Todas las entradas hechas por Business Cloud News

cloud research, Corporate, HP, News & Analysis, strategy

HP revamps cloud and software sales as the future is hybrid

Hewlett-Packard’s software boss Robert Youngjohns is to assume control over the company’s cloud research and development and product management, according to report in Fortune.

An internal memo from chief executive Meg Whitman reports that HP is to revamp the way developments in cloud computing are to be managed, with a new management reporting to Youngjohns. HP currently makes $4bn in revenue from software sales.

Cloud research and development, will still be led by Mark Interrante and cloud product management under Bill Hilf but will now be part of the Youngjohn’s software organization

In November HP is to be officially divided into two entities, HP Enterprise (which will include the cloud computing organisation) and HP Inc which will sell printers and PCs.

The HP Enterprise Group, which made $28 billion in sales in 2014, sells servers, storage and network equipment, in addition to software. It’s thought that HP aims to move cloud development closer to the hardware platforms in order to facilitate sales.

The change is aimed at helping HP Enterprise to capitalise on four major market opportunities, according to Whitman’s memo. “At Discover, we introduced four transformation areas to align with a $1 trillion in total addressable market,” writes Whitman. “If we can deliver on the promise of these transformations, we will enable a new era in business for our customers – one where ideas can be turned into value at the speed of imagination.”

First, Whitman said, HP must take an application-first view of their infrastructure. “No two applications will have the same profiles and no two companies will have the same requirements, so our customers each need unique hybrid infrastructure solutions that allow them to seamlessly manage thousands of applications across traditional IT and public, private and managed clouds,” said Whitman.

If the future is hybrid infrastructure, Whitman said, Hewlett Packard Enterprise must be organized to bring together all the pieces for a holistic view from the data centre to the cloud. To accomplish this, HP needs to manage the natural alignment between its cloud and software products.

The unified Cloud and the CDI Sales and Presales teams will be firmly embedded in the EG regional sales structures. “By integrating Cloud into EG Sales, we will offer one face to the customer to enable their transformation journeys to a hybrid infrastructure,” said Whitman.

app development, BlueMix, Content & Applications, IBM, News & Analysis

IBM Bluemix Local promises developers quick fix on hybrid cloud app building

IBMIBM has launched a new hybrid cloud system that could make application building a lot quicker for enterprises – without compromising security. The system, Bluemix Local, is designed to build apps across public, private and on-premises environments.

Bluemix Local solves the time consuming problem of managing enterprise infrastructure, it says. The process of moving data and apps between disparate cloud environments is forcing managers to make comprises, says IBM, with many companies sacrificing security in order to get finished quicker or missing deadlines in order to cover all security bases. Development with Bluemix Local can now proceed quickly, but still remain behind a client’s firewall.

A ‘write once, run anywhere’ feature now helps developers avoid much of the repetition in coding, allowing programmers to quickly stitch existing systems together and connect data and application programming interfaces into a single environment. The system also maintains consistency by keeping apps current across all platforms. IBM’s expansion of the Bluemix platform has been carried out on open architecture.

The system was developed to help companies in heavily regulated industries with strict compliance rules and sensitive customer data, such as banking, healthcare and financial services. IBM recommends a hybrid cloud approach as the preferred model for seamless connection.

New features in Bluemix Local include Relay technology, which conveys sync updates across the cloud so that all environments remain current. It has a single omnipotent admin console and gives access to IBM’s catalogue of 120 open-standards-based services from both IBM and third-parties. With a private catalogue and API Management services, enterprise clients can create, publish, manage and monetize their own APIs, IBM says.

Clients can also sync data across geographies using IBM’s global network of cloud data centres throughout the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.

“IBM now has the broadest spectrum of hybrid cloud capability in the industry,” said Steve Robinson, general manager, Cloud Platform Services, IBM.

CloudSense, CRM, News & Analysis, Salesforce, Software as a service, Ziggo

Ziggo appoints CloudSense to boost its Salesforce

Money cloudPrice quote service provider CloudSense has been anointed by Dutch cableco Ziggo to boost sales using the Cloudsense Telecoms Platform.

The CloudSense systems integrate with Salesforce’s customer relationship management service to improve the effectiveness of company sales teams. The cloud based service helps employees to configure, price and quote products and services from simple sales of broadband to more sophisticated TV bundles and subscriptions.

