Some of our customers and billing industry contacts are somewhat intrigued (or even bemused) by the upsurge in attention being given to the concept of “subscriptions”. Some are concerned that they’re missing something because, after all, subscriptions have been business-as-usual for most of us for years. So why all the fuss? Does the growth of subscription-type services delivered over the Internet indicate there’s some exciting new business model out there? Are we seeing fundamental changes in the way companies are doing business?
Part of the mythology surrounding subscription services is that there is something fresh and new about this, something that needs a new generation of billing systems optimized for subscriptions. This is puzzling. Subscription services have been around on the Internet since its earliest days. Actually, subscription services in various forms existed decades before the Internet appeared to change our lives. True, the Internet has opened up huge additional opportunities for subscription services, just as it has opened up all sorts of other opportunities – for content distribution, selling products, communicating, and more. In one way or another, we managed to do most of these things in the dark pre-Internet days, but the Internet had truly transformed the scale, reach and cost factors underpinning all of these business activities.
Cloud Solutions and Technology
“Regulations and compliance are key trust topics with regards to cloud solutions and technology,” noted Sven Denecken, Vice President, Strategy and Co-Innovation Cloud Solutions, SAP AG, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “But it is also more than security of access – it is portability of data and a clear definition of where the data resides.”
Cloud Computing Journal: The move to cloud isn’t about saving money, it is about saving time – agree or disagree?
Sven Denecken: Cloud of course does support more cost effective and quick approaches to a solution, if done right. Though the main business benefit is velocity, the right speed and direction is a combination that enables dedicated business functions, for example, HR, sales, finance and procurement, with the right solution, dedicated to their need, integrated into the existing environment (hybrid) and the ability to consume at the right speed.
The Future of Tech Companies, the NSA, and Your Information
Guest Post by Lewis Jacobs
Verizon and the NSA
Last week, the technology world was turned upside down when the Guardian broke the news that the National Security Agency had directed telecommunications company Verizon to release customer call records and metadata on an “ongoing daily basis.”
Though the metadata doesn’t include the audio content of calls, it does include the phone numbers on both ends of calls, the devices and location of both parties involved, and the time and duration of calls.
The order was leaked by Edward Snowden, an analyst for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton at the NSA. The order targets both international and domestic calls, and it does not contain parameters for who can see the data or whether or not the data will be destroyed after NSA use.
Though the White House and the NSA say that the data will only be used for counter-terrorism efforts and other national security measures, the order nonetheless gives the federal government access to data from all of Verizon’s more than 100 million customers.
Since the story broke, there has been significant debate over whether the NSA is working within the regulations of the First and Fourth Amendments or whether it is violating citizens’ rights to free speech and privacy. The White House has defended the order as a necessary measure for national security. But critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union and several U.S. lawmakers, disagree.
What it means for the future
The controversy raises the question of whether or not other technology and telecommunications companies will be required to follow suit—or whether they already have. Amy Davidson at the New Yorker speculates that the leaked Verizon order is “simply one of a type—the one that fell off the truck.” Adam Banner at the Huffington Post wonders, “How many other ‘top secret’ court orders are currently in action with countless other information providers?”
The NSA is said to have been monitoring and collecting customer data from some of the world’s largest technology companies with the help of surveillance program PRISM. But many companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and AOL, have denied providing the government direct access to their users’ information. Google, one of the companies to deny any knowledge of PRISM, wrote an open letter to the Attorney General and the FBI requesting to make public any federal requests for data.
In any case, it’s unlikely that the NSA demanded customer information only from Verizon, meaning that the federal government could be (and probably is) accessing information about citizens through their phone providers, their email services, and their search engines. Faced with federal orders, there’s not much that technology companies can do in opposition.
The future of NSA technology surveillance will depend, of course, on its legality, which is yet to be determined. It’s unclear whether or not the NSA’s actions fall under the provisions of the Patriot Act, the FISA Amendments Act, the Constitution, and federal government’s system of checks and balances.
The American Civil Liberties Union recently announced their plan to sue the White House Administration for violating the privacy rights of Americans. On the other side, whistleblower Edward Snowden is currently under investigation for the disclosure of classified information, an offense that could result in life in prison.
This article was submitted by Lewis Jacobs, an avid blogger and tech enthusiast. He enjoys fixing computers and writing about internet trends. Currently he is writing about an internet in my area campaign for local internet providers.
Sources:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/06/the-nsa-verizon-scandal.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-banner/the-nsa-and-verizon
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/11/technology/security/google-government-data/
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/07/technology/security/nsa-data-prism/
Managed Service Provider Selects Zyrion Cloud Monitoring Solution
Zyrion Inc., a provider of Cloud and IT Monitoring software solutions, on Wednesday announced at Cloud Expo New York that United Technology Group (UTG), a provider of information technology solutions headquartered in Atlanta, has selected Zyrion’s Traverse Cloud monitoring software for offering managed services to their clients.
UTG is one of Atlanta’s fastest growing Managed Service Providers and a leading provider of information technology solutions for mid-sized enterprise and small businesses nationwide. UTG provides reliable, consulting and scalable technology solutions ranging from Cloud, virtualization, secure networking, storage, unified communications as well as backup and disaster recovery services to achieve optimal efficiency and full security with client networks.
Go Beyond IaaS to Deliver “Anything-as-a-Service”
Many organizations want to expand upon the IaaS foundation to deliver cloud services in all forms – software, mobility, infrastructure and IT. Understanding the strategy, planning process and tools for this transformation will help catalyze changes in the way the business operates and deliver real value.
