The Imogo cloud-based solution can be accessed from any internet connection on a laptop, desktop PC, smartphone, tablet or iPad or any other mobile device. Applications and data are stored on secure Imogo-hosted servers and accessed remotely through a web browser or smartphone/tablet app. These services allow employees to have consistent access to their data and applications independently of the device used to access the services, and everything is synchronized in real-time.

“Our cloud-based program can completely change the way a small or medium-sized company operates,” said Stewart Irvine, President and founder of Imogo. “Our customers don’t need a server room, don’t need complex switching equipment for telephones and don’t need to update their software periodically to keep up with new innovations. We do all that for them through our own secure data center and provide these services securely, on the cloud. Our customers will always have access to their complete business enterprise through the internet from any kind of mobile device or PC. In short, we are offering a brand new way to run a business.”

Imogo uses “private cloud” as the umbrella term for its enterprise and SMB-hosted cloud solutions with a dedicated web-based portal for each individual client.

“Imogo’s goal is to become the industry leading secure mobile office provider; what we really sell is peace of mind,” Irvine added.

According to new research from AMI Partners, small and midsize businesses in the United States will spend more than $49 billion on cloud services in 2015. Microsoft’s recent “SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011,” an analysis of how cloud computing will impact global small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in the next three years, indicates that 39 percent of SMBs expect to be paying for one or more cloud services within three years, an increase of 34 percent. It also predicts that the number of cloud services SMBs pay for will double globally over the next three years.

The Imogo Private Cloud Portal Platform will be sold directly to SMBs, and through a variety of other sales channels, including the recently launched Imogo IC3 service, which provides businesses with a toll-free number to call into (1-888-600-8918) for discussions with cloud computing experts. Imogo’s team of data migration experts will work with organizations to transfer email, documents and phone systems to the Imogo solution and ensure that data is ‘bank vault’ secured.

The Imogo Private Cloud Portal Platform is also designed as a white-label service for certified resellers and Value Added Resellers (VAR) allowing for a quick, painless delivery of the solution as if they were their own.

“Imogo is about allowing clients to bundle everything they need to run their business into one accessible solution backed by peace of mind,” Irvine said. “You think about an IT director at a large company; they manage many different vendor contracts. With Imogo, small businesses have the convenience of dealing with just one. By bundling, you get one invoice and if there’s a problem you call one company and one help desk.”

About Imogo Mobile Technologies Corp.

Imogo Mobile Technologies Corp. is an innovative provider of cloud computing solutions for organizations seeking to securely integrate mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones into their enterprise ecosystem, increasing productivity and lowering their IT costs. Our solutions, including a Private Cloud Portal, enable mission critical businesses to connect, collaborate and communicate around the globe. Personal Private Cloud platform and application services include: High quality digital telephony for PC’s and tablets, hosted exchange and unified messaging, hosted terminal services, and off-site secure data storage and backup services. Please visit www.Imogo.com for more details.

Imogo Mobile Technologies Corp
Stewart Irvine, CEO
stewart@imogo.com
Phone: 206.458.7018

“There’s a lot of confusion surrounding cloud computing in the world at the moment. Mystifying acronyms like SaaS, IaaS, VDI and PBX are intimidating for the small and medium sized businesses,” said Stewart Irvine, President. “Imogo’s goal is to demystify the world of cloud computing so that businesses can understand their options, and in turn prevent them from making potentially expensive mistakes.”

Today’s announcement underscores Imogo’s ongoing commitment to provide small and medium businesses with the tools they need to convey a professional image, remain secure as online threats continue to evolve, and save money which can be repurposed towards building their business.

“Imogo is continually looking for ways to help small and medium sized businesses lower their IT costs while providing the most up-to-date and leading-edge technology,” said Stewart Irvine. “Companies are now able to have a truly mobile workforce harnessing the power of Imogo with an iPad or tablet device”. The IC³ program will shorten the sales cycle with qualified new customers, create new market opportunities and ensure customer retention and loyalty. This will give Imogo a clear business advantage that will increase market share and revenue streams thus enhancing shareholder value.

About Imogo Mobile Technologies Corp.

Imogo Mobile Technologies Corp. is an innovative provider of cloud computing solutions for organizations seeking to securely integrate mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones into their enterprise ecosystem, increasing productivity and lowering their IT costs. Our solutions, including a Private Cloud Portal, enable mission critical businesses to connect, collaborate and communicate around the globe. Personal Private Cloud platform and application services include: High quality digital telephony for PC’s and tablets, hosted exchange and unified messaging, hosted terminal services, and off-site secure data storage and backup services. Please visit www.Imogo.com for more details.

