Archive for the 'Cloud Computing' Category

Can European-Based Cloud Providers be Successful in the US Market?

By Olafur Ingthorsson on February 3, 2012 in Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

A guest article by Lauren Toomey at CloudSpectator

How many cloud computing companies can you name offhand? Five? Ten? Maybe even twenty?  Do you ever stop to think about how saturated the cloud computing industry has become? In the US, there are well over 100 companies delivering some type of cloud services, be it in the form of storage, PaaS, IaaS, SaaS, or a mix of these offerings.  This market is one of the most competitive new technology industries in the world right now, and with projections for the global cloud industry ranging anywhere from $97B (Forrester Cloud Forecast) to $176.8B (Gartner Cloud Forecast) by 2015, everyone wants a piece of that pie.

Courtesy of Alexander Kirk (Flickr)

In Europe however, the adoption of cloud computing has been happening at slower rate.  Right now, the cloud industry hasn’t fully matured, and a lot of European-based cloud service providers are looking for ways to break into the US.  Currently, there is more potential for revenue and a larger customer base in the US.  Many cloud service providers such as CloudSigma, based in Switzerland, and ProfitBricks, based in Germany, are two companies that have decided to take the risk and venture into the US market.

CloudSigma secured a “significant round of funding from angel investors,” according to a press release from December 12, 2011.  A large portion of this capital will go towards expanding its US offerings with a data center located on the east coast.  Currently, CloudSigma has servers located in Zurich and Las Vegas.  The company has been successful in its short life as a pure cloud infrastructure as a service provider.  Founded in 2009, by 2010 they were already chosen as one of the top 25 European cloud companies.  CloudSigma also prides itself in being one of the leading “green” cloud computing companies, trying to reduce the impact of computing on the environment as much as possible.  CloudSigma also stands out as being one of the first providers to offer SSD, or Solid State Drive, storage solutions for their public cloud IaaS environment.  If they can leverage these differentiating factors effectively, there is a strong possibility they could become successful in the US.

ProfitBricks plans to bring their cloud offering to the US by the middle of this year.  The company was founded in 2010 by former 1&1 Management Board members Andreas Gauger and Achim Weiß, two hosting veterans with over 15 years experience in the telecommunications and webhosting sector.  The company’s mission is to provide the highest level of customer service along with the newest technology and equipment to achieve the best IaaS platform possible.  ProfitBricks also offers instant scalability without a restart, which is a feature a lot of providers are lacking.  The DCD, or Data Center Designer, is another unique aspect of their offering, which allows customers to add and configure servers, storages, load balancers and firewalls through a simple user interface.  ProfitBricks, like CloudSigma, will have to successfully exploit their company’s differentiators in order to be a leading cloud provider in the US.  ProfitBricks’ expertise in the field, distinctive feature set, and unmatched service and reliability should allow them to stand out from the competition in the US market.

As mentioned above, the cloud computing market is becoming very saturated, and new providers are jumping on the bandwagon every month.  It is difficult to successfully penetrate any market in the technology space unless it is founded by industry experts with innovative concepts and unique offerings to fill a void that customers are currently missing.  Providers breaking into the US market from Europe are taking a bigger risk, but also potentially reaping a bigger reward.  European companies know they will have to earn a spot amongst the top providers already established in the US.  CloudSigma and ProfitBricks are two cloud providers that will definitely make an impact in 2012.  If these companies are able to secure a prosperous spot in the US market, they may lead the way for more European providers to follow.  It is an exciting time to be involved in the cloud industry, watching as it grows and evolves.

What do you think? Can European-based cloud providers be successful in the already crowded US market?

VoIP and Cloud Computing – Two technologies with a joint future

By Guest Author on January 27, 2012 in Cloud Computing. 1 Comment

Internet phone service has slowly taken the market share from the conventional phone services. It has offered many features to its customers that were not offered by landline or cellular networks. Similarly, cloud computing has also taken the world of data centers by storm. Modern VoIP phone service providers are switching to cloud computing for several reasons. Let us have a look at what cloud computing is and how is it playing an important role in future of the VoIP service industry.

What is cloud computing?

VoIP Cloud

Courtesy of Esparta (flickr)

Cloud computing enables the delivery of computing as a service. The main aim of introducing this service has been to centralize all the hardware and software resources at one place. There can be different types of services offered through this technology like software, data access, computation, and cloud services. Users of cloud services do not necessarily need to have the knowledge of the configurations involved. Common medium of accessing the cloud is via a web browser. There are numerous examples of cloud computing services around us, including IaaS like Amazon AWS and SaaS like Google Docs. Many business organizations have started using cloud-based services to their advantage. There are various cloud computing deployment models in use nowadays. Some of the commonly used models are community cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, and private cloud.

Benefits of cloud computing for VoIP industry
Cloud computing can offer several advantages to an internet phone service. Let us have a look at what these benefits are.

Reliability
Reliability is one of the most serious issues. A VoIP phone service provider cannot risk an outage. When a VoIP provider is maintaining its own servers, reliability can become an issue. However, a cloud computing service can offer much more dependability. Usually cloud computing services have extra backups to overcome any outages or critical crashes.

