The findings are from research by the data centre operator Interxion, which polled responses from IT decision makers and influencers at 292 companies in 11 European countries, including Ireland.

The figures relating to cloud’s importance are broadly similar across large, medium and small enterprises, the survey found. Three-quarters of respondents said they either currently use or plan to use cloud computing in the next two years.

The most important factors in driving cloud computing investment are: to reduce cost of infrastructure, the ability to grow while reducing resources, greater scalability and the ability to perform better backup and disaster recovery, the survey found.

Close to half of respondents expect more than 50pc of their IT will be delivered from the cloud within a similar timeframe. In 23pc of cases, IT leaders expect more than 75pc of their IT to be housed in the cloud.

The same number of IT chiefs who rated security as a concern also said service level agreements were another sticking point in moving to the cloud. Preventing data loss is the primary concern, cited by 71pc of respondents. Preventing outages was next at 64pc, while 58pc rated keeping security up to date as an issue.

The types of application usage in the cloud threw back some varied responses. The most popular were hosting websites, backup and recovery, email and calendaring, software test and development, and CRM.

“What’s clear from our survey is that there’s not yet any single ‘killer app’ that’s driving cloud deployment,” the report said. “This bears out the finding that companies’ intentions around cloud adoption are driven by a combination of other factors, such as increased flexibility and reducing the cost of infrastructure.”

Interxion concluded perceived barriers to the cloud can be partly alleviated by allowing organisations to test the technology prior to making the move fully.

Rabbitte was speaking yesterday at the launch of a joint Irish Government and EMC cloud innovation centre. Partners in the project include Cisco, VMware and VCE.

Consisting of infrastructure at EMC and within the Irish Government's systems, the innovation centre will allow indigenous SMEs and multinationals to test, develop and demonstrate apps that could be used by the public sector.

It will provide public-sector departments and agencies with a platform to trial new cloud solutions and avoid costly IT blunders.

The centre will also promote Ireland as a leader in the cloud computing and big data industries and provide entrepreneurs and start-ups with an opportunity to vie for Government contracts that would have been out of reach.

Minister Pat Rabbitte, TD, on the value of cloud computing to the Irish economy 

Strategic focus on cloud

Rabbitte said that cloud computing is a strategic focus for the Irish Government and has been identified as a priority for development and support.

He said that in terms of the major investments by players like EMC, Microsoft, Google, Intel, IBM and others, Ireland is emerging as a global leader for cloud computing. "This can be a driver of innovation and growth.

“We intend to bring forward Government cloud strategies and we're working with industry players and employers."

The new centre, which will consist of two world-class private cloud infrastructures that will sit inside both EMC and on the Irish Government's data infrastructure, will perform a number of important roles.

Firstly, the innovation centre will allow indigenous SMEs and multinationals to test, develop and demonstrate apps that could be used by the public sector.

Secondly, it will provide public-sector departments and agencies with a platform to trial new cloud solutions and avoid costly IT blunders.

The centre will also promote Ireland as a leader in the cloud computing and big data industries and provide entrepreneurs and start-ups with an opportunity to vie for Government contracts that would have been out of reach.

EMC country manager Jason Ward said that big data is undergoing a "hockey stick" curve of growth and organisations need to transform what they do with the large volumes of data that are being generated and derive value.

“Think of the propagation of smartphones, they have outpaced PCs sales for the first time in the last year. Big data and cloud can take credit for a cognitive shift that's happening in organisations that are bringing together previously siloed departments. This is a wake-up call that there's a new type of thinking required. Cloud is driving operational efficiencies and big data will enable people to pick apart information and find the silver lining."

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said that in terms of the major investments by players like EMC, Microsoft, Google, Intel, IBM and others, Ireland is emerging as a global leader for cloud computing. "This can be a driver of innovation and growth.

“We intend to bring forward Government cloud strategies and we're working with industry players and employers."

Big data is a massive opportunity for small countries and small firms

Also present at the announcement was EMC's executive vice-president of human resources, Jack Mollen. "Ireland is a very important part of EMC. The talent Ireland has to offer the world is second to none."

Highlighting the importance of cloud computing and the economies and opportunities that can emerge for start-ups, Mollen said: "Six years ago, there were no consumer apps available via iTunes, for example. Today, there are half a million apps available, mostly built by small companies.

“The same phenomenon will happen to the enterprise and Government sectors.

“There will be platforms where its no longer necessary to have your own data centres, but you can utilise and share other people's platforms."

Mollen said the new innovation centre will facilitate not only the innovation of third-party Irish SME organisations, but will facilitate the testing and proof of integration between legacy and cloud applications.

“Until now in organisations like governments, there were systems that other departments couldn't use, that will change. To prove this point, we will open this up with a new development lab that will allow new software vendors to come in and build and sell software.

“This will be software that will not only be sold in Ireland but around the world, creating new jobs in Ireland," Mollen said.

The new cloud course would appear to be timely in terms of upskilling managers on cloud computing, with many companies migrating to the cloud. Late last year, Goodbody research pointed to cloud-based innovation in Ireland had the potential to deliver €9.4bn in sales annually and to create up to 8,600 new jobs across the country. Goodbody carried out the research on behalf of Microsoft at the time.

Speaking today, UCC president Dr Michael Murphy said the aim of the new diploma in cloud strategy would be to equip managers with the expertise to develop cloud strategies that deliver bottom-line value.

And the Government is also making cloud moves. Just today, Ireland's Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte, TD, will be launching a new cloud and big data initiative called Cloud4Gov at Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin. The aim of this initiative will be to give departments and agencies across the public sector the option to store, access, share and analyse their information in a private Government cloud. EMC has worked with the Government to pioneer Cloud4Gov, while IDA Ireland is also supporting the initiative. 

Who is the cloud diploma aimed at?

The cloud course is targeted at technical and non-technical managers, entrepreneurs and graduates with industry experience.

As part of the programme, every participant will develop a "cloud strategy blueprint" for their organisation, said IMI executive chairman Dr Phil Nolan.

The diploma is also the first programme under UCC/IMI's master of business qualification to incorporate an industry partnership.

Senior specialists at Microsoft will be giving workshops, alongside classroom discussion with UCC and IMI experts.

Microsoft Ireland's managing director Paul Rellis spoke about how leveraging cloud-based opportunities requires a new way of thinking about information and its value to any organisation.

The part-time course will begin on 23 April at the IMI's National Management Campus in Sandyford, Co Dublin. The IMI said the diploma can also act as a stepping stone to a full master of business qualification. IMI is currenty accepting applications for the course, with spaces for between 25 and 30 students. IMI said it will also look at holding multiple runs of the course.

Siliconrepublic.com is hosting Skills February, a month dedicated to news, reports, interviews and videos covering a range of topics on the digital skills debate.

pTools is an enterprise level WCM software vendor with offices in Dublin Ireland and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Customers include: Allianz Insurance plc., The Irish Stock Exchange, Enterprise Ireland, and Wolters Kluwer plc.

