Cloud Business News - Covering the World of Business Automation

Cloud Trends: The Evolution of Vertically Targeted Public Clouds

2017-09-08T20:25:00.001-07:00

Clouds today are not what clouds will be tomorrow. As the technology of clouds evolve, clouds will become more tailored to the needs of specific consumer groups, specific professional groups and specific industries and markets.

Vertical marketing of cloud technology will bring about vertical branding of clouds. Google Home is one indicator of this trend. Google Home is a cloud platform that is geared for the home, the home consumer. Saleforce.com , with the promotion of its Health Cloud, is another example of a vertical cloud marketing trend. Other cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft Azure, IBM, HP and Rackspace will more than likely join in this trend, if they already have not.

Today though, companies, professionals, and consumers for the most part must still sort through an ocean of IT jargon to determine what cloud provider actually can fill their specific cloud computing, service and software needs. Those who are knew to cloud technology, and are not IT professionals, are forced to learn the meaning of unfamiliar terms such as Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and so on and so on.

These terms baffle many and are not conducive to making sales to companies that simply want to know what the cloud means to their professional lives and business organizations. A vertical marketing approach that uses terms that are familiar to specific types of professionals and businesses, and avoids terms that are IT professional centric may well be a better way to educate target markets about the cloud and generate market interest. IT centric words, still, have their place. After all its IT departments and CIOs that actually make cloud buying decisions. As well, it is the IT staff that evaluates a cloud provider based on network metrics such as computer time, hardware allocation capability, security and optimization capabilities.

Cloud vertical marketing will open the way to a more highly competitive market. For example, there is little doubt that a biotechnology company would prefer to go to a cloud provider that focuses on biotechnology business and scientific needs than just an everyday generic cloud provider The ideal biotechnology cloud provider would specialize in high-powered genetic SaaS, databases specific to the needs of biotechnology companies, hardware configurations that are optimized for intensive genome calculations and even have PaaS specifically made for the development of biotech software. All of which would help reduce not only operating costs of biotechnology companies but reduce the cost of market entry.

The list of vertical clouds is as endless as the number of different business markets. For example, automotive clouds, agricultural clouds, transportation clouds, logistics clouds, integrated circuit clouds to name just a few possibilities. . This means that there is plenty of work for cloud providers to do. And it means that the ones that do this vertical work will end up with major market shares in specific and lucrative vertical cloud markets.

Cloud Computing for Home Users: Defining the Home Cloud

2017-09-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

With all the different cloud definitions it is easy to get confused about what a cloud is. The truth of the matter is that a cloud is no more than just a giant computer. Different cloud providers, such as Google and Microsoft both have giant computers that they call their cloud. And they let you use their giant computers for a monthly subscription fee or in many cases, for free.

More precisely, Google and Microsoft as well as other cloud providers, have more than one giant computer for you. Google Home, for instance, is a giant computer (or cloud), that has special software that is designed for home users. Google Home lets you make phone calls and lets you search for information through voice command. This software is all accessed when you give a voice command to your Google Home device. The Google Home Cloud can also be accessed through your cell phone, that is if you have downloaded the Google Home app to your cell phone.

Different cloud providers, provide different types of clouds, which for the more tech savvy, may be called computer platforms or computer networks, or distributed processing platforms. These different clouds are designed for different types of people with different needs. The Google Home cloud has been designed for the home. It was designed to meet the computer needs of people when they are at home. Another popular cloud, called the Creative Cloud (from Adobe Systems) has been designed for artists, graphic designers and all-things multimedia including video films. When you sign up for the Adobe Cloud, you gain access to all of Adobe's software as well as Adobe's giant computer.

There are also general-purpose clouds. These clouds are designed for the business needs of corporations. Corporations require advanced business software and in many cases, super giant sized computers. These super giant computers, which can also be called supercomputers, may be called onto to process millions of sales transactions every day or monitor business activity from every corner of the world, every minute of the day.

As the cloud concept progresses, expect to see clouds for every type of profession and activity. For example, for emergency situations, emergency workers access Emergency Clouds. These Emergency Clouds store emergency data, and have emergency analysis software on them. Emergency workers access Emergency Clouds through their cell phones or through their lap tops.

Clouds often work together with other clouds. For example, a Home Cloud, at times, in an emergency, may need to access the data in an Emergency Cloud. Or, an Emergency Cloud, may want to send out information to Googles Home Cloud. Google's Home Cloud in turn could alert all its subscribers about emergency information they need to know.

Reducing Cloud Costs with Cloud and Business Management Services

2017-09-07T14:45:00.003-07:00

Costs have been one of the major reasons organizations have switched from private clouds to public clouds. Startups embrace the public cloud because it eliminates the need to build and manage a private cloud on-site. This saves on initial startup costs that include IT hardware, IT software and IT staff. For a high tech startup comes other public cloud benefits. One is that the company does not have to concern itself with IT issues and can focus on product development and product marketing issues.

Well, that is at least true in theory until the monthly cloud bills come floating through the door. Many companies will just pay the bill when they are in start-up frenzy mode. The more cloud savvy will start looking around for ways to find out how to reduce cloud costs.

What the latter will find out is that cloud ignorance is increasing cloud bills. The truth about the cloud is that many companies over allocate cloud resources, such as cloud instances (processors) which may result in cloud billings that are 2 or 3 times than they need to be.

Newer companies may not even have one IT expert on staff. They may depend solely on the support services of the cloud vendor. This means that the company is in the dark about how to reduce cloud costs. Not only do they not know how to optimize cloud infrastructures, but they also don't how to streamline automated processes so that cloud costs and company inefficiencies are mitigated. .

Forgetting about IT altogether is one way to go. However, one should also remember that IT, business process flows, and business automation are skills that a company should have a handle on. If they don't, they are not only subjecting themselves to unnecessarily high cloud bills, but are missing out on the benefits the high processing power that the cloud offers. True cloud power translates to lower business operating costs and more effective marketing and sales operations. All of which, make a more expensive cloud bill pay for itself.

Ideally, any company that uses the cloud, should know how to use it such that the cloud hardware and software is optimized for the lowest cost and the best performance (cloud management services). And they should know how to use the cloud so that businesses processes can be continually improved (cloud business process management services). Without the two, a company never will realize higher revenue growth, lower time to market and continued reductions in operating costs. Something that their cloud-savvy competitors are only to pleased to hear.

Mobile data centers offer different solutions to intense cloud computation problems

2017-09-04T18:00:00.002-07:00

In a world of large data centers called clouds, intensive software processing applications that once took hours to do can be done in minutes if not seconds. One of the problems though is transit time from the point of data collection to the data center and back again. The time to transmit data to and from a data center, the cloud, is often limited by the speed of the internet. This is not a problem for some applications, but for other applications, such as Internet of Things, applications, where a machine must respond to tens of thousands of events quickly, it can be problematic. The time to send the data can far exceed the time to process the data.

