Recently, McKinsey & Company released an article entitled Protecting information in the cloud which discussed the increased use of cloud computing by enterprises of a variety of sizes and industries and the benefits and risks cloud usage entails. The article recognizes that many organizations are already using cloud applications and realizing the efficiency and cost benefits and, in fact, most are looking to increase their usage of the cloud in 2013 and beyond in both private and public environments. But there are issues that are inhibiting adoption, such as risks associated with data security and concerns around privacy and compliance.
The McKinsey article rightly points out that allowing perceived risks to bar further adoption of the cloud is not a realistic option for most organizations, given the many compelling benefits offered. Enterprises must determine ways to embrace the cloud while also being able to satisfy important questions concerning security, compliance and regulatory protection that are hampering aggressive movement to the cloud.

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The cloud is commonly envisaged as a utilitarian service, enabling those companies using it, to experience ease of access to data in various accounts, homogenisation of such accounts, the external management of servers, negating the need for expensive hardware, and so on.

This utilitarian approach has, broadly speaking, meant that some cloud services lose a certain personal element with their clients.

The cloud has been associated with a lack of customer service, with some of the large providers simply erecting web pages and FAQs to tackle customer problems. It is often very difficult to phone up and talk to a human being.

For a fair few businesses, customer service is something which takes a back seat.

However, so long as dissatisfied customers reject bad customer service, such offenders will invariably lose business or be bought up by companies which do regard customer satisfaction as paramount.

The cloud’s growth was …

With the analysts predicting cloud computing to rise and rise in 2013, it can be refreshing to get a consumer perspective on how they use the cloud and their overall knowledge of it.

Yet the signs don’t appear to be good – a new survey from UK-based hosting group Webfusion has revealed that two thirds of UK consumers don’t have a clear view of what the cloud entails.

Webfusion polled over 1,000 people, with their findings giving little credence to a consumer shift in cloud perception.

When asked the question ‘when it comes to computers, do you understand what ‘cloud’ means?’, just over a third (33.8%) related most closely to the response ‘yes, I have a clear understanding’. 28.5% emphatically said ‘no!’ whilst 18.3% agreed with the response ‘I have some understanding’.

Not particularly good signs there and the response was similar when concerning understanding …

If you’re interested in the full list of articles in our “31 Days of Servers in the Cloud” Windows Azure Virtual Machines and IaaS series…
“I’m interested in the links to the full series, Kevin.”
I was just getting to that. Anyway… here it is. ENJOY!
“Hey Kevin.. How come the list isn’t complete?”
Because the month isn’t over yet. Keep watching my blog every day for the latest article.

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Corporations around the globe rely on having highly efficient IT networks, and introducing a new piece of enterprise software into the mix will have a far-reaching impact on the entire organization. The decision to purchase and implement new business IT software is not one to enter into lightly. The process may be convoluted because it may affect many different parts of the business and can be difficult to manage without a dedicated workforce focusing solely on software implementation and integration. This article will present a set of recommended cost/benefit criteria that should be considered when evaluating, implementing and measuring the ROI of implementing new IT management systems.

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Emerging applications will not just be cloud-enabled, but also mobile, connected to social media networks and able to consume and respond in real-time to patterns in Big Data. Most important, application building must become more productive with a reduced time-to-market. In his Day 3 keynote at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley Progress Software CTO John Bates presented ten imperatives for constructing next-generation applications that have been defined based on research findings from a community of 1,500 application building companies.
Dr. John Bates is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Progress Software. In this role, he is responsible for creating, evolving and evangelizing Progress’ market strategy and technology vision. Previously, he was General Manager of Progress Software’s Apama Division – the market leading provider of Complex Event Processing (CEP) solutions.

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NetSuite said Thursday that it’s bought 28-year-old Retail Anywhere in a deal that’s supposed to deliver the first cloud-based system that unifies POS and e-commerce in a single application.
The company, which is majority owned by Larry Ellison, says it’s bringing brick-and-mortar retail businesses to a global commerce cloud, grafting multiple-customer touchpoints onto its SuiteCommerce platform to deliver an integrated cloud business suite for retailers including POS, web sites, smartphones, tablets and call centers.

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As more organizations move critical data to the cloud, security takes on ever-increasing importance, according to a recent report on cloud security.
The Security for Business Innovation Council, consisting of IT security professionals from 19 companies worldwide, called cloud computing the main disruptive force for 2013. In its report, «Information Security Shake-Up,» the group said it was evident many organizations are preparing to move more business processes to the cloud. This year, it will even be «mission-critical apps and regulated data» consigned to the cloud, according to an article on NetworkWorld.com.
The Council includes security professionals from Coca-Cola, eBay, FedEx, EMC, Fidelity Investments, Intel, Johnson & Johnson and Walmart, among several others.

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I recently posited a question on Twitter to feel out the attitudes toward technology related to cloud bridges. As you might recall, IPSec VPN connectivity was cited by attendees (real people) as a major requirement for cloud bridges at Gartner DC. For some time now, SSL VPNs have been an effective alternative to IPSec VPN so I wondered why it was that IPSec remains the top choice.
Two answers (one from Steve Shah, the other from Hoff) in particular elicited an abstracted thought regarding standards in general.
As Hoff and Steve point out, there’s value in standards, particularly with respect to interoperability and the ability to leverage existing skills and infrastructure.

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