Today I co-presented a fireside chat on behalf of IDC Multicloud Events with Cloud Reach and Intel. You can watch below.

For many Boards, the pandemic has catalysed broad business change by accelerating digital transformation initiatives. The availability of cloud computing has democratised access to technology, and businesses of all shapes and sizes have seized on this opportunity to: increase revenue, margin, and profit; enter new markets and launch new products and services; delight, excite and get closer to their customers; and become more operationally efficient, increasing productivity, cutting waste, and reducing costs.

One of the biggest challenges for organizations that adopt the cloud is aligning their development spend with business initiatives while managing and optimizing spend. That’s Joe Daly’s job at Nationwide, where he began overseeing the insurer’s cloud migration more than two years ago. I spoke to Joe about how this shift has created greater transparency, flexibility, and efficiency as we recorded it as a podcast.

From peak CPU and peak RAM, to decommissioning costs, there’s more to think about than TCO. How can you assess (at a detailed level) whether migrating X application to the cloud is going to make sense for your organisation?

ZDNet visited AWS today and sat down with me to discuss the steps for creating a successful cloud adoption business case. Coverage of the conversation can be viewed here.

Today I presented at AWS re:Invent on the key considerations organisations should make as they consider a migration to the cloud from their on-premises data centre. Joining me on stage was Greg Cope of the Financial Times who shared stories from his experiences in migrating to AWS.

Covering my presentation today on the key considerations organisations should make as they consider a migration to the cloud from their on-premises data centre was TechRepublic who did a great write up of my keynote, which you can read here.

Today I presented at the AWS Transformation Day London on how to write a business case for a migration to the AWS cloud. You can view the video here and see coverage from Hosting Journalist here.

Whilst at today’s Merchant Agent Risk Forum (www.merchantagentriskforum.com) in London, a topic that frequently came up was that of the types of due diligence merchants* should be undertaking when evaluating an agent* to build and operate a website on their behalf that accepts payments.

Creating an ecommerce website that supports multi-currency transactions is a monetary minefield. Looked at and discarded as too complicated by many website owners, especially smaller companies, here’s my ten point check-list of the key areas you need to consider when selling outside the UK.Creating an ecommerce website that supports multi-currency transactions is a monetary minefield. Looked at and discarded as too complicated by many website owners, especially smaller companies, here’s my ten point check-list of the key areas you need to consider when selling outside the UK.

It’s all well and good having a shiny website with lots of products and fancy images but if you don’t have the right content running throughout the website, the success of it will be seriously hindered not least by its inability to surge up natural search engine results. From the moment a website is launched, content plays the key role in ensuring your website evolves into a successful presence on the World Wide Web. However, content writing is often an afterthought – something you ‘retro fit’ to your website after it has been built, or been live for a long period of time. So I’ve taken a look at some of the mistakes people make when it comes to website content and the best ways to get the most out of it.

As relentless as the common cold, a slew of brand new viral marketing campaigns are marching across the world entertaining recipients and creating new channels to market for those brave enough to give them a try. But what is viral marketing and how should your business be using it?When people think of viral marketing, it tends to conjure up images of email junk and underhand marketing techniques. Yet for all these negative connotations, it is a marketing tool that should not be ignored. With that in mind, I have taken a closer look at what viral marketing actually is and how it can benefit your business.

Despite the country slumping further into recession, it seems we won’t find any sympathy from our old friends, Google. The Internet giants last week announced plans to increase the service fees it charges to its online merchants using their Google Checkout service – leading to fierce criticism from angry vendors.

It is not so much eMarketing’s best kept secret as its most under used asset. Despite the variety of benefits of sending out newsletters, a remarkably large number of online businesses are still not utilising this promotional avenue.

To some their life would be empty without it, while for others it is something to avoid like the plague.For those who are already au fait with the likes of Facebook ,Twitter and My Space , you will know how easy it can be to spend hours on end joining obscure groups or seeing what that shy, yet strangely attractive, old school friend is up to nowadays.

Whilst The British Retail Consortium (BRC) this week warns that high street spending is down, it seems that there is no stopping the rise in online shopping. The BRC reports that March’s figures for high street spending were the worst since July 2005, when bad weather hit sales. The results have confounded expectations that this year’s early holiday period would boost the High Street.

We’re a nation in love with e-shopping! Come the London Olympics, online stores will also be going for Gold. Right now, we’re shopping for England (and for Scotland, Wales and Ireland) when it comes to buying online – out-shopping our European neighbours. Online sales in Britain raced ahead to £12.8 billion last year, placing us in gold medal position in the e-shopping league.

Like many people here in the UK I spend a lot of my time driving to meetings, the shops and generally getting around. I tend not to touch public transport unless I’m going to London in which case I’ll catch the GNER or a plane. But the recent Downing Street petition against road pricing got me thinking, so here’s my two cent’s on the subject.

It’s been one of those slow weekends where I spent a lot of time playing with search engines and wondering what’s coming around the corner for us in the world of search.

It seems that someone at the LA Times has finally woken up to what I’ve been saying all along – the saviour of regional newspapers is going to be content, content, content. Editor James E. O’Shea finally took action in unveiling a plan to continue publishing the paper rather than letting it go to the wall.

With Northcliffe up for sale and advertising revenues showing no signs of a recovery, could the future for the regional press really be Local? When Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) announced the sale of its regional newspaper division – Northcliffe – last week, many observers commented on the likely outcome of the sale. Speculation of who the new owners would be was rife.