Since the start of 2011, top technology companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft have been ramping up efforts to push consumers on their cloud computing services. Before we continue, I’m sure some of you are wondering what the “cloud” is. Polls show 60% of Americans don’t understand what this new computing term means. The cloud is simply a virtual storage hub that can be accessed from any device. Consider Google Docs: you can upload your files to the service and then access them from any computer or smartphone.

One question being dodged by most analysts is how cloud computing will affect the music. Best Buy, Amazon and Apple have released cloud music services that require you to buy their music or pay a monthly fee. Apple is even charging users just to upload to their iCloud service. It was only a matter of time and now there is finally one startup out of New York that is allowing consumers to upload and stream their music for free.

CloudPlayer.me is the only cloud music service offered free of charge to users. The product intends to eliminate hard storage and create a massive virtual database of music. Think of it this way: you have 500GB of music, you can’t fit that all on your iPhone, can you? However, if you upload it to a cloud storage solution you can access all of your music from phone’s browser and not have to use any of the hard disk space.

CloudPlayer.me

The value proposition is surely there. CloudPlayer.me will make waves in the music industry during 2011. The music industry appears to be on its last legs after their failure to deal with the Torrent industry. It seems the cloud computing industry will be the final nail in the coffin. 11 years ago the RIAA ruled against MP3.com because they allowed users to stream music on the website. Will the RIAA come after CloudPlayer.me next?

The founder of CloudPlayer.me, Adam Raymond, believes they will have to eventually. After all, the RIAA ruled the only way music can be played on the cloud is through a pay-per-stream basis. Adam has said he will stick to his guns and keep the service free. As the CloudPlayer.me service grows rapidly, he is expecting trouble from the RIAA soon enough.  The question now is: Who will win the same battle that took place 11 years ago – the masses of Internet users or the government establishment? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Despite all the hype, it’s not common knowledge what the cloud actually is. We all know that the cloud is exciting, but the whys and hows of it seem relegated to esoteric IT realms.

Perhaps one reason for that lack of public comprehension is that the cloud is so customizable. Take Egnyte, an SMB-oriented cloud platform that lets you store data, share files, centralize company information, open up cross-platform mobile access, and more. As a cloud-based service, Egnyte saves you the time and money associated with building out an IT structure, laboring to put a hacked file server back together and upgrading servers. Essentially, Egnyte gives you a flexible, cost-effective platform. How you use Egnyte is up to you, however, and that’s where it helps to know more about the cloud than the usual “get on it” mantra.

I caught up with Egnyte co-founder and CEO Vineet Jain, who helped design the powerful platform from the ground up, to de-fog some ideas around cloud computing. He talked about working around the psychological challenges that come up with using the cloud, its real security holes, in what direction the trend winds are blowing the cloud, and more.

Can you tell me a little bit about the challenges associated with using the cloud?

Even when I started the company, I knew that a pure cloud-based service will only go so far. That’s because you’re trying to address something that is traditionally run in your firewall in your local area network. A pure cloud-based platform for something that data-intensive will always have technical and psychological challenges.

The technical part is the latency challenge. When you’re dealing with extremely large files—let’s say you’re a web design firm and you work on Adobe Illustrator files or Photoshop files—when these files are hosted in somebody’s cloud server, in this case us, they will never match the speed you will get in your local area network. We’re dealing with the public internet (Ed.: which is slower than a LAN).

The other big problem always seems to be that when the internet service is down, if I am an SMB, I am dead in the water. I cannot access my corporate data. Even if that problem exists for only three minutes, it has a pretty significant impact on my business.

But the biggest problem I still see is more psychological. That is the perception that I, as a company, am not in control of my data because my files are hosted on somebody else’s server, in this case Egnyte’s. Even though that server may provide much better security and redundancy, there is still this sense that I am losing control of my data.

I think that is a psychological barrier that a lot of businesses are still exhibiting. They want something that they can touch, literally speaking, something that is locally available, for their peace of mind.

