WOLF Weekly Cloud Sum-up, March 29, 2013

It's no secret that the public cloud market has been growing like gangbusters. In fact, a recent  Gartner study found spending on public cloud services is growing at more than 28% per year and private cloud spending is three times that of public cloud. That projects total cloud spending in 2016 to hit $240 billion. Cloud computing (both public and private) will pave the way forward for how companies will deploy new IT services. Lower price points will help those organizations innovate faster, launch new services more quickly, be more responsive to market conditions and evolve their own business models.

Source: http://readwrite.com

Read More about DaaS, MaaS & DRaaS: The Next Phase Of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing: Challenge for Financial Firms?

Cloud computing is not as disruptive as many organizations feared. Using a cloud provider has come as naturally to most organizations as using webmail. But for the financial sector, international laws make life—shall we say—challenging. Here’s why. Behind the scenes, there are heavyweight struggles taking place that center around the “sovereignty” of data. If data are stored across international borders, how can your customers be sure that their sensitive personal information is safe? More importantly—at least from the lawyers’ perspective—who can be sued if it isn’t safe?

How to regulate cloud computing?

Who can fail to have noticed the emergence of cloud as the current technology buzzword? Recent commentary has explained how the cloud can transform business and yet sceptics have been falling over themselves to highlight the barriers to its realisation. However, cloud computing entails many of the same considerations and controls as outsourcing to an offshore vendor and, as such, the issues can be addressed and the advantages of cloud computing realised.

What it means to be a cloud pioneer?

The true pioneers of cloud computing are those who both defined and promoted the concept before it became popular to do so. Back in 1999, cloud computing was considered so much Internet-driven voodoo. Indeed, many of those who argued with me at the time about the viability of the concept are now selling and promoting cloud computing technology. (I won't name names!) I guess the pioneers get the arrows, while settlers get the farm.

A guide to cloud computing for SMEs

Focus on what it is you are trying to accomplish in business terms, and let that be your guide. Technology only matters in business if it delivers a measurable benefit, and technology isn't necessarily beneficial just because it's new and popular. You have to determine what it will do for your particular business need. You should hold any IT consultants you work with to that standard as well. They should be able to articulate to you, in clearly understandable terms, what tangible benefit they will deliver. If they recommend a technical solution to you, cloud or otherwise, they should be able to provide the same kind of measurable and predictable benefits. Never buy into a technology just because everyone is talking about it.

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.