GMO Cloud

Cloud-Based Services are Changing the Face of the Media

March 14, 2013 | Uncategorized

In the media industry information changes at a rapid pace. Breaking news and hot stories are delivered to readers at lightning speeds. So media agencies need to implement agile business solutions that can scale quickly. Sensing the potential of cloud computing technology, media agencies are rapidly moving to the cloud, using new cloud-based services.

How does the cloud benefit media agencies?

Media encompasses a wide range of information services including: journalists, reporters, editors, advertising agencies, print material, audio/video and online content, and much more. Media is another important industry, after IT and video gaming, which requires automatic scaling features.

For instance: a popular newspaper publishes a breaking story. If the story goes viral, the news website starts receiving huge traffic within minutes. Similarly, media agencies receive sudden traffic when they publish a lucrative advertisement. People start bombarding the site to take advantage of that exciting offer. There have been several instances where websites have crashed due to such an overload. It is not feasible for media agencies to set up huge resources to handle sudden traffic surges.

When the media website is hosted on the cloud, resources are automatically scaled up during peak traffic hours. At the same time, resources are automatically scaled down to accommodate slower traffic trends. GMO Cloud calls this the high availability feature where the cloud becomes reliable, possesses fault tolerance characteristics and performs automatic scaling. At the end of the day, media agencies pay for only the resources used.

Faster performance

Another benefit of cloud-based services is faster performance. Consider the same instance where a media agency has published a breaking story. As soon as traffic surges, the performance of the site goes down. But with a cloud solution, when traffic surges the resources are scaled up. At the same time, the performance of the website does not change at all. You can still enjoy faster performance and 99.9% uptime. Broadcasters and visual art agencies can publish rich audio/video streaming.

Business process integration

Media agencies need a greater level of collaboration among their employees. When there is a breaking story, the reporter needs to report it to the agency. The publisher has to create the story and the editor must next finalize the content. When the story is about to get published, there might be additional incidents that need to be added. The head office may need to collaborate with many regional offices to incorporate these changes. Cloud-based services integrate business processes to provide access to every employee involved in that business process. By providing quick access to the required data, cloud technology allows employees the flexibility to dynamically update news and improve the performance of the agency. In addition, the increased use of smartphones allows media agencies to create mobile solutions that boost the SLAs of the company.

Cloud computing concerns

The major concern for media people to move to the cloud is data integrity. News agencies deal with critical information that requires higher levels of confidentiality. Data security is crucial. However, cloud-based services offer secure, resilient, and scalable data management solutions. When every industry is benefiting from the cloud, why should the media lag behind? It is important that the media industry join the cloud to stay ahead of competition.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Guest Author:

Kaushik Das

Kaushik Das is an engineer, research analyst and a technical writer in the areas wireless, IT, enterprise software, next-generation hosting, storage and renewable energy. He specializes in competitive analysis, market research, industry insights, white paper and actionable web content development.

Japan Tops the World in Cloud Computing

March 13, 2013 | Uncategorized

A recent study made a detailed analysis of cloud computing and state of IT infrastructure in 24 countries that together account for 80% of global IT expenditure. Not surprisingly, Japan is at the top of the list with a total score of 84.1 points. But in many other aspects the findings of the study were unexpected. It looked at seven different parameters of cloud readiness and assigned a score to work out the relative positions.

The seven parameters were:

(i) Data privacy
(ii) Security
(iii) Cybercrime
(iv) Intellectual property rights
(v) Support for standards
(vi) Promotion of free trade
(vii) Broadband deployment and ICT readiness

Singapore jumps to 5th from its rank of 10th last year. The country has made major improvements to its privacy laws, as well as user protection and innovation. Malaysia has made major gains over the last year in reducing cybercrime and improving intellectual property rights protection.

As for Brazil, last year’s report noted that the country lacks cybercrime laws. This was amazing considering that cybercrime in Brazil accounted for nearly $8 billion worth in losses in 2012. Disappointingly, the country was last in the list of 24 last year. But government appears to have taken steps to remedy this, as the country has moved up two places this year, overtaking Vietnam and Thailand.

There are six countries from the EU on the list. Every one of them slid in the rankings this year compared to their position last year, even though Poland, the UK and Germany improved their total score by a small margin. Could this have something to do with the slowdown in Europe?

For countries to really benefit from the cloud, they need to understand the full meaning behind each of the seven parameters listed above. Concerted efforts need to be made to improve on each in order to facilitate greater economic growth. Let’s elaborate on these points:

Privacy – Users must have faith that the information they store in the cloud will not be disclosed or misused. While privacy is critical, data should be portable so that the owner can move it around at will.

