If we were to rank the Cloud Computing acronyms (SaaS, PaaS, DaaS, and IaaS) in terms of people’s familiarity with them, Infrastructure-as-a-Service would probably come up dead last.

(If you’re confused already, skip to our 6-part series of Bytes on: “What is Cloud Computing?”)

Fox Business News (foxbusiness.com) feature (@FoxBusiness)

SheBytes and Madison Technology were featured today on the homepage of Fox Business News in an article titled: Cloud à la Carte: 6 Ways to Order Off the Cloud.  In the article, I address the misconception that cloud computing is a one-size-fits-all service that’s more aptly suited to Fortune 500s with big IT budgets as compared to smaller shops with limited means. There are a smorgasbord of cloud options for businesses of any size and budget who want to capitalize on cloud services in their own unique way. Cloud doesn’t refer to one large umbrella service, it can be sliced up into smaller pieces to fit any business. 

December 20th, 2011 – Fox Business News

Featured on the Fox Business News Homepage at http://foxbusiness.com

IBM Business Agility (businessagility.com) feature (@IBMBizAgility)

If data security frustrates you, you’re not alone! With mobile device usage and cloud adaptation on the rise, people are accessing more and more data on the fly.  And with so much sensitive information dispersed and accessed across the internet, security has never been a more critical subject. I was quoted on the subject in a recent article title Protecting Data Through BPM, authored on BusinessAgility.com by my friend Pierre DeBois, Founder of Zimana, a consulting company that specializes in digital marketing.

December 15th, 2011 – Business Agility

Feature quote for Business Agility at http://businessagility.com 

Searching for a Cloud Computing Provider? Make sure you know what to look for!

While it’s important that you do your homework and shop around as you would for any product, picking a provider for Cloud Computing is an especially big decision; so SheBytes wants to give you the tips and secrets on what to pay attention to.

Every SMB must take advantage of powerful Cloud Computing. An SMB (small-midsize business), usually doesn’t have steady cash flow, one of the many reasons to go Cloud!

Although you hear the terms “Cloud Computing”, “Cloud”, “Cloud Solution”, “Moving to the Cloud” and “Cloud Desktop” everywhere, a vast amount of people still have absolutely no idea what this means.

Concur is a cloud based technology for receipts scanning and organizaing that makes life a bit more simple!

In technology, a lot of the time, success will be based on an individual’s or a company’s ability to recognize the wide applicability of a very basic overarching concept. The less complex and complicated the idea, the more probability there is that it can be executed exquisitely.  More often than not, this simplistic approach will find itself harnessing existent pieces of software, programming code and technology but the key is in using these gifts in order to come up with something creative and moreover; useful.

By first identifying some sort of lack, gap, inefficiency or opportunity for improvement in the surrounding society; the “cure”, so to speak, for this deficiency will come to fruition much more naturally and wholesomely.

Concur

Concur is the archetype of this business model.

There are many benefits to Cloud Computing! What are they? Our 6-part series of Bytes have covered them all: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.  To recap the series, SaaS (Software as a Service) delivers a complete application as a service, PaaS (Platform  as a Service) delivers a platform on which to develop an application, and IaaS (Infrastructure  as a Service) is application independent and delivers a computing infrastructure as a fully-outsourced service. 

DaaS (Desktop as a Service), what is it?  DaaS is a form of computing where your workstation is in the Cloud.  You connect to your virtual desktop, using any internet-connected device (even a thin-client, like a tablet or iPad).  What you see on your monitor is just a virtual image of the processing happening in a data center off-site.

Wondering what is Infrastructure as a Service? IaaS is the delivery of a full-featured, enterprise-grade, IT infrastructure (telephony, email, files and backup, mobile messaging, and remote access) as a fully-outsourced service, that is managed 24 x 365, by a highly-skilled team of professionals.  

A ‘what is’ guide to PaaS:  Platform as a Service is a development platform for application developers.  PaaS providers, like Google Aps Engine, allow the developer to write their own code and the PaaS provider uploads that code and presents it on the web.