What's Important to You?

There are many new and exciting technologies appearing on the information technology landscape. Examples include "cloud computing" and "virtualization". Some of these technologies will prove to be revolutionary while others may fizzle. We test and evaluate many of them as a way of determining what might be useful and affordable for our clients.

However, we can't do this work in a vacuum. We need your input to help us figure out what new technologies to pursue and to make available to you through our service offerings.

The pace of technological change is so fast today that it is forcing us to change the way we do business and change the services we offer to our clients. So, as we work to develop our new service offerings the first question we ask ourselves is, of course: What do our clients value?

Do you value secure systems most? Is it reliable systems? Easy to use? Flexible? Low cost? Cutting edge? What are your priorities?

So, the first thing I'm asking each of you to do is to think of the ideal computer services for your company and arrange the following list in order of importance to you:


_ Ease of use

_ Flexibility

_ Security

_ Technical currency (i.e. cutting edge technology)

_ Remote Access

_ Low Cost

_ Reliability

_ Other (please specify)



If you are not comfortable replying to the blog (where others can see your reply), then please e-mail me personally (john@jmbalch.com). Once most of you have replied, I'll compile the results and post a summary for all to see.

In coming blog postings we'll continue the conversation. I'll talk about some of these new technologies and try to explain them so that you can help us determine whether they can be useful to you.

Of course, this won't work if its a one-way conversation so I encourage all of you to post your comments, insights and ideas.

Thanks!