Customizing Collaborative Platforms

Modern business operations would be not as efficient or as cost-effective without real-time synchronization and distant collaborations among workers. Duplication of tasks, errors, delays and miscommunications are avoided in this manner. All of these are made possible by digital-based technologies and secured computer connectivity.
Specific solutions
In most cases, the general office software applications and free internet-based collaborative platforms such as Google docs are enough for operational needs. However, there are instances wherein higher level of customization becomes necessary. Various business organizations, even those that belong to the same industries, typically have highly specific needs.
An ideal collaborative platform must have the capability to integrate various computer applications for easy accessibility in networks. There is also a need for cross-hardware communication compatibility. Collaborative work through networks is not only about sharing and downloading information or data. Collaborators must be able to edit the data online and in real time.
This means that any change on the data must immediately be saved and updated. The changes must be immediately visible to other collaborators to avoid duplications and confusions. However, the security must not be compromised. The access to project data must only be accessible to the collaborators. The data could be a simple text content or could be as complex as an animated CAD diagrams.
File organization
Collaborative software platforms would be very confusing if the files and projects cannot be properly organized. Generally speaking, files can be categorized into two groups depending on urgency. These groups are the following: archived files and active files. The active files can be further classified either as priority files or non-urgent files. Various specific folders may also be created to further organize the files.
A collaborative platform must have a file organizational tree and milestone goals. Any editing or modification on the project must be attributable to a particular collaborator. This means that there should be a system to log the names, hours, and changes made by specific collaborators. This will instill accountability and responsibility.
Web building
Internal collaborative platforms should be capable of accommodating the development and publication of web-based tools and content. These could be either accessible via the internet or through intranet. These tools and content are generally accessible either to the public or to all the members of a business organization. The platform must allow for user-friendly interfaces and apps.
This type of collaborative platform is very useful for web developers and programmers. Maintaining a company website is a twenty-four-seven, on-call work. This is especially demanding when it comes to companies that operate mainly online.

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What Is Cloud Storage and How Is It Superior to Traditional Physical Storage Mediums?

As technology advances, more and more people have more and more electronic devices to store information on and more and more of these devices are interconnected. A few short years ago, most people had one computer and that was it. If they had the internet, it was a dial-up connection. If people needed to share data, they either print the information or share the data by burning CDs / using physical media. Almost everyone had a desktop, a few people had laptops, and people who worked in office settings may have had a PDA.
Now, there are so many more devices that store data and most of these devices are either networked together through a home network or share information through celluar and wireless networks. People have PCs, netbooks, laptops, e-readers, tablets, smart phones, smart TVs, video game consoles, MP3 players, etc, and almost all of these devices use the internet in some way, shape, or form. This has opened the gateway for a new type of file sharing and file storage previously not available to consumers.
People who have multiple electronic devices want access to their information from multiple locations and this presents a challenge. A person doesn't want to have four copies of the same file, one on each machine. That is ineffective and if the file need to be modified, it has to be modified on every device or manually transferred to every device. A relatively new, but inexpensive technology, is cloud storage. Cloud storage is the storage of information on the internet. A person buys a set amount of storage space and pays a fee, often monthly, to retain that storage space at a remote location and this space is usable from all of a person's devices.
Cloud storage has multiple advantages over storing information locally. First, a person can access their information from anywhere there is an internet connection. That means, even if a person forgets their memory stick / CD / etc, then they can pull up the information and not face any major setbacks. Next, cloud storage provides reliable storage. The information stored remotely is backed up regularly, and won't be affected by things such as a local hard drive failure or a broken device. Cloud storage is one of the safest ways to store valuable information.
For a person who uses more than one device, or a person that needs to back up important data, cloud storage is a very viable option. It is relatively inexpensive, a person can often store large amounts of information for little out of pocket expense, it is safe, and it allows a person to access vital information anywhere. If a person is looking for an external storage solution, cloud storage is definitely worth looking into.

Will 2013 SMB Technologies Fall Victim to an Economic Armageddon?

