Cloud Computing Skills Required for IT Employees

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Gartner: Top 10 Key Technology Trends for

2013

BySaroj KarOn November 6, 2012 1 Comment

Gartner named the top 10 technologies andtrends in IT that will be strategic for most organizations in 2013. The analysts presented theirfindings at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo conference, which was held in Orlando last week.

Gartner calls a strategic technology that can have a major impact on the corporate market inthe next three years. These technologies are formed at the junction of four converging forces

social networks, mobile devices, and cloud information management.

10 main strategic trends in IT in 2013 are:

The Onslaught of Mobile Devices

Gartner predicts that by 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs, becoming the most populardevice to access Web in the world, and by 2015, over 80% of all mobile phones sold inmature markets will be smartphones.

However, only 20% of these devices will use Windows. By 2015, the supply of media tabletswill amount to almost 50% of notebook shipments and Windows 8 will occupy the third

place after the Googles Android and Apples iOS.

Native Mobile Apps and HTML5

In the market of tools for creating both consumer and enterprise applications, there are morethan 100 vendors. Now Gartner classifies mobile software development tools into severalcategories. In the next few years there will be no single tool suitable for all types of mobileapplications.

JavaScript performance will push HTML5 into mainstream of web applications. However,the native applications will not disappear and will always offer the best user experience andthe most advanced functionality.

Personal Cloud


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Private cloud is gradually replacing the PC as a place where users keep their personal contentand where they subscribe to the service and store personal settings. Private cloud will cause aunique combination of services, web resources, and means of communication that will be thebasis of their work with the computer and communication.

Corporate Showcase Applications

Organizations face the need to showcase their own applications, as some vendors will limittheir display to only certain types of devices and applications. Gartner expects that by 2014,many organizations will provide mobile applications to employees through private showcasesapplications.

Internet of Things

Internet of Things is a concept that describes how the Internet will expand to the extent thatphysical objects, consumer devices and physical assets would become more attached to the

web. Key elements of Internet of Things, which are embedded in such objects, are built-insensors, pattern recognition technology and NFC-payments.

Smart phones and other smart devices do not just use the cellular network, they communicatevia NFC, Bluetooth, LTE and Wi-Fi with a wide range of devices and peripherals watches,displays, medical sensors, smart posters and home entertainment electronics.

Hybrid IT and Cloud Computing

Gartner predicts that CIOs will do more roles with less resources and cloud computing willpush them to go in that direction but it requires more strategy planning. This new mediationrole will allow IT departments to consolidate and expand its influence within the organizationand become an important force in the face of new, more complex requirements associatedwith the growing adoption of cloud as an approach to the consumption of IT.

Strategic Big Data

Companies will start abandon the concept of single data warehouse containing all theinformation to go to multiple systems with multiple content management, several datawarehouses and management of specialized information.

Actionable Analytics

As productivity and lower cost, IT managers can now afford to adopt the analysis andsimulation for each business process. With the cloud, data warehousing and mobility, dataanalytics, optimization and simulation can be used anywhere and at any time.

In-Memory Computing

In-Memory computing technology can handle real time and huge amounts of data for internaland external users. The analysis firm says we can now more quickly detect correlationsbetween events in millions of tens of milliseconds. The ability to run applications in both

transactional and analytics against the same data set, opens unexplored possibilities forbusiness innovation.


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Integrated Ecosystem

The market is transitions towards more integrated systems and ecosystems because userswant to take advantage of lower cost, simplicity and security. To meet this demand,companies will intervene on several points including combine hardware and software

appliances and packaged services

The Future of Cloud Computing10

Predictions

ByMartin TantowOn June 24, 2011 7 Comments

The cloud is revolutionizing computing as businesses andorganizations shift from client-server model to cloud computing. In the next years,technology experts and users expect to live mostly in the cloud as they work through

cyberspace-based applications accessed from networked devices.

GigaOM Pros research releases new opportunities in the cloud, new architectures andstartups in the space.

Here are the 10 cloud predictions for the next year.

1. Large organizations will host important applications with cloud providers like AWS and

Rackspace. Also, commodity IaaS providers will build up their services for these enterprises.

2. There will be an increase in solid-state drives among commodity and enterprise IaaS

providers. New classes of applications and services will be made possible to run optimally inthe cloud.

3. In the private cloud space, there will be contraction. The presence of large-vendors and

OpenStack-based products will make way for less-successful startups to gather acquisitions.

Specialized private cloud startups wont have a hard time finding buyers as they will begin

rounding out their private cloud portfolios with acquisitions that deliver specific capabilities.

4. As large vendors realize the need to stake their claims, PaaS acquisitions and launches will

be a profitable market. HP, Dell and even Oracle will facilitate PaaS in their public and/or

private offerings.

5. The convergence of big data will continue. It will result to advanced analytics features,

publicly hosted data-crunching services like the Amazon Elastic MapReduce, and

optimization of private cloud software as it incorporate Hadoop clusters or other parallel-processing systems into the cloud infrastructure.


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6. Bigger revenue will be generated for startups that address data-center-to-cloud latency.

With the rapid improvement of intra-cloud computing, storage and networking

performance, one hindrance would be moving some applications types to the public cloud

because of the large quantities of existing data.

7. AWS will be launching a partner program to increase integration with private cloud

software. There will also be an open source play for the growing OpenStack support.8. After the data breach that involves an IaaS cloud or cloud storage service, we will get to see

the emergence of a de facto or an official cloud security standard. Cloud providers will be

driven to agree on a security protocol that is much better that what they currently have.

9. There will be an increase in PaaS offerings for specialized mobile platforms because Apples

iCloud and other consumer-focused cloud services popularity. The current PaaS offering are

not well-suited for mobile applications. Developers will look into cloud-based gaming and

other mobile applications.

