My fortnightly column A Dose of IT that discusses Cloud computing in healthcare Kapil Khandelwal QuoteUnquote with KK www.kapilkhandelwal.com

1. cmyk cmyk
13 Bengaluru ● Monday ● 17 January 2011 DC
Intel Yahoo Esquire votes
Technomics
settles search Mark
with WiLAN share down, Zuckerberg
over patent while Bing among worst
litigation. gains again. dressed celebs
A dose
of IT
A permanent hall of fame in 2010 online,
by the
numbers
Cloud computing:
Clearing the clouds
Silicon Valley for computers
MALIA WOLLAN
CALIFORNIA
The revamped
KAPIL KHANDELWAL puting), cloud services home here is
(software as a service- Jan. 16: Silicon Valley’s financed by
L
ast week, I SaaS, platform as a serv- shrine to the computer has
received a few calls ice-PlaaS, process, as a finally upgraded to version donations from NICK BILTON
from the leader- service-PraaS, infrastruc- 2.0. technology SAN FRANCISCO
ships of a leading IT ture as a service-IaaS), On Thursday, the 35-year-
services company in service providers (public, old Computer History heavyweights Jan. 16: Think your e-mail
India, a healthcare infor- private, community and Museum unveiled a $19 mil- like Bill Gates, in-box is overflowing
mation communications government clouds), lion overhaul, making this because you get dozens of
and technology (ICT) technologies (virtualisa- small city some 40 miles Hewlett-Packard e-mails a day? That’s noth-
company, and a mobile tion, grid computing, 3G south of San Francisco a and the computer ing: Internet users collec-
services provider posing broadband internet, web destination for anyone inter- tively sent 107 trillion (yes,
a question, 2.0 and serviceoriented ested in the evolution from chip maker Intel. that’s with a “t”) messages
"Is healthcare ready for architecture-SoA) and the abacus to the iPhone. addicted to or that computer in 2010.
the cloud computing in good old re-avatars (time “We are living through the on their desk came to be,” Granted, a large percent-
India?" sharing and application time of transition, from said John Hollar, the muse- age of those messages were
Clearing the cloud on service providers-ASPs). there being no computers um’s president and chief spam, but that’s still a lot of
cloud computing, firstly, Whatever the names, anywhere to there being executive. e-mail. And that’s only a
as against the IT product cloud computing is espe- computers in everything that A walk through the exhibit tiny slice of the bits that
majors that are selling the cially well suited for spo- we touch,” said Leonard J. vividly demonstrates what flew around the Internet
immense potential of radic, seasonal or tempo- Shustek, a venture capitalist Frances Allen, a museum last year.
cloud computing and the rary work, for finishing and chairman of the muse- fellow who developed com- In an effort to figure out
panacea for disruptive tasks at lightning speed um’s board. “We owe it to puter programming lan- how many e-mails, videos,
business models that it and processing vast the future to preserve the guages for IBM in the photos and other digital
can create in India, let me amounts of data, and for artifacts and stories of how 1960s, called “the incredible stuff we collectively
reiterate as I have been software development that happened.” shrinking machine.” uploaded and passed
mentioning in my col- Housed for two decades in The museum is a darling of around the Web in 2010,
umn that healthcare and Compared to Boston, the immense and Silicon Valley luminaries; Pingdom, an Internet moni-
life sciences are always growing collection of hard- its board, donors and fel- toring service, corralled a
laggards as far as adop- 18% in 2009-10, ware, tech trinkets and lows include a who’s who of number of research reports
tion of innovation in ICT around 42% of ephemera was moved in The museum, which moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 and occupied makeshift sites, tech royalty. At a recent and company statistics to
is concerned. As an 1996 to Silicon Valley, has undergone a $19 million renovation. museum preview, the Apple create a picture of the year
emerging concept, cloud companies are where it occupied various co-founder Steve Wozniak in online stuff.
adoption in healthcare is likely to adopt makeshift locations and computer servers and even a said. While the museum as the largest computer his- was on hand to gush over his Of course, e-mail is just
a function of the overall served as a go-to place for table-size computer sold by already owns items like the tory exhibition in the world favorite gadgets. one piece of the digital pie.
adoption of the cloud cloud in 2010-11. technology insiders to remi- Neiman Marcus in 1969 to iPad, and monitors social have tried to be patient with And while the museum Below are a few highlights.
