With the release of their CertifiedDomain™ service, Goodmail now has two offerings for certifying senders and their e-mail.  They have long had the CertifiedEmail™ service which will continue to exist.  The purpose here is to compare the two services and look at why you might choose one service over the other to help improve deliverability.

CertifiedDomain™

CertifiedDomain™ is a domain-based whitelist of email senders that have been approved by Goodmail.  The approval process consists of a short survey where they take a look at how the sender collects and maintains their recipient list as well as checking across several other databases to ensure the sending has a good reputation.  It appears as though the certification process is not as extensive as the process for CertifiedEmail™, however, given the reputation of Goodmail, it is probably safe to assume that removal from the list will be swift for those that violate the terms of the program.

The CertifiedDomain™ service works like a white list, except it is at the domain level rather than at the IP level.  Email servers, whether corporate (e.g. yourcompany.com) or personal (e.g. gmail.com, yahoo.com) would be able to point to this list of senders and use the list as a criteria in judging whether to allow or block the email from the sender.  The decision may combine this service with other reputation based services, including blacklists, other whitelist services, or other internal metrics.  These other metrics, include factors such as open rates and links clicked that measure engagement are becoming more common when the email service is deciding whether to allow or block the message or whether it will end up in the inbox or junk mail folder.

CertifiedEmail™

CertifiedEmail™, on the other hand, is a service that will certify the sender and guarantee delivery of emails to the inbox with images and links available to certain domains.  The certification process for this is more extensive; if you can pass this certification, you should be able to pass the one for CertifiedDomain™.

This service has established relationships with several of the larger email services out there, including AOL, Yahoo!, Comcast, Cox and others.  Messages being sent to these domains will be delivered to the inbox with links and images available.  Messages sent to other domains, however, do not receive any additional benefit from the service.

Summary

Each service has its positive side.  The CertifiedDomain™ service will potentially assist with delivery across a large range of domains, both B2B and B2C.  The CertifiedEmail™ service will guarantee delivery at the partner domains.  If most of your email is B2C, sent to individuals at their personal email accounts, you will probably receive a large benefit from CertifiedEmail™.  If you are sending a large volume of B2B emails or most of your accounts are not at the domains supported by CertifiedEmail™, then CertifiedDomain™ would be a better choice.  It does not look like the two have to be mutually exclusive either.

Fees for the two services are also different.  CertifiedDomain™ has a one-time application fee.  No other fees are listed, however, there may be annual or monthly fees associated with the program.  CertifiedEmail™, on the other hand, is charged for each email sent through the program.  The cost per email is small, but depending on volume, this can be a larger fee.  Essentially, with CertifiedEmail™, the more you send, the more you pay.  However, you know those emails are being delivered and are getting to the inbox.  With CertifiedDomain™, the fees are fixed, but there are no guarantees.

In the past, corporate email was used to disseminate information.  If you needed to get a message to a group of people, an email was generated and sent to the list of recipients.  The email would contain the full text of the message and that would be the end of the communication.  In the cases of promotional emails, there might be a link to click that would take you to an ordering website.  If the email were a newsletter, the full text of the message would be in the email.  Alternatively, an attachment might be included with a more styled version of the message.

Over time, there has been a shift in the content of messages being sent.  The purpose hasn’t changed; disseminating information or promoting a product are still the message.  The way that message is delivered to the recipient has changed though.  Information is now sent in smaller bits with links to full stories.  Large attachments are now mostly a thing of the past. Content is personalized based on the recipient to whom it is being sent.  More thought is being put into the message.  What interests a person?  What content will they care about?  These are questions that are now being asked that were not asked in the past.

Today, however, another shift is taking place.  The messages are not just going to the recipients.  If you send someone content they find interesting, they will share that content with their network.  You will find that content scattered about through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks.  A message sent to a list of 1,000 recipients, assuming the content is relevant, will likely end up in front of far more than those original 1,000 individuals.  According to Facebook, the average user has 130 friends.  If even 1% of the original list posts to their Facebook page, that’s an additional 1,300 people receiving the message.  That’s 30% more than the total it was sent to originally!  If you put the content people want in front of them, social networks are an amazing complement.  There are downsides to this as well though.  Those same social networks that will increase your reach can also create bad press.  It is more important than ever to make the content relevant and ensure that the list it is being sent to contains the appropriate people.