Key to the system rolled out at Capital Management Bermuda is a new client services site that will handle communications across the company's portfolio and specifically includes a range of learning and forms based information capture tools.

“Our online presence is a key part of how customers now interact with us," Tom Williams CEO of Capital Management Bermuda explained.

“This new system enables us to roll out more services and products, and allows us to build on the successful interaction with our customers. We are already seeing significant cost savings alongside improvements in communication."

Content management in the cloud

The solution will use pTools System 6 which was released in 2011 and leverages the latest cloud computing infrastructure to ensure scalability and performance. pTools System6 is available on the Fort Technologies Cloud as well as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Oracle Cloud platforms.

“Use of online systems to manage and maintain information based relationships not only replaces the traditional paper trail, but dramatically improves governance, reduces risk, and enforces compliance," the CEO of pTools Keith Wood explained.

“pTools allows customers to quickly build secure membership environments online and tailor web forms for different audiences and channels. This information once captured can then be delivered to back-end systems for immediate analysis."

As part of the new deal between CJ Fallon and Microsoft Ireland, the e-books can be read through CJ Fallon’s e-reader, available for free through its website, which can be used to unlock specific titles for use based on a licensing model.

Schools are given access to the licence manager to allow them to target specific resources at individual users or class groups.

“We’re delighted to be able to launch this initiative with Microsoft today,” said Brian Gilsenan, CEO of CJ Fallon Publishers.

“We’ve many of our books already available through the cloud and are set to bring all of them online by September 2012. As well as the distribution of schoolbooks to students through the cloud, we will be launching a new personalised ‘MyCJFallon’ service in coming months.

“Through this, teachers will be able to access and save all of their favourite CJ Fallon resources which are provided to support all of our major titles, from e-books, animations, audio, video and interactives, to their own profile via the CJ Fallon website. We hope this platform will be beneficial for teachers, students and parents alike,” he said.

Orla Sheridan, Consumer Channels Group director at Microsoft Ireland, believes the partnership between Microsoft Ireland and CJ Fallon shows how cloud applications can enable the ability of all sectors to transition to the cloud.

“Through this service, CJ Fallon are cuttings costs for parents, making lesson planning for teachers easier and supporting the move of the Irish education system to an online forum,” said Sheridan.

“This is a great initiative and a great use of Microsoft Windows Azure Programme,” she said.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s Drive service will let users store photos, documents and videos on Google’s servers, letting people access the files from any web-connected device or share them with others.

The service will reportedly launch in the next few weeks or months and will be free for most consumers and businesses, with a fee charged for those who want to store large amounts of files. Drive could be priced more competitively than Dropbox, helping it rival the popular service.

Dropbox lets users drag and drop documents into the cloud and synchronise their Dropbox folders across a number of web-connected devices. The company was founded in 2007 and in October 2011 it had more than 45m users who saved 1bn files every few days.

The firm also turned down an acquisition offer from Apple, according to its CEO Drew Houston. Apple then released its own cloud storage service, iCloud, in October, exclusively for Apple devices.

In recent weeks, Sage launched Sage One Accounts aimed at start-ups, small and micro-businesses, which was the first online cloud-based payroll solution developed in Ireland.

This has been followed up by Sage CRM, Coretime and PeopleLink, which is a hybrid cloud solution using Micropay on premises and PeopleLink in the cloud.

Sage also plans to launch Sage 50 in the coming months, aimed at large businesses.

“When it comes to cloud software, Sage is well ahead of the game," said Liam Mullaney, chief executive at Sage Ireland.

“For us, we see it as the next step and today is all about Sage helping businesses understand the cloud and what it means for them."

It is designed to help firms move their IT infrastructure and critical data to the cloud quickly and affordably.

The package is a combination of Cisco servers and EMC VNXe storage in a virtualised environment.

“This consolidated SME bundle delivers what Irish SMEs require in a highly effective IT infrastructure that will lower their total cost of ownership for IT investments,” said Cisco Ireland country manager Mary Lou Nolan.

EMC country manager Jason Ward added that cloud computing offers Irish SMEs the opportunity to become more efficient and to cut costs while increasing the reliability and speed of their IT infrastructure.

“Through our partnership with Cisco we are helping Irish business to drive productivity by accelerating their journey to cloud computing with best-of-breed solutions and at a lower cost,” Ward said.

Initially reports suggested that Adobe’s chief technology officer Kevin Lynch said that its new Creative Cloud Data Centre would be set up in Dublin later in 2012.

The comments were made after Lynch met with Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

However, the company has since clarified that while Adobe will be expanding its operations in Ireland as part of an existing partnership with Amazon Web Services, this will not require the creation of a Creative Cloud Data Centre.

A spokesperson told Silicon Republic: "While speaking with the Prime Minister of Ireland at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Adobe's CTO Kevin Lynch commented that Adobe will be expanding its cloud services capabilities for the European market via operations in Ireland. While Adobe does currently maintain some co-located servers in Ireland, Mr. Lynch was referring to an expansion of the company's already existing partnership with Amazon Web Services, and not to the establishment of any new facilities or expansion of existing Adobe facilities. We regret the misunderstanding."

Adobe currently has operations in Citywest, Dublin, and employs 94 people in Ireland. The company said it was too early to confirm how many new jobs will be created as a result of this new base.

The group, which dates back to 1905 and employs 200 people, is part of the DCC Food & Beverage division.

As part of a deal with Trilogy Technologies, it has implemented a full virtualised disaster recovery and backup solution to reduce business risk, deliver high availability and be better prepared for disaster recovery.

"We had 15 physical servers, many of which needed to be replaced in order for the business to have confidence in the reliability of its IT systems. Additionally, we run a large latch job over the weekend to update our business intelligence database and this was taking some 14 hours to complete," explained Jim Duggan, IS manager at Robert Roberts.

"We needed a solution in place so that if some kind of interruption or disaster occurred, we could get back to work as quickly as possible.

“In addition, we needed a robust infrastructure that would allow increased efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness by effectively connecting resources to business needs."

Trilogy worked with the company to integrate its recovery infrastructure into Robert Roberts' fibre network over a high-speed leased line to its hot site using technology from VMware, HP and Veeam. Using Veeam to replicate servers to a back-up server overnight allows the company to backup to tape the following day.

"This allows us to use instant recovery to recover a server in a couple of minutes should we need to," said Duggan. "This is a big bonus in terms of disaster recovery and business continuity planning and it has created confidence in the reliability of our IT systems."

Robert Roberts' weekend batch job now runs in one hour which means the company can now re-run it easily during the day should it need to.

"We have a secure backup/restore capability in minutes," adds Duggan. "From a DR point of view, we have a complete replication of all of our systems and the data is available on a server in our warehouse."

The new cloud offering is targeted at firms with 15 or fewer employees and for management with no specialist payroll knowledge or IT skills.

