WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, September 28, 2012

In the fight over private versus public clouds, we’re all arguing about the same thing. But we keep doing it because we somehow believe we can confuse the customer into buying “more of mine” and “less of hers” if we explain how our vision of cloud is better. I’ve written about what cloud is or isn’t several times in the past, but, I feel that I missed some important context. The context is what leads me to consider the idea of three different clouds.

So what are they? 

Public cloud – The only “real” cloud as someone like Werner Vogel of Amazon would say
Private cloud – An on-site or hosted private cloud-capable environment
Actual cloud -The set of strategies, processes, people and technologies that enable business agility, improved resource management, and faster time to market (among other things). The actual cloud is the real world amalgamation that users end up with and may consist of both or one of the above.

So which of the three cups has a cloud under it?

Global - Cloud Computing for Government and Business. Updated 2012 Report

Cloud computing is a vehicle that will allow for government and business transformation. It is especially important for governments, in particular, to abandon silo thinking - in other words, if governments are serious about adopting cloud computing, they will first have to address the ingrained silo-based systems that are in operation within the bureaucracy, where different government agencies and departments have their own solutions and infrastructure.

3 ways to improve cloud performance

Performance issues hold back some cloud computing efforts. This happens because many of those who stand up cloud-based applications did not account for the latency systemic to many cloud-based systems. For the most part, these performance issues are caused by the fact that cloud-based applications are typically widely distributed, with the data far away from the application logic, which itself may be far away from the user. Unless careful planning has gone into the design of the system, you're going to run into latency and even reliability issues.

The Old Law of Cloud Computing

To appreciate why the “cloud” is the future of computing, one must understand a law of economics coined in 1890 and learn what happened around the same time at 57 Holborn Viaduct in London, England. In 1890, Alfred Marshall finished a decade’s work. His eight-volume Principles of Economics was finally ready. Those who read the fourth volume were introduced, for the first time, to the concept of “economies of scale”. Marshall’s analysis, then novel, was that in some trades “in which a man gains no very great new economies by increasing the scale of his production, it often happens that a business remains of about the same size for many years, if not for many generations.” These could be contrasted with trades.

Cloud computing? You still can't dodge data protection rules

Companies are forgetting about their data protection responsibilities when they shift data into the cloud, according to the UK's privacy watchdog. As cloud computing slowly moves into the mainstream, more and more personal data is being moved out of companies' own datacentres and into the cloud, which means the data could potentially reside on servers anywhere on the planet.

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, September 21, 2012

Businesses are subscribing to software, storage and computing power delivered over the Internet at a jaw-dropping pace. Over the next five years, global spending on cloud-computing services will increase at a pace five times greater than the growth of the information technology (IT) industry as a whole. To survive in this new landscape, technology makers will have to completely redefine their products, business models and cultures. Instead of selling direct to the corporations that actually use computing services, hardware, software and infrastructure vendors will all need to pivot to serve the new cloud services new market. That’s the lesson from the latest forecasts by market researcher IDC.

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Find out how Cloud Computing Growth Disrupts Hardware & Software Vendors

How To Win The Cloud Wars

Today “the cloud” surrounds us, literally and figuratively. IBM and Microsoft are running enterprise-oriented ads about cloud computing, Apple features iCloud and Siri (running in the cloud) prominently in marketing messages, and while Amazon.com remains most famous for e-commerce, its Amazon Web Service unit is the cloud infrastructure running popular websites from Netflix to Pinterest.

Don’t let the cloud obscure usability

Cloud computing is reaching the stage of maturity. Across any vertical market and at varying degrees of uptake organisations are taking off to the cloud, whether for test and development, email, collaboration, sales automation, HR or more bespoke applications. Just last week the Business IT Hub discussed the importance of CIOs addressing the customer end user experience when using a mobile device to procure from your organisation, cloud computing too must have a strong focus on end user experience in its implementation by CIO.

NASSCOM tech series highlights cloud security challenges

Cloud computing is drastically changing the way IT services are being delivered and consumed and this is offering exciting opportunities to not only large enterprises but also to small and medium enterprises. However, along with several opportunities, cloud computing comes with its own set of challenges linked to security and privacy, which organizations need to evaluate before stepping on to the cloud.

Public cloud computing market to be $109 bn globally in 2012: Gartner

The public cloud computing services market is expected to grow 19.6% to reach $109 billion globally this year on the back of infrastructure segment, which is the fastest-growing area at 45.4%, research firm Gartner said today. "The public cloud services market is forecast to grow 19.6% in 2012 to total $109 billion worldwide. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the fastest-growing segment of the public cloud services market and is expected to grow 45.4% in 2012," Gartner 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, September 14, 2012

A majority of Indian start-ups in 2012 catered to individual customers, with most entrepreneurs adopting mobile and cloud computing technologies to build their businesses, according to a study by Yourstory.in—an online platform for start-ups and entrepreneurs.

