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Five Cloud Computing Myths

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The cloud seems to be a prickly, double edged sword at the moment. Well, that’s if Steve Wozniak’s predictions of doom are to be believed. His belief that the cloud will bring “a lot of horrible problems in the next five years” seems to be at odds with the view of enterprises whose rapid adoption of cloud computing is reflected in Gartner’s predictions of a 48% increase in cloud services this year alone.  While this polarisation of opinions is nothing new in the world of IT and often goes hand in hand with game changing technological innovation, the hype and confusion seem particularly frenzied where cloud is concerned.

Whilst the promise of cloud computing to reduce costs, manage expansion and make the creation of new services easier is very real, we’re still in the early days of adoption. Organisations are still largely digesting what they’ve heard, sifting through the benefits, and weighing up the fears concerning its impact.

Matthew Finnie, CTO of Interoute believes that the despite the hype and misinformation the cloud offers real benefits for business. Below, he puts to bed some of the common myths and misunderstandings around the cloud:

  1. Myth 1 – Cloud computing isn’t right for everyone
    How can this be true when 50% of all businesses already have some level of server virtualisation, and they already know it works? The fear felt by those that don’t think it is for them actually comes from equating the cloud to a public internet service that seeks to emulate a server. As with most things in life there are different types of service and organisations should look for one that runs real IT appliances and servers, and lets them define for themselves whether it’s private or public.
  2. Myth 2 – You can’t trust the cloud
    This is really about the cloud provider rather than the cloud.  For example, if a provider won’t reveal where data is held, or whether it will stay in one location or move regions and even countries, then they clearly can’t be trusted. On the other hand, if they let the customer control where the data is, how it is moved, provide an SLA and have a track record of doing it for people they can relate to, then it is more than likely to work.
  3. Myth 3 – The cloud is a fad
    Unfortunately for those who profit from the current inefficiencies of IT; the cloud is definitely not a fad. Gartner revealed only last month that cloud services spending will nearly double from $3.4 billion in 2011 to $5 billion this year alone. We’ve seen too many similar shifts over the past 20 years to fail to recognise this one. As with connectivity and communication, computing will optimise in line with the way we create and consume content and services.
  4. Myth 4 – The cloud doesn’t really change anything
    This is true to some extent as the cloud doesn’t change what users can do, it changes the speed at which they can do it and where it can be done from. However, the biggest change is in an organisation’s pocket, the time it takes to develop service, performance and availability.
  5. Myth 5 -There’s no future in the cloud
    To understand the future we often look to the past. History says if we make things easier, reduce cost and improve performance we migrate readily. As a delivery model cloud computing will become the norm, and this is recognised by the world’s leading vendors who are focusing on optimising platforms for “as a service” delivery. Moreover, research from The Cloud Industry Forum this week revealed that in the last eighteen months the UK has seen a 27% increase in first time cloud users. We see in many businesses the contradictions of needing to preserve cash whilst also expanding, which throws up major challenges. The cloud eliminates that, creating an environment ripe for exploitation.

Author: Matthew Finnie
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BYOD Tools

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In a bid to make virtualisation and cloud computing more palatable to enterprises which have a high concentration of mobile users, or are implementing a Bring your Own Device (BYOD) strategy, VMware has launched a fistful of new products and a public beta of a system that offers what it describes as “Dropbox for the enterprise”.

The products available today and later this year bring to life the product roadmap that VMware outlined at its major user conference last year. According to Tim Hartmann, senior manager of systems engineers for VMware in Australia; “If you look at all the releases they dovetail into BYOD in a big fashion.”

At the heart of that is the release of VMware View 5.1 which offers IT managers a caching methodology to take the load off the underlying storage systems that are accessed by end user devices. By removing the bottleneck Mr Hartmann said it was possible to have a higher density of systems attached, which led to a lower cost per desktop.

The company claims that the total cost of ownership associated with a virtual desktop infrastructure could be cut by up to 50 percent thanks to optimising storage loads. The tool also provides a single management console from which IT managers can control provisioning, con?guration management, connection brokering, policy enforcement, performance monitoring, and application assignment.

VMware has also launched Horizon Application Manager. Since buying TriCipher in 20120, VMware has been offering that tool in the US. Horizon however has been recast for the global market.

