Archive for the 'Mobile Cloud Computing' Category

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.

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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.

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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.

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What’s Next for the Mobile Market – after HP’s Strategy Turn?

By Olafur Ingthorsson on September 1, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

Just over a year ago, HP acquired Palm together with its webOS smartphone operating system and a few new smartphones. HP had some ambitious plans of leveraging its innovation culture and marketing channels to firmly establish itself as an important player in the mobile technology ecosystem.

HP discontinues developing smartphones and tablets

How times have changed. Last week, HP announced that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS driven smartphones. The reason is disappointing sales and low market share in a domain dominated by Apple and Google with their iOS and Android platforms.

Unfortunately for HP, its plans to become the third force, after iPhone and Android driven devices, in the smartphone arena failed miserably, even though HP’s webOS-driven TouchPad received positive critique from several analysts. Instead, HP plans on continuing developing its webOS and seek new business models including licensing.

Whether that strategy will be more successful remains to be seen. Microsoft uses the licensing model for its Windows Phone OS, included in several handsets from manufacturers like HTC, Samsung and LG. Still, Windows Phone market share is puny compared to iOS and Android. It will be interesting to see if the deal with Nokia from earlier this year will change the momentum for Windows Phone, with new Nokia smartphones running on Windows Phone. The first handsets are expected to be launched later this year.

Clearly, HP faced tougher competition than anticipated in a market that is largely driven by apps. The number of apps available for webOS is only a fraction of those for iOS and Android devices, making it difficult for buyers to choose webOS devices. The same largely applies to the troubles at RIM. The BlackBerry App World is relatively small compared to Android Market and Apple App Store.

Who will become the “third wheel” in the ecosystem?

While many analysts agree that there is definitely room for the third platform, together with iOS and Android, it’s still unclear whether that place would be filled by webOS, Windows Phone, RIM’s BlackBerry or something else.

Considering HP’s heritage as a company primarily focusing on the enterprise market, its decision of discontinuing developing smartphones and tablets may be understandable. With its dynamic changes and special traits, the consumer market is profoundly different.

However, this is something that HP clearly knew and understood when acquiring Palm in the first place, perhaps making a miscalculated decision in its effort of establishing a “mobile strategy” – admittedly a necessity for every technology vendor in today’s market. Hence, whether HP will be successful in finding a lucrative business model for its webOS platform needs to be seen, although currently it seems unlikely.

Apart from Apple and Google, it seems that Microsoft has a good position for becoming the third large player in the ecosystem, especially after its deal with Nokia, and due to its capacity and bundling options. While Apple and Google have certainly managed to do some clever bundling and integration of the mobile platforms with some of their other services such as Gmail, Microsoft can certainly do the same when it comes to Windows Phone including MS Exchange/Outlook and Office 365.

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Improving the Mobile Cloud

By Olafur Ingthorsson on July 18, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 1 Comment

Although most agree that mobile cloud computing holds a great promise for delivering cloud solutions to individuals and even critical corporate applications to employees by enabling access from anywhere, there are still several barriers that need to be addressed to elevate its usefulness and capabilities. For mobile cloud computing to reach its full potential, the following three critical challenges need to be addressed, as detailed in a recent article by Bryan Betts:

  • Lowering network latency to meet application and code offload interactivity
  • Increasing network bandwidth for faster data transfer between the cloud and devices
  • Providing adaptive monitoring of network conditions to optimize network and device costs against the user’s perceived performance of cloud applications

(Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vizzzual-dot-com/2476109235)

None of these are easy to accomplish, but service and network providers are already making important steps to improve the mobile cloud experience.

Overcoming latency limitations

Latency increases with distance, and the number of network nodes that the data needs to pass. As a result, moving  applications as close to the user as possible decreases latency effects. There are examples of providers taking steps to address this. Ericsson, for example, made a strategic partnership with Akamaiearlier this year which will enable service providers that run on Ericsson infrastructure to route internet traffic intelligently based on user location and add caching capabilities to a mobile network. This technology is expected to increase user experience and advance mobile e-commerce and banking. Dynamically moving the data towards the mobile user is clearly the best way to minimize latency issues and save bandwidth.