Simply put, does this mean that data centers should be smaller and placed, almost everywhere. Or should they continue as they are as a massive buildings containing thousands if not millions of microprocessors.

Recent data architecture trends suggest that the future will need both and will have both. Data scientist look at the pool of over 8 billion cells phones and see a network of over 8 billion microprocessors that remain idle most of the time. Tapping into cell phone compute power may be one way of offering a new way to process and deliver large amounts of data quickly.

But there are more unused processors in the world that can be tapped. There are a large bank of computers at companies and organizations that go unused at night. As well, during the day, they are often underused. This begs the question, should PCs be designed differently. That is should they be designed so that they can be automatically configured and connected together as data centers.

There is even more unused computer powerout there and more coming on the horizon. Automobiles. Automobiles complete with processors for GPS applications and self-driving applications. With hundreds of millions of automobile processors sitting idle isn't it about time data architects think about how to connect these processors as the ultimate moving interconnected data center - the moving cloud.

Look Before You Leap: public clouds reported to be more costly than private clouds

2017-09-02T16:36:00.001-07:00

Listening to all the great features and benefits of the public cloud, it's easy to get caught up in the allure of public clouds. Not only is there the attraction of powerful never-been-done before cloud apps, but also the sense that the public cloud will eliminate all your IT headaches, drama and costs.

According to recent studies (1) this is not always the case. But in all things cloud, it depends on the company and who you talk to. And it also depends on the public cloud you use. Many companies, that are IT savvy, have come to realize that they actually save quite a bit of money with a private cloud, even when considering the cost of IT upgrades and IT staff.

Apparently it's not uncommon after switching to a public cloud to wince once the monthly bills start arriving. Bills ranging in the $40,000 to $100,000 a month range cause many CIOs to think twice. And what they think about is how big of a colocation private cloud that can buy with that amount of money. And they think whether or not its worth it to have their business records in a public cloud.

Even with those considerations, CIOs must still pause and think. Will public cloud costs come down in the future? As well, just like there are hidden public costs are there also hidden application benefits of a public cloud? Finally, there is a question of whether or not a company wants to remove itself to far from the evolving world of cloud technology? CIOs might also see some value of having first class cloud professionals on-board, especially if there isn't much of a cost difference between private and public clouds

The cost debate between public and private clouds tends to end after a private cloud reaches a certain size. If a company has a huge data center, its difficult for a public cloud to beat the cost of a private cloud (2). Then again, that's not to say that even the biggest private clouds can make some use of a public cloud to save money and reduce risk.

The competing benefits of private clouds and public clouds will always tilt depending on the application and the company. Such competing benefits is what is driving the growth of hybrid cloud architectures. The hybrid model, which is part public and part private cloud. may offer the best cloud cost/performance ratios. However, again, that will depend on who you talk to, what they know and what the cloud is used for.

Cloud Learning Links

(1) Public vs. private cloud cost comparison finds enterprise winners, TechTarget, Aug 2017, Robert Gates
(2) The Complete Cloud Buy VS Build Calculator, TheCalculator,
(3) Google Cloud Pricing Calculator, Google

GPU Cloud Computing Gains Momentum: Walmart Picks Nvidia's GPU Technology

2017-09-02T14:42:00.000-07:00

If your designing your own private cloud or you are looking for a public cloud provider, one important consideration is cloud hardware. New advances in integrated circuit (chip technology) are quickly making traditional cloud hardware obsolete. Servers built on microprocessors, such as Intel's famous line of processors, are becoming a thing of the past. Replacing these microprocessors in cloud servers are graphic processing units (GPUs). Nvidia, which has its roots in graphic processor design, is quickly taking data center market share away from Intel. As the Market Realist points out in a telling graph, cloud builders are choosing Nvidia's data center products hands down over Intel.

As a specific telling example, Nvidia recently won over Walmart with its data center products. Walmart will use Nvidia's products in a GPU farm configuration to support its business operations. Amazon has also reported to have adopted GPU based technology for use in its data centers.

The switch in technology from microprocessor-based clouds to GPU-based clouds and even neural clouds, underscores just how tricky it can be to build and maintain a private cloud. Companies that have invested heavily in cloud microprocessor technology, now must switch over to GPU technology to remain competitive. This not only means changes in hardware, but also software. Even more importantly it means changes in the staff at the leading cloud providers. Professionals with artificial intelligence, neural network expertise and graphic processing experience are high demand items at cloud provider companies right now.

The change in cloud technology is not expected to be the last. But the switch to GPU and neural cloud technology is expected to continue. This all spells good news for companies that have a multiple cloud technology and are not locked into a specific cloud vendor. On the other hand, for companies that have locked themselves into cloud vendors that have not switched over yet, problems may be on the horizon. Technology changes at cloud companies, especially small ones, can spell trouble. If a technology change is not done right, melt downs can occur and data can be lost. Maybe even worse than that, small cloud vendors can simply go bankrupt because they lose market share too quickly.

Cloud Learning Links

Walmart Taps Nvidia for Massive Cloud to Take On Amazon, Fortune
Telsa Data Center GPUs for Servers, Nvidia
Data Center: NVIDIA's Key Growth Driver in 2018, Market Realist, Paige Tanner

Software as a Service Cloud rains over SalesForce

2017-09-01T23:58:00.000-07:00

Software as a Service in the Microsoft Azure Cloud is creating problems for other SaaS suppliers. However at the same time its opening up sales avenue for Microsoft's clients. The new SaaS cloud bases Microsoft Relationship Sales package has resulted in Microsoft racking up SaaS revenue.

And why shouldn't it. The Microsoft Relationship Sales package includes the LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Microsoft's Dynamics for Sales solution. Microsoft acquired Linkedin in 2016 along with its endless number of members. Not to mention an wealth of data on the hundreds of thousands of companies that LinkedIn members work for.

This all makes Microsoft's Dynamics for Sales solution more interesting. Just exactly how did Microsoft streamline all this data into a successful top-selling SaaS sales solution? And are customers of Microsoft's Dynamics for Sales seeing their sales efforts less costly and more effective?

Learning Links

Linkedin Helping Microsoft Pull Ahead of its SaaS Rivals, eWeek
SaaS For Supply Chain Management,
The Top 25 Most Popular SAAS Cloud Apps for Business, Channele2e
Best SaaS and Top B2B Apps of 2017, Financesonline
10 SAAS Companies to Watch, Network World

What is a cloud computing platform?

2017-09-01T22:18:00.001-07:00

The definition of a cloud computing platform expands and changes with time. How can it not? Cloud computing extends over the never-ending and evolving expanse of computer architecture and technology. Instead of trying to define a cloud computing platform in a narrow domain, a broader definition is needed: A cloud computing platform is a human and computer accessible network of configurable computer hardware components and interconnected software applications.

