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What is 'cloud washed' software? Opinion
Don't be brainwashed by companies claiming the earth from their cloud solutions says Ian Hamilton, chief technology officer, Signiant
The term 'cloud washed' was originally borrowed from the environmental movement’s coined term 'green washed,' which drew attention to businesses that were marketing their products as green without meeting any environmental standard. Cloud washing is a similar practice as software companies brand products with the buzzword 'cloud' without fundamentally changing the way they develop and support their software. Vagueness around the definition of 'cloud', which in its most diluted form is a metaphor for ubiquitous network connectivity, facilitates cloud washing practices. Typically, businesses engaged in cloud washing take software designed for static on-premises deployment, wrap it in a virtual machine, allow businesses to
deploy it on public cloud IaaS instances and pay by the hour to operate it.
But this is not what software innovators mean when they say 'cloud' and there are some very significant services missing from cloud washed software, especially for businesses. Automatic upgrades, maintenance and scalability: SaaS (Software as a Service) is a type of cloud software often used by businesses. Designed from the beginning for the cloud, true SaaS is managed and maintained for users across multiple levels of redundancy with multi-tenant architecture.
SaaS vendors take ultimate
responsibility for operation of the environment, giving customers a virtualised infrastructure with continuous access to the latest product
releases without impacting customisations. Also, SaaS automatically scales according to load for you, spinning up or down virtual machines as load dictates and load balancing across multiple instances. You’ll know if your software isn’t truly cloud-based if you or your IT department is responsible for software upgrades and managing virtual machine instances.
Cost savings through network automation: With network automation capabilities used by SaaS vendors, many labour-intensive tasks and processes can be mechanised. From automatic deployment to routine maintenance, network- enabled automation reduces business costs by reducing human involvement. But that’s nothing compared to the cost savings gained from
Colour change for LED lighting ETC By David Fox
The new x7 Color System from ETC offers the ability to easily adjust the colour in Source Four LED, recently released Source Four LED Series 2, and Selador Desire LED luminaires. In Studio Mode, colour temperatures for all colour-changing and variable- white Source Four LED luminaires can be set anywhere between 2700K and 6500K, while a green adjustment – operated from the button panel on the back of each luminaire or from the lighting control desk – ensures the fixtures can be fine tuned to studio cameras. A High 25K flicker-free mode can also be implemented to stop the flickering that is commonly seen when LEDs are used with high-speed and rolling shutter cameras. This can be switched on either from the control desk or from the fixture’s button panel. The Source Four LED CYC adapter turns that light into a cyclorama light, bringing smooth, silent colour changing to cycs, with no visible gaps or
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the scaling capacities of SaaS. With hundreds or even millions of customers served by a common infrastructure rather than dedicated independent infrastructures, SaaS vendors enter economies-of-scale, reducing overall costs with every additional user and passing that savings on. A final advantage of true SaaS in regard to cost savings is the way it’s billed. Often called 'pay-per-use' or subscription billing, it is much easier to track and charge per user with SaaS and scale up or down depending on active users of the software. So you are only charged for what you actually use. The onus is on the vendor to provide value associated with an outcome rather than simply delivering software as a component of the solution.
High-availability and global performance: Software failures happen. However, resiliency and high availability are characteristics of any well- designed SaaS, which automatically switches to a redundant or standby server in case of failure. And, with SaaS, you can expect the same performance of the software no matter the local infrastructure, as long as you are somewhere in the internet-connected world.
For more on Signiant’s cloud solutions designed for moving large data sets around the world and into the cloud, visit us at IBC. 14.L08
Production version of Satcom6 on show
ViaLite
Communications By Ian McMurray
seams between beams. Also on show is the ETC Unison Paradigm control system, which provides the tools to allow presenters, technicians and camera operators to control lighting in all studio situations. It has been used in an increasing number of remote studios, including at BBC News’
New cycle: The Source Four LED fitted with the new CYC adapter
Westminster studios, where the presenter or reporter can operate the small studio’s lighting from a touch panel on the desk, out of sight of the camera. 11.A62
The production version of the Satcom6 — an intelligent outdoor enclosure designed for satellite teleports — is being highlighted at IBC by UK RF over fibre manufacturer ViaLite Communications. The stainless steel unit can be pole- or wall-mounted and accepts up to six ViaLite modules including RF up to 4.2GHz or support modules such as digital reference and Ethernet. Using SNMP, the links can be monitored and controlled remotely using a simple web browser. CWDM functionality allows multiple signals down a single fibre. ViaLite switch and splitter modules can be used to set up full or partial redundancy. “We developed the Satcom6 specifically for satellite teleports”, said Dr Martin Ryan, managing
Cabinet maker: The stainless steel unit can be pole- or wall- mounted and accepts up to six ViaLite modules
director at ViaLite. “Teleport operators can now install RF over fibre links between the antenna and the control room without the need for costly outbuildings, which is a huge saving. Moreover, the hardware in each unit can be configured to meet the individual requirements at each teleport. The production version on display at IBC2014 incorporates refinements that have been introduced to the Satcom6 since we announced it last year.” 1.A21
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