Jake and I brought out the flip cam once again to build on last week's post on storage redundancy and scalability.

One of the major benefits of virtualization is that it allows you more flexibility to scale your virtualized environment on demand. Cloud computing not only allows you to scale your storage, as discussed last week, but it also allows you to scale your processing power and RAM.

If you've ever wondered about the differences between commoditized cloud computing and the enterprise cloud, Jake and I outline some of variables of cloud computing performance and dissect what is commonly referred to as "the resource pool." 

So, watch the video, and let us know what you think!
 

UPDATE: Jake put together this handy visual aid, which he references in this vid:

OK – time to take it home.  Hopefully you've already read my first and second post for SaaS CEOs, and now I’d like to finish up the final five tips for taking your applications to the cloud. 

I'd also like to ask you for feedback on what you think and whether you think I’m on the right track.  Please feel free to challenge and question me in the comments field below.


Tip #11:  Set financial penalties for downtime:  I agree, there should definitely be some financial incentive for the Cloud provider to perform for a couple reasons:  

Tip #12:  It takes time to see ROI on SaaS development:  Sage advice from Adam on this one – it’s going to take time and a concerted effort to make Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) pay off for you.  His comments make me think about focus.  Our experience is that many SaaS companies have little to no experience running a hosted infrastructure – so that skill must either be hired or acquired.  Hiring people is hard, so I might argue (because this is our business) that SaaS companies can get further, faster by focusing on writing the code and driving demand, while leaving the hosting to experts like BlueLock.  That’s exactly what SaaS company Right On Interactive did – they focused on writing better code and allowed us to help them get further, faster by managing their infrastructure.  Check out their cloud computing case study.

Tip #13:  Savings are not in the cloud, but in headcount:  Oh man, I wish I could make this tip #1!!  Adam hit the nail on the head.  I’ve presented an infrastructure choices presentation to Rick Chapman’s Softletter SaaS University conferences several times and I tell the Software CEOs in the room that one of BlueLock’s key value propositions is about people.  I even take them through a little back of the napkin math around the difference in cost of 5-10 servers doing it on your own, doing it at Amazon or hosting it with BlueLock.  BlueLock wins and I tell the crowd that you could substitute BlueLock for another managed cloud provider because it’s not about my ability to pay my people less, it’s about my ability to “fractionalize” our labor cost, where they must have a full time equivalent (FTE) or 2 (if that person wants to take a vacation) or 3 (if you want 24x7 coverage and let someone take a vacation or get sick).  So the software company that has dedicated staff to “manage” their cloud environment at Amazon is, in the end more expensive, than allowing me to manage their environment for them at BlueLock.  If you’d like to see the analysis – send me a note at bwolff at bluelock.com and I’d be happy to share the slide and take you through my logic. 

Tip #15:  Let the cloud lead you to new innovations:  This last tip takes the previous tip and Lincoln’s presentation to the next level.  Companies that choose to deliver their software via SaaS (in the cloud) open up many new opportunities for revenue and value creation. The first step toward opening up new horizons for your software company is to migrate to SaaS and let the users take you to a better place.  The cloud will only continue to get better, and SaaS companies taking advantage of the benefits of cloud computing will be leaps and bounds ahead of their competition in terms of cost efficiency and flexibility.

Thanks for reading this post – if you’d like to learn more about how BlueLock is helping enable other SaaS companies just like yours, drop me a note at bwolff at bluelock.com or visit our website to find out more about our cloud hosting services. 

I would also love to hear what you think about my take and if you think I’m on track or “off in left field”.

--Brian

BlueLock has been named to Nine Lives Media Inc.’s third-annual MSPmentor 100, a
distinguished research report identifying the world’s most progressive managed service providers.

“We are honored to be recognized by MSPmentor as one of the world’s most progressive managed service providers," said John Qualls, President and CEO, BlueLock. “We believe our selection is recognition of our continued company growth over the past year and further validates our business plan and the market’s need for different classes of managed IT and cloud hosting services. Three years of cloud experience has allowed us to deliver true cloud computing services that enable developers to Fortune 500 enterprises to deploy and operate their applications on a highly available and scalable platform that is tailored to the
needs of their apps.”

The free MSPmentor 100 report, available at www.MSPmentor.net, is based on data from MSPmentor’s global online survey, conducted October through December 2009. The MSPmentor 100 report recognizes managed service providers based on a range of revenue and management metrics.

Founded three years ago, BlueLock was one of the country’s first providers of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), enabling companies to provision and manage their technology infrastructures more efficiently and cost-effectively. Delivering pre-configured, secure and resilient virtual IT environments which scale ondemand,

“Despite the challenging economy, MSPmentor 100 companies generated more than $700 million in combined recurring revenue and managed services revenue, up 31 percent from the companies’ combined results in 2008,” said Joe Panettieri, editorial director, MSPmentor. “Our report also reveals how MSPs are already profiting from SaaS and cloud services.”

