CloudBus

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...

I had a wonderful buffet today and was amazed at the aggressive pricing of the food on offer, after a sumptuous meal my thoughts wandered Cloud Computing.   The Buffet  pricing was based on the philosophy that the customer will pick and choose what they need but overall the price will average out and so will the margins, since no two people have the same appetite or intensity to eat.  More experienced buffet eaters know what to choose and eat and I call them value pickers, if they pay Rs. 300 they will make sure they eat that value of food irrespective of its consequences to their health. The second are the health conscious eaters who will pick healthy food which is valuable in nutrition and good for their health. The last is the one who will eat what they need and leave the rest on the buffet table.  To adopt any one of these strategies one needs to have experience with buffets, I still remember one of my classmates who used to visit a Chinese Buffet on Sunda...

Social Media is here to stay as more companies join the band wagon every day, many companies believe the first step in Social Media is to create their company presence with a  Facebook Page, Twitter Handle, LinkedIn company page, Pinterest presence and finally a Google Plus+ presence and maybe a few more to be safe ! Most companies do not have a social media strategy or a social media management agenda or team, most of the social media management is outsourced to ad agencies or social media specialists. Companies need to understand  they are best equipped to respond and support their customer through social media; customer engagement is too valuable to be outsourced ? Business could use the services of social media strategists who can help them with their campaign and build a road map for their social media presence and  so train their team to handle social media in real time. Companies who do not handle social media in real time are doomed and will stand ...

As information technology becomes the core engine for Business the Board needs to review their understanding of the Risks posed by your team members. It is clear today that Snowden though a low ranking officer in the NSA he was able to snoop and access classified data by using free ware tools.  When someone does the same to your organizations digital assets it will have grave repercussions on your business and could make it bankrupt.  In one organization a few employees were monitoring email and were aware of management decisions and thoughts exchanged on email by the leadership of  including internal matters relating to finance, human resources and other confidential information. The leadership was clueless about the risk posed to the organization by this simple act of leakage of email.  Who is the Snowden in this turbaned Group ! Most Boards and leadership teams allow the IT team to sit in an ivory tower little understanding their activities, they cons...

Technology Product Rating for Software Companies As Indian software companies gear up to making technology products for the world as the next growth engine it is important for them to get their products Rated by an independent assessor who understands Technology, Risk and Business. Technology Products need to Blend Business and Technology for their success and product rating needs to be done at the Beta Testing stage or after a few trial runs  rather than after time and effort has been expedited in acquiring customers to use the product.   Rating gives confidence to investors, customers and users of the products and will form an important feature in product selection in the next phase of growth of Indian software companies . A Technology Product could be rated by using rating symbols given in the table below, where AAA is the highest rating for a Technology product and D is the lowest where the product cannot be assessed since it is still in development. Refer to ...

As Cloud Computing goes mainstream and drives the collaboration , commerce, cohesion and social mores in the World, the cloud skies are history and let us ring in 2014 as the Year for Clear Skies for Cloud Computing. Here are 14 thoughts for 2014 - 2014 will be the year where if you are not in the cloud your IT strategy maybe suspect.  2014 will be the year when cloud computing will be referred to as computing and be the technology for business and individuals. 2014 will be the year when your health parameters and personal life will be logged in the cloud through the internet of things.  2014 will be the year when mobility will be pass, phablets will rule the end point device market. 2014 will be when cloud security will not longer a concern, rather the cloud will be engine to secure the digital world. 2014 will be the year when SMAC will be an utility for the CMO. 2014 will be the year when Community Clouds will take center stage.  2014 will be the year when c...

Recently I was in a panel discussion in a Seminar and the question of the CIO's journey to the corner office as the CEO of the Company. Unfortunately the instances of the CIO transforming to a CEO are few in the world of business and there are number  of reasons logically this transformation is possible but in a Real world it is a fantasy. Let us examine the qualities of a good CIO the first of course is being a good team player, second political acumen to survive and please the various stake holders in business and the last is the IT prowess. CIO's who are successful do excel in people management and handling corporate warfare and wading through uncertain cycles in the business. But are these qualities enough to make them the CEO, there are certain factors missing, the CIO never leads the business troops which is essential to be a CEO, neither does the CEO interact with the Board on a regular basis in most companies, the CIO is drowned in budgets,data and analysis whereas ...