So, to answer the question of whether email is dead from a corporate marketing perspective, the answer is definitely no.  Its use, however has changed.  It is still a channel for getting information to the people who are interested.  The reach of that email has been extended by the social networks.  Social networks have the ability to exponentially increase the reach of the email.  It all starts with getting the information in front of people though and email is still the leader at that.

There were a lot of very interesting topics covered.  First and foremost, he provides a clear definition of cloud computing.  Gartner’s definition is “a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ to external customers using Internet Technologies”.

I like this definition for its flexibility as well as its rigidity.  Breaking down the definition, there are several key words that I’ll point out.  First, it is “scalable and elastic”.  As is pointed out in the webinar, this is one of the key differentiators between the cloud and the data center.  This has been the source of much confusion in the past.

Secondly, it is “provided ‘as a service’”.  A cloud is not something that is tangible, nor is it something the purchaser has to worry about.  From the customer’s point of view, it just exists.  One thing mentioned in the webinar is that the term cloud should be used as a singular term.  There is one cloud, there are just different ways to access the cloud (AWS, Azure, etc).  These access methods are the services.

The webinar does break down other phrases in the definition, but I think these are the two key phrases.

The cloud is then distinguished from Software as a service (SaaS).  SaaS applications can be located in the cloud.  However, just because they are SaaS does not mean they are in the cloud.  The distinctions are in the definition above.  Whether in the cloud or not, SaaS does have many benefits and many concerns.  The concerns are things that are becoming less and less significant over time.

One interesting point made in the webinar is a shift in the relationship from Vendor -> User to a Provider -> Consumer relationship.  With the SaaS and Cloud models, no longer is technology being sold to users who take and manage that technology.  Now, services are being sold to consumers who access and use the services.  This is similar to utility services where we don’t worry about how they get to us, we just want to be able to use them and pay for only what we use.

There is a lot of other excellent information provided in the webinar.  I suggest you take a look at it.  A replay of the webinar is available at http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=202&mode=2&PageID=5553&ref=Webinar-Calendar&resId=1046014

Jeter attempts a steal of third base in the first inning.  The throw was good and beat Jeter to the bag.  On the slide, however, Jeter got his hand around the tag and should have been called safe.  Now, I (and the entire viewing public) have the advantage of slow-motion and replays.  The umpire does not have this luxury.  Life would be much simpler if we could watch the game on the field in slow-motion and multiple times.

I have no issue with him being called Out at third.  It was a close play, and in real time from the umpire’s angle, I could definitely see where he would make that call.  If what Jeter is saying is true, however, I do have a problem with.  Unfortunately, only one side of the story is available.  The umpire was not made available for comment after the game.  What Jeter claims was said was that he “didn’t have to be tagged to be out” as long as the ball beats the player to the base.  What he should have said was something along the lines of, “from my angle it appeared as though he tagged your right/left hand before it got to the base”.  Players understand that the officials don’t always have the best angle and try their best to make the right call.  Alternatively, he could have talked it over with the other umpires and overturned the call.  Sure, this would have made him look bad, but it would have resulted in the correct call being made.  This, of course, assumes that the umpire knew he blew the call.

The rules are there for a reason.  What the umpire basically told Jeter was that the rule that you have to be tagged out, which is clearly indicated in Rule 7.08 c & e, is not actually the rule.  The actual rule, which I could find nowhere in the rule book, was that if the ball is there first and close to the runner, the runner shall be declared out.

Baseball has several unwritten rules, including this one.  The problem with these rules is that they are called very inconsistently.  Some umpires, on some days, choose to “enforce” the unwritten rules.  In reality, the umpire should just enforce the actual rule.  It is simpler to enforce a rule when you can point to it in a book.  Sure, in this case, had he called Jeter safe, he may have had an argument with the Blue Jays’ manager.  The difference is that in this argument he would have been able to use the rule book in his defense.  That’s what it’s there for.

