Outsourced IT

One of the biggest challenges facing people who work online is not so much involving time management as it is the time that is required to handle tedious and time-consuming tasks such as submitting articles, RSS Feeds, Social Bookmarking and other online sources to directories can easily eat away a full day and cost the average Internet Marketer to lose more money than they will ever gain.

At best, you will not be able to earn enough to make your online Internet Marketing ventures a profitable business and at worst, you will spend so much time for so few results that you are forced back in to the brick and mortar world working for the very same boss who told you that you would fail before you ever began building your virtual online empire.

However, this leads you right back around to the other side of the fence to the common misconception that you can just create some automated blog, kick back, make millions overnight and watch the money roll in while you laze on the beach with your new array of toys and trinkets you bought online. If you honestly do believe that this is going to happen, then you may be well advised not to quit your day job in the first place.

When you want to become involved in the world of Internet Marketing you need to realize that it is a business like any other business. It will take time to build it up and establish your presence online or it will take enough money to pay someone else to establish and build up your online presence. Whichever route you choose, Internet Marketing still remains an online business venture and has to be treated as such.

If you have the financial capacity to begin investing in your online business venture immediately, you are already a step ahead of the game. However, do not be trapped into buying every money making opportunity or e-book offer that you run across thinking every one of them will make you an online millionaire in the wings. Do your research before you invest any money at all in your Internet Marketing business.

One of the wisest things ever written about Internet Marketing was boiled down to “Don’t burn it ‘til you earn it!” meaning never invest any money online that you did not earn online. While this may not get your Virtual Online Empire taking off at lightspeed from the get-go, it will prevent you from ending up in the proverbial poor-house attempting to get rich!

Understand from the beginning that it is going to take time to reach thousands of targeted visitors to your website. Invest in small programs that will help you to automate all of the tedious tasks that you would otherwise spend so much time doing. Invest your Internet Marketing time more wisely creating new content for your website, new products for your subscribers.

If you have to, invest in quality freelancers including professional web designers, professional writers and others who may be better suited to handle any tasks that you cannot adequately perform. If you do find yourself in a position where you need professional writing services, I happen to know of a great place to go … but then again, I am also prejudiced.

Remember, Internet Marketing is a business like any other. If you hire cheap labor and slap your products together, it will not take long for your dreams to crumble right alongside your online business venture. Invest wisely in your business, automate what you can and outsource what you cannot. In the end, your results, your success and your profits will show that it was well worth the investment.

If you have never familiarized yourself with the concept of article network marketing, the odds are good that you are missing out on an amazingly effective network marketing tool! The concept itself is surprisingly simple: much like product placement in movies, article network marketing relies on a general content article containing references to and facts about the product you are selling and the business you are in. Of course, with anything that is deceptively simple there is also a large margin of error.

For those who are intrigued by this completely legal way of reaching a whole new target audience, here are five steps that guarantee article network marketing success.

1. The content must be well written. Most network marketers will outsource this aspect of the business and if you do so, you will be wise to request some samples of the work first. This will enable you to understand the effect an article written by that individual or company will have on you, and by extension most likely will have on other readers. Look for typos and be on alert for grammatical errors or punctuation mistakes.

2. The content of the article needs to relate to your business or product in some way. If you are selling a wellness product you will be hard-pressed to have it included in a movie review (although a highly skilled writer is able to pull off this feat) but it will shine in a general content article that discusses health, wellness, and related issues.

3. If you are using article network marketing to showcase your product, think of the attributes that best describe it. Is it a drink or a solid supplement? What is its color? How does it taste? Should it be consumed cold or hot? Could it be incorporated into a recipe or dish? What are the effects of the product and how long does it usually take until someone will realize them? All of these questions could and should be answered within the article to give the reader a solid understanding and also feel for the product without necessitating them to buy it first.

4. Do not let the article be little more than a bit of writing designed to hype the product. This will not hold any appeal to the average reader. The trick to successful article network marketing is the skillful incorporation of the product into a well written article that is of general interest.

