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