Raconteur Cloud for business 2015

Independent publication by 03 / 05 / 2015# 0314raconteur.net
CLOUD for BUSINESS
Dispersing a cloud of
mistrust in the air03
Storing data in the cloud can unlock great potential for many
businesses, but some remain sceptical about security issues
Streams of music, movies
and now live theatre07
It is now easier than ever to deliver digital content via the
cloud, livening up how we stream music, movies and theatre
Hybrid cloud formation
mixes public and private06
Integrated cloud computing, mixing public and secure private
services, is an increasingly popular business choice in the UK
Role of the cloud in
10 top tech trends08
Cloud computing plays a central role in delivering strategic
technology trends, as identified by researchers at Gartner
Cloud shines
bright with
silver lining
The cloud has gone from a misty concept to a
solid platform essential for growth and stability
in a global economic climate still coughing and
spluttering its way out of recession
OVERVIEW
KATE RUSSELL
E
xecutives around the world are
under pressure to innovate or die,
with the value of information and
security among the top priorities
for all businesses.
Adoption of cloud technology is important
where there’s elastic demand, helping busi-
nesses map their metabolism and only pay
for computing resources as and when they
need them.
Retail is the per-
fect example of this,
with seasonal impacts
during the so-called
golden quarter between
October and December
and huge online events
such as Black Friday
when demand is off the
scale, playing havoc
with fixed infrastruc-
ture arrangements.
Shop Direct, which in-
cludes the £800-million online brand Very.
co.uk, has committed heavily to a hybrid
cloud infrastructure that allows it to react
quickly to market changes, scaling seam-
lessly through the peaks and troughs of the
year, and offering a much improved custom-
er experience.
Andy Wolfe, Shop Direct’s chief infor-
mation officer, says: “We operate in a very
competitive market and therefore we are
constantly looking for ways to differentiate
ourselves from the competition, which re-
sults in high demand for IT change, espe-
cially in areas
like mobile.
We need to
be able to
spin up development and test environ-
ments very quickly. IT capacity can’t
be the bottleneck in driving change
or innovation.”
The results speak for themselves in a lan-
guage any shareholder can understand:
increased site availability from 57.47 per
cent in December 2012 to 99.99 per cent in
2013-14; record order rates with more than
a quarter of a million page impressions per
minute on Very.co.uk on Black Friday; and
an increase in trade of 4 per cent over Christ-
mas 2014, including sales via mobile devices
of 45 per cent.
Hospitality is another
industry undergoing a
major digital transforma-
tion. For next generation
travellers the journey
begins online and thanks
to social hubs, such as
TripAdvisor and Booking.
com, buying decisions
are heavily influenced
by consumer opinion. To
keep a pace of this change,
hotel chain Marriott In-
ternational is migrating a
significant portion of its core IT systems
and applications to an open cloud plat-
form over the next few years to offer faster
digital services to web-savvy guests and
discern insights about them from its more
than 4,000 properties across the globe.
This kind of activity marks another strong
growth area this year – analytics as a service
(AaaS), where large or complex data sets are
analysed using cloud-hosted services. Infor-
mation is the new gold, but it isn’t just about
understanding data. Service industries in
particular need to deploy that understanding
rapidly on a
mass scale.
How many
times have
you stood on a platform wondering when
your delayed train might make an appear-
ance and grumbling to anyone who’ll listen
about the lack of information coming from
station staff? National Express Rail now uses
mobile technology and real-time data ana-
lytics to distribute that information as it’s
called for through the cloud.
These infrastructure changes are often not so
much about cost-saving as driving up the value
of customer experience and providing more
flexible working conditions. Although from a
provider’s perspective, intense competition in
infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is making it
a race to the bottom in terms of price, causing
some players to exit gracefully cloud-left.
But as Windows 2003 soon moves to end
of life on July 14, the challenge to migrate
and modernise will naturally push a lot
of businesses towards the cloud rather
than shifting sideways to the current
version of Windows Server 2012 R2. This
is no bad thing as businesses at all levels
are now experiencing cloud technology
as a powerhouse tool for developing new
strategies, forging closer ties with custom-
ers, and tapping into the expertise of em-
ployees and partners. For these reasons
it is pretty much a staple in the startup
culture, radically reducing the barriers to
entry in any sector.
“At last we are close to technology actu-
ally enabling business, to the point where
it is already no longer just the domain of
techies, but now truly accessible to the
business and business users. Cloud and the
transformation to digital services has been
the catalyst,” says Chris Chant of cloud
consultancy Rainmaker Solutions.
Perhaps one of the most striking com-
mitments to cloud comes from the public
sector. Launched in 2012, the UK govern-
ment’s G-Cloud initiative is at the heart of
the “cloud first” ICT strategy.
At the Cabinet Office, Stephen Allott,
crown representative for small and
medium enterprises (SMEs), explains:
“The G-Cloud digital marketplace is the
stand-out reform for getting full value from
SME suppliers. With a £600 million a year
run rate and 49 per cent going to SMEs, it’s
a revolution. Both central government and
the wider public sector can buy from thou-
sands of SME suppliers in minutes rather
than months.
“Compliant by default procurement is
the new standard. Plus the G-Cloud is a
shop window for British SMEs globally.
The US recently acknowledged that the
Crown is five years ahead in digital gov-
ernment and the G-Cloud is one of our key
platforms in that.”
While security remains a concern for
any business, the most recent iteration,
G-Cloud 6, is the first to use the govern-
ment’s 14 cloud security principles to
enable buyers to assess the security of
suppliers’ services. For most this is likely
to go a long way towards allaying fears of
moving to the cloud.
Work still needs to be done to address
the migration of workloads transparently
from one cloud service provider to anoth-
er, without experiencing any down time.
This requires applications to be designed
accordingly, using open source, open stack
technology which we’re also going to see a
lot more of this year.
For Doug Clark, IBM’s UK and Ireland
cloud leader, it’s a winning move for busi-
ness. “Not all clouds are created equal.
What defines the winners is an agility and
flexibility that comes with a cloud built on
‘open standards’. This allows organisations
to pick and mix the elements they need to
build solutions, to meet the specific needs
of their business and consumers, and that
can be continually improved,” he says.
This movement towards open standards
will prove a real leveller as well as an ena-
bler. Niche developers from small compa-
nies will be able to work together, bundling
their skills like fusion cookery. The result
will be plug-and-play, hybrid applications
that potentially deliver true innovation,
rather than just the press office’s inter-
pretation of the word, and can constantly
evolve to meet the ever-changing demands
of the digital consumer.
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JON COLLINS
Writer, commentator
and adviser, he special-
ises in the impact of
technology on business,
society and culture.
GREGOR PETRI
Research vice president
at Gartner, he covers
cloud computing,
brokerage and service
provider strategies.
NIC FILDES
Technology and commu-
nications editor at The
Times, he was formerly
with The Independent and
Dow Jones Newswires.
KATE RUSSELL
Freelance technology
writer, author and broad-
caster, she contributes
to BBC TV’s flagship
technology show Click.
DAN MATTHEWS
Journalist and author of
The New Rules of Business,
he writes for newspapers,
magazines and websites
on a range of issues.
DAVEY WINDER
Award-winning journal-
ist and author, he spe-
cialises in information
security, contributing to
Infosecurity magazine.
CHARLES
ORTON-JONES
Award-winning journalist,
he was editor-at-large of
LondonlovesBusiness.com
and editor of EuroBusiness.
CONTRIBUTORS
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At last we are close
to technology
actually enabling
business, to the point
where it is already
no longer just the
domain of techies
WHAT IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT THAT
YOUR IT DEPARTMENT IS WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
Cloud computing
Legacy systems
modernisation/replacement
Software on-premises
Security technologies
Application develpment
upgrades or replacement
Business analytics
Virtualisation
Disaster recovery
continuity planning
16%
12%
9%
8%
7%
6%
6%
6%
Source: Computerworld 2015 Forecast Study
TOP 3 WAYS BUSINESSES ARE USING THE
CLOUD TO DRIVE TRANSFORMATION
Source: KPMG Cloud Survey Report
Drive cost
efficiencies
Better enable
mobile workforce
Improve alignment
with customers/
partners

CLOUD FOR BUSINESS | 03RACONTEUR | 03 / 05 / 2015 raconteur.net02 | CLOUD FOR BUSINESS 03 / 05 / 2015 | RACONTEURraconteur.net
The Clouds Are Settling In
We Are Past the Tipping Point!
A year ago the forecast would have stated ‘It’s all cloudy on the
adoption front’
Yet, in 2015 it is clear that organisations are now dependent and not just
whistling at the cloud, as enterprises race to migrate and host their collaboration
platforms, social media marketing and business process applications in a
dedicated cloud or hybrid or on-premise infrastructure.
What is driving this gold rush to the cloud? It’s the business need for continuous,
always-on access to content that drives over $2 trillion in workforce productivity
via Content Collaboration Platforms such as SharePoint, OneDrive for Business,
Box, Dropbox and Google. Now that the cloud is settling into the IT enterprise,
we forecast the top four priorities for cloud Service Operation management that
organisations will need to weather the change in this new environment.
THE KEY CLOUD SERVICE OPERATION PRIORITIES:
1. SPEED: Accelerating migration speed and non-disruptive collaboration
movement and reorganisation of the content to the cloud.
2. ACCESS: Easy to implement permission and compliance administration –
which groups and individuals should have access to share or edit what content
and how to ensure against data loss protection (DLP) which is required to avoid
internal inadvertent and malicious insider threats - especially prone in the cloud.
3. PROTECT SENSITIVE CONTENT: Detecting, classifying and locking down
sensitive content that contains personally identiﬁable information (PII) to meet
GDDR, ISO27001, ISO27018 and HIPPA regulations.
4. OPERATIONS: Managing your cloud assets like an IT business application –
provisioning, licensee utilisation, backup and archiving just like we did
successfully back in the mainframe days.
As the Cloud era rolls in, speed, security and operating these services as
an operational imperative, will become a priority on the management
heat index to support work forces productivity gains for the business
and satisfy users service levels.
As such, we will see an evolution in service operations management
methodologies like we saw in the last great IT transformation, from
mainframe to PC, as IT professionals look to software providers to
automate the top four service operation priorities. By targeting and
automating these priorities, businesses will harness the most in work
force productivity without compromising content security or slowing
down operations during this blustery transformation to the cloud.
- Steven Murphy
CEO
Metalogix
Move, Manage, and Secure
Collaboration Content in the Cloud
FOR
Live 24x7 Support 202.609.9100
Metalogix.com
Decoding mystery of app creation
Cloud-based drag-and-drop app building tools are described as digital LEGO, but what business benefits do they offer?
C
an’t code? Doesn’t matter. If you
want to build an app these days
you can create the whole thing
using a cloud-based service. Drag
and drop. Click and scroll. And hey pres-
to! You’ll have an app without ever seeing
a line of code.
More and more companies are build-
ing their apps this way. Cloud-based crea-
tion tools such as BuildFire, Como, Mobile
Roadie, Mendix, Fliplet, Kony, AppsBuilder
and AppGyver are hugely popular.
Yet there are critics, who defend the noble
art of hand-coding. For example, Richard
Fisher, senior mobile application developer
at digital agency Blonde, calls cloud-based
app creation tools “venus fly traps that lure
you in with no hope of escaping once you
are hooked”. Pascal Cans, product manager
at Genymobile, says he’s seen many exam-
ples of companies “frustrated by the limits
of toolkit developments”, leading to innova-
tions being abandoned.
