RNLI save lives choice for your business No. 1 / Febr. ’10...

Working together How cloud is helping the RNLI save lives

An efficient option Why cloud is the smart choice for your business

medIApLANet tAkes fuLL RespoNsIbILIty foR ALL coNteNt IN tHIs INdepeNdeNt suppLemeNt dIstRIbuted WItHIN tHe dAILy teLegRApH

CLOUD COMPUTING

No. 1 / Febr. ’10

Looking forward: Your comprehensive guide to effectively implementing and developing cloud computing in 2010.

make your business work for you

security matters get better data protection for your business

trade secrets Industry leaders give their advice

your questions answered Hear from the top experts in cloud

flexible business How to scale up your capacity now

5StepS to

makiNg the moSt oF cLoud

An independent supplement distributed within the dAily telegrAph2 · februAry 2010

Why cloud makes good business sense for 2010

The cloud is an evolution in computing technology which offers companies an opportunity to run applications beyond their own server rooms but businesses still need to take responsibility for their data.

Although ‘cloud com-puting’ is relatively new, the concept of sharing computer services has been around for decades,

and the technologies that enable the cloud such as virtualisation, hosting and software as a service (SaaS) have been available for some time.

Cloud computing refers to the de-livery of computer services over the Internet, as an alternative to run-ning software on your own computer or data centre.

Within the IT industry this topic is complicated by too much jargon and too many vendors with differing def-initions to help categorise their par-ticular implementation as cloud.

The BASDA trade group is trying to look beyond terminology to focus on examples of how our members are helping real businesses transform the way they work with this technol-ogy.

What is ‘cloud’?The cloud gives users the flex-ibility of mixing and matching

the most appropriate services from their service providers. They can be accessed 24/7 from any Internet con-nected PC or mobile device, making collaboration with customers and business partners that much easier.

Cloud providers share capacity and support resources across a communi-ty of users, and economies of scale re-sult in lower cost of ownership com-pared to traditional systems. Servic-es are usually provided on a monthly subscription basis, and can be easily scaled up or down as necessary.

The IT headaches of managing the infrastructure or keeping software versions up to date are all handled for you.

Cloud providers gear themselves up for continuous operation and will offer a comprehensive service level agreement, with guaranteed levels of availability in advance of the typical in house IT set-up.

Taking responsibilityWhile the cloud offers sig-nificant advantages over on-

premise it does carry potential risks to be considered. You must carry out due diligence to ensure steps are tak-en to safeguard your data in terms of availability, security, privacy as well as legislation like the data protection act.

Customers need to consider data ownership, and access rights for mi-gration if anything goes wrong at the supplier.

It is important to realise that cloud computing is a natural evolution of technology, rather than some new thing to be avoided out of hand.

Although some organisations will embrace the cloud, others will adopt a ‘hybrid’ approach using these serv-ices to extend rather than replace ex-isting systems.

The shared data centres of the cloud can also offer a greener ap-proach to IT.

“this technology is already a proven life saver.”

Put to workhow developments in cloud computing are helping the rnli to save lives.

We recommend

pAge 10

Head in the clouds? p. 041. the top things you need to consider before adopting cloud.

Security matters p. 122. make your business safe before taking it global.

cloud computing, february 2010

Country Manager: Willem de geerBusiness Developer: darren clarkeSub-editor: danielle Stagg

responsible for this issueProject Manager: christopher embersonPhone: 0207 6654410E-mail: [email protected]

Distributed with: the daily telegraph february 2010Print: the telegrah media group

Mediaplanet contact information: Phone: 02076654400E-mail: [email protected]

With special thanks to:

we make our readers succeed!Jairo Rojas, director general, business Application software developers Association

Use it to your advantage

1 Think of Cloud solutions as “hybrid” or as extensions of

your existing systems rather than as replacements.

Define a strategy

2 Organisations should consid-er working through industry

bodies and trade associations to in-fluence the agenda on a sector basis rather than as individuals - demys-tify the cloud topic to avoid some of the current market confusion.

my beSt tipS

Challenges

1 2

newsan independent supplement distributed within the daily telegraph

Moving applications and data be-yond the confines of the corporate server room and in to the cloud af-fords massive financial savings, of-fers previously unimaginable flexi-bility and brings the type of applica-tions that were once the preserve of enterprises in to reach of more mod-est SME budgets.

This is not to say that keeping mis-sion critical applications in the cor-porate server room or within a trust-ed host’s guarded network will come to an end. However, a new age of com-puting is emerging where web sites and applications can be launched in minutes on the cloud on servers that can be rented for weeks or months, rather than bought up front.