A cloud computing platform may also be viewed as a user-accessible data center in which a user can control, apply and configure for what ever purpose they see fit. Cloud computer platforms can be public, meaning that a business or the general public can buy a subscription to access it. Cloud computer platforms can also be private This meaning that only a select group of people can access it. For example, many governments and companies have private cloud computing platforms. Finally, a cloud computing platform can be a hybrid. A hybrid cloud computing platform is in general a private cloud platform that can be configured to interact with a public computer platform.

For the real business world, and the world of cloud service providers, cloud platforms are classified into more specific categories. There are for example, PaaS platforms also known as Platforms as a Service. These cloud platforms are targeted at software developers. Software developers that want to develop specific applications, built with specific programming languages, such as Java, PHP or Ruby, are the end-users of PaaS cloud platforms. Developers often prefer PaaS platforms over in-house software development platforms. This is because a PaaS cloud platform provides an unlimited number of processors, servers, data storage, operating systems, and applications specific development software and tools to create their application in.

For a business or consumer, a cloud platform often means a place to store data. It can also mean a place where different software programs can be accessed. For a company, a cloud platform is a place where all members of the company can access software programs, store files and share information with others. For companies that don't want to have the hardware and software needed for a cloud on-site (a private cloud), they are more and more often,selecting a public cloud computing platform for their entire company. If the right type of public cloud or clouds are chosen, this can often mean significant savings for the company. And this is because, with the right type of clouds, a company no longer has to support in-house hardware and software upgrades for all the members of the company.

Learning Links

Nine Cloud Development Platforms on the Rise, InfoWorld
Debating the Definition of Cloud Computing Platforms, Forbes
The 20 Coolest Cloud Platforms & Vendors, CRN
A Short Introduction to Cloud Platforms, An Enterprise Oriented View, Chapman and Associates
What is PaaS?, Microsoft

Managed Cloud Computing Companies offer the Best of Public, Private and Hybrid Clouds

2017-09-01T19:56:00.001-07:00

Managed cloud computing is the use of outside IT services to construct, build upon and optimize an organizations private, public and hybrid clouds. The rise of managed cloud computing services is in response to a need to take advantage of the cost-savings from the public cloud and to improve the services of an organizations private and hybrid cloud architectures.

A managed cloud computing company can provide the information and the technical staff to help an organization decide which cloud providers and which cloud provider services will work the best for a specific organizations needs. Cloud management companies can also duplicate complete private IT infrastructures and manage them at cost points that are lower than most private businesses can do themselves.

Some managed cloud computing companies will actually duplicate a complete IT infrastructure at their own data center or at a cloud vendor computing data center. This would include all the hardware and software, such as servers, firewalls and software. This duplication of a companies private cloud frees organizations from their expensive IT budgets, but at the same time provides an IT infrastructure that an organizations employees are familiar with.

Because managed cloud computing companies specialize in different market segments, these companies are aware of the best cloud computing solutions for a specific market segment. They are also aware of hardware and software advances that will keep an IT infrastructure performing at optimum levels of reliability. Furthermore they are experts with compliance regulations and how best to meet them. They also know how to keep data secure and to effectively backup data so that it is very unlikely that data will be lost or compromised.

Services that managed cloud computing companies offer include cloud security, private and public cloud applications synchronization, cloud computing performance optimization, cloud as a service, cloud computing deployment, cloud computing scaling, and the development of operating system and programming language specific cloud platforms. The best cloud computing management companies will be able to commit to guaranteed cost reductions and network performance increases as part of the program.

Learning Links

Benefits of Managed Cloud Computing, OnlineTech

Benefits of Managed Cloud Computing Gigenet

How Managed Cloud Computing Can Grow Your Business – Part 1, iStreet

Choosing the Right Clouds for Your Business; Public, Private or Hybrid?

2017-09-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Choosing the right cloud configuration for your business is critical for lowering IT costs, managing company growth, and protecting against calamities. Companies that are overly dependent on their own private cloud face rising IT costs and vulnerability to IT business calamities. On the other hand, companies that are overly dependent on public clouds, place their IT future in the hands of strangers. Companies that make judicious use of a hybrid cloud architecture, minimize the risks and maximize the gains that can be obtained from both private and public clouds.

Private business clouds, swaths of interconnected servers and software and computers, were what many companies of the new millennia were built on. IT staffs in the early 2000s, built up on-site networks which connected the companies' computers together. They installed software on the servers for the employees to share, backed up data on the network to hard drives and tape drives, and developed software that glued the company' IT operations together and kept it running. As the company's IT needs grew, so did the complexity and problems of running the in-house network. Computer crashes, data thefts, and breakdowns on infrastructure software as well as the time to maintain that software all became bigger issues as well as IT costs. What once were small networks, grew into large networks that constantly needed hardware and software upgrades, which constantly needed larger IT budgets, new computers and new software, and higher levels of professional staff to maintain.

Public clouds today present a solution to the problems, costs and complexities of on-site private clouds. With a public cloud, a company no longer needs to have an on-site network and associated IT staff to support the companies IT network. With a public cloud, all hardware (hardware as a service, HAAS) and software (software as a service, SAAS) that a company needs, in theory, can be accessed over the Internet. All the company needs are terminals to access the software and hardware at the off-site public cloud.

For example, with a subscription to Microsoft's public cloud, all of a companies employees, can have complete access to Microsoft;s vast data center and Microsoft's vast number of software products. With additional configurations a company can utilize Microsoft's Azure cloud as a supercomputer that will run massively complex and data intensive calculations that they could never do, in a practical manner, with an on-site private cloud. Furthermore, all of a company's files and data can be stored in Microsoft's cloud with relatively little risk that the data will be lost or broken into. Finally, all this can be done without a costly IT staff and without the need to consider the costs of on-site hardware and software upgrades.

The theory is great when it comes to the public cloud. Lower IT costs, access to the latest software instantly, worldwide company connectivity, and no more worries about company-wide hardware and software upgrades. In practice though, companies don't always want all their data and all their software on the cloud. There are also security issues, and laws and regulations when considering a public cloud. Furthermore, companies may have already made a substantial investment in their own private cloud. As well, its often not practical for employees to access software programs on the cloud over the Internet. It is often just much more convenient and efficient to keep the software on their own personal computer then access it over the cloud.

For those in this situation, a hybrid cloud is the solution. A hybrid cloud consists of an interconnected public cloud and private cloud. In a hybrid cloud architecture, a company uses its internal data center and IT staff to manage part of the companies IT needs and a public cloud, or for that matter several public clouds, for a different set of IT needs. Often though, a company can opt for a cloud architecture that interconnects a private cloud with a public cloud. In these cases, data files may be backed up in real time to a public cloud, offsetting the need for the IT staff to back-up their private cloud. Persistent data backup schemes make this task very efficient. A persistent data back-up scheme scheme doesn't back up all the data, but only the data that has changed. For example, in a persistent data scheme, only data files that had changed since the last backup are saved.