“This is a way of creating a single sign-on … for whatever cloud based applications you are using,” said Mr Hartmann.

The system uses Active Directory to handle the authentication for each user. Instead of needing user IDs for each cloud service a user subscribed to, Horizon now manages that access.

“From an administrator’s perspective you can say yes you are allowed to use this service – but also if someone leaves then you can turn that of with the flick of a switch,” said Mr Hartmann.

VMware has also launched its vCentre Operations for View tool which provides IT managers with a traffic light style dashboard to illustrate the end user experience and identify problems.

While this form of insight has been available for virtual machines in the data centre for a while, this extension of the tool allows IT managers to monitor how their end users’ devices – whether desktop, mobile, virtual or BYOD – are performing, and where necessary tweak the system to improve that performance.

Finally the company has launched a public beta of its Project Octopus programme, which Mr Hartmann described as “Dropbox for the enterprise.” Originally three local companies signed up for the private beta pilot of the programme, but Mr Hartmann says that there are now 20 companies trialling the system, which has been made available as a public beta from today.

It will be launched officially later this year.

“It presents you with a folder and that becomes your document repository, which can be made available to other nominated users,” instead of emailing large files around an enterprise, he added.

Author: Beverley Head
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How To Create A Windows 8 Virtual Machine

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Virtualisation is ideal for trying out a new operating system. Instead of installing the OS onto a live machine and potentially overwriting, or generally messing up a working OS, virtualisation leaves your current installation untouched.

No worrying about a messed up MBR, freeing up space on your drives for a new partition or having to route around for drivers just to get back online.

Virtualisation is a lot faster than it once was as well. Oracle VM VirtualBox is similar to Microsoft’s own VirtualPC, but boasts more advanced features and better system integration. It’s also free.

These both boast support for hardware virtualisation, which means you’ll enjoy a responsive machine after installation.

You will need a processor that supports hardware virtualisation, but given AMD and Intel have supported such extensions for a number of years, so as long as your PC is reasonably up to date, this shouldn’t be a problem.

In order to run a virtual version of Windows 8 you’ll need the Windows 8 ISO – we’d recommend grabbing the 32-bit, just because it’s a little less exacting specifications wise. You’ll need the virtualisation software for the host machine as well. For this tutorial we’ve used VirtualBox, although the setup is similar for VirtualPC as well.

1. Welcome to the machine

Install and run VirtualBox and then click the ‘New’ button to create a new virtual machine (or VM for short). Give your virtual machine (or VM for short) an obvious name, such as “Windows 8 CP” and then select Microsoft Windows as your OS type and Windows 8 from the drop down menu, or Windows 8 (64-bit) if you’re going down that route.

Windows 8 virtual machine

2. Minimum specifications

The next screen enables you to define how much memory your virtual system has. Windows 8 has a minimum memory requirement of 1GB for the 32-bit version, but we’d recommending electing to go for 2048MB unless your physical machine is a bit strapped for RAM. Click Next.

Windows 8 virtual machine

3. Create a drive image

The next step defines the virtual drive for your installation. Elect to go with the default setting to create a new hard disk. On the next screen leave the type as a VDI drive image – VirtualBox’s own file format. It’s fine to leave this virtual drive as being Dynamically allocated as well.

Windows 8 virtual machine

4. Size matters

Define where you want the Virtual disk to reside and change the initial drive size if you feel the need – although the default 20GB default size should be fine. After installation our Windows 8 sat at 7GB. Check the Summary is correct and then when you’re ready, hit the Create button.

Windows 8 virtual machine

5. Virtual optical

Right-click the Windows 8 CP and select Settings from the drop-down list. Click on Storage, then the CD icon under IDE Controller, next click the CD icon to the right of the controller to locate your Windows 8 ISO and elect to Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file… Point it at your Windows 8 ISO you have downloaded and then click Open.

Windows 8 virtual machine

6. Install Windows 8

You’re now set to install Windows 8 CP on your virtual machine. Just make sure the virtual PC is highlighted and then hit the Start button. The installation of Windows 8 is fairly straightforward, just ensure you elect to pick a custom installation. Complete the installation and log into your account.