Improving bandwidth utilization

More and more mobile service providers have started offering 4G/LTE mobile services within restricted areas. One of the greatest advantages of LTE is capacity. Each LTE cell supports up to four times the data and voice capacity when compared to HSPA (UMTS High-Speed-Packet-Access). Other advantages include low latency, plug and play, and support for both frequency division multiplexing (FDD) and time division duplexing (TDD) in the same platform.  In theory, LTE is capable of downlink peak rates of 100 Mbps and an uplink of at least 50 Mbps. Similar to GSM and UMTS, LTE operates at different frequency bands and can be deployed in clear spectrum with bandwidth as wide as 20 MHz of paired spectrum (20 MHz Uplink, 20 MHz Downlink).

Dynamic Network Monitoring

Several new technologies promise a more intelligent deployment of network resources and may minimize latency. For example, HTML5 offers data caching , allowing users to experience fewer problems due to intermittent network performance or network congestion. When it comes to the mobile cloud, network performance management becomes increasingly important. Better mobile network monitoring systems enable dynamic traffic re-routing and swapping, or handover, between cells based on traffic load patterns and user location.

All these will help to improve the mobile cloud user experience and make it more viable for corporations that are interested in providing mobile access to many of their core applications.

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Will the Skype deal pay off for Microsoft?

By Olafur Ingthorsson on May 23, 2011 in Cloud Computing, Mobile Cloud Computing, Private cloud computing and Public cloud computing. 0 Comments

Microsoft’s deal to buy Skype for $8.5 billion is the largest acquisition in the history of the company. After reportedly outbidding Google and Facebook, Microsoft has a number of solutions that can potentially benefit from this acquisition. But does Microsoft have the right strategy?

Skype Has Terrific Exposure

Skype has almost 700 million registered users globally, most of them using the free chat, voice and video services from PC-to-PC, or from one Skype account to another. However, many users also purchase voice-minutes, or Skype-credit, for making calls to regular phones and mobiles or sending text messages.

Skype also has solutions for businesses, such as the Skype Manager, a tool to create accounts for employees, allocate credit and assign features; and Skype Connect, which provides connectivity with SIP-enabled PBX‘s, allowing businesses to use their existing phone system to make cheap Skype calls. Skype already has apps available for mobile platforms, including Android and iPhone.

Microsoft communication products

Microsoft, on the other hand, launched last year a cloud-based unified communications system. Microsoft Lync is a comprehensive business communication platform which includes features such as Instant Messaging and Presence, Audio, Video and Web Conferencing, Mobility and Enterprise Voice. The voice capabilities provide a centralized call system, phone features, supplanting corporate PBX‘s, enabling video chat and unifying other communications systems of a corporate environment. Essentially it is a software based VoIP/SIP PBX that can run on a standard Windows server.

With its mobile Windows Phone platform, Microsoft has big ambitions in the mobile domain as well. Several handset manufacturers have already incorporated Windows Phone into their smartphones, including the HTC HD7 and Samsung Focus. Windows Phone has received relatively positive reviews and appears to be a serious alternative alongside Android and iPhone, perhaps especially after Nokia announced its plans to incorporate the Windows Phone platform as its primary smartphone platform.

How can Microsoft benefit?

So how does the Skype acquisition benefit Microsoft from its current position? From the perspective of the Lync communication platform and Windows Phone, there are several interesting strategies Microsoft can pursue.

  • It seems likely that Microsoft will integrate Skype business features with its Lync communication platform. With this strategy, Microsoft will enter the domain of the communication service provider, i.e. not only offering business grade communication platforms, but also by providing communication services, the stronghold of Telcos and VoIP service providers, including Skype itself. This will enable businesses to make low-cost calls using their Lync platform with features like integrated billing and account management.
  • Microsoft will provide a close integration of Skype into its Windows Phone platform. Hotmail and IM integration will be a given, and users will be able to send IP- SMS messages directly from their Hotmail account – similiar to the current Skype client. Users will simply choose the account they are calling from and see in real-time the cost of current phone call, and a myriad of other possibilities will be enabled.

