Microsoft just made a splash in the cloud backup space with the announcement of their Window Azure Backup Service Preview this month. While I’m sure other traditional software and appliance vendors will be partnering with Microsoft to offer a more application coverage, I haven’t heard any announcements so we’ll just have to wait and see. For the time being thought, it’s an exciting time for customers using one of the three products eligible for the preview. Below I’ve summarized how customers of each of the three products can become eligible for the preview.
Monthly Archives: September 2012
Cloud Computing: Salesforce Buys Data Mining Start-Up
Salesforce.com bought a shadowy three-year-old Israeli data mining start-up called BlueTail in July according to All Things Digital, and made co-founder and CTO Alon Talmor chief data scientist at its Data.com unit.
The joint’s other co-founder Koby Ben-Zvi is now VP, product strategy at Data.com. Other personnel have also been picked up.
Little is known about BlueTail. It used to be called Mined Analytics.
Talmor used to consult for Check Point Software.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Cloud & the Network – A Match Made in Heaven
The importance of an enterprise-grade network at the center of cloud services cannot be overstated. Without it, private clouds are closed systems and public clouds are vulnerable to security breaches. The optimum cloud is one that is network-based, where cloud services are actually embedded in the network. A network-based cloud allows cloud services and applications to be managed and delivered as part of a total solution straight down to any device just like voice and data.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Jay Upchurch, Executive Director of Product Marketing Management at AT&T, will discuss how this unique approach can offer enterprises the scale and flexibility of the cloud, without sacrificing performance, reliability and security.
ManageIQ: IT-as-a-Service for All Species of Cloud
This’ll resonate.
ManageIQ says that when the management majors – and you know who that foursome is – saw the cloud bearing down on them like a Kansas tornado they ducked into the basement and scrawled cloud all over their wares to salvage their position.
Its point is you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Legacy stuff ain’t cloud-worthy.
A few days ago ManageIQ announced EVM Version 5, a unified cloud management scheme that provisions and manages IT services across physical, virtual, private and public cloud infrastructures including Amazon.
The release builds on ManageIQ’s experience servicing enterprise IT organizations, including some Fortune 1000s they can name, so they can adopt and manage virtualized private clouds.
Network Add-Ons for Web Traffic and Cloud Technology
There was a time – perhaps a decade ago, perhaps more – when the network was simply the network. It was routers and switches and cables and power. It was responsible for carrying data to and fro, and for acting as a hard wall gatekeeper that would prevent data from getting from one place to another.
As time went on, the network added more functions. It connected the network to the Internet, it measured traffic, it acted as a firewall, blocking traffic based on any number of criteria. It dabbled in security, as well.
Hardware Systems Born for the Cloud & Big Data
AMD finds itself in the increasing novel situation – sorta like Microsoft with its promised Surface tablets – of possibly competing against its OEMs with a system – and not just a box with Intel chips in it – which is novel enough, imagine AMD selling Intel chips – but a complete plug-and-play system with scads of external storage that it’s building itself.
It’s the first time AMD has gone into the storage business and it owes this little adventure in vertical integration to its $334 million acquisition of micro server maker SeaMicro earlier this year.
SeaMicro builds dense, energy-efficient micro servers that are aimed at the 500 top clouds and Big Data houses. AMD bought SeaMicro out from under Intel in February as a way to backstroke out of its evaporating PC pool.
Ironically it was Intel that predicted that micro servers would claim 10% of the server market by 2015.
Important! VMware’s Kickoff News and Promotions
By Rob O’Shaughnessy
Opening week for the NFL, apple cider donuts and VMware product announcements are all signs that autumn is finally here. I’m not sure what I’m more excited about, no more vRAM entitlement conversations or the Patriots new look offense. Being a big sports nut and self-titled President all things Boston Sports in greater Los Angeles I should say the Patriots, but not having to explain vRAM and this many gigabytes is what you get with that edition and 12-month average and high water marks, etc. etc. etc. is going to be nice.
VMware announced version 5.0 on August 22nd last year so I spent a whole year’s worth of breaths talking about vRAM. I want those breaths back VMware!!! I could have used that time to eat apple cider donuts. I digress. So some of you may have heard the announcements, or got a sprinkling of the announcements, or may not even know what I’m talking about, but that’s okay, because what I’ve put together is a little short list of important stuff to know in the world of VMware.
vSphere:
First and foremost vSphere 5.1 was released and this update will just be licensed by the socket. VMware is no longer requiring vRAM entitlement, so the days of thinking about the numbers 32, 64 and 96 are now gone. In addition, the other good news is that vSphere 5.1’s pricing did not change. There is also a new edition to the vSphere family. VMware has added vSphere Standard with Operations Management, so now there are four editions of vSphere to choose from:
vSphere Standard
-vSphere Standard with Operations Management
-vSphere Enterprise
-vSphere Enterprise Plus
It addition to adding vSphere Standard with Operations Management to the product line-up, VMware has also included it into their Acceleration Kit portfolio, so along with the Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Acceleration Kits, there will also be a vSphere Standard with Operations Management Acceleration Kit. These four kit options will include 6 processor licenses of the vSphere edition of your choice and vCenter Standard Server. One change to note is that the vSphere Standard Acceleration Kit used to include 8 processors, but it now just includes six. Last, all the Accelerations Kits and the Essentials Plus kit will now include the vSphere Storage Appliance at no additional charge. Sweet!
