Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) takes cloud computing tips from amazon

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has developed a private cloud to support its application development process, using Amazon best practices. The project has enabled RBS to determine running costs of its IT infrastructure and provide service-based pricing. The self-service cloud, which is available through a portal, allows developers to provision Red Hat Linux, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 to deploy servers for their applications. The service is being used by more than 100 teams. Adoption within RBS is being spread by word of mouth.

Source: www.ComputerWeekly.com

Business models: cloud-based vs cloud-enabled

A cloud-based business model is a business model that is completely aimed at, reliant on, and based on a cloud computing environement.
E.g. End-users applications are entirely hosted in a cloud. End users can access the applications or data they need simply by providing a username and a password.

A cloud-enabled business model uses some components of cloud computing to achieve beneficial results in terms of how the business operates.
E.g. use a virtual cloud server for data storage.

Gartner predicts PaaS revenue will reach USD 2.9bn by 2016

Global revenue for platform as a service (PaaS) will grow consistently for five years to reach $2.9bn by 2016, up from $900m in 2011, according to research firm Gartner. But as the PaaS delivery model grows, it will intensify the competition between large cloud service providers and enterprise software suppliers which look to capture the growing market, Gartner predicted.

Source : ComputerWeekly.com

Cloud Definitions

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Special Publication
800-145, “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing,” defines the cloud as having
five essential characteristics:
1- On-demand self-service
2 - Broad network access
3 - Resource pooling
4 - Rapid elasticity
5 - Measured service

The publication also specifies three service models:
1 - Software as a Service (SaaS)
2 - Platform as a Service (PaaS)
3 - Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

And the document defines four deployment models:
1 - Private cloud
2 - Community cloud
3 - Public cloud
4 - Hybrid cloud

The NIST standard is freely available for use and remains the best definition of
cloud computing today, in part due to its simplicity and brevity. NIST has published
other cloud standards that are primarily aimed at departments and agencies
of the US Government, as well as cloud architecture document Special Publication
500-292, “NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture.” Larger enterprises might
find this document useful when planning adoption of the cloud.

European Commissioner Neelie Kroes speaking about Cloud Computing

Commissioner Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda speaks about Cloud Computing after the release the European Commission’s cloud computing strategy document titled Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe on 27.9.2012.

FULL VIDEO HERE

European Commission: Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe

The European Commission’s cloud computing strategy document – titled Unleashingthe Potential of Cloud Computingin Europe - has outlined the obstacles to establishing a vibrant
market for cloud computing.
The main obstacles are:

1. a lack of clarity on rights, responsibilities,and liability; 
2. insufficient data protection; 
3. and insufficient standardisation, particularly across jurisdictions. 

The European Commission (EC) has requested that the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute set-up a Cloud Group to look into the needs for cloud standardisation and conformity with interoperability standards. The EC also says it will work with relevant bodies to assist the development of EU-wide voluntary certification schemes in the area of cloud computing and plans to publish a list of such schemes by 2014.

Source: European Cloud Computing Stragety web site

Lamborghini web site takes advantage of Cloud Computing technologies

Supercar maker Automobili Lamborghini has migrated its legacy servers onto Amazon Web Services (AWS), halving the running cost.
The car company has replaced an outdated website and infrastructure with AWS. The new website was built in less than one month.
The old website infrastructure was not scalable, preventing the company from supporting new online initiatives as well as the increasing number of  visitors to the site. Lamborghini wanted to be online with an updated website in a very short time.

The car maker considered an on-premise datacentre, which would have cost more than AWS. It also considered a  local hosting provider, but this did not offer scalability. The firm eventually decided it needed cloud computing to support the required scalability and flexibility on its website, and chose AWS based on recommendations from analysts who rated Amazon as the best-in-class infrastructure-as-a-service (IAAS) platform.

Lamborghini has deployed the new website on AWS using various services including Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Relational Database (Amazon RDS), Amazon Simple Shared Service (Amazon S3), Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon CloudWatch.  It also followed AWS Architecture Center for implementation guidance and best practices.

