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The technology market world-wide is migrating to Cloud Computing where many organizations host and run most of their applications on cloud infrastructure. Cloud computing is a means to utilize the cloud infrastructure or any cloud hosted software by subscription or pay-per-use service.

If you are migrating your applications to a public or private cloud, as always cloud solution providers may promise you - easy and fast deployment, high-end security, lower cost and more. But at this juncture, it is of utmost importance to be aware of the critical factors to be considered while migrating to cloud beyond all the marketing proclamations.

Integration Issues with Cloud Computing

It is imperative for companies to think about the Integration going in, while deciding to embrace a SaaS based application or PaaS model for any of your software requirement. Integration plays a vital role when companies depend on more than one application for their business process, necessitating a smooth flow of data across them. With issues in integration, the very purpose of employing the application is left unmet.

Therefore before deciding on a cloud vendor, make sure you gain an in-depth understanding about the integration process and issues, to handle them effectively even before starting to migrate which will make the whole course smooth.

Hidden Costs Revelation

Cloud computing helps enterprises save money on software purchases or licences. With cost structure in the form of subscription fees, enterprises can evade huge investments on infrastructure and pay per usage. However before migrating your application to cloud it is essential to look at your monthly and yearly package options along with the many aspects like number of subscriptions, services, bandwidth limitations, one-time migration costs, integration costs, offers, and support and exit charges. Also understand the complete pricing model for version upgrades, increase in database, number of users, data storage, back-ups, features, etc.

Keep an eye on your package regularly for its limitations like data storage, bandwidth usage, back-ups, data base size, etc., which in-turn helps you manage your charges well. Finally, look for ways to increase the ROI and success metrics of the application.

Cloud Security: Who's Responsible?

Security is one of the top concerns for companies and end users leveraging from cloud. Cloud vendors must ideally provide reliable services with security at multiple layers - data, application, infrastructure and end user. Cloud security issues are more complex for users who do not hold zero responsibility.

According to a recent survey conducted by Ponemon Institute on the Security of Cloud Computing Providers, both customers and providers seldom take the responsibilities for data security on cloud. In fact, most of the providers believe that it is customer's responsibility to secure their data - which is unfair. While both the parties point out each other for data infringement, in reality, both are equally responsible if data is hacked.

It is important that customers take necessary actions for data security, without feeling that cloud solution will handle security concerns on its own. Hence you can check with the vendors as to what they offer for data protection while in addition protecting your data with secure passwords for data access and constantly updating them.

Will Cloud Computing Lead to Privacy Obliteration?

Cloud computing brings numerous benefits to enterprises. However most of us hardly know what is the case behind the scene when it comes to privacy of your data and personal information which is on cloud. The privacy of your data majorly depends on the type of cloud that you choose.

If for example, the cloud application works on an advertising revenue model, your personal information is bound to be grabbed. Vendors will protect your data when you pay for using the applications like business emailing, news portals, software applications, etc and hence choose your vendor keeping your data security in mind.

Speed of Data Restoration - Disaster Recovery

Cloud network goes down at any point of time; but what really matters is how swiftly they recover from a disaster and how their infrastructure is designed for such a downtime recovery. Very few cloud providers unveil the metrics data of uptime and illustrate reports of their past. You can ask providers about their past experiences on disasters, maintenance schedules and their customer's feedback which will all provide you with a holistic idea of their service. Some of the leading vendors like Saleforce.com publish statistics on a public web page.

In some cases data will be lost when cloud network is down, where it is highly impossible to recover the lost data. Data back-up is the only best way for data recovery which can solve data protection issues on the cloud and also help to restore data quickly when you need it. Organizations need to check the performance data reports of previous issues for reference. You should not only depend on the cloud solution or providers for data restore, but it's better to take data back-up every time it's been updated.

Switching Vendors on the Cloud

If you have hosted your application with one vendor and decide to migrate to another, it is not usually easy and with cloud it's often appalling. Organizations should know how easy or hard it is to get the data out from their existing cloud and move it to another cloud. In some cases this goes hand in hand with integration and you need to be aware of data migration across the cloud solutions. You also need to check the strengths, weaknesses, costs, security features and performance capabilities of the other vendor. Test the performance of the new cloud soon after everything is set and migration is in full swing.

Enabling Green Cloud Computing

As we see a massive growth in industrialization, there is a growing need for resources to run systems / machines. Data centers enabling cloud computing are power-hungry consuming several megawatts of power to run server farms and air-conditioners. And according to a survey conducted by Greenpeace report, nearly $450 billion dollars are spent on new data center facilities. This automatically leads to a huge impact on our environment.

