GMO Cloud

The SoMoClo Age

The cloud is in the center of an emerging computing paradigm. According to a blog in research company Aberdeen Group, analysts focusing on Telecom and Unified Communications, Wireless and Mobility Communications, and IT Infrastructure Research said they have been watching the trend for several years.

In the blog, they have observed the rapid increase of cores on processors, the doubling of data that organizations store and the use of mobile computing devices has enabled people to work anytime,anywhere. Bottomline is their observation of the convergence of social, mobile and cloud computing, which they termed, SoMoClo.

According to researchers, cloud is the center on which the applications and IT computing infrastructure are based wherein:

• Mobile – is used for data creation and delivery
• Social – is the language and web of threads that connect users

A report in Aberdeen thoroughly examines the organic creation of SoMoClo and the role that the cloud will play in the future.

Find out more about this new convergence, visit the site to view the SoMoClo diagram and access the report.

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.

Friday Cloud News Roundup

Ultraviolet Represents Hollywood Cloud

Hollywood executives remain optimistic about the cloud and how it will help the industry in boosting their video sales by enabling consumers to build a remotely stored library of videos and movies.

This is done through Ultraviolet, which represents Hollywood’s first step into the cloud, and Neustar’s system, which provides the whole cloud-based movie library. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) believes that this technology will address industry and consumer concerns around compatibility and piracy. This holds true at this point as some 750,000 households in the US and Britain have already set-up their ultraviolet accounts.

Find out which studios are already offering movies in the cloud and which ones we can anticipate. Visit the CNN Money blog and read the full article.

Legal News on the Cloud

The Pennsylvania Bar Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility has released a 20-page formal opinion on Ethical Obligations for Attorneys Using Cloud Computing/ Software as a Service While Fulfilling the Duties of Confidentiality and Preservation of Client Property.

Here is a sneak peek of what is inside the opinion:

• Defines cloud computing in layman’s terms
• Identifies forms of cloud computing
• Discussion on benefits and threats of using off-site data storage and web-based email services
• List of specific precautions and questions in the development of an office’s data storage

Access the full opinion and read how the state of the law is examined on the use of cloud computing. Visit Legal Ethics Professional Blog now.

The Year of SaaS

An article in Seeking Alpha shows the 19% increase of Netsuite stocks for the year. This article talks about why the golden age of Software as a Service (SaaS) is at hand, and here are some reasons why:

• Smaller number of hypervisors are domination the market
• Proliferation of a small number of cloud architectures
• More companies are turning server farms into cloud installation

According to the article, this is good news for the entire software space, find out the other reasons why by reading the full article, visit Seeking Alpha now.

UCertify Courses are Now CompTIA Approved

A recent release in PR.com has announced the CompTIA-approved cloud computing courses by UCertify. An aspiring cloud professional needs to take and pass the CL0-001 exam in order to be certified.

UCertify is one of few software providers to have the seal of CompTIA Authorized Quality Curriculum (CAQC) for cloud essentials and storage courses. This means that they have met a particular set of rigid standards of quality.

The comprehensive study guide includes:

• Over 259 test questions
• More than 137 study notes for each exam

To get a copy of the guide or to know further details, visit the site now.

Utility Cloud Computing Talk

An article in Daily Finance takes notice of the steadily increasing cloud startups and companies that want to expand their presence.

The author lists down which companies offer their cloud services utility-style and identifies which aspects they are particularly strong in. For instance:

• Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud is seen as cloud infrastructure gold standard
• Rackspace Hosting has a major presence in infrastructure computing
• VMWare has taken a leadership role in private cloud infrastructure.

The article also provided a table of popular utility cloud providers and showed their revenue growth in three years. This included Amazon with an astounding 122.5% increase, Rackspace’s 82% increase, and IBM’s 35.8% increase.

Read the rest of the article and see which companies are quite popular when it comes to utility cloud. Visit Daily Finance.

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.

Strategic Cloud-Telco Consolidation

An article in Data Center Dynamics reported that in 2011, telecommunications companies went on an acquisition spree. Some prominent examples were cited and explained how these acquisitions were strategically positioned to benefit both telco and cloud service firm:

• Verizon’s purchase of Terremark would boost its cloud strategy
• CenturyLink’s absorption of Sawis will accelerate its cloud capabilities
• Windstream purchased Paetect three months after it launched a cloud portfolio and infrastructure expansion program

Researchers from Tier1 saw this as the telcos’ way to keep more of the traffic within their own network. This also gives them an opportunity to compensate for falling revenues from traditional voice services.

What do cloud companies get in return? – They will have access to larger customer pools. Furthermore, Telcos chose to retain their brands and allowed them to lead the charge on the data services market – meaning, they can still direct the cloud strategy.

What are the other reasons why these acquisitions were considered mutually-beneficial relationships? Find out by reading the full article at Data Center Dynamics.

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.

Wall Street Firms Go to the Private Cloud

Due to the growing popularity of cloud benefits to businesses, Wall Street firms’ adoption of third party cloud-based services is expected to grow this year.

Wall Street Technology included in its article in NY Convergence, views of key people from some financial sector-focused cloud providers namely:

• Joe Stensland, SVP and Managing Director of Scivantage
• Bob Guilbert, Managing Director of Eze Castle Integration
• Bryan Thompson, VP of Services of Tier 3

It leads to the conclusion that the private cloud is quite the appealing technology that allows Wall Street firms to lower their cost in infrastructure and maintenance and no longer requires technology refresh. Most importantly, perhaps, is the cloud’s “burst-ready” capability that goes well with the industry’s increasing market volatility.

The private cloud is indeed the direction that these firms are steering towards, but is there any case for public cloud adoption when it comes to Wall Street? Read the full article and find out at NY Convergence.

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.

Out With the Old? – A Look Into Cloud Customer Support

A cloud customer service organization must now be aware on how it plans to achieve customer satisfaction. Author and Sales Logistix CEO, David Taber, writes in an article in CIO.com, his insights on how customer service should no longer be operated solely on conventional processes and instead, throw into the mix modern methodologies such as social media or an intuitive customer support application.

The article gives social media much weight on its influence in today’s customer service discipline. If an organization does not pay attention, a simple customer dissatisfaction may turn into a web firestorm that can be magnified through social media and can take this to a global scale within hours.

To prevent this, the author gave some guidelines on how to act on this and to what extent should social network be used for customer service and when traditional ways become necessary:

• Provide a customer portal – to exchange information in a controlled environment
• Create forums and manage a community to harness the good side of customer support
• Provide multi-channel communication
• Conduct reputation measurement and management

Although most customers rely greatly on social media, there are limitations and firms need to be aware as well.

Read the full article and find out the rest of the recommendations on how to enhance cloud customer service at CIO.com.

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.