wedran AB - Konsulttjänster i Stockholm

Telecom Trends in Cloud Computing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:46:00 +0200

Ericsson, the leading Telecom vendor, has recently included Cloud Computing in its formula for Success:

Success = (device*innovation) + (cloud computing*innovation) + (mobile connectivity*innovation) + (application*innovation)

Our view at wedran.com Consulting is that Telecom operators and vendors that manage to reposition correctly to the cloud will be the most competitive. Those who fail might become “dumb pipes”, providing only connectivity.

IaaS leaders relevant for Telecom

What are the Market leaders within IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)? The red dots are Tier-1 operators providing IaaS. The blue dot, Amazon, is the leading Visionary and the leading cloud provider.

Ericsson’s partnership with Akamai

In 2011 Ericsson announced an “Exclusive partnership with Akamai”. (SonyEricsson had a cooperation with Akamai already in 2001.) The details of the exclusivity are unclear. However, Ericsson products will be prioritized and other vendors should therefore partner with other CDNs, preferably one of the vendors in the above Magic Quadrant.

Ericsson also announced that they are working on a Patented solution. Akamai and Ericsson are committed to bring to market joint products:

Ericsson is building a machine-to-machine wholesale Cloud platform and will lease access to it i.e. provide an IaaS and/or SaaS solution.
The solution will increase speed by offering a CDN, through Akamai. The target customers are network operators, content providers and high-traffic Customers like eCommerce sites, banking sites, premium content sites and B2B sites.
Content will be delivered to any device at any time, at a faster speed. Mobile subscribers will have the same experience as on the fixed network.

Speed improvement with a CDN

Speed is the most important factor for end users and Speed is the major motivation for Ericsson choosing Akamai. Akamai is a world leading CDN with 84000 servers and delivers 15-30% of all Web traffic. Akamai doubles the speed of many Services. The static data can be cached on more than 80000 servers located close to the users. The following case study from Akamai shows the speed improvement.

Recommendation to Telecom Operators and Vendors

Some operators see Cloud Computing and new services as a huge threat. They are currently losing money from users with smartphones using VoIP clients, Apps instead of SMS etc. Other operators see new possibilities and receive Revenues from new products.
Ericsson recommends a 3-step strategy for Operators:

Control e.g. deep packet inspection
Innovate new services beyond Phone and SMS
Move up the value chain.

We think that blocking traffic is no way to go forward. Operators should not control what services users can access. Operators should utilize Cloud IaaS and SaaS to decrease operational costs and then develop innovative services. Operators should start thinking more in the terms of IT and hire the right people if they aim to compete with traditional IT services and IT companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple.

Ericsson claims that “In telecommunications, cloud computing is essentially outsourcing information” . Cloud Computing is a lot more than that, even in Telecom. It is possible to combine Akamai CDN (or other CDN) with Amazon Ec2, the leading cloud provider. Doing so, you will get an extremely scalable infrastructure where you can install any type of software, including Telecom Software.

The yellow servers are Akamai’s edge locations, close to the user That optimize static content such as HTML, Pictures and Video. The grey servers are Amazons edge servers that deliver Distributed Virtualized servers and are able to host most Software Systems. Together they provide extremely cost efficient, fast and scalable infrastructure and provide opportunity to build innovative services to huge amount of End users.

Transform IT from Cost to Revenue

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 May 2011 16:52:00 +0200

Today, IT work is often equated with costs, e.g. development, operation, hardware, and maintenance. Cloud Services redistribute these costs, and other hidden costs, to more valued work, which will generate revenue.

Cloud Services enable companies to put time, focus, and resources on the right things. By outsourcing the operation to the Cloud, a companies IT resources no longer has to maintain servers and clients. Instead they are able to focus their time on activities that improve business and increase sales. The Cloud also releases resources to actively work with process improvements, support, and developing the flow of business models throughout the company. An efficient and correctly set-up business flow can generate large revenues in time.

A Corporation will have shorter Time to Market (TTM) with Cloud Services since the user can have a service or application uploaded, installed, and ready to be used in a couple of hours. The return will therefore also be swifter.

Developing a company in this manner increases both the Competitive Edge and Market Shares. Since the Cloud enables fast development and a quick redistribution of resources to the right type of labour, both large and small organizations can quickly gain new business areas.