The software, which is protected by 128-bit encryption, automates deductions and calculations for the Universal Social Charge, PAYE and PRSI and has the ability to export data for payroll year-end reports for submission to Ireland's Revenue Commissioners.

“We also spent a lot of time consulting with small businesses and their insights fed into every element of the development of Sage One Payroll, from the design to the language used, enabling us to create what we believe is one of the industry's most user-friendly pieces of software for processing the pay run," Sage's product marketing chief David O'Reilly said.

There are two kinds of hackers that spell trouble for any organisation or individual today with secrets they want to keep - there are the cyber criminals who want your credit card or other information for their financial gain, and then there are the 'hacktivists' who are basing their attacks on principles, such as politics and economics.

Earlier this week, it emerged that hacker group Anonymous accessed 850,000 people's email addresses and passwords, including Nato, US and UK defence officials, after hacking into the servers of Texas security and foreign affairs consultancy Stratfor.

This week in Dublin, some 350 cyber security experts are being hosted by Trend Micro to discuss cyber crime issues.

Trend Micro employs 230 people in Cork and is pretty much in the fighting line against hackers. Its Cork operation uses the internet cloud to defend organisations all over the world against cyber attacks.

The operation's general manager Anthony O'Mara, senior vice-president EMEA of Trend Micro, is on the steering committee of the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA), which was formed to fight cyber crime in the aftermath of breaches at Sony, RSA and Citibank.

Proceeds from cyber crime

Research by Trend Micro demonstrates how cheaply cyber criminals sell the proceeds of their activities, and just how much cash they can make out of it too:

• $800 buys a passport from an EU country
• $500 buys a UK driver's licence
• $80-$150 buys a credit card 'dump' - data that can be written to the chip or magnetic strip
• 2c-15c buys a credit card blank
• $180m in 12 months is what one gang made from peddling fake security software, designed to fool the victim into believing his or her PC is already infected

According to O'Mara, cloud computing offers a more intelligent way of fighting attacks by hackers, malware, viruses and worms.

"Due to the proliferation of malware, the amount of unique pieces of malware is exponential. There's no way you can defend against everything unless you wanted to block the entire internet," he says.

"We decided the best way is not to stop everyone doing business and the better way to defend is to keep malware off the server.

"We do this via the cloud by looking for correlations between file reputation, email and indeed web reputation.

"If, for example, someone is being attacked by social engineering we can check the validity of a website, how old it is, where it is hosted, and if there is anything suspect in a split second we can warn the user and quarantine that site before the user opens the link.

"The reason why we believe the cloud is going to be fundamental in defending against these attacks is the heavy processing can be done away from the user's location. In effect, we have millions and millions of early warning systems around the world. We call this smart protection and we believe it has given us the technological lead."

O'Mara says Trend Micro's Cork operation is on the front line of cyber defending major organisations around the world from the latest attacks.

"We've moved from a transaction processing environment to a point where a lot of what we do verges on R&D and high-end engineering, modifying our technology. This requires a very high skill level because each case or attack is unique."

According to one of Trend Micro's senior threat researchers Robert McArdle, Irish internet users, in particular social media users, are more likely to volunteer personal information online than users in any other EU country.

Cyber criminals will take advantage of this fact, and other security weaknesses in online and smartphone activities, as well as software and connectivity vulnerabilities. Cyber attacks and hacks are likely to increase further in 2012.

"In Ireland alone, Trend Micro detects 13,000 infected files from its customers every 24 hours, with fake anti-virus programmes among the most common," McArdle warns.

The move is an important development for IBM, as it will allow its customers to test the quality of cloud software before it is delivered.

Until now, in order to run simulation testing on a software programme, a development team had to construct an actual testing lab made up of both hardware and software.

Using the company's technology, a virtual test lab can be set up in a matter of minutes.

Industry reports suggest software testing represents more than 50pc of overall development costs and testing teams spend 30pc of their time managing complex test environments.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Founded in 1996, Green Hat is jointly headquartered in London and Delaware.

When the acquisition is complete, Green Hat will join IBM's Rational Software business.

Last month, IBM acquired Irish software company Cúram for an undisclosed sum.

Issues like security, reliability and service level agreements (SLAs) are at the top of the agenda for many IT managers and CIOs looking to embrace the technology.

Locally firms are aware of this and while 2011 was about public and private cloud, hybrid cloud where firms get the best of both worlds is likely to dominate 2012.

The versatility and efficiency of cloud computing is not without its caveats and as we enter a new year debates around uptime, reliable storage and of course security will continue to rage.

But ultimately the real winner should be the end users, whose productivity and access to the data they need should make cloud computing a game-changer for the business world.

Microsoft’s Jeremy Showalter and Big Red Book’s Marc O’Dwyer discuss cloud

Microsoft’s Jeremy Showalter and Big Red Book’s Marc O’Dwyer discuss cloud 

Data storage expert Jon Toigo on storage virtualisation in the enterprise

Data storage expert Jon Toigo on storage virtualisation in the enterprise

The cloud will transform business, says Dell Ireland country manager Dermot O'Connell

The cloud's effect on business

Digital Planet operations director Brian Larkin, Making a persuasive argument for moving IT to cloud

Digital Planet operations director Brian Larkin, Making a persuasive argument for moving IT to cloud

Dell's US$1bn investment in data centre strategy - CTO Kris Fitzgerald

Dell's US$1bn investment in data centre strategy - CTO Kris Fitzgerald

AirSpeed Telecom’s Peter Hendrick on the cloud infrastructure challenge

AirSpeed Telecom's Peter Hendrick on the cloud infrastructure challenge 

Govt departments and agencies form high-level cloud group

The Government of Ireland established a high-level, cross-Government implementation group focused on ensuring the State is seen as a leader in deploying cloud technology and an integral step towards securing the 8,600 local jobs that could be created in the cloud computing space.

The group will include representatives of all departments and agencies responsible for all aspects of cloud computing policy: expenditure, IT procurement, security, infrastructure and industrial strategy.

Bruton said that Government, as a major user of IT in the economy, needs to take a lead in the cloud computing area to provide opportunities and economies of scale for growing businesses in the sector.

He pointed to a recent report by Microsoft that estimates that by 2014 the cloud computing industry in Ireland could be worth €9.5bn and could employ 8,600 extra people.

Born of the cloud: for developers Windows 8 is the 'write stuff'

In September Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed there have already been 500,000 downloads of the new Windows 8 OS, which will make devices instant-on and capable of running on a single charge. New features include a "Metro style" user interface that is equally at home on a tablet computer or a mouse and keyboard.

“(Some) 350m Windows devices will be sold this year. No phone, tablet - nothing - on the planet, no OS on the planet will ship 350m units of anything other than Windows and that creates opportunities for developers. When we ship Windows 8, there will be an installed base of 500m PCs that can be updated to Windows 8. Hundreds of millions of people will be the target for your innovation from day one."