10. Data virtualization will pick up its momentum as data integration gives way. Data

virtualization offers the benefits of centralized access without the need to maintain extract-

transform load (ETL) system or as large a data warehouse, critical differences as data sources

multiply to include SaaS applications, cloud servers and mobile devices.

Cloud Computing Skills Required for IT

Employees

By Florence de Borja On February 6, 2013 2 Comments

With the present impact of cloud computing on dataaccess and storage, job descriptions are also experiencing some sort of a metamorphosis as

businesses move to the clouds. This welcome change isnt only transforming the ITdepartments but also the company, as a whole. Today, IT is no longer relegated to fixingissues. Employees in IT departments are now expected to search for cost effective cloudcomputing applications.

With cloud computing, Chief Information Officers can now focus on creating businessstrategies rather than devote their time to fixing IT problems. There is now a growing demandfor cloud strategy consultants, cloud architects, and cloud service planners. In a reportreleased by the Center for Economics and Business Research and EMC, they claimed that the

growing demand for cloud computing services will generate at least 446,000jobs yearly until2015.


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Hotel, retail, and distribution sectors are expected to benefit the most but the public sector isexpected to be in great need of about 801,000 cloud computing professionals for the next 5years. For business, financial, and banking services, around 207,000 cloud positions will becreated.

Initially, cloud computing requires people with managerial skills because they are expected totake the lead in evaluating cloud computing offerings, creating the firms strategy towards itsplanned movement to the clouds, negotiating services and contracts with cloud providers,working with the firms legal and procurement departments, as well as choosing theappropriate cloud applications for the company.

However, as more and more businesses troop to the clouds, there will be a need for othercloud professionals such as cloud product manager, cloud network engineer, cloud systemsengineer, cloud consultant, cloud systems administrator, cloud developer, cloud engineer,cloud sales executive, and cloud software engineer.

Skills required for these jobs will include vision and innovation skills; project management,leadership, and business communication skills; negotiating and supplier relationship skills;planning, analysis, and business architectural skills; and technical proficiency.

Because cloud computing presents a fresh way of doing business, it is important for a cloudcomputing professional to fully understand how to tap cloud computing to run the enterprise.Cloud platforms must be simulated in order to find out if the cloud service meets the needs ofthe company. Leadership is also an important cloud computing skill because cloudapplications must be brought into the company to improve the business.

A cloud computing professional must be able to negotiate with cloud vendors with thecompanys interests in mind. He must be able to raise questions about intellectual propertyrights, physical location, data availability, service level agreements, and service interruptions.Planning is also important because the cloud professional is expected to create a road map forcloud implementations within the company. Lastly, the cloud computing employee mustpossess the necessary technical proficiency in order to secure the operations of the business inthe cloud.

Four Layers of Cloud Computing

ByCzaroma Roman On May 1, 2011 2 Comments

Cloud computing can be described as the newera in the world of computing. It is composed of several layers, all of which can be accessedby users connected to it. Understanding what each layer comprises of, the functions of each


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layer, how these layers interact with each other, including the need for diverse technologicalskills to make the elements work together, are all essential.

Cloud computing demands a mix of technology skills, negotiating skills, and people skillsand business acumen. By simplifying the cloud computing concept into layers, it is easier to

define the roles and skills needed within the overall structure to see where your business fitsinto the model.

Here are the four key layers of a cloud environment and the technological skills required tobetter understand the aspects of cloud computing.

1. The Virtualization Layer

This layer forms the foundation of cloud technology. This enables user request for computingresources by accessing appropriate resources and deploy large numbers of virtual machines(VMs) on hardware.

The most important skill needed is understanding virtualization management principles, suchas load balancing. Other necessary skills are having knowledge of the virtualization platform,storage, connecting storage to a virtualization host, and allocating storage properly.Networking knowledge is also needed to configure hosts properly.

2. The Networking Layer

It is in this layer that solid understanding of network protocols such as TCP/IP and domainname server, including switching and routing principles are needed. The ability to rework theentire network on the fly is also essential, especially in network that features numerous ISPconnections and devices.

3. The OS Layer

The core skills required are ensuring that the system is properly tuned for its role, setting up aserver with correct applications and settings, and maintaining optimal performance settings.To ensure that cloud services are optimally deployed, delivered and maintained, networkingskills are also vital in this layer.

4. The Application Layer

This is the most utilized layer of cloud computing. The cloud provided needs responsibility inthe management of the software and databases, including installation, updates and removal.Cloud developers should have knowledge in JavaScript, XML and Perl languages, as well asback-end infrastructure applications like Apache, Tomcat and SQL.

As more functionality moves to the internet cloud, every provider and user is needs todevelop set of skills required. As time progresses, these layers will shift, blur or might evendisappear entirely. As business move into the cloud, it is vital that thorough understanding isinvolved as to what elements, skills and changes are involved in the process.


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Cloud Computing to Change How Jobs are

Done

ByCloudTimes On December 27, 2011 Leave a Comment

Cloud computing is obviously a game changerand a life changer; this brings to mind how the nature of work and jobs will be affected in2012. This includes not just the IT Technology, but all jobs that operate on the cloud.

IT will play a strategic role on the direction that businesses will take as cloud makes it a morescalable and reliable platform.

Partner and principal technologist of Concentrated Technology, Greg Shields told Jason

Helmick of Interface Technical Training, For a long period of time, IT was in that Wild

West mode. We were making up the rules as we go. You dont grow your own food. Youdont raise your own cows anymore for meat. You go to the grocery store because

somebodys figured out that I can create this experience that is the grocery store, and I can

do it at a lower cost, both in time and in dollar cost.