Let others pay for your IT-systems

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:34:00 +0200

Getting started with Cloud Services does not take long at all. All systems are already installed and in operation by the supplier. All that is required is registration of a new client, configuration of the new account for your business, and, possibly, a transfer of data. A task that previously took months to complete, now only takes a few days.

The Multi-Tenancy concept reduces IT-costs tremendously, since several companies will share the most expensive aspects like system development, operation, and maintenance. Traditionally, companies invest in hardware and software to increase productivity and reduce administrative costs. The tightened competition and the price pressure have resulted in more and more IT-systems, which in turn render bigger costs. A transition to the Cloud is therefore the next necessity to grow and remain competitive.

Read more about the advantages of Cloud Services in the next post...

Press the button for Global Growth

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 6 May 2011 17:50:00 +0200

Cloud Services enable Global Growth because the systems are built for Scalability. Those companies, big and small, that successfully manage to reposition themselves in the Cloud will become the most Competitive and thereby have the potential to become Market Leaders.

The Scalability is significantly improved through Cloud Services. As businesses grow and change, Cloud Services can be configured to fit your business need at this precise moment. Traditionally, it was necessary to assign expensive IT and Management Consultant to analyse and adjust the organization's IT-Systems as the business changed. With Cloud Services, all you have to do is to 'turn-up' the capacity, the number of users and/or the access to additional functions.

Security is also improved. The underlying systems are carefully monitored by security experts, who quickly implement security measures to all customers simultaneously. Cloud Systems also have a built-in Redundancy, which contributes to the increase in Reliability. This guarantees safety in case of power failure or server crash. Therefore, Cloud Services are especially suited to secure a Business Continuity.

Cloud Services are an Environmentally Friendly Alternative, since capacity and consumption is supplied from one location to all users, and server capacity is utilized to the max. This can be compared to using public transportation instead of driving a car.

Become inspired by the below informational video from USA's CIO, who explains how the government of USA has transitioned to Cloud Services, and the advantages that can be obtained.

Read more on the Amazon Cloud AWS in the previous post.

wedran AB in Stockholm, Sweden delivers consulting services such as Consultation, Pre-Studies, requirement Analysis, Project Management, Migration, Implementation, Customer Adaptations, Integration, Education, and Support. Contact Us for a presentation regarding benefits for your company, demonstrations, and consultation.

Amazon AWS (EC2, S3, CloudFront)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:11:00 +0200

Amazon AWS (EC2, S3, CloudFront) is a Market leading supplier of IaaS. You can rent Servers, Server Capacity, and Data Storage. The benefits with this solution are, among others, that it is a Quick and Cost Efficient way to acquire a Scalable Infrastructure.

Data Storage on Amazon S3 has exploded during 2010 (se graph), i.e. a great number of companies have already migrated their data to the Cloud.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a service family of different Cloud Services where the most important are Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon CloudFront.

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
This service allows creation, start, and maintenance of virtual servers (Windows Server, Linux etc), through one web interface. The servers can thereafter be used for many different applications, from public websites to phone switches. The name "Elastic" comes from the fact that it is easy to adjust server capacity during e.g. conjunction and traffic peaks. The cost for the service is also elastic, i.e. you only pay for the capacity that is needed, for example for the time that the servers are running and for the amount of data transferred.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
This service concerns only data storage in the Cloud.
It can be used for several purposes:

Internal file storage and document sharing
Secure Backup and Archiving in the Cloud
Web server to store static web content such as HTML pages, images, videos, documents, JavaScript, and CSS
CDN (Content Delivery Network) in combination with CloudFront with the purpose to optimize response and download time.

Once again the price models are flexible, i.e. you pay for the amount of data stored and transferred. Prices are usually perceived as low.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
This is a service to optimize response and download times on high-traffic global systems and websites. This is achieved through replication of the data from S3, EC2 or another server, to Amazon's great network of servers that are spread out throughout the world. For the end-users this entails a quick response time and a pleasant user experience, regardless of where in the world you are. Thereby, Amazon CloudFront offers the possibility for Global Growth. Once again, there is no fixed subscription fee, rather payment only for the quantity of data transferred.

