Cloud Computing Could Become a Powerful Ally of the Green Movement

Simply put, cloud computing could also be called "remote computing". Cloud systems basically use networking to deliver computing resources to its users. As previously stated, this is in essence, merely the combining of resources into one entity. This not only affords us the opportunity to manage energy efficiency more effectively, it also gives users the opportunity to requisition more resources (like processing power) as needed. All individual machines / terminals can be setup to simply turn off when inactive for a length of time. However, the real reason that cloud computing is more efficient than its grid counterpart has to do with the way the energy is used centrally.

If you can imagine all computing resources being resigned to one central location, and then in turn distributed to individual nodes, it's not hard to see how more efficient distribution is achieved; but what about servicing it? This is yet another one of the great facets of cloud computing, its ability increase the effectiveness of IT. Because cloud computing is so highly centralized, there is no need for IT personnel to make constant trips around their company to deal with issues. This is because all the individual "systems" or "machines" are virtualized; now IT workers can basically do their job without having to leave their department.

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Cloud Computing Services - Finding the Right Provider Is Easier Than You Think

It goes without saying that cloud computing services can make the things a lot easier for you; ironically, finding the best cloud provider for the same can be noticeably difficult. However, there is nothing to worry about; you can find the right provider with utter ease if you know how to narrow down your search. Needless to say, you must not turn a blind eye, and should try your best to make an informed decision.

To begin with, you must look for a managed application run time. In other words, it should preferably be the responsibility of the cloud service provider to monitor each and every component, and keep an eye out for vulnerabilities. Secondly, the chosen provider must make the necessary arrangements for application cloning, and allow you to clone the entire production environment, if required. Nevertheless, following are some of the other things that you must keep in mind when finding a suitable provider for cloud computing services:

Extensible configurations - By and large, the service provider would install or configure all the required components and packages; however, at times, you might need something which has not been already provided to you. In such a scenario, it is important that you extend the existing configuration management system by writing an appropriate recipe. For this purpose, you need to have extensible configurations; it goes without saying that their absence can cost you dearly.

Monitoring and alerting - Needless to say, getting a cloud application platform, and utilizing it to the fullest are not one and the same. To derive the maximum benefit out of the chosen platform, you need to be alerted every now and then; here, it is worth mentioning that any option which fails to so must be avoided at any cost. The right provider would leave no stone unturned to keep a tab on resource utilization, and alert you, as and when required. Believe it or not but timely alerts would let you know if you are in need of some additional capacity, thereby helping you plan the things accordingly.

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Stronger laws, security needed to implement cloud, says Sibal

In the ICT era, you will need new solutions like cloud computing to take on the enormous business challenges, said Kapil Sibal, Communications and IT Minister. But at the same time, certain rules need to be in place to ensure data safety, especially in cases where data is hosted in foreign countries.

"What is the legal liability of those who house data for others and in event there is a violation of that privacy. What then is the legal procedure for compensation? And if the server is not in India, what kind of bilateral arrangements between countries should be put in place to ensure privacy and protection of your property? he asked. Sibal was speaking at a national seminar on Information Security in Cloud Computing organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) in association with Albion Infotel.

With over 250000 gram panchayats being connected over fiber optics; everybody is being connected at an enormous speed. However, security is a very important aspect which should be addressed while we are putting together the building blocks of this new technology in India, added Sibal.

IT Secretary J Satyanarayana said any company, which intends to adopt cloud computing, needs to assess its security needs. "The company then needs to create an accountability matrix which is satisfactory. With adoption of new technology, implementation and training become critical aspects to be addressed," he said.

PHD Chamber organizes National Seminar

The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), in association with Albion Infotel, has organized a national Seminar on Information Security - Cloud Computing: Implications for MSMEs. The seminar provided a platform to reflect on the importance of remote storage of information through cloud computing and the growing threat to information security – a major area of concern for most subscribers of cloud computing.

