A recent article by Rob Livingstone on CFO.com [1] attracted my attention. In the article, Rob talks about the need for a tighter, ongoing working relationship between your company and its IT vendors for “as-a-service” technology-delivery models. We have in previous blogs also discussed the changes required in the everything-as-a-service (XaaS) movement. Clearly, Rob’s target audience here is primarily the CFO, and Rob’s suggestions are intended to help financial officers focus on some of the vendor selection issues that are emerging as the technology evolves, and as the customer-vendor relationship evolves in parallel.
As a billing vendor, I look at this from the other side of the negotiation fence, but nevertheless I find I’m pretty much in agreement with Mr. Livingstone.
The article contains a number of useful reminders, some of which I may return to in a future blog. However, for today, I’ve picked out a couple of Rob’s comments, because they happen to resonate with discussions we are constantly having with our customers and prospective customers. They both address adaptability and flexibility, important tag words for us here at MetraTech.
“Syrian Electronic Army” Reminds Us of Importance of Internet Security
by Elliot Curtis, Senior Director, Mass Market Hosting Sector, Parallels
The recent attack by the “Syrian Electronic Army” on media outlets including the New York Times and Huffington Post websites are a renewed reminder of the challenges around internet security. While SMB websites are an unlikely target for organized hacking or distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks, these highly visible and widely reported security issues raise a wareness and concerns for everyone. Most SMBs are exposed to risks from malicious viruses and hacks, as well as, problems caused by bot-nets or even simple content control.
Awareness of internet security continues to rise, but high-profile incidents like this presents a specific opportunity for Web Hosters and Service Providers to have a discussion with their customers about solutions to protect their Web presence and cloud applications. Parallels products and ecosystem of partners enables a variety of security solutions including; hacking protection, anti-virus, anti-spam, email security, DDOS prevention, backup & disaster recovery. Our SMB Cloud InsightsTM research shows that security solutions are the most popular and the fastest growing add-on to both Web Hosting and VPS core services, so every Web Hoster and Service Provider should have a security bundle as part of both their core offering and their up-sell strategy.
Why Is Cloud Security Such a Big Challenge?
For many enterprises, moving business processes and data to the cloud has become a next step for improving both operational and technological capabilities. The cost savings and efficiencies created by utilizing cloud applications continue to increase, including opportunities for more business functions to be put on the cloud. For those currently using the cloud or planning to begin or expand cloud adoption, a growing concern is cloud security and specifically this question – “Why is cloud security such a big challenge?”
The challenges of cloud security begin with an enterprise’s need to keep control over their data and to ensure that their data is kept private and protected. Whether it is outsourced data storage or the use of popular cloud SaaS applications, putting more data in the cloud inherently means more opportunity for unwanted or unauthorized access to that information. But cloud adoption by the enterprise is simply too compelling because of its business benefits, so enterprise security and IT teams have to search for ways to secure their data in the cloud while permitting access and use by legitimate corporate users.
Helping IT Get Its Mojo Back
Anytime we in IT encounter a new paradigm, our natural reaction is block, control, stop. In many shops, our first response is to prohibit users from accessing websites that the company has not approved, including cloud-based software, mobile applications, and other “bring your own apps” candidates. Instead, we ought to put more of our attention on words like partner or enable. That’s what IT is really striving for.
IT managers want to serve their company’s needs and to enable employees to do their job better. But the perception of IT is that is has been on a long trajectory towards (let’s face it) irrelevance.
What Value Can I Expect from Cloud Computing Training?
No student has walked away from a cloud computing course knowing less about the role, impact, and potential of implementing cloud in nearly any organization. Normally, when we think of technical-related training, images of rooms loaded with switches, routers, and servers might come to mind. Cloud computing is different. In reality, cloud computing is not a technology, but rather a framework employing a variety of technologies – most notably virtualization, to solve business problems or enable opportunities.
Cloud Expo: Building Programmable Data Center Switching Fabrics for Cloud
Software Defined Networking and overall network programmability concepts are becoming top of mind for many cloud providers seeking to drive efficiency and simplicity into their Data Center switching fabrics.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, David Klebanov, Technical Solutions Architect at Cisco Systems, will review various deployment options leveraging centralized and distributed control plane models to help guide organizations in their journey to build next-generation programmable Data Center switching fabrics for the cloud.
David Klebanov is Technical Solutions Architect at Cisco Systems.
Top 10 Ways to Kill Your VDI Project
By Francis Czekalski, Consulting Architect, LogicsOne
Earlier this month I presented at GreenPages’ annual Summit Event. My breakout presentation this year was an End User Computing Super Session. In this video, I summarize the ‘top 10 ways to kill your VDI project.’
If you’re interested in learning more, download this free on-demand webinar where I share some real world VDI battlefield stories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9w1o0O8IaI
5 ways CIOs should measure the cloud
The choice to move to cloud is becoming clearer every day. But the choices within that decision are becoming more fraught as the marketplace develops and a wider selection of delivery models and platforms.
The onus is also increasingly falling on CIOs to be the chief decision makers with regards to how cloud should fit within the organization.
Here are a few measures for how to best determine what cloud will be best for your business.
The technology
The component pieces of the cloud provider’s technology need to sync with what you are already working with, as well as what you will be looking to integrate going forward.
One of the great things about cloud platforms (generally) is that there is a degree of interchangeability since the technology is treated as a commodity. However, depending on whom you choose to go with, this is going to be easier or …
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: The State of the Cloud Union
Cloud Computing – let’s take a deep breath and level set for a minute. Public or private? Reduce IT cost & complexity or drive new business innovation? Is cloud always less expensive? What is meant by an “open” cloud? What is a cloud ecosystem? Cloud and the nexus of technology? The cloud promise has evolved so quickly over the last 5 years, that embarking on the cloud journey can be a challenging task in itself. While many companies are enjoying tremendous value and innovation from adoption, others are still mapping out their unique roadmap.
Connecting the Dots in Enterprise Cloud
Conventional wisdom is that the fastest connection between two points- for example between today and tomorrow – is a straight line. But just like in aviation this is not necessarily true in cloud computing. First because cloud computing is not one thing (not one dot on the map) it is a conglomerate of many different types of services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, BPaaS) each with its own characteristics and following its own timeline.