As time matches on, the idea of private clouds and even hybrid clouds may drift into just the concept of a public cloud. Startups for example, may just not have the motivation for establishing an in-house network complete with servers, routers and gateways and an expensive IT staff. If a public cloud provides the horsepower of a million computers, the ability to interconnect tens of thousands of employees, and data backup in a more and more reliable and trusted manner all without the need of costly IT staff, the risks and costs of a private cloud and even a hybrid cloud outweigh the risks and costs of a public cloud.

Healthcare IT Technology Library Learning Links

2013-04-22T22:36:00.003-07:00

Healthcare Process Management and BPM

SPONSORED BY: THE VERY BEST LIBRARY NOTES

High Level First Case Start Process Map - Pre medical operations procedures
Source: Six Sigma Reducing Delays in the Cardiac Cath Lab with Six Sigma: An iSixSigma Case Study, GE Healthcare and New York Presbyterian Hospital
Authors: Sylvia (Konopka) Wrobel, Margaret Millar, Bernadette O'Brien and Marie Weissman
Date: February 26, 2010
URL: http://www.isixsigma.com/new-to-six-sigma/dmaic/reducing-delays-cardiac-cath-lab-six-sigma/

Asthma Diagnosis Process Flow Chart
URL: http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0031395509000765-gr10.jpg

IT support for healthcare processes – premises, challenges, perspectives
Source: ScienceDirect.com
Authors: Richard Lenz, , Manfred Reichert
Date: April 2007
Author Affiliations: Institute for Medical Informatics, University of Marburg, Bunsenstrasse 3, D-35037 Marburg, Germany
Information Systems Group, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Clinical pathway for proximal femoral fracture process flow chart
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169023X06000784

Electronic Symptom Reporting Between Patient and Provider for Improved Health Care Service Quality: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Part 1: State of the Art
Source: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Authors: Monika Alise Johansen1, MSc; Eva Henriksen1, MSc; Alexander Horsch2,3, PhD; Tibor Schuster2, PhD; Gro K Rosvold Berntsen1, MD, PhD
Date: 2012
URL: http://www.jmir.org/2012/5/e118/
URL: http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0169023X06000784-gr6.sml
URL: http://www.isixsigma.com/wp-content/uploads/images/stories/migrated/graphics/185a.gif

Sending Healtcare to Villages Process Flow Chart
Source: Sending Health to Villages: Expectations and Telemedicine in Hubli, Global Exchange Program
URL: http://globalexchangeprogram.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/picture-4-sendhealths-process-flow-chart.png?w=490&h=316

Electronic Healthcare Records Management Process Flow Charts and Associated Project Management Procedures
Source: HealthITUserNeeds, Google.com, Code
URL: https://code.google.com/p/health-it/wiki/HealthITUserNeeds
URL: http://hotelmanagement2010.googlecode.com/files/SystemPerspectivesHealthIT.JPG
URL: http://health-it.googlecode.com/files/Req_ExistingProcess.jpg
URL: http://health-it.googlecode.com/files/Req_ProcessFlow_1.jpg
URL: http://health-it.googlecode.com/files/Req_Process_Flow_2.jpg

Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index Loading the Initial Data Set User's Guide
URL: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E20743_01/doc.11/e18590/load_dataset_ohmpi_chapter1.htm

Healthcare Process Models
Source: IBM Websphere
URL: http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v7r0mx/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.ws.icp.hccpay.doc%
2Fshared%2Fdev_guide%2Fprocflow%2Fc_ovrprocflw.html

BPMN for Healthcare Processes
SORUCE: CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
Authors: Richard Müller, Andreas Rogge-Solti2

URL: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-705/paper9.pdf

Costs and infant outcomes after implementation of a care process model for febrile infants.
Source: Pediatrics, Pubmed.gov
Date: 2012
Authors: Byington CL, Reynolds CC, Korgenski K, Sheng X, Valentine KJ, Nelson RE, Daly JA, Osguthorpe RJ, James B, Savitz L, Pavia AT, Clark EB, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22732178

Process Model Of Governance For Agility: A Healthcare Sysmtem Implementation In China
Publication; PACIS 2012 PROCEEDINGS, AIS Electronic Library
Authors: Say Yen Teoh, RMIT University, Australia Follow, Xi Chen, Zhejiang University, Lori Clarke – Using Process Modeling and Analysis Techniques to Reduce Errors in Healthcare
URL: http://anitaborg.org/wiki/index.php/Lori_Clarke_%E2%80%93_Using_Process_Modeling_and_Analysis_Techniques_to_Reduce_Errors_in_Healthcare

BPM in Health Care – Cut Costs While Improving Experience
BPM Streamlines Health Care Appeals and Grievances by 30%
Publisher: BPM LEADER
Author: Garth Knudson
Company: HandySoft
Date: October 24, 2012
URL: http://www.bpmleader.com/2012/10/24/bpm-in-health-care-cut-costs-while-improving-experience/

Big data problems in healthcare call for BPM implementation
Date: November 28, 2012
Company: Appian
URL: http://www.appian.com/bpm-news/bpm-software/big-data-problems-in-healthcare-call-for-bpm-implementation

Care process management: Using BPM tools and methodology in the healthcare environment
Authors: Alan Dickman Solution Architect, IBM, Neal Gilmore, Director of Operations, Risk, Finance, and Compliance Technology, RBC Capital Markets, Philipp Schume, Senior BPM Consultant, IBM
URL: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/bpm/bpmjournal/1212_dickman/1212_dickman.html?ca=drs-

Healthcare BPM in Philippines to touch $1 billion by 2016:
Date: November 7, 2012
Source: BPMWatch
URL: http://www.bpmwatch.com/research/healthcare-bpm-in-philippines-touch-dollar-one-billion-by-2016-himoap/

Healthcare revenue cycle management process flow diagrams
Source: AP Softech PVt Ltd
URL: http://www.apsoftech.com/images/process_flow.jpg

Source: Velan Services Delievered
URL: http://www.velaninfo.com/images/revenue-cycle-process-flow.gif

INFOGRAPHICS LIBRARY LEARNING LINKS: HEALTHCARE

2013-04-21T13:33:00.001-07:00

SPONSORED BY THE VERY BEST ALGEBRA NOTES

Data suggests healthcare costs will be the major component of the United States national debt from 2011 to 2051
URL: http://www.voxeu.org/sites/default/files/image/FromApr2012/cooper_fig3b.gif

United States National Health Spending ($Billions, 1960, 2008P)
URL: http://www.bipac.net/PPG/healthspending.gif

Breakdown of Premium Healhtcare Costs: General Inflation, Drugs, Medical Devices, Provider Expenses, Government Regulations, Fraud, Litigation, Demand
URL: http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2002/0600/fpm20020600p24-uf2.gif

Average Annual Medical Costs of a Family of 4, 2001- 2012 Milliman Medical Index
URL: http://davald.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-25-at-12-01-31-pm.png

Annual Health Care Costs Per Employee National Averages, 2005 -2012P
URL: http://media.advisorone.com/advisorone/article/2011/10/03/HCCost.jpg

