Archivo mensual: julio 2016

Microsoft, Miscellaneous IT, Video

Preview of Microsoft Stream – a New Business Video Service

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced they are offering a free preview of Microsoft Stream, a new business video service. Anyone with a business email can now sign up for a preview. Microsoft’s goal of the new offering is to allow employees to communicate and collaborate with video in an easier way. Currently, Microsoft is delivering the following features:

  • Sign up in seconds: Get started with Microsoft Stream in as few as five seconds with easy signup and no credit card requirements.
  • Easily upload and organize your video: With easy drag and drop capabilities, upload your videos and organize them by either starting a channel or contributing to a channel based on team, group, topic etc.
  • Discover relevant content: Enhanced content discovery through “trending” videos powered by machine learning, as well as search by hashtag, most liked videos and other key search terms.
  • Watch anywhere, on any device, anytime: View videos in Microsoft Stream on all your devices from anywhere, anytime.
  • Secure video management: Manage who views your video content by determining how widely to share within your organization, and to what channels. Secure application access is enabled by Azure Active Directory, a recognized leader in identity management systems, to protect sensitive corporate content.
  • Follow what matters: Follow channels to see content you want in your Microsoft Stream homepage.
  • Engage with content: Socialize videos by sharing via email, “Like” your favorites and embed videos to webpages within your organization.

To get the full scoop on Microsoft Stream, check out their blog post.

 

Looking for more information around Microsoft cloud solutions? Download our recent webinar!

By Ben Stephenson, Emerging Media Specialist

 

cyber security, data centre, Financial Results, Intel, IoT, News & Analysis, Personal Computing

Intel grows despite the PC continuing its slow decline

IntelIntel has reported 3% growth, including a 5% boost in its data centre business, though the client computing unit continues its slow decline, reports Telecoms.com.

The company’s efforts to redefine itself are seemingly beginning to pay dividends as a 3% year-on-year decline to $7.3 billion in the client computing business unit was offset by healthy performances elsewhere in the organization. The data centre unit brought in $4 billion in revenues, up 5%, whereas IoT accounted for $572 million, an increase in 2%, and the security portfolio grew 10% to $554 million for the quarter. The Programmable Solutions group also saw a 30% boost to $465 million. Overall quarterly earnings grew 3% to $13.5 billion.

“Our top line results for the quarter came in right in line with outlook, and profitability this quarter exceeded our expectations,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. “Year-over-year growth this quarter was 3% overall, as we transform Intel into a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart connected devices. We continue to focus on growth in line with this transformation, as evidenced by results in the data centre, IoT, and Programmable Solutions business this quarter.”

Looking forward, the team is forecasting Q3 will bring in revenues of roughly $14.9 billion, which would represent 3% year-on-year growth. Client computing is expected to continue its decline in the high single digits, while double-digit growth is anticipated in the data centre business, funded by cloud players in the second half of the year. CFO Stacy Smith believes growth in the IoT, data centre and memory businesses will counteract any negative impact of client computing.

While the data centre business continues to demonstrate growth for Intel, overnight trading saw share price decline by 3% following the earnings announcement. Investors were anticipating higher growth levels for the data centre group, as Intel forecasted double digit growth previously.

Intel’s efforts to redefine the focus and perception of the business has been ongoing for some time, as the personal computing market segment, Intel’s traditional cash cow, has continued to erode. Back in April, Krzanich outlined the company’s future focus on the company blog, which is split into five sections; cloud technology, IoT, memory and programmable solutions, 5G and developing new technologies under the concept of Moore’s law.

“Our strategy itself is about transforming Intel from a PC company to a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices,” said Krzanich in the blog entry. “But what does that future look like? I want to outline how I see the future unfolding and how Intel will continue to lead and win as we power the next generation of technologies.

“There is a clear virtuous cycle here – the cloud and data centre, the Internet of Things, memory and FPGA’s are all bound together by connectivity and enhanced by the economics of Moore’s Law. This virtuous cycle fuels our business, and we are aligning every segment of our business to it.”

While the IoT business only grew 2% year-on-year, it would be worth noting this is off the back of a healthy Q1 which saw the unit grow 22%. Krzanich linked the Q2 performance, which was below the teams expectations, to an inventory burn following a strong performance in the first quarter. The team now anticipate double-digit growth through the remainder of 2016.

