Is Mobile becoming the disruptive force in Cloud Computing?

Avinash Birnale is the Vice President at Endeavour, an active writer and analyst.

Recently I read this news article - Google launching the printing services (http://mashable.com/2010/04/16/google-cloud-print/) in cloud. To explain more on what is cloud computing and its relevance with mobility, I attempted to write this based on various articles read and representative applications developed in the past by Endeavour.

I did a lot of web reading on cloud computing prior to working on couple of cloud services for my earlier projects. Ran through almost every article that came my way and through of summing up everything into this one. We have all heard about the cloud computing and also seen some of the well-known examples working successfully. But very few really have the clear picture of what cloud and cloud computing is. If you ask this question, majority of the respondents will tell you a different definition of cloud computing and that is why an average business user is confused – and so the decisions he/she makes!

The wikipedia definition for cloud computing is –

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like a public utility.

The cloud computing is the evolution of technologies starting from personal computing, client-server computing, mainframe computing to modern day grid computing. It’s not new to the software industry as a concept. Basically, the cloud represents the Internet. And broadly speaking the computing performed in the cloud can be called as cloud computing. There have been many solutions that were using the cloud in one or the other forms. The difference is the magnitude and the solution nature it had earlier.

One of the major reasons why enterprises are looking at cloud computing as potential solution is – cost reduction. It’s basically the pay-as-you-go nature of the services that make Cloud computing look so enticing! But, before making any decision on whether cloud computing is meant for every customer, we should look at the basic attributes that the potential solution needs to satisfy. If we ask this question to any senior architect who has written the cloud computing based solutions, would answer, “It depends”! And that is really true. Lets see how.

Not every application or solution needs the cloud computing. Majority of the application used internally in the enterprise may not need any or minor cloud support. If we evaluate the potential application/ solution to be cloud-enabled, we would primarily need to consider these application attributes –

Data Management, Maintainability, Reusability, Availability, Portability, Scalability, Affordability, Reliability, User Experience and Distribution.

Of all these attributes (and could be more), we have to look at what are most important ones to address and climb up on our “must have” list. Each one of the above attributes can be dissected further in to sub-attributes. For example, the scalability can be further assessed with respect to – Replication, Caching, Pooling, Load Balancing, Scale Up – Scale Out, Hardware scalability.

Following chart – according to MS Architecture Journal (credit to Darryl Chantry – senior architect with Microsoft) describes this decomposition of the basic application attributes –

• User experience - Usability; Responsive; Efficiency; Performance; Personalizable; User interface, Graphical; Distributed; Interaction model; Device; SaaS; Online
  Security - Emergency hot fix; Security procedures; Trust relationship with platform; Applications security model; Data flow; Malicious code; Access controls; Cryptography; Auditing; Authentication & Authorization model
• Affordability - Resource cost; Development; Available skills; Software enhancements cost; Licensing; Postproduction hardware; Decommissioning; Initial hardware
• Data - State (State full, Stateless); Stability; Application constraints; Database constraints; Persistence; Online/Offline; Structure (Unstructured, Indexed); Searchable; Transaction management
• Maintainability - Available skill sets; Language support (dev); Application standards; Technology implementation; Application-code complexity and Volume; Configuration management; Operational management; Flexible; Technology
• Scalability - Replication; Caching; Pooling; Software load balancing; Scale out; Scale up; Hardware load balancing
• Availability - Technology/Configuration; Implementation to support; Availability; Uptime requirement
• Conformability - Auditable; Regulatory; Standards
• Portability - Cross-platform; Within platform
• Distributability - Local; Geo-distributed
• Extensibility - Meta-model; Configurable
• Reliability - Configuration management; Startup and automatic recovery; System performance; Recovery procedures and methods; Load balancing; Fault tolerance
• Interoperability - Communications and data usage; Integration impacts; Architecture compatibility; Ease integration (APIs)
• Reusability - Distributable and reusable; Modularity; Hierarchy; Code abstraction

The Cloud computing based solution can have several components but at the top level it shall have following components –

- Cloud Infrastructure

- Cloud Platform

- Cloud Storage

- Core Services

- Cloud Application

The Cloud Infrastructure moreover represents the physical attributes of the solution such as servers, virtualized hardware and so on. For a large-scale solution like Facebook, MySpace etc, Cloud infrastructure plays very important role by providing the much-needed horsepower for the processing! Many virtualized server solutions are available today to help implement the clouds.

A cloud platform is really the ability to build, test, deploy, run, and manage applications in the Cloud. Cloud platforms offer alternatives to these actions; for example, the build experience might be online only, offline only, or a combination of the two, while tools for testing applications might be nonexistent on some platforms, yet superb on others.