What struck me most about Ballmer's words this time around was the fact he and many others at Microsoft are realising the developer community we know of today is about to expand beyond anything we can imagine.

Microsoft wants to see the most loyal and longstanding members of this community benefit materially from the explosion in apps, big data, open data and cloud-based services. It then wants to broaden its church to include new categories of developers - people who develop apps for fun or as a hobby, entrepreneurs who create to build businesses and ordinary people who create something that may be of intrinsic value to others or be for the good of society.

“Big data, data as a business, business intelligence and massive analytics and new services in the cloud - all of this needs to be invented, put in the market and made available and put in as developers as we move forward.

“We are taking a look at every one of our cloud apps and asking what aspects of this app might be interesting to developers. In Office 365, we're making SharePoint general purpose. We're looking at making an extensible version of Bing and general purpose CRM apps from Microsoft CRM.

“The push on our cloud services through apps, Windows Live and Azure, is a fundamental part of the rethinking and re-imagining going on at Microsoft," he said. "We're in several businesses - phones, PCs, tablets, TV devices, cloud platforms, productivity, search, ERP and CRM. Each and every one of these groups, not just the one you heard we are redesigning ... we're retooling all of what we do.

“This is a time of unprecedented opportunity for developers," he said.

The cloud in education

Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) became the latest education body in Ireland to move all of its email and calendaring for its 22,000 students to Google Apps for Education.

It is understood the move to Google Apps has enhanced collaboration and mobility for students, allowing them to engage with each other anytime, anywhere, from any computer or mobile device. The service was implemented for new and returning students at the start of the 2011 academic year.

The migration began in September and Baker Security & Networks, a Google Enterprise partner, provided assistance in reviewing DIT's approach and advising on various aspects of the project.

Cork becomes a major cloud hub

As well as being home to the operations of major computing and cloud giants like EMC, VMware, IBM and Apple, Cork intends to cement its reputation as a major cloud computing hub. It emerged that Cork Internet eXchange (CIX), which serves 20,000 homes and business, plans to take on the might of Amazon and Microsoft's Azure.

CIX has begun a new cloud computing infrastructure strategy geared at supporting SMEs. The new service will initially lead to the creation of eight high-skilled post-graduate jobs in software, networking and technical support, with the potential for further growth in the future.

The people behind CloudCIX believe that over the next 12 months the service will mature into a world-class, cost-effective offering capable of competing with Amazon and Microsoft Azure.

On foot of cloud ventures like the EMC, VMware and Cisco launch of cloud enterprise VCE (which is now also partnering with SAP), it seems Cork is fast becoming a global hub for data storage and other centralised server services.

MIT credits Irish-based entrepreneur with co-coining term 'cloud computing'

An Ireland-based entrepreneur living in Kinsale was been recognised in the latest edition of the MIT Technology Review as co-creator of the term 'cloud computing' and as being an early proponent of the development of cloud computing.

MIT Technology Review credited Sean O'Sullivan, co-founder of Avego Ltd, with co-coining the term with George Favaloro, from Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1996, O'Sullivan's company, NetCentric, was a leader in providing "software for inside the internet", and Compaq Computer's Favaloro invested US$5m in the idea to develop the industry of software providers for internet infrastructure.

“It has been a blast from the past to hear about this," says O'Sullivan. "NetCentric correctly predicted the evolution of LAN services and  in-computer services to the cloud, and although we didn't manage to capture much of the business for ourselves, cloud computing has had an impact on close to half the people on the planet."

NetCentric trademarked the term "cloud computing" in 1997, and let the application expire by 1999. In 2001, another internet company purchased NetCentric.

“Cloud computing" is the delivery of computer services through the internet infrastructure, and has been credited with transforming the media, computing and telecommunications industries.

Services such as Skype, Apple's iCloud for content and data, and well-known computing applications like MSN Hotmail and Salesforce.com are all applications of cloud computing. Amazon and Google also have large cloud platforms.

The cloud is a US$20bn Smarter Commerce opportunity, IBM says

In September IBM unveiled its cloud computing vision which focuses on enabling e-commerce transactions among businesses and consumers rather than just shuffling data. It has launched new Commerce-as-a-Service (CaaS) and social media marketing technologies.

The IBM Smarter Commerce initiative is focused on helping companies more effectively market, sell and secure greater customer loyalty in the era of social networking, mobile computing and online buying.

The new Commerce-as-a-Service (CaaS) and social media marketing technologies are a combination of technology derived from acquisitions such as Unica, Coremetrics and Sterling Commerce and combining them with IBM R&D results.

The technology giant says the new software solutions are designed to help companies intelligently automate supplier and trading partner interactions, automatically turn marketplace insights into marketing and sales actions and connect online, mobile and social channels to physical stores.

In fact, 64pc of consumers make a first purchase based on a digital experience. It's critical that companies detect rapid shifts in online behaviour and refine their marketing, sales, customer service and supply chain efforts accordingly.

Google Gmail viable alternative in enterprise email market - Gartner

Google's enterprise Gmail is building momentum with commercial organisations, and it now presents a viable alternative to Microsoft Exchange Online and other cloud email services, according to Gartner, Inc.

Gmail has only been in the market for five years.

"The road to its enterprise enlightenment has been long and bumpy, but Gmail should now be considered a mainstream cloud email supplier," said Matthew Cain, research vice-president at Gartner.

"While Gmail's enterprise email market share currently hovers around 1pc, it has close to half of the market for enterprise cloud email. While cloud email is still in its infancy, at 3-4pc of the overall enterprise email market, we expect it to be a growth industry, reaching 20pc of the market by year-end 2016, and 55pc by year-end 2020."

Cain said other than Microsoft Exchange, Google Gmail is the only email system that has prospered in the enterprise space over the past several years. Other enterprise email providers - Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino - have lost market momentum, Cisco closed its cloud email effort and VMware's Zimbra is only now refocusing on the enterprise space.

While organisations currently engage with cloud computing through two different paths, the private cloud and the public cloud, this is all set to change.

“In the past, security-conscious companies would have used the private cloud model, keeping everything within their own data centres while organisations free from these limitations tapped into the more flexible option of the public cloud," Citrix Ireland country manager Niall Gilmore explained.

“These single cloud offerings became well established in 2011, but next year we will see the proliferation of a 'hybrid' cloud model where businesses will begin to connect their private cloud with a public cloud, offering the benefits of both to their customers - the security of the private cloud and the flexibility of the public cloud.

“The widespread adoption of the hybrid cloud will be a game-changing moment, offering a new level of capability to companies in different sectors.

“Organisations will increasingly embrace complete control within their clouds over exactly where their data sits across their private and public cloud spaces. With this new level of control, companies can take advantage of all the benefits and resources open to them in the public cloud domain without compromising data integrity and security.

