WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Mar 30, 2012

The cloud lets companies make huge savings on computing, but there is an initial outlay that might put many off. In today's fast-paced business environment, every company is looking for ways to accelerate its rate of business and to respond quickly to shifting market demands and opportunities. Technology plays a crucial role in speeding up business processes. It is no longer acceptable to delay a major company initiative for months so the IT department can spec out, purchase, test, set-up, and provision new systems. By utilising the cloud, companies can scale their infrastructure depending on demand, lower the capital expenditure on infrastructure and software, and reduce the maintenance costs for their IT architecture, allowing them more time to focus on innovation and other business critical tasks.



Find out how the cloud is a business model changer

Cloud Computing Impacts on Facility Management

Exafort's CEO Arun Kanchi talks about Cloud Computing Impacts on Facility Management in a panel discussion organized by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Silicon Valley Chapter at NetApp, Sunnyvale, CA. "Cloud computing is not a job eliminator, it is a job creator," said Arun Kanchi, CEO of Exafort. According to a recent study by analyst firm IDC, Cloud Computing will potentially generate at least 14 million new jobs across the globe within the next three years.

Cloud Computing: Leading From The Front

Cloud computing refers to a convergence of technologies and trends that are making IT infrastructures and resource intensive applications more modular, and more consumable. The cloud offers business enterprises the opportunity to consolidate their IT operations and adopt virtualization technologies that lead to eliminate capital expenditure, better utilization of resources, instant access to the latest technology at all times, greater innovation, speedy deployment cycles and lower administrative costs.

Cloud Computing: Are We Ready?

Every business needs to make sure that all of its employees have the right hardware and software required to do their jobs efficiently. Hence whenever a company hires a new employee, it needs to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require to perform their tasks.

CIOs plan to increase cloud spending

Six out of 10 U.S. companies already have at least one application in the cloud, and 71% expect to increase spending on cloud services in the next 12 months, according to a recent IDG Enterprise survey of 554 IT professionals, including 357 heads of IT. Most respondents (64%) agreed with the statement that cloud computing will mean higher costs in the short term, but will save money in the long term.

Barr Snyderwine, CIO of Hargrove, an events management company, says using the public cloud is his way of keeping costs down. The company is using an online collaboration tool for document sharing because "it's so cheap I can't say no," he says. "We are probably saving money in the long run on the [business] continuity side."

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

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.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Mar 23, 2012

Is cloud computing the secret weapon that can relieve many of the common customer service complaints? Consider this: You’re a systems administrator who’s received a request for a new application server for a hot proof-of-concept project for a client. You fail to realize the customer marked the request urgent, so you acknowledge their request and it is added to your queue. The customer is impatient, since they have no idea what’s going on. You explain that you will get to this request ASAP. Later, your manager calls to explain the customer called demanding the request be completed ASAP. Now you realize the request is urgent and you must reprioritize.



Find out how moving to the cloud help restore customer satisfaction

Cloud computing - time to get on with it?

Nearly four years ago, IT research company IDC described cloud computing as being in first gear. Today, says Chris Morris, IDC's Asia-Pacific head of cloud computing analysis, the cloud is here and organisations should "get over it and get on with it". If that sounds like more of the hype that abounds in a sector that is never stuck for a new trend, Morris says cloud computing's arrival can be seen in hardware sales. "Cloud service providers are responsible for a growing proportion of equipment sales," he says, as they build new data centres to cater for cloud customers.

Cloud Computing is New Wall Street Boom Says NIA

After years of rumors about cloud computing going mainstream around the world, the cloud computing boom is now finally here. The National Inflation Association believes that by the year 2013, cloud computing could become a bigger boom on Wall Street than the dot-com boom was in the year 2000. Cloud computing is currently a $74 billion industry that accounts for 3% of global IT spending, but in 2013 cloud computing is expected to become a $150 billion market.

