The statistics revealed that Zynga only has to have at least one third the number of servers that it used with EC2. This may sound surprising, but as the comparisons were made they found that Zynga can run one virtual machine (VM) per server just as it was with EC2. The advantage here is that Zynga with their zCloud server can modify and optimize the use of the servers. This will include optimized gaming roles within their database access and software infrastructure; maximized Web servers and game logic executions within their cloud framework.  This new change and development was announced in the last UBM TechWeb event called CloudConnect in Santa Clara, California.

Zynga infrastructure CTO, Allan Leinwand said, “In mid-2010 we realized we were renting what we could own.”

The zCloud conception was the result of more than six months of software design and development from Zynga’s dedicated engineers. It was the most logical move for Zynga because time is already ripe to have its own cloud infrastructure. Their partnership with Amazon gave them the figures they need to project the demand for data centers and increase of users. In fact, with Farmville’s game launch alone it added 25 million game users in just a period of five months.

Castle Ville was the first sole zCloud launched game, which was introduced in November last year. With its launch it generated about 5 million users in just six days. zCloud operates with energy-efficient servers that are similar with Facebook’s Open Compute Project. It was engineered through EOM that designed it with its own server cooling system. zCloud was developed to run efficiently on cloud-focused gaming requirements that considers memory, CPU, I/O and other game elements and applications.

Leinwand said, “We thought the main flow of traffic through the data center was from east to west; it turned out to be from north to south. We found lots of areas where we could improve.”

Zynga really did its assignment as it went further and developed better storage systems that will allow web server movements even with heavy Internet traffic through its efficient firewall system and load balancers. It also had in mind that Zynga users are also heavily connected with Facebook, so they decided to build strategic locations where Facebook data centers were similarly located. Currently, they are still to utilize 20% of EMC2 servers, so they also have to consider working at close proximity with Amazon.

“We think of all of our operations in the super region as a really big data center. We own the base, rent the spike. We want a hybrid operation. We love knowing that shock absorber is there,” Leinwand said.

Zynga now refers to Amazon as a four-door Sedan while they are a high-priced sports car. This is as they usher their users to a more stable, reliable and speedy gaming experience through zCloud. As Zynga now sets up at least 1,000 servers to run 24/7 this commitment is not impossible to achieve. Currently, 80% of online game users are already on board Zynga’s private cloud. The rest of the 20% users according to Leinwand will still take advantage of Amazon’s hybrid cloud, which will also serve as their backup in cases of outages in their system.

Leinwand said, “We love four-door sedans, but it’s a car that’s used for a lot of things — doing the shopping, moving the kids. I like to think of zCloud as the sports car built for the Le Mans of social gaming. It’s tuned for the track.”

Zynga’s model may also serve as a standard for other businesses that require more control over their cloud platform. The strategy Zynga used was to host their own games and when the demand for storage and speed increased they moved to the cloud via EMC2. Meanwhile, they designed and developed their own server, so that when the time is right they moved back via their own private cloud, the zCloud.

“What’s missing from the cloud today is the ability to take that infrastructure-as-a-service and customize it and tweak it in an appropriate way for our business,” Leinwand said. “For IT to really embrace cloud computing and outsource their data centers, you need to have more control than perhaps we’re seeing these days,” he added. 

The goal of the Enterprise Application Store is to set the benchmark for business and government applications in Europe and to give the needed boost on the open cloud ecosystem. There are various negotiations being done before the scheduled launch of Canopy in April to offer the most diverse Apps in the cloud market. Products like ECM (engineering change management), PLM (product lifecycle management), enterprise email, CRM and ERP will be included in Canopy’s cloud offerings.

Joe Tucci, EMC CEO said, “Cloud computing is altering forever the way in which IT (information technology) is designed and consumed across data centers, applications and end user access points. EMC looks forward to working even more closely with Atos, accelerating this shared vision and making the benefits of cloud computing a reality for enterprise customers in key targeted industries.”

The headquarters for Canopy will be based in Europe where an expected 100 consultants will work, develop and design their cloud offerings.

“Atos brings complementary capabilities, including its strengths in Europe,” Tucci added.

EMC, Atos and VMWare will revolutionize computing and business solutions in Europe by providing the open cloud platform that will speed up business services and solutions, plus maximize consumer benefits from cloud computing.

