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08.3.2012

Many have regarded cloud computing as the fourth industrial revolution in information technology. There is no doubt that in the next decade, computing infrastructures will be largely cloud-based. This means that there are big changes coming in the industry – after all, we are still in this technology’s initial stages. Just as computer scientists in the 1960′s had no way of predicting the iPad as anything more than science fiction, it is very difficult to speculate on the future of cloud computing technology by the middle of the 21st century. However, this is a fast-evolving field and huge growth is projected in the next decade. Analysts at Forrester, for example, have predicted that cloud computing will grow into a $150 billion dollar industry in the next eight years. Although there are barriers to overcome, a widespread use of cloud computing technology in most company’s IT infrastructure will lead to a generalized change in all computing-related fields. Being prepared for these changes is a great way to make sure that your company is prepared for what most experts agree will happen in the next eight years.

The Total Separation of Hardware and Software

The most important change will probably be SaaS becoming the norm, rather than an exception. Software will no longer be tied to hardware, leading to a radically different way of conceiving IT infrastructure. In fact, most companies will not be able to tie down their IT infrastructure, pointing instead of their cloud computing service providers. Infrastructure will, essentially, become invisible. Front end applications built on a platform that is essentially a service will entirely do away with hardware restrictions on software on the user’s end.

Due to the processing power inherent in the cloud’s scale, we will start to see the real power of HaaS, with powerful modular software that can take advantage of the complexity afforded by the cloud. This will mean a radical change in software development, placing a large emphasis on the development of very large applications with multiple components that can be modified independently and without having to shut down the program – modular software. This will require a radical change in programming mindsets and in IT management. A likely model for future software interactions can be found in current social media networks. Software will have to become social, interacting with different hardware and applications constantly, much like Facebook users “like” different videos, posts, or pictures.

Lower Processing and Implementation Costs

For current businesses, this means lower hardware costs and cheaper access to cloud technology. Thanks to current cloud projects, such as the Open Compute Project, businesses will have access to powerful infrastructure that can be maintained quickly and easily while being invisible to the end user. Prices will also be driven down with the coming of low-power ARM 64-bit capable chips, which will be entering the market in about a year. These processors will cut down on energy bills, leading to dramatically lower data center prices. It will not only be ARM; competitors are working hard to bring their chips to the same power usage standards, easily setting a trend for future data center processing.

Preparing for the Fourth Industrial IT Revolution

The greatest barrier in the future of cloud computing is actually in the hands of the vendors and the industry. The technology is there; the main problem will be developing the necessary openness and interaction necessary to implement upcoming breakthroughs in cloud computing. Two things will be needed: full technical disclosure and clear industry standards. This is because the future of cloud computing has been predicated on breaking down computing to its individual parts and having them interact freely. However, it will also be necessary for everyone in the industry to interact in the same way. Of course, this will definitely be an uphill battle. Vendors that can charge for their proprietary technology will not be happy with standards and full technical disclosure allows newcomers to enter the market with a better chance of competing. However, the outlook is quite promising, with companies such as Huawei and HP joining the Open Compute Project and similar open source and open hardware projects. If anything, the real debate in the future will be finding out where to draw the line on exactly how open vendors and businesses will need to be.

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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.

08.2.2012

The adoption of cloud computing in the tourism industry can guarantee economies of scale and innovation.

Tourism Ireland experiences these possibilities by moving its entire IT infrastructure to the cloud at a whopping five-year contract worth 850,000 Euro.

Tourism Ireland stands to gain a lot from this development: the company manages over a dozen websites that have presence in over 20 countries and provide tourist information for countless visitors that arrive in Ireland every year; and as the amount of information the company handles each year increases, Tourism Ireland makes the significant decision to reduce the cost of running its previous data center by moving its erstwhile in-house IT structure to a privately managed cloud. Subsequently, the company has, by far, succeeded in cutting its hosting and energy cost by fifty percent.

This strategic move guarantees both economies of scale and greater innovation for the company. Hosting its IT infrastructure in the cloud affords Tourism Ireland the unique opportunity of concentrating only on the internal activity of management and business expansion. Niall Powderly, head of IT Infrastructure of the cloud company hosting Tourism Ireland’s IT system, declared that, “For enterprise organizations like Tourism Ireland, the (new) infrastructure offers levels of efficiency and opportunities to innovate that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.” Therefore, Tourism Ireland operates optimally through the centralization of its IT systems that produces no negative impact on the company’s internal and external activities.

Tourism Ireland achieves efficiency by creating a common resource pool with a combination of network, servers, storage facility and customer-centered services, all hosted in the cloud. This action definitely helps the company to save on the cost of maintaining IT personnel and other contracted consultants that oversaw its previous in-house IT structure.

Niall Powderly finally gave this piece of advice: “Organizations that were reluctant to move IT off-premise are now looking at it because …networks are faster and more affordable. You can now move infrastructure to a data center at a very reasonable price and have no performance impact.”

