www.its-your-internet.com

Our firm is a high end technology consultancy in Forest Hills, NYC. If you want to make the Internet work for your business, we can help you succeed.

[its-your-internet]

What are you doing tomorrow?

If you like meeting prospective clients, making new contacts, supporting locally-owned businesses, and getting free stuff, then we know what you're doing tomorrow, because we'll be there, too. Visit www.its-your-internet.com's booth at the Queens Chamber of Commerce Business Expo tomorrow.

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Hello to everyone we met the New York XPO for Business, and to everyone we know who came out and said hi! It was a great event with lots of seminars, shared food and shoptalk between friendly neighboring exhibitors (you know who you are). But best of all were the in-depth talks with professionals from all walks of life and an array of industries, all of whom wanted to know more about cloud computing. When we upload our own picture and videos, we'll give everyone who wasn't there a tour of two days at the largest business expo in the region, free of charge.

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With this week's debut of Google Drive (and ensuing enthusiasm and scrutiny), comparing cloud storage providers has been a go-to topic in tech news. If you don't have the time or interest to read the thousands (literally) of opinions and comparisons online, you can use the above charts (credit: Casey Johnson) to draw your own conclusions. It's a great visual and a good starting point for anyone interested in testing out cloud computing for their business. Contact www.its-your-internet.com with any questions that require an in-depth look at the providers' capabilities and your business's goals.

[marksbirch]

You kids today with your “cloud computers” and your “Googly Docs”…

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In the fourth quarter of 2011 S3 (Amazon Web Services' storage service) stored 762 billion objects.

Amazon Builds Search Into the Clouds, by Caleb Garling at Wired.com

[laughingsquid]

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Do you recognize the "famous clouds" above? See Yoni Alter's Tumblr for answers.

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"[Personal computers] will enrich our society, because it will make it possible to live really, anywhere we like. A businessman or executive can live anywhere on earth and still do his business on a device like this, and this is a wonderful thing, it means we won't have to be stuck in cities, we can live out in the country or wherever we please, and still carry on complete interaction with other human beings." --Arthur C. Clarke,1974, anticipating the PC era and the Internet.

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Personal/ professional advantages of cloud computing in a nutshell:

"I’ve got my stuff, wherever I am. And none of that is on a local disc. The server…is my local disc." --Steve Jobs, 1997.

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"Public cloud vs. private cloud" has been cancelled

All -- and I mean all -- public cloud computing providers have some private cloud offering. No matter if it's a loosely coupled partnership with a private cloud provider or a private cloud computing version of its public cloud offering that it sells as -- gulp -- software. -David Linthicum, "Private cloud-public cloud schism is a meaningless distraction"

Let's say the Internet is a fight promoter, and it has been talking up the rivalry between Private Cloud and Public Cloud, two hotly contested up-and-comers with something to prove. That would be a pretty exciting situation for tech spectators, right?

What if the Internet was an unbiased reporter, with no stake in the sale of tickets (or in our case, page views and ad sales) or the public belief in the pretense that private and public cloud computing are such different animals?

The basics of the rumored differences are true: private clouds cost more. They require more hardware. As a concept, they are an easier transition for enterprises looking to enter the cloud without losing their security--which Linthicum describes as "the "I want to hug my server" aspect that keeps getting in the way of progress" among users and the cloud providers' "tendency to jump to private clouds when public clouds are a much better fit."

The un-sensational truth is that private clouds and public clouds are variations on a service, not opponents in a zero sum game. The "hybrid cloud" is not a distinct entity from public and private; it's a personalized (that is, by each company's needs) reliance on both. Each provides different solutions to different problems.

And the guidelines for when you need public and when you need private are pretty intuitive:

However, there are times when you need the advantage of cloud-based computing, such as auto-provisioning of resources, and you have a requirement to keep the processes and data in house. Private clouds work just fine for those requirements, as long as you focus on fit, function, and the value to the business, and not on some dumb argument that has gone on for too long.

There's enough real possibility and interesting "what ifs" in cloud technology to power a million productive conversations. No manufactured differences needed. If you want to take your company's data storage and processing into the auto-updating, pay-as-you-go future, contact us today.

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Even penguins are re-conceiving their sales and operations to take advantage of cloud services like Salesforce. (What penguins sell in the first place, we may never know.)

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In my view, cloud computing represents a step change in IT. We've had lots of experience bringing in new generations of technology -- the shift from mainframe to mini, from custom RISC chips to commodity x86 chips and so on... But cloud is the first technology shift that implements automation, thus removing human intervention from the equation. The logic of automation requires a radical rethinking of every aspect of IT processes and operations. Those who recognize this imperative can succeed in the future. Those who insist on cramming it into existing constraints will find the future a much less friendly environment.

