3M, the St. Paul, Minn.-based diversified manufacturer, built a visual application for design. Initially, it was used for the staff of 7,000 in 3M’s research and development group. Recently, the company started to offer it as a cloud service for customers—that is, a service running on remote servers accessed via the Internet. There were two factors driving the development of the cloud design application—cost and innovation. “The way it’s set up, images are stored on […]
No doubt you are seeing more and more information about the value of moving IT services “into the Cloud.” But do you know exactly what that means? Does anyone? Before moving into the world of Cloud computing you must first gain a holistic view of your current IT environment and future business objectives. This way you will have a better understanding of the current realities and future possibilities available to your organization in the Cloud. […]
Cloud computing, mobile applications,smart phones and tablets will all play an important role in driving Thailand’s information and communications technology industry in 2011. But executives of the industry emphasize the growing challenges of security in the new age of mobility and devices of all kinds, when asked to share their visions for the year ahead. The managing director and general manager of HP Enterprise Business for Hewlett-Packard (Thailand), Beng Teck Liang, said the adoption of […]
While Cloud Computing has captured the imagination of CIOs, there are serious questions whether sensitive business data can be effectively managed in the cloud. Wendy Yale from Varonis explores. The data governance and compliance issues faced by organisations are the same whether operating in a cloud environment or not. When organisations are considering moving business data into the cloud a sound data governance approach must be in place to enable them to avoid costly data […]
A recent survey has found that almost two-thirds of UK contact centres have either already adopted, or are looking to implement a remote working strategy. The survey, which questioned 100 UK contact centre managers across both the private and public sector, was conducted last week at Call Centre Expo by Siemens Enterprise Communications. The findings reflect technology industry analyst house IDC’s recent stated view, that the mobile worker population is increasing, with global numbers set […]
In the era of WikiLeaks, it’s no wonder that business executives are feeling less secure about their organizations’ data. A recent study by Ernst & Young found that 60% of those polled perceive increased risk from the use of social networking, cloud computing and personal mobile devices at work. “Organizations are operating in a world that requires borderless security,” warns Bernie Wedge, an IT risk practice leader at Ernst & Young. “Information access by employees […]
Luxoft has predicted that cloud computing, whether used in a storage capacity or to greatly decrease carbon footprints, will experience significant growth, in both the public and private sectors over the next 12 months, specifically in the area of internet services. The following tips have been developed by Vice President of Technology Strategy at Luxoft, Vasily Suvorov, to help businesses looking to use cloud computing effectively over the next 12 months. Know where you stand […]
Forbes this week published an interesting article written by Ed Sperling titled “CIOs: Be Careful What You Wish For.” In it, Sperling posits that virtualization will cause a shift for IT leadership from technology to data. He writes: “The virtualization being implemented everywhere will give way to cloud computing, and cloud computing will unclutter technology to the point where the focus will migrate from technology to data.” He goes on to say: “IT is still […]
Cisco is the latest company to release customer research into cloud computing trends, and only an average of 18 percent of respondents worldwide said they are using the cloud in any capacity. However, the outlook is better, as 88 percent said they planned to take up the cloud in some capacity within three years. The world is full of good intentions, of course, and surveys tend to be optimistic. That’s why companies pay to have […]
The research includes predictions for six technologies IT departments should consider in the coming year, including adoption of social media strategies, cloud computing and virtualization, as well as mobile applications and analytics tools. According to a study by IT analytics firm Info-Tech Research Group, 2011 will be the year of mass adoption for technologies the company said businesses have been slow to adopt. The research includes predictions for six technologies IT departments should consider in […]
Based on the work I have been doing in cloud computing Europe, Asia/Pacific, and North America, people have been regularly asking me the questions, “How are attitudes towards cloud computing different in Europe?” and “How has cloud adoption differed in Europe from it’s adoption in the United States?” In fact, I was asked back in September to write a blog on the differences I have seen in cloud adoption in Europe versus my experience in […]
Being that we’re at the start of a new year and all, I thought I’d launch the 2011 newsletter by sharing predictions from a variety of network and systems management vendor executives. Many, of course, have high expectations regarding the continued maturity of virtualization and cloud computing within the enterprise and, along with that, a better understanding of the management challenges and how to go about addressing those effectively. Srinivas Ramanathan, CEO of performance monitoring […]
2010 was the year “cloud computing” became colloquialized to just “cloud,” and everyone realized “cloud,” “SAAS” and all the other xAAS’s (PAAS, IAAS, DAAS) were all different implementations of the same idea — a set of computing services available online that can expand or contract according to need. Not all the confusion has been cleared up, of course. But seeing specific services offered by Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Citrix, VMware and a host of other companies […]
Cloud computing has been making headlines and generating buzz for the past several years. Companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all placed big bets on public clouds, while traditional enterprise companies such as IBM, HP and EMC are pushing private clouds. The future may involve more than one cloud model, even for some of the largest and most staid corporations, but being able to juggle the advantages of each while minimizing risks such […]
Citrix CTO Simon Crosby looks back at 2010 in the cloud computing sector–and ahead at what 2011 may bring–and isn’t very comfortable with a number of things emerging on the security side of that very hot business. Crosby has become a go-to resource for knowledge in virtualization, cloud computing and data security. He was founder and CTO of XenSource prior to its acquisition by Citrix for $500 million in 2007. Previously, Simon was a principal […]
