A Calm Response

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/portfolio/microsofts-future-vision-live-work-play/

Microsoft’s Future Vision: Live, Work, Play

Technology could transform our life at work, on the go, and at home based on extensive research. This is a snapshot of what the future will look like five to ten years from now. In the years ahead, technology will amplify our senses; help us stay connected to the people we care about and transform the way we live, work and play.

For further information Step inside the Microsoft Envisioning Center which is all about imagining how technology could be used to make life easier and more enjoyable, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in revolutionary ones.

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/the-meaning-of-cloud-computing-its-also-foggy-in-the-uk/

The meaning of cloud computing its also foggy in the uk

In October we posted an Article “Confused By Cloud Computing. You are not alone!  infographic and report” The Results drawn from a survey carried out by Wakefield Research for Citrix, in which over 1000 participants in America took part in a questionnaire that asked them what the Cloud means to them. The answers, well, a bit foggy.

But it’s not just a American Problem! We started talking about “the cloud” back in 2008 and although we’re all using it every day for business or pleasure, there seems to be some confusion on what exactly the term cloud means… to people in the UK.

WebFusion recently release the results of a survey in which they asked more than 1,000 of the general public in the UK on the meaning of “cloud computing”.

They discovered that 50 per cent of them don’t have a clue what the cloud is, almost two in five people (38 per cent) had little or no understanding of the term, while only a third (34 per cent) were confident that they knew what it meant.

Cloud services are now prevalent and even the average internet user is likely to have some experience of things like Dropbox and iTunes. But despite an increasing demand for such products, it seems the IT sector hasn’t done a great job when it comes to educating the public about the underlying principles of the cloud. Of course, not everyone is going to develop a deep understanding of what the cloud is, but when 50 per cent of people admit they haven’t got a clue about it then you have to start wondering just how useful a term it is.

Consumer-targeted products like iTunes and Dropbox don’t rely on a knowledge of the cloud – users just want them to work, but the fact that only a third of people recognised them as cloud services suggests ignorance over the issue runs deeper than the public is willing to admit.

When you consider that among those left baffled by one of IT’s favourite buzzwords will be a significant number of existing and future small business owners, exactly the kind of people who should be getting excited by the possibilities of more technical cloud products, the full depths of the problem start to emerge.

So should we stop talking about the cloud, or is it simply a case of having to do more to educate people about exactly what is meant by cloud computing?

Infographic by the Webfusion Cloud Virtual Server team.

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/growth-of-digital-universe-2010-2020-infograph/

Growth of Digital Universe 2010 - 2020 [#infograph]

Business and the Digital Universe

For businesses around the world, the Digital Universe means huge opportunities and equally daunting challenges. How much will the Digital Universe grow in the coming decade, and where? How much (or little) data is secure?

[pullquote4 align="right" variation="blue" citeLink="http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/iview/index.htm"]The Digital Universe in 2020: Big Data, Bigger Digital Shadows, and Biggest Growth in the Far East. To read more and view the Interactive Report visit http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/iview/index.htm[/pullquote4] EMC recently sponsored and have released the findings of a study by IDC which measures and characterizing all the digital data created, replicated, and consumed worldwide in a single year. The 2012 report projects the growth of the Digital Universe through 2020.

The study found that only a tiny fraction of the world’s Big Data potential is being realized, though the amount of useful data is expanding.

IDC projects that the digital universe will reach 40 zettabytes (ZB) by 2020, an amount that exceeds previous forecasts by 5 ZBs, resulting in a 50-fold growth from the beginning of 2010

This year’s study marks the first time IDC was able to capture where the information in the digital universe either originated or was first captured or consumed, revealing some dramatic shifts currently underway.

The amount of data that requires protection is growing faster than the digital universe itself, yet levels of protection are not keeping pace.

According to the study, 2.8ZB of data will have been created and replicated in 2012.

Machine-generated data is a key driver in the growth of the world’s data – which is projected to increase 15x by 2020.

By 2020, emerging markets will supplant the developed world as the main producer of the world’s data.

The investment in spending on IT hardware, software, services, telecommunications and staff that could be considered the “infrastructure” of the digital universe will grow by 40% between 2012 and 2020. Investment in targeted areas like storage management, security, Big Data, and cloud computing will grow considerably faster.

The question is:

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/3385/

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/business-continuity-planning-bcdr-is-not-just-an-it-issue/

Business Continuity Planning. BCDR is not just an IT issue

Over the years I’ve visited a lot of companies, sometimes to review their current IT and Back-office systems and future needs, sometimes I’ve been dropped in to resolve an issue (Project) that needs remediation, other times to evaluate the company prior to a merger, acquisition or third party funding.

