October 30th, 2012
Cloud computing has made its name heard in almost all leading industries ranging from software to automobiles. Hence it is rather a shame for any business enterprise to say that they do not have a cloud-based strategy for their business models. For professionals engaged in video editing, a cloud-based strategy is proving to be quite an asset. Having to move their physical video data onto different computers to perform various stages of editing, costs involved in storage options, transit time and other factors accumulate to hand a severe blow to traditional video editing processes. However the story is different in a cloud-based video editing software.
The benefits mainly include ease of access to the source video files anywhere on the planet via an internet connection. You need not carry the video file to all locations as it would always be available online. There is also no need to install the necessary software tools on all the computers that you are going to work on as a cloud computing model offers Software as a Service option wherein you can utilise the software tools on the cloud to perform the necessary video editing. Even if multiple personnel are to access the video at various stages of editing, all the necessary software tools can be uploaded into the cloud and made available to each professional engaged in the editing process.
It is by far emerging as the best way for customers to quickly edit and share video streams. However, cloud computing as a model for professional video editing capability still has some glitches to resolve that can be prevented by timely planning and choosing reliable resources. Some of the key issues pertaining to cloud based video editing options are as follows:
Upload speeds: Even though cloud computing provides a way to edit your videos online, there is a major need for the source video file to be uploaded into the cloud based editing platform. Video files created by professional cameras and codecs often have huge sizes and hence a highly powerful and fast internet connection with tremendous upload speed and bandwidth is required.
Unreliable internet connection: If your ISP provides you with connectivity to the internet that often disrupts owing to some technical faults, then your business model could be severely affected because any cloud based service including video editing service requires the full-time availability of online resources. Without it, you will be stuck like a pole on ice.
Price of storage: Since video files need larger space on the cloud, storage prices need to be very flexible or else you may have to reduce the scale of business happening over a period to accommodate a limited number of video files.
But as you are aware all of the above described issues are not really a problem of cloud computing. It is more of a matter of selecting resources that are used in the process. Cloud computing as a feasible model for ab video editing business does make a lot of sense. Looking at the bright side, it is possible for editing raw footage shot in India at studios in the USA without any difficulty. And professional editing staff can work on the video from anywhere on the planet.
Not only that, cloud computing can provide a collaboration platform for video editing professionals to review the work they have done and hence improve on their productivity as well as skills. For movie studios, cloud computing provides a way to screen movies at different locations or studios for adding inputs to the video from various sources. This is critical in the creation of the final movie video.
Movie distribution via the cloud is also a phenomenal way to cut down on costs of making tapes. The ability to stream videos on multiple channels as well as integrate video uploaded on multiple channels like mobile cameras, handy cams, professional cameras, etc is also made possible.
In short, cloud computing does make for an exciting business model for professional video editing and it is quite simple to solve the minor glitches I mentioned before and once it is done, video editing becomes more easy and streamlined than ever before.
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:
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.
October 29th, 2012
In the corporate world, the jargon that is making waves among business managers is “energy efficiency”. In other words, business executives are actively searching for ways to reduce or minimize their consumption of energy. This single desire is in tandem with the idea of saving our planet through the use of green energy that will not endanger the human population. So, here is the good news: Cloud computing can eventually help companies to save on the cost of energy according to the following processes highlighted below.
In the words of Urs Holzle, Google’s Senior Vice President for technical infrastructure, “Google’s servers refresh 20 billion pages a day, process over 100 billion search queries a month, provide email for 425 million Gmail users and process 72 hours of video uploaded per minute to YouTube. And yet we’re able to do all that work with relatively little energy, compared to other industries.”
He stated that data centers, including Google’s utilize only between 1.1 and 1.3 percent of global energy, compared to transportation industry which gulped about 25 percent of the world’s energy. The ability to save energy is attributed to the practice of moving to the cloud by small and medium-sized businesses, including some Governmental agencies.
Check out this interesting statistics: Holzle explained that a report produced by Carbon Disclosure Project authoritatively confirmed that cloud computing can help companies save on their energy expense to the tune of $12.3 billion by 2020. Interestingly, it is also believed that about 85.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide will be saved during the same period. Nothing more can prove the energy-efficiency capability of cloud technology than the robust figures described above, and this trend is expected to continue as more and more businesses move their IT structures to the cloud.
