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Archive for February, 2010

 
Provider of cloud platform tells what the cloud is . . . and what it isn’t.

Morgantown, WV (PRWEB) February 11, 2010 — Virtual Global, a leading provider of cloud-enabled enterprise solutions and the TeamHost™ online platform for creating SaaS applications, is clearing up some of the confusion about cloud computing. Their “Top ten misconceptions about cloud computing” addresses some of the common myths on the subject, clearing the way for effective and efficient use of the technology. The “Top ten misconceptions” is part of Virtual Global’s “Cloud Computing Made Easy” ebook, available as a free download on www.cloudipedia.com.

“The very word ‘cloud’ gives way to a lot of fuzzy definitions,” said Cary Landis, CEO of Virtual Global. “In reality, cloud computing is just as solid and reliable as any other type of computing, the technology just refers to a mechanism to connect infrastructure, applications, and platforms over a remote network, typically on virtualized off-site servers, over a secure IP connection.”

Cloud computing is seen by most analysts and industry observers as a disruptive technology, and one that is destined to continue changing the way we do business, the way we work, and even the way we think. “With such an important technology, it’s important to keep on top of some of the popular misconceptions,” said Landis. “A well-informed business, whether SMB or enterprise, will be able to turn cloud computing technology to its advantage, and gain a critical edge over the competition.”

Virtual Global’s “Top Ten Misconceptions about Cloud Computing” include:

1.    The cloud is just a return to centralized computing. The old days of dumb terminals connected to a centralized mainframe limited our computing power to one provider. With cloud computing, we can access the computing power of millions of providers from anywhere at any time, and for a fraction of the cost of host computing.

2.    The cloud is not secure. Truth-be-told, in-house systems are often less secure, because they use unproven home-grown security models. Cloud applications developed with cloud platforms use a common security model, which lends additional security from the ground up; and cloud providers will often pay more attention to issues such as physical security and access controls.

3.    The cloud isn’t ready for enterprise users. Enterprise software need not cost millions of dollars, or take years to implement. CIOs are increasingly demanding more affordable alternatives. Some of today’s popular cloud systems host tens of millions of users. The biggest concerns of enterprises rolling out mission-critical apps are flexibility, scalability and availability. The cloud has resolved those concerns.

4.    You lose control with the cloud. The very word “cloud” implies outsourcing to an unknown vendor; however this is a misnomer rather than reality. You can use cloud technologies internally, or outsource to a well-established vendor who has been offering reliable service for years. With the cloud, you can gain more control through a web-based control panel, while letting go of day-to-day maintenance. “The fallacy of direct control” posits that it is more efficient to retain control over those things that matter, while freeing up your time by leaving the details to a third party expert provider.

5.    It’s the same thing as utility computing or grid computing. Grid computing was an early predecessor that virtually clustered computing resources to serve a single purpose. Cloud computing has matured to serve multiple clients and multiple tasks simultaneously. Utility computing, by the same token, has evolved. Today’s cloud delivers all three major elements as a service: architecture, platform, and software.

6.    It’s only for low-end consumer applications. Cloud computing has gained popularity in many consumer areas, but has also gained widespread acceptance in business applications, including productivity suites, online backup and storage, and collaborative environments; with applications of enterprise-class software already being delivered over the cloud.

7.    It’s too isolated from my other data and applications. Cloud computing applications are easy to integrate with the rest of the enterprise, and already there are several integration tools on the market to make it happen.

8.    We won’t need PCs any more with cloud computing. Cloud computing is a broad concept with many elements, and powerful desktops are a central part of the cloud model.

9.    Reliability will be a problem. Virtualization and platform technologies are almost as old as computing itself. What’s new is the ability to market the capabilities. Cloud technologies can provide superior reliability with service level guarantees.
 
10.    The cloud will give you performance problems. Performance is seldom a problem with cloud computing. Latency can be minimized by selecting a provider with a data center in your own region, and by reviewing the provider’s upstream carriers and service level guarantees.

For a free, complete copy of Virtual Global’s “misconceptions” and landmark book, “Cloud Computing Made Easy,” visit www.cloudipedia.com.

About Virtual Global:

Virtual Global, a West Virginia corporation, is a provider of cloud-enabled enterprise IT solutions and the TeamHost™ cloud platform for building and deploying SaaS applications without programming. Since 1995, Virtual Global’s technologies have served commercial and federal customers worldwide with enterprise-class IT needs. Virtual Global can be found on the Web at http://www.virtualglobal.com.

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Much as we all like to complain about government inefficiency, hulking bureaucracies and outdated procedures, there are a few areas where government really does excel in setting the standard for the rest of the country.

In the area of public access to documents over the Internet for example, the Feds have done quite well. It’s no longer necessary to drive downtown to a government office, or make a phone call and wait a week for a clerk to mail a form to us—we can just download it over the Internet. Even state Departments of Motor Vehicles—well known and maligned for hour-long waits and grumpy employees—have gotten onto the bandwagon of technology, and in most states it’s now possible to renew your license plate online or at an automated machine in the office lobby. And once again, it may well be the government that sets the pace for embracing the cloud computing model.

