Posts tagged cloud services
Why marketers can’t ignore the cloud computing revolution
Mar 11th
What’s the difference between a television and a movie theater? Are they the same thing? What about a television with broadcast and a television with cable? What about with TiVo? What about watching TV on Hulu? Are they the same thing? I could describe all these experiences at a high enough level and make them sound like the same thing. But they are not.
From a consumer standpoint, you might not care if you’re getting your TV over an IPTV connection or a cable connection as long as the video quality is good — just like you don’t care about DSL verses cable broadband as long as it’s fast enough. But there are definitely business values to these varying technologies that matter a lot.
Recently in a conversation with two of the smartest guys I know in the online ad industry, there were some rather disparaging comments made about cloud computing — essentially calling the whole thing marketing hype. After all, “isn’t the internet defined as many connected servers facing user clients with no single, central server? That makes the cloud simply a whole mess more of them, no?”
Well, actually — no. Think of the internet as infrastructure. You can do lots of different things with that infrastructure, including cloud services. And there are really significant implications for online advertising — and for the evolution of marketing in general.
Let’s say you owned an internet ad startup that was building a new ad serving system.
Approach A: The old-fashioned way — without using cloud services
Write your software and prototype it in a small lab environment “on premise.” Build out a data center with dozens of servers, multiple databases, and massive amounts of storage for the log files. Let’s say the load of the impressions is expected to be around 30 billion a month.
Now let’s say the peak load for delivering those ads requires 200 servers, but the average load is 50 servers, and the lowest load requires five servers. That means you would need to have 200 servers to handle the peak load — but that peak load only represents a small amount of time. That’s quite expensive, and a bit frustrating to only have a tiny bit of utilization of your server infrastructure — and to have the financial obligations and tax implications of the investment. And on top of that, the servers are moving closer to obsolescence every day. Keeping the whole thing up to date on newest versions of hardware, server software, and database software is complex and requires a lot of people to manage the systems.
Approach B: Building out on cloud services
Now let’s say you went down route B, in which you build your technology on a cloud services platform like Windows Azure or the Amazon Elastic Cloud 2.0 (EC2). You build your software so that the cloud platform can dynamically balance the number of servers dedicated to the service based on the load experienced at that moment in time. The overall cost of starting the company is dramatically lower, and the total cost of ownership of software and services is dramatically lower.
Now let’s say you’re an enterprise with a huge internal IT data center that you use for managing your ERP, CRM, and other enterprise capabilities. And now you want to integrate your online marketing data into the marketing business intelligence systems your analysts use to figure out how to spend their budgets. But in this world — as opposed to the volumes of data you deal with offline, where you’re dealing with a gigabyte or two of data a month — you’re dealing with terabytes or even petabytes of data a month. And you’ve never handled anything on that scale with your corporate IT resources. No problem — put the data onto a cloud storage system, then build your analytics capabilities in the cloud. You can operate your business just like before, but without having to suddenly build out a huge new datacenter and develop new capabilities for dealing with massive amounts of data.
Once you have your online marketing data in an environment that enables you to merge it with data from other sources — say, the U.S. Census or health statistics or mapping data or location data — you can start doing analysis in much more valuable ways. The same goes for applications.
Cloud services may not sound super sexy — it may sound like a techie kind of discussion for marketers. But you should know that cloud services are powering many of the new technologies in the online advertising space. I haven’t talked to a single startup that was started in the last couple of years that isn’t using cloud services for a big chunk of its infrastructure. And these platforms will become even more powerful and compelling over time.
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Negotiating Cloud Computing Agreements
Mar 11th
Cloud computing has been characterized as a paradigm-shifting phenomenon that will change how we purchase IT resources. Though given different names, cloud computing has been around for some time, and the legal lessons learned from experience with traditional software licensing and outsourcing agreements can and should be applied to cloud agreements, but there are new issues which will need new solutions.
Cloud computing is a loose term that describes a variety of data storage, processing, and application services, normally provided by a third party using equipment not located on the customer’s site. These services include providing raw processing power on demand, special purpose applications on a subscription basis, and remote data storage. An early form of cloud computing was Application Service Provider or ASP services, and another is currently known as software as a service or SaaS. Cloud services are normally provided using internet technology, where the customer uses inexpensive hardware and an internet browser to access the service and/or remotely stored data.
The ease of access and simplicity of using cloud applications are part of its attraction. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the legal issues related to cloud computing. While traditional software licensing and IT outsourcing agreements can be used as a model for cloud computing, there are new risks and business practices not addressed in those older agreements that must be considered.
OUTSOURCING AGREEMENTS AS A MODEL FOR CLOUD AGREEMENTS
Cloud computing agreements are basically services agreements, as are outsourcing agreements. Many of the provisions included in outsourcing agreements have direct applicability in cloud service agreements. For example, the basic warranty that services will be performed in a good and workmanlike manner is a good starting point for warranty language.
