Posts Tagged cloud

Just back from SuiteWorld 2011!

Posted by Kevin Lalor in Cloud Technology News on June 1st, 2011

It was great to see so many of you at SuiteWorld, thanks for taking the time to come by and say hello! For those that don’t know, SuiteWorld is NetSuite’s annual user and partner conference –held last week in San Francisco. All of us at Bi101 enjoyed meeting with the NetSuite management team, our clients and numerous prospects over the 4-day conference, it was a genuinely rewarding experience. It also confirmed two important drivers of Bi101’s continued success: the first is that cloud-based solutions have gone mainstream, this superior delivery model is here to stay; second, we made a great decision when we chose to embrace NetSuite as our platform partner – as a result, we are a preferred partner to the leading cloud platform company in the market.

Our support of NetSuite is based in part on the fact that they have committed to investing over $50 million in research and development (R&D) this year to ensure that the NetSuite applications remain the most feature-rich and flexible solutions in the market. Further, under pinning these market-leading applications is a core technology layer that is second to none. What many customers don’t even realize is that Oracle provides most of the core technology (i.e. database, application servers, etc) upon which NetSuite runs – this offers the Small-to-Medium sized business market (SMB) the IT performance on par with the largest corporations in the world, yet with the flexibility demanded by SMB managers and their need to be more agile to capitalize on changing market requirements.

A compelling example, Groupon – the social coupon company – was highlighted as a perfect example of how NetSuite’s applications, coupled with a solution partner for training and support, has allowed them to expand into five international markets in just six weeks. Billed as one of the fasted growing companies, Groupon plans to be in 26 international markets within the next three months using NetSuite OneWorld. OneWorld addresses the complex multi-national needs of global enterprises and can readily enable businesses to adjust for currency, taxation and legal compliance differences at the local level, with regional and global business consolidation and roll-up. Now you might not have the international aspirations of Groupon, but it’s good to know that the infrastructure that is enabling their rapid growth and expansion can also be deployed to help your business reach its next level. Need help with NetSuite? We’d be happy to discuss how our deployment and training can accelerate the adoption of NetSuite and ensure that your solution is rolled out and supported properly.

We learned a lot this year at SuiteWorld 2011 and look forward to helping you implement your NetSuite needs in the coming months. If you don’t have plans to attend next year already, we’d encourage you to do so – we’ve found that it’s a great place to learn best practices and network with companies that have similar experiences. We’d love to see you all at next year’s event – mark your calendar for SuiteWorld 2012 in San Francisco on May 13 – 17th.

Scott

cloud, ERP, netsuite

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What is Cloud Computing and why is it so important?

Posted by Kevin Lalor in Cloud Technology News on November 11th, 2010

Cloud computing is really just a fancy term for utility computing. In other words, applications, platforms or infrastructure are made available from a central service provider, similar to our utility companies for electricity, water and telecommunication. This concept is explored in some detail in Nicholas Carr’s The Big Switch. A must read for anybody trying to get their hands around the cloud concept.

Unlike a traditional IT infrastructure (in which computer hardware is physically located within the office), the hardware in a Cloud infrastructure is located off-site in a datacenter. Using only a PC and an internet connection, clients gain access to a full-featured enterprise-grade IT infrastructure (such as ERP, VOIP, E-Mail, Storage), while paying only for the resources consumed. In fact, applications such as Google Apps for Business provides 25 GB of Space for every account. Think of how many servers that equals.

Cost Savings
Since Cloud is fully-managed off-site (24 hours a day, 365 days a year), it can be far more cost-effective than deploying and supporting an IT infrastructure in-house. The infrastructure is “rented,” so there are no up-front hardware costs (think back to those servers). There’s also no burden of electricity costs, of dedicating space to hardware storage, and no need to hire/retain IT personnel to support hardware on-site.

Consumption-based Billing
Consumption is billed on a utility basis (by resources consumed, like electricity) with little or no upfront cost, making the Cloud particularly attractive to start-ups for whom deploying a new infrastructure in-house may be expensive. Specific applications may be rented by the seat, with any upgrades or bug fixes applied automatically through the back end.

Think of the Cloud as electricity—you can have as much or as little of a service as needed— making it easily scalable for business growth. If you need more outlets in your house, you put in a couple, and plug what you need into them. Determine your scalability needs and the adjustments can be made seamlessly and quickly on the back-end . You scale back, don’t use them.

Cloud can also double as a Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity program. Since data is stored off-site, even if all your servers got flooded or damaged in an earthquake at your place of business, your data would be unaffected and employees could continue working using any internet-connected PC.

In future blogs, I will be exploring practical, value filled uses for Cloud computing and software for businesses. It is a tranformational technology, one that every business can use to drive down costs, increase efficiencies, and change the workplace.

cloud, cloud computing, software-as-a-service

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The Value of Cloud Computing

Posted by Kevin Lalor in Migrating to the Cloud on January 22nd, 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

SaaS and cloud computing have changed the landscape for businesses worldwide, from SMBs to the enterprise.

No longer do you need to purchase expensive hardware and software for many business functions. If you have an Internet connection, you can move much of your business computing to the cloud.

What’s the cloud? “Cloud” is a metaphor for the Internet. It’s an abstraction of how networks of computers are connected, in the old days by LAN and WAN, now by the Internet.

Over the last 5 to 10 years more and more companies have been delivering software that’s accessible from the Internet. They “own” the software and deliver it as a “service,” instead of having customers own and maintain it. Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, is an application that businesses access and use via the Internet. The actual software applications reside on servers all over the web, in the cloud.

Why is there so much buzz about cloud computing?

Reduced Cost — You typically pay as you go instead of making an upfront investment
Security – SaaS is often more secure than your existing network
Reliability — Redundancy in the cloud ensures it’s always on and accessible from anywhere

One of the main drivers of the move to the cloud is cost; for many businesses, it’s cheaper to use software-as-a-service in the cloud than purchasing and maintaining software in-house.

Cost savings should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but analysts are starting to make the research available to the public.

For a fun overview of the cloud, check out this video created by Salesforce. They have been pioneering the “No Software” model for a decade.