Categories

Tags

10.7.2011

There was a lot going on this week’s news of cloud servers, cloud hosting and the way we do business. Here are a few highlights of what we saw that may impact you and your business in the clouds.

Could 2012 Be the Year of the Cloud?

In a recent global survey of organizations KPMG International found that “C” executives in most of the major corporations have already moved some part of their business to the cloud. The expectation is that this number will grow with even more considering the move in the coming year.

Will a Secure Cloud be Leading to More Government Cloud Use?

James Shaeffer is a leading expert on cloud security and was recently vice-chair for a government committee exploring the expansion of the cloud for US government organizations. His recent testimony of the advisability of increased adaptation of the cloud for government agencies could fuel further expansion as security concerns are addressed and resolved.

Cloud-Based Medical Billing Continues to Expand

As the number of physicians using cloud-based systems for record keeping and billing, the cloud healthcare industry continues to grow at amazing rates. Kareo is a cloud-based medical software company that just announced securing a $10 million equity investment. Is this just the start of a move by healthcare industries to the cloud?

Will OpenStack Foundation Finally Become a Reality?

IT World’s Brian Profitt talks about SpaceRack’s involvement in OpenStack, the open source developers organization and the foundation that needs to be setup to prevent OpenStack from being merely another arm of SpaceRack. Is it finally time for the OpenStack Foundation to be a truly vendor-neutral and open home for the development of open source cloud hosting?

Fighting for Web and Cloud in Washington

There is legislature up for vote in Congress that could mean the end for some web services and curtail the rights of many web and cloud-based businesses. The battle between web service companies and the large entertainment entities that feel threatened by the growing dominance of the cloud is just beginning.

Google and Microsoft Continue to Battle Over Cloud Supremacy

Just like two giant monsters fighting over the fair maiden, the giants of the tech world continue to do battle to see who will win the war over cloud dominance. As apps continue to roll out and prices continue to roll down, where will the rest of the cloud go to find the software to run their cloud-based business? That is what Google and Microsoft want to know.

Our newsletters and blogs are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. We invite you to engage in our online community by following us on Twitter @GMOCloud and ‘Liking’ us on Facebook.

10.6.2011

The answering service industry is one that has really benefitted from the evolution of the cloud for business applications. In a virtualized business world, this industry is holding its own and more. What started out as specialized utilization — use of software as a service, managing applications and sharing resources through cloud technologies — is becoming common practice in the answering service industry.

Contact centers have increasingly come to use cloud-based software because it allows them to completely integrate with existing customers and partners while still providing ability to deliver a streamlined and efficient service that is highly personal.

Cloud-based software that is shared between contact centers and client partners enables answering services to relay messages over multiple platforms and keep information updated in real time. Because of the cloud, contact centers are no longer tied to one fixed location such as an office building. It gives them the green advantage of using lower amounts of electricity and emitting smaller amounts of carbon while at the same time making them less vulnerable to natural disasters or technical failures that could bring their services to a standstill just when they are needed most.

With the coming evolution of the 24 hour business day and today’s customer expectation of instant information, call centers that are connected via the cloud world-wide can provide around-the-clock customer service. The idea of anyone calling a service number on a website and getting an answering machine has become almost archaic with the advent of the 24/7 customer service center that is connected via the cloud to time zones anywhere in the world.

This anytime anywhere service model is bound to grow as smartphones, laptops and now iPads and computing tablets have made businesses even more mobile. With this mobility comes a higher number of consumers spending money and time online. According to Forrester Research, tablet users are expected to grow at a rate of 51% from 2010 to 2015. This will be reflected in increased use of customer service for both consumers and businesses, as this mobility brings them into a business cycle that becomes increasingly 24/7.

An example of the latest cloud based tool for this type of customer service center is the cloud-based switch that can setup “universal queuing” to enable a call center to route emails, calls, chats and any other type of customer service contact all in the same way. Primary, secondary and tertiary agent skills can be established that allows all incoming contacts to be identified and segmented to the correct agent, wherever they are located. This system eliminates hard queues and improves services while cutting agent populations by 20% and generating real switch data for workforce management tools. All of this leads to better customer service and lower costs.

Another major evolution currently underway for customer service has been the movement to cloud-based web services such as social media as a customer service tool. With so many of any industry’s clients using social media, it is only logical to include a customer channel that is highly active to provide the best customer service possible. The top five industries that are currently engaged in this practice are Retail, Telco, Travel & Hospitality, Cable and Financial Services according to a leading customer service industry blog.

