IT & ITeS Industry in India

Introduction

 

The Indian Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS) sectors go hand-in-hand in every aspect. The industry has not only transformed India’s image on the global platform, but also fuelled economic growth by energising higher education sector (especially in engineering and computer science). The industry has employed almost 10 million Indians and hence, has contributed a lot to social transformation in the country.
Furthermore, Indian firms, across all other sectors, largely depend on the IT & ITeS service providers to make their business processes efficient and streamlined. Indian manufacturing sector has the highest IT spending followed by automotive, chemicals and consumer products industries.
Indian organisations are turning to IT to help them grow business in the current economic environment. IT is seen as a change enabler and a source of business value for organisations by 85 per cent of the respondents, according to a study by VMware.

Market Size

 

India's IT-business process outsourcing (BPO) industry revenue is expected to cross US$ 225 billion mark by 2020, according to a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, titled 'The SMAC Code-Embracing New Technologies for Future Business'.
India is expected to become world's second-largest online community after China with 213 million internet users by December 2013 and 243 million by June 2014, according to a report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International.
Technology firms in India are expected to reap the benefits of Internet of Things (IoT) data, considered to be a US$ 18 billion opportunity, to help clients improve productivity and asset utilisation as well as to enhance end-customer experience, as per networking firm Cisco.
India’s total IT industry’s (including hardware) share in the global market stands at 7 per cent; in the IT segment the share is 4 per cent while in the ITeS space the share is 2 per cent. India's IT and BPO sector exports are expected to grow by 12-14 per cent in FY14 to touch US$ 84 billion - US$ 87 billion, according to Nasscom.
Moreover, India plans to spend around US$ 3.9 billion on cloud services during 2013-2017, of which US$ 1.7 billion will be spent on software-as-a-service (SaaS), according the latest outlook of IT research and advisory company, Gartner Inc.
The enterprise software market in India is expected to reach US$ 3.92 billion in 2013, registering a growth of 13.9 per cent over 2012 revenue of US$ 3.45 billion, according to Gartner.
Mumbai with 12 million internet users has emerged as the top most city in the country with highest penetration of internet users, followed by Delhi (8.1 million) and Hyderabad (4.7 million), according to the data released by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Investments

Indian IT's core competencies and strengths have placed it on the international canvas, attracting investments from major countries.
According to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the computer software and hardware sector has attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) worth Rs 54,347.88 crore (US$ 8.77 billion) between April 2000 and September 2013.
Some of the major investments in Indian IT and ITeS sector:

• Wipro plans to acquire US-based mortgage due diligence and risk management service provider Opus Capital Markets Consultants (Opus CMC) for Rs 465 crore (US$ 75.07 million). Opus CMC provides comprehensive risk management solutions to the mortgage industry in the US.
• Infosys has opened a new centre in Sydney, Australia. This is its fourth development centre in Australia and has a capacity to seat 140 employees. Further, the company plans to hire 85 people in the region.
• Hitachi has acquired a foothold in India's payment space with the acquisition of Prizm Payment Services. The firm has entered into share transfer agreements with Prizm shareholders, including Winvest Holdings (India), Sequoia Capital and Axis Bank.
• Dell has opened its India design centre for its storage technologies and has realigned its domestic research and development (R&D) unit. The facility will focus on developing software, integrating aspects involving back-up of emails and related storage.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has launched a software development facility in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The facility will serve global customers across industry segments.
• Cognizant Technology Solutions has acquired ValueSource, a subsidiary of KBC Group, a Belgium-based multi-channel bank insurance group.
• Schneider Electric has commissioned a services bureau in Bengaluru as a nerve centre and a support facility for data centres in India and the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Government Initiatives

IT spending by the Government of India is projected to reach US$ 6.4 billion in 2013, a growth of 7 per cent year-on-year, according to a report by Gartner.
Some of the major initiatives taken by the Government to promote IT and ITeS sector in India are:

