Archivo mensual: julio 2015

banking, David Arnott, Enterprise IT, Financial Services, Opinion, Temenos

Cloud banking: lit from within

Financial services companies are warming to cloud services

Financial services companies are warming to cloud services

In a world where, as John Schlesinger, chief enterprise architect at Temenos, argues, servers are about to stop getting cheaper, the advantages of cloud computing in terms of cost and customer experience look more compelling than ever. In the banking market, however, the spread of cloud systems has been slower than elsewhere due to factors including concern about data security, uncertainty about the position regulators will take on cloud technologies and the challenge of managing migration from the in-house, legacy IT systems that currently run banks’ critical functions.

So just how hot is cloud banking right now? A quick temperature check of the financial services industry’s attitude to cloud banking in April triggered a warm response.

There are two sides to every story and never more so than when discussing with banks the shift from in-house technology to on-demand cloud-based services. So in Temenos’ recent survey Cloud-banking heat map, we asked two key questions: what are the benefits you seek from cloud services; and what, if any, are the barriers to adoption you face?

Echoing the results of a similar Ovum survey The Critical Role for Cloud in the Transformation of Retail Banks,last year, our results show that cloud is no longer just about cost reduction, as 50 per cent of respondents see cloud as a means to adopt new technology, and 34 per cent reported the ability to add new business functionality more quickly as a top benefit. This is a very encouraging sign that banks are seeing the adoption of cloud technology as a means to support the delivery of new products and services.

That is not to say that the long term cost benefits of cloud services are any less important. In fact the highest scoring benefit sought from the cloud, at 58 per cent of respondents, is to reduce overall IT costs. Not at all surprising given the profitability hit banks have taken post financial crisis, cost-savings are an obvious driver of a cloud-based IT strategy.

The top reported barriers to adopting cloud services are concerns over data security (55 per cent) and reliability and availability (47 per cent), which are common challenges for financial institutions that are used to managing and maintaining their own IT. This highlights the need for cloud providers to do more to demonstrate to the industry the robustness of their security controls and availability metrics, as paradoxically we may find that security and reliability is a benefit rather than a barrier to cloud.

Concern over regulatory compliance is another top factor against cloud banking, cited by 45 per cent of respondents. This is no surprise in such a heavily regulated sector, and there is no quick fix, but when talking to lawyers in this space, the feeling is that with a high level of due diligence on the on the banks’ part, and a transparent and collaborative approach on the cloud provider’s part, a solution could be found that meets all parties’ needs, including those of the regulator.

In response to this, we see cloud software vendors, their platform partners and industry organisations are working closely to address security concerns. Co-ordinated efforts such as the Cloud Security Alliance and its Cloud Controls Matrix have set out security principles for cloud vendors and assist prospective customers in assessing security risk at individual cloud providers. Cloud providers themselves are investing heavily in compliance and security expertise to the extent that many observers argue that a well-implemented migration to the cloud can result in higher levels of security than an in-house system, as well as access to real-time reporting mechanisms that are often superior, too.

As the industry continues to warm up to cloud banking, we will see the same issues raised and discussed again and again. And rightly so: the only way to support the banking industry in any leap in technology and faith is by addressing issues and challenges openly until all parties are convinced of its viability.

However, while clear challenges remain to more rapid adoption of cloud-based technology in banking, it is clear that change is happening. Already, analysts at Gartner predict that by 2016, more than 60 per cent of global banks will process the majority of their transactions in the cloud. Many are already moving less sensitive functions there and developing strategies to enable them to capture the benefit of cloud-based systems for their core operations.

Written by David Arnott, chief executive of Temenos

Alex Freedland, Dell, Josh Lindenbaum, Mirantis, News & Analysis, Redapt, server

Mirantis gets into the OpenStack converged infrastructure game

Mirantis is teaming up with Dell and Juniper to create converged infrastructure solutions

Mirantis is teaming up with Dell and Juniper to create converged infrastructure solutions

Mirantis unveiled plans to work with a range of vendors to deliver OpenStack-based converged infrastructure solutions for enterprises.

The Mirantis Unlocked Appliances are built by Rack Partners and come pre-validated by Mirantis with its own commercial distribution of OpenStack and pre-integrated by Certified Rack Partners.

This is Mirantis’ first big foray into the converged infrastructure area – a segment dominated by Dell and HP, which offers its own HP Helion OpenStack-based converged infrastructure solutions.