Costs
It costs a lot of money to maintain your own data center. VoIP providers that have maintained their own facilities for managing all the data know the expenses involved. Technical people are pretty expensive to hire. On the other hand, cloud computing services help internet phone service providers save all the costs that they need to successfully run their business. They do not need to take care of all the things at their end.

Maintenance
Costs and reliability are not the only issues for consideration in maintaining an internal data center. It is generally very complicated and resource intensive to maintain them. There are different types of hardware, software, and human resources involved. Increase in the number of subscribers for an internet phone service puts extra load on the resources. Cloud computing services can take off  substantial load from these resources.

Data security
VoIP service providers usually maintain data at different locations, which increases threats to data security. Through agreement with a cloud provider, it is possible to  store all the data at one single location or data center. This is another reason why futuristic VoIP service providers are already outsourcing many of their tasks to cloud computing service providers.
There is a long way to go before all internet phone services will shift to cloud computing. However, owing to extraordinary advantages of cloud computing advantages; many VoIP providers are already shifting to it.

Public vs Private Cloud Computing

By Guest Author on January 24, 2012 in Private cloud computing and Public cloud computing. 1 Comment

Now the big decision becomes: public or private cloud?  With a private cloud, the infrastructure is set up exclusively for one organization. It can be managed on the site of the organization. This is sometimes called an enterprise cloud. However, it can also be hosted offsite and managed by a service provider, either as hosted or managed cloud.

On the other hand, there is the public cloud. This type of infrastructure has many different tenants (multitenant) and is perhaps most suitable for SMEs or the public at large. A business that sells this type of computing service will still be regarded as having ownership of the resources.

Before deciding on one type or another, some questions have to be asked.

Private vs Public Cloud

Courtesy of MarkyBon (flickr)

The first is what type of security is necessary for the company in general. For firms that do specialized research and development or work for the government, a high level of security has to be inherent in the cloud. Although public clouds are becoming more secure, private ones meet the strictest standards. Additional measures can also be added to strengthen the system if necessary.

For a growing business, there is also the issue of scalability. A private cloud has a more restricted dynamic scalability potential, especially if the cloud is at the company premises. Expansion means an additional server would be needed if a business requires more computing power. Public clouds on the other hand already share common resources and are more scalable.  Adding resources is completely the responsibility of the service provider to maintain an acceptable service level.

Another decision aspect involves the virtualization knowledge. Some companies have attempted to form a private cloud, but don’t have the required experience or expertise. It is important to have capable staff on hand to answer any questions and take care of problems that will arise when trying to create a private cloud for companywide usage.

One more important point regards the type of applications that should be run on a private cloud. Most of the time, these are large enterprise programs. Systems with huge databases are perfect candidates for private cloud usage. The expense has to be weighed against the cost of data, files and emails however.

Finally, what are the budgetary constraints? Establishing and maintaining a private clouds typically cost a great deal more than deploying public cloud services. A public cloud, while multi-tenant in nature, can offer most of the same features as the private one at a substantial discount, except for some advanced security features and, sometimes, network latency. With increasingly better networking capacity, content delivery networks and edge-locations as well as providing closed networking access to cloud data centers, this drawback is diminishing. Cloud computing, including private and public clouds, is clearly here to stay and is developing fast. The mobile cloud, wireless internet and smartphones further help to increase its adoption rate in every aspect.

 

Cloud Music Services – the best way for music listening?

By Olafur Ingthorsson on January 23, 2012 in Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

Is the Cloud Music approach the way forward in the music industry?

In recent months we have seen how cloud based music services have started to emerge from both the large cloud providers, including Google, Apple and Amazon as well as a plethora of smaller players. It seems that this type of music storage and delivery is definitely the future of personalized music services.

From a mobility point of view the benefits are obvious, users can listen to their own music from their device of choice without worrying about syncing between them, whether that is a smartphone, tablet or a PC/laptop. The streaming vs. downloading is another obvious benefit, saving time and hard-disk space.

Private vs Public Clouds

Courtesy of all that improbable blue

While online-radio music streaming services have been around for a long time from the likes of Pandora and Last.fm, the cloud based storage and listening of your own music library is a much more recent service.  However, there are already a great number of services to choose from. Not surprisingly, the main service providers in this field include Google, Apple and Amazon, each with their respective platform and desktop or web-based music players:

Online streaming services

These three will only play music that you already own or purchase from their online store whereas services like Grooveshark and Spotify also let you listen to peer-to-peer music from members that have uploaded MP3 files for streaming to others users. While some people claim there is no longer any need to “owning” the music when you can use online streaming services like Grooveshark and Spotify and others, I believe there will always be a large group of people that prefer to store and listen to their own music from a Cloud Music service, due to several reasons. Hard to find music, independent artists, existing valuable library, higher quality playback etc. are some of the reasons people prefer using such services rather than free or subscription based streaming services.

