CloudBus

Bharat Badal   and   Rural India         Sometime back   I had shared how rural India can benefit by Bharat Badal , here is a check of how these expectations have panned out. Today the cloud is assisted by cognitive and mobility and nation linked by easy data connectivity which has accelerated the adoption and use of technology in rural India.   What can be done for rural India using the cloud - A status check "The cloud will allow information technology to be infused to the smallest hamlet of India and make access to information available to the poorest of the poor to give them a better life by empowering them with knowledge derived through the net book or mobile phone connected to the cloud. The cloud will make the services such as affordable and accessible at a low cost" This has been achieved for rural India by the   Digital India program of the Government. Bharat will benefit by taking the cloud t...

It was a wonderful and fulfilling evening for the business and technology leaders of India at the IBM's Think forum 2018 on 13th February in Mumbai. CEO Speak - Ms. Ginni Rometty - Chairman, President and CEO of IBM's keynote set the tone for the energy packed evening, she stated that business can get smarter by the use of cognitive computing - Leveraging a data platform that learns ; Infusing that learning into systems and processes & Empowering their people to learn faster with AI and the need to usher new technologies with purpose and responsibility;society will judge the right ones which deliver value. She enunciated the three drivers for businesses to get smarter - leveraging a data platform that learns, infusing that learning into systems and procedures and empowering their people to learn fast with AI. She said AI should be called Augmented Intelligence. Ms. Ginni Rometty stated that we are at an inflection point for all businesses is use of data, leverage proc...

1.  Blockchain Blockchain will take center stage as it moves beyond cryptocurrency into health, government, supply chain, legal, finance, banking, trading, ecommerce it will be a tsunami of Blockhain winners and adoption of Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) offered by IBM, Microsoft and Amazon will support the Blockchain revolution.  2. AI and Beyond Adoption of AI in its numerous avatars will accelerate, the war for dominance between IBM and Google will move center stage. Many small AI players will cease to exist and we will see successful adoption by use of AI As a Service solution by leading and trusted vendors. Privacy will continue to be a concern and tighter regulations for compliance will be enforced by the regulators. 3. Private Clouds Private clouds will gain momentum as compliance and security become key drivers, IBM will lead the charge on Private clouds. Private clouds offer secure and enterprise support for business applications. 4. Conso...

It is a sad day for me to write about a company which have admired and loved for its products and innovation for more than four decades. My love affair with Sony started with its radio transistors in the late 60's with its powerful radio receiver you could hear any radio station in the world with its multiple bands to choose from them. Its quality of finish and the overall aesthetics was awesome an it was clear winner against its competing rivals from Europe and USA. Then came along the Sony Walkman which provided hours of pleasure with its portable personal cassette player, a real winner and even today the songs of the walkman ring in my ears even today. Another awesome winner from the Sony stable. Then came along the Sony Playstation which kept my children engrossed in the gaming, a stable and nice product with child friendly features. In my stable are also a Sony DVD player which still works today and also a Sony flat screen Color Television which works even after a decad...

You are all set for the final of the cricket match and you have bought seats with vantage points and are now on the way to the cricket stadium. Your mobile tells you where you will get parking for your car and you smoothly ease into the designated parking space. No tokens, no slips, nothing; you park and then the mobile guides you to the bus that will take you to the stadium. As you ride the bus, the mobile highlights the various important landmarks on your way to the stadium. In the next ten minutes you learn everything that is of interest to you. The mobile tells you to get off the bus and then guides you to your gate. You wave the mobile and the stadium gates open for you. Before that you have already been beaconed and tagged an a non-security risk. As you enter the stadium, your body and clothes are fully scanned for explosives, guns, drugs, and other hazardous substances. Your mobile guides you to your seat and the layout of the stadium pops into your screen and it gives you a 36...

This article was published in Information Week India on 10th October and is reproduced in this blog. India is poised for a digital revolution. With a government pushing digital services, and a huge focus on on empowering every citizen with an identity card, a bank account, insurance and a digital interface, the future is bright for IT in India. With the announcement of opening local data centers in India by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, Microsoft is well placed to explore the huge opportunities that will be unfolded in the days to come.  The Microsoft India cloud proposes to begin with three data centers and will provide the world's best cloud computing that India needs so desperately to handle the large volume of digital transactions,  need to cut down costs and handle the data that will be generated by digitally enabling a billion Indian citizens. Additionally, Microsoft will be able to offer their cloud services in a number of Indian languages, thus eliminating the need...

