Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is one of the emerging technologies in today’s world. In simple words it provides a platform for hosting myriad of services over the internet. The networking method at this point supported the transmission of data from one end-point (local network) to the “Cloud” (wide area network) and then further decomposed to another intended end-point. 

It’s been considered as a large server on which data are stored and accessed for the right purpose. The software and the data that you want to access stays on the server rather than on your computer. This methodology of using services not stored on your system is called as cloud computing.

Forrester Research provided its own definition of cloud computing as: “…a standardized IT capability (services, software, or infrastructure) delivered via Internet technologies in a pay-per-use, self-service way.”

The network resources that are being shared over the internet are servers, storage, applications and services. Examples are the services that are being used by us in our day-to-day operations like Office 365, DropBox, SkyDrive, Google Docs.

Cloud Computing providers: IBM, HP google, Amazon web Services(AWS), Salesforce.com, NetSuite, VMware etc.

Cloud computing diagram 

Basic Cloud Computing Deployment models are:

Ø  Private cloud: As the word suggests, its intended for one organization that permits authorized users by giving greater control over their data by not sharing any physical resources. Data center is managed internally.

Ø  Public Cloud: It’s a type of cloud computing that provides cloud services over a network that is open for public usage. This one is developed by commercial providers like Amazon, that hides the complex infrastructure and provides various resource services.

Ø  Hybrid Cloud: It is mix of both Private and Public cloud(integrated) that helps in achieving security, elasticity and cheaper load capabilities. It can have huge impact to organizations if they are serviced poorly.

Ø  Community cloud: It’s a type of cloud computing in which the resources are mutually shared among many organizations like banks, trading firms etc. It is hosted ether externally or internally.

Cloud Computing Service Models

1.      Infrastructure as a service(IaaS)

Infrastructure as a service is one of the fundamental building block of the cloud services that offers computing resources over the internet in a virtualized environment. It provides virtual server space, network connections, bandwidth and load balancers.

Characteristics

Ø  Iaas provides automated deployment of servers, processing power, storage where Iaas clients have access to their infrastructure.

Example: AN enterprise can use a Virtual data centers that offer cloud hosting services, that integrates all these operations within either a private or public cloud implementation.

2.      Platform as a Service(PaaS)

Platforms as a service is a computing platform where it allows creation of web applications quickly without the complexity of buying the software and its related infrastructure.

Characteristics:

Ø  The main characteristic is ability to Integrate with web services and data bases using common methodologies

Ø  Variety of tools to handle billing and subscription management for development applications.

Example: PaaS is used when there are multiple developers working on a new development project like extracting sales data from a CRM tool. It is useful where testing and deployment services are used by developers.

3.      Software as a Service(SaaS)

Software as a Service is one of the top layer in the cloud computing services where consumers are allowed to access software applications over the internet remotely.

Characteristic:

Ø  No additional hardware costs

Ø  It follows a policy like Pay for what you use where subscriptions can be stopped at any time

Ø  Cross device compatibility

Example: Google, Facebook, Twitter allows users to access their services through internet enabled device.

Service models types

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing real time examples

1.      Improving customer satisfaction

How to gain customers’ hearts is important in business. The higher satisfaction that customer has, the stronger relationship that we connect with customer. Customer prefers to make positive advocate for your services and products if their requirements are fulfilled. According to Lee Resource Inc., over 90% customer who has complaints and gets the solution instantly would love to do business with you (CSM, 2016). If they encounter negative experience and get problems that do not get fixed as soon as possible, they would give up. Here the cloud era can provide the business with great convenience and speed. With use of cloud computing it allows to minimize the response time to a customer inquiry. Businesses can use various modes to communicate or create an online customer support site with a large searchable database. Not only does the cloud allow a business to quickly respond to a customer’s needs through the Internet, but it also minimizes the actual phone calls they receive to their call center. This results in savings to the business in terms of time and resources, and an enhanced customer experience, making it a win all around.

