Cloud computing explained
Filed under: business, customers, innovation, trends
With a significant proportion of businesses investigating the possibilities of cloud computing what is it all really about?
Many words have been written by bloggers and analysts however I’ve found that apart from trying out cloud computing (learning from direct experience) the next best learning tool is video. Fortunately there are some great videos explaining the concept of cloud computing in a way we can all understand.
Here are three of my favourites:
1. From Salesforce.com, one of the pin-up children of the SaaS revolution with over a billion dollars in SaaS revenue (3.20 mins)
2. From HighT3chDad a blogger and the technology evangelist for GoGrid, a cloud computing infrastructure provider (5.22 mins)
3. From Commoncraft who specialise in developing videos to explain concepts – www.commoncraft.com/cloud-computing-video (3.00 mins)
Hopefully this gives you a head start in understanding the concept of cloud computing and some indication of the kinds of benefits your organisation could gain to improve productivity and profitability.
Ben,
Has Telstra deployed any application in a cloud infrastructure yet, if not, are they planning to in the future?
Cheers,
Ariel
Telstra does in fact have some applications “in the cloud”.
See the line of T-suite business products here:
http://www.telstrabusiness.com/business/portal/online/site/productsservices/tsuiteapplications.11003
Maybe we all get a handle on Online Security before poking around in clouds. Computing is a very logical enterprise with many not too friendly intelligent persons indulging in the naivety of 95% of all Computer users for a splendid dividend.
I must say however I was very impressed passing buy the Telstra.com site and seeing HTTS ( the s stands for secure ! ) So that reads Hyper Text Transfer Protocol , Secure HTTP; Way to go Telstra, you may be onto something, encrypted passwords also, what will you come up with next, a site that actually works ?
This is a big step in the right direction.
Secure Web page design comes first and foremost, then we can start transacting without funding the Ukrainians social security system at the expense of the Telstra shareholders.
There’s an element of truth in my statement, whether you find it or not is the key to much success online with all types of business, all the best. Don’t forget, somebody’s always watching us when we least expect it.
Yes, we do currently offer a range of cloud computing services:
For consumers we offer security, online storage (eg for file backup and is unmetered ie you don’t pay for bandwidth consumed for usage) and even BigPond Office for those that want to do word processing or team collaboration online.
For our business customers we have a range of offerings from email security (anti-spam/virus), backup, online accounting, generating and managing employee contracts, customer relationship management. Through our relationship with Microsoft we also offer some of the key business tools such as Exchange, Sharepoint, Live Meeting and Instant Messaging online all delivered directly from Microsoft through their cloud computing infrastructure.
For our large business customers we even offer to provide utility computing (IT infrastructure on demand) for customer’s varying computer processing needs such as the deal announced earlier this year with Visy.
I don’t see cloud computing take off, unless you can’t afford your own data center and don’t care who sees your data.
I’m more curious about why I can’t make video calls using Telstra this far into the 21st century. I would’ve thought the new T-Hub device would do it, but its nothing more then a gimmick.
James, I have to side with you on this, everything available in the hullabaloo 21st century, “Wow !” Web Tech when seen through the eyes, of a Telstra ISP account is depressingly unobtainable.
Ben Armstrong says:
“Yes, we do currently offer a range of cloud computing services:…”
Dear Ben, most ISP’s offer at aleast 10 MB’s of FREE web space, which they may do what they wish to. I’ve been yearning to join my friends overseas in using playing CSS and HTML to make a little web site, but once again such space provided by Bigpond/Telstra takes the form of a lame Blog space with restrictive templates.
I don’t enjoy complaining, and full points for listening to our complaints, I really must congratulate on your efforts to listen to customers, and hoping a fair deal can be offered to all .
Why do Americans get super fast Broadband, with 150 GB (basically unlimited) usage limits, at 2Mbps (Comcast !) when we get such a bum deal ?
I’m not going to mention Asia …
Australia, the Technologically challenged economic giant ?
Thanks for the info Ben – great resources.
From an energy perspective, Cloud services will deliver savings for customers, leaving the computing processing with companies such as ours who have the scale to be more energy efficient.
From an energy perspective, Cloud services will deliver savings for customers, leaving the computing processing with companies such as ours who have the scale to be more energy efficient.
Hi Ben, One of the biggest plays for Telstra in the Cloud space is infrastructure-as-a-service. This is the heart of the Network Computing Services portfolio within Telstra’s enterprise & government division. see http://www.telstra.com/cloud for further explaination of what is currently being offered by Telstra to our enterprise customers. There is also a great video to explain the concept.
I have also written in my blog about Clould Computing in lay mans terms. Please have a read.
http://themysticmanager.blogspot.com/