When will one of the top Data Center programs collapse? Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have the largest data center footprints with IT gear than anyone else in the industry.  Their programs are relatively young.  Google started 15 years ago.  Microsoft got going big 10 years ago.  Amazon launched AWS 8 years ago.  And Facebook followed after.

Throughout the history of technology developments a company collapses in the face of competition.  Each of these companies have different business models, but the data center programs are critical for the operation of these companies.  It is so important that billions of dollars are spent and there are thousands of people dedicated to run things.

It is an interesting thought exercise to ask which one of these data center programs could collapse and why.

Part of what inspired this post is this video on Richard Feynman “The World from another point of view.”  Asking questions that give you a different viewpoint can show you things that you hadn’t thought of, and then ask more questions.

Of these four - Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook - how would split up the probability of a collapse of their data center programs and what would the recovery look like?  

Could a design decision be made that causes a cascading failure? Unthinkable.  And because it is unthinkable it might happen as no one thought how to mitigate the event.

If you rewire your brain, what happens if you miswire? For example, you join a cult

The idea of rewiring your brain, neuroplasticity is popular.  One TedX video on changing your brain is this one by Barbara Arrowsmith Young.

But how do you know you are rewiring the brain in a good way.  Are you miswiring the brain?  Like how.  Like if you choose to join a cult as described in this TED talk.

Changing how your brain works is possible, but who do you trust to rewire your brain? 

Two different ways to run development, Exposure to customers or not

I had a good time in Bend, Oregon this week because in addition to Great Skiing, Good Friends, Lots of Breweries I visited the HQ for a software company.  I had two hours reviewing their technology and what our technology was, the players in the market, and various opportunities.  When I went in to the meeting I didn’t want to spend time showing software for a variety of reasons.  Then it hit me, the first time someone uses a software service is huge insight to be shared and learned from.  If I am the only one in the room with the user, then I am the weak link to get the developers to understand.  My ability to communicate the issues, perspectives, questions is  limited.  Even if the whole meeting was video recorded, the inability of developers to drill in to an area ask more questions, etc.

I made the mistake of sharing this idea that Developers need to get out talk to customers more with an executive who had a meeting with Bill Gates (over 15 years ago when it was probably not the right time to bring this up). I was in the meeting, there were only 4 of us, and this idea went no where.  Bill’s response was something like “That’s what we have program managers for.  Their job is to talk to customers.”   Which makes sense from one perspective, and if program managers are perfect communicators of customers intent and developers have perfect listening skills.  Yeh, the world is not perfect.

Clearly, something in our process had broken— the desire for quality had gone well beyond rationality. But because of the way production unfolded , our people had to work on scenes without knowing the context for them— so they overbuilt them just to be safe. To make things worse, our standards of excellence are extremely high, leading them...

Catmull, Ed; Wallace, Amy (2014-04-08). Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Kindle Locations 3041-3043). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

So there are basically two different views on Developers.  Should you have the developers talk to customers (some, not all) or should you leave the job of customer interaction to others and pass on specifications to developers?

I guess in depends on your goals.  If you want to make the safe choice, then it is probably best to have developers focus on writing code and leave the job of interfacing with customers to teams who have done this in the past.  On the other hand, if you are looking to build something innovative and disruptive, and you want to discover things that others have missed then having your development team interacting with customers can be a strategy to get something different created.

it appears to be a safe choice, and the desire to be safe— to succeed with minimal risk— can infect not just individuals but also entire companies. If we sense that our structures are rigid, inflexible, or bureaucratic, we must bust them open— without destroying ourselves in the process.

Catmull, Ed; Wallace, Amy (2014-04-08). Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Kindle Locations 2991-2993). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Don't scare your users/customers with your Innovation

If you believe the mass perception there is a huge need for Innovation.  Almost all companies say they want to be innovative and they support innovation in their company.

But, there is a dark side to innovation.  Innovation means change, and change means you need to adapt.  Adapting means you may not be as good at the new way as the old way.  so, maybe it is best to just keep your old habits, and new thing will be a fad and go away.  Yeh.  I'll put my head in the sand.  :-)

HBR has a blog post on making innovative ideas less terrifying.

Rarely have I had that kind of immediate trust and social currency when proposing something new.  More often, I’ve experienced the opposite reaction:  what I consider genius ideas have been greeted with blank faces, disapproving stares, and occasionally the outright smackdown.

New ideas tend to evoke fear and anger – we are programmed to prefer the comfort and safety of established norms. Much as I want to believe that a glaringly good idea will stand on its merits, I have come to realize that just like any product or service, ideas require good marketing if they’re going to reach their intended customers.

Huh,  I think what I need to try is pitch a new idea as "safe innovation"  Proven risk free change.

According to the research on successful entrepreneurs, their single most important trait is the ability to persuade.  Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur, unless your boss is as comfortable with disruption as Clay Christensen is, your ability to persuade is tightly linked to your ability to assuage fear. To get buy-in for any new idea, whether your customer is your manager, your direct reports, your teenage son, the CEO, de-risking is essential.  The ability to jump to a new vision or product or job almost always requires that those around us, our fellow stakeholders, also leap to a new curve of learning. If you’re looking for a break for your breakthrough ideas, prepare to skydive:  pack a parachute for you and your colleagues.

A good memory helps you imagine the future

The WSJ has an interesting article on the new power of memory.

Memory allows for a kind of mental time travel, a way for us to picture not just the past but also a version of the future, according to a growing body of research.

The studies suggest that the purpose of memory is far more extensive than simply helping us store and recall information about what has already happened.

Researchers from University College London and Harvard University have made strides charting how memory helps us draw a mental sketch of someone's personality and imagine how that person might behave in a future social situation. They detailed their latest findings in work published in the journal Cerebral Cortex last week.

I find this article interesting because it describes a great strategy on how to network.  Meeting people imagining how they fit in your future is built on a good memory of who they are and what they do.

Researchers from University College London and Harvard University have made strides charting how memory helps us draw a mental sketch of someone's personality and imagine how that person might behave in a future social situation. They detailed their latest findings in work published in the journal Cerebral Cortex last week.

How many of you think you have  data center systems that provide a good memory of past performance?  If you don't have a good memory of the past how can you imagine the future?