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Blue Box, Cloudsoft, Duncan Johnston-Watt, IBM, Infrastructure as a Service, Jesse Proudman, News & Analysis

IBM boosts OpenStack cloud presence with Blue Box integration

IBM has integrated Blue Box, which offers managed private OpenStack clouds on-premise, into its own datacentres

IBM has integrated Blue Box, which offers managed private OpenStack clouds on-premise, into its own datacentres

Less than a few months after buying the managed OpenStack-based private cloud provider Blue Box IBM announced it has integrated the company’s technology into its SoftLayer infrastructure.

IBM customers now have access to Blue Box’s dedicated cloud offering through its cloud datacentres, which the company is pitching as a way to complement and ease provisioning of resources in the public cloud.

The company also announced that Cloudsoft, an open source application management company, will operate its Application Management Platform (AMP) via Blue Box Cloud.

“I’ve been impressed by the way the IBM and Blue Box engineering teams have collaborated to quickly bring Blue Box Cloud to a worldwide infrastructure platform,” said Jesse Proudman, chief technology officer at Blue Box. “Today, we’ve taken a big step toward our goal of delivering private clouds to customers anywhere in the world—and we’re offering deployment timelines that are unheard of within traditional private cloud.”

Duncan Johnston-Watt, chief executive of Cloudsoft said: “Implementing Cloudsoft AMP on Blue Box Cloud across IBM Cloud datacentres will allow us to meet the increased demand from customers for hybrid cloud solutions built on OpenStack. The combination of Blue Box’s best-in-class OpenStack service and IBM Cloud’s global footprint and legendary private network will enable us to model, deploy and manage our customers’ business critical applications and services worldwide.”

Funding, Issy Ben-Shaul, News & Analysis, OpenStack, Velostrata, VMware

Hybrid cloud enabler Velostrata bags $14m, exits stealth

Velostrata is the latest hybrid cloud vendor to come out of stealth

Velostrata is the latest hybrid cloud vendor to come out of stealth

Hybrid cloud software vendor Velostrata has secured $14m in series A funding as it emerged from stealth this week.

Velostrata has developed proprietary hybrid cloud software that competes with and functions like offerings provided by VMware and OpenStack.

The software lets users shift and manage workloads between different cloud platforms, and claims to make this process as frictionless as possible by decoupling the storage and compute processes.

The company claims decoupling the storage from compute helps make data more secure by enabling enterprises to keep their databases on-premise.

“Our vision for Velostrata is to enable frictionless hybrid clouds for any workload in real time,” said Issy Ben-Shaul, chief executive  and co-founder at Velostrata.

“Today, hybrid cloud deployments have largely been limited to corner-cases, because there are just far too many barriers involved for general-purpose use, and in particular, customers don’t want to move their large production data assets permanently to the cloud. At Velostrata, we have developed a breakthrough technology that eliminates those barriers and our unique approach has already transformed the hybrid cloud strategy for our large enterprise users,” Ben-Shaul said.

The company, which was founded last year, plans to use the funding to bolster its sales and go-to-market strategy.

There is certainly no shortage of hybrid cloud tools on the market today, with each vendor pitching their own secret sauce in making hybrid workload management and deployment seamless and pain-free. Velostrata’s offerings seem well suited to some hybrid use cases – cloud-bursting, storage consolidation, DR – it seems like one of the primary hybrid challenges that has yet to be solved is latency, one of the problems that severely limits practical use cases for hybrid (i.e. using hybrid cloud to restore performance and service reliability for anything more than a database) and which has yet to be solved.

“The feedback we’ve received from enterprises in our early adopter program has been tremendous and further establishes that our approach to enabling on-demand hybrid cloud for production workloads is unique in the industry,” Ben-Shaul said.

BlueData, Brian Krzanich, Doug Fisher, Hadoop, Intel, Kumar Sreekanti, News & Analysis, Spark

Intel, BlueData partner on big data following $20m funding round

Intel and BlueData are collaborating on big data

Intel and BlueData are collaborating on big data

Hadoop specialist BlueData announced a strategic collaboration with Intel this week after the chip company’s venture capital arm helped lead a $20m funding round for the startup.

BlueData offers a virtualised Hadoop-as-a-Service  software for on-premise infrastructure that speeds up Hadoop cluster deployment and model prototyping. The company also has some IP that The partnership will see the two companies integrate BlueData’s big data software with Intel’s Xeon processor technology, which Intel said builds on its existing big data integration initiatives with Cloudera and Apache Hadoop.