Canopy will offer the best cloud services from security, flexibility, scalability, cost effectiveness, reliability, innovation and other cloud solutions by integrating the strengths of the three companies.

“Today’s enterprises and governments face in parallel massive pressures on IT costs, growing user expectations for agility, user-friendliness, and innovation. Cloud Computing is radically changing the world of IT by meeting these needs. The launch of Canopy and its unique set of enterprise-grade services will ensure that Atos is well positioned to play a leading role in this new and growing market. The value of today’s strategic alliance is very promising for our customers as Canopy has been designed to leverage the capabilities of Atos, EMC and VMware technologies so as to offer our clients the best one-stop-shop cloud services. Canopy will in particular closely work with its private and public sector customers to guarantee that its cloud solutions and operations will provide the highest level of integrity, reliability and security,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Atos, Thierry Breton said.

Customers will have the flexibility to choose how they prefer their cloud computing experience or business solutions to run. They will have the platform to allow off-premise or on-premise cloud systems, integration of hybrid, private or public cloud solutions.

Chief Executive Officer of VMware Paul Maritz said, “Cloud computing represents a significant shift in how customers consume and manage IT resources, but they are asking for the benefits of the cloud on their terms, with the ability for managed services to be delivered on or off premise. We’re pleased to be working with Atos and EMC to deliver cloud solutions in this fashion – simplifying and automating IT services to help customers not only reduce costs, but also transform IT into a strategic asset that yields business and competitive value.”

Other than the Enterprise Application Store, SaaS and PaaS platform, Canopy will also offer private cloud and Cloud strategy & transformation Journey Design products.

Canopy will be a cutting-edge technology as a result of the strong alliance from EMC, VMWare and Atos that will globalize cloud computing in Europe improve the business marketplace and innovate customer’s personal computing.

B2B Improved Agility

Most business-to-customer (B2C) clamor is for companies to move to social networking, mobile cloud and cloud services. This trend enhances the agility on business-to-business applications. This also, pushes forward the consumer-as-a-service (CaaS) platform as more businesses place more focus on commerce APIs.

Business Activity Monitoring Demands

The result of the cloud trend requires businesses to integrate with cloud-based processes and on-premise infrastructure, which in turn demands for an efficient business activity monitoring (BAM). As visibility into the business processes, customer activity and cloud services become quick and easy it ensures that business operations are working efficiently.

Cloud Services on a Continuous Negotiation

Outsourcing will be the trend for doing business and work that places additional challenges in cloud management. Cloud Services Brokerages (CSBs) will gain popularity as they provide expert technology management of cloud services, data management and integration between various cloud providers from CRM, EAI or B2B. .

Data Governance Popularity

As large amounts of data information are placed by customers on the cloud there is an expected demand for more cloud storage, easy access, agile business processes, audit logs and security, which requires efficient data governance.

EIA as the Standard

Enterprise Integration Application (EAI) will be the standard practice for most companies as everything becomes business-to-business (B2B) focused. More companies are now venturing into the cloud to leverage their EAIs to allow a seamless data integration from their back-end-systems and their cloud platform. Data integration is further enhanced by cloud applications through software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Huge Data Storage on the Cloud

As companies migrate into the cloud there is an expected surge for cloud data storage that will allow access from multiple sources. In addition to the volume, there will a demand for speed, reliability and security. This will boost businesses that provide varied content, data provision, cloud services brokerage and other cloud services and applications.

Master Data Management (MDM) Adoption

MDM will continue to thrive on the cloud as more cloud solutions provider fuel its usage. This software is expected to provide a complete cloud services package such as aggregation, enrichment and manipulation that will ensure data quality within the cloud platform. MDM will have the necessary boost because it will be less costly to use it compared to in-house data management or to hire an IT expert.

New Business Process Models

Cloud computing has changed the way business and work is done from the cloud integration layer as it demands efficient maintenance and procurement process. This trend moves the control and governance of data information away from the in-house IT staff and towards cloud providers and vendors. Businesses will be required to focus more on improvement of business process modeling (BPM) and innovation.

PaaS Integration

PaaS (platform-as-a-service) will have further boost in popularity and necessity as it continues to provide companies with scalable data translation and transformation on the cloud platform. In addition to this, companies are also seriously considering iPaaS to assist them in solving problems with integration and management while the business operations are doing on-premise processes.