Windows 8 virtual machine

7. Guest Additions

Installing Guest Additions is a little trickier, as you need to install them in Safe Mode. Go to the desktop view and hit [Win]+R and launch MSConfig. Click the Boot tab, check the Safe boot and Base Video options and then OK the changes, choosing to reboot into Safe Mode.

Windows 8 virtual machine

8. Improve system integration

Install the Guest Additions from the VirtualBox Devices menu, enabling full 3D support when prompted. Don’t reboot, instead clear the Safe boot and Base video options in MSConfig and then power off the VM. Increase the video memory to 128MB in the Display settings for the VM and enable 3D and 2D acceleration. Launch the VM and your d

Windows 8 virtual machine

Author: Matt Hanson

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PaaS To See Strong Growth

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Platform as a service (PaaS) is a core layer of the cloud computing architecture, and its evolution will affect the future of most users and vendors in enterprise software markets, according to Gartner.

“With large and growing vendor investment in PaaS, the market is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth, leading to innovation and likely breakthroughs in technology and business use of all of cloud computing,” said Yefim Natis, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Users and vendors of enterprise IT software solutions that are not yet engaged with PaaS must begin building expertise in PaaS or face tough challenges from competitors in the coming years.”

PaaS is a common reference to the layer of cloud technology architecture that contains all application infrastructure services, which are also known as “middleware” in other contexts. PaaS is the middle layer of the end-to-end software stack in the cloud. It is the technology that intermediates between the underlying system infrastructure (operating systems, networks, virtualisation, storage, etc.) and overlaying application software. The technology services that are part of a full-scope comprehensive PaaS include functionality of application containers (servers), application development tools, database management systems, integration middleware, portal products, business process management suites and others — all offered as a service.

Gartner analysts said 2011 was a pivotal year for the PaaS market. As Gartner predicted last year in the report “PaaS Road Map: A Continent Emerging”, the broad vendor adoption in 2011 amounted to a sound industry endorsement of PaaS as an alternative to the traditional middleware deployment models.

In 2012, the PaaS market is at its early stage of growth and does not yet have well-established leaders, best use or business practices or dedicated standards. The adoption of PaaS offerings is still associated with some degree of uncertainty and risk.

“However, PaaS products are likely to evolve into a major component of the overall cloud computing market, just as the middleware products — including application servers, database management systems (DBMSs), integration middleware and portal platforms — are the core foundation of the traditional software industry,” Mr Natis said. “The tension between the short-term risk and the long-term strategic imperative of PaaS will define the key developments in the PaaS market during the next two to three years.”

Some of the newly announced PaaS offerings will reach general availability late in 2012, and by the end of 2013, all major software vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market. By 2016, competition among the PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. However, until then, users will continue to experience architectural changes to technologies, business models and vendor alignments in the PaaS market.

As vendors continue to invest in PaaS services, and the major software vendors look to deliver comprehensive PaaS service portfolios, activity in all segments of PaaS will accelerate and the fast pace of growth and change in the PaaS market will create confusion, making user adoption decisions more difficult.

“While there are clear risks associated with the use of services in the new and largely immature PaaS market, the risk of avoiding the PaaS market is equally high,” said Mr Natis. “The right strategy for most mainstream IT organisations and software vendors is to begin building familiarity with the new cloud computing opportunities by adopting some PaaS services now, albeit with the understanding of their limitations and with the expectation of ongoing change in the market offerings and use patterns.”

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Verizon To Offer Virtualised Android Phones

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Telefonica and Verizon will become the first operators to offer Android phones running VMware’s mobile hypervisor, the companies announced on Wednesday at the VMworld 2011 Europe conference in Copenhagen.

VMware has previously said that Verizon would offer the service, without disclosing details about timing, but this is the first time Telefonica has said it plans to offer phones with the hypervisor.

Users of phones with the VMware product will find two profiles on their devices: one for personal use and one for business use. The setup allows for the isolation of enterprise apps from apps available on the open Android Market that could be malicious.

The operators will be making slightly different offerings, said Steve Herrod, chief technology officer for VMware.

Dual subscription

Telefonica will make its offering available initially on the Samsung Galaxy SII. Unlike Verizon, Telefonica will allow users to have two phone numbers, one for business and one for personal use. That means a user will be able to have two voice and data subscriptions on one phone.

