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CloudRamp

Your On-Ramp to Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing’s Impact on IT BudgetsAugust 22 2008

As companies embrace cloud computing, IT budgets could change dramatically.  In a traditional IT environment, the budget includes significant capital expenditures for hardware and software investments.  These capital expenditures are depreciated over several years creating a predictable impact on the companies P&L and quarterly earnings.

The first, and most obvious, impact of cloud computing is that companies could spend less on internal infrastructure.  With abundant and affordable cloud-based storage and SaaS business applications, companies can choose to host only their most critical applications internally while relying on external service providers for the rest of their needs.  While capital expenditures will decrease, operating expenses could spike considerably.  Cloud computing may represent an overall cost savings, but the shift from capex to opex isn’t trivial and will be an important consideration for the finance organization.

Some of cloud computing’s best attributes (i.e. instant scalability, usage-based pricing) also present unique challenges in serving internal customers.  In a traditional IT environment, when a particular system experiences hardware-related performance issues end users generally understand the it isn’t practical for the IT organization to run out and buy a bunch of new servers to solve the problem.  If it wasn’t in the budget, it’s hard to get finance to sign off on significant, unexpected capital expendit

Despite Outages, Amazon S3 is SecureAugust 5 2008

Data security tops the list of concerns enterprises have in adopting cloud computing.  With the nearly daily announcements of new vendors entering the market, it’s only prudent to be a little cautious.  But cloud computing doesn’t have to be a risky endeavor.

Despite Amazon’s notable outages, their S3 storage service offering has proven to be a very secure solution.  I have yet to come across a single customer that claims their data has been compromised while stored on Amazon S3.  As an early innovator in the marketplace, Amazon’s success has built credibility for the entire cloud computing space.

In order to continue to gain the confidence of enterprise CIOs, Amazon and other cloud service providers need to maintain a spotless record when it comes to security.  A single widespread security breach could set the entire industry back 5-10 years in terms of gaining adoption.  They also need to ensure the integrity of their customers’ data.  Amazon ran into data integrity issues recently that had the potential to create a real black eye for cloud computing.

Not surprisingly, one of the biggest security risks with Amazon S3 is an issue that is completely within your control - securing your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.  Together, these two keys provide admin level access to your Amazon S3 account and data.  By sharing

Only in the Clouds: BI Co-opAugust 4 2008

This is the first in a series of posts where we’ll be talking about ideas that are only possible (or practical) with the power and economics of cloud computing.  We will be limiting the scope of our ideas to those that hold the most promise for our clients, mid-to-large enterprises.

With an endless appetite for information, business managers and executives continue to support new BI initiatives that will improve their ability to make faster, better decisions.  For most companies, their BI infrastructure utilizes internal data only.  But what if you could incorporate data from partners or customers into your BI solutions.  Think of the new trends you could discover and better decisions you could make.

As intriguing as the idea is, it’s really just not practical in a traditional IT environment.  Trying to convince your partners or customers to send over raw data for you to analyze would be a tough proposition for even the closest business relationships.  Which brings us to an idea that is a perfect fit for cloud computing; a business intelligence co-op (BICO).

So what is a BICO?  It’s an agreement between two or more organizations to share data with each other to provide better business intelligence.  A BICO would bring new dimensions to the types of decisions that companies can make.

Imagine if Apple and Macy’s formed a BICO.  By pooling their data together, they could spot trends that would be difficul

5 Reasons for Creating a Cloud Computing RFIAugust 1 2008

With all of the mainstream media coverage surrounding cloud computing, it’s no suprise that the concept is peaking people’s interest beyond the IT department.  Many of the cloud services available are so easy to setup and inexpensive to use that people’s curiosity could quickly blossom into sporadic adoption thoughtout the enterprise.  Even if you are not ready to adopt the technology as a core part of your infrastructure, as an IT organization you need to stay informed and be in front of the trend.

Creating a cloud computing request for information (RFI) is a great starting point for learning about the various offerings on the market and staying ahead of the technology’s adoption by your internal customers.  Here are five reasons why you should invest the time and create your own cloud computing RFI:

1.  It’s the fastest way to get the facts.  A well written RFI can provide a wealth of knowledge about each vendor’s offerings and provides an apple-to-apple comparison of different service providers.  Investing a little time in writing the RFI can save hundreds of hours of research trying to track down information from dozens of vendors.

2.  It helps internal customers understand all of the issues.  Cloud computing appeals to business users outside of the IT department because vendors promise instant implementations, low costs, and easy customization.  What they don’t talk about are the potential security, reliability, and perfo

Welcome to CloudRampJuly 30 2008

When I was first exposed to the Internet and the World Wide Web in 1995, my mind was spinning with all of the possibilities for this amazing new technology.  Like many others, I realized there and then that the Web was going to have a huge impact on our lives.  I went on to found Daptiv (formerly eProject) and was fortunate to survive the dot-com rise and fall while working with one of the best teams in the industry.

More than a decade later my mind is spinning again.  This time, I’m consumed with all of the new possibilities that cloud computing brings to the technology industry.  We are just beginning to understand the impact inexpensive, nearly unlimited, computing power will have on how companies operate.

I’m excited to announce that we are launching CloudRamp with the mission of helping companies harness the power of cloud computing.  CloudRamp will be offering enterprise customers information, tools, advice, and consulting services to help with their cloud computing strategies and projects.

For those new to cloud computing, check out our Getting Started with Cloud Computing guide.  If you’re already familiar with cloud computing, subscribe to our RSS feed and stay tuned.  We’re thrilled to be a part of the cloud computing community and look forward to the innovative solutions this technology