Reliable Cloud Data Security

Cloud computing has revolutionized how personal and business transactions are made, and as a result of these have also placed several risks. This is why privacy mandates and data security laws have been created for small to large organizations and across genres of business industries. Security is given serious thought because customers demand protection for their online transactions and secure their payment cards and personal information.

Source: PEER 1 Hosting

According to Steven Levy’s book, “In The Plex,” GDrive, the nickname for Google Drive, was going to launch in 2008 under Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management for Google+. However, Sundar Pichai, the senior vice president of Google Chrome, was against the idea and managed to convince  the execs to shelf Gdrive.

Currently startups Dropbox and Box.net are among the top providers of Web-based object storage. Dropbox which reported past October more than 45 million members turned down an acquisition offer by Apple. Box.net, which reported more than 8 million users by end of 2011 also turned down buyout offers.

If rumors are true that Google is expected to offer GDrive free to consumers and businesses, charging only for large file uploads, it could make difficult for Dropbox and Box to compete with.

Google declined to comment on what it considers rumors and speculation.

AGIMO advised companies that with cloud computing it is very important to negotiate with many providers. It also added that negotiations will be a lot different from the traditional setup because companies will have to consider transparency and hypersensitivity issues when it comes to citizen’s private information.

To better help companies in their cloud migration they have come up with the first guideline, the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (FMA Act) that will cover Better Practice Guides for cloud services. This deals particularly with financial, privacy and legal concerns on a global scale.

Glen Archer, first assistant secretary for the AGIMO policy and planning division said, “The guides have been developed to reflect Australian Government FMA Act agencies’ responsibilities in the context of the Australian legislative and regulatory environment.”

This guideline mentioned the need for a steady usage monitoring and controlling through daily bill analysis and reporting. This will help avoid hidden charges and lock-in issues from the cloud vendors.

AGIMO stated, “Agencies must ensure the contract with the cloud vendor does not ‘lock’ the agency into a relationship with the vendor beyond the duration of the contract.”

Another document drafted as the second guideline was the Privacy and Cloud Computing for Australian Government Agencies. This document is to give particular attention to privacy and security issues with data storage whether it will contain personal information or not or whether information should be stored on a case-to-case basis only. This document should also work in compliance with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and with the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs).

In addition to the Privacy and Cloud Computing for Australian Government Agencies’ document, the Negotiating the Cloud – Legal Issues in Cloud Computing Agreements have also been complied with it to support companies in exploring the provisions in a contract.

“Agencies need to be aware of their privacy and data security obligations when transferring personal information into any cloud environment. If privacy issues cannot be adequately addressed, the OAIC advises that it will not be appropriate to transfer ‘personal information’ into a public cloud,” AGIMO stated.

Lastly and the third guideline, the Financial Considerations for Government use of Cloud Computing document deals with financial concerns if a company so decides to consider cloud computing solutions for the business. It discussed about the cloud requirements and the figures it will require to have the best cloud platform in terms of storage, security and reliability.

There are other issues that need to be tackled in cloud computing other than these guidelines. A few of them include the areas of community governance and guidance, procurement guidelines and business management policies.

Suzanne Campbell, CEO of the Australian Information Industry Association said in one of her statements, “The IT industry needs to sit in the boardroom as business plans are created, and with government as policy is developed. In a hugely competitive global economy, anything less is to risk a stasis, from which we may never recover.”

One of the biggest changes that are expected to happen is the shift of data storage from the on-site setup to hosted servers. Other than this, businesses need to upgrade their wireless and Ethernet capabilities to accommodate large data information of the company. Cloud providers continue to outdo each other in providing speedier internet connection, bigger data storage and cheaper outsourcing fees. More and more businesses realize that the new infrastructure improves over time in terms of scalability, security and efficiency; therefore, making cloud computing as the new standard of doing business and how work is done.

The revenue side of business also benefits from these developments as productivity improves and profitability rises. Profit comes from the decreased need for in-house IT employees and support staff.

There are, however, challenges to be dealt with in the use of cloud computing, and part of the challenges include the issues on connection speed, data storage and access points. Any business who knows how to handle these issues promptly and sees the need to embrace and upgrade into cloud computing has a better chance of thriving.