Projected increase In G.20 sovereign spending as result of aging populations 2010 - 2050: Pension, healthCare, long term care
URL: http://blogs.r.ftdata.co.uk/beyond-brics/files/2012/01/SP-G20-age-related-spending-Jan-2012.jpg

Healthcare costs versus consumer price index, 1993 - 2003
URL: http://nemasket.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/healthcare.gif

Healthcare Automation Learning Link Library

2013-04-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

THE VERY BEST ALGEBRA NOTES

Text Messaging Can Improve Health Care
Publisher: MDNEWS.com
Date: July 14, 2011
Author: Greg Clausen
URL: http://www.mdnews.com/news/2011_07/text-messaging-can-improve-health-care.aspx

Automated Phone and Mail Notices Increase Medication Adherence
Publisher: Kaser Permanente
Date: 26 Nov 2012
URL: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/pressreleases/nat/2012/112612-medication-adherence.html

Study: Automatic Reminders Increase Medication Adherence
Publisher: Healthcare Informatics
Date: 26 Nov 2012
Author: Gabriel Perna
URL: http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/news-item/study-automatic-reminders-increase-medication-adherence

Kaiser Permanente Lowers Costs Dramatically with SMS Appointment Reminders
Publisher: mobileStorm
Date: 2012
URL: http://www.mobilestorm.com/clients/email-and-sms-case-studies/clients/kaiser-saves-money-using-sms-for-appointment-reminders/

Leading Innovations in Patient Adherence - Iterative and Inference Based
Publisher: MEMOTEXT
URL: http://www.memotext.com/

Diagnosing Medication Non-Adherence in a Patient with Myocardial Infarction
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, frontiers in Psychology, National Institute of Health
Authors:Siqin Ye, David J. Krupka, Karina W. Davidson1
Date: 3 August, 2012
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3411184/

ePROSMS, Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes
Company: excoIntouch, Healthcare at your fingertips
URL: http://www.excointouch.com/electronic-patient-reported-outcomes/epro-sms/

Text Messages Boost Patient Outcomes
Publication: Information Week
Date: September 28, 2010
Authors:Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-wireless/text-messages-boost-patient-outcomes/227500893

A Text Messaging Intervention to Improve Heart Failure Self-Management After Hospital Discharge in a Largely African-American Population: Before-After Study
Publication: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date: 11.03.2013
Authors: Shantanu Nundy1, MD; Rabia R Razi2, MD, MPH; Jonathan J Dick3, MD; Bryan Smith4, MD; Ainoa Mayo5, MA; Anne O'Connor6, MD; David O Meltzer5, MD, Ph.D
URL: http://www.jmir.org/2013/3/e53/

Medtronic CareLink Network for Cardiac Device Patients
Publication: Medtronic
Date: 26 Feb 2013
Authors: Medtronic
URL: http://www.medtronic.com/for-healthcare-professionals/products-therapies/cardiac-rhythm/patient-management-carelink/medtronic-carelink-network-for-cardiac-device-patients/index.htm

Controversies in Cardiovascular Medicine, Home Monitoring Heart Failure Care Does Not Improve Patient Outcomes - Looking Beyond Telephone-Based Disease Management
Publication: American Heart Association Journal
Date: 2012
Authors: Akshay S. Desai, MD, MPH
URL: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/125/6/828.full

Healthcare via cell phones: a systematic review,
Telemed J E Health. 2009 Apr;15
Authors: Krishna S, Boren SA, Balas EA.
Source, School of Public Health, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri 63104, USA.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19382860

Computerized Automated Reminder Diabetes System (CARDS): e-mail and SMS cell phone text messaging reminders to support diabetes management
Publication: PubMed. February 2009
Authors: Hanauer DA, Wentzell K, Laffel N, Laffel LM.
Source Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19848576

Implementing a Text Messaging System to Improve Quality of Health Care
Date: 2011

URL: http://www.rti.org/page.cfm?objectid=CD65896E-5056-B100-0C72E74FDECD57EB

Healthcare Texting in a HIPAA-Compliant Environment
Authors: Andrew A. Brooks, MD
URL: http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/aug12/managing5.asp

New program for diabetes patients puts text messaging to work
Publication: HealthCare IT News, April 9, 2012
URL: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/new-program-diabetes-patients-puts-text-messaging-work

Health information technology improves obesity treatment access and screening, but not patient outcomes
Publication: 2 Minute Medicine, February 3, 201
URL: http://www.2minutemedicine.com/health-information-technology-improves-obesity-treatment-access-and-screening-but-not-patient-outcomes/

Automated supply chain solutions simplifies transition to the cloud

2013-01-03T16:59:00.003-08:00

While many companies struggle with advanced business processes and migrating to the cloud to implement end-to-end global supply chain solutions, others are skipping this time-consuming step.

Instead of going through the long process of migrating internal applications, developing extensive business process management (BPM) solutions, and establishing business process and cross-industry database links, they are opting for turnkey cloud-based supply chain management solutions.

Skeptics of no-code BPM and cloud migration, although applauding the ability of BPM to simplify the integration of supply chain business applications, still view the steps needed to implement a BPM solution for "big data" intensive and time-critical supply chain solution as to complex.

Additionally home grown BPM line of business solutions simply don't go far enough and move fast enough to meet the needs of high technology supply chains. And that's not necessarily because BPM doesn't work great. Its simply because it takes too long to implement industry-to-industry BPM supply chain networks and tap the best and most time-critical "big data" resources.

Part of the problem is that it still takes high level information workers to implement the extensive business processes needed. Even with those skills in hand, the other problem is that the supply chain network of high technology vendors and products is too vast, too complex and too dynamic for an individual company to keep up with.

On the other hand, turnkey cloud based supply chain solutions, that have integrated well-categorized and real time "big data" vendor and vendor product analytics, free high technology companies from not just their dependence on highly skilled information workers but high-priced IT programmers. Besides allowing businesses to reduce operational demands on their staffs, turnkey supply chain solutions allow companies to have supply chain models and networks that are far more effective than what they could do in house.

Supply chain management solutions that integrate real time "big data" vendor and product analytics have been well received. E2Open, a provider of cloud-based global trading network solutions, is a case in point. The company has seen its revenue jump in the order of 30 percent year-to-year and offers guidance that suggests the same for 2013

E2Open has to its credits clients that have some of the most demanding supply chain network requirements. The most notable are from the electronics industry. Electronics companies, such as semiconductor and disk drive companies, have hundreds of different of vendors from which they buy thousands of different products. For a typical electronics end-product, there can easily be 100 different vendors involved in its production.

The allure of E2Open's solution for high tech companies is that it tackles the "big data" problem and the supply chain integration problem as an integrated one-stop solution. E2Open's solution ties together "its industry specific" trading network directly to a specific clients internal network. Using the solution, high tech companies no longer have to worry about keeping "big data up-to-date", search for new big data resources, or tying together their business processes to hundreds of different vendors supply chain processes and models. One simple connection to the E2Open network eliminates all of these tasks.