Imogo Media Contact:

Stewart Irvine, President, stewart@imogo.com (206) 458-7018

Most people understand that “cloud” refers to applications that stream from the Internet. But there’s a lot more to it than that.
The word “cloud computing” covers a bunch of technologies, which is why Forrester Research can say that the cloud was a $40.7 billion market in 2011 and will grow to a whopping $241 billion in 2020.
A quarter of a trillion dollar market? Wowzers.
Microsoft says the cloud will create 14 million jobs by 2015, too.
But, truth be told, most folks still don’t completely understand what the “cloud” is. So let’s fix that …

What does the term “cloud” mean?
The “cloud” is an umbrella term used for a whole bunch of things, most, but not all, having to do with getting software or computing resources delivered over the Internet as a service. These services are usually paid for on some kind of usage or subscription basis — a certain dollar amount per resource (like data) consumed, or per month. Stop paying, and service is cut off. This is different from buying a software product and getting to use it forever.

Where did the term come from?
Back in the day, network diagrams used the cloud icon to indicated the public telephone network and later the Internet. At the time, it really meant  “out there, out in the messy world, on someone else’s systems, out of my control.”

So the cloud is really just another term for “Internet” right?
No, not really.  It is possible to use the Internet without using cloud services and it is possible to be on a cloud without being on the Internet. For instance, you could use the Internet to download some software from an application developer, send an e-mail, and connect remotely to your files stored on your office service, all without using “cloud” services.

What are the different technologies that are considered cloud?
Ah. Here we get to the techie, wonkie stuff. Essentially there are five buckets of things called cloud.

• Software as a service (SaaS): This is an application delivered over the Internet as a subscription. It is not installed on a company’s servers or on a person’s PC. Salesforce.com is the granddaddy of this category, but other examples include things like Google Apps, Microsoft’s Office 365, or the human resources suite Workday. When the term “cloud” is used for consumers, it typically means SaaS such as Dropbox, iCloud, Evernote, and so on.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): This is the next layer up, where you want to build your own cloud application but you want to rent everything you need including the runtime platform like Java, Ruby or .Net. Examples of PaaS include Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure, and Salesforce.com’s Heroku.
• Infrastructure as a Service: This is the most basic cloud of them all, where you rent the hardware (server with operating system, storage, and networking) and you upload your own applications. The difference between IaaS and old-school hosting is that you are sharing the hardware with other renters (in geek terms: it’s a multitenant environment). You only pay for the computer resources you use. Amazon AWS is the biggest here, but Rackspace is another and Linode is popular for Linux users.
• Private clouds: Here’s where things get tricky. Private clouds don’t necessarily use the Internet. This means an enterprise has built its own version of a public cloud to use for itself. When enterprises remodel their IT systems to be like a multitenant environment, they can become more efficient.
• Hybrid clouds: This means that a company is choosing to store some of its applications in its private cloud and using a public cloud for spill-over. A retail company could, for instance, rent extra space on an IBM retail cloud in December when transactions spike. In the old days, a company would have to buy more servers to be ready for those spikes, even though they would sit unused for 11 months.

What’s the big deal about cloud computing?
Because companies share the infrastructure, cloud computing makes it super cheap for anyone to access enormous computational resources. Rather than spending thousands to own your own computer and networks, you can rent all the power you want for however long you want it.
This has lead to a boom in innovation. Companies can grow really big before they need to invest in their own data centers (Groupon started on Amazon), or they can quickly expand by putting a new service in the cloud. Examples include Pinterest, which uses Amazon Web Services, and LivingSocial, which uses Rackspace.

Does everyone love the cloud?
Hardly. Enterprise IT folks are still a little suspicious of the cloud — and the lack of control it represents. But they are getting over it. They are being won over by the number of cloud products, their low cost, improved security and management controls.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/faq-what-exactly-is-the-cloud-2012-3#ixzz1pby6IN1i

For SMB-sized IT service providers, the ubiquity of cloud services has become impossible to ignore, and more tempting than ever due to lowering costs and ease of use. The chance to strengthen your customer relationships by adopting a Cloud Service Marketplace strategy – before your competitors do – is both lucrative and attainable. Here’s five reasons why.