Read about Facebook as the leading PaaS platform in the next Post...

wedran AB in Stockholm, Sweden delivers consulting services such as Consultation, Pre-Studies, requirement Analysis, Project Management, Migration, Implementation, Customer Adaptations, Integration, Education, and Support. Contact Us for a presentation regarding benefits for your company, demonstrations, and Free-of-Charge consultation.

Reduce Costs with Google Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:23:00 +0200

More than 33 Million companies and 30 Million users have chosen Google
Apps, and 3000 new companies join every day! The figures below are
from Forrester Researcher, and demonstrate that solutions from
Google are 10 times cheaper than competing solutions. The systems
from Google are also easier to use, and thereby generate
greater time and cost savings.

Google Apps consists of Packaged and Integrated Business Solutions that (1) contain over 60 Standard Systems, (2) can be expanded with additional 200 systems from Google Apps Marketplace.

Most companies start by implementing the Basic Package, and thereafter continue to add systems as their company grows or their needs increase. The basic package costs about $50 per year and user. Below is a list of Key Functions and Functional Benefits:

Email

25 GB storage space, which is about 50 times more than the Industry Average.
The excellent search function renders mail-sorting obsolete.
Very well developed support for Mobile Units such as iPhone, Android, etc.

Calendar

Shared Calendars.
Possibility to invite to meeting and book meeting rooms.
Accessible through Web or Mobile Phones.

Intranet

The possibility to Create and Edit Internal or External websites
for your company, different departments, partners or customers.
Different Permission levels to e.g. Show or Edit Content.
Access to use Thousands of full-fledged Gadgets.

Document Sharing

Accessible from Web or Mobile Phone.
Easy sharing and editing of Office documents.
High Security with HTTPS and 2-Step Verification.

Other Benefits

Low Total Cost with Flexible Standard Systems.
The systems are accessible from all Web Browsers and Mobile Phones.
It is Easy to Administrate Users and Data.
High Security with HTTPS, Encryption, 2-Step Verification, and Patented Spam-Filter.
SSO (Single Sign On) = Sign in only once.
Continuous and Free-of-Charge System Upgrades
Customer Support 24x7
Expandable with more than 200 systems from Google Apps Market Place.
E.g. sytems for Customer Management, Invoicing, Case Management, Accounting etc ...

wedran delivers consulting services such as Pre-Studies, Requirement Analysis, Project Management, Migration, Implementation, Customer Modifications, Integration, Education, and Support. See our Business Cases and Contact Us for a presentation and analysis of the business value for Your Company, demonstration of the systems, and Free-of-Charge consultation.

Zoho CRM

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 15:12:00 +0200

wedran implements solutions from Zoho, which has over
3 Million users across the World. The technology is Integrated
with Google Apps and available from both Web Browsers
and Mobile Phones.

With the Zoho CRM Solution you will have access to an excellent
Customer Management System which will help you Sell More,
Optimize Sales Processes, and make Administration more Efficient.
Key features are:

Sales Automation
Track leads, prospects, business opportunities,
and sell more in less time.
Customer Support & Service
Integrate Customer Support Processes with
Sales, Invoicing, and IT.
Reports & Analytics
Visualize the task pipeline, business performance,
trends and schedule reports to the specified user.

Additionally, with Zoho Invoicing, you will also be able to:

Manage Invoices Online
Track Expenses
Accept Payments Online
Generate Reports and Analytics
Easily handle Taxes and Discounts

Read more here http://wedran.com/en/zoho.html

Reach Success With Cloud Services

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 9 Apr 2011 19:24:00 +0200

Cloud Services enable Global Growth and significant Cost Savings. Those companies, big and small, that successfully manage to reposition themselves in the Cloud will become the most Competitive and thereby have the potential to become Market Leaders. This post will give you an brief overview to get you started.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Amazon AWS (EC2, S3, CloudFront) is a Market leading supplier of IaaS. You can rent Servers, Server Capacity, and Data Storage. The benefits with this solution are, among others, that it is a Quick and Cost Efficient way to acquire a Scalable Infrastructure.