MSPmentor, produced by Nine Lives Media Inc., is the ultimate guide to managed services. MSPmentor features the industry’s top-ranked blog, research, Webcasts, and FastChat videos. It is the number one online media destination for managed service providers in the world.

flexibility, security, & possibly reduced capital expenditure…

By Jon Schackmuth

Savvy business owners looking to get in the cloud are looking for flexibility, security and reduced cost.

The underlying question is:  Can small and medium sized businesses find what they are looking for in the cloud at a price they can afford?

Let’s start with flexibility in the cloud.  Simply put, this is what the cloud does best.  When the marketplace changes and we all know it does, the cloud allows business owners to turn the dial up or down as needed.  As an example, if a business jumps from 1,000 hits to 50,000 hits on their website and it’s positioned at a cloud hosting company like BlueLock, running on virtual machines, they can call the 24/7/365 operations staff and spin up more virtual servers – scalability on demand.  Conversely, if traffic slows in six months, simply turn the dial down and pay for the services being utilized – the beauty of metered usage…

Now that we have established that the cloud is flexible, the true objection of the cloud must be security.  Security is paramount when it comes to companies like BlueLock.  If in doubt, schedule a visit and see the layers of security BlueLock has to offer.  BlueLock’s privately owned building is made of poured concrete with a steel and concrete roof.  The actual servers are secured behind six levels of security and are accessed on a need-to-know basis. - TOUGH.

The use of Check Point firewalls and SAS 70 certification is the gold standard in the IT world and BlueLock utilizes both to protect its clients.  Ask yourself:  Where are my servers stored and who has access to them?  What if your servers crashed today?  What is your disaster recovery plan and how long could your servers be down before you start losing one customer?  What is the value of that customer?  These questions may be hard to answer, but the results could save your livelihood.  BlueLock has all of them answered for you, 24/7/365.

At this point, if I haven’t given you enough to think about with flexibility & security, you are probably in the mindset that it’s too costly!  Consider the amount you pay for your infrastructure.  Excessive CAPEX (capital expenditure) can bankrupt a company faster than a lack of customers.  What does it cost to build your own data center plus a back up site and then maintain it at the level that allows you to sleep at night?
 
Depending on the situation, the business may be a start-up or they may be upgrading existing servers. If you are a start-up, what do a full time IT employees cost?  If you build for today and you hit the home run you planned for, your company may be crippled.  If you spend too much CAPEX on IT infrastructure, you may not have enough left over for marketing and sales generating programs.  Once the original hardware purchase has been made, switching to outsourcing and OPEX (operating expenditure) is sometimes a difficult decision.   At some point, enough is enough when it comes to excessive CAPEX - you may need to go in a new direction and outsource – you may need to put your business in the cloud.

Having been a small business owner in the past, I can attest to each of these topics.  Flexibility is paramount in any business, security is critical when clients trust you with their personal data, and cost overruns will bankrupt even the well-informed business owner.  Having choices in the cloud is something that hasn’t been available in the past… Until now.

Fresh off center stage at VMware Partner Exchange 2010, BlueLock introduced its latest surprise, BlueLock CloudSuite.  After years of offering a robust enterprise-level service, businesses can now have the flexibility and price competitiveness of the newly introduced Bluelock vCloud Express.  For those who want managed services with varying levels of scale, security, and performance - choose between Virtual Cloud Professional and Virtual Cloud Enterprise.  A business that requires onsite control of their own isolated cloud can try the Virtual Private Cloud, you own it and BlueLock manages it.

If you have questions about BlueLock's enterprise cloud computing options, please contact us.

In my last post, I tackled tips 1-5.  This week I’d like to take a look at the next five tips Adam Stone referred to in regards to "Making sense of the cloud: 15 tips for software CEOs" and provide you with the BlueLock perspective on what companies looking to migrate to cloud computing should be thinking about.

Tip #6:  To Avoid vendor Lock-in, stick to open standards. 
This one makes a lot of sense to me – in the end, you need to make sure that whatever you put in the cloud you can get back easily and intact.  While some may argue that deploying VMware technology locks you into VMware’s virtualization platform, I would argue that VMware is the defacto standard for virtualization technology for the enterprise, by virtue of their large market share.  Deploying VMware gives clients a lot of flexibility to move that server to another VMware host if they wish to move.  We even have cases where companies wish to protect themselves from something happening to BlueLock as a cloud provider.  In that instance, we’re replicating the entire virtual machines to a neutral third party, Iron Mountain.  If a triggering event were to occur, the company simply contacts Iron Mountain and receives immediate access to the virtual machines, which can immediately be loaded on servers running VMware.  That’s just one straight-forward example of how “portable” the environment is as a result of running in a VM ware-based virtualization platform.

