Dominic Smith

Rackspace Digital | Cloud, Apps, Digital, Trends and More

Content strategy and production for a microsite aimed at tech-savvy marketers.

HP Public Cloud

Web content strategy and copywriting deliverables for initial HP cloud website.

Tech Support Through the Ages

This post is brought to you by Rackspace, the #1 managed cloud company. A casual search on YouTube reveals a wealth of funny-and sometimes cruel-stereotypes of tech support professionals. We recently made a promotional video that poked gentle fun at the various ages of tech support, from the 1960s until now.

Small Teams, Big Deployments

Before the cloud, a technology-driven business had to invest heavily in hardware and IT expertise. If their application or website grew rapidly, they had to purchase more servers, build a data center and hire an array of technology experts-from sys admins and DBAs to web and network engineers.

Building the "Cloud of Clouds" with CERN

The issue of interoperability is as old as computing itself. In the cloud era, the impact of being able to federate identities and leverage resources from across public and private clouds has the potential to revolutionize science and industry.

What it Takes to Provide a Seamless Customer Experience

At the heart of creating a unified conversation across all digital channels are three core technology areas: web content management, e-commerce and mobile platforms. Each of these areas has its own nuances, but it's the aggregate -- the integration of all three -- that will determine a brand's ability to prosper in the age of the customer.CMOs and CTOs are being asked to work together like never before to solve the technology integration riddle in order to achieve high levels of enga Topic:...

7 Tech Logos Before They Became Iconic

Logos are an essential part of a brand's identity. A great logo encapsulates the personality and promise of the business behind it. Some of the world's most ubiquitous logos had humble beginnings. In 1975, Carolyn Davidson was paid $35 to develop the Nike logo and the "Swoosh" we've come to recognize has remained more or less intact for nearly forty years.

What the Internet Looked Like Pre-Drupal, WordPress & Joomla

Dominic Smith is a senior writer and content strategist for , the digital marketing infrastructure specialists. Putting together a recent comparison infographic of WordPress, Drupal and Joomla! got me thinking about what the Internet looked like before open source content management systems (CMS) came along.

How GoPro and Tesla Hacked Digital Marketing

Digital marketing, like the "analog" marketing that came before it, relies on word of mouth. Clicks, shares, pins and retweets are all part of the conversation. Even in the age of BuzzFeed and go-viral formulas (online quizzes involving yesteryear celebrities apparently back in style), many brands still engage traditional ad agencies and marketing consultants to craft their message.

The Evolution of Viral Advertising

In the age of experience-based marketing, some brands want us to do more than just buy their products. They want us to interact with them, to love them. Dan Wieden, legendary adman, described this desire for active participation when he said: "Brands are verbs. Nike exhorts. IBM solves.

What Does The Future of Data Centers Look Like?

Senior writer and content strategist for Rackspace Dominic Smith writes about technology and innovation. Data centers are to be found in the most unlikely places - from the icy tundra of Antarctica or the belly of a converted 19th century church, to a retrofitted nuclear bunker or a 32-story colossus.

Little Data: Tracking Your Life Through Numbers

Chances are good that you have at least one friend who tracks calories, workouts, or books read. But do you know anyone who puts out an annual report of those numbers in exquisite, visual detail? Nicholas Felton, the design brain behind Facebook's timeline feature, has put out his own personal annual report for years.

Avoid the Museum of Dead Content: What to Do When Web Content Expires

We've all seen it before-a neglected, haunted corner of a corporate website where stale, uninspired content has taken root like fungus. Nothing sends potential customers away faster than dead content.

[bylined for exective] Will 2015 be the DevOps tipping point?

Since the term first appeared at a conference in Belgium in 2009, DevOps - a practice that breaks down the traditional silos between development and operations - has steadily gained momentum. Based on a recent survey, 2015 looks set to be a watershed year for its widespread adoption.

DevOps: IT's Only Chance Of Keeping Up - InformationWeek

DevOps pushes two differing cultures together -- developers and operations -- but it gives IT a fighting chance at keeping up with the business. A recent survey suggests that companies practicing DevOps deploy code 30 times more frequently than others. I'm not surprised.

