A start-up that used the vague name IT Structures while it was in stealth mode so its purposes couldn’t be divined broke cover Monday as CloudShare and claimed to be the first business-oriented cloud computing company.
The little rascal comes to market with some chi-chi customers that are reportedly pushing it further into the cloud than it intended to go.
Its idea was to use the cloud to demo its software, have potential customers try it “hands-on” and then, if they went for it, have the widgetry installed on their premises.
But it’s not working out that way. They like it just fine on CloudShare’s hybrid cloud and are content – if not insistent – about leaving it that way, according marketing VP Kevin Epstein.
Customers, which include VMware, Cisco, SAP, Websense and Alcatel-Lucent, use the software to train up their sales engineers on their own software or appliances as well as demo their software to the ultimate end users who can play with it to their hearts’ content before deciding to deploy or not.
The mini-sites created bear the sellers’ own branding and collateral materials
CloudShare says its customers have delivered over a million VM demo, proof-of-concept and training hours so far, representing six quarters of consecutive double-digit usage growth. It describes them as moving from experimenting with simple hosted QA labs on public clouds to using CloudShare to turn their complex IT environments into cloud-based services.
The start-up reckons its achievement demonstrates the practical, revenue-oriented, immediately useful nature of its SaaS platform. Solution providers and ISVs can deploy multiple, independent, dashboard-controlled copies of their enterprise-class environments in minutes as opposed to the days or weeks such things used to take – not to mention the time and expense of copying gigabytes of data and shipping machines and people around.
Besides a close-to-immediate ROI, the widgetry promises faster sales cycles, faster training and insight into customer behavior. And it gives vendors a way to keep an eye on who resellers are pitching and their hit rate.
The start-up says its functionality includes extensive workflow, hierarchical access and analytic monitoring. The high-speed environment-creation process that lets users create new production-grade replicas in minutes is patented. Its whiteboarding, screen sharing and self-service capabilities let users share their own prototypes and environments.
It describes itself as the next step in the sales cycle after WebEx because of its whiteboard skills. It also calls itself a Salesforce for VMs.
CloudShare won’t identify the public cloud it’s using as part of its hybrid infrastructure but it does have a partnership with Salesforce.com and plug-in that will let Salesforce users launch CloudShare demos on AppExchange. (See http://CloudShare.com/sfplugin.)
Epstein said the company expects to have some kind of relationship with Amazon and Rackspace down the road. It underscores that it doesn’t want to be in the hosting business although it’s maintaining its own data center as a private cloud for customer use.
CloudShare, or its previous incarnation, has been around for almost three years and has gotten a $6 million A round from Gemini Capital and Sequoia Capital. It says it’s not looking for more money right now. It’s got somewhere between 25 and 50 employees, but it’s shy about saying exactly how many. Headquartered Menlo Park, California, its R&D center is in Tel Aviv.
Source:
http://web2.sys-con.com/node/1211772
Web Design Firms Chicago
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Boxee Beta is Cleaner, Better, Still Closed
On Monday, the media-viewing app Boxee is going into a closed, private beta test. This app has been in private alpha testing for about a year and a half, and has won praise while generating some frustration among its test users. At first, for example, it was a great interface to the Hulu service, but Hulu made its content unavailable to Boxee users (there's a less-elegant workaround baked into the current product). AppleTV users who hacked the app into their system have also hit speed bumps--the app won't work on the newest updates of the AppleTV product.
Boxee soldiers on, gaining fans and adding content from other sources. I recently covered the Boxee version of Clicker, for example, which shows us how the Boxee platform might some day do a credible job of replacing users' TiVos or cable boxes.
The Boxee experience is improving, too. Monday's new beta has a completely redone interface that is far superior to the alpha's. The idea of the slide-out toolbar menus, an anachronistic throwback to Windows and Mac desktop operating systems, is thankfully gone, replaced by a more visible and consistent interface.
The app also gets new features. If you tell Boxee your Facebook and Twitter IDs, it will scan your friends' posts continuously, and tell you what they're talking about in a new "recommended" column on the Boxee home screen.
The home screen also shows your queue, which can include content that pops up based on shows you're subscribed to. It also has a "featured" column that Boxee can use to promote new content, included paid placements--a new revenue stream for the company.