It’s not surprising that the biggest cloud project in government comes from NASA, an agency that always tends to be out in front of the pack with new technology. A cloud computing pilot called Nebula, being developed at the NASA Ames Research Center, “integrates a set of opensource components into a seamless, self-service platform, providing high capacity computing, storage and network connectivity using a virtualized,scalable approach to achieve cost and energy efficiencies.” NASA says that Nebula provides for rapid development of applications that are both policy-compliant and secure, promotes collaboration, and encourages reuse of code.

Nebula is a wonderful example of cloud computing done right. It is open source, which means it is transparent and highly interoperable. It is a full, true cloud system that incorporates infrastructure, platform, and software; all three of the main components of cloud computing. Nebula is already in use for educational and public outreach uses, collaboration, and mission support. Amateur astronomers use it to upload high resolution photographs, and the LCROSS participation site, where amateur astronomers work with NASA scientists to get a better view of the moon, is built on the Nebula platform.

Two useful elements of Nebula elegantly illustrate the benefits of cloud computing. It automatically increases computing power and storage as the web application needs it. This is a central benefit of cloud computing in general—the user need not worry about compute power and storage, since that’s all automatically and transparently taken care of on the back end. When more storage space is needed, it’s allocated. If more compute power is needed, you get it transparently. Second, Nebula addresses the security worry. It was built to be secure, as well as compliant with government policies (of which there are many).

The Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, who was formerly the District of Columbia technology chief, has been a strong proponent of use of cloud computing in government as a way to gain efficiency and save taxpayer dollars. In Washington DC, he was able to eliminate a $4 million initiative to create an intranet for the DC government, and instead, shift the district government to Google Apps—accomplishing the same goal, and saving a huge amount of money. Kundra’s move to the cloud enabled DC to save money and improve efficiency. For example, now the district’s training information can be obtained through online videos on Google Apps; the same Google Apps is also used to add more transparency to government by making procurement data available to the public. Kundra claims that “The cloud will do for government what the Internet did in the ’90s. It’s a fundamental change to the way our government operates by moving to the cloud. Rather than owning the infrastructure, we can save millions.”¹

This blog brought to you courtesy of Virtual Global, the fastest and easiest way to the cloud. 

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¹ Gautham Nagesh. “Local technology czar could be headed to Obama

administration.” Nextgov, November 26, 2008.

Healthcare applications (Health-IT)

The current administration continues to be aggressive in pursuing healthcare reform. Aside from the issue of universal health insurance coverage, which has gained the greatest coverage in the media, the reforms include much more under the hood. Most notably, this means implementation of electronic health records, and the creation of a nationwide health care infrastructure that would make it easier for healthcare providers to share and access patient records.  Part of this plan would create a National Health Information Network (NHIN), which is a broad, interoperable platform for sharing electronic health information. The NHIN would connect providers, insurers, and emergency responders. 

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the government’s health care informatics plan’s goals include: 

·         “Medical information will follow consumers so that they are at the center of their own care  

·         Consumers will be able to choose physicians and hospitals based on clinical performance results made available to them

·         Clinicians will have a patient’s complete medical history, computerized ordering systems, and electronic reminders 

·         Quality incentives will measure performance and drive quality-based competition in the industry.   

·         Public health and bioterrorism surveillance will be seamlessly integrated into care 

·         Clinical research will be accelerated and post-marketing surveillance will be expanded”¹

The concept of electronic medical records (EMR) and patient health records (PHR) is one that has long been discussed, and is already in use in other countries.  There is no doubt that it will be part of the current administration’s broad health care reform initiative, and there are already legislative incentives in place to encourage health care providers to get with the program. EMR doesn’t just mean that the hospital puts your patient records in their computer—it means a new level of sharing. This of course, is within the HIPAA regulation framework and assumes a rigorous level of security, but it allows for a cloud-based infrastructure to exist for EMR. The benefits are obvious. A patient’s medical records would be available to any authorized health care provider, anywhere in the country. You could travel anywhere you want, and your records go with you. Any authorized provider could access your records in case of an emergency.

Already, there is a common but limited version which has shown great benefit—many of the large drugstore chains keep customer records in a secure database, so that you can go to any branch, anywhere in the country, and receive your prescription. The database also includes relevant information such as drug interactions and allergies. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Ultimately, this limited drugstore application will be integrated with all other healthcare providers. What’s the result? It could save lives. Error rates would be reduced, and caregivers will have more information at their disposal when making critical decisions about your care.