“Intel architecture provides a high-performance, secure, robust foundation for big data analytics,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel chief executive. “BlueData’s innovative software delivers the simplicity, agility and efficiency of big data-as-a-service in an on-premises model. Together, we are focused on bringing big data into the mainstream and unlocking the value for our enterprise customers.”

Kumar Sreekanti, co-founder and chief executive of BlueData  said: “This strategic collaboration with Intel will help advance BlueData’s mission of making it easy to deploy big data infrastructure. Our software platform simplifies the complexity, reduces the cost and delivers faster time to value for big data initiatives.”

“Our go-to-market relationship and joint product development with Intel will allow enterprises to accelerate their deployment of Hadoop and Spark, and deliver on the promise of big data analytics,” he added.

The move comes as Intel Captial, the chip giant’s venture capital arm, led a $20m series C funding round for BlueData along with participation from existing investors Amplify Partners, Atlantic Bridge, and Ignition Partners.

As part of the funding round Doug Fisher, senior vice president of Intel and general manager of its Software and Services Group, will join BlueData’s board of directors.

The BlueData partnership is one of a number of high-profile big data deals Intel has inked as of late. Less than a week ago the firm partnered with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to develop a big data platform that can help diagnose and treat individuals for cancer based on their genetic pre-dispositions.

Alibaba, AWS, Azure, Infrastructure as a Service, News & Analysis, NTT Com

NTT Com to provide private links to AWS, Azure

NTT Com is getting into the cloud interconnection service game

NTT Com is getting into the cloud interconnection service game

NTT Com has launched a multi-cloud connect service that will provide direct private links to leading public cloud providers’ infrastructure including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

The Multi-Cloud Connect service, which is being pitched as an optional feature for NTT Com’s Arcstar Universal One, lets users access various public cloud services through its MPLS network.

The company, which already offers a range of cloud services under its own brand and through a range of subsidiaries, said that while a growing number of its customers are shifting workloads onto public cloud platforms variable network performance and cybersecurity are still inhibiting widespread adoption.

The Multi-Cloud Connect service will initially offer direct access to Microsoft Azure and AWS cloud platforms in Tokyo this week, followed by London later this year.

NTT Com is among a growing number of datacentre providers leveraging their network and real-estate for cloud interconnection services.

Earlier this Summer Equinix, an NTT Com competitor, added Alibaba to its cloud interconnection service, Cloud Exchange, which already boasts close to 100 cloud providers. In July BT redoubled its Cloud of Clouds initiative, which is already being deployed from about 20 facilities globally and a further 30 third-party datacentres operated by other cloud providers. And last year, Digital Realty announced a deal with Zayo enabling the datacentre operator offer low-latency connections to over 20 cloud platforms.

banks, Financial Services, News & Analysis, Salesforce, Simon Mulcahy, Skyhigh Networks, Software as a service

Salesforce doubles down on financial services

Salesforce is doubling down on financial services firms

Salesforce is doubling down on financial services firms

Salesforce is previewing a cloud platform tailored specifically to the needs of financial services professionals. The move comes the same week research reveals the average financial services firm uses over 1,000 cloud-based applications.

The cloud platform adapts Salesforce’s popular CRM platform to the financial services sector, and includes tools that enable financial services advisors to collaborate and communicate directly with their colleagues and clients.

Salesforce also said the platform, which was designed with the help of AIG Advisor Group, Northern Trust and United Capital, will integrate with tools created by other ISVs including companies that cater to financial services specifically (Advisor Software, Informatica and Yodlee for instance).

“Today’s investors want a much different relationship with their advisors than their parents had,” said Simon Mulcahy, senior vice president and general manager of financial services, Salesforce. “They want someone who understands them and engages them on their terms. Salesforce Financial Services Cloud sets advisors free from administrative tasks and gives them the modern tools they need to supercharge their relationships.”

The platform is in preview currently, with an initial release scheduled for February 2016.

The move comes the same week research from Skyhigh Networks shows cloud services uptake in financial services firms is at an all-time high.

According to the firm, which aggregated data of 3.7m employees at banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and investment funds worldwide, the average financial services firm uses 1,004 cloud services, with cloud-based collaboration platforms looking to be the most popular type of app deployed; the average financial services employees uses 31 distinct cloud applications.

