GMO Cloud

Online Shopping Soars in Japan

Online shopping in Japan is expected to become a $56 billion industry by 2015, this is according to a research done by global management consulting firm Mckinsey & Company. Virtual shopping is currently a $30 billion market representing five percent of total retail sales.

The significant shift from conventional shopping is attributed to the unlimited power of the Internet, and consumer cost-cutting during the 2009 recession. Instead of “hanging out,” consumers found it more economical to stay home, where the Internet became their key to the outside world. Worldpopulationreview.com pegged the population of Japan to be 130 million with 90 million Internet users.

Online shopping proved to be cheaper than to going to a retail store. Known for their discipline and diligent saving practices, Japanese buyers use online shopping to compare prices, product reviews and discussion forums. Price wars in electronics and apparel have also been sweeping virtual stores.

Innovative Selling

Thus, the astounding shift in consumer mindset is enough to convince retailers to get online and be part of the virtual shopping frenzy. To keep up with their dynamic market they have been developing various innovations.

For instance, a mobile gadget like Kindle keeps users glued to Amazon’s shopping catalog while simplifying the book purchasing process. There’s Zappos.com, the largest online shoe retailer – and even has a return policy. Japanese food products use Cookpad.com to market their latest promotions. The cooking and recipe site has over eight million users.

Another significant factor related to online retail success is efficient delivery. Japan is known to have the most reliable and reasonably-priced logistics network in the world. Japanese golfers commonly send their golf clubs to the course ahead of time – a key Amazon market.

Amazon Japan is the only outlet that can bravely offer “same-day delivery.” The efficient service began in 2009, with orders made at midnight delivered the following morning. Japanese buyers can even choose to pick up their orders at any of the 50,000 convenience stores over the country. For an extra fee fresh food like newly-caught crab from Hokkaido or Okinawa pineapple can be delivered to the buyer’s doorstep on the same day.

Love for Luxury Brands

Among the most visited shopping sites are Rakuten, Amazon Japan and Yahoo Japan. Rakuten is the number one shopping site. It carries everything from fashion, electronics, home, garden, health and beauty, car accessories, sports, food and drinks. It is one of the top Internet companies in the world along with Google, eBay, Yahoo and Amazon reporting revenue at US$4.7 billion in 2011. Founded in 1997, Rakuten currently has 10,000 employees worldwide.

The number one brand on Rakuten’s search list is Louis Vuitton. The luxury label has consistently been dominating the Japanese retail arena. According to an article in the New York Times the international luxury industry relies on the Japanese market for at least 13 percent of their total profit.

With the upper class as their primary market, brands like Louis Vuitton, Coach, Hermes and Tiffany also have significant presence among the middle class. These consumers penny pinch by skipping vacations or avoiding expensive restaurants so they can afford designer clothes, bags and shoes.

The obsession for stylish labels has migrated to the Internet. Other popular brands that are consistently at the top of Rakuten’s search list are Coach, Gucci, Hermes, and Nike.

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About the Guest Author:

Rodolfo Lentejas, Jr. is a fulltime freelance writer based in Toronto. He is the founder of the PostSckrippt, a growing online writing business dedicated to producing top quality, original and fresh content. To know more about him, please visit www.postsckrippt.ca. Like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

How to Select a Cloud Storage Provider

Cloud computing is no longer new. Almost every major enterprise makes use of it to reduce infrastructure costs and provide a Software as a Service (SaaS) business model to offer web-based applications that create more profitable revenue streams. Since cloud computing has become a common name in the industry, there are thousands of providers for the service. How do you select the right cloud service provider for your business?

Do they guard well?

You must know where the data is kept by the cloud provider you employ. It should be guarded by security personnel all the time and surveillance cameras and mechanisms must be installed in the surroundings of the facility. The facility should not be accessible to unauthorized personnel. Proper security measures such as biometric ID verification and trespassing alarms must be in place.

Are they geographically immune?

A data center facility should not lie in a seismically active region, thus at the mercy of natural disasters. Always try to pick the locations lying outside the common pathways of hurricanes, thunderstorms, excessive heat radiation and other naturally hazardous environmental conditions. At times of crisis, recovery locations must be accessible by company staff with ease and at the earliest.

Are they high tech?