Image: B Rosen/Flickr

How did you adapt Egnyte to address those problems?

I was aware of this combination of problems from day one. After fourteen months in existence with a pure cloud file server solution, we introduced an adjunct product, sort of an extension. We call it the local cloud.

It’s a little bit of an oxymoron. Essentially, we give you a local copy or a local cache of your data, on commodity hardware, which will span all the way from a low-end computer hard drive–a low-level solution like a drop box–to commercial off-the-shelf network-attached storage (NAS) devices that you would get from the likes of Netgear, and including now virtual appliances that you could pretty much deploy in any existing piece of hardware.

The whole idea is that we have evolved cloud into a hybrid solution. It is attracting a much larger customer accounts than we would have been able to if we only had a cloud-based solution. People get the best of both worlds. They combine the ease of use of the cloud with the fast local performance of a LAN. Theyhave a local copy of their sensitive data and control access rights. My employees have a local cloud folder on their desktop that looks like an Explorer file folder, and they don’t really care how the files are being served. When they are sitting in the office, thefiles are served from the local cloud and when they are at home or remote, the files will be served from the cloud file server. Whether you access your files on the cloud or locally (unbeknownst to you), the same file access rules are enforced. We have taken away the complexity of giving you fast performance, as well as any-device,any-location access with this hybrid cloud solution.

How do you think people are using the cloud in one way that they’re not? Are there some technologies that people use off the cloud that you think should be migrated to the cloud?

I’d like to see people who are used to software that runs within the firewall using the cloud more. Quickbooks is an example. A lot of small businesses use Quickbooks. A few years back, I was at Intuit and they invited me to a usability session and would pay me $200 an hour for being there, and I thought, I’ll go and try it out. So they were teaching Quickbooks online as a substitution. Yet even today, Quickbooks is still selling more of the package desktop software than the online version. So why is online not taking off? For the amount of usability or the feature richness that the desktop version has, it’s still does not match what they have online. So in this particular case, the desktop or the old style still rules.

The cloud is a big change in peoples’ habits. For certain kinds of applications where they’re still not willing to go to the cloud. It’s a very interesting mix. It depends on which application, which area we are talking about, to say are people using the cloud properly or not.

It’s not simple answer is what you’re saying, right?

Right. When you look at Egnyte, what do people use Egnyte for? We have some people who use every nook and cranny of Egnyte, every feature, they use it as a full replacement for their web- and file servers. Some people use Egnyte for simple file sharing. They still have an internal file service, they still have VPN for remote access for their employees. But when it comes to external, project-based collaboration, they use Egnyte as an add-on to what they currently do. But they don’t replace other things they have. I could try to ask them “why are you wasting so much money doing it all yourself, you can put everything into my solution.” But it’s just a mindset, what is the comfort level? So it’s hard to say how I should advocate people to use the cloud, it’s very subjective.

You’ve talked about the fact that people get used to their desktops and servers, that they have psychological objections to the cloud. What are the actual security risks associated with the cloud? What should people be worried about?

There are several types of security. People should be worried about access security. Many cloud server solutions do not have the robust user access controls and audit reports required to enforce business policies.They should also be worried about transmission security. Not only is there encryption needed at storage, but there’s encryption during access,. The transmission should be secure with a mobile device as well as with a PC and wired network connection.

Another risk that I think people should evaluate is what happens if a provider is not online. The internet provider could go down, or the cloud service could be down.

As a customer, I would evaluate what your vendor’s service level agreement (SLA) is for uptime and availability. Our SLA is currently 99.97%, which means we will subject you to three hours of downtime in an entire year, which by the way is a very good SLA.

If you cannot access the cloud you should still have offline access to your files on your PC. Now I go back to my favorite thing to say, the world of cloud in our opinion is hybrid. That should be applicable to pretty much everything that you’re trying to use from a cloud provider. The hybrid technology provideslocal access if you cannot access the cloud. Of course, this goes both ways. The Cloud File Server provides access in thecase your local computer is damaged or stolen.

