Avastu Blog: Sustainable Global Clouds

Salesforce.com sees India as one of the potential market for cloud computing. "Cloud computing is the next stage of SaaS. As we have had an experience of more than 10 years in this foray, cloud computing was the obvious next step. When we were holding our press conference about the same in San Francisco, a lot of Indian companies were very excited and willing to employ this technology", said Doug Farber Vice President Operations, Asia Pacific Salesforce.com. Bandwidth is a problem in India and everyone is aware of that. So, how will a technology like such which is dependent on bandwidth survive in India? Farber said "Yes bandwidth is a problem in India. But we have found out ways to work around it. For example, one of the things that we have done is something called offline PDA. A person is connected through his iphone or laptop in which the data is stored and synchronized as and when the device gets the connection back and on. So, there are mechanisms to work around su...

Sify Technologies Limited (Nasdaq National market: SIFY), a leader in enterprise data services and consumer Internet with global delivery capabilities, announced today its agreement with Google Inc. to bring the Google Apps suite of communication and collaboration tools, including email, chat and online documents, to Indian Internet users. Google Apps will now power Sifymail and chat, as well as other applications using the Google Apps platform, which would be leveraged across Sify’s fast expanding Network Infrastructure, reaching out to over a million users across India and abroad. Raju Vegesna, Chairman & CEO, Sify Technologies Limited, said, “There is a perfect confluence of the mission of our companies in enhancing the quality of life of individuals and businesses by empowering them with the Internet. Our agreement with Google makes superior applications available for communications and collaboration, coupled with our understanding of the needs of Indians, on our popular porta...

Bangalore, India, Aug. 27, 2008 - Dell today unveiled two new Vostro laptops and two desktops designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses, governments and educational institutions operating on limited budgets in India and the world's emerging economies. The new Vostro laptops and desktops will be available through authorized channel partners, as well as direct from Dell in India and more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. More information is available at www.Dell.com/newvostropresskit. "Within the world's emerging economies, such as India, millions of new businesses are demanding just the technology they need, at the prices they can afford, from a vendor they can trust. Today we answer that need by introducing new products that join our existing Vostro product line," said Steve Felice, president, Dell Asia-Pacific/Japan. "Together with our partners, Dell will play an important role in bringing more technology to more peop...

With Infosys buying in UK (although that may not have anything directly to do with the euro weakening, it was the pound that took the pounding that prompted Infosys to go strike). Will the increasingly euro lead to Asia companies going after SI and other Consulting firms within the Euro such as CapGemini etc? The Ifo index had been expected to fall this month, but recent falls in oil prices and the euro – which has dropped about 8 per cent since its mid-July peak against the dollar – had been expected to boost optimism about the future. The latest weak data sent warning signals to the European Central Bank, said Julian Callow at Barclays Capital. “Even Europe's biggest economy, which had in recent quarters been supporting overall euro area growth, is stalling - providing further evidence that the euro area will require an easing in monetary conditions,” he said. The ECB publishes revised eurozone forecasts next week but with inflation in the 15-country region still double its targe...

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's top software exporter, said on Tuesday it had received a multi-million dollar contract from Singapore Airlines Cargo for a five-year period. Source

And take a training before you do the standardization. Workshop program: DAY 1: Cloud Language : The Taxonomy of On-Demand Computing Clouds. Grids. PaaS. There are dozens of names to describe on-demand computing, and lots of confusion. This block brings some order to the chaos, offering a comparison of different on-demand computing models including hardware-as-a-service, custom platforms, and large-scale compute infrastructures.. Cloud SLAs How reliable is the cloud? Enterprises demand predictable service levels, reliable delivery, and committed availability. This block will look at what level of service we should demand - and can expect - from cloud computing infrastructure, as well as tools and best practices for measuring it. Running Clouds: What the Big Guys Know A very small number of companies generate the vast majority of today's web pages, from Facebook applications to hosted sites. With compelling economics, they may be running most of the world's computing in a sh...

CGSL is mostly into transaction processing and call centre processing which suits TCS. The Tata group company pulled out of Intelenet, a third party BPO backed by Blackstone, as it wanted to exit from the voice-based BPO sector. Its MD S. Ramadorai had earlier said that Intelenet’s focus did not fit into TCS’ BPO strategy which was focussed on transaction processing, e-mail processing and call centre processing. Both Citigroup and TCS declined to comment on the development. “At Citi, we follow the policy of not commenting on market rumours and speculation. Accordingly, we are unable to respond to your request.” said a Citi spokesperson in an e-mailed response. A TCS spokesperson said “As a policy, TCS does not comment on market speculation.” IBM was the other contender for the captive BPO unit, said another source. IBM was also believed to be keen on acquiring Citos, the technology and infrastructure outsourcing arm of Citigroup. “ But Citi intends to sell CGSL first. And IBM found the...