This was also the second consecutive quarter in which the security portfolio was listed as a separate business unit, previously being incorporated into the software and services unit. The group itself has demonstrated healthy growth over the course of 2016, but has been the topic of speculation surrounding a sale.

Only last month the team were rumoured to be considering a sale of its security business, which was created following the $7.6 billion acquisition of antivirus specialists McAfee in 2010. Although security is one of the larger sections of the Intel business, it was not specifically mentioned as a focus point for the future business strategy during Krzanich’s blog entry in April. While the prospective sale has not been confirmed by the Intel team, separating the unit in the financials could indicate it is attempting to provide a greater level of transparency for potential buyers.

Business Transformation, Enterprise IT, Gartner, News & Analysis, skills gap

Cloud computing will impact $1 trillion of IT spending decisions – Gartner

Growing Money - Chart In RiseAnalyst firm Gartner has predicted more than $1 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly impacted by the transition to cloud computing by 2020.

As IT spend steadily shifts from traditional IT offerings through to the cloud, a process which the Gartner team has coined the ‘cloud shift’, the rate in which enterprise organizations transition through to cloud is expected to gradually increase year-on-year. The aggregate amount of cloud shift in 2016 is estimated to reach $111 billion, though this will increase to $216 billion in 2020. The Gartner team believe cloud computing will be one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending since the early days of the digital age.

“Cloud-first strategies are the foundation for staying relevant in a fast-paced world,” said Ed Anderson, Research VP at Gartner. “The market for cloud services has grown to such an extent that it is now a notable percentage of total IT spending, helping to create a new generation of start-ups and “born in the cloud” providers.”

In terms of the specific segments, IaaS is the largest market accounting for $294 billion, though demonstrates one of the lowest levels of cloud shift through 2016, only representing a cloud shift rate of 17%. Business Process Outsourcing, or BPaaS, will represent the biggest cloud shift rate at 43%, though the expected market value through 2016 will be $119 billion.

Gartner Cloud Shift 1

Cloud Shift Summary by Market Segment

While the potential of cloud computing has been exhaustively discussed over recent years, one of the growing debates in the industry has been centred on the skills gap. Cloud requires not only new skills within the organization, but also a different approach in problem solving as well as a new business culture, should be benefits be realized. This challenge is currently being addressed by numerous organizations throughout the world.

“There is no doubt that cloud delivers unmatched business benefits in terms of usability, choice and agility,” said Angelo Di Ventura, Director at Trustmarque. “At the same time it requires wholly new skills and capabilities, and a complete IT transformation to maximise the value that businesses can gain from it – cloud can cause considerable disruption if left unchecked.

“The transition from an internet-enabled business to a digital business running in the cloud represents a huge jump for the majority of IT departments, whose existing infrastructure is designed for ‘business as usual’ operations. Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all model when it comes to making cloud work for a business.”

 

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The rise of multi-cloud: What you need to know to succeed in your deployment

(c)iStock.com/Alija

Multi-cloud has been discussed within the cloud computing industry for a while, but there is still confusion about what it is and where it fits within the terminology of private, public, and hybrid cloud.

What most agree on is that multi-cloud is about mixing and matching the best-of-breed solutions and services from different cloud providers to create the most suitable solution for a business. It minimises the amount of vendor lock-in and gives organisations more flexibility with their cloud solution over different price-points and by leveraging relative strengths, advantages, and geographic locations.

A recent Dimensional Research survey of more than 650 IT decision-makers found that 77 percent of businesses are planning to implement multi-cloud architectures in the near future. This signifies a big change in perspective for business leaders when you consider that cloud adoption for businesses was relatively uncommon five years ago. It also demonstrates that the benefits of multi-cloud can be applied to a wide range of sectors and industries.

Why adopt multi-cloud solutions?

There are a number of benefits that multi-cloud deployments bring, including:

  • Improve disaster recovery and geo-presence
  • Ability to use unique cloud-specific services from different providers as they are needed
  • Ability to leverage the public cloud benefits of low-cost and unlimited scalability in order to move agile applications to the cloud
  • Use of a private cloud for red-tape bound applications or more traditional infrastructure

The phrase “don’t place all your eggs in one basket” is equally applicable to cloud environments. To spread risk across multiple platforms minimises the possibility of downtime as well as being able to be make the most of public cloud cost-savings without being locked into one vendor.

With a multi-cloud disaster recovery plan, businesses become more resilient than ever. Being able to failover from one public cloud provider to another means a business can still carry on as usual, even in the unlikely scenario of one provider being unavailable.