Shri Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister of Communications and IT, Government of India; Sanjeev Gupta, President & Managing Director, Albion Infotel Pvt. Ltd; and Sandip Somany, President PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, were present at the day-long seminar and discussed pertinent issues relating to Data, Information and Cyber Security. The focus of the seminar was on leveraging IT at its best without compromising the security of remotely stored data.

Shri Kapil Sibal said, “With over 2,50,000 gram panchayats being connected over fiber optics, everybody is being connected at an enormous speed in India. In the new world, we need new solutions and cloud computing is a business model to manage competitiveness of businesses in this environment. However, security is a very important aspect which should be addressed while we are putting together the building blocks of this new technology in India.”

Sandip Somany said, “With growing advancements in technology, cloud computing is the buzz word today. There are many reasons why organizations of all sizes are adopting this technology, especially MSMEs due to the reduced need for physical infrastructure. Cloud computing will create nearly 14 million jobs within the years of 2011-15. We now need to better understand optimal use of this technology while addressing concerns about security and privacy.”

Sanjeev Gupta said, “Cloud computing is a technology that emerged during the recession period for companies to reduce costs and infrastructure management. Shared infrastructure and scalability are options provided by the service providers.”

The seminar also included a technical session, including experts from Albion, VMware, EMC2, Kaspersky and Data Security Council of India to address technical and materiel aspects of the information security in the context of cloud computing.

Types of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has three different types of services to offer. Depending on the users' requirements, each type of cloud computing service is employed either individually or in combination with others. Following is a brief on the three types of cloud computing services.

Software as a service (SaaS)
SaaS is also known as "on-demand software". The users of SaaS instead of completely buying the license of different software rent the software periodically and use them through an internet browser. The variety of software made available by SaaS is very wide. There are a number of software delivered by SaaS used by businesses that deal in content management, human resource management, accounting, ERP, customer relationship management and other relevant areas.

The software-as-a-service type of cloud computing is growing very fast while the largest market for software-as-a-service current is customer relationship management.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)
(PaaS) provides computing platforms to users of cloud computing. It is also the link between the other two services provided by cloud computing i.e. SaaS and IaaS.

A normal computer requires a computing platform that includes hardware architecture along with a framework of software. Such a platform is the base of collaboration of the hardware and software that includes the computer's operating system, architecture and languages. Hence, when it comes to cloud computing, in the absence of a real computer, it is Platform as a Service that provides the users with all that is required to compose a computing platform.

Some of the facilities that PaaS offers include hosting, deployment, testing, and application development and application design. Furthermore, cloud service providers offering PaaS include a number of features to design, test, deploy, host and run applications. All of these facilities can be availed by individual as well as business clients by subscribing to a single package with all of the features included.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS is the third type of computing via the cloud. Just like PaaS and SaaS deliver different software and hardware facilities based on a cloud platform, IaaS delivers a virtualized platform. The process of hardware virtualization shows users only the abstract computing platform instead of the physical features. Such virtualization leads to the creation of what is known as 'virtual machine monitor' or 'hypervisor' that enables the creation of the third part of cloud computing i.e. Interface as a Service.


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How to Choose a Cloud Computing Service Provider

With so many cloud computing companies on the market today it means that choosing the right one who understands your business infrastructure is becoming increasingly difficult. It is therefore important that you know what your exact requirements are so that you can do research and evaluate who the best cloud provider is for you. When carrying out your research there will be certain criteria that you should be looking for. Below is a list of the top four fundamental selection requirements for choosing a Best cloud service provider:

1) Reliability and Reputation
To understand a company's reliability and reputation it will be important to understand who the company is and how long they have been in the industry. It will also be important to look into the type of clients that a cloud provider has and what partnerships they have established. To fully understand a provider's reliability and reputation it would be worthwhile talking to some of their clients and partners to see what they have to say about the company. This is often the best way to gauge the reliability and reputation of a company first-hand.