Security – Users need to be confident that the data they store in the cloud is secure and cloud service providers must be able to demonstrate that they have implemented state-of-the-art security mechanisms. For an example, visit GMO Cloud’s Security page and see how they prioritize this aspect through their multi-level security strategy.

Handling cybercrime – Just as in the real world, in cyberspace too, the law must be firmly established and strictly enforced.

IPR protection – Intellectual property has to be protected so that innovation can continue without worry or loss.

Support for standards – This ensures there is no lock-in and users can port their data and applications to the location that suits them best.

Promotion of free trade – A number of nations are implementing legislation that forces companies to keep their data within national borders. This goes against the grain of cloud computing.

National IT infrastructure – Cloud computing relies on cheap and reliable broadband access. National policies have to support this.

And finally the report card – here are the top 10 places:

Rank	Country	Marks
1	Japan	84.1
2	Australia	79.9
3	USA	79.7
4	Germany	79.1
5	Singapore	78.5
6	France	78.3
7	UK	76.9
8	South Korea	76.2
9	Canada	75.8
10	Italy	75.5

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Guest Author:

Sanjay Srivastava has been active in computing infrastructure and has participated in major projects on cloud computing, networking, VoIP and in creation of applications running over distributed databases. Due to a military background, his focus has always been on stability and availability of infrastructure. Sanjay was the Director of Information Technology in a major enterprise and managed the transition from legacy software to fully networked operations using private cloud infrastructure. He now writes extensively on cloud computing and networking and is about to move to his farm in Central India where he plans to use cloud computing and modern technology to improve the lives of rural folk in India.

Silhouette of a man in a suit beside a Yen sign

How Japan’s Financial Institutions Have Embraced Cloud Computing

March 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

In recent years we have observed Japan’s banks have embrace cloud computing. The period from 2010 to 2012 saw cloud computing in Japan shifts from a simple buzzword into an essential element of Japan’s financial services IT infrastructure. Today the real world applications of cloud computing in the financial services sector can be felt every day and are a fundamental element in the country’s banking industry.

The expanding use of the cloud in Japanese banks

This increased use of cloud technology in Japan’s financial institutions has led to real changes in IT infrastructure in Japan. Gradually more of the country’s infrastructure has shifted to the cloud, leading to a decreased use of hardware and an increased demand for SaaS and IaaS services. This supports the opinion of many global consultancy firms that predict that the spread of cloud technology throughout the world represents a turning point for many key industries. One of the industries most affected by this paradigm shift without a doubt is the financial services industry. This is because the latest trends in cloud computing technology point to potential advances that will have a lasting impact on Japan’s financial services market.

Common trends

After analyzing the adoption of cloud computing services by Japanese financial institutions and financial services providers, we have spotted several trends that can be useful in determining future paths of growth and expansion for cloud service providers. One of the most common concerns among Japanese financial service providers is the issue of standardization, particularly in the following areas:

- Standard systematized processes
- Standardized IT asset allocation
- Standardized IT asset governance
- Architecture
- Platforms
- Software configuration
- Software builds
- Standard operations
- Standard methodologies for maintenance

The need for standardization in all of these fields is a recurring theme in this market and one of the key steps for cloud service providers will be to come to terms with competitors about standards for the region. We have also observed that Japanese financial institutions have very high expectations for the potential of cloud computing to transform the following areas in their daily operations:

1. SaaS, regarding items and areas that can be commercialized. This includes payment systems and human resources operations.
2. Using cloud computing to procure the powerful processing power needed for temporary operations with a high demand for resources. For example, financial businesses can benefit from using the enormous computing power provided by the cloud to run Monte Carlo simulations.
3. Using the cloud to create shared data centers for smaller financial institutions in order to expand operations and reach a wider consumer base without having to invest in costly infrastructure and data center maintenance.

The concerns and expectations of cloud computing in Japanese banks

There is a high degree of interest in how cloud computing can help optimize financial services and global development. The main goal of adopting cloud technology is creating value, by permitting collaboration and establishing an agile platform for future development. This is an advantage of the technology that GMO Cloud constantly emphasizes. It is also clear that Japanese financial institutions now view many aspects of cloud computing as permanent fixtures in their business model, far from a passing fad.