This technology, based strongly in cloud computing technologies, is rapidly gaining momentum. The RAND Corporation, in testimony presented to the Senate Finance Committee, highlighted just a few of the potential benefits of a cloud-based healthcare IT (HIT) system rolled out on a national scale:

“The hope of many is that the broad adoption of HIT systems with the aforementioned functionality in the United States will transform health care in terms of making it more efficient and effective simultaneously. Efficiency would be enhanced by reduced test duplication, improved drug utilization, better scheduling, reduced paper record handling, and improved claims processing and billing. Effectiveness would be enhanced by reduced errors (reduced handwriting-based errors, for example), reminders to improve preventative care, decision support for better evidence-based practice, improved management of chronic illness, and improved continuity of care for those patients seeking care away from their primary provider (such as was needed to support the mass evacuation that occurred after Hurricane Katrina). Effectiveness would also be enhanced by the quality of care assessment such systems would make possible and by improvements in the evidence base for best practices derived from the analysis of large electronic medical record databases.”

The potential social benefit is clear. Not only would individual hospitals benefit by moving to a more technology-based patient record system, society as a whole would benefit by integrating those systems together in a national database that relies on secure cloud computing technologies.

Besides the advantage of better patient care, cost savings would be enormous. In this day and age when the health care debate is often framed in terms of dollars and sense, a cloud-based national patient record system is an obvious element that should be included. RAND Corporation claims that savings that could be achieved would reach $80 billion per year, assuming a 90 percent adoption rate by hospitals and physicians. To put that figure in perspective, it’s a full four percent of the $2 trillion spent annually on health care in the United States.

The benefits can also be seen just looking narrowly at adverse drug events. Every year, there are errors in medication that result from lack of allergy or drug interaction warnings, handwriting errors, and poor dosage monitoring. The RAND study further estimates that the safety benefit would be enormous, avoiding as many as 2.2 million such adverse drug events per year, saving nearly $4 billion per year.

Could these savings be achieved without a cloud computing infrastructure? Not likely. The great benefits illustrated by RAND cannot be achieved if those electronic records are stovepiped, retained only by each individual provider. The cloud-based infrastructure suggested by the DHHS brings the scope of the proposal into greater perspective, delivering the benefit on a much wider scale, and allowing for the greater level of benefits that result only from data sharing to exist.

This blog brought to you courtesy of Virtual Global, the fastest and easiest way to the cloud. 

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¹ US Department of Health and Human Services.

 ² RAND Corporation. “The potential benefits and costs of increased adoption of health information technology.” Richard Hillestad, July, 2008. Testimony presented before the Senate Finance Committee on July 17, 2008.

Virtual Global launches Cloudipedia.com to help cloud computing newbies

“Cloud Computing Made Easy” explains cloud computing technology and how it drives social change

Morgantown, WV, February 3, 2010: Virtual Global, a leading provider of cloud-enabled enterprise solutions and the TeamHost™ online platform for creating SaaS applications, has launched its new portal for cloud computing information, Cloudipedia. The site, which is located at http://www.cloudipedia.com, is designed to break down the cloud computing information barrier and provide useful, actionable information for companies that are exploring the cloud computing alternative.

The centerpiece of the Cloudipedia site is the free, downloadable ebook, “Cloud Computing Made Easy,” written by industry observer Dan Blacharski, and Virtual Global CEO Cary Landis. The book explains the technology in easy-to-understand terms and delves into the hottest trends, issues, and topics like cloud security, cloud storage, software-as-a-service, and what some of the major players, including Google and Amazon, have been doing in the cloud computing marketplace. “Cloud computing is redefining how we do business, how we work, and how we think,” said Landis. “This is truly a disruptive technology and we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg in how it will change the workplace for years to come.” In the book, the authors discuss how cloud computing has become the greatest enabling technology for outsourcing and telecommuting, and has changed the very nature of what a “job” really is.

The book also dispels some common myths and misconceptions about cloud computing, discussing the issue of cloud security—and how it can be just as secure as your in-house data center. “Another common misconception is that you lose control with the cloud,” added Landis. “In what we refer to as the ‘fallacy of direct control,’ we take on the notion that having direct control over every aspect of IT inherently leads to better services and better security. You can certainly control everything, but there is an opportunity cost involved.”

In a down-to-earth example, the book draws a comparison between using cloud providers, and homeowners who choose to use a plumber rather than fix their own pipes. In a passage from the book, the authors relate, “The guy who fixes his own plumbing suffers an opportunity cost, because he must make multiple trips to the hardware store, invest time and money, purchase hundreds of dollars’ worth of tools, and miss his favorite television show. And just like the guy who fixes his own plumbing, the company that insists on hosting absolutely everything in-house is losing out.”

For a free complete copy of Virtual Global’s predictions and landmark book, “Cloud Computing Made Easy,” visit www.cloudipedia.com. Timely conversations on cloud computing can also be found on the LinkedIn “Cloudipedia – Cloud computing made easy” discussion group.

About Virtual Global:

Virtual Global, a West Virginia corporation, is a provider of cloud-enabled enterprise IT solutions and the TeamHost™ cloud platform for building and deploying SaaS applications without programming. Since 1995, Virtual Global’s technologies have served commercial and federal customers worldwide with enterprise-class IT needs. Virtual Global can be found on the Web at http://www.virtualglobal.com.