IT leaders are now tasked to identify and generate resources whether they are from theexisting data center or they are from the public cloud. CIOs are also expected to identify anddevelop relevant cloud computing infrastructure. A recent study of 685 CIOs was conducted

by CA Technologies. The figure showed that 54% of the CIOs were happy from cloudcomputing for it gave them more time on business strategies, development and innovation.71% said that they already migrated to cloud computing and see their position as a viablemeans to generate additional management roles, unlike CIOs that have not been virtualized.


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The greater challenge that companies are faced with as a result of this trend is to find highlyskilled people.

VP of global marketing CTO for EMC Corporation, Chuck Hollis said in his blog, If youre

an IT leader, youve got an interesting challenge on your hands. You most likely dont have

the right portfolio of end-state roles, skills and processes. And you are probably lacking thepeople with skills who can lead the change from present state to future state.

Other jobs that will be on demand include application development professionals andmanagers, enterprise architects, cloud capacity planners, cloud architects, cloud servicemanagers and cloud solutions consultant. Cloud is expected to be part of each applicantsportfolio and will be an integral part of their job qualifications.

COO of The Open Group and CEO of the Association of Enterprise, Steve Nun said,

Business executive involvement will be especially helpful when outsourcing IT processes,

such as cloud computing. Business executive involvement will be especially helpful when

outsourcing IT processes, such as cloud computing,

IBMs Kevin Daley and Vice Chairman of The Open Group Business Forum added, Cloud

will help increase the speed of development and change. The business architect will be called

upon to ensure the strategic relevancy of transformation in a repeatable fashion as cycle

times and rollouts happen faster.

Hollis of EMC emphasized that IT people will become the infrastructure enablers. Thecloud has also placed software engineers on the spotlight; in fact, CareerCast identified it asthe best job position in 2012. Here, is a glimpse of the new breed of professionals as a resultof cloud computing:

Cloud Computing ArchitectProvides a key role in cloud architecture and design plus theimplementation of various cloud-based solutions; also collaborates with CTO, engineeringand product managers to drive optimized cloud solutions.

Cloud SpecialistProvides the expertise in troubleshooting design and engineering problemsby working closely with engineers and project managers.

Lead Software DeveloperProvides cloud-focused business solutions that will increasecompany value and enterprise growth. Also provides continuous upgrade of the cloud

platform to allow cloud integration with platforms such as Google and Amazon.

Systems EngineerProvides support for a seamless transition of services to the cloudcomputing platform. It also involves development of cloud-based business plans andstrategies with high RMA, performance level and security.

Cloud ArchitectProvides technical support for clients and prospective users and interactswith CIO and CTO levels regarding best cloud practices that will benefit the clients.

Cloud Alliance ManagerProvides management and control of cloud partnerships througheffective marketing programs that will be equally beneficial for all stakeholders.


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Virtualization & Cloud Computing Subject Matter ExpertProvides the expertise fromcloud computing roadmap development from a technical and mission perspective, plusidentification of probable cloud obstacles and provides solutions for them.

CIO Summit 2011: The Future of Cloud

Computing

ByIrmee Layo On July 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

IDCs Asia Pacific Cloud services andtechnologies principal analyst, Chris Morris predicts that the future challenges to be faced bythe chief information officer (CIO) of 2015 will be trends in outsourcing, the cloud giantsdictating the trends with cloud vendors and the converged IT infrastructure.

According to Morris who spoke at the recent CIO Summit 2011, there are four specific

frameworks that will change the cloud model forever.

Outsourcing 3.0

The first one will be Outsourcing 3.0, this will directly affect how services used on mobiledevices, mobile phone applications and information analytics will evolve and integrate withinthe cloud platform. Morris said If you just assume that the Cloud is a place to put yourapplication in, or replace infrastructure then you are going to get left behind.

Morris predicts that Outsourcing 3.0 will be just another tool kit in 2015. He saidOutsourcing 3.0 using the cloud would have a full portfolio of services from commodity to

mission critical services, and because of that service management plays a critical part of theIT service cycle.

Hybrid Cloud to Include Data Center Transformation

The second model will be the changes with the hybrid environment of both the public and theprivate cloud. There will be more integration among the two and this will evolve to includecloud-based data centre revolution. There is a long way to go with data centertransformation, as the target for large enterprises is 100 virtual machines per server by

2012, Morris predicted.

The network and storage is being overstressed by the number of virtual machines and the

ROI is not being addressed, Morris said.


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Big Data Will be Part of Cloud Supplier Portfolios

Morris also predicts that the provision for Big Data will become part of the Cloud suppliersportfolios. In fact, according to the IDC statistics that was released in 2010, 9.8 exabytes ofdata storage was purchased by cloud suppliers from the Asia Pacific alone. Morris said The

Cloud service provider has a big part to play in this as they have the relationships with thestorage providers that are on demand.

According to Morris, there will be a change in the suppliers portfolio of services, becausesuppliers will gradually decrease leaving only the cloud giants that can give more serviceofferings for the users. Morris said By 2015 public cloud will probably be more importantthan virtual private cloud because those security and reliability levels will have come up and

there will be 80 per cent of new applications developed for public cloud.

The cloud suppliers capability need to be closely monitored.

Your future will depend on your ability to source and manage these applications from apublic cloud environment. You as a CIO are going to be dealing more with Cloud service

hosts, far fewer technicians, and the vendors are going to vanish. We predict that up to 35

per cent of your key vendors will be Wiki trivia by 2015.

The trend with the cloud vendors is that they will be taken over and be offered partnershipsdue to their wide base of customers in the cloud market.

The Cloud Skills Base Will Change

Finally, the model of cloud skills base will revolutionize IT technology operations withoutsourcing organizations that manages technology and IT people.