Cloud Business News is a publication of BookMarkTutoring.com. BookMark specializes in group training and one-on-one tutoring in a wide range of business, engineering and scientific subjects.

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Predictive analytics expected to improve weather forecasts and weather driven demand forecasting

2012-12-31T17:00:00.002-08:00

Big data on regional weather conditions continues to grow. This historical data offers a wealth of statistical data that can be added to predictive models to help predict the weather and improve business profits.

Companies such as Planalytics have integrated a wealth of historical weather data into automated predictive analytical packages to help companies plan for increased or reduced demand that results from weather conditions. With the company's predictive heat map snapshots, business can see estimates of regional-specific demand for heaters, air conditioners and other types of weather dependent products as the weather changes.

Weather influences many businesses in many different ways besides the sale of products. Bad weather can delay shipments, shut down factories and increase delivery costs. Planalytics addresses the weather issues for all types of industries. The company has weather predictive analytics solutions for retail, insurance and manufacturing companies (just to name a few).

Planaltyics client list tells the story of just how important weather driven business analytics is to companies these days. There client list includes well known companies from almost every industrial sector. Among the company's massive list of clients are Starbucks, Baskin Robins, Payless, Ace Hardware, Bloomberg and DuraFlame.

Planaltyics weather solutions help these companies not only predict demand based on the weather, but also more accurately forecast sales at all their regional operations throughout the world. This means these companies can adequately address inventory stocking needs as well as regional labor needs and specific regional problems so that the effects on profits are mitigated.

Predictive Analytics and Predictive Modeling Made Simple

2012-12-30T17:19:00.004-08:00

Predictive Analytics and Predictive Modeling Made Simple

Predictive analysis allows companies to make decisions based on data, large amounts of data, often known as big data. This data could be keywords in tweets, weather patterns or vast amounts of consumer data. .With customer data integration software a company can completely break down the demographics of their customer base. With real time customer data integration software, changing demographic trends can be analyzed in real time and companies can change their marketing strategies accordingly.

Today though, changing your marketing strategies is also an automated real time process. When a potential customer comes to web site, their consumer data profile is read and the advertising is reconfigured to match the consumers profile.The potential buyer's profile then is matched with the ad database. Probability rankings are generated for each type of ad based on the potential buyer's profile. Then the ad is placed on the potential buyers screen.

It doesn't stop there though. Whether or not the ad resulted in a purchase is made is then recorded. The probability rankings are then recalculated for the ad and statistical data stored in the predictive model. In this way the predictive model is continually improved so that optimal sales revenue is achieved.

Developing a predictive model requires one to have a database of stimulus often ads or words. Ideally, it also requires one to have subjects, the potential buyers, to view or read those ads and words. The more subjects that are exposed to the stimulus the more data the predictive model has to work with. So over time as the number of stimulus grows and the number of subjects increases, the better the predictive model gets.

The factors that go into building a consumer predictive model are many. These can include the consumer's buying history, geographic location, occupation, interests, and time of year, just to name a few.

However, the first step in building a predictive model doesn't necessarily require any advanced analytics, technology or big data. . Simple surveys of the customer base can be conducted and the results used to generate the predictive model seed.

Predictive analytics companies sales continue to rise

2012-12-29T17:29:00.002-08:00

The predictive analytics market, considered one of the highest growth markets in the business intelligence sector, continues to gain steam. The latest news from SAS, based in Cary, North Caroline, is that its new SAS data mining software licenses increased 28 percent year-over-year.

This type of sales trend is expected to continue for other companies in the predictive analytics market. One of the primary reasons is that predictive analytics tools offer businesses and governments new ways to lower costs, generate revenue and provide longer term economic stability.

Predictive analytics is not only considered necessary for companies to excel, but also is gaining notoriety as the only way for many companies to remain competitive. Jim Davis, SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer emphasized that his company's analytic products give companies the competitive edge, “Lightning-fast analytic insights provide a powerful competitive advantage. SAS Visual Analytics can evaluate numerous scenarios simultaneously, so banks can spot opportunities or detect emerging issues and respond immediately to market conditions. Retailers can personalize offers on the spot, based on structured and unstructured data from sales and social media, boosting sales.”

Why SAS is out in the lead is an open question. It could be because of its award winning products or its market focus. SAS has a diverse range of analytical tools packaged in an integrated analytics environment for predictive and descriptive modeling, data mining, text analytics, forecasting and a number of other business intelligence taks. It also offers industry specific solutions for customer intelligence and risk management. SAS focuses on the health care, banking, insurance, retail and communications market.

Similar ales increases are expected for the other predictive analytics vendors. The major reason is the growth of big data statistics warehoused in corporations and governments throughout the world. The automated pooling and analysis of this data will give businesses and governments the information they need to develop products and respond to marketing, economic and geopolitical conditions in real time.

Healthcare companies moving to cloud solutions to improve patient outcomes

2012-12-28T17:26:00.001-08:00

More and more healthcare companies are structuring and automating their approach to solving difficult medical problems. The latest companies to join the push to drive down healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes through cloud based computing technologies are Humedica, Inc (Boston) and Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE). The two companies have entered into a multi-year strategic alliance to develop advanced healthcare capabilities based on "real world data" and advanced analytical technology.

The combination of Humedica, a cloud solution based clinical intelligence company, and Pfizer, the world’s largest research-based biopharmaceutical company, will results in a data-driven collaborative research effort. As part of the effort, Humedica will gather and normalize de-identified healthcare data from disparate systems and Pfizer will utilize the information to develop and commercialize medicines to prevent and treat health conditions.

Commenting on the agreement was Michael Weintraub, Humedica’s president and CEO, “Pfizer's leadership position in global healthcare is focused on the goal of delivery of medicines at optimal effectiveness and efficiency. Humedica is pleased to be Pfizer's clinical informatics and analytics partner, applying Big Data solutions across the continuum of care.”

The importance of leading-edge analytics and real world data sets to improve the overall health of patients was underscored by Geno Germano, President and General Manager, Pfizer Specialty Care Business Unit. “The collaboration with Humedica will provide us with powerful information about healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. By combining leading-edge analytics with unique real world data sets, we believe we can identify actionable insights and potentially improve patient outcomes and overall health.”

More agreements are expected to emerge as the power of cloud based solutions and big data become better known. Healthcare and neutraceutical companies are expected to tap into real world nutrition data sets and apply cloud based analytics to determine the best diets and nutrition programs for best patient outcomes.

Cloud Business News is published by BookMarkTutoring.com. Bookmark soffers training and tutoring services for businesses and individuals.

Adobe’s creative cloud acquisition strategy nets "million member plus" creative arts social network

2012-12-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

Adobe Systems (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced that it has acquired Behance, an artistic and digital publication oriented social media network. The acquisition is part of Adobe’s strategy to win over more clients to its Creative Cloud. Behance with view rates over 90 million per month, 3 million hosted projects and over 1 million members, undoubtedly is one of the larger groups that have an interest in Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite. And that’s not only because members are users of Adobe’s tools, but use Adobe tools to produce the latest multimedia productions, publications and advertising.