Explosion in 'bring your own device' programmes

Gilmore says that in addition to the explosion of the hybrid cloud, we will also see continued growth in the consumerisation of IT and the increased adoption of desktop virtualisation, both of which will push BYO programmes and work-shifting strategies within an organisation into widespread implementation.

“As a result of the increase in flexible work strategies and cloud computing, 2012 will also be a year of unprecedented demand for strengthening data protection and privacy. While legacy access control systems have previously failed to keep pace, desktop virtualisation provides organisations with the foundation to a layered security strategy so desktops, application and data can be delivered securely, on-demand to any device.

“One approach to information security based on desktop virtualisation, which we are expecting major growth in next year, is 'secure by design'. This system includes centralising and securing entering data in the data centre, enabling secure access and collaboration for any worker by implementing granular access control policies, supporting any enterprise- or worker-owned device with secure delivery of desktop applications, comprehensive monitoring, activity logging and reporting to protect data.

“Overall, while 2011 was another tough economic year for Ireland, Irish business continues to innovate and explore new ways of doing business more economically and more efficiently. The technology industry here has seen a focus on developing tools to help pressed businesses to work faster, smarter and more powerfully as we all try to beat the economic downturn," Gilmore concluded.

You see, most of the moving parts that make the global cloud already exist in Ireland in the form of data centres, the software, the intelligence and the creativity.

A decade ago, these data centres were considered an embarrassing reminder of the dot.com downturn. Today they are a set of assets keeping the country ripe for investment.

Dublin is home to at least 22 legacy data centres, not to mention new ones, such as the $1bn data centre built last year by Microsoft in its third investment in Dublin in 18 months and European data centre giant Interxion, which is pumping €7.1m into its DUB 2 Data Centre, employing 70 construction workers to complete the expansion.

During the summer, Irish data centre provider Data Electronics was bought by TeleCityEurope for €100m and earlier this year global internet giant Amazon bought a 22,539 sq-metre facility at Greenhills Industrial Estate in Dublin 24 to expand its cloud footprint in Europe. In September, Google revealed it will invest €75m in a new data centre that will generate 30 full-time and 200 construction jobs.

"A decade ago you could have said Ireland had an oversupply of data centres," explains Interxion Ireland CEO Tanya Duncan. "But by 2005 the market began to grow really fast and now there is significant demand from Irish companies and multinationals for data-centre capacity.

"For us, demand has been significant enough to make the case for expansion.

"Ireland is a gateway for US firms coming to Europe. Eight of the top 10 technology companies in the world have significant operations here. We're not talking about call centres but considerable IT infrastructure and we as an island have the infrastructure and the people to make these deployments happen. The key is to have the connectivity to make these pieces join up."

Dark fibre network rollout

In 2012, an integral aspect of joining up these pieces will be the rollout of a nationwide dark fibre network by PiPiper infrastructure, which will generate 277 new jobs.

But this isn't just about data centres and the transatlantic fibre cables that are soon coming ashore via Hibernia Atlantic, Emerald Networks and the UK-Ireland fibre laid just last week by Sea Fibre Networks, which will double data capacity across the Irish Sea.

The cloud revolution as we know it is a natural progression of computing from client/server to network-centric computing and Ireland has been at the cusp of this revolution ever since Apple came to Cork in the 1980s and Intel began making chips to power the PC revolution in the 1990s.

In recent weeks, Kinsale-based Avego managing director, SOSventures founder and new RTÉ 'Dragon' Sean O'Sullivan was recognised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Technology Review as being the co-creator - along with George Favaloro - of the term 'cloud computing' and being an early proponent of the development of cloud computing.

In 1996, O'Sullivan's company, NetCentric, was a leader in providing "software for inside the internet", and Compaq Computer's Favaloro invested $5m in the idea to develop the industry of software providers for internet infrastructure.

In Cork, for example, EMC employs 2,500 people making the storage technologies to handle the vast volumes of data being created every day in businesses and by individuals using social networks and e-commerce.

This year, EMC created the tech industry's first cloud computing master's degree in collaboration with Cork Institute of Technology (CIT).

Jobs on offer

EMC's sister company VMware announced 250 new cloud computing jobs in Cork, in addition to cloud computing jobs being created by Ammeon, Asystec, Marketo, Commence, Pivot, Engine Yard, Pinger, Datapac, Fort and Citrix, to name but a few.

Dell expects to recruit 150 people in the next two years with the creation of its first Cloud Research and Development (R&D) Centre in Dublin and its first Dell Solution Centre built globally in Limerick.

HP in Galway announced 155 jobs at its Cloud Services Centre in Galway and was able to identify 500 suitable candidates within weeks.

From the data centres to the software and the chips, Ireland has played a valuable role in laying the groundwork for the cloud computing revolution over the past 30 years.

From its location at the edge of Europe and the last landfall between Europe's financial centres and Wall Street, Ireland has a pivotal role to play in the next evolution of the data-driven economy and has an opportunity to cement its reputation as 'the home of the cloud'.

This will allow United Drug to store its information on a virtual platform. It will use a private cloud model to hold its rapidly growing volumes of data, which will eliminate multiple storage tiers and inadequate disk space.

“Through this deal with United Drug, we are accelerating the healthcare provider’s journey to the private cloud computing, helping their IT department to store, manage, protect and analyse their most valuable asset - information - in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way,” said Jason Ward, EMC’s country manager.

“Organisations, particularly those in the healthcare sector where data volumes are growing exponentially, need to constantly review their strategies for backup and recovery to ensure that they can meet basic business requirements and deal with sophisticated new threats from cyber criminals,” said Ward.

Tim Buckley, United Drug’s group IT director, said that over the years, the firm’s IT department has changed to suit new business requirements.

“We have evolved from simply keeping up with the demands of ever-greater storage and server needs by flexibly aligning our IT with the business to a position now where we are able to deliver a new level of service to the business in terms of a service catalogue and chargeback facilities," said Buckley.

On the surface the study says IT decision makers are upbeat about 2012, with high aspirational goals for deploying technology that is innovative and that can drive their organisations forward.

Cloud is rated as the No 1 priority along with security, mobile device support and remote access.

The Cisco study finds that 2012 will be a year of technology 'trade-offs' and compromise set against a backdrop of volatile economic conditions.

Nearly two-thirds (63pc) see 2012 as an opportunity to improve the way IT strategy aligns with corporate goals, with just 15pc seeing it as a year of threats to the current alignment.

IT professionals have high aspirations for 2012, seeing it as a year of innovation and change (47pc) with less than a quarter (24pc) regarding it as a year of consolidation and review.

Almost half (47pc) believe 2012 will see their organisations improving company performance through increased IT investment. Only 24pc feel this can happen without IT investment.

IT is more widely regarded as a strategic asset that drives company performance (56pc) than an operational necessity that supports company needs (30pc).