#1: Adoption of Cloud Services is Accelerating

Vendors of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) are continuing to see their offerings take business away from on-premise software companies. Across the industry, analysts unanimously agree that cloud service adoption is on the rise:

• Gartner predicts that global SaaS revenue could hit $21.3 billion in 2015, a 113% jump from 2010.
• According to Gatepoint Research 2011, the number of companies who will implement at least four cloud services will double from 17% to 33% over the next 2 years.
• IDC says that SaaS spending is set to grow at a pace six times faster than traditional software, with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of approximately 26% by 2014.

With top analysts predicting the continuation of aggressive growth on all fronts, 2012 is already shaping up to be the year that SMBs make a huge impact on the industry with their purchasing power. Now is the time to ensure you have a strategy in place to provide the cloud services your customers are going to be looking for.

#2: Your SMB Customers Want a Cloud Partner

SMB cloud service adoption is accelerating, and businesses are looking for assistance with the selection, integration and on-going management of their cloud products. The opportunity to become a trusted source of guidance is presenting itself in the form of Cloud Services Brokerage. As an existing provider, you are in a unique position to provide thought leadership on what services are most appropriate for your customer base, and help them navigate the landscape of cloud services.

According to Gartner, Inc., “Many services will be consumed directly, but many – particularly when there’s a need to combine and add value to them in unique ways – will be brokered. Cloud Service Brokerages (CSBs) will have an enduring and profound impact on cloud computing and IT services, facilitating how businesses consume IT.”
As a CSB, you’ll be able to provide services beyond just reselling software. Educate yourself on how you can deliver the right solutions for your customers before they start looking elsewhere.

#3: Your Competitors May Already Be in the Cloud

SMBs are beginning to view Cloud Service Marketplaces as a viable, if not preferential, resource for finding and using business software. Early adopters of the Cloud Services Brokerage strategy are already seeing huge payoffs.

• Appcelerator’s Open Mobile Marketplace provides a community marketplace that allows mobile app developers to connect with over 1.5 million of their peers to monetise their mobile assets.
• Bell Canada’s Business Apps Store connects its 500,000 SMB customers with the right cloud services to run their businesses more smoothly.
• Samsung’s television-based Smart Hub provides its customers with thousands of apps accessible from their remote control.

By 2014, the CSB landscape will have grown from dozens to hundreds of providers. As the indisputable benefits derived from cloud services encourage SMBs to adopt sooner rather than later, the window of opportunity to become the dominant CSB for your customer base is shrinking. If you don’t provide a solution for your business customers, they could be forced to look elsewhere.

#4: Offering New, Innovative Services Increases Revenue and Reduces Churn

Your existing services can be the ideal segue into the creation of a Cloud Service Marketplace. Over the last few years providers have discovered that as additional value-added products are attached to existing services, subscriber churn decreases.Offering cloud services to these same customers not only drives revenue from the services themselves, but it protects existing revenue with those customers.

While many of your existing services may have been commoditised, providing your customers with a branded portal to access and manage their business data significantly strengthens customer relationships.

A survey undertaken this time last year showed that 82% of small businesses believe it is important to purchase from a local, trusted provider. Based on this data, you are best positioned to play the role of a CSB for your existing customers because of the trust, awareness and existing business relationship you have with them.

#5: Building a Specialised Network of Apps Takes Time

Cloud Service Marketplaces are platforms for innovation, and are greatly facilitating the expansion of thriving developer communities. This aggressive growth in the landscape of ISVs creating cloud services presents yet another opportunity: by offering specialised cloud services you will be able to penetrate a range of vertical segments within your customer base.

By nurturing your relationships with developers and working with them to achieve success, you’ll ensure that your marketplace continues to provide the richest set of apps for SMBs to choose from.

These relationships with local developers will allow you to provide highly specialised solutions to your customer’s business problems. Building a mature, customised marketplace is a process. The sooner you start, the sooner you can embrace the developer community and help them expand their reach to customers.

This is a sponsored guest post from AppDirect. Schedule a demo and find out how AppDirect can help you launch your Cloud Service Marketplace in a matter of weeks, via their website: www.appdirect.com

Taking stock of the tablet boom 
David Akka, Magic Software

With the benefits of cloud, businesses are looking to tablets as the perfect connection between the laptop and the smartphone. But can applications really be designed to be transferable across multiple devices, and more importantly, should we even want them to be? Magic Software’s David Akka explains why the tablet revolution still poses a series of questions for the enterprise.