Comparing the three big Cloud Music services

Google Music, still only available in the US, allows users to upload up to 25.000 songs to the web and stream it back over Google’s webapp or Android Music app. Google Music has generally received positive reviews but, as it is in beta, still lack some important features. The online music store still offers a very limited selection of music, compared to iCloud (iTunes) and Amazon. This means that users need to purchase music elsewhere, e.g. at Amazon, and upload to the service. Certainly a drawback, but will most probably diminish as the music selection increases.

The Apple iTunes Match is of course much more than just for cloud-based music storage and streaming, as it is central cloud storage of all data that users want to access from different Apple devices. However, through direct connection with iTunes, users immediately have their music replicated into the music storage locker. Songs also appear in iTunes on computers, or in music apps on iPads, iPhone and iPod devices – easily streaming and listening to the music from the device of choice.

Finally, the Amazon Cloud Player has received some impressive reviews for its ease of use and manageability. Similarly to iTunes Match and iCloud, the Amazon Cloud Player uses the Amazon Cloud Drive for music storage and equally offers a free 5GB storage allotment. In fact, it seems that Amazon is targeting its Cloud Player service directly against Apple’s iTunes as its features and pricing options are indeed very similar.

Both the Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player services offer an native Android app (and unofficial iOS app) for syncing, managing library and purchasing music while obviously Apple has a similar native app for the iOS – but none for Android users.

Tags: , .

Mobile Cloud Computing Will Skyrocket in 2012

By Olafur Ingthorsson on January 18, 2012 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 2 Comments

It’s no surprise that many cloud experts predict that mobile cloud computing will become increasingly important in 2012. Given the numbers of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices shipped every day, more and more users are relying on the cloud as the main driver for satisfying their computing needs, whether it is data storage, applications or infrastructure.

A simple Google search for smartphone sales in 2012 quickly reveals booming sales expectations, not least in growing markets like India and China. One of the main reasons for the growth is the availability of affordable devices across all platforms including Windows, Android and Bada.

Courtesy of kaysha (flickr)

Secondly, the application of smartphones in industry and corporate settings is supporting increased sales. Previously, the Blackberry was virtually the only accepted corporate smartphone platform. This is changing fast, as both iPhones and Android (and presumably Windows Phone) are being adopted in corporate settings.

Although security issues are still creating many concerns, perhaps especially for the Android, this trend shows no signs of slowing down. This is especially interesting as Android has already captured half of the global smartphone market share, according to Gartner. Whether this is a bomb waiting to explode is hard to determine, but it is clear that malware is growing at an exponential rate, although most users are still unaffected.

According to a Maravedis prediction, Android will continue to be the leading smartphone OS in 2012, accounting for approximately 50% of worldwide market share, followed by iPhone with 18%, Windows with 13% and Blackberry with 12%. Symbian will be largely discontinued by the end of the year.

Tablet sales display a similar picture. Sales are expected to surge in 2012. Although Apple iPad is still the market leader, it is closely being followed up by several Android designs – most notably from Samsung and Acer and increasingly the budget-friendly Amazon Android Kindle Fire.

These factors contribute heavily to the increasing mobile cloud emphasis. It is however not due only to increasing availability of smartphones and tablets, but also standards and cloud services that support remote data access, storage and apps. Prominent examples include Apple iCloud, Microsoft SkyDrive and DropBox, to name a few. Users are getting used to upload and access their data from the cloud – and increasingly from a mobile device.

In fact, “Visiongain” expect mobile cloud services to reach $45 billion in 2016. The greatest revenue contributions will come from mobile cloud apps, driven by increasing smartphone penetration, growth of 3G network coverage across the globe and deployment of 4G/LTE services. Furthermore, technology enhancements such as BONDI, OneAPI and HTML5 will further enhance the development of cloud based mobile applications.

From the predictions above it certainly seems that mobile cloud computing has a bright future ahead. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are likely to enter the domain with carrier-cloud services that are poised to compete with some of the public cloud offerings through service differentiation and network quality levels. This will further help to advance the mobile cloud in industry and corporate settings whereby customers can receive improved service levels and service guarantee.

Tags: , .

Mobile Network Operators and the Cloud (Part 2)

By Olafur Ingthorsson on December 19, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

This is the second article from my conversation with a UK-based consultant regarding mobile network operators (MNOs) and their position in the cloud computing and third-party data center market.

MNO Platforms are Not on Their Way to the Cloud
When it comes to MNOs, I think most will prefer to run their platforms in their own data centers. Keep in mind that most are running proprietary platforms for their mobile networks and VAS platforms

How Mobile Networks and Data Networks Interconnect
Normally MNOs connect their mobile network to data networks (the Internet) through a “GPRS Packet Core” consisting of GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) and SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node). As the mobile data traffic has been steadily increasing, MNOs have been upgrading these nodes (hardware/software) accordingly. The GPRS interconnections are often directly with an Internet switch/Gateway at a fixed network provider(telecom provider or ISP) that provides access to the Internet.