The other most notable unwritten rule in baseball is, of course, the double play rule.  I think, if it were to be written, it would read something along the lines of  ”in a play where there is a force at second base, the defensive player covering the base will only need to be in the vicinity of the base prior to making a throw to first base.  Actually making contact with the base after having caught the ball shall be optional”.

I was recently at a conference and sat in on a presentation on a SharePoint application which combined the many social marketing tools. All the groups in the session could probably enhance their customer satisfaction and possibly increase their customer base through social marketing.

The session failed to address two key points, and no one at the conference knew to ask the most important questions.

• Are these the right tools for my organization?
• Who is going to create the content?

Until you have asked and answered these two questions, the answer to the correct form of social marketing is probably: None.

Social marketing is about finding the tools that will deliver the content to the users to keep them coming back. It is estimated that fewer than 10% of the users will contribute content to the site. Given this, it is important to identify these people and determine the types of content they will create. With something like blog posts, the contributors will most likely be internal. With discussion forums, the contributors will more likely be both internal and external.

I’m not going to claim to have a secret formula for what is the right type of social marketing. This is a question that requires a more intimate knowledge of the customers. The biggest key to success is to determine the best course of action and then follow that plan.

The next thing to consider is that the Hawks have some big signings coming up in the next few years. Next year, Patrick Kane, Jonathon Toews, Duncan Keith, and a few others become Restricted Free Agents. They are now eligible to sign an extension and all three should be wrapped up for long term contracts. All three will probably looking for big money and based on their performances, should get it. The Hawks have $16 million in payroll coming off the books next season (including those three). They are about $9 million under the salary cap based on the 2009-10 cap numbers and still have players that need to sign including the young and very talented Kris Versteeg. In order to sign all three, they are going to need to find some cap room somewhere. There are some trade rumors circling that would send either Versteeg or Byfuglien away. This does not seem like a great move, but that would depend on who was coming back to the Hawks. A better move would be to find someone to take the contract of Brian Campbell. He is currently making over $7 million to play on the second defensive line. That is money poorly spent as he has definitely not lived up to all the hype surrounding his signing last season.

So, unless the third time is the charm and the Hawks can lead Hossa back to the Stanley Cup Finals and bring home the cup, in the short term this does not seem like a good move. In the middle term, this move seems to handicap the Hawks for the next several years and will make free agency next year very interesting. The Hawks will have to hope that they can convince their young star players to stay with them long term at a nice discount.

If you Google (or Bing!) and try to find the difference, you will get real frustrated trying to find a quick, easy answer.  The main issue is a lack of a single definition for what is cloud computing.  The Berkley Report attempts to define cloud computing as “both the applications delivered as services over the Internet and the hardware and systems software in the datacenters that provide those services”, but they also explicitly exclude what they term “private clouds” which include data centers.

What sets apart Cloud Computing from Data Centers is three key elements of the cloud.  Again, from The Berkley Report.

1. The illusion of infinite computing resources available on demand, thereby eliminating the need for Cloud Computing users to plan far ahead for provisioning.
2. The elimination of an up-front commitment by Cloud users, thereby allowing companies to start small and increase hardware resources only when there is an increase in their needs.
3. The ability to pay for use of computing resources on a short-term basis as needed (e.g., processors by the hour and storage by the day) and release them as needed, thereby rewarding conservation by letting machines and storage go when they are no longer useful.

Most data centers have been created by, or in support of, companies offering a SaaS based product in order to allow customers to use their product.  The customer typically, though not always, enters into a term-based contract for the use of the service (#2).  The hardware is provided, in many cases for the use of the product being sold by the company functioning as the data center and getting other software or full access can be troublesome (#1).  As you are paying for the service, in most cases, the fee is set regardless of how much you actually use the service (#3).  Logging on once a month costs the same as logging in every day.