The Skype acquisition, although expensive, can provide Microsoft great leverage. Not only does Skype have a huge market penetration that Microsoft can exploit with tight integration to existing solutions, but Skype already has well established processes and billing mechanisms that Microsoft can use for up-selling and cross-selling while entering the communication business both for individuals and corporate markets.

 

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The Mobile Cloud: Why it’s so important

By Olafur Ingthorsson on May 16, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

A new survey of mobile cloud computing does a good job in defining mobile cloud computing and how it is going to impact cloud computing in general. Firstly, mobile cloud computing is defined as cloud computing extended by mobility and a new ad-hoc infrastructure based on mobile devices. In essence, mobile users are provided with data storage and processing services on a cloud computing platform rather than on the mobile devices themselves.

A branch of cloud computing

According to the survey, mobile cloud computing is emerging as one of the most important branches of cloud computing, and is still in its infancy. Therefore it‘s highly relevant to clarify the confusion that has arisen around mobile cloud computing.

From a simple perspective, mobile cloud computing can be thought of as infrastructure where data and processing could happen outside of the mobile device, enabling new types of applications such as context-aware mobile social networks. As a result, many mobile cloud applications are not restricted to powerful smartphones, but to a broad range of less advanced mobile phones and, therefore, to a much larger subscriber segment. From a smartphone perspective in particular, mobile cloud computing opens up possibilities for a new class of applications by leveraging handset centric features and network related information, such as GPS and/or cell-based location information, etc.

Special characteristics of mobile cloud computing

The survey recognizes the potential opportunities from utilizing available mobile handset features and “to harness collective sensing, storage, and computational capabilities of multiple networked wireless devices to create a distributed infrastructure that supports a wealth of new applications.”

Furthermore, mobile cloud computing extends cloud computing by providing enhanced service availability and by exploiting information about a user’s location, context and network intelligence, thereby considerably improving user experience. Leveraging the mobile device storage, sensing and processing resources for optimizing cloud-based application also adds to better user experience.

Measures to address bandwidth limitations

The obstacles facing mobile cloud computing include limitation of wireless bandwidth capacity and fluctuations in network service delivery. Mobile technology assumes a shared bandwidth capacity, so that users within any particular mobile cell share the available bandwidth while accessing the data network, e.g. the Internet. To overcome this intrinsic limitation, and to address the increasing bandwidth demand, wireless networks are continuously being upgraded – with the IP-based 4G wireless broadband network technology as the ultimate long term goal.

However, other means are also being developed and implemented. One interesting alternative involves instantiating resource-intensive applications on distributed cloudlets, or cloud servers, and then using that service over a wireless LAN. Also, HTML5 data caching capabilities enable applications to work offline, bringing mobile Web applications closer to parity with native applications. By offering offline data caching, cloud-based applications can operate much the same as their device-based counterparts, i.e. if the Internet connection goes down, the application keeps on working. HMTL5 also presents a host of other features that can be deployed in mobile applications making them platform independent.

In summary, mobile cloud computing has emerged as a new paradigm and extension of cloud computing and will undoubtedly grow very quickly in the coming months and years.

 

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Mobile cloud computing and smartphone security

By Olafur Ingthorsson on April 18, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

From a security standpoint, it seems inevitable that the mobile cloud is going to be an important enabler. Mobile device platforms, especially open-source smartphone platforms and tablets , are under increasing pressure from hackers and potential virus threats. The first security threats became visible in the mobile domain in 2004, but have been growing ever since. Earlier, mobile phones had limited feature sets and were relatively protected within the operators “walled gardens.” With the proliferation of smartphones this has changed enormously. There are now virtually hundreds of viruses and malware that can potentially infect smartphones and tablets.

Smartphone security vulnerabilities

To protect users, trust and confidence in the mobile platform, it is essential to protect user privacy and security of applications. This is not an easy task. In its “Threat Report: Fourth Quarter 2010”, McAfee indicate that the mobile malware trend is on a sharp uprise. According to the report, new instances of malware targeting mobile devices detected last year were up 46 percent over levels recorded in 2009. McAfee predicts that cyber criminals will increasingly target mobile devices with botnets, and exploits utilizing both Flash and PDF vulnerabilities.