Boxee can also now search the entire Netflix online inventory. Previously, you could view your online Netflix shows and see a smattering of new ones. Now you can see and stream everything, assuming you're a paying user.
There are also new content partners: The Escapist (which makes the Zero Punctuation video), and SuicideGirls. (I wasn't aware until I got the beta demo that Boxee supports adult content; the NSFW feeds don't appear until you disable the parental controls.)
The new Boxee begins to address my biggest gripe about the system, which is that it can be hard to find content from the multitudinous streams that feed into the platform. A new TV menu combines content from the user's hard drive as well as subscription and streaming sources, and it has a useful search feature. There's also an improved table of contents for shows. But Boxee still doesn't have a global search to find everything it can play, so in some cases you need to know which "application" (Boxee content stream) has a show you want to watch. Boxee VP Andrew Kippen did tell me it's an ongoing goal to improve the search process on the platform.
Kippen says the company recommends the Mac Mini as the best platform for the app at the moment. There are also OS X and Linux versions, and a Windows port, but it's for 32-bit installations only. The Linux port will be used in the dedicated Boxee hardware, details of which are being announced shortly. In the meantime, Roku has a somewhat competitive hardware-based product now shipping, and it has the additional benefit of offering access to a user's Amazon streaming-video account, which Boxee doesn't do.
Boxee is still closed to most new users. Everyone, even existing alpha users, has to sign up for the beta lottery to try it out. The beta will open to all around the Consumer Electronics Show time frame, in January.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10410159-250.html
Web Design Firms Chicago
Boxee soldiers on, gaining fans and adding content from other sources. I recently covered the Boxee version of Clicker, for example, which shows us how the Boxee platform might some day do a credible job of replacing users' TiVos or cable boxes.
The Boxee experience is improving, too. Monday's new beta has a completely redone interface that is far superior to the alpha's. The idea of the slide-out toolbar menus, an anachronistic throwback to Windows and Mac desktop operating systems, is thankfully gone, replaced by a more visible and consistent interface.
The app also gets new features. If you tell Boxee your Facebook and Twitter IDs, it will scan your friends' posts continuously, and tell you what they're talking about in a new "recommended" column on the Boxee home screen.
The home screen also shows your queue, which can include content that pops up based on shows you're subscribed to. It also has a "featured" column that Boxee can use to promote new content, included paid placements--a new revenue stream for the company.
Boxee can also now search the entire Netflix online inventory. Previously, you could view your online Netflix shows and see a smattering of new ones. Now you can see and stream everything, assuming you're a paying user.
There are also new content partners: The Escapist (which makes the Zero Punctuation video), and SuicideGirls. (I wasn't aware until I got the beta demo that Boxee supports adult content; the NSFW feeds don't appear until you disable the parental controls.)
The new Boxee begins to address my biggest gripe about the system, which is that it can be hard to find content from the multitudinous streams that feed into the platform. A new TV menu combines content from the user's hard drive as well as subscription and streaming sources, and it has a useful search feature. There's also an improved table of contents for shows. But Boxee still doesn't have a global search to find everything it can play, so in some cases you need to know which "application" (Boxee content stream) has a show you want to watch. Boxee VP Andrew Kippen did tell me it's an ongoing goal to improve the search process on the platform.
Kippen says the company recommends the Mac Mini as the best platform for the app at the moment. There are also OS X and Linux versions, and a Windows port, but it's for 32-bit installations only. The Linux port will be used in the dedicated Boxee hardware, details of which are being announced shortly. In the meantime, Roku has a somewhat competitive hardware-based product now shipping, and it has the additional benefit of offering access to a user's Amazon streaming-video account, which Boxee doesn't do.
Boxee is still closed to most new users. Everyone, even existing alpha users, has to sign up for the beta lottery to try it out. The beta will open to all around the Consumer Electronics Show time frame, in January.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10410159-250.html
Web Design Firms Chicago
Citysearch Gets Real-Time Fever, Lets Biz Owners Log In, Update Twitter Remotely
The rush to incorporate real-time status updates has even hit IAC’s Citysearch. Starting today, business owners will be able to create and manage their Twitter accounts directly from a Citysearch page. A restaurant, bar or health clubs’ most recent three tweets will show up alongside their ratings, reviews and other info; Citysearch is also pulling in replies and other tweets that include the business’ Twitter handle.