Apple boss Tim Cook recently commented that the iPad “is on a trajectory that is off the charts”, and it does seem that tablets are at the forefront of a new era of mobility, offering users access to greater computing power anytime, anywhere.
However, with some commentators predicting that tablets will overtake the PC market in the near future, we should perhaps take a step back and consider that our devices should not be an either/ or choice. After all, smartphones, PCs and tablets all work in different ways – they all have their relative strengths and weaknesses, and are used to fulfil different requirements.

What must first be considered is how technology fits within the workplace, in the context of how employees are now using these different devices to fulfill different requirements. On one side, there are laptops and PCs, which are primarily designed for ‘heavy duty’ computing tasks in the office environment, thanks to their processing power, the large screen sizes, keyboards and mice, which provide the flexibility for users to move quickly between different screens and to input ‘heavy duty’ data.

However, as more employees work ‘on-the-move’, logging on to a laptop and starting it up can be seen as too laborious and time consuming and so mobile devices are most commonly used for shorter tasks, to quickly check for emails whilst running in between meetings. Mobile users, by nature, tend to have a shorter attention span than users of desktop applications, and users tend to require access when they are in a hurry and when time is of the essence. Tablets sit somewhere in the middle; whilst they offer more scope for data input and processing thanks to their larger screen size, their form factor means that they are also portable and so can easily be used in meetings. This means that, in each situation, the data being looked at, the length of time they are used and the levels of interaction by the user, are completely different.

The hype around tablets overtaking the PC market is largely created by hardware manufacturers wanting to drive sales for their new devices. Latest predictions are that tablet sales to end users will more than quadruple by 2015 and since there has been a significant uptake in the consumer market, the expectation is that the workplace will follow suit. There’s no denying that tablets have the power to fundamentally change the way we work and go about our daily lives, and fill the gap perfectly in between PCs and smartphones; however they should not be considered as a replacement for either and the contexts in which they are used. Enterprise mobility is all about having the flexibility to use different devices in different situations, for example: I will need my laptop to write this presentation; however I will use my iPad to present it in this meeting.

It’s within this context of choice that we must design applications and develop a suitable mobile strategy. First and foremost, it’s crucial to consider the user interface. What experience is a user expecting on that particular device? This means that taking an application from a PC and running it on a tablet is always a mistake, due to the relevance of data, different screen sizes, user expectations, user attention span and the situation in which it’s used.
Developers need to think not only about how to engineer processes to present data from different sources in the most logical way, but also how to use the inherent features of each device. For example, where there is no mouse or keyboard, mobile devices can offer GPS, compass, gyroscope, camera and voice capabilities which have unlocked a set of capabilities in applications that provide new value.

Ultimately, if we continue to think along the lines of one technology overtaking another, we will be thinking that the same functionality can be established across multi-devices, which cannot be the case. If we simply present the same information across different screen sizes, the adoption of enterprise-approved applications will be reduced, and employees will revert to downloading external apps to help them do their job better, which will be counter-productive to any enterprise mobile strategy.

In the end, enterprises will want their solutions to work on PCs, smartphones and on tablets, because each has its own uses and relevance in different situations. With an approach such as an application platform that supports multi-channels and multi-devices, organisations can abstract themselves from the complications of coding for multiple devices or creating a generic solution for all devices.

Such platforms contain pre-written coding functionality which allows developers to write once; the deployment to multiple devices is part of the platform’s underlying architecture that includes adjustments to utilise the different functionalities and approaches for desktop, smartphone and tablet users. This in turn means they can focus on presenting the right information to the right people at the right time, on the right device.
David Akka is the Managing Director of Magic Software UK and a leading voice and blogger for the cloud computing industry. Visit his blog here:
www.davidakka.com

The web apps and services you use are often ephemeral. Your data could disappear in an instant due to an acquisition, failure, or even a domain seizure. Although the cloud offers many advantages, you never know when it may dissipate. Here’s how you can safeguard your data in case of a shutdown and select your web apps more frugally to mitigate the risk.

In the past three days we’ve lost Gowalla, Oink, and probably Posterous. You never know when a webapp might shut down for a variety of reasons, so you don’t want to assume it’ll always be around when you need it. While most companies are good at providing you with a means of migrating your data, that isn’t always the case. Some sites, like Oink and Gowalla, are more investments of your time than explicit data. All the reviews you wrote on Oink aren’t exactly transplantable and your Gowalla check-ins aren’t going to earn you a history on the still-living Foursquare. In the case of the MegaUpload seizure, everyone’s data was suddenly unavailable and people had to resort to a law suit to even try to retrieve it. So far there has been no success. Using a web service is an investment, so you don’t want to simply sign up and hope for the best. In this post we’re going to take a look at how you can make more informed choices when selecting the webapps you’ll use and how you can keep your data safe in case your cloud service of choice disappears nonetheless.