2.      Banking and Financial sector

Customers store personal financial information to cloud computing service providers. In addition, consumers store tax records using free or low cost online backup services.

3.      Web based Email

The emails are among the most popular ways used by people to communicate today and the service is constantly evolving to become faster and more reliable. Email clients are popular way to check your emails, but they often use your physical memory to store communication data. Cloud computing enables webmail clients to use cloud storage and give you the opportunity to check your emails from any place in the world. All big technology corporations use cloud computing to make their email messaging service more reliable.

4.Apps: Several companies in the real estate business, for example, are now utilizing mobile apps that allow prospective home buyers to locate homes for sale using satellite GPS. Every time a user initiates a new search, the computation is performed on a remote server and the mobile device displays information sent to it from the Cloud.

Conclusion:

Though Cloud computing is booming up its space in the Industries, there are some factors we need to think. It’s like we should consider the scope of the cloud computing in future and its prospects. Physical or virtual machines act as Servers in the cloud where anyone with suitable internet connection can access the cloud services.  The main issues that cloud computing revolves around like how does it affect the business model of ITes? And what are the technical aspects of cloud implementation. The core capabilities that should be taken into consideration are

·         Service Management and provisioning

·         Security and Data Privacy

·         Data Center Facilities

·         Partners

So we need to look into on h ow Cloud computing will change business models.

Referenced from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/information-technology/the-future-prospects-of-cloud-computing-information-technology-essay.php

·         Cloud computing allows innovative companies offer products that are significantly less costly due to reduced capex and new business models

·         Lightweight form of real-time partnerships and outsourcing with IT suppliers

·         Cloud computing will provide agility and control that traditional outsourcing providers cannot match for the most part.

·         Awareness and leverage of the greater Internet applications and Web 2.0 in particular

·         A reconciliation of traditional SOA with the cloud and other emerging IT models

Drivers & Barriers of Cloud Computing

·         Customer Perspective: Drivers

·         economics

·         Faster, simpler, cheaper to use cloud apps

·         No upfront capital required for servers and storage

·         No ongoing operational expenses for running datacenter

·         Applications can be accessed from anywhere, anytime

·         Customer Perspective: Barriers

·         Data Security

·         Many customers don't wish to trust their data to "the cloud"

·         Data must be locally retained for regulatory reasons

·         Latency

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URtU08iYCH0 - Reason 1 To love the cloud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H3WaMzDiTo - Thinking forward about cloud computing

BI Framework

In today’s fast-paced business world, it is imperative for the Top executives to have the insight and data they need in order to make the right calls. Business Intelligence is the key to making those correct decisions, as it joins data, technology, analytics, and knowledge to help business professionals make the optimal decisions that drive their enterprise’s success. 

In our   day-to-day operations Data is generated from various streams like social media (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook), Mobile phones, smart watches, smart TV’s, online e-commerce portals like Amazon etc. It shows that internet population has risen globally by more than 60% and there is more usage of mobile devices by the people.

Most businesses have the ability to capture data from customer transactions and day-to-day operations, and through research. However, the significant problem after accumulating data is how to turn the data into intelligence. The solution to streamlining the data-analyzing processes involves in deeper knowledge on Business Intelligence, which makes it possible to analyze and share information very quickly and collaboratively. 

How Business Analytics model works?

There are certain skills that is required to develop and build analytic models. There are steps to followed at each process level:

·         Define the Problem

Ø  Knowledge on how the business works

Ø  Find answers to the questions – Who, when, what and where?

·         Get the data

Ø  Data Acquisition

Ø  Data profiling

Ø  Data Quality assessment

·         Prepare the data

Ø  Data cleansing and quality improvement

Ø  Data Sampling

Ø  Data Structures, migration

·         Choose the modeling technique

Ø  Knowledge on statistical methods

·         Build the model

Ø  Define the purpose of the model

Ø  Structure the model – Spreadsheets, visualizations etc.

