Cloud Computing: Road to Business with Agility and Flexibility

There is lot of debate about cloud computing in recent times and its impact on IT landscape.  By the way “cloud computing “what it is? Is it one more service like many others being offered? No; it is lot more than that.  It advocates an approach that can help organizations to improve their standing in competitive business, quickly and effectively utilizing   least capital resources at the same time with added flexibility unlike other competing technologies, cloud is as much about business, as it is about technology.

This series of articles on “cloud computing” provide an opportunity to learn important aspects of cloud computing in a systematic step by step manner.

 Part 1:  Cloud Computing Demystified, we will be looking at the cloud definition and different types of delivery and deployment models, Case studies of IaaS and PaaS providers / Organizations working on cloud standards and survey results are included.

Part 2, Mobile Cloud Computing we will have a look at how our life will change when Cloud Computing converges with Mobile Computing, yet another emerging technology paradigm.

 Subsequent parts will address the other important areas like Cloud Security and Governance.  Security and Governance aspects play key role in deciding process of organizations whether or not an organization should venture into cloud computing.

While several open questions remain unanswered in current situation like cloud standards, security and the service availability,  business benefits like increased agility and reduced costs are too compelling   And with many new service providers coming up with  solutions  to the already identified issues including one based on  Virtualization (a key enabling technology in response to customers concerns ), it is only a matter of time before every organization in the face of earth  will have a foot print in cloud computing arena.

Organize your Social Networking World

In recent times, whether you read a newspaper or technical magazine or surf the web you would have often run into the buzz word Social Networking. In spite of all these hipes, a simplified procedure to be part of online social networking community for a newcomer is rare thing to find. No worries, we will help you to enter the new world of ”social networking" all by yourself with ease. You don’t need to be a wizard or a geek to enter social networking world. But you should have the drive, perseverance and passion to learn new developments and be part of winning team.



Social Networking Options



First and foremost you need to be clear about objective / purpose. Do you wish to build a network of business professionals or is it for self-promotion. Each individual will have their own objective. Objectives range from finding new friendships or organizing a group to fight for a social cause or to providing free information for tourists or promoting new business ventures. Whatever it is, objectives need to be defined clearly. Once you are have an objectives, explore and select a social networking site which matches your interest. There are site built for general purpose or trailed ones for special objectives. Choose the one which matches your objectives. Do your research well. Here are few pointers.

Objectives	Popular Sites
Encourages to connect share with friends and family and as well as discover new people through friends of friends	Facebook, Orkut and MySpace
Targets professionals for business networking	Linkedin, XING
Specializes in Microblogging service	Twitter
Helps in sharing your thoughts with the world	Google Blogger, Wordpress
Social Bookmarking	Delicious, StumbleUpon
Helps to share your favorite photos and videos to the world	Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, YouTube

Next step to be part of online social networking community is signing up with the chosen group. Most of the site has simple sign-up procedure which is self explanatory. Generally site collects basic personal information about you. It allows you to build a profile yourself so that others will know about you. At this stage it also allows you to establish contacts with like minded persons or friends. See the sidebar for creating a twitter account.

Twitter Sign-up Process
1. Visit Twitter to Sign up Visit twitter at http://twitter.com/ and click on the Sign up link.
2. Provide Basic Information Provide basic information like your name, user id, password and email id and click Create Account.
3. Verify by Key-in CAPTCHA code As part of verification check, Twitter uses the CAPTCHA to verify if you are indeed human.
4. Configure Account Once the account is created, complete the process by configuring few essential things - Identify the topic you are interested in - Find and add you friends, who are also using Gmail, Yahoo and Linkedin to this account - Search and find friends or organization you are interested in.
5. Start Tweeting Instantly post entries of 140 characters or less, known as tweets to share what you’re doing with the world

Now comes the crucial part, which is a lifelong actively (or of course till you cancel your membership). Build and maintain your social network by being active by frequent blog posting, tweeting often, sharing interesting events with your friends, connecting with your friends friend, following people and sharing the photos, news or the links with others.

Finally a word of caution

• Do not try every social networking site. Be selective.
• Do not get addicted to the virtual world and stop, face to face.

Hope you are now equipped with enough information to jump start your social networking life. Start.

Time Management for IT Professionals



 IT companies are hard-pressed to complete the current projects in the shortest possible time with lowest budget at the same time ensuring quality product for the customer. Day by day the competition is becoming harder and harder. This naturally leads to a situation where the professional has to concentrate on the current project activities with all his resources and abilities to keep up with the project schedule.

Lack of Time and
Emerging Trends 







Changes are the order of the day in current life. Information technology industry is no exception. In fact the changes taking place in IT are more frequent than other fields. Web 2.0, mobile computing, cloud computing and social networking are examples of few segments where lot of changes are taking place in rapid manner. 



New projects generally incorporate emerging technologies in order to cut cost/development efforts. Unless the IT companies also follow the same path and keep itself up to date with emerging trends, profitability of the company is sure to suffer. How does then the company retain its premier place in industry? It has to rejuvenate by pumping fresh blood in the form of new entrants or train its old work force on areas where the changes are frequent.

How the old worker guards themselves against the competition from the fresh and determined new comer without the aid of training programmes which he/she missed due to very tight project commitments?. Answer lies in equipping oneself with information on new trends/ways of doing things appearing on the horizon by proper planning and management of time.

Time management is a process where one categories the activity which are to be done according to the importance and executes them. Hence it is absolutely essential to find time for keeping oneself up to date either during office hours or otherwise. By regular information gathering exercise on a permanent basis one could solve the problem of getting oneself obsolete.

The situation where the IT professional finds himself in, after a few years of working in an organization is not new. There are lots of things to be learned from grand mother’s narrations. Grand mother’s story is reproduced below for the benefit of those of you who haven’t heard so far.

Once upon a time there was a wood cutter who was very busy cutting a tree with an axe. He seemed to be very tired and exhausted. The tree was big, but he was a great wood cutter and not wasting a minute of his time was focused on the job of cutting the tree. His wife noticed it and said "Hi sweetie, I see that you are working hard, why don't you take a break for a while and sharpen your axe a little bit" To which the wood cutter said "I don't have time." and continued to work harder at cutting the tree.

Modern workers are definitely more intelligent and sure to keep up with the emerging trends and sharpen his skills even on the busiest day to keep him in the forefront always.