If you are looking at the future mix of an organization, it would be 80 per cent technicians

and 20 per cent management. That means you need to retrain and re-skill people who can

manage services, Morris said.

Mobile Cloud

Mobile cloud computing is gaining stream.According to the latest study from Juniper Research, the number of mobile cloud computingsubscribers is expected to grow rapidly in the next five years. Cloud-based mobile marketwill generate annual revenue of $9.5 billion in 2014 from $400 million in 2009, at an average

annual increase of 88%.


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This phenomenal growth is driven by new web standard HTML5, increased mobilebroadband coverage and the need for always-on collaborative services for the enterprise.

Cloud Apps in Your Mobile

Googles Gmail and Google Voice for iPhone are just two of the well -known mobile cloudapps. Mobile cloud computing is referred to as the infrastructure where both the data storageand the data processing happen outside of the mobile device. From a consumers point-of-view, a cloud-based mobile application is similar to an app purchased or downloaded from amobile application store like iTunes, where the processing power is driven not from thehandheld device, but from the cloud. When launched from the iPhone homescreen, the appsperform like any other app on the iPhone.

HTML5 Will Drive Mobile Computing Revolution

ABI Research released a major study in mobile Cloud computing which details how HTML5technology, mobile applications and mobilized enterprises will lead the growth.

Juniper Research believes that enterprise applications will account for the bulk of mobilecloud app revenues. HTML5, the core language used to create the web, will bring about adramatic revolution. HTML5 is the proposed standard for next version web markup language.The cloud-based apps offer improved offline data caching, where the apps will still workeven if Internet connection is down. HTML5-enabled apps also reduce server load demandwhich will make cloud-based mobile connectivity as a means to improve access of nationsand locales with poor coverage.

Cloud-enabled Enterprise Mobility Growth

Juniper Research sees that enterprise will drive mobile growth. It notes that 75% of themobile cloud-based application market is represented by enterprise users. Thru smartphonesmobile apps, corporate users can company data, share files, collaborate on projects and more.Moreover, there will also be benefits for consumer-oriented apps. In the next four years,mobile apps will comprise an increasing proportion of the total revenues with business plansthat involve subscription-based content and mobile advertising.

The Power of the Cloud

Juniper Report notes that the key to mobiles future depends on the processing power of thecloud itself. Cloud-based mobile apps can scale beyond the capabilities of any smartphone.Cloud apps have the power of a server-based computing infrastructure accessible through anapps mobile interface. It does not only allow non smartphone owner to access the samemobile applications, but allows the apps themselves to become more powerful.

Cloud Apps and the Mobile Marketplace

Earlier this year, Gartner researchers estimated that $7 billion will be generated by the appstore businesses and would reach $29.5 billion by 2013. This would grow even more by 2014when the mobile cloud-based application market is expected to near $9.5 billion. From thesecomparisons, it appears that in the near future, there will be more growth for both traditional,device-based apps and mobile cloud-based apps.


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5 Major Trends in Mobile Cloud

ComputingByMartin TantowOn June 5, 2011 7 Comments

If a survey will be conducted on the mostglorified technology trends of the year, there are only two answers most people will say; itseither cloud computing or smartphones and tablets. Its everywhere on wall discussions ofmost IT forums and communities. While some vendors are busy slapping these products, thetrend is still up for these two giants. And millions of dollars on investment continue to floodinto cloud computing and mobile applications. Major companies like Microsoft, Cisco,Oracle and IBM are only a few of the major investors who are willing to empty their pocketsfor it.

What is so interesting is the intersection happening between cloud computing and mobilecomputing, giving rise to the new trend in the Mobile Cloud. Although mobile cloud andthe Cloud may seem to be interchanged and viewed as one and the same, they are actuallydifferent with regard to security, platform infrastructure, design and many others. Otherdifferences will be noticeable as the new mobile cloud continues to evolve.

Mobile cloud in its infancy has very strong major trends to look out for:

1. Acceleration in the Consumerization of IT through Mobile Computing

The increase in demand from workers to access non-PC devices and be able to workeverywhere on smartphones and tablet PCs speeds up the consumerization of mobilecomputing.

David Link, CEO and co-founder of ScienceLogic says about IT operations and cloud

solutions, IT cant think about things on a node-by-node basis anymore. They must think of

resources as aggregate services that they must make securely available to a number of

devices, including phones and tablets.

As social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin continues to be popular andconvenient for users, they have now become a place to do business and work using mobile

gadgets. The tremendous increase in demand for smartphones and tablets has a paralleldemand for IT solutions to speed up applications development for mobile computing while


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ensuring security is in place.

2. Risk Challenges are Evolving

The issue of security vulnerability in mobile computing increases the risk more than doubleand has caught the attention of hackers to invade smartphones and tablets. This has beenexamined and authentication verification was strengthened. Certain security protocols havealso been established like limitations to access and data modification from end-users.However, this may only work for awhile because IT people will either find a way to workaround these restrictions that are often a less secure platform.

Custie Crampton, VP of Mobile Device Management Technology at Tangoe, said, There is

risk with everything. The risks are double edged, you run the risk of having your system

hacked or you also run the risk of losing key and talented people for not putting up with the

technology demands. Crampton believes that there is no way, but to move forward withmobile computing, If you create different categories of data, you can then define what each

level means and how to control it, he said.

3. Mobile Computing will Revolutionize How Work is Done

When mobile computing entered the cloud, one of the first applications that got the highestdemand was email access; whether it was for personal or business use. That is whyMicrosoft, Google and Salesforce.com laid out immediately their cloudbased emailplatforms.