Amazon knows somehow that listening to the voices and walking in the footsteps of IBM will eventually help them get there somewhere. Today I had an investor call and funny thing is that lately I am getting people asking me and mixing invariably technology trends such as virtualization and outsourcing. Obviously, if you saw one of my presentations, you'd understand that mixing business talk with technology cakewalk is what we are all heading towards. Versatilists will understand that talk and will be able to walk that walk. Should Indian outsourcing firms like Wipro, Satyam, Infosys, Patni, TCS, HCL etc want to maintain and sustain the typical growth trend then they will have to be just more that "preferred outsourcing parties", being number one on such a list can be a terrible thing. They have to get on to other things. They have to go after global footprints and with globalized leaders. They cannot afford to have those "typical indians" who may be technology sa...

The Global Shift is happening. SaaS, Cloud Computing and novo infrastructures and requirements are going to come from emerging markets. We all knew it and the more I see it happening, and the more I have spoken to my C-level friends and have been saying it all the time: " invest in Asia, if you want to survive the next revolution ", I am convinced that some of them might be just a bit too late now. But I did warn them in time. Do you want to know where you must already be looking at now? Africa and S. America! I have been spending a lot of time lately in several countries such as Ghana , Uganda etc and see a slow revolution starting up. I will be traveling to Uganda again in October/November. Anyways, here's the research that Forrester did: SaaS is a priority for 74% of Chinese firms, the research found, with 29% planning to pilot SaaS projects in the next 12 months. In Europe, the majority of organisations are interested but have no plans to pursue SaaS, while in the ...

After beating expectations with its second-quarter results last month, Silicon Valley stalwart Intel is feeling positive about demand for its small chips in an increasingly mobile marketplace. Although the macroeconomic outlook does not look good for the average Western consumer, Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) believes that the vast potential of emerging markets is still out there and waiting to be tapped. That's why it is aiming smaller and smaller--it unveiled its smallest chip ever earlier this year--and why it hopes one day to produce the world's first $100 laptop. Intel also sees growth opportunities in the West for cheap, portable mobile devices--hence its recent collaboration with the Portuguese government for 50-euro ($77.88) laptop-style "netbooks." Source to the full interview

This is a massive statement, given that we are looking at a company that has shown us the direction to virtualization and and research powerhorse that constantly thrives for the aggressive (and vital) injection of academic rigour in the consulting business (which also makes a firm like IBM a great place to work for), I must say that this business is about to take off in a big way! We will do a quick analysis of the market direction where I will explain in detail why Cloud Computing will make the virtualization an essential and yet an irrelevant layer (i terms of which hypervisor) in the GDM-aware data centers. I also will explain in detail how several functional areas from multiple domains (business, IT primarily) will eventually converge to make it a BizBulk (as I've called frequently in my keynotes and speeches). Anyways, for now here's the news: IBM has announced a massive expansion of its cloud computing, with plans to create two centres to power the next era of computing....

This Energy and Utility Competency Center will be launched in July 2008 to become fully operational by January 2009. This will provide domestic and global energy companies and nuclear operators with advanced technologies to meet the needs of this fast growing market. ‘This strategic decision is a new step forward for Atos Origin to position the group as a worldwide provider of distinctive industry solutions. Atos Origin’s Digital Control System is widely recognized as a state-of-the-art reference by the most prominent nuclear operators in the world. Our solution is already implemented in three nuclear power plants in China and we are happy to reinforce our presence in this major market and to bring this expertise to the rest of the Asia Pacific region’ declared Philippe Germond, CEO of Atos Origin. “We anticipate both the Digital Control System and the Oil and Gas advanced solutions developed by Atos Origin will meet well the needs in the currently booming energy market in China,” said...

I've been calling a lot of friends and CxOs across U.S to take a hard look at India and invest their time and energy in this increasingly exploding market! Be there before you're too late! Virtualisation technology is gaining ground among Indian enterprises as Companies get more and more conscious about their IT deployments. Virtualisation, the creation of a virtual version of an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources, is expected to double its share by 2008 end. "Virtualisation is expected to gain ground among enterprises and is expected to double from its current 22% to 45% by 2008-end," commented an industry expert. Experts feel that it's the sectors like BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), telecom, retail and government, which will act as the main drivers for virtualisation technology in India. "Our clients for this technology are the major players in the BFSI, telecom and the government sector," said Basant ...