How to Choose a Webapp Wisely

It’s hard to resist an awesome new webapp. They often offer enticing one-minute introductory videos and signup only takes a few seconds. Before you know it, that webapp is a part of your routine. This is fine so long as the service survives, but when it doesn’t you’re in trouble. Making better choices in the beginning can help you avoid shutdowns or at least provide you with a means
Make sure your data is portable and not locked into the service. If it is, you may not have access to your data in the event of a shutdown. It’s a popular trend to allow you to download your data at any time, just in case you want to migrate it somewhere else. Even Facebook does it. Before you sign up for a service, find out if they’ll let you take your data and leave as well. If not, you’ll either need to consider another backup option (which we’ll discuss a little later) or consider looking for a different webapp that does.
Sign up for the service, but don’t use it for a month. Why? Because you might want to secure a username or see if it’s something you want to use eventually. Signing up is often the best way to tackle both of those goals. Just resist the urge to use the webapp right away. Give it a month to see how it fares after the initial excitement wears off. If it still retains an active community and can be useful to you, start using it. If the webapp’s activity appears a little anemic and there’s no way to keep your data when it shuts down, you might want to consider moving on to a better alternative.
Don’t succumb to the allure of newness. New is exciting, but it isn’t necessarily better. Before you commit to using a web service, consider whether you’re attracted by its fresh coat of paint or what it can actually do to help you. A lot of webapps try to reinvent the wheel and few succeed. This not only means that the service might not be as revolutionary as it initially seems, but also that there are plenty of well-established and widely-used alternatives out there that are more likely to survive in the long run. Before you commit to a new option, make sure it can do what you want. Compare it to existing, safer services and only sign up for the new one if it really fits you the best.

Back Up Your Cloud Data

Although you can’t really back up the investment you make in sites like Gowalla and Oink, webapps that center around data storage (e.g. Flickr, Vimeo, Posterous, etc.) are great candidates for backup. Like with all backups, your ideal goal is to have the data in three places: the original location (which is the webapp you’re using), another remote location (somewhere else in the cloud), and on a local disk. The original location is obviously covered, so let’s take a look at how you can both keep that data local and in another location.

Where to Keep a Local Copy

If you’re uploading photos or videos, keeping a local copy is simple: just save the data to a hard drive. When you share a video on YouTube, make sure you keep a local source copy. When you upload your photos to Flickr, save them to a hard drive as well. This is easy to do but often neglected because the goal—sharing the media itself—has been accomplished and keeping a copy nobody will see appears pointless. Making local copies can be a little tedious, however, but desktop apps can make it easier. Photo management apps, for example, are a great way to keep local copies of your pictures and easily share them online. Desktop email clients are another great example as they can keep a local copy of your messages (and often do, by default). Using desktop email is an inadvertent backup strategy. Even if you prefer to use the webapp, you can always run a desktop client for backup purposes as well. Desktop apps were the original paradigm, so chances are you can find something capable of making it easier to keep local copies on your computer. Just search for options for the webapp you love and you’ll likely find something.

In the event that a local backup isn’t as simple as saving the data on a hard drive or using desktop software, see if you can export your data from the webapp directly. As previously discussed, many webapps offer data portability in case you want to use a different service some time in the future. You can use the data export feature as a backup strategy and just download your data once a month. Copy that to a backup hard drive and you’ll be good to go.

Where to Back Up Online
When it comes to simply backing up raw data—like videos, photos, text, or even data dumps from a webapp—there are numerous services offering free cloud storage in the gigabytes. Just pick one, sign up, and start uploading. That’s all you need to do to have an online backup.

“Major trends in client computing have shifted the market away from a focus on personal computers to a broader device perspective that includes smartphones, tablets and other consumer devices,” Steve Kleynhans, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement on Monday. “Emerging cloud services will become the glue that connects the web of devices that users choose to access during the different aspects of their daily life.”

Google plans a cloud-centered future with Google Play and its market-leading Android mobile OS. But the personal computer will also not miss out on the cloud, as Microsoft and Apple are planning to weave the cloud into the next generation of their desktop operating systems, Windows 8, and OS X Mountain Lion.