“The architecture Redapt designed with Mirantis, with Mirantis OpenStack at the core, solves for the complexity commonly associated with OpenStack,” said Josh Lindenbaum, vice president of business & corporate development, Redapt. “Redapt will work closely with customers to assemble, deliver and install Mirantis Unlocked Appliances that will arrive in the datacentre ready to plug and play.”

Its inaugural offering is tailored specifically for cloud-native applications, though it said it plans to release a broader portfolio of converged infrastructure solutions as it partners with more hardware and software vendors.

The first configuration will be built using server and networking technology provided by Dell (PowerEdge R630 servers for compute and foundation nodes and Dell PowerEdge R730xd for storage) and Juniper Networks (QFX5100s as the data path and a Juniper EX3300 for management) respectively, with configurations ranging from six compute nodes and 12 TB of storage to a full rack comprised of 24 compute nodes and 24 TB.

“About 20 percent of infrastructure is consumed through the appliance form factor because it is extremely easy to set up and operate,” said Alex Freedland, Mirantis president and co-founder.

“Mirantis Unlocked Appliances combines this ease of use with the openness and flexibility of OpenStack, delivered as a cloud-in-a-box. Our first appliance focuses on the most common OpenStack use case – developing cloud-native applications – and will be built and shipped by Certified Rack Partners across the ecosystem,” Freedland said.

Parallels Desktop for Mac, tech mistakes

Common Technology Mistakes to Always Avoid

Owning several forms of technology is not uncommon in the tech-driven world we live in today. However, our expectation for our tech to always work perfectly is often hindered by whether or not we’re conscious of the health of our devices. Common mistakes tech users make include overuse, accidental damage, or skipping updates—all things that […]

The post Common Technology Mistakes to Always Avoid appeared first on Parallels Blog.

Cloud computing, Cloud Services, News

Chicago Cloud Tax

Tech entrepreneurs took to city hall in Chicago to complain about the tax ruling put in effect last week. They claimed the tax, which extended a nine percent lease tax to cloud-based technology services, would hurt business and discourage startups in Chicago.

Spokeswoman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in statement, “Based on feedback we have received from Chicago’s vibrant start-up community, the administration will be taking measures to provide relief to small businesses so as not to put them at a competitive disadvantage. Proposals are being discussed with stakeholders, and we will release further guidance later this month.”

Relief may include exempting small businesses based on income.

Cloud-Computing (1)

Harper Reed, founder of Modest, a mobile-commerce technology provider to small and mid-sized businesses, said, “My initial concern was that I might have to charge our Chicago customers more, which is kind of a bummer. Then there was the other part of it . . . where all cloud services would be taxed. This is a big thing.”

This would affect startups that run their business from the cloud, using big businesses such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure or IBM Cloud Services, that have been switching to the cloud.

City Hall has not provided a clear interpretation of the law, worrying tech entrepreneurs.  J.B. Pritzker, a venture capitalist who is one of the most prominent leaders of the tech community, has commented, “If they don’t want to lose momentum in the startup community, it has to be more narrowly applied. Most startups are not particularly well-funded or making money. To the extent there’s an interpretation hat would bear down on those companies and take capital out of their nascent, small treasure chests, it’s the wrong place to look.”

The post Chicago Cloud Tax appeared first on Cloud News Daily.

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Google Apps or Microsoft Office? Survey argues which cloud office is best for your business

(c)iStock.com/MrIncredible

If you’ve ever talked to an acquaintance about what technology they use at their place of work, then this might be the article for you: a survey from BetterCloud has found the benefits of Google Apps and Microsoft Office for organisations of all sizes.

The report argues there is a “clear trend” for larger organisations to run Office 365 as opposed to Google Apps – Office 365-based organisations are more than four times larger and five years older on average, while companies who run Office 365 have IT teams five times the size of their Google counterparts.

As befitting smaller businesses, more Google Apps implementations are done in one go. More than two thirds (68%) of Google Apps organisations roll out at once, compared with 62% of Office 365 respondents who opt for a hybrid deployment strategy. This is not a surprise, according to the report authors, citing Google’s push for organisations to undergo transformational change – rolling out Google Apps over the course of a weekend, or across several weekends.

“When looking at all organisations, the deployment strategy for Office 365 organisations is essentially the exact opposite of those deploying Google Apps,” the report notes, adding: “Office 365 organisations are easing into the transition, allowing employees to choose their preferred working style, rather than abruptly shifting to a cloud-only workplace,” it adds.