Citysearch is only the latest company to work on back-end integration with Twitter: Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) recently brokered data-sharing deals with the service for search, and LinkedIn also added Twitter support. For Citysearch, adding remote Twitter access is part of an ongoing effort to become the most comprehensive online resource for local businesses—particularly in the face of more competition from Yelp, and now, even Google.
“This is another way for us to help businesses manage—or even just create—their social identities, because it gives them one place to respond to reviews, update Facebook and post to Twitter,” said Kara Nortman, Citysearch’s SVP, publishing.
While there’s no financial gain for Citysearch (or Twitter) from the integration right now, Nortman hinted that the company had its eyes on a potential “premium” social media offering in the future: “Down the road, we think about rolling out enhanced features—business owners could pull content out of tweets for example, and highlight it on their page,” she said. “But we’re focused on keeping everything free right now.”
I asked Nortman about potential ad clutter—since Citysearch runs ads on its local business listings, and business owners can create sponsored tweets from third-party services like 12seconds—but she said the company had no plans to “interfere or restrict” the users’ access to Twitter. Meanwhile, she acknowledged that including tweets on business pages would have SEO benefits, particularly with the big search engines making it a point to index tweets.
Source:
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-citysearch-gets-real-time-fever-lets-biz-owners-log-in-update-twitter-r/
Web Design Firms Chicago
Citysearch is only the latest company to work on back-end integration with Twitter: Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) recently brokered data-sharing deals with the service for search, and LinkedIn also added Twitter support. For Citysearch, adding remote Twitter access is part of an ongoing effort to become the most comprehensive online resource for local businesses—particularly in the face of more competition from Yelp, and now, even Google.
“This is another way for us to help businesses manage—or even just create—their social identities, because it gives them one place to respond to reviews, update Facebook and post to Twitter,” said Kara Nortman, Citysearch’s SVP, publishing.
While there’s no financial gain for Citysearch (or Twitter) from the integration right now, Nortman hinted that the company had its eyes on a potential “premium” social media offering in the future: “Down the road, we think about rolling out enhanced features—business owners could pull content out of tweets for example, and highlight it on their page,” she said. “But we’re focused on keeping everything free right now.”
I asked Nortman about potential ad clutter—since Citysearch runs ads on its local business listings, and business owners can create sponsored tweets from third-party services like 12seconds—but she said the company had no plans to “interfere or restrict” the users’ access to Twitter. Meanwhile, she acknowledged that including tweets on business pages would have SEO benefits, particularly with the big search engines making it a point to index tweets.
Source:
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-citysearch-gets-real-time-fever-lets-biz-owners-log-in-update-twitter-r/
Web Design Firms Chicago
Citysearch Gets Real-Time Fever, Lets Biz Owners Log In, Update Twitter Remotely
The rush to incorporate real-time status updates has even hit IAC’s Citysearch. Starting today, business owners will be able to create and manage their Twitter accounts directly from a Citysearch page. A restaurant, bar or health clubs’ most recent three tweets will show up alongside their ratings, reviews and other info; Citysearch is also pulling in replies and other tweets that include the business’ Twitter handle.
Citysearch is only the latest company to work on back-end integration with Twitter: Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) recently brokered data-sharing deals with the service for search, and LinkedIn also added Twitter support. For Citysearch, adding remote Twitter access is part of an ongoing effort to become the most comprehensive online resource for local businesses—particularly in the face of more competition from Yelp, and now, even Google.
“This is another way for us to help businesses manage—or even just create—their social identities, because it gives them one place to respond to reviews, update Facebook and post to Twitter,” said Kara Nortman, Citysearch’s SVP, publishing.
While there’s no financial gain for Citysearch (or Twitter) from the integration right now, Nortman hinted that the company had its eyes on a potential “premium” social media offering in the future: “Down the road, we think about rolling out enhanced features—business owners could pull content out of tweets for example, and highlight it on their page,” she said. “But we’re focused on keeping everything free right now.”
I asked Nortman about potential ad clutter—since Citysearch runs ads on its local business listings, and business owners can create sponsored tweets from third-party services like 12seconds—but she said the company had no plans to “interfere or restrict” the users’ access to Twitter. Meanwhile, she acknowledged that including tweets on business pages would have SEO benefits, particularly with the big search engines making it a point to index tweets.