Tech tensions and trade-offs

But 2012 spend doesn't necessarily reflect a focus on innovation and change. Almost half of budget is being spent on maintaining existing assets/infrastructure (48pc). Cost cutting is a focus (66pc) for 2012, with just 42pc focusing on improving company performance.

“(The year) 2012 has the potential to be the Year of the Technology Leader, when trail-blazing companies realise the potential of tools, such as cloud and mobile connectivity, to revolutionise their industries," Ian Foddering, Cisco Ireland & UK CTO, explained.

“Those technology innovators who are not daunted by the economic uncertainty of the current climate, and are willing to invest in technology ahead of the curve, can take advantage of the 'gear change' the industry is experiencing in remote and service-based IT."  

The research further shows that despite 'trailblazing' aspirations, many IT leaders will be forced into trade-offs and making compromises in 2012. Key areas of conflict include innovation against maintenance; collaboration against security or productivity and network reliability and security against flexibility and performance.

Some 60pc think technology that enables greater user collaboration presents new security risks and 37pc think the use of social networks within an organisation creates productivity challenges.

About 56pc think the responsibility of IT is to control end-user behaviour, to reduce security risks, while 53pc say IT strategy considers network reliability/security to be more important than network performance/flexibility.

Massachusetts-based Emptoris counts more than 350 customers in 75 countries.

IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative is aimed at helping companies respond to shifting customer buying patterns. 

Emptoris brings to IBM Smarter Commerce a set of new, flexible and integrated solutions that orchestrate and manage the sourcing and procurement of goods and materials as part of supply chain management.

Supply chain intelligence using these solutions enables better inventory management and can create large savings opportunities.

Smart Commerce is a US$20bn market opportunity for IBM

IBM has estimated that the Smarter Commerce initiative is a US$20bn market opportunity in software alone.

Emptoris' spend management solutions complement the existing B2B integration and supply chain management capabilities IBM acquired through the purchase of Sterling Commerce in 2010.

“Emptoris leadership in the 'buy' or supply chain capabilities of Smarter Commerce enables customers to better source, optimise and control enterprise spending," said Patrick Quirk, CEO, Emptoris.

“Procurement officers need to manage the full engagement, integrating suppliers with key internal systems and have the capability and visibility to manage compliance and mitigate supply risk," Quirk said.

IBM has been quite acquisitive in recent months and one of its recent acquisitions has been Irish software company Cúram, which will enable IBM to deliver social programmes for smarter cities.

Their fear is far from irrational. This was the year that saw a devastating cyber attack take place on Sony's servers, with hackers accessing information on more than 77m users. The Sony Online Network (SOE) was also hit.

This is also the year that saw greater co-ordination amongst hacker groups, with networks like Anonymous and LulzSec taking on targets such as RSA, Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Gmail, Citigroup and the US Senate.

A recent survey of Irish IT managers and CIOs by Deloitte found that adoption of cloud computing was relatively low (33pc) this year, however, more than half of CIOs indicated their intention to increase the use of cloud.

Despite these sentiments, there has only been a minor increase in usage recorded in 2011 (40pc), with software-as-a-service (SaaS) accounting for more than two-thirds of cloud usage (45pc in 2010).

Data that's in the cloud

The only type of data CIOs are more likely to hold in the cloud in 2011, compared to last year's survey, is employee data. Customer data, supplier data and billing information have seen the greatest falls in likelihood, presumably attributable to data security fears.

According to the 2012 Global State of Information Security Survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the rise of cloud computing has improved but also complicated the security landscape.

Nearly half of 10,000 business leaders surveyed globally believe that the onset of cloud technologies have improved security. However, nearly a quarter believe it has increased vulnerability.

"Hacking wasn't something created by the cloud," says Dell Ireland country manager Dermot O'Connell. "Hacking has been there since computer networks began.

Hacking will go on and there will be more malicious code attacking systems.

"Under all the disciplines in IT, security is where you need the expertise and any firm should look for that expertise among providers if they are embarking on a cloud journey."

O'Connell points to Dell's recent acquisition of SecureWorks, which enables it to block attacks by hackers on corporate servers.

Dell's senior VP of engineering and technology for EMEA Don Smith encourages businesses to fully consider the implications of moving their IT systems outside the organisation in order to prevent security breaches.

"One of the biggest threats with cloud computing is that data is taken outside the traditional parameters of the 'office', and a security breach could easily happen without you knowing. There can also be security complacency on behalf of the businesses as they often assume that, as everything is behind a firewall, it must be secure. Unfortunately, even though vendors often offer 'cloud management solutions' these usually don't provide adequate protection.

"Whatever type of outsourced service is used, a formal risk assessment should be conducted to give full visibility of your information assets and vulnerabilities. This ensures you know what you're being exposed to, and where the high risk areas sit. Ultimately, what's required is a layered and balanced approach to security."

Security and the cloud

Jeremy Showalter, information worker lead at Microsoft in Ireland, notes that firms are making a bet on cloud computing because it offers more opportunities for better security. He points to accountancy and HR software vendors that are subscribing to Microsoft's Azure platform as a way to reach new markets.

Marc O'Dwyer, managing director of Big Red Book, an Irish software company that is part of Microsoft's Azure programme that enables it to securely sell its accountancy software via the cloud to 52 countries worldwide, believes the security reach afforded by platforms like Azure will ultimately help firms make the move.

"The fact that data is in the cloud means it is accessible anytime, any place. If something happened and the data centre goes offline, my data and my customer's data and applications are replicated in other data centres around the world. So our data is backed up.

"The flexibility of cloud will ultimately decide firms to take the leap. Consumers right now are more willing to use the cloud and web for purchasing and acquiring information, businesses will and are making the journey.

"We embraced cloud computing to expand our reach to new markets.

"If Irish businesses don't embrace the capability of the cloud, they're going to miss out on opportunities to bring in new revenue and win extra business," O'Dwyer says.

The consortium includes wireless cloud provider AirSpeed Telecom, project lifecycle specialists PLC Partners, cloud hosting provider Sungard and software architecture specialist TEKenable.

The companies have joined forces to deliver tailored cloud services to companies and organisations interested in moving to the cloud.

The group will deliver all aspects of a private cloud service - from network infrastructure to web applications - payable with a single bill.

How SLA-1 will work

The SLA-1 group's offering includes workshops on the cloud, feasibility assessments, design and architecture, implementation and migration.

The different approaches to migrating businesses to the cloud include the movement of test and development environments to the private cloud, the movement of core systems to the cloud and the movement of non-core peripheral systems to the cloud.

Brendan Martin, sales director, AirSpeed Telecom, says as cloud computing begins to become more and more of a reality for all organisations, the need to have a dedicated partner is even more important.

“Organisations who are transitioning their infrastructure to the cloud need simplicity and security, which is the reason why we have come to market with this single premium SLA.

“The SLA-1 partners are uniting our individual expertise in solution design, technology and infrastructure integration, network management and customer support. What customers will receive is a secure, tailored cloud service that matches their own business objectives," Martin added.

