GMO Cloud

SaaS Providers And The Cloud

Software as a service is gaining ground due to several reasons. The most important is the ‘pay as you use’ model. The variety of SaaS providers is mind boggling. I recently saw a SaaS operator provide conversion of audio files into forty different formats. Imagine how many software packages you will have to buy if you want such an extensive repertoire of audio formats.  Another SaaS provider gives a complete sound studio online with loops, aural effects and virtual instruments like drums, violin, guitar and others. They also provide online storage space. This is a fascinating service, if you look at the expense and time involved in actually hiring a studio to compose your music. These are only a couple of examples which show the power and range of SaaS. The other aspect of SaaS is the flexibility which a cloud provides in extending these facilities. Why must SaaS providers go for IaaS as their ideal infrastructure?

Scaling provided by cloud

There is a misconception that SaaS is part of cloud nomenclature. SaaS need not always be based in a cloud. SaaS services can as well be provided from traditional hardware and infrastructure. But certainly SaaS model is made for hosting in a cloud. Rather than spend money on idle infrastructure, it’s advisable for SaaS providers to embrace the cloud. These operators must be able to adjust or regulate their infrastructure with increase or decrease in traffic to maximize their profit. Enterprise software is moving to the SaaS model and these providers can optimize their expenses by moving to the cloud. For SaaS startups, cloud is a boon. They can launch their services with least initial expenditure and scale up as their services pickup. Typically, SaaS providers have to wait for a year or more to reach maturity and gather momentum. They often experience a sudden surge in traffic which cannot be estimated in advance. The cloud infrastructure can quickly scale up to meet such a surge in traffic. In the interim, they need not pay for idle infrastructure.

Delivery considerations

In my opinion delivery is critical for any SaaS provider. By this I mean that the services must be reliable and the software delivery must be efficient and effective. Every transaction in a SaaS model is unique and must be completed optimally. For this the infrastructure, platform and the software must work efficiently. There can be no compromise here. The cloud provides a robust environment which meets the exacting demands of SaaS.

A powerful environment is imperative in running a business smoothly. GMO Cloud America’s free Load Balancer functionality is guaranteed to help you build that reliable platform while saving on costs.

Flexibility in server configuration

There are innumerable kinds of SaaS offerings. Some are memory intensive while others require high computational speed and complexity. In case of a cloud we talk of server instances which means flexibility in choosing our configuration depending on requirement. It is this flexibility which is the most attractive feature of cloud. Selecting the right server instances can be achieved with ease when we are based in a cloud. In a traditional data center environment this would be impossible.

Conclusion

SaaS providers must embrace the cloud, especially startups. The two have a symbiotic relationship and provide for better efficiency.

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:

Sankarambadi Srinivasan, ‘Srini’, is a maverick writer, technopreneur, geek and online marketing enthusiast rolled into one. He began his career as a Naval weapon specialist. Later, he sold his maiden venture and became head of an offshore Database administration company in Mumbai. He moved on as Chief Technology Officer of one of the largest online entities, where he led consolidation of 300 online servers and introduced several Web 2.0 initiatives. He holds a Master’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication.

The Impact of the Cloud on Social Sciences

Four out of every five Americans are using some form of social media. You may not realize this, but the explosion of social media is partly due to increased availability of low cost cloud computing platforms. Since prices seem to be heading southward all the time, developers are able to come up with new applications that seem to have the capacity to digest billions of bits of data per day.

Estimates say that about 200 million tweets and around a billion Facebook posts are sent everyday. And typically this volume of information is used to create targeted ads and predict buyer behavior. In a way, users are being treated as a statistic. Is anyone really looking at the meaning of what people are writing?

If insights related to society were derived from this massive amount of data, governments could understand social and political issues much better than they currently do. Government programs might better take control of rising rates of suicides, crime and depression.

There are already some websites looking to aggregate emotions. While they are still largely experimental, enough has happened to show that this is a viable idea.

The cloud is critical in all these experiments not only because it provides low cost storage but because it also provides low cost processing power, as well as the capability to experiment and innovate with very little financial risk. With storage being so cheap, you can collect millions of messages and revisit old data every time you revise an analysis algorithm to see if the new one fits better.

Analysis of this kind is already being used. The US Government has teamed up with Facebook to help people find jobs more easily. Other possible benefits include:

- Improving the content and context of social and political programs
- Understanding how society is evolving could help future generations in their own evolution
- Treating people as individuals: in many cases, individuals would be understood far better and handled differently. See the analysis of the Facebook posts of the Boston Marathon bombers and the information that is now being retrieved from there. Someday it might be possible to analyze social information in near real time, and at that point there might be preventive intervention.
- People themselves suggest solutions. See the comments offered on any major story. Because hundreds of people get involved, the problem gets examined from varying viewpoints and the analysis is more complete.
- A number of business opportunities emerge because people discuss their dreams, fears, hopes and dislikes.

There is enormous information hidden in social media messages. We have not begun to see this as a resource that can change society. Do you think that the Arab Spring could have been foreseen had the rulers bothered to see what the masses were talking about? Are there other Arab Springs in the making, and are the governments becoming wise to the idea?

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.

Cloud-Based Services are Changing the Face of the Media

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 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.

Why Japan Continues to Use In-House Capabilities For 3D Rendering and Research

While Japan continues to see major advances in 3D computer graphic rendering, it has surprised many that this user base in not moving aggressively to the cloud. Research carried out by industry experts and by IT companies themselves has delivered important insights as to why this is so. It is hoped that when policy makers understand the nature of the problem fully, solutions will be found.

To begin with, it goes without saying that all the usual advantages of cloud computing also apply to the 3D market if it were to use general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPU) in the cloud. Industries with a proven demand for high powered 3D processing include the construction and design sector, educational institutions, the animation industry, commercial message production, and the gaming industry to name just a few.