Source:
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-citysearch-gets-real-time-fever-lets-biz-owners-log-in-update-twitter-r/
Web Design Firms Chicago
Citysearch is only the latest company to work on back-end integration with Twitter: Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) recently brokered data-sharing deals with the service for search, and LinkedIn also added Twitter support. For Citysearch, adding remote Twitter access is part of an ongoing effort to become the most comprehensive online resource for local businesses—particularly in the face of more competition from Yelp, and now, even Google.
“This is another way for us to help businesses manage—or even just create—their social identities, because it gives them one place to respond to reviews, update Facebook and post to Twitter,” said Kara Nortman, Citysearch’s SVP, publishing.
While there’s no financial gain for Citysearch (or Twitter) from the integration right now, Nortman hinted that the company had its eyes on a potential “premium” social media offering in the future: “Down the road, we think about rolling out enhanced features—business owners could pull content out of tweets for example, and highlight it on their page,” she said. “But we’re focused on keeping everything free right now.”
I asked Nortman about potential ad clutter—since Citysearch runs ads on its local business listings, and business owners can create sponsored tweets from third-party services like 12seconds—but she said the company had no plans to “interfere or restrict” the users’ access to Twitter. Meanwhile, she acknowledged that including tweets on business pages would have SEO benefits, particularly with the big search engines making it a point to index tweets.
Source:
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-citysearch-gets-real-time-fever-lets-biz-owners-log-in-update-twitter-r/
Web Design Firms Chicago
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Facebook’s Killer Feature: The Mutual Friends List
2009 has been a busy year for Facebook. The Social Networking Service just reached a whopping 350 million users. It redesigned its site, then redesigned those redesigns (say that three times fast). And as Mark Zuckerberg, the site’s founder and chief executive, announced Tuesday, the company is getting ready to release a new set of privacy policies in the coming weeks.
Facebook has also been on the receiving end of some heavy criticism this year for an array of privacy issues and a perceived desire to look and act more like Twitter. Some of these concerns are valid, and some are just the growing pains of a five-year-old company in a market that continues to change and adapt at breakneck speeds.
All of that aside for a moment, I believe that Facebook has one important, underutilized feature that no other site can replicate or compete with: the “mutual friends” list.
When you go to an individual’s Facebook Page, the list sits in a little box on the left of the page, visually displaying who you know in common. For me, this often-overlooked feature has become an integral part of my Facebook experience. Sure, I still go to the site to update my status and peruse my news feeds, but I use Mutual Friends more than anything else.
This feature enables me to supplement the real world with additional digital information. When I go to a meeting or party, I take a minute to look up who’s attending and quickly explore friends we might share. It’s the perfect digital icebreaker. Increasingly, when I go to a conference and meet someone new, I’ll sneak into the hallway and look them up, too. Or, if they seem unencumbered by potential privacy concerns, we pull out our phones, and using Facebook’s mobile application, look each other up.
Last year, for example, I met Wired columnist Steven Levy at a conference in Boston. After a few minutes chatting about mundane tech stories, we quickly pulled out our laptops, zipped along to Facebook.com and sat for an hour discussing who we knew in common.
Of course, the “mutual friends” list has its drawbacks. Maybe I don’t want you to know we are both friends with the same political activist. Then there are the random acquaintances you’ve collected over the years — they’re not really friends, even though they send you messages that say “Hi, we have 10 friends in common so we must be friends!”
Still, for me, the Mutual Friends list has become an integral part of my digital life.
And five years after the site’s launch, this feature is something only Facebook really offers. It would be close to impossible for Twitter to do, since its service is built on a find-and-follow mentality. I follow people I’m not friends with, and in turn, people I’ve never met follow me.
What about Google’s Gmail? Its address book, although a prodigious resource, stores every e-mail address you’ve ever encountered, including those random Craigslist purchasers and every spammer who made it over the drawbridge and through its filter.
LinkedIn, the business social connection site, is Facebook’s closest competitor in the mutual-friends arena, but it generally connects people based on work affiliations, whereas Facebook tends to include personal friends, family and professional connections.