Tip #7:  Location, Location, Location. 
Yes, indeed, it’s difficult to bend the laws of physics and the speed of light.  This tip talks about two real issues – the first is latency and the second deals with the laws that govern the location where the data center sits, in both cases, BlueLock has engineered solutions to address our client’s specific challenges.   We have clients that need to have the data closer to them than our data centers in Indianapolis, IN or in Salt Lake City, UT for speed or data privacy issues.  For these clients, we introduced our version of a private data center called The BlueLock Box in October 2007.  This private cloud solution entails installing an HP C3000 blade chassis with redundant SAN shelves behind the client’s firewall.  This solution provides them with the same benefits of BlueLock’s public cloud such as fault tolerance and scalability, but puts the data closer to them for speed and/or privacy issues. 

Tip #8:  Consider using a middleman. 
I agree with Adam – there is a huge opportunity for cloud brokers or companies that have expertise in helping clients make thoughtful decisions about what can and/or should go into the cloud and then to actually help architect and deliver the cloud solution.  We’ve worked closely with several partners who have trusted advisor relationships with large fortune 1000 clients that have chosen BlueLock as their cloud solution.  In fact, we’ve been asked to present next week in VMware’s Partner Exchange keynote on the topic of how partners can work with a cloud providers to deliver real value to their clients.  I will be sharing the stage with Carl Eschenbach, EVP of Worldwide Field Operations and Casey Watson, VP Business Development for Apparatus to talk about how BlueLock and Apparatus have built a sizable business delivering cloud integration services for large clients.

Tip #9:  Monitoring uptime isn’t enough, you need an action plan. 
We couldn’t agree more with Adam on this point.  From day one, we’ve had a resolution-based 99.99% uptime SLA in place for our clients.  This means that not only will we respond quickly to the issue, but we’ll promise resolution of that issue.  On top of that, we’ve also patented a portal that we call “the VITAL signs portal” that provides our clients with an overall view of the health of their environment, as well as an ability to drill into each aspect of their environment, to see what’s actually happening.  Finally, we have also built capabilities in the portal to send alerts and alarms when something goes wrong or when the environment has reached a pre-determined limit on things like CPU, RAM and storage.   If those measures aren’t enough, we’ve also built tailored metrics for some clients that wish to monitor additional key metrics in their environment.

Tip #10:  A clause may look good in the contract, but be useless in the real World.  Adam’s tip in this area covered a “useless” escrow agreement.  In tip number six, I shared how we’ve put an escrow agreement in place that can be tested and actually works.  Having said that, I agree that empty legal promises are not the way to make sure you’re protected.  Testing the system is the best way to insure what’s being set aside actually works.  In addition to the escrow agreement, we also have numerous disaster recovery clients that have performed successful tests of our geographic failover disaster recovery service.  In the end, you want the “promise” in writing, but then you want to do a test to make sure it performs as expected.  Reminds me of an old Reaganism – “trust but verify”.

Next week, I’ll take us down the homestretch and walk through the final five tips for migrating successfully to the cloud. 

Tip #11:  Set financial penalties for downtime
Tip #12:  It takes time to see ROI on SaaS development
Tip #13:  Savings are not in the cloud, but in headcount
Tip #14:  Follow the cloud into new markets
Tip #15:  Let the cloud lead you to new innovations

If you'd like to read the original post by Adam Stone, go here.

BlueLock recently announced the appointment of Kim Graham Lee as Chief Marketing Officer. With nearly 30 years of experience, Graham Lee is responsible for leading BlueLock’s branding initiatives, as well as driving the company's corporate and product marketing efforts. In addition, Graham Lee oversees all enterprise and partner marketing initiatives, from product planning and positioning, to the execution of customer acquisition and retention strategies.

“Kim brings a wealth of business experience, a customer-centric attitude, and an energetic presence that make her a strategic asset for BlueLock,” said John Qualls, CEO, BlueLock. “She has a proven track record of building successful marketing and sales organizations, as well as a deep understanding of high tech marketing. Her valuable combination of Fortune 500 client service experience as well as hands-on leadership of growth companies will certainly position BlueLock for continued growth and success in the cloud computing space.”

Prior to joining BlueLock, Graham Lee served as CEO of Vontoo, a privately-held technology and marketing startup in the direct voice marketing space. Under her leadership, the company had a successful capital raise in December 2008, doubled its revenue, and expanded its product suite. Graham Lee spent the first 19 years of her career at Walker Information, a global marketing research firm specializing in customer satisfaction measurement, where she served as senior vice president of global marketing and sales. Graham Lee also was president of OneBridge, a debit and credit card processing company. She held the executive marketing, communications and client service roles with two other technology organizations, LMiV, a convergent new media company and Eviciti, a Web integration firm.

