Silver lining for Irish firms in cloud computing

MICROSOFT IS staking its future on cloud computing and gambling that businesses all over the world will make the switch from inhouse computing to cyberspace.

At a five-day Washington summit for 14,000 partners this week, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said the industry was "at an inflection point in technology history" and predicted spending on cloud applications will grow five times faster than all other software spending.

Cloud computing enables companies to dispense with costly inhouse servers and run everything from e-mail to accounting and other complex computer services on the web with huge savings.

Getting clear about cloud computing

THE "cloud" in cloud computing comes from terminology used to describe large networks such as the internet. Rather than data being stored in and accessed from the drive of an individual computer, that data is held off in the "cloud" of the network.

Cloud computing as a term generally refers to any very large network that can manage large amounts of information and a multitude of applications for multiple users - for example, a grid network (lots of individual computer servers) in a data centre - where applications and services are stored and accessed by computer users, and data may be shared among users. Some describe cloud computing as an architecture for setting up a grid - in other words, a subset of grid computing.

Web users make use of data, applications and services like this all the time - think of online applications such as Google Write or photo storage sites such as Flickr.

Consortium aiming to take cloud computing to next level

A CLOUD computing community consortium to help develop industry standards and a rating system of cloud computing companies was launched this week by CA Technologies (formerly Computer Associates) and Carnegie Mellon University.

Cloudcommons.com is to be the online home of a new Cloud Commons Consortium industry group which will produce an independent "service measurement index" (SMI) scoring system that "will be the TripAdvisor" for parties interested in getting an insight into both major and small cloud services providers, said Laura McCluer, vice president, Cloud Community, CA Technologies.

Providers will be ranked by the consortium with a numerical score out of 100. Alongside the numerical score sits a star-rating system that site users can contribute to themselves.

The cloud: the next big thing?

Cloud computing is the next big thing, apparently - but what is it, and why should we care?

IT'S THE BUZZ-PHRASE that's turning into a reality. Everyone's talking about cloud computing, but what exactly is it, what does it mean for individuals and businesses, and why is Ireland becoming a hub for it?

So break it down, what is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the provision of services and resources - from software to applications and more - over a wireless network or "cloud", rather than physically on your device. Instead of installing software, you can use those available in the cloud to process and store data and access programmes when you need them.

"I use the explanation of electricity," says Paul Rellis, managing director of Microsoft in Ireland. "Years ago every organisation had its own generator and produced its own electricity, but then big companies, governments and semi-states created an electricity grid, transformed lives and created a huge industry. Cloud computing acts in the same way. Today, everyone has their own technology, but cloud computing is about pooling it altogether and providing it over the internet at a very high quality utility speed."

IBM chooses Dublin as base for computing initiative

IBM HAS chosen Dublin as the location for what it claims is the first cloud computing centre in Europe.

The initiative, which is supported by IDA Ireland, will ultimately employ over 20 staff but also cements Dublin as a strategic location within the corporation, say local IBM executives.

Although IBM has not revealed the investment involved, it is understood that it has attracted additional funding to the €46 million the company said it would invest in Dublin in 2006.

The new centre will provide research and other services around cloud computing to IBM specialists in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Cloud exposure comes at a cost

NET RESULTS: Enterprises may save money by moving to cloud computing but can they do so without breaching the data protection law, writes SIMON McGARR

CLOUD COMPUTING is rapidly becoming a buzzphrase in IT-reliant businesses. Its proponents include some of the largest technology companies in the world. But while enterprises may be able to save money by moving into the cloud it is difficult to see how they can do so with their customer's personal information without breaching data protection law.

Household names like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are racing each other to create rival global platforms for the storage and manipulation of data. They have sent their marketers out among us to proclaim the good news - cloud computing will reduce costs and improve service when compared to the traditional self-built and run server rooms most significant organisations are used to.

World Economic Forum says cloud benefits still not realised

A NEW report from the World Economic Forum says the benefits of cloud computing have only begun to be realised, but several obstacles must be addressed before it can be more widely used.

The report defines cloud computing as applications delivered as services over the internet and the hardware and systems in the data centres that provide those services.

Whereas early benefits of the cloud, such as reducing costs and improving business processes, are well understood, the report said these are "just scratching the surface of cloud's potential".

