the threat is properly addressed.

It should also be mandatory for PR to be in on the action because you’d rather hear the bad news, in a controlled manner, from them than, say, the New York Times. Furthermore, in a case where customer data has been breached, they need to be properly presented with the facts.

Once the data breach is remediated, the organization must modify the business practices that allowed for such a breach to happen, in the first place. As always, preparation is key.

Tags: security, data breach, database breach, unauthorized access, user access, it audit, transaction authenticity, manual audits, automated controls, encryption, data protection, unusual activities, data monitoring

For the highly mobile users, SaaS provides a much needed alternative to desktop software, in part because the data is stored remotely and then, instantly made available to the properly authentified owner, wherever he or she may be.

SaaS also comes in handy for people who jockey between computers, for instance, between a laptop computer and a desktop. Logging into the web service grants them access to their work, whichever computer they be working on at that time.

But if you’re still unsure about bringing in more complex web services into your company, the following checklist should help you decide if SaaS is right for you, in a given line of work:

• Will modifications of IT or network integration be necessary, to accomodate the SaaS?
• Can I retire redundant IT infrastructure, by using the SaaS application?
• How long will the SaaS deployment take versus software?
• What training is need to use the SaaS application?
• How does the end-user experience compare between the SaaS application and software?
• Is SaaS data security up to corporate standards?
• What’s the operational security of SaaS compared to software?
• Will SaaS subscription fees end up costing more or less than a software setup?
• What kind of support do I get for SaaS compared to software?
• How easily can each solution be scaled, over time?
• What’s the financial stability like for the SaaS provider?
• Generally speaking, will SaaS better serve our business than software?
• Will the management and employees notice any difference with SaaS?

Depending on your answers, you’ll have a better idea if you’re ready to jump on the SaaS bandwagon that’s gaining speed in the online world, right now.

Successful upstarts, such as Salesforce.com, WebEx, RightNow, Taleo, Blackboard and NetSuite are benefiting the most from their disruptive offerings, in terms of SaaS applications. Companies can simply subscribe to their services online and start using them right away. This business model, depending on the needs, provides for a credible alternative to software, especially when applications need to be heavily networked across multiple locations.

It goes without saying that users that don’t have a reliable internet connection will shy away from SaaS as that entire business model is based on quality internet connectivity. That means the internet providers, including the big telcos, need to massively upgrade their network, all the way to the user (in offices or homes, whichever).

Security will also need to be reinforced in conjunction with ironclad privacy protection for serious work to be hosted in the internet cloud, meaning that at any given time, a specific user can’t be sure of the exact location where his or her data is stored — which is very different from using desktop software and saving the work on a local hard drive.

This being said, SaaS is big enough for everybody to notice and even though software is still the foundation of desktop computing, more web services are being launched regularly and it’s possible that some of them may end up changing our relationship with computing and how we get things done.

Tags: saas, web services, online services, software, desktop, computing, working online, web technology, web 2.0, end users, operational stability, application ownership, network infrastruction, web connectivity

While this kind of bold statement of direction simply piggypacks on common sense, coming from the Remond giant, known to be the champion of secrecy, meticulous direspect of standards and engineered hurdles against straightforward interoperability, this kind of statement left most people wondering if they heard right.

After all, Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar business has been built on closed sourced code, non-standard formats and a paranoid race to accumulate patents, wether they made sense or not. So is Microsoft’s willingness to open up its heavily guarded gates genuine or is it just for show? According to many observers, the final word isn’t spoken yet.

Although Microsoft is used to playing the part of the bully in the proverbial software schoolyard, the open source movement is a hard target to intimidate. After all, everyone openly shares their findings (not wasting time trying to re-invent the wheel all the time), most coders work out of sheer passion and this means the development pace is downright impossible to match for a closed-source and rather slow moving software shop, however rich it is.

So why is Microsoft opening up, in the first place?

Two main reasons being that (1) customers want (and now require) it and (2) also to properly address the regulatory and competitive pressures against its “traditional” business model.

In the current market conditions, Microsoft clearly can’t beat open source so it must shift from being its demonized antagonist to become —against all odds— part of the trend. So that’s what Ray Ozzie is trying to do but in real life, making Microsoft a credible open source proponent is, by all means, akin to a Herculanean task.

Because it’s such a huge undertaking, Microsoft is moving on its own terms and at its own pace and predictably, this has made it an easy target for those who believe their “open source move” was just for show and changes nothing to their previous market domination plans.

In fact, despite Ray Ozzie’s cozy words, Microsoft continues to accuse open source developers of violating 235 of its patents. While those accusations are unsubstantiated, Microsoft’s threat of legal action still hangs over the developers’ heads — this doesn’t help the software behemoth’s image, at all.

So while Microsoft’s PR department is saying nice things about open source, the legal department is playing dirty with developers who are very highly regarded, worldwide. Saying that it’s a “profoundly inappropriate approach” would be a gross understatement.

So what’s Microsoft doing about its open source commitment?

Well, it introduced the Live Mesh strategy for synchronizing data across platforms and devices, which takes into account Adobe Flash, MacOS X, non-MS browsers and programming languages. Also, Microsoft has added cross-platform extensions to System Center Operations Manager 2007 which (finally) make it possible to manage Linux and Unix servers from MS’ flagship management platform. To do this, Microsoft is incorporating two open source components, WS-Management and OpenPegasus, into Operation Manager. It’s a 180-degree turn from the company’s legacy mindset.

While the US Justice Dept and the European Union’s ruling (in 2001 and 2004) are (still) trying to get Microsoft to document and license its protocols, the open source movement is zipping away with an enormous momentum.

Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise is a legally binding assertion that it won’t enforce certain patents but longtime competitors know this might just be another strategy to force industry standards into its own mold, an approach known as “‘extend, embrace and extinguish”. If what Microsoft did to its proprietary extention to CSS and JavaScript is any indication of things to come regarding its open source stance, then we’re heading towards a great “open source deception”.

All in all, Microsoft still has a lot to understand about the open and participatory nature of the web — for everyone’s benefit, let’s hope they get it right, this time around.

Tags: microsoft, open source, patents, lawsuits, law, lawyers, developers, open standards, technologies, software, interoperability, integration, transparency, secrecy, closed-source, ray ozzie, linux, unix

As most companies are still wondering how they can tap into the whole web 2.0 paradigm shift, you can lead the evolution by attending this event which is held from June 9 to 12, at the Westin Boston Waterfront.

Over 1,000 IT and business leaders are expected to learn how enterprise 2.0 can make businesses more agile, connected and responsive while being exposed to case studies of those who make the whole 2.0 thing work wonders for various uses, today.

This year’s topics include:

• Social networking in business;
• Microblogging and Twitter;
• Enterprise mash-ups;
• Enterprise RSS and syndication;
• Developing a next generation workforce;
• Socializing search;
• Making the right video conferencing choice;
• Software as a service (SaaS);
• Security for enterprise 2.0;
• Office 2.0;
• Presence;
• Unified communications;
• Integrated collaboration platforms;
• Enterprise mobility.

So there’s a lot of ground to cover but IT and business leaders should learn a few very interesting things about the way the web can yield much better results than the already oldish way of doing things.

Make sure to swing by the Demo Pavilion where roughly 100 established industry leaders as well as hot start-ups will be featuring their latest enterprise 2.0-ready products and services.

Tags: enterprise 2.0, web 2.0, conference, boston, ma, evolution, web, interactive, leaders, start-ups, saas