Rule 1: The cloud rides on the network, so the network must be able to keep up Companies that move applications and data to cloud, or perhaps build new systems on cloud-based platforms, often don’t consider the network infrastructure. When relying on systems that are connected via the network, the network is everything. Slow networks mean slow systems and poor performance. Rule 2: Applications not optimized for cloud-based platforms rarely perform well Many enterprise IT […]
infrastructure
32 posts
Today, most large enterprises, no matter what industry they serve, are software developers. The reason? The various ways through which employees and customers can, and want, to engage with businesses has grown exponentially; time, platform and frequency are no longer considerable barriers to achieving what you want to achieve. Applications that are used by either staff or customers are developed internally by the development team and/or with their development partners. For many organisations, their applications, […]
Infrastructure is expensive. So it’s no wonder that many businesses traditionally would often spend the bare minimum to get up and running without considering their long term needs. Fast forward to today, and virtualization infrastructure is not only cheap to set up, it doesn’t require any major specialized knowledge to get started. Even the smallest businesses (start-ups especially) generally have at least one or two servers that they use to host their services, but they’re […]
There are many benefits of cloud computing that don’t necessarily make the headlines or the 30-point bold bullet in the PowerPoint slide, but they are still important when considering using a cloud service. It’s pretty apparent to anyone in the technology world that cloud computing is an established and accepted approach to the delivery of computer software and infrastructure as a service. From music and movie streaming services such as Netflix and Pandora, to personal […]
Saleforce.com’s chief scientist has slammed the concept of private cloud, claiming that the whole point of cloud computing is that resources, costs and risk are shared between multiple parties. Speaking at the Cloud Computing World forum in London today, JP Rangaswami said that cloud provides the scalability and flexibility that organisations need to survive in the modern age. However, organisations that choose to adopt private rather than public cloud will miss out on the benefits. […]
The Business Software Alliance, which represents US companies such as Microsoft, ranked 24 countries that account for 80 per cent of the global ICT market based on seven policy categories that measure the countries’ preparedness to support the growth of cloud computing. Brazil finished last in the survey, earning only 35.1 points out of a possible 100 because of its policies in areas such free trade, security, data privacy and cybercrime. India – which has […]
Less than a decade ago I owned an advertising agency with 30 staff across three locations. As a digital agency our work was primarily email, internet access, document writing and sharing. To achieve and support that we had a dedicated room in Ipswich that housed switches and servers, back up facilities, racks and air conditioning units to stop everything overheating. The cost of installation was in the tens of thousands and the cost of maintaining […]
Since Cloud computing is a new way of doing business you have to be clear about what you are letting yourself in for. For some, the business benefits of Cloud are many – for others it will be the simple fact that Cloud allows a small business to stop worrying about its IT – something that distracts from its core function of running the business. Cloud computing differs from conventional outsourcing in that the latter […]
Decision making in business is often a slow, sometimes laborious process. Working in IT, the decision being made is just the start. Traditionally you then had to buy the kit, deploy and finally roll it out to the community of users. Months (or more) could pass before a chosen strategy came to fruition. I imagine a number of you are already grimacing in frustration at the thought… This is one of the major incentives of […]
Cloud computing is a reality, and it’s a force that I believe IT professionals need to come to terms with quickly. The economic motivation for cloud is high; business need for speed and agility is like never before, and the technology has reached a level where it makes prudent investments in cloud services not only possible but fast and easy. The cloud is here and it won’t go away, but what is it really, why […]
According to a survey carried out by hosted IT service provider Rise, 91 per cent of businesses strongly feel more needs to be done to educate end-users about the business benefits of adopting a Cloud infrastructure. The survey, conducted at a recent IT industry event, also identified that when it came to Cloud uptake the biggest concern for firms is where their data is being stored, with 64 per cent of surveyed participants identifying this […]
I can’t help but take notice of the recent string of cloud failures we’ve been hearing about this year. Blogger went down for about 20 hours last month and Microsoft’s BPOS hosted bundle also reported a significant amount of downtime. Perhaps the most notable was when Amazon’s cloud was overloaded with Lady Gaga fans clamoring to get her album for 99 cents. All of this talk of cloud failure has once again called into question […]
“You don’t know what you don’t know” might be the expression most appropriate for small to medium-size businesses (SMB) when it comes to the benefits of technology and their business, according to an independent survey of more than 500 SMB decision makers released at National Small Business Week. The study, commissioned by Verio Inc., a provider of online business solutions to SMBs worldwide, showed that more than two-thirds of respondents are uncertain if they will […]
In organizations’ mad rush to virtualize their IT infrastructure, some are running into unforeseen obstacles that cause them to put the brakes on virtualization deployments, sometimes indefinitely. This phenomenon, known as “virtualization stall,” has more to do with psychology than technology, but it could potentially erode confidence in virtualization and slow growth of cloud computing. According to solution providers, virtualization stall has several root causes: Some companies are unwilling or afraid to virtualize their tier […]