But a cloud-happy future will not be as easy as that, because “it will require enterprises to fundamentally rethink how they deliver applications and services to users.” That’s a point echoed by two new bloggers at Cloudline. Todd B. Nielsen outlines what he sees as the perfect storm for cloud computing, noting that he is “in awe at the businesses and executives that are not treating cloud computing as a strategy to improve their company.” And Contributor Alexander Haislip drove home the missed-opportunity sentiment recently in his post, What the New iPad Won’t Do:

The new iPad may be the most impressive piece of computing hardware I’ve ever seen. Yet its true power is held back by large enterprise software corporations that cannot keep pace with the new devices designed with cloud computing in mind…. It’s as if they’ve completely ignored one of the most successful computing platforms ever built, outselling the total number of PCs its closest competitor sold last quarter.

With the new iPad sold out, it seems only a matter of time that those not on board with the cloud — and with their wares available on any device — will face an existential question.

And Gartner says a number of factors are converging to make for a perfect personal cloud storm by 2014:

Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization — You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
Gartner has discussed the consumerization of IT for the better part of a decade, and has seen the impact of it across various aspects of the corporate IT world. However, much of this has simply been a precursor to the major wave that is starting to take hold across all aspects of information technology as several key factors come together:

• Users are more technologically-savvy and have very different expectations of technology.
• The internet and social media have empowered and emboldened users.
• The rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices changes the equation for users.
• Users have become innovators.
• Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and status within organizations can now have similar technology available to them.

Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played
Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can implement client environments….

Megatrend No. 3: “App-ification” — From Applications to Apps
When the way that applications are designed, delivered and consumed by users changes, it has a dramatic impact on all other aspects of the market….

Megatrend No. 4: The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
The advent of the cloud for servicing individual users opens a whole new level of opportunity. Every user can now have a scalable and nearly infinite set of resources available for whatever they need to do….

Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want
Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices….

“The combination of these megatrends, coupled with advances in new enabling technologies, is ushering in the era of the personal cloud,” Gartner’s Kleynhans said. “In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself.”

But he says it’s not about the oft-referenced post-PC era, “but rather about a new style of personal computing that frees individuals to use computing in fundamentally new ways to improve multiple aspects of their work and personal lives.”

That’s a point former Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie made recently, saying, “People argue about, ‘Are we in a post-PC world?’. Why are we arguing? Of course we are in a post-PC world,” Ozzie is is reported to have said at a GeekWire-sponsored conference last week. ”That doesn’t mean the PC dies; that just means that the scenarios that we use them in, we stop referring to them as PCs, we refer to them as other things.” Ozzie, who left Microsoft in 2010, started a company called Cocomo, which he said last week has it sights set on the center of the personal cloud storm: mobility and communications.

Jon Udell, another newcomer to Cloudline who will chronicle the personal cloud weekly on Fridays, writes in his first post:

The cloud platform has become a real option for companies needing managed, pay-as-you-use IT capacity. But you have to squint hard to see the emerging personal cloud. That future is already here, as William Gibson would say, but it’s unevenly distributed.

I see signs of the personal cloud in services like Dropbox, Evernote, and Flickr. You can use them for free, or you can pay for higher capacity and enhanced customer service. But the personal cloud also arises from a way of thinking about, and using, any of the services the web provides.

Cloud computing is without a doubt one of the biggest innovations to ever hit the technology industry. While the basis of what is “cloud” has been around for years, the term and its effect are gaining significant traction. In some ways I find it nauseating, but at the same time I am in awe at the many technology service companies and managed services providers that are not strategically playing out what is happening all around them, and are thus denying that it will have any effect on their future. I am also in awe at the businesses and executives that are not treating cloud computing as a strategy to improve their company. In this article I will talk about Technology Innovation, Internet Availability, and The Generation Factor; and how their continued commoditization will contribute to create great opportunities for some, and dangers for others.

Technology Innovation’s Effect on Cloud Computing

The technology innovations that are continually being developed are phenomenal. Hardware is becoming smaller while at the same time, getting more and more powerful. Software is becoming smarter and more intuitive, and there are many more software options available to solve problems. With 100-core processors soon available and 1,000-core processors on the horizon; along with the myriad many other technology innovations, will combine to create greater commoditization, which will bring prices further and further down.