Telefonica is able to make that offering using dual-SIM cards. Such a setup would be more difficult for Verizon, which will only allow one phone number on its service, because of its network technology.

IT managers will be able to remotely control the business side of the phone using software from VMware. That software lets administrators remotely wipe just the corporate applications and data, push applications to the phones and set policies for the corporate profile. Telefonica will offer the IT management features as a hosted service.

Verizon will instead offer that software to enterprises to run from inside their firewalls, Herrod said.

Toggle interest growing

Verizon’s offer will initially be available on LG phones. Phone makers must build part of the necessary software into the phones before they hit shelves, meaning the selection of compatible phones initially is likely to be small. LG and Samsung are the only two manufacturers to have announced their support of VMware’s technology.

Neither operator is announcing specific launch dates or pricing but say the service will be available in the coming months.

VMware first started talking about its mobile hypervisor late last year. Interest in the concept of separating business applications from personal, particularly for Android phones, appears to be growing.

Last week, AT&T launched a service called Toggle that allows users to separate work applications from personal applications on Android phones. It’s based on technology from Enterproid, which is different from VMware’s in that applications must be built using Enterproid’s technology in order to be separated from the rest of the phone.

OK Labs is pushing a similar concept for isolating certain applications. Last week, Red Bend started talking about its own virtualisation technology, which would work similarly to VMware’s, but it hasn’t announced phone or operator partners yet.

Author: Nancy Gohring
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Cloud Computing Has Killed The PC

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It looks like the end for the PC. Unlike the Dinosaurs the PC will not just vanish from the face of the Earth – they will just stop being replaced and gradually die out to be spotted on the desks of die-hard antiquarians and IT folk who like to tinker with the insides of anything that can be opened.

I can even date when this process began. It was the day, the 18th August to be precise, when HP announced it had bought UK software firm Autonomy for £7.1bn then added, almost as an afterthought that it was considering selling its personal systems group, which includes the world’s biggest PC-making business, and that it will discontinue its webOS devices.

HP has some very complex problems to solve and they have gone through some bad times but this decision is about more than surviving bad times and facing the commoditisation of the PC squarely in the face.

It’s about realising that the major choice a consumer or a corporate has now is not about hardware. The days when buying the correct IT infrastructure are now long gone – today it’s about recognising the realities of mobile computing.

Mobile computing isn’t about providing your staff with the best laptop, smartphone and tablet to keep them productive on the road – the hardware is now so reliable that the choice is often left to the users – something that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

How on Earth would they be able to choose the most reliable laptop? Now a consumer can walk into any retail park and buy a tablet computer with no moving parts that will last until it is lost or discarded.

Many young people are doing much of their computing on their smartphones where the choice of hardware is, once again, almost irrelevant. Young people live their lives on the move from home to school to University to work and they want devices they don’t have to pack into a car to lug around.

They also use the Cloud instinctively – what is iTunes but a Cloud providing music. The popularity of web mail means few youngsters have ever configured a Microsoft Outlook client.

The only thing stopping most businesses moving to tablets is purely to do with their culture and environments. We are heading for devices that will run almost exclusively over the internet. I am writing this piece on a tablet connected to the internet using my virtual desktop. I don’t even know where my old laptop is now.

Most people are now happy to use email banking and other services via browser and while it took some time for people to become comfortable with banking online they have taken to it eventually as they discover it is safe. What we are seeing is the rapid expansion of available services with more traditional pcs being replaced by the tablet form and laptops taking over the arena of the PC.

Most users will be happy with a screen and internet access, and the ability to buy or use applications that provide the services they need, without the need for bulky operating systems.

The benefits of Cloud Computing for businesses are now so compelling that any new business setting up would be very unlikely to provide its employees the internal IT infrastructure that was typical only a few years ago.

Why force upon yourself the overheads of PCs which have a cost of ownership, need repairs often because of the number of moving parts and a full-time staff to keep them up to date and running? No business person would do it unless they had compelling reasons.

The Cloud is greener. Cloud data centres use virtualisation which cuts down the number of servers needed and the power consumption goes down because new servers don’t even have fans inside them. HP is merely following example set by IBM when it dropped out of the hardware market to concentrate on services.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and the other PC-centric vendors adapt to the new world of the Cloud. For the moment the consumer (user) is in control, something the old PC departments of corporates fought fiercely against. But like the Dinosaurs they lost the battle.

