Inertia and change.. Cloud is the way forward..

Read a very interesting post by Seth Godin today that highlights the emotions (questions) an entity faces when confronted with change. Please note that I use the word entity to refer to either an individual or an organization (of any size).

An excerpt from Seth's post:

When confronted with a new idea, do you:

• Consider the cost of switching before you consider the benefits?
• Highlight the pain to a few instead of the benefits for the many?
• Exaggerate how good things are now in order to reduce your fear of change?
• Undercut the credibility, authority or experience of people behind the change?
• Grab onto the rare thing that could go wrong instead of amplifying the likely thing that will go right?
• Focus on short-term costs instead of long-term benefits, because the short-term is more vivid for you?
• Fight to retain benefits and status earned only through tenure and longevity?

Interestingly we notice this type of inertia, in thought and in action, when introducing the radical concept of Cloud Computing time and time again. In our experience, entities that have been brave enough to acknowledge the benefits of a change such as the Cloud are inherently more innovative and transformational than those who have not.

With the current metamorphism of the technology world, it is imperative to embrace change at an individual as well as an organizational level. Seth summarizes it perfectly when he says:
"Calling it out when you see it might give your team the strength to make a leap."

As the world moves gradually to the Cloud, we see it more as a natural consequence of the Cloud's benefits - a "I knew it" moment rather than a "I told you so" moment for us.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Aug 26, 2011

The technological shift in enterprise software has been brought about by the web-based architecture of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). There are vendors with older client/server products which have evolved their architectures to offer web-based deployment. Some are just better than the others. Why is then SaaS or cloud application vendors moving ahead with greater momentum? SaaS is not just about the web browser. What makes SaaS unique is how SaaS companies are bringing to market new applications that are developed, marketed and consumed in a new way.

Read more to know the five reasons why the real impact of SaaS goes well beyond the web-based architecture and browser-based user interface.













Customers ditch resellers for cloud computing

The study, from web services firm Rise, showed 77 per cent of businesses would head straight to IT vendors when looking at purchasing cloud products, rather than going through the channel. As a further kick in the teeth, 15 per cent would ignore both resellers and IT vendors completely, seeking advice from the internet. This would leave only eight per cent heading to resellers for their cloud needs. Resellers and distributors that fail to recognize these facts and extend their portfolios accordingly will be failing their customers and themselves, and presenting these opportunities to resellers that do.

5 Ways Cloud Computing Will Make Your Business More Agile

Cloud computing has been increasing in popularity in recent years. The rise of server virtualization, the increases in bandwidth and broadband reliability and hardware advancements have led to increased power, availability and practicality of offsite data processing and online file storage. Cloud computing increases the efficiency of a business’s IT department and, in turn, makes the business as a whole more agile. Five ways in which cloud computing can aid a business are through

• Data protection/recovery 
• Availability of access to data 
• Scalability 
• Reduced cost, and 
• Allowing IT staff members to focus on higher-level tasks. 

Experts help clear air on cloud computing

Cloud computing is an umbrella term referring to the technology that allows IT services such as computation, software or storage to be handled by data centers offsite. These resources can be accessed by an individual or organization through the internet. William Fellows, co-founder of technology analyst firm The 451 Group, believes that, along with economic conditions and the service delivery model, the consumerization of IT is another reason why growth of cloud computing is inevitable.

Cloud computing India has bright outlook

Netscribes (India) Pvt. Ltd., a knowledge consulting solutions company, announces the launch of its report Cloud Computing Market in India 2011. Rapid expansion and need to concentrate on the core business will persuade organizations to outsource their IT services and infrastructure to third party cloud service providers. The factors influencing growth of the industry including reduced IT budget allocation, large number of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), improved broadband penetration and availability of large pool of talent for cloud, while the major challenges identified for the industry includes security issues and various transactional and service level issues.

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

Don’t forget to add your comments and suggestions. I will have more around the cloud a week later.

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.

Another chapter in the WOLF story.

Dear Friends,

We are proud to announce that WOLF Frameworks has been recognized as a leading Platform as a Service vendor in the Cloud Computing Platforms (PaaS) authored by Kevin Roebuck.

The book highlights Cloud Platforms: High-impact Emerging Technology - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors and is available for purchase on Amazon.

Go ahead and grab yourself a copy and do let us know what you think! 

Best,

Aditya 
WOLF Platform-as-a-Service

We're touching Cloudy peaks: WOLF is on Alltop!

Staying on top of news can be a challenge with the constant hullabaloo and barrage from all directions. Alltop.com gives you a great way to follow your favorite topics, improve the signal to noise ratio and get the relevant news byte for byte fresh off the blogosphere!

We recently touched a new Cloudy peak and are proud to announce that our Online Database Application blog (yes.. the blog that you're reading right now!) has been selected by Alltop under the "Cloud Computing" category. We would like to thank Alltop for selecting us and we will continue to bring our readers relevant and timely information about WOLF and from the Cloud!