So are codeless drag-and-drop tools all
they are cracked up to be? Let’s start with
the benefits. The first plus is that these
online tools cut costs. No developers to pay.
Those folk can cost £600 a day.
App building tools make the process
faster. When cosmetics brand Kao built
its sales-order entry app for salons it used
Mendix to handle integration with its SAP
system. Estimated build time was 30 days
with hand-coding. With Mendix it fell to
two days.
The ability to create apps without knowing
any code means non-technical staff can get
involved. This is a big deal. Matthew Baier,
chief operating officer of built.io, which cre-
ated the AppGyver app development tool,
says: “If you come across an inefficient,
manual or paper-based process and have
an idea for a small app that could solve said
problem, what are the chances of getting the
app developed in an average business today?
Hint: slim to none in most cases.
“However, if an individual or team can
drag and drop their way to a mobile tool that
addresses the problem without undermining
the company’s IT policies, suddenly the situ-
ation becomes a win-win.”
This is happening a lot. Companies are
developing a whole suite of in-house apps,
helping everyone from field agents to
back-office staff, to sales reps and the finance
team, using bespoke apps.
Then there’s the issue of multiple devices.
When developing an app you’ll need to test
it across umpteen screen-size variations,
manufacturers and operating systems. Will
it work just as well on an Android 4.2 HTC
phone, as a Galaxy phablet? Or an iPhone 6
Plus? And Windows phones?
When there is a software update or new
phone launch you’ll be in a mad rush to
update the app. But use an app builder like
Kony and you can relax. Your app will be up-
dated automatically and tested for validity
on all popular devices. It’s a massive boon.
A cloud-tool will have an army of devel-
opers working on each module. Kony alone
has hundreds of engineers, who’ve launched
thousands of apps. Beat that.
Last: the simplicity of drag-and-drop tools
means you can play around. Prototype all
you want. Cathal McGloin, vice president
mobile platforms at Red Hat, says: “Drag-
and-drop tools promote idea generation, al-
lowing organisations to test drive concepts.
They can also help to kick-start a mobile in-
itiative by allowing the organisation to gen-
erate some early successes that gain the at-
tention and support of senior management.”
Convinced? Chris Beavis, chief executive of
app consultancy Goldfinch Digital, express-
es the views of the anti-camp. “It’s akin to the
difference between building something with
LEGO or carefully sculpting it from clay.
Using Lego is fine if your building something
simple or generic, but ultimately you’re still
building with the same bricks as everyone
else and the moment you need a different
brick you’re stuck,” he says.
Another problem. You can’t fix bugs your-
self. Yasir Ahmad of Kotikan warns: “The
problem for developers is that there is little
control over these online tools’ quality con-
trol. Will they have tested every possible
permutation of features? Will it be worth
their while fixing bugs that only a small
number of developers are using? It puts
you far more at the mercy of someone else’s
code, bugs and all.”
Security is an area of contention. You’ll
hear both sides claiming to be better. Ken
Munro of ethical hackers Pen Test Partners
warns security is opaque if you use a cloud-
apps more secure. Non-coders are the ones
most in need of frameworks that get security
right by default.”
The drag-and-drop advocates have one big
advantage. As more and more corporations
embrace cloud-based tools, those platforms
will grow in reliability and sophistication.
For simple apps there does seem to be a
consensus that cloud-based tools are won-
derful. The debate is now over whether the
most complex apps can be done with low or
zero-code too.
The future? The hunger for corporate apps
means if drag and drop continues to boom
it may simply free up coding engineers to
work on the most difficult app challenges.
An industry growing this fast can deliver
prosperity for all.
APP DEVELOPMENT
CHARLES ORTON-JONES MOST USED ENTERPRISE CLOUD APPS
TIME IT TAKES YOUR
ORGANISATION TO DEVELOP
AND DEPLOY A MOBILE APP
CLOUD APP BUSINESS USAGE
HOW MUCH DOES YOUR
ORGANISATION SPEND TO DEVELOP
AND DEPLOY A MOBILE APP ($)?
Source: CMSWire 2015
Source: Kinvey 2014
Source: Netskope Cloud Report 2015
The ability to create
apps without knowing
any code means non-
technical staff can
get involved
Cloud of
mistrust
in the air
Storing data in the cloud could unlock potential
for many businesses, but some remain sceptical
about security
SECURITY
DAVEY WINDER
W
hen it comes to security, there
is a cloud of mistrust hanging
over the boardroom. Survey
after survey reveals that secu-
rity, or rather the perceived lack of it, is the
single biggest factor preventing business
from migrating to the cloud. But how accu-
rate is this perception?
Jamal Elmellas, technical director at
secure cloud provider tolomy, points to
recent research from the Cloud Indus-
try Forum (CIF) which highlights the dis-
crepancy between perceived threat and
actual risk.
“CIF surveyed 250 senior IT and business
decision-makers in the UK with 61 per cent
reporting concerns over data security,” Mr
Elmellas says. “Only 2 per cent had experi-
enced a cloud-related security breach.”
The consequence of this conflation is two-
fold in that businesses not only miss out on
the budgetary benefits of the cloud, but also
quite often remain less secure than had they
actually migrated there.
Security provider SecureData’s cloud ser-
vices director Alan Carter argues that too
many businesses are “guilty of an overinflat-
ed view of their own capabilities” where the
on-premise physical server room is seen as
inherently secure in a way that virtualised
servers cannot be. This represents a “cloud
equals danger” mindset that is as outdated
as it is misguided.
“Cloud services are, by definition, more
abstracted and intangible,” says Scott Ni-
cholson, information assurance and security
manager at cloud integrator Adapt. “Yet in
reality, a provider that specialises in deliv-
ering cloud services is likely by definition to
have stronger security
and operational con-
trols, and more experi-
ence than an IT depart-
ment functioning as a
single business unit.”
Not that this means
the cloud is concern
free, but most concerns
are actually the same
as apply to on-prem-
ise networks – breach,
denial of service and
malicious insider risk.
Perhaps the most rel-
evant when it comes
to the cloud is the small matter of personal
data; specifically the consents obtained and
where the data is stored. Especially so in the
light of the upcoming European Union Net-
work and Information Security cyber-securi-
ty directive and the General Data Protection
Regulation, both of which are set to be fully
implemented by 2017. These specify that or-
ganisations have to handle EU citizen per-
sonally identifiable information securely or
face a fine of up to 5 per cent of global turno-
ver in case of breach.
“Businesses using cloud services have
to know where consumer data is being
stored and how it’s protected,” warns
Keith Bird, UK managing director for se-
curity vendor Check Point. Most of these
concerns can be dealt with by the use of a
hybrid model where personal data is stored
within a private cloud within the European
Economic Area.
“As most cloud providers are based in the
United States there are particular issues with
processing of personal data by those provid-
ers,” says Richard Nicholas, an IT lawyer at
Browne Jacobson. “In addition to ensuring
US providers have safe harbour certification,
the certificate should be checked to ensure
it is up to date and that the cloud provid-
er commits in its contract to comply with
the safe-harbour principles for the term of
the contract.”
Regulation and compliance remain a
bigger cloud hurdle than security FUD –
fear, uncertainty and doubt – and this is
most evident in certain industry sectors.
ICT solution provider NTT Communica-
tions undertook research which revealed
that 87 per cent of financial service compa-
nies and 63 per cent of retail distribution
and transport companies didn’t plan to mi-
grate their most important applications to
the cloud due to security, governance and
compliance concerns.
Clive Gringras, head of technology and
a partner with international law firm Ols-
wang, advises that players in these heavily
regulated sectors need to “engage with their
regulator to ensure it appreciates the bene-
fits of cloud computing and is not allowing
old rules to unnecessarily hinder a move
to the cloud”. Furthermore, Mr Gringras
insists that a stock cloud provider answer
of “it’s for you to determine whether we fit
within your regulatory regime” is simply
not acceptable.
So how should a cloud service provider
be answering the compliance question?
This rather depends if you are asking it of
the right provider in the first place, as there
are those that will specialise in particular
industry sectors and therefore be familiar
with regulatory nuances.
“Customers should ask the cloud service
provider if it has any big-name clients
running mission-critical applications in
the cloud and for demonstrable evidence
on how regulatory needs are met,” says
tolomy’s Mr Elmellas, who doubts there
will be any real traction in the finance
sector until cloud solutions emerge that
are built around specific financial regula-
tory requirements and markets. “Financial
services in general have some of the most
talented security re-
sources on the planet,”
he says, “so it’s not
the resource that’s the
problem, it’s the way
in which risk is report-
ed and managed.”
Retail is dominated
by Payment Card In-
dustry Data Security
Standard compliance,
and any gaps between
the standard and the
capabilities of tech-
nology inevitably in-
crease risk. “The latest
versions of the standard have started to
address cloud-specific concepts so the
gap is closing,” says managed hosting and
cloud provider Memset’s security manag-
er Thomas Owen, who also warns that the
extreme cost-focused nature of retail also
means regulatory concerns often get steam-
rollered anyway.
Ian Tomlinson, chief executive of cloud-
based retail technology vendor Cybertill,
is well placed to comment on the security
fears of the sector. “There is some reluc-
tance through disruption to service, but
resistance to this is waning,” he says. “A
critical point that does affect retail is the
geographical location of the servers hosting
the software applications in the cloud.”
This need not be a barrier to adoption
though, as Luke Forsyth, vice president in
the information management services prac-
tice at business advisory firm AlixPartners,
points out. “While many of the security
challenges of cloud computing can lay in
the geographic distribution of information
resources,” he says, “retail organisations
have some natural advantages because
these are familiar challenges as the nature
of their business has often required a large
number of locations.”
Ultimately, when it comes to security, the
cloud changes nothing and the broad brush
strokes of a secure environment remain the
same no matter where the canvas is hung.
But how can you best mitigate risk when
migrating from on-premise to the cloud?
Whenever the phrase “top tips” pops up
above the parapet, having a handy acronym
to call on is always useful. In the case of se-
curely migrating to the cloud that acronym
is ATMOSPHERE:
Accreditations: ascertain any accredita-
tions that your proposed service provider
holds, specifically ISO 27001 (the interna-
tionally recognised standard for informa-
tion security) and ISO 27018 (the new cloud
data privacy standard).
Tools: do your research and you will find
there are plenty of tools to help you remain
secure during a cloud migration, everything
from risk auditing through to encryption
key management.
Monitoring: Regularly monitor and
audit any externally provided services, and
ensure strong access controls to your data
with sufficient logging to reveal when your
data has been accessed and by whom.
Onus: contractuallyagreeareasofresponsi-
bility between your organisation and service
provider to reduce any potential disputes;
ensure service levels are defined, agreed and
monitored throughout the migration.
Specialise: if your industry is highly reg-
ulated or has particular security needs, per-
form due diligence and find a cloud provid-
er that specialises in your sector.
Policy: following a policy-based sepa-
ration of duties is key to migrating data
safely to the cloud, preventing ‘privi-
leged status abuse’ and advanced persis-
tent-threat-style attacks.
High availability: ensure you have high
availability baked into the cloud infrastruc-
ture with a secure back-up and recovery
solution, should the worst happen during
the migration process.
