Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO of IndiaInfoline (Part 10)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: I think this is one of the big opportunities for India right now. Indian entrepreneurs should take a hard and close look at what is happening in Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) applications, and Platform as a Service (PaaS) applications around the world, mostly in the U.S. market. If they can undercut U.S.-based vendors, sell their services to the Indian market, and bring these services to the U.S. market a bit later, it could be a good opportunity to explore. >>>

The State Of Cloud-Based Storage – Is It Ready? Are You? (Part 2)

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

What Is the Cloud Storage Market?

Cloud storage solutions emerged from the utility computing model, in which defined services depend on standardization and customer satisfaction depends upon optimization of those defined services. Players include low-end providers such as EMC’s Mozy, which offers online backup to the home/individual/small business market, and Dropbox, which enables users to store files in the cloud and synch them between home and work. Cloud storage options for SMBs include Rackspace’s Cloud Files, Nirvanix, or ElephantDrive, which stresses security. Enterprises will likely turn to Rackspace, EMC, Eucalyptus, and traditional IT stalwarts Red Hat, IBM, HP, and Microsoft. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 9)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: You are saying that in terms of the Indian market, customers want local support network and vendors to have retail offices [in India].

SB: Yes. Netmagic is located in India, and that offers a face which people can see and relate to. I would say this is more of a psychological barrier. It is not a mindset that will go away any time soon. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Sankarson Banerjee, CIO Of IndiaInfoline (Part 8)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: I would like to pursue the pricing aspect. Let’s say you are using SurveyMonkey in your organization and want all of your client service representatives to use SurveyMonkey and have access to or accounts in SurveyMonkey to be able to view their sets of customers and their feedback, as well as analytics and so forth. In that case, is there an opportunity for an Indian company to come to this market and provide the same function as SurveyMonkey but offer it at, say, one-tenth of the cost in terms of the per-user price? Also, let’s say that the offering is on top of Amazon, so the infrastructure cost remains affordable. But in terms of per-user cost, if someone comes to you with a comparable offering and makes it more attractive than the dollar pricing, would you consider it? >>>

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] >>>

HP’s Strategy Under Apothekar

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) this week reported mixed results and gave a weak outlook that missed analyst estimates and sent the stock tumbling about 12%. This was Leo Apotheker’s first quarter as CEO, and though it doesn’t reflect on his performance, there is no question that it highlights the challenges he will face.

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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. >>>