VIRAJ Y MAHESHWARI: Cloud Computing

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Hello Friends in this blog post I am going to share my experience of optimizing technology infrastructure for Start Ups

Any business idea is vital for success of start ups and technology is the key ingredient to transform business idea into reality and help start ups to achieve their desired goals but cost and optimization of Technology Infrastructure is a major factor for achieving success

So today let me tell you some strategies and best practices which I have implemented for my Start Up clients and helped them to achieve cost and performance optimization by providing maximum ROI

a) Go for Cloud :

Recently cloud computing has shifted paradigm from desktop computing to anywhere access and global collaboration. You can choose from various cloud service providers for office collaboration tools like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 etc, for software development infrastructure like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS etc. They all reduce your dependence on physical infrastructure costs and maintenance and enable you to focus on your core business.

Following cloud strategies can be adopted depending on your business goals and planned technology investment

1) Public

Public clouds are made available to the general public by a service provider who hosts the cloud infrastructure. Generally, public cloud providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft and Google own and operate the infrastructure and offer access over the Internet. With this model, customers have no visibility or control over where the infrastructure is located. It is important to note that all customers on public clouds share the same infrastructure pool with limited configuration, security protections and availability variances.
Public Cloud customers benefit from economies of scale, because infrastructure costs are spread across all users, allowing each individual client to operate on a low-cost, “pay-as-you-go” model. Another advantage of public cloud infrastructures is that they are typically larger in scale than an in-house enterprise cloud, which provides clients with seamless, on-demand scalability. These clouds offer the greatest level of efficiency in shared resources; however, they are also more vulnerable than private clouds.
A public cloud is the obvious choice when:

Your standardized workload for applications is used by lots of people, such as e-mail.
You need to test and develop application code.
You need incremental capacity (the ability to add compute resources for peak times).
You’re doing collaboration projects.

2) Private

Private cloud is cloud infrastructure dedicated to a particular organization. Private clouds allow businesses to host applications in the cloud, while addressing concerns regarding data security and control, which is often lacking in a public cloud environment. It is not shared with other organizations, whether managed internally or by a third-party, and it can be hosted internally or externally.
There are two variations of private clouds:

On-Premise Private Cloud: This type of cloud is hosted within an organization’s own facility. A businesses IT department would incur the capital and operational costs for the physical resources with this model. On-Premise Private Clouds are best used for applications that require complete control and configurability of the infrastructure and security.
Externally Hosted Private Cloud: Externally hosted private clouds are also exclusively used by one organization, but are hosted by a third party specializing in cloud infrastructure. The service provider facilitates an exclusive cloud environment with full guarantee of privacy. This format is recommended for organizations that prefer not to use a public cloud infrastructure due to the risks associated with the sharing of physical resources.

Undertaking a private cloud project requires a significant level and degree of engagement to virtualize the business environment, and it will require the organization to reevaluate decisions about existing resources. Private clouds are more expensive but also more secure when compared to public clouds.
When is a Private Cloud for you?

You need data sovereignty but want cloud efficiencies
You want consistency across services
You have more server capacity than your organization can use
Your data center must become more efficient
You want to provide private cloud services

3) Hybrid

Hybrid Clouds are a composition of two or more clouds (private, community or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together offering the advantages of multiple deployment models. In a hybrid cloud, you can leverage third party cloud providers in either a full or partial manner; increasing the flexibility of computing. Augmenting a traditional private cloud with the resources of a public cloud can be used to manage any unexpected surges in workload.

Hybrid cloud architecture requires both on-premise resources and off-site server based cloud infrastructure. By spreading things out over a hybrid cloud, you keep each aspect of your business in the most efficient environment possible. The downside is that you have to keep track of multiple cloud security platforms and ensure that all aspects of your business can communicate with each other.

Here are a couple of situations where a hybrid environment is best:

Your company wants to use a SaaS application but is concerned about security.
Your company offers services that are tailored for different vertical markets. You can use a public cloud to interact with the clients but keep their data secured within a private cloud.
You can provide public cloud to your customers while using a private cloud for internal IT.

4) Community

A community cloud is a is a multi-tenant cloud service model that is shared among several or organizations and that is governed, managed and secured commonly by all the participating organizations or a third party managed service provider.

Community clouds are a hybrid form of private clouds built and operated specifically for a targeted group. These communities have similar cloud requirements and their ultimate goal is to work together to achieve their business objectives.

The goal of community clouds is to have participating organizations realize the benefits of a public cloud with the added level of privacy, security, and policy compliance usually associated with a private cloud. Community clouds can be either on-premise or off-premise.

Here are a couple of situations where a community cloud environment is best:

Government organizations within a state that need to share resoures
A private HIPAA compliant cloud for a group of hospitals or clinics
Telco community cloud for telco DR to meet specific FCC regulations

b) Virtualize :

Virtualization helps you to use same resource for multiple purpose. It also gives you benefits of lower maintenance costs and management efficiency.

Following Virtualization strategies can be implemented

Server Virtualization – consolidating multiple physical servers into virtual servers that run on a single physical server.

