In today's business, the term 'Cloud' has an interesting paradox about it. On one but literary hand, it denotes uncertainty about the future of any business, while on the other, the very term represents a succor for companies that are reeling under budgetary pressures caused by the recession.
Though the the Cloud technology was already there, it was during the recession that the technology with the help of a pay-per-use business model began gathering momentum in Indian market, especially when many projects and pilots were shelved halfway as companies pressed the panic button and tightened their purse strings to tackle the downturn.
This scenario gave not only a huge emphasis on the notion 'do more with less' but also a needed thrust to the business model – pay-as-you-go. Apart from Cloud, the same notion had also given birth to many 'lean products' like Intel's atom chip.
Cloud is not a new thing. Public Cloud has been ubiquitous around the world in the form of emails and social networking. But the newness about the concept is the sudden popularity that private Cloud has just got across the globe.
So what is the technology behind Cloud? An academic definition is that Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand. By using rented computing space, this technology enables you to pay for exactly what you use. In other words, you don't have to buy costly infrastructures like servers and data centers on your own and also incur a recurring annual maintenance cost.
Cloud and Small Businesses
Most of the small businesses in the world are always haunted by an empty purse and scared away by a need for an upfront hardware investment. But Cloud has given wings to their dreams as this technology has the potential to help them avoid any upfront investment in infrastructure and remain nimble and aggressive companies.
In Cloud-based ecosystem, your servers, data centers and other computing resources are owned by an outsider firm and you are accessing these through some networks. Hence, you could really do more with less as there would be no need to maintain an excess capacity that you don't need.
This technology enables anyone to buy software, platform, and other resources as service. Sales force's force.com, Google's App Engine, Amazon's Webservice and Microsoft's Azure are some of the Cloud platforms out there to choose from.
US based BrickSimple, which develops mobile application, is an example as to how Cloud could help small firms. The 10-member company developed an Xbox based game, which could be played from a mobile phone. When more and more users started to log in and play the game, the company saw its server crawl. As this small team was sure they would not be able to go for a high capacity server, they moved their server activities to Google's App Engine.
Therefore, at a time when venture capitalist are very cautious in funding startup ideas, Cloud and pay-per-use business model together have the potential to create a 'cloudburst' of business and profit.
India - Opportunities and Obstacles
There have been a lot of talks about the growth of telecommunication sector in India. However, what we see to day is that telcos like Bharti Airtel are moving to other continents like Africa, perhaps due to saturation of the business in a market where margins have taken a nasty hit due to a neck-to-neck price war. Meanwhile, the concept of private Cloud, at its nascent stage, offers a lot of scope to explore and innovate. AT&T, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Netmagic etc. are some of the companies who are mulling over strengthening their Cloud services portfolios for Indian market.
Microsoft is already on an aggressive mode and is very optimistic about the country. Its CEO Steve Ballmer thinks that the country will not only see a surge in cloud computing services but companies all over the world will look to India to support their transition to Cloud.
Despite a bright prospect, there are certain factors that make Cloud's future a bit cloudy in the country. According to many CIOs, Indian companies are reluctant to move their infrastructure, data etc. to Cloud due to security fears.
No one is extra confident about keeping his highly confidential data in the possession of an outsider. Especially organizations like banks, who handle thousands of accounts, are a bit concerned about Cloud.
This concern cannot be overlooked given the fact that even the systems with super protection at Prime Minister's Office and the ones at Iran's nuclear plants and even Google itself are now easily targeted by hackers. Besides, platforms like Facebook and Twitter suffer hacking attacks every other day.
Moreover, there seems to be a mental block among companies in doing away with their age old legacy systems overnight.
But the Cloud service providers in the country are leaving no stones unturned in their attempt convince Indian enterprises to give up building and managing data centres and instead, switch to their private Cloud.
Moreover, some studies even go to the extent of saying that cloud computing will be more dominant than desktop computing in the future.
Next Big Thing
Mobile Cloud, I think, is an area which holds a lot of potential as far as India is concerned. Once this is in place, one could use his or her mobile to access applications hosted in a high capacity server by a third party and enjoy a faster processing. This means, the processing capacity will be offloaded to Cloud.