A typical example of a governmental agency that has gained immensely from using cloud computing is U.S. General Services Administration. The agency has cut the rate of servers’ energy consumption by a whopping 90 percent and drastically reduced its carbon emissions by 85 percent. In financial terms, the agency has been able to save a total of $285,000 every year on its energy costs.
Running in-house IT structure, as research shows, consumes a lot of energy. Sometimes companies will have to set up alternative energy sources in order to guarantee uninterrupted services or operations. Hence, the headache of going into alternative power generation can as well be turned over to cloud computing service providers, who will make sure their clients’ business operations are not affected by unexpected power outage.
Apart from providing enviable protection to clients’ data and information, cloud computing also gives business managers the opportunity to diversify and innovate. This is because they do not need to worry about maintaining in-house IT infrastructure and personnel anymore; their attention can now be completely centered on how to develop their businesses for greater profitability and continuity.
Business administrators stand to gain much by experimenting with cloud computing, meaning they need to make this wise decision in order to save on their energy costs, personnel expenses and data-protection procedures. For the fact that cloud computing encourages eco-friendly business practices, there is every possibility that to protect our earth, businesses will have to completely switch their IT systems to the cloud to contribute to the current anti-global warming activities going on in almost every corner of the globe.
The dream of every business owner is to cut the costs of running his or her business with the expectation of maximizing his/her profitability. Cloud computing does not only guarantee more profits, it also engenders a better environmental condition that is good for both human players, governmental agencies and other stakeholders in the habit of saving our world from pollution and degradation.
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/
October 26th, 2012
Dating can be hard enough, but dating someone of a different culture can make it even more complicated. For most of the Western world, the Japanese culture appears to be very mysterious and complex. Japanese men are known for being reserved and direct while Japanese women are recognized as being highly supportive of their men. A brief discussion of how dating goes about in Japan can dispel a lot of these misconceptions.
Not so different after all
It might surprise some that Japan’s dating culture is really no different from other countries. Like in most Eastern countries, dating in Japan can go at a slower pace compared to the West; much time is allotted to getting to know each other well. And just like in other Eastern countries where modesty is still an important value in society, men are expected to make the first move and “lead the way” on dates and developing the relationship lest the woman appear as being too aggressive. Also because there is a heavy emphasis on modesty, public displays of affection are frowned upon. Apart from the modesty factor though, Japanese men have also traditionally been distant and unaffectionate, thus in Japanese society there is not much public display of affection.
And like in most cultures, chivalry is much appreciated. Although “ladies first” is not traditionally part of the Japanese culture, women are also charmed when men open doors and pull out chairs for them.
Although Dutch treat is a common dating practice in Japan, women also welcome it when men offer to, and actually pay for the meal. Gift giving is also high on the dating must-dos in Japan. Depending on the era a woman grew up in, she could expect a really expensive gift or, for the younger generation, a sweet token of admiration would suffice.
Again like the rest of the world, the concept of “actions speak louder than words” is heavy in Japan. A woman could say one thing and then mean another, it is important to recognize what she truly mean to avoid misunderstandings. On many occasions, too, women are not upfront about being in a relationship while flirting with another man. It is important to specifically ask about this in order to get the answer.
The Japanese dating process
The typical dating scenario in Japan begins with group dates. People get to know each other through friends, and get to know each other better among friends. This helps ease the pressure from being on one-to-one dates and also manifests how the Japanese desire to acquire their friends’ acceptance of the person they are interested in.
After a series of group dates, two people could decide to see each other on an individual basis, if they like each other well enough. This, however, is limited to dates in public places, and although there may be a holding of hands, public displays of affection such as hugging and kissing are not desirable. At this point, two people are not yet considered dating, but merely getting to know each other some more. It is not until two people acknowledge each other in kokuhaku that they begin to consider each other as boyfriend and girlfriend.
The concept of kokuhaku
Kokuhaku is a significant part of the Japanese dating process. It refers to the confession of love or like of one person, usually the guy, for another. It is at this point, when acknowledged by the other party, that two people are considered to begin dating and are boyfriend and girlfriend. After the kokuhaku, two people may start seeing each other in private, as well as engage in physical intimacy.