Are there any new trends in terms of cloud storage, or is the cloud the trend?

I know it sounds like you’ve been hearing it everywhere, but mobile is becoming so big that I have been surprised. We found that 40% of Egnyte users are sharing and accessing files with a mobile device.

You wouldn’t believe the number of potential customers who request the same capabilities—the same interface, the same access capabilities as your typical laptop—for their mobile devices.

I would make a distinction between a phone and a tablet. We are running into more and more situations where customers will sign up with Egnyte purely based on the fact that we will give you a rich application or app for mobile. My favorite buzzword is that this is the “applification” of the Web. It seems to be a bigger trend than just the cloud.

It is becoming so common that we have been trying as a service provider to keep on adding more and more capabilities to devices like a tablet, whether it’s an IOS-based, an iPad, Android-based or the upcoming HP Touchpad. Much to my surprise, people want to create content, they want to consume content, they want to do everything that they can do with a laptop.

I own an iPad, I have my Mac, but I still can’t for the life of me use my iPad for creating content. I use it for searching the Web or checking email. But when it comes to real stuff, I go to my computer.

Maybe I’m odd. The other day I was on a flight, and I would say 25% of people had their iPads out, and I peered—I shouldn’t have done that, I was in the middle—but the person on my right was writing a Word doc and the other was doing an Excel thing, I was like wow, with an iPad.

Image: Wagsomedog/Flickr

Is there something that you want to provide through Egnyte in the future that you haven’t gotten the chance to provide yet?

Yes, absolutely. The way I see the evolution of the cloud is that it being hybrid addresses the problem of the any-time access, the latency and all that stuff, and the peace of mind.

Currently big companies, Fortune 1000 types, are not subscribing to the cloud.

There are two reasons. One is that they have a lot of investment in their own data centers, and secondly there are a lot of appliance problems that the public cloud service does not satisfy.

I am placing a bet that you will see larger companies adopt some of the solutions like Egnyte if they can basically create a solution set where Egnyte will give you a control layer. What I mean by that is when you log into your Egnyte account you will see the file listing, but when you say open the file, there is no file in Egnyte. That file is going to be served from the data center that you currently own, your own storage, running behind your own firewall, and you will not miss a beat in terms of latency.

You will see a hybrid model where you would use a public service like Egnyte for the control layer, but the actual object, the actual physical file, would still be residing behind your firewall. You want the best of both worlds in that situation. It’s sort of the evolution of a private/public cloud in that sense. Specifically from a large company point of view, it’s what I see happening.

Do you have any other remarks?

The thing is evolving quite fast. Today there are many companies who have not embraced the cloud because they do not understand how their organizations will benefit. Delivering safe file sharing and access from any locationand devicewith minimal investment is a big opportunities for businesses.This is the reason so many large companies are considering cloud solutions, Drea, there is so much opportunity for Egnyte to grow.

Official bio: Vineet Jain is the CEO and co-founder of Egnyte. Prior to Egnyte, Vineet founded and successfully built Valdero, a supply chain software solution provider, funded by KPCB, MDV and Trinity Ventures. He has held a rich variety of senior operational positions at companies like KPMG, Bechtel etc. in the past. He has 20 years of experience in building capital efficient and nimble organizations.

Oh, yeah; the hipsters knew it first.

Hopeful entrepreneurs are also watching, looking for an idea that just might make them as rich as this year’s success stories. Regardless of your reasons, check out these up-and-coming startups to stay ahead of the crowd this year:

Micropayment Geniuses Twitpay and Dwolla

Everyone’s definition of what actually constitutes a micropayment is slightly different. It varies from $12 at the high end, to a fraction of a cent at the low end. If you’re not familiar with this concept, don’t worry.

Most of us aren’t.

Micropayments are used to pay for extremely cheap goods and services found online – anything from a download to written content. There is an emerging market for this service, primarily in third-world countries. Although Paypal wasn’t successful with their micropayment system, Twitpay and Dwolla appear to be doing it right.

