Have you ever felt that there was something like a “disturbance in The Force” in regard to our education system? I do. But, as someone that it is far from being an expert on the subject, I don’t feel confident enough to even consider that my arguments are based on a set of solid criteria.

Anyway, I have always have a feeling that something was wrong. And, once again, I find myself in front of an awesome talk -“Leading@Google”, by Josh Kaufman- learning about the difference between Education and Accreditation. I invite you to take some time to watch it, it worth every minute invested:

Obviously, this is only one part of the picture: at least, the one I am able to see. The following collection of videos address this question from different perspectives and, basically, they all reach to the same conclusion: our education system is broken and needs to be reinvented.

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Past week I flew to Lisbon to participate in a Cloud Computing Event from IDC: “Managed Services, Outsourcing & Cloud Computing”. The place they chose to host it was the “Centro Cultural De Belém”, which is located on a beautiful neighbourhood. If you don’t happen to know Lisbon, as I don’t, I can promise you will be surprised :).

My talk was a pretty conceptual one covering the following topics:

1. The deep economic forces that drive this paradigm shift. A clear understanding of them is key when we want to design a successful business strategy in which Cloud Computing Services or Technologies might be involved.
2. Demystifying technological adoption processes. No matter if you are a believer or an skeptic. It is a complex phenomenon that we all have to understand to be able to filter out information about markets.
3. Looking into the future to figure out the role of Cloud Computing.
4. Look inside the Technologies involved. No matter which role we have on this game: we need to know.

Here you have the slides of my presentation. Hope you like it and, as usual, don’t hesitate to comment whatever you consider relevant. I would love to hear your feedback!

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Cloud Computing has been a buzz topic for a while. I understand it: it promises exciting benefits and, therefore, everyone wants to be there. Obviously, that’s not new. Nevertheless, I happened to attend several Cloud Computing events recently and I couldn’t help having a strange feeling of “déjà vu”:

• both Skeptics and Believers keep saying the same things over and over again.
• there seems to be some confusion or lack of understanding about how different concepts and components relate to each other.
• a broad set of diverse offerings and their respective confusing marketing messages don’t help to understand the context.

That is why I’ve decided to sort out my ideas and tell you my own vision about this subject. But, before going on, I would like to point out some important nuances:

• I am a Believer with huge respect on Skeptics points of view.
• This is a complex phenomenon with many interrelated and relevant perspectives that have to be analyzed both individually and also as a whole.
• I believe that this is a never ending learning process. In fact, I have invested a quite significant amount of time listening, reading, thinking and discussing about this matter. So, this vision is inevitably connected to what I’ve learned and, of course, is the reason why I have waited so long to write this down.



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Last year, I happened to be involved on a series of unusually complex problems that required some advanced diagnostic techniques. During the course of those issues I prepared some notes so that my teams could acquire some sort of independence and have a sense of how these tasks can be accomplished.

Advanced Troubleshooting requires lot of study, patience and dedication. Let’s face it: it’s not easy. But knowing what the tools are and how the process works helps on demystifying this activity. That is why I’ve decided to release my OneNote Notebook on Live.com so that you can link your OneNote 2010 to it or explore it yourself using OneNote WebApp.

I would like to warn you that this “discipline” changes a lot as tools, hardware and software evolve. Just take into account that these are my notes from 2010. I will try to keep them updated, but, unfortunately, I can’t promise to. Of course, just in case you you would like to contribute, just let me know. I would love to include your contributions. Maybe we can turn it into a collaborative project!

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