Six Not-so-Blind Men and the Cloud Elephant
As with everything else, the best way to get a view of a new technology area is by asking for independent opinions. The old adage of the 6 blind men and the elephant comes to mind. Coincidentally, there were six “blind men” on the panel, including our very engaging host, Mr. Geelan. And there were views that converged in a common theme – Cloud Connects.
The discussion was very entertaining, as all panels mediated by Jeremy are. Interestingly, the analogy went into elephants and other sorts of fauna. To me the Cloud elephant is the right animal to summarize this discussion around – my mind went to the old Indian fable of six blind men and the elephant (I did drop the word “blind” because the panel is obviously not blind and was made of very experienced leaders in this industry J). But it was six men with different views, yet converging on the same theme of how cloud computing fits into this world and the future.
WSO2 and SUSE Presenters at Cloud Expo New York
WSO2 on Thursday announced that WSO2 Vice President of Technology Evangelism Chris Haddad and SUSE Business Development Manager Frank Rego will lead a joint presentation at 12 International Cloud Expo. The session, “Bridging IaaS and PaaS to Deliver the Service-Oriented Data Center,” is part of the event’s Enterprise Cloud Computing Track on Thursday, June 13, 2013. The Cloud Expo conference is being held June 10-13, 2013 at the Javits Center in New York City.
Bridging IaaS and PaaS to Deliver the Service-Oriented Data Center
Increasingly, enterprises are adopting private infrastructure as a service (IaaS) clouds to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility inherent in cloud environments while avoiding the security and latency issues inherent in publicly hosted settings. As a result, organizations are also reevaluating how to optimize their future application delivery models.
This session will examine how IT professionals can efficiently and flexibly tackle the challenges of the modern connected enterprise using a combination of IaaS and platform as a service (PaaS). It also will discuss how a private PaaS can leverage the automation and scalability of a private IaaS solution, such as the OpenStack-based SUSE Cloud, to deliver secure, standardized development environments that enable migration to an agile, service-oriented delivery model. The presentation will run from 8:15-9:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 13, 2013.
97% of SMBs say security positively impacted by cloud adoption
Over 95% of respondents in a comScore survey of French SMBs said cloud adoption had a positive impact on security, as well as noticing unexpected benefits, such as up-to-date systems and antivirus protection.
The study of French small to midsize businesses with between 25 and 499 PCs was conducted by comScore and commissioned by Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, although the respondents were made unaware of Microsoft’s involvement.
88% of those polled said they had noticed improved uptime as a result of the cloud, with the same number claiming they were “confident” that their CSP could get back up and running after an outage.
The report also looked at return on investment in the cloud, and came up with positive conclusions. Seven in 10 say that they had been able to “pursue new opportunities” – which could ostensibly mean anything – because of time saved in the cloud, whilst a whopping 87% said …
Cloud-making SMBs in India – a force to reckon with
by John Zanni, Vice President of Service Provider Marketing and Alliances, Parallels
I have been visiting India for more than 10 years and I have seen an amazing transformation in the last years. Today, there are 36 million micro, small and medium enterprises in India. Many face seeming insurmountable challenges of sub-optimal scale of operation, technological obsolescence, supply chain inefficiencies, increasing domestic and global competition, fund shortages, and turbulent and uncertain market scenario.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that today’s new generation of entrepreneurs in India is young, bold and willing to try new ideas. They see an opportunity and take the plunge. They know that as small businesses they have the benefit of being agile and nimble against much larger organizations. They are therefore able to capitalize more quickly on emerging opportunities. They are also more willing to take a few hits at the beginning of the business to win big later.
They understand that being small means they don’t have the luxury of large financial backing to support the various activities of the business. This means they need to be smarter at deciding how best to compete and grow.
One smart proven approach is the use of web presence to create brand awareness and generate business opportunities. They are turning to the cloud to reach out to potential customers locally, nationally and internationally. Creativity and technology are making it possible for these small upstarts to compete against much larger businesses.
The result is phenomenal growth in adoption of ICT particularly those delivered via cloud computing. In the past, the biggest barrier to adoption to cloud services in India was bandwidth but that’s changing very rapidly. Bandwidth is significantly better now, and reliability issues are slowly going away. Cloud adoption will explode and we see the opportunity for cloud services accelerating.
The latest Parallels SMB Cloud Insights™ for India estimates that the Indian SMB cloud services opportunity in 2013 is worth ₹16.9 billion (US$339 million), and expects it to grow 35 percent year-over-year for the next three years, reaching ₹42 billion (US$839 million) by the beginning of 2016. This growth will be driven by new adopters of cloud services and current users adding more applications and functionality to their existing cloud services. They are eager to get online and consume services that will help them reach their customer base, increase their productivity, and improve their IT capabilities and they are willing to PAY for it.
The opportunity is huge. We are seeing it in our business at Parallels.
Service providers who are able to stay on top of this growing demand by SMBs and engage them with the right mix of services and applications will grow and profit in the years to come.
The Digital Consumer: Big-Data-Enabled-Cloud’s Final Destination
Cloud Expo 2013 New York is all about the technlogies that enable cloud computing. The multiple tracks,, boot camp, keynotes and general sessions all focus on how to enable cloud computing through hosting, storage, data, APIs and services and application – grouped under IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS models. As they should. The first day was chock full of new tends, capabilities, and real world application. of the combined ecosystem. In the end, all these enable the digital consumer. All this has ushered the consumer into the omni-channel, geo-ubiquitous, location-agnostic digital age.