Cloud Computing for Business

Today's program on cloud computing for Business at Bangalore was well received and was attended by Senior Business Leaders.
Some of the keen observations was the lack of adoption of cloud computing by business in India because of poor internet connectivity in smaller cities and rural areas. There were live examples of challenges in getting reliable internet access and bandwidth and more needs to be done to fix this problem to make cloud computing adoption a reality.

The second takeaway was the large  technology  cost to support transactions in Banking sector, almost about Rs. 50 a transaction was the estimated cost. Cloud could substantially lower this technology cost by banks adopting cloud computing.
Some banks are there in a nascent stage and some Banks offer their application as a SAAS based core banking solutions in a virtualized environment which is marketed as a cloud. More needs to be done in this area and one solution was to build a dedicated and secure cloud environment to support the Indian Banking Sector.
The take away was that Indian Business Leaders are open to adopting cloud, understand and recognize the benefits but will wait for the Network Infrastructure (Internet) quality to be upgraded in India.
I would like all the people who attended this event and also the friends and acquaintances who helped to make the program  Cloud Computing for Business a reality.

Cloud Computing could be Superman for Business in an Economically Distressed World

There are strikes in Brazil, the Indian Rupee is shedding value faster than my weight gain, the world globally is grappling on how to keep recession at bay.
The business climate is tough and Cloud Computing could be Superman for Business.
When business want to cut costs they need tools to identify what they are doing, they need tighter monitoring and controls, they can find solutions for this in the various SAAS solutions available in the cloud. They just pay for what they use and get their business ship shape.
Energy prices and managing data centers is expensive, cloud could offer a better and more cost effective solution.

Reach for the Clouds when the Going it Tough

Marketing budgets are tight, but without marketing how do you reach your customer, use the cloud computing social media tools to reach your customers.
Sales people costs are high and customer support  is essential for survival use cloud hosted  sales and customer management tools.
Logistics, distribution and tracking are good areas to tighten in times of recession, solutions combining cloud and mobility are at your service.
Controlling projects and close monitoring are essential use project management solutions in the cloud.
Agility and team work  are essential  in these difficult times, use cloud computing solutions for real time communication and collaboration.
Want to bust the recession, turn to Cloud Computing it may be the Superman which can save your business.
Want to know more and willing to make the trip to Bangalore attend my workshop on cloud computing for business leaders on June 27th , 2013 at Bangalore, your ROI is assured, http://lssubramanian.com/program.

Royalty, DNA, Big Data and the new world order

Today's paper's headline states "Hunt is on in Gujarat for a distant cousin who shares Prince William’s Indian blood- Tests have established a direct link between the Duke of Cambridge and a woman believed to have been at least half Indian"

A new social order Based on DNA mapping ?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hunt-is-on-in-gujarat-for-a-distant-cousin-who-shares-prince-williams-indian-blood-8658776.html

Maybe this  DNA testing and matching may destroy the Blue Blood of Royalty in the world. 

If all the DNA of all the worlds inhabitants are collected into one big data base and we use BIGDATA to find a relationship and sort people of the world based on their DNA then we will have a new classification of the human race, one based on science, rather then ethnicity, religion, color or nation, could this be the end of our social setting as we known and build over the centuries. 

Could there be a new set of groups who come together based on their DNA and migrate to new planets to settle and start their own DNA based tribes ?

Could we have all descended from a GOD who was from space and we all have strains of the original creators imprint in our DNA, could we find this out by mapping every person's DNA in the planet.  

If DNA became the new world order we may all have a 16/32/64 octal digits as our names which would be our DNA code. 

We have the tools in Big Data to create this new world order, but are we ready for this outcome ???  

Royalty can fund this exercise, Science will work on the DNA and Technology will provide the tools for Big Data Analysis, could this be the basis of a new social classification and new religion and a new world order with no royalty but only DNA supremacy.

Love to get your comments and thoughts. 

