The commoditization of technology has reached its pinnacle with the advent of the recent paradigm of Cloud Computing. Infosys Cloud Computing blog is a platform to exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions with Infosys experts on Cloud Computing
January 21, 2010
December 02, 2009
Shifting Gears: ISV Cloud On-boarding
November 17, 2009
Deploying non-microsoft applications on Azure
In my previous blog post, I had shown you a deployment model in which an application could leverage the capabilities of both on-premise as well as being on cloud. In that blog I had shown how application storage had been migrated from on-premise to the cloud.
In this post I will show you yet another deployment model possible on Azure and which may interest most of you who may have applications running on non-Microsoft technologies. I will discuss a model on how applications build on Java technologies can be deployed on Windows Azure and hence can reap the benefits of Cloud Computing.
More on "Infosys mConnect" in a Microsoft Paper is available here
Continue reading "Deploying non-microsoft applications on Azure" »
November 13, 2009
Infosys on-boarding ISV's on the cloud - 1
Infosys on its part is helping Enterprises and ISV’s to adopt cloud.
Adopting this new paradigm of cloud computing; newer and innovative styles of using the cloud platforms will have to be explored. Here I shall walk you through one such case which demonstrates how we’ve helped one of our ISV customers, Volantis , to adopt cloud. The detailed case study on this project done by Infosys is available here
Volantis is a developer of innovative solutions for mobile carriers. The company’s Ubik.com software makes it simple for users to point and click to create custom Web sites that are optimized for mobile devices.Ubik.com is a free online service that allows small businesses and consumers to quickly build a mobile Internet site, without having to write a single line of code.
To cater the applications non-functional requirements of being highly available and achieve global class scalability, which would help meet the demands a rapidly growing user base, Infosys helped Volantis to offload Ubik’s data storage on to the Microsoft Azure platform.
November 05, 2009
Rising of the enterprise to the clouds - An adoption approach for the Enterprise
How would Cloud Computing help an Enterprise bring about IT consolidation, an approach that can help reduce ongoing running costs as well as help respond to business needs faster?
Enterprises globally are growing at a rapid pace both organically and inorganically. A few years back IT build systems for businesses which would last a time frame ranging anywhere from 5 to 10 years. Systems used to be built to last. But today, systems have to be designed to handle change. Change, which is inevitable today, is not in years but months and sometimes even days. The IT delivery cycles are expected to shrink and meet the demands of the business faster.
Mobile Internet and Cloud Computing
With the growth of smart phones with wireless broadband (200 Million Plus subscribers) – Mobile Internet and Cloud based consumer applications are pervasive (Facebook to Twitter).
How large enterprises can tap into smart phones (hand held computer) with wireless broadband?
October 26, 2009
Cloud Computing among Top 10 Strategic Technology Areas for 2010
Expected that it would remain among the key technology trend during 2010 and beyond, but never expected it this way – amazingly, Cloud Computing has made it as the #1 technology to watch at Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Areas for 2010. Rising from #3 during 2009, Cloud Computing is the #1 technology trend that you can’t afford to ignore for at least three years now!!
At Gartner Symposium/ITxpo held on October 20th 2009, Gartner analyst Dave Cearley presented insights into the top 10 technologies and trends to rule the world in 2010.
Continue reading "Cloud Computing among Top 10 Strategic Technology Areas for 2010" »
August 19, 2009
The Cloud Computing Quotes!
I got multiple requests to summarize the CXO & analyst quotes around cloud computing, temporarily I diverted them to my earlier blog entry: How enterprises have benefited from cloud? I will try to compile some of the direct quotes from CXOs and analysts based on my internet research.
In this post I will cover the “positively-biased & value-based (only)” quotes from “consumer” CXOs, of course you are aware of recent McKinsey report on cloud computing Clearing the Air on Cloud; I will cover the cribs sometime later.
I sincerely hope to grow the below list with your help. I am sure if I could add the date column & sort by it; it might be more helpful; but let me keep that in ambiguity - so as the source sites gets due credit 
August 18, 2009
Let's Catch-up @ HYSEA
Next in the series, after the NASSCOM Emerge Forum event, once again I and Srini would be presenting a business case for cloud computing @ HYSEA.
HYSEA is organizing half-day Workshop on Cloud Computing Usecases on August 22, 2009 @ CA, Manikonda, Hyderabad. We will be discussing a real-life use case and ROI model for a large postal solutions provider (ISV) for migrating to cloud infrastructure.
Lets connect, socialize & share experiences.
