Many students and business professionals who frequently give presentations may be curious about how innovations such as Dell cloud storage and Dell virtual desktops affect their work. Giving presentations may be stressful at times because usually you give a presentation in an important situation when a lot is on the line, be it a grade in a class or an important contract or client. In such a high-pressure situation it can be frustrating to get all the necessary elements in order from an audio/visual standpoint; one must make sure that the equipment being used for the presentation has software that is compatible with the software used to create the presentation. There is also the matter of making sure that whatever storage device you are using to store the file that contains your presentation is physically compatible with the equipment being used for the presentation; although this has never happened to me, I have seen people get sidetracked by the fact that they are unable to connect their storage device, usually a flash drive of some sort, with the computer that is connected to the projector used for the presentation. Cloud storage and virtual desktops can alleviate some of the difficulties, helping those giving the presentation focus less on the technical aspect of the presentation and more on the actually message that they wish to communicate.

Cloud storage uses storage space in remote servers to provide memory on demand for smaller computing devices. This allows devices that would otherwise have only limited space to store files, such as presentations, to store files on remote servers and them access them remotely when needed. This allows for greater convenience in accessing personal files and eliminates the necessity of large or potentially clumsy storage devices. As a student, I have made good use of cloud storage by using products such as Dropbox, which allows individuals to place files in a “drop box” on their personal computer and then access them from any other computer that has an internet connection. From a different computer, individuals are able to access any file that was placed in the drop box because when it was added to the drop box from the personal computer it was placed in remote cloud storage, which allows any other computer to access the file that is stored in the remote server. This effectively expands the capacity of any computer or storage device as long as it has network connectivity.

Virtual desktops function in a similar way; they allow individuals to use a computer and run any application on the desktop while making the actual computations occur in a centralized server that then relays the information to the computer that is used by the individual by way of the virtual desktop. This increases the efficiency of computing power because all processes are run at a single point and can then be accessed from multiple points. From the standpoint of an individual who needs to give a presentation, virtual desktops allow files, such as those used in a presentation, to be accessible at different computers even though they were created from a different computer, which allows for greater flexibility.

There are a lot of hosting options available, but we think colocation is a great solution for many mid-size companies instead of hosting in-house, and here’s why:

Primarily, the number one benefit to colocation is the price of bandwidth. A business-grade DSL line might cost a company between $100 and $200 but for the same amount of money, that company could put a server into colocation instead of keeping it onsite and get better bandwidth, more redundancy, and most likely, better physical security.

On the matter of security, colocation centers are a much better option than keeping servers in house. These centers have generators in case of power outages and even backup power. They also have more complex and efficient heating and cooling systems for their customers’ servers.

Also, when your company moves due to expansion, you don’t have to worry about what to do with your hardware. Because it isn’t in your offices, you don’t have to worry about your customers experiencing any downtime.

And finally, colocation centers have employees to maintain your servers for you. You can reallocate your employee resources to your company goals, instead of on simply maintaining systems.

Why pick colocation over a web hosting company? Because improving hardware is a simple task. Because you own the hardware and not say, a hosting company, you can swap out parts as needed to improve server performance. In addition, you own your software so upgrading is easier than depending on a hosting provider.

All in all, colocation is a great choice for many businesses!

Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen multiple acquisitions of cloud based, SaaS human resources software.  Following are a few of them:

-       SAP acquires SuccessFactors

-       SalesForce acquires Rypple

-       Oracle acquires Talea

-       PeopleFluent acquires Strategia

As a friend said to me, “this space is boiling hot lava right now.” He is absolutely right. One suggested theory for this flurry of activity, presented by analyst Ray Wang in “A Software Insiders Point of View” is that “The new strategy among the enterprise apps vendors is land and expand. The largest active user bases will win the war of attrition.” There are other theories, and a lot of smart reasons for the acquisitions.  However, the meaningful question to me is, what does that mean to the small to medium business looking for the right human resource software?

I heard Forrester analyst Paul Hamerman respond to the following question over a year ago in a conference call, ‘why is SaaS tech for HR being adopted faster by the larger organizations’?.  His response was basically that they were more likely than small companies to be looking for efficiencies in HR, had the money to afford the technology, and were more tech savvy than the average SMB. How times have changed!

Prices have dropped, small companies have the benefit of all the research from the big boys, and in many ways are leading the way in SaaS technology. Even better, companies are using API’s more and more to provide integrated best-of-breed solutions to meet the specific needs of the SMB. Integrations are a big deal, and vendors are definitely moving faster, releasing faster, and providing higher quality solutions (IMHO)!