The “State of Indian Tech Start-ups” survey was based on responses from more than 400 enterprises across six cities—Ahmedabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.

The start-ups had to be at least four years old and have a product business in place besides having feedback from customers to qualify for the survey.

Source: Live Mint

Read More

Cloud computing passing many small firms, MYOB survey finds

FEW small businesses are taking advantage of cloud computing technology, but many who do say they have seen their revenues rise in the past year, a new study has found. A survey commissioned by business software provider MYOB found that 79 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) did not use cloud technology, only 14 per cent said they did, while others did not know. Cloud computing allows access to a shared pool of programs and sites, usually via the internet, as opposed to using an individual computer software. The survey of more than 1000 SMEs found that 53 per cent of those who use cloud computing were more likely to have seen a revenue rise in the past year. "The advantages of using cloud computing for business came through loud and clear," MYOB chief executive Tim Reed said when releasing the findings.

NIIT, Microsoft partner to offer cloud computing

The education provider NIIT today said it has signed a pact with Microsoft Corporation to make available one lakh cloud-ready professionals over the next three years. As per the alliance, NIIT will offer new programmes in cloud and emerging technologies in association with Microsoft. "We will work alongside Microsoft and launch programmes mapped to the wave of new cloud technologies that Microsoft is poised to release worldwide," NIIT Limited Chief Executive (Career Building Solutions) G Raghavan told reporters here. He said NIIT will offer three kinds of programmes, including long duration GNIIT programme on cloud campus, diploma programme and shorter duration technology skill enhancer programme.

Cloud computing unveiled

Twenty Third Century Systems CEO Ellman Chanakira said cloud computing service would enable Zimbabwe customers to access critical business management data for efficient and effective functioning at affordable cost. Cloud computing is the use of computing resources — hardware and software — that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). Chanakira said traditionally, companies have to invest in ICT at a huge cost. He said cloud computing service presented an alternative low cost model and eliminates the need for upfront financial investment in ICT services.

Top 10 PaaS Trends of the Next Five Years

IT research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan recently predicted that the platform as a service (PaaS) market will be the next area of keen competition for cloud innovators because the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) spaces have been commoditized. As most software available from the cloud is standardized, enterprises are looking to leverage PaaS offerings as it will be the only stack where a service provider can create differentiation. For the record, PaaS is a category of cloud computing services that provides a computing platform and a solution stack as a service for enterprises. Along with SaaS and IaaS, PaaS is a fast-growing service model of cloud computing. In this model, the PaaS customer creates the software using tools and libraries from the provider. The customer also controls software deployment and configuration settings. The provider delivers the networks, servers and storage. PaaS offerings facilitate the deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software. Various types of PaaS vendor offerings are extensive and include the application hosting, development, testing and deployment environment, along with extensive integrated services that consist of scalability, maintenance and versioning. In this slide show, an expert on PaaS, ActiveState CEO Bart Copeland, offered eWEEK readers a look at what he sees coming in the cloud marketplace over the next few years. ActiveState makes the Komodo integrated development environment (IDE) for cloud development.


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, September 07, 2012

We are conditioned to expect everything faster, better and cheaper. In short, impatience has become the new 21st century virtue and influences all aspects of business, particularly when it comes to technology. When we switch on our computers, we expect the web page or the video we want to be served up immediately. The arrival of fibre optic network links delivered just that – access to the worldwide web at the speed of light. This opened the door to cloud computing and, with it, high expectations of accessing cloud platforms from any location in an instant.

Source: The Guardian

A cloud computer, supported by an expansive intelligent network, will enable organisations to cheat the speed of light

When does the cloud become a utility?

The benefits of removing the capital investment and the day to day management of hardware and software to leverage an on-demand, metered computing service, charged on a consumption basis, are now widely accepted. The rise in cloud computing is indicative of our need to make the most efficient use of resources and minimise costs by accessing computing resources and infrastructure when, and as, it is needed.

How Cloud Computing Is Contributing To Space Exploration

After positively impacting businesses on terra firma, cloud computing is now spreading its influence to space. Even as the world celebrates the successful landing of the Mars Rover Curiosity on the Red Planet, Amazon has chalked up a major win in the annals of cloud computing by helping the NASA reach out to the public. If you are one of the curious millions poring over the amazing images being beamed by Curiosity from Mars, cloud computing deserves your gratitude.

IEEE Cloud Computing Conference in Bangalore

The IEEE Cloud Computing for Emerging Markets (CCEM) Conference will be held in Bangalore on the 11th and 12th of October 2012. The event is said to be the first ever by IEEE and one that focuses on challenges and opportunities for emerging markets like India. The two-day conference will also serve as a thought leadership platform bringing together industry, government, and academic leaders in cloud computing from around the world.

Could cloud computing increase the number of women in IT?

Poke your head into most data centres today and youre bound to notice a distinct gender gap. While women still represent only a fraction of IT workers today, some experts believe that cloud computing will offer the wedge in the door that women need to equalise staffing numbers.

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.