“I am thrilled to join the BlueLock team and be part of a brand that is built on technology leadership, integrity and superior client service,” said Graham Lee. “The company has laid a fantastic foundation upon which to build our sales and marketing efforts and is poised to expand its leadership position in the rapidly evolving cloud computing space. I am excited about the opportunity to work with the team of professionals at BlueLock and contribute to the company’s growth.”

BlueLock recently announced that the company nearly tripled its workforce in 2009, and also has projections to virtually double its employee base and revenue in 2010 as cloud computing continues to gain traction. Graham Lee is one of the first hires of 2010 as the company looks to bring on more top engineering, developer and sales talent throughout the year.

Click here to read about Kim Graham Lee joining BlueLock, click here.

Adam Stone over at Software CEO wrote a very timely article compiling the opinions of several respected industry experts into 15 tips for understanding cloud computing. 
I thought Adam’s article highlighted several ways that BlueLock thinks about the cloud differently (or the same in some instances).  I plan to break the 15 tips down into three blog posts providing my perspective on each point he makes.

Tip #1:  Be Careful how you use the term. 

Adam’s point is that “cloud is not cloud is not cloud” – so it’s best to think about what you need most for your applications and then look for cloud computing service(s) that solve those specific needs.  For example, if you need a better CRM system – you’re probably looking for a SaaS (software as a service) application.  If your developers are spending way too much time writing code for functionality that is not core to your software package – you’re probably looking for a PaaS (platform as a service) – an opportunity to use someone else’s code to extend your core software’s functionality (billing comes to mind).  If your developers or infrastructure team are spending too much time managing failed servers, network or patching OS’, or if they can’t keep up with the growth of your very successful company – you’re probably looking for IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).

Tip #2:  Make the Trendy Pitch. 

The din of people talking about Cloud Computing is deafening, even Dilbert has gotten into the act.  No doubt, your CEO and CFO have even been thinking about the proposed advantages of cloud computing and how they might help the business.  There are ways for almost every company to leverage cloud computing.  There are most likely servers or processes in your company that could be improved by a provider of SaaS, PaaS or IaaS, so take a look around, find a business need and explore ways that a cloud provider might be able to help cut costs and increase efficiencies - this should make your CEO and CFO happy.

Tip #3: Take One Step at a Time. 

One misconception/mistake that I see over and over again is that companies evaluate sending their most mission critical systems to the cloud first.  You should think about your IT environments and applications plotted on a graph of concentric circles with your most critical environments/applications in the middle.  As the number of users goes down or the criticality of the applications or the amount of attention an application receives from your IT staff goes down, move those applications to the outer circles.  The applications in the outer rings should be the ones that are evaluated for cloud first.  There’s less risk, less integration (maybe) and a higher chance for success with these environments.  We’ve built a very crude tool (that will be refined over time) to help you evaluate your applications and where they fit on the “circle of risk."

Tip #4: Keep Your Eyes Wide Open. 

I agree, due diligence on the provider is key.  As the gold rush continues, there are many companies rushing into the space to claim their fortune.  Many will come up with sand and dirt when they realize there’s a huge difference between running a data center and running an entire infrastructure with many, many clients.  In addition to all the points that Adam made about the questions to ask, my experience tells me that time in the market as a cloud provider (not just a co-location provider) is one of the best indicators of stability and staying power.  You’ll want to choose a provider with minimum of three years of success as a cloud hosting provider.  It was around the 2-year mark when we really started to hit our stride around managing the scale of our cloud environment, stabilized implementation and refined the management of our capital effectively, proving we could run a profitable business in the cloud.

Tip #5:  Make sure to get live support.

We’re a live support kind of company – because it’s relationships with our clients that matter, however, I would take a slightly different angle on this.  This is where I’m back to the criticality of the environments/applications.  If you’ve chosen a system that is less critical to the business, it might be perfectly acceptable to use chat, email or other means to get support from your cloud vendor.  Of course, they have to be responsive, that goes without saying.  But if you’ve chosen wisely, you may not need to talk to someone in order to get your problem resolved.  One caveat of course is that if you’re going to run mission critical applications in the cloud – then live support is a must.

So that’s the first five points around understanding cloud computing – stay tuned for the next five.  If you’re interested in learning more about how we do things at BlueLock  - send us a note here.

Coming in future posts:

Tip #6:  To avoid vendor lock-in, stick to open standards
Tip #7:  Location, location, location
Tip #8:  Consider using a middleman
Tip #9:  Monitoring uptime isn’t enough, you need an action plan
Tip #10:  A clause may look good in the contract, but be useless in the real world
Tip #11:  Set financial penalties for downtime
Tip #12:  It takes time to see ROI on SaaS development
Tip #13:  Savings are not in the cloud, but in headcount
Tip #14:  Follow the cloud into new markets
Tip #15:  Let the cloud lead you to new innovations

*If you’d like to read the original post by Adam Stone go here.