In most of these situations I’ve asked the question:

“Do you have a Business Continuity Plan in place?“

Depending on whom I have talk to I often get one of the following answers:

IT Department or Finance: “Yes, we have a Business Continuity plan in place. It consists of  our electronic data being backup offsite…..” and/or  “We have started the process of developing a full Business Continuity Plan, but..“

Business Owners and Board Members: “See IT or Finance…“

Depending on which hat I am wearing and who I’m working for the reaction is different and in some cases does not results in a positive outcome for the company and its workforce.

Business_continuity"]Business continuity is the activity performed by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. …..

Wikipedia

But these companies are not alone. As the picture above shows there are other factors that SMBs should take account of, other than a loss of access to electronic Data, that can effect the success or failure of a Business.  These can include:

Loss of reputation, scandal, PR disasters.

Failure of supply chain from suppliers to delivery of goods to end-users.

Death of Key personnel

There are two main reason for this:

One is to do with commitment – commitment of the business’s executive team to start and commit to an on-going Business Program. If the board (or owner) don’t make it important to the rest of the company, then it won’t be done or maintained well.

The second is the fundamental lack of understanding out there that it IS possible plan for situations that seriously affect your business. There are process, methodology, tools, and wealth of knowledge about how to do this. Unfortunately most small businesses and many medium sized businesses don’t know this.

I started writing this before “Sandy” became a once in a lifetime super storm and we are now seeing how Business contingency plans for events that will never happen are being put into effect

The Question you need to ask is:

How long can your Business manage without:

Power

Shipping

Staff

Web Access

And are you ready to do what it takes to recover in that time?

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/update-our-industry-doesnt-have-any-reason-to-be-in-social-media-update/

Update: Our Industry Doesn’t Have Any Reason to be in Social Media.

On Monday this week, I was invited to a Network Event hosted by Porfolio Exec (I would recommend any professional based in the North West to Join) where Neil Pickstone of Volcanic (a digital agency specializing in Social Marketing) gave a great presentation on:

Why Companies need to incorporate Social Media into their overall Business Strategy.

Back in January 2011, I posted the following article regarding Social Media: The boss who says: Our Industry Doesn’t Have Any Reason to be in Social Media. and around the same time posted a page Our Industry Doesn’t Have Any Reason to be in Social Media.

With reference to these articles I thought I would update two videos which emphasis  The rise of informal and organic networks, the proliferation of 140 character conversations, and mobile status updates gives everyone new vehicles to share opinions and insights. Often these opinions and insights are not based on hard facts, but one fact is certain – blogs, communities, social networking sites and micro-blogs enable anyone to contribute to an endless and organic conversation taking place in cyberspace.

@equalman/@ekutsko new video showcasing what technology will replace this digital decade. From checkbooks to car keys. Leaders will also be replaced by new Digital Leaders

This video empathizes that fact that whatever Market Segment you are targeting they are using Social Media.

In the UK think SAGA

[fancy_box]

Boomers have over $3 trillion in disposable income. 85% of people 50+ use social media, and 32% of social media users are 45+ The majority of 39-75 year olds say the phone and computer are the devices they use the most to communicate with friends and family.

75% of 39-75 year olds say they use smartphones and 54% use the computer as the devices they use most often to communicate. Smartphone owners age 55-64 up 86% to 6.5 million and those age 65+ accounted for 4.4 million, up 127%. Facebook users 55+ grew 10x in the past 3 years. 1 million 55+ Facebook users in 2009 compared to 10 million in 2012.)

Boomers are using dating sites more than any other age group — up 39% in the last 3 years. That’s over 4 million members! The No. 2 group? Singles 45 to 54.

For further information on this Market Segment visit http://www.scoop.it/t/boomers-online/ [/fancy_box]

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/cloud-metering-realizing-a-real-time-cost-of-cloud-and-virtual-hosting/

Cloud Metering: Realizing a real-time $$$ cost of #Cloud and Virtual Hosting

If IT as a Service has a future, real-time insights into usage of IT equipment and software in total – across all types of deployments (Physical and Virtual) and cloud hybrids – is essential.

IT used to start and end with the how and why: How many IT resources are you using? Where? Are you delivering the best possible value to your users?

But today, the business environment has changed, departments/units are analyzing their budgets more carefully and asking: What IT resources are you charging us for? Where do we see these Services? What value do we gain from these services? and if we are not using these resources directly ‘why the £€€$ are we paying’ for them? or words to that effect

A while ago, I was invited to a seminar (with Modular DPS) hosted by 6fusion in which they introduced their new Cloud Metering Solution (see below to download), which provides utility metering for physical and virtual IT infrastructures. This helps organizations understand their IT cost structures, how their resources are being used and helping transition to an IT service provider model.