5. Utilize the article by posting it on sites inviting submissions, posting it in forums, and also sending it out as part of an email newsletter. Be very cautious so that you are not actually spamming a site or misuse your email address leads, but at the same time capitalize on the finished article in each and every way you can think of. The more articles you craft in this vein, the more impact you will have. Of vital importance, in that case, is that each and every article offers a new insight and is markedly different from its predecessors!

The British video game industry is in shock. Barely two months ago, Alistair Darling planned a series of tax breaks for the sector in his final budget. But last week, amid a range of painful austerity measures, George Osborne reversed the decision, calling Darling’s plans “poorly targeted”.(toshiba pa3399u-1bas battery)

It is a hammer blow for UK game companies, who are losing out to rivals in countries such as Canada, the US and South Korea, where generous tax subsidies are available to games employers. Richard Wilson, chief executive of the industry’s trade body Tiga, called the decision “a big mistake” and was furious at what he sees a “betrayal” of promises. “Before the general election the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats both explicitly stated that they supported tax breaks for the video game industry. In fact, the Conservatives said that Labour had stolen their idea.”(Acer aspire 3000 battery)

Wilson is right to be enraged. It may be difficult for the rest of us, reeling from VAT increases and frozen child benefits, to have any sympathy for the makers of computer games. But the UK industry has, up until now, been one of our rare unmitigated success stories – a vibrant, globally respected sector, producing such famed franchises as Tomb Raider, Fable, LittleBigPlanet and Lego Star Wars. We were once the third-largest producer of games in the world, and last year the industry managed to bring £1bn in to the British economy. Cameron loves to talk about moving away from relying on the public sector and financial services – well, David, the video game business could have been part of your way out. It’s export-orientated and cutting-edge, has highly skilled employees, and it’s even low on carbon emissions.(dell latitude d820 battery)

But the signs of strain are showing. It is expensive to make games in Britain, and expensive for foreign investors to set up and support studios here; Wilson states that between 2008 and 2009, 15% of UK development studios went out of business. Meanwhile in Quebec, the government subsidises a third of the salaries paid out to development staff amid a range of other compelling initiatives. No wonder Electronic Arts, Square Enix and Warner Bros all have new studios in Montreal. And no wonder the UK is suffering a brain drain. The period between March 2009 and 2010 saw the loss of over 700 jobs in British games development. About 300 is believed to have gone to Canada. When my brother-in-law, a game designer, was made redundant from his UK firm five years ago, he was snapped up by Ubisoft Montreal.

There are no major UK-owned games publishers left, they’ve either gone bust or been bought out by foreign giants. The UK is now an outsourcing nation, competing for work with countries in Eastern Europe and the Far East where the workforce is cheap and skills are improving. There are growing parallels with the UK movie industry, once a major producer and maker of films, but now scraping by on limited funding. “We’ll lose jobs, we’ll lose influence, the UK games industry will not be world-leading,” warns Wilson.

UK games companies have forged creative and commercial links with other sectors, from universities, to the fashion, animation, movie and TV industries. British games veterans are helping to shape the future of interactive TV, the growth of 3D technology and the pervasive “gamification” of consumer products and services in every area of business. How long will that continue?

The one bright spot in all this is Osborne’s wording. His reference to the tax plans as poorly targeted, may indicate he’s looking to review rather than abandon support for the industry. “I was surprised by those words,” says Cliona Kirby, a partner in the tax group at technology law firm Olswang, who completed a report on video game tax credits for Ed Vaizey. “But then it’s incredibly hard to introduce a targeted tax break for any one industry in the current economic climate, especially when we’re looking at tax rises and large public sector cuts. But I believe the Conservatives are still committed to the industry.” I’d like to agree but future initiatives may have to be spread out across the entire creative sector.

Certainly though, if there is a will there to aid this industry, Tiga will unearth it. Wilson will continue to lobby for tax breaks, as will Elspa, the video game publishers’ association. The coalition government could do with an economic success story to rally behind. Video games are a popular component of our leisure time — and there’s only so much austerity we can take.

“Outsourcing is the wave of the future,” this is how a resource in the Internet tells about outsourcing. Initially, outsourcing started for data-processing industry, but the profitable outcome the process can provide is immediately realized by many business entrepreneurs of different sectors. They tried it, find it lucrative and this is how the process got unprecedented popularity.