By 2015, ABI Research predicts that more than 240 million business customers will be leveraging cloud computing services through mobile devices, reaching revenues of $5.2 billion.  According to ABI Research, an evolving IT supply chain, business adoption of cloud platforms for IT services, and greater business use of handsets and smartphones are creating new revenue streams for both IT and mobile suppliers serving businesses.

ABI Research practice director Dan Shey said, "The immediate opportunity lies in leveraging cloud platforms to develop mobile applications, particularly mobile applications that leverage enterprise data. Directly and indirectly, Microsoft and Google are major players both influencing and enabling these developments. Mobile operators have the most to gain through offers of cloud services to the enterprise leveraging their networks, application enablement, and data centers."

I can think of many applications we use at BlueLock that would be great to be able to access on a mobile device.  We've also begun to see a number of clients asking for mobile cloud options.  I can definitely see this trend taking hold in a big way.  What do you think?

If you have questions about BlueLock's enterprise cloud computing options, please contact us.

Link to the original article.

So what is enterprise cloud computing?  How is it so different from (regular) cloud computing?

Jill Tummler Singer explains that enterprise cloud computing is "a behind-the-firewalls use of commercial, Internet-based cloud technologies specifically focused on one company’s or one business environment’s computing needs." 

It's a "a controlled, internal place that offers the rapid and flexible provisioning of compute power, storage, software, and security services to meet your mission’s demands.  It combines the processes of a best in class ITIL organization with the agility of managed, global infrastructure to make your IT faster, better, cheaper, and safer. Enterprise cloud computing gives your business agility, survivability, sustainability, and security."

Many enterprises with highly secure data and strict up-time and performance needs feel that cloud computing is out of the question.  Most of these companies questioning the abilities of cloud computing services are companies in the government, life sciences and financial services industries.  Enterprise cloud computing is the answer for them.  They need tailored, dedicated high performance environments to provide the benefits of cloud computing with the security and assurance of enterprise-class platforms.

BlueLock is a top VMware hosting provider - we use proven enterprise-class VMware virtualization technology to serve our clients no matter what industry or need level, but we are able to tailor and architect high performance, secure and compliant cloud computing environments specifically for our enterprise-level clients.  BlueLock has been extremely successful serving clients in the government, life sciences and financial services, helping them to realize the advantages of cloud computing.

To learn more about BlueLock's enterprise cloud computing services contact us here.

SaaS virtualization is creating an ocean entrepreneurial opportunities, where small, nimble businesses can create real value by making creating more efficient ways of doing things.

One thing that James Urquhart points out in his Wisdom of Clouds blog post is that there is still a lot of opporutnity in the SaaS virtualization realm. Businesses that currently use enterprise apps need experts who can transition them to more robust and reliable SaaS apps. There is certainly plenty of room for experts like these to create value, while collecting strategic consulting and referral fees.

As more and more companies take on SaaS apps to manage their business processes, the need for consolidation will increase. Imagine the ability to pay for your campany's blogging platform, accounting system, email marketing platform, and CRM tool -- all on one bill. Now wouldn't that be nice? Urquart rightly points out that SaaS meter consolidatoin could craete a level of convenience for which some companies would be willing to pay.

It will be interesting to see how enrepreneurial companies take advantage of the small pockets of opoprtunity in the SaaS industry next year. It's hard to say which ideas will win, be you can be certain that speed and agility in deploying new business models will be key ingredients to success in SaaS virtualization innovation.

 

Because we needed another "top" list, I'd love to go through David Linthicum's latest list, "Top 5 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2010."

Prediction #1: The rise of cloud computing standards

The whole theme of standards and interoperability was a big topic in 2009, but those discussions were very conceptual, and not really actionable.  Some organizations waited on the wayside before adopting a cloud computing solution because standards and interoperability would prevent them from experiencing vendor lock-in. On that note, some have said that BlueLock was a bad name choice because it has a connotation that we would "lock" our clients in.  I like to think that BlueLock would make someone think of security, but I guess not.  However, our cloud uses VMware virtualization technology, so you can take your VMware stuff and take it wherever you like (as long as it stays VMware) if you decide you aren't a big fan of us.  No vendor-lockin here.  Back to topic - I can already tell from listening in on some strategic meetings here that interoperability will take on a large role this year for us.  I can only guess that we aren't the only cloud computing provider with that on our mind.