Cloud Formation

DATA MANAGEMENT: Microsoft has found a positive use for the Irish climate, which, it turns out, provides the perfect conditions for its new data centre, a cornerstone of the company's cloud services.

IRISH WEATHER may be a source of many complaints but for Microsoft, the colder climate has proved an attraction.

Microsoft's newest mega data centre, located in Dublin, is using the Irish climate to make the facility the greenest data centre the company has built to date.

It uses ambient air drawn in from outside the building to help cool the facility all year round, cutting power costs and water usage and making the facility a greener operation.

A dense cloud of utilities

IT services are increasingly being accessed via a type of tap that we merely turn on or off. No need to worry about the plumbing, writes IAN CAMPBELL

TECHNOLOGY VENDORS are proffering so many types of cloud computing that they threaten to turn it to fog before it's taken off. However, the underlying principles are consistent and almost exciting enough to justify the hype. The endgame is information and communications technology as a utility, turned on and off like water.

The idea is that businesses let service providers park their infrastructure and applications in a data centre and deliver it back to them as service. They only pay for what they use, turning technology into an operational rather than capital cost while ridding the organisation of the burden of managing and maintaining complex systems.

Sometimes described as "the consumerisation of IT", it does for businesses what company's like Apple with its online ecosystem of entertainment have already done for consumers.

Are we witnessing the death of software?

CLOUD COMPUTING fundamentally changes the relationship between a business and its software provider, according to Dr Steve Garnett, head of Salesforce. com in Europe.

With this computing model, a business never has to install software on its systems other than a web browser.

As a result of this flexibility, businesses have more power to walk away from a provider.

"The customer has huge say," Dr Garnett says. "The ability to move is a huge incentive for the vendor to get it right."

Don't cloud the issue: if it's free there's a hitch

With cloud computing all data storage takes place remotely, but is it possible to accept such free services as reliable, writes GORDON SMITH

THE TECHNOLOGY industry is betting heavily on cloud computing being the new model to deliver services, but have we a right to expect high levels of reliability from sites we pay nothing to use?

Anyone who uses Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo, social networks like Facebook, Bebo and LinkedIn, blogging tools, Twitter, or photo sharing sites Flickr or Picasa, is using cloud computing technology.

With the cloud model, all that is needed is a web browser to access the services. All of the data processing and storage takes place remotely - via the ‘‘cloud'' - at large data centres with enough capacity to serve millions of people at the same time.

Firm invests €1m in cloud computing software venture

SOFTWARE COMPANY pTools has announced a €1 million investment in a new cloud computing-enabled version of its web content management system.

The software, System6, has been in development for three years and was funded largely by the company's cash reserves, with additional investment from Enterprise Ireland.

Cloud computing is the use of a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or personal computer.

Cloud computing storm

An e-mail sent to public servants warning about cloud computing services has caused uproar in the IT industry, writes JOHN COLLINS

ON A Thursday afternoon early last month an e-mail with the subject line "eTenders - Cloud Computing Warning" began to arrive in the inbox of public servants.

Sent by the National Public Procurement Operations Unit, which operates the Government's electronic tendering website, eTenders, the brief communication said the Chief State Solicitor's Office had advised "that issues such as data protection, confidentiality and security and liability are not necessarily dealt with in a manner that would be necessary for public-sector responsibilities" by cloud services.

HP selects Galway as global centre for cloud computing

HEWLETT-PACKARD (HP) has designated its Galway software development centre as a global centre of competency for cloud computing.

The first fruits of the new designation is a product recall service for the food industry, which is being launched in Canada.

Announced yesterday, the service will run on HP's cloud computing platform for manufacturing and is being offered through a partnership with GS1, a non-profit organisation that attempts to make supply chains more efficient.

Clouds gathering in world of IT services

At a briefing organised by Accenture in Dublin earlier this week, representatives from Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com and Microsoft offered a realistic appraisal of the technology industry's latest buzzword, writes GORDON SMITH

Cloud computing takes its name from the IT industry's use of a "cloud" as shorthand to represent the internet or a large network, because all of the data processing and storage takes place at remote data centres and is then delivered through the internet - rather than people acquiring proprietary software packages.