Stay on top of the latest and best Cloud news at Alltop. You can now catch us at the Alltop Cloud Computing page.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Aug 19, 2011

At a cloud computing conference in New York in June, a number of speakers pointed out that the cloud is moving past the hype stage and is beginning to deliver tangible benefits to organizations. These improvements include increased flexibility and agility. But moving to the cloud can also mean added costs, some of which might be unexpected, according to IT executives whose organizations have implemented cloud services or are considering them. Some of the common factors that can lead to expenses while incorporating a cloud environment are:

• Moving and storing data 
• Integrating apps from multiple vendors 
• Testing software 
• Performance issues 
• Rent and utilities 
• Pilots and setup costs 

Read more to get a detailed understanding of these underlying costs in the cloud.

Latency in the Cloud

Despite all the hype around the move to the Cloud over the past few years, latency remains the one issue that many organizations are still failing to get to grips with. This is somewhat surprising, as file access and application performance – or in short, how quickly information is delivered to the end user or how long it takes to download or open a file – is often high on an end user’s priority list. High latency has a range of causes. A common one is the physical distance between the office and the data centre. Others include congestion on the network as well as packet loss and windowing. While many organizations have explored the use of various application performance tools that are currently available on the market, it is often the physical issue of distance that needs addressing.

Five Challenges to Monitoring Cloud Applications

Here are just five challenges that make monitoring cloud applications fundamentally different from monitoring the traditional on-premise enterprise application.

• Virtualized Resourcing 
• Profiling End User Response Times 
• Web Scale Load Testing 
• Multi-tenancy 
• Trend to Rich Clients/RIA Clients 

Small Businesses Gain Competitive Advantage with Cloud Computing

Multi tenant business applications with a pay per use pricing model gives small businesses an opportunity to compete against large enterprises with huge IT finances and their legacy applications. This helps smaller companies to enjoy enterprise level services, security and products at the fraction of the price.

Top 10 Presentations on Cloud Computing

From basics explanations to understanding the impact to Enterprise IT, there are a lot great presentations to educate you on the subject of Cloud Computing. However, with over 15,000 decks on the subject, it is hard to find the gems that are worth leveraging. Click here to find out the top 10 presentations for your consideration.

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

Don’t forget to add your comments and suggestions. I will have more around the cloud a week later.

Tadaaa…

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, Aug 12, 2011

As businesses seek to move their IT systems from traditional in-house arrangements to services which are hosted in the cloud to access from a web browser, reduced costs and increased productivity makes cloud computing an attractive option. However, outsourcing such a critical function requires a legal agreement which will protect a business' interests. A business should ensure the contract clearly states that it retains ownership of all data hosted by the service provider and that it has the right to access this data at any time it wishes to do so. Warranties and indemnities should be procured in relation to performance, accessibility and security of the data, in addition to setting out the precise security measures in place. The contract may need to include an obligation on the service provider to procure insurance for this purpose and not to do or omit to do anything which might vitiate the same. We here at WOLF really take our license agreements seriously.

Read more to find what else you need to include in your cloud computing agreements

The legal traps of cloud computing

"Ignorance is bliss". A lot of small business owners think they'll enter the cloud and all will be fine, but they do so without fully comprehending the risks and regulatory requirements. Some of the things business owners should clarify before entering the cloud are:

• Where is the data hosted? 
• Can you get your data back? 
• What about Data Encryption? 
• Are you still backing up anyway? 
• Finally always ask for legal advice 

Tips for regulatory compliance

Cloud computing makes it harder for enterprises to be sure they're complying with industry and government regulations. Here's how to stay in compliance:

1. Be aware of new challenges the cloud may add to your IT workload 
2. Track the fast-changing standards landscape 
3. Take care with the SLA 
4. Make security a priority 

Future of cloud computing … more clouds. Seriously.

Forrester believes that today we have a simple cloud broker model where companies can buy access to infrastructure as a service on demand; things such as Enomaly’s SpotCloud fit this mold. However, in the future, it expects a “full broker” to emerge that automatically spans all clouds and acts as a “fixer” for companies seeking to deploy new apps or handle busy times of year. The fixers don’t just do this for compute resources, but also will one day do it for people, making the idea of hiring seasonal workers something the full cloud broker could do — providing both the IT resources to support those people but also the people themselves.

Cloud 101: Are You a PC, Mac or Cloud?

When we talk about a computer’s local operating system (OS) today, we’re usually talking about Mac OSX or Microsoft Windows (or increasingly, Linux). Every computer has either of the above or some other OS. Today cloud computing gives you another option: the cloud OS. A cloud OS is designed to run within your Web browser, which means that it and all your programs and data live on the Internet rather than locally on your computer’s hard drive. In fact, everything comes from the cloud: your user interface, your applications and the files you create and save. Because all your data lives on the Internet, you can log onto your “computer” from any online device - a tablet, laptop, PC or even a Smartphone - using just a Web browser. Isn’t cloud making lives easier?


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

Don’t forget to add your comments and suggestions. I will have more around the cloud a week later.

Tadaaa…

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.