Prediction #2: First Major Cloud Computing Outages

This one is only a matter of time.  Stuff happens in the cloud.  The cloud still involves real people and of course, real technology.  Although outages will happen, your provider should make sure that there is a sufficient backup plan in order that will help alleviate those pains.  And of course, the second a "big" provider has a "big" mishap, all aim will go to the cloud.  However, Linthicum reminds us, "Despite the outages, cloud computing providers will maintain an uptime record that far exceeds that of most on-premise systems, but you won't hear about that in the technology press."

Prediction #3: Microsoft will be relevant in the cloud

Most businesses run Microsoft, so to say that Microsoft will not become a larger cloud player would be silly.  Now that they've finally got going on the cloud front, we'll see just how much of an impact they'll make, but we're sure to see them make some sort of splash.  However, "Google will continue to dominate small to medium-sized businesses, using its free ad-driven model for delivery of Google Docs and Gmail, with a few larger enterprise deals thrown in."

Prediction #4: Rapid Consolidation of Existing Providers

As cloud computing continues to grow, many of the successful providers will want to expand even more, which will involve buying up the smaller guys.  Hence, there will be less small providers and more big - consolidation.

Prediction #5: Rise of Cloud Computing Startups

As if 2009 didn't see enough, there will be more in 2010 as the technology leaves the stage of early adoption and reaches the masses.  As consolidation occurs (see prediction #4), market value will increase and more VC-backed startups will sprout up.  Think you've seen a lot of "as a services" this year?  It won't be the end of it.

Read David's original post here.

Do you have a prediction for the cloud in 2010?

Its no surprise to hear cloud computing tops another top ten list, but this is a good one. 

The news alert reports that "Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt." 

This year “cloud computing” bumped “virtualization” for the number one spot on Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies list.  It should be noted that Gartner’s report is referring to virtualized computing environments (i.e. VMware, etc.) within the organization, as opposed to the virtualization that is inherent to cloud-based services delivered via the public Internet. 

Another recent report on private clouds acknowledged that companies will more than likely spend more money on internal (or private clouds) cloud computing environments than with public cloud providers.  BlueLock fits in well with this mix because with our private cloud offering we are able to deploy a private/internal cloud within your organization, but the technology allows for the private cloud to connect to the BlueLock public cloud environment for spillover or other needs.

Here is the full list of the top strategies from 2009 and for 2010:

Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2009 were:
 
1.  Virtualization
2.  Cloud computing
3.  Servers (beyond blades)
4.  Web oriented architectures
5.  Enterprise mashups
6.  Specialized systems
7.  Social software / networking
8.  Unified communications
9.  Business intelligence
10. Green IT
 
The research firm’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2010 include:
 
1. Cloud computing
2. Advanced analytics
3. Client computing
4. IT for green
5. Reshaping the data center
6. Social computing
7. Security
8. Flash memory
9. Virtualization
10. Mobile applications

To find out more about BlueLock's public cloud and private cloud solutions contact us here.

To read the original release, click here.

What makes education different from any other business with hundreds or thousands of users?  The economics are all the same, so why wouldn’t the education industry be able to benefit from the advantages of cloud computing like other organizations?  A recent article in Campus Technology entitled, “Is Cloud Computing a Credible Solution for Education?” visits that subject.

Bruce Schneier points out that cloud computing is really nothing new.  Hotmail and Gmail have been doing it for a long time; social networking sites, remote backup companies and remote email filtering companies have also been in on the game.  Schneier says, “Any IT outsourcing—network infrastructure, security monitoring, remote hosting—is a form of cloud computing.”

Cloud Computing provides computer applications to users without the need to purchase, install or support those application.  The software and data is hosted on a remote computer.  Infrastructure-as-a-service providers such as BlueLock are able to provide substantial financial advantages as well as increased IT agility, improving collaboration and innovation within that organization.  And we’ve done that for higher education organizations already.   

Gartner Group blogger Thomas Bittman said this: "The Web, social software and cloud computing will definitely have an impact on enterprise IT--but the impact on our educational system will be astounding, and many in our educational system don't see it coming."

But the downside…

Schneier also cautioned that cloud computing forces reliance on a third party, which may not always be the best idea.  Why? Because when the computer is outside your network, you’re not able to protect it with security systems like firewalls and IDSs.  Not only that but you have to trust your vendor completely – its security, reliability, availability and business continuity.

That’s not a downside at BlueLock.

So yes, you’ll have to rely on us, a third party.  But we install firewalls and IDSs and most likely take more security precautions than you are already taking.  We are SAS 70 and PCI compliant.  Not only that, but we provide SLA with promised uptimes of 99.99%, in case you’re worried about availability.  As for business continuity, we’ve got that too, and at a fraction of the cost.  You can click here to learn more about our virtual disaster recovery solutions.  And most importantly, the trust issue.  Our clients view us as a trusted advisor.  We don’t want to be just another vendor; we want to be an extension of your organization, a partner.  That’s our goal (and we tend to hit goals over here).

