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Cloud Computing & Project Management

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Gartner predicts the worldwide market for cloud computing will reach USD 68.3

billion in 2010 itself, and will reach USD 148.8 billion by 2014. IDC predicts

that 10% of organizational IT budgets will go in favor of adopting the public

cloud, and according to Forrester, 44% of the organizations want to move the

private cloud way. If these figures are to be believed, then we're far from

being well prepared for it. Currently, there are too many announcements being

made related to cloud computing, with just about every vendor worth its name

hopping onto the bandwagon. This is creating more confusion than clarity amongst

prospective cloud computing adopters.

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So to eliminate all confusion and make India a global leader in the cloud

computing space, what's required is a global delivery model for bringing out

better, faster, and cheaper cloud computing products and services. One way to

make this possible would be for the industry to come together and bring out a

set of best practices by using effective project management techniques. This was

essentially the objective of a conference conducted by PMI in Bangalore on

August 7, 2010. It was the first one in a multi-city series, which brought

together thought leaders from the cloud computing vendors space.

“The Indian govt. has incurred losses in excess of Rs 50,000 Cr for all

their projects above Rs 25 Cr+, just due to project delays”, explains Raj

Kalady, MD, PMI India
V Srinivas Rao (VSR), Chairman PMI Team India sensitizes the audience about

the event's theme: Journey to transform India into a global leader in cloud

computing by leveraging project management.
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Developing new cloud computing products, apps, and services



There are a lot of questions that come to mind while adopting cloud

computing based products and applications. These need to be addressed in a

logical way, so that the future products that get developed on this technology

eliminate these complaints. Thought leaders in the cloud computing space came

together in a panel discussion and gave relevant examples from their own areas.

Cloud aware Web apps: Shouvick Mukherjee of Yahoo! India R&D gave

examples of how they were developing cloud computing based web apps for their

business. An interesting example of how it should work on the web involves a

cricket match. When the match is live, there's heavy traffic on the site,

requiring very high hardware utilization, but when the match is over, hardware

utilization drops drastically. A traditional app would take hours to make this

transition, which is why it's important to develop a “cloud aware” web app.

Requirement analysis changes: Hemanth Dattatreya of HP said that the

whole requirements analysis process changes with cloud computing. He compared

the IT industry to what the electricity industry was when it started. Each

organization generated its own electricity, and there were multiple types of

voltages (AC/DC), different levels of current, etc. Gradually, electricity was

centralized, and standards emerged, so people would simply plug devices into

wall outlets without worrying about which generator was being used at the

back-end, where it was located, etc. It only mattered that the electrical or

electronic device should work, and the user would get billed for the electricity

it consumed. Cloud Computing is taking the IT industry in a similar direction,

with things getting centralized. So users don't have to worry about the

underlying hardware, specs, etc. They just get a platform on which their

applications would work, irrespective of the scale. They would get billed

according to the application usage.

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Cloud Computing for govt: Ashok Srinivasan of Microsoft spoke of

building a Cloud Computing platform for the Indian govt, among other things.



Centralize your developer resources: With 17 million customers doing 1.7 million
music downloads and demanding more apps, Nokia could not afford to have its huge

developer team spread across the globe, and working on different platforms and

not talking to each other. It centralized its development platform using the

PaaS (Platform as a Service) model. This made developing newer applications

easier and more cost effective, said Dr Satyan Coorg of Nokia.

“The entire world is moving to a subscription-based model, where 80-85% of

the cost goes into subscription, and the rest goes in implementation and

support.” says Pawan Sharma, President, Integrated Enterprise Solutions,

KPIT Cummins.

Cloud based apps should simplify IT: The IT infrastructure across most

organizations is extremely complex. People often get caught in defining detailed

specs to run different apps. If Cloud Computing products are used, it can

simplify life, said Niranjan Maka of VMware. He said that if you want to get

from point A to point B in a city, it doesn't matter what type of technology is

being used by the vehicle you use, nor do you worry about its engine's horse

power, type of fuel, etc. That's how the IT infrastructure should also be, which

is possible by building Cloud Computing products that simplify the IT

infrastructure.

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A very interactive audience bringing forth key points on cloud computing,

whether it was on agile development practices, requirements analysis, cloud

computing to help social causes for the govt, and many other things.

The world is moving to a subscription-based model: As far as services

are concerned, there's a shift being seen toward a subscription-based model.

This was the clear message from Pawan Sharma of KPIT Cummins. The traditional

way that business functions in any organization involves multiple layers:

network, hardware, middleware, apps, process layer, and finally the stake

holders on top. These stake holders drive the business and want to improve their

processes. For this, they define the process in the process layer, choose the

application that would automate this process, and then choose the middleware,

and so an and so forth.

A fruitful discussion on how project management can be the key to establish

the best practices for making new cloud computing products, applications,

and solutions better, faster, and cheaper. The participants (from L to R)

were: Anil Chopra, Editor PCQuest (Moderator); Niranjan Maka, VMware; Dr.

Satyan Coorg, Nokia; Ashok Srinivasan, Microsoft; Hemanth Dattatreya, HP;

and Shouvick Mukherjee, Yahoo! India R&D
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How to bring out Cloud Computing enabled IT services by following project

management best practices, the lessons to be learnt and their impact on a

global delivery model. The participants (from L to R): V Srinivas Rao

(Moderator), Chairman PMI Team India, Venugopalan Dorair, Dell; Gopal

Pingali, IBM; Abhijit Shroff, Infosys; Y K Maheshwari, Mphasis; and Pawan

Sharma, KPIT Cummins.

The new model does away with this. Now, when consumers want a server, they

don't want to bother about the underlying infrastructure. It's like selling a

subscription and getting the device free with it, or buying a set top box and

getting the TV free with it. Suddenly, the cost of the device itself becomes

immaterial. It comes free with the service, because that's what the consumer is

interested in paying. So going forward, 80-85% of the cost would go toward

subscription, the rest would go in cost of device, support, etc. This completely

changes the way you see a project and size the activity. It requires a change in

thinking, re-skilling of manpower, etc.



Y K Maheshwari of Mphasis compared this shift to services-based model in a very
interesting manner, and how it's bringing innovation down to the individual

level. He said that earlier, innovation used to be done within the closed walls

of a corporate office by stuffy people who had the money. Then, it moved to SMEs

who would try to be innovative without having the necessary funds. Now, it's

moved to the individual level, where entrepreneurs are driving the change. Look

at all the app stores for instance. They have apps developed by individuals,

who're now vying to make their apps popular and profitable. The cloud has moved

things from the ground to the cloud, he said. It has empowered everyone to run

their own businesses individually.

Anil Chopra

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