Bob Proctor, Cisco, IBM, Internet of Things, IoT, LoRa, M2M, News & Analysis, Samsung, Semtech

Link Labs bags $5.7m to boost IoT network dev efforts

Link Labs scored $5.7m, which it will use to double down on product development

Link Labs scored $5.7m, which it will use to double down on product development

Internet of Things (IoT) networking specialist Link Labs has secured $5.7m in series A funding which the company said would be used to boost its low-power wide area network (LPWAN) expansion efforts.

The funding round was led by TCP Venture Capital, which included investment from the Maryland Venture Fund, Blu Venture investors, Inflection Point Partners, and individual and existing investors.

Link Labs specialises in developing IoT networking technology based on LoRa, a standard for IoT-centric wide area networks. Its wares are popular in the intelligent manufacturing, healthcare and smart metering sectors.

The company’s Symphony Link software and hardware connects a range of IP-connected devices over long ranges, both indoors and outdoors, over both licenced and unlicensed spectrum (915 MHz ISM band and ETSI­ compliant for use in the 868 MHz band in Europe and are capable of deployment from 137 MHz­1020 MHz).

“This round marks an important milestone for us as we shift from system development, to accelerated deployment with our early customers,” said Brian Ray, chief executive of Link Labs. “This gives us the capital to expand our distribution channel and open up additional international markets and new applications.”

Bob Proctor, founding member at Blu Venture Investors said: “Link Labs is quickly emerging as the leader in hardware and software systems for low-power, long-range communications. We were excited to provide the seed round for Link Labs last year and are proud to be a major part of the Series A round.”

Link Labs is one of a small but growing number of startups making inroads in the IoT networking space, where there is a flurry of activity around developing standards to handle the communications element.

LoRa, which is developed by Semtech, is being backed by IBM, Cisco, and Microchip among the members of the LoRa Alliance, but other include Sigfox (which is being backed by Samsung) and Neul (which is being backed by Huawei).

Douglas C. Carlisle, IPO, Menlo Ventures, News & Analysis, Scality, software, software defined storage, Storage, Storage as a Service

Software-defined storage vendor Scality nabs $45m to prep for IPO

Scality has secured $45m in its latest funding round and plans to go public in 2017

Scality has secured $45m in its latest funding round and plans to go public in 2017

Software-defined storage expert Scality has secured $45m in a funding round led by Menlo Ventures, which the company said will be used to fuel its North American and international expansion.

Scality’s offering uses object storage to abstract underlying hardware to create a single pool of storage that can be manipulated with a wide range of protocols and technologies (SMB, Linux FS, OpenStack Swift, etc.).

The company, which offers storage software and has large reseller agreements in place with big box vendors like HP and Dell, has secured over $80m since its founding in 2009. It claims over 50 per cent of the server market is now reselling its SDS software.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that today, Scality is the biggest disruptor of the traditional storage industry, and I am extremely excited to witness their progression,” said Douglas C. Carlisle, managing director at Menlo Ventures.

“Their innovative storage model is meeting demand for scale like no other product on the market, and is poised to keep up with the steep incline in data volumes. With Jerome’s forward-thinking mindset, we expect to see Scality continue to be a trailblazer and to take its RING technology to the next level.”

The company has spent the better part of the past two years scaling up its operations in Asia and Europe, but it said the new funding will go towards bolstering its North American presence, with a view towards releasing and IPO in 2017.

“Over the course of the last year-and-a-half, we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of funding given to software storage startups. At the same time, we’ve seen the traditional storage vendors lose market share, change leadership and shift their business model to mimic the software-defined strategy. This latest funding round comes at a time when Scality and the software-defined storage industry are poised to attract billions of dollars from customers that are rethinking their storage strategies,” said Jerome Lecat, chief executive at Scality.

“Our employees and partners believe in us, and the fact that this last funding round was done at 2x valuation speaks volumes about the overall confidence in the future of Scality. This new capital investment will allow us to massively boost our go-to-market, attract strategic new hires, continue to expand globally, and be primed for a successful IPO by 2017,” Lecat said.

