Featured Article by Siamak Farah, CEO of InfoStreet on ITBriefcase

We live in very exciting times. We hear of innovations every day, some of which may be pivotal to our future. This is particularly true for technologies that companies select to offer to their customer base.

Most companies can’t afford to jump on just any bandwagon; rather, they have to choose where they invest their resources. In addition, the timing needs to be right. Move too soon, and you will be stuck with educating your market base about something they are totally unfamiliar with or simply don’t understand. Be conservative and move later, then the market will be saturated and you will look like a has-been, or at best a “me too” solution.

So while we have one ear to the ground to listen for what’s coming, we need to make a decision whether we will ride this train, or get run over by it.

There have been a few technological paradigm shifts in our lifetime: the introduction of personal computers, digital cameras, music players, and smartphones/tablets to name a few. Now, of course, the latest paradigm shift is in the introduction of cloud-based solutions. To proponents, the cloud is here to stay and is changing how we use software on a day-to-day basis. The fact that the cloud provides anytime, anywhere access; gives the user relief from installing, maintaining, and upgrading software and hardware; is greener; revolutionizes capital expenditure by offering a pay-as-you-go model; and provides access to otherwise out-of-reach expertise makes it a no-brainer to this group.

However, there are those, especially the once bitten, twice shy crowd, that are looking for a sign from the Gods before they jump in wholeheartedly.

Well, the Gods have spoken!

Just recently news agencies enthusiastically reported the purchase of cloud provider SoftLayer by tech giant IBM[1]. The interest that this acquisition has generated is very important because it strongly backs up the claim of the enduring longevity of the cloud. Support of this claim makes IBM’s purchase of SoftLayer important, not only to tech companies, but to the users of technology, small to medium businesses in particular. IBM has been involved in the cloud for years with an offering that would mostly cater to their large corporate clients and has typically been unreachable to the average small or medium business. SoftLayer is a cloud product that offers virtual infrastructures for web and mobile developers with more that 20,000 customers in 140 countries. By purchasing SoftLayer, a multi-million company with a strong portfolio of existing SMBs, IBM has not only endorsed cloud technology, but they have also increased their viability as a cloud provider – all in one fell swoop. For IBM, buying an existing cloud solution created an Aristotelian approach where the whole is clearly larger than sum of its parts.

For most tech companies, establishing a rock-solid position as a cloud provider means selecting one of three options: build, acquire or adapt. In other words, they can build a new cloud solution from scratch in-house, partner with or buy an existing cloud solution, or alternatively adapt their existing offerings to the cloud. Tech companies have to analyze these options and decide which choice makes the most sense for their business. Depending on the solution, building from scratch may or may not be viable. If it has a long build time it will miss the market window, unless you started years ago. Building is where true innovation has to compensate for being newest kid on the block. The late great Steve Jobs used to say that people don’t change the product they are using unless the new product is an order of magnitude better.

When it comes to adapting existing technologies, not all companies have the time, resources, market stamina or desire to justify altering their technology into a cloud solution, so acquiring an existing cloud solution is the most viable way for these companies to enter into the world of the cloud.

Sometimes, the acquisition is not just technology, but also the segment of the market, more like frosting on the cake. IBM’s acquisition of SoftLayer is such a case where buying was substantially more fruitful than building or adapting, both for the technology and the market segment.

There are also a number of companies that have decided to adapt vs. acquire. For example, Microsoft expanded their existing offering, Microsoft Office, into a cloud format, which they call Office 365. Office 365 gives users the ability to purchase one cloud account, under which they are given five cloud licenses to install the software on any devices they like. Users are then able to access their Word, Excel, and other Office files from anywhere via a cloud interface, and files can be shared with various collaborators. Because the Office Suite was already so well known by its target demographic, it made more sense for Microsoft to move their flagship product to the cloud rather than purchasing an existing cloud solution. What is clear is that everyone is going to the cloud. Regardless of the approach taken by your cloud provider, it all translates to more choices, especially for small to medium businesses.

So now you have the option of going with the traditional solutions adapted to the cloud, those made just for the cloud and of course new innovations that are only possible because of the cloud. Any which way, the small to medium businesses are the winners!

Yes, the Gods have spoken.

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Adam Housley from Fox News recently interviewed InfoStreet CEO Siamak Farah on how the PC is losing a hold on American business as the cloud becomes more prevalent in today's workspace.

