Latest News from Preetam Kaushik

BBVA Reaches for the Sky with Its Embrace of Cloud Computing

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

If 2010 was the year in which cloud computing made its entry in a big way, then 2011 was the year in which companies took to the concept in an equally strong manner. Hitherto confined to start-ups and SME's which welcomed cloud computing services as a way of reducing their IT spend, the deal between the Spanish Banking giant BBVA and Google raises the pitch for the service. The terms of the deal include covering the entire staff of BBVA worldwide (which runs into a little more than hundred thousand people) to Google's email and shared services platforms like Google Docs and the ever popular Video Conferencing. This is expected to give a fillip to both the parties to the deal. For BBVA, it is one way of jumping on the innovation bandwagon and addressing the increasing mobility of its employees who are dispersed globally and who use mobile computing and work from home as part of their jobs. For Google, the deal could not have come at a better time as the tech giant can now justifiably claim that its cloud computing services are no longer restricted to startups or SME's. Further, the big ticket partnership with BBVA is surely going to enhance the positioning of Google vis-à-vis competitors like Amazon in this market niche.

How Tech Start-ups Can Compete with Established Brands in the Cloud Market

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:00:00 EST

In an era of cut throat competition and diminishing revenues because of the gloomy economic scenario, the competition between technology start-ups and established brands has reached a stage where the former need to innovate and reconfigure their business models if they have to face the competition from the latter. Research has shown that technology start-ups and in particular, those in the emerging sectors of SaaS (Software as a Service) and cloud computing typically have greater gestation periods than established brands. Hence, the need to break even quickly and keep the cash flow going is a big business and financial imperative for these start-ups. Hence, the need to play with the big brands in software and at the same time retain their unique identity is something of a challenge for these start-ups. In this article, we discuss some of the ways in which technology start-ups like CloudMore, CloudSigma, Flexiant, Workbooks can compete with established brands like Microsoft. Technology start-ups must ensure that the marketing and product delivery aspects are taken care of in an efficient manner if they are to compete with established brands. For instance, if a SaaS vendor or a star-up is providing a product at $65 per user for 10 users and an established brand is providing a similar product at $17,500 plus the 15% annual maintenance cost, it makes sense for customers to switch to the SaaS option because over a three year period, the SaaS product makes for eminent business sense and considering the fact that the product from the established brand needs to be upgraded at the end of three years, many customers might go for the SaaS option. Hence, the point here is that a market exists for technology start-up offerings and it makes sense for these start-ups to focus on marketing to the same customers which were served by the established brand.

What Traditional Software Companies Can Learn from SaaS Start-ups

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST

The emergence of Software as a Service or SaaS has revolutionized the way in which packaged software like financial software, operations management software and software used to automate tasks are offered to the customers. Instead of a network based solution wherein the customers buy the packaged software and host it on their own servers, SaaS offers the convenience of subscribing to a vendor’s cloud offering and hence utilizing the software offered as a service by the vendor

Top Cloud Computing Data Security Products

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:45:00 EST

In an environment where the IT organizations, on the one hand, face resource constraints and on the other hand, have to meet growing business needs, they have to look newer and cost effective methods of computing and cloud computing aims to achieve these aims by balancing the conflicts between scarce resources and increased service needs. In simple terms, cloud computing enables reduction of IT infrastructure costs while at the same keeping in mind complex security needs of the users. This article discusses a few best-rated data security products. In order to be best, they should be hybrid products that combine private clouds with public clouds.