Looking for an Executive Assistant

We’re looking for an Executive Assistant who can work in Marketing/Sales and Strategic Expansion Programs

We are celebrating our third year of successful business with happy customers and think it's aptly right to add an Executive Assistant who can pick up all the left out conversations, work on inner stuff around marketing-sales, budgeting and planning, validate and understand implications of our daily business activities with our long term vision & plans.

Here's what we think of you:

You are full of energy and naturally intelligent and love to spend most of your time imagining, analysing, reasoning and testing new ideas. The word ‘shy’ does not exist in your dictionary and all you can think of is how to get your own hands dirty with content, bold communication and out of the way collaboration.

If you work with us, this is the kind of activities you would do during a typical week:

1. Call and meet the marketing agencies to map their value prop. 
2. Run the new marketing campaign for US visitors. 
3. Monitor and remove frictions to reduce CAC & conversion rates. 
4. Track interesting user behaviour/tech stuff and share it in the blog. 
5. Run dipstick surveys and contest to reward early adopters. 
6. Answer questions from prospects and filter feedback to sales/support. 
7. Talk to customers on recent progress, needs and unmet challenges. 
8. Feed social media team with newer keywords and content. 
9. Play and experiment with different tools to benchmark WOLF. 
10. Measure industry events and present trends on market and adoption. 
11. Identify key markets and lead Analyst Briefing relationship. 
12. Fill in the gaps on marketing/sales follow-ups on behalf of the CEO/Management team. 

Some more additional things that will keep you busy:

1. Ideate on newer possibilities and complete early market research. 
2. Work on industry affiliation, accreditation and participate at events. 
3. Attend to International Partners and Strategic customer meetings. 
4. Identify missing leadership roles and become the leader, example: In absence of Director International Sales you assume the role in less than 10 minutes.

Beware of the following:

We are not managers, only 8 practitioners working in a lean cloud start-up. Work is religion - goal is GOD. This role is for pros only and will need a minimum of 5+ years of sales/marketing experience in web based technology with product background as an added advantage. BE with MBA and a natural flair towards sales is how we imagine you to be. This job could see you as a hands-on leader heading one of our Business Units in time. Sounds interesting? If you’d love to do this every day, we want you. We need you!

Please get in touch by emailing hr [at] wolfframeworks dot com and include “EA” somewhere in the subject. Thanks!




Sunny Ghosh
Director & CEO, 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, Aug 05, 2011

Cloud Computing has created a disruptive transition in IT in recent time. CIOs worldwide are going through a turmoil where Cloud Computing is no longer an option and has become an accepted standard of doing things. Enormous scalability of future applications designed to process huge amounts of data is one of the trends of how Cloud Computing will change IT. Special purpose devices will interact online with trillions of devices connected to the Internet leveraging the Cloud. The cost of IT components including operating system, middleware and application software will decline rapidly making Cloud Computing much cheaper. WOLF being one the leading cloud backend software platform-as-a-service vendors, this is one of our very own value proposition and we understand this very well. The biggest challenge IT organizations will find in the post cloud world is legacy systems, thereby reducing their expenses on managing such systems. The post-cloud IT organization will rely heavily on PaaS, using an internal or external organization to manage the underlying functionality and infrastructure and the shift of IT investments will move towards applications.

Read more to find out how Cloud Computing will change the face of IT in the near future. 

Demystifying the myths of cloud computing

Following the future predictions of Cloud Computing there are also certain myths related to it.

Myth 1: Cloud is not secure
Myth 2: Cost is the only advantage
Myth 3: You should move all infrastructures to the cloud in one fell sweep
Myth 4: I can get all the benefits of the cloud with my own private cloud.

Cloud Computing and the Public Sector

The public sector is taking a long time to embrace the cloud compared to the early adopters in the private sector. What may be holding back the public sector IT procurement teams is the lack of experience of choosing the right solution. Buyers in the public sector are not quite sure what to look for, or how much to pay for it – particularly when ‘it’ is a constantly evolving, fast-moving target. Some of the common questions that may come to their mind are:

• Can the cloud help us make quick cost savings? 
• Can the cloud help us to reduce CapEx? 
• What about our data – is that safe in the cloud? 
• Is it a problem that we have no training? 

How Cloud Computing Benefits Government Customer Service

Cloud Computing helps governments to have multi-channel interactions with citizens through the web, chat, social networks, etc. without the burden of costly hardware and man-hours. Federal agencies can improve their services by allowing online inquiries thereby focusing more on critical issues. Cloud makes the service more reliable as citizens get access to real-time information at any point of time.

Time to think about cloud governance

Phil Wainewright, one of the biggest thought leaders in Cloud Computing has suggested organizations and enterprises to put up Cloud Governance strategy in place. Developing a strategy will force someone to think on issues of transferring the access polices from the existing enterprise infrastructure to the Cloud applications. I personally feel this is really essential and will trigger the cloud culture and thinking process within large enterprises.

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


Don’t forget to add your comments and suggestions. I will have more around the cloud a week later.

Tadaaa…


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.