Is Cloud Data Storage right for you?

Many companies carry several Tera Bytes of archive data. Data that is no longer active and almost never used, but must be saved and stored for legal or regulatory purpose or just in the hope that some information may be needed in future. Archive data keeps growing by exponentially as number of employees and number of interactions increase. The growth in data volumes can overwhelm the IT staff in small or medium size companies - leading to runaway costs and management efforts.

With ever increasing costs and complexity of archiving huge amounts of data - IT departments are continuously looking for ways to simplify data archival and storage - both in terms of managing complexity and costs.

Enter the Cloud

Cloud storage offers a new opportunity to bring storage costs and management challenges under control. By archiving data to the cloud, organizations can reduce not only the amount of storage capacity that they need to purchase, but also the operational overhead involved in managing it. In addition, the cloud enables storage capacity to be increased on demand, while charging only for the amount of storage that is actually utilized.

There are very compelling reasons to store archival data in the cloud while giving management capability Cloud storage offers some unique benefits which include: The same capabilities that are required to integrate cloud storage into existing environments can also offer benefits in traditional environments. These benefits include:

1. Reduced storage costs. 
2. Optimized backup infrastructure. 
3. Increased operational flexibility with lower overhead. 
4. Flexibility to easily integrate cloud and other new technologies when  and where appropriate.

Cloud Storage will provide unlimited, scalable, reliable and secure data storage  These scenarios share a few common factors:

1. Large size storage 
2. Storage size keeps growing but needs to be accessed relatively infrequently
3. Data Storage must be secure and reliable.

A cloud-enabled infrastructure can help your organization maximize the capital and operational cost savings from cloud storage. In addition, it enables the flexibility to seamlessly integrate the cloud when ready.

Typical Use Cases for Online Data Archival

1. The government rules or Industry norms require companies to store all data  for a long period of time. This data may never be accessed or viewed, unless there is a planned audit or verification need.
2. Companies have a huge mail archive, which is required for reference only. The entire email archive can run into several Tera bytes and it is a huge in-house storage cost for your organization because you have to back it up, and ensure its availability and data security.
3. Companies have a huge stack of documents and they are required only once a year for reference. Documents of former (retired/resigned) employees. These documents are for internal HR system references. They might be used only when an employee is rehired or when a reference check is required.
4. Companies have a big Supply chain management or ERP system, which has millions of transactions. The ERP or transaction systems are generating thousands of POs, SOWs and other documents every day and this needs to be archived and stored for auditing at the end of each month.

This type of data can run into several tera bytes and it is required to be stored for business and legal purposes. And if this data is not frequently used, then it is best to be archived with a cloud service provider.

Factors to be considered

There are three factors that needs to be considered before opting for a cloud data storage:

1. Cost & Data Security

One good reason for customers to migrate to cloud storage is costs. Cloud storage service providers can leverage economics of scale and better data compression, data deduplication and data security technologies - which can lead to lower costs when compared to in-house data storage. For example, cutting edge data deduplication can give 50-to-1 reduction in data volume that needs to be archived. But such data deduplication technology is expensive and requires a high level of in-house technical expertise

Data security is another major concern for companies. When Chinese army hacking networks  to steal industrial secrets, small and midsize companies cannot afford to fight alone in the ever escalating cyberwar. So it is best to align with the big & best cloud service providers who can afford to deploy the best cyber security systems.

Also see:
1. Security group suspects Chinese military is behind hacking attacks
2. Chinese Hack Attacks Grow More Professional, Persistent

Amazon Glacier service is priced at $0.01 per GB! This price is lower than the total costs incurred by a midsize enterprise. Also since the archived data is deduplicated, encrypted and stored off-line, Amazon can offer a higher level of security than most mid-sized enterprises. Only the top fortune-100 companies can afford in-house data storage that can match Amazon's costs and security.

Please note that Cloud storage costs involves network bandwidth costs and other costs. So watch out for other hidden costs: data access costs, data migration fees and both internal/external support costs.

2. Technical viability - Time to data store and retrieval

Online data storage requires heavy network bandwidth and it takes time to store data. Companies must have technical capability to centralize and manage online data storage. The cloud based data storage system must be able to scale - both in terms of data volumes and network bandwidth to match the growth of data volumes begin sent for storage. Companies must have the ability to store huge volumes of data and retrieve it quickly when needed. This calls for certain capabilities at the customer IT skills and network bandwidths. Data deduplication at source can reduce the total volume of data transferred to the cloud.