The major reason of outsourcing is cost saving, but the numerous other factors associated with the process are quality of the product, professional touch, use of company resources to other development projects and time saving.

Let me discuss each factor in brief:

Cost Saving: Outsourcing and cost saving is directly related to each other, because getting work done by yourself definitely require qualified professionals, a good infrastructure equipped with necessary tools and techniques and good management to monitor them. It obviously involves the investment of huge amount. But you can cut the cost and get quality products by outsourcing your work to some offshore companies who are already in such profession.

Quality of the Product: Offshore companies do possess expert professionals who can instantly understand your business need, and give professional touch to their work. But you can not ensure quality of the product by giving training and getting work done by novice professionals.

Time Saving: By outsourcing your projects, you can save time required for training to professionals, infrastructure development and maintenance and shorten the possible final delivery time of the projects.

Use of Resources to Other Development Units: You can use available resources to other profitable units by outsourcing part of your business. This renders more business growth.

Apparently there are countable number of countries known for work outsourcing, among them India is the more preferred destination. Apart from business process outsourcing, popularity is gaining these days of Information Technology outsourcing to India. Internet experts have revealed that India exports software to more than 95 countries worldwide.

In order to gain better return on investment, outsourcing IT projects to India is definitely a better option, since there are quality IT infrastructure and qualified professionals having strong expertise, innovative ideas with capability of turning your business vision into reality.

In addition, India IT outsourcing development companies offer cost effective software solution without compromising in quality and stipulated time frame of the deliverables.

Professionals in India IT outsourcing companies are highly knowledgeable and many of them are linguistic experts. These professionals can act a perfect bridge between client having language barrier and the development source, thereby letting client breath easy as his work is done as he desires.

Apart from number of benefits, some risk factors like data or identity thefts are associated with outsourcing business or IT works anywhere. But there is nothing to worry about if you approach well recommended outsourcing companies in India.

At the end, I can say that your success lies in selecting right companies who can make your business endeavor a success. Neither you can deny the power of the Internet nor can you disown the process of outsourcing. Outsourcing process is likely to flourish more in near future.

by Laura Clapper, BusinessReviewUSA

Cloud computing, ‘onshoring’ and Latin America—the developments that will change the way businesses outsource.

Companies turn to IT outsourcing as a way to reduce costs while tapping into established knowledge and talent. As the global business climate changes, so does the playing field for IT outsourcing. Technological developments such as Cloud Computing make it easier for companies to outsource their infrastructure to cheaper locales within and outside of their countries. Similarly, the dominance of India for IT outsourcing is threatened by the emergence of Latin America as a cheaper alternative.

“Outsourcing allows organizations to shift investment to strategic initiatives and focus on their core business rather than tactical functions and achieve higher predictability, efficiency, scalability and agility in IT operations,” said Surya Kant, President, North America of Tata Consultancy Services. “It also allows the enterprises to leverage R&D expenditure from large service providers and bring innovative new IT and business-focused solutions without investing to build them.”

IT is outsourced to countries where employees are able to communicate with business managers and customers clearly and effectively. According to Leon Rizio, Senior Consultant and Principal for CUSTOMatrix, competition with China for outsourcing business drove India to establish the infrastructure necessary for IT contracts in Bangalore and eventually the rest of country. Though the Chinese may have the infrastructure for IT development in place, the language barrier is often a difficult challenge to surmount.

OUTSOURCING TRENDS 
Latin America has emerged as a new destination for IT outsourcing. The economies of the countries of the region have been growing steadily over the last decade and are poised to become business powerhouses. “There are many companies from emerging markets that are becoming multinationals,” said Kant. “TCS [part of the Tata Group] has been leveraging presence in fourteen countries in Latin America and offshore centers in Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico and Chile to serve these organizations in their local and global needs.”

Infrastructure is beginning to be geographically independent, meaning that it does not have to be done onsite. This allows high speed data centers to move to anywhere in the world without negatively impacting costs. “Some people are moving their infrastructure to India, but I would say people are moving their infrastructure to lower cost locations, mostly in the U.S.,” said Tom Young, Partner & Managing Director, CIO Services – Infrastructure, TPI.