Smartphones as the New Credit Card

Are you tired of always searching for your credit card? Do you panic if it’s not in its designated spot in your overstuffed wallet? It only takes a second of inattention to put a card in the wrong place, and hours to find it again.

On the other hand, your smartphone makes life a little easier. The latest development projects are striving to turn your smartphone into a credit card. If this sounds like the wave of the future, it’s actually already happening. Starbucks has the “Mobile Card” app, PayPal has their own little program for the iPhone, and Google has “Zetawire.”

Commercials, Commercials Everywhere

Advertisers are intent on finding you no matter where you try to hide. The latest craze is in mobile advertisement. So many smartphone users are relying so heavily on their favorite electronic gadget that ecommerce marketers are searching for new ways to get their message to this sector of the economy.

The only problem with naming an up-and-coming startup in this new trend is that the big boys snap them up as fast as they get started. Facebook has already acquired Rel8tion, and they’ve only been around for about nine months.

Don’t You Love ToTs?

Of course, this doesn’t refer to another favorite, the tater tot! This catchy acronym is a memorable name for a This or That commentary. This new startup launched in May, 2010, and already has more than two million impressions in January 2011 alone. If you’d like to take part in the heated debates that go on through the ToTs, or even start a new opinion-fest of your own, join the crowd on this new site.

Keep in mind that the most successful startups frequently just find an easier, faster, or cheaper way to do everyday tasks! Of course, making it fun doesn’t hurt either. What’s your favorite startup this year?

In its latest media-giant move, Apple has launches subscriptions in its App Store. You can now subscribe to magazines, newspapers, video, etc. Subscriptions, whose duration (weekly, monthly, etc.) is set by publishers, will run on the same billing system as apps and in-app purchases. From the press release:

…with one-click, customers pick the length of subscription and are automatically charged based on their chosen length of commitment (weekly, monthly, etc.). Customers can review and manage all of their subscriptions from their personal account page, including canceling the automatic renewal of a subscription. Apple processes all payments, keeping the same 30 percent share that it does today for other In-App Purchases.

However, Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app. In addition, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app.

Publishers might not be happy about the restrictions in that last sentence, in part because they know that customers will just click the app button instead of making the effort to navigate outside of it. The 30% “Apple tax,” the usual amount, reflects Apple’s confidence that people will want to use the App Store to manage their subscriptions. It also makes me wonder what competitors are going to offer–and whether their “tax” is going to be lower.

Botox isn’t just for wrinkles anymore. Thanks to FDA approval, Botox maker Allergan can now market the nerve-connection blocker to people with chronic migraines. This approval may double Botox’s annual sales, according to BusinessWeek:

The medicine, a purified form of the poison botulinum given as an injection, was cleared for people who suffer migraines at least 15 days a month, and whose pain lasts at least 4 hours, said Caroline Van Hove, an Allergan spokeswoman. About 3.2 million Americans meet those criteria, Van Hove said in a telephone interview yesterday.

To treat migraines, Botox is given every 12 weeks in multiple injections around the head and neck to reduce future symptoms, the FDA said. The drug hasn’t been shown to work for other types of headaches, or for migraines that occur less frequently than 15 days a month, the agency said.

This kind of additional treatment approval is every pharma company’s fantasy, though I question whether migraine usage with be popular enough to increase revenue as much as analysts suggest (the botulinum toxin already has a variety of other lesser-known uses, including treating muscle spasms). The benefits of Botox vs. a placebo in the migraine study weren’t that dramatic.

I can’t help but wonder if those injection sites happen to correspond with the forehead, area around the eyes, and other convenient wrinkle-removal locations. Then those analysts would be onto something.

With the addition of VOIP, Fax, shared contacts amongst management or employees, and shared calendars in the office, Exchange is a must have for any business.

Rackspace put together a good list of custom Outlook Exchange Rules that can be used to further organize the Hosted Exchange experience.

