As I am a staunch supporter of cloud computing, I have thought about user data retention and their long-term future. Whether we know it or not, we all use cloud storage tools for our data (gmail, Google docs, photos, our company tools, etc.), but, in the end, we don’t have exact information concerning data perenniality behind these innovative storage facilities.
The main purpose of cloud computing as a concept is to rent storage space, power and applications. Unlike standard information technology, which is managed in-house, storage space and power are no longer constraints except for… price. That’s the sore spot.
To avoid high budgets, companies limit their employees’ storage space, either on their e-mail accounts or on their entire workspace if we refer to DaaS (Desktop as a Service or virtual office). In this respect, as we are instinctively (or usually) rather conservative, we save a part of the cloud information on our physical workstation or on another storage peripheral that would no longer provide all storage guarantees (redundancy, backup, etc.). Here is the starting point of our data vulnerability, as, even if there are solutions for this, as well as good practices to be enforced, however, most of us tend to forget that, and we risk losing all our data when our external storage device crashes, or is stolen!
This makes me think that, on the one hand our data are very (sometimes too?) protected, but on the other hand they can be very vulnerable because of the pernicious effect of the cloud. Then, how could we combine small storage space for the “cloud workers” with data perenniality?
What about providing lower performance storage services at more convenient prices to take over the data load in cloud applications or in DaaS in case of authorized storage space overflow?
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For more information, please take a look at Pentalog’s Cloud Computing Offer.

I have written this article as a reaction to the IBM study of 3,000 CIOs, according to which the three priorities for 2011 are data analysis, mobility and cloud computing. This leads me to ponder on the following question: “Can we still envisage a future IT infrastructure by dissociating these three elements?”

Considering the amounts of data that companies have to handle nowadays, which rapidly increase when data analysis is performed at an international level, I think that business intelligence tools will easily find their place within cloud computing. Without mentioning the ecological and economic advantages of this upgrade, the major benefit is the global access to information. As soon as we become aware of the concept, a great number of new ideas automatically emerges.

There are many available reporting tools, both proprietary solutions and OpenSource applications, which provide web interfaces allowing for a fast dissemination of information and offering an access from anywhere on the planet where there is an internet connection. The reflection on information retrieval must go beyond the company level and must be considered together with all the assets that Cloud Computing and the different media may bring. Indeed, with the proliferation of PDA-type mobile devices, Business Intelligence takes on a new dimension. Mobile applications allowing to retrieve data from the data warehouse are ready and, if we equip these applications with geolocation functions – which is a standard feature on these terminals – information retrieval becomes a lot more targeted and relevant.

These options can be applied in several ways. Let us imagine that a manager who has just arrived in a branch office of his group can immediately obtain, through a simple click on his phone, the data pertaining to the country, the region or even the office where he has been geolocated. The same goes for sales managers who can obtain information on their clients by way of a few clicks, on arriving to their meeting. If we associate this to corporate CRM, you can only imagine all the possibilities offered to these new users of BI 2.0.

As they are easy to implement, these technologies can now be used; they are also upgradeable, as cloud computing offers very appealing possibilities in terms of computing power and performance; moreover, they are cutting-edge solutions which benefit from the different modules of mobile devices and IT technologies.

Whatever ideas you may have had after reading this article, don’t hesitate to contact me. We will surely find a solution. In fact, you can take a look at our business intelligence and mobility offers on our website www.pentalog.com.

Another news brief on the theft of confidential data on a general public website! Yesterday, the press published the story of the stealing of 24 million banking data from Sony… This figure sends chills up my back and makes me wonder how our personal information is processed.

With the emergence of applications running in SaaS mode in cloud environments, we need to show more concern as to how and where our data are stored, especially as solution developers. There are several more or less intricate solutions to this problem. First of all, data anonymization, which consists in implementing a system that encrypts and anonymizes the data as soon as they are entered into the company databases. Thanks to a coding/decoding system, it is possible to handle only decorrelated information on the network. Another solution is to resort to a service provider who makes a commitment and guarantees the location and security of the data that they have to process.

Generally speaking, the processes of implementing a data anonymization system are quite slow and complex, as they require the deployment of an internal coding and encrypting process. This is why it may be more convenient to choose a private cloud. Nevertheless, the service provider needs to have his infrastructure entirely under control in order to be able to make a commitment!

It is by analyzing this type of problems that Pentalog, through its Cloud computing offer, can propose to its customers the setting up of private clouds which are hosted in its two data centers in Paris and Bucharest. By adopting a policy of internalization and of internal management of all its applications, paying particular attention to security matters (access to premises, access to network and resources, information sharing etc.), Pentalog can make a contractual commitment in order to guarantee the confidentiality of your data. This is a considerable advantage in relation to our competitors who generally disregard this aspect which, in my opinion, is essential in this context of virtual computing.

I will undoubtedly go through more details on these elements which are vital in choosing a cloud computing service provider when we launch our new Cloud Computing offer this summer.

I went last week as a visitor (I was interested in seeing what was new) to two events in Paris: “Linux Open Source Solutions” and “Client Strategy”. Besides the conferences which I had the opportunity to attend, I was intrigued by the dominating position Cloud Computing had taken this year and by the presence of large vendors such as: Microsoft, Oracle or Bull who all had impressive stands. The open source solutions are really starting to take off!!