Flexible scaleThis is one of major advantages which Mark Taylor, Director of Mi-crosoft’s Developer and Platform Group, believes is of most appeal to

business that are already using cloud computing.

“The cloud lets you set up a pres-ence all around the world for very little cost compared to the huge ex-pense of setting up servers and infra-structure yourself in multiple data centres,” he says.

“It’s giving SMEs global geographic dispersion for a cost they could only have dreamed of previously. Plus you can scale your presence up and down so you can add extra capacity for a particularly busy time, such as when year end accounts are announced, you can increase capacity and then take it down afterwards.

“It’s all on a pay as you consume model and saves a fortune compared to increasing capacity permanent-ly in your own data centre. Although you need to anticipate and reserve that extra capacity in the cloud at the moment, I believe we’re moving to a stage where services will just be

elastic and expand as they’re needed with people just paying for extra ca-pacity automatically as it happens.”

Standards neededThe main hurdle which cloud oper-ators will need to overcome, though, Taylor believes, is opening up rival operators’ systems so the cloud runs along the same principles and busi-ness models no matter who is man-aging the hosting.

“It’s very early days but there needs to be a lot of work done on standardi-sation,” Taylor points out.

“There are not only different offer-ings out there around pricing but al-so people are going to wonder what happens if they want to move their data. There are different cloud serv-ices and you can’t just pick up your application or data and just move it around between them.

“I think this area of standardisa-tion and portability is a huge issue where the service providers have to improve and it’s also an area of op-portunity for third parties to provide platforms which allow the same ap-plication to work with more than one cloud service.”

4 · February 2010

Mark Taylordirector, development and platform group, microsoft

Scale up your capacity in an inStant

sean hargrave

[email protected]

See The poSSibiliTieS

1STep

Question:■■ what can the cloud offer my business today?

Answer:■■ Flexible hosting which can be turned on and off is available now and standards to allow data to operate in rival hosts’ clouds will come soon.

news february 2010 · 5an independent supplement distributed within the daily telegraph

It is not only businesses that are be-ing attracted to the flexibility and cost savings of cloud computing, the Government has given the new ap-proach a major role in its new ICT strategy it believes will save more than £3.2bn.

Trials of a Government Applica-tion Store started early this month which, it is hoped, will lead to a com-mon platform for civil servants to ac-cess applications that could eventu-ally be hosted, alongside other soft-ware tools, in the cloud. The apps store, it is believed, could save the Government £500m by 2020.

The proposed cloud service, or G Cloud as it is being referred to, is ex-pected to account for around half of the proposed £3.2bn total savings. The massive cost reduction should come mainly through drastically re-ducing the number of servers and supporting infrastructure the Gov-

ernment requires.Ian Osborne, Director of the Digit-

al Systems Knowledge Transfer Net-work at Intellect UK, is one of a large team of volunteer experts who are advising the Cabinet Office on the G Cloud. He believes the next five years or so will see some very interesting initiatives as officials decide what the final service should look like.

“Ordinance Survey has already shown how it uses cloud to service a peak of 9m users,” he says.

“So it’s going to be a very useful tool for departments to manage peaks in traffic, such as HMRC at the end of January.

“A lot of sensitive data may not be suitable for the cloud, because of se-curity concerns and different depart-ments would have to still keep their records separate to comply with data protection and privacy laws.

“Nevertheless, the G Cloud is a very exciting opportunity to save the Gov-ernment a huge amount of budget.”

For citizens, Osborne believes, one of the biggest advantages of the G Cloud could be allowing different departments to share non-sensitive data so paper work is reduced and processes sped up – rather like an ex-isting service which allows stored passport photos to be used for driv-ing licences.

Ian Osbornedirector of the digital systems Knowledge transfer network at intellect

The Cabinet Office is investi-gating how the cloud be used to cut ICT costs and simplify and speed up online interac-tion between government and citizens.

sub news

G Cloud could save more than £1bn TOP TIPs

Know what to consider, when

Before putting a service up ■■in the cloud businesses must consider the regulatory frame-work which their data must ad-here to. If it needs to be stored within geographic boundaries, this can be accommodated, but it needs to be stipulated and will almost certainly increase costs

The same goes for security. ■■Never assume you are being giv-en a secure server, insist on se-curity and service level agree-ments (SLAs) if these are impor-tant to you. It will push up the cost of the service but is better than hoping or assuming you have the level of protection you require

Always remember that if you ■■are in the public cloud you will nor-mally not have control over whose information is stored on the same server. If this is a big issue, and se-curity is a prime concern, you may wish to discuss private cloud solu-tions with vendors

! Read more on the web:

www.intellectuk.org/saas2009

How do you keep your head above the Cloud?

