Why Crowd Is the New Cloud

It seems like almost every day that a new structure of work is presented to the modern workforce. With options like freelancing and utilizing the “gig economy,” workers and employers have more options than ever when it comes to how we work, and how businesses can stay competitive in recruiting top talent as market demands increase.

One of the newest methods of work and in obtaining advanced skills is through crowd sourcing. The term itself is only 10 years old, and while utilizing the crowd is still a new idea, businesses taking advantage of this on-demand work format are seeing superior results in efficiency and cost savings.

While preliminary use of crowd sourcing has proven beneficial to workers and employers, as with any new idea or solution there can be a level of trepidation. When it comes to crowd sourcing, some of the fears and objections around why businesses are hesitant to implement this method of work are similar to ones heard a decade ago about using cloud computing solutions.

Similarities between cloud and crowd
Crowd sourcing offers proven benefits like flexibility, lower investment risk, and the ability to tap into global resources. In addition, crowd sourcing can also work as a pay-for-results based model, eliminating the risk of rework because of poor deliverable. Crowd sourcing can eliminate the need for costly on boarding of new talent or training updates when there is an increase in market demand. Accessing a crowd community means that workers will compete for the project presented, with the top talent and most advanced skill sets rising to the top.

Read More: http://recode.net/2015/12/02/why-crowd-is-the-new-cloud/

Integrating the cloud into your business

The benefits of the cloud are clear: these technologies help companies scale efficiently, reduce costs, reinforce security and provide faster services to customers. With many new players entering the cloud market, businesses have a range of options to build their ideal configurations. You can implement the cloud in full or in part. You can even stage your transition to the cloud over a number of years. You’re in control.

Even still, the decision-making process can be challenging. How do you manage initial costs? How do you ensure the same security levels as your on-premise systems. How do you know whether you’re choosing the right provider? Your due diligence process should start with the following questions.

What support will you need?
IT leaders and business owners will often jump to evaluating technology first. You want the best possible systems at the lowest possible costs. But how will you get these ideal configurations up and running? How will you make sure that your initial implementation positions you to grow?

You may have the resources and expertise that you need internally. If you don’t, however, you’ll want to find help from the outside.

“Understand support tiers and programs,” says Chris Merkle, founder at app development company Razur. “Do you need 24/7 support by email, from a dedicated tech support staff? During times of extreme growth, you do not want to deal with downtime: during such times you want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to someone.”

To start, you’ll need to understand how the cloud integrates with your development and IT needs. Does your team understand the hosting environment? Can you backup and migrate your data? Can you scale easily?

Read More : http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/11/04/integrating-the-cloud-into-your-business/

H-P Winds Down Cloud-Computing Project

Hewlett-Packard Co., after a five-year effort, has decided to shutter its cloud-computing competitor to Amazon.com’s AWS service.

The service, called Helion Public Cloud, will power down at the end of January, said Bill Hilf, H-P’s cloud chief.

Mr. Hilf said in an interview the company would focus on so-called private-cloud computing, enabling corporations to build their own AWS-type capabilities using servers they own rather than public-cloud offerings that use shared infrastructure. H-P will also help customers run their software on existing public-cloud services such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, he said.

“Our own public-cloud offering is not really a core area for us,” Mr. Hilf said.

By acting as a broker for other public-cloud services rather than as a competitor, H-P is playing to its strength as a seller of hardware and managed information-technology services, said Cassandra Mooshian, an analyst with Technology Business Research Inc. “This was a well-thought-out, strategically positive move,” she said in a research note published Thursday.

H-P is the latest of several companies to retreat after trying to challenge Amazon in the cloud. Dell Inc. in 2013 shut down its public-cloud business, and Rackspace Inc. announced earlier this year that it would no longer sell such services.

The move frees H-P to focus on its $28 billion hardware business, which is under threat. Hardware sales declined 1% in the company’s most-recent quarter, while on Thursday Amazon reported that its AWS unit scored year-on-year growth of 78%. The research firm Gartner Inc. said that the public cloud is outpacing corporate data centers in taking on new workloads as measured by computing capacity.

Read more : http://www.wsj.com/articles/h-p-winds-down-cloud-computing-project-1445624977