• After a successful first-ever international delegation to Dubai, Gujarat-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the IT sector plan to send similar business delegations to European and South East Asian countries.
• The Government of Karnataka plans to announce a new information technology (IT) policy to boost investments in state’s tier-II and tier-III cities. The policy would enable the sector to employ about two million people in the state directly by 2020.
• The Government of India has fast tracked the process of setting up of centres of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) in Northeast India.
• The Government of Brazil has liberalised the issue of short term work visas, a move which will make it easier for Indian IT professionals to take up assignments in Brazil.
• India and Vietnam have signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) for partnership in the field of information, communications and technology (ICT).

Road Ahead

Globalisation has a profound impact in shaping the Indian IT industry over the years with India capturing a sizeable chunk of the global market for technology sourcing and business services. Over the years the growth drivers for this sector have been the verticals of manufacturing, telecommunication, insurance, banking, finance and of late the fledgling retail revolution. As the new scenario unfolds it is getting clear that the future growth of IT and ITeS will be fuelled by the verticals of climate change, mobile applications, healthcare, energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Traditional business strongholds would make way for new geographies, there would be new customers and more and more of SMEs will go for IT application and services.
Demand from emerging countries is expected to show strong growth going forward. Tax holidays are also extended to IT sector for software technology parks of India (STPI) and special economic zones (SEZs). Further, the country is providing procedural ease and single window clearance for setting up facilities. The country’s cost competitiveness in providing IT services, which is approximately 3-4 times cheaper than the US continues to be its USP in the global sourcing market.

References: Media Reports, Press Releases, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) statistics, Department of Information and Technology.

Information Systems vs Information Technology

Introduction

It is often observed that term information system and information technology are used interchangeably. In a literal sense, information technology is a subset of information systems. Information systems consist of people, processes, machines and information technology. The great advancement in information systems is due to development in information technology and introduction of computers.

Information System

 

An information system can be defined as set of coordinated network of components, which act together towards producing, distributing and or processing information. An important characteristic of computer-based information systems information is precision, which may not apply to other types.
In any given organization information system can be classified based on the usage of the information. Therefore, information systems in business can be divided into operations support system and management support system.

Information Technology

Everyday knowingly or unknowingly, everyone is utilizing information technology. It has grown rapidly and covers many areas of our day to day life like movies, mobile phones, the internet, etc.
Information technology can be broadly defined as integration of computer with telecommunication equipment for storing, retrieving, manipulating and storage of data. According to Information Technology Association of America, information technology is defined as “the study, design, development, application, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems.”
Information technology greatly enhances the performance of economy; it provides edge in solving social issues as well as making information system affordable and user friendly.
Information technology has brought big change in our daily life be it education, life at home, work place, communication and even in function of government.

Comparison of Information System and Information Technology

 

Information system and information technology are similar in many ways but at the same time they are different. Following are some aspects about information system as well as information technology.

• Origin: Information systems have been in existence since pre-mechanical era in form of books, drawings, etc. However, the origin of information technology is mostly associated with invention of computers.
• Development: Information systems have undergone great deal of evolution, i.e. from manual record keeping to the current cloud storage system. Similarly, information technology is seeing constant changes with evermore faster processor and constantly shrinking size of storage devices.
• Business Application: Businesses have been using information systems for example in form of manual books of accounts to modern TALLY. The mode of communication has also gone under big change, for example, from a letter to email. Information technology has helped drive efficiency across organization with improved productivity and precision manufacturing.

Future of Information System and Information Technology

Information technology has shown exponential growth in the last decade, leading to more sophisticated information systems. Today’s information technology has tremendously improved quality of life. Modern medicine has benefited the most with better information system using the latest information technology.
Information systems have been known to mankind in one form or the other as a resource for decision making. However, with the advent of information technology information systems have become sophisticated, and their usage proliferated across all walks of life. Information technology has helped managed large amount of data into useful and valuable information.