One of the more widely-cirulated malware was the Android/Geinimi, a Trojan inserted into legitimate mobile applications and games for the Android platform. As the number of Internet-enabled handheld mobile devices continues to grow (including smartphones and tablets), web-based threats will continue to grow in number and sophistication. Not just viruses and botnets, but also phishing from malicious domains and social networks, identity theft and spam.

So the question remains: What can be done to protect mobile Internet users from these types of multiple and sophisticated security threats?

How the Mobile Cloud Can Help

Mobile cloud computing platforms represent a more secure way for provisioning applications and online services to users over mobile networks. Mobile cloud provisioning takes advantage of the inherent benefits of cloud computing though its monitoring, security detection and malware-prevention capabilities to protect its mobile customers.

That’s not to say that cloud-based applications and services are completely free from potential malware, but that it is more difficult for hackers to manipulate cloud service providers and their services than it is to distribute malware by creating and infecting individual applications in the various app stores. Having apps and services residing in the cloud mitigates the need for installing and maintaining highly complex virus-scanning and malware protection on the handsets themselves – although some on-device malware protection should always be considered.

Mobile cloud security

To prevent unauthorized access to mobile devices and to provide cloud-access protection, there are certain measures that can be taken, especially by organizations that maintain a number of smartphones for employees:

  • Cloud-access protection: To use strong authentication to ensure that only personnel with authorization can access cloud-based services. By using one-time passwords, rather than locally stored passwords on the handsets, it’s possible to maintain a higher security level in the mobile cloud.
  • Embedded device identity protection: It’s possible to embed an personalized configuration profile on each employee mobile device, thereby implementing a personal security token or credential on each mobile device. Hence, only employees with trusted devices that comply with corporate security policy can access corporate applications and data, e.g. in a private cloud setting.

These and other security features and policies can be enforced to maximize the security of mobile devices, especially in a corporate context. The mobile cloud is certainly an enabler for improving the security levels for smartphones and tablets that become increasingly more prevalent in business and everyday use.

photo: Alexey Arkhipov / Dreamstime.com

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The Amazon Cloud Turns Five

By Olafur Ingthorsson on April 4, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

This month, Amazon Web Services (AWS) turns five years old. As a leader in infrastructure as a service (IaaS), its impact can hardly be overestimated especially as an cloud enabler for SME‘s, new SaaS providers and, increasingly, an option for large companies that want to migrate infrastructure and services to the cloud.

In retrospect, it’s amazing to see the number of services that AWS has added to its portfolio in the past five years. The original offering that provides basic compute infrastructure and storage services has been expanded into additional compute products like Auto Scaling, networking products like Virtual Private Cloud and deployment tools like Beanstalk and, the latest, CloudFormation. In fact, these products have widened AWS’s approach into becoming a platform as a servce (PaaS) provider as well as an IaaS provider. AWS’s success can also be corroborated through demanding users like Netflix that run on AWS.

Revenue growth

AWS revenues have been growing at a relatively steady rate both in North America and internationally and, according to Trefis Forecast, are expected to reach about $1.7 billion in 2011 and to pass $5 billion by 2017. Despite this immense revenue growth, same sources estimate that AWS is only accountable for about 3 percent of Amazon’s business and will remain limited compared to the online retailing business – which provides an interesting context for the success of the online retail business!

AWS latest service – CloudFormation

With its latest service, the CloudFormation, AWS continues to make it easier for businesses and developers to provision resources without worrying about sequencing and interdependencies. CloudFormation allows users to run templates based on JSON scripting language that include the description of resources and the order n which they should be activated.

AWS offers several pre-made templates that e.g. include “stacks” of resources like compute (EC2), auto scaling, elastic load balancing, storage (EBS, S3), etc. and describe the software packages that are automatically installed, e.g. LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and WordPress. The primary benefit of CloudFormation is freeing users from determining how and in what order individual resources need to be provisioned. Apparently, the CloudFormation resulted in an offer for AWS customers after the Amazon’s own developers started creating templates for internal usage - avoiding manually building and managing the dependencies between resources. The CloudFormation can be deployed either through a command-line interface using AWS developers tools or using the AWS GUI Management Console.