During the trade show, walking down the aisles, I realized that behind open source solutions, there were a lot of people committed to the idea of free software (associations of developers and users, etc…) who are ready to share their experience. This community is really incredible first by its dynamism and its openness and seeing the presence of these young developers who are so enthusiastic, I think that open source has for the present a very bright future. Seriously, this does offer a certain guarantee for continuing support. I will not comment on very special atmosphere of this part of the show, these stands mingled together which had been quickly assembled by geeks, the smell, sometimes surprising, of developers who had been building seamless code for several hours, this definitely gives a different atmosphere which clashes with the rest of the rooms where the conferences were held and the polished displays of other companies.

This year, the emphasis was really placed on cloud computing. I noticed several stands offering turnkey services for setting up private clouds based on open source servers like Ubuntu, for example. Here it is more about solutions such as IaaS. Others, more rare, suggest the availability of platforms (PaaS) for their development tools or for the production of autonomous cloud applications. All this, therefore, is of real importance and demonstrates that Cloud computing is definitely the next stage of IT application development.

Besides these “technical” solutions, fundamental issues were also being addressed such as “how to ensure the portability of applications from one cloud to another?” Or “how the use of Open Source solutions and clouds may help to adopt eco-responsible behavior?” One example, in this regard is the manufacturer Bull, who offers via the family Bullx supercomputers, these machines used for extreme computing which are not energy hungry and offer a suite of software components based on open source standards.

Another point which came to mind was the involvement of editors in open source solutions. To cite only two of them, Microsoft has a division solely dedicated to open source (the head of this division, in fact came from Redmond to give a lecture at the trade show expressly concerning this subject) or Oracle which put layers (drivers) in its Version 11.2, which are more efficient tools specifically dedicated to open languages (PHP, etc.).

In order to reduce costs, in addition to making available the source code by some editors, there is also a new strategy taking form for further innovation which is called Open Innovation. By analogy to open source, the idea is to involve the community on certain topics of study in order to support innovation. This can be extremely interesting for a company that can then benefit from such highly specialized skills from certain research laboratories that are willing to contribute their help. I think that this concept also has taken a new dimension in recent years and the proof of this is the speech made by Bull on this subject, demonstrating how very engaged they are in this process. This subject will certainly will be soon the theme of another Pentalog article.

Continuing my observations, I also noted that there were many Open Source solutions and how many are now very well done. For example, there is an ERP open source solution, which virtually covers all the functional sectors of a company and the interfaces, could make certain editors blush with envy! As for Business Intelligence, there again the offers cover the entire scope and adapt to different uses of a company. I saw such a solution, a multidimensional engine for data analysis based on an ETL open source performance solution (Talend, to name it) and which proposes to use Microsoft Excel or Calc as a retrieval tool, starting with the assumption that these tools are the basic tools of many management control services. I think it really has connected to market expectations.

In a few words, I will terminate with the client strategy part of the trade show, I will not comment on call centers but rather, again, on using the cloud which offer services on demand. The cloud force.com offers such a variety of services and has fully integrated applications that use the social network as easily as other means of communications such as the more traditional mail or telephone. Their service starts immediately on the availability of platforms (PasS) with a development language resembling java that allows for the possibility to fully customize the tool, of course, on demand! We’re really in a new development era…

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Last week I attended a breakfast concerning the migration from French ETEBAC protocols to EBICS / SEPA for bank telecommunication applications. I believe it would be of interest to share this information with everyone, so that all small and medium-sized businesses can prepare for this migration of their communications system with their banks.

ETEBAC, what is it?

I’ll start first by putting certain elements into their context by recalling that this is the standard inter-bank telecommunication application. ETEBAC which means “Exchange TElematiques BAnque Clients” has been used since 1991. It allows a company to exchange files (account extracts, transfers, BOR, etc…) with its banks. I emphasize the plural of the word bank as it only makes sense if the company works with several banks on one hand, and secondly, if it wishes to automate its dealings with them.

There are several versions of ETEBAC:

This protocol works on the basis of flat files of fixed length.

Why is it going to change?

On July 1, 2011, maintenance and the marketing network TRANSPAC will cease to operate. This will result in the termination of banking protocols operating under X25 (ETEBAC 3, ETEBAC 5, etc.). These protocols will then migrate to Internet networks.

With the end of the Transpac network, the banks will therefore be obliged to use other standards such as:

These new protocols will operate on the internet and use XML. Among the notable developments, I can cite the lengthening of the text zone from the current 30 characters, to 140 characters and the abandonment of the bank identification form, for the IBAN which has a more European context.

What will change?

Concretely, this means that a company should verify its information system to see if it will be compatible with these new changes (changes from traditional bank identification form to IBAN, compatibility of software used, etc…). If this is not the case, then the company should contact a provider who will audit the IS and propose the most appropriate solution.

This new standard will oblige the banks to perform better, in terms of turnaround time (D +1 working day) and the application of invoicing for European transfers.

But I think we should be very careful about the offers that are being proposed because presently, all banks do not propose the same protocol and also each bank will offer different solutions according to the protocol they have chosen. We must be very vigilant concerning the coherence of the information system in order to use a single protocol, which is entirely possible.

Who will be affected?

The choice of using EBICS depends on the number of banks with which a company interacts. Let’s say if the company is only working with one bank, to implement a simple solution like EDI via the website of the bank would be adequate.

In the case the company is working with several banks and wishes to automate the exchanges then it should move towards an EBICS protocol.

For the rest, in the case of very large companies or to companies that perform many daily transactions, it may be more helpful to approach the SWIFT protocol.

Companies must address the issue now to be ready to change over as of July 1, 2011.

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