Adobe is in a unique position to capture the creative segment of the cloud market place. And that’s because its one of the few or only clouds that has everything a business needs to create the videos, animations, graphics, ebooks, music, and web sites in a business process managed like environment. Sites like Behance want members to have as many reasons to come to their site as possible. Adobe’s Creative Cloud with scores of multimedia digital publishing and programming tools, creative and creative programmers have a very good reason to stay longer on Behance’s social network. Now creatives have a place to go not only to share their work, network and collaborate, but use Adobe’s “never-out-of-date” tools to place their career paths on a solid foundation.

Creatives at Behance can now use Adobe’s cloud to form creative companies in the cloud that all share an extensive and standardized tool set, saving considerable in IT infrastructure and software costs—not to mention gains in productivity. According to Scott Belsky, co-founder and chief executive officer, Behance.“We set out to connect the creative world and maximize the exposure that creative receive for their work. As creatives rely more on the social Web for collaboration and opportunity, creative people and teams will benefit from Behance's community features integrated into the creative process. We're thrilled to join Adobe and empower creative careers on a global scale."

Commenting on the advantages of Adobe’s Creative Cloud for creatives was David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager at Adobe, “When we launched Creative Cloud earlier this year, we committed that we would give members new value on an ongoing basis. Last week, we launched new training features, file synchronization and sharing capabilities, digital publishing services and significant updates to a number of our tools, including Photoshop. When we launched Creative Cloud earlier this year, we committed that we would give members new value on an ongoing basis. Last week, we launched new training features, file synchronization and sharing capabilities, digital publishing services and significant updates to a number of our tools, including Photoshop. Behance will play a key role in Adobe’s efforts to serve the creative world in the years to come and will accelerate our efforts to enable a more open and collaborative creative community.”

As far as Adobe plans for Behance, Adobe reports that it will integrate Behance’s community and portfolio capabilities with Adobe Creative Cloud “allowing members to seamlessly create content, seek feedback, showcase their work and distribute it across devices’”

Cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructures drives down business IT costs further – Market expected to grow at an annual rate of 26 percent.

2012-12-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

Companies are expected to flock to cloud based virtual desktop solutions over the next 4 years as business see potential dramatic decreases in IT operating costs from their adoption. . Besides the cloud as a way for established companies to reduce their IT costs, these companies also see the virtual desktop infrastructure as a way to leverage their existing IT infrastructure investment so that they can still use them. Explaining was TechNavio, a cloud research company “One of the major advantages of adopting cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions is the resulting ability to reuse old IT infrastructure. Cloud-based services are delivered to end-users over the internet and therefore, end-user systems do not require high-end configurations to support applications. End-user systems merely need to display transmitted content, allow inputs from end-users, and transmit data to the cloud infrastructure. Further, with virtualization of network infrastructure, the gap between old infrastructure and modern infrastructure is minimized as old infrastructure can provide enhanced computing capabilities post virtualization. Therefore, the ability of cloud-based VDI solutions to support applications on existing infrastructure is driving their adoption among an increasing number of enterprises in the US.'

For many business, a virtual infrastructure solution is one way to keep their IT infrastructure intake as they migrate their applications to the cloud. However for startup companies, virtual desktop infrastructures allow the company to completely eliminate the costs. In these companies, employees can use their own PCs, tablets and mobile devices to hook up the company’s virtual desktop infrastructure without IT involvement or costs. With further advancements in virtual desktop infrastructure, large scale processing tasks can be distributed to either the company’s public cloud service or processed with any and all PCs attached to the virtual network (hardwired or mobile). .

TechNavio’s market research report, titled, "Cloud-based Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Market in the US 2012-2016," projects that the market for cloud based virtual desktops to grow at a CAGR of 26 percent from 2011 to 2016 within the United States”

The report also said that that the vendors dominating the market were Citrix Systems Inc., Desktone Inc., MokaFive Inc., and VMware Inc. Other vendors mentioned include SecureOnlineDesktop, RedHat Inc., WorldDesk Ltd., SCC, Dell Inc., and Netelligent Corp. TechNavio also pointed out that the primary reason the market is expected to grow at such a phenomenal rate is that virtual infrastructures reduce business IT costs especially desktop provisioning costs. Today IT costs can range anywhere between 2 and 15 percent of a company’s total cost of sales. With cloud based virtual desktop infrastructures those costs could almost be totally eliminated.

Cloud business process management company, Promapp, sees high-growth BPM possibilities in Australia and Europe -- appoints strategic board members and European rights manager

2012-12-20T17:38:00.001-08:00

Promapp Solutions (New Zealand), a provider of low-cost, easy-to-use, cloud provisioned business process management software, has reported that its expanding its marketing into Europe. The company reports that its BPM products experienced strong growth in Australia and New Zealand and that they see Europe also as region where high BPM growth opportunities are present.

Part of the Promapp's European growth strategy is the appointment of United Kingdom based Spedan Limited to manage the distribution rights for Europe. It has also appointed board member, Mike Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Oxygen Business Solutions, a Australian SAP consultancy as part of its international expansion strategy.

Commenting on the growth opportunities in the international market, Smith emphasized that "Promapp is at a pivotal stage in its growth, As a cloud provisioned, high ROI enterprise solution, the potential to carve out a global niche is very real – it's already underway."

Adam Faiers, Spedan CEO, who has considerable knowledge about Promapp's BPM products, emphasized that ProMapps BPM products were second to none, " "I was a customer of Promapp's for four years at SAI Global and when the opportunity to work with Promapp arose I jumped at it. Promapp process management software is simple, user-friendly, and remarkably affordable. I've not seen anything that comes close!"

Promapp CEO, Ivan Seselj, emphasized that the new release of its BPM software will also help expedite European market acceptance of its BPM technology, "clients are already expressing delight at the new release which sets new standards in usability and simplicity for the BPM industry."

Besides Smith, Promapp also appointed Mike Carden, Vice President, Small Business Operations at Cornerstone OnDemand, a global leader of cloud-based talent management software solutions, to its board. Carden was founder of Sonar6 which was acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand in March of this year.

Promapp is a Deloitte Fast 50 company,

Cloud Velocitys turns public clouds into virtual data centers; Receives $5 million in funding

2012-12-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

CloudVelocity announced that it has received $5 million in funding from the Mayfield fund. The funding is expected to further accelerate the use of public clouds and hybrid cloud technology within the enterprise market. According to Rajeev Chawla, chief executive officer of CloudVelocity.“We are pleased to work with Mayfield Fund on this monumental effort to accelerate the adoption of public clouds. Our goal is to enable enterprises to operate hybrid clouds as seamless extensions of the data center. Cloud cloning, migration and failover are our first steps in that direction.” Also commenting on the market impact of CloudVelocity's technology was Navin Chaddha, Mayfield Fund Managing Director. “We believe that CloudVelocity will have the same impact on public cloud adoption as VMware did on the adoption of server virtualization by making public clouds look like internal data centers.”

