The Advantages of Using Cloud Computing

A recent survey carried out by PEER 1 Network Enterprises found that of the 88% of key decision-makers that do not use cloud computing, 39% said it was because they don't know enough about it. So, for those who are still in the dark, what is cloud computing anyway?

Cloud computing enables users to store files and software remotely, rather than on a hard drive or server at their office. The fact is many people may already be using cloud computing without realizing it, whether through work or personal use. Examples include web-based email like Gmail and Hotmail, communication tools like Skype, video sites like YouTube and Vimeo and music-sharing sites such as SoundCloud.

Some examples of cloud computing applications include software as a service (SaaS), Customer Relationship Management, file storage, file synchronization and file back-up. It's now possible for businesses to have their own private cloud, which incorporates specific services and is only accessible to specific people.

The Benefits of Cloud Computing
There are lots of advantages to using cloud computing for international companies. One of the major ones is the flexibility that it offers. Cloud computing means that staff can access the files and data that they need even when they're working remotely and/or outside office hours.

As long as they can get on the Internet, staff can access information from home, on the road, from clients' offices or even from a smartphone such as a BlackBerry or iPhone. Staff can also work collaboratively on files and documents, even when they're not physically together. Documents can simultaneously be viewed and edited from multiple locations.

Cloud computing can be very quick and easy to get up and running. Consider, for example, how quickly you can set up a Gmail or Hotmail account and start emailing - it takes minutes and all you need is a computer and the Internet. Downloading and installing software, on the other hand, takes much longer.

Cloud computing is often cheaper and less labor-intensive for companies too. There is no need to buy and install expensive software because it's already installed online remotely and you run it from there, not to mention the fact that many cloud computing applications are offered free of charge. The need to pay for extensive disk space is also removed. With cloud computing, you subscribe to the software, rather than buying it outright. This means that you only need to pay for it when you need it, and it also offers flexibility, in that it can be quickly and easily scaled up and down according to demand. This can be particularly advantageous when there are temporary peaks in demand, such as at Christmas or in summer, for example.

A major advantage of using cloud computing for many companies is that because it's online, it offers virtually unlimited storage compared to server and hard drive limits. Needing more storage space does not cause issues with server upgrades and equipment - usually all you need to do is increase your monthly fee slightly for more data storage.

In addition, there is no need to take on specialist IT staff, and businesses don't have to worry about maintaining and upgrading software or fixing bugs, as all maintenance is done by the providers. This frees-up in-house IT teams to focus on technical issues specific to the business. Remote maintenance means it's easy for businesses to always have the latest and most powerful version of any particular software.

Automatic software updates can be especially useful for legal or financial compliance reasons. For example, consider accounting and bookkeeping software - when tax rates change the system will be automatically and centrally updated.

Many international businesses also choose cloud computing because of its green credentials. Microsoft recently claimed that cloud computing can reduce a business's carbon emissions by as much as 30%, as businesses don't need to power an entire server, they only use (and pay for) what they need online.

The Pros and Cons
There are some potential drawbacks to cloud computing, though, that are worth bearing in mind. One of the reasons many businesses choose cloud computing is because online storage and back-up means their data can't be lost or destroyed, but the flip side is that many are concerned about the security issues associated with storing their data on the web.

While some experts argue that cloud computing is more secure than traditional server methods, businesses are still concerned that outsiders (or insiders) could bypass security systems and access confidential data. A survey from IDC found that security was the main worry that businesses have about cloud computing, followed by availability and performance. However, it's worth weighing up the risks and remembering that traditional servers can also be hacked into, hard drives can fail and computers can be lost or stolen.

Privacy is another issue which businesses cite as a concern when it comes to cloud computing. Some wonder how much data and what kind of data companies are able to collect about them and their business.