CIOs' Love-Hate Relationship with the Cloud Revealed

A new report out of Saugatuck Technology confirms a dramatic shift in cloud computing intentions over the past one or two years. “Buying and deployment patterns have shifted rapidly toward a near full embrace of the cloud, from the more tactical and point solution-focused initiatives not long ago,” writes Bill McNee, author of the report. The consultancy recently conducted in-depth interviews with a dozen large enterprise CIOs and CTOs with $1 billion-plus companies. The CIOs see themselves as now entering a “crisis of opportunity” and innovation, McNee observes, brought about by the revolution in service delivery, shaped not only by cloud, but also fueled by the drive toward mobility, advanced analytics, and social business. What this calls for is “a new mission for IT, with a new set of roles, responsibilities and skills required for success.”

Networking In The Cloud

Foundations of network design apply to networks composed of tangible components or the virtualized infrastructure that extends corporate data centers to the cloud. I find that the networking aspects of cloud computing are frequently overlooked or addressed as an afterthought. In this article, I'll share my thoughts and experiences on data center/cloud integration and discuss the network ramifications of some services to the cloud.

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

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.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Mar 16, 2012

"Information technology is changing so fast that innovations and the addition of more vendors with improved products and services occurs continuously," said Joe Brown, president of Accelera Solutions. "It's just naive to think that a single group of providers can cover the whole range of cloud and related applications." Information technology leaders in the U.S. government have been promoting cloud technologies for more than a year. In December 2010, the federal chief information officer launched an IT reform plan that required agencies to start adopting cloud technologies. At the time, some agencies had already implemented cloud solutions, and since then many others have initiated cloud programs.



Check out how the cloud computing paradigm shift is bigger than it

Cloud computing interoperability forum looks for new life

The founder of the Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum is working to revive the organization, which fizzled in 2010. Even though the group has been defunct for a couple of years, it still counts 1,300 people on its mailing list and 3,000 in its LinkedIn group, said Reuven Cohen, who first kicked off the forum in 2008. Cohen's company Enomaly, which offered software for building public clouds and the SpotCloud marketplace for on-demand computing, was purchased by Virtustream late last year. Since he proposed reviving the organization on his blog and on Google+ Monday morning, he's gotten "dozens" of emails from people supporting the idea, Cohen said.

Cloud computing might be the next big jobs generator

Cloud computing has the potential to become a greater generator of jobs in the U.S. than the Internet was in its early years, a new study says. In addition to creating very large business opportunities and hundreds of thousands of new jobs, cloud services could also save U.S. businesses billions of dollars. The driving forces are the proliferation of mobile devices, swelling social media usage and the emergence of "Big Data," the study found.

Cloud enthusiasts worry about data security

IT professionals at companies around the world are all in for cloud computing, but they still worry about the risks the technology may present to their organizations, according to a new survey. The study shows that top challenges to adoption of cloud computing include security, compliance issues, bandwidth capacity and a lack of interoperability with existing applications.

Talent pool not big enough to meet skyrocketing cloud computing job demand

The number of job postings in the cloud computing industry is growing so rapidly that there aren't enough qualified workers available to fill the positions, according to an analysis of hiring trends by Wanted Analytics. There were 5,000 jobs posted online related to cloud technology, a 92% increase from the same month last year and a more than four times increase compared to 2010. "With the demand for cloud skills growing so quickly, the gap between hiring demand and talent supply across the United States is getting larger and causing more difficulties in sourcing candidates," the report said.

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

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.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Mar 09, 2012

The National Institute of Standards and Technology published its 16th and final definition of cloud in September. A great resource for government agencies, but businesses may need something more strategic and less tactical. What is cloud computing again? Dave Linthicum revisited this question, observing that many people are referencing the cloud definition established at the US federal government level, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST admits that it has published no less than 16 updates to the definition, with its final definition published in September 2011. In short, NIST defines cloud this way:

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”



Read more to find out what Dave goes on saying…

Cloud computing market ‘is maturing’

Businesses that are trying to save money are increasingly switching to cloud computing, analysts have noted. According to international research group Gartner, the cloud market is maturing because the technology appeals to "budget-minded executives" in particular. Indeed, the organisation said that by offloading some IT functions to cloud providers, businesses have been able to reduce their operational costs.