And when it comes right down to successes in the education industry, just click here to read our case study on Marian University.  You could say they were more than pleased with what we were able to do for them.

Rackspace recently released their growth numbers for their cloud computing services.  They are obviously very big and only hoping to get bigger like many other large clouds.  Large cloud hosting providers are great at what they do – offer cheap cloud hosting solutions with no frills and no customization.  When I say no customization, we’re talking McDonald’s cloud computing, not Burger King.

On the other hand, for those clients who don’t want McDonald’s cloud hosting, a big cloud computing company might not be better.  Let’s face it; Seth Godin really has something going in “Small is the New Big.”  Bigger companies tend to have lots of set processes, procedures, guidelines, systems and such that can get in the way of one big thing – the creation of client-specific solutions for even the most complex projects.  But there are some slightly smaller cloud hosting providers (with just as much stability, maybe more) who can better focus on the specific client's need to create just the right cloud solution.

A client with those complex needs for their important data and processing like higher up-time, disaster recovery, compliance and security, can’t go with the McDonald’s approach.  They need something more like Burger King.  Obviously Burger King doesn't offer cloud computing, but BlueLock does.  And we’re able to create cloud computing environments for our clients that fill their specific needs, not just the needs a "big" cloud computing company assumes they have.  So, if you’re an enterprise client, with big ole’ security and service requirements, you can still enjoy the wonderful benefits of cloud computing.  You just might not be able to do it with a huge cloud computing company.  But that’s why we’re here. 

Charles Babcock recently wrote an article entitled, “Hybrid Clouds Floating to Enterprise Forefront” which ran in InformationWeek.  He attended the Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, where speakers raised the prospect of private clouds working with public clouds, creating hybrid clouds.

The hybrid cloud is not a term we’ve never seen or heard before.  However, it seems in his article that there aren’t many providers out there actually doing the hybrid cloud approach with their clients.  But BlueLock is. For over two years BlueLock has offered a private cloud solution (The BlueLock Box) in conjunction with our public cloud hosting solution.  Our clients’ ability to have their own internal cloud which has the capability to spill over and utilize our public cloud when necessary has proved itself very valuable.  So yes, Mr. Babcock and the Expo speakers, the hybrid cloud computing approach is going to continue to gain traction.

For those companies who are fearful of “losing control” in the cloud, the private cloud approach is extremely beneficial because those companies are able to gain access to the benefits of cloud computing while still controlling their own infrastructure in house.  So not only is the private cloud a good starting point, but with the right cloud technology (like BlueLock’s), it doesn’t have to be the end of their cloud strategy.

Learn more about BlueLock's private cloud solution known as the BlueLock Box. Or contact a sales rep.

Watch our private cloud video.

Read the original InformationWeek article.

Cloud computing providers like BlueLock know that it would make a lot of sense to pay for software the same way you bill your clients – per-usage or pay-as-you-go.  This pricing model is reflective of the utility-based model of cloud computing, the hottest trend in IT since the personal computer some say, where clients are charged each month based on the amount of infrastructure, power, compute, etc that they use.  So what about the software licenses?  Yes, cloud computing providers also lump that sum into the monthly cost, but it doesn’t cover the full upfront charge for the software because that wouldn’t be fair to the client.  One of the biggest benefits of cloud computing is the clients ability to pay only as they go, with no upfront capital costs, and in a good world that means they don't have to lay out costs for the software either.

Federal agencies who are now taking on the role of cloud service provider and other cloud service providers themselves are beginning to ask software vendors to price their products in a pay-per-use model so it makes more financial sense for them.  The current license agreement requires service providers to outlay the money upfront for the enterprise license. In a cloud model that means the provider has to take on all of the risk by paying the upfront cost. 

Do you think this is fair?  Would it make sense and be feasible for software providers to charge for their software on a per-usage monthly basis?

In order to continue the conversation about getting started in the cloud, let’s move on to step number two: comparing cloud computing vendors (to determine which best fits your needs based on the infrastructure and expertise inventory you took).

Getting Ready to Compare Cloud Computing Providers:
After looking into the amount of IT infrastructure you currently house and run as well as the people and expertise you need to manage it you should have a pretty good idea of what it takes to keep your company up and running.  From there you need to decide what kind of cloud computing solution you’re looking to use.  Is it something simple like an additional software-as-a-service account?  Or are you hoping to use PaaS to access some infrastructure?  Or better yet, does your company want to outsource its entire infrastructure to the cloud?

There are many options when it comes to “moving to the cloud.”  For this post we’ll focus on the migration to an infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud.  One easy first step is test and development.  This is a low-risk way to test out cloud providers and their capabilities while also making a decision around the type of infrastructure you prefer.  Do you want enterprise-level VMware hosting or is Amazon EC2 for you?  Do you want to be able to migrate between clouds and providers and if so, what might that look like and what additional platforms would that require?