Three significant merits of adopting cloud computing in tourism industry stand out from Niall’s statements above:

• Speed: Tourism business requires the use of many interconnected computers that are needed to pass important travel information to potential customers. Fast internet connection and computing operations are constantly required to guarantee optimal performance in this regard.
• Affordability: Cloud computing is affordable and helps tourism companies to cut back on recurrent expenses, especially in the area of maintaining in-house IT structure, which include the purchase of  latest software, hardware and the payment of wages to IT personnel. And it is reasonable to move IT infrastructure to the cloud for better efficiency.
• No Performance Impact: There are no observable negative impacts on the IT performance during and after moving a company’s IT system to the cloud. In other words, the quality of services rendered by the company after its adoption of cloud computing would not be affected. Instead, cloud computing will enhance the quality of operations at the said tourism company.

Setting a significant example in this situation, Tourism Ireland’s action would likely motivate several other tourism companies to sign up for cloud computing with the hope of reducing their overhead expenses and positioning their business for innovation and unprecedented growth. Cloud computing will help companies in the tourism industry to devise the appropriate methods for managing their customers’ data, operational processes and business expansion in a way that cost efficiency and optimum performance can be guaranteed. It is not immediately clear how many European tourism industries will emulate Tourism Ireland’s efforts, but the trend is likely going to continue as many firms discover their potential gains if they adopt cloud computing strategies and technology.

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About the Guest Writer:

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/

08.1.2012

A recent survey of more than 2000 IT decision makers in Japan and the Asia Pacific during the first quarter of 2012 provided an overview of how enterprises are dealing with disaster recovery and the reduction of tape backup technology in exchange for cloud hosted solutions.  The study provided a snapshot of the common causes of downtime and data loss at a country-specific level, the location and solutions used for off-site data back-up and storage, areas of IT spending on data storage and disaster recovery, and the primary reasons for wanting to move away from tape storage to alternative solutions in the cloud.

Data Loss and Downtime

According to the Disaster Recovery Survey 2012:  Asia Pacific and Japan, which was conducted by the research company Vanson Bourne and commissioned by EMC, the top three causes of data loss included data corruption, hardware issues, and power loss.  According to the study, 60 percent of IT decision makers indicated that hardware issues are the top reasons for downtime and data loss where 48 percent reported that corrupt data was the main cause for downtime and business disruptions. Almost 45 percent indicated that power loss was a primary cause of data loss and downtime with the highest percentage reported by IT decision makers from Singapore. The fact that there was a high percentage of people that reported power loss as a perpetrator of downtime points to the possibility of incorrect configurations in the data center level or a variable quality of IT infrastructure deployed in enterprises in addition to availability of high speed bandwidth.  This assumption originates from the fact power outages are rare in Singapore. 22 percent reported loss of power as the cause of data loss and downtime in Japan however; data corruption and hardware failure was cited at 52 percent.  The amount of data loss which occurred over the last 12 months was just less than 625GB.

Data Storage

Another key issue posed in the survey was use of data storage and off-site backup locations. 57 percent reported that off-site data storage is performed at another company location within the country.  IT decision makers also reported that a third party provider is used for data storage and backup in the same country as the company’s primary location.

The highest response referred to the fact that enterprises are seeking cloud storage solutions and online backup as the result of the increased availability of high speed broadband.  In fact close to 70 percent of those respondents reported that they wanted to move away from tape backup to alternative data storage solutions due to the capability of faster backups (50%), durability and life cycle (41%) and the speed of data recovery and system restores (42%).

Also because of the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of online backup, tape backup no longer makes sense when it comes to utilizing cloud storage solutions. The capability to reduce costs while increasing recovery speed, off-site backup in the cloud makes it difficult to justify tape backup. When it comes to cloud computing, disaster recovery allows critical infrastructure to be restored within minutes on a shared or private hosted platform.

In terms of IT spending on disaster recovery, the study showed that most of the participants spend from anywhere from 10 to 12 percent of their budget on disaster recovery initiatives with over 50 percent obligated to have a disaster recovery plan in place to meet insurance and compliance guidelines and regulations.

Despite the differences in how countries in the Asia Pacific region deal with data storage and backup, there is at least one commonality when compared with other enterprises in different parts of the world and that is to deal with an increasing amount of data to relocate within the same backup windows. According to the study, many enterprises in the Asia Pacific region still rely on tape backup systems (38%) or disks (38%). At the same token, the survey indicated that a high percentage of the enterprises (53%) have plans to migrate from tape to a faster and more efficient cloud solutions in order to improve data backup, storage and recovery initiatives.

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:

Aeyne Schriber has more than two decades of accumulated experience in IT security, computer technology, and internet marketing, including technology education and administration field both on the public school and college level. She works worldwide helping companies establish an online presence from small businesses to large enterprises. Her skills as a published copywriter and marketer also include consulting and training corporate personnel and entrepreneurs. For more details, visit www.digitalnewmediamarketing.com