Why open source will rule the data center

Open source as the future of IT
Open is playing an increasingly vital role in IT infrastructure. The current, dominant position of open source in server-side computing is well understood, and networking is now edging its way toward open source with the OpenDaylight movement. But is open source a natural evolutionary path for all IT disciplines, or do certain characteristics make some areas more attractive for open source than others?
When we think about networking as an industry, for example, we tend to compare its progress to the evolutionary track taken by the compute world. The assumption is that the networking industry will unfold in much the same way that the server industry did, marching past similar milestones. But this view of the world assumes that evolution follows a two-dimensional track, and industries are either parked somewhere along the continuum or they're moving toward a predetermined end.
But what if evolution doesn't follow some set schedule or even a singular path? If we assume that technological evolution is not predetermined, then what conditions drive an industry toward open source?
To address these questions, let's start by examining the three major drivers for broad open source adoption:
Single platform
When lots of applications run on a single platform, that platform is primed for open source. For most platform plays, value and differentiation are not in the platform, but rather reside in what runs on top of the platform. It makes sense that, to the extent possible, vendors developing on a platform should leverage a common body of work. Re-creating foundational elements not unique is duplicative work that ultimately costs the end-user. Additionally, a common platform helps ensure that all applications on top of the platform can run in what ends up looking like a fairly ubiquitous execution environment. This is largely what drove the migration of compute toward Linux.
Contrary to popular belief, a platform that's open source and ubiquitous can also be lucrative. Companies like Red Hat have been successful at leveraging a broad installed base to generate solid revenue streams. That uniformity of the platform Red Hat supports helps ensure that its customer base is as large as possible. Even small deviations in the underlying platform would fracture Red Hat's customer base into smaller sets.
Single point of control
When a single point of control for a large number of infrastructure elements exists, that point of control lends itself well to open source. The value in a point of control lies either in managing very specific workflows (as with most single-vendor management platforms) or in broadly orchestrating workflows across disparate elements in heterogeneous environments (as with SDN controllers). The former tends toward tightly integrated management/execution solutions, while the latter provides a fertile breeding ground for open source.
By adopting an open source framework as a nexus of control, the community helps ensure that individual players do not end up with monopolistic control that can then be used to unduly influence decisions further down the technology stack. In essence, open source creates a very natural counterbalance to what would otherwise be competitive efforts to create "sticky" solutions.
Nascent technology
Innovation is always important, but in a technology's formative stages, that innovation may not be focused in a particular direction. When the outcome is uncertain, the number of potential paths approaches infinity. During these times, the best thing for nascent technology is unbridled support. Open source allows the widest aperture for new ideas to come into the space, which makes it ideally suited for nascent technology spaces where iterative experimentation is necessary.
Open source does not preclude companies from creating protected innovations. Certainly, open source projects can be extended in commercial and even proprietary ways, depending on which open source license is in effect. But ultimately, open source ensures that access to the most important base concepts and foundational elements is uniform and open.
Driving the future
With these drivers in mind, it's relatively straightforward to see why open source plays a large role in certain areas of IT. On the server side, the proliferation of applications and the desire for those applications to be portable was enough to ensure the emergence of an open source compute platform like Linux. Once performance was good enough, differentiation was always going to move to the applications, which made unique platform capabilities unnecessary for the lion's share of apps. Where performance or specialty capabilities remain important, there is still a small market for special operating environments.
As we look to networking, open source seems like a foregone conclusion as well. The push toward SDN makes the controller space especially receptive to open source. The desire to have a common control platform capable of near-ubiquitous deployment -- and with control hooks into a large number of heterogeneous elements -- is likely enough to guarantee a significant role for open source in networking. This is a large part of why projects like OpenDaylight hold such promise. The viability of proprietary, stand-alone control platforms in the face of a push toward orchestration and automation is questionable at best, except in the case of niche workflows.
Storage would seem to be the next logical vertical to be impacted by open source. With a trend toward federated storage clusters, there will be a need for a central control mechanism, not unlike that of SDN. A single point of control spanning heterogeneous architectures is ideally suited for open source efforts.
The point here is not that open source is a necessary, evolutionary step, but rather that open source becomes a key ingredient as conditions in a technology space favor the value that open source brings. Where there is commonality in platform or control, open source will thrive. Where specialization is critical, open source is less relevant. As companies look at their own open source participation, they should examine natural points of convergence. The conditions more than the projects are likely to determine the success of open source across the various technology areas of IT.