Organisations utilising Google report increased collaboration levels (84%) when compared with Microsoft (72%), while running Google Apps also means a greater likelihood of cost savings. Organisations using the search giant’s cloud office experiences cost savings of 41% on average, while for Office 365 companies that number drops to 27%.

For firms which utilise more than 50% of applications, the most popular apps for Google were Gmail, Calendar and Drive, while for Office 365 the most popular apps were all desktop – Word, Excel and Outlook. Yet there’s a caveat, with BetterCloud noting the importance of Office 365’s nascent nature, the more likely older workforce at Office 365 organisations, and the hybrid approach in moving to the cloud.

As a result, BetterCloud gives a hypothetical description of a Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 customer based on their data. The average company which uses Google was a SaaS company founded in 2010, with 110 employees, three in IT, with a high percentage of millennial workforce.

For Office 365, it’s more likely to be a company founded in 1982, with complex on-premises infrastructure after 30 years of growth. While they have moved some infrastructure to the cloud, it’s not fully there yet, although the company is experiencing productivity and collaboration gains. None of the larger enterprises surveyed – 5000 or more employees – run 100% of their IT in the cloud, either from Microsoft or Google.

“The role of IT is evolving,” the report concludes. “IT admins aren’t sitting back and waiting to fix what breaks any longer; now, with the benefit of the cloud, they’re given more opportunity – and time – to spend on getting things done proactively.”

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No shortage of options in Gartner’s cloud managed hosting Magic Quadrant

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It’s that time of year again: Gartner has released its Magic Quadrant for cloud-enabled managed hosting, with 16 vendors in all assessed.

Seven vendors made the top right leaders section of the report; BT Global Services, CenturyLink, Claranet, Colt, Interoute, Rackspace and Verizon. Interoute scored top in completeness of vision, while Rackspace emerged victorious on ability to execute.

Of the two highest scoring players’ strengths and cautions, Interoute was praised for its self service onboarding capabilities through its CloudStore, as well as its investments in software defined networking (SDN) and offering movement of workloads and data between international data centres for no cost. However the virtual data centre provider was criticised for its relatively complicated structure of product support offerings, and cautioned as to how it will address the North American market.

Rackspace was given high marks for its early strategic play in allowing managed services to be bought on the same consumption basis as its IaaS products, as well as being praised for its customer service – the fanatical support – and its integrated portal. However, its key criticism was that, “despite being in the leaders quadrant”, Rackspace had not deployed infrastructure capacity outside of the UK. “Customers with data residency requirements or latency concerns in European regions farther away from the UK need to take this into consideration,” the report warns.

This is one of the more interesting facets of the report: Gartner notes alongside each vendor its European data centre presence, recorded by country. With new Europe-wide data protection regulations likely to be put in place, it’s an important issue for companies. Rani Osnat, VP strategic marketing at CTERA Networks, argues it’s definitely here to stay.

“There are two levels of sovereignty that people look at; one is where the data is, the other is who is it stored with and where is that company registered?” he told CloudTech. One of the classic examples, from an American perspective, was back in April 2014 during a case regarding Microsoft and an Irish customer, when a judge ruled US-based providers had to hand over customer emails even if they are stored overseas.

Yet Osnat added: “I think that is less important than where the data resides, mostly because [of the] statistics. The number of such orders that were issued and required, then actually provided, were very, very low – a few incidents per year.”

It’s worth noting, as Gartner always stresses with these reports, due diligence is its own reward and executives should not be making big business decisions purely based on where a dot lands in a square. You can find the full report here (email required).

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IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine Focuses on GovCloud by @Kevin_Jackson | @CloudExpo #Cloud

Today I am especially proud and honored to publicly announce my appointment to the IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine Editorial Board! I am truly appreciative to Dr. Alan Sill and Dr. Masin Yousif for their trust and confidence in nominating me to this position.
As the world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology, IEEE has always been a part of my professional career. Their mission, Advancing Technology for Humanity, also aligns with my own personal aspirations and goal of helping global governments better realize the promise of cloud computing.

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Microservices and HTTP/2 By @LMacVittie | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps #Docker #Containers #Microservices

There’s a lot of things we do to improve the performance of web and mobile applications. We use caching. We use compression. We offload security (SSL and TLS) to a proxy with greater compute capacity.
We apply image optimization and minification to content.
We do all that because performance is king. Failure to perform can be, for many businesses, equivalent to an outage with increased abandonment rates and angry customers taking to the Internet to express their extreme displeasure.

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