The movement to the cloud for customer service has only one direction to go – up. With cloud-based service ticket management tools that can create, track, escalate and resolve customer service requests in real time, service requests become more efficient and effective. Cloud-based software encourages cross-sell opportunities, measures employee staff productivity and improves the effectiveness of any customer service department with real time analytical reporting. It is the perfect tool for any customer service business and as the cloud evolves, customer service and how it reaches out to the client to take care of needs before they become problems will continue to evolve along with it.

Our newsletters and blogs are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. We invite you to engage in our online community by following us on Twitter @GMOCloud and ‘Liking’ us on Facebook.

10.5.2011

Did you know that millions of students all over the world went back to school this fall, without their PCs? Not only is it true – they did it happily, because educational institutions are learning how to benefit from the cloud revolution. These organizations are benefitting from a lower total cost of ownership that improves and simplifies security and management while giving them improved reliability over their old PC environment.

Some schools have implemented a new cloud model based on the data center that replaces the old traditional dispersed and fragmented PC model. This provides a centralized and unified repository that makes use of today’s powerful cloud-based software. Core to the new system is the virtualized server which, when integrated with cloud-based software in networked learning centers, computer labs and libraries, creates a safe and virus-free quality learning environment.

Virtualization and Cost Savings

A case in point is Sullivan University System. It is Kentucky’s largest post-secondary institution with a range of offerings from certificates to diplomas and advanced degrees in a wide variety of disciplines. With over 8,500 students and six campuses, the IT department is more than busy ensuring that applications and computing resources for both students and teachers in all of the labs and classrooms are meeting their needs. In addition, IT must make sure that the school administration has all the application support it requires to keep the school running efficiently.

A decision was recently made to extend virtualization to the desktop across the campuses deploying 300 devices that centrally manage 80 applications. With this ability to use the cloud for desktop deployment, the school could teach in a safe and secure student-proof environment where desktop controls and icons can be locked down to introduce everything from new accounting principles to culinary demonstrations.

Sullivan’s CTO Mike Grosse explains, “IT is central to the mission of the school. But like so many universities, we’re feeling the economic crunch. We’re constantly being challenged to provide state-of-the-art resources at bargain-basement prices. I didn’t want to have to think about the endpoint device at all. (This) was the missing piece that enabled us to move wholly to the virtual desktop model. And the results have been everything I’d hoped for.”

The Energy-Efficient Cloud

Nebraska’s Mammel Hall is the lone gold LEED-certified academic building in the state. It sits on the Omaha campus of the University of Nebraska as part of the new College of Business Administration (CBA) facility. The hall is a center for the CBA’s 2,500 students, 2,100 of which are there as undergrads. Back in 2008, energy-efficiency and the LEED certification were high on the list of qualifications when they started the process for design.

Part of that plan became the state-of-the-art energy efficient dual-screen thin clients that come complete with cloud-based VMware on the back end. Because of the minimal upkeep that these devices require, the university was able to deploy more than the original plan called for, bringing today’s total to 230 that are fully accessible by students and staff alike.

“I honestly believe that a full transition to thin clients is the only way to go, especially for organizations that want to cut costs, save energy and human resources, and increase productivity all at the same time,” stated David Nielsen, Director of Technology and Budget and Building Manager, College of Business Administration at University of Nebraska at Omaha. “(Our) thin clients enabled us to meet all these requirements — and provide a valuable lesson for our students that you don’t have to compromise performance for sustainability. In fact, the opposite — …we’ve shown that the best choice for sustainability can be the best choice — period.”

The Cloud Brings Flexibility

Sometimes the scenario a school presents is not in requirements for a new building, but accommodating unexpected growth. That was the situation for Oswego Community Unit School District when it saw an increase in headcount by 54%. They were planning on doubling their current structures from 11 to 22 by building 11 new school buildings. However, they also had to plan for the fact that their IT department had just been reduced at a time when they needed to handle more students. Add to the situation that the students, ranging in age from 5 years old to 11, had to share computers, and chaos could easily have erupted.

Instead Oswego saw this as an opportunity to transform its computing infrastructure and, as a result, has been seen as a model for both the business and education community. The biggest change came from the IT team’s decision to move all twenty-two of the buildings to be serviced through a cloud computing system that includes both a cloud server and desktop virtualization. This allows the users to gain remote access, bring their own devices and creates a truly sustainable computing infrastructure for the entire district.

