How not to implement a cloud-based information service.
What’s the Cloud? The Internet is The Cloud. GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail are cloud based information services. More technically, these are referred to as Software as a Service, or SaaS. There are also Platform as a Service, PaaS, and Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS.
On Dec. 21, 2012, I put $16 Million imaginary dollars in equal imaginary investments in 16 real energy companies; Eight in the Sustainable Energy space and eight in the fossil fuel space. The results:
On Dec. 21, 2012, I put $16 Million imaginary dollars in equal imaginary investments in 16 real energy companies; Eight in the Sustainable Energy space and eight in the fossil fuel space. The Sustainable Energy portfolio is composed of Cree and Lighting Sciences in the LED space, GTAT, which at the time made solar ovens for cooking PV wafers, and today is diversifying, First Solar and Sunpower in the solar space, Vestas, a wind company, Solazyme a biofuel company and Next Era, a utility. The fossil fuel companies are the oil companies BP, Chevron Texaco, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil and RD Shell, the coal company Peabody Coal, and Haliburton and Transocean, companies in the offshore oil and oil and gas drilling service industries.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 23.01% from 12/21/12 to 2/21/14.Note that the Sustainable Energy portfolio does not include Solar City, SCTY, or Tesla Motors, TSLA. Solar City’s stock price is up 713.0%, from 10.73 on December 21, 2012 to 75.86 at the close of trading Feb. 21, 2014. Tesla is up 614.5% from 34 to 209.60.
Figure 1, above, shows the relative performance of my hypothetical investments in sustainable Energy and Fossil Fuels, since Dec. 21., 2012.
As described in the earlier posts in this series, in Dec., 2012, I read that MidAmerican Energy was buying large scale solar electric generating stations being built by First Solar and Sunpower, and being financed by GE. This got me thinking … Continue reading
Imagine an small to mid-sized enterprise which needs accounting, document management, e-mail, a central file repository, centralized printer management, and a central anti-virus console. These services can be put on discrete servers, along with, using Microsoft’s authentication model, a redundant pair of machines described as “Domain Controllers.” Add an “Intranet” and a central backup system and you’re looking at 10 servers, at a cost, as shown in Table 1, below, in the neighborhood of $54,000.
The advantage of discrete servers for discrete functions is that maintenance on one system does not effect any others. By wrapping the logical functions – accounting, e-mail, etc – into “virtual machines” we get the same advantages – maintenance and upgrades to one system do not effect other systems – while reducing the total number of physical machines.
This can be “Virtualized” onto two or three servers at a cost, as shown in Table 2, below, in the neighborhood of $26,000 to $36,000. These are summarized in table 0, below.
| Price Comparison | |
| Item | Ballpark |
| Physical | $54,000.00 |
| Virtual | $26,000.00 |
| V w Archive | $36,000.00 |
| Table 0 | |
This savings also scales. Larger enterprises, which require more servers, may realize a 10 to 1 server consolidation.
If a picture is worth a thousand words …
here are two thousand words on Sustainable Investing in 2013.
While the data may suggest that a “correction” may be in progress for the “Sustainable Energy” portfolio, and while the actions or inactions of various governments can dramatically effect performance of these portfolios, the Sustainable Energy Portfolio outperformed the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500, both of which outperformed the Fossil Fuel Portfolio.
As the professional say, “Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.”
On Dec. 21, 2011, reading that MidAmerican Energy was investing in utility scale solar energy generation, I looked at First Solar and Sunpower. Then I looked at six other companies in the sustainable energy world. I created a model portfolio. To make things interesting, I looked at eight companies in the fossil fuel industy and invested $16 Imaginary Million in these 16 companies, $1.0 Imaginary Million in each. As of the close of trading one year later, Friday, Dec. 20, 2013,
The data are summarized beginning in Table 1, below.
On April 8, 2014 Microsoft will end support for Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6, Office 2003, and MS Exchange Server 2003. If you still use XP, and according to Net Market Share, as of Dec. 22, 2013, 31% of people on the Internet still use Windows XP, then you should plan on migrating to Windows 7, Windows 8, Linux or the Mac before April 9, 2014. Or retiring.