·         Evaluate the model

Ø  Model testing with test cases

Ø  Precision, accuracy, reliability

·         Deploy the model

Ø  Production implementation for execution

Ø  Change monitoring and model maintenance

Modules in BI

·         Dashboards

BI dashboards can provide customers a snapshot of daily operations and helps in monitoring activities that assist the user in identifying problems and the source of those problems. It provides up to date info on financial results, sales and their critical info.

·         KPI (Key Performance Indicators)

KPI management helps in tracking with powerful features, formulae and expressions, and flexible frequency and threshold levels. It gives concise definition and tracking of performance indicators for a period, and measures performance as compared to previous period.

·         Graphical OLAP

Graphical Business Intelligence(BI) OLAP technology makes it easy for the uses to find, filter and analyze data going beyond numbers and allowing users to visualize the information with eye-catching, stunning displays, valuable indicators and gauges.

·         Forecasting

Our Predictive analysis uses historical product, sales, pricing, financial, budget and other data and forecasts the measures with numerous time series. Options, e.g., Year, quarter, month, week, day, hour or even second to improve your planning process.

·         Graphical Reporting

BI reports delivers web based BI reports to anyone in the organization. It is simple to use, practical to implement and affordable for every organization. With this we can create a report to summarize your performance metrics and operational data.

How BI is effectively used in smartphones?

There are 6 factors to be considered to make mobile BI successful. Or when an enterprise tries to enhance mobile capabilities to it.

Reference: https://www.betterbuys.com/bi/mobile-bi/

1.       An app’s purpose

Take time up front to map your standard BI processes and queries to the groups of employees that most frequently use them, and then make those functions easily accessible – thumb-size onscreen buttons work best, if possible. That way, all employees don’t have to scroll through long lists or click through multiple links to initiate BI tasks.

2.       Development models

BI can be built as native app, meaning the app is completely device- and platform-specific: one version for Android, another for iOS, plus any other platforms. It can be deployed as a mobile web app, a web-based app that runs entirely on your servers and is accessed via a mobile browser using HTML5.

3.       Connectivity

Even with today’s speediest networks, it’s tough to give mobile users true interactive data exploration. Downloading large data sets takes too much time, and visualizing data of any great volume can choke even the most powerful mobile devices.

4.       Security

BI systems hold some of your company’s most valuable data, so CSOs worry about making that data accessible via hundreds or thousands of pocket-sized, lo-sable, steal able devices.

5.       Device Features: Mobile devices enable your users to do more than just consume information.

With a camera, GPS, and other features, mobiles can also feed data into your BI systems. The camera can scan bar codes (or faces), and the GPS can help users locate nearby resources, both human and physical. Look at where your BI processes collect data – or where you wish you had more data – and see if you can leverage your employees’ mobile devices to collect it.

6.       Feedback

Track who’s using your mobile BI apps and learn from what they do. You can automate some of this process, but it’s also important to actually talk with users to hear their frustrations and success stories, collect their suggestions, and ask about new features you’re considering. That’s why your chosen development model is important.

Conclusion:

There are some top IT investors, CIO’s of big organizations are predicting good reviews about the future of BI. Cloud services, Predictive analytics, Big data each plays a substantial role in feeding data to the BI systems. Business intelligence (BI) sits at the center of many organizations’ efforts to enable data-driven decisions and actions through their enterprises. Some suggests that BI will become personalized that means reports are developed once and used by many today simply because too many technical resources are required to personalize them. The hard limits of a "report" will fade away and be replaced by personalized data presentations showing the data you like to see in the format you like to see it in.

References:

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-future-of-business-intelligence

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496370,00.asp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwDRqBbB4jQ

Business Intelligence concepts

Why Business Intelligence ?

In today’s blog lets dive into other core topic ‘Business intelligence’.  With the help of BI system, a company can draw conclusions based on certain facts like what is the net profit delivered by the product for first quarter month and what are all the key factors to be concentrate on increasing sales and the customer satisfaction for an enterprise by reducing the operational costs. Here comes the role of BI system, where an organization may utilize BI system to be unique in the market by exploring data, nature of the customers, and how to increase its overall business efficiency for optimizing the revenue. BI methods helps the company to organize the data in an analyzed manner and convert that into useful information that promotes business growth.

