Cloud Computing Shift in 2010

I read “CIOs See Big Cloud Computing Shifts In 2010” by Steven Burke. The shift is a result of the pressure from business leaders to reduce technology spending and drive profits. Peter Forte, CIO of Analog Devices had a good quote in the article:

“This is a matter of survival," Forte said. "In the last 20 years, I haven't seen this kind of dramatic cost cutting. Luckily, the good news here is technology has evolved to the point where it is helping us make this transition. We would never have been able to make a 25-30 percent budget reduction 10 years ago without an incredible fall off in service."

“CIOs See Big Cloud Computing Shifts In 2010” by Steven Burke:
http://tinyurl.com/yk8wryg

Working within a Team

I watched a documentary on Haskell Wexler an Oscar winning Cinematographer. He is highly regarded with multiple awards and worked on famous films such as American Graffiti. The interesting part to me was the dynamics and the egos of the teams producing movies. Mr. Wexler’s award winning success created challenges when he is working with directors. In the documentary, he basically says the directors usually don’t know what they are doing and he could do it better. Some directors described Haskell Wexler as having been a pain in the neck to work with and he was removed from working on “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for his failure to get along.

Haskell Wexler is of course a tremendously successful person and his strong ego is paramount to his success. No matter how successful someone is there will always be this balance of control and keeping ego in check. There is a fine line to navigate - if you give up too much control you risk failure and if you try to take too much control no one will work with you! It is a conundrum – the yin and the yang.

Recent Google Hack

I read an interesting article on the recent hack into Google “Is Google hack an attack on cloud computing?” by Jon Brodkin, Network World. Google was hacked but the hack was through social engineering. The argument is that since the hack was through social engineering that this can happen anywhere. It is not really a hack on cloud computing. However, it does undermine cloud computing so it is a hack on cloud computing. It is also an attack on the use of the biggest supplier of a solution. Similar to the concept of most email attacks target Microsoft email because it is most widely used. If Google is the most widely used cloud provider it may be the biggest target for attacks on the cloud.

Article: “Is Google hack an attack on cloud computing?” by Jon Brodkin, Network World:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/011510-google-hack-cloud-computing.html

Hosted Exchange Lessons Learned / Best Practices

We have been offering hosted exchange for a few years now. There are three key steps to ensuring an effective move to a hosted email environment:

1. CALCULATE YOUR BANDWIDTH
The first crucial step involves calculating user bandwidth requirements for your new hosted solution. Add this to the bandwidth you are currently using (call your ISP to find out the number). The result will let you know if you need to upgrade your internet service before implementation.

2. RIGHTSIZE YOUR MAILBOXES
Migrations are time consuming. Optimize your time by reducing the size of the mailboxes. Delete sent items, unused folders, and archive old date to a .PST file.

3. INCLUDE TRAINING IN YOUR PLAN
Users will have a new User Control Panel in the hosted environment. The User Control Panel allows everyone to customize their personal email settings. Training is the last step in a smooth transition to the hosted environment for your organization.

Intel Virtualization White Paper

Intel internal IT released a White Paper “Implementing and expanding a virtual environment” by Bill Sunderland and Steve Anderson. It is their experience implementing the virtual environment at Intel. The white paper states they are getting 10:1 ratio on their server consolidation and 15:1 on storage. They have only consolidated 10% - 20% of their environment with a goal of going to 70% - 80%. 10:1 Consolidation is actually low, many companies are now seeing 20:1 and 30:1 with the latest virtualization technology! It is a very detailed and technical document but I think worth reading. You realize even Intel has to do the same analysis and planning as everyone else.

http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4724

Exchange 2010

Exchange 2010 has been out for a month now so it is time to take a closer look. Here are the key benefits:

1. Controlling Cost:
a. Improved performance with 90% reduction in Disk IO.
b. Lower cost of storage by leveraging DAS/JBOD with larger mailboxes
c. Simplified administration

2. Enabling Mobile Work Force:
a. Broad device support
b. Phone-base access to inbox
c. Great Outlook based experience to mailbox

3. Managing Risk:
a. Moderate, encrypt, and block sensitive data
b. Efficient data management by eliminating PSTs
c. Simplified compliance with granular retention policies and mailbox search

Microsoft Exchange 2010 free ebook:
http://ow.ly/YL6n

Cloud Computing Growth

Gartner recently predicted significant growth in cloud computing stating 20% of companies would be completely cloud based by 2010 and reach 11% of the market this year. The growth is primarily from companies that have already implemented cloud computing. The implication is that if you try it you will love it.

Last year in April I posted an article on the growth rate of cloud computing: How much of the Market is Cloud Computing? At that time I calculated cloud computing to be about 2% of IT spending and that it would grow to 10% by 2019. Gartner's prediction of 20% of businesses will be completely using cloud computing is considerably higher than the information less than a year ago. It appears that cloud computing is growing more rapidly than expected!

It is time to take a closer look at using the cloud and creating a plan for your business.

This quote from Bill Gates sums it up:
"The next sea change is upon us."

CIO Magazine Article:
http://ow.ly/WraP


Article: “Cloud computing’s only for grown ups, survey says” by Carl Brooks: http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid201_gci1379117,00.html