Multi-cloud also gives companies the ability to take advantage of cloud data centres based in various geographic regions. Directing traffic to data centres closest to users based on their location is vital for latency-sensitive applications. Storing data locally also minimises issues over data sovereignty.

Nobody said it was easy

It can be challenging to manage your solutions across different cloud environments and from different vendors. Whilst this is not necessarily an immediate problem, if not monitored and controlled properly, operational issues start stacking up at a rapid speed,  leading to difficulty maintaining access control, bug patches and security updates.

Additionally, the flipside to the potential for multi-cloud cost savings is that the complexity of the different cloud environments can make it difficult to understand the pricing differentiators among all of the cloud providers and the various services that they offer.

The importance of a helping hand

Navigating and managing multi-cloud solutions can be daunting if you do not have an experienced in-house IT team to keep on top of it all. Not only this, managing cloud services takes up time and IT resources which could be better spent elsewhere in the business, such as creating new features and supporting customers.

Many organisations are therefore turning to a managed cloud services provider to assist them with their multi-cloud solution. By partnering with a trusted partner, companies can avoid many of the pitfalls associated with multi-cloud. For instance, by using a proprietary single pane of glass solution from a managed cloud services provider, companies can check all is well with their cloud services from one place. Companies can also utilise their cloud services more efficiently and easily monitor changes and updates.

Long-term management and maintenance of the multi-cloud deployment can be carried out by the provider, which gives the benefit of round-the-clock support to ensure any issues are promptly resolved.

The future of the multi-cloud and what lies ahead

A study conducted by IDC last year found that 86% of enterprises predict they will need a multi-cloud approach to support their solutions within the next two years.  Businesses want the best possible infrastructure, services, and platforms.

However, in order to ensure that a company’s multi-cloud deployment is successful, a business’ different cloud services need to function smoothly and cohesively.

A multi-cloud strategy is transformative for businesses, allowing them flexibility to scale offerings, save on hosting solutions, and ultimately offer better solutions to their customers. By keeping a few key factors in mind when considering a multi-cloud infrastructure, companies can guarantee a successful and pain-free transition as well as create opportunities for innovation.

BWOD for school, BYOD for students, Parallels Desktop for Mac, school pc programs on Mac, Students windows on Mac

Students Can BYOD! (Bring Your Own Device)

When we say Students can BYOD – we’re talking about the idea that you aren’t roped into carrying a PC laptop just because you’re in school. Have you ever looked at your class syllabus and felt that *thud* in the pit of your stomach when you realize the software you need for the class doesn’t […]

The post Students Can BYOD! (Bring Your Own Device) appeared first on Parallels Blog.

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When Cloud and Cognitive Computing Merge | @CloudExpo #Cloud

Cloud computing has taken over the business world! With almost maniacal focus, single proprietors and Board Directors of the world’s largest conglomerates see this new model as a «must do». This rapid shift is, in fact, accelerating. As Jeff Bertolucci observes in «The Shift to Cloud Services Is Happening Faster Than Expected»:

«According to the sixth annual Uptime Institute Data Center Industry Survey, which examines the big-picture trends shaping IT infrastructure delivery and strategy, the move to cloud services is accelerating. The Uptime Institute’s February 2016 poll of more than 1,000 data center and IT professionals predicts that an even faster shift to the cloud will occur over the next four years, reports ZDNet.»

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An Environment for Every Developer? | @CloudExpo #API #APM #Cloud #DevOps

If your organization has moved to a public or private cloud you’ve had the conversation about the scope of development environments. Should every developer get an environment in the cloud?
Traditional test environment management has focused on QA and staging environments for the qualification of software for release. Your development velocity is a function of how quickly you can build and deliver software to QA environments. Your release quality is a function of how accurately your staging environments reproduce production.

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Should You Fear Artificial Intelligence | @CloudExpo #AI #IoT #Cloud

Opining about the future of AI at the recent Brilliant Minds event at Symposium Stockholm, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt rejected warnings from Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the dangers of AI, saying, “In the case of Stephen Hawking, although a brilliant man, he’s not a computer scientist. Elon is also a brilliant man, though he too is a physicist, not a computer scientist.”
This absurd dismissal of Musk and Hawking was in response to an absurd question about “the possibility of an artificial superintelligence trying to destroy mankind in the near future.” Schmidt went on to say, “It’s a movie. The state of the earth currently does not support any of these scenarios.”