However, a research by Microsoft suggests, big energy reductions from cloud helps businesses by moving on-premise business applications to cloud which can reduce their power consumption & carbon emission by 30%. Even large data centers like Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. can use piped Columbia River water to cool down the servers. So make sure that your cloud vendor holds Greenpeace scorecard if you are an environment friendly organization.

Along with the above mentioned critical factors, feel free to comprehend all your queries and requirements whatsoever with the cloud vendors before making your final decision.

Mary is an experienced writer and covers topics related to Mobile Solutions and Cloud Computing. She is specialized in writing articles on Mobile Device Management, Mobile CRM, Mobile BI, Cloud Solutions.

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Subhash was a smart, innovative and self-starter, 23 yrs old guy who started a small business with his limited budget. He always wanted to curtail the business expenses smartly and wanted to opt for smarter investment techniques. In the initial phase of his business he noticed he faced some really expensive and severe challenges. He enlisted the top challenges and one of them was buying hardware for each employee along with the software and their licenses which he discovered were extremely taxing. Moreover he detected other problems like storage capacity, keeping updates for newest software and ongoing trends in the market. He felt with every new hire more software were needed, such problems worsened the situation and distracted him from the goals of his business. He researched and finally chose Cloud computing- A smart and user friendly choice which is easy on pocket too.

Flashback

In the earliest of days when Homo sapiens grew, they beautifully transformed themselves as humans from apes. Grew a little: understood basic needs- Food, clothing, shelter. Grew more- found mediums to fulfill those basic necessities. Then they started 'Developing', now they had farms for food, wells for water, mills for clothes, bricks for homes. Necessities give birth to utilities. Same scenario applies for business computing. One of the newest successful utility is Cloud Computing. Traditionally companies built their own in-house IT infrastructure catering to all the technical needs. But that involved expensive equipment and servers and installed everything locally - too much of hard work involved to make the ends meet! Things have changed. With the dawn of cloud computing a company can have a reliable and a safer business computing delivered like a utility service. We buy basic utilities for smooth functioning of our day to day lives, similarly we 'BUY' IT infrastructure as a service! Just spend for what we need and focus on the business not the technology.

Technically- What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the provision that allows the user to log into a web based service which hosts all the programs obligatory for completing the job. The cloud computing service provider runs everything ranging from emailing to word processing to different complex data analysis programs. The term 'cloud' actually refers to the network of computers which handle all the assigned respective tasks. Cloud computing service providers charge for the Maintenance and management of data inputs by clients. Cloud computing has emerged as the next big thing in the dome of application software, storage, hardware and platform flexibility that provides easy solutions to the most complex of things! The system favors all sizes of business but proves really fruitful for middle and small sized ones.

All one needs to avail the service is a basic computer system, web browser and the internet. It has become the lifeline of organizations who seek a simple solution to the compound problem of choosing and organizing software as per each employee's area of work. Have you ever noticed every internet user prominently benefits from cloud computing? The finest examples of cloud computing are Gmail, Amazon web services, Google applications where a browser helps the user to access the application whenever she/he feels like.

How it works?

Knowing how cloud computing works is interesting. The structural design can be categorized into two main sections: Front end and back end. Front end is controlled by the end user or client or say the web browser who uses the cloud services. Back end is the network of servers with any computer program and data storage system that runs, handles and maintains the cloud (Succinctly- The service provider).

Cloud has a centralized server administration system. The centralized server administers the system, balances and adjusts client supply and demands, monitors traffic and avoids congestion. This server follows a set of rules (protocol) known as middleware. Middleware as the name suggests, is the intermediary that allows networked computers to communicate with each other. Observing the other side of the process one can rename cloud computing as green computing because it helps in successful conservation of power energy.

Can Cloud computing be pocket friendly?

Cloud computing is cost effective too. Unlike traditional computing, the service condenses "Hard Costs" like cost of hardware, infrastructure, software licenses, and "Soft costs" such as IT staffing, troubleshooting, energy costs to run the servers, desktops and cooling the entire server room. As far as data maintenance costs are involved they too are quite reduced as they are maintained by the service provider (They perform the complete set of tasks; from running the cloud to storing data). The need to high storage hard drives can be snubbed away as all the data is stored on a remote computer.

Breakdown of the system can cause the owner a serious nervous breakdown because of high data recovery and system repair costs, not to ignore the data loss. In such situations, of course the show goes on because the data can be operated from the remote computer from any place!

Market is in the favor of buyer. Since past three years number of service providers has swelled. In this computing arena we have crucial players like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Intel, and many others who are competing hard to build effective and impressive clouds for their clients..