2) Suitability
It will be important to fully understand whether your business has suitability to move into a cloud environment and what cloud computing solution is right for you. To understand suitability of the different types of cloud services you should look to providers who offer no-obligation free trials. This way you can see whether your business is acceptable in a cloud environment and see how the cloud service works before you make a long-term commitment.

3) Support and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Support and SLAs are vital to ensure against any downtime of the cloud. When looking at a cloud provider's support commitment you need to ensure that they will work quickly if any issues or downtime arises and that problems are dealt with in the agreed manner and to the agreed timescales. You should look for companies with dedicated support that have the capacity to deal with problems as and when they arise. When you speak to a cloud computing company or meet them at their offices you should ask to see the support department.

4) Security of the Cloud
Any company that moves into a cloud environment needs to ensure security of the environment and their business systems and processes. It is important to ensure that the selected cloud service provider offers a secure infrastructure at all levels and throughout the cloud services that they offer. The data centres that are provided will also need to be understood to ensure a consistent level of security as well.

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Remote Infrastructure Management

RIM deals mainly with IT Infrastructure Management and applications. At this time many business solutions organizations offer RIM services which are very beneficial for their customers. One of the most important services among these is storage management, helping in the usage of storage devices to protect the important data. Many companies provide help desk services which is an information and supporter resource that troubleshoots the problems with computers. These services are provided to the clients via email, toll-free nos., websites, etc. and some organizations have their own in-house help desks. Some technical institutions also offer these kinds of help desk services in which they perform same tasks as a help desk.

Now we talk about server management like Server Support services. Server is a computer program which is running as a service to serve the requirements of other programs which may not be running on the same computer system. A server computer is a series or a computer that links other systems of electronic devices together. They provide their services across a network to private users or public users through the internet. Internet server monitoring comprises website monitoring and is much bigger term. Monitoring a web server is to monitor continuously whenever the services go down and the server owner gets the alert. Website monitoring is also a part of server monitoring. Under this a test process is done to confirm whether the end-users are able to interact with a website or web application.

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All Under One Roof - Remote Infrastructure Services

Companies that have outsourced their IT infrastructure management are slowly realizing the advantage of having a common vendor for all services. Previously, operations management was a segregated affair with separate vendors handling separate operations. One vendor would take care of helpdesk support; while another vendor would specialize in server and mailbox support while the third would take care of the backbone network. The reason for using disparate vendors for every task was that infrastructure management as a service was not mature enough, IT departments were unsure of service levels as tools and processes had to be aligned between vendor and enterprise wary of giving away what they thought was "control" on their infrastructure. Added to this was the perception that support services were an extension of the hardware and software supply function.

With the growing dependence on IT infrastructure, companies soon started understanding the pivotal role communications and IT made to their bottom lines. Vendors soon started realizing the new opportunity that seemed to present itself. With almost every business making use of some sort of IT infrastructure, the need for IT infrastructure support grew rapidly. Quite soon, many companies realized the potential of packaging their services for end-to-end support. This meant stepping beyond the support they provided for their specific products (say a storage device or a messaging platform). Organizations that provided remote infrastructure management services as a core competency and not merely an extension of hardware/software sold, began to mushroom. The key was to provide end-to-end services, thereby reducing the pain points of effective governance, competency building and talent retention. Suddenly, a CIO was not concerned with recruiting and training talent for his infrastructure needs - he had vendors who would do this, letting him focus on the needs of the enterprise.

Remote Infrastructure management services are a consolidated IT infrastructure support service. A single vendor would have the competency to manage everything from network backbone, servers, firewalls and security, helpdesk support, etc.


Today's RIMS providers have managed to bring everything under a single roof: from managing every aspect of IT infrastructure, through various on-site and remote support models and via tools and processes that bring complete transparency. Now, we need to see innovation by way of elasticity.

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Infrastructure as a Service : IaaS

Infrastructure as a Service is one of the three main categories of cloud computing service. Cloud computing involves delivering hosted services over the internet. A cloud service has three different characteristics from a traditional hosting on the internet. These are: it is sold on demand by the hour; it has infinite capability and can be elastic giving as much service as demanded; and the hosting service is managed totally by the provider. The client needs just a personal computer and an internet access. There is a great interest in developing cloud computing as a major component of the infrastructure as a Service.

