“The cloud is so new, and is dominated by such a small number of players right now, that prices are much higher than they will be,” noted Cory Isaacson, CEO and CTO of CodeFutures Corporation, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “As demand goes up and new entrants come into the market, the cost will decrease overall,” Isaacson continued. “Cloud computing will be a commodity service worldwide within the next few years – I see this as inevitable.”
Cloud Computing Journal: Just having the enterprise data is good. Extracting meaningful information out of this data is priceless. Agree or disagree?
Cory Isaacson: This is absolutely true; data is meaningless without turning it into useful information. Almost always this involves relating the data to other data (e.g., «How many people purchased Product X last month?» involves relating a customer to a product and a time period).
Survey: Half of Americans Think Cloudy Weather Interferes With Cloud Computing
A Wakefield PR survey found that Americans aren’t as familar with the technology as many editors would think. In fact, half of Americans (51%) believe that stormy weather interferes with cloud computing.
Reminds us of a too-good-to-be-true story we reported on previously.
New Ways of Working – Cloud Computing and Serviced Offices
Finding innovative solutions to problems has always been a hallmark of small and medium businesses keen to differentiate themselves from the pack. Being able to adapt to new ways of working in a modern business environment means looking at emerging technologies such as cloud computing, as well as considering alternative solutions to the traditional working environment such as serviced office spaces. We’ll look at each of these in turn to consider how using both these options work to your advantage in order to maximise the potential of any small business venture.
Cloud Computing
The main advantages of cloud computing for small business users are cost, scalability and flexibility. Gone are the days when it was necessary to purchase and maintain expensive physical infrastructure such as email servers or separate storage systems; cloud computing usually works on a subscription based model and allows your workforce to produce and collaborate on projects no matter where they are based.
Serviced Office Space
An increasingly popular option for small businesses, serviced offices offer all the benefits of more conventional office spaces but with a number of important advantages, chief amongst them being the reduced cost and flexibility that such an arrangement provides.
Fees are usually all-inclusive, saving you the trouble of having to account for additional costs such as building security and office maintenance, whilst giving you access to fully serviced premises. In Scotland, for instance, businesses looking to find Glasgow office space at i2office.co.uk can experience all the advantages such arrangements provide.
Small businesses can only benefit from advances in fields such as cloud computing and flexible working arrangements which allow them to keep costs down whilst providing an excellent service to their customers. Using the two in combination allows users to maximise their profitability at a time when economic circumstances have made it all the more difficult to survive those critical first few years and they are a welcome development for any potential new business.
Servoy Named “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that Servoy has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 11th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Servoy is the fastest and coolest way to develop and deploy cloud-based business applications anywhere and on any device. We serve ISVs that want to deliver compelling, dynamic business apps that are as easy and intuitive as any smartphone application. With Servoy, you develop once and deploy anywhere – from desktops to smartphones.
New Strategies for New and Different Threats
Rapid and proactive containment of problems and breaches — in addition to just trying to keep the bad guys out of your systems — makes sense in today’s environment.
A lot has changed in the past five years. Two key economic trends have really accelerated our security changes. First, the US recession pushed companies to consolidate and integrate technology footprints and leverage systems. New deployment models, such as software as a service (SaaS) and cloud, help address some of the lack of capital that we’ve been experiencing and the ability to push cost from fixed to variable.
Mind the Gap – Greatest Generation Users
By Geoff Smith, Senior Solutions Architect
As this is the last entry in the Mind the Gap blog series, I wanted to tie up all of the loose ends from the previous posts. In those, I’ve asked all of us in IT to break out of our comfy IT management “snuggies” and look at how our world is changing. In the past, IT has been the gatekeeper to technology for the business, mainly because we were the only people who lived it every day. That is no longer true.
In nature, each generation of a species evolves in some way, adapting to changes in their environment, habitat, or position in the food chain. The same can be said for IT users. As each new workforce generation rolls into the business world, they bring with them a greater understanding of what technology is and what it can do for them. I’ve been supporting users since the early 80s, when we got the cross-eyed, “I don’t need that thing” look when you dropped their new computer on their desk and took away their Rolodex. Today, if they don’t have a new laptop every 2 years you are “inhibiting my ability to function.”
This shift, in a relatively short timeframe, is what I call the Greatest Generation Users, or GGU. The workforce today is filled with GGUs. They come out of high schools and colleges with more IT awareness than many of us did when we finished our degrees in computer science. It may not be true IT knowledge, but that makes it even more difficult to support them adequately. GGUs function in a completely different way than businesses typically do today, and in order to enable a business to take full advantage of those they hire, IT is often the one saying “no you can’t.”