"Cloud Computing Calls for Rebuilding Enterprise IT," Bernard Golden, CIO

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If a picture's worth a thousand words, are videos worth a million?

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Legal billing software to move to the cloud

Don't let the title or Lady Justice (pictured above) fool you. If you bill by the hour, this article from Law Technology News is so relevant to you it may as well be monogrammed with your initials. Cloud computing cuts costs: that's the alliterative, four word story driving the hype. But cloud computing isn't exciting just because it reduces hardware, software, and operational costs. It's exciting because it reduces the actual operations you and your team have to perform. Legal billing software developers are excited to move their products into the cloud because they believe it will do more than help the billing department of large and medium-sized law firms with their billing. According to Mike Barry, the VP of R&D at time-and-billing software provider Aderant, this move toward the commoditization of legal services (such as billing) will "transform [legal services] from more of a time-and-billing system to more of a legal project resource and management system." A related trend on the horizon for billing software developers is integration of business process management, billing, and customer relationship management into software packages. Justin Farmer, Director of Product Management for Elite (the billing software from Thomson Reuters), told Law Technology News: As the next two or three years evolve, you're going to see more package services from law firms and things like that... It's going to have to be more than just the traditional time and billing system. ...To bring [these services] together, so they can speak to one another in a common language, and make the data sharing process more efficient, in real time--that's going to be critical. Bringing BPM, CRM, billing and other workplace software together, "so they can speak to one another in a common language, and make the data sharing process more efficient, in real time": this scenario--technically possible within the next year but not predicted to become widespread until early adopters convince the doubtful--is an example of the ways in which cloud technology can change the industry it was only called to assist. What services would your dream software package contain? (And hey, if any billing software developers read your comments, your ideal SaaS package may become a reality!)

[nycdigital-blog]

Data Source: Open Wifi NYC

Maps Creator: Susana Siman 

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In honor of the first day of spring, Its-Your-Internet is passing along this excellent map of WiFi in New York City. Perhaps we should consider making one of these charts for Queens. Enjoy the warm weather and the strong signals!

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We call it "cloud-sourcing"

(At a tech consultancy, colleagues pitch in with ideas for more cloud computing puns.)

Developer: What about "Get in with the cloud crowd"?

Copywriter: "Hey! You! Get onto my cloud!"

Web designer: How about this--"get your cloud on"?

Cloud consultant: Too Missy Elliott.

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This infographic from WikiBon is a great visual reminder that though cloud services may conjure ethereal imagery, the actual cloud computing takes place in massive data centers with a whole lot of memory and power. Visiting these data centers must be akin to travelling to the center of the Earth and seeing the giants who turn the wheel that keeps the planet spinning on its axis. (Kidding...) No, but seriously: data centers 11.5 times the size of a football field? Can you even imagine the utility bills?

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Will Personal Clouds replace Personal Computers?

The cloud is the new PC, according to a recent Gartner study. Gartner predicts that cloud-based computing will oust personal computers by 2014. By fitting this situation into the snowclone "______ is the new _____", they mean cloud-based computing from mobile devices is set to replace traditional personal computers as Americans' dominant mode of Internet access. There is no reason the personal cloud has to replace the personal computer; the two could co-exist, and most likely will during the long period of transition ahead. "Out with the old and in with the new" is much easier for those on the supply side to rally behind. From small businesses to Forbes 500 enterprises, the business technology demand side rarely demands updates at the rate which upgrades appear. Tech is advancing faster than businesses can justify making the switch. Of course, the impracticality of investing in every new technology is the very situation being addressed by cloud computing: you no longer have to buy the product. You buy the service, and the updates come out of the supplier's pocket. Though cloud has been most noticeably successful with consumers (rather than organizations), organizations will follow.Gartner predicted that personal cloud services will be integrated into 90% of all connected consumer devices by the end of next year. The transitions are coming incrementally, not with outright replacement but inclusion of cloud technology into personal computers. The real challenge to cloud adoption is convincing enterprises and small businesses that it is to their advantage to make the change, but that making the change will be of any monetary benefit. There are plenty of canaries in the mine already (if you consider IBM a canary), but so far, they have all come out singing. Our next long post will discuss the biggest hurdle facing cloud computing in the business technology realm: demonstrating worth and necessity. Check out "Cloud ROI: The Missing Link" in today's Information Week for more about the lag in cloud adoption among those who stand to gain the most.