Software as a Service (SaaS)
Google and Zoho deliver Leading SaaS Solutions; a great number of flexible and packaged standard systems. A few advantages with these systems are High Quality for a Low Price, access through Web and Cell Phones, and the fact that they are integrated with each other.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Facebook is currently the largest PaaS platform. Here, companies can create applications or integrate functionality from Facebook. The greatest benefits are access to Available User Data and to Facebook’s large Membership Base.

The Cloud Blogging Experiment - Blogging matters

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 17:28:00 +0100

I started this blog as an experiment during 2010 and here are some thoughts.

Most posts are about Cloud Services, most Tweets are about Google Apps and most blog articles are about Google. Following tag clouds summarize the posts.

I wrote 5 blog articles during 2010 and about 50 tweets, in other words very few. The blog has about 50-100 page views daily and 60 followers on Twitter. The blog is far away from being popular, yet more people read it Daily than when I give a presentation to a group of 20 people gathering in real life, an event that requires coordination, preparation, marketing etc.

Page View stats for 2010 for blog.wedran.com

Most visitors are from the United States, UK and then other english speaking countries. Firefox and Chrome webbrowsers are both more popular than Internet Explorer. Not suprised considering the blogs target group and article content. About 80% use Windows OS. Most visitors come from Google and then from Getsatisfaction.com (A site where I posted a link to one of my blog posts).

The most popular article is "Sync LinkedIn, Facebook, Outlook, CRM and iPhone Connections to Google Contacts (including the Profile Photo)" and the least popular article is "What is a Cloud Service and why should You care?"

Conclusion


Vedran Arnautovic http://twitter.com/wedran

If I have something to say and I want to say it to maximum number of people it is well done using a Blog and Twitter. The blog subject i.e. Cloud solutions seems to work.
If I want to attract new business relations and meet people its better done with real life presentations, especially considering most readers are outside Sweden.
If I want more readers I would need to write more and shorter posts with popular subjects and solutions. It is also a good idea to link to the posts from other websites (See Google Backtracking algorithm).

Cloud hosting advantages

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 11:53:00 +0100

Even some CEOs of leading IT companies ware initially confused about
Cloud computing. It was mistaken to be a new buzzword for ASP, SaaS or
just web service? Well, most know today it's not. Cloud Services are
web services built upon a cloud infrastructure like Amazon CloudFront,
Microsoft Azure or Google Apps Engine. A web service optimized for and
hosted on a cloud infrastructure will perform better than a web
service hosted on a web server. It will also be more scalable and in
many cases less expensive.

1. Success with supreme Performance
Performance or speed of a website or web service is one of the most
important success factors for a web service. Performance is also the
main difference between a website hosted on a cloud infrastructure and
a website hosted on a web server. A cloud based service will perform
supreme, especially regarding a large number of simultaneous users
from different geographical locations around the world.

2. Growth with huge Scalability
Scalability is very important since a successful web service must
perform well even when it gets popular and hit by millions of users
around the world. Cloud infrastructures are flexible and adaptable
from a growing number of simultaneous users during the day or longer
period of time. Only web services built on cloud infrastructure will
be market leaders, and they will be global, in other words eventually
wiping out local competition.

3. Price and Environment friendly
Cloud providers utilize a pay as you use price model that can be less
expensive than running own servers or even using shared hosting. The
computing usage is maximized and therefore also environment friendly.
The price and environmental benefits are the main factors the US
government is promoting and switching to cloud infrastructure.

10 Major security and privacy issues of your Cloud Services, and solutions.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:32:00 +0200

This article describes some of the major security and privacy issues for your Cloud Services and tools e.g. Google, Salesforce, Amazon, ReadItLater, Delicious, Firefox, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. More importantly, it gives you valuable solutions and tips.

Starting with number 10) Governments, Broadband Operators, Cloud Providers and Hackers can access your data stored in the cloud.

Cloud and Web service providers sometimes make your data public without telling you. Most data in the cloud is not encrypted. Governments like the US and China do not always need a court order to look into your data. All data passing through central nodes is monitored and filtered by several European countries. Hackers can use PDF email attachments and Wireless networks to capture your passwords.
Solution: This is not as big of a problem as it may sound like. Your data is usually interesting to someone close rather than some foreign government. There are no good technical solution to encrypt (protect) all your data. Choose providers that you trust have good privacy and security. Read this article in order to check if someone else is reading your Gmails http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-check-if-your-gmail-account-has-been-hacked/

9) Internet Archive – Your Web-history is saved: your blogs, websites, comments, searches, conversations, emails and what you watch on YouTube.

