Manas Sarkar

The Cloud Computing paradigm involves the delivery of services utilizing a distributed set of assets each connected seamlessly through a high speed communication link over the Internet. This makes the entire solution universally accessible while providing enhanced agility and reduced cost. However, the entire solution uses the Internet as the backbone for data/information exchange and therein lies the Achilles heel of the mantra. The Internet has, essentially, been at the mercy of the socioeconomic conditions prevailing in any particular region, and while some countries enjoy blazing over the information super highway at Formula One speeds, many countries still have to make do with more sedate access speeds. This may be due to a variety of reasons ranging from the lack of basic infrastructure (Africa and Australia), network congestion (India and South Asia) and soc... (more)

How does Smart Grid fit into the cloud (computing)?

The cloud computing concept cuts across verticals. And another one which goes along in utilities is Smart Grid. What do they have in common? Cloud computing being consumer focused at this time and even though smart grid aspires to be a consumer focused technology it is likely to get onto the cloud to get into mainstream. Today, there is no visibility on the chain of power generation to determine how and where it's being used and whether its delivery is as efficient as possible. Like today's data center for computing purposes there is no equivalent in Utilities to effectively man... (more)

Is XMPP Still A Relevant Messaging Platform For Middleware?

The recent news on Google stopping further development on their offering Google Wave did create mixed responses. Thousands of fans even registering support for it and critics liked it. However my interest was on the messaging platform that it used. Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) has finally come of age and given its high profile usage such as Google Wave and Talk, there is a thought process if XMPP can be used within organizations for middleware or EAI. It might sound surprising on how a protocol that is used in Internet Messaging services could be used in EAI,... (more)

Enterprise Mashups – Recovering Value from SOA Investments

Industry analysts have repeatedly pointed out that technology is a beguiling proposition and businesses invest expecting to save money or increase revenue, but rarely realize either benefit. The rapid investment over the first half of the nervous nineties have placed the CIOs under enormous pressure to  become “Value Creators” and  produce or increase profit from existing company property rather than investing further.  This may be connecting the enterprise's data in new ways to give new insights and improve decisions. However, there is an added mandate to be thrifty and manage ... (more)

Collaborative Business Process Modeling

I just came across the group ABPMP (Association of Business Process Management Professionals) Toronto chapter. It's good to see these groups being formed to take BPM execution forward. I have yet to go through to see the activities to be taken up by these groups. Another thought that came across the same lines is the recent trend of mobile apps. All the product companies in the mobile gaming industry are creating the platform and driving on the collaborative model of people enhancing the applications on the platform. Having same analogy in BPM, I think there are many platforms a... (more)