The Customer Magazine 1|2010
Need to Get Users Excited About Software
Following its new mantra of solutions with instant value, SAP is transforming itself to be faster and more customer-oriented. SAP Spectrum talks with Jim Hagemann Snabe to find out how the company aims to achieve this.
Touching Lives With Technology
Some of the people who work the phones for Deutsche Post DHL’s human resources hotline are blind. Along with special resources for the visually impaired, they use the SAP ERP Human Capital Management solution to carry out their daily tasks.
Grabbing the Tiger by the Tail
The financial crisis, the drive toward internationalization, and SAP Enterprise Support services were three topics weighing heavily on the minds of SAP user companies in Japan last year.
08.12.2009
Getting Granular on Cloud Computing
By: Benjamin Blaume
Heavyweights in the IT world – including Google, Microsoft, and SAP – are backing cloud computing. But don’t managers get nightmares at the thought of business data floating on high? SAP.info examines the issues surrounding cloud computing.
Cloud Security: Bitkom- and RSA-PDFs for download (graphic: grasundsterne)
Cloud computing isn’t just hype, as steadily increasing sales reveal, in Germany as well as in other countries. With an average growth of 37% forecast for the next three years, cloud computing is the fastest growing sector in the IT and telecommunications industry. According to Gartner, global sales in 2008 topped more than U.S.$46 billion, and by 2013, this figure is slated to increase to over U.S.$150 billion. So, let’s take a look at the IT services available with cloud computing.
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IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
Cloud computing services can be divided into three areas: IaaS (infrastructure as a service), PaaS (platform as a service), and SaaS (software as a service). All three have in common the fact that they are offered as IT services through the Internet and are usually invoiced according to use. IaaS comprises the provision of virtual hardware and basis infrastructure. Examples of IaaS include Amazon’s EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) service and cloud-enabling technologies and services from HP. Customers use virtual server capacities from the cloud and only pay for as much as they actually use.
PaaS offers software providers a development platform with a direct connection to the cloud. Providers such as Microsoft (with the Windows Azure platform) deliver technical frameworks (databases, middleware) and enable customers to develop software that hooks up with other technology platforms using standardized interfaces.
With SaaS, the software provider ships its product to customers using the Internet. Users don’t need their own hardware. Instead, they have a subscription for the application and run it using their Web browser. An example of SaaS in the business environment is the SAP Business ByDesign solution, which will finally become widely available in 2010. In the consumer segment, Web mail and photo album services are the most widely used SaaS applications.
Leserkommentare (4)
Somashekara M S (23.01.2010, 08:56)
This article has made me to think deeply about Cloud Computing. I am thinking in different manner about how to make the cloud computing a great success at local situations considering the various problems that exists in Cloud Computing. Thanks for the informative article.
Navratna Chandrakar (18.01.2010, 13:39)
very good article
Govind (18.01.2010, 11:09)
Really this is very nice. i will appreciate the cloud tech, if world would be use old systems and drivers.
raja (04.03.2010, 00:53)
informative article. few days ago i read abt. cloud computing and today knew something abt it. i am curious to know the role of PaaS as it is described in the article that end user don\'t need of their own hardware, they can run the program via subscription over the internet. then in future there will be a pertinent role of the browser, and hope we\'ll see the competition between Chrome, opera, IE. thnx