Todas las entradas hechas por Business Cloud News

cloud operating system, FusionSphere, Huawei, Huawei Cloud Congress, News & Analysis, Telco Cloud

Huawei launches latest FusionSphere cloud operating system at Shanghai Cloud Congress

Huawei cloud eventHuawei has launched the latest version of its enterprise cloud operating system. FusionSphere 6.0 was unveiled at Huawei Cloud Congress in Shanghai, alongside FusionInsight and FusionStage.

The cloud operating system aims to helps customers run their services more smoothly over virtual servers, private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, desktop clouds and network function virtualisation infrastructures (NFVIs).

The strategy is to build all components, systems and ecosystems of FusionSphere on open source software and to comply with native OpenStack standards, said Joy Huang, VP of Huawei’s IT product line. It also supports OpenStack application programming interfaces (APIs) so that third-party apps based on native OpenStack can run on Huawei FusionSphere 6.0 without any adjustment.

Huawei has also released OceanStor DJ, a data service platform that offers storage and management services on demand by unifying storage resources, which it claims will raise operating operation efficiency in data centres. Administrators can now select from a menu of data management services and pool the resources across their cloud data centres. OceanStor DJ also offers archiving and offline data services.

Huawei said it is ‘working closely’ with 30 storage application vendors to provide easy to use data services such as data protection, databases, big data and data security through OceanStor DJ.

“OceanStor DJ provides storage as a service (SaaS) for enterprise IT systems, freeing up engineers from the heavy workload in managing data storage and focusing them on service transformation and innovation,” said Fan Ruiqi, president of Huawei’s storage product line.

Huawei storage products have a community of dedicated users, strong customer support and the ability to manage growing amounts of data, said Eric Sansonetti, VP of Business Partnerships at database company VoltDB. “We foresee ample opportunities to partner in the growing area of real-time analytics and data challenges,” said Sansonetti, “an open data service platform for partners will help push the development of software-defined storage.”

Huawei announced that it is currently ranked 7th in the latest official ranking of commitment to Openstack.

Huawei also participates in the open-source container field and is among the founding members of Open Container Initiative (OCI) project and Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

News & Analysis, Oracle, procurement, Public Sector, uk government

Ministry of Justice has made no savings at all from cloud strategy claims report

The UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has saved nothing from its cloud strategy as the department still buys 2.3 million licenses, reports The Register. According to the report, a government insider said Oracle is “extreme in its defence of existing licensing” and “stopping any flexibility.”

A freedom of information (FOI) request forced the MoJ to reveal that it buys 53 separate Oracle products including 961,000 internet expense licences, 250,000 licenses for each of three human resources systems and 100,000 payroll licences.

With 3,000 staff at the MoJ’s headquarters, that would average around 767 licenses for each employee. If all staff employed by the MoJ’s partner agencies were considered, then 33 Oracle licences have been bought for each of a total of 70,000 staff.

The MoJ transferred its people, services and IT to the Cabinet Office-run shared services centre in November last year. The FOI response revealed there had been no licensing cost savings yet to be associated with the move, since the licences are held in perpetuity and do not expire. The Technology Oracle Support and Maintenance Shared Services Oracle Support contracts will expire in April 2016, which could save £100m over the lifetime of the shared services centre contract.

The MoJ has refused to disclose the total it is spending on Oracle software, claiming this is a matter of commercial confidentiality.

The MoJ needs to review its use of Oracle, said analyst Clive Longbottom, senior researcher at Quocrica. “If the ministry being held to ransom by Oracle, through the systems integrators and consultants that the government insists on using, then it’s time to insist on a replacement database,” said Longbottom.

The analyst argued that Microsoft or IBM would be ‘more than willing’ to help the MoJ to move them over to their systems. A more nuanced data storage platform using a non-relational database alongside Hadoop could save them a lot on Oracle licences. “Oracle fights to the death to look after its licence revenues,” said Longbottom. “It is still in a legal battle with Rimini Street over how the third party support vendor manages Oracle licensing.”

Financing, Funding, investment, News & Analysis, Survey, VCs

Investor confidence is highest in cloud computing say venture capitalists

Money cloudCloud computing has been hailed as the strongest technology investment sector for the third time in a row in a survey that gauges confidence among capital, private and growth equity speculators.

The cloud sector came out strongest in the 2015 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey compiled by Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The study quizzes 200 speculators on the general venture capital environment as well as other market factors such as conditions in industries and across regions.

