For people who love security and open-source systems, Ubuntu is a favorite. According to the BuildWith website, there are 3,097,360 live websites using Ubuntu, which equates to 0.9% of the entire Internet. AskUbuntu forums reports that Ubuntu has 1-2% market share in most markets. Another interesting fact about Ubuntu from OMGUBUNTU survey is that Ubuntu […]
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DevOps has often been described in terms of CAMS: Culture, Automation, Measuring, Sharing. While we’ve seen a lot of focus on the “A” and even on the “M”, there are very few examples of why the “C» is equally important in the DevOps equation.
In her session at @DevOps Summit, Lori MacVittie, of F5 Networks, explored HTTP/1 and HTTP/2 along with Microservices to illustrate why a collaborative culture between Dev, Ops, and the Network is critical to ensuring success.
(c)iStock.com/Serjio74
Here’s something that may raise a few eyebrows: 1&1 has been named the best value infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider according to a new benchmark report from Cloud Spectator.
The report, a follow up to last year’s verdict which found Amazon EC2 had “significant” cost advantages investing long term, saw a 350% performance difference between the top 10 service providers, and urges organisations to invest in infrastructure testing or risk overspending.
In all, 17 cloud service providers (CSPs) were tested, ranked in terms of performance in virtual central processing units (vCPUs), block storage, and memory, as well as the relationship between price and performance. 1&1 came out on top due to its high VM performance combined with its least expensive packaged pricing. ProfitBricks, Ubiquity, CloudSigma, and Google round off the top five, with Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and IBM SoftLayer not even in the top 10.
The main reason for this disparity appears to be around pricing; the metrics do not count on elements such as support, security, geographical location, and managed services. Although the researchers admit smaller, more specialised CSPs with aggressive pricing structures can achieve higher rankings, IBM SoftLayer fell because of its comparatively poor price-performance value despite high rankings in VM environments.
Despite this, a note from the researchers also argues that VM performance is ‘pretty much the same from CSP to CSP.’ “On VM performance alone, the top 10 IaaS providers in this report exhibited a difference of 3.5x,” the report reads. “With block storage performance, differences exceeded 10x.”
Another interesting finding related to the ‘noisy neighbour’ protocol; Cloud Spectator argues businesses sharing physical resources with different users is not an issue with the majority of providers.
“In public cloud environments, some providers, especially major ones such as Google Compute Engine and Amazon Web Services, employ performance throttling among other strategies to deliver a consistent user experience regardless of the actual user load on the physical machine,” the report states. “This means that, while performance may be artificially low for the VM, the user will not see much change over time.”
Google and AWS have recently been embroiled in a slanging match of sorts; the former calling out the latter’s pricing structure following AWS’ 51st cost reduction last week. Rackspace, CenturyLink, Interoute, Hostway, and PhoenixNap completed the top 10 vendors.
(c)iStock.com/roberthyrons
We are well into the first month of 2016, and many predictions from the cloud sector have started to reveal different trends that we may see over the next 12 months. In 2015 we saw IaaS (infrastructure as a service) and PaaS (platform as a service) growing 51%, with cloud firmly being pushed into the limelight. Looking to the future, there are many indications of what to expect in the year to come, including improvements to current-generation cloud environments as well as private cloud resurging amongst early and late cloud adopters,
However, while many are in the midst of starting their New Year’s resolutions and looking towards the year ahead, it’s also a good time to look back at the previous year and take stock of what’s been achieved by both vendors and customers in the cloud industry.
There has been a growing realisation that no cloud computing strategy is complete without a cloud security and compliance strategy
Probably the biggest cloud trend in 2015 was security and compliance. There’s been a growing realisation that no cloud computing strategy is complete without a cloud security and compliance strategy. Spurred on by numerous high profile breaches, security was brought to the forefront of many business plans; the EU also expressed its concern about the levels of cyber security being implemented, and agreed new cyber security rules imposing new network security requirements on businesses providing essential services.
As these viruses, hackers and industry regulations from HIPAA to Safe Harbor has started to impact IT departments more, the focus was sharply tuned into how best to apply on-premise levels of security and compliance in the cloud. iland certainly had a big year in this realm – our investments in cloud security and compliance which culminated in the release of ECS-AS in the second half of the year have created a lot of interest and excitement from customers.
Another trend in 2015 was that Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service continued to claw its way to the top of CTO priority lists. With IT budgets tight and faster adoption of cloud in general, we’ve noticed a growing comfort level and confidence in cloud-based disaster recovery solutions. iland certainly experienced growth in this area in 2015 with customers like Strata adopting DRaaS and reaping the benefits from it. As seen currently in the UK with the floods affecting the north of England, disaster recovery is not an area that should be overlooked; marketing company Pi Industries recently implemented a disaster recovery solution and has urged other businesses to do the same.