India stands to gain much from this possibility given the growth rate of mobile phone shipment in the country. The April-June quarter of this year has witnessed a record sales of mobile phones in the country. The number of units sold during this period is 38.63 million. This is all time high. An IDC report says that there is over 6.3 percent sales growth in this quarter as compared to the same time period in the previous year.
This numbers auger well for mobile Cloud in India.
Many believe that Cloud can save up to 40 per cent of the IT budget of a company on an average. Since such a saving could do magic on the bottom line of of an organization, there is no other option but go embrace Cloud.
More over, a Zinnov study says that 30 per cent, or $7 billion, of the global cloud computing work is to be offshored. Given that India is a low-cost destination of MNCs, these numbers are too tempting to be ignored, and so is Cloud.
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Author: Akanksha Prasad
After a long time, when Sony said good bye to the floppy disks, I realized that how easily we had forgotten about the product.
It is indeed sad, but also surprising, to hear that it took almost three decades, for Sony to decide to stop the production of the 3.5 Floppy disk. Now the storage device, which was very much with us a few years back, will be part of history and join other legacy products like Zip-drive, reels etc.
Many news reports, like PC World, BBC had already announced the death of floppy disks. A 2003, BBC report headline said R.I.P floppy disk, perhaps it was in synced with the announcement of dell to drop floppy drive from the new machines.
I completely see the long and committed relation between the duo (Sony and floppy disks) as it was among the Sony the early adoptors of this technology, along with IBM and HP.
Back in 1971 IBM introduced the industry's first flexible magnetic disk, or diskette- "floppy disk". It aimed to be widely used as a basic storage medium for small systems. Sony introduced 3.5 in disks in 1981.
Early this month, Sony announced that it would discontinue sales of the classic 3.5 inch floppy disk in Japan in 2011. This news came pretty late as many of the rivals brands had already stopped the use and production. Apple started this change as early as 1998, when it introduced the first PC without a floppy disk drive. Last year, HP too joined the league with the announcement to stop building floppy-friendly systems. Post this, the new machines no more supported the floppy drive and instead promoted the USB ports on the face.
Floppy disk was my first storage device, and with the ever-evolving technology, I soon left this companion in the cartoon boxes to befriend CDs, and now flash-drives. A floppy disk used to be the third or fourth item in my bag that I would always carry. Starting from college projects/ papers, to homeworks of computer classes, to even my first resume, this 3.5 inch shell had been a great pal.
But this is a mere assumption that floppy was already dead. A report stated that Sony sold around 12 million floppies in Japan during 2009. A forum on a similar topic brought around 5 or 6 examples where floppy was very much part of the present life. One of the members said to have three running computers, all with floppy drives installed, and about 75 or more blank disks lying around.
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As World Earth day is falling on April 22, the 40th one at that, there is again going to be a lot of talks, glorifying green technologies and preaching the virtue of being environment-friendly.
Though so much has been spoken about the issue, the clamor for addressing the real concern of environmental issues like data center consumption and carbon emission now seems to have given way for a plethora of highly profitable businesses aiming at cashing in on such concerns.
Off late, every other day, the world is witnessing the launch of a technology product with a tag attached to it which accommodates at least one green element as a feature of the product, making 'go green' a USP rather than a cause. Like the 'organic food' tag becomes a fad for the elite ones!
As a result, the increasing number of the so-called green products also could now be contributing to the ever-increasing carbon emission.
So, here is an attempt to think as to what the world employees could do to save the planet at least for a day - the Earth Day.
At least for this occasion, one shall put to rest all the not-so-necessary devices like music players and decorative lights, instead of operating a less energy consuming device.
Similarly, rather than choosing a PC with a green processor to work on the day, one shall make sure he or she switches the monitor off when going out for a break during work.
It is considerable for you to decide not to send any spam mailer or forwards on World Earth day. Excess use of mobile phones shall be cut down too by limiting the use only for talking purpose; datacentres are also facing the same burden as is the case of mother earth.
Not-so-necessary browsing shall be given leave for the day as that may give a little bit respite to data centers around the world which grumble each time you put a search request on Google.
And then, if you are a postpaid mobile customer, today itself send an email asking them to send bills online and also make sure that you pay through your card rather than giving the cheque.
As sitting late in office will cause electronic appliances like AC, fans lights to consume more energy, you shall try to start and finish your work in time. Less chat more work!