EMERGENCE OF CLOUD COMPUTING 
Our experts agree that cloud computing will have an effect on outsourcing. Cloud technology allows people to access applications from anywhere within the cloud network. “Cloud computing will be a benefit to outsourcing,” said Rizio. Rizio surmises that cloud computing may replace or reduce the need for an entire IT department and reduce the need to outsource completely.

“Cloud computing remains a focus in the industry, and we believe it will become an increasingly viable option for enterprise IT and specifically to IT service providers, primarily due to the infinite opportunities around innovative business models,” said Kant. “While the technology foundations of cloud computing can be considered as a gradual evolution, we believe that the business models will prove to be potentially disruptive.”

According to Young, a hurdle that businesses face in adopting cloud computing technology lies in their complex legacy processes. Companies have established business processes that have been customized to their business model. “Cloud computing is the antithesis of that, it’s simple and standard,” said Young. While many companies aren’t ready to adopt cloud computing right now, they are testing the waters as they seek to simplify their complex processes. Young feels that more companies will adopt cloud computing within the next five years. “The way that companies do business has to change,” said Young, “They have to redesign their internal processes.”

SECURITY CONCERNS 
The United States is more diligent in prosecuting individuals or groups accused of stealing trade secrets or pirating protected products. “Countries abroad don’t have the same concerns about piracy that we have in the States,” said Rizio. Once products or services have been outsourced overseas, there’s a risk of intellectual theft. 
Cloud computing carries a high risk for privacy and security breaches, as the nature of the technology provides for the easy accessibility of applications and information from anywhere. However, as cloud computing permeates the way companies do business, security applications are sure to spring up to meet consumer and business demand.

TIPS FOR OUTSOURCING 
Companies who have never outsourced before should seek the help of qualified experts. “The cost of advice is less than the cost of a mistake,” said Young. 
Once a company has determined what to outsource, it is imperative to address the expected outcomes of the move and establish benchmarks. “This will help minimize and reduce unwanted costs and ensure greater customer savings, less time and effort wasted by the IT service provider and a more successful business outcome – all factors leading to higher quality of experience and greater certainty for customers,” said Kant.

Take the time to research where to outsource. “Each country has advantages and disadvantages. All countries are interested in outsourcing, but the challenge is: Do they have the infrastructure? Do they have the procedures? Do they have the people?” says Rizio. The best place to ‘outsource’ may be in one’s own country. 
To help ensure success, establish relationships and comprehensive policies to keep the lines of communication open while securing productivity.

More and more frequently, business owners and entrepreneurs are finding the benefits of using a remote receptionist.  This solution is an ideal option for business offices of any size.  It provides assurance that you will never have to miss an important call.  It also ensures that you can expand your staff in any way that you need, at any time, in order to ensure complete customer service.  Of course, while these services are tremendously beneficial, they are not all created equal.  What should you watch for in this industry?

Security is the primary concern with remote receptionist services.  How can such a company compromise your security?  One of the single largest problems that can occur is to use an answering company that is not based in the US.  Why does this matter?  At first glance, it might seem to be a non-issue.  After all, don’t some of today’s largest firms outsource their answering needs to other nations?  Some of the most profitable Fortune 500 companies in the nation make use of answering services that are based in other countries.  What’s the problem with this?  It all boils down to privacy laws.

While you might not believe it, the US has some of the strictest, most frequently enforced privacy laws in the world.  However, if you use a remote receptionist service with operators spread around the globe, you might just find that your privacy and security are compromised.  Other nations do not have the same privacy and security laws, so operators in these nations are not bound in the same way in which US operators are.  This can lead to serious security and privacy breaches, on the part of the company supposedly ensuring that you have the right customer service solutions.

Obviously, this is a terrible scenario that can lead to some very serious problems for your company.  How do you circumvent these issues?  The best option is to make sure that the remote receptionist service you choose uses operators based in the US, or in the nation in which you operate.  This will help provide better security and privacy for your company and your customers.  Choosing to use a company that has operators spread all around the globe (or even located in just one international area) can lead to major problems.  Choose a company with operators in the US to provide your customers and company with better privacy.

Despite all resistances that you might have about hiring a professional, one thing is certain; you put yourself at a distinct advantage if you hire a professional company for all your big copywriting projects.