Roberto Ciacci, digital marketing manager at Automobili Lamborghini, said: “We reduced the cost of our infrastructure by 50%, while at the same time achieving better performance and scalability. Today our time-to-market is close to zero."

SOURCE (Computer Weekly)

Capital Insights - Cloud 360° view

The Figure shows how companies can overcome the challenges of cloud computing. The inner circle show the four key challenges:

• Cloud Assurance
• Cloud Positioning
• Cloud Provisioning
• Cloud Realization

While the outer circle outlines 16 specific areas within those challenges that corporates need to focus on to effectively manage their journey through the cloud.

Source: Ernst & Young (Capital Insights)

Customs System through the Cloud: Trans-Kalahari Corridor (TKC)

The Trans-Kalahari Corridor is a paved highway corridor that provides a direct route from Walvis Bay and Windhoek in central Namibia, through Botswana, to Johannesburg and Pretoria in Gauteng province in South Africa. The corridor also includes railway lines from Walvis Bay as far as Gobabis in Namibia, and from Johannesburg as far as Lobatse in Botswana. It was officially opened in 1998.

Last year (2011) at the World Customs Organization IT conference in Seattle (USA), Microsoft announces the launch of a pilot "cloud computing" project based on Azure technologies between Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. A pilot programme to link the ASYCUDA systems of Namibia and Botswana via Microsoft’s Cloud Computing technology. Both Microsoft and USAID are partners in this initiative seeking to enable the two customs systems to communicate with each other through a secure portal.

This year (2012) at the World Customs Organization IT conference in Tallinn (Estonia),
progresses about this pilot cloud computing solution have been shown at Microsoft's booth.

Also, FTW Online recently published an update on recent developments occurring along the Trans-Kalahari Corridor. It suggests that customs systems throughout the SADC region could soon be talking to each other through the Internet, if the pilot project between Namibia and Botswana is successful.

Organizations are no longer asking “if cloud,” they are asking “which cloud?” by Jose Ferreiro

The Ultimate Cloud Battle: Public Vs. Private Vs. Hybrid - White Paper (see document below)

Organizations are no longer asking “if cloud,” they are asking “which cloud?”
Determining which type of cloud solution is becoming increasingly difficult with the myriad of choices available today.  Selecting the right cloud solution requires thorough analysis regarding the level of security, control, customization and support your business requires.
This eBook will give you insight into which cloud delivery model is best suited for your needs whether that be public, private or hybrid cloud.

Organizations are no longer asking “if cloud,” they are asking “which cloud?”

View more presentations from José Ferreiro.

Setting up a private cloud for academic environment with Open Source Software - jose ferreiro

Take a look of this interesting presentation performed by Zoran Pantic at the IT university of Copenhagen where he explains how to set up a private cloud using Open Source Software (OSS).

More information here: https://blog.itu.dk/MCLC-F2012/

https://blog.itu.dk/MCLC-F2012/lectures/ (lecture 7 of week 5)

Additional Links which Zoran briefly mentioned in the lecture:
http://ken.pepple.info/openstack/2011/04/22/openstack-nova-architecture/
http://ken.pepple.info/openstack/2012/02/21/revisit-openstack-architecture-diablo/

View more presentations from José Ferreiro.

Canadian Government Cloud Computing White Paper– Best practices

Here is the first version of the white paper : Best practices in Canadian Government Cloud Computing.

Download : 14-page PDF

The objective of this paper is to document all the standards and technologies that go into defining a framework for public sector Cloud Computing in Canada, covering key topics such as:

•     Understanding the baseline of the NIST Cloud Computing models

•     A big focus on ‘PaaS’ – Platform as a Service

•     Canadian standards for Identity and Virtualization Security

•     How to maximize success through Shared Services, and how to maximize the success of Shared Services Canada

Read more here ...