Application Virtualization – an application runs on another host from where it is installed in a variety of ways. It could be done by application streaming, desktop virtualization or VDI, or a VM package (like VMware ACE creates with a player). Microsoft Softgrid is an example of Application virtualization.

Presentation Virtualization – This is what Citrix Met frame (and the ICA protocol) as well as Microsoft Terminal Services (and RDP) are able to create. With presentation virtualization, an application actually runs on another host and all that you see on the client is the screen from where it is run.

Network Virtualization – with network virtualization, the network is “carved up” and can be used for multiple purposes such as running a protocol analyzer inside an Ethernet switch. Components of a virtual network could include NICs, switches, VLANs, network storage devices, virtual network containers, and network media.

Storage Virtualization – with storage virtualization, the disk/data storage for your data is consolidated to and managed by a virtual storage system. The servers connected to the storage system aren’t aware of where the data really is. Storage virtualization is sometimes described as “abstracting the logical storage from the physical storage.

c) Adopt Open Source :

Adopt Open Source software platforms enable you to scale your applications without involving license restrictions. Ope Source helps to save costs involved in software license investment

Here are some Open Source applications which you can use in your business :

Odoo (Formerly Open ERP) :Odoo is a suite of open source business apps that help you grow your business. Over two million people use Odoo to grow their sales, run their operations, organize marketing activities, boost productivity and empower their human resources.

Wordpress for Website : Wordpress is an Open Source web development CMS. It has various themes and plugins to make your website standout and best part is you can create website without any requirement of coding provided you take interest and expand your vision
Linux for computing :Today, Linux powers 98% of the world’s super computers, most of the servers powering the Internet, the majority of financial trades worldwide and tens of millions of Android mobile phones and consumer devices. In short, Linux is everywhere.
Xen Server for Server Virtualization : XenServer is the leading open source virtualization platform, powered by the Xen hypervisor. It is used in the world's largest clouds and enterprises

The above list is indicative, you can find various Open Source Apps and Solutions for deploying to your business environment

Above mentioned Tips can help Start-Ups to achieve cost and operational efficiency by leveraging Technology Infrastructure

Please share this article in your circles and do let me know your comments and feedback below

Tips for Optimizing Technology Infrastructure for Start Ups

As businesses seek a higher return and increased effectiveness on marketing, sales and service program investments, the customer relationship management (CRM) software market is seeing dramatic growth and enhanced offerings including data analytics and social CRM applications, mobile functionality as well as gamification features

CRM vendors are now beginning to offer integration with third-party, comprehensive social media applications that is adding a new social element in traditional CRM processes. These new ‘social CRM’ applications enable a business to connect customer conversations and relationships from social networking websites into the CRM process. ISM sees social CRM becoming integrated in CRM platforms and applications for a more complete view of customers through the use of feeds from social media channels.

CRM vendors are now providing direct access to social media functionality. Social media can also refer to Web-based services that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. Computers and other technologies have shifted from one-way static communication to platforms for interaction and community building.

Many CRM vendors see social media as a cost-effective method to improve their customer assistance options. Customers are no longer calling the help line when they have a problem — they are tweeting about their problems, posting and finding the appropriate solutions within online forums or discussing problems on Facebook with their contacts. ISM sees more and more organizations building online communities (requiring components such as dialogues, forums, ideation, media sharing and blogs) for customer assistance, which increasingly come with tight integration into other CRM processes.

Big Data analytical tools, which include predictive modeling, can now foretell the monetary value and profitability of a particular customer. These tools take into account profiling customers based on their behavior, segmenting markets and predicting customer purchases based on past purchase information and psychographic/demographic data, as well as determining cross-sell opportunities. The expansion of Internet traffic, social networking, mobile devices and cloud applications will generate a tremendous increase in unstructured data, leading to an increased demand for business analytics software that combines text analytics, sentiment extraction and related technologies to find patterns and trends among social network, mobile device and cloud application users.

CRM vendors continue to develop and release mobile CRM application modules, especially those that are bundled with or work on a large variety of handheld and/or wireless devices. ISM foresees mobile apps extending influence on the CRM marketplace as CRM applications will look and behave more like apps that are accessible on mobile devices. Consequently, CRM applications accessed on mobile devices will streamline their user interface and make their applications simple to use. Wireless components will increasingly allow users to make business decisions in real time while simultaneously creating analytics in real time — all of which support a growing movement toward real-time CRM.

CRM software vendors are increasingly offering CRM software solutions via the SaaS model, which is also referred to as an on-demand solution and is part of the growing cloud computing movement. While not applicable for all organizations, the SaaS model is attractive because it can circumvent traditional problems with the CRM client-server model including initially high prices, time-consuming deployments and the need to perform software upgrades. The two major drivers of accelerated adoption of SaaS in organizations include initial cost advantages and increased proof of data security.

Gamification, which utilizes game design techniques and mechanics to enhance user adoption of CRM applications, is growing in importance. Business leaders are increasingly conducting trials on CRM programs that leverage game elements that provide a clear sense of progress, instant feedback loop and reward incentives — and directly accelerate the accomplishment of measurable performance objectives.