While biopharmaceuticals and robotics reported the highest levels of confidence growth, and the Internet of Things (IoT) was recognised for the first time by the study, cloud computing was the top tech trend for the third year in a row. When the survey group was asked to gauge their levels of confidence in a technology, cloud was the most convincing quantity in which investors would put their faith, with a confidence rating of 4.18 out of 5. Mobile came in second place with a rating of 4.05, while new category the IoT came third with a score of 3.95. Software was a close fourth with a rating of 3.82 on the confidence range.

Investors are most confident in companies based in Silicon Valley and San Francisco with $15.2bn being invested in these regions. Next in the investment league came New York with $4.5bn and Boston, which received $3.2bn from speculators. Confidence in investing in UK-based companies varies, with four of the eight countries questioned saying they have increased confidence in the UK’s tech startup economy and four saying their confidence has fallen.

Interest in investing in Israel was rated highly (a 3.9 out of 5) while Canada (3.60) continued to rise from previous years’ survey results. Confidence in emerging markets has declined among global investors, with rating Brazil at 2.70, down 43 basis points from 2014.

In the cloud computing industry there is much for venture investors to feel excited about, according to Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of NVCA. “The fundraising environment continues to improve, the IPO market is gaining strength and there is no shortage of innovative, game-changing start up companies to take to the next level,” said Franklin.

Analytics, IBM, News & Analysis

IBM launches Cloud Security Enforcer to counter employee data leakage failures

Security concept with padlock icon on digital screenIBM has created a Cloud Security Enforcer service to give companies a more commanding view of all third-party cloud apps used by their employees and new powers to secure them. The Enforcer aims to give companies more control over granting access to corporate data and applications.

Most companies can only see a fraction of the cloud applications used by their workforce, according to IBM’s research. An Ipsos poll, conducted on behalf of IBM in July, found that one-third of employees at Fortune 1000 companies are sharing and uploading corporate data on third-party cloud apps. These employees increasingly engage in risky practices on these tools, such as signing in with their personal email addresses, using weak passwords or re-using corporate log-in credentials, says IBM.

The cloud’s productivity dividend for companies is being undermined by the loss of control of corporate data and the lack of employee protection, it says. The Millennial generation (those born between 1982 and 2002) are the worst offenders and the biggest users of cloud apps, according to IBM’s study. By 2020 half the employees at Fortune 1000 companies will be millennials and of these 51 per cent use cloud services at work. One in four employees links these apps to his or her corporate log-in and password, leaving loopholes through which hackers can gain access to company networks.

Rogue activities on unsanctioned apps, known as ‘Shadow IT’, lead to a loss of control that IBM’s new cloud-based tool combats by scanning corporate networks, finding the apps that employees are using and providing a more secure way to access them. The system was built in partnership with file sharing app maker Box, which aims to strengthen the security of files shared over mobile devices and the web. IBM has also built secure connectors into Box’s file-sharing cloud app for Cloud Security Enforcer, as well as Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps and Salesforce with more apps connectors to be added to its catalogue.

The Cloud Enforcer users deep threat analytics from IBM X-Force Exchange, IBM’s global threat intelligence network, which is manned by a global network of security analysts which monitors the internet for malicious activity and analyses 20 billion global security events daily.

Apache, Apple, Infrastructure as a Service, Mesos, News & Analysis

Apple allegedly planning to unify web services on Mesos open source infrastructure

Mesos logoNews of significant numbers of Apple device crashes have fuelled industry speculation that Apple is planning to unify its variety of online services into one open source system built on Mesos infrastructure software.

According to web site The Information Apple is recruiting open source engineers. The recruitment could support a strategy to pull all its web services, including iCloud and iTunes, out of their separate technical silos and looking to merge them into one cohesive whole. Apple is said to be concerned about the lack of interoperability between Apple’s online services.

The plan to run internet applications across an ‘orchestrated infrastructure’ could be disruptive in more ways than one, according to Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom.

“It’s a good idea that would enable Apple to more closely integrate various capabilities and offer new services around search, buy and store function,” said Longbottom. “The two main problems are around migrating all existing services over, and in ensuring high availability for all services when they are all in the same basket.”

According to Reuters, significant numbers of Apple customers are reporting their mobile devices have crashed as they tried to upload the new iOS 9 operating system. This is the latest in a number of technical challenges Apple is facing as its cloud software portfolio becomes more ambitious and difficult to manage, according to Sergio Galindo, General Manager at developer GFI Software, “The rollout of iOS 9 is an ambitious project, particularly as Apple has maintained support for devices that are elderly, in smartphone terms. Devices such as the iPhone 4s are significantly different and underpowered compared to more recent iterations,” said Galindo.

According to GFI’s own research, Apple’s OS X and iOS were the software systems platforms with the most exploitable vulnerabilities, closely followed by the Linux kernel. iOS was found to have significantly more flaws than conventional desktop and server Windows installations.