The picture is rapidly changing for businesses as more work becomes via telecommunicate and outsource as work-from-home jobs. Job openings will be more for customer service and technical support staff. Some businesses may not benefit directly from outsourcing, but those that are in services and operations will get good results from the telecommunicating scheme. Business revenue will also receive a boost through cost savings from decreased manpower need and controlled utility expenses.

Cloud computing will also push re-organization activities for the company where the services of a CIO may no longer be required in the future. Cloud computing’s irreversible effects on business solutions look bright ahead as seen on its continued rise in revenue every year. Many people are already aware that cloud computing also poses a soaring possibility of changing how personal computing is done in the coming years.

Martin Casado is the brainchild of Nicira who gained popularity after he completed his Stanford dissertation on OpenFlow protocol. This project was backed by $50 million investment funding from New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Diane Greene of VMWare.

Nicira has made significant efforts to solve the migration problems created because of VMWare’s action to push virtualization and hypervisors for computer and business IT solutions. The benefits of virtualization provided a way to separate physical infrastructure from computing solutions very easily and servers were also allowed to provide more agility for compute infrastructures. These advantages allowed developers to revolve servers and to integrate them in matter of minutes. Networking took care of the storage requirements to hold the virtualized infrastructure together. The problem is that networking is tied up with a physical hardware and an IP address that requires manual configuration.

Nicira’s OpenFlow comes in very handy because this protocol allows users to manage and control physical intelligence switches from the routing packet, separate and place them on commodity servers. This new protocol looks very promising in solving the problems with virtualization.

Nicira’s strength comes from its Open vSwitch that is initially placed inside the hypervisor, which has the ability to run with variety of hardware and protocols. The Open vSwitch communicates with the controllers running the software inside the physical storage then enables the OpenFlow to work.

Nicira also has an impressive agility, strong cloudbursting features and follow-the-sun storage. One of the companies that truly benefit from these services includes NTT for their operations around the globe. NTT uses Nicira’s cloudbursting to leverage its desktop-as-a-service product, which was used in Japan after the earthquake to handle the rolling brown outs.

eBay, an E-commerce giant uses Nicira to efficiently and quickly deploy applications within minutes. This is possible since engineers do not need manual configuration to provide their customer’s development needs.

Rackspace, on the other hand, takes advantage of Nicira’s agility to change product offerings and to leverage its infrastructure-as-a-service.

Other than Nicira, there are other startup players that are dedicated to develop software that will eventually free the cloud computing system from the physical network. Among these players include Embrane, Big Switch and ConteXtream. Nicira, however, has stepped ahead of its rivals because customers have tried and tested its deployment platform.

In terms of cloud infrastructure, Amazon.com seem to have the upper hand because it is almost impossible to mention a cloud provider without the mention of this cloud giant. Currently, Amazon has 60,000 users including pharmaceutical companies, major banks and several large companies. They have earned this status through their Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) intense compute feature, which is now considered as one of the top supercomputers of this age.

Rackspace Hosting Cloud Servers also made it on top of the list in infrastructure computing. With almost 80,000 servers operating across the globe by the 3^rd quarter of 2011, Rackspace capitalizes on the shared-principle with Amazon that “bare” cloud computing gives its users more control over their business solutions. This holds true for Amazon and Rackspace, but would be very difficult for small players who cannot even afford to invest on 1,000 server hosts. In the meantime, Rackspace and Amazon dominate this scale utility arena. Other utility service providers are also trying to make a mark that include Verizon that recently acquired Terremark, AT&T that took Synaptic Compute, IBM and VMWare.

There are companies that prefer to manage their business solutions in their own platform. This is very useful for companies that have uniquely defined projects that utilize their own software. Salesforce.com through its Force.com and Microsoft’s Azure leads this cloud platform. Force.com offers a sort of template programming for dummies that prefer to run object-oriented development that are already built-in and programmed within the platform. Microsoft Azure, on the other hand, provides problem compute solutions through its .Net service. Google, alternatively, uniquely operates using software through a platform in its search engine cloud solutions.

In the area of cloud storage, Amazon’s Simple Storage Service tops the list for its ability to host as much as 500,000 requests per second even during peak hours. VMWare’s EMC storage service also continues to post record-high revenues for the company.

Here is a table taken from Yahoo Finance and YCharts that feature revenue records of the leading cloud providers today.