WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, June 24, 2011

According to the “inaugural Future of Cloud Computing Survey,” the primary drivers for cloud usage are more flexible scalability and the potential for lower costs on the part of the customers.

But agility and innovation have been found to be the key factors as to why IT departments are adopting the cloud because it is seen as an “effective means to implementing new applications quickly to keep pace with application backlogs and business demands.” That’s not terribly surprising so long as the cloud infrastructure is built with the idea of scalability in mind, or else a speedy implementation is probably out of the question.

Read More to take a closer look at some of the survey highlights.



New security demands arising for virtualization, cloud computing

The rush toward virtualization of internal enterprise computing resources and cloud computing can have many advantages, such as server consolidation, but it's largely outracing traditional security and identity management practices. That's leaving huge gaps, a sense of chaos and questions about where security products and services should be applied in the world of multi-vendor virtual-machine (VM) hypervisors.

"Virtualization will radically change how you secure and manage your computing environment," Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald said this week at the annual Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit. "Workloads are more mobile, and more difficult to secure. It breaks the security policies tied to physical location. We need security policies independent of network topology."

The Growing Cloud

According to an IDC report, public cloud services will grow to a 46 % share in overall IT spending in another 4 years. By 2015, public cloud services will show this growth rate in 5 key areas – servers, apps, systems infrastructure software, basic storage and application development & deployment. According to IDC, public IT cloud services are designed and commercially offered for users. IDC forecasts that public clouds will mature to capabilities that include security and availability. This change may even make private cloud slightly less attractive to users.

Don't Fight the Public Cloud; Embrace It

When it comes to cloud computing, corporate IT doesn't quite "get it" just yet. Simon Crosby, CTO, datacenter and cloud division, for Citrix Systems (CTXS), said on Wednesday, June 22, that the enterprise cloud isn't about adding more servers, virtual machines, and very costly engineers. Instead, the cloud adoption process is one of a "creative model of destruction," because the corporate cloud should be adopting automation for efficiency. The other big barrier to enterprise cloud adoption is finding ways to merge the public cloud with private clouds in a way that provides trust and availability.

Cloud computing requires new thinking on privacy

The move to the cloud has broad implications on privacy and requires a lot of discussion on the boundaries and expectations for data in a cloud environment. The government’s approach to data privacy, in particular, is of great concern, from the legislation it enacts to the way law enforcement uses it, said Nolan Goldberg, senior counsel for IP and technology at law firm Proskauer.

We hope these short sum-ups on cloud computing are helping you to take a more knowledgeable approach towards moving to the cloud. Stay tuned for more sum-ups on in the forthcoming weeks.

Appreciate if you can add more to this list and help our readers to keep in touch with the Cloud...


Santanu Das
Marketing Evangelist, WOLF Frameworks

NOTE: The views expressed above are purely personal and for informational purposes only. WOLF FRAMEWORKS INDIA PVT. LTD. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, June 17, 2011

If speedy IT services are important, businesses should be shifting from traditional computing into virtualization in order to build a private cloud that, whether operated by their IT department or with help from a private cloud provider, will give them that edge. "IT is not just the host of equipment and managing it. Your job is delivery of service levels at cost and with agility," said Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman. He noted virtualization is the path to that in order to able to operate a private cloud where IT services can be quickly supplied to those in the organization who demand them, often on a chargeback basis.

 



Read More to know what experts are thinking.


Cloud Computing Survey Finds Scalability and Cost Savings Driving Cloud Adoption

Cloud.com, a provider of open source cloud computing software, along with its partners Zenoss and BitNami, today announced the results of a comprehensive cloud computing survey conducted to determine the key IT objectives and inhibitors for cloud adoption. “There is an unprecedented amount of interest around cloud computing but as with any nascent technology, industry users and solution providers are still coming to grips with the benefits and deployment options for cloud computing,” said Mark Hinkle, vice president of community, Cloud.com. “The survey findings help identify the needs of organizations and their preferences for deploying virtual infrastructure so we can develop solutions that best suit the needs of cloud computing users.”

