Digital Discourse / Archives for cloud computing

Interview with New Member, Transverse

October 24, 2012 By

SIIA recently welcomed Transverse, a SaaS billing platform provider. I had a chance to speak with their Co-Founder, President, & CEO, James Messer. James is an 18 year veteran of the telecommunications and IT industries and I asked him about Transverse’s position in the marketplace.

Rhianna: Welcome to SIIA! Tell me a little about Transverse and what makes your billing platform unique.

James: For businesses looking to increase revenue or roll-out new business models, TRACT billing from Transverse is the only all-in-one activity-based billing platform that can meter/rate and bill based on customer behavior. Unlike basic subscription or expensive legacy billing systems, TRACT provides a simple solution to complex billing challenges and enables companies to engage with customers.

Rhianna: Tell me more about activity-based billing, what are the advantages?

James: Consumers are using monthly services to download songs, stream movies or view a digital news article, but most would prefer to only pay for what they use and that’s where subscriptions are limiting. Businesses can provide a more personalized experience for consumers while creating new revenue streams by charging on an activity basis instead.

Rhianna: You talk about this evolution of billing, how it has gone from Billing 1.0 to Billing 3.0. What do you mean when you refer to Billing 3.0?

James: Billing 3.0 means billing is a valuable tool that extends beyond finance department. By capturing revenue in an accurate, timely fashion using activity-based billing, other groups (such as the marketing department), can use the resulting analytics to identify and respond to emerging customer trends faster than competitors. With Billing 3.0, billing becomes a powerful enabler of product innovation and rapid introduction.

Rhianna: I noticed you have a number of partners, payment and technology partners. How important are these partners to the Transverse go-to-market strategy?

James: Partners are a key ingredient to helping our customers succeed. These include active payment partners, such as PayPal, Chase Paymentech, CyberSource, Authorize.net, and First Data. Additionally, we partner closely with technology companies like SugarCRM, Pervasive, OpSource, Rackspace Hosting, and OneLogin to enable seamless integration and ease of use.

 

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Software, Software Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Interview with New SIIA Member, CloudNOW

October 17, 2012 By

SIIA recently welcomed CloudNOW to the SIIA community. I recently had a chance to speak to their Founder and President, Jocelyn DeGance Graham.

Rhianna: Welcome to SIIA! You launched CloudNOW just over a year ago. Tell me about your vision for the group.

Jocelyn: CloudNOW is a nonprofit consortium of the leading women in cloud computing, our Mission is simply to promote women in tech. CloudNOW’s biggest differentiator is that we work with the industry rather than in a gender silo, and we focus on what we called ‘applied excellence’ rather than concentrating on gender specific issues, or soft issues such as work-life balance. Our partners are the leading media and event groups for Cloud, IBM, and PwC. In 2013 we hope to build on that success and bring in additional corporate partners.

Rhianna: How has cloud computing opened doors for women in technology?

Jocelyn: Cloud has had an amazing ‘democratizing’ ‘effect for everyone. Almost overnight the economic barriers for starting a company had completely been removed. We no longer needed bank loans, funding, capital investment for hardware…in short the good ole boys and other quid pro quo networks were out and the rest of us, in. And yes, that means women, minorities, kids in their college dorm room, third world countries, etc– total inclusion!

Rhianna: Have you seen an increase in the number of women professionals in our industry?

Jocelyn: With frequency I see articles asking ‘where are the women founders in tech’? I challenge these reporters to actually do their jobs and begin with something as simple as a Google search to uncover the growing number of women in tech and especially, cloud. What we’ve seen from our network is an increase of women who are starting their own companies and taking on the CEO role. We expect that trend to continue, and CloudNOW will be there to support it.

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Software Tagged With: , ,

The European Cloud Computing Strategy: A Promising Step

September 27, 2012 By

Today, the European Commission announced the release of its long-awaited cloud strategy in a communication entitled “Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe.” The Commission clearly recognizes cloud computing’s capacity to allow people, businesses and governments to rent services and data storage for much cheaper than buying new equipment and software. Indeed, combined with the emergence of big data analytics, cloud computing represents a sea-change in the business and technical opportunities for the information technology industry and its myriad customers, business and consumer, large and small. The Commission’s strategy report is a major step forward by policymakers in coming to grips with the policy thinking needed to foster this new development and to deal with its many challenges in Europe and around the world.