Brownie points for Cloud computing users!

Cloud computing's pros do not end here. Databases in cloud computing are very dynamic and scalable which means that local computers no longer have to deal with hefty applications that almost kills the speed of the local computer, and most importantly hardware and software demands on the user's side decreases. But who plays the protagonist in the whole story of cloud computing? Answer is Data. The cloud not only builds, runs and maintains the data but it also secures it.

The data security is the top most priority in all the data operations of the cloud. Undoubtedly, the data is backed up at multiple locations. This is called redundancy of data- the most important attribute of cloud computing service. Another benefit of cloud computing is that the data accessibility is not limited to any particular hardware or storage device. The data can be accessed anytime and anywhere one needs to.

Is the right cloud chosen?

But there are some important concerns that one should not avoid before relying on the service. One of them is choosing the right form of cloud computing from:

ï?· SAAS (Software As A Service): Where users rent application software and databases. It is commonly known as on demand software. For example: ADP (long time provider of payroll services), Google apps.

ï?· IAAS (Infrastructure As A Service): Here the cloud providers provide their client with servers (as many as client needs) in exchange for the rent on each server. For example: "Amazon web services" is one of the most successful IAAS provider till date.

ï?· PAAS (Platform As A Service): In this form of Cloud computing, users rent the complete package of servers plus the required software to use in them. For example: Salesforce.com is one of the much known PAAS provider.

As per the business needs, the user should tactfully choose the most appropriate form of cloud computing. Secondly, vital decision in selecting the right service provider proves fruitful in long run. One must make sure that the provider is reliable, is well-reputed for their customer service and satisfaction, and should have a proven track record in handling the respective business ventures. They should be prudently equipped with proper techniques where data is segregated in a clear and discrete manner. Data of different clients should be dealt with utmost care and confidentiality. Most importantly, cloud computing providers must be equipped with proper disaster recovery policies to deal with any unfortunate event in future. Cloud computing can be the apt choice which solves umpteen purposes in one go. It is the medium for getting the best performing system with the best value for money. The technology is worth embracing that tunes the business towards the set objectives. After all, in the arena when life is pacing at the speed of light, twenty four hours seem too precise to do the job. Business actually needs the undivided attention of the owner, technology can be taken care of by cloud computing service providers, then why risk energy, time and mental peace? When one just needs to spend money.

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It Support Companies understand the trend and gathered interest in the cloud computing. My customers of an IT Consulting solutions company hear their clients and their needs for cloud computing without completely understanding the benefit and pitfalls that come with that level of storage management. Everyone involved with web 2.0 sees a different definition of cloud computing.

As a metaphor for the Internet, "the cloud" is viewed with the familiar cliché - as an out of touch, extraterrestrial item. When combined cloud with computing, the meaning of the cloud is much bigger and out of touch. Certain IT Consulting solutions and Technical Staffing analysts define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of the utility hardware and server computer management. Basically, those IT Support Companies over simplify cloud computing as virtual servers available over the Internet. Although the definition is very broad, certain IT Support management firms would argue that anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud" including conventional outsourcing. There is a certain level of logic displayed by these IT Support Management companies who follow with this argument because of level of knowledge and control when you place an software, file, or action item into a virtual space. When you add a file into a virtual space, it can become accessible by any person who it is granted access to.

The actual goal for cloud computing for Business IT Support is a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in a new infrastructure, training new Technical Staffing, or licensing new software. Cloud computer encompasses any subscription or pay-per-use service that in real time over the Internet, extend IT Support Management existing capabilities. With the expanded capabilities there needs to be IT Consulting Solutions that should be served as a guide to the management of cloud based solutions.

With the progressions that IT virtualization, server, and hardware technology have given the chance for, IT Solution provider has given large and small businesses a slew of options on the management of their hardware and software both on site and remotely. Cloud solutions give a chance for immediate response and instant gratification for the most impatient of the customer or client. Cloud-based services, when managed by IT Support Companies, come will a series of full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering. Today, for the most part, IT Support Management companies must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging quickly, giving new opportunities and services for IT Consulting Solutions.

Cloud Computing has gone beyond the delivery of single applications through the browser to thousands of customers using multitenant architecture. From the customer's point of view, there upfront investment in servers and software licensing will be structured different depending on how the company is organized. From the provider's side, with just one app for the business IT Support to maintain, the costs are low compared to conventional hosting by an IT Solutions Provider.