The Cloud Requires a New Breed of Info Security

The Info Security Role Continues to Shift

Cloud Security Alliance Executive Director Jim Reavis says security roles will change depending on the organization—whether it’s a cloud provider or cloud consumer. Providers will need to be able to offer the whole stack of security expertise and technologies, while consumers will be looking to leverage higher layers of the cloud stack: SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service).
For security professionals working at organizations that are cloud consumers, this may mean a shift from operational skills to application skills, and closer work with business units. Security professionals also need to help organizations ask the right legal and technical questions of a cloud provider to ensure their data is protected.

“As information security professionals juggle multiple security initiatives and compliance mandates, their role continues to shift from technical operations to strategic, policy-oriented responsibilities.”

At smaller companies, where the information security manager wears a lot of different hats, the role was more passive than at a midsize company, where security managers tend to have more leverage to delay projects due to security issues. Info security executives at large enterprises appear to have the most influence on cloud projects.
The Explosion of Mobile Devices
While security professionals wrestle with the security implications of cloud computing projects, they also are contending with the proliferation of mobile devices in the enterprise. More and more employees are bringing their iPhones, iPads, and other devices into the workplace and senior executives are eager to use the latest technology.
Senior executives are making security a priority in their adoption of mobile devices and telling security teams to figure out how the company can use the devices securely, says Phil Cox, principal consultant at security consulting firm SystemExperts. “Unlike many years ago, when security was an afterthought, it’s an initial thought,” he says.
Ongoing Role Shift
According to TechTarget, an online IT media firm, 55% percent of surveyed information security pros said their role has shifted from a highly technical and implementation focused one to having a heavier focus on policy, regulations and legal issues.
Oftentimes with new technology, businesses push ahead and security is an afterthought. But information security job candidates are getting asked about their knowledge of cloud computing, indicating that companies are thinking about security at the architectural stage of cloud initiatives.
Jonathan Gossels, president and CEO of SystemExperts says, “Instead of people being dedicated to hands-on security work, most security professionals are in charge of setting policy, evaluating technologies and dealing with regulations. The day-to-day security operations have been increasingly rolled into other IT operations.”
Ron Woerner, a cyber-security professor at Bellevue University says, “This trend continues today as more security professionals realize the necessity to understand and utilize risk management practices in their day-to-day activities. Security must collaborate with business partners in order to effectively manage risks and provide the appropriate levels of security controls.”

Technology Buyers & Sellers
Security professionals employed by technology buyers should expect their emphasis to shift towards vetting and managing vendors, as well as ensuring connectivity to hosted services. In such cases, IT strategy can be expected to originate in the business and not from the IT function.
From the seller or provider perspective, however, technical knowledge is essential to build secure and reliable service architectures. And in the provider organization, the technical strategy is the business strategy; therefore, security professionals should again expect to find themselves increasingly directed by business leaders.
Customer-facing sales and account management staff in providers today are being trained on security talking points and must be prepared to answer the security challenges terms in the buyers’ business context. Security knowledge is therefore being diffused throughout provider organizations to a much greater extent than before as providers need to both ensure technical security, as well as demonstrate security competency to purchasers.

