Ever since SoftBank Corp in July completed its $21.6BN purchase of Sprint Corp, Japan’s biggest overseas acquisition to date, it seems that Japanese firms are ramping up their efforts to improve overseas networks through acquisitions. Today, according to Reuters, Japan’s NTT Communications Corp has acquired two US Cloud companies.
Monthly Archives: October 2013
How Buggy Are Today’s APIs? [Infographic]
This infographic highlights some interesting findings from Parasoft’s research on API Integrity…
With the advent of the API economy, the integrity of the APIs you produce and consume is now more important than ever. As applications grow increasingly interdependent, the security, functionality, and performance of the composite “mashup” is only as strong as its weakest link. The success of an end-to-end transaction depends upon all the parts working flawlessly – all the time.
To better understand the scope and impact of API issues, Parasoft, leading provider of API Testing solutions, recently conducted study on API Integrity. The following infographic highlights some interesting findings…
Time to Get on the Colocation Train Before It Is Too Late
The data center industry is heading toward an inflection point that has significant impact on enterprises. It seems many aren’t looking far enough ahead, but the timeline appears to be 12-18 months, which is not that far out! The issue is a typical supply chain issue of supply, demand and timelines.
First, let’s start with a bit of background… The advent of Cloud Computing and newer technologies, are driving an increase in the number of enterprises looking to ‘get out of the data center business. I, along with others, have presented many times about ‘Death of the Data Center.’ The data center, which used to serve as a strategic weapon in an enterprise IT org’s arsenal, is still very much critical, but fundamentally becoming a commodity. That’s not to say that the overall data center services are becoming a commodity, but the facility is. Other factors, such as the geographic footprint, network and ecosystem are becoming the real differentiators. And enterprises ‘in the know’ realize they can’t compete at the same level as today’s commercial data center facility providers.
SAP and SAS partner for fast big data in-memory analytics
Madan Sheina, Lead Analyst, Software – Information Management
SAP and SAS announced a new partnership to create a joint product roadmap for in-memory analytics solutions. The aim is to make SAS’s advanced analytics software run smoothly on SAP’s HANA in-memory platform, helping joint customers run bigger, more complex, and faster analysis workloads.
The combination of technologies is potentially compelling for customers looking to mine intelligence out of Big Data. However, depending on which side’s perspective you take, this is a curious tie-up between two fierce analytic rivals that each market and sell their own in-memory platforms.
It remains to be seen whether this partnership can bring out the best of SAP and SAS’s core analytic strengths and competencies so that both parties gain, while also creating compelling value for customers. Historically, this hasn’t always been the case. Nevertheless this is one of the more interesting high-profile …
Cloud allows companies to double revenue, claims IBM study
The latest cloud study, this time from IBM, has revealed that companies who use cloud computing as a competitive advantage can expect to have their revenue margins doubled compared to those who don’t have high adoption.
In the global survey of over 800 business decision makers and users, IBM found that leading organisations are moving to the cloud to move away from their competitors in a crowded space.
The report puts companies into three categories: pacesetters, who are “deploying cloud on a broad scale”; challengers, who are at a similar level to pacesetters yet “lag on differentiation and market responsiveness”; and chasers, who are more cautious on cloud.
And the research also details the three areas in which the pacesetters are taking charge: strategic reinvention, such as improving business models and rapid product innovation; making better decisions; and deeper collaboration.
In particular, these companies are 117% more likely to …
Building Your Hybrid Cloud – Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage Foundation
Keith Mayer and myself kick off our new multi-part series today on how you can build your hybrid cloud environment with Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 and Windows Azure by laying down a quick overview of what we can expect for the series as well as diving into the new features found in Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage Foundation.
Build Your Lab! Download Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 and get the best virtualization platform and private cloud management solution on the market.
Cloud Expo: Top 10 Tips for Engaging Customers with Social Media
Over the past decade, social media has disrupted the traditional methods of providing customer support. In the new era, digital tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest are transforming organizations into social enterprises.
For companies of any size, a strong social media strategy is a growing necessity in the world of branding. What savvy businesses are doing is taking advantage of collaborative online platforms to shorten the distance between support specialists and consumers. The bottom line is that social media is a strategic tool that can be used to manage a company’s online reputation, control the spread of misinformation and enhance the overall customer experience.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Robert Collazo, Manager of Social Media and Senior Systems Engineer at Rackspace, will explain how you can leverage social and mobile technologies to drive real business outcomes. Attendees will learn how to optimize their company’s online presence in order to build customer engagement and extract value from social networks like Facebook, micro-blogs like Twitter and multimedia platforms like YouTube.
MangoApps to Exhibit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that MangoApps, the social collaboration company, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 13th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
MangoApps is a collaboration network that combines Employee Social Networking, Team Collaboration tools and Intranet into one seamless product.
Cloud Expo® 2013 Silicon Valley, November 4-7, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Cloud Expo: Unified Security Across Mobile, Web, Cloud and APIs
As users are increasingly consuming data through mobile and cloud services, enterprise must adapt to enable these new channels while maintaining security and providing a consistent user experience. Users should be able use their web credentials, but still seamlessly access data through these additional channels.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Alistair Farquharson, CTO of SOA Software, will examine the different security and identity considerations across Web, mobile and cloud, and explore API best practices to achieve federation across these channels.
Five Misconceptions About Big Data that May Be Haunting Your Organization
With a slight chill in the air, we know Halloween is just around the corner. But what could be spookier than ghosts, goblins or a haunted house? For many IT managers it’s the fear of Big Data, which can be understandably overwhelming at first. We’ve compiled five of the spookiest misconceptions about Big Data that may be haunting your organization.
Misconception 1: “We’re a small company. We don’t need to worry about Big Data yet.”
Boo! Don’t be spooked by all the news of what big companies are doing in Big Data. Companies of all sizes can and should be capturing data on some level. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 enterprise or a smaller firm, you want to understand your customers and what makes them tick.