Don’t Write Cloud Checks That You Can’t Cash The cloud champions our instinct to refine communication and speed our thoughts along. It’s revolutionary, important, and thoroughly of the zeitgeist. One description still unfit for the cloud, however, is cheap. Computer World has recently exposed several areas that cloud computing continues to thin our wallets with. Rent and utilities, one area they mention, frequently surprises cloud newcomers, who assume that their running costs will plummet once they relocate their systems to the cloud. Standard charges to a system’s infrastructure are inherent to the cloud, resulting in more funds that need to
Companies
Cloud Computing Is Now One Million Strong Via MarketWatch, Insight Enterprises, Inc., just distributed a press release celebrating a milestone for both the business itself and the entire cloud community: it has just sold “more than 1 million seats in various cloud offerings.” By seats, we presume they mean to represent units sold of their cloud-enabling products and devices. Apple should really be the company to trumpet such a headline. After all, they’ve probably sold a few more than 1 million of their flagship items, like the iPad and MacBook Air, both of which can claim to have some stake
Cloud Valley: China’s Cloud Computing Initiative and the Man behind It The whole world knows about Silicon Valley in California; however, very few are aware of Cloud Valley in China. While calling the 7,000-square-meter technology campus in a Beijing suburb as a “valley” may be an exaggeration, there’s no denying the immense possibilities of this place. As anyone familiar with the history of technological clusters will tell you, all of them – from Silicon Valley and Boston Route 128 in the US to Silicon Wadi in Israel – had their origins in a few brave beginners. Moreover, with the growth
Continued from Part 2 The Cost of Cloud Clearly, there is great return potential associated with Cloud-based model. However, transition to Cloud-based model from an on-premise model is not without cost. Direct Ongoing Cloud Costs While the cost savings associated with a cloud-based model over an on-premises model are clearly substantial, there are two areas where an IT organization will face new costs associated with Cloud: those associated with the Cloud platform (~5%) and those associated with Cloud databases (~4%). However, these are operational expenditures – pay-as-you-go costs, that depend entirely on the business’ demand. On-time Migration Costs In addition
Calculating the ROI on Cloud IDC calls cloud computing “one of the most potentially transformative developments in the information technology world in the last 20 years.” Many companies have already chosen virtualization – generating a straightforward and easily measurable ROI through the deployment of basic applications such as email and collaboration. Assessing the ROI of further investments in private cloud and PaaS, for example, is more complex and the ROI is often unclear. This can raise a roadblock for further corporate investment in cloud. Additionally the recent economic recession has pressured corporate profits to cut technology spending and limited further
Year In Review (Top 10): The Lighter Side Of The Cloud Listed are 10 of our favorite David Fletcher cartoon images over the past year. Enjoy! Images By David Fletcher of CloudTweaks
Cloud Computing Startups Raise Big Money: UPDATE 2 This is the third in a continuing series on startups raising funding. You can read the first two in the series here: 1. Cloud Computing Startups Raise Big Money: UPDATE 1 2. Cloud Computing Startups Raise Big Money Today, there are two startups in focus – Dropbox and EnStratus Dropbox (http://dropbox.com) Dropbox is a cloud computing startup that has garnered a lot of attention ever since it was founded in 2007 by MIT graduates Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. In fact, at one point of time, Steve Jobs had also expressed interest
US Cyber Command Chief Gives Cloud Computing Security His Vote of Confidence Even as cloud computing advances by leaps and bounds, security concerns remain. This issue has been addressed time and again by me in several articles. Even supporters of the cloud maintain that unless these problems are resolved, universal adoption will remain a dream. Here are some older articles dealing with security on the cloud: 1. What Bromium’s Funding Means for Cloud Security 2. Health Care’s Reservations about Cloud Computing 3. Are Cloud Computing Service Providers Shirking Responsibility On Security? 4. What Effect Will the Epsilon Data Theft have on Cloud Computing? 5. Which