technologies in India. An nisce about the heady, built- store recipes for busy house- media spaces like Twitter those less tech savvy. In seems to have found its The number of people
independent survey and testing projects. in-the-garage computer era. wives. and Facebook, it is waiting March, the museum will rightful home, the collec- online naturally keeps
reveals that compared to Clearing the cloud for Much of that history is The museum curators gen- for the dust to settle before it become even more accessi- tion, like the technology it growing. As of June 2010
18% of companies in healthcare would include reflected in a new exhibit, erally stick to a 10-year rule, tells the definitive story of ble by uploading its collec- covers, is always capable of there were 1.97 billion
2009-10, around 42% of lower cost of ownership, “Revolution: The First 2,000 meaning they wait a decade technology in the first tion online, providing digital rapid and unpredictable Internet users worldwide,
companies are likely to speed of delivery, flexi- Years of Computing,” which to determine what items decade of the 21st century. access to images, videos and change. “Fifteen years ago, with 825.1 million of them
adopt cloud in 2010-11, bility, and scalability for includes items like the first were pivotal enough to war- The revamped home here information on tens of thou- we moved to Silicon Valley in Asia, 475.1 million in
which is one of the key the ICT to cope with the disk drive, IBM’s hulking rant a place in the history of is financed by donations sands of items. because this is now the cen- Europe and 266.2 million
barometers of the confi- demands. Let us under- Ramac from 1956, Apple’s computing. “It’s always from technology heavy- “The story of computing ter of the world for comput- in North America.
dence of the businesses stand that the benefits early personal computers very difficult when you’re in weights like Bill Gates, and computing history is ers,” Mr. Shustek said. Facebook started 2010
in India to adopt cloud would include creating like the Apple II, robots, the the moment to know what’s Hewlett-Packard and the important to tell for people “Maybe in 15 years, we’ll with 350 million users and
computing. Secondly, the new business models and first arcade video games, a going to be important and computer chip maker Intel. who may be curious how move it to Shanghai, follow ended the year with 600
size and growth of the service offerings, stack of Google’s earliest significant,” Mr. Shustek But curators at what is billed that smartphone that they’re the innovators.” — NYT million.
cloud computing market improving on healthcare Social media continues to
in India is around ` 300 delivery capabilities with grow at a fast pace. An esti-
crores in 2009 for the
public cloud segment, the
largest of the segment,
according to IDC. The
improved service levels
for the customers and
outsourcing it them.
However, healthcare has
Intel, AMD lose out to mobile chipmakers mated 25 billion Twitter
messages were
through the service last
year, and the company
sent
growth is expected to be to face a few challenges San Francisco/Helsinki, adapt chips originally and smartphones. added over 100 million
around 40% CAGR for before it can be widely Jan. 16: Fears about Intel designed for personal com- “AMD is in a very unenvi- users.
the next 5 years. Again, adopted in India. Many Corp’s absence in tablets puters but versions released able position of having Facebook also saw record
this is significantly a of the CEOs and CIOs in and smartphones are over- so far consume more energy arguably one of the worst numbers, reaching 600 mil-
small percentage of the healthcare have to be shadowing the chipmaker's than ARM-based chips, balance sheets in semicon- lion users. It’s amazing to
overall IT spending by clear that the cloud and strong earnings and rein- making them less suitable ductors,” said Rick Schafer, think that Facebook started
the Indian business - its its unintended effect on forcing the impression that for mobile gadgets that are an analyst at Oppenheimer. 2010 with 350 million
potential uses of cloud their business models, the company no longer sets left on for hours at a time. “And its sandwiched users.
are exceptionally broad accounting and audit and the direction of the tech People are increasingly between Intel and Nvidia, As for the things people
and its risks difficult to taxes issues, internal con- industry. turning to mobile devices to two guys with huge balance are sharing online: Internet
foretell. trols, policies and proce- The world's largest semi- surf the Web and some sheets, huge cash flows and users sent 360 billion
Let me also clear the dures and regulations and conductor maker has new investors believe Intel's tra- resource to spend on pieces of content across
cloud on the terms and its compliance, data chips for mobile devices on ditional focus on PCs could research and development.” Facebook over the year,
services that are being security and privacy, the way this year and is begin to lose relevance. Intel and AMD shares both which included links, notes
popularlised. Long ago, metering of customer boosting spending on Intel's struggles are high- fell about 1 percent on Fri- and photos. Flickr, just one
we used to draw the usage, integration costs research and development, lighting smaller rival day. Intel's shares are trad- of a number of popular
cloud to depict a group of and duration and manag- but it remains far behind Advanced Micro Devices ing at about the same level photo sites, saw 130 mil-
computers or the internet ing and monitoring inte- rival ARM Holdings, whose Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset. Inc's lack of strategy in the as a year ago, compared to a lion photos uploaded to the
itself while drawing the gration interfaces. Clarity chip architecture is found in exploding ultramobile mar- 19 percent rise in the Stan- site each month.
technology architecture on the cloud will emerge most smartphones and Even as Intel's stock fell, they have diverged. ket too. dard & Poor's 500 index There was also a stagger-
diagrams. This has now only when we have tablets. shares of other semiconduc- “It's historically been the This week AMD Chief since then. ing rise in video use online
come to represent several answers to hard ques- Despite better-than- tor companies rose, with bellwether, that if you're Executive Dirk Meyer left AMD is scheduled to with the advent and growth
names (internet comput- tions and demand data- expected fourth-quarter ARM rising 6.5 percent to a positive on the (technology) the company following con- deliver fourth-quarter earn- of new smartphones that
ing, IBM’s on-demand based analyses regarding earnings and guidance post- 10-year high. sector you're positive on cerns he hadn't done enough ings on Thursday. This can view and record video.