Data retrieval is another major challenge - since archival data is stored off-line, it takes time to restore from the remote back up and it involves higher costs. Cloud service provides typically charge a much higher fee for data retrieval. So in case of disaster recovery, online cloud storage will take longer time to restore normal operations.

3. Legal & contractual aspects

Cloud data storage has its benefits in terms of lower costs and greater reliability & flexibility. But storing data in the cloud has several disadvantages and risks. Apart from the obvious risk of unintended breach of security and loss of sensitive data to hackers, (see the case of Sony and Honda) leading to severe losses on privacy and intellectual property.

When the cloud service provider is hacked and your company's precious data is lost, then your company is at legal risks from law suits from customers and vendors.

Cloud computing will also increase legal risks as well. All data stored in US location or stored with an American firm - such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, RackSpace, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com, HP, IBM, etc., is subject to American laws, thus US government can access your data - and you can do nothing about it and watch as a  mere spectator.

According to Gordon Frazer, the managing director of Microsoft UK, he could not guarantee that data stored on Microsoft servers, wherever located, would not end up in the hands of the US government, because Microsoft, a company based in the United States, is subject to US laws, including the Patriot Act. (Source: http://www.mayerbrown.com/publications/article.asp?id=12057 )

US government can demand access to your company's data under Patriot Act or other acts, and the cloud service provider is bound to provide that data without your consent! According to the current rules: An entity that is subject to US jurisdiction and is served with a valid subpoena must produce any documents within its "possession, custody, or control."

That means that an entity that is subject to US jurisdiction must produce not only materials located within the United States, but any data or materials it maintains in its branches or offices anywhere in the world. The entity even may be required to produce data stored at a non-US subsidiary. This also implies that, all companies that have a branch office in the US are subjected under US Patriot Act - thus US government can get access to your data even if the data is hosted outside US and by a non-US company - if that company has a branch office in the USA.

This provisions in the US law is a big risk. US Government has the means and ways to decrypt your data and then pursue legal actions or even covertly pass that data to other US competitors.

Risk increases further when you realize the fact that other countries can also pass similar laws in future.

Storing data in the cloud has several legal risks. The best solution is not to store sensitive or valuable data in the cloud.

Also See:  Big Legal Risks with Cloud Computing

Closing Thoughts

Cloud storage to archive data is a cost saving option for mid sized organization. Cloud storage offers lower costs and greater flexibility while reducing technical complexity - but it also increases risks of data loss and legal issues that can result by other accessing your precious data.

Office Space - The First hurdle for any Entrepreneur

It is a typical story of any entrepreneur: First start the company and run the business from home, taste the initial success and then comes the first hurdle - finding an office space.  In case of retail business, finding the right retail space itself is "the" first challenge. When it comes to retail business - be it a small shop or bakery or restaurant, there are three important factors: Location, Location & Location.

Recently, I had a chat with an entrepreneur - who is into specialty foods. She currently has a great location for her store in Jayanagar 4th Block, right on the main street! But then she has to move her store because the landlord is demanding a much higher rent than what her cash flows can afford. After all there is no point in toiling hard for a business - only to give away all the profits in rent.

Choosing the right space for a business is a huge decision. Especially for start-ups and small business owners and taken with great due diligence.

There are three major aspects when it comes to choosing an office space.

1. How much you can afford?

For a start-up the office space represents costs. If its a plug and play facility - i.e., one with all office furniture and networking done in such a way that one can just walk in and start operations. In India there are plug and play facility that costs Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 per seat per month. But most facilities in India may not be a plug and play type, so one also needs to set it up and in such cases the tenant must bear the cost of doing up the place. The cost of doing up the interiors may wary from Rs 1000 per square feet to 3500 per square feet, Since this is a rented space - you are expected to take out all the furnishings when you vacate the space. In some cases the landlord may pay for a part of the costs incurred towards the office interiors.

For a startup, one need not look at regular office spaces. To keep the costs low, one can opt for a basement, a garage or even renting a house. Such kind of non-regular spaces will help to keep the costs low during the early stages when cash is difficult to come by. For example, both Apple and HP started in a car garage, while Marc Zekerberg rented a house in Palo Alto.

