By annie shum | February 21, 2011
by Rob Starr, Big4.com Staff Reporter February 20th, 2011
According to results of a survey by KPMG LLP, business and government executives expect their organizations to use Cloud computing within the next two years. In fact, 79 percent of executives, middle managers and staff said the Cloud is an option to make enterprises more agile and cost competitive and 74 percent said organizations adopting it can experience long-term competitive advantages.
KPMG’s report consisted of 174 executives, middle managers and staff from business, government and academia who completed surveys at the Oracle OpenWorld 2010 trade show in September.
When asked to rate four factors driving a company or organization to pursue Cloud-based activities, 84 percent of those surveyed rated factors like scalability and security as important or extremely important, while 78 percent viewed “economics” like cost savings, shifting capital expenditures to operational expenditures as important or extremely important, and 76 percent placed “functional” items like capabilities and accessibility in that category, with 66 percent rating “strategic” factors such as business process transformation, speed to market as important or extremely important.
Steve Hill, KPMG’s National Innovation Leader highlighted the Cloud’s importance to business.
“The survey results reflect wide acceptance of Cloud-based services among executives, who are increasingly recognizing the Cloud’s strategic, business value,” he said. “Those surveyed also said that experimentation will be required to fully understand the value of Cloud-based operations, and this approach, they noted, will bring challenges that need to be addressed.”
By Barnard Crespi | February 15, 2011
The Academic Keynote Panel of the MITSloan CIO Symposium offers a unique lens on the future of digital business, and this year’s panel takes a broader technology view that will bring the horizon closer. Moderated by Jason Pontin of the MIT-published Technology Review, the panelists are an all-star cast of academics from across the Institute.
The growth of social networks, the increasingly digital nature of business, and the dichotomy of enabling without controlling the viral nature of information makes the job of the CIO extremely complicated. We are just scratching the surface of developing, using and understanding the tools for collecting and analyzing digital business data. But what are the really big insights? And what is next after companies have a strong grasp of these tools?
MIT faculty have a unique perspective on technology and how it shapes our future. In no subject is that more important than Information Technology. This Panel will draw from faculty across the Institute – from Sloan to Engineering, and from Media to Artificial Intelligence – who will comment on what they see as the biggest changes yet to come that CIOs should know of and prepare for.
- Erik Brynjolfsson started Sloan’s largest research center more than a decade ago. The Center for Digital Business at MIT Sloan conducts real-world, empirical research in information, technology, knowledge and economics that shows the causal mechanisms of how digital business works (or doesn’t).
- Alex “Sandy” Pentland focuses on human-centered technology at the world- renown Media Lab. One of the most cited computer scientists in the world, Sandy is a pioneer in organizational engineering, mobile systems and computational social science. He helps companies to reinvent themselves to be both more human and more productive.
Please join the discussion to learn what the MIT Faculty believe will be the future of our organizations.
Join your peers in shaping the future. Be a part of the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, May 18, 2011.
Register Before March 1,2011 and Save!
By annie shum | February 12, 2011
There was a time when every household, town, farm or village had its own water well. Today, shared public utilities give us access to clean water by simply turning on the tap; cloud computing works in a similar fashion. Just like water from the tap in your kitchen, cloud computing services can be turned on or off quickly as needed. Like at the water company, there is a team of dedicated professionals making sure the service provided is safe, secure and available on a 24/7 basis. When the tap isn’t on, not only are you saving water, but you aren’t paying for resources you don’t currently need.” – 2010, Vivek Kundra, Federal CIO
“Cloud computing is really a no-brainer for any start-up because it allows you to test your business plan very quickly for little money. Every start-up, or even a division within a company that has an idea for something new, should be figuring out how to use cloud computing in its plan.”- 2009, Brad Jefferson, CEO Animoto
“With AWS a new server can be up and running in three minutes (it used to take Eli Lilly seven and a half weeks to deploy a server internally) and a 64-node Linux cluster can be online in five minutes (compared with three months internally)…The deployment time is really what impressed us.” – 2009, Dave Powers, Eli Lilly Associate Information Consultant
“In the pre-cloud ERA, the cost of building software was so high that we often have to define a scope and leave out functionality which we feel doesn’t fetch the ROI for automation. Cloud makes whatever that was previously left out of scope as candidate for automation now! Thanks to simplification, access and affordability brought by IaaS and PaaS.” – 2010, Suresh Sambandam, Founder & CEO OrangeScape
“The end of ‘Fashion-IT’ – customers will only pay for value and not technology.