The new app for both device families has been built in the same tradition of engineering that exists behind Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive and Windows Live.

The new apps will create meaningful competition for rival mobile device cloud apps like Dropbox.

The SkyDrive cloud app on Windows Phone devices will enable users to view and manage all their folders, documents, photos and all files. Users will also be able to share pictures by sending a link to others that will empower them to either ‘view only’ or ‘view and edit’.

For iPhone users, the tradition of providing built-in support for Hotmail and with apps like Bing, Messenger, OneNote (with SkyDrive sync), and now Skype will continue and represents the software giant’s investment in HTML5 on web and mobile.

The new SkyDrive app for iPhone will be available in 32 languages worldwide. In addition to their OneNote notebooks, iPhone customers can now access all of their files in SkyDrive, create folders, delete files, and share links to folders and files directly using the Mail app.

Your personal cloud

“SkyDrive is your personal cloud for your documents, notes, photos and videos. Move your files into SkyDrive and immediately they’re available from any web browser anywhere in the world,” Mike Torres, group programme manager, SkyDrive Devices and Roaming, explained.

“As we detailed a few days ago, there have been a number of recent updates to SkyDrive.com to improve how you share with others, manage your files and folders, and browse through your stuff blazingly fast, utilising the latest web technologies (like HTML5 and CSS3).”

However, people are beginning to rely heavily on their smartphones for managing and accessing information and Microsoft now views device access as “table stakes” for personal cloud storage.

“People are choosing where to put their files based on how portable and accessible they are across the various devices they use; therefore, it’s critical that we continue to extend the SkyDrive experience to the devices you use every day,” Torres said.

He revealed that with the recent release of Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), Microsoft focused on deeply integrating SkyDrive into the Pictures and Office Hubs.

“For instance, you can share photos stored on SkyDrive by email, text, or IM, use Office apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint with SkyDrive files, and even keep your phone’s camera roll up to date on SkyDrive automatically. This integration isn’t surface-level - SkyDrive is integrated into the apps you use, along with core phone functions. This is a great example of using SkyDrive as an app cloud for Office and Pictures, where the cloud is an underlying feature of the app itself.”

In addition, the new offering includes encryption technology so users can now digitally sign for documents wherever they are, whether they are in the office or on the road.

Starting today, new mobile applications are available for iPad and Android, as well as a desktop application for Mac in beta. In addition, YouSendIt is delivering updated iPhone and Windows desktop apps.

“The evolving work life of today's professional is at the centre of our thinking when we create new products," said Brian Curry, vice-president, product and business strategy, YouSendIt.

“Our goal is to make using YouSendIt simple and ubiquitous. Users don't have time to learn new methods and practices in order to manage or share their files and documents. This latest release allows access to secure sharing and syncing of files everywhere our customers work," Curry said.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the case is being filed by PersonalWeb, which describes itself as owning “13 fundamental pending and issued patents.”

It claims that Google, YouTube, Amazon, EMC, VMware, Dropbox, NetApps, NEC and Caringo have used PersonalWeb’s patents within their cloud offerings, which involve content addressable storage and distributed search engine technologies.

Kevin Bermeister, PersonalWeb's non-executive chairman and founder of Kazaa, and Michael Weiss, CEO and president of PersonalWeb, who also founded the Morpheus P2P application, both filed the case in the US District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.

“PersonalWeb protects its proprietary business applications and operations through a portfolio of patents that it owns, and we are actively pursuing licensing and participation in the operation of businesses that use these patents,” said Weiss in a statement.

The music industry previously sued Bermeister over pirated content shared over Kazaa and reached a settlement of more than US$100m. Bermeister has since focused on combatting online piracy with PersonalWeb's Global File Registry.

This technology, which Bermeister and his team have been pitching to ISPs, can recognise pirated content and child pornography. It can offer legal alternatives for the piracy and a law-enforcement message for the child pornography. The company said the alleged infringed patents were used in this technology.

The college aims to fulfil the rapidly growing educational needs of the cloud computing and web technology sectors.

The Cloud Competency Centre will be part of NCI’s established School of Computing, which delivers programmes from certificate to doctorate level and is already a leading provider of education in the cloud-computing area.

“The cloud computing industry has the potential to be a critical contributor to the Irish economy in terms of growth and providing jobs,” explained NCI president Dr Phillip Matthews.

“As the industry is still evolving worldwide, there are real opportunities for Ireland to position itself as a global leader in this field. By establishing one of the first significant centres of excellence for teaching and research in cloud computing, National College of Ireland seeks to support Ireland in taking a leadership role in this vital industry.”

New head being sought for Cloud Competency Centre

A new position is being created in the college to lead the Cloud Competency Centre.

As well as creating a centre of excellence for advanced learning and research in cloud computing, the individual will have responsibility for establishing the centre and its strategic and operational management.

The Dean of NCI’s School of Computing, Dr Pramod Pathak, said the establishment of the centre would help to bridge the recognised skills shortage in the web technologies and cloud computing areas.

“The establishment of the centre is fully supported and endorsed by international and local industry at the very highest level,” Pathak said.

“In addition to providing educational programmes and undertaking relevant industry research, the centre will support many organisations in migrating to a cloud-based platform and provide business incubation opportunities, as well as an established route to commercialisation.”

The centre has been developed in collaboration with a high-level advisory board, which consists of industry representatives from companies including Microsoft, IBM, Fujitsu and Google.

“The cloud computing industry is facing significant demand for specific ICT skills and we wholeheartedly welcome the establishment of the NCI Cloud Competency Centre,” said Regina Moran, CEO, Fujitsu Ireland and chair of ICT Ireland.

“With a balance of real-world and academic subject matter, coupled with a problem-based learning approach, we believe the centre will have a significantly positive impact on the quality and quantity of Ireland’s graduates, which will increase our global competitiveness in this critical field.“

Many indigenous Irish ICT organisations, across all sectors of the business and technology communities, are also represented on the advisory board. These include Staff Balance, Tradefacilitate, DANU Technologies and Orca Resources.

Ciaran McGowan, CEO of Staff Balance, said: “This centre will be of real benefit to our indigenous tech and software industries. As a HPSU, we have had to look outside Ireland to acquire technical talent in the cloud technology area.

“At a time when Ireland is feeling the pain of increased unemployment, it is ironic that we don’t have sufficient technical talent here to fulfil the demand. Cloud computing skills are among the biggest in demand and NCI is being very proactive to help fill this void and create much-needed Irish jobs.

“The centre also has the capacity to support local companies to scale up and move their operations to the next level, which is critical for the future of the industry and the economy as a whole.”

Comfort Keepers operates 11 offices around Ireland and helps people remain independent by providing care to those for whom daily tasks have become too difficult to manage.

With an expanding business, providing for an increasingly remote workforce and the need to replace old systems, Comfort Keepers was faced with having to upgrade its entire IT infrastructure. Consulting with IT Direct, it made the decision to move to the SilverLine cloud environment, which is powered by the Fort Technologies integrated cloud business management platform.