Here in India, Infosys operated out of Naryan Murthy's house for the early years.

Entrepreneurs must plan out how much they can afford first and then start looking around for places that meet their budget. For startups that are moving out of their initial incubation centers, be it universities or garages or basements, the budget is greatly influenced by the amount of office space needed. It is easy to overestimate growth and sign-up a lease for much larger space - but that involves high costs. So one has to be prudent about it. Take only the amount of space needed for next one year and avoid over renting. Negotiate a shorter lease terms for flexibility. For example have a lease agreement for one year with an option of extending the lease for 3 years and/or options to rent additional space as your business grows.

When it comes to renting a proper office for the first time, one needs to consider other charges apart from the basic rent: Utilities (power, water, etc.) and Common Area Maintenance. Ensure that you have understood all the charges and have planned for it in your cash flow plans. Better still negotiate all charges upfront and have it clearly documented in the lease agreement. This gives you the flexibility and lower upfront costs.

2. How much do you need?

How much office space is needed is primarily driven by the business plan. Based on the business plan, number of employees and hence the total space needed can be planned out. The amount of space needed can be optimized by having flexi seating and having mobile workers. Today, employees tend to bring their own laptop and Internet connections - and in many cases are willing to work from home and they can come to office only when needed.

3. Which Location?

Once the budget is worked out and the amount of space is known, then it is time to work out the location. Location often becomes an outcome of the budget and amount of space. Renting an old office space or at the outskirts of the city could be cheaper than renting a new office space. So shop around and choose the location that best meets your needs.

There are few factors that need to be considered while selecting the location. The top priority will be availability of labor. Are employees willing to come and work in that location? What about the safety and security of the location? These issues have to be addressed  by choosing a proper location which has the required office that meets your budget, and a place employees are happy work.

Closing Thoughts

Choosing a right office space is critical for a startup and typically one will need help of Realtors (real estate agents) who can comb the available options and show you the ones that might fit your needs. It also makes sense to get the lease agreement reviewed by a lawyer to prevent nasty surprises and unnecessary litigation.

Product Review: Blackberry® 10

Recently, I got my hands on the new Blackberry® 10 and I was very much impressed with it. If I were to summarize the new Blackberry® 10, I would say that it is a bold new approach to the mobile lifestyle.

Blackberry z10 was launched in India on February 25th for $800 or Rs. 43,490/-  plus taxes, so the final price will be around Rs 50,000/-, which make Z10 a very expensive for BYOD usage.

Today mobile phones have gone far beyond being a communication device. Today, Smartphone is now a lifestyle necessity - just like electricity and Internet. And in that context, Blackberry® had taken the right step with Blackberry® 10.

Unlike Apple, Android, and Microsoft, RIM has built Blackberry® 10 for a secure mobile cloud computing experience. The Blackberry® Enterprise Server 10 (BES10) is well integrated with BB10 for better management and security. The best part of BES 10 is that it can handled both Andriod & iOS devices as well. BES10 is the key differentiator and source of significant competitive advantage of Blackberry®.

To begin with Blackberry® has extensively borrowed good ideas from competition and has even improved on it. The touch interface is good and responsive, the display is also on par with other smart phones. But what impressed me the most about Blackberry® is that the entire phone seems to be redesigned with the user in mind. Unlike Windows 8 - which was built from the technology perspective, the Blackberry® 10 - system is built with the enterprise customer in mind - a classic example of customer centric product design.

BB10 is not just a phone OS. From the first looks it is clear that Blackberry® has designed BB10 to work with a wide range of mobile devices - tablets, & other handheld devices that will follow. Blackberry® 10 could easily replace the QNX OS as a powerful mobile computing solution for cars and other transportation platforms. We will see several interesting use cases for BB10 in the years to come.  Blackberry® has also floated the idea of licensing BB10 to third parties - this implies that BB10 can be used with other nonstandard mobile devices - such as order taking hand held devices, GPS, Handheld programmers, debug tools etc..

There are five areas where BB10 has got it right.