Thomas Vachell has been associated with a Technical Staffing and He is the right position to tell a lot of thing on Managed IT Services and Technical Staffing team. To read more information about IT Support Management visit, http://www.relianttech.com/

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'The cloud' is a way of delivering business solutions to the retail sector. However, despite its many proclaimed benefits, like the UK weather 'the cloud' can be unpredictable and can raise important questions for retail businesses. One of the key issues to be addressed is:

What happens to my business when there's a 'cloudburst'?!

What is needed is 'a cloud with a silver lining' - a solution which delivers the benefits of cloud computing yet also keeps your business trading - a solution like Accord Momentum (Web Based Epos Software). It combines the efficiencies and cost advantages of cloud/thin client solutions with the robust, resilient nature of traditional till solutions to deliver:

• Zero downtime /true non-stop retailing

• Data integrity

• Fast, flexible, cost effective deployment

Keeping up with technology

In today's fast moving, competitive retail environment the ability to take early advantage of new technologies and implement new retail processes quickly can determine whether a business lives or dies.

Today's retailer cannot afford to have down time through IT infrastructure issues as customers will be lost. Accord-Momentum web based EPoS software solution - now makes true NonStop™ Retail a reality while at the same time providing the agility and flexibility to implement changes to business and retail processes more swiftly and cost effectively than ever before. It provides the cost benefits of thin client technology with real-time control whilst maintaining the efficiency and resilience of traditional till technologies to deliver lower cost of ownership, greater efficiency and better margins, as well as helping retailers to reduce their carbon footprint and negative impact on the environment.

"Non-stop" operation allows trading to continue uninterrupted in the event of network or communications failure with absolutely no change to the appearance, functionality or speed of operation and no requirement for fall-back software to cover these eventualities.

Agile and flexible, Accord-Momentum PoS is available as a web based EPoS solution but will also operate effectively on-premise and on mobile devices. It can be interfaced to any back office, head office, CRM or ERP system and deployed over a LAN, WAN, VPN or Broadband Internet. The EPoS software's component driven Object Orientated Architecture (OOA) facilitates easy development and integration of application extensions.

Accord-Momentum PoS Benefits:

Real time central controlCompany-wide visibility of trading dataEasy deployment from the centre - implementation, upgrades, maintenanceFlexible Web Based EPOS implementation and configuration optionsFully resilient NonStop-Retailing - uninterrupted trading should network or communications fail; no fallback software neededSame appearance, speed, functionality in 'resilient' mode at the point of saleLower cost of ownership - minimises hardware, deployment, support and maintenance costsEnvironmentally friendly - reduces carbon footprint

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Embrace Cloud is the first step in the five step social construct or blueprint called enterprise cloud development (ECD) being introduced in the software development industry. Embracing the cloud is simply about data aggregation - from source code control to requirements tracking to document storage - for software development or IT divisions that support larger business organizations. While this may seem easy on the surface and can be for small or midsized businesses (SMBs) - data aggregation presents significant challenges for larger organizations. Below are three challenges explained in depth.

(a) Intellectual property (IP) control. The lack of IP control can prevent auditors, attorneys and other development team members from doing their work months or years after a product or project has moved from active to retired. Here's an example of a nightmare scenario for a CIO. Two years after a project gets retired a lawsuit comes from an end user. In order to defend that lawsuit the code and conversations around that code needs to be found and analyzed. The IP can't be found and the development team members have since moved on to other organizations. In addition the conversations around that code are in six different repositories including email and chat, neither of which have historical logs. Now what is the CIO supposed to do? How is the organization supposed to defend itself?

(b) Organizational transparency. This goes back to a core belief that there exist different types of organizations. Only a select few will have a culture that values openly share information and data. However transparency breeds trust and code reuse / sharing. This is a really big idea and one that I will build on in step two of the five step ECD paradigm.

(c) Acquisition. If an organization is highly acquisitive then folding different corporate data together can feel like pushing mud uphill. Different organizations use different tooling / technology platforms, different standards for their key performance indicators (KPIs) and/or management by objectives (MBOs). The concept of replication or reconciliation of KPIs or MBOs doesn't necessarily work. Tradeoffs and exchanges need to be negotiated early between the two executive teams so that both sets of executives (the new and the existing) can track the organization accurately.

An additional fear of acquisition is the loss or theft of data. What prevents a core group of newly disgruntled employees or contractors from walking away with bits of meaningful code? The acquiring group must plan for these types of worst case scenarios.

Data aggregation through embracing the cloud is a promise of an incremental improvement to organizational structures because of the ability to find and organize the data (source code, requirements, documents) that teams rely upon to do effective work. Unlike some of the other steps of this social construct or blueprint this step is a prerequisite to steps two through five.