Video Transcript:

Adam Housley: “To talk about iCloud computing, you know it’s being used by a lot of people, I mean I use it, for example my iphone syncs to my ipad to my-- I’m a Mac guy obviously. I do have a PC in my office, but I mean I’m mostly Mac and they all sync together with my pictures I don’t really use a lot more than that. Is this all really becoming the norm? But what does this mean for PCs?”

Siamak Farah: “So what is happening is that the world has gone through a revolution and each revolution after a while becomes an evolution. Like when the CDs first came out, they were revolution over cassette tapes and now they're kind of the next generation. So what happened, is that we went through a revolution and that the operating system, what was windows or mac or whatnot, became irrelevant and people are using applications straight from the cloud. So because of that, the next step is the device that you are connecting to becomes irrelevant. So you can use any device at any point at any time to access your data in your applications.”

Adam Housley: “More than half of all businesses in the US are currently using the cloud. What does that do? Obviously people are using it more and more. Obviously that opens up the possibility of some problems, but at the same time its such a great ability for a lot of people to keep connected with each other, with themselves, with multiple devices. Does that mean--obviously the PC has to adapt.”

Siamak Farah: “Well the PC could adapt, but there’s a limitation to “its talents,” meaning it is local and it is tethered, but we are no longer local and we are no longer tethered. So we need to be with something that works with how we work today. And therefore we need to work wherever we are. We need to have access to information whenever we need it. And we cannot always be at a desk, talking, just sitting at a machine. So therefore any device that is on us, is the most valuable device. And that is not a PC, you don’t lug it around.”

Adam Housley: “Right, so does that mean the death of the PC is near?”

Siamak Farah: “Well, death is a very strong word.”

Adam Housley: “I know, but I have to ask the question.”

Siamak Farah: “PC becomes yet another access device and it becomes a lot more relevant than it used to be.“

Adam Housley: “Irrelevant, but people can still--obviously there still has to be PC usage, correct?”

Siamak Farah: “Right.”

Adam Housley: “Does that mean a dialed down version? Are we talking about like what we see on our cell phones type situations?”

Siamak Farah: “The situation is that, when you’re doing cloud computing, most of the heavy lifting is done in the cloud so any old PC will do. It used to be every two to three years, people had to replace their PC, because it was just too slow, they couldn’t work anymore. But now with most of the computers in the cloud, you access them with a browser so any PC will do. There’s still a lot of local uses for PC, people want to use maybe a local file, you know like a word doc. They could do it online, but they prefer to it local or they want to make a collage of their pictures So there’s still value, but its not as central to our everyday life as it used to be.”

Adam Housley: “Right, stay right there, this is something I’m going to show next when we have a chance to show our gadgets. This is the new Samsung Galaxy Note, which we’re going to talk about in a minute. The reason why I’m bringing it up is, I mean, this is obviously not Apple based, this has got more of the PC idea to it. Is this what we’re talking about then, are we talking about something that is portable, light, easy, not the typical PC-- again, the reason why my mom still uses PC is because of the business applications.”

Siamak Farah: “Right”

Adam Housley: “She likes Apple, but PC is really where its at for her and it has been for years. What does that mean for people like that?”

Siamak Farah: “Thats exactly one of the things that has happened. If you look at the amount of sales Apple has had recently, a lot of people attribute it to iPhone and everything. But its reality is the base of applications is substantially wider. Before, if you had a business application, it only ran on PC and you had to work on PC. But now the best of breed applications are in the cloud so you can use your Mac, you can use your Samsung tablet, and you can use anything. So that’s why its not as, basically it doesn’t have a chokehold on you. And the cloud has become the great democratizer where before we used to be either PC people or Mac people. Now we are our own people and we can use any device to get to it. So the devices and the operating systems that run them have become irrelevant and all that is relevant is what we want to do at this minute.”

Adam Housley: “Its the way to access the cloud.”

Siamak Farah: “That is exactly right.”

Adam Housley: “Ok well, Sia Farah at Infostreet.com. You can find more information about them at InfoStreet.com. Also you can follow him at @SFarah of course if you’re on Twitter. Really appreciate your time, great information. You know something I didn’t think about with the cloud becoming so popular, I didn’t think about, you just need something to access the cloud and the cloud is where the operating system is going to be.”

Siamak Farah: “That’s exactly it.”

Adam Housley: “Well nice, really appreciate your time and thanks for joining us.”

Siamak Farah: “Thanks, pleasure to be here.”

By Brian Nadel

Posted Apr 16, 2013 @ 06:18 AM

Online resources like Google Drive or Dropbox can reduce how much is stored locally, but all have different interfaces to master and separate log ins, but SkyDesktop can turn it into a more cohesive and streamlined experience. With software for connecting with 66 popular online services and a variety of cloud platforms, SkyDesktop is a free service that can make the cloud a little more personal and local. Just log in once and it’s all there on your desktop.

