EC: Improve Cloud Contracts

I have often emphasized on the need for clear and simple contracts and SLAs for the Cloud. Many of the cloud vendors provide contracts and present SLAs that can confuse and mislead the organizations looking to adopt cloud solutions.

The European Commission (EC) has woken up to the fact that Cloud computing needs better contracts. EC has asked the cloud firms to provide improved contracts which can help avert costly legal disputes and do away with privacy concerns. This step by EC will give a major boost to the cloud industry which can help organizations cut cost but improve their technology. This can also help the cloud industry help build trust among the organization that are apprehensive of adopting cloud due to still floating rumors about security & privacy concern.

Secure Your Personal data on Cloud

Read this excellent article Tips on secure cloud computing. As you move your personal data to the cloud, it’s very important that you secure them. If you lose your personal data, that would be your biggest loss. So secure them; and the steps taken, can be very simple and basic . When you walk out of your house, you close your doors, windows and then lock the front door securely; maybe, you even put on your security system so as to ensure that robbers/thieves cannot go inside the house when you are away. Basically, you will have to go with the same mentality to protect your data in the cloud, and to ensure against loss/theft.

High on Cloud

North Bridge Venture Partners recently announced the results of its second annual Future of Cloud Computing Survey. The 2012 survey captures current industry perceptions, sentiments and emerging trends in cloud computing.

 

Key Findings in the Survey include:

• Companies are accelerating their trust in cloud solutions.
• Scalability remains the top reason for adopting the cloud. Business agility ranked second among drivers for cloud adoption.
• Security remains the primary inhibitor to adoption in the burgeoning cloud marketplace , followed by regulatory compliance and vendor lock-in.
• Software as a service (SaaS) is currently, and is expected to remain the primary type of cloud investment.
• Platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) will see significant growth in the next five years.
• The top 3 areas in which “cloud formations” are coming together are backup and archiving, business continuity, collaboration tools, and big data processing.
• Cloud users are shifting sentiments with regard to public vs. hybrid cloud platforms.
• With an increase in trust of the cloud, big data is emerging as a major focus for vendors and end-users alike.

Reqs for Cloud Apps

We talk about the cloud and its benefits all the time. But to get the benefit of cloud adoption, there are certain requirements. In nutshell-- you need a Cloud application but do you know what you should look to ensure that you make the right choice?

Before making the decision, ensure:

a) Whether the application is multi-tenant in true sense. The main benefit of the cloud applications is that many could access the application without any issues or creating problems for each other. It’s like staying in an apartment with many tenants that too in harmony.

b) Is the solution really scalable? You as an organization would grow, and can the solution keep in pace with your growth? Hence scalability becomes a major requirement.

c) Can it integrate seamlessly? Unless it integrates without any issues with your business critical applications and into your organization, there won’t be much help in using the solution.

d) How secured is it? You would not want any security breaches or intrusion into your systems. So security forms a critical concern.

e) Can it be deployed easily and quickly? Faster deployment saves money and time, and ensures that your systems are up for business faster.

f) Do you have control over it?

Personal Cloud to beat the PC

Tech Research Firm, Gartner recently declared, "The personal cloud is poised to eclipse the PC as the hub of consumers' digital lives by 2014 as rapid growth in the use of apps and services introduces a new paradigm for how people store, synchronize, share and stream content."

Michael Gartenberg, Research Director at Gartner mentioned, “The personal cloud isn't a single offering, but a reflection of consumers' expectation that their content will flow seamlessly as the result of a combination of services that overlap the consumer, business and government domains. It encompasses content storage, synchronization, sharing and streaming, as well as context-based access.”

Competition in the personal cloud market to grow in the following areas:
Mobility and Location: Contextual devices and platforms are evolving, giving consumers the ability to access relevant information from the location of their choosing on their favorite devices.
Platform Independence: The result of the move from PC to the cloud will be that the core purchase driver for consumers will shift from the operating system to the nature and function of the personal cloud services available to a platform. Platforms will not be judged solely by number of apps, but also by the availability of core personal cloud services for business and personal needs, for both content creation and content consumption.
Seamless Synchronization: Since the personal cloud comprises different service offerings, seamless synchronization will be essential for success. At the simplest level, this means synchronization of content stored locally and mirrored to a given service. This content could be office documents and music and video collections, but could also extend to other types.

Cloud for Consumers

Google is finally out with Google Drive, the cloud based service for users.

It joins the competitive market of cloud storage providers like Microsft SkyDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive and Apple iCloud.

 Personally, I have been using Skydrive, and have no issues as such with it. I have seen that Amazon Cloud Drive also works fine. Additionally, Apple users love iCloud for its easy to use facility.

Google does seem to be a late entrant to the game. And then with the failure of Buzz, Orkut and not so well received Google+, the company must be betting on it.

But focusing on things like free 5 MB space won't do good for Google, as Amazon has been giving the same since long.

I have not really looked into the product to see how exactly is it different from the others. Like me, I am sure rest of the users would be looking for the extra something that would prompt them to choose one cloud storage solution over the other.

But I am thrilled! And am sure, we are going the Cloud Way--and that the right way, that is!

Cloud is Clean

Greenepeace's recent act in Seattle "How Clean is Your Cloud" seemed to have missed out on a major advantage of Cloud adoption. Its been proved the Cloud usage enhance efficiency- both in process and as well as power usage. Just imagine the amount of power that Cloud adopting organizations would have used if they had not moved to cloud. Be it SaaS, IaaS, PaaS or Public, Private, Hybrid cloud- it ensures less usage of power. 

So in a sense cloud saves power and enables organizations to cut down on power usage!