Further, Infrastructure as a Service offers both large and small businesses an enterprise class managed solution. By utilizing the best architecture IaaS allows its customers to focus on their core business and not worry too much about their infrastructure that is provided to them with a built in flexibility, scalability and reliability. And all this unmatched service is provided for a monthly fee.

A managed hosting is the same as IaaS and manages critical infrastructure. The server which hosts the website of its clients is housed in a data centre. It provides support to the operating systems and applications of its clients with complete security. Data from one client cannot be accessed by any unauthorized person. Many of them have various security programs deployed on their server and spammers as well as hackers cannot get through.

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The Wonders of Cloud Computing

The term "Cloud Computing" is such a by-word nowadays with people claiming it's the trend of the future. The theory behind cloud computing is that individuals and business need not be limited by applications in their desktops. The applications, services and utilities needed in the performance of your work can simply be hosted in the "Cloud" or by a certain provider of your choice. You only need to log on to these services through an internet connection and a browser to access them anywhere you are.

You probably didn't know it but you are already part of the cloud computing generation if you have an online email subscription, one that you access from the net and not installed in your desktop.

If you can imagine the implications this kind of access will have for your enterprise, you'll be staggered. See, now you are dependent on the software applications to be installed on each desktop of every employee in your organization. What this means is that you will have to pay for either the software or the software license for each of these workstations. If you use a cloud computing service to host your applications, you only need to have ONE application hosted with your service provider and your employees can simply log in and use the service from anywhere they are. This will work best especially if you have employees that are always on the road and have to access or store files that are necessary for other members of the team that are waiting in the offices.

Cloud computing is also highly scalable which means that it doesn't matter if you have a small business or a very large corporation. It can easily be customized to suit your needs and to upgrade the system when the need arises. The initial start up will only be minimal and you'll only probably face subscription fees to your hosting provider to keep the applications going.

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Infrastructure As A Service - IAAS

Computer terminology can be incredibly confusing, especially when what they have named at seems to have nothing to do with the product so you can't even make an educated guess as to what it is. If you are an IT whiz then you probably do not have this problem, but for those of us who know the importance of IT but just don't understand or know much about it, it can be a huge problem. If I were to mention infrastructure as a service - IaaS to you, would you know what it meant?

Well, IaaS is one of the ways or methods which allows for you to access cloud computing based services. This is where organizations can purchase or rent computing power, and/or disk space which they can access from their office or desktop PCs through private networks or via the internet.

If this still doesn't make a great deal of sense it is where a company can rent space from a provider instead of having to purchase and set up an IT infrastructure of their own. Generally speaking there are three types or varieties of cloud offerings, however with constant IT changes the changes between each service are ever changing and constantly overlapping.

When a customer opts for an IaaS software server they can choose which software server they feel would be best for their organization. Another task with IaaS providers do is worry about the organizations website, they ensure it is available and monitor traffic, taking another worry off of the organization itself.

As with everything the price for IaaS changes depending on which provider you opt for. Generally though it is priced on a pay as you go system, charges will be made for the amount of data you host via them and the traffic you have going through their servers.

Generally speaking there are various types of cloud which you can opt for, being; public cloud, community cloud, hybrid cloud, private cloud. Some you can tell what they entail by the name, others you cannot so it is wise to do adequate research so you know what you are looking at or contemplating.

Infrastructure as a service - IaaS can be a good addition for any organization. It enables for you to just get on and work without having to continually purchase new software and wait for them to be installed properly and so on, it also allows for you to worry about the more important aspects of business.

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Cloud Network Management:Cloud Computing

The concept of Cloud computing, which was a term introduced in 2007 has been around since the 1960's when John McCarthy wrote "computation may someday be organized as a public utility." With Saas (Software as a service) becoming more and more popular, companies.The services can be public or private depending on the user's preference. Private clouds are proprietary networks or data centers that are managed by the organization it serves. In addition, there is also a cloud computing Hybrid service, which is maintained by the organization and external providers.