Open Source Data Grows Up: Choosing MySQL, NoSQL, or Both

Open source data has a split personality. There's the NoSQL zealot who likes to fire off tirades against the restrictive world of relational databases, then there's the MySQL devotee who's a staunch defender of everything structured - with all that data living neatly in a table somewhere.

Here's the part about the cloud online marketers need to know

There are some basic concepts and strategies that online retailers need to know-even if they're not technology specialists-that can be pivotal in keeping an e-commerce site running smoothly when traffic spikes. When lifestyle brand Alex & Ani ran a TV ad during the 2014 Super Bowl, the company knew that the performance of its ecommerce-driven web site was key.

Upping Our Marketing Game @ SXSW [Infographic]

Like most digital marketers, we like to measure things-cost per click, cost per acquisition, number of unique visitors. Name a marketing acronym and we probably measure it. When we talk to marketers using our infrastructure for their campaigns, they send the same message-"Give me a real-time dashboard with metrics because I like to watch the needle move."

Exploring The Universe Of Big Data [Infographic]

Like the universe itself, Big Data is expanding. And as with space exploration, the more technology we point at data, the more we discover. Since 1992, there have been 755 planets discovered that orbit their very own stars (extrasolar planets).

Choosing An Open Source Content Management System [Infographic]

Open source Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla! have now been around for a decade or so, doing their part to make the internet a more manageable place. At its core, a CMS structures the experience of developing, managing and consuming a website.

[video] Online Shopping Carts in Real Life: 7 Mishaps to Avoid | Digital Destinations

We've all experienced unruly online shopping carts-from nonsensical recommendations to the mystery item that suddenly appears at checkout. In this funny video, Rackspace Digital-the experts in digital marketing infrastructure-wondered what the most common mishaps would look like in real life. To avoid these and other digital missteps, download a free white paper on Ecommerce Replatforming Basics.

Video: "Tech Support Through the Ages" [concept and producer]

What Mad Men's Peggy Olson Could Do On The Cloud

In a recent episode of Mad Men, Peggy Olson channels her old boss, Don Draper, when she pitches Heinz ketchup. There's ketchup, Peggy says, and then there's the cheap and watery imitation- catsup. "They're selling their watered down, flavorless sauce by pretending that they're you," she says, looking straight at the Heinz executive.

Exploring the universe of big data

Since 1992, there have been 755 planets discovered that orbit their very own stars (extrasolar planets). Furthermore, NASA suspects there are a few thousand more lurking in the data from the Kepler Mission that they haven't yet been able to analyze.

Open Source Solves J.K. Rowling Mystery

As OSCON, a global conference on open source software, got underway in Portland this week, the timing of the recent J.K. Rowling unmasking couldn't have been better. As my colleague and co-author, Garrett Heath, tweeted from the conference, "Accio Open Source!"

How Performance Cloud Servers Are Delivering Measurable Impact

Since releasing Performance Cloud Servers late last year, we've been thrilled by the response from customers. We knew that enhancing speed, throughput, reliability and scalability would be embraced, but it's still heartening to hear about the measurable impact directly from customers. Here, we highlight some of the most tangible performance gains we've seen and heard about.

What Does It Take To Hit A 10X Performance Improvement?

In a recent guest post entitled " Performance at Scale: SSDs, Silver Bullets and Serialization " for High Scalability, Aaron Sullivan, a Principal Engineer at Rackspace, took a close look at the problem of trying to increase performance across software and hardware systems. Let's say that you want to increase the performance of your application by 10X.

Conversant Media Leverages The Rackspace Cloud For Next-Generation Content

As part of the Web 2.0 explosion, media companies all over the world have been re-engineering the user experience-from providing increasingly rich forms of content to integrating social networking and opinion-based commentary. The days of re-posting news and sports articles for passive consumption are long gone.

Making data matter

All of the initiatives highlighted in the "Making Data Matter" slideshow have one thing in common: They're multipronged, data-driven approaches to solve old problems with new data-driven insights.