“Software glitches, vulnerabilities and compatibility issues in an embedded device such as a phone create a challenging user experience,” said Galindo. “This is why testing of new updates before allowing users to update their phones and tablets is essential. Applied to a business context, it is important for IT departments to ensure users do not put their devices or the corporate network at risk.”

AWS, Cisco, Dell, Equinix, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft, News & Analysis, Platform as a service, Public Cloud, Salesforce, Software as a service, Synergy Research

Public cloud generating $22 billion a quarter for IT Companies

metalcloud_lowresPublic cloud computing generated over $22 billion in revenues for IT companies in the second financial quarter of 2015, according to a study by Synergy Research Group.

The revenue breaks down into $10 billion earned by companies supplying public cloud operators with hardware, software and data centre facilities and $12 billion being generated from selling infrastructure, platforms and software as a service.

In addition the public cloud supports ‘huge’ revenue streams from a variety of internet services such as search, social networking, email and e-commerce platforms, says the report. It identifies the supply side companies with the biggest share of revenues as Cisco, HP, Dell, IBM and Equinix. On the cloud services side the market leaders are AWS, Microsoft, Salesforce, Google and IBM.

As the public cloud makes inroads into the total IT market, the hardware and software used to build public clouds now account for 24 per cent of all data centre infrastructure spending. Public cloud operators and associated digital content companies account for 47 per cent of the data centre colocation market.

While the total IT market grew at less than five per cent per year, the growth of cloud revenues outpaced it. Infrastructure and platform as a service revenues (Iaas/Paas) grew by 49 per cent in the past year and software as a service (SaaS) grew by 29 per cent.

“Public cloud is now a market that is characterized by big numbers, high growth rates and a relatively small number of global IT players,” said Synergy Research Group’s chief analyst Jeremy Duke.

However, the report noted that there is still a place for regional small-medium sized public cloud players.

Amazon, AWS, News & Analysis, Storage, Storage as a Service

Amazon Web Services to offer new hierarchical storage options after customer feedback

amazon awsAmazon Web services (AWS) is adding a new storage class to speed up the retrieval of frequently accessed information.

The announcement was made by AWS chief evangelist Jeff Barr on his company blog. Customer feedback had made AWS conduct an analysis of usage patterns, Barr said. AWS’s analytical team discovered that many customers store rarely-read backup and log files, which compete for resources with shared documents or raw data that need immediate analysis. Most users have frequent activity with their files shortly after uploading them after which activity drops off significantly with age. Information that’s important but not immediately urgent needs to be addressed through a new storage model, said Barr.

In response AWS has unveiled a new S3 Standard, within which there is a hierarchy of pricing options, based on the frequency of access. Customers now have the choice of three S3 storage classes, Standard, Standard – IA (infrequent access) and Glacier. All still offer the same level of 99.999999999 per cent durability.‎ The IA Standard for infrequent access has a service level agreement (SLA) of 99 per cent availability and is priced accordingly. Prices start at $0.0125 per gigabyte per month with a 30 day minimum storage duration for billing and a $0.01 per gigabyte charge for retrieval. The usual data transfer and request charges apply.

For billing purposes, objects that are smaller than 128 kilobytes are charged for 128 kilobytes of storage. AWS says this new pricing model will make its storage class more economical for long-term storage, backups and disaster recovery.

AWS has also introduced a lifecycle policy option, in a system that emulates the hierarchical storage model of centralised computing. Users can now create policies that will automate the movement of data between Amazon S3 storage classes over time. Typically, according to Barr, uploaded data using the Standard storage class will be moved by customers to Standard IA class when it’s 30 days old, and on to the Amazon Glacier class after another 60 days, where data storage will $0.01 per gigabyte per month.

News & Analysis, Oracle, PaaS, Platform as a service, Quarterlies, quarterly results, Saas, Software as a service

Software and platforms as a service driving our growth says Oracle

OracleOracle’s latest quarterly results show the increasing strategic of importance of revenue from cloud software and platforms as a service, according to the vendor. Chairman Larry Ellison also claimed the sales figures show Oracle will soon overtake Salesforce as the top selling cloud operator.

The official figures for Oracle’s fiscal 2016 Q1 period show that total revenues were $8.4 billion, which represent a two per cent fall in US dollars but a seven per cent rise in constant currency. Oracle attributed the fall to the current strength of the US dollar.

However, a clearer pattern emerged in the nature of software sales, when benchmarking all sales in US dollars. While revenues for on premise software were down two per cent (in US dollars) at $6.5 billion, the total cloud revenues were up by 29 per cent at $611 million. The revenue from Cloud software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) was $451 million, which represents a 34 per cent increase in sales. Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) revenues, at $160 million, rose 16 per cent in the same period.