And just as there are many ways to say “I love you”, there are also many reasons why you you should hire a professional copywriting company for your sales and marketing campaign, web site copy, pres releases, case studies, annual reports, among others. Here are the top reasons why:

1. Free Up Your Time

There’s a reason why only a small percentage of the world’s total population are copywriters. This is because writing takes time, and very few people have the patience of passion for it. The writing process can roughly be summed in three steps: (a) research, (b) writing and (c) re-writing. Forget what they tell you about speed writing. Good writing takes time to accomplish.

2. Leverage On Other People’s Talent

Professional copywriters know how to win over a specific type of audience with the right combination of words, through a writing style that resonates with them. This skill takes at least eight years of professional copy writing to develop and to hone.

3. Watch Your Sales Shoot Up

To fully appreciate a sales copy, you only need to know the amount of money that big companies pay for sales letters that are professionally done (yes, they can be as much as $5,000 per page). This is because very good sales copies convert captivated readers into willing buyers. Although different copywriting companies have different conversion rates for their sales copies, at least you are guaranteed that your sales copies will convert if you hire a professional.

4. Establish Your Credibility

There’s nothing more off-putting to your readers than to read errors in your copy. It can undermine your credibility. Copywriting companies are notorious for nitpicking on spelling and grammar mistakes as well as lapses in the spacing. That’s their job anyway.

5. Knowing What Works

Any professional company would have the necessary tracking tools to test what copy works on your target clientele, and they can – and should – tweak it or change it to achieve the desired results. This is especially true for website copy.

6. Focus On What Is Essential

The most successful businessmen know the importance of focusing on what is really important. One way to help yourself focus is to write down what is important to you. When you hire a professional copy writing company, you are actually asking someone else do the writing for you. Keep in mind, however, that your copywriter only takes information from you. Being asked the right questions by your copywriter can help you focus.

7. Knowing What You Want

Again, by being asked pointed questions, your copywriter can force you to be more clear and specific about what you want.

8. Keeping Your Goals In Check

Tracking your copywriting responses can apprise you if you’re on track with your goals.

9. Building Your Brand

Writing good copy is a major component to build your company’s branding. How you weave your words creates a distinct personality for your company. If you’re not so good with words, a professional to help you build your brand.

10. Making Your Audiences Remember You

Of course, when you’ve established your brand, it becomes very easy for your clients to remember you.

That being said, you should think of hiring professional copywriting company now. Good luck with your business and online success.

More teens are turning toward the Internet searching for online jobs to earn extra money from home. Despite the age requirements, teenagers can find real money making opportunities. If your teen is looking for ways to work at home online discuss with them their interests, commitment and goals.

All of these work at home job ideas will require some help or involvement from either parent. Here are seven online job ideas for teens looking to expand their wings and or to explore their entrepreneurial side.

1. Surveys and focus groups are simple, fun and one of the easiest things to do. It doesn’t require any experience, just a teenager’s opinion. The types of surveys vary from topics about video games, movies, fashion, music, and other teen interests. Your teen may be compensated with money, Amazon or retail gift certificates, or points redeemable for cash or products. Signing up is always free; don’t ever pay! Monetary payments are usually paid out to a PayPal account or by cheque.

2. Many teens have their own blogs and they can use it as a way to promote their affiliate programs or get referrals from survey companies they have joined. They can sign up with Clickbank, a marketplace with merchants who offer digital products for people to sell. These commissions are set anywhere from 1% to 75%. LinkShare and Commission Junction are other affiliate marketplaces.

3. If one or both parents have their own home business, you can hire your teenager and delegate some of the monotonous and time consuming tasks. These simple tasks could be typing and printing out address labels, submitting articles to article directories, link checking and so forth. Parents can also help their teenager get the word out to others who may have limited budgets, but need to outsource some work.

4. Some kids like to follow in their parents’ footsteps, so if your teenager is interested in owning their own home business, you as a parent will have to be a co-signer.

5. Teens are very computer literate and savvy. Many are also artistic and creative. Becoming a web designer is a lucrative and rewarding career. Your teenager could be designing websites, creating blog templates, designing Twitter and MySpace backgrounds, buttons, logos etc. for anyone who can’t or don’t know how to do it themselves.