Just because they have good storage hardware, does not mean they are the best. You need to analyze whether they employ software firewalls, encrypted data transmission, active monitoring tools, performance metrics to determine speed of service… and much more. The service provider you choose must be able to give a satisfactory report about performance that is measured by proven standards and software utilities.

Are they what they claim?

Make sure that the security and other performance claims are solid. Ensure that certifications are for the mentioned technological guarantees or accredited by an international standard. Select a service provider with a proven track record or who has a valid legal certification from industry experts or information technology foundations.

Do they have sufficient backup facilities?

In the event of a disaster, your data should not be lost or damaged. The cloud service provider you choose must provide efficient backup mechanisms and options to safeguard your critical data. Proper software applications for backup should be available throughout and the entire facility should be periodically tested to estimate the level of preparedness for disasters.

Do they have reliable infrastructure?

The hardware infrastructure that a cloud service provider has must be fail-proof. They should not falter frequently and the power and cooling systems must always have proper backup mechanisms installed. A minute of service disruption by your cloud service provider can lead to millions of dollars in losses for your business. The network connectivity, bandwidth and other connectivity parameters must be of high quality.

Do they have apt personnel?

The service provider must deploy experts on your critical data. Lack of expertise could result in fatal damages and delay in rectifying mistakes or downtime of processes.

In short, the cloud service provider you select must have bullet proof reliability and quality. You need to verify your service provider against the above criteria periodically to ensure consistent high-quality service.

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About the Guest Author:

Mandira Srivastava is a fulltime freelance writer who specializes in technology, health and fitness, politics, and financial writing. Equipped with degree of mass communication and having worked for both private and corporate clients, I have experience meeting a wide range of writing requirements and styles.

European Union Guidelines on Cloud Computing

On September 27, 2012, the European Commission released a document subtitled “Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe”. The entire communication represents a great discussion on the importance of the cloud and how it needs to be managed.

Many experts in the cloud computing business have taken this document to be protectionist, ensuring that European business is retained within Europe. However talk of local data centers is not protectionist; it is about overcoming privacy issues.

In the cloud, – when you rent cloud computing cycles rather than buy servers, your expenditure goes into operating expenditure. There is no capital expenditure and depreciation. The hardware you use is always modern, updated and efficient.

On the energy uses of Cloud Computing, the paper makes the following observations –

• The Internet uses more energy in the US than the entire US auto industry, bringing out the fact that energy efficiency of networking devices and data centers themselves is extremely important.
• Global energy consumption by the Internet and the data centers is 623 bn kWh. This makes it the fifth largest consuming ‘country’ in the world.
• The Internet will triple its electricity consumption in a few years and exceed the total demand from France, Germany, Brazil and Canada.

 
Other Trends in Cloud Computing

Large companies in the US could save as much as $12.3B every year by moving to the cloud. As a consequence of these major savings’ possibilities, the paper says, Europe must move wholeheartedly to embrace cloud computing. According to an IDC study commissioned by the European Commission, the global market will  increase from $21.5 bn to $73 bn in  2015. Europe will get a 1-2%  GDP  boost and nearly 11.3 million jobs will be added.  A majority of European firms – 64% – are already using basic cloud computing services.

However, most firms are still quite cautious and reluctant to spend more till they gain confidence. The key beneficiaries of this technology are larger firms. It is surprising that smaller firms – those who have the most to gain – are the slowest to adopt the technology. Firms that do not adopt cloud computing are essentially worried about data protection, liability to third party customers, and worries about enforcing the service level agreement. Yet another barrier is the lack of reliable high speed Internet. If your connection is not available near 100% of the time, you cannot really put your faith in the system.

Most users start by porting simpler, non-critical applications to the cloud when they first start. Later as they gain more confidence, they switch to more mission-critical applications.

Why are European governments advising users to go for data centers within their own respective countries? One reason lies with the US Patriot Act itself. Most companies are worried that the US government could demand complete access to data stores on the cloud.

If the US government wants to increase the business coming into its data centers, it will have to find other, more acceptable ways of examining data.

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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.

Increasing Demand for Cloud Computing in Asia

Countries in Asia are gearing up to maximize the benefits of cloud computing in diverse ways. This is in part due to the increasing demand for internet security and better IT services by corporate and governmental bodies. This unprecedented demand is motivating them to move computing activities to the cloud for safety, cost-efficiency and flexibility. This change in the trend of IT infrastructure management is expected to give Asia a head-start in the race to adopt cloud technology for optimal performance.