In a competitive selection process CloudSense promised Ziggo higher order values, fewer order errors, more automation of sales processes and quicker product launches. CloudSense created a telecoms-specific Configure Price Quote (CPQ) and customer order management, according to Dave Loerts, Director Sales SMB at Ziggo. This means Ziggo can improve both the sales cycle and the customer experience. “We were impressed that CloudSense could offer CPQ across every sales channel,” said Loerts.

One of the deciding factors in the sale was that CloudSense has created a contingency plan for working when no network is available. “Being able to configure, price, quote and contract on an iPad offline means the team are always able to sell more effectively,” said Loerts.

The CloudSense Telecoms Platform brings together the sale and provisioning of the entire range of a mobile telcos’ or communications services provider’s products and services across every sales channel. It then integrates them and provides a single view of the full transactional lifecycle natively on Salesforce. By editing and simplifying the presentation of information, and prioritising the most crucial deal making intelligence, it saves time and speeds up the sales life cycle, CloudSense claims.

Faster quotes lead to more sales, which then creates more opportunities for cross-selling and upselling, according to CloudSense CEO Richard Britton.

“Many companies today are faced with challenges when it comes to selling on-site and over the phone, and CloudSense can have a significant impact on a company’s drive to grow its market share,” said Britton.

Asia, Interviews, Public Sector, public sector cloud

Cloud computing in the public sector

BCN has partnered with the Cloud Asia Forum event to speak to some of its speakers. In this interview we speak to Ben Dornier, Director of Corporate & Community Services, City of Palmerston.

BCN: What does your role involve and how is technology helping your organisation grow and reach more customers? What is the role of Cloud Computing in this?

Ben Dornier: My role includes responsibility for general corporate affairs (finance, city tax revenue, legal affairs, HR, IT, contracts, insurance and risk) as well as governance and strategy (the city strategy, annual budget, annual financial reporting, performance reporting, policy and corporate strategy), and community services (libraries, city recreational facilities, city facilities, city community services).

ICT plays a major role in ensuring this portfolio can not only be adequately delivered, but especially in ensuring it is done efficiently and sustainably. Cloud computing is a major player, with several major systems already in the cloud, and our transfer of all corporate ICT systems into public/private cloud hybrids over the course of this financial year. It has reduced our risk and cost base, and allowed us a shift of emphasis from employing pure technical expertise to technical strategy expertise, allowing us to focus on our core services while improving service standards.

What do you consider as the three main challenges for wide Cloud Computing adoption in Asia and how do you anticipate they can be overcome?

Interesting question, and really I can only answer regarding the public sector – the first is primarily HK based. I note a reticence amongst public agencies to provide mobility solutions to their employees, and I think this seriously hampers the effectiveness of cloud based solutions to get government workers out of their desks and into the city infrastructure and services, which I believe likely drags on costs and efficiency. With this as a barrier, many of the benefits of cloud based solutions will not be readily as apparent to the government – and the skill sets of highly competent, highly mobile workforce will not be an advantage.

Second, I see the structural issues associated with data governance and related policy as a serious barrier, although this is steadily decreasing. As long as policy makers are not actively addressing cloud procurement and adoption issues, the ICT staff supporting internal decision making will not be able to recommend new and innovative models of service delivery without there being fairly high costs associated with development. This continues the prevalence of ‘bespoke systems’ and the myth that ‘our agency and its requirements are unique, and we need a unique system’. I simply do not believe this is true any longer, and nations which address this at a federal or national level are reaping the benefits.

Third, in ‘cloud-readiness’, Asia is rapidly climbing – but this is really a private sector metric. I would strongly advocate that there be a concerted effort in the industry to support a public sector metric, which could bootstrap some of the incredible work happening in the private sector, and be a convincing argument for changes in public policy towards cloud use. Public sector use will be a serious revenue driver once procurement practices are able to support government cloud use in the least restrictive manner appropriate.

How much is Mobility part of your strategy? Is it important for organisations to enable employee mobility and reach out to customers through mobile devices?

Mobility is a ‘force-multiplier’ for us (to borrow from military terms), which allows us to increase productivity while reducing pressures on human resources. Municipal employees are able to spend less time at their desks entering data into corporate systems, be it for inspections and assessments of civic assets, to animal and parking infringements. For these staff, less time at the desk means more time doing the work they were hired to do. It also allows us to offer better employment flexibility for staff who would prefer to operate part time or odd hours, without some of the productivity issues often associated with workplace flexibility.