Normally, outsourcing agreements will explicitly provide that a customer’s data belongs to the customer, and that the vendor will give the customer a copy of its data at anytime. The customer is normally only charged for media and the vendor’s time spent in providing those copies. Cloud agreements should contain similar provisions, but frequently don’t. In fact, some agreements allow the vendor to hold the customer’s data hostage if there is a dispute. Similarly, outsourcing agreements will frequently prohibit the vendor from suspending or terminating services abruptly. That prohibition prevents the vendor from exercising undue leverage in a dispute with the customer. Finally, outsourcing agreements normally require the vendor to provide termination assistance to the customer when the contract ends. This is normally provided at an hourly rate negotiated before services commence. Cloud customers will want to avoid agreements without similar protections, especially if the vendor is holding sensitive data or providing mission-critical services.
Similarly, outsourcing agreements frequently contain caps on fee increases. This prevents fees from rapidly escalating after a customer has made a long-term contractual or technological commitments to a vendor. Customers will want to include similar price protection clauses in their cloud agreements.
Outsourcing agreements also frequently contain a “litigation cooperation” clause which requires the vendor to preserve data and cooperate with discovery requests if the customer is involved in litigation. Those clauses allow the customer to fulfill its obligations in the event a litigation hold is required or it is served with discovery requests. The same issue arises under cloud agreements. If those cooperation clauses cannot be included in a cloud agreement, the customer should implement appropriate data backup plans to allow it to comply with its document preservation obligations in the event of litigation. Continue Reading at Law.com
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Private, not proprietary, cloud computing
Mar 10th
Amid rising costs, a challenging economy and an explosion in Web-based data, IT experts expect continued high growth in cloud computing.
Cloud computing saves energy and operating costs by pooling information-technology (IT) resources, scaling up or down as needed, and putting computer power to use, rather than leaving it idle while it still draws energy.
Over the next decade, cloud computing is expected to transform the way in which IT is purchased, sourced and provisioned.
Companies can use the advanced technologies that cloud computing offers to exchange digital information around the world and across a variety of devices. They can quickly deploy new applications and meet peak workloads without adding to existing infrastructure. The autonomic features of cloud computing can be applied to predict harmful events, such as overheating or unbalanced workloads, and take corrective action. These are all advantages enabling companies under pressure to save time and money and to maintain a complex IT infrastructure while keeping their primary focus on the business.
Public or external cloud-based services, which receive most of the media attention, are available from a third-party service provider, via the Internet. On the other hand, cloud-computing platforms can also be private, and hybrid architectures also integrate both private and public platforms.
For IT users, cloud computing offers fast access to diverse types of information regardless of the type of device they are using, including laptops, smart phones, or PDAs. Technology users, including workers, partners and customers, want access to sophisticated applications that are as simple to use as self-service ATMs.
Where security is concerned, all companies need to maintain the security of their data. Some data may not be permitted to leave an enterprise or a specific geographic location. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate which workloads can be sourced through public clouds and which need to be kept in-house and delivered through private clouds. A strategy working for some companies is to begin with private cloud-computing solutions in order to evaluate the results in a controlled environment.
Private clouds remain behind firewalls in order to maintain privacy and security. Companies are able to establish security protocols, carefully monitoring the levels of access to information that is available for exchange. Access can be limited to internal networks, such as employees, then evaluated before being expanded to other limited networks, for example, business partners. Private clouds can be managed without network-bandwidth restrictions, security exposure and the regulatory-compliance issues of public clouds. Customizing cloud services and determining best practices is a smart way to increase the productivity of sales teams and off-site employees.
No matter whether the clouds are private or public, companies need to begin with trusted; secure foundations in order to build the most secure, efficient, and resilient cloud-services platform. Some companies may be tempted to begin with the user interface. However, beginning with the underlying infrastructure is a better strategy for long-term success, especially if there may be a future need to integrate public and private clouds.
Industry standards are still developing, but they will solidify as the technologies mature and more enterprises use cloud services. Right now, companies may find the best strategy is to opt for cloud services that are interoperable and based on open technologies.
Whether public, private or hybrid, a major driver of cloud computing is the need for companies to get new ideas, products and services to market faster, and continually innovate to meet global competition.
Cloud computing delivers more advanced technology within a simpler, cost-effective infrastructure. It creates a flexible, robust infrastructure to serve the needs of today’s economy, where knowledge flows to countries and regions wherever IT infrastructures are reliable and responsive.
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Hybrid Clouds Hit Data Centers
Mar 9th
Merging public and private cloud computing infrastructures.