One other difference, not mentioned above is the ability for the resources to be quickly altered based on usage.  From the reading and training I have had on the cloud, this was probably the most useful feature to me.  In a typical data center, you have your machines.  They may be physical or virtual, but your space and resources are allocated when you sign up for the service.  Expanding or contracting the amount of resources is a process that requires someone to set up a new machine or alter the configuration of a virtual machine.  

In a cloud environment, they can be easily configured to add additional resources based on the load at a given time.  This does not have to be predetermined or even contracted for.  As you are only paying for what you use, you are only paying for those extra resources when they are needed.  Once they are no longer needed, they shut themselves down and you are back to your normal environment.  In fact, during a training on the Amazon Web Services EC2 Cloud Environment, the hardest part was turning off the load balancing so we could shut down our servers.

Obviously, there are other benefits and features that set clouds apart from data centers.  These range from virtually unlimited storage, to the flexibility of only paying while you are using the servers to the ease of rolling out new environments.

There are, of course, benefits that data centers have over clouds.  Unless this has changed recently, Microsoft currently does not allow its licenses to be used in a cloud environment.  I expect this will change as this was announced prior to them launching the Azure Cloud.  Also, there is the lack of physical access to the servers in a cloud.  You will probably never have access to the server room for Azure or EC2 or any of the other cloud servers out there.  In fact, with Amazon’s EC2, they will not even tell you where your servers are physically located.  You are pretty much limited to knowing the continent of your server.

Hopefully this helps clear up some things about the differences.  We really do need a clear definition of what is Cloud Computing.  Until we have that, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, will be able to make comments like his statement that, “I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements”.  This may be a little extreme, but, based on many companies claims, it’s not that far off.

A little about me.

I am the Product Manager at a software company which writes enterprise systems for associations.  I have been working there for longer than I’d care to admit.  I started working there when I met the President of the company at a job fair as they were closing down their booth.  It was a fluke that I went over to them as I knew nothing about them.  I went up and asked if they had anything that combined technology and accounting and was hired less than a week later.  Twelve years later and I’m still there.  My fascination with technology is what got me my job and that desire to learn more has not lessened over the years.  I spend a good portion of my day (probably better if I don’t admit just how much) scanning the web for information about new and emerging technologies.

I am also in the process of going back to get my Masters in Information System Technology.  This is a program which I have found extremely interesting.  I actually find myself looking forward to going to class. It is actually my current class which has, in part, inspired me to start this site.  The class is a study in emerging technologies.  Every week, several people in the class will give a presentation on Technology in the News.  These are extremely interesting and will be the subject of many of my posts.

In my spare time, I am a hockey official, a football official, and a scuba diver.  I also deal craps at private parties.  I also have some friends who are trying to get me to pick golf back up.  I went about 18 months without picking up the clubs, but there is a charity event coming up and we are putting together a foursome.  At least it’s for a good cause.  This pretty much takes up the rest of my time.  It will also probably take up the rest of my posts.  I’ll try to keep them interesting, even to those who may not be fans of the sports.  I promise not to clutter the internet with the same stuff everyone else is posting.  If I do, it will most likely be in response to something that is cluttering up the web.  Most will be on hockey, scuba or craps which are topics that not as many people talk about.  I tend to see things from the official’s point of view (which is completely opposite of most fans).

Scuba is something that one day I wish I was doing full time.  There is almost never a week which goes by in which I don’t daydream of living on an island, diving every day, and it really wouldn’t matter what was being done at night.  Until then, I will just have to be satisfied with my few vacations a year to go diving.  Hopefully, I will have some pictures and comments to share.  For some reason, underwater pictures are pretty universally liked.

Craps, for those of you who have never played, is by far the most exciting game in a casino.  Don’t know where the table is, just wait and listen.  The shouts will come and direct you there.  I’ve taught several hundred people how to play at this point, and one day, if I run out of things to blog about, perhaps I’ll write a quick tutorial for everyone.  The reason most people have never played is that people think it’s too complicated.  A few minutes with me and you’ll learn how easy the game is.

Well, that’s enough for now.  Have a wonderful evening and I’ll see you all soon.