As long as the Telecom/ISP is providing sufficient capacity at the gateway level to the Internet, the MNO can normally provide adequate service levels to their mobile customers – unless they provide poor data access/bandwidth at the radio level or in the core mobile network itself. Most or all Tier 1 telecoms have reserved bandwidth to an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) so they can guarantee a certain quality level “up to the IXP.” After that, the traffic enters the open Internet, unless there are other reserved lines or bandwidth capacity in place.

CDNs are Relieving Internet Problems
For example, it would be entirely possible for a service provider to reserve bandwidth to a third-party data center in a remote location in order to guarantee service levels and avoid Internet congestion. I can think of data centers run by providers like Amazon or Rackspace. I am not aware of MNOs that have direct connections to a particular social media provider (like Facebook) for improving service levels. These are normally connected via the Internet. However, several social media services, such as YouTube, have placed CDN servers (Akamai in this case) strategically around the globe to cache “popular” content closer to the requester. In this way, service quality can be improved as the congestion and latency problem of the Internet can be avoided. These CDN servers are hosted (colocated) in various data centers, including telecoms/MNOs.

With regard to the need for more power and cooling, it is possible that third-party data center providers can offer more economical solutions compared to MNOs’ own data centers. But as the MNOs platforms are proprietary core platforms, I think it can and will delay the decision to move them to external providers. However, this can be debated, especially for smaller MNOs that do not have the benefits of running large data centers and lack the scale.

Tags: , .

How new businesses can benefit from cloud computing

By Olafur Ingthorsson on December 12, 2011 in Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

So you’ve decided to start a new business. Congratulations! You’ve got a business plan, a great idea, and all the excitement and energy you need to get started, and that is a great place to be. Now you just need to start getting your back-end support processes in place: you know, all those things you need to run the business, like an email system, a portal, a website, CRM, etc. etc. What’s that? You don’t have an IT department, and cannot afford to buy servers? Not to worry. The cloud can provide all of that and more, at prices you can afford, and with no need to hire on an IT team or build a server room. Here are some of the ways an new business can use cloud computing to have a mature IT infrastructure from day one.

Services catalog

As a new business, you are focused on getting your business up and running. You have very little time, even less money to burn, and anything that isn’t core to your new business is something you have to consider doing without. Most new businesses will need email, but might be willing to go without things like calendaring and instant messaging; fortunately that is not something they have to do. Email and collaboration are huge players in the cloud computing space, and many offer the full suite of services to the SMB market. As only one example, Office 365 offers Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync as cloud offerings, and a new business can get up and running with that full suite of email/calendaring, collaboration, and instant messaging/web conferencing services in less than a day. Another example, Salesforce offers complete CRM capabilities to customers, and they don’t even need an IT person on staff. Cloud computing really starts to move many IT services into a utility based model, enabling companies to focus on their core business.

Supportability

Cloud computing is the next stage of evolution for outsourcing, and that means new businesses don’t have to deal with the support and administrative overhead that comes along with buying (or leasing) servers and running services in your own IT shop. Cloud computing is global, which means the service providers are on the clock 24×7, so that you don’t have to be. Whether you need help Monday morning, or Christmas day, cloud service providers handle the staffing so you don’t have to worry about what time it is.

Costs

Courtesy of chefranden - Flickr

Any new business needs to be sensitive to costs, and cloud computing offers a wide range of choice for every budget. In practically every case I have ever seen, cloud service providers offer subscription based pricing on a per user basis, allowing business to spend on a monthly basis, only purchase what they need, grow as they grow, and in most cases, classify these expenses as Opex rather than Capex (and of course avoiding any significant capital outlays.) The only caution I share is to look very closely at the low to no costs solutions…as with anything, you get what you pay for. A significant percentage of my current clients are paying me to move them from “free” services to “pay” services, because the free ones just can’t meet their needs. That won’t always be the case, and a free service may give you all that you need, but don’t choose based solely on cost.

Many new businesses struggle with initial IT needs, or worse, just go without. Now that cloud computing is a mainstream offering, and with so many cloud service providers to choose from, subscribing to a low cost but fully mature cloud computing solution puts all the power of IT within the reach, and the budget, of everyone from sole proprietors to venture capital funded startups.

This article was written by Casper Manes on behalf of IT Channel Insight, a site for MSPs and Channel partners where you can find other related articles to cloud services.

Tags: .

5 Cloud Computing Statistics You May Find Surprising

By Olafur Ingthorsson on November 30, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Virtualization. 1 Comment

Guest article by Lauren Toomey, Cloudspectator

Cloud Computing has become one of the most popular topics of conversation among the IT community.  There have been countless polls and surveys conducted to find out more understanding on the market information and industry trends.  Here are some of the most interesting statistics from the past few months.

1. $150 Billion: The size of the Cloud Computing Market by 2013.
This amount comes from a study done by Gartner.  The number may seem like a high estimate to some, but it is consistent (or even low) compared to other estimates.  Merrill Lynch’s research predicts the cloud computing market to be worth $160 Billion by the same year.  With many businesses just recently starting to feel the pressure to move into cloud computing, it is not surprising that experts are predicting the market to grow at such a high rate in the next few years.

