Maria Spínola is a Researcher, Strategic IT Marketing and Innovation Adviser, White Paper Copywriter and Cloud Computing Evangelist with more than 15 years experience in enterprise information technologies.

She holds a Software Engineering degree and a "Marketing, Innovation in Retail and Distribution" pos-graduation.

Contributions

• Article: Real-World Cloud Computing Applications - November 2009
  Here is a collection of links to some real-world applications of Cloud Computing technologies and services from companies in a variety of industries.
  
  
• Article: What are the Cloud Computing Challenges and Risks? - November 2009
  
  • Part 1: Cloud Security Advantages
    Most organizations pay extraordinary attention and devote considerable resources to IT security, but that doesn't mean that their data is any more secure. The reality is that many attacks come from a lack of timely software update management and server misconfiguration. The likelihood of such issues occurring is greatly reduced in the Cloud.
    
  • Part 2: Cloud Computing Challenges and the Delicate Balance Between Risks and Benefits
    An overview and analysis of the challenges of Cloud Computing adoption, including: Security, Ensuring Compliance, Monitoring SLA's and Contracts, Integration with your Legacy Systems, Moving Applications from one Cloud to Another, and the Delicate Balance between Risks and Benefits.
    
    
• Article: What Exactly is Cloud Computing? - August 2009
  There are three possible Cloud Computing delivery models; however, to be considered Cloud Computing, any of these delivery models must also have certain characteristics. Here is an overview of those characteristics to help differentiate between offers that are truly Cloud Computing and those that are pre-existing offerings that have the Cloud label slapped on them.
  
  
• Article: Cloud Equals SaaS, Grid, Utility Computing, Hosting…? - August 2009
  Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether a service is truly a Cloud Computing offering or a pre-existing offering that has the Cloud label slapped on it, such as hosting, outsourcing, ASP (Application Service Provider), On Demand Computing, Grid Computing, Utility Computing, SaaS (Software as a Service) and so on. Cloud Computing is not a technology revolution, but rather a process and business evolution on how we use those technologies that enables Cloud Computing.
  
  
• Article: Why Should IT Directors, VP's, CIO's and CEO's Care About Cloud Computing? - August 2009
  Business managers know that in spite of the benefits of every new technology/business model, there are also risks and issues to consider. Here is some useful information even if your company has already decided not to use Cloud Computing in the near future. It is likely that some of your departments are already using cloud computing, and you will need to define a Cloud Governance Program and make it available to all your internal customers.
  
  
• Paper: An Essential Guide to Possibilities and Risks of Cloud Computing - July 2009
  A Pragmatic, Effective and Hype-Free Approach for Strategic Enterprise Decision Making
  The goal of this paper is to provide a realistic perspective of the possibilities, benefits and risks of Cloud Computing; what to look for, what to avoid, and also some tips and best practices on implementation, architecture and vendor management strategies. It is important to consider all those aspects before you decide either to move or not to move your systems, applications, and/or data to the "Cloud", in a "hype free" approach.
  
  

Blog: Maria Spinola’s Blog