Diagram illustrating the entire CloudFormation process

There is an excellent post by Jeff Barr describing the CloudFormation service in more detail at the AWS Blog.

Speedy innovation

Obviously it is very difficult to predict what new services AWS will be offering in the near future. It seems that a lot of its efforts are currently focused on its new availability zone or region, based in Tokyo, Japan. In fact, the AWS data center was launched only 10 days before the earthquake hit Japan with its tragic consequences. During March only, in addition to the new Tokyo Region, AWS has already announced support for Windows Server 2008, new internet access and virtual networking capabilities to its Virtual Private Cloud product, new identity and access management support for AWS CloudFront and new EC2 import connector for VMware vCenter. Considering the innovation pace at AWS there is perhaps no coincidence that it widely considered to be the leader in the cloud computing industry.

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HP’s Cloud Strategy and WebOS

By Olafur Ingthorsson on March 28, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 1 Comment

It’s becoming increasingly clear that with last year’s purchase of smartphone maker Palm and its WebOS, HP is going to develop its own cloud offering. HP CEO Leo Apotheker announced this week that HP wants to provide the platform of choice for cloud services and connectivity and that HP will launch a public cloud offering in the near future.

Apotheker also says everything HP will do in the future will be delivered as a service. HP also intends to install WebOS on a variety of devices, not just smartphones like Palm did. PC’s and laptops  will have WebOS pre-installed and be able to run Windows as well. Apparently, to realize this vision, HP will perform a number of strategic acquisitions of innovative software and cloud-based service providers.

HP App Store

To support its cloud endeavors, HP plans to establish an application store for enterprise customers and consumers. The app store will not just be mobile specific, like most other current app stores like Apple App Store and Android Market, but targeted at a wider range of devices. “We will build an open marketplace,” said Apotheker speaking at HP’s analyst summit.

HP cloud vision

Considering Apotheker’s background as a former executive at SAP, it should not come as a surprise that HP aims to partner with large transactional systems like SAP and Oracle, with a special focus on analytics. In large, HP’s cloud vision seems to be focusing on business analytics and business intelligence that require “big data” and that have heavy processing requirements. It’s a very significant change in HP’s vision, moving away from focusing on PCs, printers and hardware in general to the cloud, connectivity, security and services.

Clearly, HP plans to capitalize on current hardware strengths and legacy – looking at platform services and hybrid infrastructure. HP enterprise customers will most likely be advised to expand their current infrastructure into the cloud, presumably HP’s cloud, creating a sort of a hybrid cloud environment with secure connection between, e.g. VPN and MPLS. Furthermore, HP also plans to establish a public cloud for e.g. Greenfield and those preferring migrating entire applications and services to the cloud and leverage lower costs.

The WebOS strategy

By pre-installing the WebOS on HP devices, they will be ready to utilize HP cloud services directly creating a large ecosystem for HP customers. And, HP does not plan on competing directly with other OSs like Windows but rather to run in parallel. WebOS might also be able to run alongside Android on smartphones for example, giving user’s the choice of switching between platforms, although it remains to be seen how and if users are willing to do that.

Is it viable?

HP’s strategy seems to require customers wanting to utilize the HP cloud to use an HP device running WebOS. This is a somewhat limiting strategy – unless users can install WebOS on other devices as well. Also, it’s unlikely that customers interested in deploying the cloud will be forced to purchase certain HP devices – but rather wanting to avoid a potential vendor lock-in situation. Furthermore, running parallel OSes on the same device may also have its flaws, especially when it comes to handheld devices.

Although an increasingly successful implementation in virtualized data center infrastructure, smartphone and tablet users are less likely to accept running two or more OSes and, it appears even more unlikely that WebOS, although a powerful OS, is going to quickly replace successful mobile platforms like the iPhone, Android and WP7. Having said this, it is going to be especially interesting to monitor HP’s progress and cloud endeavors.