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Overcoming Doubts About Cloud Computing

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Cloud Computing, which allows oganisations to share resources, software and applications, can bring radical change to public sector ICT services. Using the cloud will reduce costs and risks and bring scalability, and resilience. But many top managers believe the risks are too great. The author looks at the reality of Cloud Computing.

It seems that board-level executives are not as keen as their IT professionals on the adoption of Cloud computing according to no less than three new reports. The reports from heavyweights Dell, IBM and Symantec report varying levels of fear, uncertainty and doubt about Cloud adoption. This is a little surprising given the importance CEOs and boards always purport to give to efficiency and cost reductions – two of the undoubted benefits of cloud computing.

In a recent Dell survey 223 IT professionals at this year’s Cloud Expo were asked about their companies’ attitudes to cloud computing. The survey showed up the differences between how business leaders view the cloud and how IT professionals view it.

The IT professionals reported that business leaders were more likely than themselves to describe the cloud as either having “immense potential” or being a “passing fad.” According to Dell “the survey data validates a perceived lingering disconnect in expectations between IT professionals and senior business executives.”

The second report, Symantec’s 2011 Virtualisation and Evolution to The Cloud, points out that over 75 percent of C-Level executives cite reliability, security and performance as their main concerns about virtualization and hybrid-cloud deployment. These numbers stand in contrast to responses from IT professionals, who report that after cloud adoption, these areas all scored quite well compared to their goals.

The third report, IBM’s, 2011 Global CIO Study, devotes an entire section to a survey of 622 midmarket CIOs and highlights the obstacles that IT departments face depending on their business needs and goals. The report highlights that no one single solution for cloud adoption is going to work across the board.

Presenting the benefits of cloud computing realistically

What this shows is that CIOs are still not effectively communicating the business benefits of Cloud computing to their bosses. What all three surveys show is that good communications between IT and C-level management is critical for any business looking into cloud adoption, the hybrid cloud, or even just increased virtualization. It is obvious that major areas of concern like security and reliability, initialization costs and long-term investment is not being explained properly to the Board.

CIOs and IT managers must be careful not to over-sell the cloud and promise results that are impossible. The Symantec report showed a chasm between expectations and reality in the area of scalability, something a cloud solution excels at. This obviously means that many C-level executives were over-sold or were simply never brought down to reality of the cloud’s ability. Other areas where businesses felt that the cloud fell short were in reducing operating expenses and reducing complexity. These types of failures make it less likely that management will approve future cloud initiatives. When discussing IT solutions, IT professional should be sure they are discussing the current cloud, instead of an idealized hypothesis of what it may one day become.

Symantec report says that security is the major worry of most CEOs cited by 77% of them. This is followed by concern about reliability – 71% and performance, also worried about by 71% of CEOs. This is not entirely surprising given the huge media exposure given to data breaches such as the ones Sony, RSA Security Sega and many others. What is surprising is that CIOs are not explaining that the breaches are not necessarily due to Cloud Computing and could have and may have occurred using in-house managed systems.

Why is the message not getting through?

So why aren’t their IT people putting them right on all this? Maybe they are, but aren’t being listened to. Maybe they are, but they can’t convey the message in the language that the board can understand. Whichever is true, it’s clear that better communication is needed between wary CEOs and their IT managers.

However, Cloud Computing is at least high up on the agenda – with up to 90% of organisations stating that they are least discussing Cloud projects. But among some of those who said they had installed Cloud Computing in some form, the curse of bad communications hit them again – over-inflated expectations led many to complain that the actual implementation of Cloud did not come up to their expectations. That can only be blamed on the CTOS.

Symantec created its own check list of recommendations to make Cloud adoption as smooth as possible:

• Ensure alignment between IT and executives in virtualization and cloud initiatives: It is important to show that you can address C-level concerns such as security and availability.

• Don’t operate in a silo when it comes to Cloud Computing: virtualisation and Cloud initiatives are most successful when implemented as mainstream, comprehensive IT initiatives.

• Leverage and modernize your existing infrastructure: Before you’re ready to implement hybrid/private cloud, make sure you are leveraging the existing infrastructure to achieve the same efficiencies and then modernising it as needed.

