Pay as you go model for SME’s.

Even the hosting services exists from many years, Grid computing and HPC(High performance Computing) has changed face of the cloud computing and the way business applications are created and run.  The major layers in the cloud computing are IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service). 

Pay-as-you-go model for SME’S.

Always building and managing in-house infrastructure and platform has always been complex, expensive, and risky and also the total cost for evaluating, buying, configuring and managing all the hardware and software required for business application is very high.

The cloud computing or PaaS and pay-as-you-go model can add up greater ROI, reduce deployment cycles, better in-house software alternative, pay based on usage and CAPEX becomes OPEX as high up-front investments are spread out.

Benefits

• Low Hardware cost.
• Low Software licensing cost.
• Low Facilities cost.
• Low Managing Services cost.
• Low development cost.
• Simplified Deployment.
• High availability at low cost.
• Zero up-gradation cost.

As SME's are small and medium enterprises, the major advantage of cloud computing or PaaS for SME's is that someone else is responsible for making your apps secure, constantly available, and accessible in the event of a disaster.

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Employee Tracking using Passive RFID

When it comes to employee tracking, first thing comes in the mind is employee time and attendance tracking. If it comes to security and safety, there are many solutions have been implemented using CCTV cameras in such environments like production units, warehouse’s, manufacturing plants and etc., But CCTV and attendance systems do not addresses the following challenges except evidence, crime deterrent and attendance.

• Right people have the access to the right places.  
• Track the staff no matter where they are.
• Unauthorized access to restricted areas.
• Enhance staff safety through the location knowledge.
• Keeping track of work hours VS actual worked hours.
• Compare and manage staff performance using hours spend at work location.
• Monitoring number of visits by supervisors or managers.
• In case of emergency availability of critical information of the employee including blood group, address and etc.
• Single identity for attendance, self-service, access card, cash-less cards in canteen and etc.,
• Track movement of the personnel in the interest of security or for billing purposes.
• Real time visibility of employees.

A low cost Passive RFID based solution provides real-time and automated recording of personnel movements within an organization's premises or in selective/critical areas within the premises. A typical RFID based employee tracking solution will have following major components:

RFID Tag

Carrying RFID tags by employees will be tracked automatically as they enter and exit entryways and as they move within work areas, zones and controlled areas. The RFID tags will be issued to each and every employee as an identity card.

RFID Reader or Pedestal

RFID pedestal or readers installed at each and every key entry and exit points and at locations within the work area/zone/block and at the security post and connected to server to provide instant visibility as individuals enter and leave.

When any personnel with an RFID tag passes through the pedestal reader the system will capture identity of tag and alerts late entry, Un-authorized entry, time spent within the work area or zone or block, time left.

RFID Software Solution

The RFID software solution integrates data from RFID Readers, Tags, sensors and other real-time data sources. The software solution enables enterprises the ability to view up-to-date status of employee’s movement, critical security alerts, attendance, and employee performance from anywhere. Further RFID Software solutions have the capabilities of integrating with existing applications and data repositories.

With passive RFID technology the employee tracking solution gives real time updates of any event or activity recording an accurate audit trail of attendance, lateness, and unauthorized absence, providing proof of presence and that required duties have been carried out. It is not only solution to above challenges and saving valuable time, the safety and proactively being managed with peace of mind.

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IE 9 Beta... Is technology never satisfies?

When I heard that Microsoft plans to launch the Internet Explorer 9 browser with multiple improvements in features, user interface, speed acceleration, security and many more, I got really excited and downloaded IE9 PP5. And I am not alone in this browser war because there are already in excess of 2.5 million downloads of the IE9 Beta browser when it was in developer preview mode, namely not really a full browser.

After trying IE9 PP5 I found following features at a glance.

• It is very fast startup and shutdown to allow more browsing time.
• Quick navigation to favorite sites from the Windows 7 taskbar i.e. Site Pinning and not required to launch IE9. Instead, specific websites can be pinned to the taskbar just as any other application in Windows 7.
• Resumes incomplete download after restarting feature which is already available in FireFox.
• Popular sites list similar to Chrome.
• Web address is integrated with search similar to Chrome.
• Simplified menu with neat and clean UI just like Chrome.
• Enhanced Back button, the Address Bar and the default search field.
• Tested Speed Reading demo application and the results really awesome. It took 48ms in IE 9 and 988ms in Chrome.
• Tested Videos from MSNBC and it was amazingly fast compare to Chrome and FireFox.
• New alert system to manage performance of the browser.
• Book mark all the current open tabs to favorites.

In addition to the above Microsoft is claiming following features and many more in their blogs and sites.

• IE9 offers consistent, fully hardware-accelerated text, graphics, and media, both audio and video.
• Test your site in IE9 Standards Mode. This mode provides the best performance and interoperability and will offer additional benefits in the IE9.
• Take advantage of HTML5, CSS3, SVG, DOM, ES5, improved JavaScript engine, and more.
• Windows integration, with this integration spans from under-the-hood security mitigations such as the UAC and hardware acceleration through DirectX 11 APIs, favorite websites will be launched straight from the Windows Taskbar.

Notably, IE9 is amazingly fast compared to its previous versions of Internet Explorer and they always seemed slow when compared to Google's Chrome. My first look at IE9 shows better than the Google Chrome (habitually I used).

Whoever the browser market leader between Microsoft IE, Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome, when technology not satisfies then evaluation takes place and war continues.

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