Another concern for some companies when it comes to cloud computing is the risk of losing Internet connectivity. The risks associated with this are usually isolated and short-lived, but many companies' workflows are massively disrupted by any Internet downtime. Businesses that implement cloud computing need to take steps to reduce the risk of any Internet interruption or reduced speeds. However, these risks are comparable with servers or computers being out of action for a period of time, which is just as likely, or perhaps more likely to happen, than the Internet failing.

While there are a number of issues for companies to bear in mind, and cloud computing may not be ideal for every business, it can be an extremely cost-effective and beneficial way for large and small international companies to store data and access software - so it's well worth considering and researching in more depth. Because of the scalability of cloud computing, it's easy for firms to start small and try certain applications out to see how it works for them and their business before gradually expanding their use.

Offshore Software Development - Business challenges and How to overcome it?

Here we are headed to discuss what is offshore ? what are the biggest threats in "Offshore Software Development" in India?

The biggest threats in "Offshore Software Development" in India are:
• People can be hired at lower rates from other parts of the world
• Lack of domain specific service providers
• The trend is to offer general services and not focus on a niche product

Some extremely useful solutions that may be effective for the Indian market and make it easy for the companies in getting future offshore work. The key to success, is a "laser sharp focus".It is very important to develop a trust factor between the customer and the service provider. A focused domain, honestly towards the customer by spending more time in research, and a consistent delivery of work are some simple tools to the success of offshore business.
Talked about reverse off-shoring. UK and Europe are way ahead when it comes to skills, talent and dedication of people. "10 persons in US",  "is equivalent to a team of 50 people in India".
The challenge will remain immense if:
• Empathy is not shown towards the customers
• Smaller companies do not focus on a single niche domain
• Work is not delivered on time
It is very important to put the right person on the right job. An employee, who is technically very sound, need not be the project manager of a company, owing to his pay scale and experience. A company in such practice would only end up losing a good resource. To have a profound effect of the product developed on the customer an entrepreneur should make extreme innovation and creativity a habit.
Offshore Market Opportunities
It is important for any company to define their work process. This would help them in two ways:
• By fetching a monthly price
• By helping them get long lasting project
The biggest problem with smaller companies is that people, after a certain point of time, move out looking for jobs. What these young people don't understand is that they need a career and not just a job. Hiring policies for any SMEs or start-ups is thus very important. Entrepreneurs has to set a benchmark performance or expectation at the time of recruitment.
Some valuable points below can be very promising for any company:
• Generate empathy towards the customer
• Show your commitment and energy towards a project
• Maintain consistency
• Meet the deadlines
• Be upfront while you communicate
• Learn to say a "NO"
Delivering Work on Time
Time management is also very important for any company who mainly survive on offshore product development.When you promise a delivery date, make sure you meet the deadline. If there are holidays, make sure to inform the customer a day before.Proactive and upfront communication is always an added advantage to build trust with the client.
Payment on Time
A common problem faced by many SMEs is the struggle to get the payment on time.In smaller projects the payment is cleared on delivery. Therefore it is better to go for larger projects and negotiate on a phase wise or advanced payment. "If you are a newbie in the industry", "its better to start with local clients. It will help you to build your portfolio". A trust is a two way game. So when you go into a contract, make sure you have mentioned your terms and conditions clearly. Often it becomes difficult to get the signoff amount if it's a long-term project. In such a case a company can make a signoff checklist to monitor if the work has been delivered accordingly.

How to get your work noticed at your job

This article is to give some tips to get your work noticed by your boss.
Imagine you have joined a new company and of course your team leader,project leader, manager everybody will be noticing how well you are performing.In a fast paced corporate environment,after a while,we are not sure whether our work are being noticed by our next level bosses.It is really important to put some efforts to boost your individual status and personal kudos for your work.