Environment: be aware of where your
data is being hosted and stored – is it off-
shored or is multi-tenanted hosting provid-
ed, if so with which other organisations and
what are their related threats?
Risk assessment: audit the sensitivity
of your data, any regulatory considerations
and the requirements for access to that
data; once you properly understand the
risk and operational needs, identifying ap-
propriate cloud security controls becomes
much easier.
Encryption: the best way for compa-
nies to remain secure and compliant with
most data residency laws is to encrypt
data held in the cloud environment with
encryption keys that are unique to specif-
ic jurisdictions, and are controlled from
those jurisdictions.
CASE STUDY: CHASE SOLUTIONS
Chase Solutions is a field ser-
vices organisation working with
utility companies, banks and
debt collection agencies across
the UK. With 30 full-time staff
based at its headquarters in
Blackburn, Lancashire and a net-
work of some 600 field agents, it
needed to find a flexible hosted
desktop solution to enable its
management to work smarter
while on the road.
Mindful of the need to meet the
strict security and legal com-
pliance requirements of both
clients and industry regulators,
the search led to cloud services
provider iomart.
Chase Solutions knew that a host-
ed desktop would be the perfect
technology, allowing management
to work on the road without having
any important data actually held on
the devices they were using.
“The whole solution is hosted
in iomart’s cloud in their fully
compliant and accredited data
centres,” says Michael Wolfenden,
Chase Solution’s director of op-
erations. Far from being worried
about negative security implica-
tions of such a move, the cloud
has actually strengthened the
security posture of the company.
The laptops used by the regional
managers have a minimal operat-
ing system based on Linux that is
securely configured to only allow
access to the cloud environment
via thin client software VMware Ho-
rizon. Being “thin client” means that
only screen images, keyboard and
mouse instructions are transmitted
between the laptops and the cloud.
No data leaves the iomart data
centre and therefore there is no risk
usually associated with laptops and
data stored on their internal drives.
Steve Riley, the consultant re-
sponsible for the IT systems that
Chase uses, says: “All clients’ data
is stored securely at iomart’s data
centre and because no data is
stored on the laptops the regional
managers are using, they don’t
have to be encrypted.” As a result
of moving to the cloud, Chase
Solutions says the management
team now has much better control
and visibility of its IT system. “It
means that when Chase responds
to a tender for work we can now
tick every box with regards to
security,” Mr Riley concludes.
Share this article or infographic on
social media via raconteur.net
When it comes to
security, the cloud
changes nothing and the
broad brush strokes of
a secure environment
remain the same no
matter where the canvas
is hung
based tool. He says: “If the platform gener-
ates bad code, the user would not have a
clue without testing it afterwards. Even if
it is confirmed to be bad, there may not be
a way to fix it without the platform itself
being updated.”
App creators often demand excessive per-
missions on the phone, leading to reduction
in vigilance. “This will get people into a
mindset where they blindly accept permis-
sions from apps and open themselves up to
data loss,” says Mr Munro.
On the plus side, the restricted nature of
drag-and-drop tools means staff can’t intro-
duce their own vulnerabilities. Paco Hope,
principal consultant at Cigital, says: “If rapid
app development frameworks include only
properly secure choices, then they make
SECURITY
LACK OF RESOURCES/
EXPERTISE
COMPLIANCE
MANAGING MULTIPLE
CLOUD SERVICES
MANAGING COSTS
GOVERNANCE/CONTROL
PERFORMANCE
BUILDING A PRIVATE CLOUD
2015 2014
Source: RightScale 2015
TOP 5 CHALLENGES CHANGE WITH CLOUD MATURITY
Source: RightScale 2015
CLOUD BEGINNERS CLOUD EXPLORERS CLOUD FOCUSED
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICERS’ SECURITY CONCERNS
Source: CIO Insight 2015
General security
Data loss and leakage risks
45%
41%
Loss of control
Legal and regulatory
compliance
31%
29%
Integration with existing
IT environments
29%
TOP 5 PUBLIC CLOUD SECURITY THREATS
Malicious insiders
Insecure
interfaces/APIs
43%
41%
Denial of service attacks
39%
Unauthorised access
Hijacking of accounts,
services or traffic
63%
61%
CIOs’ PREFERRED WAYS TO IMPROVE CLOUD SECURITY
Setting and enforcing
security policies across
the cloud
APIs for reporting
auditing and alerting on
security events
50%
45%
Effective mapping of security
controls for internally hosted
applications to the cloud
infrastructure

Isolation/protection
of virtual machines
41%
39%
Ability to compare
security levels across
cloud providers
38%
HIGH-RISK BEHAVIOUR IN THE CLOUD
(NUMBER OF INCIDENTS IN Q2 2014)
Source: Skyhigh, Cloud Adoption & Risk Report 2014
193
Financial Healthcare High tech Manufacturing Media Oil and gas Utility
DATA EXFILTRATION EVENTS
MALWARE INCIDENTS
23
58
29
63
41
13
36 35
42
30
48
8 6
18%
28%
7-9
months
17%
More than
12 months
9%
Don’t
know
24%
4-6
months
11%
1-3
months
11%
10-12
months
17%
100k-
200k
18%
500k-
over $1m
11%
Don’t
know
21%
50k-
100k
14%
50k
or less
19%
200k-
500k
Number of apps
per enterprise
Percentage which are
not enterprise-ready
Marketing
Collaboration
Human resources
Productivity
Finance/accounting
Cloud storage
CRM/SFA
Software development
Social
IT/application management
67
43
38
36
31
28
25
25
18
16
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
0
20
40
60
80
100
A B C D E F G H I J
Knowing how to code is no
longer necessary to build apps
Facebook
Social
Google Drive
Cloud storage
Google Gmail
Webmail
Twitter
Social
iCloud
Cloud storage
1
2
3
4
5
6 11
7 12
8 13
9 14
10 15
Google Docs
Productivity
Salesforce
Customer
relationship
management/sales
force automation
YouTube
Consumer
Cisco WebEx
Collaboration
LinkedIn
Social
Evernote
Productivity
Dropbox
Cloud storage
RingCentral
Telecom
Microsoft
OneDrive
Cloud storage
Okta
Security

Virtually perfect
for startups…
The cloud can help newcomers compete with established players and
provide affordable, scalable resources to build a profitable business
ENTREPRENEURS
DAN MATTHEWS
T
here’s an old joke poking fun at
startups’ lack of personnel. Some
clients come in for a meeting and
are greeted by a secretary, she
takes their coats and they sit. She says the
owner will be along shortly and leaves the
room only to return two minutes later hand
outstretched – “Hi, I’m the owner,” she says.
Historically this near-complete lack of
human resource has been one of the major
barriers to small businesses. Not only did
it inhibit progress, but it was also abun-
dantly obvious to partners and clients that
you were a tiny business, not an estab-
lished entity, and therefore desperate for
their patronage.
Today, it’s less clear. The internet, first,
and now the cloud have wrecked our abili-
ty to tell, within reason, if a business is big
or small just by its output. One-man and
one-woman bands can achieve baffling
amounts of work in a normal working day.
Xavier Colomes, an online marketing con-
sultant trading under the name Conversion
Garden, says his businesses could not func-
tion without the cloud’s properties, which
allow him to access work in any location
and all but prevent catastrophic data loss
through hardware damage, theft or loss.
He explains: “I split my time between the
UK and Spain, and I simply wouldn’t be able
to run my business without cloud-based
tools. They underpin the vital processes
that make my business work.
“I use an online time-tracking system
for project management, I store my busi-
ness-critical files in Google Drive and Drop-
box. I also use cloud-based accounting soft-
ware, QuickBooks Online. It allows me to
access my invoices and estimates instantly,
gives clear visibility of cash-flow status and
what I can do to improve it, and also helps
me collaborate with my accountant.
“There are pragmatic benefits too. My
laptop is basically the portal to my business,
but if I lost it or if it was stolen, my revenue
and client relations wouldn’t be in jeopardy
because they have zero reliance on hardware.”
In the very earliest days of the cloud,
people worried about security, they still
do to a degree, but chaperoning a precious
laptop home on the train feels a lot more ex-
posed than housing all your data in secure
and anonymous server rooms ruled by large
and serious systems and processes.
Most startups have weighed these two
scenarios, or versions of them, and decided
the multinational company with layers of
management and a large security budget is
probably more reliable than an individual
meandering home after five pints of lager.
Security concerns aside, the life-giving
properties of the cloud – its ability to bring
together business operations at a single
access point – have triggered a huge escala-
tion in new businesses. Politicians will tell
you the meteoric rise in startup numbers is
down to them, but really it is the cloud.
And how. According to Startup Britain,
581,173 businesses were founded in 2014,
sharply more than the previous year’s
526,173, which in turn rocketed passed
2012’s 484,224. According to Companies
House, in the four weeks of February this
year alone, 51,596 new companies burst
into being.
“Perhaps the key benefit of the cloud is its
ability to level the playing field. By remov-
ing much of the initial up-front costs, the
cloud allows small and medium-sized busi-
nesses to compete with their larger rivals
– and in some instances to surpass them,”
says Ian Stone, managing director UK and
Ireland at Anaplan, a cloud-based business
planning platform.
“With less infrastructure and fewer in-
ternal processes, startups and SMEs [small
and medium-sized enterprises] have always
been considerably more flexible and agile
than their market-leading competitors.
“In contrast, larger enterprises retained
their dominance by relying on infrastruc-
ture, scale, access to multiple markets and
superior technology. The arrival of cloud
computing has eroded these advantages, so
it’s no surprise that large companies are be-
ginning to become concerned.”
The cloud is good for security and it certain-
ly helps startups grow, but it can also facilitate
the sort of administration that prevents them
falling over too. Finance and accounting are
two enduring bugbears for entrepreneurs
down the ages and, while accounting is still
not fun, it’s a lot easier than it used to be.
According to Rich Preece, country manager
at Intuit UK, cloud-based financial manage-
ment software is about to take off in a big way.
He cites statistics from the International Data
Association forecasting that, by the end of
next year, half of all SMEs will be using it.
“The insight you can get from dedicat-
ed cloud accounting software means SME
owners can also make strategic financial
decisions, such as looking at a healthy
pipeline and deciding it’s time to pay staff
a bonus or plough some more investment
into R&D,” says Mr Preece.
“At the other end of the scale, they could
avoid a nasty surprise by realising they
need to bring in some new customers
quickly before it’s too late.”
Sharon Davidson, founder of Aresko,
which provides consultancy services to the
NHS, says settling invoices in a timely fash-
ion is vital to her cash flow, and that cloud-
based business and e-invoicing platform
Tradeshift provides assurance in this area.
“Previously I would have to raise the in-
voice, send it in and sometimes chase it.
Whereas now, I raise the invoice, it goes by
the cloud system and I have all the updates
I need. Messages come in – signed off, paid
and it’s perfect,” she says.
Ms Davidson’s example shows it’s not
just super-high-tech companies that
can benefit from the cloud. Old busi-
ness models work just as well, includ-
ing bricks-and-mortar high street shops.
Number Six, a high-end men’s fashion re-
tailer based on Brick Lane in East London,
swears by Vend point-of-sale and retail
management software.
Owner Jake Hardy says: “The best thing
about Vend, for us, is that it is cloud based
and therefore accessible from anywhere
I am, whether at home, on my phone or
on holiday. I can quickly oversee what we
have sold and what our margins are in real
time. I can also quickly and efficiently
restock products.”