Regardless of your feelings regarding triskaidekaphobia, there is plenty to be nervous about in the coming year ending in the dreaded number 13. It's not just the fear of the number itself or the superstition that surround it, rather most SMB decision makers are fearful of the economic unknown we continue to see in the U.S. economy. The general consensus, post-election, is that the current administration is less than friendly towards the needs of the average small and mid-sized business which ironically is considered to be the largest driver of the U.S. economy. Let me be clear, my intention is not to debate the merits or shortcomings of the government's economic policy rather I mention it as one of the factors in trying to predict what new technologies will be major players in the New Year. Even though the economic outlook for growth is less than rosy, the SMB community will still be spending on technology.
To that end, I turn to my go-to expert of all things technology for the SMB; Laurie McCabe of The SMB Group. McCabe provides a yearly set of predictions on what to expect, and while her forecast for 2012 was broad, she was right on the money with the majority of her insights. Not surprisingly, these trends included many of the subjects I've written about including increased cloud adoption, deeper and wider adoption of social media tools and concepts in marketing and sales, collaboration and widely ranging forms of communication, and the rise of mobility for a flexible workforce.
So where will 2013 SMB technology dollars be spent? Most likely, there will be similar movement as seen in 2012. However, we will see a greater shift towards the cloud among the small business segment especially in the new entrepreneur arena of start-ups. This scenario makes sense for "micro" SMBs that are working without dedicated office space or a large employee base. Again in 2013, mobility is expected to be on the rise but the adoption will pale compared to last January's explosion of tablet PCs. However, the recent introduction of the Microsoft Surface powered by Windows 8 could change that theory. Companies that have invested in a Microsoft-centric network infrastructure will be able to leverage the synergies of their server operating systems with Windows 8 creating a seamless experience across laptop, desktop, Surface, and Windows Phone 8.
With increased mobility will come additional requests from employees to BYOD or bring your own device. Employees expect employers to provide connectivity for their own mobile devices to use across personal and professional endpoints. This expectation presents several security and network connectivity challenges that will need to be addressed in 2013 as was the case in 2012. The BYOD movement led to the rise of software and services called Mobile Device Management (MDM). MDM protects the business from insecure access and allows the organization to track and manage corporate data on personal devices.
When thinking about technology spend for 2013, it's important that I point out another factor McCabe discussed; the reticence of the SMB decision maker and/or business owner to pull the trigger on any increased IT spending. With a polarized electorate and an SMB community that has felt left behind by current administration policymaking, a lot of projects that would have been perceived as good for growth and expansion are going to be left undone by economic uncertainty. Even after the November election and the affirmation of another four years with the same administration, the small and mid-sized business ecosystem will collectively pause and wait for any indication of better times ahead.
The confluence of several other factors will also contribute to slow the optimism. Several tax breaks and programs designed to help jump-start SMB creation and expansion have now expired including the IRS Section 179 tax deduction on capital expenditures. For several years, this tax deduction had given small and mid-sized businesses tangible benefits at tax time for purchases of hardware, software, and services. Additionally, many SMB owners and decision makes are fearful of another governmental mandate; the national health care plan called "Obamacare" which may well add another expense to the bottom line. I should also mention the potential for added taxation of base revenues once Congress gets back into full session in the New Year. This was a double whammy that left many SMB owners and decision makers very weary of unnecessary spending.
The expectation for 2013, based on what was seen last year, is that there will be spending but with continued trepidation. If the current Congress can start to compromise more, which may be possible given the begrudging agreement on the "fiscal cliff" negotiations, maybe more confidence can trickle down to the business community. As with anything revolving around the number "13" there are still superstitions that might color our thinking.

Cloud-Based WAN Optimization

There is an unmistakable industry trend to offer every IT function in the cloud, if at all possible. WAN Optimization (WANO) is no exception. WANO is used to mitigate the effects of a WAN (low bandwidth, latency, and packet loss) to get improved application performance (fast end-user response time) and also to reduce the bandwidth consumption itself. WANO in its most popular form is symmetric in nature - an appliance called a WAN Optimization Controller (WOC) is placed at each end of a WAN connection (at the data center and at the branch).
WOCs achieve their goal using a combination of techniques- compression, de-duplication, caching, TCP optimization, and chattiness reduction at the application level. These techniques are applied across the whole segment of the WAN by the two WOCs. All the benefits of the WANO start right in the access segment or the last mile at both ends of the connection.
The issues with WOCs, particularly among small and medium businesses, are their initial cost, ongoing maintenance, and complexity of managing them in-house. CAPEX is always hard to come by for small/medium businesses. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can alleviate this issue by offering a fully managed WANO service with charges on a monthly basis. The OPEX model offered by the MSPs can be called a "semi-cloud" solution from the customer point of view and appears to offer comparable benefits of fully owning and operating the WOCs without many headaches.
Another twist in this equation is that WOCs may not be as efficient over the public Internet as opposed to a somewhat expensive MPLS network. Small/medium businesses invariably use Internet-based VPNs to construct WANs connecting their widespread locations. So the MSP model may not always work satisfactorily - especially in cases of customers with locations across the globe.
In the last few years Cloud-based WAN Optimization (CWANO) providers have emerged on the horizon (a company called Aryaka is leading the way). CWANO vendors, in their basic service, avoid deploying any appliance at all on the customer premises. The magic starts and ends at their Points-of-Presence (POPs) in the cloud to which the customer locations connect. Sophisticated and carrier-grade WOCs are deployed in the cloud by the cloud provider. They also provide convenient web-based management tools to configure the service and monitor the WANO results achieved.
The OPEX model of pricing offered by CWANO providers is much cheaper than owning and managing the WOCs. Customers don't need to buy expensive MPLS connections as the solution runs over the public Internet. Is it too good to be true?
Yes, a closer examination of the CWANO reveals that the optimization takes place only in the middle segment of the WAN journey - between the POPs. Nothing happens on either side on the last mile. The claim is that the middle segment which can span continents for international connections is often where the Internet performance is at the worst (high latency and high packet losses) and that is where optimization is needed. However, the end links also can significantly affect performance, possibly due to low bandwidth.
The best way to verify if "WANO in the middle" provided by cloud-based providers really helps is to conduct a proof-of-concept and compare with the baseline results. If we can also compare with the case of full WANO with WOCs at either end, then we can make an apples-to-apples comparison.
But the CWANO providers are also smart enough to hedge their bets. As an option (many times at no cost), they can provide some kind of an appliance at both ends and provide full segment WANO. In this case, they are not a true cloud-based provider but more like an inexpensive MSP.
In all fairness, the CWANO providers have enlisted many satisfied customers with global locations. If you are planning to use CWANO, as the saying goes, trust but verify.