The best way is to step outside normal working routine.For example,if you have to process "X" number of transactions each day- and so does everyone else-then processing more wont  do you that much good.
If you submit a report to your boss of how everyone could process more transactions , then you will get noticed.That makes you to stand out from the crowd.Also you should send the report occasionally and sticking to some rules.
Never stand still:
Most people go to work daily thinking about to return back to home at the magic time.Most of them think about next coffee breaks.But you should be busy in planning and executing next maneuver.Doing the job is not an end game for you-it is merely a means to an end. And the end is promotion,success, learning,more money, more contacts and experience.
Volunteer carefully:
A lot of people think that if they say "Yes" to everything , they will get praised, noticed.Not true.A clever manager will use this"i will do it" mentality and at last you will end up with more work.Before you put your hand up to volunteer for anything,think very carefully.Ask yourself various questions.
Carve out a Niche for yourself:
Carving out niche means spotting a useful area that no else does. It might be as simple as spreadsheets,report writing,company software,budgets or understanding the system.This makes you to stand out from herd and gives you independence and a superior quality.
Under promise and over deliver:
If you know you can do it by Wednesday,always say Friday. This is not dishonest,merely prudent.But don't be too blatant when you do this , it should be pleasant surprise not a frequently used tactic.

DNN for website design

Do you want to redesign or create a new  website? You do not need any programming skills to host or administrate your website.

Now creating website is not a tedious process . Also you can frequently change the skins and add/delete the module to make your website lively using DotNetNuke.

What is DNN?

DNN is a CMS platform that can be extended with modules to achieve desired functions in your website.It is like the operating system on your computer it really doesn't do much until you install programs on it.

DNN Design and Development:

DotNetNuke is a program that runs on Microsoft ASP.NET. It is also a framework, meaning, it is a program that is designed to be extended. One of the ways you extend the framework is to create modules. These modules are installed inside a DotNetNuke installation and when they run in that DotNetNuke installation they extend the framework to create a DotNetNuke website also called a portal.

What is CMS?

CMS is a content management system (CMS) is the collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The procedures are designed to do the following:
Allow  authorised people to contribute to and share stored data
Control access to data, based on user roles (defining which information users or user groups can view, edit, publish, etc.)
Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
Reduce repetitive duplicate input
Improve the ease of report writing
Improve communication between users

CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, enriching, and publishing documentation.

Uses:

Using DNN we were able to save considerable development time. With DNN content management a number of tasks can be performed in moments. It has multi-lingual support and provides a user friendly admin interface. 

Numerous pre-installed Dot Net Nuke modules allow you creating an interesting, original and dynamic website absolutely free of charge.

 These are just a few things of what you can easily do with a DNN-based website:

Manage site content: add announcements, events, blogs, feedback and contact forms etc.
Enrich your site with text, tables, pictures, links and more
Assign membership roles and security levels
Send bulk emails and submit the website to search engines
Set up banner advertising and customize page appearance

Contact us mail@perfeitosoftware.com to get a DotNetNuke Development Quote 
If you need a robust, highly scalable and unique solution, our dedicated team of DotNetNuke developers is ready to implement your idea. We can provide programming services for new modules and exclusive skins and integrate them into the existing CMS.

Key Differences between Azure and EC2

At the time of application design decision on Cloud , most of us get into this discussion at some point of time, “The Key differences between Windows Azure and Amazon EC2.

I thought of listing down the key differences of the both.Following comparison might be helpful.

Basic

Azure can be classified as Platform as a Service (PaaS): a cloud model that offers hardware, operating systems and application-support, effectively offering a virtual server on which to load software, which can be accessed and managed through a Web browser.

 Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 allows users to rent virtual computers on which to run their own computer applications.Amazon EC2’s simple web service interface allows  to obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction. 

Application Support

Amazon EC2 running Microsoft Windows Server® (available in 2003 R2, 2008 or 2008 R2 editions) is a fast and dependable environment for deploying applications using the Microsoft Web Platform, including ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight™, and Internet Information Server (IIS). Amazon EC2 enables you to run any compatible Windows-based solution on AWS’ high-performance, reliable, cost-effective, cloud computing platform. 