A recent Frost & Sullivan report summarized in this statement the company demand for emailto be on the cloud:

After years of uncertainty, the North American hosted enterprise email markets have finally

taken off. As businesses perceive email as mission-critical, they were skeptical about email

applications residing outside the enterprise in a third-party data center in the past. However,

the entry of large cloud-based providers and on-premise email vendors has lent credibility to

the software as a service (SaaS) delivery model. In addition, technology maturity and cost

advantages have helped spur the growth of hosted email services among enterprise users.

Mobile cloud computing will change and speed up how work is done especially for those insales and marketing. This trend is a welcome paradigm shift for mobile users, but will put atremendous pressure with IT solutions providers.

4. Mobile Computing will Become the Internet of Things

Joy Weiss, President and CEO of Dust Networks says about Internet getting everywhere, If

you can put a sensor and a network anywhere, then think of all of the places you might want

to monitor and all of the data youd like to collect. Today, with sensors running on batteries

or harvested energy, you already have the ability to get information from anywhere or

connect to anything anywhere.


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This is where mobile computing will cross the threshold; while everyone else are busymanaging and building the cloud platform and infrastructure, network servicing companiesare getting their devices ready to mix everything together, making it the Internet of Things.

Projections made by IBM, Cisco and Ericsson that there will be 1 trillion Internets connectedto mobile phones by 2015 was moved up by IBM to 2013. Network companies and mobilecomputing will be the cornerstone for end users and service providers such as: sensornetworks, smart grids and smart buildings.

5. Mobile Computing is Here to Stay Whether People or IT are Prepared or Not

David Link of ScienceLogic who tagged mobile computing as the Internet of Things andDevice-aggedon, referred to this even in the early adoption of cloud computing. In fact,many people are unaware that smart grid and smart parking meters they now use are allcloud-based applications.

Even business owners who are firm about their stand not to move their core applications tothe cloud, are also unaware that while they are using Salesforce.com, OpenAir and otherSaaS applications, they are already in the cloud.

Top 5 Predictions for Mobile Cloud

Computing

ByMartin TantowOn December 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

A recent survey was made by Cisco IBSG (Internet Business Solutions Group) on the impactmobile cloud computing will have on businesses this coming 2012. The survey wasconducted over 1,000 respondents from various businesses and the results were veryinteresting.

The top 5 predictions from Cicsco IBSG was released via a cloud computing infographic tohelp users to better understand what mobile cloud is all about. Here, are the followingpredictions they made:

1. Video Conferencing via Mobile Applications will be Common for the Workplace More

people will find video conferencing via their mobile phones very convenient for the virtualworkplace. This platform is run with the use of a desktop webcam, telepresence station or


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simply a mobile device unit. To date, only 20% are ready to maximize this cloud feature, but

by the end of 2012 the prediction said that more people will make the most of this cloud

application.

2. Unified Cloud Solutions will be the Demand for most Businesses Businesses will be more

apt to use different gadgets including mobile phones, so the demand for integration and

unified cloud solutions will be the trend. Users will want a seamless transfer of files and evencalls from a mobile phone to an office work phone.

3. Mobile Phones will be an Active Extension for Desktops Many users will clamor for virtual

desktop integration (VDI) Users will demand the same desktop experience and performance

on their mobile phones. This will provide users the flexibility and mobility they need plus it

will make the business more productive.

4. Personal and Professional Limitations will Haze The mobile cloud will make work and

social life more meaningful as the Internet access through mobile cloud becomes accessible

and secure, which will make business more fruitful and personal life in a state of balance.

5. Thin Client and Mobile Devices will be the Trend for 2012 Use of device will shift away

from the smartphone as data and files are stored in the cloud. The security issue will be

managed through a thin- client approach, so that when devices are stolen the risk of losingthe data can be managed as well.

Cloud Computing and Smartphones

ByMartin TantowOn March 1, 2011 1 Comment

For the past two years, the tech industry trends

have revolved around cloud computing and smartphones. As Venture Capital firms rapidlyinvest in cloud computing and smartphone companies, it is important to look at how thesetwo technologies interrelate.

Today the majority of mobile applications do most of the data storage and processing on themobile devices themselves and not in the cloud, going forward cloud computing andsmartphone technologies will evolve into a mobile Cloud, with mobile specific infrastructure,cloud storage, security and compliance, and applications among other things.

As users/employees spend less time on PCs and notebooks and more time on smartphonesand tablets, to access information and perform work related functions, it is crucial for cloud

service vendors to deliver cloud functionalities compatible with a number of differentdevices, including smartphones and tablets.


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Mobile cloud computing has many advantages among the few listed below:

Sharing information and applications without the need of complex and costly hardware and

software as the business computations are run in the cloud.

Enhanced features and functionality of mobile phones through new cloud applications.

Ease of access and development since the access point to mobile cloud computing is througha browser and not a mobile operating system.

Cheaper for cloud computing vendors to build mobile cloud applications because of

economies of scale, i.e access to all smartphone devices, one application can be shared and

accessed by many smartphone users.

Broader reach, since mobile cloud applications can be accessed through a browser, the cloud

computing applications can be reached by all mobile users not only smartphone users, as

long as the mobile has access to the internet.

Some of the potential pitfalls to mobile cloud computing is the lack of internet speed andaccess. Also, mobile cloud computing presents challenges already inherent in PC and

Notebooks such as security breaches, and viruses attacks, and it is thus important to haveidentity authentication as well as controlled and secured access.

Mobile cloud computing will provide many benefits for cloud computing, mobile networkoperators. Among those benefits: increased reach, reduced costs, and reduced reliance onhardware and software equipments.

The Future of Mobile Phones is in the Apps

ByMartin TantowOn May 9, 2012 Leave a Comment

The network solutions company, Juniper, is

anticipating 60 percent growth in the next couple of years due to its cloud computing strategyand focus on telecommunications service providers.