If data is sitting in three jurisdictions, what laws apply to it? Dubai: Tighter budgets, less capital investment and fewer IT staff in the corporate world are expected to boost cloud computing storage demands past $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) per year in the Middle East in a third-party global storage market worth $68 billion annually. As the global number grows to $150 billion a year by 2014, some observers warn the amount of money saved […]
Four years ago, data center server utilization was just 18 percent. To put it another way, on average 82 percent of the server capacity in major data centers was underutilized. Given all of the emphasis on server virtualization in the last few years, you’d expect utilization to have increased sharply. But it hasn’t. According to Gartner research, overall utilization is still at 18 percent — and utilization of x86 servers is one-third lower at 12 […]
Even a business operating in the clouds needs someone on the ground. In Alaska, Nate Gates is aiming to be what he called that “local throat to choke.” Gates founded Cloud 49 in July after four years as chief information officer for Chenga Corp., an Alaska Native village corporation, and his preliminary expectations have been exceeded as state companies explore and embrace cloud computing technology. “We thought it would be a slow road the first […]
As the dominant IT paradigm continues to shift, companies need to manage critical components of the migration. Companies still face plenty of questions regarding cloud computing. Increasingly, however, the dominant question is not whether to do it, but how intensely. In fact, given the pace at which companies are offloading at least part of their IT infrastructure to public clouds (generally defined as third-party services that host computing workloads in multi-tenant data centers), those that […]
With Thanksgiving and Christmas behind us and the New Year upon us, it is time to take stock and see what changed for desktop virtualization in 2010. One thing is very clear: We have moved from desktop virtualization being ‘about to take off’ to ‘has taken off’ — the evidence for this is pretty clear in the number of licenses sold. With volumes sold in the low millions, desktop virtualization is way beyond the tryout […]
A growing number of small-business owners are expected to try cloud computing services next year, hoping to trim costs and stay up and running if disaster strikes. Cloud computing refers to any service that operates over an Internet connection, allowing immediate access from any computer or mobile device with Web access. Business owners can access software or store information—such as customer contacts, accounting data and presentations—and leave the technical maintenance to the cloud provider. As […]
This article is based on the book “Creating the Infrastructure for Cloud Computing: An Essential Handbook for IT Professionals” The virtualization models for clients are, arguably, more diverse than those for servers. For servers there are essentially two, the earlier model of static consolidation and the more recent dynamic model where virtual machines lightly bound to physical hosts can be moved around with relative ease. With virtualized clients there are also two main models, depending […]
Cloud Adopters Embrace Cloud For Both Innovation and Legacy Optimization Once thought to be the answer to deployment options for just the SMB market, early cloud adopters proved otherwise. Stereotypes about industry, size of company, geographies, and roles no longer hold back adoption. Cloud adoption at all 4 layers of the cloud passed the tipping points in 2010 as a key business and technology strategy (see Figure 1). For 2011, we can expect users to: […]
A few weeks back, I was on a panel of media pundits asked to make predictions about what might happen in the technology business in 2011. One prominent member of our group, seeking to stake out a bold, contrarian position, asserted that 2011 would be the year that “cloud computing” would be revealed to be a big nothing, an over-hyped concept that in the end is more about marketing than actual technology. He’s so, so […]
International Business Machines Corp., the world’s biggest computer-services provider, is building a cloud-computing system for NATO in the first such deal for the international military alliance. The software and hardware will let NATO more quickly collect and analyze data, such as military intelligence in Afghanistan, said E.J. Herold, head of the project for IBM. NATO’s military command department in Norfolk, Virginia, will use the technology first, with the possibility it will expand to other divisions, […]
Once upon a time, a few decades ago, computers were extraordinarily expensive, room-filling machines – the kind decked out with whirring tape reels, flashing lights, and banks of switches. You didn’t pull up a chair up to use one; instead, using a process called timesharing, you accessed it via a remote terminal at the same time as a bunch of other folks. The PC revolution changed all that, but only for a while. Today, we’re […]
Today, service providers and enterprises interested in implementing clouds face the challenge of integrating complex software and hardware components from multiple vendors. The resulting system can end up being expensive to build and hard to operate, minimizing the original motives and benefits of moving to cloud computing. Cloud computing platforms are attractive because they let businesses quickly access hosted private and public resources on-demand without the complexities and time associated with the purchase, installation, configuration […]
Cloud Computing can help your business reduce costs as you don’t have to invest in hardware and other physical infrastructure, your data is stored on a secure location and you only pay for what you use – there are no licensing fees associated with cloud computing. Legal Issues associated with Cloud Computing That said, there are some important legal issues that must be taken care of before you sign-up with any of the cloud vendors […]
When we first heard about cloud computing, public clouds got most of the attention. But as IT managers looked at the security risks of having data outside the corporate firewall, they turned their attention to private clouds, which analysts and various surveys suggest will get more enterprise investment in the next few years. But private clouds have their share of challenges too. There are management issues and operational processes to figure out. And, of course, […]
There seems to be a steady stream of news stories extolling the benefits of cloud computing and the positive impact it can have on an organisation. However, just as many organisations are in the process of implementing effective internal data governance processes, and are now faced with the question of whether their businesses’ sensitive data can be effectively managed in the cloud. The data governance and compliance issues faced by organisations are the same whether […]