SIIA particularly welcomes the Commission’s focus on the use of cloud computing in government. The Commission’s encouragement of the use of cloud computing is the counterpart of the US government’s Cloud First approach.

Unfortunately, some parts of the Commission’s communication go in a direction SIIA warned against in its report to policy makers last year. In places, the communication treats cloud computing as a discrete entity that is potentially subject to specific government regulation. In reality, cloud computing is a variety of evolving business and technical developments that share only a rough similarity. NIST has described three different service models for cloud computing (Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service); and four different deployment models (private, community, public and hybrid). There is also the enormous difference between consumer uses of cloud computing and its business uses, and within the latter, still further important differences between uses by large organizations and by small and medium sized businesses. Cloud computing is used in industries ranging from financial services, to energy to telecommunications.

The European Commission’s cloud strategy document recognizes this issue, noting that cloud computing has a “range of defining features (which make a general definition elusive)…” Despite this it goes on to propose a series of government regulations that can be effectively implemented only if there is a reasonably precise legal definition of cloud computing.

Privacy rules, security rules, intellectual property, and consumer protection rules apply when cloud computing is used, but there is no need for special privacy, security, intellectual property or consumer protection rules that apply just to cloud computing. Generalized rules, indeed, globally interoperable rules, are best suited to the global, borderless nature of cloud computing.

Some of the specific suggestions in the report are good in themselves. This is the case for example in the idea that security guidelines should be developed that take into account the special characteristics of cloud computing. But again there is no need for European regulations that mandate specific security requirements just for cloud computing. Security standards should be market-driven and global, not just European, in character

Another concern is the possible development of privacy rules just for the cloud. The Commission and the Parliament are working on a new data protection regulation that would apply across the board, but the cloud strategy suggests the development of alternative or competing privacy rules just for cloud computing.

The Commission also seems to be interested in mandating specific consumer protections such as data portability, interoperability and reversibility in standardized service level agreements. But it is a leap to jump from a concern for consumer protection to the conclusion that specific European consumer protection rules need to be incorporated into standardized terms of service. Industry groups, not European-wide regulators, are best situated to fill any perceived need for optional model contracts.

SIIA welcomes the Commission’s strategy and intends to engage in the process of working with the Commission to see that the benefits of cloud computing are fully realized in the European single market and throughout the world.

Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Cloud Computing: Education, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, Software Tagged With: ,

SIIA Applauds House Effort to Reform IT Procurement, Submits Comments on Cloud Brokerage

September 20, 2012 By

SIIA applauds House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) for his recognition that there needs to be a substantial improvement to federal IT procurement practices to keep pace with evolving technology. Today, Rep. Issa posted a discussion draft of IT procurement reform legislation. As SIIA has said previously, we share the goal of developing a cadre of specialized IT acquisition personnel and are pleased that the bill acknowledges that cloud computing is becoming mainstream in the federal government.

On a related note, SIIA submitted comments today to the General Services Administration (GSA) in response to the Cloud Brokerage RFI, an area that is addressed in the bill, and we encourage those comments to be considered by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as they look at that area of the legislation. We look forward to working with Chairman Issa and the Committee as they move forward to craft a final bill that serves to improve IT acquisition practices to the benefit of vendors and the federal government.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

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Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG Tagged With: , , ,

The questions that didn’t make it into Vision from the Top

May 29, 2012 By

Each year SIIA sets out to pick the minds of individuals who are shaping and growing our industry. Just a couple of weeks ago we released the 2012 Vision from the Top publication that features interviews with these business leaders providing thoughts on trends, M&A activity, and the future of our industry.