Charlotte Dunlap 
There was much buzz about merging public and private cloud infrastructures at last week’s RSA Security Conference in San Francisco. As enterprises use virtualization to step up the creation of private clouds around their data centers, security vendors are working to steer customers toward merging private and public clouds for a hybrid cloud approach.
Some security and infrastructure providers realize that private clouds are an important first step toward increasingly moving customer workloads to public clouds as the technology and security catches up.
Private cloud infrastructures are necessary for companies that are regulated under compliance mandates, but CIOs see the value of being able to tap public cloud services for obvious reasons: lower total cost of ownership (TCO), simplified management and access to dynamic global threat intelligence, i.e., malware alerts. Of course, enterprises are still very concerned about the security, reliability and governance issues associated with public clouds, but CIOs are going to be hearing a lot more about hybrid or internal/external cloud options in coming months as a way to appease concerns.
An example of a hybrid cloud solution is the merging of an internally built or private cloud infrastructure with a security vendor’s public network of threat intelligence. Examples of global threat intelligence delivered through public cloud services include Trend Micro’s Smart Protection Network and Cisco ( CSCO – news – people ) Ironport SenderBase Security Network.
Over the past year security vendors have focused their cloud messaging primarily around Software-as-a-Service offerings targeting specific pain points, such as secure messaging, namely anti-spam. CIOs should anticipate more vendor messaging focused around hybrid cloud computing, targeting those large enterprises–not to mention European customers–that are required under governance to keep company data within the folds of the private cloud infrastructure. Security service providers are acknowledging customers’ need to keep data in-house, but they’re also providing options to couple private with public infrastructures and allow customers to off-load more of the security burden.
Later this year Trend Micro has plans to expand its private cloud services to include new protocols, such as Web reputation. Trend Micro says it will create a private cloud within the public cloud to let customers store confidential data, a prospect which will likely be most attractive to Internet service providers. Keep Reading at Forbes
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Amazon Web Services CTO out to Prove Enterprise Chops
Mar 2nd
There is still a misconception that Amazon Web Services exists to sell the company’s excess server capacity, but that is not the case, CTO Werner Vogels said during a keynote at Cebit.
“There is a myth out there that when Christmas comes, suddenly, all of the foundations under your building will be gone … that is obviously not the case,” said Vogels, referring to Amazon’s high-volume sales during the holidays.
During his speech, he showcased the customers that are using Amazon Web Services, with the aim of persuading skeptics that his company offers a viable option.
For example, also at Cebit Software AG announced ARISalign, which offers business process management as a service using Amazon Web services’ cloud computing. Time-to-market and tight control over costs were among the reasons Software AG picked Amazon, Vogels said.
Also, the growth of Amazon’s cloud can be seen in the number of objects stored on S3 (Simple Storage Service). The number grew from 54 billion at this time last year to more than 100 billion, according to Vogels.
Bigger scale lets Amazon Web Services offer lower prices than competitors, according to Vogels. The latest price cut was Feb. 1 for outbound data transfer.
Lower cost for both infrastructure and operations is the first attraction when companies start looking at moving systems into the cloud, but the ability to add or decrease computing capacity as needed soon takes over as the biggest advantage, Vogels said.
Some enterprises are more enthusiastic about cloud services than others — Web site and application hosting companies, as well as media distribution companies are jumping right in, he said. Other applications that make sense to move to the cloud are testing and development, backup, disaster recovery and large-scale data analysis, according to Vogels.
However, there are companies that take a more long-term approach to cloud services and start by making all new IT systems ready for the cloud, he said.
Vogels also took the opportunity to push Amazon’s VPC (virtual private cloud), which integrates a company’s existing IT infrastructure and the cloud, which makes it particularly attractive to enterprise customers, according to Vogels. Companies can build a walled garden in the cloud using VPC and connect it to the data center using an encrypted VPN (virtual private network), he said.
VPC was announced almost six months ago and is still only available in beta, according to Amazon Web Services’ site. Vogels didn’t provide any details on when VPC would exit the testing stage.
He assured the audience that Amazon Web Services is focused on security, which is another big issue when it comes to cloud computing.
“We would not be in business if we did not consider security our top priority,” said Vogels.
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Cloud computing: the biggest threats
Mar 2nd
The next generation of cloud-based storage and services allows us greater freedom to compute on the go. It enables us to be free from the storage constraints of compact devices and gives us the ability to access services and personal information on these devices regardless of our location. Cloud computing also poses serious threats to online privacy.
A new report published by The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and HP on March 1 details some of the more serious threats about what could occur when using cloud-based services, now and in the future.
Perhaps the most worrisome threat for individuals is the loss and interception of personal information such as credit card details, banking records, medical records, home and work address and any other information that could leave them susceptible to identity theft.