With these conditions, the appeal of cloud computing to a smart business owner or executive becomes increasingly attractive. Most computers and especially servers are dramatically more powerful than we will ever need. Why spend money on technology that you will never use to capacity, when in the cloud you can pay for what you use and dynamically increase and decrease the services you need? This is the mindset that every CFO and CEO will grow to love as they seek to preserve cash flow and increase performance.

One side to commoditization is when products are so powerful and reliable that consumers no longer need to differentiate between brands. This is an important concept to remember in how cloud computing will affect business.

Internet Availability’s Effect on Cloud Computing

Bandwidth continues to propagate the earth at alarming speeds, while at the same time decreasing in price. Many people claim bandwidth as the big limiting factor of cloud, yet it is continually becoming extremely prevalent and fast. Aso, 4G, fiber optic, wireless, and better technology to increase speeds over copper, will continue to diminish this road block.

This increase in availability also creates commoditization as broadband services become faster and the difference between brands decreases. In this scenario, consumers usually buy the cheapest since they all appear the same. As this happens, availability as a reason to not move to cloud computing will disappear.

The Generation Factor’s Effect on Cloud Computing

The Generation Factor is the most important of the three factors to understand. Younger generations are growing up in a world of instant gratification of technology needs. The concept of going to a store and buying music and software is dying. That effect is no different than the appeal of cloud computing. One can get music any time, from any location one is, and very cheaply, and that will be the mentality for IT services, thus increasing the demand for cloud computing.

In addition to the instant gratification, software is so much easier to install now than it was years ago. Interfaces are also simpler; heck, my 3-year-old knows how to use my iPad. He can get around applications, open and close them, play games, make choices and get back into apps when they crash. This generation is and will influence decision-makers and ultimately will be the ones starting businesses. This generation growing up is not going to go out and spend $10,000 on a server to run their new startups, when they can get something more powerful and cheaper from the cloud.

So now we see that knowledge commoditization plays an important role in the proliferation of cloud computing. There will always be a need for advanced and specialized IT professionals, but knowledge commoditization, mainly due to this generation factor, will influence the solution provider market, and who cloud computing services are delivered by.

The Perfect Storm for Cloud Computing

So if I could break this thought process down into a mathematical formula, it would look like this: (Technology Innovation × Commoditization) + (Internet Availability × Commoditization) + (The Generation Factor × Commoditization) = A Perfect Cloud Computing Storm.

The storm is full of opportunities for some, and dangers for others. Now is the time to create opportunities, instead of waiting for the dangers to happen to you. Please comment below with your thoughts on these three factors and any other factors that you feel are contributing to the perfect storm for cloud computing.

Todd Nielsen has served as CEO, COO, President, & Vice-President, of various IT & Telecommunications companies. He writes about leadership & management at his blog: A Slice of Leadership, as well as IT Channel topics geared to solution providers at IT Channel Insight.

In January, Kroes, who is also Europe’s information society commissioner, assembled local public agencies and private companies in a €10 million European Cloud Partnership to lay groundwork for moving government agencies’ IT systems to the cloud.

At Cable Congress in Brussels on Thursday, Kroes said boldly: “It’s where the future will be.”

Now, independent EU debate organiser Forum Europe has convened policymakers and executives from companies including Dell, VMWare and Intel (NSDQ: INTC) at The 2012 European Cloud Computing Conference to develop the continent’s cloud strategy on March 21.
Of course, private-sector internet companies are already rolling out services that host data in remote, “cloud”-based data centres. Why is the European Commission intervening, and what does it think is to gain?

For one, the cloud dovetails neatly with a parallel Kroes is pushing – harmonising Europe’s many and varied telecoms and copyright licensing rules to let online services more easily license content to rent and sell across member states’ national borders.

The cloud is the perfect way to introduce legal content offers online,” said Kroes, who thinks small- and medium-sized enterprises stand to benefit most because cloud services can be cheaper than alternatives: “Our flagging economies need us to make the best of it – we need to act to ensure speedy uptake.

“With many other technologies, we’ve seen problems getting in the way – fragmentation, lock-in, and public sector ineffectiveness. The cloud computing strategy I’m currently preparing will anticipate those problems so we can prevent them. Where these barriers exist, I am determined to overcome them.

Kroes sought to re-assure private cloud suppliers and Big Government opponents: “The Cloud Partnership, and indeed our overall cloud computing strategy, is not about building a European super-cloud.”