August 11, 2009
Case Study: Application Migration to Cloud
Infosys helped Volantis (www.volantis.com) migrate their application ubik.com to leverage the storage from Microsoft Azure platform. Microsoft has published the case study at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=400000496
August 06, 2009
Cloud Kiosks for a Social Cause!
Today, personal computers have become need for everyone; it is no more luxury for the people living in metros. Also, it has been a high-time for people living in rural areas get access to personal computers & internet so that they are not left behind. The need for computers & internet is established; however the cost of computer, software, hardware, internet, maintenance & upgrades is still not affordable to many.
In this entry, I want to throw an idea about giving a hassle-free personal computer on cloud to everyone in the world. In my view, it is an idea for a social cause, but at the same time, I see a different world of opportunities for cloud service providers, corporates & 3rd parties to penetrate in different market segments, increase adoption, improve market share and achieve overall revenue growth.
July 31, 2009
Open Source Software Option for Cloud Computing?
In my earlier blog Is there a Standard for Cloud adoption? I wrote on the cloud standards initiative which would help enterprises to be aware and adopt when it matures.
After Open Standards, in this blog let us look what are the Options available to the enterprise to leverage Open Source Software.
Continue reading "Open Source Software Option for Cloud Computing?" »
July 22, 2009
ISV migration to Cloud
Last week I presented a session at the Microsoft Worldwide partner conference in New Orlenes on the topic of migrating an on-premises application to the Azure Cloud. We took an real life example of the Infosys Green applications and demonstrated how did we migrated this application Azure with a minimal changes to the existing application.
July 20, 2009
Public Clouds,Are they any different?
http://www.microsoft.com/azure/pricing.mspx
I have taken a stab at comparing the Azure pricing versus value proposition vis-à-vis that of the two other major cloud providers in the market today. Let me first call out, although Amazon’s compute services (EC2) are in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category and folks may argue that comparing it with the likes of other Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers is not really an apples to apples comparison.
Continue Reading on "Public Clouds,What sets them apart?" >>
July 16, 2009
Is "price" the only criterion to win the Cloud battle?
I saw the Microsoft Azure Pricing announcement and related buzz; I thought it will be a good idea to compile & compare the different cloud service provider pricing. I have attempted a high-level comparison in this post.
At the same time, I was also thinking that - is "price" the "only important" criteria to win cloud battle? I feel that - the platform differences is much broader, the gaps between the service offerings are much larger and market penetration strategy & trends are very different.
So, "who" OR "what" is going to strike the winning deal?
Continue reading "Is "price" the only criterion to win the Cloud battle?" »
July 13, 2009
Where you gonna keep your gold?
Last week, I was presenting a session on Cloud Computing: Balancing Economics & Innovation organized by NASSCOM Emerge Forum for SMEs.
While I was able to create excitement by demonstrating The Economics of Cloud Computing; >95% of the senior executives were concerned on the security. I said hold on till Eureka! – It was the last section of my presentation along with audience poll. I asked 2 questions:
- “You gonna buy a house or rent one?”
- “Where you gonna keep your gold?”
The response to the last question self-answered most of the security concerns.
I was also very satisfied about the fact that - audience was able to discuss the trade-offs involved in the decision making about cloud vs. other options. This gave me immense pleasure because - before the session, when I asked a question “How many of you think that cloud computing can benefit you?” - I did not find great response; I said I will repeat this question towards the end also.
July 10, 2009
Catalyzing Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship has been identified as the primary growth engine of any Economy. In the early 1990s when India opened up its markets to Globalization, we saw the spirit of entrepreneurship receiving a tremendous impetus cited with several instances of Startups or Small and medium sized businesses growing leaps and bounds benefiting the nation’s economy. Infosys has been an excellent example of how entrepreneurship has contributed to India’s growth and that too both in tangible and intangible value terms bringing global recognition of India’s Knowledge driven economy. However Entrepreneurs face several challenges which impediments to their growth. A few of the challenged being
· Limited exposure to capital for running their businesses
· Limited access to experienced IT resources
· Lacking processes and systems which can help grow their businesses
· Inability to Innovate
IT has been the catalyst which helps businesses to foster growth, which Entrepreneurs have not truly been able to leverage very effectively. This primarily being due to the high entry barriers, primarily owing to the high capital which needs to be invested upfront in terms of hardware and software, associated in building applications and systems even before the Enterprise would have started earning any revenue. Due to this the traditional IT delivery model has not been conducive for Entrepreneurs to innovate as the risk associated with failure is very high.