Meanwhile, Oracle’s total hardware revenue figure for the period, $1.1 billion, also indicated a decline, of three per cent. Using the same US dollar benchmark, Oracle’s services revenues for the period more or less stagnated, at $862 million, a rise of one per cent.

Growth is being driven by SaaS and PaaS, according to Oracle CEO Safra Catz. “Cloud subscription contracts almost tripled in the quarter,” said Catz, “as our cloud business scales-up, we plan to double our SaaS and PaaS cloud margins over the next two years. Rapidly growing cloud revenue combined with a doubling of cloud margins will have a huge impact on growth going forward.”

Oracle’s cloud revenue growth rate is being driven by a year-over-year bookings rise of over 150 per cent in Q1, reported Oracle’s other joint CEO Mark Hurd. “Our increasing revenue growth rate is in sharp contrast to our primary cloud competitor’s revenue growth rates, which are on their way down.”

Oracle is still on target to book up to $2.0 billion of new SaaS and PaaS business this fiscal year, claimed executive chairman Larry Ellison. “That means Oracle would sell between 50 per cent more and double the amount of new cloud business that Salesforce plans to sell in their current fiscal year. Oracle is the world’s second largest SaaS and PaaS company, but we are rapidly closing in on number one.”

connected car, IBM, Internet of Things, IoT cloud, News & Analysis

New IBM cloud service could help car makers to internet things and cut emissions

connected-car-normal

IBM has launched a cloud service that aims to harness the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) so that car makers can cut the costs of production, ownership and pollution.

The new IBM Cloud could help the likes of BMW and Mercedes to make better use of the mass of data created by all the intelligent sensors in a car and use this intelligence to make car drivers more efficient. The service aggregates data about the machines, the drivers and the passengers. IBM claims it could cut carbon emissions by helping cut fuel consumption through promoting better driving techniques, smarter route choices and sensible loading.

On the supplier side, the improved intelligence, says IBM, could help vehicle manufacturers to lower both the cost of production and ownership, through techniques such as predictive vehicle maintenance, real-time engine diagnostics and chassis stress analysis.

The IBM Internet of Things (IoT) for Automotive system is available on IBM Cloud’s SoftLayer infrastructure. IBM says it will analyse primary and secondary sources of intelligence. In addition to primary sources, such as geolocation data collected in the car, it will use external sources such as the car maker’s customer data and vehicle history. It will also use data from parking providers.

Automotive supplier Continental uses IBM MessageSight and IBM InfoSphere Streams, components of the IBM IoT for Automotive solution, to help manage complex data streams and apply analytics to its eHorizon system. This allows vehicle electronics to anticipate road conditions using digital mapping and crowd sourced data.

According to Telefonica’s 2013 Connected Car Industry Report, nine in ten new cars will be equipped with extensive connectivity services by 2020. IBM’s mission is to make sense of all the masses of big data and put it to good use, said IBM’s general manager for global automotive industry Dirk Wollschlaeger. “We have the potential to change how we interact with our vehicles,” said Wollschlaeger.

Corporate, HP, News & Analysis, redundancies, restructure

Hewlett-Packard to decimate its workforce as major split announced

HPHewlett-Packard is to cut 10 per cent of its workforce, which could mean up to 30,000 redundancies, as plans to divide the company in two unfold.

The losses will come when Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) splits from the printer and PC business. The jobs cull will cost $2.7bn to carry out but will save the same amount in running costs every year, says HP.

The new structure proposed by chief executive Meg Whitman would steer HP Enterprise’s focus onto enterprises and government agencies while the PC and printing divisions would concentrate primarily on the consumer market.

Details have not been released about where the job cuts will be made, but Whitman told Wall Street analysts that the plan involves changing the nature of the workforce. The proportion of workers in what HPE calls ‘low-cost locations’ is expected to rise from today’s figure of around 42 per cent to to 60 per cent by 2018.

“We’ve done a significant amount of work over the past few years to take costs out and simplify processes,” Meg Whitman told a meeting of shareholders and Wall Street analysts, “these final actions will eliminate the need for any future corporate restructuring.”

Since the height of the dot com boom in 2000 Hewlett Packard’s stock has lost 60 per cent of its value. However, Hewlett-Packard remains one of the world’s largest technology companies, with revenues this year expected to top $50bn.

Earlier this year HP cut 55,000 jobs. These will not be the last of the job cuts, predicted Charles King, analyst at the Silicon Valley IT consulting firm Pund-IT. “The number is sadly larger than some people might have expected, but I think it’s a reflection of how much trouble HP has been having with its services,” said King.