Cloud computing could help public health agencies connect with providers

Public health agencies should consider using cloud-based platforms to connect with healthcare providers both directly and through health information exchanges, Noam H. Arzt, president of HLN Consulting in San Diego, said in a Government Health IT article. Cloud computing offers flexibility, scalability, technical support and enhanced security, Arzt noted. Moreover, he said, the total cost of ownership can be quite competitive with that of traditional onsite solutions.

Cloud computing trends, cloud strategy begins to emerge

“People talk a lot about the cloud. It's kind of become the buzz word in the industry. People will talk about one flavor of cloud; they'll talk about another flavor of cloud. The word cloud has become really, really annoying because then some other marketing person has another spin on cloud,” says James Gosling, the father of Java, poking fun of the fact that the term itself seems to have taken on all sorts of different meanings, in different contexts, from different people.

Cloud computing and why educational sectors need to modernize

Cloud computing has been one of the hottest trends today. Basically, in the world of business, cloud computing has been seen as something that is highly beneficial. In fact, to say that it is beneficial is largely an underestimation. After all, modern day businesses will not be able to compete and they will not be able to keep up with the dynamism of the world if they do not make use of the latest in digital and internet technology which includes cloud computing.


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

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.

WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, Mar 02, 2012

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have access to greater computing power than ever before thanks to cloud computing. This remote computing power - provided by a third party, usually over the internet using a web browser, and often without a contract - is transforming the way SMEs use IT and even do business. Cloud computing is lowering the barrier to entry into business for some SMEs, and helping speed up exploitation of new opportunities for others. It is democratising IT and enabling many SMEs to act like, and appear to be, organisations of much greater size and scope. In these ways, with SMEs the growth engine for many countries, cloud computing has the potential to have a positive impact on industries and economies alike.

Read More about how small businesses harness the power of cloud computing

SMEs can reduce computing costs, achieve greater speed

Cloud Computing has emerged as a new area in IT and is at the top of the mind for every chief information officer (CIO) today. SMEs that contribute to one-third of IT investment (as per EMCZinnov study 2012) find Cloud Computing as the most appealing IT feature. As per the EMC-Zinnov study, the Cloud Computing market in India is estimated at around $400 million and is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2015 driven by SMEs that constitute the backbone of Indian economy.

How cloud computing is forcing it evolution

Two of the presentations at the Cloud Connect conference addressed how organizations are transforming data centers as a result of the need for scale and density. Ron Vokoun, a construction executive with Mortenson Construction, a company that builds data centers, began by noting that the projects his firm is taking on are quickly shifting toward larger data centers. Mortenson is seeing small and medium-size enterprises leaving the business of owning and operating data centers, preferring to leverage collocated and cloud environments, leaving the responsibility for managing the facility to some other entity. The typical project size his firm sees has doubled or quadrupled, with 20,000 square feet the typical minimum.

Cloud Computing and SaaS: Information Technology Evolving

Information technology is very important in higher education. There are just many advantages of the IT that we cannot just ignore. For example, IT allows learners to actually explore the world in the safety of their classrooms. With IT facilities, the teacher can bring the world to the classroom and bring the classroom to the world. IT, as a matter of fact, is also supposed to mean less consumption on the part of the education institutions (Hignite et al., 2010). How is IT supposed to do this? Well, IT is largely capable of making sure that learners and teachers can access applications through the internet. With this, it is thought that educational institutions can reduce or cut their educational spending. However, we now know that they are wrong.

Cloud Computing Market for SMBs in Asia-Pacific (Excl. Japan) to Reach US$16.5B in 2012

Small and medium businesses (SMBs, companies with less than 1000 employees) in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) will invest US$16.5 billion in cloud computing solutions, according to the latest research conducted by AMI-Partners. These companies will continue to leverage cloud technologies as a major enabler for their future growth and innovation strategy.

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


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.