Cloud Economics Favor the Small Workload

Cloud computing can cut the cost of running small workloads though may actually be more expensive for larger compute jobs, compared to the costs of running such work in-house, according to researchers from Pennsylvania State University. In-house provisioning is cost-effective for medium to large workloads, whereas cloud-based options suit small workloads

Cloud computing unlocks possibilities but raises security concerns

Like anything that has to do with technology; the cloud brings all the possibilities of convenience and worries about security. Technologists regularly say the cloud is to your data what the bank is to your money. Keep the cash in a safe in your basement, and it’s probably secure. Put it in the bank and you surrender security to somebody else in return for interest and the convenience that comes with checking and credit cards and ATMs.

Lock your data up on a hard drive, and it’s hard for anyone to steal your secrets. Put them in an Internet vault on the cloud, and there’s a risk that some thief might hack your stuff.But for convenience, the cloud backs up your virtual goodies in case your home computer breaks down. As long as you’ve got the Internet, you’ve got access to all your digital stuff wherever you are.

Bridging Private and Public Clouds

A bridged private/public cloud promises efficient workload relocation and an evolutionary path to more cost-effective IT operations. However, the challenges to building a bridge between private and public clouds are real. Aside from the emerging nature of cloud computing technology, IT managers must work with developers and business managers to ensure that development platforms, management controls and compliance issues are aligned between the private and public platforms in order to reap these benefits.

We hope these short sum-ups on cloud computing are helping you to take a more knowledgeable approach towards moving to the cloud. Stay tuned for more sum-ups on in the forthcoming weeks.

Appreciate if you can add more to this list and help our readers to keep in touch with the Cloud...

Santanu Das
Marketing Evangelist, WOLF Frameworks

NOTE: The views expressed above are purely personal and for informational purposes only. WOLF FRAMEWORKS INDIA PVT. LTD. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Fortune India names WOLF as a Cloud Computing startup to watch out for

If you've been following the technology world, then chances are that the Cloud is on your radar. Stepping away from the hype and the hullabaloo, the Fortune India magazine recently published an article on Cloud Computing startups that are away from the spotlight, mostly self-funded and bravely innovating and carving a niche for themselves in the crowded Cloud Computing space.

Emphasizing the potential of these Cloud startups, the article goes on to highlight their success from the innovative processes they use to design and develop applications faster, their focus on the under-served small and medium businesses (SMB) space and the partnership potential that they represent to larger companies that are looking to move into the Cloud market.

According to Fortune India,

"Analysts rate Wolf Frameworks' online database platform among the best.It offers the platform on demand or on a license-fee basis to developers."

This is moment of great pride for us and we would like to thank our customers and partners for their continued support. Go ahead and grab yourself a copy to read the article!

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, June 10, 2011

Many businesses are uneducated on the security of cloud technology and are missing out on its potentially business-changing benefits as a result. Understandably, users want to know how well their data will be protected and they want to be confident that it won’t be misused by the people they are trusting to look after it. They are also concerned about data sovereignty – where their data will physically reside and under what jurisdiction because there is more of an emotional concern about it going offshore at the moment. The popularity of cloud technology is likely to give rise to unscrupulous vendors and suppliers who exaggerate their level of expertise in cloud and ensure high security.



Read More to know what experts are thinking.

Options for Cloud, SaaS Data Integration Grow

Despite the growing number of tools available for SaaS integration, most companies are still using "labor-intensive custom programming," according to a recent Forrester Research report, "Seven Top Integration Trends for 2011 to 2012." The challenge of integrating on-demand applications with other systems was the number-two reason why respondents to a Forrester survey said they were not adopting SaaS, following security concerns. The options for cloud and SaaS data integration is growing fast.

Getting Cloud security right

In order to alleviate the security concerns that are either deterring customers away from Cloud Computing or causing hesitancy, service providers need to tackle the following issues:

• Multi tenancy
• Authentication and access control
• Protection and trust
• Pre-building secure, industry focused platforms 

How businesses small and large are being revamped by the cloud

If cloud computing was still something of an overhyped joke in 2010, 2011 is the year of the punch line. Key vendors are readying major cloud initiatives and data centre providers are on a cloud-fuelled investment binge, quickly evolving the concept from vague idea to revolutionary game-changer. With that commoditization come both opportunities and threats for small businesses: opportunities to totally reinvent themselves using cloud services; and new threats from savvier competitors if they don’t.

