I started my career in late 90s selling Microsoft Application Platform that included the servers and the developer tools. One of the most common customer objections that I used to handle was “vendor lock-in”. Every time I pitched MS SQL Server or Visual Basic, the immediate concern from the customers was getting locked into the Microsoft platform.
A decade later, “Vendor lock-in” still remains a hurdle that the technical sales rep has to go through. But the landscape has changed significantly. Now the vendor lock-in argument has shifted to the Cloud. I often hear lock-in in the context of Amazon Web Services. AWS competitors use the lock-in factor to create FUD among the customers with a hope to increase their sales prospects. But how much of this is a real concern? Should businesses be really worried about getting locked into one platform?
IEEE Computer Society “Association Sponsor” of Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that The IEEE Computer Society has been named “Association 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.
The IEEE Computer Society is the computing professional’s single, unmatched source for technology information, inspiration and collaboration. By making the most up-to-date and advanced information in the computing world easily accessible, we are the source that computing professionals trust to provide high quality, state-of-the-art information on an on-demand basis.
SMBs Looking Toward the Clouds
I read an interesting article the other day by a German employee of Fujitsu, in which he noted that 99% of German companies fit the definition of small to medium businesses, and are therefore prime candidates to benefit from cloud computing.
He was describing the legendary German “mittelstand,” legions of primarily family-owned businesses that have often been around for centuries. Traditional, yet flexible enough to adapt continually to consequential trends and remain in business.
The US offers similar numbers of SMBs and a reasonable facsimile of the German family-owned tradition. I was struck by this especially last week, when I visited a few such businesses in the region of rural Illinois where I’ve been based the past few months. One was a construction materials company, another a landscaping company, another a small publisher.
Each have adopted in recent years, moving from paper forms and shoeboxes to laptops, wireless networks, thumb drives, and all the rest. Now they are moving toward, or at least considering, cloud computing.
The construction materials company produces, among other things, as many as 100 heavy, custom-designed concrete blocks for residential and commercial fences. It contracts with local concrete producers to get its raw materials, and get them where they need to be. In another part of its business, precision, radio-controlled elevators and chutes have replaced labor-intensive wheelbarrows. RFID provides inventory control that was unthought of in the past.
The landscaping company now tracks the amount of times spent on every aspect of all of its jobs through custom USB devices, uses the real-time data to ameliorate bottlenecks, and the archived data to show compliance with state and federal regulations. The owners now want to license their software and delivery system to the thousands of similar small landscaping firms throughout the US.
The publisher has been designing on Macs for a generation, but still relies on its own servers. A spring thunderstorm recently gorked the system, seriously threatening the deliver of two core newspapers. High-quality color photography is a recent addition to the newspaper industry; its reporters would like to transmit stories and pictures from the field. But the owner doesn’t want to add complexity to what already appears to him as a baffling IT infrastructure.
These anecdotes are real. There are thousands upon thousands more like them in the US, Germany, and no doubt most countries of the world. None of these people is looking to save money on their technology spend per se; all are looking to keep pace with the world while avoiding the creation of full-fledged IT departments.
They’re looking to cloud solutions to meet their need. They understand they need at least one person who truly understands this stuff, but they’d prefer to focus themselves and the rest of their employees on the core business.
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Windows Azure Solution Cookbook
I’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing cloud computing with our customers lately and the common theme among them all has been “lean”. Windows Azure can provide some tremendous benefits to nearly every organization we speak with: operating cost reduction, faster time to market, scale on demand. It literally can’t get any leaner that this.
The challenge I’m running into is that it’s hard for architects and developers to get a big picture of the Azure platform and how all the features can be used together to build solutions. Microsoft is shipping new services on a quarterly basis and each new service is designed to solve a particular need our customers are asking for. We need a way to see these services holistically as a set of building blocks or ingredients to use in our solutions.