To date, cloud computing is more closely associated with consumer applications like Google's Gmail or websites such as the Facebook or Flickr.

But this is changing: Google is aggressively targeting business customers, while online retailer Amazon rents spare computing capacity on its systems to other businesses.

New ground: Irish firms' cloud issues

MANY IRISH companies have confidence in cloud computing but identify several barriers to adopting it, according to a survey from the Irish Internet Association's working group on cloud computing.

Preliminary survey results show 42 per cent of Irish companies said they were very confident of the concept. However, 12.1 per cent did not understand the concept, 17 per cent said they were concerned about security and a further 17 per cent were worried about the reliability of such services.

"That, for me, is important, obviously we can resolve the understanding part but reliability and security are bigger issues," said Gerry Power, a consultant with Sysco Software who is chairing the working group.

"In Ireland at the moment, the cost of getting that reliability is very high; having a service level agreement with ISPs to guarantee uptime comes at a price and that does away with some of the cost arguments in favour of cloud computing."

Bruton to set up cloud tech group

THE MINISTER for Enterprise has announced plans to establish an implementation group to examine how the public sector can best adopt the latest cloud-computing technologies.

Scheduled to hold its first meeting later this month, it will include representatives from relevant Government departments, the Data Protection Commissioner, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.

Richard Bruton said it was crucial that the Government, as a major user of IT in the economy, took a lead to provide "opportunities and economies of scale for growing businesses in this sector".

IT students happy to have head in clouds

THIS TIME next year 20 IT professionals will be completing Ireland's first cloud computing course, a one-year master's degree delivered remotely by the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT).

The cloud class of 2012 will be made up of people on secondment from companies involved in the development of the programme, but the plan is to open it up with 40 places for computer science students from Irish tech institutes.

The course is not the first in the world, but Tim Horgan, the institute lecturer who played a key role in developing the programme, claims it is the best. He said two British universities, Aberdeen and Sheffield Hallam, offer an MSc in cloud computing but they do not have the close ties to the IT sector that makes the Cork offering unique. Near neighbours EMC were instrumental in setting it up.

Securing data in a shifting landscape

As computing delves deeper into territories such as the cloud and sophisticated mobile devices, Symantec tries to ensure its safety

FOR SYMANTEC chief executive Enrique Salem, running one of the world's largest security companies has brought him in a full career circle.

As a young computer science graduate from Dartmouth, his first job was with Peter Norton Computing, a firm that was acquired by Symantec in 1990, bringing him indirectly to work for the company. Eventually, he became Symantec's first chief technology officer.

He left the company to pursue a number of other opportunities, including as a stint as vice-president of technology and operations at search site Ask Jeeves and, more recently, as chief executive of Brightmail, the anti-spam software company.

Amazon launches 'Cloud' service

Amazon.com said it has unveiled an online service that would enable its customers to securely store and access music through their smartphones and computers.

Currently available to US customers, Amazon Cloud Service enables customers to securely store music on the company's web servers instead of local hard drives - a type of technology generically known as cloud computing.

Amazon said the new service would allow customers to play music on any Android, Windows and Apple devices.

New frontier or cloud cuckoo land?

There are still sceptics, but the business world seems to be increasingly convinced by Salesforce.com's cloud computing model, writes IAN CAMPBELL

AFTER TWO hours of listening to Salesforce.com's chief executive evangelise about the future of technology, you want to move your wife and kids to the cloud, never mind your IT business systems.

The company's Dreamforce event in San Francisco last week was like an evangelical meeting where Marc Benioff praised believers and castigated non-converts to the latest instalment in his 10-year crusade to kill off software. He is selling the idea that offsite "cloud" platforms accessed via the internet provide a simple and less expensive way of running and developing business technology.

Battle for cloud space

Hardware vendors are switching from kit to services, but who has the best proposition? IAN CAMPBELL reports

WITH DELL'S plans to invest $1 billion in a global cloud strategy, and last month's declaration by HP of its commitment to cloud services, the big hardware vendors have shown their cards and signalled their intentions to grab a piece of the fastest-growing segment in the IT market.

A recent report by research company IDC predicts that while global IT spend will increase by 6 per cent in 2011, spending on public cloud computing services will grow five times faster. But which of the vendors will benefit most from the sea change?