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Analysis Efficiencies of Cloud Computing | @CloudExpo #API #Cloud #BigData

A BriefingsDirect business innovation thought leadership discussion on how companies are exploiting advances in procurement and finance services to produce new types of productivity benefits.
We’ll now hear from a leading industry analyst on how more data, process integration, and analysis efficiencies of cloud computing are helping companies to better manage their finances in tighter collaboration with procurement and supply-chain networks. This business-process innovation exchange comes in conjunction with the Tradeshift Innovation Day held in New York on June 22, 2016.

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AI, Artificial Intelliegence, Azure, Cortana, Financial Results, Microsoft, News & Analysis, Public Cloud

Microsoft continues cloud transformation with 100% Azure growth

Microsoft1Microsoft has reported 5% growth to $22.6 billion as the Intelligent Cloud business unit led the charge, with the Azure public cloud offering more than doubling in revenues and compute usage, reports Telecoms.com.

The Intelligent Cloud unit, which includes server products and cloud services, Azure and enterprise mobility offerings grew 7% to $6.7 billion, while the Productivity and Business Processes, which includes Office commercial and consumer product lines as well as the Dynamics suite, grew 5% to $7 billion. Despite revenues in More Personal Computing declining 4% to $8.9 billion, Xbox Live monthly active users grew 33% year-over-year to 49 million and search advertising revenue grew 16% over the period.

“We delivered $22.6 billion in revenue this quarter, an increase of 5% for the quarter in constant currency,” said Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft. “This past year was pivotal in both our own transformation and in partnering with our customers who are navigating their own digital transformations. The Microsoft Cloud is seeing significant customer momentum and we’re well positioned to reach new opportunities in the year ahead.”

Cloud computing has once again brought Microsoft to the forefront of the technology industry following a challenging couple of years. It would appear the transition from software to cloud computing brand is being successfully navigated, though there were a few missed steps along the way, most notably the team’s foray into mobile. Microsoft is moving towards the position of ‘mega-vendor’, infiltrating almost all aspects of an organization (cloud, hardware, social, databases etc.), to make it an indispensable factor of a CIOs roster.

The Intelligent Cloud unit continues as the focal point of the company’s growth strategy, as Nadella claims nearly 60% of the Fortune 500 companies use at least three of the company’s cloud offerings, generating more than $12 billion in Commercial Cloud annualized revenue run rate.

“Companies looking to digitally transform need a trusted cloud partner and turn to Microsoft,” said Nadella. “As a result, Azure revenue and usage again grew by more than 100% this quarter. We see customers choose Microsoft for three reasons. They want a cloud provider that offers solutions that reflect the realities of today’s world and their enterprise-grade needs. They want higher level services to drive digital transformation, and they want a cloud open to developers of all types.”

AI has previously been positioned as one of the cornerstones of growth for the company, and this was reinforced during the earnings call, as Nadella noted the component of the Intelligent Cloud business unit. The Cortana Intelligence Suite, formerly known as Cortana Analytics Suite, is built on the company’s on-going research into big data, machine learning, perception, analytics and intelligent bots. The offering allows developers to build apps and bots which interact with customers in a personalized way, but also react to real-world developments in real-time.

“Just yesterday, we announced Boeing will use Azure, our IoT suite, and Cortana Intelligence to drive digital transformation in commercial aviation, with connected airline systems optimization, predictive maintenance, and much more,” said Nadella. “This builds on great momentum in IoT. This is great progress, but our ambitions are set even higher. Our Intelligent Cloud also enables cognitive services. Cortana Intelligence Suite offers machine learning capabilities and advanced predictive analytics.

“Central to our Intelligent Cloud ambition is providing developers with the tools and capabilities they need to build apps and services for the platforms and devices of their choice. The new Azure Container service as well as .NET Core 1.0 for open source and our ongoing work with companies such as Red Hat, Docker, and Mesosphere reflects significant progress on this front. We continue to see traction from open source, with nearly a third of customer virtual machines on Azure running Linux.”

The company exceeded analyst expectations for the quarter, which was reflected in pre-market trading which saw shares in the giant growing 4%. In terms of outlook for the next quarter, most business units are expected to be down a fraction on the Q2 reported figures, unsurprising considering the summer period. Intelligent Cloud is expected to bring between $6.1-6.3 million, Productivity and Business Processes $6.4-6.6 billion, and More Personal Computing $8.7-9 billion.