As with all innovations in technology there are disparate views about the

benefits to be gained and the risks involved.

Boxwood are ideally placed to draw out the issues that face companies

moving to cloud computing.

Our people work closely with people like you. People who care deeply

about business performance. People who have the spirit to challenge

and the openness to change.

For more information about how Boxwood can help turn your business

vision into reality, call 020 3170 7240 or visit

www.boxwoodgroup.com

nO bOundsCloud computing allows for great flexibilty and offers businesses a truly global presence.Photo: istock Photo

6 · february 2010 an independent supplement distributed within the daily telegraph

Get safe on the cloud with the right service mix

If there is one concern that all busi-nesses should be fully aware of be-fore they consider taking advantage of the cloud, it is security.

Corporate server rooms are nor-mally encased by a strong firewall to ensure that only the people who are supposed to have access to data and let in and the remainder are locked out. This is the mainstay of busi-ness computing and so the sugges-tion that the corporate server room should be slimmed down, or even re-placed, by a move in to cloud servers raises serious security issues.

Pick a levelAs with any computing infrastruc-ture there are several options availa-ble to companies and security is cen-tral to the eventual decision an or-ganisation opts for.

At the simplest extreme, the speed of renting space on a server within just a few minutes and a few clicks of a mouse is normally the most prone route to the cloud. It is typically tak-en by companies that want to do de-

velopment new applications in the cloud without the delay of commis-sioning their own server or who want to host public information, such as a website. Here there is a clear trade off between low cost, instant access to server space and the level of securi-ty on offer

At the other extreme, however, there are IT specialists who can ad-

vise on bespoke security measures as well as cloud providers who can offer varying levels of security on servers in the cloud but, of course, this will increase the cost of a project.

Standard metricAs ever with the cloud, though, there is little standardisation and so a group of consultancies, regulators,

cloud providers and security busi-nesses have came together at the start of the month to work on a global Common Assurance Metric (CAM). This resulting system of security scores is hoping to get around the problem that most measures of secu-rity protection are normally linked to particular bespoke products and so can make rating applications time consuming and offer a result which cannot be easily compared to other products.

The group of experts is expected to have the outline of the CAM ready by the end of the year. When it is com-plete it will allow security vendors and cloud operators to have their services rated so potential clients can make informed decisions based on an industry-wide standard.

According to Giles Hogben, Net-works Security Policy Expert at the EU’s information security agency, ENISA, the global standard is a wel-come move.

“The CAM work is essential,” he says. The number one barrier to adop-tion of cloud computing is assurance – “how can I know if it’s safe to trust the cloud provider?” This is a prob-lem for providers too - answering a different security questionnaire for every customer is a huge drain on re-sources.”

“the number one barrier to adoption of cloud computing is assurance.”Giles Hogbennetworks security policy expert, enisa.

sean HarGrave

[email protected]

Question:■■ is the cloud safe to do business in?

Answer:■■ security can be added to cloud services and operators are working on a common metric for measuring security.

2

1

3

Secure your dAtA1 & 2. By ensuring the right people are getting in or staying out, your business is more secure.3. cloud provides great opportunities for improving productivity.Photos: istock Photo

news

news

conSider Security

2SteP

Facts

94% of more than 1000 security pro-■■

fessional recently told trade show Infose-curity europe that the one reason they or their clients were not committing to the cloud are concerns over levels of security

3 in 4 companies also revealed in a ■■

survey run by Infosecurity europe that they intend to spend more budget in the year ahead securing cloud services as well as applications run through a soft-ware as a service model

the nHs certainly believes cloud ■■

services can be secured. It has just signed a five year cloud security deal thought to be worth around £6m

Hence the latest advice given out at ■■

the recent westminster eForum on the cloud by the Information security Profes-sionals Organisation is to switch from la-belling the cloud as not safe to making it secure because the technology is being adopted regardless of individual mem-ber’s concerns

can business trust the cloud?■■

! The benefits are numerous but arguably the biggest bar-

rier to adoption is security con-cerns, so unfortunately, it would seem that businesses don’t trust the cloud.

There’s no reason for this if or-ganisations have the correct secu-rity solutions in place. And by secu-rity solutions, I don’t mean ‘lock-down’; I mean a security solution which is flexible and tailored to the specific demands of each busi-ness, something which gives or-ganisations the confidence to em-brace the benefits of cloud-based solutions.