Alibaba, Aliyun, Big Data, developers, News & Analysis, Xiao Wei

Alibaba launches what it claims to be China’s first cloud AI platform

Aliyun has launched what it claims to be China's first AI platform

Aliyun has launched what it claims to be China’s first AI platform

Alibaba’s cloud computing division Aliyun has launched what it claims to be China’s first artificial intelligence cloud service.

The DT PAI platform has been built with a series of purpose-built algorithms and machine learning technologies designed to help users generate predictive intelligence insights. Aliyun said the service features “drag and drop” capabilities that let users easily connect different services and set parameters.

The company claims the platform is China’s first commercially available artificial intelligence platform.

“Our goal is to create a one-stop AI development, publishing and sharing platform through data calculations and data connections, all with the aim of using AI to drive innovation in all aspects of life,” said Xiao Wei, senior product expert, Aliyun.

“In the past, the field of artificial intelligence was only open to a very small number of qualified developers and required the use of specialised tools. Such an approach was prone to error and redundancy. Hoewver, DT PAI allows developers with little or no experience in the field to construct a data application from scratch in a much shorter period of time. What used to take days can be completed within minutes,” Wei added.

The platform is based on Aliyuns recently update big data cloud infrastructure and its Open Data Processing Service (ODPS).

Alibaba seems to be following IBM’s lead on when it comes to AI. Big Blue has been using Bluemix as a drag-and-drop platform for Watson, IBM’s cognitive compute (AI) as a service, pitching it as a more accessible development and delivery platform for its big data services.

Big Data, Ernst & Young, Hortonworks, Mitch Ferguson, News & Analysis, Scott H. Schlesinger

EY, Hortonworks ink big data deal

Ernst & Young and Hortonworks are partnering on Hadoop

Ernst & Young and Hortonworks are partnering on Hadoop

Global consulting giant Ernst & Young and Hortonworks have inked a deal that will see the two companies partner on helping joint clients overcome their big data challenges.

The deal will see Hortonworks extend its big data platform together with EY’s data and information management professional services. Specifically, the two companies plan to guide clients on how to leverage big data technologies like Hadoop to overcome key data storage and batch analysis challenges.

“Many leading organizations are drowning in data, yet they lack the ability to analyze and drive value from the vast amount of information at their disposal,” said Scott H. Schlesinger, principle, Ernst & Young LLP and EY Americas IT Advisory. “The alliance will enable EY and Hortonworks to assist organizations in driving value from their existing technology.”

Mitch Ferguson, vice president of business development at Hortonworks said: “This alliance will strengthen EY’s ability to implement enterprise-level big data software, including HDP, to turn data into an asset, further addressing the business and technology needs of organizations.”

EasyJet, HSBC, Lacoste, M&A, marketing cloud, Maxymiser, News & Analysis, Oracle, Software as a service, Thomas Kurian, Tim Brown

Oracle boost marketing cloud biz with Maxymiser acquisition

Oracle is buying Maxymiser to boost its marketing capabilities

Oracle is buying Maxymiser to boost its marketing capabilities

Oracle has acquired Maxymiser, a provider of cloud-based marketing tools, for an undisclosed sum. The company said the acquisition will bolster its marketing cloud portfolio.

Founded in 2006, Maxymiser has over 400 employees and offers a range of cloud-based marketing tools that help its users improve customer experience and user retention through omnichannel analysis and marketing automation. Some of its higher profile customers include EasyJet, HSBC and French clothing retailer Lacoste.

Its offerings will be integrated into the Orcale Marketing Cloud, which is itself made up of a range of tools formerly acquired by the firm (Eloqua and Responsys for instance), following the acquisition.

“Companies are increasingly seeking innovative ways to differentiate their brands while increasing both ROI and loyalty based on optimized customer experiences,” said Thomas Kurian, president, product development, Oracle. “Together with Maxymiser, Oracle Marketing Cloud enables enterprises to stop guessing and start delivering what customers want across all digital channels and devices.”

Tim Brown, chief executive officer, Maxymiser said: “Our mission is to empower enterprises to use data science to systematically test, discover, and predict what customers want and deliver uniquely tailored experiences. We are excited to join Oracle and bring these capabilities to help extend Oracle Marketing Cloud.”

Over the years many large incumbents like Oracle and SAP as well as newer upstarts like Salesforce have moved quickly to strengthen their position in marketing automation through acquisition. In April this year NetSuite acquired Bronto Software, a provider of cloud-based marketing automation software for omnichannel commerce, in a deal worth about $200m.