Many services around the web store historical data. There are even major libraries that try to save all web pages. Google has been heavily criticized regarding its privacy. The most intrusive privacy decisions e.g. what you search, read, chat about and watch is logged, and it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to disable this “History feature”. If you are using several Google Services you are constantly logged into Google. Google stores most of your actions by default. Even other major cloud services have similar issues. The following section is from Facebook Privacy Policy May-2010: “Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable ...”
Solutions:

Post only if you would not mind seeing your post (today or in 20 years) with your signature on the front page of your local newspaper.
Also monitor your children's online behavior since they are not familiar with privacy issues. See articles below for Facebook Usage.
Go to https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount?hl=en. From there you should look into all your Google privacy settings.
Don’t use Google Toolbar. Read http://www.gtricks.com/google-tricks/how-to-remove-web-history/ for more similar tips.
You can clear your YouTube history manually (see screenshot below).
Disable Google Web History: go to http://www.google.com/history/?hl=en and click “Pause” (See screenshot below).
Disable Chat History in Gtalk (See screenshot below). You can also disable chat history for your entire Google Apps domain here https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/YOUR_DOMAIN/ChatSettings. The latter is probably the best option since even if you disable your personal chat, the person you are chatting with will probably have their chat history turned on and your chats will be saved there.

Congratulations! Now, only your email history is still available in the cloud, but that's convenient. Just remember, even if you delete an email its still available in the trash (https://mail.google.com/a/YOUR_DOMAIN/#search/in%3Atrash). The issues mentioned above are still not huge since only Google has this data, and security has been good so far. Please comment this thread with additional tips on disabling the Google History features.

8) You may loose your valuable Data. Providers Privacy & Security Policies are not on your side.

Who reads the long and boring legal texts and policies, right? Looking into Privacy Policies from leading providers you’ll find that you can actually loose your business data or that you don’t own the complete rights to it.
According to Salesforce privacy statement (http://www.salesforce.com/company/updated_privacy.jsp), Salesforce will review, share, distribute, or reference Customer Data and view Individual records of your Customer Data. Well, that's one interpretation of the actual terms below :-).

“Salesforce.com will not review, share, distribute, or reference any such Customer Data except as provided in the salesforce.com Master Subscription Agreement, or as may be required by law. Individual records of Customer Data may be viewed or accessed only for the purpose of resolving a problem, support issues, or suspected violation of the salesforce.com Master Subscription Agreement, or as may be required by law. Customers are responsible for maintaining the security and confidentiality of their salesforce.com usernames and passwords.”

Usually, the legally binding terms your sign up for can be modified at any time by the Cloud Service Providers, but not by you. Amazon Web Services (http://aws.amazon.com/agreement/) writes:

“You agree that we may modify this Agreement or any policy or other terms referenced in this Agreement (collectively, “Additional Policies”) at any time“

Since you might store your data in the Amazon Cloud you might loose it if you get into conflict, or perhaps for no reason at all. Amazon writes:

“We may suspend your right and license to use Amazon FPS or Amazon DevPay and any associated Amazon Properties, or, if you are only using Amazon FPS, terminate this Agreement in its entirety (and, accordingly, cease providing all Services to you), for any reason or for no reason, at our discretion at any time, immediately upon notice…”

Solution: This is still not a major issue for most people and companies. You can backup your data to offline or another provider. The most important thing you can do is to Read the terms to understand what you are getting into.

7) Anyone can see what your are reading or bookmarking.

ReadItLater is maybe the most popular service to bookmark articles to be read later when you have time. Services like this sometimes make your data available to the public without telling your. Everything on your ReadItLater list is public by default. Bookmarks to Delicious are public by default. This means that anyone can see what you are reading and bookmarking.
Solution: Disable RSS in ReadItLater (See screenshot) and add following flag to the Delicious Bookmarklet: &share=no

Delicious Bookmarklet
javascript:(function(){f='http://delicious.com/save?url='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href)+'&share=no&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+'&v=5&';a=function(){if(!window.open(f+'noui=1&jump=doclose','deliciousuiv5','location=yes,links=no,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,width=550,height=550'))location.href=f+'jump=yes'};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent)){setTimeout(a,0)}else{a()}})()

6) What is your opinon?