The key issue is not security of the cloud itself but ensuring the exit and entry points between your business and cloud-based services are watertight.

Are security and regulation ■■

driving private clouds?

! Without a doubt, I would say that data security and regula-

tion is a key focus for private cloud providers.

Perhaps what has made the cloud security debate rage so fiercely is the fact that potential issues or breaches could be poten-tially catastrophic. Plus relying on highly centralised cloud solutions, with data being stored in a differ-ent country, creates significant challenges for business as they struggle to comply with additional legislation.

Local solutions can help busi-nesses overcome these challenges, along with private clouds.

What comeback does a busi-■■

ness have if there is a security breach in the cloud?

! The protection businesses can call upon in case of a

breach is all down to the contracts it has in place with their cloud pro-vider.

The service level agreements, the course of action they will take, the level of information about breach-es and ability to investigate varies greatly on the provider.

I would strongly encourage busi-nesses to obtain the service lev-el agreements they require before committing to a cloud provider.

QuestIOn & answer

Jesper FrederiksenVice president of worldwide sales, Clearswift

An independent supplement distributed within the dAily telegrAph februAry 2010 · 98 · februAry 2010 An independent supplement distributed within the dAily telegrAph

Question: How can companies encourage their IT departments to be more flexible at the same time as offering budgetary savings?Answer: Talk of the cloud has moved beyond rousing conferences speeches and is now a major issue in the board room.

A couple of years ago businesses were talking about the cloud before carrying out limited ‘toe dipping’ pilots last year. Now, this year, is going to be one where real life projects are going to be launched and, in Emma Taylor’s words, the cloud is going to start to be used widely as well as talked about.

Hence at the end of last year The Cloud Circle was set up as an independent members’ organisation for potential cli-ents and experts to network and discuss best practice.

One of the big issues overhanging the industry is that people are not sure yet whether the cloud is as transformational as computing experts believe it to be. In fact, when the Cloud Circle surveyed more than 200 leading businesses at the end of last year, one in five felt it was just hype, a quarter believed it be ‘the real deal’ and just over a half were yet to decide.

Real experienceAs more businesses take to the cloud and take advantage of its speed, flexibility and

low cost, Taylor is convinced the benefits will become clearer for all to see.

“The people who are using the cloud today tend to be using it as toe dipping, they’re seeing how they get along with using it before they do anything more major,” she says.

“It’s very hard to get people to talk about projects they’re working on be-cause things are sometimes a little bit sensitive. A lot of companies see their early pilots on the cloud as giving them a competitive edge and so they don’t want to shout about it.

“This year, though, I think we’re going to get a lot more real life use of the cloud which will lead to a lot more case studies which will convince people that it really can live up to the hype.”

Little and largeSo far, in Taylor’s experience, it has been companies at either end of the spectrum who have adopted cloud computing, or at least used it for specific projects to see what they can learn.

“We’re seeing mass adoption by start-ups, particularly in e-commerce, where

they can instantly see the attraction of having a large, flexible infrastructure which can expand or contract with their needs,” she says.

“At the same time, large enterprises are using it, not across the entire company but on a department by department basis for specific projects.

“One of the big attractions for them is that it’s so much quicker and more flex-ible. It can take months within a large enterprise to requisition a development server but with the cloud you can be up and running in minutes.

“Also companies that need to expand for a particular event, or which have sea-sonal peaks - such as the travel or insur-ance industries - they’re starting to ex-periment with the cloud because they want to scale up and down in response to market demand.”

Security keyOf course there are still legitimate con-cerns over regulation and security in the cloud, although Taylor believes some of these will start to be addressed as more companies, of all sizes, take to the cloud.

“Security is an obvious concern for companies but we’re finding that busi-nesses are looking in to setting up private clouds for sensitive material,” she says

“Many are also looking into a public or even hybrid offering so they can pick what information is public and which is protected better.

“When you’ve got huge companies like Glaxo Smith Kline and, of course, the Gov-ernment looking into and starting to use the cloud, it should make companies re-alise that security concerns can be ad-dressed.”

Hence, with a strong push from the board room for IT to make savings wher-ever possible, the drive to move more projects into the cloud is going to build up considerable momentum in the year ahead, Taylor believes.

Companies are looking to IT to become more agile and cost effective and this is exactly what the cloud offers and deliv-ers.