Please Note  I am not an atheist. 

3:48pm

Business Can Benefit with Cloud Computing

There are many great stories of Information Technology Business on the cloud who have made millions of dollars with a great idea, these are companies who have built solutions on the cloud and benefited by a low cost  launch of their business and almost no entry barrier to succeed in their vision for changing the world with cloud computing.

This article is for another type of Business, those  who can use computing as a business enabler and benefit with automation from conceptualization to execution to sustenance of their start-up business whatever it may be.

Let us consider start-up business in the non technology traditional economy, simple businesses like engineering fabrication, distribution, cash collection, retailing, food and beverages, and any other start-up whose leadership has an idea and the entrepreneurial zeal.

What cloud computing solutions can Business use for their business efficiency? today many Business start their computing journey on the internet with a static website and some great graphics and jazz.

Cloud Computing is like a TAXI, you get in when you want and get out when you are done and only pay for use of the taxi and not for the cost of the taxi or even the salary of the driver !

Here is how they could do it  in a better way with almost zero cost, a Facebook page, a Twitter handle, a LinkedIn company page, an office productivity suite from Google or Zoho or similar, and the start-up is ready for its journey in the cloud.

If the start-up is creative they can also create a blog about what is happening in their company.  Most of these services are free for a small user base with enough functionality and computing power for the business needs.

Subscribe to a project management tool, an accounting/costing package or even specialized packages for the business like CAD/CAM software  and the start up is as well equipped with computing solutions which normally is only available to  Fortune 500 companies. The business could even use a CRM if they wish, though it may not need email campaigns, and they can actually put together a simple CRM with Google or Zoho again for almost nothing and on their own and use the plain out telephone for customer campaigns.

Imagine a specialized take-away  dishing out food based on dietary and religious restrictions, The business  can use a free CRM in the cloud which can track customers and their days of fasting and festive days and dietary preferences and even foods that they are allergic to.

The Facebook page posting with its LIKE button can spread the good word around about their wonderful add on services and the quality of their food.

Imagine putting together a simple supply chain management solution to optimize purchasing from a free solution in the cloud.  Throw in a tracking solution of the food delivery by use of mobile phones and you have an optimized routing.  Hey can the paper man improve his paper delivery in  your area, can the milkman too do that.. maybe.... There is always an opportunity for new people with better delivery and quality to move into traditional businesses. One step further use a mobile phone credit card payment or mobile money solutions and you are all set to optimize your cash collection without the headache of handling paper money.

So if you are in a business get started on using application in the cloud to improve your business productivity and efficiency and eager to enjoy the profits start using the solutions offered in the cloud.  The future of computing is the cloud and every Business can be a winner by use of cloud computing solutions.

Mumbai Rains and Hovercrafts

The rains have hit the city of Mumbai with a vengeance and coupled with high tides we have large tracts of water instead of roads.

I remember taking the hovercraft from Gateway of India to Vashi many years ago, it was a memorable experience for my colleague from Ford Michigan.

I plan to exchange my car for an hovercraft, it could be the quickest way to beat the rains in Mumbai, the potholed roads after the rains and also the traffic if you use the Mithi river and the sea for navigation. 

Here is an youtube video of the hovercraft experience 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqI-8ISs66U

Here are some of the hovercrafts which one can buy if you have the money, I also need to figure out if there is a licence required to sail through Mumbai's waterlogged roads in an Hovercraft.

But anyway here are some of the sites, my favorite is 

http://www.hammacher.com/Product/10963

But you can also check these sites 

http://www.toxel.com/tech/2009/10/28/air-board-personal-hovercraft/

http://www.renegadehovercraft.com/

http://www.hovercraft.com/content/

http://www.hovpod.com/hovpod/imagine.html

Found a buying guide for hovercraft on ebay 

http://www.ebay.com/gds/Buying-Guide-For-Personal-Hovercraft/10000000000854169/g.html

Anyone who is willing to join me for a hovercraft ride through flooded Mumbai ?

