Brian Riggs, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Telecoms
Dimension Data’s acquisition of Teliris is the latest move in a strategy to grow its managed and hosted unified communications (UC) services business. The acquisition adds a cloud-based videoconferencing service to a Dimension Data portfolio that already includes a number of managed and hosted telephony, UC, videoconferencing, and contact center services. It also expands Dimension Data’s presence in the US, where it is eager to grow its market share, particularly in the area of cloud-based videoconferencing services.
However, Dimension Data’s cloud-based UC portfolio is large, complex, and in need of focus. Adding another component to it increases the complexity, at least in the near term. Dimension Data will need to add integrating Teliris to an already-long list of things it needs to do to simplify its cloud-based UC portfolio.
Meanwhile Teliris is in the process of simplifying its own portfolio. The …
Google continues to up the cloud ante by adding a set of extensions that allow Google App Engine developers to build and deploy Docker images in Managed VMs. Developers can use these extensions to easily access the large and growing library of Docker images, and the Docker community can easily deploy containers into a completely managed environment with access to services such as Cloud Datastore.
From the Google Cloud Platform Blog:
“Based on our experience running Linux containers within Google, we know how important it is to be able to efficiently schedule containers at Internet scale. To that end, we’re announcing Kubernetes, a lean yet powerful open-source container manager that deploys containers into a fleet of machines, provides health management and replication capabilities, and makes it easy for containers to connect to one another and the outside world. We’ll continue to build out the feature set, while collaborating with the Docker community to incorporate the best ideas from Kubernetes into Docker.”
Google continues to up the cloud ante by adding a set of extensions that allow Google App Engine developers to build and deploy Docker images in Managed VMs. Developers can use these extensions to easily access the large and growing library of Docker images, and the Docker community can easily deploy containers into a completely managed environment with access to services such as Cloud Datastore.
From the Google Cloud Platform Blog:
“Based on our experience running Linux containers within Google, we know how important it is to be able to efficiently schedule containers at Internet scale. To that end, we’re announcing Kubernetes, a lean yet powerful open-source container manager that deploys containers into a fleet of machines, provides health management and replication capabilities, and makes it easy for containers to connect to one another and the outside world. We’ll continue to build out the feature set, while collaborating with the Docker community to incorporate the best ideas from Kubernetes into Docker.”
A recent study conducted by Osterman Research revealed the growing popularity of tools like Microsoft SharePoint. Between 2012 and 2014, the percentage of employees using SharePoint within an organization has risen from 39% to 75%.
A major reason for this terrific rise is due to the spurt in the use of intranet applications like document collaboration, file sharing and records management. Interestingly, file sharing on SharePoint (82% of respondents) appears to have trumped popular third party services like Dropbox (63% of respondents) at the workplace.
Intra-organisation collaboration is a major avenue for growth of cloud-based service providers. Unlike retail customers, enterprise-level partnerships help providers reach out to thousands of paying customers with minimal outreach.
This explains why Dropbox, despite its 200M+ user base is still second to SharePoint when it comes to enterprise patronage. While 100% of SharePoint users are enterprise customers who pay, less than 5% of Dropbox customers …
At WWDC, among a litany of other announcements, Apple unleashed iCloud Drive, representing further entry from Cupertino into the cloud storage space. But is it too little, too late?
Sitting as part of iOS 8, Apple is offering up to 5 gigabytes of free storage, with users being charged a princely 59p a month for up to 20GB and £2.40 a month for 200GB. This certainly compares favourably with Microsoft’s OneDrive – £5 per month for 200GB – and niche players such as Box and Dropbox, with prices similar to Google Drive and Amazon Web Services.
But the question remains: with so many players in the market, why Apple? And why now?
With iCloud Drive, Apple in theory has the missing piece of the jigsaw for the full enterprise collaboration suite that Google and Microsoft already has. Yet some of the tech press remains resolutely unconvinced about this move.
In the wake of the end of support of Windows XP and the almost immediate exploitation with the IE vulnerability, focus has turned to the next big End of Support (EOS) event which is for Windows Server 2003. To help companies prepare to navigate large migration projects of WS 2003 AppZero and Microsoft teamed up last week in a webinar entitled “How to Solve the Challenge of WS2003.” You can view the slides and recording here (registration required).
Those who leverage managed server providers (MSPs) often use the MSP to access and manage public cloud services. However, there are right and wrong ways to do this.
Many believe that MSPs and public clouds live in very different worlds. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the past, ‘managed service providers’ was a term used to describe infrastructure services delivered on a subscription basis. With the advent of cloud computing, managed IT services and management services have become synonymous. Indeed, most MSPs are very cloud-like. Many even provide auto- and self-provisioning capabilities, as well as some elastic scaling features.
However, as MSPs continue to grow in popularity, along with cloud computing, best practices are beginning to emerge around how to use MSPs as management layers for cloud-based resources. Simply put, it’s the ability to leverage a tiered model to deal with public clouds using the MSP as …
While there are many ways to define DevOps, the goal of the concept is to be able to deliver IT solutions faster, leveraging several technology tools to add value for business. Cloud companies have demonstrated how they can manage massive pools of IT infrastructure, giving the developer a very flexible resource pool that they can leverage and IT is eager to do the same.
In this Power Panel at 2nd DevOps Summit moderated by Cloud Expo Tech Chair Larry Carvalho, Bernard Golden, VP, Strategy at ActiveState; Andi Mann, VP of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies; John Willis, VP of Customer Enablement at Stateless Networks; Randy Bias, Co-Founder and CTO of Cloudscaling; and Vasu Sankhavaram, Chief Strategist of DevOps and Cross Portfolio Architecture Alignment within HP Software, will discuss this movement that is delivering frictionless IT to the enterprise.
It used to be that only application developers knew what APIs were, but things have changed to the point where there are entire conferences dedicated to APIs, websites track them, and people can make a living from doing API reviews. CEOs tout their own APIs in keynote speeches, and CMOs allocate budget to API development. The fact is, however, that what an API is and does hasn’t changed. Functionally, APIs were created to expose data to, and across, applications. Originally based on SOAP/XML endpoints, they evolved into Web-based services that enabled ecommerce, data and communication transactions. Before long, it became clear that there isn’t much one can do online unless it involved an API.
Distrix (formerly Spark Integration Technologies) on Friday announced it will demonstrate the latest version of its flagship software platform at the Internet of @ThingsExpo in New York, June 10-12, 2014 at the Javits Center in New York City. Version 4.1 of the Distrix Gateway Router extends the manageability of remote networks while also improving the programmability of software-defined networking (SDN) environments, resulting in unprecedented network agility. Also at the conference, Jay Friedman, Distrix president, will deliver a presentation titled IoT Meets SDN for WANs – Keeping Networks Secure and Manageable as part of the Software Defined Data Center and Enterprise Cloud Stories track.