1. BES10 Integration & Device Management

BB10 is designed with integration to BES10 and device management. Blackberry® designers have listened to their core customers i.e., enterprises and has really designed a better device management platform. To provide both security & flexibility while giving control to enterprise users. Enterprise customers can have centralized and unified management of all mobile devices under one single platform. The ability of BES10 to support policy based management for mobile devices simplifies management and allows a very high salability in the numbers of devices managed.

Blackberry® leverages its trusted & secure infrastructure with BES10 to create a safe & secure communication network for mobile devices.  Enterprise customer can choose their levels of control on the devices - based on their specific needs and craft policy based device management systems with BES10.

2. Blackberry® Balance

Blackberry® Balance is another path breaking feature. Today people use smart phones for both corporate and personal purposes, creating a division within the device for personal and official purpose, an idea borrowed from Nokia and improved upon it.

My old Nokia E71 had two profiles a "Work" profile and "Personal" profile - but both profiles shared the same Apps and data. Also Nokia Symbian OS did not have a Mobile device management system to secure enterprise data.

Blackberry® Balance is a well thought out feature. BB10 completely separates the work and personal apps and data so that you can't accidentally cut and paste from a work email to your personal account or mix up your business and personal apps.  When a business app is active, personal apps are grayed out and vice-versa. Blackberry® has even created two separate App World stores!

The real value of  Blackberry® Balance is when employees bring their own device (BOYD) to work, when an employee leaves, the IT department can wipe the enterprise section of the phone, leaving the personal section intact, and critical business data safe with the company.

Right now, no other phone system offers this level of separation, security and flexibility. Blackberry®10 is designed with BYOD culture in mind.  This is a significant jump from other Smartphone platforms. Apple and Android will have to catch up quickly - or lose market share.

3. Blackberry® Screen Share

Screen Share is another good idea copied from the PC domain, namely WebEx or Internet meeting tools. As smart phone users start using their smart phones or tablets as their primary computing device, customers would like to share their screens with others during meetings or for any collaboration. Today with a globally dispersed workforce and crowd-sourcing and mobile workforce - there is a bigger need to share. Bringing the ability to share the user screen is a very good feature to have.

Users can also do video chat with the encrypted security of Blackberry Messenger. This is again a good feature copied from PC domain and improved with Blackberry encryption security to provide a secure video conferencing capabilities on the mobile platform.

Blackberry® Screen Share is a feature borrowed from the PC domain and well executed in the mobile space. I guess this feature will be more valuable in tablets and large screen mobiles of the future.

4. Business Application

Understanding that companies are the prime customers for Blackberry® and corporate customers would like to have dedicated enterprise apps for their employees, Blackberry® has created development kit, development portal and storefront to easily port, develop, integrate, deploy, secure and manage enterprise apps for business.

Customer can develop business apps that can be managed via BES10 and Blackberry® Balance. This clear segmentation helps companies to develop enterprise apps for mobiles with security in mind and not worry about employees walking away with business applications.

This may appear as a simple extension of existing SDKs, but BB10 is taking it to a new level - opening up a big opportunity for enterprise IT teams to fully embrace the mobile platform as a complete solution to deliver enterprise IT solutions. With  Blackberry Business Application, companies can create their own file sharing systems for mobiles, their own ERP systems on mobiles etc.. In short, Blackberry® Business Application will create an enterprise 'Intranet' world for business apps.

5. Blackberry hub and Gesture based user Interface

The blackberry hub is an innovative feature that clubs all communication apps in one place. An intuitive way to help users respond to various communications:- Email, BBM, SMS, Social Networks, chat, IM etc..

Personally I do not think too much of the hub, and the same functionality has been provided in other smart phones in different ways - but blackberry has been able to standardize it into a form of universal Inbox. Users who use multiple emails, BBM, SMS, IM etc. will find this useful, but can also overwhelm the users. I guess that the Hub will evolve into a much better interface in future releases.

For me, the best innovation in user interface is the gesture based UI. This is another good idea copied from the web browsers - which introduced mouse gestures for navigation, and improved it for the mobile platform.

The gesture based navigation and user interface is a big help in moving between multiple apps and multitasking. Though the multitasking function is not new to smart phones and the limited screen size of phones is a blocker - but on a tablet this could be very valuable.

Other UI features worth noting in BB10 is the new touch screen Key pad  with predictive text - which makes typing easy just like on Android phones and the Active Tiles idea borrowed from Windows 8, but its not really active tiles - but displays app related information in the tile.