The cloud Storage includes the ability to store large amount of data in the cloud. It is often inexpensive, easy to access and highly available due to virtualized redundancy stores. There are several cloud storage service providers available who provide pay per use storage mechanism and mostly with 24/7 support. The flip side of this mechanism is though – reliability and privacy. The enterprise solutions that demand transaction support aren’t yet fully available. The data privacy is often questioned when it comes to the sensitive data storage. But not to mention that the cloud services for healthcare (Google and Microsoft are leading this space!) despite of HIPAA and FDA like stringent regulations!

The core services are the ones that fuel the cloud application logic and key services in the entire solution. The Cloud can derive all its functions from the cloud services or can depend on only the key services from the cloud. Base don the need of the solution multiple services from multiple clouds can be consumed in the overall solution. For example the billing and processing can be services at one vendor whereas the system integration services such as authentication/ Identity management can be done with other. It really depends on the needs of the overall solution.

The cloud Application can be fully or partly in the cloud. Meaning some of the features in the application may be native to the app while core services come from the cloud. On the other hand the application may be very well architected to rely completely on the cloud in always connected mode. This can eliminate the need to spend efforts on maintain, deploy and support! This would be the perfect example of Software as a service (SaaS).

Mobility Component in the cloud solution

As you would guess, if an application that involves the most of the core services, infrastructure and platform elements to a typical cloud, either a thin client application or perfect mobile web client is the best candidate to make use of the cloud services.

By the inherent nature of the mobile applications/ platforms, they tend to depend heavily on the server side infrastructure and the support. Only limited storage, service and features are available on the phone itself. Basically, the phone application that is partially outside the cloud and utilizing the other components from the cloud is more likely to be the case for future solution.

According to ABI Research article the mobile will become the disruptive force in the cloud computing. The Article suggests that the cloud computing is future of the Mobile. Although it does not mean that phone apps will no longer be relevant or sought after solutions.

Solutions such as SalesForce.com are offering the platform such as force.com one can build the enterprise solution and run it on the cloud. Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine are also hinting this trend.

According to Sarah Perez’s article on ReadWriteWeb.com, the Juniper research has predicted the market for cloud based mobile applications to grow by 88% by 2014 amounting to $9.5 billion.

Example of Cloud Solution

The hypothetical “EasyData” cloud solution for the online backup and data protection services is example I would like to mention here in this context. The mobile application, the desktop based application and an interface delivered through the TV set top boxes, would be ideal cloud applications.

Think of the features that allow you click the photographs on the mobile phone and let’s you share it with your friends/ buddies. Or the application that backs your data in real time from the computer or phone and stores on the storage situated in the cloud.

The photos and documents you share it with you friends or parents can be seen from the TV at home without any computer. Just switch on the TV and browse your shared files!

It seems so fascinating but the implementation would be very simple if we adopt the approach of build the solution that heavily relies on the cloud. Given the diagram below to represent the concept -

Currently we are working on an iPhone application that does file sharing, printing, archiving, secure storing and retrieval!

More information on Cloud Computing –

During my research on this topic I found some interesting articles and news relating to cloud computing. They are mentioned below –

• CIO Article on - How not to build the Cloud - Here are six no-no's for cloud computing planning in your enterprise. From legacy software to outdated metrics, these potential pitfalls deserve careful consideration. Read here
• The cloud computing and the myriad questions it brings – John Jordan of Forbes lists these several questions
• Microsoft Azure as cloud platform http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure; http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/products/; http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/videoPlayerPopup.aspx?w=720&h=480&vid=WinAzPlatform_720x480_FINAL_101609.wmv

The "Enterprise Mobility Strategy" Webinar was a Great Success

The Webinar held on May 5, 2010 on "Enterprise Mobility Strategy" covered the following aspects of Enterprise Mobility

• What is Enterprise Mobility and what is happening in the corporate world?
• Why Enterprise Mobility Strategy and how to go about the same?
• How Endeavour can help?

To listen to the Webinar please click on the video below

We would also like to thank the participants for their enormous interest. The positive feedback received from the participants confirms that the Webinar was a great success.

We are in the process of compiling all the feedback and will be shortly publishing the schedule for future webinars.

A Guide to Determining the Right Smart mobile Platform for your Enterprise Mobility Strategy

The recent proliferation of mobile devices and their use in workplaces has become an important and integral part in every business strategy. From just voice-centric communication devices, today’s complex devices have become an important tool for business enterprise. All this happened due to changes in the lifestyle and attitude of consumers. By matching and combining consumers’ wants and needs, manufacturers have brought different mobile platforms to the forefront. Organizations which have adopted most of these devices are gaining over their competitors. With the entrance of different mobile platforms in the market, enterprise mobility is experiencing both a revolution and a dilemma from deciding which platform will be beneficial for them.