With cloud technologies such as these
taking the strain off startups, it’s anyone’s
guess how many new businesses will be
encouraged to pop up in 2015, certainly
way over 600,000 if the current trend con-
tinues. As cloud technologies improve and
more people adopt them, the playing field
between newbies and the big dogs just gets
more even by the day.
CLOUD USE BY UK SMALLER BUSINESSES
Politicians will tell you
the meteoric rise in
startup numbers is down
to them, but really it is
the cloud
Booking systemsHosted e-mailsHosting services
Data storageBack-up services
22.9%41.4%55.4%
40.9%41.5%
Source: Towergate 2014
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
EMBRACE THE CLOUD
AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER
A survey by Ingram Micro Cloud and the Cloud Industry Forum reveals the critical
role cloud is now playing, and identifies soaring adoption over the past five years
Apay Obang-Oyway
General manager, Northern Europe
The benefits of the cloud are huge and they are
now seen as having strategic importance. In
2011onlyhalfoffirmsusedcloudservices.Now
84percentdo.Fouroutoffiveadoptersareusing
morethanonecloudservice.
The value and importance of cloud can be
evidenced by the recent results from Microsoft
who showed great third-quarter results in their
cloudbusinessboastingalmost50millionusers
amongbusinesssubscribers.
The growth of cloud is down to more than a
desire to cut costs or convenience. Yes, cloud
deliversbothofthese.Butthesurveyhighlights
aclearchangeintheroleofcloud.Whenasked
whethercloudadoptionisdrivenbyoperational
business needs or as a technological strategy,
the latter outstripped the former. The cloud is
nowbeingseenasatransformativetechnology.
Itcanrevolutionisebusinessmodels.
“The cloud is about delivering competitive
advantage,” says Ingram Micro Cloud general
manager Apay Obang-Oyway. “It enables
organisationstodrivegreaterinnovationfaster,
have greater ability to collaborate and gives
access to a global talent pool at a fraction of
thecost.
“Just consider the amount of computing
you can rely on to deliver innovative solutions.
Historically,smallbusinessescouldnotdevelop
enterprise-class capabilities such as mining
vast sums of data to help produce insightful
information without having large and costly
systemsin-house.Todaysmallbusinessescan
have access to an enterprise-class business
intelligence capability to make smarter
business decisions at a fraction of the cost.
You can use cloud to reach a majority of the
globalpopulation,tocollaborate,innovate,and
deliverbothinternallyandwithyourcustomers.
Itchangeseverything.”
There is, however, still a lingering reticence
preventing full-scale adoption among
organisations. When asked what is the biggest
inhibitor to moving apps or infrastructure to
the cloud, 35 per cent of companies named
securityandprivacyissues.Whenaskedfortheir
motivationforstoringdatainaspecificlocation,
security once again topped the bill, with 74 per
centcitedastheirreason.
Thesurveyalsorevealsthatsecurityconcerns
rose slightly over the past year. It is clearly an
issuethewholeindustryneedstoaddress.
“There’s no doubt companies realise they
can’t delegate security,” says Raj Samani of
IntelSecurity.“Iftheythoughttheycouldblindly
assume their cloud provider was protecting
their data, that myth has been destroyed.
Whatwetelleveryoneisthattheyhaveaduty,
alegalduty,aswellasabusinessrequirement,
to find out precisely what cloud services they
are using and from whom. Assuming you are
intheclearisnotacceptable.”
Ignorance is commonplace. Mr Samani
agreeswiththisanalysis:“Iwasataneventand
askedtheaudiencehowmanyusedSalesforce.
com.Almosteveryhandwentup.ThenIasked
if they knew where their data was stored. Not
a single hand went up. Not good enough.
It’s a requirement of principle 7 of the Data
ProtectionAct.”
A lack of familiarity with cloud is partly to
blame.Sowhatcanbedonetosolvethesecurity
conundrum?MrSamanioffersthisadvice:“Start
byassessingyourriskappetite.Ifyouarehosting
publicly accessible pdfs for wide distribution,
thenDropboxisOK.Ifyouarehostingfivemillion
confidential health records, then you need
securitycommensuratewiththatdata.”
Transparencyisthekey.Youneedfullvisibility
onallaspectsofyourcloudprovision.
Due diligence will be needed. Mr Samani
adds: “If you are handing over the keys to your
kingdom to a cloud supplier, then you will really
needtodothesameduediligenceasyouwould
forM&A.Askhowlonghasyoursupplierbeenin
business? What is their business model? How
financially secure are they? And make sure you
understand their security set-up. Do they have
therightcertification?”
As a master cloud service provider, Ingram
Micro Cloud has strong views on how best to
approach cloud. Mr Obang-Oyway says: “It
is important to choose a technology delivery
partner who is more than a generalist. Small
and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should
demand to work with partners that truly
understand their industry and business to
ensuretherightvalueisbeingderivedfromcloud.
“Partners who have specialisms will be
importanttothisfast-changingworld.Ifyouarein
professionalservices,youneedacloudprovider
whounderstandstheparticularrequirementsof
your industry. They will grasp concepts such as
keeping data in certain geographical locations
and helping you certify data is secure for
compliancepurposes.”
This is a key point. Half of cloud users, says
thesurvey,havealocation-specificrequirement
becauseofregulation.Onlyaswitched-oncloud
providerwillensurefullcompliance.
Companies also urgently need to research
what extra cloud services they can leverage.
“There are so many wonderful applications,”
says Mr Obang-Oyway. “With cloud, small and
medium-sized businesses can have the same
capabilitiesasthoseofbiggerenterprises.
“Consider the concept of social, mobility,
analytics and cloud – SMAC. These four
megatrendsaredrivinginnovationforbusinesses
allowingthemtoachievegreaterinnovationanda
moreintimatecustomerandtalentmanagement
process that delivers superior value creation
for all stakeholders. For example, in the field of
business intelligence there are data analytics
capabilities which can produce extraordinary
actionableinformation.ToomanySMBsarestill
underutilisingtheseapplications.”
The key to exploring the very best in cloud
applicationsistomakesureyoupickaprovider
withadeepknowledgeofthefullfieldofoptions
andtheabilitytodeliverwhateveryouneed.
IngramMicroCloudtakestheverybestcloud
services from the world’s leading cloud service
suppliers and provides packages for reseller
partners to provide to their customers. It is a
modelwhichensuresusersgetthebestpossible
mixofservices,atthebestvalue,whileworking
with industry specialists in their area. With
20,000 employees, Ingram Micro has the size
and buying power to give reseller partners and
theirend-userstheoptimumcloudexperience.
Mr Obang-Oyway concludes: “We are seeing
more and more businesses embrace cloud as
thecorepartoftheirbusinessstrategy.Whatwe
neednowistohelpresellersprovidetheirSMBs
with the cloud services that truly enable their
strategies.Whenyoustarttoseewhatcloudcan
doforyou,thepossibilitiesarelimitless.”
FormoreinformationonIngramMicroCloud
visitwww.ingrammicrocloud.co.ukfollow
@IMCloud_UKorcall08719733060
Smallandmedium-sized
businessesshoulddemandto
workwithpartnersthattruly
understandtheirindustryand
businesstoensuretherightvalue
isbeingderivedfromcloud
Fewer than 20
employees
21-200 200+
1 2 3 4 5+
Total percentage of companies
Source: Cloud Industry Forum White Paper 15, Cloud
Adoption and Trends 2016
Doesyourcompanyhaveanyhostedor
cloud-basedservices?
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Why are you required to store data in a
specific location?
Iscloudadoptiondrivenwithinyourbusinessprincipally
bytheITfunctionasatechnologicalstrategyorby
businessonanoperationalneedsbasis?
IT Business
Security
concerns
Regulation Integration to related
apps on-premises
Operational
preference
Yes No
Whathavebeenthebiggestinhibitors
tomovingmoreappsand/or
infrastructuretothecloud?
2014
2015
Howmanydifferentcloud-based
servicesdoesyourcompanyuse?
Lack of budget Business security
and privacy issues
2011
2011
2011
2012
2012
2013
2013
2014
2014
2015
2015
2012
2013
2014
2015
Yes No
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Doesyourcompanyincludeconsiderationsforcloud
serviceswithinitswiderITstrategy?
85%
15%
77%
23%
78%
22%
79%
21%
79%
21%
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
EMBRACE THE CLOUD
AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER
A survey by Ingram Micro Cloud and the Cloud Industry Forum reveals the critical
role cloud is now playing, and identifies soaring adoption over the past five years
Apay Obang-Oyway
General manager, Northern Europe
The benefits of the cloud are huge and they are
now seen as having strategic importance. In
2011onlyhalfoffirmsusedcloudservices.Now
84percentdo.Fouroutoffiveadoptersareusing
morethanonecloudservice.
The value and importance of cloud can be
evidenced by the recent results from Microsoft
who showed great third-quarter results in their
cloudbusinessboastingalmost50millionusers
amongbusinesssubscribers.
The growth of cloud is down to more than a
desire to cut costs or convenience. Yes, cloud
deliversbothofthese.Butthesurveyhighlights
aclearchangeintheroleofcloud.Whenasked
whethercloudadoptionisdrivenbyoperational
business needs or as a technological strategy,
the latter outstripped the former. The cloud is
nowbeingseenasatransformativetechnology.
Itcanrevolutionisebusinessmodels.
“The cloud is about delivering competitive
advantage,” says Ingram Micro Cloud general
manager Apay Obang-Oyway. “It enables
organisationstodrivegreaterinnovationfaster,
have greater ability to collaborate and gives
access to a global talent pool at a fraction of
thecost.
“Just consider the amount of computing
you can rely on to deliver innovative solutions.
Historically,smallbusinessescouldnotdevelop
enterprise-class capabilities such as mining
vast sums of data to help produce insightful
information without having large and costly
systemsin-house.Todaysmallbusinessescan
have access to an enterprise-class business
intelligence capability to make smarter
business decisions at a fraction of the cost.
You can use cloud to reach a majority of the
globalpopulation,tocollaborate,innovate,and
deliverbothinternallyandwithyourcustomers.
Itchangeseverything.”
There is, however, still a lingering reticence
preventing full-scale adoption among
organisations. When asked what is the biggest
inhibitor to moving apps or infrastructure to
the cloud, 35 per cent of companies named
securityandprivacyissues.Whenaskedfortheir
motivationforstoringdatainaspecificlocation,
security once again topped the bill, with 74 per
centcitedastheirreason.
Thesurveyalsorevealsthatsecurityconcerns
rose slightly over the past year. It is clearly an
issuethewholeindustryneedstoaddress.
“There’s no doubt companies realise they
can’t delegate security,” says Raj Samani of
IntelSecurity.“Iftheythoughttheycouldblindly
assume their cloud provider was protecting
their data, that myth has been destroyed.
Whatwetelleveryoneisthattheyhaveaduty,
alegalduty,aswellasabusinessrequirement,
to find out precisely what cloud services they
are using and from whom. Assuming you are
intheclearisnotacceptable.”
Ignorance is commonplace. Mr Samani
agreeswiththisanalysis:“Iwasataneventand
askedtheaudiencehowmanyusedSalesforce.
com.Almosteveryhandwentup.ThenIasked
if they knew where their data was stored. Not
a single hand went up. Not good enough.