• Set realistic expectations and track your results: Remember that despite the hype, Cloud is a new and still maturing market. Do your homework to set expectations that are realistic, then follow up and track results to identify ways to improve project efficiency going forward.

Moving many IT services into the cloud is quickly becoming a requirement for organisations. It doesn’t seem to matter what the organisation is – from industrial applications to making food, it can benefit from scalable storage and powerful virtualized business intelligence. Businesses that fail to take advantage of these solutions risk losing a huge edge to competitors who do take advantage of the cloud. IT professionals should see it as their responsibility to convince management to adopt cloud solutions for their businesses but they have to be careful to set realistic expectations or they will set their companies back many years and risk the mistrust of their boards for many years.

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Companies Ill-Prepared To Achieve Cloud Goals

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The majority of large organisations are migrating internal virtual infrastructure to the cloud because they believe it will reduce costs, according to a recent survey. The survey finds that only 17 per cent of organisations achieved their utilisation and ROI goals with virtualisation and yet, they intend to use similar planning and management approaches for their move to the cloud.

The survey interviewed 94 executives responsible for virtual and cloud infrastructure decisions at organisations with more than 25,000 employees. It revealed that many organisations are ill-prepared to make the move: 77 per cent of respondents plan to use cloud-vendor supplied tools or spreadsheets to plan the migration of workloads to the cloud and only 48 per cent plan to implement new solutions to manage cloud infrastructure.

While cloud operating models have the potential to reduce spend, it is more likely that infrastructure costs will increase if these initiatives are poorly planned and managed. Virtualisation provided many organisations with some quick hits in terms of cost savings on hardware, but the reality is that few have fully met their objectives for utilisation and ROI. Despite this, the majority of organisations are betting on the cloud without dramatically changing the approach to planning these environments.

Cloud operating models can naturally increase inefficient use of capacity and the amount of “excess” capacity an organisation has on hand in internal clouds by their very design:

  • Providing users with self-serve access to capacity can result in buffet-style over-indulgence as application owners request more capacity than they actually need to safe-guard against risk.
  • Pre-defined instance configurations and sized “buckets” of capacity may enable easier management, but they can also result in built-in excess capacity in allocations vs. customising allocations for each workload’s true requirement.
  • Increased responsiveness requires a supply of excess capacity to be held as a demand buffer for new workloads. Sizing this capacity requirement, however, is tricky and teams could end up with unnecessary idle capacity taking up room on the data centre floor.

Key findings from the survey reveal that organisations will face a direct conflict between high hopes for cost reduction and poor planning and management methods:

  • 39 per cent of respondents felt that virtualisation costs were higher than expected or delivered an uncertain ROI.
  • 70 per cent of respondents felt that moving to cloud infrastructure would decrease costs and 42 per cent cited cost reduction as the primary reason they would move systems off of internal virtualised infrastructure to the cloud.
  • Despite the hopes for cost reduction, a total of 77 per cent planned to take a very basic and biased approach to migration planning, using a cloud vendor-provided tool or spreadsheets to plan the migration of their workloads to the cloud.
  • 75 per cent planned workload movements using spreadsheets in currently virtual environments, which not only slows response times, but also takes a very simplistic approach to sizing and placement in internal cloud environments.

According to Gartner analyst Alessandro Perilli, in the June 9, 2011 research paper “The Big Mind Shift: Capacity Management for Virtual and Cloud Infrastructures”:

“Gartner defines “optimised” as a virtual infrastructure where the workload placement satisfies all of an organisation’s technical, business, and compliance constraints and the capacity is allocated to avoid resource wasting (i.e., rightsized),”

Perilli also recommends:

“The capacity management tool should allow for the definition of complex, multi-dimensional placement rules according to the technical, business, and compliance constraints inherent to each service that the infrastructure is hosting.”

Strategic workload placement is critical to achieving savings, particularly in internal clouds. Taking a manual approach to planning cloud migration, like many organisations have done with virtualisation is a recipe for inefficiency and reduced return on investment. There are simply too many factors to consider in placement and capacity sizing decisions to be able to do so efficiently and accurately using home grown tools.