While we went through the interview process we asked the contributing executives some questions that you won’t find answered in the publication which I thought I would share with you. We asked the member executives to look at Forrester’s 2012 Cloud Predictions and tell us which one would have the most significant impact in 2012. The majority of contributors said “The cloud market will grow beyond $60 billion in 2012”. What does that say about cloud computing? It is not just a trend, it is the way in which we compute today and if you are not providing or consuming cloud services you will be at a disadvantage in the marketplace. HOWEVER, we also asked which of Forresters’ predictions will be the biggest challenge in 2012 and the majority also selected “The cloud market will grow beyond $60 Billion in 2012”. Clearly the consensus is that the cloud market will grow but will continue to face challenges, likely around security, integrations, etc.

Another popular response was that “Large enterprises will take the lead in cloud markets in 2012”. I found this one surprising since the enterprises have made a much slower move to the cloud than the SMBs. However, what I am hearing from the members is that 2012 will be the year. We have certainly seen a significant investment being made by the enterprises with all the recent M&A activity. Every day I wake up and wonder which one of the SIIA members will be acquired today!

If you read Vision from the Top you will see that the contributors are either CEOs or large business unit leaders of enterprises. We wanted to get an idea of their personal technology choices so we asked some personal questions (at least in the technology world these would be considered personal). Not surprising an overwhelming majority of contributing executives use an iPhone as their smartphone of choice. And an overwhelming number said they also carry a tablet of some kind, no more lugging around those heavy laptops.

Next we invaded the social space of the contributing authors. We asked how many of them actively used Facebook and approximately 60% said yes. At first I thought that number was low until I saw the answers to the next question, do you activity use LinkedIn? An overwhelming majority actively use LinkedIn. That should not be a surprise given the business nature of the application. Now here is an interesting one, the majority of respondents do not, yes DO NOT, actively use twitter. A little surprising but I suppose these executives leave Twitter to their marketing departments.

 

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Mobility, Social Media, Software Tagged With: , , ,

USITC Report Explores Int’l Dimensions of Cloud Computing, Examines Policy Challenges and Potential Solutions

May 22, 2012 By

A recent article published by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) provides an overview of the global market for cloud services, and an excellent resource for policymakers’ questions about cloud computing and how to enable greater adoption.

At a time when policymakers around the world are struggling to keep pace with the rapid pace of technological change and the growth of cloud computing, the article explores the role of cloud computing in U.S. exports and examines the international dimensions, providing a concise overview of the key policy areas that are implicated as the cloud industry grows globally, and the ongoing attempts to address these challenges. As U.S. industry experts and cloud providers know, the key policy challenges associated with cross-border cloud computing and ensuring the seamless flow of information worldwide revolve largely around concerns associated with data privacy, security and localization requirements.

A major contribution of the study is the new set of estimates regarding the contribution of cloud computing to U.S. services exports. When a U.S. firm or foreign affiliate sells cloud computer or software services to an overseas customer, this counts as an export and favorably impacts the US balance of trade in services. But localization requirements can hurt these exports. As the office of the United State Trade Representative said in its 2012 Telecom Trade report, “…restrictions on data access and transfers are becoming more consequential trade barriers.”

The study helps us understand just how damaging these trade barriers could be for the growth of our software and computer services firms. It finds that in 2010, U.S. firms exported cloud services worth almost $1.5 billion from their U.S. facilities to customers in other countries. In 2009, they exported an additional $1.4 billion of cloud service to foreign purchasers from their affiliates located abroad. The study concludes that “cloud computing is already a source of significant revenue for U.S. exporters and multinational firms.”

In the absence of trade barriers, cloud exports could become much more significant in the years ahead. Cloud provision of software and computer services is the future of the industry and is growing much faster than the overall growth of these markets. Gartner estimates that global revenue from all software sales will increase 8.4% per year through 2015 – from $244 billion in 2010 to $347 billion 2015, while the cloud provision of software will increase much faster – 22.6% per year from $10.0 billion in 2010 to $21.3 billion in 2015 (see ITC study p. 6). Gartner estimates that global revenue from computing services will increase 22.6% per year through 2015 – from $791 billion in 2010 to $983 billion in 2015, while forecasting that cloud computing services will grow from $4.1 billion in 2010 to $22.0 billion in 2015, a dramatic growth rate of 87.3% per year (see ITC study p. 6). The potential growth of cloud exports in a world without trade barriers is enormous.