We are also finding that young employees are increasingly expecting us to provide this capability, and quickly adopt mobile solutions. As for our city residents, more than 50% are accessing city information through mobile devices when and where they need it, and an increasing proportion of these rely on mobile devices as their primary access. This will only increase.

How do you think Disruptive Technologies affect the way business is done in your industry?

Technology disruption is continuing to be a key component, particularly as older, expensive Line of Business systems are proving not nearly as capable as well managed cloud based solutions. I believe an increasing disruptor in this area will be cloud based integration services offering connections which tie multiple cloud based solutions into effectively a single service from the perspective of the end user.

There will always be a role for major system suppliers, but increasingly the aggregated cloud based service sector will take a large chunk of market share while reducing the risks associated to big capex spends and expensive implementations. When I am spending tax money, this is an important consideration!

Can you recommend a – relevant to Cloud and Technology – book/film/article that inspired you?

Being a bit more digital, might I suggest a blog! I have a heavy interest in concepts around ‘smart cities’, a technology disruption occurring around the business of building very expensive but often technologically ‘dumb’ civil infrastructure like bridges and waste facilities. I am an avid reader of posts at Jesse Berst’s “Smart Cities Now” blog, through his site at www.smartcitiescouncil.com. There are a few good blogs in this sector, but I enjoy the variety Jesse’s site provides.

What was your interest in attending Cloud Asia Forum? What are you looking to achieve by attending the event?

Frankly, I know from past experience that I am guaranteed an ‘ah-hah’ moment, or even several, which will change my thinking and perspective on a specific area related to cloud solutions in government. I am looking forward to hearing the speakers and interacting with delegates and finding out where these ‘ah-hah’ moments will occur. This year I am particularly interested in listening to topics covering C-Level persuasion, the translation of the technical advantages of cloud computing into corporate decision making involving non-technical (meaning ICT!) executives. For me, I think this will be helpful in persuading elected officials on their own terms about the benefits of cloud adoption.

asia cloud forum logo

Box, Enterprise Cloud, Enterprise IT, governance, IBM, News & Analysis

Box tightens security for enterprise cloud offering with IBM integration

BoxWorks15Box has announced new developments in its security, governance and infrastructure management offerings.

At its annual BoxWorks conference, Box’s general manager for enterprise Whitney Bouck promised users would get better governance and better integration with IBM in a bid to fortify itself as an enterprise class cloud system.

New revisions to Box governance were promised, in order to help companies address their legal, regulatory and business goals for secure content collaboration. The improvements include additions to retention management and collaboration whitelist features. New development work has gone into Legal Holds, which caters for legal discovery or litigation processes. In future, customers can use the Legal Holds system to arrest content stored in Box, which makes a ‘defensible discovery’ on all Box content possible.

A raft of IBM integration initiatives was also announced, in order to improve Box’s capacity to work with IBM’s Content Navigator, StoredIQ, Case Manager and IBM Datacap systems.

Box clients were promised a single integrated view across IBM Content Navigator, while the integration with IBM StoredIQ makes searches of on-premise and Box-based data more thorough, giving users the option to classify and upload data directly back to the Box Platform.

Box and IBM Case Manager can now seamlessly share content, according to Bouck. This means users can put context to content and gives them more license to adapt their business processes. IBM Datacap with Box will simplify management and save clients money by enabling users to capture documents from multiple sources, extract key information and store them to Box, according to Bouck.

Box also promised an improvement in its information rights management service, with new Device Trust features giving intelligent control over sensitive content, without neutralising any of the system’s usability.

The cloud infrastructure has been beefed up with Box now supporting the new Amazon Web Services Key Management Service (KMS), which aims to simplify the self-management of encryption keys in the cloud.

More than 40 million users and 50,000 businesses use Box for collaboration, including 52 per cent of the Fortune 500, according to Bouck, and as more enterprises use Box it is working to fortify it.

“We’re building a new kind of enterprise content management and collaboration platform that meets the needs of the modern enterprise,” said Bouck.

API, App Stores, application development, Content & Applications, Mendix, modeling, News & Analysis

New Mendix system replaces programme writing with system modeling in the cloud

AppsDevelopment system maker Mendix claims its new system can speed application development by replacing the programme writing with application modeling.

