Posts tagged ZDnet
Microsoft wants its partners ‘All in’ with the cloud
Jul 9th
By Mary Jo Foley
Starting July 12, Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference kicks off in Washington, DC. The company’s loudest messaging at the four-day event will be that Microsoft partners need to be “All In” with the cloud, just like Redmond itself.
Microsoft will be highlighting many of its partners that have managed to transition their businesses so as to be more cloud-centric. But company officials also will attempt to convince the rest of the nearly 10,000 expected attendees that it’s time for them to be leading with cloud services like Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), the forthcoming Windows InTune systems management software/service and the Azure cloud platform.
(I’m especially interested in how Microsoft plans to get partners involved in selling Azure. So far, the Softies have published a number of case studies highlighting developers who’ve built new applications on Azure, but I’ve heard/seen very little about how Microsoft’s reseller community is supposed to get invovled/paid for pushing Azure to the masses.)
Getting partners on board with Microsoft’s cloud push is critical for the Redmondians, as Microsoft relies heavily on integrators, resellers, independent software vendors and OEMs to act as its primary salesforce. While the Microsoft brass warned the company’s partners a few years ago that Microsoft was planning to get into selling hosted services (and they needed to “move up the stack” and get out of the way or risk being run down), Microsoft partners still have a lot of questions about the cloud and their place in it.
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10 things: Using Amazon Web Services in the enterprise
Jun 28th
Amazon Web Services recently held a powwow for potential enterprise customers and a bevy of details emerged ranging from contracts to security to procedures to ensure employees don’t procure a cloud servers en masse for giggles.
Here’s a reporter’s notebook from Amazon Web Services’ enterprise powwow and 10 things you may not have known:
- AWS customers mentioned that there were frequently three cloud platforms they evaluated leading up to a move to the cloud. Those players included AWS, Rackspace and Microsoft’s Azure. Marc Dispensa, chief enterprise architect at MediaBrands World Wide, offered a few details about his bakeoff. Microsoft’s Azure was an easy fit for MediaBrands’ developers, but had limited SQL storage. Rackspace had a grid option, but APIs were limited and its on-demand server business was less than a year old. AWS won the deal based on features and experience with other similar customers. Here’s Dispensa’s comparison slide:
- Watch your budget when you move to AWS. A handful of AWS customers said that cloud computing is less expensive, but can be too easy to use and blow your budget. Simply put, any developer with a credit card can get provision a machine. If too many people use AWS you have cloud sprawl quickly and blow your computing budget. “It’s too easy and that can hurt your cost controls,” said Dispensa. “It’s cheaper, but can get unwieldy.” Dispensa said he put in a process where managers have to approve a developer’s request to use an AWS server and there are financial thresholds. That process is why it takes 15 minutes for an AWS server instead of 2 seconds. Pfizer’s Michael Miller, senior director of research, high performance computing, had a similar beef. “Allocate money upfront and then run the meter to avoid big surprises,” said Miller. “There are challenges when doing AWS at scale for a large number of users. Pay as you go is nice, but a debit model would even be better so it’s not so easy to spend more than you have.”
- The linchpin of Amazon’s reliability case revolves around “availability zones. When you get an AWS computing resource it’s assigned by region. Regions include U.S. (east and west), EU (Ireland) and Asia Pacific (Singapore). These regions include at least three availability zones—a data center hub roughly speaking. AWS is architected so two availability zones can fail concurrently and data is still protected. Amazon’s aim is to eliminate any single point of failure, because IT fails all the time. AWS recommends that customers spread their assets around multiple availability zones in a region.
- Phased implementations make more sense. Amazon customers across the board said they shied away from big bang projects when moving to AWS. Jennifer Boden, director of IT at Amazon, is moving the company’s internal systems—financial, email and calendar, HR applications and knowledge management tools—to AWS, but the projects are phased. “Take a phased approach, make it easy and have no big bang projects,” said Boden. Continue Reading
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iPhone 4 and the Cloud
Jun 8th
There is a race going on among the suppliers of smartphones, such as Apple Computer’s recently announced iPhone 4, to create handheld devices that can replace both a mobile telephone, a GPS, a music and video player and, for some functions, a mobile computer. My colleagues here on ZDnet are all over this announcement (see iPhone 4: Apple raises the bar; AT&T pushes it back down and Good job with iPhone 4, but the Sprint HTC EVO 4G is staying for a couple of examples).
Although I have some strong opinions about the device and AT&T’s terms and conditions, pricing and overall customer service, I’ll just focus on one aspect this announcement and announcements of competitive devices coming from RIM, HTC, Nokia and others. That aspect is that these devices are introducing cloud computing offerings to many who might not otherwise care. The folks purchasing these devices don’t really care about all of that, however. They just want a slick looking, highly functional device.
Most of these devices rely heavily on network based applications and services to deliver the experience the device suppliers flog. Easy and instant access to everything from telephone directories, lists of local restaurants, directions and maps are only the beginning.
We’re seeing for-pay access to television, streaming movies and other entertainment services. We’re also seeing Software as a Service products, such as customer relationship management, banking and other applications, being made available through these devices. Suppliers, such as Citrix, have made access to corporate applications easily available as well (their demo showing an executive getting an alert on the smartphone, looking up data on their laptop computer, and finishing the deal on the desktop system is outstanding).
If we look at survey data that explores how organizations are adopting cloud computing, we see that small and medium size organizations and developers have rushed in where large companies fear to tread. They’re not as concerned about compliance, security and integration with a large number of established systems. The large companies say that they’re holding back until these issues are addressed.