Companies that provide cloud computing and related IT solutions are seeing a significant increase in income as the number of their active clients balloons. This is healthy for cloud computing in Asia as corporations embrace the new and improved methods of managing IT infrastructure. The current trend in cloud computing only emphasizes the persistent hunger for all technologies that are functional and helpful in maximizing profitability.

Here are some of the sterling merits of adopting cloud computing:

• Optimum performance
• Higher profitability
• Cost-efficiency
• Flexibility and scalability

 
Asian companies can save on the cost of managing their IT/ICT structures by completely moving their infrastructure to the cloud. They are no longer required to recruit, train and maintain a large size of IT personnel. More and more Asian companies are exploring this unique opportunity to reduce their overhead IT expenses, diverting savings to other – more pressing – areas.

With cloud computing, companies enjoy unprecedented flexibility to operate efficiently according to their corporate goals and objectives. They can scale IT requirements periodically based on their needs at a particular point in time. This action makes it possible for companies to concentrate on the main administrative parts of their business activity, leaving the technical/IT section to external or public cloud service providers who guarantee safety and data protection.

Findings have shown that moving one’s IT structure to the cloud enhances performance. Apart from the guarantee that data and other important information will be immediately accessible, cloud technology also encourages specialization, whereby a company can concentrate on its statutory responsibility of producing goods and services for clients without experiencing interruption due to cloud computing guarantees.

Being cost-efficient and performance-boosting, cloud technology is capable of helping Asian companies achieve an unprecedented level of profitability. Specifically, these companies save plenty of money in reducing their overhead expenses on IT installation and maintenance in their respective operations. Undoubtedly, better performance can also lead to the production of great services/products that consumers will be happy to spend their hard-earned money on.

Asian companies take up the challenge to explore cloud computing by still being able to operate optimally. Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and China are pioneers in this process. Malaysia, for instance, is providing robust governmental support as the country keeps an open-door policy for foreign IT services providers to migrate their operations into the country.

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:

Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/

Online Education in Malaysia and the Impact of Cloud Technology

As Malaysian universities and other learning institutions aspire to maximize and globalize their online education, a series of questions need answering.

Malaysia Education Online (MEdO) is a Malaysian Government initiative aimed at transforming the process of international distance education. It is a pet project designated to make Malaysian institutions competitive in international education delivery.

Apart from the possibility to bring in extra revenue, MEdO is expected to modify the process of learning for both on-campus and long-distance students by integrating traditional and modern course content into Malaysian education, improving quality of education on both physical and virtual campuses.

The four main procedures for achieving the objectives of MEdO involve:

1. Content development
2. Content delivery
3. Program aggregation
4. Program management

 
Of utmost importance are the content development and delivery aspects of this process. Online education demands a sizable quantity of storage capacity to be functional. Malaysian institutions need to quickly provide easy and access to interactive videos, virtual academic chatrooms, teleconferences and digitized library and educational feedback procedures. Online students will require unrestricted access to on-demand educational technologies like videos, webinars and recorded lessons on CDs. However, this will be a capital-intensive project in the sense that new servers, networks and storage facilities are required to handle the increase in numbers of online students.

Cloud computing represents an efficient way to solve problems of unexpected surges in IT storage expenditure. Malaysia universities have a lot to gain by adopting cloud technology. Aside from cutting back on overheads, they can also enjoy flexibility, scalability, better speed and efficiency guaranteed by cloud.

Malaysian institutions can reduce IT budgets and concentrate on the quality of education they offer, whether locally or globally, through adoption of groundbreaking technology that will spur proactive online education.

Cloud-based features available to Malaysian online students include:

• Software as a Service (SaaS)— whereby online students can use some software/applications to achieve their educational goals but have no power to control the hardware, operating and networking systems;

 

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)— users can procure a hosting environment for their applications, but they are not allowed to control the hardware, operating system etc;

 

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)— Malaysian online students can control the hardware, operating system and the networking system while using the storage facility, networking system and other principal computing services offered by the cloud computing firm.

 

Online Malaysian institutions should consider adopting cloud as an administrative strategy to raise institutional performance. Cloud also permits interoperability with other kinds of software/hardware, allowing online learning institutions in Malaysia to avail themselves of workability issues surrounding current hardware, networking system, servers and applications with the cloud technology. The security of cloud computing is also improving, making data protection scares a thing of the past.

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:

Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/