All over the world, the city traffic has been a main contributor to carbon footprint in the environment. So thinking about harnessing the cyber space to alleviate the road heat by joining a car-pooling community to save energy, efforts and earth can be a good start.
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Sexting, chexting, online-dating, casual sex - some of the words we in India have been getting accustomed to see being loosely used, thanks to new-age socialization. Now Indians also have an observation by the Supreme Court in the (in)famous Khushboo case, favoring living-in relationships.
Indians now seem to have acquired all the moral-base to build on the so called Western style use-and-throw society. But even if you throw away the ghost of an illegitimate affair keeps on haunting you, says the Tiger Woods scandal.
If some trends relating to cyberspace are something to go by, the chances are that the country will in the near future become a casualty of 'casual life'.
Two week back, a shocking news report forced its way onto cyber-space with a curiosity packed headline saying, 'Facebook linked to rise in syphilis'.
Quoting Prof Peter Kelly, director of public health in Teesside, the report asserted that there was a link between social networking sites and the rise in the syphilis cases, especially among young women.
The Telegraph report said “The virus causing this disease has increased fourfold in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside, the areas of Britain where Facebook is most popular, because it has given people a new way to meet multiple partners for casual sexual encounters.”
A majority of Indian youth who seems to go all out to adopt almost anything which comes with a tag like: 'the latest trend in the U.S.', are in full support of social networking. And it was evident that this platform had been playing a major role in fetching them jobs and helping them connect and reconnect to their friends.
But there are some odd men out there in the city. “Social Networking is spoiling our culture in a very big way. This has made the society very artificial, and social networking platforms have become a place where one showcases anything and everything,” feels Nayeem Khan, a marketing professional working for a professional networking website in Bangalore.
Khan does not hesitate to go to the extend of saying that since such platforms help people to connect with strangers easily, casual sex may gradually become part of our culture as as fallout.
“We gave the world the Kamasutra but still we were dignified. We were proud of having such a great culture which had not changed for thousands of years. But now, everything has changed in this new millennium,” he laments.
But Khan is very specific to whip only social networking. He supports professional networking as, he says, “It helps marketing professionals to connect with the prospective clients”
Mahesh Kallayil, an advertising professional based in Mumbai, sees good and bad about social networking. Social networking has a lot of good about it though it is liable to be misused. However, that is based on an individual's own choice and preference.
For Kallayil, the worse thing about these sites are that people become part of virtual society and withdraw totally from real social activities.
The industry trends suggest that people have no escaping from social networking, even if they want to. Many companies, while hiring for their marketing team, are making it a necessary qualification for its new recruits to have an active social networking account with certain number of friends.
“I am hearing from many of my friends saying that many BPOs and KPOs are insisting that their new hires have a minimum of 40 friends on their social networking circle,” shares Kallayil.
The court observation in Khushboo case is likely to trigger a paradigm shift in the thought process of Indians. And they now have all online platforms that will help them make a relationship, if need be..no..if wish be.
And the country that exiled M F Hussain in the name of a drawing is now shedding all the inhibitions and taboos!!!
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The much anticipated launch of Apple iPad could be considered a perfect example of how one can cash in on hype and publicity. As per the information available through the media, Apple's new baby does not offer as much facilities as a laptop does. Nor is it as portable as a smartphone. And with $699 dollars in hand, you can no doubt pocket a better deal.
The gadget is supposed to give a neck to neck competition to Kindle, Amazon's electronic reader device, though it remains to be seen as to how iPad would fare as it doesn't concentrate only on e-reader.
Between each interval, Apple comes out with a new product, most often similar to the previous one with an added feature which is already featured in one of its existing products. iPod is an example, which came in different colors and versions, like Hero Honda introduces new bikes in 100cc segment.
Sometime back, Ratan Tata and Jobs dropped hints on launching Nano. But Tata came out with a small affordable car, while Apple brought out a bigger and more expensive iPod featuring a video camera.
The customers also seem to like Apple hovering around its masterpiece iPod and charming Mac computers and trying different combination to birth a new baby. Because Apple brand is so influencing that they would shell out money on without even reviewing the the product.