Online dating in Japan
Like the rest of the world, online dating has penetrated the Japanese culture. Here are some sites that Japanese have relied on for finding a special someone.
JapanCupid.com
JapanCupid.com is one of Japan’s largest online dating sites that aims to match up Japanese people and Westerners. With thousands of members joining every week, JapanCupid.com has a large database where one is sure to find what he or she is looking for. Joining is easy and free, and allows members to create a profile, search their database and start making contact with other members. They do have subscription packages that allow members to do more, like send emails and instant messages and have a paying member’s profile become more visible than non-paying members. The Platinum subscription even allows members to create a video profile and exchange video messages with other members. It also provides for translation services so a profile can be reproduced in other languages. And like all other online dating sites, JapanCupid.com has online chat rooms open to subscribed members.
JapanDatingsite.Com
JapanDatingsite.com is hosted by one of the pioneers in online dating, WordFriends.tv. Based on the site profile provided by JapanDatingsite.com, it does not just limit itself to the Japanese setting since it defines itself as an “online community for international singles”. As in all other dating sites, regular membership is free and offers basic profile and database search services and initiate initial contact with other members. The premium membership, on the other hand, allows members to send emails and instant messages, initiate video chats, join groups, and receive weekly matches. A unique feature of the site is its Travel section where members share details of upcoming trips and arrange to meet up or provide assistance.
SoulmatesJapan.Com
SoulmatesJapan.com is an online dating site for those who are on the lookout for a more serious and meaningful relationship, and to prove their point they not only hired Japanese and English staff to monitor activities of members, they also have an optional feature of having members provide a proof of identity. They do not show members’ personal information anywhere on the site but they tag members who have proven their identity so that other members can know and feel secure. Among Japanese online dating sites reviewed, SoulmatesJapan.com is also the only site that supports a blog or e-zine that allows members to post articles on the various aspects of Japanese dating. SoulmatesJapan.com also prides itself on being the Japanese online dating site that is Japanese-owned and run.
Match.com
Match.com is one of the leaders and pioneers in the online dating industry so it is no surprise that it has become quite popular in Japan as well. Being a global dating site for twelve years now, Match.com has millions of member all over the world. Match.com has also evolved through the years to provide its members with up-to-date services based on industry trends and technology. Among all the sites reviewed, Match.com is the only one that provides a complete selection of services that include daily matches, free-writing sections for members, an online magazine, mobile access and even professional writers to create members’ profiles. Match.com is also the only site to have a guarantee that its member will find a match within six months, otherwise they give the member an additional six months of free membership.
Just like the rest of the world, all that the Japanese men and women want is to find that special someone to spend the rest of their lives with. Whether they do it face to face or online doesn’t matter, the Japanese culture is always going to be at the heart of it all and will always influence the way they go about dating, courtship and marriage.
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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.
October 25th, 2012
PassportScan Ltd is a UK-based company that provides hotel applications and solutions for its clients. PassportScan Ltd adopted cloud computing to eliminate on-site IT structures as it strives to improve the quality of the services it offers to its clients. Some of the benefits the UK Company derived from its adoption of cloud technology are briefly highlighted in this article.
PassportScan Ltd’s operational effectiveness increases as a result of moving all its operational activities to the cloud. In other words, the Company is able to perform faster and more precisely in attending to its many clients’ requirements. Hotels require swift data management, which entails that guests’ checking-in and checking-out information are properly and speedily processed in order to achieve a high level of efficiency. This is what exactly PassportScan was able to do within a short period of time.
These improved services help the company’s clients to flexibly and speedily monitor the rate of room occupancy in real-time. Most especially, large hotels need management solutions or applications that will enable their staff to know, at each particular period, the room occupancy rate so as to know which room needs to be filled up with another guest. Hence, with cloud computing, PassportScan is able to provide this unique service to its many clients.
One of the main advantages PassportScan derived from using cloud computing was in the cutting of its recurrent expenditures. The company now saves money while running its operations entirely in the cloud: it means that expenses that will have been spent on physical IT structure, technical support and programming activities can now be re-directed to another section of the Company’s business operations for better utilization.