Please post your comment on what’s missing from this list and I’ll write the best ones here with your reference.

5) Facebook, Facebook, Facebook

OK, this one is obvious. Facebook default privacy settings are to make your private data publicly available (your posts, photos, groups and applications). Facebook has also had some major bugs allowing other people to look into your profile, peek into your private chats etc. Your Facebook information is available to external applications i.e. other companies can download your data. Facebook is giving your data to advertisers. The new Facebook “Like” button can point to any web page, not the one you think you are Liking (this is a permanent bug since there is nothing FB can do about it).
Solution:

Facebook is not actually a big issue since you can do something about it by following these rules:

Remove all people from your friends list that are not your actual friends. Use LinkedIn instead of Facebook for your connections that are not your friends.
Read this article on how to configure your privacy settings http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/.
Read this to learn more on Facebook critique http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook
Use the Like-button on credible sites (or logout from Facebook first).
Most important: Post only if you would not mind seeing your post with your signature on the front page of your local newspaper.

4) LinkedIn – A competitor can see your business connections, customers, leeds, partners

LinkedIn will by default allow all your connections to see other connections in your list. This setting is not a problem for most people. However, if you are a business owner, you don’t want you valuable information such as connections, customers, leads etc. to be available for free to your competitors.
Solution: Disable features as shown in the screenshots below

3) Anyone might be able to see your location!

Location Aware services are great, can be very useful, and are growing rapidly. You don’t need a GPS. All you need a device with IP address or WiFi connection, in other words any modern device. You have probably notice them when using your iPhone and the Maps application. New web standards allow for the same functionality in your Desktop browser. Any webpage can ask you for your current location. Google Buzz for mobile and other mobile services has this enabled by default. Most websites will just look into your IP address to approximately guess your location. Many Twitter users post location information within or as metadata to the Tweets. Your location information is sensitive and could be used by burglars to rob your house while you are away on vacation etc. There are probably other bad scenarios you can think of.
Solution: Learn more about Location Aware services (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_awareness). Learn more About Google Latitude (http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/latitude/intro.html). Enable you location (if possible) only to you and your family members. Add this blog to your Google Reader and I’ll post more information in the future.

2) …and the biggest security issue is: Anyone with access to your PC can see you Web passwords!

FireFox is currently the best Web Browser. This issue however applies to all FireFox users. Go into Menu->Settings->Saved Passwords->Show Passwords. All your passwords are visible in plain text! With this information a person can hijack your business data, social accounts, email and domains.
Solution: Disallow access to your PCs and/or use a Master password in Firefox (Options—>Security—>Master Password). You should also use different passwords dependant on security level. Save only passwords with low or medium security level when prompted by Firefox. Keep passwords with high security in your head and/or a safe location. Remember: Web browsers are not very safe.

1) …and the biggest privacy issue is: Your Boss sees what your are really up to!

Most privacy intrusions will happen with somebody who is interested in you, someone close, like your Manager :) This example applies to all Google Apps users (and probably other similar systems). I, as an Admin in Google Apps, can see all calendars in the domain and there is no way for me to disable this feature. This is not a bug according to Google and they have currently no intention of changing this. If you work at a small company and you are using Google Apps you will have to rely on your bosses integrity that he/she will not peek into your private data.
Solution: Use a private Google Account for private email, Calendar etc.

How to paste screenshots to Gmail and how to use Gmail as the default email client.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 May 2010 14:11:00 +0200

Update! Google seems to have disabled the paste screenshot feature for some reason. You can still use screenshots in your Gmails by using Gadwin Printscreen (freeware). Set it so that it saves files to a desktop folder. Then drag the files into your Gmail (use the application below or the Chrome browser)

--- Old post below

Recently Google resolved two major issues with Gmail. It is now possible to take a screenshot and paste it directly into an email message. It is also possible to use Gmail as standard email client that pops up when a user clicks on an email link on a webpage. Follow these steps:

Download this application from Google
http://dl.google.com/tag/s/ap=<YOUR GOOGLE APPS DOMAIN>/googlewebapps/en/googleappsstandalonesetuptagged.exe
This application will install three icons on your desktop
When you start the email client it will ask to be your default client. Choose Yes.
When you want to paste an image or screenshot just copy it and paste as you would in Outlook or any other email application. Voila. It works.

