Thursday, 5 December 2013
Accelerating SP innovation with Cloud Services
Many network service providers (NSPs) see the in the Cloud a way to reduce the long and expensive innovation cycles. But when we talk about Cloud, it’s inevitable to compare the traditional telco world with the Over-the-top universe. Is the telecommunication operator well positioned to compete in the global cloud marketplace?
However, NSPs have competitive advantages that can help them to provide differentiated Cloud services if they can articulate a compelling value proposition around them.
OTT Cloud providers are very agile in creating new services due to its cumulated experience. Also due to its internal efficiencies developed, they can provide very cost effective services. Being said that, we can also find some limitations they are facing:
Availability: OTTs, in general, expect the network will always be there. The SLAs they offer, ignore the network communications piece.Security appears consistently in every survey as a key barrier for organization to migrate to the cloud.Trust: End users and enterprises are interested to know which country hosts their data, and which company custodies it. The recent NSA case filtered by Snowden increased concerns.Analyzing those issues, we can see how Network Service Providers are in a privileged position to successfully offer Cloud services:
Availability: NSPs can offer end-to-end SLAs from the VM all the way to the end user device, being fixed or mobile.Security: Many enterprises already get managed security services from NSPs, so securing the Cloud would be an extension of them.Trust: NSP can keep the data local in the country or region of choice for the end-user. Swisscom recently created the Swiss Cloud concept, linking it with the long term tradition of the secrecy in the banking sector in Switzerland.Being well positioned, not necessarily translates in being there… NSPs still has a long journey to evolve towards a model that brings the flexibility and elasticity in their end-to-end operations, and not just inside their data centers.
In the following presentation I explain how NSPs can embrace Cloud, how the network can evolve towards a dynamic architecture and where some of the business opportunities are for enterprise cloud services.
Presentation: David Noguer Bau – Cloud Based Services
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Western Digital My Cloud
Western Digital's My Cloud is a NAS (Network Attached Storage device) perfect for those unfamiliar with NASes. It is a practically foolproof device for network sharing. Western Digital cleverly avoids the admittedly off-putting term "NAS" anywhere on the device, in its packaging, or in the online information—instead opting for the almost ethereal-sounding "My Cloud" brand name. The device lets users not only share and stream files in a home network, but the private cloud capabilities lets a user access data stored on the device from anywhere at any time. Did I mention, My Cloud turns in absolutely smoking performance, speed that even tops that of our recent consumer NAS device Editors' Choice, the Seagate Central? The one aspect in which My Cloud lags behind the Seagate Central is with a rather limited interface when connected remotely. Otherwise it's a high-performing, beautifully-designed piece of hardware.
Design and Setup
My Cloud has the design almost of an Apple product: it's a simple-yet-elegant white box with silver edges and accents. A blue LED for power is the only light in the front. The device operates upright and runs cool and quiet.
The rear panel has a Gigabit Ethernet port and a USB 3.0 port which only supports connecting USB drives, not printers. This is also where the Seagate Central has an edge over My Cloud; you can attach a printer (no multifunction printers, though).
My Cloud is available in a 2TB ($149.99), 3TB ($179.99), and 4TB ($249.99) models. Its 2TB version's list price is less expensive than the Seagate Central 2TB version which lists for $159.99. The price for both NASes is the same for each vendor's 3TB model and Seagate's Central is slightly less expensive with its 4TB version at $219 list.
As should be the case with NASes targeted to home users, My Cloud is very simple to set up. The device ships with an installation guide. Western Digital "dumbs down" the setup so much that the guide's instructions are all pictures. There are no words printed inside it anywhere save for, "WD My Cloud and wireless device must be connected to the same network." Wireless device refers to the device you use to set the NAS up.
The guide's images show how to connect My Cloud to a router. Once it's connected and powered, you simply open a browser to the setup URL provided in the guide. The URL redirects to a page with an image of the My Cloud device. Clicking the image starts setup. Links are presented on screen for downloading the required setup software.
A wizard walks you through the quick software installation and then you are asked to provide a username and password to access your personal cloud. The personal cloud is what My Cloud is all about. It's Western Digital's secured cloud service that lets you access your data stored on My Cloud from anywhere.
Once setup completes, you can create users, start uploading files to My Cloud, download mobile apps to access the device from Android or iOS, or backup your PC or Mac.