Choosing WordPress, Drupal or Joomla for your website

WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are all open-source content-management-system (CMS) platforms that have been built by developer communities from all around the world. From humble beginnings, they've grown to power some of the biggest and most prestigious sites on the planet - including web properties from Sony, Coca-Cola and Harvard.

Rackspace :: Solve Chicago

Register now for this one-day technology summit in Chicago | View as a webpage.

Rackspace::Solve - Chicago - October 20th at The Peninsula

Whether it's scaling your business, navigating Big Data, or unifying your customer experience across digital channels, Rackspace::Solve offers real-world solutions from today's tech and business visionaries.

Experience the Rackspace Performance Cloud

Experience the High Performance Cloud We engineered Cloud Servers to deliver everything you need to create modern websites and web-scale applications. Get Started for Free Additional Videos courtesy of: An Ode to Creative work by Behance - Behance The Innovators - Behance's Scott Belsky - EntrepreneurOnline USTA 2012- Andre Vandenburg, GlassBoy- Roni Kleiner, Factory Fifteen, World Expo 2010 Shanghai- Jonathan Kim Stop wasting development time working around a low-performing cloud.

Digital Marketing. Simplified

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HP Customer Profile: Paul McCartney

Developed for the CEO of HP

HP Customer Profile: Macy's

Developed for the CEO of HP

HP Proliant Gen8 Servers Positioning Guide

Overview of Gen8 Server Series

HP Proliant DL 160 Data Sheet

HP Quick Reference Card: ProLiant DL 160

Dynamic Display Ad: Managed Cloud

Display Ad: Managed Cloud

Display Ad: Managed Cloud

Dynamic Display Ad: Managed Cloud

HP Cloud Service Automation: Technical White Paper

HP Hybrid Cloud: Test and Development White Paper

HP Converged Cloud Architecture White Paper

Installation Guide: Vignette Content Management System

Planning Guide: Vignette Content Management System

Developer's Guide: Vignette Content Management System

Upgrade Guide: Vignette Content Management System

The Millions : Where is all the Fiction in Space?

By Dominic Smith posted at 12:00 pm on November 18, 2013 As NASA readies its next Mars launch for today, we're getting used to the idea of entertainment in space. Recently, Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, shot a music video of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" onboard the International Space Station and it quickly went viral.

The Impediments of Style: Advice from Steven Pinker and the CIA

Earlier this year, when the CIA's style manual was released online (pdf), writers and editors across the web took note. Bureaucracies are often criticized for propagating opaque prose - the kind of double-speak that pronounces very little with an abundance of words. But here were CIA directives that sounded far more like Strunk and White than big government.

The Millions : The Literature of the Standing Desk

In an 1883 article from Popular Science, Dr. Felix Oswald expounds on the remedies of nature. Mingled with imperatives about taking cold baths before dinner and opening bedroom windows at night is this pearl: "At the first symptoms of indigestion, book-keepers, entry-clerks, authors, and editors should get a telescope-desk.

The Millions : Letter of the Law: On J.D. Salinger, Unpublished Works, and US Copyright

1. In the acknowledgments forSalinger , the new biography that accompanies the documentary about the reclusive lion of 20th-century literature, the authors state: "Most biographies include photographs of and letters to and from the biographical subject, but as in the case of someone as secretive as Salinger, photographs of Salinger and letters from him were extremely difficult to come by."

The Millions : How Many Novelists are at Work in America?

Writing a novel is like starting a small business and investing thousands of hours without knowing exactly what it is you’re going to end up selling. It’s a leap of faith every time, even for someone who is five novels into a career.

Whitmore, 1969

We drove under a tin-white sun. In Des Moines my brother and I had each dropped a tab of acid, and now the Midwest rushed at us-great rows of corn and swaths of open field, a startling horizon of alfalfa haze.

Twin Wells

Chapter Two: The Mustang Room, by Dominic Smith.

Personal Author Website

The Home of Dominic Smith, author of The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre, The Beautiful Miscellaneous, and Bright and Distant Shores.

Simon & Schuster Author Page

Dominic Smith grew up in Sydney, Australia and now lives in Austin, Texas. He holds an MFA in writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.