As the Facebook community continues to grow by over 600,000 people a day, there is a lot of potential for Facebook to move beyond who we know in common to what we know in common. As I update my status with movies I’ve seen, books I’m reading or news articles I like, these features could help make all kinds of conversation — not just introductory ones — a lot more engaging.
Source:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/facebooks-killer-feature-the-mutual-friends-list/
Professional Website Design Services
Facebook has also been on the receiving end of some heavy criticism this year for an array of privacy issues and a perceived desire to look and act more like Twitter. Some of these concerns are valid, and some are just the growing pains of a five-year-old company in a market that continues to change and adapt at breakneck speeds.
All of that aside for a moment, I believe that Facebook has one important, underutilized feature that no other site can replicate or compete with: the “mutual friends” list.
When you go to an individual’s Facebook Page, the list sits in a little box on the left of the page, visually displaying who you know in common. For me, this often-overlooked feature has become an integral part of my Facebook experience. Sure, I still go to the site to update my status and peruse my news feeds, but I use Mutual Friends more than anything else.
This feature enables me to supplement the real world with additional digital information. When I go to a meeting or party, I take a minute to look up who’s attending and quickly explore friends we might share. It’s the perfect digital icebreaker. Increasingly, when I go to a conference and meet someone new, I’ll sneak into the hallway and look them up, too. Or, if they seem unencumbered by potential privacy concerns, we pull out our phones, and using Facebook’s mobile application, look each other up.
Last year, for example, I met Wired columnist Steven Levy at a conference in Boston. After a few minutes chatting about mundane tech stories, we quickly pulled out our laptops, zipped along to Facebook.com and sat for an hour discussing who we knew in common.
Of course, the “mutual friends” list has its drawbacks. Maybe I don’t want you to know we are both friends with the same political activist. Then there are the random acquaintances you’ve collected over the years — they’re not really friends, even though they send you messages that say “Hi, we have 10 friends in common so we must be friends!”
Still, for me, the Mutual Friends list has become an integral part of my digital life.
And five years after the site’s launch, this feature is something only Facebook really offers. It would be close to impossible for Twitter to do, since its service is built on a find-and-follow mentality. I follow people I’m not friends with, and in turn, people I’ve never met follow me.
What about Google’s Gmail? Its address book, although a prodigious resource, stores every e-mail address you’ve ever encountered, including those random Craigslist purchasers and every spammer who made it over the drawbridge and through its filter.
LinkedIn, the business social connection site, is Facebook’s closest competitor in the mutual-friends arena, but it generally connects people based on work affiliations, whereas Facebook tends to include personal friends, family and professional connections.
As the Facebook community continues to grow by over 600,000 people a day, there is a lot of potential for Facebook to move beyond who we know in common to what we know in common. As I update my status with movies I’ve seen, books I’m reading or news articles I like, these features could help make all kinds of conversation — not just introductory ones — a lot more engaging.
Source:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/facebooks-killer-feature-the-mutual-friends-list/
Professional Website Design Services
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
MySpace Music Arrives in The UK
MySpace Music, one of MySpace’s bright spots in an otherwise dreary picture, has just jumped across the pond and into the laps of UK’s music fans.The News Corp-owned company has just launched MySpace Music in the UK, bringing the music portal and its audio and video content to the island nation, as well as iTunes download options. It’s even bringing over the MySpace Music Charts, launched just a few weeks ago. This will be the fourth nation to have MySpace Music, after the US, New Zealand, and Australia (Australia).
To kick things off, the social network is also launching a marketing campaign called “Get Real Close.” It involves videos, playlists and exclusive content for UK users, starting with artists like Lost Prophets, 50 Cent, Kasabian, and Alicia Keys.
The move is no surprise and continues the evolution of MySpace (MySpace) from social network to content hub. Pushing the strongest elements of MySpace and phasing out the old is the only way MySpace can make a comeback.
Source:
http://mashable.com/2009/12/02/myspace-music-uk/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+(Mashable)
Chicago Website Design
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Computing Over The Cloud: Datacraft
Cloud computing can be defined as a style of computing where massively scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered 'as a service' to external customers using Internet Technologies.
Is India Ready For Cloud Computing?
The cloud-computing model is changing the way the IT industry looks at user and vendor relationships. As service providers, vendors must partner with service providers to deliver their technologies indirectly to users.