All platforms have different characteristics. Thus, the million-dollar question is which mobile platform will suit particular enterprise IT leaders or corporations in their business ventures. 

The ruling mobile platforms whose capabilities have impressed corporate to date include iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian.  As the number of mobile platforms shoots through the roof, enterprises need to put in place a robust strategy to evaluate the one which will serve their needs for a long period of time.

The Open OS

By Open OS, we mean the ability to be able to control and manage devices without OEM intervention.

From a software perspective, an Open OS is important as it allows developers to build applications which can interact with other applications running on the device. From a hardware perspective, Open OS is important as it allows integration with third-party hardware such as a BT printer, bar code scanner and so on, to meet specific business needs. Here are some of the parameters on which we evaluated the openness of a mobile platform from hardware and software perspectives:

As you can see, most of the mobile platforms fail on some and pass on some. The key is to pick the OS which meets most of the future needs of your enterprise.

Moving from iPhone to iPad

Corporations or individuals who are loyal to the Apple brand swear by it and would not like to relocate to any other platform, even though they’d be sacrificing core enterprise apps like SharePoint, Office and Exchange, available in Windows platform. According to Bill French, Co-founder of MyST Technology Partners Inc., “Apple products increase the productivity and are rich in features”.

Email. Apple's iPhone and iPad carry Yahoo! push e-mail, Gmail push e-mail (via Google Sync) and Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync platforms, and help in synchronizing e-mail, calendars and contacts with a Microsoft Exchange Server, Zimbra, NuevaSync or Kerio Connect. Apple also offers its indigenous MobileMe subscription service for push email, contacts, and calendars.

AppStore. The Apple Appstore launched in July 2008 and already has more than 150,000 applications, with more than 3 billion downloads so far. It still ranks highest among consumers. Some apps offer 3D support which can be leveraged to allow customers to interact with your business via your desktop. The task of apps developers has become challenging as the competition to create useful devices heats up.

Security features. As soon as particular mobile platforms get recognition, they become the easy target of worldwide criminals, thus malware, viruses, phishing and spam become common problems. iPhone 3G’s security is reportedly too weak and can be cracked easily with some free software, though security  has been ramped up with the new iPhone 4.0 OS. Some of its noteworthy security features include Geo location, used to trace your phone’s location if you lose it; Auto-erase, to help you erase the contents in your phone if you lose it, and Data encryption, to help you password-protect important business data.

Battery. Random studies have shown that iPhone users are satisfied with the performance of their battery life. According to Apple, after 300 or 400 charges its battery starts losing capacity, something to be considered while making up your mind whether to go with iPhone.

iPad. Some analysts have predicted that, like iPhones, iPad is going to convince the corporate slowly and steadily via the consumer door, as iPad has been labeled a consumer device. But some analysts are of the view that iPads are going to replace notebooks in the near future. But when we glance at the number of features offered by iPad and even iPhone—they do not support the use of flash, have low battery capacity of around 2.5 hours and can store only 64 GB of data—we can say that it will be difficult for them to replace notebooks.

Blackberry

RIM’s Blackberry, coupled with Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), is a complete business mobile phone providing IT managers adequate control to manage these devices, a key factor in Enterprise Mobility. RIM’s continued growth is much ahead of its competitors at 35.7% year after year, as reported by IDC, and 40.8% as reported by Canalys. Though its stronghold is North America, RIM has shown significant improvement internationally.

Email. RIM's BlackBerry utilizes wireless Mail User Agent devices and a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) which is attached to a traditional e-mail system and is perhaps the feature which almost all enterprises want. RIM's BES has been the preferred solution for managing these devices and for providing secure access to corporate email.

AppWorld. The Blackberry Appworld was launched in April 2009 and has around 3,000 applications. Though this might sound low, the fact that Blackberry allows direct publishing of applications on their devices infers that a lot of applications get deployed on the mobile devices without going to AppWorld. Enterprise apps such as Documents To Go, Empower InstaSpell, eOffice 4.6, Mobile Office Suite and File Manager Pro ensure that enterprises get all that they need.

Security. Its security features include: IBM Lotus Notes Email Encryption Support, and the BlackBerry Signing Authority Tool can help protect access to the functionality and data of third-party applications. Depending on corporate security requirements, BlackBerry smartphones support HTTPS communication via Proxy and End to End mode.

Battery. BlackBerry use a Lithium-ion battery which, after every 30 charges, exhausts 10-15% of its capacity.