With the advent of Web 3.0 or Cloud Computing or platforms such as WOLF, what we are witnessing is that everyone can innovate. So yes, Cloud computing will turn the tables and fire up innovation and consumerism to the scale never seen before…” -2010, Sunny Ghosh, Director – Wolf Frameworks.
“Our industry is going through quite a wave of innovation and it’s being powered by a phenomenon which is referred to as the cloud. India will not only see a surge in cloud computing services but companies all over the world will look to India to support their transition to cloud computing.” – 2010, Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft
By annie shum | February 11, 2011
Good post by Om Malik “You can’t buy new DNA” http://gigaom.com/2011/02/10/corporate-dna/
Why it is hard to change big companies & yourself
“Gregory House, a cranky, genius doctor who solves medical and diagnostic mysteries, remarked, “Almost dying doesn’t change anything. Dying changes everything.” That line made me realize how difficult it is for us to change. We fail because we try to change the very essence of ourselves, instead of getting rid of bad behaviors. One of the reasons why companies fail is that they try and change without knowing why or toward what end. They are not self-aware. They don’t quite understand their corporate DNA, and so they don’t see how they can use it as a springboard to become a better organization.” – Om Malik
By annie shum | February 2, 2011
The following is posted at the NIST Tech Beat Website
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued two new draft documents on cloud computing for public comment, including the first set of guidelines for managing security and privacy issues in cloud computing. The agency also has set up a new NIST Cloud Computing Collaboration site on the Web to enable two-way communication among the cloud community and NIST cloud research working groups.
United States Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra asked NIST to accelerate the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop standards and guidelines in collaboration with standards bodies, the private sector and other stakeholders. These new draft documents and the collaboration site are part of NIST’s work to fulfill that mission.
NIST has been researching cloud computing for several years and has been documenting a definition of cloud computing on its web page. Researchers have now published A NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-145). NIST scientists are looking for feedback to determine if this definition remains valid or needs modification. SP 800-145 may be downloaded for review from http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-145/Draft-SP-800-145_cloud-definition.pdf, and comments on suggested changes or enhancements should be sent to [email protected] no later than February 28, 2011.
Guidelines on Security and Privacy in Public Cloud Computing (SP 800-144) provides an overview of the security and privacy challenges for public cloud computing and presents recommendations that organizations should consider when outsourcing data, applications and infrastructure to a public cloud environment. The key guidelines recommended to federal departments and agencies, and applicable to the private sector, include:
•Carefully plan the security and privacy aspects of cloud computing solutions before engaging them.
•Understand the public cloud computing environment offered by the cloud provider and ensure that a cloud computing solution satisfies organizational security and privacy requirements.
•Ensure that the client-side computing environment meets organization security and privacy requirements for cloud computing.
•Maintain accountability over the privacy and security of data and applications implemented and deployed in public cloud computing environments.
Public comments are requested on this publication. SP 800-144 may be downloaded for review from http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-144/Draft-SP-800-144_cloud-computing.pdf, and suggested changes or enhancements should be sent to [email protected] no later than February 28, 2011.
To further foster the cloud community’s collaboration aimed to enhance the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing, NIST also has created the NIST Cloud Computing Collaboration Site at http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-cloud-computing/bin/view/CloudComputing/.
This site provides general information about NIST’s cloud computing program and an up-to-date listing of cloud computing events. One set of pages are used by the NIST-sponsored Cloud Computing working groups. These groups, which are open to all those who wish to register and participate, were established during the November 2010 Cloud Computing Forum and Workshop II, and include Business Use Cases, Reference Architecture and Taxonomy, Standards Roadmap, Standards Acceleration to Jumpstart the Adoption of Cloud Computing (SAJACC), and Cloud Security.
Each working group’s page provides descriptions of the group’s task, weekly meeting information and working documents. To contribute to the TWiki, register from the link on the main NIST Cloud Computing Program Web site at www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/.
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