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IT Trends Expected for 2014, 2015 & Beyond

Ten Information Technology Trends for 2014 & Beyond

The pace of change in IT today is greater than ever. And it’s been said that the changes we’re due to see in 2014 and beyond start with the way people think. Perhaps this means that a lot of the transformation taking place is due to the growing maturity of the business leaders in the world.
Still, the use of new and emerging technologies, such as context-aware mobile apps and enterprise social networking, along with the proliferation of public and private cloud, is forcing businesses to assess and manage the impact these technologies may have on their business. Leaders should understand, prioritize and apply these new technologies within the context of their overall business goals.
And so, below is a list of ten trends in Information Technology as reported by several sources, including Gartner, Inc. and Forrester Research. Keep in mind, too, as you read through this list, that New Horizons has the training associated with each one of these trends:
1. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
According to a biannual survey of SMB IT intentions by Spiceworks, Inc., almost 59% of small-midsize businesses already support the BYOD trend, with the trend even more popular in companies with less than 20 employees.
And according to a recent Gartner report, about half of the world’s companies will enact BYOD programs by 2017 and will no longer provide computing devices to employees. Ultimately, only 15% of companies will never move to a BYOD model, while 40% will offer a choice between BYOD and employer-provided devices, according to the report by Gartner analyst David Willis, which was announced this January.
In the BYOD era, security professionals will need to diligently monitor vulnerability announcements and security incidents involving mobile devices and respond appropriately with policy updates. Employee-owned devices will be compromised by malware at more than double the rate of corporate-owned devices, which means enterprises that adopt BYOD initiatives should establish clear policies that outline which employee-owned devices will be allowed and which will be banned.

2. Cloud Adoption within Small Businesses
Cloud adoption is growing rapidly in popularity, and CRN predicts that by 2015, small businesses will spend almost $100 billion altogether on cloud-based services. Companies are increasingly interested in cloud infrastructure and application services. More than 62% of the SMBs surveyed by Spiceworks are currently using some type of cloud-based service. By 2015, studies by Logicalis IT provider suggest that nearly 80% of organizations will pursue a private cloud strategy.
Cloud solutions actually present business of all sizes with tremendous opportunities for efficiency and cost savings. Obviously, with change comes uncertainty, but endless industry statistics show evidence that cloud computing is worth the investment.

3. Disaster Recovery
Regardless of the region you’re located in, there’s a clear correlation between the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, The Calgary floods of 2013, and the most recent flooding in Colorado leading towards the popularity of businesses adopting recovery options. Following these weather events, numerous businesses across these regions were offline for days in New York, New Jersey, Calgary, High River, and Colorado.
In order to minimize the effects of disasters—such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires or earthquakes—businesses should develop a solid Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). A DRP will minimize disruptions, ensure organizational stability and provide a quick and orderly recovery for your business.

4. Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
Microsoft SharePoint content management and collaboration technology adoption has increased over the past few years. Approximately 63% of midsize businesses are using the platform to organize and share information, according to Forrester Research.
Microsoft SharePoint has been around since 2001 and is one of the top business collaboration resources today. However, it wasn’t until the SharePoint 2007 release that businesses really started to harness the power of online collaboration.Now, with SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has gone even further to offer sought after services straight “out-of-the-box.”


5. Big Data
Big data demand will reach 4.4 million jobs globally, but only one-third of those jobs will be filled. Gartner says the demand for Big Data is growing, and enterprises will need to reassess their competencies and skills to respond to this opportunity. Jobs that are filled will result in real financial and competitive benefits for organizations. An important aspect of the challenge in filling these jobs lies in the fact that enterprises need people with new skills—data management, analytics and business expertise and non-traditional skills necessary for extracting the value of Big Data, as well as artists and designers for data visualization.
Making sense of big data is a combination of organizations having the tools, skills and more importantly, the training to see data as the fuel that drives their business.


6. Gamification
Forty percent of the Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations. Gamification addresses engagement, transparency of work, and connecting employees’ actions to business outcomes. Companies apply feedback, measurement and incentives, the same techniques that game designers use, to keep players interested and to achieve the needed engagement for the transformation of business operations. Gartner predicts that the worldwide market will grow from $242 million in 2012 to $2.8 billion in 2016, with enterprise gamification eclipsing consumer gamification in 2013.