Juniper knows that internet users will start looking past devices, gadgets or hardware. Focuswill be on services and gadgets will have to learn how to interact with each other in orderto allow users a seamless data experience.

The future of mobile business is not about mobile phones. Its about the user and how theyexpect data services to serve them, regardless of where they are and what device they areusing.


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Smartphone Penetration is Growing

By the end of 2012, smartphone sales internationally will grow 25 percent. That is 472million in 2011 to 630 million.

The key is in evolution of smartphones itself. Just a few years back, Blackberry was the onlysmartphone accepted in the corporate world. Now, iPhones and Androids have replaced mostof Blackberrys market share. Maravedis anticipates that over 50 percent of smartphones willbe Android OS, 18 percent will be iPhone, 13 percent will be Windows and 12 percent willbe Blackberry.

Mobile Phones as Data Silos

When Google introduced the Chromebook last year, one message was clear. Google wants usto rely on the cloud. Programs, files, applications and media are all browser based and in the

cloud.

Chrome is not the only browser that synchs with the cloud for contacts, emails, bookmarks,and even games. However, all of these browsers still have to store user information on thehardware itself. Chrome OS does not. Everything is in the cloud which allows people to login to any device and access all their files, applications, media, and information.

Mobile Phones as Apps Multiplier

Appcelerator and IDG determined that 84 percent of smartphone users are using cloud-basedservices. The majority of this is primarily pushed by popular social media sites such as

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Skype. These sites create mobile versions of theirsites allowing users to log in and use the service seamlessly.

However, growth of apps supplements is coming fast. For example, there is an app thatallows a user to access any data of file from his phone and send it through Dropbox with onlya couple of clicks.

There is also an app that allows a user to access files on his desktop and other data through amobile phone.

These apps are making carrying laptops unnecessary. Everything can now be put in the cloudand accessed through the phone.

Mobile Phone as Unifier of Fragmented Devices

Development of intelligent technologies such as HTML 5 is making it possible and easier fordevelopers to create applications and services that operates across all platforms. It is alsominimizing problems such as latency as it allows data caching. Unstable internet connectionis becoming less of a problem. CND or Content Delivery Network is also allowing dynamicre-routing of traffic based on user location (read our review on CloudFare).

This development has motivated more people to own multiple devices. Theres the desktop inthe office, laptop for personal use, tablet for external meetings, and now, a smartphone. The


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mobile phone seems the one poised to unify all devices. Desktops and laptops are most likelygoing to be left in the office or homes and tablets are still considered not quite a laptop, notquite a phone. Mobile phones are the ones thats capable of doing everything personalcomputer can do.

So, Whats the Future

The future of mobile phones is in the clouds. Its not about providers anymore. Its not aboutthe features of the phone. It will be about that mobile phones are becoming the primarycomputer of everydays life. Development should be made to allow for seamless integrationwith other devices and overcome latency limitations.

Gartner: Personal Cloud to Replace

Traditional Business IT Solutions by 2014

ByIrmee Layo On March 22, 2012 2 Comments

Gartner Special Research team conducted astudy to identify how business enterprises plan to thrive in the coming years. Obviously, thecloud had significantly influenced how business strategies are done and how customer needsare met. Gartner released two reports that looked into the cloud computing trends; entitled,The New PC Era: The Personal Cloud and the Consumer Research: Personal Cloud.

The traditional business IT solutions will soon be replaced by personal cloud by 2014according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner projects that the personal cloud will revolutionize userexperience because of its outstanding level of flexibility. This is as users become engagedwith various computer devices in their daily activities whether in business or in personalcomputing.

In addition to this, the mobile cloud continues to entice users as it continues to leverage on itsfeatures, strengths and applications that are expected to improve user productivity andsatisfaction levels.

Gartners Research vice president, Steve Kleynhans said, Major trends in clientcomputing

have shifted the market away from a focus on personal computers to a broader deviceperspective that includes smartphones, tablets and other consumer devices. Emerging cloud


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services will become the glue that connects the web of devices that users choose to access

during the different aspects of their daily life.

Enterprises were left wondering for the past two years as to how client computing solutionswill affect the market in the next five years, and what other developments will arise.

Many call this era the post-PC era, but it isnt really about being after the PC, but rather

about a new style of personal computing that frees individuals to use computing in

fundamentally new ways to improve multiple aspects of their work and personal lives, said

Kleynhans.

Driving Forces that Shape Cloud Computing Trends

Consumerizationseveral factors serve as precursors to the trend in information technologyand how it has affected the user consumerization. Among the key factors include individualdifferences in technology expectations, social and Internet influences, various mobile deviceinnovations, data availability and empowerment of consumers.

Virtualizationflexibility and scalability of IT organizations were significantly improved byvirtualization. It has minimized irregular incidences as a result of application issues fromvarious operating systems, processor architectures and a wide genre of devices. Virtualizationhas made it possible to allow applications and processes to integrate seamlessly in theemerging cloud computing world.

Applicationsuser design, delivery and consumption have dramatically changed thecorporate environment and the business market. The emergence of various applications raised

the need for better cross-platform portability and flexibility, user experience and powerfulcloud-servers.

Self-Service Cloudthe cloud platform provided a new level of opportunity andempowerment to users. Users can now have the scalability and endless resources toaccomplish their IT solution plans that are highly dependent on user choice of applications,content and services.

Mobilitythe partnership of the mobile industry and the cloud can perform outstandingbusiness and personal IT solutions. This is mainly from the mobile computing convenienceand flexibility features. The other emerging mobile cloud user interface has made user

experience very practical. Mobile features included touch-based aspects, complex interactionfacilities, contextual and speech facilities and a huge level of freedom.

