There are many products that are needed to manage enterprise IT infrastructure and due consideration is needed before picking the right set of products.
Simplifying IT administration is a goal for CIOs to reduce manual intervention while running day-to-day operations with the primary goal of reducing the percentage of their IT budgets spent on maintenance. The IT management costs of web companies like Google and Facebook (which cater to tens of millions of users) are extremely low when compared to the size of their infrastructures. A huge advantage they and other super-efficient companies share is gained by 1) a mostly virtualized compute workloads 2) very little legacy infrastructure and 3) most applications written to follow common patterns optimized to take full advantage of virtualized resources. Having learned from managing compute infrastructures, these companies have extended this best practice to managing storage and network resources, too.
Archivo mensual: enero 2013
Essential Cloud Computing Characteristics
If you ask five different experts you will get maybe five different opinions what cloud computing is. And all five may be correct. The best definition of cloud computing that I have ever found is the National Institute of Standards and Technology Definition of Cloud Computing. According to NIST the cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. In this post I will look at the essential characteristics only, and compare to the traditional computing models; in future posts I will look at the service and deployment models.
Because computing always implies resources (CPU, memory, storage, networking etc.), the premise of cloud is an improved way to provision, access and manage those resources. Let’s look at each essential characteristic of the cloud.
Cloud Computing: Panzura Gets Global Cloud-Attached Storage Patents
Panzura, a start-up with global cloud storage solutions, has gotten three patents on its widgetry from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The company says the new patents recognize the underlying technology of its Panzura Operating System, which forms the core of its Global Cloud Storage System. It says it’s the industry’s first storage solution to bring advanced NAS capabilities to a distributed, cloud-integrated storage tier, providing a globally distributed storage system with LAN-like performance.
Voxware Fully Commits to Cloud-Based Enterprise Voice Solution
Voxware today announced the evolution of its Cloud Voice Management Suite (VMS) for the enterprise. This latest offering from Voxware enables organizations off all sizes to migrate to a cloud-based voice management system to enhance operational productivity, improve accuracy and better serve its customers without investing in costly IT infrastructure.
Voxware solutions will be on display at ProMat 2013 at booth 3550 from January 21st through 24th.
This past summer, Voxware had announced the industry’s first premier voice picking cloud solution. Organizations like Hollywood Feed and Wagner SprayTech immediately adopted and deployed the solution and shortly thereafter, realized immediate gains and return on investment. Due to a ground swell of interest from customers and prospects at that time, Voxware has elected to extend the solution and fold in its complete VMS into the product. Now, small, mid and large organizations of any size can leverage the solution to handle all of their warehouse and in-store requirements while improving internal operations and brand reputation initiatives.
“In a very short amount of time, we have realized that any organization can benefit from our proven voice management suite that resides in the cloud. We have acted swiftly to evolve our cloud-based voice solution to incorporate all of the applications that our customers require beyond picking,” said Keith Phillips, President and CEO, Voxware. “This evolution demonstrates that we view innovation and enhancement as an ongoing, interdependent process made possible by the expertise of our team of engineers and the invaluable feedback of our customers.”
Cloud Enterprise VMS is a cost-effective, high impact voice option that will deliver the same level of quality as Voxware’s flagship on-premise offering. The ease with which Voxware can deploy and manage Cloud Enterprise VMS will simplify an organization’s installation process and drive better business results while realizing all of the benefits of a cloud-based solution. Those benefits include:
- No IT overhead: Cloud Enterprise VMS can run without an IT infrastructure, eliminating costs associated with server hardware, maintenance and IT personnel
- Time-to-value: The delivery time is significantly shorter than the fastest full-fledged voice solution
- Future-proof: Users receive automatic software updates, as well as hardware refreshes, to ensure they are always leveraging the latest technologies
- No WMS necessary: Small operations that run without a WMS can now realize the benefits of a voice solution
- Straightforward SaaS model: This model guarantees that users get what they pay for, without any hidden fees or peripheral maintenance costs
Cloud Enterprise VMS is available immediately. Prospects and customers can request it through their Voxware sales representative or by contacting Voxware at 877-483-7239.
iSALUS Healthcare, CIPROMS Partner to Launch Revenue Cycle Management
iSALUS Healthcare, a privately held electronic medical records and practice management service provider, and CIPROMS, Inc., an Indianapolis-based revenue cycle management firm, are partnering to offer medical billing and revenue cycle management services. The agreement allows both organizations to co-promote their respective services.
“The healthcare industry is quickly becoming more automated with electronic medical records. We felt it was time to provide a fully integrated service that could save physicians time, improve efficiency, and enhance patient care, while delivering increased financial performance. It is critical for our organization to be aligned with a leading EMR and practice management solution provider, and we were fortunate to find that team right here in Indianapolis,” said Cheryl Louks , president and CEO of CIPROMS.