computing, utility com- its cost savings. ed on Thursday, and a The stock market, and sen- Intel, but I think that rela- to pursue the mobile market. week, it said its fourth-quar- People watched 60 billion
broadly higher market, its timent on the wider technol- tionship is breaking down,” And Silicon Valley rival ter revenue increased 2 per- videos on YouTube each
shares slipped as investors ogy industry, for years said Craig Berger, an analyst Nvidia Corp's stock surged cent sequentially to $1.65 month — that’s 730
Kapil Khandelwal is a leading healthcare and focused on the company's moved in tandem with Intel at FBR Capital Markets. for days on high expecta- billion, with a gross profit billion videos throughout
ICT expert. Kapil@KapilKhandelwal.com failure to stake out territory following its earnings Intel's strategy in the tions for its new Tegra 2 margin of roughly 45 per- the year.
in the mobile market. report. But in recent quarters mobile market has been to chips for tablets cent. — Reuters — NYT
With new software, headsets are outsmarting phones
ANNE EISENBERG just like those on speaker Headset as fast as using a standard municate as far as 400 feet so his hands are free to use
phones. phone. But many employees from their phones, said Mike the computer as he manages
SAN FRANCISCO
All of this has created a manufacturers use their phones mainly to Faith, chief executive of portfolios and offers invest-
Jan. 16: Headsets are sta- business opportunity for are now ready to receive calls, or to reach oth- Headsets.com. The headset ment advice at the company
ples for call-center workers, headset manufacturers, ers within their organiza- ($299.95), which made its he founded, Mark 1 Asset
travel agents and many other which are now ready to offer offer sleek new tions. In such cases, he said, debut last July, is the fastest- Management, in Oklahoma
people who have to talk fre- sleek new models that plug models that plug a headset that communicates selling product at the site, City.
quently on the phone. With a into desktops, laptops or with the computer will serve Mr. Faith said. It can work For mobile phones,
headset to listen and speak notebooks for quiet conver- into desktops, well. with most phones, he said, Plantronics will offer an
through, both hands are free sations and conference calls. laptops or Plantronics, a headset and with PCs or Macs by updated version of the Voy-
to work, and a shoulder Some of the new headsets notebooks for company in Santa Cruz, connecting the base to the ager Pro UC headset, avail-
needn’t stiffen to cradle the switch easily among desk Calif., will offer a wireless USB port. (This will let you able Jan. 26 ($199.95), that
phone. phones, computers and even quiet headset, the Savi 730, this listen to music, for instance, lets users switch between
Now, headsets could make cellphones. conversations year that can manage calls on your computer between calls received on the PC and
many office landline phones “Put on your headset, and whether they are on a PC, a calls.) those on a mobile phone.
unnecessary, as businesses it gives you access to what- and conference desk phone or a mobile People who want to use a When the headset is stowed
decide to route calls through ever device you choose to calls. Some of the phone, said Karen Auby, a headset with an iPad can buy in a briefcase at the airport,
their office computers. use,” said Bob Hafner, a company spokeswoman. the Jawbone Icon ($99). The the system is smart enough
Companies can save managing vice president at new headsets The headset is compatible headset also works with to know, and to route the sig-
money by simply buying Gartner, the marketing switch easily with many office software Macs that have Bluetooth, nal to the phone, said Ms.
employees headsets instead research firm in Stamford, systems, including ones said Jenny Noyola, a cus- Auby at Plantronics.
of desktop phones, said Conn. The move toward PC among desk from Cisco, IBM and tomer service representative If headset sales soar, it will
Tavis McCourt, a managing telephony will gain ground phones, Microsoft, she said. The at Headsets.com. be in part because of PC
director and analyst at Mor- quickly in coming years, he price has not been set. Jerry Plant, who is deaf in software, Mr. Hafner of
gan Keegan, who follows said, as people increasingly computers and A stylish new wireless one ear and wears a hearing Gartner said. For example,
the Internet telephony mar- The computers common in equity research firm in New communicate by computer, even cellphones. headset, the OfficeRunner, aid in the other, bought an people can easily use their
ket. Software like Lync from most offices aren’t ideal for York. Desktop computers clicking on the names of made by the German audio OfficeRunner in part computer to set up confer-
Microsoft makes it possible conducting a conversation, can have built-in micro- people they want to reach, won’t work for everyone in company Sennheiser and because of the sound quality. ence calls simply by drag-
to use the Internet and your said Gregory Burns, a phones and speakers, but the for example, instead of dial- the office of the future, Mr. offered in the United States “It couldn’t be any better,” ging and dropping the
computer to make phone telecommunications analyst conversations can distract ing them. McCourt said. Dialing with by Headsets.com in San he said. names of colleagues across a
calls. at Sidoti & Company, an people in nearby cubicles, Still, computer calling a mouse, for example, isn’t Francisco, lets people com- Mr. Plant wears a headset screen. — NYT