WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Sep 09, 2011

Phil Wainwright, vice-chairman of EuroCloud, noted that it is not just the larger organizations which can make the most of the benefits of the cloud, with small to medium-sized businesses having similar needs for facilities like home-working. He added that small firms are using online applications as a way of fulfilling their computing needs. "If you look at the market research that's being published now, I think in particular, the ready-made cloud applications that we call SaaS (software as a service) are certainly becoming a big element of choice for small businesses to quickly and cost effectively fulfill computing needs that they find emerging," Mr. Wainwright said.

Read More to find out Cloud Computing viable solution for small business



IT's consumerization of the workplace

As the world shifts to a post-PC era, in which non-traditional devices like mobile phones have become the primary access tools, especially in emerging economies like India, and 'IT-as-a-service' model gains momentum, applications, like say an Excel spreadsheet, can be ordered the way we order a DVD movie or an email. Companies are now working to bring consumer life experiences to the work place. Virtualization and cloud computing, which dramatically reduce the number of servers that are needed and with it the costs of building and maintaining large IT infrastructure, will help drive the consumerization of the workplace.

Cloud computing 'offers great mobility'

Businesses will find making the switch to cloud computing offers them numerous benefits across all areas of their work. Cloud computing users to only pay for services as they use them; it's a utility-based type of computing. That would be a very key aspect for reducing costs within a business. Great mobility will provide the opportunity for employees to keep up to date with work via a number of different devices while working from home or on the move.

Cloud Computing: What You Need to Know About PaaS

PaaS or Platform as a Service development offerings bring tremendous power and productivity to IT departments, along with a host of new challenges. Bernard Golden explains what CIOs need to know about this nascent segment of the cloud computing market. Cloud providers of every stripe are converging on what will be the development battleground of tomorrow—PaaS. They've clearly identified this as a crucial market—one in which the victors will enjoy huge spoils. It's also a market that will present significant challenges to users.

How 'cloud brokers' help you navigate cloud services

What's a cloud broker? Gartner defines it as "a type of cloud service provider that plays an intermediary role in cloud computing." Perhaps better put, they help you locate the best and most cost-effective cloud provider for your needs. The idea is compelling. You're looking for a storage-as-a-service provider, and instead of going to them directly, you use a broker to gather your requirements and find the best fit - in some cases, several good fits that you can use based on the best cost, availability, and performance.

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

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