Up and AwayHow Cloud Computing Changed My Life

by George Landau, founder of NewsEngin Inc.

jorge@newsengin.com

Does Not ComputeWhy it used to take months to get a newsroom up and running

1. Technology decision makers settle on a solution and seek approval from the IT department.

2. Top management approves a hefty capital purchase to cover server hardware and a traditional software license (the kind that never expires).

3. Lawyers haggle over contract terms and payment schedules.

4. The contract gets signed.

5. IT staff has to purchase and configure hardware.

6. Solution vendor has to install and configure its software.

7. Users start doing actual work.

TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: anywhere from about two to 18 months.

A Better WayHow the cloud lets us move faster and charge a lot less

1. Any newsroom, existing or startup, decides to use a cloud-based service.

2. Because it’s a month-to-month service whose total annual expense is about 10% of what it would cost to run the same software on-site, there’s no need to win approval of a capital outlay.

3. The cloud solution requires no on-site administration apart from maintaining an Internet connection, so the IT staff says it’s okay.

4. With no long-term commitments, the contract gets signed a lot faster.5. The cloud service provider can have a virtual server ready for use in

as little as 20 minutes.6. Users can start doing actual work.

TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: anywhere from one day to a couple of weeks.

A Couple of ExamplesNewsrooms old and new can make rain from cloud services

• MedPage Today– A profitable digital news service for medical practitioners, MedPage

Today also provides coverage to mainstream media outlets like ABC News.

– A far-flung staff of 25 medical journalists use NewsEngin’s cloud service for all aspects of content production.

– The cloud service replaced a chaotic, email-based system with an efficient workflow.

– Within days of deployment, the service had reduced production errors and saved time for all involved -- writers, editors, physician reviewers and web production staff.

A Couple of Examples (cont.)Newsrooms old and new can make rain from cloud services

• The Topeka Capital-Journal– A daily newspaper founded 151 years ago, its 40 journalists use

NewsEngin’s cloud-based service for planning, assigning, writing, editing, messaging, packaging, and delivery of content to the web and to print.

– What used to require rooms full of flowing lead, and later closets full of server hardware, now gets done on a small puff of computing resources within Amazon’s computing cloud, somewhere east of the Mississippi River.

– The cloud-based service costs less or the same as the maintenance of the on-site system ours replaces.

– The newsroom gained extensive capabilities for continuous publication to a limitless range of digital outlets.

The Doggie Bagsome lessons to take home

• The cloud can provide an organization with mission-critical services at a far lower cost than in-house IT solutions.

• The cloud offers workgroups in larger organizations more choice and control over the computer systems they rely on.

• Vendors who provide cloud-based services are likely to be more attentive to your needs than your own overstretched IT staff.

• The cloud supports an ecosystem that accelerates technological growth. Your own comfort with the cloud can make it easier for you to spot opportunities that might drift by.

• An important cloud caveat: If your organization stores valuable data in the cloud, make sure your contract lets you download your data in case you want to switch to a different service.

• One more caveat: Clouds are subject to Internet weather. When you rely on a cloud service all day long, every day, you’re more likely to notice occasional slowdowns from network problems.