We’ve noticed a growing comfort and confidence in cloud-based disaster recovery solutions
2015 also bought a keener focus on cloud costs. Many customers have experienced that cloud can actually cost more, not less, if the required levels of support and management tools are not available. Although the main driver for cloud continues to be agility, there is still a strong desire for insight into costs and billing and the capability to be able to carefully manage cloud costs. As cloud becomes more of an integral component of the overall IT strategy, IT leaders are rightly demanding that it comes with the visibility, service and support levels they’re used to receiving from enterprise IT.
These cloud trends from 2015 highlight the need for cloud providers to offer cost transparency and security services that thoroughly protect the customer– as well as customers being aware of the current threats to business, be that via natural disaster or a hacker at the end of a computer. So, as we get further into 2016 and IT leaders make their plans for 2016, companies would be well placed to consider these trends and look for cloud partners that can help in these key areas as their cloud journeys continue.
SmartBear Software has announced a partnership with TechArcis Solutions. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with offices and technology centers in India and Australia, TechArcis is now delivering SmartBear’s testing and quality assurance solutions including the company’s API Readiness platform, Ready! API as well automated testing tool, TestComplete.
“SmartBear products complement our strategy to help our clients build great software for the connected world,” said Sunil Sehgal, Managing Partner at TechArcis Solutions. “Our objective is to address our clients QA and testing needs, deliver testing transformation and assure continuous improvements. SmartBear tools help us do that, ensuring quality throughout and at every step of the development lifecycle. We are excited to use SmartBear’s Ready! API unified platform and provide a differentiated solution to our clients.”
Intelligent accounts payable is rapidly transforming by better managing exceptions, adopting fuller automation, and implementing end-to-end processes that leverage connected business networks.
We’ll explore how intelligent AP is rapidly transforming by better managing exceptions, adopting fuller automation, and implementing end-to-end processes that leverage connected business networks.
As the so-called digital enterprise adapts to a world of increased collaboration, digital transactions, and e-payables management – AP is needing to adapt in 2016.
It seems that all we hear about these days is the move to the cloud. Certainly, it’s a top-trending technology topic for enterprise-sized organizations. But don’t let the hype mislead you into believing cloud deployment is just for large businesses. Small- to medium-sized organizations can absolutely reap the benefits of cloud. In fact if you’re an SMB, you have even more to gain from cloud deployment – and you run a real risk of missing out by not going to the cloud.
According to a September 2014 study by Deloitte, SMBs using an above-average number of cloud services grow 26 percent faster on average than those that don’t use cloud tools, and are more profitable by 21 percent on average.
Citrix has announced it will sell its CloudPlatform and CloudPortal Business Manager systems to infrastructure software vendor Accelerite. The acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2016, subject to conditions.
Accelerite, a subsidiary of Persistent Systems, has recently acquired cloud and virtualisation product lines from HP, Intel and Openwave. Citrix will work with Accelerite to build on CloudPlatform integrations with XenServer, NetScaler and Citrix Workspace Cloud.
The Apache-based CloudPlatform is used to create and run public and private cloud infrastructure services. CloudPortal Business Manager automates provisioning, billing, metering and user management. Its strength is that it allows service providers to deliver a range of cloud services while integrating with existing business, operations and IT systems, according to Nara Rajagopalan, CEO of Accelerite,
The new additions give Accelerite a more complete portfolio and it can now fill the gap in end-to-end life cycle management for public and private clouds, it said. Despite the increasing adoption of container technology in the cloud industry many enterprises cannot deploy and manage them. CloudPlatform’s simplicity and large customer base provide a means of addressing this emerging shortfall as the industry evolves into hyper-convergence, Rajagopalan said in a statement.
“Citrix will work closely with Accelerite to build on CloudPlatform integrations with our key offerings that enable the secure delivery of apps and data,” said Steve Wilson, the VP of Core Infrastructure at Citrix.
Citrix will continue to work with both the OpenStack and CloudStack open source communities to optimise its NetScaler, XenServer and Citrix Workspace Cloud.
Meanwhile, at the Citrix Summit 2016 in Las Vegas Citrix announced that new releases of XenApp and XenDesktop are available for download. The new 7.7 XenDesktop release is a product of collaboration between Citrix and Microsoft and it promises new cloud provisioning and collaboration options. The new versions will improve the flexibility of the FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA) across multiple geographical locations, Citrix claims.