Android mobile platform

Google Android has been able to match the excitement first seen with the iPhone launch and has, in fact, beaten Apple to the first $1M sales figure. Android is a developer-friendly platform, allowing them to build rich and interactive apps due to the presence of rich C/C++ libraries which can be used readily by developers. The Android, however, is primarily a consumer device first, due to limited backend support for IT managers.

Email. Push e-mail support is based on Microsoft's ActiveSync platform, including push GMail through a freeware K-9 (an open source email client), and supports IMAP idle.

Android Market. The Android Market launched in November 2008 and has more than 38,000 applications and continues to be the fastest-growing marketplace after Apple’s Appstore.

Security. Google’s Android has a long way to go to become secure. Security researcher Charlie Miller confirms that repeated hacks are a sign that Google's relatively new software is "a little immature" from a security standpoint, compared to others, such as Windows or Mac OS, that have been field-tested for years by security firms.

Battery. Users report that within three hours’ time it sucks 68% of its capacity.

Symbian Platform

Nokia's Symbian is now an open source software designed specifically for mobile devices and smartphones. It runs solely on ARM processors and is a descendant of Psion's EPOC. Around 46.9% of Smartphones still run on Symbian OS. One interesting factor which keeps this platform apart from its competitors is that Symbian devices can be programmed by using Flashlite, JAVA ME, Python, .NET, Web Runtime (WRT) widgets and C++. Such is the flexibility of Symbian. Given the market penetration of Symbian, it has significant interest for enterprises in the form of a second platform.

Email. Symbian’s platform is based on Exchange ActiveSync technology, which is licensed directly from Microsoft. RoadSync offers secure, wireless and direct push synchronization of corporate e-mail, contacts, calendar, tasks and attachments - all in one affordable, scalable and easy-to-manage package.

Ovi Store. This platform was launched in May 2009 and has not gained much traction, with slightly more than 1000 applications.

Security. Symbian OS 9.X uses a UNIX-style capability model which is far superior from its previous versions, where viruses used to land in smartphones through Bluetooth devices.

Windows 7 platform (yet to be launched)

Windows 7 mobile platform is going to be released by the end of this year. Various analysts have said that it has the feel of an iPhone or a Google Android. Being a Windows mobile phone, it is surely going to have Microsoft Sharepoint and Windows integration, which are musts for most enterprises. The other important feature of this platform would be the presence of Office Hub, offering the ability to create and edit Microsoft Office documents like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The presence of Microsoft Office One Note 2007 would help users gather, search, type and quickly create digitally handwritten notes along with text, pictures, audio and video recordings. These facilities and apps are not present in iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, and could be a big advantage for Windows Phone 7.

We expect this device to find its way quite comfortably into enterprise through top executives, as it will help them toggle between their personal interests and work. The only flaw this platform could have is its incompatibility with various Windows Mobile 6.x programs and apps that organizations are already using. One more point to ponder before switching to this platform: This interface has been built on Silverlight and XNA, which are touted as gaming platforms.

As of now there is no word about its battery performance.

Web OS

By far this is the only platform that was complete enough to be called Open but unfortunately, its usability/ user experience, due to hardware constraints, could not take it to the desired heights. Even after having all the great features in the OS/ device, it will do well only if it is liked by the end users/ consumers, but that too looks remote, given the huge problems that Palm is facing.

Conclusion

All in all it can’t be said who the real winner is in this crowd of mobility platforms, though Blackberry does have a lead, amongst others.

It all depends on organizations to adopt the platform which suits them the most and through which their organization’s productivity could be enhanced. However, the chosen platform should be secure and open, so that it could be easily adapted as per their requirements.

The perfect combination of consumerability and enterprisability would win.

We at Technology Consulting Group (TCG) at Endeavour – the mobility company, continuously research emergent mobile technologies and key mobility trends to provide reliable solutions and strategic advice to organizations looking to leverage mobility. The TCG evaluates business, IT, Mobile complexities and provides specific advice on the choice of mobile platforms and mobile applications – complete product lifecycle, the ROI and the common pitfalls.

References        

·         iPhone Enterprise Point Solutions and the Evolution to iPad

·         What Windows 7 means for the Enterprise

·         Enterprise mobility: Android vs. iPhone – what to consider

·         Windows Phone 7 vs. iPhone matchup: a developer's perspective

·         So You Want to Build a Mobile App? 8 Things to Consider

·         Palm Pre vs. iphone 3G vs. Blackberry Storm

·         Experts on what the Windows 7 phone means for the enterprise

·         The top 6 enterprise issues for Windows Phone 7 

·         8 things you didn't know about Windows Phone 7