Surprisingly, many of these still rely on in-house servers and IT staff to manage their graphics programming needs. And over the last two years, industries of this kind have made annual capital investments for on-premise GPGPU equipment in excess of ￥50,000,000. Much of these capital expenditures could have easily been shifted to the GPGPU cloud resulting in substantial savings. A large number of universities and major scientific institutions in Japan have made very major investments in on-premise GPGPU equipment as well.

The key question here is why are these companies not using the GPGPU cloud?

After some research, the reasons become clear. There are both technical and cultural reasons for the reluctance to shift.

Technical reasons

3D data tends to be huge in size. 150 TB is not an unusual volume. Many would-be users are afraid that the available bandwidth would not support this kind of data, and even the first time upload of 150 TB will take a very long time. Working with this kind of data on their network, they fear, will be very slow. There is also worry that crucial company secrets could be lost. If you are designing a new jet engine, you will naturally be very reluctant to place a design for the latest turbine blade or combustion chamber in the cloud.

Since companies have already invested in GPGPU class machines, they would like to continue to exploit these fully as well.

Cultural Reasons

The cultural reasons for continuing to use on-premise systems are also very clear.

Many research institutions are able to get very large grants for academic purposes by claiming very special needs that cannot be met by a general purpose cloud. Even something such as a monthly billing of cloud services is being resisted by the clerical staff in the accounts departments that resent the additional work.

Actual users are really not concerned about where their computing power comes from. They do not care if it comes from the cloud or from their own servers so long as there are no performance issues.

The solution

It is well known and accepted that the cloud gives you far greater power than in-house servers could. A cloud-based Tesla M2075 processor has 56 times the cores of a Xeon processor and is three times as fast yet it consumes only twice the power. Perhaps the decision makers in the companies are not being educated adequately about facts such as these. That there are major advantages of the move to the cloud which cannot be denied, but obviously, the huge capital expenditure that has already been made will have to be used first.

To give you a better idea of how the computing power of the cloud can be maximized – especially in 3D rendering – GMO Cloud presents an illustration that can sum up the usage of the technology through high availability systems.

Government entities can also realize the advantages and alter the grants and research funding to gently nudge institutions to greater use of the cloud. If security can be ensured and proven to be as strong as in-house systems can provide, this will make a big difference in the adoption.

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.

Cloud-based 3D Rendering Farms and the Japanese Market

Large-scale 3D rendering of computer-generated imagery and video is one of the fields where cloud technology has allowed smaller companies to level the playing field. Just a few years ago, the capacity to render high quality computer-generated images and video was severely restricted due to the requirement for costly data centers and server maintenance. Fortunately, cloud-based 3D rendering has allowed companies to outsource the processing power needed for these kinds of jobs. In this article we will take a look at some aspects of the 3D rendering market in Japan, as well as possible opportunities for cloud technology service providers.

What Japanese industries require 3D rendering services today?

When talking about 3D rendering, most immediately think of the entertainment industry. There is no question that animation production, film production, and game development all have significant demand for computer generated video and imaging requiring 3D rendering. However, these kinds of businesses will often handle their rendering needs in-house using their own server rooms, sometimes because of the need to avoid any kind of leak. Fortunately for 3D rendering providers, there are numerous other industries and institutions in Japan that consistently require the services of 3D rendering companies. For example, industrial, manufacturing, architectural, graphic, and other types of design will almost always require 3D rendering. The construction market will also often require 3D rendering for many projects. Other potential clients for 3D rendering firms include educational and research institutions and government departments.

What Japanese companies are looking for when they outsource 3D rendering

Ideally, 3D rendering should be able to provide realistic video without artificiality or incongruity. Achieving this requires tremendous computing power that can be difficult to maintain and is prohibitively expensive. Because of this, most Japanese companies with a demand for 3D rendering services will require organizations that can process heavy/large media with high precision.

The demand for small 3D rendering jobs is practically non-existent because it is usually cheaper and more practical to handle such jobs in-house rather than send it to a third-party provider.

3D rendering is often in demand for the virtual testing of products and scenarios at research institutions in order to carry out calculations more accurately when working with a model or mock-up.

What is holding back the adoption of the cloud for 3D rendering in Japanese businesses?

There are several concerns that have made Japanese companies reluctant to adopt the cloud for 3D rendering. However, we have seen technological advances that gradually have helped overcome these concerns. The main problems involve the long waiting time for the data transfers involved.

Security is also a concern for many companies and, even with the stringent security measures used by most cloud services providers today, the stigma against saving sensitive company data outside of the company’s physical premises still exists. Perhaps the most important reason for the slow adoption of cloud-based 3D rendering in Japan, in comparison to American or European markets, is that the impact on costs is not nearly as dramatic as with other fields. While the cloud does make development easier and more inexpensive, the need for in-house server maintenance and operations makes its impact less noticeable.

How 3D rendering providers can do better in the Japanese market

There are several measures that can make the cloud more attractive for Japanese businesses looking to contract the services of a 3D rendering provider. One of the most important of these is establishing priority high-capacity pipelines in order to cut down transfer times. Providing direct, high-speed connections to clients can significantly affect costumer satisfaction and demand.

Even though cloud technology has grown more and more secure, it is just as important to ensure that the client understands just how secure modern encryption and back-up systems have become. Making sure that the client is aware of the safety and privacy of their data should be a priority when forging new business relationships in the region.

On a side note, one of the advantages that GMO Cloud can offer to Japanese companies is “home-court advantage.” This is not, however, the only big differentiator that the company can offer to rendering companies. To find out more, check out the Network and Data Center Specifications of GMO Cloud to better understand how the company is well suited to serve organizations that require large-scale data processing.

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 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.