Just to talk about the technology trends and adoption in India. We will cover other sectors of the industry as well in the "Globalization India Tales Series" . So lets talk about virtualization here. Virtualization is hot. Virtualization is being discussed across the globe. But did you know that... India is adopting virtualization at a very fast pace? Indian virtualization solutions providers such as HP are virtualizing major clients in UK, US within half a day!!!!? Virtualization solutions providers are not just going for the U.S and EU customers but are beginning to already create and carve up their own niche? Many solutions providers are incresingly going after the models where European and U.S firms are spending too much time in their board rooms? Soon they are bound to out-wolf the rest of the market because they are constantly on move? Many large Indian firms are already going for a self-sufficiency model where they are training hordes of their employees for a bigger ...

Here's what they discussed about.

I'll be in Mumbai and will be selecting several candidates for virtualization. So : Are you experienced in Virtualization? Have you played around with VMware, Citrix XenServer, Virtual Iron (they are all freely downloadable, BTW) ? Have you played around and have some experience in SBC and Desktop Virtualization with XenDesktop, VDM, Sun ray, etc? Do you want to do exciting Global multi-million euros virtualization projects with me? Then I'd suggest you not to miss this opportunity. If you know someone, that'd be great as well! In any case, this is an opportunity of a lifetime to build up a great team and start kicking ass! And with me around, I can promise you that it'll be joyride, for sure! P.S: Obviously if you have played with: Oracle VM and RAC (Win, Lin and Solaris) Sun xVM and Solaris Parallels Virtual Iron and other stuff as this can be a huge list then I'd be great! Call me or mail me immediately! OR SEND ME YOUR CVs RIGHT NOW ON MY GMAIL ADDRESS!

”We are very excited about working with Virtual Iron to enable the Australian channel to greatly expand their market opportunity in the server virtualization market,” said Gavin Lawless, general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, Australia. “Working with Virtual Iron gives us a foundation vendor for our server virtualization and storage practice. While we have just signed with Virtual Iron for virtualization, we have also announced a new relationship with Data Domain for storage. In essence, we are building a solution practice that will enable business partners to leverage the rapid growth in these markets.” A recent IDC Australia report titled Consolidation, Virtualisation, and Storage Strategies in Australia Small and Medium-Sized Business: The Quiet Revolution notes that "Cost considerations continue to be the strongest driver to the adoption of consolidation and virtualisation in Australian SMBs. This is due to operation costs decreasing as the ratio of personnel to number ...

Milton, Australia – January 22, 2008 – Moonwalk Inc., the Australian developer of all-inclusive data management and protection software, today announced that it has been awarded General Services Administration (GSA) certification, allowing the company to offer its enterprise data management system for direct sale to U.S. government agencies. GSA is the premier procurement source for federal government employees and agencies. GSA works closely with federal agencies and industry partners to establish long-term, government-wide contracts that allow customers in the public sector to acquire a vast array of products and services directly from commercial suppliers. GSA certification is a process instituted by the government that requires potential government vendors to be recognized as credible and established. “By earning GSA certification, we are now positioned to offer government agencies the ability to purchase and implement Moonwalk software into their network computing environments wi...

The greening of IT was also counted as an important trend for 2008. Linux is predicted to make major inroads into various areas. Particularly, Google’s Andriod mobile platform in the cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) will spur the blossom of the blossom of the OS. Meanwhile, the social networking service is expected to experience growing pains. The magazine predicted that privacy issues and the reckless sharing of information, which became the subject of the public debate, will make adjustments to the service. The virtualization, which has been one of the major trends in the IT industry for the past several years, is also added to this year’s prediction. It said the virtualization will grow rapidly in 2008, particularly on desktop as well as enterprise infrastructure like server and storage. Its another interesting prediction is the blurred lines between consumer and corporate IT. Electronic Times Korea carrying the news

Me and my wife just watched the Movie "OutSourced" last night ( NYtimes coverage here ). My sixth sense was telling me something. When I see these projections about growth, which could very much be repeatable simply because the folks are getting smarter out there, I know that they will be able to leverage the State of the art infrastructure in a short span of time. IT research firm IDC (India) Limited has predicted that the domestic IT/ITeS market revenue will touch Rs. 1,10,000 crore in 2008 while sustaining the growth of 27 per cent recorded in 2007. This would result into the market growing at 24 per cent in 2008 over 2007. The year 2008 is set to mark the beginning of Growth Phase 2.0 to be characterised by opportunities arising out of the leveraging of the IT infrastructure built up so far. IDC India revealed this as part of its annual predictions for the domestic IT market for 2008. "By posting a substantial jump in the domestic IT/ITeS market since 2002, the indus...