The State Of Cloud-Based Storage – Is It Ready? Are You? (Part 1)

By guest author Bob Shinn, with an introduction by guest author Shaloo Shalini

[From my first experiences with Mangosoft peer-to-per file sharing between my home and work computers to the ease of sharing and collaborating  with my colleagues halfway across the globe today through über cloud-based storage services such as Dropbox, storage has come a long way indeed. Having said that, there is a lot of ground to be covered before any mainstream or critical business applications can be brought onto cloud-based storage. Cloud computing holds promise in terms of providing sheer computing capacity and scale, flexibility, and cost effectiveness needed to better solve complex problems in digital media, animation, high-performance computing, life sciences research, and more. But there are several roadblocks to cloud storage – latency, portability, and accessibility issues that must be solved before the “distant” and “floating” data on some cloud can be meaningfully used in, say, an I/O- intensive and complex application. However, the way I collaborated, stored and shared my files, backed up my data, and made it highly available or retrievable has certainly come a long way in terms of ease, usability, and cost since the dawn of cloud-based storage.

In the following guest post, Bob Shinn, founder of Cloud Silver Lining, shares his observations on the state of cloud storage today, the market, opportunities for entrepreneurs, and some of the issues that cloud storage adopters must bear in mind when evaluating and harnessing cloud storage for enterprise use. – Shaloo Shalini] >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 7)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: What about other functions, say, the mission-critical functions in your business or the areas that are traditionally the first ones to adopt clouds, such as CRM? Salesforce and SuccessFactors are the applications that have built huge companies out of their cloud-based offerings. What is your perspective on them? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 6)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: The Akamai algorithm works by optimizing the routing of Akamai traffic in a way that is the fastest and with the lowest possible latency, which creates the advantage of those private infrastructures. So, there is a benefit to your data being closer as opposed to traveling around the world, right? But it has to be transferred around the world. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 5)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: Are you using a platform as a service (PaaS) solution as a base to move your applications to the cloud? Are you using Google App Engine or Force.com or something similar? How are you putting those applications on the cloud?

SB: Well, clouds mean different things to different people. We primarily use virtual machines on the cloud. The really advanced versions of the cloud, which is what the Google App Engine or elastic applications on Azure are, we don’t really use those yet. Not all of our legacy applications are geared to make use of it. We have a very small trial application on Microsoft Azure, and we are not there on the Google App Engine yet; we don’t have anything serious on the Google App Engine. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 4)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: Which e-mail system did you use before you moved to Google?

SB: We had a mixture of Microsoft Exchange for the power users and open source components–based simple SMTP e-mail for nonpower users. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 3)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: What were the implications of the decision to move to cloud-based servers from a cost structure point of view? In general, what analysis did you do to make that decision? I am sure there is a convenience aspect, which is one thing that I am hearing from a lot of CIOs. CIOs don’t want to be in the data center management business, and historically they have been for their respective organizations. One of the key drivers for enterprises moving into the cloud is that CIOs are fed up with being in the data center business. With the advent of cloud computing, they are outsourcing it to data center vendors. What was your thought process when you moved into the cloud, and what was the impact on your cost structure? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 2)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: I am asking this from an IT point of view: What is the distribution of the employee base that you are supporting today?

SB: We support both our employees and the franchisees with our IT. We have nearly 3,000 franchisees. We provide connections to them; we provide all kinds of services, including software, to them as well. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 1)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

Will the cloud level the entrepreneur playing field and smooth out some of the ugly bumps encountered during a typical startup journey, especially in an Indian context, similar to how India leapfrogged years of telecommunication lag through its mass adoption of mobile technology? What are some of the barriers, challenges, and blue-sky opportunities for new offerings and newer businesses in India based on the cloud? In the following interview, Sramana and Sankarson Banerjee, CIO of IndiaInfoline, dig into several aspects of cloud computing technology adoption and market needs in India. >>>