Software as a service has been reported to cut cost thus, allowing companies to invest money elsewhere within. Along with reducing technical cost, the cloud also allows users to access the network from virtually anywhere with any Internet ready device like a desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet increasing productivity.

Many companies are starting to look at cloud computing as a necessity. For instance, IT departments can focus on other issues, without concerning themselves with constant server updates or software upgrades. Also, organizations can store more data than before avoiding the cost of buying more storage devices. Lastly, another advantage of software as a service is the pay as you go model. This enables companies to increase resources only when needed. If more resources are needed, it is as simple as calling your service provider and upgrading the account.
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Cloud Computing

Cloud computing - we hear the term almost daily. But really, just what is cloud computing all about? First of all, it's useful to understand where the term came from. It most likely originated from the use of a cloud image to represent a networked computing environment or the internet.

A quick Google search will reveal a number of definitions for cloud computing. I like a definition I picked up from Wikipedia which defines cloud computing as the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as utility similar to the electricity grid over a network which is most often the internet. To sort out some of the confusion around cloud computing, it is helpful to understand the various service models, of which there are three - software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

SaaS is the most widely known flavour of cloud service. SaaS is sometimes referred to as on demand software. With SaaS, software and its associated data are centrally hosted and are typically accessed over the internet using a browser. What are some examples of SaaS? Mailchimp, the application we use to distribute our newsletters, is an example. Zoho CRM is another example of SaaS. Gmail is another example and the list continues to expand.

PaaS provides the delivery of a computing platform and required solutions to facilitate the deployment of applications without having to invest in the cost and complexity of hardware and software. Some examples of PaaS include Microsoft Azure and Google's App Engine.

The IaaS service model allows clients to avoid the procurement of servers, software, data centre space and network equipment. Such resources are provided as a fully outsourced service. Examples of IaaS include Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud, IBM and Rackspace.

In addition to the various cloud service models, it's useful to understand the delivery models through which cloud computing is distributed. The main delivery models include public, private, community and hybrid.

A public cloud offers infrastructure and solutions to the general public and is typically owned by a large organization that sells cloud services.



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Cloud Service Providers

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly maintained and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Businesses should use cloud computing as a fantastic opportunity to offer advanced IT services with exceptional savings. Cloud services can be used by businesses of any size, from the sole proprietorship to the international corporation.

Whether the product is email, CRM or HRMS, cloud service providers offer packages from basic service to fully featured offerings that can meet or exceed the capabilities of the leading on premise solutions, and at a fraction of the cost. With no need to make capital investments, up skill your existing staff or hire new experts, companies can deploy new IT offerings that would otherwise be beyond their capabilities.

Most cloud services offered by cloud service providers require little to no upfront costs, and base their services on a recurring monthly subscription fee based on actual usage. This keeps a company’s expenses manageable, with predictable increases based on the company’s actual growth, as well as the ability to reduce costs if requirements drop. And with monthly subscription models, most companies treat these costs as operational expenses. This help in gaining more immediate financial benefit when compared to other on premise IT infrastructure implementation over several years.

Cloud services  are built around scalable and resilient infrastructures. Many companies that try to deploy services in house find that their investment would have been doubled, if they had to make the system redundant. One of the biggest challenges for companies that don’t have a global IT team is providing around the clock coverage.  High availability is very important feature of cloud services, so your data or applications are always up and available 24X7. Cloud services providers operate on large scale, and staff for the round the clock support to ensure that there’s always someone on duty to help their clients.

Cloud Computing has changed the way business is conducted by offering agility, scalability and flexibility. Albion being a cloud services provider has a dedicated cloud computing practice that promotes thought leadership and addresses challenges in the cloud space. We have a proven track record in delivering application development, maintenance and testing services. With strong partnership with cloud platform vendors and cloud package & tool providers like IBM, VMware, Cisco etc we offer consulting and implementation services in this emerging technology space.