If you are not using Goggle Apps, but only Gmail, you can achieve the same results by installing Google Chrome. Read more here. http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2010/05/drag-images-directly-into-messages-in.html

What is a Cloud Service and why should You care?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:36:00 +0200

Wikipedia gives a silly technical explanation: “Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like a public utility…”

Why should you Care?

Cloud Services are currently changing the way people, businesses and governments work and live. Let me give you a few examples:

For Businesses (Small and Large)

Cost Savings are Huge.
Cloud services are designed for sharing of one system between many users and companies. This means that you split the cost between all users. Lets say you company want to use Google Apps (Gmail / Calender / CMS …). This advanced system is used by many companies world wide and therefore the price is as low as 40 Euro per year and user. And you only need to signup on a website, in other words, no servers, no expensive consulting companies (I’m not promoting Google, but this is simply the best example). You can also watch this nice video by Salesforce.

Growth Opportunity is extreme
- for those who develop their own services.
Scalability is a button switch away and you can target the entire world with your system. Google has only been around for 10+ years, Facebook 6 years, YouTube 5 years and Twitter 4 years. Of course you don’t need to aim for world domination. A good system on Google Marketplace will give you a head start if you are developing business systems.

Basically, Your company might be a victim if you don’t know what Cloud Service is and how it might affect you business.

On the other hand, if you play your cards right and know how Cloud Services might help your business you can be a world leading company in your area.

For Governments (and citizens)

The US government is currently working with NASA in order to transform the entire government IT infrastructure from costly and energi-innefective systems to Cloud services. This transformation is initially a very costly process, but will give US a head start over other countries. Watch this video from NASA and US CTO office.

Integration of all information
Cloud doesn’t mean centralized data, but it means that all data is reachable and can easily be cross-referenced and integrated. This results in great new opportunities and some challenges. All technology progress couses some new problems, but it resolves more issues. Integrated information will eventually lead to better organization, less corruption, improved democracy, security, efficiency and more comfort.

Basically, Your job might be in risk if you are working with activities that will be replaced by integrated Cloud systems.

On the other hand, if you know how Cloud Services might help your career you may be a very valuable resource for the next 20 years.

For Consumers
Your life is slowly changing and you will not think about the term “Cloud Services”, but rather “Web based applications” or just “Web services”. You are problably today using some of the Cloud Services like: Gmail, Gtalk, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Spotify, Picasa, LinkedIn, Blogger, Dropbox, Delicious etc. Your data is spread around the web and you are not too considered about it.
Here is why you should care:

Profile yourself and be in Control
Information (video, photo, comments, documents) you put online, on facebook, linkedIn, twitter, discussion forums etc. is stored, logged, processed and integrated. It can work for you or against you. It can help you get your dream job (LinkedIn), it can get you fired (Facebook). It can even get you imprisoned. It can help you get elected as president (Obama). It can spread your news in minutes around the world and international media (YouTube and Twitter).

Be present online with information you control (you own blog, domain, linkedIn, faceboo, twitter) in order to avoid trouble and get the benefits. If you are not present online you will not get any benefits, but you might get into trouble. Other will publish information including you (comments, photos, documents, videos). Since you are not the publisher you will not be in control of the information and that information will be on top of the Google search result when someone (a company, friend, acquaintance) Googles your name.
Your time is limited. Love efficiency.
By using Cloud Services you avoid many trouble you are today having with your computer. You don’t have to install any software, transfer files and care about backup. Cloud Services work at home, at work, at friends, on the road. You only need a Browser and Internet connection. It is available on your Desktop, Laptop, Media Center, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Your data (Documents, Music, Files, Bookmarks, CV, Photos, Videos, Email and Contact) and applications are following you.
The Innovation in new services
The examples and benefits described above are really only the beginning of Cloud Services. More Services and more integration between them will lead to very innovative consumer services. For example, context aware services will take into consideration your geographical location and other parameters about your current context in order to present valuable information and options. Here is another innovative example by Microsoft Research:

Follow me on Twitter for relevant news and solutions about Cloud Services and future Blog posts.