User organisations will watch portfolios of owned technologies decline as service portfolios grow. The key activity will be to determine which cloud services will be viable, and when. Although it is unlikely that users will completely abandon on-premises models, or buy complex mission-critical processes as services through the cloud in the next few years, there will be a movement to consume services in a more cost-effective way.
The key characteristics of cloud computing include, delivery of capabilities "as a service," delivery of services in a highly scalable and elastic fashion, using Internet, web — technologies and techniques to develop and deliver the services, and designing for delivery to external customers.
Any idea who invented cloud computing?
The final characteristic warrants some additional examination. Cloud computing services are designed based on an assumption that the service provider will deliver capabilities to the third parties who act as consumers.
A core characteristic of cloud computing is the division of concerns between the cloud service provider and the cloud service consumer. The consumers of a service need only care about what a service does for them, not how it is implemented. However, to be successful, the provider must implement the service in such a way that it can deal with a global-class delivery environment and serve a wide range of consumers with a common service model.
In the early stages of cloud computing, consumers may need to examine implementation models to ensure that they are dealing with a strategically viable provider. Cloud computing services can be divided into five categories used as a foundation to build solutions plus a sixth category that deals with control and security.
System Infrastructure: Virtualized system software (such as server personalities, compute, storage and networking) on which the consumer can run any sort of application. Web-Based provisioning — via a browser form, programmatic calls or automated response to an application load — is used to provide dynamic access to these resources. Minimal Web standards exist at the system infrastructure layer and provisioning models are generally vendor-specific.
Application Infrastructure: A set of services that parallels the traditional middleware and development technologies. Services must be built to exploit Web-centric architectures and global-class design principles. A new category called "application platform as a service" is emerging, with vendors providing global-class, Web-Centric Rapid Application Development (RAD) environments.
Applications: Applications that are designed for global class delivery and delivered as a service using web-centric architectures to a browse are considered cloud application services. This generally requires creation of a multi-tenant architecture in which a single application instance supports many organizations (each of which may have multiple users) but provides a unique view for each organization.
Customizations and extensions, as well as data, are isolated between tenants/organizations by default, but may be selectively shared (for example, salesfore.com). Cloud application services should be built using Web architectures and may expose components or interfaces for mashable access, control or extension.
Information: Content access and search services or Information services delivered as feeds via RSS/ATOM or other web models.
Business Process: Any business process (including payroll, printing and e-commerce) delivered as a service via the Internet with provided via web-centric interfaces and WOA access mechanisms.
Management and Security: Services to manage the access, consumption, delivery, and service levels associated with cloud services. While these have some similarity to the operations management tools used inside an enterprise the demands of global class cloud based applications will require additional capabilities.
Cloud computing is heavily influenced by the Internet and web and the vendors that have sprung from this phenomena. Users evaluating cloud computing should focus first on the consumer/provider relationship and the nature of the services being provided. Evaluation of enabling technologies and their impact on the cloud services and/or their applicability to in-house infrastructure and application models is a related, but separate exercise.
A more sophisticated approach to running applications in the cloud would be for the consumer to build a solution on a global class application that is elastic, scalable and delivered as a service using internet and Web Technologies. It may also uniquely exploit cloud-centric distributed and parallel processing capabilities. The resulting application would be considered a cloud application service.
Full exploitation of the cloud would use cloud based services to support the entire process of building, storing, running and managing the application. This approach is being championed by a new crop of RAD and database vendors that provide turnkey environments — aka application platform as a service (APaaS) — that build on the scalability of cloud-based infrastructures.
What services will be consumed via cloud/web platforms?
The most prevalent cloud-based application service is SaaS, where an application is delivered from the Internet/Web via a browser to an end user. Where these applications are built using Web architectures and expose components or interfaces for mashable access, control or extension, they are also part of the Web/cloud platform.
Web-based techniques and technologies (for example, REST, XML, RSS/Atom and Python), and vendor-driven (for example, Google GData) or community-driven (for example, Accord) standards, define a rich interoperability model. Extended data models and APIs driven by individual vendors emerge "at the edge" and collapse into common, open multivendor standards over time.
Multi-user applications delivered as a cloud service use a single application instance to support many users but provide a unique environment and experience for each user, including, where appropriate or desired, the ability to define the level of separation of data between users (for example, Google Apps).