By: Viraj Maheshwari

http://www.virdhara.com

Seven Business and Technology Trends in CRM Software

Business intelligence first emerged as a technology specialization in the mid-90s and, since then, it has evolved nonstop. But not since its early days has BI undergone such a dramatic period of innovation. Now, a series of technology advancements are converging to change how we think about BI, the ways we use data and analytics, and the role that BI plays in the enterprise. While each is important in its own right, each trend also acts as an enabler and driver, forming a virtual cycle of innovation that’s already transforming BI as we know it.

Here are the four trends reshaping BI:

Cloud computing has become hugely influential on BI. In fact, BI and analytics are the fastest-growing area of cloud computing, according to Saugatuck Technology, which predicts an 84 percent compound annual growth rate for BI in the cloud over the next two years. Cloud-friendly organizations maintain an edge in their ability to quickly deploy and upgrade services, drive user self-service and more closely align investment with ROI. While many companies have yet to deploy BI in the cloud in a substantive way, it’s clear that cloud has migrated beyond just hype. IT shops previously reluctant to deploy public clouds due to security concerns are now beginning to implement partner or private clouds. Even those with hypersensitive data, such as health care organizations, are integrating cloud architectures and solutions. A recent report fromMarketsandMarkets forecasts that cloud adoption among clinical and non-clinical health care organizations will reach $5.4 billion by 2017. Our firm is witnessing this upswing too; health insurer clients are seeing their HIPAA-secure cloud hybrids prove their worth with faster service, dynamic performance and lower cost. The cloud truly has arrived, and if you haven’t opened the door to let it in, your organization may soon be more than a dollar short and a day late.

Big data involves using scale-out parallel data processing and distributed file frameworks to transform and analyze large volumes of structured or unstructured data. Big data is where cloud computing was five years ago – still immature and largely all hype. Case-in-point: While presenting at TDWI’s Cool BI Forum in Chicago earlier this year, I surveyed the 50 people in my session if anyone was doing anything with big data and yielded only one response. Although still immature, big data is arguably a BI game changer. For the past several decades, IT organizations have effectively used data warehousing technologies to create and analyze enterprise views of data, but the time and cost to integrate and manage data has forced organizations to be selective. Consequently, the average data warehouse manages only a fraction of the data required and typically lags business needs. Organizations see big data technologies as a solution to store, transform and analyze data that otherwise would be cost prohibitive to manage in a data warehouse. We now see a growing arsenal of interesting applications of big data in action, such as Rice University’s Storm Risk Calculator, which uses historical and meteorological data to predict the likelihood of a hurricane striking your home (if you live in Houston, that is). The applications for big data are limitless.

NoSQL is cleverly defined for what it is not limited to. For decades, SQL reigned as the most adopted structured programming language for databases. Yet as demand has grown for unstructured data analysis, and as organizations lean toward the cloud IT architectures, NoSQL systems have become the Internet-era database of choice, used by companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook. What it is: a class of highly scalable, distributed database technologies that move beyond relational database properties and SQL query language prevalent in data warehousing; for this reason, it might be viewed as heretical by some longtime BI/DW practitioners. While big data technologies are oriented to large-scale batch processing, NoSQL has evolved in to support large-scale, real time data access, making NoSQL a solution for backing applications, putting BI results into action.

Mobility. The fundamental shift away from stationary desktop computing to mobile computing is readily seen. In our personal lives, we use smart phones to access information wherever we go. Business users now expect similar ubiquitous network access. Smart phones can provide immediate access to information, but tablets create an even bigger force for change in BI because tablet screen dimensions are so perfectly suited for data visualization and interaction. Gartner asserts mobility to be the most disruptive functionality for BI in 2012, and organizations are designing dashboards with mobile BI in mind, with help from mobile analytics solutions providers.

As these technologies combine and interact with BI, they generate new levels of business utility in many ways. Cloud computing provides the capacity for on-demand compute and storage resources to enable big data, together delivering an unprecedented capability to transform and analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data. NoSQL provides a platform for real-time access so that Web apps and other applications can use resulting analytic models to enhance customer experience and user productivity. Mobility drives interaction to new scales, reinforcing the demand for real-time business intelligence. Enterprise BI user adoption surveys that fail to take the changing face of BI into account may understate adoption. Cloud computing, mobility and services delivery enables applications to embed and use BI services behind the scenes, so users may not be aware of the extent of BI use. If it hasn’t already happened, over time applications may grow to become the largest enterprise “segment” of BI implementations.

For enterprise architects, the changing face of BI through cloud, big data, NoSQL and mobility innovation may arguably create new coordination challenges. New technologies tend to confuse old boundaries. Nevertheless, these developments present opportunities for BI and information management architects to reimagine BI strategy and increase the visibility and value of BI in the enterprise. While BI continues to be top of mind in executive surveys – and therefore is one of the top areas for IT investments – these revitalizing trends virtually guarantee even greater BI engagement in years to come.

Posted By:

Viraj Y Maheshwari

Technology Consultant

www.technologythatkeepsyouahead.blogspot.in

Four Trends Revitalizing Business Intelligence

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