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The Growth of Cloud-Based Music Streaming

By Olafur Ingthorsson on March 21, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 2 Comments

Cloud computing is gradually revolutionizing the music industry and the way digital music is being consumed. Instead of buying and downloading (digital download) songs over the internet, consumers are accessing to them via the cloud in the form of on-demand streaming services. This also brings  new services that helps users to create playlists and receive recommendations for songs and bands according to their music interests.

Cloud-based music services

Due to its enormous penetration and coverage, the mobile phone has become the device of choice for enabling cloud-based music services. As the leader in the traditional music download industry, Apple is currently preparing its iTunes music store to become a streaming service, perhaps to counteract its stalling music download sales figures. To separate itself from several other competing current streaming music services like Sony’s Music Unlimited, Pandora, Rhapsody and Spotify, Apple is focusing on providing higher-quality music for both its download and future streaming services. Google obviously has its own plans for digital music streaming for Android handsets and has been rumored to be working on a cloud-based digital music service, although it has not yet announced the relevant app or service.  It’s possible that the Google music service will be integrated with Android Market, similar to the recent book tab. In fact though, hackers have already found a way to implement a streaming music service by inserting the music player from Android version 3.0, known as the Honeycomb, into adapted Android smartphones.

When it comes to smartphones, service providers like Spotify provide a premium service supporting music streaming over WiFi and 2.5/3G networks. If the network connection is poor,  users can store songs and playlists in offline mode as well. Users can also sync their mobile and computer so that playlists are identical on each device. The Music and Copyright blog provides a good overview of the current cloud-based music service providers and which of them already offer support for mobile phones.

Smartphone streaming is the future

Some music industry professionals, such as Christian Ward, the digital music PR specialist from Clarity Communications, are claiming that any future for music streaming has to have mobile/smartphone as its focus.  Such a claim can be substantiated by several developments. For example, last month the San Francisco-based music streaming service Pandora Media filed for an initial public offering (IPO), a move that was largely affected by the skyrocketing use of its online radio service’s smartphone apps. In the past year Pandora’s registered user base has nearly doubled, mainly due to the smartphone apps, which are nearing 80 million users. Spotify, with its approximately 10 million users is planning on launching a Pandora-like mobile streaming music service, expecting a significant growth in its user base.

Revenue models

While some of the cloud-based streaming music service providers are charging a premium for mobile streaming, Pandora is among those offering free ad-supported versions. To obtain a large subscriber base it seems that free opt-in services with mobile ads will be the model of choice for the masses, while a smaller segment of users will prefer to pay a premium to obtain ad-free music streaming to their handsets.

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Mobile Cloud Computing Changes App Development

By Olafur Ingthorsson on March 14, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 1 Comment

With the advent of mobile cloud computing, increasing effort has been put into developing platforms that simplify the development of cloud-based mobile applications. Creating apps for the mobile cloud is significantly different than developing apps for a native smartphone platform like the iPhone or Android. But over the long run, the mobile cloud computing model may prove more profitable for app developers, and open the field to a larger number of developers.

Current mobile development platforms

In case of the current native platforms, developers need to be knowledgeable about the platform-centric APIs and development tools provided by the platform vendors, in this case Apple and Google. Objective- C is the main development language being used for writing iPhone apps that are being offered in Apple‘s App Store. This may not be difficult for experienced C programmers, but Objective-C requires significant programming capabilities and may pose a steep learning curve for newcomers. Android developers use Java, C or C++ as the main programming languages for app development.

Both the iPhone and Android platforms provide development tools for making app development process easier and coherent. Still, these are high-level programming languages that relatively few master when compared to the vast number of skilled Web developers that focus on using web-centric technologies and standards like HTML, CSS, JavaScript and XML.

Web based mobile application development

Several industry analysts predict that mobile applications will gradually move to the cloud, and move away from being installed and run directly from the handsets themselves. Instead, apps will be accessed and executed directly from the cloud through a mobile web browser interface. Several technologies facilitating this change are already available. HTML5, for example, is necessary for enabling caching on the handset, so that users will experience uninterrupted service levels despite fluctuations in network service delivery. 4G mobile networks, like LTE and WiMAX, are fundamental for supporting large-scale mobile cloud deployment. These networks are already being deployed in several cities and small regions and are expected to obtain significant adoption rates in the coming years.

