The Cloud Software program from TIVIT Ltd, an information and communication technology research company, has significantly changed IT companies’ operations. Being able to develop services quickly and cost-efficiently is crucial in terms of a company’s competitive edge; this is particularly important in cloud business where the delivery cycle for services is becoming faster and global competition is intensifying.
The companies and research facilities in the Cloud Software consortium have engaged in cooperation for three years to conduct research and develop agile methods and tools to support cloud businesses. These agile methods have removed futile intermediate phases and created clear ownership of work tasks, and they are now being used by several of the companies participating in the program.
The Cloud Software program has demonstrated the impact of these reforms on business operations, the quality of services and enhanced operations. The results are convincing.
According to Tieto, the pilot projects of the program alone achieved savings worth several million euros. Software house Steeri was able to triple its turnover in 2012. Ericsson Finland significantly accelerated the delivery times for its products. The delivery capacity is now weeks, whereas deliveries used to be performed twice per year. With new practices, Ericsson has also improved the quality of its products and reduced the administration costs caused by malfunctions; the amount of savings is estimated to be 100,000 euros every month.
Reaktor has utilized the results of the Cloud Software program in different sectors, from teleoperators to media houses. Developing an online banking service, for example, usually takes approximately between one and three years. According to Reaktor, using agile methods can reduce the development period significantly – a functional service can be ready for use just six months from the start of the project. Internet security company F-Secure estimated that the program has helped to develop new cloud business. F-Secure stores content for millions of users worldwide in its F-Secure clouds, which consist of five data centres in three different continents. There are petabytes of data stored in the cloud – billions of photos, videos, documents and other files. The organization of F-Secure has also gone through transformation to become more agile while collaborating on the Cloud Software program.
“We are in a better situation than if we had started doing this alone,” praises Janne Järvinen, F-Secure’s Director for External R&D Collaboration. In Järvinen’s view, the Cloud Software program has proved that cooperation in the SHOK project is profitable. “Solving common problems is more effective in a group, and it creates new possibilities for business operations. In a small country such as Finland, it is worthwhile to join forces in order to improve our international competitive edge.”
The best results from the Cloud Software program, which will end at the end of 2013, will be further refined in a new development laboratory for digital services. A research and product-development environment for cloud computing and digital services, based on open-source code software, will be established in the CSC Kajaani Data Center. The unit will be called Forge and TIVIT will be responsible for its operations. Forge will enable better exploitation potential for open information material when developing new digital services. The software and services can be tested on customers in the development environment before they move into production outside Forge, to commercial cloud service providers.
The following organizations participated in the four-year TIVIT SHOK Cloud Software program: Aalto University, the IT Center for Science (CSC), Digia, EB Elektrobit Corporation, ECE (European Communications Engineering), Ericsson, Exfo Nethawk, F-Secure, Gearshift Group, Steeri Oy, Ixonos, Broadsoft, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, PV (PacketVideo Finland), Reaktor, RM5 Software, Tampere University of Technology, Techila, TeliaSonera, Tieto, University of Helsinki, JAMK University, University of Jyväskylä, University of Oulu, Vaadin, Vincit, VividWorks, Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT) and Åbo Akademi.
Cloud Software is a four-year program run by TIVIT (2010–2013), which focuses on developing
different areas of cloud services. F-Secure is the flagship company for the Cloud Software program and the program is funded by TEKES.
www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org
Further information:
Janne Järvinen
Focus Area Director – Cloud Software Program
Director for External R&D Collaboration
(+358) 40 7544738