It’s a requirement of principle 7 of the Data
ProtectionAct.”
A lack of familiarity with cloud is partly to
blame.Sowhatcanbedonetosolvethesecurity
conundrum?MrSamanioffersthisadvice:“Start
byassessingyourriskappetite.Ifyouarehosting
publicly accessible pdfs for wide distribution,
thenDropboxisOK.Ifyouarehostingfivemillion
confidential health records, then you need
securitycommensuratewiththatdata.”
Transparencyisthekey.Youneedfullvisibility
onallaspectsofyourcloudprovision.
Due diligence will be needed. Mr Samani
adds: “If you are handing over the keys to your
kingdom to a cloud supplier, then you will really
needtodothesameduediligenceasyouwould
forM&A.Askhowlonghasyoursupplierbeenin
business? What is their business model? How
financially secure are they? And make sure you
understand their security set-up. Do they have
therightcertification?”
As a master cloud service provider, Ingram
Micro Cloud has strong views on how best to
approach cloud. Mr Obang-Oyway says: “It
is important to choose a technology delivery
partner who is more than a generalist. Small
and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should
demand to work with partners that truly
understand their industry and business to
ensuretherightvalueisbeingderivedfromcloud.
“Partners who have specialisms will be
importanttothisfast-changingworld.Ifyouarein
professionalservices,youneedacloudprovider
whounderstandstheparticularrequirementsof
your industry. They will grasp concepts such as
keeping data in certain geographical locations
and helping you certify data is secure for
compliancepurposes.”
This is a key point. Half of cloud users, says
thesurvey,havealocation-specificrequirement
becauseofregulation.Onlyaswitched-oncloud
providerwillensurefullcompliance.
Companies also urgently need to research
what extra cloud services they can leverage.
“There are so many wonderful applications,”
says Mr Obang-Oyway. “With cloud, small and
medium-sized businesses can have the same
capabilitiesasthoseofbiggerenterprises.
“Consider the concept of social, mobility,
analytics and cloud – SMAC. These four
megatrendsaredrivinginnovationforbusinesses
allowingthemtoachievegreaterinnovationanda
moreintimatecustomerandtalentmanagement
process that delivers superior value creation
for all stakeholders. For example, in the field of
business intelligence there are data analytics
capabilities which can produce extraordinary
actionableinformation.ToomanySMBsarestill
underutilisingtheseapplications.”
The key to exploring the very best in cloud
applicationsistomakesureyoupickaprovider
withadeepknowledgeofthefullfieldofoptions
andtheabilitytodeliverwhateveryouneed.
IngramMicroCloudtakestheverybestcloud
services from the world’s leading cloud service
suppliers and provides packages for reseller
partners to provide to their customers. It is a
modelwhichensuresusersgetthebestpossible
mixofservices,atthebestvalue,whileworking
with industry specialists in their area. With
20,000 employees, Ingram Micro has the size
and buying power to give reseller partners and
theirend-userstheoptimumcloudexperience.
Mr Obang-Oyway concludes: “We are seeing
more and more businesses embrace cloud as
thecorepartoftheirbusinessstrategy.Whatwe
neednowistohelpresellersprovidetheirSMBs
with the cloud services that truly enable their
strategies.Whenyoustarttoseewhatcloudcan
doforyou,thepossibilitiesarelimitless.”
FormoreinformationonIngramMicroCloud
visitwww.ingrammicrocloud.co.ukfollow
@IMCloud_UKorcall08719733060
Smallandmedium-sized
businessesshoulddemandto
workwithpartnersthattruly
understandtheirindustryand
businesstoensuretherightvalue
isbeingderivedfromcloud
Fewer than 20
employees
21-200 200+
1 2 3 4 5+
Total percentage of companies
Source: Cloud Industry Forum White Paper 15, Cloud
Adoption and Trends 2016
Doesyourcompanyhaveanyhostedor
cloud-basedservices?
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Why are you required to store data in a
specific location?
Iscloudadoptiondrivenwithinyourbusinessprincipally
bytheITfunctionasatechnologicalstrategyorby
businessonanoperationalneedsbasis?
IT Business
Security
concerns
Regulation Integration to related
apps on-premises
Operational
preference
Yes No
Whathavebeenthebiggestinhibitors
tomovingmoreappsand/or
infrastructuretothecloud?
2014
2015
Howmanydifferentcloud-based
servicesdoesyourcompanyuse?
Lack of budget Business security
and privacy issues
2011
2011
2011
2012
2012
2013
2013
2014
2014
2015
2015
2012
2013
2014
2015
Yes No
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Doesyourcompanyincludeconsiderationsforcloud
serviceswithinitswiderITstrategy?
85%
15%
77%
23%
78%
22%
79%
21%
79%
21%
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
John Coldicutt
Chief marketing officer
Justunder600,000newbusinessesstarted
life in 2014, but in the same year more than
200,000 bit the dust.
The problem, at least historically, has
been a lack of resources, meaning small
businesses often let practical and important
parts of their operation, such as maintaining
healthy cash flow, slip. The result of a
business running out of cash is all too clear,
but it’s surprisingly easy to do.
Everyyearthousandsofviablebusinesses
go to the wall despite having good products
and happy customers. It happens because
they focus on creating a great offering, but
forget about the admin.
At IRIS we believe there is a better way. As
partoftheIRIScloudsuiteofproducts,weoffer
KashFlow, a sophisticated yet simple online
accountingplatform.Ithelpssmallbusinesses
keep up to speed with their finances without
robbingthemoftimebetterspentonbusiness
developmentandinnovation.
KashFlow is easy to access from anywhere,
with simple navigation and a fast, free help
centre staffed by real people. Users love the
intuitivedesign,thecloud-based“goanywhere”
interfaceandthequickandeasyset-up.
Creating invoices is a doddle, while
the system even chases late payments
automatically, meaning users get paid
quicker. You can create quotes too and all
of your financial comings and goings are
easily logged, with charts and graphs clearly
illustrating the health of your business.
For accountants, KashFlow means a
healthier, happier relationship with clients.
Accountancy firms that integrate with the
KashFlow platform can receive all the data
theyneedonline,withoutevenhavingtomeet
a client face to face.
Happily,italsoputstoanendaccountants’
perennial bugbear of receiving bags full
of receipts to process just before a filing
deadline with HM Revenue & Customs.
Clients can upload receipt data by snapping
a picture on their smartphones – simple.
KashFlow integrates easily with other
systemsandswappingfromotheraccountancy
software, or even an Excel spreadsheet, is a
quickandstress-freejob.You’llnolongerhave
that sinking feeling around VAT deadlines or
in the run-up to year end. The system deals
withcompanypayrollandpensionsautomatic
enrolmenttoo.
Because it’s cloud based, KashFlow
updates for all users on an account in real
time.Abusinessownercaninputdata,notify
their accountant and have it filed with a few
quickclicksofamousebutton.Whywouldyou
deal with paper ever again?
KashFlow takes care of the tricky financial
stuff so business owners and entrepreneurs
canfocusonthethingstheyreallycareabout,
such as creating great products and making
customers happy.
Accountants can get accurate data in a
timely fashion and can use the service as a
sales tool to bring in new clients. KashFlow
lists its accountants in a directory which
comes top of search engines for relevant
searches, meaning they can attract new
clients as well as organise existing ones.
By moving to the cloud, the future can be
brighterforsmallbusinessesandaccountants.
WithKashFlow,bothsidesoftheequationcan
focusonwhattheygetpaidtodo,whiledodging
theannoyingbitsthatgetintheway.
www.kashflow.com
KASHFLOW IS KING FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES
AND ACCOUNTANTS
KashFlow takes care of
the tricky financial stuff so
business owners can focus
on the things they really
care about, such as creating
great products and making
customers happy
Small businesses are the lifeblood of the UK economy and yet many are putting
their future at risk by failing to organise finances properly
8.8million
InvoicesgeneratedusingKashFlowin
thepastyear,contributing£6.6billion
invaluetotheeconomy
50%
50%ofUKaccountantsuseIRIS
softwareproducts
Over3milliontaxreturnsfiledthrough
IRISsoftwarethisyearalone
300,000IRISCloudSuitesubscribers
including158,000smartphone
payslipappusers
employeesassessedforworkplacepen-
sionsautomaticenrolmentand2.2million
employeespaidusingIRISsoftware
0.5million
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
John Coldicutt
Chief marketing officer
Justunder600,000newbusinessesstarted
life in 2014, but in the same year more than
200,000 bit the dust.
The problem, at least historically, has
been a lack of resources, meaning small
businesses often let practical and important
parts of their operation, such as maintaining
healthy cash flow, slip. The result of a
business running out of cash is all too clear,
but it’s surprisingly easy to do.
Everyyearthousandsofviablebusinesses
go to the wall despite having good products
and happy customers. It happens because
they focus on creating a great offering, but
forget about the admin.
At IRIS we believe there is a better way. As
partoftheIRIScloudsuiteofproducts,weoffer
KashFlow, a sophisticated yet simple online
accountingplatform.Ithelpssmallbusinesses
keep up to speed with their finances without
robbingthemoftimebetterspentonbusiness
developmentandinnovation.
KashFlow is easy to access from anywhere,
with simple navigation and a fast, free help
centre staffed by real people. Users love the
intuitivedesign,thecloud-based“goanywhere”
interfaceandthequickandeasyset-up.
Creating invoices is a doddle, while
the system even chases late payments
automatically, meaning users get paid
quicker. You can create quotes too and all
of your financial comings and goings are
easily logged, with charts and graphs clearly
illustrating the health of your business.
For accountants, KashFlow means a
healthier, happier relationship with clients.
Accountancy firms that integrate with the
KashFlow platform can receive all the data
theyneedonline,withoutevenhavingtomeet
a client face to face.
Happily,italsoputstoanendaccountants’
perennial bugbear of receiving bags full
of receipts to process just before a filing
deadline with HM Revenue & Customs.
Clients can upload receipt data by snapping
a picture on their smartphones – simple.
KashFlow integrates easily with other
systemsandswappingfromotheraccountancy
software, or even an Excel spreadsheet, is a
quickandstress-freejob.You’llnolongerhave
that sinking feeling around VAT deadlines or
in the run-up to year end. The system deals
withcompanypayrollandpensionsautomatic
enrolmenttoo.
Because it’s cloud based, KashFlow
updates for all users on an account in real
time.Abusinessownercaninputdata,notify
their accountant and have it filed with a few
quickclicksofamousebutton.Whywouldyou
deal with paper ever again?
KashFlow takes care of the tricky financial
stuff so business owners and entrepreneurs
canfocusonthethingstheyreallycareabout,
such as creating great products and making
customers happy.
Accountants can get accurate data in a
timely fashion and can use the service as a
sales tool to bring in new clients. KashFlow
lists its accountants in a directory which
comes top of search engines for relevant
searches, meaning they can attract new
clients as well as organise existing ones.
By moving to the cloud, the future can be
brighterforsmallbusinessesandaccountants.