2. $750 Million: The Amount Amazon.com’s AWS expects to earn in 2011.
Amazon’s Web Services has provided businesses with an infrastructure web services platform based in the cloud.  Their offering, which started in 2006, hit revenue of around $500 Million in 2010. This estimate is based on research done by analysts at UBS, a financial analyst firm based in Switzerland.  Amazon’s web services continue to dominate the Infrastructure as a Service market in users and revenue; but with new and innovative cloud providers entering the market, could a change be in the near future?

3. 7/10: Companies using cloud services that will move new applications to the cloud.
This statistic is based on a study done by Mimecast, a company that offers Software as a Service enterprise e-mail.  Many companies start their transition into the cloud with a small “trial;” testing it with only some of their infrastructure, applications, or data.  A large portion of the industry growth in the next few years will be from companies who are happy with their “trial period” and are ready to further transition their business into the cloud.

4. 54%: Amount of respondents citing Security as their top concern for transitioning to the cloud.
This number is according to a recent survey conducted by LinkedIn with 7052 respondents.  Security is a top deterrent for many businesses looking to use cloud computing in their company.   This is especially true for industries that use and store sensitive data such as the financial and healthcare industries.  A few years ago, these types of companies would never think using the cloud would be a safe method to store all their data.  However, cloud providers are now able to become compliant with numerous security regulations, such as HIPAA, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS.  This allows these types of industries with highly secure data to feel confident their data is safe when using cloud computing.  In fact, in a study conducted by Mimecast, 57% of respondents actually felt that cloud computing increased their security when compared to traditional methods for computing and data back up.

5. 60%: Server workloads that will be virtualized by 2014.
This prediction comes from research conducted by Gartner.  This is a staggering percentage, especially when compared to 2008, when only 12% of server workloads were virtualized.  A business virtualizing their workload into the clouds has multiple benefits.  First, they are saving themselves the trouble of having to purchase and store physical hardware, which is costly and inefficient.  Second, companies can reduce their carbon footprint by outsourcing their workload to data centers.  Many new data centers have state-of-the-art equipment and procedures to reduce consumption.  This is particularly vital when considering all the energy intensive processes a data center conducts, such as cooling down servers and keeping them up and running 24/7.  Therefore, using green data centers is more environmentally friendly than housing your own servers.

 

Cloud computing has been around for more than a decade, but I think that 2011 really marks the year it is becoming widely adopted.  Consumers and businesses alike are realizing that the cloud offers a variety of solutions to problems that plague computer-users daily.  Small and medium sized businesses are the largest growing segment in cloud computing.  Companies that have not switched yet are feeling pressure to do so, and those who have already are seeing the benefits.  With the year 2012 on the horizon, I wonder what new trends and innovations the cloud computing industry will bring?

Tags: , .

What Can Chromebooks Do For You?

By Olafur Ingthorsson on November 17, 2011 in Cloud Computing, Cloud Security and Cloud Storage. 0 Comments

A guest article by the Cloud Sherpas. Cloud Sherpas is a leading Google Apps cloud service provider.

Chromebooks, the first computers to operate completely within the Google Chrome web browser, were introduced by Google in May 2011 as computers that run entirely in the cloud.  Given that they are the first of their kind, Chromebooks are revolutionizing the computer industry.

Currently, there are two Chromebook models available for purchase – one from Acer and one from Samsung.  The two models have small differences, including price and size, but they work the same way.

Users will notice the difference as soon as they press the power button on a Chromebook, as it only take eight seconds to start up.  Once the Chromebook is started, it automatically connects to the internet through Wi-Fi, however users can purchase optional 3G service through the Verizon Wireless 3G Network to ensure that their Chromebook is never without a connection.

Chromebooks run entirely in the cloud, and this means that they come without an internal hard drive.  Rather than storing information on the computer itself, Chromebooks store everything in the secure Google cloud network.  This means that users will be able to access their entire computer including, files, settings, and applications, from any other Chromebook or web-enabled device.

For those who are interested in adding applications to their Google accounts, the Chrome Web Store makes this simple and fast.  The Chrome Web Store gives Chromebook users access to millions of browser-based applications, many of which are usable offline, as well.  This offline feature comes in handy for those who do not purchase the 3G service and want to use their applications when they are out of a Wi-Fi range or on a moving vehicle.

Another major difference between Chromebooks and traditional computers is the way they age.  While traditional computers, like most other technology, becomes outdated over time, Chromebooks are made to improve with age.  Every time someone turns on a Chromebook, it receives automatic updates for all of its operating systems and applications, which guarantees that the Chromebook doesn’t fall behind on any new technology.

Security is a key feature of Chromebooks, and this includes protection from viruses and other people.

