Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Lightweight Models and Cost Effective Scalability

Businesses migrate from ad hoc Web 2.0 use toward more formal approaches, welcoming O’Reilly’s “small is the new big” adage with open arms, it’s essential to deliver not just technologically but to adapt corporate models for more scalable and cost-effective change.

Not everyone knows or heard about cloud storage.

But some people, who knew about it, think that it’s an awesome idea to have everything in the cloud, but some think that it’s nothing special, unsafe or no security. Cloud Storage in the beginning isn’t supported by many industries, as they think it’s expensive and not workable or profitable at all.

As time goes by technology have changed and so does the thinking of the people using it. I would love to share with you a great example, Amazon Cloud Drive which allows you to upload your documents in the cloud, but that’s not all it have one unique features known as cloud player, which allows you to play your music, video and photos on the Web. It’s not like a Dropbox that allows you to store your files. Below there will be a video to explain how Amazon Cloud Drive works.

The promise of a product like Amazon's Cloud Drive is that you can upload all of the precious media files from all of your computers and devices (home, work, phone) to one common place, so that you're never stranded without access to your digital media.

Aside from Amazon's handy cross-platform uploader and downloader utilities and its browser-based tools for viewing, downloading, and streaming your stuff, Amazon is also throwing in a Cloud Player feature within the Amazon MP3 application for Android. Using the free app, you can stream all the music you have stored in the cloud, or download your tracks on the fly for offline playback.

Amazon is brilliant, in the sense that it has its existing businesses like it’s Online Departmental Store, Instant Video – which allows online movie rental and purchase, MP3 Music store, and cloud services. Now with the Cloud Drive, it’s combining almost everything of its existing business into one. They know that cloud storage is going to be big someday, and they took the first step in releasing it before anyone does. Although from my point of view, I think that Apple’s upcoming release on its cloud services know as iCloud might be a its biggest challenger. With the existing businesses of Amazon, to them its lighter on the cost to create Cloud Drives, and in order to attract more users, all it existing customers will be granted 5GB of storage spaces and they also welcoming new users too. Comparing to Dropbox only offering 2GB of storage and does not pack with additional features like Cloud Player.

In conclusion, I think that Amazon Cloud Drive will be a big hit, and its true that everything is going to be all about web. Google Chromebook (video link below to let you know more) is the best example on how the WEB is going to dominate the IT industry, where there won’t be any OS, won’t be any programs, it’s going to be just the WEB. So Amazon, Google and Apple is seeing the big picture here, making everything live online or real-time.

References

Cloud Storage Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_storage

Amazon Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

About Amazon Cloud Drive:

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore

Dropbox Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service)

YouTube of Amazon Cloud Drive Intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkQ55Iij-1M

Android Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)

Amazon Online Departmental Store:

http://www.amazon.com/

Amazon Instant Video:

http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Video/b/ref=sa_menu_aiv_vid0?ie=UTF8&node=16261631

Amazon MP3 Music store:

http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b/ref=sa_menu_mp3_str1?ie=UTF8&node=163856011

Apple Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

iCloud Information:

http://www.cloudme.com/en , http://www.cloudme.com/en/get-to-know

Google Chromebook Features:

http://www.google.com/chromebook/#features

Youtube Video on Google Chromebook:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVqe8ieqz10

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Leveraging the Long Tail

The Long Tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a “normal” or Gaussian distribution (Wiki, 2010). For instance, we used characters actually not too much, but the frequency is high. So these characters take up a fewer large red area in the following picture. In addition, most of characters are hard to use, they are that long yellow tail.

The term "long tail" was coined by Chris Anderson to describe the business strategy of e-Tailers such as Amazon.com that sell a high volume of say thousands of popular items (the head portion in the graph below, in red) and low volume of hundreds of thousands of niche or unique items (the mustard tail portion in the image below).

Web 2.0 Internet environments has allowed for smaller niche markets to grow considerably due to easier means of communication. And allowing these small markets to grow, they need a medium to help them to get attention and reaching out to more.

I have this great example to share with you, a special site that can fund your creativity or simply venture your creative innovations online without forking out a single cent. But the magic is to have awesome ideas behind it. It’s known as Kickstarter. Below will be a video link and some explanations to let you know more about Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world.

Every month, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, and publishing fields.

A new form of commerce and patronage. This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project.

All or nothing funding. On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

Each and every project is the independent creation of someone like you. Projects are big and small, serious and whimsical, traditional and experimental. They’re inspiring, entertaining and unbelievably diverse.