WithKashFlow,bothsidesoftheequationcan
focusonwhattheygetpaidtodo,whiledodging
theannoyingbitsthatgetintheway.
www.kashflow.com
KASHFLOW IS KING FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES
AND ACCOUNTANTS
KashFlow takes care of
the tricky financial stuff so
business owners can focus
on the things they really
care about, such as creating
great products and making
customers happy
Small businesses are the lifeblood of the UK economy and yet many are putting
their future at risk by failing to organise finances properly
8.8million
InvoicesgeneratedusingKashFlowin
thepastyear,contributing£6.6billion
invaluetotheeconomy
50%
50%ofUKaccountantsuseIRIS
softwareproducts
Over3milliontaxreturnsfiledthrough
IRISsoftwarethisyearalone
300,000IRISCloudSuitesubscribers
including158,000smartphone
payslipappusers
employeesassessedforworkplacepen-
sionsautomaticenrolmentand2.2million
employeespaidusingIRISsoftware
0.5million
BaaS – back-up as a service
Everyone needs to back-up. The problem is
doing it on schedule and keeping the back-up
drives safe. If your office burns down the back-
ups may go up in smoke. So send back-up data
to the cloud. That’s BaaS.
CaaS – communications as a service
Companies spent a fortune on bulky switch-
es to handle telephone calls. Now CaaS offers
phone calls, instant messaging and video con-
ferencing without expensive hardware. Plug in
internet-enabled handsets and devices, and
configure via a web browser. Skype is a CaaS.
DaaS – desktop as a service
Staff want to work on any device from any lo-
cation. DaaS means they can summon their
personal desktop, with all files, wherever they
want. Windows, Mac or Linux desktop is virtu-
alised and hosted in the cloud.
DBaaS – database as a service
Not to be confused with DaaS. Database as a
service means using a cloud-based database,
leaving administration to the vendor. DBaaS
users can focus on their job, knowing database
duties, including scaling, havebeen delegated.
HaaS – hardware as a service
Don’t buy your hardware, just rent it. HaaS
leases what you need when you need it, leav-
ing maintenance to the supplier. HaaS in-
cludes servers, printers, desktops, anything
physical. Companies with temporary needs,
such as events firms, are enthusiastic users.
IDaaS – identity as a service
IT departments issue passwords, set access
rights and monitor network usage. IDaaS is
a cloud-based identity management service,
which provides prebuilt modules for all iden-
tity requirements.
IaaS – infrastructure as a service
Servers, storage and networking can be leased
pay as you go on the cloud. IaaS means no cap-
ital outlay. Pay for what you need. As you grow,
more infrastructure can be utilised. IaaS is a
core element of cloud computing.
PaaS – platform as a service
When hardware and software come together
on the cloud you get PaaS. Providers offer a
supportive environment for clients to build,
test or run their own applications in the cloud.
It’s usually depicted as a layer above IaaS and
one below SaaS.
SaaS – software as a service
Dropbox, Gmail and YouTube are examples of
SaaS. Users access a full service, hosted on the
web. Maintenance, capital expenditure and
development are done by the provider. SaaS is
the complete cloud offering.
STaaS – storage as a service
The cloud is ideal for data storage. Rather than
keep data on premises, users send it to their
STaaS provider. Cost, scalability and conveni-
ence are big pluses. Downside? For large-scale
STaaS you’ll need serious broadband cpacity.
It’sthecloud
atyourservice
Available on demand via the internet, cloud
services offer a comprehensive business menu
CLOUD SERVICES
CHARLES ORTON-JONES

Hybrid cloud formation is
mixing public and private
An integrated cloud computing environment, which mixes public and secure private services, is the business solution
for an increasing number of organisations
C
louds appear in the sky, continu-
ally changing form – seemingly
creating whatever our imagina-
tion desires. And now the same
is true of that other type of cloud – used
for computing – with customers desiring
greater flexibility and choice.
Hence the era of the hybrid cloud is upon
us, one that combines the cost advantages
of the public cloud with the private-cloud
security benefits of ring-fencing your
own servers. The blended model is find-
ing favour with more companies needing
to ramp up their cloud capacity without
paying through the nose to do so.
That perhaps reflects the wider trend in
technology markets where consumers will
not hang around waiting for goods and ser-
vices. One click too many and the customer
may never return. This has had a knock-on
effect for IT companies that need to stay
fleet of foot and innovative without letting
their guard drop.
George O’Connor, an analyst with stock-
broker Panmure Gordon, says hybrid
cloud is becoming a middle road for many
businesses. “Hybrid cloud is neither one
thing nor the other, but is somewhere in
between,” he says. “However, hybrid cloud
tries to marry the best of both worlds,
the scale and cost benefits of cloud with
the security and data curation of on-
premise software.
“In these uncertain times, both these have
become more impor-
tant for corporate IT
buyers and hence the
recent resurgence of in-
terest in hybrid cloud.
The solution appeals
to users who want to
be trendy and also con-
servative,” he says.
The mixed model
allows companies to
segregate their service between critical
and non-critical functions. An e-com-
merce website, for example, could be
hosted in a private cloud to ensure cus-
tomer details, such as transaction history
and bank accounts, could be stored se-
curely. However, the brochure site, where
customers can scour for products or deals,
could be moved to a lower-cost public
cloud environment.
Cloud services specialists Interoute
notes that an infrastructure-as-service
provider could exploit the model to store
sensitive client data in the private cloud,
while allowing project planning and col-
laboration among multiple users on the
public cloud. The trend provides a huge
opportunity for companies ranging from
HP to smaller data-centre companies such
as iomart and even network players in-
cluding Interoute.
Simon Michie, chief technical officer at
Redcentric, points out the benefits of hybrid
cloud model for innovative companies. “The
art of innovation in a hybrid-cloud world is
to nurture the requisite imagination and
creativity within your business deliberate-
ly, be prepared to invest speculatively, and
successfully orchestrate the available range
of on-demand, enabling technologies to de-
liver solutions that align with your goals,”
he says. “The game-changer with hybrid
cloud is the relative affordability, accessi-
bility and deployment speed.”
The hybrid cloud has effectively democ-
ratised the IT process for many compa-
nies, according to Mr Michie. “Cloud has
taken down barriers to
entry and its ‘out-of-
the-box’ nature allows
the innovator to focus
on ends, not means,”
he says. “Through the
use of cloud, an en-
trepreneur can imme-
diately gain access to
the same technologies
as their more estab-
lished competitor. They can challenge and
create new business models, and they can
rapidly scale.”
That is not to say hybrid cloud will be a
phenomenon only among small and mid-
sized companies. “A larger organisation can
now afford to run a portfolio of innovation
projects where previously they could only
run one at a time. The mantra is to learn fast
and succeed or fail fast. With cloud, the in-
novator can realise their vision with a rapid-
ity and assurance never available before,”
says Mr Michie.
That is clear in one of the larger hybrid
cloud deals to be signed. HP tempted the
huge logistics company TNT to commit to
a hybrid system this year. The six-year deal,
estimated to be worth hundreds of millions
of pounds, will result in the number of TNT
data centres being reduced from eleven
to two.
As well as building TNT’s defined da-
ta-centre networks, based on HP servers,
storage and networking, and delivering
HP-managed security services, HP will
move the company towards an infrastruc-
ture-as-a-service model that will deliver
savings and innovation. “This open stand-
ards-based common architecture cloud
platform enables new capabilities, such as
‘bursting’ workloads, which will allow TNT
to consume and pay for capacity only when
needed,” says HP.
The ability to support and deliver the “par-
allel universes” of the cloud is increasingly
essential for companies such as HP and IBM
to respond to customers’ needs.
But the path to a hybrid cloud paradigm
won’t necessarily be swift. Kate Hanaghan,
research director at TechMarketView, says:
“The migration of large swathes of corpo-
rate IT into the cloud will happen over a
period of many years. However, for organ-
isations that rapidly need to adjust the cost
and their use of large data-centre estates,
cloud is playing an important role in the
more immediate term. More specifically, it
is typically the perceived ‘safety’ of private
cloud that has been the preferred first step
for large enterprise buyers looking to make
significant, strategic investments.
“The medium-to-long-term aspiration for
most organisations will be a hybrid-com-
puting environment that uses a blend of
cloud – public and private – and on-prem-
ise technologies. Suppliers, therefore, must
be able to provide cloud services alongside
managing existing legacy systems. Indeed,
we believe the ability of suppliers simultane-
ously to support and deliver these ‘parallel
universes’ of legacy and ‘new world’ technol-
ogies will become absolutely essential.”
As in nature, cloud computing is contin-
ually changing and increasingly comes in a
variety of forms.
HYBRID CLOUD
NIC FILDES
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The mixed model allows
companies to segregate
their service between
critical and non-critical
functions
Assurance and
trust in the cloud
Although the popularity of cloud computing is increasing
rapidly, potential customers may perceive security
barriers that are inhibiting wider adoption of services
While businesses still have con-
cerns about security, privacy and
data management in the cloud, these can
be attributed to lack of trust in cloud com-
puting services. Cloud can’t be viewed as
more or less secure without understand-
ing its level of security.
It can be said that the main barriers
to adoption of cloud computing come
from lack of trust, which is generated
by the perceived lack of clarity in service
level agreements (SLAs) and security or
privacy policies, standard terms and con-
ditions, and sometimes in the immaturity
of cloud services. Transparency of cloud
service providers in their approach to infor-
mation security is the key to building trust
in their services.
As security and privacy certifications
and attestations have been identified as
among the most effective and efficient
means to increase the level of trust in
cloud services, stimulating their adop-
tion, cloud customers are recommended
to adopt a cloud selection process that
favours certifications or attestations that
clearly support transparency.
In order to support cloud customers in
this decision-making process, in April 2013
the European Commission (EC) launched
the Cloud Select Industry Group (C-SIG)
on certification with the aim of supporting
the identification of certification schemes
appropriate for the European Economic
Area market.
Furthermore, in 2014, the European Net-
work and Information Security Agency
launched the Cloud Certification Schemes
Metaframework (CCSM) initiative to map
detailed security requirements used in the
public sector to describe security objectives
in existing cloud certification schemes.
The goal of CCSM is to provide more trans-
parency and help customers in the public
sector with their procurement of cloud
computing services.
Global organisations have also devel-
oped cloud security-specific certification
schemes. For example, the Cloud Security
Alliance (CSA) Open Certification Frame-
work was created as an industry initiative
to allow global, accredited, trusted certifi-
cation of cloud providers. This integrates
with popular third-party assessment (ISO
27001) and attestation statements (SOC2)
developed within the public accounting
community to avoid duplication of effort
and cost.
Besidesstandardsandcertifications,clear-
ly SLAs can provide visibility into security
and privacy capabilities, and increase the
level of trust in cloud computing services.
Specification of security parameters in
cloud service level agreements (secSLAs)
has been recognised as a mechanism to
bring more transparency and trust for
cloud customers and service providers.
Unfortunately, the conspicuous lack
of relevant cloud security SLA standards
is a barrier for their adoption. The benefits
related to the specification of standardised
security elements in cloud SLA are clear as
the usage of secSLA seems to be the missing
piece on the cloud customer’s security as-
surance and transparency puzzle.
For these reasons, standardised cloud
secSLAs should become part of the more
general SLAs or master service agreements
signed between the cloud service provider
and its customers. Current efforts from CSA
and ISO/IEC (International Organization for
Standardization/International Electrotech-
nical Commission) in this field are expected
to bring some initial results by 2016.
Cloud SLA-specific standards will appear
in the short term, mostly lead by organisa-
tions like ISO/IEC which are working on the
definition of common vocabularies, metrics
and requirements. However, it should be
noted that while the concept of secSLA is
simple, the application, enforcement and
monitoring are not.