ZNet Offers Free Plesk 11 for 10 Domains with Every Windows & Linux VPS
ZNet-Parallels partnership will move ahead with ZNet becoming a part of Parallels Plesk 11 Launch. With this launch, ZNet will offer free Parallels Plesk 11 for 10 domains with every Windows & Linux VPS. It’s great to see Parallels Plesk 11 with a new look & added features that includes:
- – Cloud-Friendly Cloning of Images into Leading Virtual Environments
- – Improved Web Server Performance with NGINX (Linux) Modern Architecture
- – Improved Security
- – And more…
Best of Luck to Parallels Team!!
GigaOM Pro Named “Media Sponsor” of Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that GigaOM Pro has been named “Media 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.
GigaOM Pro is your one-stop shop for great technology market research. Join the community today and get smarter, faster.
Cloud Expo 2012 Silicon Valley, November 5–8, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Cloud Security Automation Is a Fundamental Building Block
Cloud security is top priority for enterprises migrating to the cloud. Security officers and business decision makers are well aware of the cloud risks and we’re seeing an ever growing demand for cloud data security solutions during the past few months. But at the same time, many cloud security products lack a significant cloud enabler: the ability to orchestrate and automate data security within the overall cloud deployment. Specifically in our line of business (cloud encryption), we see cases where enterprises with highly sophisticated and automated cloud implementations, are compromising on either the automation or the data security of their cloud architecture.
Public cloud on increase in India – in line with wider trends?
The past few days have seen a variety of cloud-oriented news come from the Indian market and reveal some intriguing trends. What are the highlights?
- The cloud market in India is on the verge of being worth $1bn, according to consultants Zinnov
- Public cloud – a hitherto nascent market in India – has increased significantly and should only go higher
- Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) “have started taking advantage of the cloud” in terms of economic benefit yet exercises caution overall
The report from Zinnov, entitled “Public Cloud Opportunity in India”, has found that cloud services overall in India hit their highest value of between $860m and $912m at the end of 2011.
Zinnov elaborates on why the market has significantly expanded since 2009.
They cite reasons such as an increase in using local infrastructures, increased outsourcing leading to greater cloud adoption and adoption from both large companies and SMEs, leading to …
Avoid Failure When Marketing Cloud Computing
As a software reseller you know that the number of enterprise software solutions being offered in a cloud environment is only getting bigger. Maintaining a product portfolio composed of only on-premise solutions is eventually going to wipe out your business. Research organizations are predicting that ‘the cloud’ will dominate every facet of the software industry; no matter how concerned customers are with security, access and customization, the Software as a Service (SaaS) market is guaranteed to grow.
Making the transition from marketing on-premise to marketing cloud solutions isn’t easy and won’t be accomplished overnight. What you need to keep in mind is that your customers are now in complete control. In the past prospects came to you to find out information early in the decision making process, whereas now they will be researching online and on your website, only picking up the phone when they are close to purchasing. Use the change in buying behavior to your advantage and create a website marketing cloud solutions that makes it easy for prospects to learn how you can solve their challenges.
Report on Global Secure Content and Threat Management Market Points to Growing Complexity of IT Infrastructure
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Global Secure Content and Threat Management Market 2011-2015″ report to their offering.
TechNavio’s analysts forecast the Global Secure Content and Threat Management market to grow at a CAGR of 8.6 percent over the period 2011-2015. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the rising number of compliance requirements. The Global Secure Content and Threat Management market has also been witnessing the increasing popularity of cloud-based security solutions. However, growing complexity of IT infrastructure could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.
TechNavio’s report, the Global Secure Content and Threat Management Market 2011-2015, has been prepared based on an in-depth analysis of the market with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the Global Secure Content and Threat Management market industry landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.
According to the report, vendors in the Global Secure Content and Threat Management (SCTM) market are nowadays providing various deployment options such as software, hardware, software as a service (SaaS), and virtual appliances. However, with the increasing severity of security threats, vendors have started offering SaaS-based and virtualized appliance offerings to enable companies to dynamically identify and respond to threats. The advancement of technologies which has led to deployment options such as SaaS and virtualized appliance-based security solutions provides advantages such as low initial investment and maintenance costs. Therefore, SaaS and virtual solutions are driving market growth.
Further, the report also discusses that the growing complexity of IT infrastructure is becoming a key challenge for the vendors in this market.