Many in IT still firmly believe that if technology ideas or capabilities are not borne from IT, they must be inherently suspect. But all you have to do is look at where your innovation “cheese” has been moved to (see Mind the Gap – Consumerization of Innovation) and you will quickly realize that to keep up with the GGUs you have to shrug off the corporate technology chains and find solutions that enable the GGUs to work in the ways they want. Remember—your bosses are often GGUs as well.
Beyond these users and their knowledge and expectations lies the grey world of “usability.” Up time is a thing of the past. GGUs expect little to no latency in their technology solutions and watch out if they have to refresh a page just to get updated data. Usability equals efficiency in the mind of the business, and efficiency equals profit.
And it’s not just about mobile devices, remote access, work from home or other entitlements, it’s also about how you support these use cases, ensuring the same high standards you provide to traditional corporate users. Technology and work freedoms are rapidly becoming “perks” to hiring desirable candidates. People are now more than ever the intellectual property of most organizations, and if IT is the blocking force for enablement, you may soon be waving to the GGU who takes your spot on the roster.
What are the current trends in cloud adoption?
A new survey from Navint Partners has revealed that many CIOs of larger organisations are happy with the results of moving to the cloud.
The survey, which predominantly interviewed chief execs of companies with over 5,000 employees, found that despite the general contentment there were still some misgivings about migration, with security predictably near the top of the list.
Nine out of ten respondents said they had gotten all of the predicted savings when their companies adopted cloud technology, with nearly two in three (64%) noting that bringing in the cloud has had a significant impact on process efficiency and effectiveness.
Four out of five said that the cloud gave their company a competitive advantage.
But the good news is that most CIOs think the public and private clouds will explode. 36% of respondents thought that the budget for public cloud will increase by up to 20% over two …
Leveraging Support as Your Competitive Cloud Edge
Cloud and hosted service providers using Parallels Automation have an unmatched capability to combine and integrate applications and services from different vendors to provide their customers with bundles that meet a wide range of business needs.
However, support issues can be a challenge when customers require assistance for services that may not be directly hosted by a service provider. To help Parallels Automation customers meet this challenge, Datacom has been working with Parallels to deliver an integrated cloud support model, which provides customers with access to seamless, end-to-end support for their cloud subscriptions.
The Parallels and Datacom support team alliance helps cloud service providers with:
• Activation assistance: Proactively contacting new customers and extending an offer to assist them in setting up their new services, migrating existing data into the cloud and customising applications to the extent possible to support their needs
• Integration: Providing technical consulting and support to integrate cloud services with the customer’s existing on-premise systems, to enable single sign-on, data sharing and more
• Technical assistance: Helping customers resolve issues when things go wrong, including when the problem is found to be in the service orchestration layer
• Customer service: Answering billing questions, assisting with account changes to add or modify services
• Service growth: Monitoring service usage, bringing new services into the cloud through Datacom’s APS development team, upselling and cross-selling where appropriate
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, the support delivered by Parallels and Datacom can serve as a competitive edge for cloud and hosted service providers.
Clark Hobson, Vice President
Datacom Group
SyncHR Announces Cloud-Based Human Capital Management Suite
SyncHR is announcing the launch of its Human Capital Management solution at the HR Technology Conference in Chicago, October 8th and 9th. SyncHR is one of a new breed of cloud-based Human Capital Management solutions that provides enterprise-class, fully integrated HR, Benefits and Payroll software at an affordable price in astonishing implementation timeframes.
“SyncHR has identified a huge gap in the market for HCM solutions. For decades, companies have benefited from the efficiencies rendered through transactional systems to manage payroll, benefits etc., but lacked the ability to achieve strategic workforce alignment in their business,” said Pamela Glick, CEO of SyncHR. “Our solutions simplify the complexity of HR through patented technology that automatically adapts to our client’s business strategy, resulting in lower operational costs and reduced administrative burdens.”
The rich data model and extensive developer APIs ensures maximum configurability and easy integration to external systems. “Working collaboratively with our subject matter experts and partners, strategic alignment for your specific company is embedded into the technology,” said Barbra Chase, SyncHR VP of Sales and Marketing. “The workflow, communications, and workforce engagement tenants become part of your solution.”
SyncHR’s application delivery model is enhanced by an open standards architecture. This highly innovative approach offers business-critical advantages over traditional HR platforms. SyncHR provides users of HR, payroll and benefits, the ability to run their business more effectively by analyzing events and updating relevant data in real time. Thereby, simplifying the complexity of its customer’s HR, payroll and benefits so they can run their businesses the way they want to.
PANGAEA Internet Marketing “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that PANGAEA Internet Marketing has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 11th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
PANGAEA Internet Marketing is a global full-service internet agency with a dedicated e-health team. It is our passion to find fitting, innovative solutions for all internet health related projects and help treat patients within our cloud based e-health platform.