As I see it, the main reason to upgrade is security. Another reason is performance. The bottom line is money.
Nelson Mandela
“I realized they could take everything away from me except my mind and my heart. Those things I would have to give them. And I decided not to give them away.” Nelson Mandela, to Bill Clinton.
“During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Nelson Mandela, on trial in 1964.
Pres. Carter
Pres G H W Bush
Pres. Clinton
Pres. G. W. Bush
Pres. Obama
“In real life we deal, not with gods, but with ordinary humans like ourselves: men and women who are full of contradictions, who are stable and fickle, strong and weak, famous and infamous.” – Nelson Mandela
On Dec. 21, 2011, with $16 Imaginary Million, I created an investment simulation. I invested $1.0 Million in imaginary money in each of eight fossil fuel companies and eight sustainable energy companies. As of the close of trading 11 months later, Friday, Nov. 22, 2013, the trend, clearly evident after three months, in March of this year, continues.
Note that this represents a retreat of 4.39% from the high of 156.14%, in October, 2013.
As discussed in September and October, last month, in Septermber, 2013, in “Investing for the Future,” and October, in “Sustainable Investing: Green Energy, Green Economy,” the important question is: Is this a trend or a bubble? As I wrote, I think it’s a trend.
The 2,000 pound question, after Typhoon Haiyon, Hurricanes Sandy, Irene and Katrina, after the fires of 2012 and 2013, the Missouri River Floods of 2011 – which knocked out the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant – the super-tornadoes of 2013 – one with a two mile wide contact point on land, which tore through Oklahoma (CNN / National Geographic / Zerohedge) is will we survive to make the transition to clean sustainable energy?
or rather:
The data are summarized beginning in Table 1, below.
Three Monkeys
Chris Christie
Chris Christie is like Iwazaru, the monkey who cannot speak.
As reported by Christopher Baxter, in the Star Ledger, in 2011, here, while he vetoed a bill, S2996, that would have required New Jersey to work with other states to limit the greenhouse gases that scientists say are changing the climate, Gov. Christie said, “climate change is real.” He also said “human activity plays a role in these changes” and that climate change is “impacting our state.”
In a rare moment of humility, he also said, “I can’t claim to fully understand all of this. Certainly not after just a few months of study. But when you have over 90 percent of the world’s scientists who have studied this stating that climate change is occurring and that humans play a contributing role it’s time to defer to the experts.”
He added that climate science is complex and “we know enough to know that we are at least part of the problem.” But that was in 2011. Before Hurricane Sandy.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant, Courtesy Exelon
A public hearing will take place October 28, 2013, at the Clarion Hotel, 815 Route 37 West, Toms River, NJ. The subject of the hearing will be the National Academy of Sciences, NAS, study on nuclear power plants and cancer and “Lessons Learned from Fukushima.”
As I see it, the most important lessons from Fukushima are:
There is a fifth lesson to be learned; this from the NJ Clean Energy Program in New Jersey and Vestas, the wind company. As noted on the NJ Clean Energy Program – Project Activity Pages, we in New Jersey now have have 1,117.5 Megawatts (MW) of grid tied photovoltaic solar electric generating capacity, almost double the 636 MW of Oyster Creek. Vestas is offering 8 MW wind turbines.
WE HAVE WIND and SOLAR: WE DON’T NEED OYSTER CREEK OR OTHER NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS.
Offshore Wind Farm
Jenny McCarthy, courtesy Playboy Enterprises
Jenny McCarthy, pictured above, is not a medical expert. After she became convinced that her son’s autism was triggered by vaccines, the actress, model, and “Playmate” associated herself with Generation Rescue, which promotes the unfounded anti-scientific belief that autism is caused by vaccines. McCarthy has appeared on Larry King Live, in 2008, Youtube here, Oprah and currently co-hosts “The View,” a talk show on daytime television on the ABC network. ABC’s decision to hire her in this role was criticized in NJ.com, PLOS, the LA Times.
The problem is one needs nothing more than notoriety to become a pundit, and “pundits” who speak convincingly while they utter nonsense can cause real harm.