Enabling mobile technologies

A few mobile solutions providers, such as appMobi, have started to offer integrated mobile browsers that allow users to access apps directly from the websites of their publishers, thereby eliminating the need to go to Apple App Store or Android Market. This also means that app developers and publishers don’t need to go through complicated, and sometimes costly, submission processes, unexpected rejection of their submissions and the required profit sharing with the third-party app stores.

From the perspective of developing mobile apps, using standard web languages and standards like HTML/HTML5, CSS and JavaScript enables cross-platform functionality and removes the limitations of native app development. A much larger segment of developers can start creating mobile apps using the same tools they are already accustomed to such as DreamWeaver, Eclipse or Visual Studio. Another benefit includes software upgrades – as there is no need any more for upgrading apps on the handsets themselves.

Some other interesting mobile apps solution providers include FeedHenry andRhoMobile. These offer cloud-based smartphone frameworks that allow developers to create cross-platform mobile apps using traditional web technologies. With no hardware or software to install, it seems inevitably a very interesting choice for web developers and enterprises that quickly want to start creating and deploying new mobile apps.

Storage and backup in the mobile cloud

By Olafur Ingthorsson on March 7, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing. 0 Comments

When it comes to working with data and files on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, one of the most crucial issues concerns data storage – where and how the data is going to be stored, accessed, updated and backed up. Cloud storage assumes storing data in the cloud and making it accessible irrelevant of location and, sometimes, irrespective of terminal type. In a mobile cloud computing scenario, both mobile apps and data are stored and run directly from the cloud, increasing the relevancy of network servers, data center infrastructure and efficient network delivery while decreasing the importance of the storage capacity and processing power of the end-user device itself.

Cloud storage providers and online data backup intermediaries

There are many service providers offering cloud-based storage solutions, most of them already providing IaaS and/or PaaS services in the first place.  These include the Amazon S3and Rackspace CloudFiles storage services on the enterprise level and Google Docs and Microsoft SkyDrive for use by SMEs and individuals.

A number of intermediaries have built user-friendly services and interfaces that provide access to cloud data storage and backup from multiple devices, fixed and mobile. Some of the most notable include Box.net, DropBox, JungleDisk and SugarSync. These often utilize the storage space provided by the large cloud storage service providers, such as Amazon and Rackspace, and provide a range of applications and interfaces for accessing and manipulating the stored data.

Online cloud-based data storage and backup services

In a 2011 review by TopTenReviews, the three online data backup services that received the highest ranking are:

  • SugarSync – the overall winner with the most features and options. Possible to sync and share data across multiple devices and supports a range of mobile devices including iPad, iPod, Blackberry, Android, iPhone and Symbian. SugarSync uses SSL encryption for secure file transfer and 128-bit AES encryption on stored data as well as backing up customer data in two separate data centers.
  • DropBox – has most of the required functionality except the ability to configure idle backups. Offers a free version of 2GB and Pro versions for 50 and 100GB. DropBox uses the same security features as SugarSync as well as support for mobile handsets.
  • IBackup – takes the third place and is also an excellent choice for both home users and business users, offering plans with up to 1000GB storage space. IBackup offers encrypted transmission and storage and geo redundant storage. However, IBackup lacks some of the smartphone festures offered by the others.

For more information, there is a great comparison of online backup services available on Wikipedia.

Assess the benefits and limitations of cloud storage and backup

Although online data backup services in the cloud offer many conveniences, they have their limitations as well. When it comes to backing up large amount of data (100GB or more) using an average internet connection for uploading the data becomes costly and time consuming. Therefore, some service providers offer so called “seed-load” of initial data backup. The service provider will either send a hard drive, or accept a removable hard drive to “seed” the backup account. The hard drive is then shipped to the provider who loads it into the server and from there on the user only needs to remotely backup additional files and changes.

Overall, the benefits of online data storage backup seem obvious, especially for home users and SMEs, both from an economical and security point of view – assuming that users verify the amount of data needed to be stored or backed-up and select the most beneficial way.

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