7. Windows 8
Ninety percent of enterprises will bypass broad-scale deployment of Windows 8. Gartner claims that most enterprises and their trusted management vendors are not yet prepared for the change to Windows 8, and says enterprises will want to wait for more stability before proceeding. While Microsoft as a technology company can make these changes at a more advanced pace, the market will take time to mature, and most enterprises will sit on the sideline for now.
Sidenote: On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP or Office 2003. According to Microsoft, “After this date, there will be no new security updates, no non-security hotfixes, no free or paid assisted support options and no online technical content updates.“

8. Web-Scale IT
Large cloud services providers such as Amazon, Google , Salesforce.com, and the like are re-inventing the way in which IT services can be delivered. Gartner points out that the capabilities of these companies exceed the “scale in terms of sheer size to also include scale as it pertains to speed and agility.” The suggestion is that IT organizations should align with and emulate the processes, architectures, and practices of these leading cloud providers.

9. Mobile Apps and Applications
Gartner predicts that through 2014, improved JavaScript performance will begin to push HTML5 and the browser as a mainstream enterprise application development environment. As a consequence, it was suggested that developers focus on expanding user interface models including richer voice and video that can connect people in new and different ways. Apps will grow and applications will shrink, continuing a trend that has been documented for a while now.
The market for creating apps continues to be very fragmented (Gartner estimates that there are over 100 potential tool vendors), and consolidation is not likely to happen in earnest for a while. It is suggested that ‘the next evolution in user experience will be to leverage intent, inferred from emotion and actions, to motivate changes in end-user behavior.”

10. The Internet of Everything (IoE)
Cisco believes IoE brings together people, process, data, and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before—turning information into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals, and countries. The rise of objects that connect themselves to the internet, from cars to heart monitors to stoplights, is unleashing a wave of new possibilities for data gathering, predictive analytics, and IT automation.

2013 was certainly a successful year for New Horizons, as we trained over 57,000 clients, launched Authorized IBM Courses and delivered more than 3,500 customized courses. However, we are even more excited about the expanded training solutions we can provide our clients for 2014: In the upcoming year, we are adding even more course offerings around Microsoft Office 365, SalesForce, Selling, Business Intelligence, Red Hat and more.
New Horizons understands that one of the greatest challenges students face is sacrificing time at work to complete training, and we have a solution for that: Since students often take courses from their place of work, our Online LIVE eliminates travel and the additional time away from the office. So the minute a class is completed, students are already back to work and able to fulfill their daily responsibilities.

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                                   Free cloud computing applications

