Frontec Inc.

I have to admit that I am not a “Green” fanatic in the ideological sense of the word. I do not belong to Greenpeace or any “Save the Planet” type organizations. Don’t get me wrong, I love the outdoors. I used to go camping, hiking, climbing, and backpacking all the time before life overtook me. The thing about being “Green” that no one talks about is the law of supply and demand and how that equals money; money in my pocket and money in your pocket. If all the “Green” fanatics would get off the bandwagon of saving the earth and actually show people how it could save them money, their movement would go much farther toward accomplishing their goals.

Let me explain this a little more. About 5 years ago I bought a Ford Escape Hybrid. It was purely an economic decision, not a “Green” decision. Sure it cost more than a non-hybrid version. But I needed a vehicle that got good gas mileage and would allow me to carry a few things, as I drive a lot.  It does not get the best gas mileage compared to many other hybrid vehicles, but in Southern California traffic, it definitely has saved me a LOT of money. When it comes to supply and demand, if everyone or even a large majority of people drove hybrid or electric vehicles, or if legistaltion was passed to make the car makers design vehicles with better gas mileage, then there would be less demand on fuel and “all things considered” gas prices should go down for everyone. Less demand, cheaper prices.

Another example is lighting. I am sure most people use the fluorescent light bulbs around their house. For the most part they are ugly, but who cares. A fluorescent light bulb saves about $30 over its lifetime and has an ROI of about 6 months. I know millions of home users use this, but from my understanding there is still a huge open gap with existing home users and businesses. Of course the savings of fluorescent lighting is absolutely NOTHING compared to LED lighting. My friend Michael Keddington is the CEO of Permlight Products (http://www.permlight.com). Permlight makes LED based lighting systems. Their technology can be used in residential applications, business applications and especially in signs and outdoor lighting. Their lighting technology can last decades and uses up to 80% less electricity then standard bulbs. So the law of supply and demand again comes into effect in this scenario. If everyone, or a large majority of people, converted their lighting to these money saving technologies, especially LED technology, electricity usage would go down, when the demand of electricity goes down, so does the price and we all gain.

I have friends who hate recycling. Recycling saves manufacturers from needing to mine and produce raw materials. If companies have to spend their money mining and producing raw materials then they will have to CHARGE MORE.  If the supply of raw material goes up then the cost for companies to purchase it will go down and companies will not have to charge the end users more. Whether they will or not is another question, but the fact remains that the manufacturer will not be forced to raise the price because their costs are so high from needing to puchase raw materials.

I know the law of economics could break this down into a million pieces and convolute it with crazy derivatives and interest and what not, but in my simple mind, this makes sense and I know I am, at least partially, right about this. I could go on and on about the benefits of alternate energy and whatnot but this all leads me to my main topic of green computing.

The reason I am touting “Green” in my company blog is that Frontec is launching a new cloud computing service that promises to increase reliability and security while at the same time decreasing costs. The model that we have developed is as green as green computing gets and promises savings in every aspect of business IT and communications.

Green computing in my cynical mind is the process of making computing cheaper. How is that for a definition? Seriously though, a company’s technology is one area that is often overlooked in reducing a business’ expenses. The “Green” fanatics out there will tout the idea is to reduce a carbon footprint. That is not foremost in my mind because if you can make computing cheaper from a: technology perspective, a support perspective, an electricity usage perspective, and a delivery perspective, then one of the many byproducts will be a reduced carbon footprint. So everyone is happy.

 Think about the technology in your company, school or organization. Most companies have at least 1 server. These servers are usually in a “server room” or should be, with dedicated cooling. They are on 24 hours day, 7 days a week. Do you know that with cloud computing technology, like what Frontec is offering, you can actually get rid of all your servers, turn off your dedicated cooling and operate even more efficiently? That is a 100% reduction in electricity and cooling costs related to your servers. Do you know that with cloud computing, done right, you could reduce your electricity costs by 80% to 90% on all your desktops? We take it even farther, much farther. Green computing is not just about electricity usage, it is about reduction of costs at every level of am organization’s IT an communication costs. It is easy to see the supply and demand of electricity can reduce company’s expenses with cloud computing, but what about the effeciency cost reductions that can be seen in all your hardware and communication like an organization’s desktops and phone system. How efficient, green and cheap is a desktop computer that lasts 10 years and uses 80% to 90% less electricity? How efficient and green is a phone system that you never have to replace and uses less electricity?

Think about these questions. There are so many areas in an organization that can be improved with cloud computing. In part 2, I will get down to more detail of green computing and cost savings.

Stay tuned……..

Kindest Regards,
Todd Nielsen
Frontec Solutions, Inc.

Huh…. As the title suggests, this is another short post about social networking. I know some of the people that follow me are going to get a little upset, but I just have to describe my experience with Twitter.

Ok, so for the last few weeks I have been working on my Twitter page for Frontec/Me. I designed a page design and did nothing for a few weeks. Then I figured I better get cracking, because social networking is going to be a big part of the campaign we are about to launch for HybridizedIT.com, Frontec’s new cloud computing platform. So I started following people I, know in hope that they would follow me. I started doing some various tactics I developed (probably not the first to) to get a targeted audience of people that might be interested in what I have to offer. So things were going pretty smooth. I started racking up some followers. I have about 300 followers now which by no means is a large amount on twitter. I am not going for just a mass audience. I am going more for business owners, so I have a more selective following process.

At any rate, at first I had a few Social Networking and Twitter Consultants start following me. At first I thought, “Well I guess they are business owners”. Then another one started following me, then another one, then another one……..they just kept coming. I researched some of these people and some of these “Social Network Consultants” were teenagers.  A social networking consultant that is a teenager? I can see the young kid now, sporting pants hanging below his behind, face plastered with acne and an iPhone in one hand and a computer in the other hand. Granted I know Facebook is HUGE and was started by a teenager who is a gazillionaire. But I think that is a rare breed.

Other “consultants” were all over the board; men, women, old, young, college students, jobless, etc…. Most of them had a lot of followers, which I guess is supposed to be a “testament” to their astuteness as a social networker. Of course looking at their followers you find every level of follower, most I imagine has no interest at all in their services.

I do not know the exact number but I would have to say at least a third of my followers on Twitter were so called “Social Networking Consultants”. So this begs the question. “Do those that can’t, twitter and teach about it?”

I do see the value of social networking and I am all for the free enterprise and the capital system. But come on…. If you were serious about Social Network Consulting, then you should at least have a website and should have a good portrayal of yourself; meaning no skanky or otherwise casual pictures. And I am sorry, you have to have a background and experience that remotely gives you experience. Sitting around late at night eating pizza and twittering, does not make you an expert.

I know the economy is tough but is it that bad that everyone has to be a self-proclaimed social networking consultant? In Google I typed “Social Networking Consultant”. In quotes and I got 43,200 hits. I am sure they go by other names as well. “Blog Consultant” got 28,600 hits. Looking at all these results, I still had trouble finding one. But heck I could go on my twitter account and find a ton.

Of course “”Tweeter Consultant” only got 4 hits from 2 separate sites. Hey I think I think that first guy is following me.

It seems to me that a social network consultant ought to know a little about Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. I guess I am wrong though.

Well, I better get back to my twittering since I might be losing some now.

Kindest Regards,
Todd Nielsen
Frontec Solutions, Inc.
Twitter Page: http://www.twitter.com/frontec