Importantly, the article highlights that governments around the world have sought to address these key policy challenges through domestic policies, bilateral agreements, and multilateral institutions. On the international level, approaches have included establishing non-mandatory, best-practice guidelines as well as binding commitments. The article cites many sources in describing both approaches as important: the former may be developed rapidly and are more able to keep pace with technological change, while the latter emerge more slowly, but provide investors a greater sense of certainty about countries’ policies.

Additionally, the article compares the role of developed and developing countries, concluding that developing countries have played a smaller role than developed ones in the market for cloud services and international policymaking related to the cloud, citing the developing countries lack of infrastructure and domestic policies to more fully develop their cloud industries. Finally, case studies of India and China provide evidence of the great potential for growth of cloud computing in developing countries, while highlighting the divergent approaches, challenges and opportunities that these countries are seeking to overcome.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.

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Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing Tagged With: ,

Forced Localization: The New Protectionism

May 22, 2012 By

What do the following examples have in common?

  • In 2009, China proposed an indigenous innovation policy that would have explicitly restricted government contracts to goods whose embodied intellectual property was domestically owned.
  • In 2010, Norway ruled that cities could not use cloud computing services unless the servers were located domestically. Denmark followed suit in 2011.
  • In 2011, Kazakhstan attempted to require all .kz domains to operate on domestic servers.
  • In 2012, India proposed a requirement that government agencies purchase electronic goods and services with 30% local content.

These cases are examples of required localization: governments attempt to restrict the sale of goods and services within their territory to those which have been produced locally. The localization can be in terms of embodied intellectual property rights, manufacturing facilities, or facilities providing cloud computing services.

Governments cite national security concerns, or consumer protection issues or privacy and government access worries when imposing these restrictions. From a trade and economic point of view, however, they increase economic nationalism at the expense international trade.

What seemed like a series of isolated incidents now seems to be a trend, which if left unchecked, could seriously undermine the goal of increasing the flow of goods and services across borders. The 2012 Special 301 Report (p. 18) and the 2012 Section 1377 telecom trade report document the extent to which these localization initiatives could hinder bi-lateral, regional and global economic integration.

SIIA and other worldwide businesses and trade associations are seeking an effective response to the growing threat of a new protectionism based on localization initiatives.

Two principals that are gaining wide currency among industry and NGOs stand in stark opposition to this new protectionism. These principles are embodied in the agreement between the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the European Commission on a set of trade-related principles for information and communication technology (ICT) services:

  • Cross-Border Information Flows: Governments should not prevent service suppliers of other countries, or customers of those suppliers, from electronically transferring information internally or across borders, accessing publicly available information, or accessing their own information stored in other countries.
  • Local Infrastructure: Governments should not require ICT service suppliers to use local infrastructure, or establish a local presence, as a condition of supplying services. In addition, governments should not give priority or preferential treatment to national suppliers of ICT services in the use of local infrastructure, national spectrum, or orbital resources.

Since this agreement was made in April 2011, several intergovernmental, industry and non-governmental civil society groups have endorsed these principles, including SIIA, the Aspen Institute, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and a group of trade associations and companies lead by the National Foreign Trade Council.

There is momentum in both the private sector and the U.S. government to take on this issue in the strongest possible way. The US government is ramping up its efforts to move these principles forward. For instance, they are embodied in the electronic commerce chapter of the U.S. proposal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations.

SIIA urges that this issue be moved to the highest levels of U.S. government decision making and raised in all significant international venues including economic gatherings of heads of state such as the recent G-8 meeting, meetings of the ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group, committees of the World Trade Organization, OECD working groups and trade discussions such as TPP. Only a sustained, high-level commitment from the U. S. government will turn the tide against this new form of economic nationalism.

Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, Software Tagged With: , , ,
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