Cloud can turn talk into action

SEAN HARGRAVE

[email protected]

leader to leader

“they can see the attraction of having a large, flexible infrastructure which can expand or contract with their needs.”Emma Taylor The Cloud Circle

inspiration

CApTuRE hEAdLinEA leading advisor for the Cloud Circle, Richard belives in researching the cloud before you jump.Photo: the cloud circle

cloud circle’s best tips

3

do your research

1 Be careful who you deal with. I’d suggest that companies

should work with people with a track record and when they’re looking for an operator to host their services and applications in the cloud they go for somebody that’s put a billion in to it rather than a couple of million. The big operators are likely to have a better service and offer greater scale.

Be prepared

2 Be sure you know what you are getting. Many companies

may buy a cloud service without realising that they have very little in the way of security or a guaran-tee of service. These can be provid-ed with the right partners.

plan ahead

4 For new projects, give the cloud serious consideration

because it is so much simpler and quicker to set up than the formal process inside large companies of requesting a server. This usually means nothing can happen on new projects for a couple of months or more.

uSE iT To youR AdvAnTAgE

3STEp

Richard hallceo, cloud origin and cloud circle advisor

If you are looking for the next Skype, Google or eBay, then turn your attention to London-based EGS.

The company recently followed these three power-houses into the Red Herring Top 100 after being named among Europe’s top private technology enterprises.

EGS is one of the Cloud’s quiet success stories. But, while it lacks the glitz of some dotcom busi-nesses, the company has generated headline news by making multi-million-pound savings for large organisations.

Put simply, EGS reduces its customers’ operating costs dramatically by automating back-o�ce business processes via the Cloud.

In areas such as corporate purchasing and invoice processing, EGS replaces ine�cient and

expensive manual processes with Cloud-based alternatives enabling technology to do the work in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the cost. It’s known as ‘Business Process Automation’ or BPA.

EGS teams with trade bodies and partners, such as BT and Capita, to help ambitious organisa-tions achieve multi-million pound savings. In some cases, the end-to-end processing of a single ‘transaction’ can be reduced from £50-60 to just pennies. As an example, one of EGS’s customers will save £2.5 million by 2012 through the automated management of hundreds of thousands of supplier invoices using EGS’s Cloud-based tools.

“We automated our �rst transaction in 2001. Several billion pounds worth of transactions later, we feel as though we really understand Business Process Automation,” says Peter Whent,

Chief Executive at EGS. “We have accrued decades of experience in our �eld. It’s that exper-tise that goes into our award-winning Cloud-based platform that 40,000 users across more than 120 organisations rely on to help them save millions of pounds a year.”

The urgency for businesses to make savings during the economic downturn has meant a surge in interest in EGS. For some, it’s their �rst foray into Cloud-based business process automation. For others, it’s about overcoming stubborn obstacles that have derailed previous attempts.

“With our approach, companies do more than save costs,” adds Peter Whent. “They accelerate performance and create stronger relationships with suppliers and partners, while delivering a better service to their customers. Everyone bene�ts.”

– the cloud with a golden lining

COMPANY FACTFILE

Private Equity owned EGS Group Ltd was started in 2000

Services: e-Marketplace, e-Purchasing, e-Invoicing, Automated e-Invoice approval,

Automated e-Invoice work�ow, Electronic data capture for paper invoices.

The company owns its technology

Contact: 020 7539 2828, email [email protected]

Web: www.egsgroup.com

Address: EGS Group Limited, Baird House, 15-17 St. Cross Street, London, EC1N 8UW


Cloud’s scalability saves lives for less

Many people can talk with author-ity on how the cloud can transform a business but very few can tell you have they are using it to save lives.

However, at the RNLI the cloud is currently being used to run a system that warns when a person has fall-en off a small fishing boat or has an emergency situation. The Man Over Board Guardian (MOB Guardian) is being trialed in the cloud, on Micro-soft’s Azure service, in addition to being hosted in a conventional da-ta centre. The ultimate aim, when it has proven resolute enough, is to switch the data centre to act as a back up to the cloud service and then po-tentially switch off the data centre service altogether.

How it works The MOB Guardian system works through a fisherman wearing a pen-dant that is in Bluetooth, wireless contact with a sensor on the boat. As soon as the person goes underwater,

and contact with the sensor is lost, an alarm is raised via satellite and the stricken sailor’s position is tracked via the on board GPS (satnav). This of-fers crucial protection for lone fisher-men.

“Longer fishing vessels are already monitored and have safety systems installed by law,” explains Peter Brad-ley, Operations Manager at the RNLI.