Microsoft Azure on the other hand is purely a Windows environment with Windows Server 2008 the primary environment and all languages/applications that are available on Windows Server is supported. It supports other languages like Java, PHP and Ruby to run on Azure.

Scalability

By using Windows Azure, we can quickly scale up to handle the heavy computational and storage needs it has for its online video platform. Whereas scaling up with Amazon EC2 required the company to add more virtual servers and manage its own scaling logic.

Pricing

 Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use. Azure require no up-front expenses, no long term commitment, and enable you to pay only for the resources you use.

Deployment/Setup Complexity

Setup for Amazon EC2 involves setting up an image and configuring a virtual instance of the instance to include the Operating System/Application. The setup and deployment activities are similar in nature to setup a virtualized environment. Amazon provides command line tools which would help support this.Azure provides an integrated approach of deployment directly from Visual Studio which would directly allow you to deploy the solution on Azure.

CRM and Social Media for Business

There's no doubt that social media and social networking have changed the way people connect and communicate. As these technologies are being adopted by people of all ages, all over the world, a whole new audience is able to be reached by anyone with Internet access and an E-mail address. For businesses especially, social networking has changed the way they communicate with their customers - and find new ones.

Providers of Web-based customer relationship management (CRM) applications have worked hard to incorporate these new networks and technologies into their services, utilizing the power of the cloud to connect and integrate regular CRM tools with sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; creating what has come to be known as social CRM. On the site, you'll find more in-depth information regarding social networks and how they can help you to grow your business, including:

• How you can use social networking to track your leads
• The right approach to doing business online
• What cloud computing is and how it relates to CRM
• Social CRM for small businesses
• How you can maximize sales using the Internet and social networks

Customers are key to businesses' success. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems offer businesses a way to keep current customers satisfied, as well as a way of finding new customers. Social networking can play a huge role in both these endeavors.

Many companies incorporate CRM systems in order to manage and organize all the contact it has with both existing and prospective customers, through software or Web-based approach that supports these ventures. For example, customer data and interactions can be entered, stored, and accessed by personnel based on several categories. The data then can be used to encourage better customer service with comprehensive information, and to improve targeted marketing. Social networking offers yet another channel to accomplish both of these goals.

Social media has revolutionized the way people communicate. At the onset of the social media craze, it was usually thought that only young people and those who knew their way around a computer could use these tools. However, businesses and individuals of all kinds have jumped on the social media bandwagon to find new and innovative ways to use these tools.

For businesses, social media presents a whole new way of connecting and building relationships with customers. From a Facebook wall post to a friendly Twitter reply, you can now create personalized conversations with individual customers over the Internet. 

Do you treat your customers as your top priority? If not, you should! Customer relationships are reliant on sales management and the forecasting of sales by representatives who derive their client knowledge from experience and what is provided to them. Sales management is a means by which all sales are tracked and organized in a variety of ways. Sales management is there to ensure that sales force goals are achieved by individual sales personnel and the sales team, as a whole.

Companies today are incorporating customer relationship management (CRM) programs that place the emphasis on satisfying customers and finding new clients. In order to keep existing customers happy, companies must find ways to be innovative in connecting with them. Businesses are finding ways to utilize social media to reach customers in effective and convenient ways.

Social networking allows customers to be an interactive part of the business process. Though social media customers can share suggestions, ideas, ask questions, inquire about other products, and communicate about countless other topics. 

Cloud computing is one of those buzzwords that everyone seems to be bandying about these days, but no one seems to agree on a definition. If you have been hearing about cloud-based this and cloud computing that, and are wondering how these concepts might apply to your business, pull up a chair. We have got some good, solid answers for you.

At its most basic, cloud computing is a network-based model for supercomputing over the Internet, instead of using on-premises software, hardware and servers. In fact, you are probably already using consumer cloud computing applications. If you have ever uploaded a video to YouTube, or photographs to Flickr or Snapfish for your friends and relatives to view; if you have ever opened a Web-based email account through Yahoo!, Gmail or Hotmail; or if you are a member of a social networking site such as Facebook or Twitter, then you have used cloud computing.