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IT Consumerisation: An Opportunity

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The last 24 months have brought an explosion of new devices, Web applications and social-media platforms. Chief information officers (CIOs) are under pressure from other employees, including senior executives, to open corporate networks to consumer devices and allow access to more of the Web. This migration of consumer devices like smart phones and tablets into enterprise computing is making CIOs very nervous.

The risks to data security are obvious and real, and the loss of control – compared to the days when IT departments could pick and choose technologies – is distressing.

Why is this evolutionary process inevitable? There are five trends that have brought us to what I see as a point of no return on consumerisation.

1. The rise of social media as a business application.

For knowledge workers, social networks have become necessary and ideal tools for building work relationships and conducting business. For example, Dell has employed Salesforce.com’s Chatter for more than 90,000 Dell employees. Being able to follow opportunities is a key feature of this application, so social connections literally mean sales connections.

2. The blurring of work and home.

According to a telecommuting forecast by Forrester, 41 per cent of employers plan to implement telecommuting options this year and 43 per cent of the American workforce – more than 63 million workers – will telecommute occasionally by 2016. IT departments need to develop policies to deliver and secure sensitive data on both IT-owned and employee-owned devices.

3. The emergence of new mobile devices.

The mobile era has arrived. By next year global smart-phone shipments will exceed personal-computer shipments for the first time in history. In the wake of such a seismic shift, employees are showing up at work with their personal devices with increasing frequency

4. Shifting business models require tech-savvy employees.

According to McKinsey and Company, “word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 per cent of all purchasing decisions.”

5. Employee expectations of corporate IT are changing.

Desirable applicants don’t want to give up their devices, weakening the recruitment and retention abilities of companies who refuse to accommodate them.

As these trends collide, consumerisation moves from being something we have talked about for years to a crucial business decision.

Today’s consumerisation trends are yet to peak. Businesses that react thoughtfully and decisively now will reap benefits for the rest of the mobile era and beyond.

Articulate your company’s end-user workplace and technology philosophy and use that as a basis for setting a consumerisation strategy. Recognise that IT-security and data-protection policies that restrict the use of personal devices and social-media applications may actually increase security and data-loss risks.

Liberalise rules that prohibit business use of employee-owned technology in your own environment, starting with smart phones. Launch enterprise applications that mimic the best aspects of consumer communication and social media within your worker community.

Develop a business case for incremental investment by linking end-user technology strategy with human-resource planning, facilities planning and business strategy. Consider desktop virtualisation and other new technologies to reduce security and data-loss risks as the demand for consumerisation grows. Confront the software-licensing implications of consumerisation to ensure compliance. Finally, avoid end-user stipends; the goal is to allow employees to use the devices they already prefer, not to shift purchasing decisions on to them.

The heart of the consumerisation trend is human desire; people want to work the way they live, using the Internet to facilitate relationships and communication. It’s also the foundation for the next wave of business.

Companies that adapt quickly and thoughtfully to change the relationship between employees and the IT department will be better able to attract talent, execute new business models and enhance competitiveness. So why fight it?

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Cloud Computing Market Predicted To Hit $240 Billion By 2020

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The global cloud computing market is expected to grow from $40.7 billion to $240 billion by 2020, a new report has predicted.

According to a report released by market research firm Forrester Research, the market for cloud computing is set to grow by leaps and bounds as companies rush to move their networks onto cloud platforms.

The Forrester report, titled Sizing the Cloud, takes into consideration three basic forms of cloud computing: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), virtualisation and Software as a Service (SaaS).

According the research firm, the IaaS market, pioneered by companies like Amazon Web Services and Rackspace, will reach its peak of $5.9 billion by 2014, after which, it will be plagued by commoditisation, price deterioration, and margin pressure.

The company also expects the SaaS market, which currently is worth $21.2 billion in total revenue, to grow for the next five years to reach a market value of $92.8 billion by 2016. From 2016 to 2020, the market is expected to reach a saturation point with no significant growth.

“SaaS applications tend to be bought by business people who are less concerned about the issue of privacy than IT staff and developers, who tend to buy the IaaS applications,” said Forrester analyst Stefan Ried said in a statement to Computer Weekly.

“IT staff are used to privacy challenges from their efforts spent installing on-premise technology and security,” he added.

This report comes just after a major outage of amazon’s Web Service has damaged some people’s assessments of cloud computings reliability.