How Cloud Computing is Changing the Economics of Policy Management

Join executives from Bluewolf and salesforce.com as they discuss how insurance providers can leverage Web 2.0 technologies to streamline the quote-to-policy process. Bluewolf,  a cloud computing consulting firm, will highlight technology solutions and examples of how companies can maximize their technology investments and deliver improved customer service while saving on costs. Key issues to be discussed include:

• Automating business processes that assist in generating and moving requests for policy (RFPs) forward with speed and accuracy

• Strategies for improving management and visibility into all stages of policy management

• How to deploy scalable, flexible, rapid solutions that prove the economics of insurance evolution

Description: Boomi offers a range of integration solutions to fit your company’s IT and financial resources. In this webinar, Rick Nucci, CTO & Founder of Boomi, will demonstrate the set-up and deployment of the Salesforce/Quickbooks pre-built Widget as well as the option to build your own integration process on the configurable AtomSphere platform.

This webinar will provide an overview of Boomi’s solutions for Quickbooks & Salesforce integration, including:

* Pre-built integration via a Boomi Widget
* Build a custom integration via AtomSphere iPaaS
* Outsource your project to Boomi’s Professional and Managed Services Team

Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2009-07-22

Committed from the outset to leveraging the power of the Internet and cloud computing Zuora offers billing and payment solutions for small businesses on a subscription basis. This makes it easy for any size company to build, manage, and grow a subscription business. The ability to integrate Zuora’s Z-Billing service into PayPal and/or SalesForce.com makes it an attractive solution for small businesses. Already over 100 companies are using Zuora’s service and paying on a monthly basis.

We’re thrilled with the news! Software companies that have made sure the feds are addicted to their wares are not.

Check out this site Kundra was involved in promoting: Apps for Democracy to better understand why there is so much buzz and perhaps some panic in some quarters of the software industry.

For more information and viewpoints:

• WJS – Digits Blog: Inside the Head of Obama’s CIO
• OSTATIC: Bodes Well for Open Source

___________________________________________________________________________

• 3 Cloud Computing: Cloud computing news, views, and resources
• Blog.RightScale.com : Cloud Computing. Delivered
• CAM Blog Jason Meiers of CAM Solutions, monitoring composite applications for cloud computing blog
• Capitalizing on the Cloud: four key issues for technology vendors by MR Rangaswami, host of Cloud Summit Executive 
• Chirag Mehta’s Cloud Computing Blog
• Cloud Computing, Vendor and Sourcing Blog: Written by Kunal Mittal; Consulting CTO/Advisor to several startups, Executive Director of Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment
• Cloud Enterprise: Dmitry’s collection of news, analysis, and opinions on Cloud Computing and SaaS in the Enterprise.
• Cloud Musings: Kevin Jackson, Personal comments and insight on cloud computing and it relationship to net-centric warfare.
• Cloud Talk: John M Willis blog on IT management and Cloud technology. Also, check out the Cloud Cafe Podcasts
• Cloud-y
• Dana Gardner’s BriefingsDirect
• dev2ops: Blog by consultants and open source developers specializing in SaaS, e-commerce, and cloud automation
• Elastic Server : Elastic Server – CohesiveFT team blog
• ENKI Blog
• GoGrid Blog: Blog with product and industry news related to Cloud Computing and GoGrid
• Head In The Clouds: Written by Bert Armijo, SVP at 3tera, includes product info as well as comments on industry events
• High Scalability
• IT Management and Cloud Blog: John Willis’ personal comments and podcasts
• News and Ideas about Cloud Computing: Edward M. Goldberg reports about ideas and updates to the Cloud Community.
• Nicholas Carr’s Rough Type
• Nubeblog: El Blog en Español sobre Cloud Computing, Grid, Alta Disponibilidad y Escalabilidad.
• On SaaS
• ProductionScale: Kent Langley, Scalable Web Infrastructure and Technology Operations
• Randy Bias on Clouds, Infrastructure, and Automation (Founder of CloudScale Networks)
• Reuven Cohen’s ElasticVapor Blog
• Roughtype : Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World From Edison to Google
• Sam Johnston
• Service Level Automation in the Datacenter
• SpoutingShite: Ross Cooney, MD of Rozmic. Cloud computing, email and spam.
• TodoOnDemand: Blog about SaaS, Cloud Computing, On Demand Software, Business models, etc…
• Virtualization and Grid Computing: Tim Freeman, primary developer of Nimbus
• Webcloudworld
• Working in the Cloud

This major move to build super data centers by Microsoft are part of what they describe as the biggest strategic shift since the mid-1990s. They have also unveiled a slew of offerings in recent weeks that embrace cloud computing. There’s Azure, a new operating system that lets companies run software either on their own computers or as a service delivered via the Internet by Microsoft. There’s a new Windows Live offering that lets consumers store, retrieve, and share photos, blogs, and other Web content with friends. And Microsoft has announced an Internet version of its Exchange corporate e-mail, and plans to do the same with its Office software.

One can learn a lot about who the key players are going to be in an industry by tracking which companies are investing in conferences and expos. Some of the more serious commitments in the recent cloud computing expo in San Jose are listed below. Others can be found in our directory of cloud computing vendors.

DataDirect Technologies is a leader in data connectivity and mainframe integration, offering a comprehensive line of software for connecting an organization’s critical applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards.

Red Hat offers enterprise customers a long-term plan for building infrastructures on the quality and innovation of open source. Combining the leading open source operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management, and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite.

AppSense is a leading provider of user environment management solutions for the enterprise. User environment management enables the configuration and personalization of virtual, standard desktops by treating user specific data as a separate layer of the desktop.

AppStream offers streaming technology that reduces administrative overhead, costs, maintenance, and security concerns associated with managing applications and software on multiple endpoints.

Cordys -The Cordys Business Operations Platform (BOP) consists of a complete Suite for next generation Business Process Management (BPMS), Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and an open, integrated set of Tools & Technologies including Composite Application framework (CAF), Master Data Management (MDM) and a SOA grid that enables Cloud Computing.

FreedomOSS is focused on the practical implementation of SOA using Open Source solutions.

Sensedia offers products that enable enterprises to manage and reuse their SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and software development assets.

There are of course dozens of other companies who are actively investing to claim their stake in the cloud computing industry, but these companies went the extra mile at the recent Cloud Computing Expo in San Jose.

For those of you who prefer to watch and listen to answers with a bowl of hot popcorn on your lap we recommend this YouTube video: What is Cloud Computing?

Prefer to get answers from an unbiased authority site like Wikipedia? Try this link: Cloud Computing

And then there are the magazines that serve both IT consumers and IT vendors walking that thin line between cheer leading for their advertisers and giving consumers some straight talk:

PC Magazine – What does cloud computing mean for you?

Information Week – Guide to cloud computing

Infoworld – What cloud computing really means

And for those of you who think only in pink:

Webgrrls – What is cloud computing?

One thing for sure is that this cloud computing thing has captured the imagination of many of us and it’s going to be interesting to watch it blossom as bright people continue to propel technology forward for the benefit of us all.