The management at both iSALUS and CIPROMS recognized that in today’s fast-paced medical environment, there is little time for providers to focus on all the necessary details to ensure a practice is reaching its financial potential. As such, the partnership addresses the market need to deliver medical billing services within a web-based EMR. This solution is designed to increase practice revenue, reduce costs, and minimize the administrative aggravations associated with the ever-changing rules and regulations.
“Being a 100% mobile practice poses challenges for a traditional EMR company and managing all the paper charting became very burdensome and time consuming for me as a physician. I wanted to transition to an EMR for process improvement and efficiencies and knew an all-inclusive solution was ideal. I chose OfficeEMR™ RCM for its simplicity, mobile application, and the ability to provide medical billing services within an integrated cloud-based service,” said Dr. Irene Roge , D.P.M. “It is great to have one affordable solution that services both the clinical and financial aspects of my practice.”
“Our partnership with CIPROMS is a noteworthy milestone for iSALUS. Physician practices are increasingly forced to navigate the choppy waters of changing regulations while trying to manage constant margin pressure. It was imperative that we offer our clients a ‘best in class’ solution to address such pressures. We have a long-standing relationship with CIPROMS and I am pleased to be moving forward with this all-in-one service,” said Michael Hall , founder and CEO of iSALUS Healthcare.
Can the Cloud Boost Small Businesses?
There’s consistent chatter about the new world of the cloud, and much of the discussion involves how a small business saves substantially and can then invest the savings elsewhere in its business.
For many small businesses that have used the cloud for a few years, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the experience has largely been positive.
Operating servers both on-site and in the cloud is «a very effective way of reducing risk,» said Michael Harries, chief technologist at Citrix Startup Accelerator, a Silicon Valley investment firm that works specifically with software startups, according to the Journal.
Business owners should make their cloud-deployment decisions based on the «support they have available,» he said.
Harpaul Sambhi, chief executive of social-media recruitment firm Careerify, said running his company solely in the cloud has allowed him to focus more on business growth. Careerify allows a company to connect to its employees’ social networks in order to find candidates for jobs at that company, be it through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Sambhi said because an average employee has about 300 social-media contacts, he didn’t want to burden his staff of 12 with trying to maintain servers that are mining the data of hundreds of thousands of users.
«It’s a lot of work for us,» he said.
Driving Innovation Through the Cloud
Big Data. Social. Mobile. These worldwide trends are sparking new cloud-based applications and driving innovation around the next generation of open, web-based services development. This tectonic shift is fueling the need for new cloud platforms that provide open services in a secure environment, powered by business grade capacity, and supported with quality service. Companies are looking to a hybrid delivery model to ensure the flexibility and scale that is required to capitalize on these trends.
Dan Baigent, Sr. Director Business Development, HP Cloud Services, shares the company’s vision and strategy behind the HP Converged Cloud and the implications for the enterprise. He discusses how some of HP’s customers today are taking advantage of the cloud including how simple it is to introduce a public cloud into a private cloud environment.
Big data for small business: Levelling the playing field
Guest blog by Dave King
Editor for Information Technology Advisor
The phenomenon that is “Big Data” is already having a huge impact on your organisation – only you might not have noticed it yet.
Big data is the accumulated data your organisation has collected and usually stored – structured and unstructured data such as text, sensor data, audio, video, click streams, log files, and more. Many companies are finding enormous value through analysing these various data sets against and with each other.
The evolution of the Internet and the influence of mobile devices, wireless networking, sensors, and social networks have changed operations and how businesses compete. But all these tech trends are bit players compared with Big Data.
While Big Data is the engine that’s driving companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, it’s relevant for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) too. Big Data has already had a significant impact …
Hybrid Clouds and Data Liberation
Despite the immense potential for efficiency offered by the proliferation of cloud and SaaS solutions, integration of these solutions into often disparate enterprise IT frameworks continues to be a challenge for many businesses. Even traditional B2B integration faces greater complexity with the growing adoption of cloud and SaaS applications. Building on this complexity are things such as changes to privacy regulations that have occurred over the past decade – particularly in relation to healthcare and financial data – as well as the speed of data demands from distributed supply chains.
Over the next year, I anticipate that businesses will increasingly look to managed services that offer industry expertise, proven processes and in-depth technology to streamline cloud integration and data management initiatives that have been implemented over the past several years. With data volume, variety, velocity and therefore complexity increasing, companies are beginning to realize that integration and data management must be at the core of their IT architecture.
Four Ways to Manage Your Internal Cloud Efficiently
IT departments today are in a new position. No longer simply providers of technology to an organization, they’ve become true service providers. Today, the IT department or data center leverages advances in infrastructure and virtualization technology to change the way we do business for the better.
Yet, transitioning into a service provider who offers internal cloud solutions can be a challenge.
Start with your current quality of service and cost metrics. You need to understand where you stand. Do some benchmarking, and identify where you’re using your resources. Compare your output with third party cloud vendors and you’ll see opportunities for improvement.