If you want to convince your Board of Directors on cloud adoption, a good place is to begin is with a SAAS (Software as a Service Solution) for the Members of your companies Board. Do you  know  in every board meeting confidentiality, integrity and availability are the key for Board members and they also need to be kept informed of various actions taken by your Company. The  important events are the quarterly Board Meeting, Extraordinary Board Meeting and the Annual General Body Meeting. Most Board Meetings start with preparing a Agenda and a Board Note which highlights the points to be discussed and approved by the Board of Directors. This has to be prepared and circulated among Board Members with utmost secrecy since any leakage will harm the company and may lead to regulatory non-compliance. It takes a number of days to prepare the Board Notes and the weight of the completed Board Notes paper dossier is heavy and need to be securely delivered to the Directors...

When  rubber meets  road we start our journey with a route plan. The same applies for your Cloud Journey, you need a route plan on where you plan to reach .  .  Photo Courtesy : Aish Thamba The cloud is like driving on an open road with clear skies and it is possible that you may break the speed limit; if you are lucky you may receive a speeding ticket before you crash your car, the same applies to the cloud, you need to be aware on the speed you choose for cloud adoption, else you may encounter turbulence. It is important that you have  route plan when you plan to ride the cloud, do keep speed breakers and other checks to make sure your cloud journey  is safe and effective.  More on the route plan in my next post ! 

Indian start-ups are high on SMAC and are brimming with ideas and many are working hard on their ideas in a garage somewhere in Bangalore or yonder;  working day and night to bring out the next big winner in the cloud, but can they hit pay dirt like Hewlett & Packard? Many of these start-ups will be driving SAAS solutions on the cloud and Nasscom has added  momentum by leading the charge with a target of 10,000 start-ups a very modest number, India can  do with a million start-ups'  to service the world  and create economic value for India. The first aspect the start-up needs to get right is the domain name,is it "startup.in" or is it startup.com, starup.biz, starup.net,  it is nice to be nationalistic but in the cloud SAAS you are building could be used by anyone in the world and will  need a global address.; also is the start-ups  twitter handles and other social media address available in the proposed name of the start-up? The websi...

Everybody is a Winner Baby was a popular song many decades ago and  is true for Cloud Computing. Everybody wins in the Cloud, the service provider, the application developer, the network provider, the end point device maker and all the innovators who come up with a new idea everyday in the cloud. Cloud is about Innovation and Excellence with a small investment to get started and if your idea is big enough you are all set to be a Winner. When you compare the capital invested to the rewards by companies like Twitter and FB the  poster boys of today your realize that no other investment has provided humongous valuation for such a small investment, The valuation hinges on the innovative ideas and excellence of delivery and savvy marketing to the end consumer. Everyone is a Winner in Cloud Computing !  In cloud computing  you signed for Salesforce or Google or Zoho  for free and got hooked and   realized you could be technology illiterate and sti...

Recent advertisements have shown IBM  comparing itself against AWS in the cloud. Here is the ZDNet article  http://www.zdnet.com/ibm-takes-aim-at-amazon-web-services-via-marketing-campaign-7000022805/ . It seems to be a let down for Big Blue who has forgotten its blue blood and is stooping to compare itself to a company which is about a decade old. If you missed my blog on the Big 5 it is worth a read again, since most of the analogies seems to have panned out, here is the link http://cloudbus.blogspot.in/2011/04/big-5-in-cloud-computing.html?q=the+big+five Photo Credit : Sudesh IBM seems to have forgotten that the Elephant can Dance and only  needs to learn new steps in the world of SMAC and Internet of Things.IBM should not discount its loyal customer base who are there to cheer and support IBM through thick and thin; some customers could also teach IBM to dance to their tunes. IBM has all the arsenal required, but is reluctant to open its chest and take off...

