Cloud Computing Archives

Could A Google Smart Phone Replace Smart Cards and Key Fobs?

January 6, 2011

In a InformationWeek article “Google Puts A Mobile Spin On Cloud Security” , by Ericka Chickowski, she announces that two factor authentication is immediately available as an option for Google Apps Premier. She says that the service, costing $50.00/ month that most of the business customers use will be rolled out to standard users. The article suggests that this could be huge for cloud applications. In particular, Julian Lovelock states that this is because you can access many different credentials for various cloud based services on and from the same physical device. I guess we all carry smart mobile phones these days, so this new Goggle App might just replace the smart cards and key fobs? Right? What do you think of this new possible emerging trend?

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The Jumble of Cloud Computing Terms: Standardize or Customize?

November 30, 2010

In the Information week , August 9th Edition there is an article “Define the Cloud, Then try to tame it.” It references the DMTF, a standards body formerly known as the distributed management task force. They are trying to cut through the jumble of cloud computing terms and hope to write a public set of API’s that cloud vendors use to supply standard cloud services. Is this appealing to everyone or should the cloud suppliers be encouraged to provide their own API’s?

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Private Cloud: Outsource or In-source?

October 4, 2010

In my last blog post, I wrote about some of the trade offs between a public cloud or private cloud. Once a decision is made to go with a private cloud computing solution, the next decision is whether to outsource with private cloud hosting, or to develop and manage the private cloud internally. So what are the trade-offs between private cloud hosting and building an internal private cloud? Here’s a couple of though starters: The private cloud hosting decision is much like any managed server hosting decision. The benefits of private cloud hosting include: No Capital Expenditures Required – The hosting provider makes all of the capital and staffing investments and the private cloud is delivered at a fixed monthly price. Fully Managed – No need to hire the staff to manage the server hardware, storage, offsite backup, virtual servers or data center infrastructure. A new server can be spun up with a simple phone call. Compliance – If the hosting provider has SAS-70 compliance, or has built PCI or HIPAA compliant solutions, you can piggy-back on their compliance work rather than start fresh with your own audits. Offsite Disaster Recovery – Some private cloud hosting providers can provide offsite…

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Business Value of Cloud Computing: Where Does Initial Capital Expenditure Fit?

September 7, 2010

In the 5/17/10 InformationWeek article “5 Steps To Smart SaaS Operations” by Michael Healy, the article speaks to the 5 SaaS pitfalls and how to avoid them. In the dollars and sense section of the article, he says, “if you think operating expenses are the TOP consideration, you think wrong.” In a survey of 393 business pros, they asked which of nine factors had the greatest likelihood of being incorporated into an ROI study at their companies on the business value of cloud computing. The number #1 answer was initial capital expenditure. A very interesting finding considering that there are many (private) cloud computing offerings that require zero capital expenditure. Much like a managed dedicated server, if you host with a managed data center operator, the capital expenditure is taken on by the data center provider. What would you consider a top factor for an ROI study on the business value of cloud computing?

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What are the Benefits of Private Cloud Computing Hosting?

June 30, 2010

A private cloud computing platform is a stack of network, server and storage hardware dedicated to you for the purpose of cloud computing. With a managed cloud computing service, the stack of hardware becomes a customizable cloud of computing and storage resources for you to configure as you wish. Why is this ability to configure your resources so valuable? Or more pertinent, what is the benefit of a private cloud service? Why use one? Here’s why. With a typical dedicated server stack (outsourced or managed by you), you select your server, storage and networking needs, purchase them and live with that configuration for 3 to 5 years. You might add memory, which isn’t too difficult. You might need to upgrade disk drives, which proves more difficult. Or you might need to upgrade CPU’s which is really difficult and expensive because you basically have to change the entire server. When speaking to finance professionals, I’ve used the following analogy to describe the benefit of a private cloud. Imagine you were responsible for bus transportation in a metropolitan area and were getting ready to order new buses that your community would need to live with for the next 7 years. Buses are…

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Can The Cloud Help Startups?

June 7, 2010

While reading an article in the March 22nd edition of NETWORKWORLD by Jon Brodkin entitled “DEMO start-ups for the cloud”, I made note of a particularly interesting quote by Jeff Crown, president of DEMO, presenter at VenueGen, that “ this is a tough time for start-ups looking raise venture capital.” Venture capitalists are looking for companies that are both targeting a rich market and have already demonstrated progress in winning over customers. Since a lot of these startup companies are struggling for capital it makes sense that they would largely benefit from a CAPEX service like cloud computing and managed server type services. Is anyone else witnessing this phenomenon?

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The Maturing Cloud: Is Your Organization Ready to Cross The Chasm?

June 4, 2010

At the IDC Directions 2010 conference a few weeks ago there was a presentation entitled “The Maturing Cloud: What it will take to Win” Frank Gens explained that the most significant growth opportunities in the IT market will be in cloud computing and Software as a Service ( SaaS ) solutions. He contends that this mode of computing has nearly “crossed the chasm” from early adopters into mainstream adoption. He contends that users and vendors should now focus on how best to capitalize on these opportunities. Are you and your organization ready to “cross the chasm”?

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All Roads Lead to Data Center Consolidation and Using IaaS

January 16, 2010

One of the big takeaways from the cloud computing hype over the last year is that everyone wants to do more with less. Keeping your IT infrastructure in-house no longer makes sense from a cost perspective. The cloud computing media coverage certainly has emphasized this. One of the main advantages of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) companies, like Online Tech, is that they are enabling a wide variety of companies to run their businesses without the capital expenditures that go along with traditional IT departments. A lot of the newer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, who are more agile and under a tighter budget, are already taking advantage of these services. The question has now changed from, “Will we outsource our data center?” to “When and how are be going to take advantage of these new cost-savings IaaS managed services? We at Online Tech, think that the transition will further progress once these once-hesitant businesses become more and more educated about what IaaS companies can offer and how to get the most out of these new business relationships. This will only take time as they see their competitors continue to make the shift to IaaS and experience the time and cost savings.

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Perspective on Barron’s “The Sky’s the Limit” Cover Story on Cloud Computing

January 15, 2010

In the January 4th issue of Barron’s, there was a very interesting article on cloud computing called “The Sky’s the Limit.” The article boldly states that “cloud computing will be as revolutionary as the Internet itself.” This was a great article. It is called Cloud computing for a reason. Cloud computing is the ability for many “certified” people to access a computing resource anywhere, anytime. The only requirement is that they have secure access to the Internet. It is not called “sky computing”, if that was the case anyone anywhere could access the data and all the data would be shared. Maybe Sky computing will have its day, today it’s “The Cloud”. Working in the Business Intelligence field for the past seven years I have seen the growth of virtual machines (VM). With VMs growth corporate users were willing to give up control of what CPU or server their data was running and on. By doing so they gained the ability to quickly request additional computing services without the two+ month wait for a new server to be ordered and be upgraded from corporate IT. To me this was the beginning of “The Cloud” and with it the acceptance of…

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