In the last 12 months annual revenues for Azure have topped a billion dollars according to Curt Anderson, CFO of Microsoft’s Server and Tools unit where Azure is housed.
It’s the first time the Microsoft cloud has hit this storied height and suddenly people are talking about it being in the running against Amazon Web Services, which is believed to have done $1.8 billion last year on its eventual way to $20 billion sometime before the decade ends.
Microsoft needs Azure to click in case the bottom continues to fall out of the Windows OS market.
Forrester told Bloomberg that Azure has roughly 20% of the cloud market to Amazon’s 71%. And it thinks Azure may have 35% in the next year, doubling annually from here on out.
It said, “Microsoft probably has more net new growth opportunity sitting in front of them than probably anyone in the market.”
Monthly Archives: April 2013
BT Accelerates Worldwide Push into Cloud Computing
“As a company, we are serious about Cloud,” said Neil Sutton, Vice President, Global Portfolio, at BT Global Services today as BT launched BT Cloud Compute, an enhanced service that the company claims allows CIOs increased control in terms of designing, building, buying and operating a cloud solution that is tailored to their specific needs.
Business Strategy for Enterprise Cloud Startups
BusinessSuccessWith cloud computing becoming the center of almost every new enterprise IT project, more and more startups decide to compete in the area. This raises the question: “Are they ready to fulfill the enterprise needs?” Forget the need to have one big customer. This can open few doors but if your startup’s business strategy is wrong those will be shut down soon. It is true that one prominent customer can boost your sales but in my opinion there are two more important things that can help your startup get customers fast.
First question you need to ask yourself is: “Do I target the right audience?” If you want to play in the cloud space you need to look at two different points of view – the developer one and the IT one, and make sure that you understand both. And trust me, John Engates, CTO of Rackspace, is right by saying “the traditional datacenter admin, even the CIO, don’t necessary understand a developer’s standpoint” (see Cloud Operability and the Battle for the Open Cloud at forbes.com).
The growth of cloud block storage: Building blocks in the cloud
The Growth of Cloud Block Storage: Building Blocks in the Cloud
By Sue Poremba
Sue Poremba is a freelance writer focusing primarily on security and technology issues and occasionally blogs for Rackspace Hosting.
Cloud block storage is a new way of thinking about how you store files and organise content. It allows you to abstract your infrastructure away from the implementation details specifying what hardware and operating system you need to manage to host the files your applications and organisation use.
“Cloud block storage allows organizations to focus on their content and trust the details of delivering that content to an established SaaS provider. It functions like a hard drive accessible via the Internet,” explained Troy Carl, vice president and lead tech engineer with Faith Comes by Hearing, an audio Bible organisation that utilises cloud block storage for its recordings.
“Storing files and assets in the cloud is important because …
How Private Cloud Works in Real Life: Deployment Examples
Companies around the world are moving into on-premise private cloud environments. Many connect their private cloud to their public cloud service providers. In his session at 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York [June 10-13], Brian Patrick Donaghy will talk about examples of what worked, what failed and why we should think about this evolution.
Study Finds Enterprise Cloud Focus Shifting From Adoption to Optimization
Cloudyn together with The Big Data Group has released the latest AWS customer optimization data, reinforcing the positive growth trend expected for the year ahead.
“We set out to evaluate whether the projected 2013 ‘year of cloud optimization’ is on course and discovered that we are well into the public cloud adoption life cycle. In 2011 and 2012 the conversation centered around how and when to move to the cloud. Now it is all about companies looking for efficiencies and cost controls,” commented David Feinleib, Managing Director of The Big Data Group.
The study, based on over 450 selected AWS and Cloudyn customers, highlights a more mature approach to cloud deployments reflected by a deeper understanding of where inefficiencies lurk and how to optimize them. EC2 makes up for 62% of total AWS spend, with more than 50% of customers now using Reserved Instances in their deployment mix. However, On-Demand pricing remains the top choice for most, accounting for 71% of EC2 spend. Even for customers using reservations, there is still opportunity for further efficiency.
For example, Cloudyn’s Unused Reservation Detector has assisted customers in finding a startling 24% of unused reservations. These can be recycled by relocating matching On-Demand instances to the availability zone of the unused reservation.
There is also a shift away from large instance types to medium, where two medium instances cost the same as one large, but can produce 30% more output. However, with the low 8-9% utilization rates of the popular instance types, there is certainly more work to be done on the road to cloud optimization.
Cloudyn and The Big Data Group host a webinar on May 1, 2013 at 9:00 am PT focused on deployment efficiency.
Cloud Expo New York | License Management: Now What?
License and compliance management was difficult when most everything you needed was terrestrial – on the ground, tangible, countable. But as assets float toward and into the cloud, license and compliance management are becoming more complex, more challenging, and even more important.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Erik Iversen, Leader, Software Asset Management Team at SHI International, to discuss how to use a simple three-step model to help get ready.
Erik Iversen leads the Software Asset Management team at SHI International. He started the SAM Services team in 2008 with just one customer; now the team supports a variety of software governance and compliance programs for hundreds of customers of all shapes and sizes.
Cloud Expo New York: Isolated Networks in the Cloud
It’s now possible to create isolated networks in the cloud using OpenStack Networking. Cloud Networks can help enhance network security, increase application agility and improve scalability and availability of your servers.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Hart Hoover, Cloud Strategist at Rackspace Hosting, will discuss:
What are cloud networks?
History and progress of OpenStack Networking
Where do we go from here?
Use cases for an isolated network in a cloud infrastructure
Live demo of creating an isolated network and deploying servers within it
CSOs: Are You a Groundhog or a Giraffe?
Through a great deal of research on enterprise cloud adoption and security, I’ve learned something telling. As you would expect, CISOs’ opinions about cloud strategy are quite varied. While many folks recognize their company’s use of SaaS for HR, sales, communication, and other applications, they are fairly divided about the use of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and how secure these environments are in keeping company data safeguarded. After many talks with these technology leaders, I’ve determined that each fall into three distinct categories.
The first group is the server huggers and they make up a very small percentage of the respondents. They simply have no reason to leverage IaaS. Their applications are very resource intensive and expensive, and their businesses are highly predictable, so the need for scalable capacity just doesn’t exist. However, the time may come where they have company needs to bring the cloud into the mix. If so, they should be well informed on how to take advantage of cloud services and realize the ways to protect data during and after that migration.
Cloud Expo New York: How to Stop Worrying and Love Your Cloud
The key drivers behind the Cloud Revolution are faster delivery of IT solutions, access to ‘unlimited’ on-demand capacity, and lower operating costs. Still, many struggle with the variables behind the Cloud, including data management, portability, and public, private, hybrid, and virtual private clouds.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Tim Halpin, Director Cloud Services – Adoption and Utilization at AT&T, will show how you can leverage cloud solutions to minimize risk and investment as you execute your overall IT strategy and move your production workloads into the Cloud.