WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, May 25, 2012

We're too nervous about moving to cloud: are we making everything too complicated? Numbers thrown up from industry surveys continue to suggest, as in the case of the one conducted by hosted services provider Rise recently, that organisations are more than willing to embrace the cloud. Apparently some two thirds said that they were looking to migrate to the cloud within a two year timeframe.

Source: CloudPro

Perhaps we need to stop thinking in terms of X-as-a-Service models, leave behind the whole public/private deployment debate, and as cloud evangelists admit that 'the cloud' will be something entirely different for each and every organisation migrating to it. Read More





SMB cloud market has room to grow

In an effort to improve data quality and management, organizations are leveraging cloud computing and hosting services with increasing frequency. According to a report by J.D. Power and Associates, roughly 18 percent of business data customers are using remote services, up from only 12 percent in 2011. "While traditional data services offer a suite, or package of services, employing cloud-based services like [Software-as-a-Service] provides businesses the opportunity to view data as a commoditized service, where the differentiation among providers is primarily based on price, bandwidth and reliability," J.D. Power and Associates telecommunications director Frank Perazzini said.

Interest in cloud computing peaking

As far as buzz words in technology go, cloud computing has been one of the most hyped phrases of the past couple of years. According to Google Insights, this over-exposure may have caused interest in cloud computing to peak, Forbes reported. "The level of web search interest is sitting roughly at July 2010 levels and dropping fast," according to the news source. "Although its forecast does show an uptick for the coming months, which to me seems unlikely given the trend over the last year. Keep in mind this particular stat says nothing of revenue or venture funding, it purely shows web search interest. But it’s an interesting metric none the less."

Networking as the Next Great Opportunity for the Channel in the Cloud

The history of computing can be defined by the movement of bottleneck around the data center. Every time a bottleneck appears a massive opportunity emerges for the channel. The next great bottleneck is going to be the networking layer in the cloud. A recent survey of 1,300 IT professionals conducted by Cisco finds that the one of biggest inhibitors to cloud computing adoption is the readiness of the network According to Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior marketing director for the Cisco Services Routing Technology Group, a majority of organizations that intend to make use of cloud computing on any serious level are probably going to wind up upgrading their networks, which given the number of IT professionals that said they would be making more significant use of the cloud in 2012 may be happening sooner than later.

Brief Overview On Cloud Computing Model IaaS Cloud
Infrastructure-as-a-Service or IaaS is a groundwork through which organizations can implement equipment in the form of components, serves, storage place area space etc at pay-per-use support. Moreover, IaaS is a department of thinking handling that has gathered attention among the entrepreneurs mostly with the fantastic purpose to make their organization circumstances more arranged and in connect with the ongoing efficient activities of organizations.


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, May 18, 2012

Are we there yet? Think of cloud computing as a continuum that stretches all the way from one-off projects — that is, companies simply moving some IT assets to the cloud to gain cost savings — all the way up to a game-changer that strategically leverages online resources to open up new markets or ways of doing business. Consider these 5 essential questions to ask to assess how far along you are on the journey to becoming a strategic cloud business:

1. How service oriented are we? 
2. Are we capable of managing a variety of clouds? 
3. Do we have an information strategy? 
4. Do we have a cloud governance strategy? 
5. How is policy management across our clouds addressed? 

Photo: NASA

Read more to find out the answers to these questions.

Cloud computing slugs it out with legacy

Adoption of cloud computing has reached a tipping point - but don’t expect legacy systems to disappear for at least two more decades according to Paul Daugherty, chief technology architect of Accenture. Speaking at the SuiteWorld conference in San Francisco Mr Daugherty said that Accenture, which is a systems integration partner with NetSuite, has now completed 1,700 cloud projects. “We initially saw interest in solving very specific issues. Now there are broader roadmaps for cloud,” he said.

A new dawn for cloud computing

The knock on Amazon Web Services and other IaaS (infrastructure as a service) providers is that they're not reliable enough for enterprise-class workloads. And even with recent price drops, it's cheaper over the long haul to buy and run your own infrastructure. I'm not going to attempt any in-depth cost comparisons since so much depends on the workloads in question and granular provider pricing for various sevices. But I'm pretty convinced that reliability concerns about cloud computing are going the way of cloud security worries: If you know what you're doing, in most cases the public cloud is probably at parity or better with the risk posed by your own infrastructure (ultrahardened, mission-critical workloads excepted).

Cloud Computing Key to Fighting Data Loss

Disaster recovery is a major stumbling block for businesses, but cloud computing technology can help, a CA survey suggests. The amount of data created and held by companies is increasing exponentially, and keeping it safe continues to be a major cause for concern. At the same time, cloud computing, rather than remaining a theoretical concept, is now a reality for many organizations. Data loss continues to be a huge problem for companies across North America that are looking to cloud-based platforms for a solution, according to a survey commissioned by CA Technologies, “Insights: Data Protection and the Cloud.”

Cloud Computing and Mobile Processing Saves Small Business

Cloud computing, put broadly, is a term used to describe any service available on the internet. More specifically, cloud computing refers to a hosting environment that leverages pooled computing resources by way of virtualization. Cloud computing takes existing physical servers and creates virtualized servers to exist on top of them. The virtual servers leverage the computing power of the entire infrastructure without necessarily being dependent on any given hardware. This makes the servers more powerful and more reliable.

