Posts tagged businesses
Virtualization checklist for SMBs
Sep 2nd
There are countless small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) out there looking at virtualization and feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities and challenges of deploying such solutions.
Is virtualization within reach for SMBs? Is it cost-effective? Are there SMB-specific tools, strategies and methods? All of these questions can hinder an SMB’s adoption of virtualization technologies. And one question in particular can halt an SMB’s pursuit of a worthwhile investment: Do we even need virtualization?
Selling energy back to the grid
Jul 13th
Timing is everything for Ray Dawson. The driven 69-year-old serial entrepreneur recently rebuffed a comfortable retirement for the pleasures of clanking up rooftops in Sault Ste. Marie to install solar panels.
The idea is to help homeowners generate their own electricity to be able to sell it back to the grid.
Nestor Arellano
Back in 1975, Dawson had pitched the very same idea to the local power company and was politely shown the door. “They patiently listened to my plan but basically the response was ‘no deal’,” he recalled.
Thirty five years later, customers are not actually banging at his door but Dawson’s Algoma District Solar Energies Inc., set up only early this year, has made three sales already and generating more interest. If all goes well, Dawson is looking at a very busy summer. Read the rest of this entry »
Onus on tech firms to build responsible privacy controls: a guest blog from MaRS
Feb 22nd
In my last blog entry, I wrote about Privacy by Design: The Gold Standard – my annual event that focuses on the implementation of new technologies and business practices that can deliver tangible results with regard to ensuring the future of privacy. This year, the theme was “We did it…so can you” and I was delighted to see so many practical examples of products, services and solutions that are designed with a view to making privacy the default mode of operation.
Toronto-based innovation incubator MaRS was on hand to showcase leading edge technology, with privacy solutions embedded, from a number of its Ontario-based companies. I have invited Earl Miller of MaRS as a guest blogger for this entry – to share his thoughts on why young tech companies should treaty privacy as a key business issue: Read the rest of this entry »
How are your users surfing?
Jan 21st
It is no secret that I believe that a company’s web presence is a direct reflection on the quality of their brand and by extension their products or service offerings. Is it fair that consumers judge a company by the quality of their web interaction? Probably not, but it happens millions of times a day all over the world. 
The difficulty in producing a good user experience on the web lies in the fact that there are so many components that go into making a “good” web site or web application. There are the content providers, the information architects, the graphic designers, the web developers and potentially many others. Sometimes, in small organizations, these roles are each fulfilled by the same person. Sometimes, in larger organizations, the people that fulfill these roles might never meet. Regardless of the development dynamic, a lot of effort is expended on many different levels in order to produce a web site or web app. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Privacy is Good for Business
Jan 4th
While I often speak about the fallacy of the zero-sum argument that privacy must be sacrificed for the sake of security, I wanted to take the opportunity to also argue against a prevailing view that privacy hinders business – this is a complete fallacy.
Too often, organizations – both public and private – protest that implementing serious privacy measures increases operating costs while adding nothing to the value of their business. When they do undertake a program to increase the protection of their customers’ privacy, it’s often because they feel forced to comply with jurisdictional laws. 