With the latest computing paradigm aka “Cloud Computing”, the IT barriers have dropped and entrepreneurs can now look at leveraging IT as a tool for innovation which can script more growth stories.
July 08, 2009
Google Chrome OS and the Cloud
July 03, 2009
Lets Catch-up @ NASSCOM Friday's 2.0
As part of the NASSCOM Friday's 2.0 sessions, under the aegis of the NASSCOM EMERGE Forum, I would be taking an interactive session on "Cloud Computing: Balancing Economics & Innovation” on 10th July 2009 at the Infosys office. I would also be accompanied by one of my friend Srinivas Prabhala.
Lets connect, socialize & share experiences.
June 30, 2009
Is there a Standard for Cloud adoption?
In my earlier blog Google App Engine – Where to start? I wrote on one of the Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider on how enterprises can use?
For the Cloud to be embraced by enterprises there should be less fear on vendor lock-in by using proprietary platforms.
The primary need to over come that fear is aligning to industry wide standards. Cloud Standards which are important and relevant from a Cloud platform adoption perspective are Portability, Integration and Interoperability.
Let us look what are the industry initiatives happening on these cloud standards.
Continue reading "Is there a Standard for Cloud adoption?" »
June 27, 2009
The Cloud ROI Framework
Last week, I had an opportunity to discuss the cloud computing ROI model with a large banking major. We did some illustration using the simplistic ROI framework and figured-out the savings to the scale of 90% on CAPEX and 50% OPEX cost Y-o-Y.
The numbers were attractive enough to get attention of “C” profiles, he was bit positively surprised. The first question he asked was: what’s the trap here? He understands the concerns of security and outsourcing in banking business better than me, so I need not attempt raising technical obstacles. I simplified the answer: It is paradigm-shift; IT needs to manage this change! To my surprise, the wave-length matched just here, and we had constructive meeting.
We discussed the future of IT is in cloud, it is a big wave like moving from DOS to Windows; Desktops to Internet and On-premise IT to Cloud; through iterative lean IT transformation. We were on the same-page throughout, we concluded meeting with a note saying that – enterprises will adopt cloud tomorrow if not today; but if they fail to do it, they will be forced to adopt.
June 25, 2009
The Economics of Cloud Computing
I have summarized some of the horizontal business cases for cloud computing & on-demand services in general in this post.
- 100TB of storage space on cloud can save $1M per year by leveraging Storage as a Service
- 100 server provisioning can save >1MN per year, reduces time-to-market from 6-8 weeks to few min by leveraging Infrastructure as a Service
- Reduce TCO of Software by 50% by leveraging Software as a Service & Platform as a Service
June 08, 2009
Honey, I Shrunk the IT CAPEX !
"Enterprises can save at least 10$ per GB per Year AND shrink 90% of their IT CAPEX by moving the storage infrastructure on cloud"
Does it sound like a science fiction movie? It’s not - read on.
May 26, 2009
How enterprises have benefited from the cloud ?
It was an interesting question by one of our Manufacturing clients, when we were discussing an opportunity to leverage Microsoft Azure .Net Service Bus for their innovative SaaS product offering. The intent of the question was loud & clear from the tone backed-up by the data-points from recently published, highly debated McKinsey report – Clearing the Air on the Cloud – where the cost effectiveness of cloud for large enterprises was questioned.
We presented a bunch of case-studies to our client - some executed by Infosys and some publicly available on internet. As a most trusted transformation partner & technology advisor, we shared our viewpoints on each-one-of-them.
We also presented the counter argument from Booz Allen Hamilton on the referred McKinsey report. It helped turn the table – we were able to shape the discussion in the comfort zone to every stakeholder on the call – you know how difficult this is in short meetings!
Continue reading "How enterprises have benefited from the cloud ?" »
May 15, 2009
Hybrid Approach for Cloud Computing Adoption
Concepts of private and public clouds came into existence when cloud computing was an emerging trend trying to lay its roots into the large scale enterprise’s IT environment. The multi-tenant model of public clouds succeeded in attracting numerous small-scale organizations, which found the CapEx savings and reduced development time as alluring.
But large-scale enterprises see the public nature of cloud as a potential issue for adoption. Moreover, the fact that the IT is out of the limits of their control further alleviates the threat to public cloud’s adoption.
With an aim to tackle the challenges of public cloud a concept of in-house private clouds caught pace. However though private clouds are supposed to emulate the public cloud functionalities, they introduce their own shortcomings of scalability and up-front costs.
Hybrid model combining best of both worlds can be a solution.