What are Exchange Rules?

Rules are a like having an awesome secretary who knows when to put your calls through and when to tell the person calling that you’re at the dentist. Really, besides using Hosted Exchange to get rid of the headaches associated with running your own mail server, Outlook rules are one of the simplest things you can do to get back to doing the things that matter.

Top 8 Rules You Can Use To Get Organized in Microsoft Outlook

1. File any email where my name is CC:d in the “My CC:’d emails” folder
2. File any email where I am the only recipient in the “Me, Myself and I” folder
3. File any email sent with high importance in the “Quick, the house is burning down” folder and flag for follow-up (just in case you missed it coming in)
4. File any email from my wife or husband or significant other or, oh…you get the point, in the “Love of My Life” folder
5. File any email with the word “Project” in the subject in the “My Projects” folder
6. Flag any email from my boss as high importance
7. Flag any email from my boss as low importance (Hey, we’ve all got different bosses, so wasn’t sure which you’d prefer!)
8. Delay delivery of all emails except those marked as high importance by 1 minute—just in case I said something I’ll regret

The (Carbon) trust has given a £454,000 grant to Lomox, a Welsh start-up company, to accelerate the development of its “light emitting wallpaper”. The material, which uses organic light emitting diode or OLED technology, runs on very low voltages and is twice as efficient as today’s energy-saving bulbs.

Patents filed by Lomox overcame both problems, Mr Lacey said. Manufacturers would apply its light-emitting chemical on to wallpaper with low-voltage electrical connections: “It gives a very natural, sunlight-type of lighting with the full colour range.”

This invention is both useful and game-changing. It reminds me that the next wave of brilliant startups may well come from the sustainability sector. As management guru C.K. Prahalad stated in the Harvard Business Review, “sustainability is the mother lode of innovations that yield both bottom-line and top-line returns.”

What other game-changing, useful inventions are in the pipe?

The new People of Walmart blog relies on user-submitted images of “outrageously bad / ugly / creepy / crazy shoppers” that grace the aisles of the world’s largest retailer.

Based on their About page, the guys who started the website seem pretty cool. I can’t quote my favorite bits here, but part of their philosophy reads:

There is no reason to send us pictures of people that are seriously and unfortunately handicapped so don’t be an asshole. We are trying to have some fun here and there is a difference between someone who is mentally challenged and a person who has a fu Manchu and is still rocking MC Hammer pants.

We would also like to stress that we are in no way liable if you get your ass beat by Bubba when he catches you taking his picture.

I’m really curious to know two things:

• how Walmart is going to react
• how the site owners are going to monetize the site

Image Credit: Brave New Films, Flickr

The Trunk Club is an Oregon-based startup that offers men a female personal shopper via Skype video. Shoppers consult with men online to determine their fashion requirements, then FedEx them a set of clothes for free. TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld describes the service:

Once a man (the service is only for men) gets his “trunk” of clothes, he tries them on via another Skype session (he is supposed to change off camera, but I am sure some perv customers will “forget”), gives his feedback to his personal shopper, and then decide which ones to keep. He can return any or all of the clothes at no expense to him. He only pays for what he keeps.

The Trunk Club was started by Joanna Van Vleck, a personal stylist who opened up a showroom for her clients in Bend, Oregon. She was planning to open up retail outlets across the country where men could come in for their personal shopping sessions, but her angel investor backed out after the economy tanked. By necessity, she turned to the Skype model and only needed $50,000 in angel capital to get going. She has been in private beta with about 600 customers for the past six months. She now has 21 shopping experts working on commission, and is adding 5 to 6 every month. The Trunk Club’s hybrid approach is both high touch and scalable at the same time. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more retail concepts like this spring up in different categories, with real people helping you make a buying decision over Web video.

Read the whole article here (recommended).

Sounds like a boon for a select group of well-off single guys. It also helps that the women working for the service are all attractive.

I would like to see a similar service for women.