Family Friends and Fools and the Tree of Life

As one trundles in the journey called LIFE, the first contact we have is with our Family.

 

 

Our Parents, sibling, aunts, uncles they all form a protective ring around us a kids and we pick up many of our traits from the family in which we are born. Subsequently when one is an adult there comes an extended family when one gets married and later when one's siblings get married.  Family is something we inherit and have no opportunity to choose, though the extended family we may have some say. Our family is the most important and is like an anchor in our life, something we may turn away from but one cannot shake out of one's life. In many continent like Asia, Europe, Latin America family ties are paramount and treasured. Family is the like the roots of the tree, no wonder Alex Haley a few decades ago named his book Roots. 

Friends are people whom we choose because we have something in common, friends come into our life at various points of time, at school, at college, at work, at social venues and most importantly at the sports field.  Good friends are like sterling dependable and there when you need them. Friendship grows and matures as you grow older, also some friends drift out of one's life to be replace by another set of friends. But some friends you carry through life, they are like the trunk of the tree. they provide the purpose and stability to your life and standing in society. 

Fools we encounter every other day, they are like the leaves of the tree, you need fools in your life to bench mark yourself. If you cultivate fools then you too will become one is an old saying, but being surrounded by fools may not hurt you in your life as long as you know that they are fools. They whither away like the leaves of the tree, but we need fools in our life to remind us that we too can be stupid and dumb many a time. They are our conscience keepers in a convoluted way.

We need family, friends and fools for our growth in life just like a tree needs sunshine, water and air; like a tree we too must provide shade and comfort to the  three people whom we  inherit in our life's journey. 

 

Baggage of Life !

We all carry our baggage of failures, bitter memories, and more from our past which is  like carrying a heavy bag as we trod along with the adventure called life.

We all know the lighter the baggage easier it is travel,  the old adage goes "Less Luggage More Comfort".

Then what motivates us to carry this baggage of life with us, which we know will hamper our progress and inhibit the joy and happiness we are entitled to you.

Maybe it is time to drop your baggage of life and go forth light and with a free mind and with no worry of the past and into a vision of a glorious, joyful future in your life.

Start today by slowly emptying your baggage of life by forgiving those against whom you harbor grudge and anything else that adds weight to your  baggage of life.

You will soon feel the difference and transform into a much better human being and will also have a more rewarding and satisfying life !

Cloud Adoption - Start with the Public Cloud.

Many Enterprises start with virtualization in their data center and then scale their data centers into a private cloud and then maybe migrate to a hybrid cloud by integrating with the public cloud.
This approach could be flawed though it may give comfort the CTO/CIO of the organization,  because  it may be a risky route to test cloud computing.
Virtualization management needs good skilled personnel more so when the virtualized servers run into a problem, these resources are a challenge to find and even if found difficult to retain .
Secondly building private clouds may not be economical and is time consuming to get it resilient and reliable.
Most private enterprise clouds do not have a self service model build in their deployment, rather it goes through the IT department again, which means there is no agility and ease of deployment of services for an end user.

A Private Cloud May turn out to be like the boat in the Well!

A better route for an enterprise is to start using the public cloud by launching a social media campaign and a few SAAS solutions which  will bring agility, innovation and value to the enterprise.
Add on mobile device accessibility to enhance the employee experience and  you have a winning cloud deployment in your enterprise. You would delight the enterprise leadership with this approach, since it may add visibility and simplicity in getting a better insight into the teams that they manage in a very short window of time.
Using the Public Clouds builds  the required confidence and trust in cloud computing. Once these benchmarks are established you may want to invest in a cloud appliance for the private cloud which can be deployed withing the enterprise. Once the private cloud appliance is integrated with the public cloud presto you have a hybrid cloud and are ready to reap the economical and strategic benefits of the cloud !

Your private cloud may turn out be like the boat in the picture, which is at rest in a well with no where to go