Desktop Products:
Desktop Products such as View, Workstation and Fusion have had a price increase of 10%. Also announced is VMware View’s new management product vCenter Operations Manager for View. This product is available as an add-on component for VMware View Enterprise and Premier. Using the same concurrent user license model as VMware View, packages are available in increments of 10 and 100 concurrent users.
vCloud Suites:
VMware also made the announcement of their new vCloud Suites, which combine VMware’s top products into one bundle. VMware is offering 3 editions:
vCloud Suite Standard – $4,999: vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCloud Director & vCloud Connector, vCloud Networking and Security Standard
vCloud Suite Advanced – $7,495: vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCloud Director & vCloud Connector, vCloud Networking and Security Advanced, vCOps Advanced
vCloud Suite Enterprise – $11,495: vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCloud Director & vCloud Connector, vCloud Networking and Security Advanced, vCOps Enterprise, vCenter Chargeback Manager, Configuration Manager, Infrastructure Navigation, vFabric Application Director and SRM
So an interesting thing to point out: Looking at the Standard Edition of vCloud Suite you’ll see that it retails for $4,999 and includes a bunch of stuff like: vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vCloud Director, VMware vCloud Connector, VMware vCloud Networking and Security Standard. On the other hand vSphere Enterprise Plus alone retails for $3,495 so for another $1,504 the vCloud Suite Standard Ed will get you vSphere Enterprise Plus and all that other stuff. It’s sort of VMware’s version of Super-Size Me.
Promotions:
VMware is offering some nice promotions to this as well and here are a couple of popular ones to note. For a full list of all VMware’s promotions there is a nifty app you can download on your phone: http://www.vmware.com/go/promoapp
vCloud Promo:
Upgrade from vSphere Enterprise Plus to vCloud Suite Standard for free!
Or, Upgrade from vSphere Enterprise or Enterprise Plus to vCloud Suite Advanced or Enterprise for around 35% (it’s 32-38% depending on the edition you currently own).
Available until December 15, 2012.
**Customers can qualify for this promotion in one of two ways. Customers must:
1. Have an active Support and Subscription (SnS) agreement to vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus made prior to August 27, 2012 and at time of upgrade, and must complete their upgrade transaction with VMware before the expiration of the promotion.
2. Or, reinstate SnS to vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus before December 10, 2012, have active SnS at time of upgrade, and complete their upgrade transaction with VMware by December 15, 2012 mbennett@unum.com mbennett@unum.com
**New purchases of vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus made on or after August 27, 2012 are not eligible for this promotion.
vSphere Std w/ Ops Promo:
Upgrade to VMware vSphere Standard with Operations Management and save 30%
Available until December 15, 2012
View 5 Premier Bundle Promo:
Get 25% off View 500 pack or 18% off View 250 pack
Available until December 15, 2012
VC Ops for View Promo:
25% discount on vCenter Operations Manager for View 10 and 100 packs
Available until December 15, 2012
Horizon App Manager Bundle Promo:
50% off Horizon Application Manager with purchase of View Premier
Available until December 15, 2012
Purchase a minimum of 100 pack of View Premier and get 50% off the license list price for Horizon Application Manager.
Building a Bridge to the Cloud
One of the key focus areas of our Private Cloud 2.0 series is that the 2.0 part represents the ‘outside world’, even though it is focused on a Private Cloud scenario. This is simply because it is inevitable and one of the valuable features of the Private Cloud approach – At some point you’ll want […]
Can the cloud assist the banking industry?
The banking industry has faced a vast number of challenges recently and continues to do so, particularly with increasing regulations, unhappy customers, strengthening competition and decreasing levels of profitability.
So, in a time full of change, it would seem that banks need to keep up with the times! Cloud hosting can certainly help the banking industry do this…
Modern Demands
As more banks begin to transform their product offerings, channels and customer services to reflect modern day demands, banks will need to enable a more competitive, consumer-focused business model that will also need to be more efficient.
This is where cloud computing comes in.
Thanks to its low cost, high scalability, unlimited processing power, agility, storage benefits and speed, banks will certainly be in a beneficial position if they properly implement cloud hosting.
Some key movements in banks’ use of cloud computing have been identified this week, such as cloud …
Cloud Standards Roadmap
A keynote document to use for planning your migration to Cloud Computing is the USA CIO Council’s recent publication: ‘Creating Effective Cloud Computing Contracts for the Federal Government‘.
“Standards specification: In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119, Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities, agencies should specify relevant voluntary consensus standards in their procurements. The NIST Standards.gov website includes a useful list of questions that agencies should consider before selecting standards for agency use”.