Read Ahead

Learning is a continuous and collaborative experience. I'm interested in how ideas are shared and how conversation and community engagement reinforce concepts by encouraging people to make a personal connection to learning. Matt Uvena is a first year dual degree MBA - MS Information Systems candidate at Boston University's School of Management.

[mattuvena]

Information systems class covered a case on Amazon Web Services which led into a discussion over cloud computing and storage. The idea of online privacy always spooks people out but cloud storage boils down to this:

Public Cloud - Customers can use a service but don't actually own the hardware (ex: Dropbox).

Private Cloud - Companies will own their own hardware and the data will be accessed from remote virtualized servers (ex: Financial services industry firms will use private cloud systems). 

When you store work or personal files, are they being saved to a personal or private cloud? 

[mattuvena]

Strategy class covered competitive positioning in a case discussions of the express package delivery industry in the late 90's and disposable diaper industry in mid 70's. Differentiated companies seek out products and services that will increase a customers willingness to pay. Low cost strategists continually strive to drive down costs. Firms will adopt one of these two strategies to seek a competitive advantage - profits above the industry average. 

Any thoughts of where companies fit into the competitive positioning grid in the retail clothing industry?