Allen Clasen, the Director of Information Systems at Oswego Community Unit School District, was more than pleased with the end result. Clasen explained the benefits with clarity, “We have virtualized our entire educational infrastructure by replacing PCs with thin and zero clients; expanding them into the classroom where computers did not previously exist. The end result is a massive expansion of learning time for students. Gone are the long boot and login times. Now, 95% of the time a student spends in the computer lab is productively focused on learning activities. All this, even while maintaining an IT to end user ratio of 1,000 to 1.”

The school district was able to avoid millions of dollars in PC replacement costs, and enhance staff skill sets by moving to a cloud environment combining servers and EMC storage and VMWare with thin and zero client devices.

The Future of Education is the Cloud

The cloud evolution has moved into the educational arena with ease and speed that even many in the world of virtualization were not prepared for five years ago. As more of these opportunities arise, we are going to see the cloud emerge as a solution for crowded schools, a way to help keep the costs of education in line and at the same time providing our students with state of the art and readily accessible tools that will teach them anything they want to learn.

Our newsletters and blogs are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. We invite you to engage in our online community by following us on Twitter @GMOCloud and ‘Liking’ us on Facebook.

10.4.2011

It probably feels like everyone is talking about the move to the cloud today. It is considered one of the biggest game-changers to come along since the development of the web. And while it is true that cloud topics are top-of-mind, it doesn’t mean that the benefits and challenges for an organization are always well understood. Companies who are considering moving some of their business to the cloud need to take the time to plan and train anyone involved in the venture. A specific plan for how the implementation will proceed is critical for a successful launch. A company needs to have a very clear vision on business strategy and what gains they hope to achieve with a move to the cloud.

It all begins with a look at what the drivers for change are within your organization’s business plan and how a move to the cloud fits with these needs. With the current business climate, many enterprises are looking closely at new ways to prioritize business revenue while reducing operating costs. Of course, both of these cannot help if you are not finding ways to win over new customers.

What is Cloud Computing for You?

At its most basic, it is important for your business to understand that cloud computing is not actually a technology; it is a delivery system of services. When you pool various resources such as compute power, storage capacity and applications and have them delivered as a service, you share these resources amongst users and organizations through a cloud service provider. This gives you economy of scale and is the most common form of cloud computing, often referred to as a multi-tenancy model of cloud computing.

Your cloud service provider has built massive data centers to house this multi-tenancy cloud service and it is that massive scaling ability that makes cloud computing so cost efficient for many. It is very much like the difference between buying a bus to go to work each day versus paying your fare to use the bus to get to work. The capacity for more is there and the cost is shared by those who use it, only when they use it.

Because you only pay for what you use, cloud computing can be much more effective at controlling costs than if you were to outsource the same service. With a cloud, an enterprise uses the IT resources it needs as it needs them, pays for them based on actual usage and not a flat fee, and doesn’t pay for services it doesn’t need at the time. If you aren’t traveling on that bus one week because you are on vacation (to continue to use the bus analogy), then you don’t pay your fare that week and your monthly costs are less. In the same way, if you only need specific computation power for that end of the month analysis, you only pay for what you use. Resources that aren’t used are returned to the pool for others to use.

The Questions on Security

While the cloud can be highly cost effective, some organizations have greater concerns because of security needs. The model shown above is for what is commonly called a “public cloud” where there are multiple clients that share servers. For those that have security issues, a “private cloud” that is still accessed as needed but not shared with other enterprises can be a good alternative. A large organization with multiple locations could have a private cloud that shares resources across their own cloud, but with that cloud inside a protected premise that is more secure. Using the bus analogy, it is like having a company bus that only picks up those within the organization. Cost is shared but there are no concerns with strangers on the bus. Whether that is a true security concern or not everyone feels safer.

Some Self-Service Concerns

For a company whose IT department is often overloaded with business department requests, the “self-service” element of the cloud is very appealing. With the elimination of having to go to the IT department every time a new service is needed, smart business departments gain time to market and service transparency by simply browsing their IT department “service catalog”, configuring and adding department needs to their “shopping cart”. The monthly fee is charged back to that department and the service is implemented in a timely manner. Success in this type of service deployment is contingent on implementing proper access controls.

Our newsletters and blogs are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. We invite you to engage in our online community by following us on Twitter @GMOCloud and ‘Liking’ us on Facebook.