opinions

Clouds and mobile apps are hot with VCs; telecom is cold
A review of 3Q10 data shows that venture capital investments are eagerly funding services and software-centric ventures in areas closely related to telecom: "cloud" (including online storage, file transfer, smart computing, data virtualization, WAN optimization).
by: Matt Walker, principal analyst, Ovum 01-Dec-2010

Cloud economics -- Scalability and cost control for CIOs

A case study from AXA Seguros show savings from "a one-time hardware investment of almost US$10,000," while another from Siemens demonstrates they have reduced their "TCO by a factor of 10". Read on to learn how the cloud is changing the economics of IT delivery today.
by: Chin-Tang Chin, Microsoft 23-Nov-2010

Asia cloud consortium should start prioritizing issues

The newly formed Asia Cloud Computing Association should engage policy makers, service providers, and especially early users of cloud computing within the region to promote, sponsor, identify and share some standard messages with the stakeholders (including regulators), said Ovum.
by: Mike Sapien and Claudio Castelli, Ovum 23-Nov-2010

Crowdsourcing the workforce

Australian telco Telstra uses its Salesforce Ideas service for the past year to run a Web forum called "T[ideas]" that allows all of Telstra's 30,000+ employees to submit and discuss ideas that can be voted on and eventually passed on to the upper management.
by: John Tanner, Global Technology Editor, Telecom Asia 12-Nov-2010

Business opportunities in Web 3.0

How can SMBs benefit from cloud computing adoption with the emergence of Web 3.0 -- the rise of semantic Web and personalization that bring business value to intelligent search and behavioural marketing?
by: Herman Lam, Cyberport 10-Nov-2010

Controlling data flow in virtualized environments

IT faces a variety of changes that require control points along the information flow that can adapt dynamically. Organizations need a dynamic services model providing reusable services that understand context and can provide control of information flows regardless of application, virtualization, user, device, platform or location.
by: Linda Hui, F5 Networks Hong Kong 02-Nov-2010

Four strategies for moving to the cloud

To make a successful move to the cloud, IT must undergo four major changes: infrastructure transformation, service transformation, process and organizational transformation, and cultural transformation.
by: Herb VanHook and Lilac Schoenbeck, BMC Software 29-Oct-2010

Cloud computing remains a 'relationship sale'

The go-to-market approach that Telstra and Accenture have adopted is based on relationship selling, rather than the often-hyped self-service cloud portal. The focus is on strategic and major sales and on protecting/ deepening existing network-centric customer relationships, as opposed to...
by: Steve Hodgkinson, Ovum 22-Oct-2010

Managing identity and access in the cloud

With an online identity recognizable at multiple websites, businesses would be spared the cost of maintaining their own identity databases; Internet merchants would gain higher conversion rates from enquiries to sales; and users would find it easier to do business with multiple sites by avoiding lengthy registration processes.
by: Graham Titterington, Ovum 20-Oct-2010

Google's 10 tips for entering the cloud

Google's APAC enterprise MD offers practical advices for individuals and SMB owners who are looking to leverage cloud computing to minimize IT cost, increase mobility of staff, and strengthen collaboration of teams in different parts of the world.
by: Doug Farber, Google 18-Oct-2010