While engaging in a test/dev environment, developers should focus on testing their application’s functions, performance and scalability.  Keep in mind that most applications can be tested in a public cloud, but that some for technical or cultural reasons should be kept in-house, unless you are able to secure the type of SLA that would allow you to migrate those “special” applications.

Now let’s say that you’re ready to make that infrastructure move to the cloud (sometimes this may mean you skip the whole test/dev show).  There are four main items to consider when comparing cloud computing vendors.


The SLA is the most important item you need to compare vendors against.  If you have sensitive data or applications that require high uptime capabilities, you would be wasting your time to look at any vendor with and SLA below 99.99%. But if you just need a test and development environment it wouldn’t make sense to pay the premium for such high availability (higher availability = higher price).  Find out your uptime needs and then locate the vendors who offer the SLA you need.

Technical offerings are the next determining factor.  Depending on which kind of infrastructure you prefer (if you have a preference) you would need to figure out which providers use which technologies.  For instance, do you need enterprise-level VMware hosting technology or does your organization want to use something more along the lines of Microsoft Hyper-V?  If you have a preference work around that, and if not, let’s move straight to #3 – Control.

How much control do you want of the infrastructure?  Do you have your own people to manage your infrastructure or are you on a hiring freeze and need your cloud provider to manage the infrastructure.  There are a number of options in the cloud – some vendors provide managed cloud hosting services (like BlueLock) and others just provide the infrastructure while you manage it.  Whatever your preference, there is a vendor for you.

Lastly, and most obviously – once you’ve compiled a list of vendors who provide the SLA, technical specs, and right amount of control, you’re left to look at pricing.  By now, you may only have a couple cloud vendors left, but you should be in a great place to compare and make the right choice.

Server virtualization not only makes sense economically, but also environmentally.  Is your organization dedicated to a green initiative?  Recycling, biking and other green trends will definitely make an impact, but not quite as much as an impact if your IT virtualizes its infrastructure.  Green IT is growing in importance and virtualization is easiest way to get your company on board with the movement.

Gartner estimates that over the next 5 years, most enterprise data centers will spend as much on energy as they do on hardware infrastructure.  With that ratio, every dollar you spend on the infrastructure means another dollar spent on power and cooling.  That’s a tough ratio to work with.

Analyst firm IDC3 states that the unutilized server capacity equates to approximately $150 billion and over 20 million servers (traditional servers use only 5-15% capacity).  The unutilized servers produce a total of more than 80 million tons of CO2 per year.

Why is virtualization green?  Servers get consolidated, drastically saving space and power and cooling costs (read: saving energy).  Also, virtual servers consume 60-90% of the normal workload even when idle. Your organization is able to increase its IT capacity and save money while going Kermit-the-Frog green at the same time!  (Companies can save up to 80% on infrastructure costs using virtualization.)

BlueLock uses VMware virtualization technology to reduce our carbon footprint, simultaneously reducing yours as a client.  We’ve got your financial and environmental needs in mind.

For more information on Green IT, visit this site.

While cloud computing can offer significant savings, it’s important to know exactly what you’re paying for and what kind of environment you’re receiving for that money, specifically in terms of performance.  Do you know the quality of the parts that are in your environment and what quality tier those fall in?  How high is your SLA?  Is it too high? 

If you need a production environment, you most likely want to have higher end gear with a higher performance Service Level Agreement, up there around 99.99%. But if you just need a test and development environment, why would you pay for the higher SLA and higher-end gear?  It just doesn’t make sense. 

The enterprise client needs are much different from the needs of a single developer, and then there are others, like the SMB who fall in the middle in terms of environment needs.  This is exactly why BlueLock is launching a new suite of offerings next week that addresses all levels of cloud hosting needs – from the developer to the enterprise.  The three-tiered system, The BlueLock Cloud Suite, will provide low, mid and high end capabilities with just the right SLA, gear and price tag to address a spectrum of IT needs. 

More details on the BlueLock Cloud Suite to come...

IndustryWeek just posted an article around Gartner’s recent ‘Hype Cycle’ report that concludes cloud computing is among the technologies “reaching peak level of hype in 2009”.

The Hype Cycle report features technologies that are focused in the IT industry because of their hype levels or because Gartner feels they have potential for significant impact.  In 2009’s review, Cloud Computing is among those listed as having “tipped over the peak and will soon experience disillusionment among enterprise users.”  However, even though cloud computing might be at the peak of its hype, it is also noted as being among “potentially transformational technologies” alongside web 2.0, online video and SOA, which are projected to become mainstream in the next five years.

So there you have it, cloud computing might be getting too much hype (is there such a thing?) but it certainly has some will-power to really stick around and change the way people everyone compute and consume their IT infrastructure.