“This technology is already a prov-en life saver because it not only alerts us to an incident, it tells the rescue crews where to find the person, so they can go straight to them.”

Bradley explains that the purpose of mirroring the service in the cloud, before hopefully migrating it fully, is to reduce the cost of “on premise” servers and offer greater scale for

less money.“At the moment it’s run tradition-

ally on servers in a data centre and has a capacity of 10,000 boats,” he says.

“The problem is to add an extra one boat above that, we’d need to add the same infrastructure again and double up, with capacity for another 10,000 boats. That’s very expensive, so by putting this service in the cloud we’re going to be able to save a lot of money at the outset but then also we’ll be able to scale up without huge upfront costs.”

Cost is very important for the RNLI because of its charitable status. The MOB Guardian service is current-ly heavily subsidised and the emer-gency service needs to be able to offer it to fishermen (and perhaps other small boats in the future) at an af-fordable price as possible.

The recession has hit fishermen hard and, as Bradley surmises, “if a fisherman’s going to put their hand in their pocket for anything at the moment, it’s going to be to mend their nets”.

Hence, to save lives, it is imperative the service can be run as efficient-ly as possible so the final cost can be brought down.

“this technology is already a proven life saver”

Peter BradleyOperations manager, rnli

sean hargrave

[email protected]

Question:■■ Can the cloud prove robust enough to host emergency services?

Answer:■■ the rnli is certain-ly hoping so. it is testing a cloud service to see if it could help save lives at sea.

to tHe rescuecloud-based technology is helping the rNLI react to emergencies even faster Photo: RNLI

InspIratIon

Facts on the mob guardian

the man over board guardian (mob ■■

guardian) system is primarily targeted at fishermen in boats shorter than 15m. Longer boats are already covered by leg-islation that requires they carry similar emergency equipment

aside from revealing when a person ■■

has fallen in to the water, the system also has an emergency button which can alert the rnLi. one boat recently, for example, used the facility to warn it had an engine fire and needed assistance

each mob guardian system on a boat ■■

can work with up to four pendants. how-ever, most fishing boats under 15 metres are normally crewed by a single person, two at the most

the system is only activated when the ■■

boats go out of port and sends back reg-ular positioning information. if an update is not received the system flags up the anomaly which could mean, in the worst case scenario, the boat has turned over or sunk

how we made it

Are there any data concerns ■■

with rescue information in the cloud?

! One of the potential problems with the cloud is that fisher-

men might not want their rivals to know where they are via a public cloud system, so we ensure they are identified as a number that on-ly our system can identify them by.

Does the cloud help data con-■■

cerns?

! Actually, it does. As the sys-tem hopefully rolls out to

new countries there is the poten-tial for problems over where data is hosted. A lot of authorities require data about their citizens, compa-nies or authorities to be kept with-in their country. With the cloud we can set up the services with serv-ers in specific countries or conti-nents so we do not have any regula-tory issues.

It was the ability of Azure to of-fer a choice of tying where data is stored and the application hosted to geographic regions that attract-ed us to the platform.

Why place the service in the ■■

cloud?

! By using the cloud, we’re far more flexible. We can take ex-

tra capacity as and when we need it and we can make sure that extra capacity is in the right part of the world. If we were going down the traditional route we’d need to keep on putting in place a series of infra-structures, in each territory, that could take 10,000 users. With the cloud we can do this a bit at a time as we need to. It’s a lot more effi-cient and affordable..

What if the cloud were to fail?■■

! We’re testing the service now to show that it can be as ro-

bust and reliable any alternative because this is obviously a huge concern for an emergency safety device such as the MOB Guardian, you can’t have it failing. In fact, we think, if anything, the cloud could be more robust because it could be set up so if one server goes down another cloud server could take over. This kind of back up would be far cheaper in the cloud than locat-ing the service in more than one traditional data centre.

Question & answerrichard Prodgertechnical director at Aws, the company behind the mOb guardian

PusH tHe BouNDArIes

4steP

an independent supplement distributed within the daily telegraph february 2010 · 11

a leap forward1. a boat is launched after the alarm is raised.2. fishermen wearing pendants can rest easy knowing their locations are being logged.3. The rNlI team can remotely monitor GpS signals with off-site servers.Photos RNLI/Istock Photo

Following developments in cloud, the Man Over Board

Guardian (MOB Guardian) system not only notifies the RNLI of an incident, but allows them to pinpoint someone’s location.