Note worthy Feature: Home Screen & Usability

The home screen has three buttons at the bottom:  Phone, Search, and Camera. At the top of the screen is the standard stuff: time, battery, cell phone radio signal level and it still has the classic blinking LED.

BB10 retains its classic email & calendar application - which is far superior than the email & calendar apps in iPhone or Android. Outlook for Windows 8 has a better email & calendar app.
Multitasking is another area where BB10 beats iPhone. Every app is fully running in the background and is not paused like in iPhone or Android. But this has a major impact on the battery life - especially, if you have an active web browser open in the background.

Usability of BB10 is vastly superior than other Smart phone platforms - mainly due to use of gestures. A half swipe from the left screen edge shows all communication alerts.

User Apps

Blackberry has the third largest number of Apps in the mobile world, and Blackberry has taken extraordinary steps to get Andriod apps ported to BB10 platform via App port-a-thon contests and BB10 uses the same Java framework as Andriod - which makes it easy top port apps from Andriod to BB10. All the popular apps are already present for BB10 and over the next year I expect BB10 app platform to be almost on par with other platforms, and even beat iPhone and Andriod when it comes to enterprise apps.

Entertainment & Games Apps are not the strong point in BB10, the choice of music or movie or video apps is limited and so are the number of providers. Kindle and Kindle store is yet to be supported on BB10 (at the time of writing). Apple's iTunes and Goggle YouTube Apps are much better in an iPhone. But then average BB10 users are not heavy users of entertainment or games. If BB10 wants to become a leader in Smart Phones, then Blackberry will have to work hard in the area of user entertainment.

My Verdict

From all aspects, BB10 OS is designed to be more than a smart phone - it is designed as a complete mobile computing platform. BB10 is designed for business users in mind - for people who use emails, calendar, BBM, IM, Web Meetings, VPN etc.. BB10 along with BES10 provides for a well managed mobile platform for safe and secure communications.

The Z10 handset is well designed and is on par with its competition: iPhone5, or Samsung Galaxy S3

As a smart phone, BB10 has good Apps, an innovative & intuitive user interface. All this makes BB10 a very attractive handset for the business users - both corporate and small business owners - who value secure & reliable communications.  But BB10 falls short for the non-business users. Poor entertainment & gaming apps, higher price, inferior camera, and lower display quality when compared to Samsung Galaxy S3, or Nexus phones or iPhone5.

Summing it up: I would use BB10 only if business communication is my number one priority. For entertainment or gaming or lifestyle statement purpose - I would go with Galaxy S3 or Note2 or iPhone5.

Currently I have an iPhone 4 and will not change to Blackberry10, unless my employer buys and give one to me. At Rs 50,000 including taxes, Blackberry Z10 is in the same price range as Apple iPhone5 and Samsung S3. In addition, there is the Blackberry service premium of Rs 12,000 per year. At that price, Blackberry Z10 is way too expensive for a BYOD - especially when there is no special feature for the end user. The real value of Blackberry10 is for the enterprise with BES10 management.

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Product Management in Total Customer Experience

Today, the success of products is based on total customer experience - TCE.  As a product manager one has to look at all aspects of the product's usage by the customer and look at means to enhance the total customer experience.

In most products, there are six distinct stages the customer goes through when he buys a product:

1. Purchase
2. Installation
3. Integration
4. Usage
5. Maintenance
6. Disposal or Upgrades

Product managers will have to think through each of the six stages and optimize the product for enhancing the total customer experience. In this article, I will walk over the critical issues that every product manger should consider.

Purchase

Purchase of a product is never an easy decision. Only in case of few consumer products - there may be an impulsive purchase, but for most products, customers do think over the options, weigh in the benefits before they buy. So as a product manager, one has to look at customer experience even before customers buy the product. Here, I would like to take Apple as an shining example. Apple created a world wide chain of Apple stores  - where customers can walk in, experience the product, know more about the product and even test the product. Customers can ask questions and get clarifications.

Typically, purchase decision is influenced by:

1. Product Demos - Customers want to see the product at work and solving real life problems . (or meeting real life needs). In case of enterprise products, customers would like to extensively test the product before buying. Customers would also like to see a live demo of the product to see how the product feels and works.
2. Pricing or Total Cost of OwnershipCustomers would like to know the total cost of ownership - which helps them compare with similar products. Companies must address these issues upfront and make it easy for customers to purchase the product.
   