There are multiple layers of defense in play against viruses on the Chromebook.  The first of these features is known as the “sandbox.”  The sandbox means that every tab that a user opens operates in a confined environment so that potential viruses or malware are contained within this sandbox and do not spread to other data on the Chromebook.  The next feature is a Verified Boot, which comes into play if malware somehow works its way out of the sandbox.  The Verified Boot ensures that this malware will be immediately detected and that any damage will be repaired because the Chromebook will automatically detect its presence when it is started up.  The Data Encryption security feature on Chromebooks works to keep all files secure from outside users.  If all of these layers somehow fail to work, Chromebooks come standard with a Recovery Function, through which users can restore their operating system with the push of a button.

Chromebooks also offer protection from other people through its sharing capabilities and unique cloud-based system.  Many people are concerned about sharing their computers with others because they don’t want to compromise the privacy of their information, but Chromebooks eliminate this concern.  If someone wants to use your Chromebook, they can sign in with their Google account to access their own settings, applications, and information, or sign in as a guest to access the general web browser.  At no point during this time will they have access to your personal information.  Chromebooks also protect your data from physical damage and theft.  Since no information is actually stored on the Chromebook itself, but rather in the cloud, nothing will be lost or fall into the wrong hands if your Chromebook happens to break or be stolen.

Chromebooks are moving computers forward with their completely cloud-based operations, universal access, and enhanced security features.  And since they’re guaranteed to improve with age, only time will tell all that Chromebooks can continue to do for you.

Tags: , .

Mobile Network Operators and the Cloud (1/2)

By Olafur Ingthorsson on November 6, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

This article is the first of two about our conversation and is a general description of how I see MNOs currently positioned to the cloud. The second article will be somewhat more technically inclined.

Telecoms are late entering the cloud domain

Companies bring different perspectives to cloud computing, depending on their market, location, jurisdiction, and industry. In addition, the “cloud” has a very open meaning and encompasses a variety of configurations, mainly public, private and hybrid clouds.

Generally it has been said that SMEs and startups are more inclined to go for public cloud services (web servers, storage, etc.), while larger companies move more cautiously and either prefer to establish a private cloud environment or a hybrid context. When it comes to software as a service (SaaS), it‘s clear that companies of all sizes are already moving a lot of services into the cloud, including CRM (Salesforce), email and office applications (Office365, Google Apps, etc). I believe this trend will continue. These services and some others that do not entail sensitive data have been successfully delivered cross-borders and continents, without even enterprise customers necessarily knowing the exact location of data or data centers origin.

When it comes to telecoms and data centers or cloud services, I think they are in a unique but fragile situation. Many telecoms already possess large and distributed data centers that have been used for hosting and colocation services for many years. However, compared to cloud services, these have generally been expensive, closed and slow in service provisioning. Most telecoms are late in entering the cloud ecosystem that already offers agility, self-service, pay-as-you-go and other cloud characteristics. However, there is also difference between geographical markets. For example, U.S. telecom providers like Verizon have been very keen on deploying enterprise-class cloud services, especially though their acquisition of Terremarkearlier this year.

Telecoms still have some important advantages, especially through existing, and often strong, customer relationship, billing expertise and customer services. All these are important for companies wanting to deploy cloud services in one way or another. Having said this, telecoms, through their existing customer relationship, can offer various bundling of cloud and telecom and/or network services making it still more feasible for customers to retain and expand their business with their telecom service provider. Also, industries that are moving cautiously to the cloud, including financial services and the health-sector, may be more likely to trust their current provider that can guarantee network performance and proximity of data.

When it comes to colocation services in particular, I believe these will gradually be replaced with “remote private cloud” services, like those Amazon and Rackspace are already offering. Companies can obtain a reserved infrastructure and extend their local network into a remote data center that can be accessed through secure and managed networks like MPLS via VPN, IPsec or similar. I am not fully aware how far telecoms have gone in offering remote private cloud services, assuming full web-based self-service and immediate access to infrastructure.

Mobile operators and the cloud
I personally do not think that mobile operators (MNOs) will be particularly strong in running data center based cloud applications and services. Their effort will mostly be gocused on the delivery of cloud service. through the core mobile network and the radio network itself.

However, to provide an improved service delivery, they may select to deploy managed network connections to any of the important cloud providers, but not rely totally upon Internet connections. Another issue is to “fetch” content that is being replicated and made accessible near to the end-user. This is already being done in increased manner through Content Delivery Networks like Akamai and Limelight Networks.

MNOs could possibly develop a strong proposition as cloud brokers, delivering selected cloud services and bundling with others services and billing – similar to telecoms perhaps. Although possible, this is not a straightforward approach, especially since the leading smartphone platform makers (Apple, Google) tend to shape the ecosystem according to their own strategy.  MNOs and telecoms are not exactly known for their agility and software prowess, compared to many others.
However, as the mobile core and radio network are domains of the MNOs, delivery and service quality can be managed up to a certain degree. Still, latency and congestion will continue to occur, but not necessarily within the mobile network, but perhaps somewhere in the backbone, such as in the Internet.When it comes to LTE (long term evolution), the mobile network will have the ability to deliver cloud services better and faster with an increased bandwidth capacity of up to 100Mbit/s within each cell – and a pure IP-based traffic all the way to the handset. It should still not be forgotten that the bandwidth is a shared medium, so the service delivery can vary according to the number of users and usage pattern in each cell.