Mr. Kleynhans said, The combination of these megatrends, coupled with advances in new

enabling technologies, is ushering in the era of the personal cloud. In this new world, the

specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users

will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one

device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to

the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather

than solely focusing on the device itself.

Additional reports are to be released before the end of this month as Gartner releases its newanalysis on its webinar entitled, Personal Cloud and the $2T Consumer Market.


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Other than the reports from Gartner, cloud market continued increase in revenues has alsomade a point with the personal cloud. In particular, the Android market continues to top themobile cloud market as it continues to design and develop new apps that are focused onexcellent user computing experience. Among the highlights of the Android apps include theeasy navigation tabs between several pages; background music plays while using other apps;

the new file sharing system called webshare links, excellent photo viewer, accounts andpassword multiple saving setting and UI improvements for tablets.

Another personal cloud using Drobo with Pogoplug has features that will improve mediastreaming and file access and sharing. Drobo has excellent personal cloud features that areoffered at such affordable cost; with Drobo, users can consolidate files without so muchhassle by doing away with dealing with external drives, automatically protects stored filesand data without the need for configuration to restore settings, heavily secured access pointsfrom any device, huge data storage system and various ways to seamlessly sync data betweenand across platforms.

The trend towards personal cloud may still have a lot of issues to consider like security andreliability, but, in spite of the questions and concerns it continues to make a strongbreakthrough in IT computing solutions whether in personal or business aspects.

Goodbye Personal Computers. Hello

Personal Cloud.

ByMartin TantowOn April 27, 2012 Leave a Comment

And here is thy corporate future two yearsfrom now, personal computer will take a back seat. The personal cloud will be the new sun ofthe corporate solar system. It will be the everyones most important possession which isstrange because its not tangible. That, however, is beside the point. Gartners scientificcrystal ball has revealed what the corporate world will look like in 2014 and its cloudy.

This needs clarification.

Gartner is not saying people will not be needing personal computers anymore. It is onlysaying that it will not be a center of business operations. People are going to be more flexible,

mobile and limitless by 2014 and they will not let a piece of hardware to limit what they can


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do. Ultimately, people will be mobilizing every available resources to do what they need.Those devices include smartphones, tablets, and even barrowed devices.

The expectation of consumers is to be able to move seamlessly between devices as if all thesedevices are one. In essence, that is already beginning. Apple is promoting heavily the benefits

of owning Apple devices. Updating your calendar, for example, on your iPad willautomatically update your calendar on your iPhone and macbook.

By 2014, that seamlessness will cut across devices, all brands, and all countries through thecloud.

They are labeling it the post-pc era. This may be a little inaccurate because the transition isnot about hardware or software. Its about the change in lifestyle and culture.

1. Power to the Consumers

This may be a little predictable but it is important to mention. Consumers being contentmakers and trend drivers are all the rage but Gartner is saying that is nothing compared towhat is coming. Essentially, the trend will continue but they will be more aware of what theyhave, how powerful they are, and what they can accomplish given all the devices andresources at their disposal. They will still set trends but more importantly, it will be a trendwhere they are the center. It will be about what they want and need.

2. Intangibility is the Key

Things are going to move to the clouds. To supplement the expectations that consumers havein a couple of years, everything has to be moved to the cloud. This is the only wayprocessing, systems, and applications are going to be product and brand agnostic. Companieswill move all they can to the virtual world. This, in the end, will also allow them to buy lowpower phones, PCs, and tablets and expect everything to run as smoothly. Hardware will benothing but a bridge that will connect the user to their contents.

3. The Change that Apps Brings

In about two years, apps developer will realize just how much they are changing the market.One important influence is the way they are training people to expect portability. Simple andfree applications are now being used for important functions like changing the setting ofservers or tap into contents housed in the cloud.


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4. Customer Self Servic

Google started it when they meveryones mind, especially tinto a personal cloud. They h

users to help themselves finddevelop their own systems, anraw materials they can use texpected to give their consuminfrastructure and see their pr

5. What I Want, I Get

Consumers are done waiting.know that the internet has noany reason there should be a dThat is only possible if and evare using at the moment of ne

Steve Kleynhans, research vicglue that connects the web ofof their daily life the specifworry about. Users will use aoptions, but no one device wil

that role. Access to the cloudand secured, rather than solel

Enough said.

The Success o

Through the

ByGuest AuthorOn March 5, 20

Studios, Inc

Enterprise mobility is, arguab

to enable enterprise businessthe modern enterprise. Almos

ade available a free email service with a spaat of Yahoo. Users suddenly realized they cve been doing it since. They followed it up

solutions to their own problems, set up theird fix their own bugs. They did this by givingo build what they need. It is now the norm.ers the option to access the utilities they neegress as it happens.

Right Now

They dont want to hear the Well get backlimits. They access it anytime and anywhere. elay between them and what they are tryingerything is in the cloud. Their main device ised.

e president at Gartner, said that cloud servidevices that users choose to access during thcs of devices will become less important forcollection of devices, with the PC remainingl be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cl

and the content stored or shared in the cloudfocusing on the device itself.

Enterprise Mobility

loud

12 1 Comment

By Jesus Rodriguez, Tellag

ly, the most important trend in todays enterp

apabilities through mobile devices is an esset ironically, despite being a technology trend

e so big, it blew n turn their emails

ith training their

wn accounts,their users theompanies areto build their own

to your line. They They dont see

to accomplish.the device they

es will become thedifferent aspects

the organization toone of manyud will take on

will be managed

Goes

, Inc and Tellago

rise IT. The ability

ntial element ofcalled to


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modernize the traditional enterprise, most companies have been approaching enterprisemobility using very archaic models.

Let me try to explain.

With some isolated technical exceptions, most enterprise mobility platforms in the marketcan be seen as a slightly more moderns models of Resea rch in Motions (RIM) enterpriseplatform. To put it in simple terms, using an enterprise mobility platform today is like usingBlackberry Enterprise Server for your IPhone.