Over the Centuries any Disruptive Technology has always been welcomed with skepticism and resistance to adoption, sometime the creators of these disruption have been executed, imprisoned or forced to publicly take back their technology insights and apologize for their oversight. In the last fifty years disruptive technologies have transformed the way we live, eat and procreate and also pair, whether it is DNA sequencing, bio-technology;genetic modification, health and medical delivery, intrusion into our privacy and the way we conduct our lives and business. These disruptive technologies have compressed time and have been deployed  quickly that we sometimes forget that there was an era without these tools. Let us take the instance of this blog, in the old days I would have to get this written in a typewriter, have it proof read and hope to disseminate it through print media, indeed a herculean task for a layman to get their ideas to the  world. Disruptive Technologies Ad...

With a porous digital world many nations will build National clouds and National intranets to protect their citizens, government and country from intrusion. A national cloud will go against the very tenets of the internet as a growth engine for collaboration and dissemination of information in a free world. Countries will erect fences to keep out the freedom offered by the cloud, internet and social media.  As national clouds and intranets get build countries will shut access to the internet and will also encourage us of social media and other collaboration tools within the country. This will impact the globalization of digital data and also the sharing of information and use of the social media and the internet for dissent and discussion. We are charting into dangerous waters as a few countries have already demonstrated the ability to contain the internet access and also have deployed national clouds. All this does not augur well for the growth of computing and the futu...

There has been widespread attack on security of data and there has been a clamor to bring back data into the data centers and set the clock back on cloud computing and the internet. This has been driven by panic and a lack of understanding by many on the risks associated with data in motion, any data in motion is vulnerable to attack and capture whether encrypted or otherwise. Data in motion can be in device and more importantly a network whether private or internet, the risks are compounded based on the medium in which data is in motion. Any  government requesting data and data encryption security features like keys and algorithms do so to secure and protect the country. The governments primary business is to protect its citizens in a complex world run on digital technology and it is every citizens duty to cooperate with the government . Do not allow your cloud computing plans to wilt, there is a bouquet of security strategies to protect your data. There are ...

It it time to bid goodbye to cloud computing, the time has come to evangelise the three services offered by the cloud IAAS - Infrastructure as a service PAAS - Platform as a service SAAS - Software as a service. Are you ready to embrace cloud services Cloud has been established as an utility - secure reliable resilient and trustworthy. So the future is in evangelizing, marketing, branding and deploying the services that ride on the cloud. The opportunity in SAAS has seen exponential growth making cloud ubiquitous for computing. The next challenge is in increasing PAAS and SAAS adoption, this means shaking up the enterprise computing space, changing the mindsets of the CTO/CIO and the CISO  and the Cloud Strategist. Are we ready for this, the next year will see the intense adoption of PAAS and SAAS as more companies shut down their data centers and move to cloud computing. Are you prepared to ride the next tsunami in the cloud computing saga, are you prepared to d...

Manufacturing in an earlier era led to management thinking and also automation of processes, courtesy the efforts of great management gurus like Alfred Sloan, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Michael Porter, Tom Peters, and Michael Hammer and C.K. Prahalad.  Manufacturing can benefit from Cloud Computing ! For the preceding decades, the financial markets sucked the best and the brightest minds to drive greed and make profits in investment banking and financial markets. This era fortunately is slowing down and the regulators and economists of the world have realized the futility of driving financial markets without underlying security provided by manufacturing. Engineers who were trained and equipped for manufacturing, migrated to a coveted MBA degree lured by the offer of huge starting salaries coupled with even bigger annual bonus. They drove an invisible economy driven by paper bonds and other instruments and created more complex instruments all based on an economy, which was...

This is the reproduction of an article published in Information Week today . http://www.informationweek.in/cloud_computing/13-07-02/why_the_cloud_can_come_down_to_earth_in_india.aspx The author illustrates how the network and infrastructure can be the differentiator between success and failure in deployment of real time technology solutions like exchanges and cloud computing applications In 1991, I was a key member of the team to build the first automated stock exchange in India known as the OTC Exchange of India on dial up telephone lines and subsequently an overlay network network on an Government built X.25 backbone with an X.28 dial up connectivity. The internet was unheard of those days, though a few Software Technology Parks (STPI) did have this connectivity and I remember the slow browser which connected me to the Harvard facility from the STPI in Hyderabad. We had limitations because we could operate only in 26 cities in India with dialup connections, because the rest ...