Cloud computing does to IT what Toyota did to car making
Erich Clementi, a senior vice-president at the $107 billion International Business Machines Corp., better known as IBM or Big Blue, heads its global technology services (GTS) division— the world’s largest information technology (IT) services business by revenue. He drives the company’s initiative to converge digital and physical infrastructure, branded Smarter Planet, which involves making cities smarter with sensors and chips. He also heads the company’s analytics and cloud computing initiatives.
During a visit to Mumbai last week, he said IBM is sharpening its focus on the use of innovative technologies and solutions to manage the growing demands on infrastructure that delivers vital services in cities. For instance, it deployed a system in Konkan Railway to help the facility manage, analyse and maintain train running information, schedules and reduce passenger delays…
Microsoft Innovation Centre in Malta to focus on cloud computing for industry
In the recently presented Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012, Malta falls within the third and most developed stage together with another 34 countries out of the 142, according to Microsoft Malta Country Manager Adrianna Zammit.
Opening a recent half-day conference on how ‘The Cloud’ has opened a new wave of innovation in computing, Ms Zammit outlined Microsoft Malta’s plan for encouraging innovation and embracing the cloud, and highlighted the benefits that businesses can derive by moving to the cloud…
Cloud Computing Easily Understood – SaaS
In prior blog posts, I described Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).
To recap:
- If I use IaaS I get servers onto which I can load software and applications which I then maintain, though I don’t need to maintain the hardware. I can customize the applications and software running on the servers, at will.
- If I use PaaS, I get a platform of ready to use web servers, application servers, databases etc. I write my own software application and host it at the PaaS provider. I maintain the software I write, but not the application servers, databases or hardware. I can customize the software I write, at will
Finally, we reach the top of the stack: Software as a Service (SaaS)…
Mad Cow Friday: Dilbert Cloud Humor Part Two
On Friday, we like to step away from some of the news and headlines of the day, and instead hit the water coolers and have a bit of fun.
This one is an oldie, but a goodie. Enjoy this Cloud Computing jab from Scott Adam’s Dilbert strip.
Head in the Clouds, or Feet on the Ground? The Future of Data Center Design
Organizations of all sizes are looking at how their data center facilities can support their IT requirements for greater flexibility and responsiveness using cloud computing and virtualization. But implementing these technologies and strategies in existing data center environments is easier said than done. Data center managers must take their data center, which can be up to 15 years old, and rebuild it using the latest deployment principles.
One approach here is to take a more modular approach to data center design. The initial adopters of this strategy five years ago were Amazon and Google, and they are usually the reference for data center best practices in current deployment methodology. For companies evaluating where modular data center assets can help their own strategies, there are both lessons to be learned and pitfalls to avoid…
IBM Touts “The Power of Cloud”
I reported earlier on a new report entitled The Power of Cloud from IBM, in which it said cloud computing’s potential within enterprise IT remains "virtually untapped," and in which it identified three types of cloud adopters: optimizers, innovators, and disruptors.
I was able to follow that up with a Q&A with Saul J. Berman, Ph.D., Partner & Vice President, Global Strategy Leader & Innovation, and Growth Services Leader within IBM’s Global Business Services (GBS)…
Cloud Computing: Where does my data live?
When the early rumblings of cloud computing hit the industry wires, it was all new companies we had never heard of, emerging from the deep dark depths of Silicon Valley.
The Amazons and Googles of this world were toddlers compared to the grandfathers of technology, who had been providing software to the world since the 1970s, if not before. And, when it came to handing over sensitive, customer driven data, many businesses were hesitant to use these new kids on the block.
However, the tide has turned in the sea of technology that is cloud and now the forefathers of computing are catching up with the modern day trends…
Amazon Sees Further Price Drops in Cloud, Pressuring Microsoft
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), which dropped prices on its Internet-based cloud-computing service last week, said it will keep cutting when it can, putting pressure on competitors like Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to keep its own prices low.
Customers of Amazon’s EC2 service, which lets clients run their programs on the online retailer’s server computers, saw price cuts of as much as 37 percent on March 5, and other Amazon cloud service prices were trimmed as well. Microsoft responded days later with reductions on its rival Azure services…
HP Cloud Apps to be Aired Shortly
After a long wait, Palo-Alto based tech behemoth Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) decided to make its cloud computing services public with its second quarter results. The announcement was made by an internal source to New York Times magazine. The announcement was in sync with H-P’s intention to shift its focus on the higher-margin cloud computing arena.
As per the internal executive’s statement, H-P is about to air its cloud services, which are expected to be similar to the cloud platform offered by renowned online retailer Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN) Web Services…
The Death of PaaS 1.0 – Why the Cloud Will Change Forever
Cloud really started off as the availability of applications via a browser over the internet – Software as a Service (SaaS). Cloud has evolved well beyond that, and has reached the point where one can source entire data center components – servers and all – online. Dubbed Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the promise is that anyone can source enterprise grade infrastructure at a button click through a browser. Need a Linux or Windows infrastructure? No problem, fire it up – virtually. Despite this amazing ability, however, a lot has remained the same when it comes to using IaaS because it’s typically just OS instances. Fundamentally, IaaS solves infrastructure problems but doesn’t address the ever-increasing complexity of managing and writing modern applications: no frameworks, libraries or APIs that tackle sticky application engineering topics. To deal with this, the market spun out Platform as a Service (PaaS). I was fortunate enough to be a co-founder of PaaS vendor Apprenda and to be surrounded by the industry’s best talent. When we set out on our journey to change computing, we envisioned a world where PaaS became the new runtime layer of the future – the cloud “operating system” in the realist sense of the term. This meant that PaaS would take over nearly all of the heavy lifting as it relates to building large, web scale distributed applications, and would also provide high levels of value through APIs and frameworks that give apps access to powerful cloud architectures.