Free cloud computing applications There are a large number of interesting cloud computing applications that are completely free. In these Software as a Service (SaaS) applications processing happens on the data centers hosted by these organizations. Unlike standard desktop applications, no processing happens on the desktops. Here we take a look at the cloud computing applications that are available for free. The sites have been categorized into the following types Photo editing software Online file storage Twitter related applications Digital Video Creating your image album Photo editing software Anti-virus applications on the web Editing documents, spreadsheets and  powerpoints Finding your way on a map e-commerce software Miscellaneous applications Photo editing software Picnik is a popular free online photo editing software. It has features like cropping, resizing and rotation of images, addition of special effects. A premium version of Picnik with advanced features is available for $24.95 a year. Pixlr is a free online photo editing software. Pixlr combines image design and paint tools with photo editing and adjustment features. It lets users edit brightness/contrast, and has the ability to crop and layer photos. Even though Pixlr has many complex features, the software is relatively simple to use. Online file storage MediaFire is a leading online file storage site. MediaFire may be used to host, share any files including documents, images, presentations, videos. The interface is easy to use. The free version of MediaFire includes unlimited disk space and unlimited uploads/downloads. The only limit in the free version is on the file size - the maximum file size allowed is 200 MB. The files may be organized into folders. Megaupload is another popular file storage site. The feature set is similar to mediafire. There is a limit of 200 GB disk space and 2 GB limit on file size in the free account. There is also a waiting time of 25 secs before each download begins in the free version. The premium version has none of the above limitations in addition to better download speed and unlimited disk speed. The charges for premium version is $9.99 per month. hotfile offers a free version of online file sharing application with a maximum file size of 400Mb. Monthly charges for premium version are $9 per month. The premium version includes higher speed on downloads, unlimited parallel downloads and downloading without waiting time and advertising. 4Shared is yet another popular online file sharing software. The free version provides a maximum file download size of 200MB and over all disk space of 10 GB. Premium version provides 100GB of disk space, and a maximum file size of 5GB. Other popular online file sharing applications are Rapidshare, depositfiles, Yourfilehost, zshare, NowDownloadAll, easy-share, Imgur and Uploading. Twitter related applications bit.ly converts any URL into a unique short URL. When a user visits the newURL, bit.ly redirects the browser to the real web site. Bit.ly has parternered with Twitter, to allow twitter users to use shortened URLs. This has led to exponential growth of bit.ly URLs. As an example the URL for thecloudtutorial is http://bit.ly/4siQfX . Twitpic is an application that allows user to upload pictures to be linked from twitter. It uses twitters login, creates shorterened URLs, that can be invoked from twitters microblogging. Digital Video Hulu offers videos online for free. Users can download popular movies, TV shows and documentaries and view them on the browser. Hulu allows websites to embed content on their web sites also. Hulu is a joint venture of NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment Group and ABC Inc. At present Hulu's contents can only be viewed in the USA. Other popular online video sites are youtube, WatchMoviesOnline, break.com and Google Video. Creating your image album A large number of wonderful sites are available for hosting images on the web. The best ones are flickr, Fotolog, photobucket, webshots, imagebam and ziddu. . These sites allow users to organize images into albums, tag them and create slideshows. Anti-virus applications on the web Cloud Antivirus is an anti virus application on the cloud by a Spanish company Panda Security. It provides functionality to keep virus away from a clean system and also detect and fix a system infested with malware. PC World rates it as the best free anti-virus software. The antivirus can be downloaded onto the machine. The locally installed Cloud Anitvirus sends information about files to the data center on the cloud which checks for malware in the files. Editing documents, spreadsheets and powerpoints SlideRocket is an online application that allows users to create presentation. The free version has a disk space storage of 250 MB. It allows importing of PowerPoint presentations. Since it is a web based application, the presentations can be accessed from any location.The free version does not allow users to edit presentations offline. writeboard is an online free document editor from 37signals. Multiple users can edit the same document, and versions of documents are saved. Writeboard allows users to compare different versions of documents. One limitation of WriteBoard is that it does not support importing Word files. Slideshare allows users to upload presentations. The site has a huge repository of presentations and is a leading source of free presentations on the web. Documents are available on virtally any topic that one may be able to think off. Finding your way on a map Another area where web applications became popular in Web 1.0 was finding directions on the web. The leading sites are mapquest, Google Maps and Yahoo Maps. These have provided million of people maps and directions and helped people get to their destinations over the last decade. Miscellaneous free Software as a Service applications XE provides foreign exchange tools and services online. Functionality provided includes trading currency and checking exchange rates. One of the first usages of free software as service applications is checking the status of letters and packages. United States Postal Service, UPS and Fedex all provide free online tracking of packages.

                        cloud computing

Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications.
In cloud computing, the word cloud (also phrased as "the cloud") is used as a metaphor for "the Internet," so the phrase cloud computing means "a type of Internet-based computing," where different services -- such as servers, storage and applications -- are delivered to an organization's computers and devices through the Internet.
Cloud computing is comparable to grid computing, a type of computing where unused processing cycles of all computers in a network are harnesses to solve problems too intensive for any stand-alone machine.