It claims the newly announced Mendix 6 system makes it possible to build digital applications quickly by importing and exporting a range of previously made models. It has also introduced a mechanism that supports offline functions in mobile applications, so that mobile workers can still use their cloud applications when cut off from a network.

Mendix claims developers can build mobile applications that make use of static resource storage, and use data and data entry caching in order to maintain consistency of user experience and performance when offline.

The Mendix 6 Model API (application programming interface) and open source platform software development kit will help companies avoid vendor lock-in, help them migrate from or modernize legacy systems, automate tasks and – through fault finding analytical systems – create a new level of quality assurance, claims Mendix.

The processes of legacy migration and modernization are supported by a ‘model importing system’ which, in effect, allows would be developers to use development models that have worked successfully in similar situations elsewhere. This, claims Mendix, allows organisations to ‘accelerate application modernisation at massive scale’.

The model exchange function also aims to save time for clients by making it easier to examples for documentation, to move applications to other platforms and to increase transparency.

Customers running Mendix apps on the open source platform service, Cloud Foundry. will work with simpler configurations and enjoy more resilience said Mendix CTO Johann den Haan.

“Application development doesn’t run fast enough for many companies,” said den Haan, “now you don’t have to programme apps. You model them in the cloud and click run.”

Mendix is available in the Amazon Web Services Marketplace.

Cloud Services, Enterprise IT, Europe, HP, News & Analysis

HP launches cloud service catalogue for European Union

HPHP has launched a new ‘one stop’ cloud shop for Europe. The announcement was made by HP Helion VP Xavier Poisson to a gathering of HP’s Cloud28+ partner community in Brussels.

A new catalogue – also called Cloud28+ – will be a centralised cloud services portal for all the systems created by the 110 official members of the community that create or use cloud services in Europe.

HP claims it has made it easier for enterprises to identify and implement the cloud services they need, while complying with local regulations. In addition, the EuroCloud Star Audit (ECSA) program will, it claims, save members from the expense of performing their own individual audits. The rationale is to create a high level of transparency and guidance for customers and service providers, Poisson told delegates.

Lack of knowledge, security concerns and legal uncertainty are the biggest barriers to cloud adoption in Europe, according to a Eurostat survey, quoted by HP. The study, conducted by the EU’s statistical office, asked staff at 151,000 EU companies about their aspirations for using cloud services and their reservations over purchasing processes.

In response, HP has designed an easy and transparent system for matching cloud services to both functional and non-functional criteria, such as security or data privacy regulations, according to Poisson. The system is also designed to provide a need to know briefing on legal and compliance variations across Europe. The Cloud28+ catalogue is to be hosted and secured in Europe.

It’s time for a common framework of quality, costs and security, said Poisson. “This is already creating new opportunities for cloud service providers, greater choice for enterprises, and better access for developers and will play an integral role accelerating organizations’ transformation to hybrid infrastructure.”

Azure, Datacentre, Equinix, Microsoft, Microsoft Office 365, News & Analysis, Software as a service, TelecityGroup

Equinix and Telecity to offer Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365

datacentre cloudData centre operators Equinix and TelecityGroup are both now offering Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365 as part of their cloud offerings. Microsoft is understood to be announcing as many as five such partnerships with data centre operators.

Co-location specialist TelecityGroup said it is offering the cloud service to three distinct types of customer, these being enterprise customers, co-location partners and a reseller channel. The reseller channel itself is broken down three groups of telcos, managed service providers and systems integrators.

The nature of the market for Office 365 is broadening, according to Adi Ayyagani, the group head of market development for TelecityGroup. “Once interest was restricted to financial services and a couple of other early adopters, but now enterprises from every vertical market are showing an interest.”

TelecityGroup is offering the Office365 service on its software defined networking Cloud-IX platform. Though a number of operators are reportedly making ExpressRoute for Office 365 available, Ayyagani claimed that the Level 3 MPLS network that underpins Cloud-IX will make all the difference. “It means customers can get the service from anywhere, it’s more robust and there’s a greater level of integration available, so that configuration of the service is a lot simpler for service providers,” said Ayyagani.

The managed service providers, telcos and systems integrators reselling the cloud service will be able to use TelecityGroup’s broad footprint to access almost any market in Europe, the Middle East or African, said Ayyagani.