What is BI?

Business Intelligence is nothing but a collection of processes, tools and technologies helpful in achieving more profit by improving productivity, sales of an organization. It answers very basic questions such as, how business Is performing currently and how it will be in future., How customers are ranked. BI applications and technologies can help an organization to analyses on changing trends in market, change in spending patterns and customer preferences.

There are some key areas where BI focus on

·         Data Sourcing

·         Data Analysis

·         Situation Awareness

·         Risk Analysis

·         Decision Support

Characteristics of  BI:

·         A system used for finding the patterns from existing data from operations.

·         It is a combination of skills, processes, technologies, applications and practices.

·         Data is collected, integrated, analyzed and helps in better decision making for an organization

·         It provides clear business insights that leads to better, faster more relevant decisions.

BI conceptual diagram

BI architecture

BI Architecture

A BI architecture is viewed as five-layer stack with business at the top of stack and process at the bottom. There are four slices of BI architecture – components, information management, requirements, and technology -  are viewed orthogonally. The policies, procedures, practices, methods and workflows of business rules and constraints that must be reflected through all of the organizational and process components of BI. These vertical slices each provide different perspectives into the business, data integration. At each intersection the slices are responsible for:

·         Provide frameworks, structures and guidelines to assure integrity of BI systems.

·         Define standards to ensure regulatory compliance and to assure consistency among all parts of BI systems.

·         Maintain a map of the BI environment that enables smooth integration of few increments.

Formalizing the definition, measurement, and tracking of key business performance indicators

Business Intelligence users:

Executives: Information is summarized and delivered to users. Here they have the opportunity to view static information online and print to a local printer

Casual users: Casual users are users who require next level of detail from the information that is provided to the viewers. They have the privilege to refresh a report and can enter desired data for performing high level research and analysis.

Functional Users

Functional users perform detailed research and analysis which requires access to transactional data.  They have the privilege to develop their own adhoc queries and perform OLAP analysis.

Super Users

The have strong understanding of both business and technology to access and analyze transactional data. They have the privilege to explore and analyze data with the BI applications available to them.

Organization structure

An effective strategy must be implemented as a practice towards efficient and quality IT Services the below techniques must be followed.

§  People: Here it refers to the people who work in IT services where the managers must ensure that ample resources (skills training, staff etc.) are available to support the services.

§  Processes: This deals with set of processes, IT governance policies, activities and documentation involved in creating value to the customer or stakeholder.

§  Products: It involves technology and specialized systems (ex: Automation tools) is used to ensure critical business processes targets are achieved.

§  Partners: To support IT service applications and assist them within the required time frame is done by suppliers, vendors, partners associated with an organization.

 

ITIL Service strategy process

Why BI and Performance Management Mean for IT leaders

IT leaders must work with peers in the business to lead the BI and PM initiative to improve the performance of departments and business units. This means that IT leaders need to:

·         Assess the current state, needs and opportunities for BI and PM. Drive innovation by communicating what new solutions can make possible.

·         Create cross-functional teams from IT and the business to lead the initiative. Strike a balance between centralized and decentralized delivery of BI and PM.

·         Determine the existing skills and technologies available to support the initiative. Where necessary, procure new technology and support changes that will increase business efficiency.

·         Prioritize requests based on available resources. Recruit into the initiative business analysts who are working independently. Use external services to augment internal skills.

·         Ensure business engagement and sponsorship. Write a business case to secure funding for the necessary BI and PM initiatives.

Capabilities of BI system

• Data Storage and Management:
• Data ware house
• Ad hoc analysis
• Data quality
• Data mining
• Information Delivery
• Dashboard
• Collaboration /search
• Managed reporting
• Visualization
• Scorecard
• Query, Reporting and Analysis
• Ad hoc Analysis
• Production reporting
• OLAP analysis
•