Rackspace has slashed the price of its cloud bandwidth and content delivery network (CDN) services by 33%. It’s also implementing tiered pricing for its OpenStack products, starting with Cloud Files, its object storage service.
Most of the new pricing will kick in over the next few weeks.
The bulk of Rackspace’s revenues still come from hosting. In its last quarter its cloud sales, which compete with Amazon’s, were up 49% year-over-year to $87.3 million. As good as that might sound for the last five quarters its cloud sales have been on a downward trajectory. For instance, year-over-year cloud revenue rose 69% in Q2 but only 57% in Q3.
The Wall Street Journal concluded that the company isn’t delivering on its high valuation. Its growth depends on how quickly its OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service is adopted.
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A Love Story: Devices and Cloud – Perfect Together
We’ve heard about Google Glasses. And we’ve heard about Apple iWatch. And yes, we’ve heard about people embedding cellphones into shoes [1]. Once again, the term “wearable computing” is becoming a hot topic in news and literatures. Some have even announced that the age of wearable technology is here [2]. The world is surely changing fast. Aren’t we still debating who makes the best smartphones and the best tablets? What’s going on here?
The foreseeable booming of wearable computing is just another chapter of the unstoppable fusion process between cyber space and reality. Eventually, machine computing will become ubiquitous, and the boundary between human bodies and devices will fade away. This is a vision shared by many scientists, innovators, entrepreneurs and Hollywood writers. It’s becoming a reality faster than we might have expected. Devices will no longer be just peripheral augmentations, but be inextricably intertwined with human lives.
Cloud Computing Is Simplifying Things
“You need two groups when dealing with cloud compliance,” explained Rob LaMear IV, CEO and Founder of Fpweb.net, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “First,” LaMear continued, “you need a provider that is willing to operate transparently and work with you and your auditors. Most seasoned providers are well aware of this symbiotic relationship and are open to getting it out in the open early.”
Cloud Computing Journal: The move to cloud isn’t about saving money, it is about saving time. – Agree or disagree?
Rob LaMear: Agree. Time is money. Focusing your team on strategic initiatives gives you a competitive advantage. You get to market faster and can deliver something truly special before your competitors. First one to market typically owns 70–80% of the market share. Think Apple.
Rackspace Cuts Prices
Rackspace has slashed the price of its cloud bandwidth and content delivery network (CDN) services by 33%. It’s also implementing tiered pricing for its OpenStack products, starting with Cloud Files, its object storage service.
Most of the new pricing will kick in over the next few weeks.
The bulk of Rackspace’s revenues still come from hosting. In its last quarter its cloud sales, which compete with Amazon’s, were up 49% year-over-year to $87.3 million. As good as that might sound for the last five quarters its cloud sales have been on a downward trajectory. For instance, year-over-year cloud revenue rose 69% in Q2 but only 57% in Q3.
The Wall Street Journal concluded that the company isn’t delivering on its high valuation. Its growth depends on how quickly its OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service is adopted.
Rackspace Acquires DBaaS Provider ObjectRocket
“Databases are the core of any application and expertise in the most popular database technologies will be critical to us delivering Fanatical Support in the open cloud,” said Pat Matthews, SVP of corporate development at Rackspace Hosting, as it was announced that Rackspace has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ObjectRocket, a MongoDB database as a service (DBaaS) provider.
New PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines – Are You Compliant?
This month the Cloud SIG of the PCI Security Standards Council released supplemental guidelines covering cloud computing. We’re happy to see APIs included as a recognized attack surface. As this document makes clear, responsibility for compliance for cloud-hosted data and services is shared between the client and the provider. API providers moving to the cloud should pay close attention to this document: Section 6.5.5 covers Security of Interfaces and APIs, while Appendix D covers implementation considerations that include API-related topics. For cloud-hosted systems, an API gateway can simplify implementation, secure PII and PAN data in motion, provide compliance and ensure auditability in these areas.
Personal Cloud Usage Influences Company Adoption: CDW
As you go, so goes your company. At least in terms of which cloud apps you use that find their way into the workplace.
Showing that work imitates life, a CDW report surveyed 1,242 IT professionals and found that a major driver of corporate cloud adoption is users’ experiences of consumer services.
Nearly three quarters of respondents (73%) claimed that, in their company, employees’ use of personal cloud apps has “significantly influenced” the decision to move wholesale to the cloud. Similarly, just over three in five (61%) cloud-using organizations agreed that employee personal devices have culminated in a faster move to the cloud, according to an article on CloudComputingNews.net.
It’s also the case with IT professionals – two-thirds agreed that their personal use of cloud has influenced the company in terms of adoption.
Another aspect of the CDW research was a detailed look at the infrastructure being moved over to cloud on a company-by-company basis. Storage software was the most frequently cited service moved to the cloud by SMBs (40% small businesses, 35% medium businesses), while conferencing and collaboration tools were the most popular for large organizations (40%).
CIOs: Ready or Not, Here Comes the Cloud
For several years now, prognosticators have insisted that cloud computing would take over the enterprise. And, for several years, we’ve seen growing adoption of cloud computing technologies, but nothing to indicate massive acceptance.
A recent study from Brocade, however, suggests that that phenomenon is about to change. Here are some of the most interesting statistics to come from the CIO survey, which included 100 CIOs from around the world:
A third of CIOs report that they’re already implementing cloud computing. Interestingly enough, this adoption of cloud technology has rarely come as a result of a push from IT. It’s been demand from business units, rather than a move from the center outward.
From ESBs to API Portals, an Evolutionary Journey | Part 1
A number of analysts are beginning to suggest 2013 will likely signal the awakening of a long night in the IT industry that started with the beginning of the third millennium with the Internet crash. And just as recovery was around the corner, the financial crisis of 2008 dried the IT well once more. Both crises can be characterized as crises of demand. Just past 2000, the Y2K pipeline ran dry. Some argue that the problem was overstated, whereas others argue that the problem was solved just in time. In either case this event triggered a significant pullback in IT spending.
Faced with an existential threat after Y2K, the IT industry did not sit still. The main outcome from these lean years has been a significant increase in efficiency where the role of IT in companies with most advanced practices shifted from being a cost center to an active participant in the execution of corporate business strategy. Capabilities evolved from no accountability on resource utilization to efficient use of capital to nimble participant in a broad range of organizations and initiatives. The second crisis reaffirmed the continuing need to do more in the face of shrinking budgets and very likely provided the impetus for the widespread adoption of cloud technology.
From ESBs to API Portals, an Evolutionary Journey | Part 1
A number of analysts are beginning to suggest 2013 will likely signal the awakening of a long night in the IT industry that started with the beginning of the third millennium with the Internet crash. And just as recovery was around the corner, the financial crisis of 2008 dried the IT well once more. Both crises can be characterized as crises of demand. Just past 2000, the Y2K pipeline ran dry. Some argue that the problem was overstated, whereas others argue that the problem was solved just in time. In either case this event triggered a significant pullback in IT spending.
Faced with an existential threat after Y2K, the IT industry did not sit still. The main outcome from these lean years has been a significant increase in efficiency where the role of IT in companies with most advanced practices shifted from being a cost center to an active participant in the execution of corporate business strategy. Capabilities evolved from no accountability on resource utilization to efficient use of capital to nimble participant in a broad range of organizations and initiatives. The second crisis reaffirmed the continuing need to do more in the face of shrinking budgets and very likely provided the impetus for the widespread adoption of cloud technology.