6fusion’s patent-pending algorithm, the Workload Allocation Cube (WAC), is at the core of Cloud Resource Meter and normalizes the way cloud infrastructure is metered both for suppliers and consumers of cloud computing. 6fusion’s Cloud Resource Meter, allows users to view “real time” WAC consumption information at a glance for the entire system, and view real time and short-term historical data from the Client interface and via the internet.

So whats the Benefit of Cloud Metering.

Key benefits of 6fusion’s Cloud Resource Meter:

[fancy_list style="check_list" variation="blue"]

Accurate Cost Projections – Accurately gauge the costs of running in the cloud before deployment and distribute IT costs across internal departments or customers for use of compute resources.

Metered Reporting – Generate workload meter reports to view compute resource consumption – both historically and in real time, allowing for efficiency checks and any necessary administrative adjustments.

Efficiently Allocate Compute Resources – Determine optimal hardware requirements and/or efficiency for new and existing projects in public or private clouds.

Single Pane of Glass – All workloads being metered in your Linux environment, along with those running live in the cloud, can be viewed through a single console.

Ultimate Flexibility – Meter any workload, including web applications or traditional client/server applications – running on either physical or virtual servers.

Benchmark Reporting Consumption – Since the Cloud Resource Meter uses the same reporting engine as live workloads in the cloud, reporting consumption data can be easily benchmarked.

[/fancy_list]

For the Business and the End user

The WAC shows the customer the granular resource consumption of every single VM (virtual instance onsite & in the Cloud) under management – instantly. This means:

It meters the consumption and utilization of infrastructure not just within the enterprise IT space, but also the multi-tenant host market emerging as ‘cloud providers’

It allows you to calculate and compare the costs of using internal or external services.

It would allows the end-user to allocate real time actual costs directly to individual Projects (Finance will love it).

[youtube url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTww7jkYxm8&hd=1" width="640" height="360" autohide="1" controls="0" disablekb="1" fs="1" hd="1" rel="0" showsearch="0" showinfo="0"]

The Cloud Resource Meter  is available for the following environments:

Microsoft Windows

Linux

VMware vSphere 4.1 or 5.0 environment

Further information can be obtained on the 6fusion website or visit their Cloud Resource Meter microsite.

If you are an MSP or VAR and would like to know more about how you could utilize the Cloud Resource Meter and use the services of a Cloud Broker allowing you to focus on the business of servicing your clients, talk to Modular DPS.

Modular DPS is an emerging player is the Cloud Broker sector, playing a catalyzing role in the establishment of a commodities market for computing, just like soybeans, metals or corn. to whom I act as an Adviser.

[fancy_box]

Cloud Resource Meter

download the app to get started

New Post has been published on http://www.calmresponse.com/confused-by-cloud-computing-you-are-not-alone-infographic/

Confused By Cloud Computing. You are not alone! infographic and report

Confusion reign, in a recent survey carried out by Wakefield Research for Citrix, over 1000 participants took part recently in a questionnaire that asked them what the Cloud means to them. The answers, well, a bit foggy.

The majority: (54%) claim to never use the cloud, however 95% of those who think they’re not using the cloud, actually are: 65% are banking online, 63% have shopped online, 58% report using social networking sites, 45% have played online games, 29% store photos online, 22% have stored music or videos online, and nearly 1 in 5 (19%) use online file-sharing services – all of these are cloud-based.

The good news is that even those that don’t know exactly what the cloud is recognize its economic benefits and think the cloud is a catalyst for small business growth.

Here are some of the answers to “what’s the first word or phrase that comes to mind when they hear the term: the cloud?”

Condensed water vapor floating on atmospheric dust

Cumulonimbus

Heads in the clouds

The weather report

Something hovering over you

A white vision in the sky

White fluffy things in the sky

It has something to do with technology

Back to the Drawing board. While some might point out it was a survey carried out in the United States, I have seen the same lack of knowledge in UK and Canada.

Survey Highlights

95% of those who think they’re not using the cloud, actually are

3 in 5 (59%) believe the “workplace of the future” will exist entirely in the cloud

40% believe accessing work information at home in their “birthday suit” would be an advantage

More than 1/3 agree that the cloud allows them to share information with people they’d rather not be interacting with in person

After being provided with the definition of the cloud, 68% recognized its economic benefits

14% have pretended to know what the cloud is during a job interview

A full copy of the report can be downloaded here