If we look at what they’re doing and ignore what they’re saying for the moment, however, we see that many of their employees have personally purchased devices such as the iPhone and competitors. Whether the IT organization likes it or not, important company data and contact lists are already in the cloud.
The iPhone 4 and its competitors are like a siren song calling staff to take steps into the cloud. The promise of anytime, anywhere access to just about everything is leading them on.
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Cloud computing momentum: What it means for CIOs and IT departments
May 31st
Cloud computing has gone from being scoffed at by CIOs to being one of the top two CIO concerns of 2010. TechRepublic and ZDNet recently did a Webcast in which ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan and I discussed the full range of issues that IT leaders face when considering if and how to implement cloud computing.
Some of specific topics included:
- The different flavors of cloud computing
- Security concerns
- Compliance with the cloud
- Cloud-washing
- Private cloud vs. public cloud
- Bringing legacy code to the cloud
- How the cloud will affect IT jobs
The live Webcast was on May 25 and it was called CIO Essentials for Cloud Computing 3.0. It is now available on-demand (registration required).
I would describe this as a very frank and lively discussion, including some interaction with the live audience. If you’re grappling with cloud deployment, you’ll definitely want to listen to this one.
Find Out More at: ZDnet
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Cloud-based printing scales to enterprise mainstream – Cloud Computing News
May 3rd
As enterprises focus more on putting applications and data into Internet clouds, a new trend is emerging that also helps them keep things tangibly closer to terra firma, namely, printed materials – especially from mobile devices.
Major announcements from HP and Google are drawing attention to printing from the cloud. But these two heavy-hitters aren’t the only ones pushing the concept. Lesser-known brands like HubCast and Cortado got out in front with cloud printing services that work to route online print orders to printer choices via the cloud. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]
Still a nascent concept, some forward-thinking enterprises are moving to understand what printing from the cloud really means, what services are available, why they should give it a try, how to get started—and what’s coming next. Again, we’re early in the cloud printing game, but when Fortune 500 tech companies start advocating for a better way to print, it’s worth investigating.
HP’s Cloud Printing
HP is no stranger to cloud printing. The company is behind a service called MagCloud that lets self-publishers print on demand and sell through a web-based marketplace with no minimum orders. But a recent announcement suggests HP is looking to deeply lead the charge into printing from the cloud for the broader enterprise … and consumers.
Earlier this month, HP rolled out the ePrint Enterprise mobile printing solution developed in collaboration with RIM. It’s based on HP CloudPrint technology and works with BlackBerry smartphones. As HP describes it, CloudPrint lets users print documents from their mobile devices, computers and netbooks while they aren’t in the office on a LAN.
Essentially, CloudPrint blends cloud and web-services-based technologies to let people print anything—like reports, photos, emails, presentations, or documents—from anywhere. All you need is a destination network-connected printer. With CloudPrint and ePrint Enterprise, HP has a wide margin of enterprise printing needs covered.
Google’s Cloud Printing
Google got into the cloud printing game in mid-April. Dubbed Google Cloud Print, the search engine giant’s service will work with the Chrome operating system, where all applications are web apps. Google wanted to design a printing experience that would make it possible for web apps to give users the full printing capabilities that native apps have today. Access to the cloud is the one component all major devices and operating systems have in common.
Here’s how it works: Instead of relying on a single operating system—or drivers—to print, apps can use Google Cloud Print to submit and manage print jobs. Google Cloud Print will send the print job to the appropriate printer, with the particular options the user selected, and then return the job status to the app. But Google Cloud Print is still under development, which gives HP and other players a chance to gain market momentum.
Cloud Printing Pioneers
Indeed, there are other players promoting printing from the cloud—and some could be considered pioneers. Hubcast is one of them. Hubcast bills itself as the only worldwide digital print delivery network. It routes your online print order to the high quality network printer closest to you. This way you don’t have to pay shipping charges for printing. Hubcast won the Gartner “Cool Vendor” Award back in 2008.
Meanwhile, Cortado offers one-stop mobile business software solutions that aim at the enterprise—including cloud printing. Cortado competes with HP, offering a free cloud printing app called Cortado Workplace for BlackBerry and iPhone that lets you print your documents to any printer reachable via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Enterprise customers can also get Cortado Corporate Server for use on their company network behind the firewall.
Why Print from the Cloud?
Road warriors, mobile workers and on-the-go professionals can see the value in being able to access information and personal documents from just about any device. The problem historically has been the need to install drivers that make printing possible. Keeping up to date with print drivers for the various printers you might meet with while out of the office is cumbersome at best and nearly impossible at worst.
HP has also invested heavily in new ways of publishing, of making the mashup of printing and cloud services a commercial opportunity, with even small-batch, location-focused publications possible via printers rather then presses.
Similarly, the latest user-focused cloud printing solutions that are integrated with mobile devices make publishing boundary-less and set the stage to boost productivity with the ability to print documents on the fly at places like FedEx, hotels, business centers or anywhere else along a professional’s travels that offer access to a printer. In other words, these solutions extend the corporate network and offer cross-platform conveniences that aren’t available through traditional printing options.
Getting started is getting easier easy. You just have to download an application to your BlackBerry or iPhone. Becoming an early adopter of cloud printing puts you on the cutting-edge of business and could give you an advantage in a competitive marketplace.
Think about the possibilities of being able to print, sign and fax a document back to a client from just anywhere you happen to be. Cloud printing is poised to revolutionize the enterprise work environment in much the same way that cloud computing is transforming IT settings.
It also highlights the longer-term strength of cloud models, beyond more than cost savings from outsourcing. And that value is the powerful role that clouds play as integration platforms, to enable things that could not be done before, to bind processes — like printing — that scale up and down easily and affordably.
Source: ZDnet Blog