With the help of cloud computing, PassportScan UK is able to make higher projection for revenues and increased profitability. Apart from saving on its recurrent expenses, the Company is able to innovate, expand and diversify into other business interests simply because its main IT infrastructure has been made flexible, scalable and more efficient through cloud technology. Subsequently, PassportScan’s profits have reportedly soared since its adoption of cloud computing, and the Company hopes to see more profitability in the future.
Much of the innovations PassportScan gains from utilizing cloud technology come in the form of developing new business opportunities. Previously, many of PassportScan’s clients were large hotels. However, the scalability and flexibility features afforded by cloud computing allow the Company to take up small and medium-sized hotels that require its hotel management solutions/applications. Invariably, PassportScan expands its businesses as well as increasing its profitability due to its usage of cloud computing. And most of the small and medium-sized hotels that employ the Company’s solutions/applications eventually get the chance to motivate their staff performance and enhance productivity in the area of increasing the level of room occupancy.
Before this time, a lot of small and medium-sized hotels did not have the solutions for monitoring, in real-time, the rate of checking-in and checking-out of their guests. Hence, this practice lowers the rate of occupying those empty hotel rooms.
PassportScan demonstrates, inarguably, that cloud computing works in every area of human endeavor, including travels and transportation. As shown in this case, cloud technology does not only increase the overall performance of a business, it also enhances innovations that can be instrumental in obtaining more revenues and consequently lead to higher profitability.
In essence, cloud computing maintains a culture of low expenditure through the elimination of heavily expensive in-house IT infrastructure. It also brings about functional and flexible IT system that can be scaled up or down based on the amount of requirements at a particular period in time. This flexibility characteristic is what makes cloud computing endearing to small and medium-sized enterprises—which are the backbone of economic development in any country.
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/
October 24th, 2012
The gaming market in Japan, particularly with regard to social gaming is an especially lucrative and promising market that has attracted the attention of international investors in the last few years. However, the peculiarities that make this market attractive also make it harder to predict. In this article, we will take a look at some trends in Japan’s gaming market and what the next years may have in store for Japan’s social gaming industry.
An overview of the actual state of gaming in Japan:
Japan has a social networking culture that stands out from other countries in that it is unique to Japanese culture. In Japan, both real identity social networks and virtual identity social networks have gained prominence as a way to share news, gaming, and social interactions. Japan’s social networking structure is particularly interesting in that it is dominated by three very large social networks that are entirely Japanese, each with its own particular market and goal that is very clearly delineated. The three main homegrown social networks in Japan today are:
There are some aspects of the actual state of the Japanese social gaming industry today that may sound completely alien to outsiders. For example, the industry structure is quite fragmented by Western standards and there are hundreds of providers of social apps. There are two companies that provide both social games and platforms, DeNA and GREE. A good comparison to what these two companies are doing in Japan would be to imagine a company in the West that combined Facebook and Zynga into a single entity – it should be noted though, that Zynga has closed their operations in Japan.
It is also important to note that all of these companies’ stocks have a bright future and are all projected to increase in the coming year. The dominant companies in the market hold something of a monopoly on the Japanese social gaming market, with the only successful foreign gaming company in Japan being Reekoo. GREE and DeNA have a very tight hold on the Japanese social gaming market that is nearly insurmountable for foreign companies looking to gain a foothold in Japan.
Possible threats on the horizon for established gaming companies in Japan
There are several aspects that may threaten the future of the established players in the Japanese social gaming market. One of the most widely publicized of these is the increasing government regulation of social gaming practices. In recent years, attention has been cast on gambling-like aspects of Japanese social gaming. Other problematic practices include games that take advantage of the addictive quality of these kinds of games while offering unfair or even impossible odds to their customers. Known as kompu gacha, these kinds of practices involved using micro transactions to milk consumers out of considerable amounts of money.