6. Open a lemonade stand; not a traditional one anyway. At Lemonade.com your teen can create an e-commerce online lemonade stand by recommending products that they love like music, sports, clothing, food, movies, video/electronic games and more.

7. If your teenager enjoy making crafts or he builds model airplanes, with the help of a parent they can open up their own online store at Etsy.com.

These are all worthwhile job ideas for teens who are interested in working at home and earning an income online. With a little help and support from you, your teenager can start earning their own spending money and maybe even put some away for college.

Why does one enter in to any business venture? To earn money, of course. In any business there are various ways through which one can earn money. It all depends on what methods you will adopt for earning profit. So you run an accounting firm and are looking for ways to make profit for your business, ever thought about accounting outsourcing for increasing the ROI of your business? Well accounting outsourcing is a simple way for you to meet all your business needs in the best possible way.

Now that you have heard about the term accounting outsourcing, I am sure you must be curious to know what this is all about. Outsourcing is not a new term and many of you must be aware of this. Accounting outsourcing is simply outsourcing the accounting and bookkeeping work of your firm to a third party with the help of an outsourcing firm. Many kinds of work like business processes, research processes and many other processes of any business can be outsourced to a third party to do the work for you.

Now you must know the benefits of accounting outsourcing before you actually go about using the process for your business. Surely you do not want to be caught off guard by any aspect that may suddenly pop up in front of you. You must know that accounting outsourcing is beneficial in many ways. This means that it is not only your business that will earn profit but also that the third party that does the work for you will get immense monetary gains.

Accounting outsourcing work is outsourced to those countries that have trained and skilled manpower. The trained professionals in these countries do the work at a much lower price then that would be required by a professional within the country for doing the same work. So imagine the amount of money that you will be able to save through accounting outsourcing.

This is not all; you will also be able to deliver quality work to your customers since trained professionals will be involved in doing the accounting, bookkeeping and tax return preparation work for your accounting firm. Any backlog that you have piled up in your office can be very easily met through accounting outsourcing.

Outsourcing is undertaken on a large scale for many businesses. Many outsourcing companies are operating to help different business in starting the process. If you are very serious about your business and want to try accounting outsourcing, you will have to find a proper outsourcing firm to do the work for you. Word of the mouth is one source for you to find out a good accounting outsourcing firm to do the work for you. I am sure people who have already undertaken the process will surely be able to guide you in the correct way.

After you have found an accounting outsourcing firm to do the work for you, check out to see what security features are put in place by the company to safeguard the financial details of your clients. This is a very important aspect and you must never compromise on this. Accounting outsourcing if done properly for your business can work wonders for your business.

TWO major trends to watch

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Popularity versus Revenue

Categorized as “emerging media”, social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linked-In and MySpace offer opportunities for individuals and companies to both connect and exchange information. From a company’s perspective, they have the ability to contribute to branding and real-time delivery of information.  Uses I’ve seen include sending alerts, flash updates on blog postings, breaking news, press release links, and even customer support Q&A.

What is unclear is even if you have people following your posts on a social network, does it lead to revenue?  Aside from something called “viral marketing”, the answer is no.  In fact, Twitter.com doesn’t even have a revenue model of its own.  Other sites rely on advertising links with the exception of Linked-In, which provides for certain paid-subscriber only benefits.  So, this begs the question, “Is it all a bunch of hype?”

Finding your Market

Not everyone is a fan of online social networking. Although few could disagree that traditionally, social networking has many, many benefits in our personal and professional lives. As it pertains to online use, and specifically to Twitter, the context of your messages (of who you follow (or subscribe to) and who follows you) is limited to 140 characters.  These short messages are known as tweets. Every smart-phone with few exceptions now has an application available to follow ‘tweets’.  Tweets span the spectrum of websites, cellular phones, Instant Messaging and RSS feeds.  With the potential of such penetration at zero cost, the benefits of the technology are limited to the value of your posted content and those that you ‘follow’.

Finding Value

With all the information available on the web, why would you care to follow somebody or a company on twitter?  For that matter, why would somebody care to follow you?  I believe the value here lies in the ability of getting the information first or ‘from the source’ as it happens.  The other value is in getting information from an inside or knowledgeable source that you can follow-up with in real-time. It’s a two-way medium.