Meanwhile, global data centre operator Equinix has now announced worldwide availability of the cloud version of Microsoft Office for enterprises. The service improves the levels of data privacy since ExpressRoute enables most Office 365 network traffic to avoid the public Internet. Enterprises that use ExpressRoute in an Equinix data centre also get the benefit of being able to run hybrid and multi-cloud services that didn’t previously scale well over the Internet or over typical WAN works, it says.

“Office 365 customers can now benefit from predictable network performance and the ability to better manage network availability,” said Ross Ortega, Microsoft’s Principal Program Manager for Azure Networking.

Cloudera, compliance, Deloitte, Enterprise IT, Financial Services, News & Analysis

Deloitte and Cloudera create compliance service in the cloud

CloudProfessional service company Deloitte and cloud operator Cloudera have launched a jointly created cloud service that helps financial services people meet their compliance obligations more easily. It aims to specifically ease the workload created by the supervisory rules of the capital analysis and review (CCAR) process.

The Deloitte CCAR service aims to help companies cope with the masses of data needed to stress test financial products as regulations constantly change. Annual CCAR supervisory rules regularly specify new scenarios and datasets to be used in credit risk, liquidity risk, market risk, pre-provision net revenue (PPNR) and capital management models.

The cost and time involved in constantly processing these complicated variables, in order to generate the forecasted stress estimates, is escalating as the number of quarterly and yearly models multiples, according to Deloitte.

The Deloitte-designed solution includes accelerators to streamline data selection, data quality, variables conversion, data ingestion and management and to convert or migrate models to the SAS DS2 or Apache Spark or Python programming languages.

Cloudera was approached to use its expertise in Apache Hadoop open source software frameworks in order to create the visualization and dashboard tools promised in the system. The tools are designed to interact with the results of stress tests so they can quickly identify trends and potential sources of risk.

Deloitte built accelerators in Spark that cater for a wide variety of contingencies, which cuts the cost and risk of migrating existing CCAR models into an open source environment at first and into  the SAS DS2 once it is released.

“The current regulatory environment that our clients face is more complex than at any time in history,” said Ashish Verma, director at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “This complexity in regulation has led to complexity in data management, making compliance very costly with little benefit to the business.”

Cloudera has created a ‘cost effective solution’ to the problems faced by clients, said Verma, “storing this data within Cloudera Enterprise means companies can perform additional non-compliance analysis and potentially develop a deeper understanding of their businesses.”

Carrenza, gov.uk, Government, IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service, News & Analysis, Public Sector

Carrenza claims it’s now top cloud host for UK government digital service

gov.ukUK cloud service provider Carrenza has announced it is now providing the majority of hosting for the government digital service (GDS) as it made the production and staging environments for the Gov.UK site live on its cloud infrastructure.

Gov.uk has now rationalised hundreds of individual web sites for government departments and public bodies and concentrated the traffic for 24 ministerial departments and 28 other organisations according to Carrenza.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider Carrenza was initially asked to provide the infrastructure for Gov.UK’s preview operation in 2013 but, it claims, once it opened a second UK data centre its role was expanded. Carrenza rents capacity in Slough and London from data centre operators Equinix and Level 3.

Carrenza runs its IaaS and platform as a service (PaaS) offerings on a VMware-based cloud built on HP servers and HP 3PAR SAN storage which, it says, supports a range of operating systems, application and database technologies that includes “pretty much anything that runs on X86 architecture”. After Carrenza achieved official security accreditation the GDS moved the majority of Gov.Uk’s staging and production systems to the Carrenza Cloud, which has now received 2 billion visits, it says.

GDS originally found Carrenza through the G-Cloud III framework and a competitive tendering process. A major consideration for any cloud service provider, when pitching for contracts with the GDS, is a commitment to open source technology, according to Carrenza CEO Dan Sutherland.

Carrenza was chosen for Gov.UK because its custom software was developed in-house at GDS which needed to source cloud hosting and support for its flagship website.

“The launch of Gov.uk was a significant milestone,” said Sutherland. Open source has underpinned open dialogue and is helping to change and improve the way government communicates with its citizens, according to Sutherland.

Any cloud service provider wanting to win government contracts needs to concentrate on communicating with them, according to Andrew Mellish, Carrenza’s Head of Public Sector Services. “Our team understands what GDS is trying to achieve and how best to deliver the technologies they are using,” said Mellish, “when someone from GDS calls one of our engineers, they know they are speaking to someone who gets it and will work with them as efficiently as possible.”