A lot of research has gone into creating cloud-based services, but perhaps not enough time and money has been spent protecting individuals’ privacy and safeguarding against the interception of information via third-party sites. More resources need to be harnessed to ensure these services will be safe for people to use when future generations of hackers try to prey on cloud-based databases.
There are few laws in place that govern cloud-based security practices. Cloud computing privacy policies are often very vague about what happens in the event of information loss or theft.
This level of uncertainty is largely replicated in the early adoption of cloud computing. Security is cited as the number one barrier to adoption. New users find it difficult to weigh up the pros and cons of cloud computing; there is a wealth of opportunities floating in the cloud but customers are very concerned about the associated risks.
By highlighting the top cloud computing security issues, CSA and HP hope to make cloud computing safer for consumers and businesses alike.
“Cloud services are clearly the next generation of information technology that enterprises must master. We have a shared responsibility to understand the security threats that accompany the cloud and apply the necessary best practices to mitigate them,” said Jim Reavis, founder of the Cloud Security Alliance.
The top security threats of cloud computing:
1. Abuse and Nefarious Use of Cloud Computing
2. Insecure Interfaces and APIs
3. Malicious Insiders
4. Shared Technology Issues
5. Data Loss or Leakage
6. Account or Service Hijacking
7. Unknown Risk Profile
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Cloud vs. in-house: Where to run that app?
Mar 1st
Options include public clouds and external private clouds. Here’s how to choose wisely.
Computerworld – One of the biggest decisions IT managers have to make is how and where to run data center applications. Fortunately, there are multiple choices that lower costs and increase business agility, including server virtualization, internal clouds, public clouds and external private clouds.
Many IT organizations are taking advantage of these options. Server virtualization is currently being used by more than 70% of enterprises to reduce costs, and cloud computing is being used or planned for use by more than 10% of corporations, according to Antonio Piraino, research director at Tier1 Research.
It can be confusing and difficult to determine which cloud environment to use (see sidebar below for descriptions of the most popular types of clouds). There are few, if any, guidelines, and each company will almost certainly have a unique discussion about its choices because each will have varying requirements and different views of what cloud computing means.
To take advantage of the new opportunities afforded by cloud computing, IT organizations have to learn the differences between server virtualization and various types of clouds, and understand the risks associated with using each execution environment in terms of the characteristics of various applications.
What is a cloud?
One may wonder why there’s an interest in cloud computing when server virtualization is already providing significant cost savings by reducing the number of physical servers that enterprises buy. But it’s not the same thing at all.
Different clouds to choose from
There are basically two types of clouds: public clouds and private clouds. Cloud types can generally be characterized by their location (on-premises or off-premises) and the perceived degree of security that they provide.
A public cloud is one in which a cloud service provider makes resources such as servers, storage, networking and, possibly, applications available to users over the Internet. Public clouds are off-premises by definition. A customer’s applications may be running in an intermingled style on the same physical server as another customer’s applications, meaning public clouds are multitenant. Public cloud services, such as Amazon’s EC2, are usually offered on a pay-per-usage model — you pay for what you use.
Private clouds take two forms: internal clouds and external private clouds. An internal cloud is inside your data center (on-premises), giving IT managers complete control over the available resources. A typical internal cloud relies on the security measures available within the cloud and within your data center. Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud and Microsoft Azure are examples of packaged software for creating internal clouds.
External private clouds combine characteristics of internal clouds and public clouds. They are like public clouds because they are off-premises. But unlike public clouds, applications run on dedicated servers, and the cloud provider has built container walls around the external private cloud to make it more secure than public clouds. IT managers have more control over the resources in a private cloud than over resources in a public cloud. Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud is an example of an external private cloud.
“Clouds provide automation and orchestration not found with server virtualization,” says Jeff Deacon, cloud computing principal for Verizon Business. (Although Deacon’s day job is helping figure out which of Verizon’s internal applications should go on the cloud, his company also sells a public-cloud offering called Computing as a Service.)
In other words, Deacon says, cloud computing involves imposing a layer of abstraction between the applications and servers — physical or virtual — that automates many tasks typically done manually.
“Clouds can be viewed differently, depending on what you want from a cloud,” adds David Escalante, director of IT security at Boston College. “We view cloud computing as running software applications that you would normally run in your own data center in someone else’s data center. It is very important to create a definition of cloud computing for your organization.” Armed with that definition, Boston College can focus on determining whether cloud computing is right for its data center needs, and which applications can be run on clouds.
Because clouds are based on virtualization, applications have to be virtualized before being moved to any of the cloud environments. But some cloud vendors can help with this, especially if the vendor supports a specific hypervisor.
On the other hand, organizations that already have their applications virtualized in a server virtualization environment may be able to move them to a public cloud without any extra work. Also, the operating systems supported by server virtualization and clouds play a role in where applications can be run. For example, clouds based on Microsoft’s Azure support only Windows applications.