Multitenant applications delivered as a cloud service use a single application instance to support many organizations (each of which has multiple users) but provide a unique environment for each organization. Customizations and extensions, as well as data, are isolated between tenants/organizations by default, but may be selectively shared (for example, salesfore.com).
Who will deliver cloud/Web platform services, and how should companies build/use them to support their business strategies?
One of the primary reasons why we believe there will be significant uptake of the cloud-based model is that cloud service providers can deliver significant economies of scale. Most organizations don't scale past tens of thousands of users, while cloud providers will ultimately provide services for millions of users.
Cloud providers are also working toward lights-out data center operations with extremely low-cost operations and reliance on copious amounts of inexpensive direct-attached storage (DAS). Enterprises, by contrast, will continue to run high-touch operational models with expensive storage area networks (SANs), which will consequently be allocated parsimoniously.
We expect the cloud providers to use replication services to make multiple copies of the data, and, thereby, avoid more-expensive redundant array of independent disks storage and tape backups, both of which enterprises will continue to use. Finally, we expect cloud providers to emphasize browser-based e-mail services that contribute to lower operational costs, in contrast to enterprises, which will continue to rely on fat clients running proprietary client-to-server protocols.
We expect cloud providers, such as Microsoft and Google, to create an offline browser client that will, for example, cache the past 30 days of e-mail.
The vagueness of cloud computing can be narrowed down to two basic "approaches." The first is an application of technologies, including virtualization and automation that focuses more on the "computing" than on the "cloud" aspect, with emphasis being placed on the technologies that enable the creation and delivery of service-based capabilities. The second is the "cloud" as an Internet/Web/Saas-originated idea, with credit often given to Google's Eric Schmidt for the term. The focus is more on "cloud" than "computing," with the emphasis being placed on access to services from outside of the enterprise (that is, ''from the cloud").
Source:
http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Storage/Feature/Computing-over-the-cloud-Datacraft/11209128439/0/
Professional Website Design Services
Is India Ready For Cloud Computing?
The cloud-computing model is changing the way the IT industry looks at user and vendor relationships. As service providers, vendors must partner with service providers to deliver their technologies indirectly to users.
User organisations will watch portfolios of owned technologies decline as service portfolios grow. The key activity will be to determine which cloud services will be viable, and when. Although it is unlikely that users will completely abandon on-premises models, or buy complex mission-critical processes as services through the cloud in the next few years, there will be a movement to consume services in a more cost-effective way.
The key characteristics of cloud computing include, delivery of capabilities "as a service," delivery of services in a highly scalable and elastic fashion, using Internet, web — technologies and techniques to develop and deliver the services, and designing for delivery to external customers.
Any idea who invented cloud computing?
The final characteristic warrants some additional examination. Cloud computing services are designed based on an assumption that the service provider will deliver capabilities to the third parties who act as consumers.
A core characteristic of cloud computing is the division of concerns between the cloud service provider and the cloud service consumer. The consumers of a service need only care about what a service does for them, not how it is implemented. However, to be successful, the provider must implement the service in such a way that it can deal with a global-class delivery environment and serve a wide range of consumers with a common service model.
In the early stages of cloud computing, consumers may need to examine implementation models to ensure that they are dealing with a strategically viable provider. Cloud computing services can be divided into five categories used as a foundation to build solutions plus a sixth category that deals with control and security.
System Infrastructure: Virtualized system software (such as server personalities, compute, storage and networking) on which the consumer can run any sort of application. Web-Based provisioning — via a browser form, programmatic calls or automated response to an application load — is used to provide dynamic access to these resources. Minimal Web standards exist at the system infrastructure layer and provisioning models are generally vendor-specific.
Application Infrastructure: A set of services that parallels the traditional middleware and development technologies. Services must be built to exploit Web-centric architectures and global-class design principles. A new category called "application platform as a service" is emerging, with vendors providing global-class, Web-Centric Rapid Application Development (RAD) environments.
Applications: Applications that are designed for global class delivery and delivered as a service using web-centric architectures to a browse are considered cloud application services. This generally requires creation of a multi-tenant architecture in which a single application instance supports many organizations (each of which may have multiple users) but provides a unique view for each organization.