Sometimes Apple product crushes customer's expectation by omitting some functionalities. Just as iPhone did not have bluetooth for file sharing, the much hyped iPad wonderfully lacks a camera. It is said to be a much sophisticated and feature-rich computer, but it doesn't have even a webcam. Apple's technocrats may give you a lot of technical and strategical reasons to having these functionalities left out, though your commonsense may suggest it is not a big deal for Apple to fit a camera to iPad, at least technically.
Perhaps Apple may be more futuristic. If it ignores some features in a product, there is a possibility that they can conduct another big event in the next quarter, give a big media hike to it, and when customers die with curiosity to know about the new launch, Jobs can announce a new product probably with a name iCad - the existing iPad plus the omitted camera. How is it? A fitting strategic reason to ignore the camera now, right?
Still the company has no wish to do away with hefty price tags. Some competitors can surely help on this matter. When I got an iPod Shuffle around two years back, that was priced at Rs 4,000 plus. Some six months later, so many music players made there way to market with a price that was less than half the cost of iPod, forcing Apple to slash the iPod cost to Rs 2300.
Acer is a sure bet to provoke a price cut of iPad. The company already has laptops, netbooks and now smartphones. It can combine some of their features, add an e-reader and camera and price it at half the cost of iPad. But Acer needs to be careful not to infringe on any copyright. Because Apple is well specialized in that segment, thanks to some fierce patent fights with players like Nokia.
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Though terrorism is often related to geographical boundaries peppered with religious faith, terrorist operations are logging on to a mode where physical boundaries no longer matters. In this age of Web2.0, there are all indications that terrorism is also going hi-tech.
And in the backdrop of such developments, it is time India had deployed virtual defense across the country to protect it from a new breed of terrorists – cyber terrorists.
This breed has a big advantage that it won't need to risk its fighters' life while launching a massive attack on the infrastructure of a nation. These terrorists don't need to maneuver through the gun wielding defense force too.
As a reader you might be sneering at my apparent paranoia. Wait to jump to a conclusion, it was already reported that hackers from across the border in Pakistan had set their mortars firing at websites in India, while Indian hackers are falling considerably short in firepower.
Of course, I am not saying that we should enhance our hacking capabilities, but we should beef up our Internet security.
“In the ongoing cyber warfare between the two countries, roughly 40-50 Indian sites are being hacked on a daily basis by Pakistani hackers while about 10 Pakistani sites are being hit by their Indian counterparts”, the an Economic Times report recently quoted Ankit Fadia, Mumbai-based cyber crime expert as saying.
I think now you are clear that it is not a mere blabbering of a paranoiac. The concerns are not confined to the Indo-Pak scenario. Even the super defense power, the US, is on a high alert mode as critical IT infrastructures in that country are reportedly put on close watch. Federal Bureau of Investigation is keeping an eye on al Qaeda suspects with an intent of, and flair to launch cyber attack on infrastructures like power grids and transportation systems.
Interestingly, in the US, there is no evidence that terrorist groups have developed sophisticated cyber-attack capabilities. But according to Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division, the real concern is “If terrorists were to amass such capabilities, they would be wielded with destructive and deadly intent”.
The control systems of U.S. infrastructure as well as money transfers are now connected directly or indirectly to the Internet. India also is heading to board a completely virtual plane. But is our security efficient enough to preempt a possible nasty blow which could be capable of having us on our knee?
The question is not at all irrelevant as Intelligent Bureau opines that the immediate threat to India is from our immediate neighbors, Pakistan and China.
They think China may try and destabilize India's economy by launching attacks on its banking sectors while Pakistan may attack essential commodity-related services.
Rediff, citing experts, reports that there could be three stages of cyber wars on India. First the enemy would bring down the control systems of defense installations, Parliament, railways and airports. Secondly, they would look to attack financial services such as banks and stock markets. Finally, ESCOMs and other utilities services will be taken over.
Now that said, there are two options before us. Let us either let the IT security companies to continue facilitating the never ending good guy-bad guy chase and rake in big moolah out of that. Or let us be more prudent and design a cyber defense strategy that can be too hard to break into.
It goes without saying that we have to stick to the latter. But we need to make sure our national interests are not overshadowed by business intentions.