The GPS-based technology is saving lives as well as cutting costs, a vital aid to the charity-based organisation.

raISING The Bar

Making waves

Tips

InspIratIon

1 2 3

Modern business is mobile and so it is inevitable that the major next ad-vance for the cloud is to tailor serv-ices for mobile phones, or more par-ticularly, smartphones.

With computing giants Micro-soft, Apple and Google all vying to make further inroads on Blackber-ry’s dominance in smartphones, it is unthinkable that cloud applications will remain mainly limited to PCs and laptops.

However, first, two major obsta-cles have to be overcome; proprietary platforms and security.

The former is arguably the one giv-ing IT teams the biggest headache. Specific applications can be written for each of the various platforms, but which one should an IT team chose?

David Akka, Managing Director of Magic Software believes the question will lead companies to consider pub-lishing applications on platforms which can then publish to multiple standards, rather than write a differ-ent application for each standard.

“It is difficult enough already for IT teams to chose which cloud pro-vider they go for because there are several large operators with different

platforms,” he says.“Then, if you add the complication

of several different smartphone plat-forms, you can see it’s going to give them a real headache. That’s why I believe mobile is really going to en-

courage businesses to develop appli-cations first of all on a single platform which can then publish that applica-tion on the competing cloud stand-ards as well as the smartphone hand-sets they want it to run on.”

Secure, at a priceIn the field, the feedback from mobile application specialists is that there is increased interest in hosting appli-cations in the cloud, so long as secu-rity concerns can be overcome. Jean-Philippe Bechade, CEO of Mobile Dis-tillery, claims this is now possible, al-though it will impact the cost of the service.

In fact, as if to prove the point, the company has just helped a client launch a cloud service through which people can send money to relatives abroad through a mobile phone.

“The cloud is indispensable for companies who want to launch a service and then grow their capacity as the service takes off,” he says.

“So as business and consumer ac-tivity is moving to the mobile phone we’re getting a lot of interest which we think will start to be turned in to commercial activity this year, like the money transfer service.

“Obviously security is a big con-cern, particularly if you’re dealing with something like money trans-fers.

“We can add security to services but clients need to be aware that it accounts for around a third to even nearly a half of a project’s cost.”


Going mobile? Look at standards and security first

get up and go. Cloud allows for business to be conducted on the move, but it’s an option which should be carefully considered. Photo: thomas maier

sean hargrave

[email protected]

Question:■■ is the cloud going mobile or are there obstacles?

answer:■■ there is lots of interest in the mobile cloud but competing standards and security concerns are an issue.

news

ConSider logiStiCS

5Step

Factsthe mobile market is complicated by ■■

various vying platforms from rival opera-tors, meaning that although a single ap-plication can work on all computers it will need to be rewritten for every type of smartphone.

this leaves companies wondering ■■

which platform is the best choice for their employees or for the consumer market they are intending to reach.

Latest figures from comscore show ■■

that Google’s android mobile platform is

gaining users, doubling its market share in the last quarter of 2009.

the dominant platform, at 42% of the ■■

market, is still RIM (Blackberry handsets), followed by apple on 25%, Microsoft Windows for Mobile 19%, Palm 6% and android 5%.

the figures suggest the Blackberry’s ■■

dominance could soon be overcome by the iPhone and that Palm will very soon be overtaken by Google’s android plat-form.

uk

saas bringsflexibilityand savingsCloud computing is helping to open up a far more flexible and cost-effective era of buying and accessing software applications.

Traditionally software has been housed within a company’s serv-er room and distributed around the office. Key staff could be given access to the tools they need out-side of the office but generally they would need to be on a specific lap-top, usally with the required soft-ware installed.

There have already been wide-spread moves to get away from this through a new model of Software as a Service (SaaS). Instead of rely-ing on a client company to put the applications on their server and then shut it down every time it needs updating, the tools’ develop-er behind the tools hosts the serv-ice.

Access to the applications can then be given through a password-protected internet site which users can log on to from any computer they like, wherever they are in the world. The approach not only offers far more flexible access but also al-lows users to have access charged by the week or month rather than as a permanent ‘seat’. This radi-cally reduces the cost, making top tools available for SMEs.

sean hargrave

[email protected]

“Calling for Change: Isn’t it time you put your Telephony in the Cloud as well as your IT Applications?”

NewVoiceMedia’s telephony solution is delivered using cloud-based technology, which provides the functionality of an on-premise solution at a fraction of the price. We help companies such as Berry Bros & Rudd, Kingston University, SHL Group, Thomas Cook and Wokingham Borough Council to bring uniformity and increased e�ciency to their customer interactions.