Among the promised improvements are a fully native Skype for Business user experience within a virtual app or desktop, as well as high-quality voice and video. The new versions will make it easier to set up virtual desktops in Microsoft Azure by using the Machine Creation Services (MCS) feature of XenApp and XenDesktop. Citrix Provisioning Services will also now supports the on-premises provisioning of Windows 10 virtual desktops, it claims.
As SAP’s year-end figures were published the cloud giant has unveiled plans to clarify the positioning of all its cloud offerings in an open letter to customers.
SAP said the preliminary figures for its financial year ending on December 31st outpaced the growth of the rest of the cloud industry and exceeded its own expectations.
SAP’s non-IFRS cloud and software revenue grew by 20%, double the original outlook of 8 to 10% growth. The ‘exceptional momentum’ claimed by SAP will be even great next year, it claimed, as cloud sales bookings increased by 103% in the full year to $0.97bn (€0.89 billion) and 75% in the fourth quarter to $0.35bn (€0.35 billion). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was $2.49 bn (€2.30 billion) for the full year and Operating profit was $6.89 bn (€6.35 billion).
Use of the in memory platform SAP S/4HANA doubled each quarter, claims SAP, which has 2,700 customers by the end of 2015. “We decisively beat our full year guidance for cloud and software revenue,” said Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP.
Based on these figures, the outlook for next year should see faster growth, predicted SAP. Cloud subscriptions and support revenue are projected to be up to $3.31bn (€3.05 billion), which would represents a growth rate of 33%. Meanwhile, non-IFRS cloud and software revenue will increase by up to 8% on the 2015 total of $18.69 (€17.23 billion). Operating profit, it said, will be around the same as 2015’s total, with maximum expectations being $7.27Bn (€6.7 billion).
A key to managing operating profit will be a simplification of SAP’s software portfolio, explained Chief Marketing Officer Maggie Chan Jones on the SAP web site.
“Our portfolio for digital business has also expanded through acquisition and we are stronger for customers, partners and ourselves,” said Jones. That growth needs to be managed, Jones warned.
In 2016 SAP will bring its acquired companies closer together under a unified SAP brand that includes Ariba, Fieldglass, Hybris and SuccessFactors. The acquisitions will now be known as SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Hybris, and SAP SuccessFactors respectively.
Jones claimed this will bring clarity to customers and ecosystem partners across all ‘touch points’. “Our goal is to deliver a simpler, superior customer experience, with all the SAP brands going to market with a consistent, unified look and feel,” said Jones.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has unveiled a new 14,000 square foot demonstration facility next to its new offices in London’s financial district.
The new City of London-based Customer Engagement Centre (CEC) is part of a new 67,000 square foot single occupancy on Aldermanbury Square, London. The demo centre is HPE’s first in the EMEA region. The plan is to use business experts and leaders to show potential customers what HPE’s new systems and services look like and how they can be tailored to improve the client’s productivity.
HPE said it aims to prove how four key areas of expertise can help customise each service to suit every client. The four pillars of expertise are in building hybrid IT, creating a data driven culture, security and increasing productivity.
HPE’s first area of expertise, ‘Transforming to hybrid infrastructure’ will be used to help clients bridge their existing IT with cloud environments and get the best performance from their mixture of resources.
Its expertise in ‘empowering data-driven organisations’ will be applied to help companies develop analysis techniques. HPE has promised to show them how to get faster and more meaningful insights, with a view to improving decision making and customer satisfaction, and to identify new business opportunities.
The ‘protecting digital enterprises’ strand of its expertise will be used to advise companies on risk management, protection from cyber threats and sustaining operational integrity.
The fourth area of expertise, ‘enabling workplace productivity’, will be used to help clients get the best possible options for employees, customers and partners through mobile and networking solutions, said HPE.
“We see the EMEA region as one of the world’s most dynamic technological hubs and fertile environments for this revolution, hence our decision to create the first CEC outside of the US in London,” said Peter Ryan, HPE’s MD for EMEA. The UK is HPE’s second largest market.
Meanwhile HPE Ventures has invested in software defined storage provider Scality as part of an ‘enhanced partnership’ between the companies.
“The enterprise storage market is diverging into latency-optimized and capacity-driven segments,” said Manish Goel, GM for storage at HPE. “As the leader in enterprise and hyperscale servers, and the fastest growing vendor in all-flash storage with HPE 3PAR StoreServ, this Scality partnership gives us a leadership position in capacity-driven storage as well.”