Despite the existence of certification, SLAs
and standards, the lack of security aware-
ness sometimes affects potential customers
in their decision to adopt cloud computing.
In many cases, prospective cloud customers
are unwilling or unable to make the organi-
sational changes necessary for the effective
use of cloud services. This needs to change
in order to promote the secure
uptake of cloud computing.
OPINION COLUMN
DANIELE CATTEDDU
Cloud Security Alliance
Managing director
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Transparency of cloud
service providers in
their approach to
information security is
the key to building trust
in their services
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
DON’T CLOUD THE ISSUE OF
DATA STORAGE: THE TIME
TO INNOVATE IS NOW
Martin Warren
Cloud solutions
marketing manager
Data is the underlying asset of any
organisation,bethatproprietaryorcustomer
data. In the past decade, the rise of data
in enterprises has been meteoric, leaving
companies looking for ways to store and
manage it effectively. One such solution is
cloud storage. Regulatory roadblocks can
prevent migrations to the public cloud, while
investment in a private cloud can be costly,
leadingorganisationstothehybridcloud.
Forlargerenterprises,itcanmakebusiness
sensetohostadatacentre,allowingsensitive
data to stay secure in one easily accessible
location. Data centres are costly and only
something to consider if the quantity of data
warrantsthis.
With a private data centre, enterprises
pay for a set capacity at all times, regardless
of whether or not it is being fully utilised. In
addition,costsareincurredateverylevelfrom
the initial server infrastructure, to ongoing
costs of server space, electricity and cooling,
as well as employing a full-time data centre
manager and security staff to ensure data
remainssafedayandnight.
Opting for a private cloud solution, whether
hosted in a data centre or on-premise, is not
entirely straightforward. While it is reliable in
terms of security, it does have some of the
same limitations associated with on-premise
data centres. Procurement and build times
can be lengthy, and there are often high
capitalexpenditurecharges,aswellasongoing
operatingcharges.
Whereaswithahybridsolution,enterprises
canretainbusiness-criticaldatasecurelyinan
on-premisedatacentre,whilestoringbroader
company data in the public cloud. Through a
hybrid cloud solution, enterprises can truly
innovate,usingdatatoreactinnewways.
The hybrid cloud is also cost effective and
flexible, with a “pay as you go” model. It’s akin
to flicking a switch on and off in accordance
withdatarequirements.Furthermore,thelevel
ofaccessprovidedbycloudplatformsmakesit
anidealsolutionforcollaboration,sharingand
otheroperationalprocesses.
It’spossibletoensurethatdataismanaged
across the hybrid-cloud environment through
the use of a data management platform.
This enables the easy transportation of
data, maximising operational efficiency and
business agility, as well as reducing costs,
ultimatelyimprovingbusinessoutput.
Forexample,byadoptinganinter-connected
datafabricapproach,supportedbycompanies
such as NetApp, organisations can easily
switch between data stored on-premise, with
a service provider or through a hyperscaler,
suchasAWSorMicrosoftAzure,meaningtheir
storage management and data protection
strategy can be fine-tuned as their business
evolves.Furthermore,theabilitytomovedata
between hypervisors ensures customers are
notlockedinbyonecloudprovider.
The data requirements of enterprises are
continually increasing, meaning the issue of
data storage and management cannot be
ignored. Businesses must invest in ways to
usedatatotheiradvantage.Itshouldbeatool
that streamlines the business and informs
decision-making, rather than a drain on IT
infrastructure.Hybridcloudsolutionsarecost
effective, flexible and meet the necessary
securitymeasurestocomplywithregulation.
For more information, visit
www.netapp.com/uk/
Martin Warren, cloud solutions manager at NetApp, tells why enterprises are
adopting hybrid cloud
Through a hybrid cloud solution,
enterprises can truly innovate,
using data to react in new ways
Cloud
integrated
storage: the
best of both
worlds...
40%
Volumeofdata
Cloudintegratedstorageap-
pliancescanreducedatasets
byupto30times-combined
withcloudeconomics;this
meansyoucanstorelarge
volumesofdataatalowcost
39%
Cost/softwarelicensingmodel
Cloudstorageispaidona
per-usebasis,meaningyou
onlypayforwhatyouuse
31%
Poorperformance
Cloudintegratedstorageap-
plianceskeepalocalcached
copyofrecentback-upsfor
rapidrestores
30%
Solutionnotscalingwithuse
Cloudstoragecanscaleto
virtuallyanysize
28%
Tapereplacement
Usingthecloudmeans
youcansenddataoff-site
immediately,withoutdealing
withphysicalshipping
andhandling
Agents,jobs,andtrainingstayinplace Localcloudintegratedstoragemeans
fastback-upsandagilerestores
Remotestoragemeansdatasurviv-
abilityandlong-termretention
Whyorganisationschangetheir
back-upsolutionandhowcloud
integratedstoragecanhelp
ENTERPRISE MULTICLOUD
STRATEGY, 2014 COMPARED
WITH 2015
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CLOUD USAGE
2015 2014
No plans
Single
private
Multiple
private
Multiple
public
Single
public
Hybrid
cloud
Source: State of the Cloud, RightScale 2015
Source: State of the Cloud, RightScale 2015
Public= 88% Private= 63%
Private
cloud only
5%58%30%
Public &
private
cloud
Public
cloud
only
Entertainment coming on stream
It is easier than ever to deliver digital content via the cloud, livening up how we get music, movies and theatre
A
t the time of the Royal Shakespeare
Company’s first streamed theatre
production, Richard II, in Novem-
ber 2013, there was little to indicate
whether demand would actually exist. The
plan was ambitions – not only was the play be-
ing transmitted to 100 cinemas in the UK and
abroad, but also to schools around the country.
“We’re relishing the chance to bring
Shakespeare to thousands of UK schoolchil-
dren in a new and engaging way,” the RSC
said at the time.
As things turned out, nobody needed to
worry. More than 100,000 people turned out to
see the broadcast in cinemas as well as 31,000
students from 400 schools, making it the
largest audience for a single performance of a
Shakespeare play.
With National Theatre Live, the Royal Opera
House and others also becoming purveyors of
the finest quality digital content to our silver
screens, the model is quickly being accepted
as the norm, rather than the exception. Some
two thirds of UK cinemas now participate in NT
Live, for example.
But organisations such as theatres and pro-
duction companies could not become digital
broadcasters without the abundance of mas-
sively scalable, globally accessible server, stor-
age and networking resources – also known as
cloud computing.
Live-streamed theatre is just one in a series
of examples of how the cloud is transforming
the ways in which we create and consume
entertainment. In a transformation that has
taken less than a decade, Netflix and Amazon,
YouTube, Spotify and Pandora have trumped
media companies, distributors and retailers,
leaving corporate carnage in their wake for
retailers such as Woolworths, Blockbuster and
HMV, as well as driving an increasingly consol-
idatedpoolofmusicandentertainmentindus-
try players.
How quickly we forget. While trips to Block-
buster used to be a staple part of the Saturday
evening routine, they are now as distant as
the dot in the middle of the TV screen. The
final nail in the coffin of physical media,
beyond vinyl-loving aficionados, that is, has
been the gradual arrival of fibre broadband in
the UK, aided and abetted by the current roll-
out of 4G mobile.
Put together, such developments mean the
barrier to entry for cloud-based digital media
delivery is as low as it has ever been.
The lowering hurdle means a burgeoning
number of wannabe big-shot service provid-
an artist should be able to set up a performance
from the pub, the park or indeed the kitchen.
And, perhaps, even make money out of it.
Ah, money. That horrible word “monetisa-
tion” remains a challenge for many artists, ex-
acerbated by the sometimes draconian terms
being asserted over their current and past ma-
terial as the new media kids, such as Spotify and
Google, play fast and loose with what should be
their most important asset. For art’s sake, we
can hope these issues are temporary symptoms
of a changing market.
There is plenty the wider industry can take
from what is happening in the world of enter-
tainment, not least, of course, that it is easier
thanevertodeliverdigitalcontenttocustomers,
suppliers and other stakeholders. Organisations
such as BrightTALK offer the corporate equiv-
alent of Ustream, meaning any organisation
can deliver live webinars, and nothing is stop-
ping businesses creating a YouTube channel or
iTunes podcast feed.
Indeed, as such capabilities embed them-
selves into mainstream culture, organisations
without them become the exception rather than
the rule. A common mantra is how business
models are moving from products to services,
requiring closer engagement with end-cus-
tomers. Cloud-based media platforms may not
deliver a one-to-one direct experience by them-
selves, but they certainly make such interac-
tions easier to scale.
At the same time as recognising how the cloud
is lowering barriers and creating new opportu-
nities for delivery of digital content, it’s impor-
tant to note that it can only achieve these goals
by being highly resilient and well architected.
Contrary to common belief, the cloud is not
infinitely scalable, but relies on smart use of ap-
propriate processing and storage resources.
Asearlymastersofcontent-deliverynetworks,
Akamai have long known that part of the trick is
moving digital content to as close as possible to
where it is needed, avoiding bottlenecks. Mean-
while Netflix is renowned for its army of so-
called chaos monkeys or autonomous software
moduleswhichdeliberatelyattempttosabotage
the service, in doing so testing (and proving) its
resilience. Corporate adopters take note.
The bottom line is that while it has never been
easier for both artists and corporations to build
and engage with audiences, given such a re-
source-sapping plethora of options, it is vital to
start with a plan. Whether you see digital media
delivery as an end in itself or as a catalyst for the
core business, do it right and the rewards could
be great.
Love or hate the changes that are happening
to media delivery by all means, but ignore them
at your peril.
ENTERTAINMENT
JON COLLINS
of overall UK music
consumption was streamed
in 2014
music tracks streamed in
the UK last year, nearly
double the 7.5m in 2013
12.6%
14.8m
Source: BPI 2015
ers, such as Ustream or Limelight in live media
streaming, Beats or Tidal for music streaming
and Twitch for streaming computer games.
Such services are already, perhaps inevitably,
being integrated into the portfolios of larger
providers. Twitch was bought by Amazon last
year, and both YouTube and Microsoft Azure
have announced the launch of media-stream-
ing capabilities.
With the inevitable conclusion that stream-
ing is a feature, not a product, what’s next
in store? Live streaming of music has still to
make a major impression, unsurprising given
the complexities of broadcasting a live show,
relative to the paltry amount of time a musical
artist has to set up and take down a gig. These
issues currently knock on to equally prohibi-
tive costs, but as venues gain in-house capabil-
ities, this will change.
And meanwhile the reach and accessibility of
media will continue to grow. Delivery platforms
are extending into our cars through initiatives
suchasGENIVI,forexample.Bythesametoken,
NUMBER OF NETFLIX STREAMING SUBSCRIBERS (m) PROPORTION WHO SUBSCRIBE TO
STREAMING SERVICES BY AGE GROUP
Source: Media Consumer, Deloitte UK 2014Source: Netflix 2015
15%
10%
5%
0%
16-24 25-34 35-44 55-64
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
2012
2013
2014
2015
26.5
27.5
29.4
33.3
36.3
37.6
40.3
44.4
48.4
50
53.1
57.4
61.4
US International 2013 2014
Live-streamed theatre
is just one in a series of
examples of how the
cloud is transforming
the ways in which we
create and consume
entertainment
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
Russell Acton
Vice president and
general manager
Consumers’expectationsarechanging
Meetingtheseexpectationsgivesbusinessesacompetitiveadvantage
50%
64%
$10m 20%
2X
$300m
55%
!