                          How Cloud Computing Works

The standards for connecting the computer systems and the software needed to make cloud computing work are not fully defined at present time, leaving many companies to define their own cloud computing technologies.  Cloud computing systems offered by companies, like IBM's "Blue Cloud" technologies for example, are based on open standards and open source software which link together computers that are used to to deliver Web 2.0 capabilities like mash-ups or mobile commerce.

Cloud Computing in the Data Center and for Small Business

Cloud computing has started to obtain mass appeal in corporate data centers as it enables the data center to operate like the Internet through the process of  enabling computing resources to be accessed and shared as virtual resources in a secure and scalable manner.
For a small and medium size business (SMB), the benefits of cloud computing is currently driving adoption. In the SMB sector there is often a lack of time and financial resources to purchase, deploy and maintain an infrastructure (e.g. the software, server and storage).
In cloud computing, small businesses can access these resources and expand or shrink services as business needs change. The common pay-as-you-go subscription model is designed to let SMBs easily add or remove services and you typically will only pay for what you do use.

6 Types of Cloud Computing

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Everyone is talking about cloud computing today, but not everyone means the same thing when they do. While there is this general idea behind the cloud – that applications or other business functions exist somewhere away from the business itself – there are many iterations that companies look to in order to actually use the technology. Cloud computing offers a variety of ways for businesses to increase their IT capacity or functionality without having to add infrastructure, personnel, and software.
Here are seven different types of cloud computing and a little bit about what they offer to businesses:

1. Web-based cloud services. These services let you exploit certain web service functionality, rather than using fully developed applications. For example, it might include an API for Google Maps, or for a service such as one involving payroll or credit card processing.
2. SaaS (Software as a Service). This is the idea of providing a given application to multiple tenants, typically using the browser. SaaS solutions are common in sales, HR, and ERP.
3. Platform as a Service. This is a variant of SaaS. You run your own applications but you do it on the cloud provider’s infrastructure.
4. Utility cloud services. These are virtual storage and server options that organizations can access on demand, even allowing the creation of a virtual data center.
5. Managed services. This is perhaps the oldest iteration of cloud solutions. In this scenario, a cloud provider utilizes an application rather than end-users. So, for example, this might include anti-spam services, or even application monitoring services.
6. Service commerce. These types of cloud solutions are a mix of SaaS and managed services. They provide a hub of services which the end-user interacts with. Common implmentations include expense tracking, travel ordering, or even virtual assistant services.                                                                     

   Types of cloud computing

   Cloud computing is typically classified in two ways:
   1. Location of the cloud computing
   2. Type of services offered
   
   

   Location of the cloud

   Cloud computing is typically classified in the following three ways:
   
   1. Public cloud: In Public cloud the computing infrastructure is hosted by the cloud vendor at the vendor’s premises. The customer has no visibility and control over where the computing infrastructure is hosted. The computing infrastructure is shared between any organizations.
   
   
   
   2. Private cloud: The computing infrastructure is dedicated to a particular organization and not shared with other organizations. Some experts consider that private clouds are not real examples of cloud computing. Private clouds are more expensive and more secure when compared to public clouds. Private clouds are of two types: On-premise private clouds and externally hosted private clouds. Externally hosted private clouds are also exclusively used by one organization, but are hosted by a third party specializing in cloud infrastructure. Externally hosted private clouds are cheaper than On-premise private clouds.
   
   
   
   3. Hybrid cloud Organizations may host critical applications on private clouds and applications with relatively less security concerns on the public cloud. The usage of both private and public clouds together is called hybrid cloud. A related term is Cloud Bursting. In Cloud bursting organization use their own computing infrastructure for normal usage, but access the cloud using services like Salesforce cloud computing for high/peak load requirements. This ensures that a sudden increase in computing requirement is handled gracefully.
   
   
   
   4. Community cloud involves sharing of computing infrastructure in between organizations of the same community. For example all Government organizations within the state of California may share computing infrastructure on the cloud to manage data related to citizens residing in California.