Smarter care

SilverLine allows Comfort Keepers to safely adopt a cloud strategy by working with their known, trusted and local IT partner who can continue to manage both the on-premise and cloud-hosted services.

“Comfort Keepers is an example of an organisation that utilises the smartest IT infrastructure for the benefit of their clients. They were faced with the challenge of cost effectively connecting multiple locations and allowing their employees to work remotely,” Oliver Clancy, IT Direct, explained.

“We chose the SilverLine platform as it was easy to use, secure and provided the best value. As all the data remain in Ireland, Comfort Keepers always know the exact location of their data, removing any potential compliance issues in the future,” Clancy said.

A full network solution was provided with critical business applications now being hosted in the cloud. These include Microsoft Office, Comfort Keepers telemonitoring system, Logical Office CRM, account and payroll software, file storage and print management.  

With a very mobile workforce, employees who move across sites now have access to the same information and applications, no matter where they are from day to day.

“We have grown by 20pc since this time last year and with this growth set to continue, we have had to invest in our IT systems. We assessed our options and a cloud computing solution became the obvious choice,” Bob Power, managing director, Comfort Keepers, explained.

“SilverLine provides us with all of the flexibility of cloud computing, allowing us to continue to grow and scale our business, and eliminate system slowdown due to the increased demand.”

Flexible working

Comfort Keepers’ telemonitoring system shows the arrival and departure time of carers who log in and out from the clients' homes using a freephone number and will raise an alarm if a login is not received.

The telemonitoring system itself is complex and needs to be monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Moving to SilverLine ensures high availability for this mission-critical application and the added benefit of facilitating remote monitoring, no matter what day of the year it is or what conditions may prevent employees from getting to the office.

“Comfort Keepers was the first care service in Ireland to use telemonitoring technology nationally,” said Michael O'Hara, managing director of DataSolutions' SilverLine. “It quickly grasped and understood the benefits cloud computing offered the business.”

The companies were awarded the contract as part of the EU BonFIRE initiative. The BonFIRE initiative was set up under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission to design, build and operate a multi-site cloud prototype facility. The BonFire consortium includes HP Labs, SAP AG, Cloudium Systems, ATOS, RedZinc, 451 Group and various academic groups.

Cloudium Systems and RedZinc will tune operation of cloud-based desktops against internet operational limitations.

The project, called TurboCloud, will validate several man years of research on a large-scale environment. Cloud-based desktops are believed to represent the next paradigm in computing.

Gartner forecasts the growth of cloud-based desktop access devices to grow from 3m units in 2010 to more than 15m units in 2014.

Building the TurboCloud

The Cloudium VCA2000 family of advanced ZeroClients incorporates their cloudRDP software and cloudAccel silicon device to optimise real-time tuning of a cloud desktop connection.

Cloudium Systems’ CEO, John Hickey, explained: “Our goal with this project is to optimise the user experience across a wide range of network conditions in a manner difficult to reproduce without access to a large, multi-site cloud testbed such as provided by BonFire.”

RedZinc’s VELOX is a service delivery platform which integrates to IP networks as a control plane overlay which enhances the quality of experience of multimedia cloud applications.

Donal Morris, CEO of RedZinc, said: “The partnership with Cloudium and BonFire is an ideal platform to validate the integration of RedZinc’s virtual path slice controller with Cloudium’s desktop virtualisation solution and showcase with multimedia applications.”

First of all, there are many different definitions of what cloud computing is. Are you moving to the public cloud (ie, your data and servers are stored in a data centre remotely) or are you moving to the private cloud (ie, your servers and data remain on premises)? Or are you taking a hybrid approach?

According to Brian Larkin, operations director of Irish IT firm HiberniaEvros, which recently announced a €1.6m investment in a new cloud computing division that will create 50 jobs over the next three years including a €500,000 infrastructure platform deal with HP, not every firm is equipped to move to the cloud and realistic expectations need to be set.

He cites a legal firm in the Midlands that moved its entire IT infrastructure to the cloud and ended up losing valuable time every day waiting for the remote servers to be backed up. "In that instance, it wasn't appropriate to move the entire infrastructure to the cloud. It is critical that you get the right advice before embarking on the cloud journey.

"It's frustrating. Everything is being called cloud and that is creating confusion in the marketplace. As we see it, there are three tiers to cloud computing: there's software-as-a-service (SaaS); there's platform-as-a-service (PaaS); and the area we are most concerned with, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).

"With IaaS, instead of building servers and platforms, that infrastructure exists for you already in a shared data centre. Cloud is simply an alternative methodology for consuming IT.

"If it doesn't pass TCO (total cost of ownership), my advice is don't do it. If it is more cost effective, yes. But not all companies meet that requirement. You need to get a return on investment. The key is cost reduction," Larkin urges.

Inevitability of cloud

"I think cloud is inevitable," points out Francis O'Haire of DataSolutions. "The typical mistakes that are made include telling firms that all their existing IT is irrelevant and that they need to chuck everything out. The reality is IT is an evolution and you need to upgrade your IT in a structured fashion.

"The other typical mistake is that once you embark on cloud computing it results in an immediate cost saving. That may not always be the case. You may get great flexibility and increased mobility, but you pay for those.

"Firms need to look at what they want to achieve - in some cases, cloud may be cheaper but in other cases your costs could rise. Ask yourself, is your firm ready for it? Why do you need to do it and of course do you have the necessary bandwidth?"

DataSolutions recently deployed its Silverline service to enable the IT channel in Ireland to ensure businesses deliver solutions that provide a return on investment.

"We believe the IT channel in Ireland is best placed to work with companies to deliver IT and services and therefore they need to be empowered with knowledge and security. We're building a portfolio of cloud services and technologies we'll bring via the channel to the business community.

"Our advice to the business community if you are embarking on a cloud strategy is do so with a knowledgeable and experienced partner, don't go it alone."

According to Guido Marchetti of MJ Flood Technology, businesses in Ireland often underestimate the work required in going to the cloud.

"The cloud will suit some businesses and won't suit others. Financial organisations are heavily regulated and the cloud as it stands in some cases won't meet those regulations. It's important that before you invest in infrastructure or move to an entirely new platform, investigate the implications and benefits.

"Legal firms, for example, have a lot of third-party case systems that aren't always compatible with today's public or private cloud systems. Tests need to be carried out to make sure that all your software applications continue to work on the new infrastructure.

"Be confident that service level agreements (SLAs) will deliver. Clearly identify what services you want to run on the cloud and ensure that everything functions better than it had before."

Going back to Larkin's point about connectivity, firms need to ensure that they have the broadband bandwidth to handle large file transfers.

"Cloud is an inevitable step, but while it may suit most businesses, it won't suit all and needs to be thoroughly investigated to ensure everything works properly."