Apart from regulation, the rise of Western social media companies in Japan is also a threat. While Twitter gained almost immediate acceptance in Japan, Facebook was an underdog for several years. However, it is only recently that Facebook has managed to overtake social gaming giants such as Mixi for a larger share of the Japanese market. Experts predict that Facebook’s market share will continue to rise. Successful incursions by other international social media network companies may also finally open up the Japanese social gaming market to interested companies and investors outside of Japan. It is important to note that these threats to GREE and DeNA’s dominance of the social gaming market are not particularly strong and that these companies have done a good job of adapting to the fluctuations of the demands of the Japanese public.
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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.
October 23rd, 2012
The Green Grid (TGG) ( www.thegreengrid.org ) is a nonprofit consortium of industries with more than 175 member companies around the world. The key focus of TGG is data centers around the world. TGG is fast becoming a global authority on data centers, and when they speak about the efficiency of modern data centers, companies stop to listen. Recently TGG announced a published a case study of energy efficiency in Data Centers in Japan. This makes for interesting reading and there is much to learn from companies running data centers that may not be very efficient as yet. In this article, I have summarized the key learning points from these case studies.
In one case, a company decided to implement a 50% reduction in total data center energy consumption over five years. The company followed a three pronged approach consisting of visualization, assessment and analysis, and optimization. These were continuous processes and not a one-time effort, which resulted in major improvements in efficiency.
The result of the optimization was that the temperature on top of the racks reduced by 2o C. Two air conditioners were made surplus and removed. Further improvements have been made by replacing old air conditioners with more efficient ones. The company has already improved the efficiency of its data centers and more improvements are underway.
In the case of another company, it was found that the awareness of power consumption was in itself a catalyst for continuous improvement in efficiency. The company examined in detail the energy efficiency in each data center. It spoke to operations staff and to management and build standard data collection methods.
The collection of data about energy utilization was automated to the extent possible. Results of the initial study showed temporary increase in use of captive power during electrical power outages and increase in air conditioning load during installation of new equipment. Having seen the savings accrue from a simple awareness of the consumption, the company is now expanding the breadth of its reporting, automating the reporting functions and increasing the frequency of reports which will give the company a better idea of the rate of increase or decrease in its consumption and allow corrective action to be taken earlier.
In a third case, a company built a data center in Kyushu in 2008. The company adopted a hot aisle containment design. The efficiency of this design improves with the power density level in the data center. Thus as the data center gets more load, the efficacy of hot air isolation will improve. The floor was raised to 1 m height which is not the norm followed by Japanese companies. Cabling under the floor was routed in such a way that it did not impede the air flow. Intake fans in the data center were controlled based on the temperature inside. As the temperature increased, the fan speed was increased as well. This further reduced power consumption. The hot air thrown out by the exhaust system is not allowed to go waste, but is used to heat up a large green house that grows a large variety of exotic fruits!
This company now uses external air for 10% of its data center cooling needs and has realized a reduction of 40% in its total consumption with all the methods listed above. In general, it has been found that energy efficiency tends to be higher in containerized data centers. Besides, they are erected faster, and have lower operating costs. Japan did not use containerized data centers earlier because of building standard laws and fire laws, but now these have changed and containerized data centers are beginning to appear in Japan as well.
Experience shows that data center efficiency is best ensured by following a synchronized approach with both IT equipment and facility equipment working together to a plan. Seasonal variations must also be taken into account and companies now routinely prepare different operating modes to cater for different seasons.
One important issue about running a data center is managing costs. Implementing some of the methods discussed in this paper has resulted in large savings that eventually go on to make the data center more competitive.
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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.
October 22nd, 2012
Soaring costs of running business operations, economic recession, volatile US currency, etc. – all are becoming factors to create the most hostile environments for business enterprises across the planet. Companies are scouring far and wide to find ways to cut down on IT expenses so that they can squeeze something extra out of their budgets in order to compete in areas of prime proficiency. Outsourcing is the biggest strategy followed by corporations across the globe to counter rising domestic operational costs and as per a the most recent study by Savvis. The enterprises are embracing cultural shifts in their outsourcing ventures by focusing more on breakthrough technologies such as Cloud Computing.
According to the survey, nearly 60 percent of company decision makers favor outsourcing of critical business procedures to proprietary business models like cloud computing rather than opting for in-house infrastructure because they believe that cloud computing is going to be the trump card they need to cut down on costs. Since cloud based services eliminate the need to have expensive infrastructure and computer equipment in-house, organisations depending on it can reduce their IT budget considerably and reduce other associated costs such as power consumption, maintenance costs and so on.