CloudVelocity has also announced the release of beta trial software of the Developer Edition of its cloud cloning software, The software is available for download at www.cloudvelocity.com. The software allows those wishing to migrate their existing on-premise private clouds to Amazon We Services (AWS) EC2 cloud. CloudVelocity's Developer Edition lets developers clone multi-app tier clusters and services to the EC2 cloud and the company's Enterprise Edition lets users clone, migrate and failover multi-tier apps and services into Amazon's AWS EC2 cloud.

The trial software is based on the company's patent-pending One Hybrid Cloud™ (OHC) platform which has been designed to allow a company to run its multi-tier applications without modification in the cloud as well to access services in the enterprises own data center. According to the company the CloudVelocity OHC platform delivers the promise of the hybrid cloud to enterprises. With the software, an enterprise can blueprint, clone and migrate applications between data centers and public clouds in an environment that allows full server, networking security and storage integration with AWS EC2 cloud. The company expects to announce a number of new cloud hybrid solutions for the other cloud services providers in 2013.

Adopters of the new beta technology include Lealta Media. Commenting on the produce was Nitan Shingate, VP Engineering for Lealat Media. “The CloudVelocity Enterprise Edition software trial worked so well that we’ve chosen to use it ahead of schedule in our production environment for cloud failover. This will help ensure that our online business stays available within the AWS cloud, Because we cannot afford downtime,CloudVelocity has helped us to increase availability while also substantially reducing our expenses.”

Adobe Cloud Revenues on Fast Growth Track

2012-12-14T17:05:00.001-08:00

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With the announcement that Adobe Systems reached $4..4 billion, in revenue for its 2012 fiscal year, Adobe reported that it added " approximately 10,000 Creative Cloud subscriptions per week during the quarter, versus the addition of 8,000 subscriptions per week in the third quarter." Additionally, the company reported that it Document Services revenue achieved record revenue in the quarter $210.2 million. Adobe Marketing Cloud also obtained record quarterly revenue of $220.4 million which represented a 32 percent year-over-year growth.

For the year Adobe reported that its Creative Cloud paid subscriptions grew to 325,000 with an "exiting annualized recurring revenue of $153 million" for Adobe's Creative business. Advanced Marketing Cloud revenue for the year was also a record at $777 million (a 35 percent year-over-year growth). Document Services revenue for the year was also a record at $786 million.

According to Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer, Adobe, “We beat our Creative Cloud subscription goals and established Adobe Marketing Cloud as the leader in the exploding category of Digital Marketing during fiscal 2012. In fiscal 2013 we intend to accelerate our pace of innovation, and drive integration between Creative Cloud and Adobe Marketing Cloud.”

Mark Garrett, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Adobe. added “We're driving migration to a subscription model in our Creative business faster than we predicted a year ago, and we are confident fiscal 2013 will be the pivotal year for the transition, This will yield a stronger, more predictable recurring revenue model with higher long-term revenue growth.”

Behind the Cloud Boom - The Cloud Business Automation Model

2012-06-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

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BEHIND THE CLOUD BOOM - THE CLOUD BUSINESS AUTOMATION MODEL

Cloud based business automation is considered one of most important technologies of the decade. Companies that have adopted and are following the principles of the Cloud Business Automation Model are expected to become leaders in their markets. On the other hand, those that don’t are predicted to lose significant market share. Some pro cloud market analysts even predict cataclysmic financial change.

This effects of cloud business model adoption are expected to be seen in the turnover rate of Fortune 500 companies. Analysts suggest that the turnover rate may reach new highs in the next 5 years as those that haven't followed the tenets of cloud business automation are replaced with those that have. Historically, the rate of turnover for the Fortune 500 companies has trended upward, from approximately 25 companies per year in 1955 to over 35 per year today in 2012 (1). Because of the effects of cloud automation that number is expected to increase even higher, resulting in a possible turnover of over half the companies on the list by 2017.

One metric that analysts use to predict changes in the turnover rate of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies is business operating costs. Because analysts know that cloud automation and associated business process management technology reduces business operating costs they know that companies that adopt it will gain market share, making it easy for them to predict the fortunes of the Fortune 500.

Astute analysts and even venture capitalists and investors take the cloud analysis one step further. They look at the level of cloud automation and business automation programs that are in place at companies. Companies that have followed cloud automation principles diligently are more likely to be marked as not only safer investments but investments with a higher return, And that's because companies that are skilled in the art of cloud business model optimization can reduce operating costs more than those that approach cloud business automaton half-heartedly.

Many believe that cloud business automation will have more of a business impact than the world wide web. Comparing the cloud boom to the dot com boom however requires a close look at the business parameters that the web business model and the cloud business model have had the most effect on.

The web boom and the resultant dot com boom increased the demand for skilled IT workers and fixed technology assets like high performance software, workstations and networks. Unlike the dot com boom, the cloud boom, has resulted in a reduction in demand for workstations, workstation software, network equipment and network software. Also unlike the web boom, the cloud boom has resulted in a reduction in demand for IT programmers and maintenance personal.

Today’s start-ups, small and mid-size companies see not just the reduction of operating costs as a factor in their cloud decision. They also see the cloud as a way to increase their technology power to the same level as large corporations and governments. Today, through judicious selection of cloud vendors, an engineer can access the same product development tools for pennies that large corporations have spent millions on to integrate into their infrastructure.

In both of the government and financial market segments, there are signs that the cloud is changing the economic landscape. In the United States, the federal government’s IT budgets are pointing downwards The government emphasizes that cloud based technologies are expected to lower IT costs further. Companies in the financial markets have reported significant IT layoffs that they attribute to the “IT Transformation, ” the code word for the IT migration from yesterday’s bulky on-premise ERP solution to the streamlined BPM cloud solution. The business solution that Cloud and BPM vendors market as IT-free, software rich, and computationally unlimited

The cloud boom is here today because the cloud has removed the major impediment to high technology entrepreneurs: IT capital outlay, services and maintenance costs. Today’s cloud boomers, that group that lives and breathes the cloud, don’t have the up-front hardware and software expenses that the dot comers did. They also don’t have an IT staff.. Even more important, because of the cloud, today’s cloud boomers can expand and contract their business at will and without IT expenses. The same expenses that put an end to the dot com boom.

About the Author

Mark Stansberry has been involved in the technology markets since the early 1980s. His background spans a variety of technology market segments. Mark works as an analyst, engineer and technical writer in various segments of the electronics hardware and software markets. His current focus, which is always on the latest technology, is on cloud technology and graphic design automation. Mark can be reached at mark.c.stansberry@gmail.com

References

WHAT DOES FORTUNE 500 TURNOVER MEAN? Dane Stangler and Sam Arbesman
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, June 2012, http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/fortune_500_turnover.pdf .