These acquisitions has lead to a lot more critical attention being given to HR software and it’s role in business, which will lead to improved technology, more development resources focused on feature enhancements, and also scale and prices that meet the needs of most SMB’s.  So, watch closely over the next little while as more acquisitions happen, more technology solutions integrate, and small businesses reap the many benefits.

So, if you’re a small to medium business, you can smile knowing that the billions spent on the above acquisitions will actually benefit you somewhat – even though it won’t be with cash!

There are a lot of web hosting options out there. To simplify the process of deciding what type of web hosting you’d like to implement for your server(s), here is a closer look at three of the most popular hosting options available.

Shared Hosting

If your server is low-end of the hit counter, or not hosting anything resource-intensive, you’ll probably want to take a hard look at shared hosting. This solution is the cheapest way to go because you share a server with other tenants. The resources allotted to your site are dynamic, so if your traffic increases, you get a little more processor time. If no one is on your website, then resources previously allotted to your site can be temporarily reassigned to help out the next website over that is hosted on the same server. Of course, problems arise when your site is constantly being neglected in bandwidth and hardware resources in favor of your neighbors on a server.

Dedicated Hosting

In a dedicated server, your data is the only content on the server. You don’t have to worry about the problems that are present in a shared hosting environment. The only real downside to this option is that it’s the most expensive option. If you want to cut costs, dedicated hosting might not be your best bet, but if you’re tired of fighting for bandwidth in a shared situation, a dedicated server might be your answer.

Cloud Hosting

Hosting your website in the cloud has become the latest trend in web hosting, providing the benefits of both dedicated hosting and shared hosting while dissolving some of the negatives of either option. To have the scalability that reduces your cost when your website isn’t operating at peak traffic and the resources available to you and only you when it is, the cloud is the answer. Your website is hosted across a network of servers, so as one server is in use by another cloud customer, the next available server steps in to host your server, with no noticeable performance difference on the user side of things. Because of this quick scalability between servers, it also means that your up-time will be near perfect. One server you’re running out of goes down? Jump to the next sever without a hitch.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031

A comprehensive review of cloud computing as SaaS:  “Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities.”

http://fivepercent.us/2009/04/11/cloud-computing-truly-green-data-centers/

Future methods to conserve energy in an IT environment will and must include cloud computing, one writer predicts. With cloud computing, data centers can potentially reduce energy consumption by 70-80 percent, he claims, and logically it makes perfect sense to come to that conclusion.

My personal opinion is that as cloud computing becomes the hosting method of choice for the majority of users, the effect will be more broadly felt by those data centers that adapt to the growth of demand for that service.  Eventually, the benefits of hosting in the cloud will out-weight those of resisting the turning of the weather.

http://govit.ulitzer.com/node/1217529

JP Morgenthal offers an informed, albeit satirical view of the IT universe, past and present. He explores the frontier of cloud computing and the irony of modern social networking, provoking more than one chuckle and a variety of deep thoughts.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/490368/Cisco_CEO_Cloud_Computing_a_Security_Nightmare_

“Traditional security protocols will not reign in the cloud,” says John Chambers, Cisco Systems’ Chairman and CEO. According to Chambers, while the future of cloud computing is exciting, and inevitable, we should be prepared to invent entirely original measures to make it secure. Simply put, Chambers says cloud computing poses a “security nightmare,” and as of now, the more appropriate name for it would be “swamp computing.”

Personally, I wonder if Chambers’ view of cloud computing has changed since the publication of this article, because if it hasn’t, it must be kind of frustrating to him to see cloud computing so widely embraced by key players like Amazon and Rackspace, as well as their customers.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/492967/Cloud_Security_Danger_and_Opportunity_Ahead

Ariel Silverstone levels a microscope on the implications of Cloud Computing, stating that these issues must and should be addressed by each pertinent organization “before the technology become[s] either unmanageable or, conversely, be seen as too risk-laden for corporations to use.”

In other words, walk before you run.

There is no doubt of the risks inherent in virtualized storage and processing of vast amounts of user data online, and responsible providers would take steps to reduce those risks not only for themselves, but for their users.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137297/Cloud_Security_Time_to_Smoke_Another_One_?taxonomyId=154

Bill Brenner calls the security of Cloud Computing into question with input from industry authorities Chris Hoff and Ariel Silverstone.