Another interesting discovery from the survey was that nearly 3 out of 5 survey respondents believe that in-house infrastructure results in wastage of resources considerably. Rather than focusing on infrastructure requirements, IT companies are turning their attention to key organizational prerequisites such as competitive agility, strengthening collaboration and increasing productivity as well as efficiency of their operational models. Industry leaders believe that outsourcing combined with technologies such as cloud computing are the stepping stones to success in achieving these corporate objectives.
The software as a service model or commonly known as SaaS model is a growing technological strategy that companies undertake to make huge savings on software licenses and other utility procedures carried out via proprietary software. This model of operation allows business enterprises to leverage the benefit of using software services without having to buy or install them on their hardware components. The costs are much lower than a buy-and-operate model and this model of service delivery is made possible because of cloud computing.
On a similar note, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) models are also gaining attention. Here companies need not spend on exorbitantly priced hardware storage and computational hardware for processing information as they can use the service via a shared interface between the hardware vendor and the business process. This remote access of complex hardware at lower costs is courtesy of cloud computing. Such modes of operation are gaining widespread applause from industry gurus because of the savings they make for businesses.
As per the survey, global organisations which currently outsource 25 percent of their IT infrastructure are going to ramp it up to over 40 percent. More than 50 percent of the surveyed organisations now admit that they have wasted their money on buying infrastructure that they could have easily rented via a cloud service. However 56 percent of the surveyed organizations and especially 78 percent of Japanese organizations surveyed are still satisfied with their in-house infrastructure management and are yet to shift to a cloud based paradigm.
Surprisingly, 42 percent of the surveyed organizations stay away from outsourcing citing lack of contractual obligation from outsourcing partners as the main reason. The main reason that prevented outsourcing was because of company culture and not such obligations which clearly indicates that there is a shifting paradigm. Cloud computing is picking up affection as per the survey wherein 85 percent of the organizations surveyed are reportedly using some form of private or public cloud services for storage, Big Data, analytics as well as other key business processes.
As the need for competitive agility increases, companies would continue to strive for newer outsourcing regimes to boost their productivity. Organizations are continuously embracing new initiatives to ensure that outsourcing their managed services can prove to be even more fruitful than it is at present. The survey threw light on a clear statement. Business enterprises are changing their focus from saving IT budgets into enriching their core competency levels. More strategic decisions are expected to take place in coming years and we have to wait and see what happens.
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:
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.
October 19th, 2012
Today our business environments are evolving at a never-before-seen pace. Rapid implementation of technology into all aspects of business is making service availability and product delivery faster than ever before. Growing competition is forcing enterprises to reduce prices of their products and services and they constantly look for ways to cut down operational expenses to compensate for the lowered price. Implementing technology is among the top methods that any modern enterprise uses to streamline their business process and control the cost. Many businesses have made technology investments to automate and streamline their supply chain operations.
More precisely, we are talking about how cloud computing has made its way into the Supply Chain Management strategy of a contemporary manufacturing business. As with any other business sectors, cloud computing has offered opportunities to radically change how technology is deployed and utilized across the business as well as how information and data is created and exchanged within and outside the enterprise.
Almost every major manufacturing company is following some form of supply chain management practice. Components are sourced from different partners who may be geographically distributed across the planet. The final product coming out of the plant is thus a combination of efforts from the manufacturing company as well as its several suppliers. So what difference will cloud computing make in the SCM process for a business?
For any manufacturing business, just having an effective Intra-Organisational collaboration platform is not sufficient, they need to have an Inter-Organisational collaboration platform as well. Their business partners must be constantly available via a communication platform that eliminates all technical barriers and provides a convenient interface for exchange of information. Cloud computing provides can address this need very well. Let us take a look at how cloud computing makes Supply Chain Management more efficient.