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It has been like climbing a steep mountain with gigantic slippery rocks on one side and deep gorges on the other. At times the destination appeared but as you moved along it drifted farther and farther, obscuring any clue on the ultimate end of this ordeal. And we used many synonyms to describe this tough trekking – recession, slowdown, meltdown...
Now, almost 1.5 years since IT companies across the world have been forced to embark on this marathon journey, the summit seems to be visible, it seems.
In all possibility, on the other side of the mountain lies a smooth sloping passage leading to the flowery paths of prosperity with myriad of trees wearing greenish canopies full of red flowers on either side of the way. And this prospect of prosperity has already prompted the IT big guns to announce their shopping plans for the season in the form of acquisitions.
While Infosys BPO recently signed a deal to acquire U.S. based McCamish Systems for an upfront payment of $38 million, and an additional $20 million based on targets, Hewlett-Packard is paying $3.1 billion to buy 3Com Corp.
The buy will help HP step up its competition with Cisco in a wider range of network equipment, including routers and switches. It seems to be sure, there is going to be more businesses to compete for.
Patni Computer Systems is in a dilemma. There are several good-looking beauties on the focus. But the question is to select the right one. After all business is not just a marriage of convenience. The company has already shortlisted four, and appointed investment bank JPMorgan to help do away with the dilemma. Meanwhile, Wipro and HCL Technologies have revealed their intention and wish to go on shopping.
Another company which has already announced a buy is Logitech International, a provider in PC video communication space, which has agreed to acquire Texas-based high definition (HD) video communication solutions provider LifeSize Communications for $405 million in cash. Cisco Systems has already said it would buy privately held security software company ScanSafe for about $183 million to expand in a fast-growing segment of the Web-based security market.
But apart from a possible prosperity, what else is there for these kind of a bullishness? Companies like Adobe are still laying off employees. Has market become steady? I think it is not yet. But it will. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel though it is not yet clear how near (or far?) the end is.
In such circumstances, running behind inorganic growth opportunities may not seem advisable. Have these companies saved enough cash reserve to pay salary to their employees? Or are they musing over the possibility that business will come on its own and pay their manpower?
Only time can tell where the paths of acquisition will take them to.
But it is still good to see the vigor and fervor in the market. Because it displays a message: The worst is over.' Though I am not in a position to buy that message for face value, I am also trying to be optimistic.
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“The only thing that does not change, is the change itself.” This famous quote is not to be seen only in the context of a communism-driven social scenario. The ever-happening tech scenario has much to do with the concept of change that never changes.
Every cutting-edge technology means change, change and more change.
The latest trend in consumer market of the world tech industry is the fast adoption of smartphones, with companies like Nokia, HTC, Research in Motion, Apple and lately Acer besides many others jostling for market share with high end phones.
If some study results can be trusted, all the feature phones in the world will be replaced by smartphones in the future. As per IDC, 70 per cent of mobile devices would be smartphones by 2010. Currently the market for smartphones is around 40 per cent.
This demand for smartphones is obviously driven by the craving of people for some portable device to stay in touch with their office, friends and family even while they are on the move. Actually it was due to this need that netbooks became a huge success in the consumer market. And now smartphone takes a step further in ensuring a convenient active and connected life for the people because it is basically your phone and it becomes a PC when you need one, just like a chameleon changing colors in accordance with the environs.
Interestingly, Acer, which is a netbook king, is now going all out to the smartphone market and targets to capture 10 per cent of the Indian market in one year. The company's Smart Handheld business group's country head Richard Tan says that the price of the smartphones are coming down, and it would therefore replace almost all the feature phones in the market.
But Tan seems to be quite sure about the imminent shift of users from netbooks to smartphones, and this foray of the company to smartphones market can be seen as a strategy to ensure that consumers' money returns to Acer's kitty even when they ditch its netbooks and go for smartphones.
However, a common man may not be a big gainer, he may think, “To buy a smartphone with Internet connection will engender a trouble of paying a comparatively big monthly bill (as you use more and more possibilities including MMS, Internet and much more). But to buy one without Internet is a foolishness too.”
And finally, there arises a question as to what is smart? Less than a decade back a mobile phone was a luxury and every model was smarter. What is is smart today can also become obsolete tomorrow when a smarter one emerges.
So what is the parameter to be smarter tomorrow? Any answers?
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