There are several areas where cloud computing is already commonplace in these businesses. This includes using shared IT platforms for email, website and IT development, sales and customer support and management, and disaster recovery. Cloud computing is also used for data analysis and for the launch of new business operations and projects. This means that Japanese financial institutions are already committed to pursuing and implementing cloud computing in their operations.

This is especially important because one common misconception of cloud technology is that, like many previous technologies that have come and gone, it is somehow a temporary trend. This cannot be farther from the truth. As is evidenced by Japanese financial services providers, cloud computing represents a fundamental paradigm change in business. It is already used as part of core business operations and its use in this market sector is only likely to increase in the future. More importantly, the Japanese tech market has long had a history of being an early adopter of technology, meaning that this points to a worldwide trend in the next decade.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Guest Author:

Nida Rasheed

Nida Rasheed is a freelance writer and owner of an outsourcing company, Nida often finds herself wanting to write about the subjects that are closest to her heart. She lives in Islamabad, Pakistan and can be found on Twitter @nidarasheed.

Colleagues with serious faces on a business meeting

Mapping Cloud Computing’s Future Success in the Asia Pacific Market

March 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

Analysts expect IP cloud services worldwide to at least double in the next five years. This comes after staggering growth in the industry in the last five years. In fact, growth in the cloud computing industry tripled in the period from 2007 to 2012 and it shows no signs of slowing down. This is because the technology brings fundamental changes which are responsible for breaking ground in areas previously unexplored.

The financial crisis had an enormous, positive impact on the cloud services industry

While many businesses suffered greatly from the worldwide financial crisis, cloud services providers actually saw benefits to their proposed business model. This is because what those providers offer businesses is a way to cut costs while also maintaining their current quality of service. A slower economy makes such cost cutting measures especially attractive to companies. How can costs be reduced with cloud computing? This is done by a different type of model where users only pay for resources that are actually consumed. In this way they can ensure that no resources are wasted.

Looking at newer offerings in the cloud computing market

Due to its great potential, some of the world’s foremost technology companies have started to jump into the cloud services business. In recent years, we have observed some of the biggest names start to offer cloud solutions, including Amazon, Microsoft, Dell, and Apple. This is because cloud computing is not only an emerging technology, it is a prime business opportunity. This is especially true in the Asian market, which traditionally has always had a higher than normal demand for new technologies.

What does cloud computing have to offer to future businesses? It is ideal for businesses that require servers that are custom made, optimized, and that operate on a large scale. This applies both to hardware and software. Combining both means that businesses can have access to optimized hardware and software solutions, optimizing their IT infrastructure to suit their specific needs. This allows businesses to save by only acquiring the services and features that they need.

The Asian market is aware of the potential of cloud computing

The cloud services industry today is poised on the edge of a key developmental point. IaaS and SaaS services are at a point where there is an ideal balance between quality, security, and affordability. This is especially ideal for small and medium businesses in the Asian market, particularly in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines. In fact, small businesses in Asia are aware of the potential of cloud computing and many are evaluating the use of this technology in their business. Surveys have shown that a high percentage of companies in the region have already adopted, or plan on adopting cloud technology for their IT operations in the next year.

The combination of rapid growth in this technology, the emergence of new companies providing cloud services in the region, and the increased demand point to a scenario where the Asia Pacific region could quickly develop an IT market with a level of growth and competition never seen before. This is especially true because the advance in cloud computing is not only driven by cloud technology advances and specific products, there is a combination of market forces that has led to this positive situation:

1. Businesses are searching for the funds needed for growth in market segments that are very important for cloud technology service providers.
2. There are entrenched problems associated with finding these funds and carrying out growth in the traditional manner. However, the shortcomings associated with the traditional approach are not enough to dissuade established businesses from adopting them.
3. There is pressure from competitors that have adopted the new technology because they have very little to lose and almost everything to gain by adopting it.

The combination of these market forces has meant that cloud computing will drive the market for the next decades, especially in the Asian market. This is especially true because the growth of cloud technology is not driven by product fads, or passing phenomena; it is driven by a real economic need in the market for these kinds of services.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Guest Author:

Nida Rasheed

This Week in the Cloud [March 8, 2013]

March 8, 2013 | Uncategorized

In case you missed it, here are a few notable stories posted on our GMO Cloud blog over this past week, ending March 8th, 2013, highlighting a few topics we focus on here at GMO Cloud. As always, you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or sign up for our newsletter updates here.

Is Asia Ready for Cloud Computing?

For cloud-services providers and businesses interested in integrating cloud technology into their business practices, it is necessary to understand if the required environment for cloud technology is available in their t …