Why Do We Say This?

The current enterprise mobility platform landscape is filled with technologies that resemblethe following model.

An On-Premise Enterprise Mobility Server: A server side infrastructure that sits in your

corporate network and is responsible for controlling aspects such as device management,

cloud security capabilities, integration to line of business systems among other essential

capabilities of an enterprise mobility infrastructure. What this means is that organizations

need to invest in on-premise hardware and software infrastructures to enable any basic

enterprise mobility experience.

A Mobile Device Manager: A traditional and somewhat overrated element of any enterprise

mobility infrastructure, the MDM layer is responsible for controlling the management and

provisioning of mobile devices. What this essentially means is that organizations focus on

managing the devices instead of managing the specific users and mobile applications.

A Proprietary Developer Framework: Traditional enterprise mobility platforms typically

include proprietary development tools and frameworks to implement applications that can

leverage the capabilities of the platform. What this essentially means is that developerscant take advantage of the top mobile development platforms such as IOs, Android and

Windows Phone SDKs, PhoneGap, AppAccelerator, Sencha or many others.

As a result of embracing the aforementioned model, enterprise mobility has become anincredibly complex and highly expensive effort that requires the use of proprietarytechnologies, which comes with the required army of trainers, consultants and major upgradefees. Even more importantly, given its high cost in infrastructure, resources and time,enterprise mobility has become a privilege of large companies leaving most medium businessstruggling to find a successful path to enable a cohesive mobile infrastructure.

I personally cant avoid finding the whole enterprise mobility technology ecosystem veryironic. If you think about it, mobile computing is supposed to bring fresh waves of innovationto the enterprise software ecosystem and yet we keep using the same old-school archaicmechanisms when it comes to implementing it in the enterprise.

A Cloudy Path to Enterprise Mobility

During the last few years, cloud computing has disrupted some of the fundamental buildingblocks of enterprise software. Whether we are thinking of infrastructure, software or platformas a service, cloud computing models share the same underlying principle of enabling a self-

managing, elastically scalable computing model that removes the complexities of theequivalent on-premise models.


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It sounds like a perfect solutio

We believe cloud computingenterprise mobility solutions.enterprise mobility cloud.

A Heroku For Your Enterpri

A few years ago, Heroku disrcloud based model to the softwas based on a very simple mfavorite technologies without

by technologies such as Windpioneered a new cloud compu(PaaS).

Lets imagine a world in whicyour favorite frameworks, IO

proprietary technology. Letscorporate network, exchangeImagine you can register andFinally, image you can accom

Doesnt this sound like a Herthe Enterprise Mobility Cloud

The main goal of an enterprisplatform components to provifollowing figure illustrates thi

At a high level, we can identimobility cloud.

Infrastructure Services:

authentication, authoriz

infrastructure of any en

n for enterprise mobility, doesnt it?

odels can offer an innovative solution to thThe maximum expression of these solutions

e Mobile Apps

pted the software application world by proviare application development lifecycle. The

odel that enables developers to build applicathe need to invest in any on-premise infrastrows Azure, VMWares Cloud Foundry or Dting dimension that we know today as Platfo

h you can develop your enterprise mobile ap, Android, PhoneGap without the need of us

image that your applications can seamlesslyata securely and interact with other enterpri

provision your applications using a corporateplish all this without the need of any enterpri

ku for your enterprise mobile applications?.

mobility cloud is to enable the necessary inde enterprise ready capabilities to your mobils model.

y the following fundamental components of

These services will enable capabilities such as a

ation, data exchange, messaging among other e

terprise mobile applications.

challenges ofis what we call the

ding a completeHeroku mantraions using theircture. FollowedtCloud, Heroku

rm as a Service

plications usinging anyauthenticate to thee services.application store.se infrastructure.

ell, welcome to

frastructure ande applications. The

an enterprise

tive directory

ssential


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HTML5 hosting: An enterprise mobility cloud should be able to host, manage and scale

HTML5 mobile websites.

Business Services: These services expose business-centric capabilities such as order tracking,

contact management, etc that will be consumed by different mobile applications.

Enterprise App Store: An essential component of an enterprise mobility experience, this app

store will serve as the main repository to catalog, manage and maintain the different mobileapplications used in your enterprise.

Mobile SDKs: Providing SDKs for the most popular mobile development platforms will

provide developers will a low-level entry point to start embracing the enterprise mobility

cloud experience.

Conclusion

For years, we have been approaching enterprise mobility using the same old principles of theRIM enterprise school. In order to change this, we need to apply the same disruptiveprinciples that PaaS technologies like Heroku brought to the software development lifecycle

years ago. We believe an enterprise mobility experience powered by cloud computing modelswill lower the barrier and remove the friction to start embracing mobile applications in theenterprise.

Jesus is a co-founder and CEO of both Tellago Studios andTellago, two

fast growing start-ups with a unique vision around software technology. Jesus spends his

days working on the technology and strategic vision of both companies. Under his

leadership, Tellago and Tellago Studios have been recognized as an innovator in the areas of

enterprise software and solutions achieving importantawards like the Stevie Awards

American and International Business Awards.

A software scientist by background, Jesus is an internationally recognized speaker and

author with contributions that include hundreds of articles and sessions at industry

conferences. Jesus serves as an advisor to several software companies such as Microsoft and

Oracle, and is the only person who currently holds both the Microsoft MVP and Oracle ACE

technology awards. Jesus is a prolific blogger on all subjects related to software technology

and entrepreneurship. You can gain valuable insight on business and software technology

through his blogs athttp://jrodthoughts.com andhttp://weblogs.asp.net/gsusx

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