Apsera Tech, a premium APM consulting company, has years of experience in WAN optimization, networking and application performance management. It has helped Fortune 1000 companies in diverse industries such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and publishing in planning/resolving critical business application performance issues like slow application response time, WAN optimization and WAN acceleration.

Indonesia Focus on Gas Potential With New Projects This Year

With demand for gas likely to soar in the coming years in line with rapid industrial and energy-use expansion, the government has poured most of its resources this year into developing several key upstream and downstream gas projects.
The strategy is part of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's 2013 strategic plan in which projects related to gas will dominate the country's energy sector until 2018.
According to a copy of the strategic plan, received by The Jakarta Post recently, the ministry will prioritize three gas projects this year, developed separately by France-based Total E&P Indonesie, ConocoPhillips Indonesia and Australia-based Pearl Oil.
Total's project will involve the enhanced development of the South Mahakam field in East Kalimantan, expected to generate 202 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd). The gas will be delivered to the nearby Bontang liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.
The government's interim upstream oil and gas regulator (SKMigas) will soon open the bidding process for the buyer of the gas from Bontang.
Another key development is by Pearl Oil, which is expected to pump 50 mmscfd of gas from its Ruby field in Sebuku Island in East Kalimantan. This gas will be supplied to a fertilizer plant run by state-owned PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur (PKT) in East Kalimantan.
Conoco is slated to contribute 40 million mmscfd from the Sumpal field in South Sumatra. Output from the field will be delivered to Gas Supply Pte Ltd. (GSPL) Singapore as part of the firm's supply contract.
"We're expecting these new projects to be ready this year, and will soon contribute to higher production," said SKMigas spokesman Hadi Prasetyo on Monday.
Gas supply for the domestic market is estimated to grow by 9 percent this year to 4,020 billion British thermal units per day (BBTUD) from 3,615 billion BBTUD, according to the ministry.
The ministry has also revealed that in the past eight years, domestic supply of gas has soared by 250 percent, mostly due to demand from power plants, manufacturing industry and fertilizers plants.
The exponential growth in demand for gas from the domestic market has pushed the government to secure national interest by rebalancing exports and domestic sales. Indonesia is the world's third largest gas exporter after Qatar and Malaysia.
Gas exports this year are slated to decline by as much as 3,870 BBTUD. For the first time, allocation for exports will be smaller than for domestic use.
But as the single largest holder of proven natural gas reserves in the Asia Pacific region, Indonesia's gas plays an important role for the Japanese, Chinese and Korean energy supply.
With reserves of 112 trillion cubic feet (TCF), Indonesia has expanded its gas pipeline network to neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.
As the 14th largest holder of proven natural gas reserves in the world, Indonesia is now struggling to expand the capacity of its downstream sector to help supply sufficient gas to the domestic market

According to the ministry's strategic planning, the government has relied on several projects already under construction for next year's operations.
The network will link the gas pipeline network from the western part of Sumatra to the eastern part of Java.
Among the projects is the revitalization of the Arun LNG plant in Aceh, which is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of next year and the construction of a pipeline that will link Arun to Belawan Port, which will be completed in the fourth quarter of next year.
All of the projects are managed by state oil and gas company PT Pertamina.
State gas-utility company PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) will focus this year on completing the floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) in Lampung, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.
The FSRU is currently under construction by Norway-based Hoegh, an LNG transportation and services company.
The Pertamina and PGN joint venture, PT Nusantara Regas, is slated to complete its FSRU in West Java this year. The unit will need 26 LNG cargoes or around 22 million tons in 2013.
Pertamina's unit PT Pertagas is also in the construction process of pipelines that will link industrial areas of Cirebon and Bekasi in West Java. The project is set for completion in 2014. The company is also constructing a pipeline that will link Gresik in East Java with Central Java's capital Semarang.
PT Rekayasa Industri is also in the pipeline business with Pertamina, constructing a pipeline that will link Cirebon and Semarang.
Other key projects include the construction of an FSRU in Central Java by Pertamina, which is set for completion in 2014, and the construction of a pipeline from the Kepodang gas field to the Tambaklorok power plant in Central Java, scheduled for completion in 2014.
Energy sector think tank ReforMiner Institute's deputy director Komaidi Notonegoro said that given the country's declining oil output, the government should aggressively focus on gas development, which is expected to supersede oil in the near future.
Indonesia is currently a net importer of both crude oil and refined products. Crude oil production has been declining since 1998 due to the maturation of the country's largest oil fields and the failure to develop new, comparable resources.
"The government is already on the right track by concentrating on the gas projects rather than oil. The most important thing is their consistency in implementing the plans," said Komaidi.