SaaS - More than a Buzzword for Indian SMBs

A recent research shows that Indian SMBs have increased their investment in implementing cloud based enterprise solutions by 43% in 2011. The increase in spend on enterprise applications was to be expected with the upturn in economy. However with lessons learnt the hard way over the past few years, they are careful to not go for just any solution. There are reasons beyond the cool sounding terminology for SMBs to prefer cloud over on-premises model.

We hope these short sum-ups on cloud computing are helping you to take a more knowledgeable approach towards moving to the cloud. Stay tuned for more sum-ups on in the forthcoming weeks.

Appreciate if you can add more to this list and help our readers to keep in touch with the Cloud...


Santanu Das
Marketing Evangelist, WOLF Frameworks

NOTE: The views expressed above are purely personal and for informational purposes only. WOLF FRAMEWORKS INDIA PVT. LTD. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, June 03, 2011

With more organizations hesitant to entrust their sensitive data to the cloud and a handful of high-profile breaches, providers are augmenting their protections capabilities. A spate of recent high-profile outages and intrusions into cloud networks demonstrates the real risk of using these services for critical operations. “If you put your critical data in public clouds and anything happens in the cloud - whether an attack from outside or system failure or any type of disaster - you no longer have control of that data,” says Joe Wulffenstein, department chair at US-based Northwood University.

Read More to know how security can be obtained in a cloud model.

Revenues from Cloud Services in India to Exceed $3 Billion By 2015

IDC, a technology research firm, has projected that cloud services in India will generate revenues in excess of $3 billion by 2015, out of which $534 million in revenues is expected within this year. The revenues will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56 per cent. In the same period the global revenues from cloud services will increase from $29 billion to over $70 billion by 2015 according to Hindustan Times, a leading India newspaper.

Cloud interoperability: Problems and best practices

As the hype over cloud computing evolves into a more substantive discussion, one thing has become clear - customers do not want to be locked into a single cloud provider. They would like the freedom to move among the clouds - ideally from public to private and back again. This would give customers the freedom to switch providers as their computing needs grow or shrink, and the ability to move applications and workloads around as their business requirements change. Read the entire article to find out the best practices the experts are suggesting today.

Cloud Computing: The Adoption of Cloud-Based Solutions

“Enterprises will adopt cloud-based solutions at a steady pace and not in a non-linear manner," noted Atul Saini, CEO & CTO of Fiorano Software, in an exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. "Most large enterprises have already been using ‘cloud-based' solutions since all of their applications are typically hosted in their own data centers, which can be thought of as private clouds."

Cloud Security Apps Promise Up-to-Date Protection

In theory, cloud-based security apps have two distinct advantages over desktop security suites. The primary advantage is that cloud-based software eliminates the need to run frequent threat-signature updates. Daily patch updates get annoying fast, and many users wind up tuning out the nag notes popping up from their system tray until the security software becomes too outdated to protect the PC. And since desktop suites typically don't update more than once a day, they can't offer the same kind of up-to-the-minute set of threat signatures that cloud-based security can.

The second advantage-again, in theory-is that cloud security software places most of the work of scanning files onto remote servers, rather than using your PC's resources. The expectation here is that running a lean, lightweight desktop app that outsources most of the processing to the cloud should benefit your overall system performance.

We hope these short sum-ups on cloud computing are helping you to take a more knowledgeable approach towards moving to the cloud. Stay tuned for more sum-ups on in the forthcoming weeks.

Appreciate if you can add more to this list and help our readers to keep in touch with the Cloud...
Santanu Das
Marketing Evangelist, WOLF Frameworks

NOTE: The views expressed above are purely personal and for informational purposes only. WOLF FRAMEWORKS INDIA PVT. LTD. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.