Customizations and extensions, as well as data, are isolated between tenants/organizations by default, but may be selectively shared (for example, salesfore.com). Cloud application services should be built using Web architectures and may expose components or interfaces for mashable access, control or extension.
Information: Content access and search services or Information services delivered as feeds via RSS/ATOM or other web models.
Business Process: Any business process (including payroll, printing and e-commerce) delivered as a service via the Internet with provided via web-centric interfaces and WOA access mechanisms.
Management and Security: Services to manage the access, consumption, delivery, and service levels associated with cloud services. While these have some similarity to the operations management tools used inside an enterprise the demands of global class cloud based applications will require additional capabilities.
Cloud computing is heavily influenced by the Internet and web and the vendors that have sprung from this phenomena. Users evaluating cloud computing should focus first on the consumer/provider relationship and the nature of the services being provided. Evaluation of enabling technologies and their impact on the cloud services and/or their applicability to in-house infrastructure and application models is a related, but separate exercise.
A more sophisticated approach to running applications in the cloud would be for the consumer to build a solution on a global class application that is elastic, scalable and delivered as a service using internet and Web Technologies. It may also uniquely exploit cloud-centric distributed and parallel processing capabilities. The resulting application would be considered a cloud application service.
Full exploitation of the cloud would use cloud based services to support the entire process of building, storing, running and managing the application. This approach is being championed by a new crop of RAD and database vendors that provide turnkey environments — aka application platform as a service (APaaS) — that build on the scalability of cloud-based infrastructures.
What services will be consumed via cloud/web platforms?
The most prevalent cloud-based application service is SaaS, where an application is delivered from the Internet/Web via a browser to an end user. Where these applications are built using Web architectures and expose components or interfaces for mashable access, control or extension, they are also part of the Web/cloud platform.
Web-based techniques and technologies (for example, REST, XML, RSS/Atom and Python), and vendor-driven (for example, Google GData) or community-driven (for example, Accord) standards, define a rich interoperability model. Extended data models and APIs driven by individual vendors emerge "at the edge" and collapse into common, open multivendor standards over time.
Multi-user applications delivered as a cloud service use a single application instance to support many users but provide a unique environment and experience for each user, including, where appropriate or desired, the ability to define the level of separation of data between users (for example, Google Apps).
Multitenant applications delivered as a cloud service use a single application instance to support many organizations (each of which has multiple users) but provide a unique environment for each organization. Customizations and extensions, as well as data, are isolated between tenants/organizations by default, but may be selectively shared (for example, salesfore.com).
Who will deliver cloud/Web platform services, and how should companies build/use them to support their business strategies?
One of the primary reasons why we believe there will be significant uptake of the cloud-based model is that cloud service providers can deliver significant economies of scale. Most organizations don't scale past tens of thousands of users, while cloud providers will ultimately provide services for millions of users.
Cloud providers are also working toward lights-out data center operations with extremely low-cost operations and reliance on copious amounts of inexpensive direct-attached storage (DAS). Enterprises, by contrast, will continue to run high-touch operational models with expensive storage area networks (SANs), which will consequently be allocated parsimoniously.
We expect the cloud providers to use replication services to make multiple copies of the data, and, thereby, avoid more-expensive redundant array of independent disks storage and tape backups, both of which enterprises will continue to use. Finally, we expect cloud providers to emphasize browser-based e-mail services that contribute to lower operational costs, in contrast to enterprises, which will continue to rely on fat clients running proprietary client-to-server protocols.
We expect cloud providers, such as Microsoft and Google, to create an offline browser client that will, for example, cache the past 30 days of e-mail.
The vagueness of cloud computing can be narrowed down to two basic "approaches." The first is an application of technologies, including virtualization and automation that focuses more on the "computing" than on the "cloud" aspect, with emphasis being placed on the technologies that enable the creation and delivery of service-based capabilities. The second is the "cloud" as an Internet/Web/Saas-originated idea, with credit often given to Google's Eric Schmidt for the term. The focus is more on "cloud" than "computing," with the emphasis being placed on access to services from outside of the enterprise (that is, ''from the cloud").
Source:
http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Storage/Feature/Computing-over-the-cloud-Datacraft/11209128439/0/
Professional Website Design Services
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)