Canadian Federal Government Public Works CIO talks about "Cloud computing Roadmap"

In June 2010 the Canadian Federal Government Public Works CIO delivered this 18-page PDF presentation, which describes a roadmap plan for their adoption of Cloud Computing, acting as a template blueprint for an overall enterprise architecture and strategy for Cloud computing.

Vivek Kundra, former United States Chief Information Officer joined salesforce.com

Having promoted the cloud at the White House, Vivek Kundra is charged by Marc Benioff from Salesforce to develop activities to emerging countries.

Vivek promoted the cloud at the White House, he previously was the "United States Chief Information Officer", i.e. federal CIO, on the accession of Barack Obama as president.

He had worked at the White House promoting Cloud technologies and strengthening ways to fight against cybercrime. "Vivek Kundra is a visionary technological developments. He opened the eyes of millions of people to the processing capacity offered by cloud computing." said Marc Benioff.
All best wihes of sucess Vivek!

Swiss Authorities Cloud Computing Strategy - Cloud-Computing-Strategie der Schweizer Behörden - Stratégie Cloud Computing des autorités suisses

Experts from the Swiss Confederation, cantons, municipalities, business and education and research have developed a draft strategy for cloud computing. The project is in consultation with the mentioned groups.

Des experts issus de la Confédération, des cantons, des communes, de l'économie ainsi que de l'enseignement et de la recherche ont élaboré un projet de stratégie d'informatique en nuage. Le projet est mis en consultation auprès des groupes mentionnés.

Read more in French or German

New Technology - Cloud Communicator tablet by NEC

Dual screen NEC tablet goes official (LT-W Android Cloud Communicator) using
the open-platform Android.
It can be operated by fingers or using the provided pen stylus.
It includes cloud computing technology.

More info here

Cloud Computing Strategic Direction Paper by Australian Governement

The Department of Finance and Deregulation, through the Australian Government Information Management Office, has consulted with government agencies, industry and the public to develop an Australian Government Cloud Computing Strategic Direction paper to explore the opportunities and impacts of cloud computing.

According to the paper, some agencies have already commenced small pilots and proofs of concept to evaluate the potential of application, platform and infrastructure cloud computing.

• Australian Taxation Office (ATO)

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

• Treasury / ATO

• Department of Immigration and Citizenship (IMMI)

Additional information here

The iEnterprise by Jose Ferreiro

Virtualization, cloud computing, and wireless technology are fundamentally changing enterprise computing, providing revolutionary gains in productivity and cost savings. Powerful enterprise applications can now be delivered to almost any device, anywhere, at any time and take advantage of tremendous computing power available in consumer devices, such as smartphones (Android, iPhone, Samsung, Galaxy, Sony, Blackberry, etc) and tablets (iPad, Motorola Xoom, Blackberry PlayBook, HP TouchPad, GalaxyTab, etc). Regardless of whether these devices are issued corporately or personally owned, almost every IT department is experiencing the effects of unprecedented smart device adoption in their enterprise.

#1 challenges of IT: IT ignorance, staying with an open mind, IT as a cost center ?

Multiple directions:
 - "IT ignorance" I do not want to say always, because it is not true, but often the people that would like to improve IT do not know what they talking about (e.g. virtualization, cloud computing.)
- "Stay with an open mind" do not stop to look new technology or better do not stop to put passion on your work. Do not see where you are or where you have arrived but always where do you want to go?
 - Sometimes IT is becoming HR. I find the CFO reporting relationship to be a red herring. In fact, an extremely effective CIO I met reported to the CFO. Part of her effectiveness was that the CFO lent financial rigor to her initiatives, and made them an easier "sell" to the CEO.  If IT acts like a "cost center", it will be treated like such. It is extremely rare to see a CIO who is unfairly "oppressed" by their CFO; usually they are treated like a "cost center" since they don't know anything about their business, and are constantly pitching technology "solutions" rather than solving business problems.

Cloud Computing - Why and How? (by Forrester Research, Inc.)

An overview of why and how the cloud will impact the future according to Forrester Research, Inc.

View more presentations from José Ferreiro.