Backhaul in 4G mobile networks should not necessarily be a limiting factor, as LTE will mostly be restricted to cities and largely populated areas where network capacity and bandwidth are normally in abundance. As for proximity to cloud services, I believe these will increasingly be solved through CDNs as is already happening. Popular content is being replicated or cached to the edges, making it faster to deliver to end-users.

Tags: , .

Solving security, availability and performance issues in the Cloud

By Olafur Ingthorsson on October 20, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Cloud Security. 0 Comments

By Bob Shaw, President and CEO, Net Optics, Inc.

Given its rapid adoption, virtualization can potentially benefit billions—or serve as a vector for calamity. Even as it opens new avenues of productivity, cost-savings, and environmental relief, virtualization alters a company’s infrastructure profoundly, testing its ability to monitor and manage the new environment. Virtualization is enabling the global evolution to Cloud computing, but along with that comes the challenge of securing applications and data in that Cloud.

Courtesy of Μøỳαл_Bгεлл (Flickr)

The outsourced nature of the Cloud means that companies must surrender a large measure of control. Near-infinite elasticity and automated resource maximization also overwhelm previous management approaches. In years past, monitoring and access required physical proximity to the instrumentation layer, with the result that networks and data centers were designed for static, physical devices, not mobile virtual ones. Firewalls and tools were inserted into the aggregation layer, with nearby physical servers in the same security zone.

Now, server virtualization and the mobility of VMs make sending raw traffic to the instrumentation layer more of a problem. A virtualized environment also calls for sophisticated capabilities such as load balancing to make sure that the instrumentation layer performs at peak efficiency. Effective virtual monitoring access must enable:

  • Swift detection and resolution of power and equipment failure
  • Management of complex device implementations
  • Enforcement of security policies
  • Smooth, secure onboarding of new users
  • Efficient rack space utilization
  • Streamlined consolidation
  • Cost-efficient monitoring of distributed sites
  • Quick response to intrusion or attack
  • Securing of performance data for planning and compliance

At Net Optics, we design and manufacture intelligent access and monitoring architecture solutions to protect and manage business-critical traffic in the virtual environment. These provide real-time, end-to-end traffic visibility, monitoring and control to virtualized data centers, cloud computing networks, and remote offices.  The importance of total visibility cannot be overstated. In order to perform vital inspection, analysis and compliance activities, traffic must be visible to network-based security devices such as firewalls and IPSs. Our goal is to surpass physical hardware in security, compliance and performance monitoring.

Complementing the hypervisor-specific Phantom Virtual Tap in the enterprise-grade environment, Phantom HD aggregates virtual traffic of interest from across the cloud infrastructure—moving from server to server, location to location and even from continent to continent. The appliance is architected to overcome barriers to traffic mobility across locations, devices and providers for total inspection anywhere, extending monitoring and access across LAN / WAN / Cloud infrastructures and inter-VM traffic. At 10GB wire speed, Phantom HD enables aggregation of up to 250 Phantom Virtual Taps or other vendor devices.

Phantom HD eliminates the need for a physical, wired connection between the monitoring and access layers and the instrumentation layer. Phantom HD resolves the proximity paradigm, bridging virtual traffic to physical monitoring tools with no need for SPAN Ports on Virtual Switch or Promiscuous Mode.

Along with expanding total visibility into the virtual network, Phantom HD terminates and de-capsulates tunnels transporting traffic of interest out of virtual networks to the instrumentation layer. It encapsulates raw traffic of interest that needs to be transported to a remote location for inspection or storage. Phantom HD™ high-throughput appliance allows switching layer and instrumentation layer devices such as high-end routers to perform the sophisticated functions they were designed for—rather than being wastefully employed on routine GRE de-capsulation tasks. This helps customers gain the full benefit of their investment in these expensive products. As with all our virtual solutions, Phantom HD is engineered to defer or eliminate investment in costly new virtual tools, holding down CAPEX, training and operations costs.

 

Virtualization and consolidation demand ever-higher levels of network integrity because in a virtual landscape, applications and administrative functions share common resources. The shock waves of a failed, hacked or mismanaged element can now travel outward to affect countless applications and users. Only with total visibility to monitor both the physical and virtual arenas can a company realize virtualization’s many benefits.

Tags: , .

Cloud Security Growing Up

By Olafur Ingthorsson on October 3, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Cloud Security. 0 Comments

By Geoff Webb, Director of Product Marketing at Credant Technologies

Whenever the subject of cloud computing comes up there are two facts that seem to dominate the conversation.  The first is that enterprises and small business would desperately like to make greater use of the explosion in new cloud services and offerings.  However the discussion will usually rapidly turn to the fact that the potential of the cloud remains out of reach for many business uses.  The reason?  Security.

By Kevin Steinhardt (Flickr)

Concerns over the security of information in cloud infrastructures, especially public cloud infrastructures, continues to stifle adoption of cloud services and shackles many organizations to traditional approaches to providing business IT services.