Sync LinkedIn, Facebook, Outlook, CRM and iPhone Connections to Google Contacts (including the Profile Photo)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 2 Apr 2010 00:26:00 +0200

All your contacts (e.g. from LinkedIn, Outlook etc.) should be automatically synchronized and stored in one place in the cloud (Google Contacts) that enables easy access from any computer or mobile device.

Google Contacts (http://www.google.com/contacts) is a very important part of Google Apps suite since its connected to Gmail.

Follow these simple steps to have all your contact synchronized between your LinkedIn, Facebook, iPhone, Outlook and Gmail / Google Contacts:

Step 1 – Outlook to Google synchronization

This step is optional. Outlook can be synchronized using Google Sync tool available at tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync.

Step 2 – iPhone to Google synchronization

This step is most essential in the process. Use these instructions exactly to setup the interaction between iPhone and Google http://bit.ly/bklwL8.

Step 3 – Facebook to iPhone synchronization

This step will add missing contacts from Facebook and update the profile photo of existing contacts (only of your Facebook friends).

Download the Facebook application from the AppStore on your iPhone and follow these instructions http://bit.ly/bS2dPo.

Step 4 – LinkedIn to iPhone synchronization

This step will add missing contacts from LinkedIn together with their profile photo (if they have one in LinkedIn). This step is very important since most of the business contacts are on LinkedIn.

Download the LinkedIn application from the AppStore on your iPhone and then download all contacts to your iPhone address book. See http://bit.ly/d4sZXM for more info.

I recommend completely rebooting your iPhone before synchronizing the LinkedIn contact since the application uses a lot of memory and can crash if you have to many contacts to synchronize the first time.

Step 5 – Congratulations! All contact are now synchronized to Google Contacts.

Visit Google Contacts (http://www.google.com/contacts) and see that all your contacts, including profile photos (for most of them are included). Use the Google Contact "Find Duplicates" button to merge any duplicates.

Keep using the LinkedIn and Facebook app on your iPhone in order to sync them to Google. If you update any contact on Google, they will automatically get updated on your iPhone as well.

Want more synchronization? Enable Contact sharing

If you are using Google Apps it easy to share contacts between all users in your domain and to achieve a global addressbook. Follow these instructions to enable contact sharing: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47926

You can also add Google Apps contacts from your Dashboard. All contacts will then be available on URL: https://www.google.com/contacts/a/_YOUR_DOMAIN_

Note! These steps are tested and worked 1st April 2010. Google offers Contact API (http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/) that will enable you to integrate and use all your contacts in other systems e.g. a CRM tool.

Another option is to export the contact from Google and use them with Excel or other application that supports importing of Comma Separated Value files (CSV).

Enjoy!

Gmail signature with embedded image (workaround for "Images are not displayed. Display images below")

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 00:46:00 +0100

Instructions for creating Email signature in Gmail so that the images are displaying correctly in Gmail and Outlook clients (users does not have to press "Download images" or "images are not displayed. Display images below". The images are displayed automatically).

Login to Gmail/Gapps, go to Labs and Enable feature "Canned responses" and "Insert Image" button.
Create the signature by uploading images using Gmail Insert image button.
Save signature with the "Canned response" menu
Use the "Canned Response" menu each time you want to use the signature and you are not sitting in front of your own PC.

Following two steps describe how to automatically insert the signature when composing email / replying.
Install firefox plugin Wisestamp and click "Edit Signature". Now (this is important step), select all and drag the content of the Gmail editor (the created signature) to the Wisestamp HTML-editor.

Note! If you do not drag the content, but instead create the signature in Wisestamp it will not display correctly. The recipient will then have to click the "Download images" or "Allow images" in order to see the signature images.
Now every time you use Gmail + Firefox + Wisestamp The email-signature is inserted automatically in each email you send and guess what, the recipient does not need to press "Download images" or " Display images below".

Note! this is tested on Gmail/GApps, Hotmail and Outlook 2007 in march 2010. Receipients that use some version of the Firefox addin "Better Gmail" may see file icons instead of embedded images.