Web Masters of the Inland Empire

 

         Many see Silicon Valley, around San Jose, as the Mecca of computers. Others believe it would be Redmond, Washington, across the lake from Seattle where Bill Gates is master of all he surveys.

            In fact, the Inland Empire is as powerful as any computer center in the country. One example is the CyberStrategies Company of Rancho Cucamonga. CyberStrategies offers “cradle-to-grave” solutions that include:

 

* Web Development Project Management (including subcontract management)

* Business and Functional Requirements Analysis

* Front End User Interface and Graphics Design

* Back-End, Server-Side Design

* Middleware and Back-End Database and Legacy System Integration

* Custom Software Development

* Web Hosting and Site Maintenance

* Traffic Monitoring and Effectiveness

* E-commerce Process Development, Documentation and Training

 

            They were around and producing Web sites back in the nineties, before the so-called dotcom bubble. CyberStrategies is still here today, and as strong as ever. The Business Journal dropped by their offices on Foothill to learn about he computer business of the 21st century.

            According to CEO and President Mike Carroll, CyberStrategies is an Internet, Web systems’ development company---a Web hosting company, if you will. Primarily what they do, as indicated above, is engineer solutions for companies on the back end of a Website.

            With the word Web-hosting, many people think of the great dotcom debacle. The major difference between those that came and went, and those who like CyberStrategies, is that CyberStrategies is still around.

            On a serious note, Carroll says that they did not waste their money on banner ads.

            A lot or directory search companies, like Excite and Alta Vista, became dependent on banner ads for their revenue, and that became a big house of cards. These were dotcom companies who were dependent for their revenue on other dotcom companies. These companies were dependent on the ones who primarily got their money from their IPOs. They were trying to get real customers through the banner ads, but that didn’t pan out. A lot of those companies folded and the house of cards collapsed.

            It didn’t help that many of them overspent their startup capital on fancy offices and Super Bowl ads. In short, they were undercapitalized and overspent.

As with any industry, after the big rush and the eventual shack-out, a level of stability has come to the industry.

            Today according to Carroll, Google is the fulfillment of the original promise of the Internet. The best Internet technologists, back in the early nineties realized that something like a Google would eventually come about. Yahoo was the king of directory search, until Google came up and made everything much more efficient, and much more comprehensive. It is basically a no-frills search engine. And it’s very, very fast. That, says Carroll, is Google’s claim to fame. Banner ads, he continues, are not like the pop-up ads. Banners are embedded into the page and employ a hyperlink to the advertiser’s site. Even today, many companies are relying on this for business.

            As for CyberStrategies, their typical client has to have some kind of electronic commerce capability, such as a product catalog on line, with credit card processing and sales transaction. There are a lot of retail companies on their list.

Retail business on the Web can be a great equalizer. A local winery, like Galleano, has as much chance for business as a national label like Gallo. Then, Carroll told us, the only differentiator is how well they satisfy their customers.

            Amazon.com is a prime example, he said. Their prime membership costs $79 a year for those who buy books in quantity, guaranteeing free unlimited express shipping. Carroll has, and still does, design avionic’s systems for such companies as Lockheed and Boeing. The old, pre-computer systems were Tacan and Loran and the old radio compass that relied on a local AM radio station for directions. Today everything is GPS and inertial navigation systems.

            Meanwhile today’s computer business is headed for what Carroll calls Linux Migration Services. Today, the Apple Macintosh uses BSD, which is a cousin of Linux. CyberStrategies has actually been using the Linux underpinnings since the nineties. Linux is actually a part of the Unix system of which there are any number of variations. Many companies are finding economy in the Linux system. For one, they don’t have to pay the large royalties to Microsoft for their server technology.

            Carroll explains that at Boeing alone there are some 600 engineers, which require quite a bank of file servers behind the scene. The desktops are still Microsoft, so they still use Word and Excel, but the back ends are all Linux. This is where CyberStrategies comes in. They help businesses here in the Inland Empire figure out a way to migrate their print services and file services off of the Windows infrastructure and onto Linux.

            Where are things going?

            Mike Carroll is predicting a new technology that is coming to the fore called Service Oriented Architecture. This will allow the user to custom make applications with components like a spreadsheet or text editing. These custom applications will come together with Wizards to become right for your particular job. This will allow businesses to not only use commercial applications like Word, but also allow them to blend with special applications created by the company.

            Mike Carroll actually based his company on a book he wrote called, “CyberStrategies: How to Build an Internet Based Information System.” The book was based on his firsthand experience in managing the development of a large corporate intranet for the Lockheed corporation when they had facilities at Ontario’s airport in the early 1990s where he served as manager of Advanced Computers and Software Applications. His CyberStrategies work focuses on business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce.

            His partner, Miles Kurland, is a graphic design specialist. Much of his work has helped to form the World Wide Web including prototype software that was the basis for America Online. His work has also contributed to such programs as Adobe Photoshop and Fractal Design Painter as well as Shockwave and LucasArts Habitat.

            CyberStrategies works with e-commerce customers while helping them to achieve profitability. From back-end systems to site design, from usability to content development, they deliver e-commerce solutions that add to the bottom line.