Common Communication platform:
As mentioned before, suppliers or partners of a firm, for example an Automobile firm, could be located at different cities, states or countries across the world. To collaborate effectively, they should have uninterrupted communication with the parent firm to ensure smooth operations; but there is a big problem: Each supplier as well as the parent firm follows a different operational standard with their own set of tools and communication interfaces. This can result in communication gaps that can adversely affect their ability to collaborate with their partners. Cloud computing allows these companies to follow a common business standard or SCM protocol by providing a communication interface for the parent firm that is accessible in the same form by any supplier at any place and at any time.
The Security Angle:
Exchange of goods and services between companies and their suppliers always involve a great deal of financial commitments as well. Not only that, vital information that is exchanged between a partner and the parent- for example a supplier for components to a military armour manufacturing company – should never fall into the wrong hands. Cloud computing allows the communication interface to be secured with firewalls, intrusion alarms, data security encryption techniques and much more. It provides a secure gateway for the smooth flow of critical data.
Software as a Service option:
Cloud computing provides business enterprises to use a Software as a Service (SaaS) model wherein they do not have to physically install hardware or deploy any software to help them manage their SCM models but they can use the service that is installed in the data centers of the cloud service provider. Monitoring and tracking your SCM strategies does involve a lot of utility tools and if you were to buy and install each one of them, then you need to have specialised personnel to handle their installation and operation as well.
Reduced Costs:
Having to maintain software developers, hosting infrastructure, data centers etc on their own poses considerable financial burden on enterprises and there will not be a proper IT budget strategy in the firm since IT is not in their core competency. Cloud computing makes everything virtual and eliminates the need for a vast majority of physical infrastructure and hence reduces costs significantly.
No Need of Physical Presence:
Since cloud computing brings the parent company and its suppliers into a single communication framework, it reduces the need for executives from the parent firm to visit the supplier location to assess and monitor their performance and quality standards.
So cloud computing is beneficial in more ways than one for the Supply Chain Management strategy of any modern day manufacturing enterprise. It can streamline information delivery across various business channels by ensuring strict compliance with a common business language and eliminating fatal communication gaps.
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:
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.
October 18th, 2012
Travel sites are fuelling the Japanese’s love for local and domestic adventure. Japan has an isolated culture, and so anything that is unlike their own stirs their interest, hence their passion for exploring the globe.
Visit any country and Japanese tourists are bound to be in every top destination. Whether it’s the picturesque Waikiki beach, the hot springs at Banff mountain resort, or the designer shops in Paris, expect to have a Japanese tourist crowd in the midst.
And although it is pretty expensive, they also enjoy domestic travel. This is the reason why it is quite challenging to find a small hotel in Japan with an English speaking staff. They actually have establishments that cater mostly to the local market.
Another reason that encourages them to explore their own country is their efficient transportation system. Commuters can easily go from one to another because their trains and buses leave their destinations on time. Their bullet train boasts of a near perfect record on safety. It has served over seven billion passengers with zero fatality. It is never late. Passengers arrive within six seconds of schedule, regardless of good or bad weather.
Hassle-free Travel
Hassle-free online travel booking system has been attracting Japanese travellers to explore different parts of the world. The number of outbound travel via Internet has increased significantly.
According to data gathered by Google dated April 2012, 34% of travel inquiries were done by phone, while 54% were done using the PC. Japanese online travel firms like Jalan and Rakuten predict so much growth in the mobile gadget arena.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Justice, which takes note of every citizen that leaves Japan, in 2011, a total of 16,994,200 travellers left the country for business or leisure travel with China, Korea and the US as top destinations. Industry players are attributing the rise of travel to the growing dependence on smart phones and tablets. Sites like Rakutan Travel, Agoda, Jalan and lkyu have cornered consumers into switching to online travel instead of the traditional agency arrangement.
And while internet sites like Agora, is growing in popularity, the company has yet to go beyond their business travel buyers. They are slowly recognizing the unique needs of Japanese consumers thus the need to invest in special tools in order to have a chuck of this stable market.
Traveling with Family and Friends
The Japanese travel market is considered huge mainly because they enjoy traveling in groups. Unlike Europeans who travel alone, the Japanese like to be surrounded with their friends and family when they are on vacation. Their group-oriented culture, dictates the security of group travel. They are embarrassed to travel by themselves – like telling the world that they do not have friends.