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, May 11, 2012

The cloud-computing industry is fast maturing and growing. There is news every day of radical advances in IT delivery through the cloud. Every industry goes through phases and growth pains until they reach maturation. Here are six phases currently in progress in the maturity of the cloud-computing industry. There are 6 Signs of a maturing Cloud Computing industry to look out for:

• The Appearance of Niches 
• Transformation of Traditional Models 
• The Death of Traditional Models 
• Commoditization Begins 
• Players Multiply Like Rabbits 
• The Bottom Falls Out 

Source: Wired Cloudline

Read More

Public-sector cloud computing: The good, the bad and the ugly

When the second-in-command of one of the most technologically advanced states in the country slams public-sector computing - publicly - it's a resounding wake-up call. "Don't underestimate how far local, state and federal government is behind [in computing]," said California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom at a tech conference in Silicon Valley earlier this year. "We have to wake up to the new reality." The new reality Newsom was referring to is cloud computing -- a versatile way for government agencies of all sizes to solve a variety of technological issues relating to cost, human resources and the ability to respond quickly to constituents' needs. Many government agencies are doing just that - albeit in limited areas, such as email and data center consolidation.

Cloud computing is hard and takes a long time

Cisco Systems has surveyed more than 1,300 IT professionals to determine the top priorities and challenges they face when migrating applications and information to the cloud. Guess what? It's harder, and it takes longer than many thought. Of course, these surveys have a tendency to be self-serving, so it's no surprise that this one concludes that your networks need upgrading before you can move to the cloud. After all, the survey was sponsored by a networking company. But putting aside the obvious self-promotion, the broader conclusions confirm what many of us have suspected for some time and what anyone considering a cloud migration must understand: It's not easy. Cloud computing is a challenge that takes longer than most organizations have budgeted.

Governance Meets Cloud: Top Misconceptions

While cloud computing takes some IT responsibilities off of your plate, governance isn't one of them. Experts say you still need to do the heavy lifting to ensure strong security and access policies. The biggest fact that organizations building out cloud environments don't understand about governance in the new world of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is that, despite the handoff of certain IT functions, the responsibility around governance still remains at home. Within the structure of traditional IT, companies could skirt some of the real governance challenges by clamping down on certain deployment scenarios and keeping anything questionable within the four walls and security controls of internal IT. That's not so easy with a true cloud environment, which mixes it up between private and public clouds, ultimately with applications running between the two, depending on demand and use case.

Cloud, Data Analytics Top IT Priorities for Businesses

A Deloitte survey of midmarket businesses found they are interested in leveraging technology to improve business efficiency. Midsize businesses are looking to specific IT investments to boost their businesses, and the larger the organization, the more likely it is to cite technology as having the greatest potential to increase productivity, according to the findings of a new survey of midmarket companies by Deloitte. The study shows cloud computing emerging as an investment priority. When asked what types of investments companies were likely to make in technology, 40 of the respondents cited cloud computing. That's close to automation of business processes (46 percent) and data analytics (41 percent).

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, May 04, 2012

A big selling point for cloud computing is what's become known as cloud bursting. What this means is the ability to move spikes in demand for computing resources into the cloud, rather than having to build infrastructure to cope with peak loads. You only pay for what you need, in other words. It's a bit like having an alternative supplier for commuter trains in the rush hour although -- if the analogy will stretch this far -- having to go to an alternative station to catch one. This of course lies at the heart of the promise of cloud computing: enabling the agile enterprise, bringing flexibility and so on. But what does it actually mean? And is it really as simple as it sounds? 

Read more about the CloudBurst

How to Build a Reliable Cloud for Legacy Apps

One huge question hangs over the cloud computing industry: Can cloud infrastructure support traditional applications that were not built to deliver reliable performance from unreliable components? If a cloud provider can answer yes to this question, it then becomes possible for a massive number of applications to migrate to the cloud, either public or private versions. Remember, the cloud industry is now at the end of the beginning. The big money, most of the almost $2 trillion that is spent running the IT infrastructure that runs the world, is still going to data centers, on-premise applications, and other technologies of pre-cloud vintage. There are many reasons that this is true, but one of the main barriers to adoption of the cloud is that most of the applications out there were built assuming that the computers, databases, storage, and networks they use deliver high performance.

Real and Perceived Security Threats of Cloud Computing

Public clouds make enterprise IT uneasy. For one thing, it’s a disruptive technology -- a significant shift toward compute resources becoming a shared utility. It also creates a lack of visibility and less control over IT assets. Add concerns about data loss and security that BYOD creates and it’s no wonder some cloud rookies are breaking out in hives. SearchCloudComputing.com spoke with Jim Reavis, executive director of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), about the true security concerns of public and private cloud as well as common misconceptions that are keeping enterprises from diving headlong into cloud.

Is Your Enterprise Cloud-Enabled?

Business and IT tend to focus more initially on the functional rather than the qualitative aspects of a technology or system. Functional is more fun, less abstract — you can see, touch, and feel it. The toys. However, business should care most about the qualitative aspects. The most publicly embarrassing failures of cloud computing have all been caused by qualitative issues. Things like availability during peak trading, security and privacy make the news if neglected, and can damage reputations permanently.

Cloud Computing Boosts Building Performance, Collaboration

To those in the design, construction and building operations industry, the concept of cloud computing can have many different meanings, from servers to code to different devices – even the kitchen sink. But panelists at the 2012 Buildings NY conference agreed that the new technology could have a major impact on property performance and employee productivity as the workplace continues to evolve in the digital direction.

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.