Businessesarebeingchallengeddeliveringonconsumers’newexpectations
techniciansspendincustomers’homesduring
activations.Ratherthanhavetechniciansdial
into a call centre to activate the set-top box,
DirecTV enabled the technician to manage
the entire activation process on their mobile
device using an app by Capriza. This not only
eliminated 20 minutes from the activation
experience, but also dramatically lowered
their call centre costs.
Networking hardware manufacturer
Brocade faced a different supply chain
challenge: the company’s $500-million
annual procurement budget was negatively
impacted by lengthy purchase approval
cycles. Equipping managers with a Capriza
app that enabled them to approve purchase
requests from Oracle EBS immediately from
their smartphones, Brocade saw a 90 per
cent improvement to cycle times.
The challenge facing companies such
as DirectTV and Brocade is their large
workforce relies on existing processes that
leverage legacy systems, making it difficult
to deliver on the new expectations of the
modern customer. Because these business
applications are complex, customised and
interconnected,theyarealmostimpossibleto
personalise and simplify, let alone mobilise,
without a considerable amount of retooling.
At Capriza we have helped numerous
companies modernise by simplifying and
mobilising their business applications (SAP,
Oracle, PeopleSoft, Salesforce, custom-built
and so on) without any business disruption.
All this involves no upgrades, no hiring, no
changestoexistinginfrastructureorsecurity.
The Capriza solution helps deliver these
easily, in just days and without the usual cost
and complexity we have come to expect. The
result is intuitive, contextual experiences
that deliver a productive, personalised way
to work for each employee. If you can deliver
onthatsimplecontextualexperienceforyour
employees, theywillbeableto deliveron that
experience for your customers.
www.capriza.com
POWER OF
NOW IN THE
ENTERPRISE
Industriesarebeingshapedbythedramaticshiftin
customerexpectations.CompaniessuchasUber,Square
andAmazonhavecreatedanddisruptedmarketsby
understandingthepowerofsimple,personalised,quick
transactionsdoneanytimeanywhere.
Evenfast-foodcompaniessuchasMcDonald’s
and Taco Bell are reinventing “fast” by
investing significantly in mobile order-ahead
and delivery services.
Ultimately, these consumer expectations
and the power of quick, personalised,
contextual transactions will also shape how
businesses run. If it takes a minute to get
a cab, book a room or make a purchase, it
should be just as quick for employees to
complete an essential task at work.
It’scriticaltounderstandthatwhatpowers
customer experience is the speed and
effectiveness your employees can deliver
it. Companies that can harness the power of
the new consumer experience for business
tasks will realise huge workforce productivity
gains, accelerate processes, and ultimately
deliver superior goods and services to their
customers – and compete in the market.
Delivering a consumer-like experience
for the workforce, however, is far easier for
new companies than for large, established
enterprises. While enterprises have market
tractionandanestablishedcustomerbase,the
averageenterprisehasmorethan700business
applications, making it very challenging to
deliver a productive, personalised way to work
foreachemployee.
The very systems, processes and
workforce that give these companies might
and scale make it difficult for them to be
nimble and adapt to change. In contrast,
newer companies, unburdened by existing
processes, legacy systems and a large
workforce, can deliver employee-centric
solutions quickly and keep pace with
consumers’ changing needs.
This isn’t stopping some market leaders
from transforming how they deliver products
and services to their customers. Disney, the
“mother of experience”, is betting $1 billion
on mobile and wearable technology that will
enable park employees, restaurant hosts,
greetersandkitchenstafftopowerahigh-touch
personalised experience, and make it easy to
buy throughout the Magic Kingdom. Among
other things, restaurant visitors will be able to
be greeted by name, order food at their seats
andhavethefoodmagicallyarriveattheirtable.
FacingcompetitionfromthelikesofAmazon
and Google Express, Home Depot plans on
spending at least $300 million on supply
chain, technology and online improvements,
including building new fulfilment centres
and overhauling its warehouse technology
systems to enable its employees to operate
at the speed of mobile. The initiative is aimed
at boosting online and mobile revenues by
offering same-day delivery for customers
and contractors, whomight bein themidst of
a home improvement project and need dry-
wall, tiles or nails in a matter of hours.
When DirecTV needed to enhance first-
time customer experience, they focused
on minimising the time their 7,000 field
Companies that can harness
the power of the new consumer
experience for business tasks
will realise huge workforce
productivity gains, accelerate
processes, and ultimately deliver
superior goods and services to
their customers
Morethanhalfofpeoplearefrustrated
whenwhattheywantisn’tavailableon
theirmobiledevice:Forrester
Over50%ofmillennialsare
countingontechstartupsto
overhaulthewaybankswork
1in3ofallcustomerswant
purchasesdeliveredthe
sameday:Forrester
64%ofworldwideonlineconsumers
sayon-demandprogrammesbetter
fittheirschedulesthanliveTV:
Neilsen
55% ofrespondentssaidafrustrating
mobileexperiencehurtstheiropinion
ofabrand:adweek
Chipotleisspending$10mon
developingmobileservicesfor
order-aheadandhomedelivery:
slate.com
OrdersplacedthroughTacoBell’smobile
appare20%higherthanin-storepurchases
-nowtheyareinvestinginhomedelivery:
BusinessInsider
HomeDepotisspending$300mtoretoolits
supplychaintosupportsame-daydeliveryand
staycompetitive:TheWallStreetJournal
Sephora’smobileappusers
purchasetwiceasmuchand
twiceasoftencompared
withtheiraveragecustomer:
Sephora
Winningthemobilemomentmeanschanginghowyouorganise,operate,anddeliver
productsandservices;yourcompanyanditsprocessesandinformationsystems
wereneverdesignedwithmobilemomentsinmind:Forrester
caprizaTM
Creatingauniqueanddifferentiatingexperienceforyourconsumerrequiresa
fundamentalchangeintermsoftheorganisationandtheprocessandgovernance
betweentheshowroomfloor,corporateoffice,andsupplychainandlogistics:PwC

08 | CLOUD FOR BUSINESS 03 / 05 / 2015 | RACONTEURraconteur.net
10 TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
GREGOR PETRI
The role of cloud in tech trends
Since 2007 researchers at Gartner have been predicting strategic technology trends for the coming year.
But what is the role of cloud computing in delivering the top trends identified for 2015?
1SMART MACHINES
By combining historical data, real-time
measurements and advanced analytics,
smart machines perform tasks humans
could not do alone. The machines are typi-
cally not self-contained – their “memory”
and “brain” live in the cloud where they can
be rapidly scaled to meet requirements.
2WEB-SCALE IT
This describes the trend of moving
beyond typically inflexible corporate IT
systems towards adopting the agile devel-
opment methods and flexible, scalable de-
ployment pioneered by major cloud-based
organisations, such as Facebook, Google and
Amazon Web Services.
33D PRINTING
The closest most of us will get to a
“Beam me up, Scotty” experience in our
lifetime is likely to be through cloud-based
hubs for 3D printing, where design and ren-
dering software is loaded and blueprints for
all kinds of things can be exchanged. Fast
advances in medical bio printing, however,
mean we may soon say, “Beam me a new
liver, Scotty.”
4SOFTWARE-DEFINED
ARCHITECTURES
This trend makes the cloud more versatile.
Traditionally, data centres were filled with
specialised hardware (firewalls, routers,
servers, storage) dedicated to one task. A
data centre configured for a bank could not
double at night as a data centre for stream-
ing movies. Software-defined architectures
remove this constraint by creating a web-
scale “mesh” of versatile hardware – its func-
tion defined by software – that can switch
between different capabilities in minutes,
not days or months.
5INTERNET OF
THINGS (IoT)
The IoT connects physical objects to each
other and to the people and machines that
want to interact with them. Although these
“things” can now communicate, often via an
IP address, individually they remain rather
fully protect, but anything and anyone con-
necting to it should, within reason, be able to
protect itself or themselves. That may sound
scary at first, but it’s how we live our lives
when we go out into the world. Though we
are protected from the worst threats by the
police, we don’t assume there are no risks.
It’s similar for our applications and devices;
they must learn to weigh up risks and threats
for themselves, instead of working under the
assumption that they operate in a complete-
ly safe environment.
8ADVANCED, PERVASIVE
AND INVISIBLE ANALYTICS
Most of us experience this through our
smartphones already, when Google Now,
Cortana or Siri informs us, without being
asked, of a traffic jam or broken train on our
commute home and offers a faster route. It
appears a simple thing, but the vast volume
of data required and smart analytics to pro-
cess this data into useful information in-
stead of annoying spam wouldn’t be possible
without the cloud.
9COMPUTING
EVERYWHERE
Soon everything will be computerised,
from toothbrushes to thermostats to cars.
Connecting them all together, storing and
making sense of all the data they create, and
providing relevant services via our devices,
will be the cloud. Businesses must under-
stand how the cloud fundamentally changes
their business models, because it dramat-
ically alters the relationship between con-
sumers and the product or service they use.
10CONTEXT-RICH
SYSTEMS
This applies to a great many of the trends
cited here. How will risk-based security
work? How does a smart machine make
decisions? How do things such as Google
Now, Siri or Cortana give us timely, useful
information? The answers are by using
contextual information – our location, the
time, temperature or traffic conditions.
What stores and makes sense of all this
contextual information and makes it easy
for us and our devices to access? The cloud.
We’re already used to content being one
search away, but even that will seem old
fashioned when the cloud already knows
what we are looking for.
simple. It is the cloud that makes them into a
meaningful ecosystem that can, with analyt-
ics and smart machines, help humans turn
all this information into better decisions
concerning, for example, routing traffic,
saving energy and so on.
6CLOUD/CLIENT
COMPUTING
In client/server computing the application
was stored on our PC and the data was stored
on the server. Now, the various servers of
the cloud run the application and often hold
much of the data, and the client (our PC,
mobile, tablet, wearable) simply processes
and displays the information from the cloud.
7RISK-BASED SECURITY
AND SELF-PROTECTION
IT in the past has always tried to eliminate
risk. In the cloud that’s not possible and
trying to be risk-free is simply a roadblock
to progress. The cloud is too big and open to
2012 2013 2014 2015
Strategic big data Strategic big data Smart machines Smart machines
Extreme low-energy servers Integrated ecosystems Web-scale IT Web-scale IT
Next-generation analytics Actionable analytics 3D printing 3D printing
App stores and
marketplaces
Enterprise app stores Software-defined anything
Software-defined
applications
Internet of things Internet of things Internet of things Internet of things
In-memory computing In-memory computing Cloud/client architecture Cloud/client computing
Mobile-centric interfaces Mobile applications/HTML 5
Mobile apps and
applications
Risk-based security/self-
protection
Cloud computing Hybrid IT
Hybrid cloud and IT as a
service
Advanced pervasive/
invisable analytics
Media tablets and beyond Mobile device battles
Mobile device diversity/
management
Computing everywhere
Contextual/social user
experience
Personal cloud Era of personal cloud Content-rich systems
GARTNER’S TOP 10 STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY TRENDS 2012-15
Source: Gartner/TechRepublic

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