Summation

I have not found much in the way of either financial or builder related companies using Twitter although some are already using other networks such as Facebook and Linked-In.  I believe we are still early in the adoption curve of this technology. What I do see is the preference of the Millennial generation to use these sites for making contacts and information gathering.  I believe many companies are jumping in to ensure they have a presence even though the benefits are uncertain.  That last sentence could have been said in 1995, about the emergence of webpages and websites.  Stay tuned.  The ‘what‘ and the ‘how‘ can not yet be answered, but I strongly suspect the ‘if‘ is a not-too-far-off certainty.  

Another certainty: you have to experience the medium for yourself.  It’s not a love-it or hate-it proposition although I suspect that for many of us, it might take some digging to find the value.  At the very least, you’ll be the first to know that Shack stubbed his toe again or your nephew Trevor was arrested and is seeking bail money…

Recommendation

If you are ready to get your feet wet and experience a social network for yourself, the most beneficial from a company’s prospective at this time will be Facebook and Linked-In.  Try them by searching for both companies and colleagues. If you find any of interest, you’ll want to create your own account (and profile) so that you can become networked together.

CLOUD COMPUTING

Defined

You probably already use a form of cloud computing.  Services such as Yahoo Mail, AOL and GMail are all simple forms of cloud computing.  So are YouTube and Twitter.  These sites are all hosted across the internet, allowing you (the end-user) to access a specific server or service from anywhere at anytime.  You have no hardware to maintain and no software to buy.  At the most, some may charge you a periodic fee.  So what is it and why is this likely to be a paradigm in I.T. departments?

Commoditization. I.T. has been a complex, vertical silo in organizations for the last 20+ years (longer for the large corporations who could afford I.T. services prior to the PC’s debut).  Nowadays, it is quickly becoming a commodity where services need not be maintained in-house.  Rather, a highly streamlined I.T. department uses outside service providers for things such as storage, Emails and various software applications.   In essence, it offloads the chore of hardware, software, in-house expertise and in-house costs to an external provider specializing in a certain area.

Implications for the Organization

Since 2001, I have leveraged outside services for Web Design, Disaster Recovery, and Programming. Based on experiences at larger organizations – which actually taught me to have a contrarian view of certain practices – I maintain a belief that simple is better because it keeps focus on the business and not the technology behind it.  With these beliefs as my basis, Cloud Computing will be the next, natural evolution in the industry. Cloud Computing takes the concept of outsourcing a step further by replacing what once were completely in-house services (such as file servers, email servers, accounting programs, and even applications such as MS Office Word and Excel) with internet based sources.  

There will be a day when most small to medium sized companies will have the option of drastically reducing their hardware & software footprint within the organization.  In-house technical expertise will be supplanted with a very small set of I.T. professionals who can focus solely on aligning their efforts with business goals.  Currently, much of I.T.’s efforts concentrate on the day-to-day housekeeping of I.T. upkeep.  Cloud Computing will bring simplicity to the I.T. environment and, at the same time, a reduction in costs and added resiliency of the services being provided.

In Harmony with Virtualization

Our company began virtualizing servers two years ago.  It allows us to consolidate two or more servers into one physical server.  The added servers are known as virtualized-servers. It reduces equipment, cooling and power demands while better utilizing the capacity of the hardware.  The benefits of virtualization and those of cloud computing could  easily reduce our existing infrastructure by 70% in the next three years and save us $120,000 every 36 months in equipment costs.  This accounts for the reduction in capital expenditures for hardware alone.  Added savings from software licensing would also be a significant savings.

Below is a diagram which shows how our Private/Internal network extends to the internet currently. Future services (represented by empty circles) constitute ‘The Cloud’.  It will be an extension of our network services – all of which are currently contained within our company.  For now, just know that when you hear somebody talk about the cloud – it isn’t necessarily a weather forecast being discussed!  Such capabilities are especially important to many companies in light of recent economic constraints and the reduction of in-house talent.  I’ll have more to share about this rapidly changing paradigm over the next 18 months.  This should be about the time that more services become available and mature to the point where we can begin relying on the cloud for many of our services.