Fundamentally, the concerns over cloud security fall into two broad buckets: concerns over availability, and concerns over confidentiality.  And it’s not hard to see why businesses are afraid to plunge into the cloud.

In March 2011 a prolonged period of interruption to Amazon’s Elastic Block Storage (part of the AWS offering) caused a large number of websites to go suddenly, and painfully, dark.  While the problem was nothing more sinister than a simple administrator error, it did cause many to rethink the assumption that “cloud” implied “always on.”

While the need to protect against service interruption is worrying, the solution is at least reasonably well understood — not relying on a single service or service provider.  Even during Amazon’s rather infamous March outage, those organizations that had planned ahead for such an eventuality suffered far less than those who had not.

Keeping information in the cloud confidential is a more difficult proposition.   In June 2011, cloud storage provider Dropbox also suffered a simple administrative error.  But rather than rendering systems unavailable, it had quite the opposite effect.  For a period of four hours *everything* was available.  Access to Dropbox storage accounts suddenly and unfortunately, no longer required the correct password.  While Dropbox quickly remedied the problem, the fact that it happened at all underscored the concern that businesses already felt about storing information in the cloud.  Specifically, who’s watching the security on this stuff and who has access to it?

So are these concerns justified?  Well, probably.  While service providers like Amazon and Dropbox clearly provide great value, and rarely make mistakes that cause problems, such mistakes are inevitable in the long run.  And as more and more data moves out into the cloud, so the impact of mistakes, failed security controls, lax hiring procedures, or disgruntled insiders will continue to affect more and more customers.

Yet none of these are new to businesses, and with good planning, such problems can be overcome or, at least, minimized.  And therein lies the rub, because it is the difficulty of planning for such events that causes such concern.  The integration of cloud and traditional security practices is not a simple one.  Technical, as well as process, hand-offs are often unclear to both provider and customer alike, and this complexity introduces opportunities for both accidental and malicious attack that are new to many organizations.

 

However, what if rather than being the source of security concerns, the cloud could also offer a solution too?  In September the Cloud Security Alliance released their first whitepaper defining Security as a Service, offered through the cloud.

The idea behind the paper is to start to define the various security services that could be offered as cloud-hosted products, including such areas as encryption, security information and event management, email security and so on.

What we are seeing, then, is an emerging and maturing element to cloud security, and it opens up some interesting possibilities.

For example, by creating security services specifically hosted in the cloud, confusion over who has responsibility may be reduced, as new vendors emerge to essentially ‘own’ many of the cloud-specific problems.  This approach of delivering security services through the cloud also offers up the prospect of broadening the types of security technologies available to small and medium businesses who may have been unable to afford them in the past, or to help larger organizations reduce their IT security spend without impacting overall security capabilities.

Finally, it may allow businesses to more clearly and cleanly ensure segregation of duties between the cloud service provider (for example, a storage provider) and the security functions, which could now be delivered through a specialized third party.

 

It’s now clear that the cloud computing is evolving and maturing fast.  While the cloud definitely causes IT security and compliance organizations considerable headaches, the possibility exists that cloud-specific security services may actually benefit everyone in the long run.  Most importantly, they may enable organizations of all kinds to safely, and securely, move more fully into the cloud.

Tags: , .

Business Intelligence in the Cloud

By Olafur Ingthorsson on September 20, 2011 in Cloud Computing. 0 Comments
By Chris Hagans, VP Operations of WCI Consulting
Cloud computing has been opening many doors across all industries, and it’s having a new, profound effect on the business intelligence (BI) industry as well.
BI helps companies analyze data and turn it into valuable business information. As more data and applications migrate into the cloud, numerous new data sources are being created. BI providers are adapting their tools to this new reality, and successful companies must now evaluate and act upon this opportunity.
However, as with any new technology form, both pros and cons exist. Below are a few benefits and challenges that companies may experience when considering and deploying cloud-based BI solutions.
Benefits
– Scalability – Cloud-based or software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions can be easily fit to companies of all shapes and sizes. This allows even the smallest businesses the ability to tailor a BI system to fit their needs and improve their businesses.
– Easy of Entry – Traditional site-licensed software included a lot of upfront IT costs to get the system up and running. But with a cloud-based BI solution, that upfront cost is reduced because all hardware and software systems are located and managed remotely by vendors and service providers.
– Cost – Cloud-based systems also allow companies to “rent” the software as opposed to buying a full license. This subscription-based approach can ensure that companies only pay for their organization’s usage.
Challenges
– Security – For many businesses, a lot of questions and concern still remain about the physical, network and external security of cloud computing platforms.
– Emerging Technology – Cloud computing is still a newer segment, and companies will have to expect and adjust to unforeseen and unexpected glitches as the web-based platform matures.
– Data Movement – Companies will also have to rely on data movement outside of their “four walls.” In contrast to an in-house system where connection time and access is typically reliable, cloud-based products depend on multiple systems (i.e. a vendor’s servers, ISP uptime, etc.) to complete day-to-day BI tasks.


		


		

			
						

				Tags: , .