Brian Nadel is a freelance writer based in suburban New York City and is the former editor in chief of Mobile Computing & Communications magazine. A 25-year veteran of technology journalism, his writing has appeared in CNET, Fortune, Popular Science, PC Magazine and Business Tokyo.

You can visit the blog post by clicking here.

By John Larrabee

Posted Apr 10, 2013 @ 8:55 AM

While the explosive growth of cloud computing services has largely been a West Coast phenomenon, New England has not been left behind. Many in the region’s innovation economy see the Boston area as a perfect incubator for cloud services, which some forecasters predict could grow to a $100 billion-plus industry over the next three years.

“Our ability to recruit and attract world class talent, and the investment we’ve secured, show Boston is a great place for this kind of business,” says Derek Schoettle, CEO of Cloudant, the Boston company that offers a distributed database as a service. “We see a lot of companies in the area, some as old as us and some just getting started, and it feels good from our point of view.”

“Obviously we have a lot of great academic institutions,” adds Piyum Samaraweera, director of product management at Carbonite, the Boston company that offers an online backup service in the cloud. “In tandem with that, I think it’s the cultural DNA we have in the region. My mom, for example, worked for Digital, Prime, and Computervision. A lot of people in the area have that kind of background. Many of the newer companies come from older companies. Look at Yottaa, for example; their founder, Coach Wei, came from EMC. It’s a great foundation to build on.”

Most analysts are offering very rosy predictions for cloud computing services. A recent report from International Data Corporation, the global provider of market intelligence for technology markets, forecasts worldwide spending on public cloud services will near $100 billion by 2016. What’s more, that spending will account for 16 percent of IT revenue in several categories, including basic storage, applications, system infrastructure software, and platform as a service. Another report from the Framingham, Mass.-based prognosticator sees worldwide spending on private cloud services growing to $24 billion during the same time.

A report from Gartner Inc., the IT research and advisory firm in Stamford, Conn. is even more optimistic. Their analysts say spending on public cloud services could top $200 billion in three years’ time.

“There’s no turning back,” says Siamak Farah, CEO of InfoStreet and SkyDesktop, a cloud-based applications provider in Los Angeles. “This is the way it’s going to be.”

Pushing the cloudburst are obvious changes in technology and economics.

“A small businesses will have fewer staff, they don’t have the means to set up their own services, so for them a cloud doubles as IT-in-a-box,” says Farah. “They have someone else managing the service and ensuring it’s always upgraded and always backed up. And it’s much safer to go to the cloud, because the company that provides the service will have security experts. The other benefit of cloud is any-time, anywhere, any-device access. You can work at your office, at home on your laptop, or in an internet cafe in Barcelona, and you’ll have the same environment.”

“The cost of deploying infrastructure on cloud providers is more economical than it has ever been,” adds Schoettle. “A decade ago when companies were first rolling out those services, it was conceivable that you could build your own infrastructure for about the same cost, and possibly cheaper. Today, at the scale it’s being deployed, it’s far more affordable.”

Another factor has been the speed-up of the Internet over the past few years. “Broadband, FIOS and such have become more accessible and more affordable around the country,” says Samaraweera. The shift has given cloud service providers greater access to customers, he notes, adding that’s one reason for Carbonite’s success. The company now has 1.4 million customers, mostly small businesses and individuals.

The Boston area is now home to a number of promising cloud startups. The list includes Nasumi, Backupify, Yottaa, Sonian, CloudSwitch and more. And the talent pool is just one of several reasons many cloud service providers have built their nests in the region.

Samaraweera notes Boston has a ready supply of investment capital for startups, and points to events at AppNeta as an example of that climate. The software-as-a-service (Saas) provider recently received $16 million in series C funding from Bain Capital Ventures and others.

“Boston also has an existing concentration of people and businesses that use the cloud, researchers and hospitals for example,” he adds. “CloudCare, for example, is located here because of our concentration of hospitals.”

John Larrabee is a contributer for the TechFlash blog, powered by MassHighTech and featured on the You can visit the article by clicking here

InfoStreet's latest infographic "How To Get Into Cloud Computing from InfoStreet" has been republished by Small Business Opportunities. The InfoGraphic outlines a how-to guide with three easy steps for small businesses looking to start working in the cloud.

You can read the full article here: http://www.sbomag.com/2013/04/how-to-get-into-cloud-computing-from-infostreet/