   
3. Ease of Purchase. Customers would like to know where and how they can buy the product? Who the sales partners are? How quickly can they buy the product? How accessible and attractive is the place of purchase?
   
   
4. Security of purchase. Buyer's remorse is quite common. Customers want to know that the product they are buying is genuine. Customers must feel safe when they buy and must not feel cheated. Also in case the customer wants to return the product, then customer must get an assurance of a full refund. If customer does not feel safe about the purchase, then he is not likely to buy the product.  

The ease of purchase plays a very important role in purchase decision. Product managers must address these issues by working with sales teams and ensure customers have a happy buying experience.

Apple & Dell are the best examples using the purchase experience as a differentiator. The Apple stores are classy and unique - which appeals to the buyers with a no-pressure sales. While Dell's online sales portal for customized PC's was a big hit with customers.

Installation

Once the product is purchased, then customers' main concern is how to install it?

In case of consumer products, the installation procedure must be simple and easy. Here again,  I would like to use Apple as an ideal example for ease of installation, while Linux is at the other end of customer friendliness.

Complex enterprise products will need professionals who can install the product for customer. Customers' experience during the install process: Timeliness, professionalism and no hassle installation adds immense value to the product.

Integration

All products work in an ecosystem. So customers look at how easy it is to integrate the product. For example, I case of cell phones - customers want to know which Apps are supported?

In case of enterprise software, integration with the existing ecosystems is critical. So customers are interested in knowing the ease of integration, cost of integration and time for integration. For enterprise customers integration of the new product with the existing ecosystem is a critical parameter. The entire user experience during the integration phase defines the customer expectations in the actual use/operations of the product.

HP's WebOS based TouchPad & Blackberry Playbook is a classic example of poor integration - which eventually led to its demise.

Usage

The actual User eXperience (UX) with the product play a big role in the overall customer experience. In case of consumer products - the ease of use is of paramount importance in customer satisfaction and repeat purchases. But also note that having a poor integration with the ecosystem leads to a poor user experience - no matter how great the actual user interface is. Depending on the actual user experience, customers may choose to continue using the product and even upgrade to a newer (better ) version or buy multiple units. So knowing the actual usage and improving the user experience of the product in actual use constitutes 80% of product management focus.

The customer experience during the actual usage of the product is primarily driven by: UI (User Interface), Functionality, Ergonomics, & Usability (Usability refers to the ease with which a new user can use the product) . For consumer products, Ergonomics and UI play a very important role, while for enterprise products, it is usually Functionality and Usability.  Training is often necessary to improve the usability of the product - so companies such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft etc. have created extensive training systems to train the actual users.

In today's world, the software UX is increasingly driven by 'Touch" interface and intuitive use.

Maintenance

Maintenance of the product also plays an important role in Total Cost of Ownership and customer experience. All products need some form of  regular maintenance like routine oil changes in a car. Maintenance is often compared to sharpening of the ax blade - for better productivity.

From a product perspective, customer demand lower cost of maintenance and faster turnaround for all maintenance activities. This could mean - Push install which does not require user intervention in software or having on-site maintenance crew for industrial products.

Maintenance is one activity - where the customers come in close contact with the producer after the original sale. So this is a valuable touch point that can be used to collect feedback and take corrective actions in case of manufacturing defects. In the world of software, companies routinely release patches and service packs to deliver bug fixes and minor enhancements.

Disposal or Upgrades

All products have a definite life span and they have to be disposed after that. Disposing a product is often times just as complex as buying a new product - especially in physical products - Computers or industrial machinery. Increasingly, environmental regulations create challenges in disposing old products. So companies are offering a buy-back schemes to solve the problem for customers.

In case of software, the database generated by the software during its regular use will have to be migrated to new software - which is replacing the current one. The ease at which one can upgrade or dispose a product is increasingly becoming critical - so much so, that the buying decision is often strongly influenced by disposal/upgrade costs/efforts.

Closing Thoughts

Success of products is based on total customer experience (TCE) during the life cycle of the product.  As a product manager one has to look at all aspects of the product's usage by the customer and look at various means to enhance the total customer experience and thus increase sales and profitability.