Enterprise cloud computing takes the concept to a corporate level. With cloud-based business applications, a company can access information technology resources from a shared data center. The cloud aims to provide tens of trillions of computations per second – compared to the most powerful desktop PCs, which process only a few billion computations per second – by networking large groups of servers that often use low-cost consumer technology and utilizing specialized connections to enable them to complete the large-scale data-processing chores.

Cloud computing is billed either on a utility model, like electricity, or on a subscription model, whereby the company pays a monthly fee. Either way, the company pays for only the resources it uses. 

It is important to understand that cloud computing is still a developing paradigm, just as the Internet itself was ten years ago and continues to be today. As consumer tastes and trends change, and workforces evolve, cloud computing will adapt in response. Yet, it is already clear that cloud computing is no flash in the pan, but a technological concept worth learning more about.

Running IT as a business

Seven steps to aligning IT with the business

The massive growth in IT over the past decade has moved it from being a backoffice support function to a critical business unit. IT now ranks among the top five expenditures of most companies.CIOs have to show how the money is spent, the returns they are getting for their investments, and how IT is driving corporate performance. This increased role requires focus, vision and, above all, transparency – into services, costs, demand, processes and impact on corporate performance.

The benefits of aligning IT with the business
• Improve management control.
• Understand and communicate the financial and non-financial value of each IT project and operation.
• Comply with legislative requirements.
• Reallocate IT resources to projects of most importance to the business.
• Facilitate the elimination of IT projects that are not delivering.

Cost management and transparency
For the CIO to compete for resources, the IT function needs to operate as a business within a business – providing valuable services to the rest of the organization. The CIO must effectively educate the organization and provide clearly articulated and relevant cost information.

A detailed understanding of the cost within the IT business provides clear and positive advantages to the CIO and the wider organization:
• Ensuring optimal resource allocation to areas of greatest value.
• More effective allocation of resources to “areas of need.”
• Reducing complexity within IT and simplifying internal processes.
• More informed budgeting (capital and operating) and pricing of new projects.
• Greater understanding of IT capacity and ability for delivery.
• Ability to link IT investments to overall organizational benefits.
• Facilitating practices and tools such as total cost of ownership (TCO) and  return on investment (ROI).
The importance of chargeback

It is difficult to maximize returns from IT when the product appears to be free to customers. Ideally, IT operates as a service provider with a catalog of products and services that are aligned with customer needs and corporate goals. For this, IT needs:
• Accurate pricing for its services that reflects the cost to provide them.
• An understanding of what drives both demand and cost.
• An equitable, repeatable and accurate method to track and invoice customers based on their usage of
the services.
• To encourage end-user accountability for the return on investments.Cost control is the greatest benefit that comes from IT chargeback.Chargeback gives clear transparency into the benefits and the value that IT brings, and the impact on the bottom line means better relationships with the rest of the organization.

Budgeting and planning
IT financial management processes are often resource-intensive, involving the manual collection of financial data that is scattered across the enterprise. With a lack of data to support accurate forecasts, the resulting budget is often based on political biases.This reduces the time and effort involved while increasing the accuracy of forecasts and simulations, and forms the basis for the financial budget, aligning organizational objectives, requirements, volume and cost.

Resource optimization
To maximize returns from new and existing infrastructure, IT needs a consolidated, end-to-end view of use of its applications and infrastructure, both physical and virtual, to understand  how all IT components interact. IT organizations have made substantial cost savings through re-purposing underused infrastructure and combining server workloads.

Summary
Managing IT as a business is now an imperative. No longer can IT be seen as a technology supplier – it must be seen to be adding value to the organization and providing corporate strategic capability. IT business performance allows IT to change the focus from technology and production to customers and services. It enables IT to become service-oriented, aligning itself with the organization to provide customer-driven solutions to business problems