The tech world has no shortage of jargon. But one term in particular has businesses small and large scratching their heads: What is cloud computing? Businesses know they’re headed there, but where are they going? Many of them are already there, even if they don’t realize it. Some of the most basic Web tasks are based in the cloud — a generic term that basically means tapping into online-based services. Common tasks like e-mail, social […]
Some businesses are looking at the global reach of the Internet and cloud computing as a way to extend a new form of disaster assistance — one business offering service to a company in an affected area as a way to help it keep its processes running. In cloud operations, it is expected that multiple copies of a data set will be created and kept in synch. Three is the magic number for Cassandra, MongoDB, […]
Like many disruptive, evolving technologies, cloud computing is going through a phase characterized by opposites: hype and exaggeration on one side, and fear and skepticism on the other. How do you determine what’s really going to work for your organization? Separating the myths from the facts of cloud computing is a good place to start. Let’s take a look at the top 10 cloud computing myths as we see them, and the realities behind those […]
Cloud computing revenue in the US public sector is expected to grow by 21.6 percent over the next few years, according to the latest survey by International Data Corporation (IDC). The report, entitled U.S. Public IT Cloud Services by Industry Sector: More Details on the Opportunity, shows that from 2009 to 2014 public cloud revenue in the US will grow significantly from $11.1 billion to $29.5 billion. The main areas that will employ cloud computing […]
Several private clouds are now coming to market based on the Vblock technology developed by VCE, a joint venture forged by Cisco, EMC and VMWare. Last week I groaned inwardly as I saw not one, but two announcements plop into my inbox. First came Sungard’s “fully managed cloud offering”, and then a couple of days later CSC got in touch to brief me about the launch of CSC BizCloud, “the industry’s first on-premise private cloud […]
Security takes precedence over financial return Companies are still wary about the security aspect of cloud computing and want more reassurance before investing in the technology. That’s according to new research from SunGard which found that only 15 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) would be happy to entrust their company’s data to cloud providers. To no great surprise, financial accounting systems were the applications that CFOs were most reluctant to see despatched to the […]
The market downturn gave impetus to cloud computing by forcing organizations to find new ways to press forward with IT innovation despite their constrained resources—so they could continue to improve their competitive position, boost productivity and gain actionable market insight. In other words, after years of talk about aligning IT and business, alignment has quickly become life and death. If IT can’t reduce costs while keeping a step ahead of an increasingly dynamic business climate, […]
Cloud computing has long been touted as a way to help entrepreneurs conduct businesses by housing data and computer hardware over the Internet. While using the cloud is pretty straightforward, getting a cloud infrastructure in place can take some time and work. Thankfully, there are many cloud computing services companies that can help build the right infrastructure for your business to migrate data, hardware and software to the cloud. “The last thing small businesses want […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
CIO Magiazine has four predictions for cloud computing in 2011 here: It’s been an incredibly interesting, exciting, and tumultuous year for cloud computing. But, as the saying goes, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Next year will be one in which the pedal hits the metal, resulting in enormous acceleration for cloud computing. One way to look at it is that next year will see the coming to fruition of a number of trends and initiatives […]
Businesses are rapidly switching on to the benefits a hosted private branch exchange (PBX) – or switchboard – environment. That’s according to Graeme Victor, CEO of telecommunications solutions company Du Pont Telecom, who says several organizations have already adopted the new technology that aims to expand voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP). Victor says with the growth and maturation of the data networks and the changes in the interconnect agreements, it is now possible to run a company’s […]
Great article on the difference between manages services and cloud computing: I have posted previously that there is a lot of confusion and debate about terminology and definitions of cloud. The problem of using such a broad term like “cloud computing” is that there are so many variations with the possible deployment models and when you say “cloud” it means different things to different people. Using the phrase “we are going to the cloud” can […]
More cloud stats, this time from here: By 2011 Merrill Lynch says the cloud computing market will reach $160 billion. The number of physical servers in the World today: 50 million. By 2013, approximately 60 percent of server workloads will be virtualized By 2013 10 percent of the total number of physical servers sold will be virtualized with an average of 10 VM’s per physical server sold. At 10 VM’s per physical host that means […]
The New York Times has an interesting article about hybrid clouds: If you’re tackling your company’s computing needs, you’re going to have to get your head in the clouds. But which ones? You’ve likely heard of cloud computing – shared computing resources available over the “cloud,” or the Internet. But it turns out there’s more than one way to cloud. When most people talk about the cloud, they mean a public cloud — big server […]