Catch the Goggles

Imagine that you are out on a vacation and want to know the details of a certain Point of Interest (POI). Traditionally, one can get this information from a tour guide or you can use the internet for the same.

Now, let’s look at this differently. What about clicking a picture of the POI from your mobile and searching the web for information. Sounds interesting? Then read on….

Google has come out with ‘Goggles’, an ‘Augmented Reality’ application that lets you use pictures taken with your mobile phone to search the web. When you see an interesting landmark and want to know more about it, all you need to do is whip out your Android smart phone, open the application, snap a picture and wait for the search result.

I am sure as you read this you are already thinking of possible business scenarios, ideas (constructive and destructive!), But before that, let’s get into a little more detail.

Guidelines for using Open Source software

The reduction in software acquisition costs is one of the main factors that attract organizations to look into Open source solutions. Having said this, there are organizations who consider open source proposition to be risky. Their main concern with open source software is in the QOS parameters like information security, reliability, safety and lack of trust in a ‘community’ driven software.

While the debate whether open source solution is a good fit or not can go on, there are some basic checks one can do to ensure the quality of the software. This includes:

• Acceptability:  Find out the acceptability of the open source group in the industry. For example, the Apache group has products that are widely deployed
• Sponsorship for the group– It is important to know the consortiums that back the open source group. This is to make sure that group has reasonable financial backing and does not disappear overnight
• Support: It is essential to know the level of formal support offered by the group. Along with the formal support,  also check the support from active forums and discussion boards
• Type of license – It is important to understand the type of license offered by the group and its implications. This include GPL, LGPL etc. as defined by Open Source Initiative
• Common Criteria (CC) for IT Security Evaluation: Though most of the open source products cannot afford CC, it is good to know whether the product under evaluation carries this certification
• Product Evaluation: A thorough evaluation of the product on aspects such as
  • Functionality
  • Security
  • Stability
  • Quality of Service (QOS) parameters
  • Understanding  the source code and audit for security vulnerabilities if there is in-house coding expertise on the technology

Are you ready for the cloud?

Cloud Computing services can provide the best of resources and reduce cost, however not all applications will be a fit to move to the cloud. Some of the scenarios to develop applications on the Cloud include:

• Lower cost solution
• Greenfield application
• Web based application
• Level of security required by the application is not high
• Level of Audit and compliance required by the application required is limited
• Application data and process is independent
• Integration points in the application are well defined
• Capacity needed is seasonal or temporary

The Case for a Technical Shared Services Group

The ever growing Information Technology arena makes every IT services organization to stay competitive, be more productive and be ahead of the technology trends. Adding to these, the complexity involved in implementing solutions have also increased over time. While every IT services organizations comes out with its own strategy to address these points, they have to also strike the right balance to handle business pressures of billability and customer expectations.

The delivery unit in an IT organization is always tuned to meet the project timelines. This unit represents a good mass of the total organization staff. The challenge organizations face is to scale up the technology map, bring in delivery efficiencies, and continuously innovate without comprising on the day to day project activities. This leads to the thought process of creating a horizontal competency group who bring in a 360 degree view of the technology landscape and whose services can be shared cross various delivery units.

Welcome to the ‘Technical Shared Services Group’… [TSSG]

Cloud Deployment Models

There are three cloud deployment options available each one varies with features and economics. They include:

• Private Cloud – A Private Cloud is available only for an organization. This may exist on premise or off premise and is accessed by trusted employees
• Public Cloud – A Public Cloud is available to customers and is owned by a Vendor selling Cloud services. For the customers, this will exist off premise
• Hybrid Cloud – A Hybrid Cloud is an environment that consists of one or more private and public cloud

Apart from this there can also be a community cloud that is shared by several organizations that has a shared objective.

Cloud Computing – Delivery Model

The typical delivery model in a Cloud ecosystem is shown below:

Software as a Service (SaaS):SaaS is a model of delivering business applications from a central location. Examples of SaaS based applications include, Salesforce.com, Netsuite , Zoho, Microsoft Exchange Online Platform as a Service (PAAS): PAAS provides an end to end environment to build and deliver web applications and services. Examples of PAAS include Force.com, Google App Engine, MS Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS): IAAS is a virtualized environment that constitutes resources like servers, networking technology, storage, and data center space. Examples of cloud IAAS offering include, Rackspace, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Flexiscale, GoGrid.

Cloud Computing – Bootstrap

Welcome to the Cloud, the next generation of Computing.

In the early days of Internet, Internet Service Providers (ISP) started off by providing internet access to customers.  Subsequently, they started offering hosting capabilities. As the maturity level increased, ISP’s started leasing out rack space and bandwidth to organizations. This was followed by the Application Service Provider (ASP) model and lately Software as a Service (SaaS) model where ISP’s started offering applications on a subscription basis.