About The Author:
Laszlo Szalvay currently serves as the VP Worldwide Scrum Business Line at CollabNet, Inc.

CollabNet leads the industry in Agile ALM in the Cloud. The company also offers training, including Certified ScrumMaster training, software development process improvement services, and an innovative community management approach to driving enterprise development success. As the founder of the open source Subversion project, CollabNet has collaborative development for distributed teams in our DNA.

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With today's technology and resources the many different types of software and acronyms can get confusing. Two of the most common types of software, especially for companies that have employees who work from home are issue tracking software and the cloud based bug tracker. Some businesses might even experience confusion between these two types of software. Most issue tracking software (also known as ITS, trouble ticketing system, support ticket or incident ticket system) are uploaded after the cloud based bug tracker has been implemented because the software is what monitors complaints from customers while the cloud based bug tracker lists bugs within the cloud.

The cloud is the actual network of service models that allows companies to work remotely. It received its name from the cloud like shape that was consistently used when referencing the networks. There are many different types of clouds some of which include: private, public, community, hybrid, and intercloud. Within the cloud there are three main service models that are often referred to by their acronyms: Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS). This article will serve as a helpful sort of "cheat sheet" by describing what each service actually is.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS) because it typically refers to the physical aspects of the outsourcing including the: hardware, storage, and any additional networking mechanisms that are required. The service typically rents out these applications and the business that uses them usually pays only when they use them.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is probably the easiest to describe because the explanation is right in the name. SaaS allows businesses and employees to use multiple types of software through the cloud instead of installing it on their own personal computer. This eliminates the threat of slow computers and viruses that might arise from the types of software.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

While IaaS refers to the physical aspect of the cloud, and SaaS to the software usage, PaaS refers to the Internet aspect of the cloud. These aspects include the web server, the programming language, the database and the operating system. This service eliminates the cost and confusion of purchasing multiple Internet layers.

With all the different service models and their functions it's easy to see why issue tracking software is beneficial to the cloud based bug tracker. These services make it possible for companies that have employees or clients all over the world to use the same computer networks without the fear of viruses or other damaging "bugs."

Issue tracking software makes it possible for the many service models (the Infrastructure as a Service, Software as a Service, and Platform as a Service) on the cloud based bug tracker to work safely and remotely.

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The cloud computing system got its name as early as 1994. However, with every new development there are always going to be issues and either issue tracking software or cloud based bug tracking software will help improve those issues. Even with these issues there are always going to be additional concerns when accessing something new. This article will address both the popular cloud based bug tracking software and the concerns that many still have when accessing the cloud.

BUGtrack

BUGtrack is aimed towards both large corporations and small businesses alike. It can also be used all over the world because it's multilingual and can manage multiple clients and projects at once. It provides 24/7 access and email updates that are automatically saved to records. The concern of privacy through this software should be eliminated because once the important information is entered it is extremely protected physically and electronically because they use DELL PowerEdge servers.

Bugzilla

Bugzilla has some similar features to BUGtrack because it instantly finds any problems and automatically tracks them as most bug tracking software do. What makes this software different is that was built and run by Mozilla (known for the FireFox browser). It's therefore most popular around free software projects including Mozilla and Linux.

Mantis

Mantis is similar to both BUGtrack and Bugzilla but it's designed more for the businesses who might be new to the cloud based bug tracking software. It's extremely easy to move through and has a highly customizable workspace. What makes it different from Bugzilla is it's very simple installations and set-up processes.

These are just a few of the cloud based bug tracking software available, there are many more out there. As with anything that deals with technology and has many different platforms and services, there are almost always just as many concerns. Most articles just address the positive, uplifting sides of things, and this article did that in the first half by presenting the popular cloud based bug tracking software, but now it will delve into the three most popular concerns of the cloud based bug tracking: privacy, security, and IT staff. There is a solution for each of these, starting with privacy - the best way to solve this concern is by providing passwords for each network.

These passwords should be relevant to the company but still somewhat difficult to solve. The next issue of security should be eased by the cloud company's credibility. Most companies swear by their security standards and if businesses don't trust the companies' word then they should use a different one. Finally the issue of the cloud taking over the IT staff can be solved because there will always be problems that arise with any technology. Though the IT staff may be reduced greatly because of the cloud, it should not be eliminated for safety precautions.

This article covered many important issues regarding cloud based bug tracking, so both small businesses and large enterprises should be fully prepared to use the cloud computing system.

There are many concerns and many different types of cloud based bug tracking software and issue tracking software; this article describes both the popular types of software for the cloud and the concerns that come with them.

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