Friday, November 20, 2009

What is cloud computing?

There is so much chatter about cloud computing these days that it is really hard to get people to agree on a common definition not only for cloud computing but also for SaaS and other acronyms. Fnally, I found a presentation from the NIST that is probably the best overview of cloud computing , its economics, standards and case studies. I can't recommend these slides enough to anyone involved with cloud computing.

A quick summary of this great material:

"Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."

This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of

Five essential characteristics:
  1. On-demand self-service
  2. Broad network access
  3. Resource pooling and Location independence
  4. Rapid elasticity
  5. Measured service
Three service models:
  1. Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS): Use provider’s applications over a network
  2. Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS): Deploy customer-created applications to a cloud
  3. Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Rent processing, storage, network capacity, and other fundamental computing resources
Four deployment models:
  1. Private cloud: enterprise owned or leased
  2. Community cloud: shared infrastructure for specific community
  3. Public cloud: Sold to the public, mega-scale infrastructure
  4. Hybrid cloud: composition of two or more clouds

Cloud computing often leverages:

  • Massive scale
  • Homogeneity
  • Virtualization
  • Resilient computing
  • Low cost software
  • Geographic distribution
  • Service orientation
  • Advanced security technologies

It looks like we have now a common ground to discuss cloud computing!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

HP to Acquire 3Com

HP is buying its way into the edge by acquiring 3Com. The acquisition makes sense in order to offer a complete edge-to-the-data-center solution. HP and Cisco have been on a collision course for some time now and this purchase is accelerating things. Read this blog entry from Cisco.
What it means for the other network equipment providers? Nokia Siemens, Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent. Is there room for independent network equipment providers to the enterprise market. Let's watch IBM and Oracle's next move.

It seems to me that the network and the applications will meet somewhere in the cloud and IT giants are positioning themselves accordingly. I need to draw another triangle that would show the infrastructure supporting my first triangle. The developer community should be the focus for all these IT companies to develop a vibrant, interoperable ecosystem. Google and Apple are doing exactly see with their platforms. Equipment providers

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Omnitrol Networks releases Retail Shop-Floor Inventory Tracking Solution for Apparel

Another great example of collaboration, we are now ready to release this solution to our partners and channels. Large retail companies can offer wide selections of clothing and have advantages in purchasing, distribution, and marketing while smaller stores can compete by offering unique merchandise, targeting a specific demographic, providing superior customer service, or serving a local market. All retail stores across the industry share a similar and very labor-intensive model when it comes to inventory tracking and inventory replenishment. New competition in recent years has come from discounters and from catalog and Internet retailers. Cost reduction is a key goal for apparel retailers.

Until now, solutions were "tailored" solutions. Thanks to our partner, we have been able to bring up an easy-to-install solution that can provide immediate visibility on apparel item movement and address the out-of-stock problem. Out of stock situations cost the industry nearly $90 billion every year.