Continue reading "Hybrid Approach for Cloud Computing Adoption" »
Go Green with the Cloud!
For the next generation business corporation, reducing carbon footprint is no longer a matter of ethics, it has become a necessity. Maintenance and service of huge, power hungry data-centers is a labiality that is no longer viable. Studies have even shown that customers tend to opt for greener corporations with reduced carbon footprints. So going green not only boosts the organization’s image in the market, but also reduces direct financial overheads.
Cloud computing removes the traditional limitations for computing power imposed by physio-geographical boundaries. Now high quality computing power is available on-demand and with a significantly lower overhead. Service and maintenance shifts off your backyard onto specialized server farms in remote locations. So what are the ways to harness cloud computing power to reduce carbon footprints?
May 14, 2009
Google App Engine – Where to start?
In my first blog Down pour or Drizzle to Enterprise? I wrote how large enterprises can take a drizzle in the Cloud.
In this let us look one of the Cloud providers – Google App Engine (GAE).
Is Google App Engine ready for the Enterprise?
Where enterprises can start the adoption?
May 13, 2009
You gonna buy a house, or rent one?
Yes, you can consider this as second EMI of Business Case @ Cloud series, that I started sometime back.
We all have faced this question - is it a good idea to buy a house or stay on rent or stay as paying-guest. It is a very simple question; however the answer is extremely difficult for one. Everyone will have done some homework and analysis to make a decision suitable to one’s needs. The key trade-offs are “luxury Vs liability”, “flexibility Vs stability” and “cost Vs savings”.
We will take this analogy to cloud and discuss the case for datacenters @ cloud and explore if “private clouds” will make sense to enterprises with some illustrative cost benefit analysis. We will also capture various trade-offs in the decision making process to understand when to apply what strategy.
May 06, 2009
Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground
I am sure I have tried to be more practical, realistic, relevant and reasonable so far with my blog postings on Business Case @ Cloud and Make Money @ Cloud series. I understand the real cloud implementation and broader industry adoption is farfetched, and there are challenges on the way – maturity of platform & services, standardization & interoperability, data security & ownership, and so on.
Assuming all these tactical or technical issues gets resolved, assuming that it becomes a default IT infrastructure standard - where the world will go say after 5 years, 10 years or beyond that on cloud horse? How long is the life-cycle of Cloud? How long is it going to stay?
These are the kind of questions that can be answered if we capture the ideas related to the solutions and services “beyond obvious clouds”. In this series we will capture “visionary cloud solutions & services” - of course - some of them could be easy wins and some of them could be just dreams. I will start with cloud stereotype – “The Vertical Clouds”.
April 30, 2009
Business Case @ Cloud
Of course, you know IT Outsourcing, no doubt about that – however, have you ever felt that - the vision & scope to understand outsourcing could vary based on individual’s or organization’s experience, exposure and maturity in the field? Can we go beyond the traditional thought process around outsourcing to bring next level of innovation in this area?
In this series, I will focus on creating an illustrative business case & cost-benefit analysis for most common business scenarios through outplacing IT @ Cloud. A similar article authored by me, titled Lean IT Transformation has been published on ebizQ.net.
I will start with a Corporate Web Site business scenario, every corporate / organization has a public facing web site today. These websites are generally built using Content Management Solutions available in the market. The variants of this scenario are many – Intranet Portal, Employee Collaboration Portal, and so on – they use a similar technology solution platform.
I will do an illustrative cost-benefit analysis of on-premise Vs cloud based Vs SaaS based solution for such business scenarios.
April 24, 2009
Make Money @ Cloud
I am sure the cloud buzz has reached you by now, and why not, it is also approaching the peak of the Gartner Hype Cycle for emerging technologies. The buzz also can be confirmed with simple analytics using Google Trends where-in cloud computing is much ahead of grid computing and other technology buzz.
Are you wondering how you can make money from this buzz? Are you an individual, are you cloud infrastructure provider, are you cloud service provider, are you an ISV, are you system integrator, are you an Enterprise or are you Government? In this series of Make Money @ Cloud, I capture my ideas and your thoughts, which can help everyone to make money from the cloud buzz & reality.
April 20, 2009
Down pour or Drizzle to Enterprise?
Enterprises need to do more with less than never before. Can Cloud computing address this?
Cloud Computing is getting embraced by small medium businesses and new biz start-ups.
Is the Cloud ready for the large enterprises too? There are business and technology challenges like losing control, not proven, security (data confidentiality) etc. for the cloud to down pour.
However, large enterprises can take a drizzle for select work loads and business need.
