David Akka Blog

Freedom Through The Hybrid Cloud

2009 was definitely the year of cloud-education, although many companies are still prudent to act on the cloud. This prudence is born from a number of issues, such as where to start, security risks, organization readiness and lack of standards and industry consensus. We also learned that some enterprises see the utilization of cloud environments verses their own internal environments as an "either or" concept. However, this does not necessarily need to be the case. For many companies the number one reason for moving to the cloud is for economic benefit. Other reasons such as, simplicity, connectivity with remote users, elasticity and flexibility definitely dominate the discussion.

We see companies trying to benefit from some of the above in the form of their own "private clouds". What most have not considered is that a hybrid-cloud approach can also contribute and help them to achieve these benefits, regardless of whether we look at private or public clouds. We see more and more companies talking about private clouds, which in essence is nonsense; why is this? Because the whole point of a cloud is to consume services rather than own and maintain infrastructure, in much the same way we do when consuming utilities. This has taught us about companies' attitudes and concerns with regard to cloud technologies. On the one hand they want to take advantage of as many cloud benefits as they can, but without putting their businesses at risk and therefore; owning part of the solution.

 

So what do we mean by a hybrid model? This is the ability to create enterprise business applications that span across both on-premise infrastructure and cloud infrastructures (regardless of whether this is private or public) and without the need to worry about how to create such solutions. This enables companies that are not yet entirely comfortable keeping their "crown jewels" on a public cloud, to start immediately benefiting from all other areas of the cloud that they are willing to embrace. As time passes and confidence builds these companies will be able to transfer more and more of their business logic, with relative ease, to the cloud.

In 2009 we spoke with many CTOs, IT Managers and ISVs, and were invited to demonstrate and pilot this concept to them. Most of whom were keen on the idea of developing applications on platforms that can be deployed both on-premise and off-premise, or in combinations of both. One such example of this that we are currently investigating for one of our prospects is, taking their invoicing model for their Accounting package (create invoice, print invoice, amend invoice and so on) into the cloud. This allows their salesforce and administration teams to work remotely from home or on mobile devises, but also keeps their General Ledger model, forecasting and reconciliation within the safety of the enterprise.

We also found another interesting aspect of the hybrid model that many customers, such as banks, local governments, the NHS and so on, need because of their regulatory, compliance and governance requirements. Some organizations are required by law to own, manage and maintain the data repository of their solutions due to regulatory standards, such as data protection, Basel II and so on. By providing a solution that allows them to put their entire application logic on the cloud while keeping all the database on-premise, within the concept of a data vault, accessed by secure VPN links from the application platform proves to be the only solution that meets their needs and requirements.

Magic Software's uniPaaS Application Platform allows organizations to develop enterprise business solutions that can span between on-premise, off-premise, desk-top and mobile devises without the need to worry about which bits go where and provides the flexibility and functions to each of the environments at any given time. For example, when designing and deploying the solution there is no need to pre-determine what runs where. uniPaaS enables organizations that have current software development needs, to start building applications without the need to worry about how to deploy and can therefore make the decision to move to the cloud when they are ready.

How relevant are pure-cloud platforms for the real business world?

At the end of 2009, Magic Software attended the Business Cloud 9 Summit and as a result, I was recently asked by them to provide an industry view for an article debating the relevance of pure-cloud platforms in the 'real business world'. The article looks at the issues currently facing ISV's looking to deploy on multiple platforms and how best to achieve this.

Ultimately, the article debates the cost effectiveness for ISV's of continuing to develop for on-premise (client/server) applications against the new breed of Cloud applications, and also highlights the benefits of using hybrid-SEAP platforms, such as Magic Software's uniPaaS. 

Click here to read the full article and let me know your thoughts.

Magic Software is "On the Radar"

A while ago I met with Bola Rotibi the Principal IT Analyst at MWD Advisors to talk about Magic Software, our products, who they're geared to and what the vision is for Magic Software in the future.

Ms Rotibi asked some hard-hitting questions, which included areas for improvement and explored why Magic Software's uniPaaS is seen as a new breed of application platform. Here's a snippet of the article, which I recommend taking a look at - it makes for an interesting read. 

Why is uniPaaS interesting?

"As an application platform, uniPaaS is part of the new wave of what MWD refers to as "Managed Development Environments", that are leveraging strong history and credentials in RAD development environments (e.g. 4GL and CASE)."

"The single programming model, framework and code base allows developers to easily incorporate and implement RIA-based technology into their applications whilst at the same time employ a SaaS delivery model and the ability to deploy to a mobile device platform".

To access the full piece click here - Registration is free.

Magic Software UK Christmas Newsletter is Here!

Welcome to Magic UK's last newsletter for 2009 - The Christmas edition of the Magic Software UK quarterly newsletter.

This year has been a particularly challenging one, with many economic adversities for us all to overcome. It's also been one of the most exciting years I can remember. 2009 has seen many advances in the IT industry with the rise of Cloud-based computing and the innovation and change this is bringing to the way we work, socialise and communicate with those around us. Magic Software has been at the forefront of this innovation with the developments in uniPaaS Cloud and uniPaaS Mobile technologies. More innovation was introduced into iBOLT this year, mainly new components, such as Microsoft Dynamics, Lotus Notes and Sharepoint. These are exciting times and it is with anticipation that I look forward to 2010.

Click image to view newsletter

 

 

The Thin & Thick Client Conundrum

I started working with computers over 20 years ago. I have been working with mainframe systems, digital (does anyone remember them today?), PCs on DOS, Windows, AS/400, Solaris, AIX, Linux and Internet technology - you name it I've probably at one point of time played with it: From coding assembly on 3270 machines to using uniPaaS on a virtual environment and simulating multi-tenancy issues with Magic Software latest SaaS offering.

One of the issues that I kept noticing and over my 20 years experience that kept popping-up , each time in a different way, shape or forum, was "the client conundrum": On one hand enterprises require desktop technologies that have low maintenance, are centrally managed and controlled and centrally secured; but on the other hand, would have the highest functionality available, such as partitioning of logic, synchronisation of data, seamless coupling between client and server, and so on. Yes you probably know this blog entry is about the fat and the thick client conundrum...

It was when I was asked by Business Computer World (BCW) to comment on industry trends that I thought I'd use this as a chance to talk about these issues. Of course, the company I work for, Magic Software, are passionate about technological changes and strongly believe that people don't need to compromise between thin and fat clients. Magic Software believes that enterprises can, in respect of desktop clients, have their cake and eat it. To have both, high functionality, logic and data portioning, de-coupling between the client and the server client technology but with low management and maintenance, self installation and tight security attributes. We call it the Fit Client, which in essence is a desktop like client (.net based), that runs over HTTP.

To find out more about the Magic Software Fit Client, take a look at the full article I wrote for BCW and, I would love to hear your comments....

Do you remember that great Wonder Bra advert on London's Buses?

Advertising on London transport has been around for years. I definitely remember the huge Wonder Bra advert on the back of London's buses and have you all seen the new multimedia advertising screens on the tube? It's all about eye catching advertising, but I bet you didn't know that it's a logistical nightmare to run and manage all these advertisements. It isn't a simple case of sticking an advertisement on a bill board; the right advertising needs to reach the right audience. Companies pay huge sums of money to secure these highly sort after spaces. The last thing you want is to appear twice in one place, or worse still, next to a competitor! CBS Outdoor are the people behind all the advertisements you see, but did you know they use Magic Software's application platform (uniPaaS) to provide a multi-channel usage strategy to their users.