Our dedicated team promotes research, development of cloud adoption methodologies & tools, and enhancement of consulting and technical competence for providing best-of- breed services. Albion’s cloud services team ensures that each user has accessibility of IT services to run its business smoothly, leading to high satisfaction levels and increased productivity. With Albion managing your IT Services, you will experience improved security of your data and infrastructure, and your own IT staff will be able to focus solely on delivering the technology solutions to your company’s core business objectives.

Cloud Computer Service

Although the term “cloud computer service” sounds new, elements of the concept have been around for decades. For instance, timesharing and virtual machines are being used from mainframe era of 1960s. The famous saying of “the network is the computer” was first coined by Sun Microsystems in 1982. Grid computing that has been in use by the scientific community since the early 1990s, has been widely deployed in financial services for the past five or six years, especially in securities and trading operations. Even the on-demand business model dates back to the late 1990s, when it was served up by organizations known as application service providers. What makes cloud computer service real now is the Internet becoming an IT platform, virtualization, hardware commoditization, standardization, and open source software. A key catalyst is the success of major Internet companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. The highly global and scalable infrastructure these companies have built to power Internet search, electronic commerce, social networks, and other online services forms the core of the current cloud phenomenon.

Cloud computer service has its origin in the segment of the IT market, i.e., the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and consumers, whose need for simpler and lower-cost or even free solutions is underserved by traditional packaged software. As cloud-based services matured, they started to win broader acceptance from mainstream enterprise customers. Now, they compete directly with on-premise and packaged software. The significance of the cloud, however, lies far beyond cheap computing. The Web-enabled, variable cost model represents a huge departure from existing practice, and carries far-reaching implications for IT providers and users alike. A new wave of venture-funded startups is likely to appear, offering an array of innovative solutions ranging from small applications to cloud middleware and infrastructure services. The battle between pure Internet players like Google, Amazon and Salesforce and traditional enterprise vendors has just begun.  The emergence of cloud platforms will significantly ease the entry barrier for such small players to develop, deploy, scale and integrate their services.

For IT organizations, the cloud means that more IT functions will be accounted for as variable costs. This change from “buy-and-own” to “pay-as-you-go” has broad implications for activities such as procurement and staffing—and it could lead to a new role for the IT department. As the cloud continues to gain momentum, more business units and users will turn directly to cloud-based solutions to meet their infrastructure and application needs.  As a result, the IT department’s role as the sole provider and operator of IT will slowly diminish. At the same time, the IT department will likely see a growing demand for security, procurement, data, and other similar services from the business units.

In general, cloud computer service will act as an accelerator for enterprises, enabling them to innovate and compete more effectively. With elastic and theoretically unlimited IT resources on tap, businesses no longer have to wait for the provisioning of servers or worry about project delays. By tapping into the right cloud capabilities, companies can quickly enter new geographical markets or launch new products or services in existing markets. As demand grows, they can quickly scale up. Conversely, when demand eases, they can just as quickly scale down and, if necessary, they can exit the market entirely with minimum loss of time and capital.

Cloud Computing and What It Means For Businesses

Cloud computing refers to running web-based computer applications over the Internet - the 'cloud'. It is a system that allows businesses to access hosted services, which in this case could be any kind of software that can run on a normal computer. This has been found to be advantageous to businesses for reasons such as cost reduction and improved remote access.

What cloud computing really means is that the same applications like word processing or email clients that run on the company's machines are instead hosted on powerful servers and accessed via the internet through a simple application (mostly a web browser).

Industrial leaders in providing cloud solutions include Google's Google Apps, Amazon's Web Services, IBM, Intel and Microsoft's Office 2010 Web Apps. However, the cloud system is still at a development stage, with companies still skeptical about having their sensitive information being transmitted over the internet. But secure data encryption services should be able to address such issues, as demonstrated by the many online secure banking systems.