They were brought up in an environment where everyone thinks and acts like a group. Packages are mostly for big groups and because of the volume, they are priced reasonably. The tours are also very organized, the schedule is strictly followed. They also feel a strong sense of security amongst friends. For instance if they visit a country like Honduras, where hardly anyone speaks Japanese, they feel safer roaming the streets if they are part of a group.
Because of this practice, it is very common for Japanese workers to take their holidays all at the same time. They feel more comfortable because they are not burdening anyone at work because of their absence. Their holidays are short – between three to five days, but very frequent. Unlike in other countries where workers only get two weeks off every year.
No doubt package travel arrangements are certainly more economical than traveling alone. Buyers save a lot of money, plus do not require tedious planning, because everything is arranged by the organizers.
Awaiting Low Cost Carriers
The number of travelers is expected to increase with the entry of low cost airlines. This means a more upbeat scenario for the hotel and airline industry. These travelers are known to be very cost-efficient. They would save by buying low cost airfare but would be willing to spend for high-end accommodations.
And since online transactions are easier, budget airlines will push them to go online and book since it spares them from the trouble of leaving the house to go to a travel agency.
Aside from China, Korea and the US, Japanese travellers like to go to Italy, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, Thailand and Spain. They are also most welcome in any international establishment because they are known all over the world to be very polite.
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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.
October 17th, 2012
As a dynamic field, IT/ICT systems are constantly affected by one disruptive technology or the other, and the invention of cloud computing adds to this list of improvement strategies for enhancing companies’ IT infrastructures. Cloud technology, according to experts, has the capability of bringing rapid changes to IT procedures employed by companies in running their day-to-day business affairs. Some of these changes can be reflected in faster and more secure operational procedures, cost-efficiency, easier IT administration and flexible IT maintenance process.
The purpose of setting up an in-house IT structure is to ensure that the processes of data generation, processing and transmission are properly coordinated. In other words, vital pieces of information/data that are obtained in the course of business activities are methodically processed and stored in a very safe way for future retrieval and usage.
However, the most common problems majority of companies face include but are not limited to the loss of data, dealing with an unexpected increase in the volume of data and the inflexibility in data retrieval procedures. Incidentally, cloud computing is designed to help companies decisively deal with these issues. Once adopted, cloud technology can systematically prevent data loss, guarantee flexibility and scalability of the companies’ storage facilities in the event of unexpected hike in the amount of data, and it can subsequently facilitate the process of retrieving such data.
As a matter of fact, the revolution engendered by cloud computing specifically brings about efficient administration of each company’s operations, in the sense that communication and the process of sharing information/data among all stakeholders will become faster and well-articulated. This, in essence, can lead to better performance and accountability on the part of the companies that adopted cloud technology.
There is no doubt that cloud technology structurally leads to the reduction in the number of IT personnel in all companies that adopted it because most of the jobs they are hired to do have already been moved to the public cloud, to be managed by cloud technology service providers, either remotely or in-house.
The advantage of this action is that companies will spend less on hiring, motivating or maintaining large IT personnel. Hence, the reduction in this kind of expense will result in overall reduction in the cost of running the companies. So, cloud computing can provide company managers that long-sought-for cost efficiency method—similarly, less expenses can translate into more profitability for these companies.
Here are some questions company managers may be interested in asking: will the adoption of cloud computing necessitate higher performance? Will it increase the overall profitability of their companies? As explained above, cloud technology does not only encourage smooth running of businesses, it also protects the data and other vital information that are generated in the course of these business activities. It provides constant protection through effective storage and retrieval procedures.
These features of cloud technology basically encourage better workplace output and possibly lead to optimal performance in the concerned company’s business operations. In the same way, when a company’s operations is undisturbed or smooth, and the cost of hiring IT personnel has been thinned down, there is every possibility that such an action can result in higher profitability. In some cases, companies may decide to completely outsource their cloud computing services, which will let them concentrate mainly on the administrative aspect of their business operations.
Therefore, the worrisome technicality of running an IT infrastructure has been given to an outsider—a public cloud service provider—who will make sure that the IT processes are perfectly monitored, managed and improved upon on a regular basis in order to guarantee that their client’s business activities are not disrupted or exposed to hindrances that may lower the overall business performance.
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/
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