Precise

Recently, I wrote about how the software company I work for, Precise, cut 70 percent of its IT budget by migrating its applications and infrastructure to cloud and SaaS technologies. That amounts to $2 million dollars in savings a year — no small chunk of change for a business of 200 employees.

Moving to the cloud and SaaS is easier and simpler than many executives believe and can deliver significant business gains in a relatively short amount of time. But clearly, internal politics and personal agendas sometimes get in the way of what should be a fairly straightforward decision. Otherwise, wouldn’t more small and midsize companies have made the switch to 100 percent cloud environments by now?

There are two key decisions that a company should make when considering its cloud strategy. First, how much money do you have available to spend on technology? Secondly, how unique are your processes? These two basic questions will help you decide which applications to purchase in the cloud and which vendors to choose. Coupled with the right management attitudes, the answers will help IT achieve the maximum savings and value from cloud and Web technologies — without harming the business.

Decision 1: Show me the money

Back in 2008, after being spun out of our former parent company Symantec and into a new private company, cost management was critical for our near-term and long-term survival. We also had 1,000 customers to support, and we couldn’t risk hurting those relationships by taking any chances with our systems and infrastructure. However, the bottom line was that we could not afford to continue spending at the same levels we had been. We needed drastic change, and fast.

To make ends meet, we needed to cut our IT budget by more than 50 percent. This was a CEO decision, and we had to abide by it. There were no politics and no management wrangling involved here: A single look at the P&L revealed why those cuts were non-negotiable.

Decision 2: Is customization really necessary?

Companies have a hard time letting go of what they consider to be proprietary. However, very few applications are so unique that they require in-house ownership. In other words: to drive a nail into a two-by-two, everybody uses a hammer.

As a software company, there is nothing proprietary in how we manage finances or in how we sell, market and support our products. We were determined to find off-the-shelf SaaS apps that could run our business. And if we needed to change our processes a bit as a result, we could live with that. To be realistic, we assumed that a minimal amount of customization would be needed to integrate applications and make minor adaptations. We asked our department heads to select these SaaS applications — we didn’t ask IT. Obviously, IT was a valuable partner in the decision-making process, but we let department VPs make the final call because they owned those processes.

Making ends meet

There’s one caveat here: whatever the departments chose had to fit into our budget at the time. Here’s an example of how these decisions can flip at the 11th hour. Our customer-support organization had outgrown its customer portal platform and needed a new content management solution. Our vendor for customer-relationship management had just launched a new product, but it was out of our price range. Beggars need to be diligent choosers. So, our support folks looked around and found some quality alternatives.

The vice president of customer support was about to close a deal with one of these candidates, when, unfortunately, our quarterly numbers came in lower than expected. Although the support team really wanted the product, they could no longer afford that one either. The usual cliché is that when managers have no money, the CEO tells you to be creative. Our support folks were creative indeed. They selected Drupal, an open source solution. Combined with hosting by Acquia, Drupal is affordable, and it does what the support team needs. In fact, this solution was about 85 percent less expensive than the offering sold by its closest competitor.

Bigger isn’t necessarily better

Many execs still think the size of their organization reflects their power, influence and value in the company. With the advent of cloud, SaaS and automation, this is simply not the case anymore — especially for small and midsize companies. IT can deliver more value by orchestrating products and services that other people build and run, rather than doing it all in house.

Our IT director created more value for the company by slashing his budget by 70 percent and his staff by 50 percent. This is a hard pill to swallow, but it works. Many chief information officers describe their job as supporting the business through automation, while continuously grinding down the IT unit cost. The cloud and SaaS are pivotal technology levers to help CIOs achieve these goals.

Think clearly before moving to the cloud

In the case of Precise, the decision to go SaaS all the way was easy, because we required minimal customization and our size was too small to consider economies of scale in hosting. This might not be the case for other companies. With adequate scale, larger organizations can actually drive costs down by in-sourcing rather than outsourcing. At the extreme end, consider Google, which hosts its own environment and custom designs its infrastructure down to the compute and storage units. As cloud vendors achieve economies of scale and drive their own costs and pricing down, such examples are few and far between today.

Deciding how far your company will go with the cloud and SaaS should all come down to total cost and essential application functionality. Muddying the waters with debates around control, security, user preferences and vendor relationships is an enormous waste of time and energy. Stick to the basics, get crystal clear on which apps truly require on-premise management and make the decisions that are best for your business’s bottom line.

Zohar Gilad is the executive vice president at Precise, in Redwood Shores, CA.