The Age of Cloud Computing

Most of companies globally are moving towards the cloud computing model. The traditional model of hosting the system or application in physical servers is diminishing. Since I'm currently working in a Cloud Product Management team, I would like to discuss about the factors driving the businesses shifting from the traditional to cloud computing model in this post.

Here's Why!

Affordable

• Cloud computing are on OPEX model. While the traditional hosting model is on CAPEX model, whereby the companies need to buy physical servers, set up and maintain the computing resources, Cloud-based model is on OPEX model. Businesses would just need to subscribe the virtual machines from the Cloud Service Providers (CSP) and they can instantly install their appplication or system.

 

 

Utility-Based

• Most of the cloud computing resources are being billed based on the usage of the subscribers. Therefore, business could actually set-off the risk of underutilizing the resources that they had bought in the traditional computing model.  

 

Scalable

• Cloud computing resources are scalable. Businesses can scale up or scale down the computing resources according to their demands and needs. For an example, an event management company may want to temporarily host scale up their virtual machine's (VM's) performance during the peak hours of the event being held.

 

Faster Deployment

• While it takes longer for businesses to set up, test and deploy their physical servers with the traditional hosting model, the cloud computing don't have to! Setting up, testing and deployment of physical servers may take a few months to complete and for businesses, time is money. Through cloud computing, the virtual machiness could be easily set up and ready to be used in the matter of minutes.  

Above factors justify why Cloud Computing is better than the traditional hosting model.

Negative Effects of Social Media on Society and Individuals

Social Media networks are claimed to be have more drawbacks than benefits to society and individuals. Below are some of the identified disadvantages of the social media networks:  

Decreased Productivity

Overuse of social media can lead to decreased in productivity. The sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. The employees during their business hours should be focusing on their works instead of the browsing the social media sites. 

Companies must monitor the issue by either limiting the number of hours for social media browsing or churning out reports on the websites visits by the employees and start penalizing the social media junkies. 

Privacy

Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don't work as well as advertised.

A False Sense of Connection

According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken.

Microsoft ® Office 365

What is MS Office 365?                                      

Many people would have misunderstood Office 365 with the standard MS Office license. MS O365 does not only include : 

1. Office Online

• Create/edit/share Word, PowerPoint, Excel files and OneNote notebooks online across major web browsers

     2. SharePoint Online

• Document sharing and management in the cloud Internal and external sites for working together on projects 1 TB personal storage space in OneDrive for Business. Build your company public website with easy-to-use template.

     3. Exchange Online

• Hosted business class email and shared calendar 50 GB of storage space per user . Use your own domain name to send emails . Premium spam and malware protection.

     4. Lync Online

• HD video conferencing. Real-time note taking and document sharing. Instant messaging and presence across firewalls. Skype federation with presence , IM and invoice. 

Office 365 Value Propositions

Office 365 is a Cloud-based productivity services hosted by Microsoft. 

1. Anywhere access
2. Work together
3. Easy IT
4. Trusted Platform

All Office 365 plans include:

• 99.9% financially-backed uptime guarantee
• 24/7 phone support for critical issues
• Active Directory integration 

Source: Microsoft website

Malaysia Mobile Device Market

Introduction

Mobile device had been revolutionized by the creation of smartphone. Below
                                             

      

 (Source: IDC Asia / Pacific Mobile Phone Tracker)

Smartphones kicked off a mobile revolution,‘ but it‘s become clear the revolution has proven nothing short of a rebuilding of the Internet. Just five short years ago in 2008, less than 1% of global Internet traffic came from mobile. Now that number is 15% and climbing by the day. 

(Source: IDC Malaysia Predictions 2014, 2014)

 

1. Monthly global mobile data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes in 2017

2. The increasing number of wireless devices that are accessing mobile networks worldwide is one of the primary contributors to traffic growth.

3. Smartphones lead the traffic growth

(Source: IDC Malaysia Predictions 2014, 2014)

 

(Source: Cisco VNI: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012.)

 

Enterprise Social Collaboration

What is the Enterprise Social Collaboration?

Enterprise Social Collaboration is a People-centric collaboration platform that goes beyond email, portals, and point social networking products to deliver a true collaboration that enabled a company to achieve business objectives.

üTo empower employees to engage across hierarchical boundaries and outside of the confines of formal business processes.

üTo extend knowledge, ideas, and experiences to the most employees are those that learn faster, innovate more, and make smarter decisions.

üIntegration with business application

       

Benefits

1. Foster a Culture of Communication & CollaboratioN
2. Ignite the spark of innovation and collaboration
3. Enable better risk management & engineering agility
4. optimize sales effectiveness & intelligence
5. increase employee engagement & satisfaction

 

System Architecture

 

 

System Features

Communicating & Collaborate	Follow, Like, Comment, Like, @Mention, #Hashtag
Streams	Company, Home, Bookmarked, Sent, @Mentions
Projects	Create Projects, Add Project Member, Assign Task, Update Timeline
Private Message	Send instant messages with individuals or groups.
Groups	Create group, Join group, Invite Group member
Searching & Filtering	Files, Directory
Files	Share and discuss documents with individuals or the whole community to stay organized and keep work in context.
Personal Profile	Personal Details, Portal Activities.
Admin	Analytics, Invite User, Customization
Integration	Outlook, Other Business Application



MIS 750 Journey Begins

Assalamualaikum,

I'm Arshad Raimi bin Abdul Hakim, one of the UiTM's EMBA students. I was born on 22nd of August 1986 in Dungun, Terengganu and a proud Malaysian Muslim. I'd obtained my primary education from Sekolah Rendah Sultan Omar, Dungun, Terengganu. Then, I went to Kolej Yayasan Saad, Melaka for my secondary education. For tertiary education, I'd managed to get a place in Kolej Matrikulasi Negeri Sembilan for my undergraduate foundation studies and continued my Bachelor's Degree in UiTM.

I'm currently working as a Product Manager in VADS Berhad, managing Cloud Services products. It's my 2nd year working with VADS and my 2nd job in the industry. My first job was in TIME dotCom with a different role.

Currently, I'm in my 3rd semester for my MBA studies and MIS 750 is part of the subjects included in the course modules for the 3rd semester students. My lecturer, Assoc. Professor Dr. Norzaidi is the  lecturer responsible to teach us the MIS 750 subject. I sincerely do find him as a COOL LECTURER. Happy-go-lucky guy in his 40s, he always fascinate us the whole class by his mesmerizing stories and jokes.