“NewVoiceMedia’s solution has revolutionised how we deal with our customers”

Sarah Barrow, Customer Service Manager, Wokingham Direct

Visit www.newvoicemedia.com or call 0800 280 2888 to discover how your business can bene�t from our Cloud Based Telephony.

february 2010 · 13an independent supplement distributed within the daily telegraph

data process1. thanks to a growing cloud presence, data is now easier to share- and to intercept.2. every-day appliances, such as mobile phones, now pose as a potential risk to your business’ data.Photos: istock Photo

Following changes in mod-ern business practices, or-

ganisations now need to be more aware of threats to information security. Mobile technologies such as smartphones, bluetooth and laptops mean companies could be more at risk from data breaches. However, cloud still of-fers fantastic opportunities for businesses on the move, espe-cially if that direction is up.

business transfer

Keep data safe when on the move

Tips

InspIratIon

1 2


Better pricing control■■ - pay per click provides predictability of IT costs which are synced with business growth and al-low a CAPEX to OPEX transition

Freedom■■ -establishing environments to support initiatives can now be done in relatively short times with flexibility around sizing, up or down. This provides agility to the business

Enhanced collaboration ■■ - between the business and its employees, partners and suppliers.

Fear of the unknown■■ - uncertainty around security, service level agreements, new commercial and engagement models and unclear risk profiles.

Readiness■■ - inability to be a good cloud-buyer. Existing operating models are tuned for managed services/product procurement. New IT skills, evaluation techniques and architectures are needed.

Confusion■■ - from hardware and soft-ware vendors with their current rev-enue models under threat .

Formulation of cloud strat-egies within enterprises as case studies emerge from early adopters and the response of hardware and software vendors becomes clearer. The invention of new business operating mod-els to take advantage of the increased agil-ity, leading into new collaborative models as community clouds are deployed. Data man-agement is likely to become a focus area with accurate data segregation being neces-sary to fully leverage ‘cloud’.

The cost benefits of cloud-based applica-tions are well documented but I believe that flexibility is one of the most compelling rea-sons for their adoption. Downtime through travel can be reduced and teams can work with colleagues even when they’re away from the office, transforming business. Accountants, for example, can work more efficiently, collab-orating with clients and working through data without even having to leave their office.

Caution about cloud solutions mir-rors that of other technologies that are now mainstream, including the web, email and even Microsoft Word. This is often driv-en by fear of lost control and security so, when considering the options, particularly if you’re outsourcing core systems and data, it pays to be prudent. You must always ask potential partners detailed questions about security and the guarantees they offer for

things like availability.

I think we will see the take-up of the cloud grow dramatically

throughout 2010, partly driven by mo-bile devices that have larger screens,

such as the iPad. Our recent research shows that 82 per cent of UK finance professionals already use some sort of web-based applica-tions in the workplace, and from April 2011 it will be compulsory for all businesses to file both company accounts and tax returns in an electronic format, which can only deep-en the trend.

The conventional model of all IT servic-es being delivered by an in-house function is shifting. The cloud allows users to buy all forms of IT services from around the globe, real-time, offering low costs as well as the

best-in-class innovation and capability. For those entrepreneurial executives keen to exploit modern technology they are no longer constrained to the legacy architecture, skills and proc-esses of their in house capability.

Effective IT delivery is essential to sur-vival so sourcing that delivery from 3rd par-ties requires a great deal of trust. Managing multiple complex supply chains and ex-tended relationships where the real risks can’t be fully outsourced will require new legislation, business models and manage-ment skills. Building in redundancy and fail safes will help but most businesses will feel it is far better to be a fast adopter than an early adopter.

Cloud services will be fuelled through continual demands to reduce costs. This will drive greater risk taking. Already we are seeing some FTSE100 companies ex-perimenting with services such as Goog-le desktop managed services. However, old lessons will be relearned, specifically that a well thought-out enterprise architecture is a ‘must have’ if you are to fully exploit the range of technologies available and that in-cludes the cloud.

Question 1:How is the cloud transforming business, and why?

Question 2:What are the main factors holding back cloud adoption?

Question 3:What developments should we be expecting this year, and beyond?

Ron BrownDirector Cloud Computing, EMEA, CSC

Hugh ScantleburyDirector, Aqilla

Jon DakinDirector, Boxwood

panel of experts

the experts

talk!

RNLI save lives choice for your business No. 1 / Febr. ’10...

Documents

Transcript of RNLI save lives choice for your business No. 1 / Febr. ’10...