Key Bank has created a program to help women get critical access to capital to finance existing or fledgling businesses. Through the Key4Women program, they’ve shown a committment to helping women overcome the distinct challenges they face when it comes to accessing capital.  Data collected by the Center for Women’s Business Research indicates that, relative to their male counterparts, women business owners (WOBs) have a more difficult time raising business funds.

Maria Coyne, KeyBank EVP and Founder of Key4Women was kind enough to answer a few questions about the program and its purpose.

What was the motivation to start a special program just for women, Key4Women?  

MC: Women rely more heavily upon networking and find great strength and inspiration from engaging with and receiving advice from other women.  KeyBank had been lending concertedly to women for quite some time, but officially launched its Key4Women program in 2005, designing it to directly address WOB challenges, providing female entrepreneurs with access to capital, financial solutions, educational offerings, and networking opportunities.

Do women business owners face unique challenges in a down economy?  

MC:  We just learned from the Key4Women Confidence Index, which was done in conjunction with the Center for Women’s Business Research and surveyed women business owners around the country, that the current challenging economic climate has had a significant negative impact on their businesses.  More than half (56 percent) reported lower net earnings and 18 percent decreased employment in the first quarter of this year.  

However, 90 percent of the respondents thought the economy has at least hit bottom and will either remain the same or improve in the next six months.

Women business owners have been taking actions to bootstrap in this environment:  two-thirds of respondents said they are watching their cash flow much more carefully over the past six months, and 42 percent said they are collecting receivables more aggressively.  

The survey results were announced on May 27, 2009, and the full survey report can be accessed at www.cfwbr.org.  We’re interested in what women business owners think about the results and what their own experiences have been.  We encourage business owners to comment on the survey’s findings by posting a comment on the blog at www.mariaonmoney.com.

Are women at a disadvantage when it comes to raising larger sums of money – venture capital for example?  

MC:  Traditionally, women have received only a small fraction of venture capital funds and have historically not accessed bank financing as men do, but that is changing. In 2006, the Center for Women’s Business Research found that 70 percent of women business owners polled were satisfied in their efforts to get credit, compared with only 50 percent ten years earlier. Key is making sure women have access to capital, we have pledged to lend $3 billion to qualified women owned businesses by the 2012, which will also be important to our country’s economic recovery. This new commitment comes on top of lending more than $3 billion to women-owned businesses since 2005. 

What are some of the ‘key’ differences you perceive between men and women when it comes to financing their businesses?  

MC:  Through Key’s focus on developing trusted client relationships we know that women business owners also focus on relationships. While all business owners have the need for financial products that are right for their business, women place a higher priority on how their bank treats them. According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, more than two-thirds of women business owners choose financial products and services based on their relationship and experience with a lender.
 
Research indicates that, women owned business are still less likely than businesses with comparable revenue owned by men to use business credit or equity financing. Our message is: “It’s okay to borrow strategically,” and Key4Women is designed to make sure women business owners can get the financing they need. 

For women business owners reading this – what are your top three pieces of advice?

 1) Pay attention to all aspects of your business, seek ways to maximize efficiencies and eliminate wasted time and money. Look for ways to do more business operations online, eliminate redundancies, and be judicious about how you spend your own time.
 
2) Recession-proof your business by expanding into new markets or introducing new products that fill needs today. Seek ways to be innovative, take suggestions from employees and customers about how to improve value and contain costs.

3)  Manage the numbers:  Business owners who come to their bankers with realistic business plans, and who know how to quickly adjust the levers that drive their revenue and cash flow always have an advantage.  When making projections, talking to your banker before small concerns become big crises is always the best way to get their help.  

Thanks to Maria Coyne and KeyBank for the education. If you would like to find out more about Key4Women, check out Maria’s blog, www.mariaonmoney.com.

Thanks also to Marylee A. Gotch, Vice President, Public Affairs Manager, for arranging this interview.

Image Credit: JMRosenfeld, Flickr