Advancing I&O maturity increases the value that I&O delivers. This essential piece of Gartner research shares four easy steps to advance your I&O organization including:
Expand your organizational vision beyond technology stewardship
Identify the limitations of your I&O organization’s current structure, and focus on addressing them with a new model
Evaluate the typical changes involved in advancing your organization, and adapt them to your organizational model
Align structural changes to your specific business situations and desired outcomes
Monthly Archives: March 2016
Composability and Integration | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps #Microservices
Our guest on the podcast this week is JP Morgenthal, Global Solutions Executive at CSC. We discuss the architecture of microservices and how to overcome the challenge of making different tools work together. We learn about the importance of hiring engineers who can compose services into an integrated system.
Parallels Remote Application Server is a Finalist in the European IT & Software Excellence Awards!
European IT & Software Excellence Awards Parallels Remote Application Server, a leading desktop and application virtualization solution, has been selected as a finalist in the DataCenter Solution of the Year category of the European IT & Software Excellence Awards. As the European IT & Software Excellence Awards are renowned for their commitment to celebrating world […]
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NASA Chose @AvereSystems to Launch Its Data onto AWS Cloud | @CloudExpo #Cloud
SYS-CON Events announced today that Avere Systems, a leading provider of enterprise storage for the hybrid cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Avere Systems has announced that NASA has selected Avere to help consolidate legacy storage and move many of its datasets to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. Avere will be supporting the Ames Research Center, NASA’s Silicon-Valley field center, which has led NASA in conducting world-class research and development. Breakthrough research conducted at the Ames Research Center includes advancements in supercomputing, NexGen air transportation, missions for low-Earth orbit and the moon, lunar science and advancing human-technology interaction.
How APIs Make or Break Success in the Digital World By @RyanPinkham | @CloudExpo #Cloud
The State of API 2016 Report revealed some important findings about the growth, opportunities, challenges, and processes for the API industry in 2016.
Among our most revealing findings, we discovered:
Growth in the industry: 1 in 5 respondents began developing APIs in the last two years alone.
Mobile and IoT are fueling growth: 54% of API providers expect mobile to drive the most growth; 44% expect IoT to drive the most growth.
Concerns over security: Security is the #1 challenge API providers want to see solved, with 41% of providers citing security as a top challenge.
Focus on quality: 85% of respondents say that API quality is either very important or extremely important to their organization.
You can find these findings and more of the key takeaways from the State of API 2016 Report in the infographic below. You’ll also find high profile examples of how the findings of the report have already played out in the real world for companies like Netflix, Salesforce, Amazon, and Facebook.
Solving Monitoring Challenges in a Fast-Growing Cloud Infrastructure | @CloudExpo #Cloud
OneCloud Systems provides managed services for the cloud including 24/7 monitoring, server and database setup, administration, and website migration. Launched by senior architects, developers and system administrators, OneCloud Systems enables customers to tap into the full value of the cloud by providing innovative technology architecture, proven infrastructure and reliable services. As an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Consulting Partner, the OneCloud team has deep expertise across the Amazon portfolio and knows how to leverage the AWS cloud to bring value to clients.
Docker buys Conductant to catalyse coding development
Container technology pioneer Docker has bought start up Conductant, best known for creating the Aurora strand of the Apache Mesos clustering system. Conductant’s software is used to catalyse faster development of large scale code.
Announcing the acquisition on its website Docker spokesman Solomon Hykes placed more emphasis on the talent, rather than the technology, that is being brought in with the take over of an early stage start up. Welcoming the Conductant ‘team’ to the Docker ‘family’ Hykes outlined the contributions that founders Bill Farner, David Chung and John Sirois made to operating and scaling production systems at Google, Twitter and Zynga.
Farna, who created the Aurora Project, will lead the process of integrating the clustering technology into the fabric of its container software. Docker’s expansion policy is to buy emerging software tool makers and integrate them into its container software core, according to Hykes. In January BCN reported how Docker has acquired Unikernel Systems in order to channel its hypervisor and unikernel experience into the development of Docker’s container systems. “We believe our job is integrating these technologies in tools that are easy to use and help people create new things. We did this for Linux containers, to help make applications more portable,” wrote Hykes.
Aurora, an extension of the Apache Mesos clustering system, is specifically designed for hyper scale production environments. Hykes claimed it is recognized as the most scalable and operationally-robust component of the Mesos stack, which in turn helps to create the conditions for operations-driven development (ODD). The experiences of the Conductant team, operating global scale clouds for Google, Twitter and Zyng, forced them to develop new techniques for rapid development. Bill Farner’s team at Twitter built Aurora to automate massive server farms that could be managed by handful of engineers.
Docker now plans to incorporate the best ideas from Aurora into Docker Swarm, which allows for any app to go on any infrastructure on any scale, and integrate Aurora as an optional component of the official Docker stack. One option is to integrate Aurora with Docker Swarm to form a powerful large-scale web operations stack.
While Swarm is designed to be the standard base layer to scale all kinds of applications, Aurora is optimized for large-scale consumer apps reaching hundreds of millions of users. “By making two of the most popular open-source infrastructure projects interoperate better, we believe both communities will benefit,” said Hykes.
It’s That Darned Web Developer Guy! By @JasonRahm | @CloudExpo #Cloud
Back in October, my son’s robotics team said “Hey! You work for a software company, can you build us an application that will help us with scouting and competitions?” Foolishly, ego stepped in before a careful outsourced review of my existing skills could take place, so I said “Sure! Not a web developer, but how hard could it be?”
Seriously… how hard could this be? I see web application traffic all the time. On the wire. And I can even manipulate that traffic at the protocol level and do amazing things with it programmatically. But…changing application traffic in flight is not development of that application. Nor is it an understanding of all the considerations one must evaluate and handle to get from idea to solution. So yeah, it is hard. Dang hard. Actually, getting to a dynamic web experience “hello world” is easy, but getting to a working application? Not so easy. Or quick. And rightfully so. Skills take time to master, and mastery unlocks new levels with which to master.
Whitman thanks partnerships for strong HPE Q1
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has claimed earnings of $300 million in its first quarter of 2016 show it is shaping up for the cloud more strongly than expected.
HPE CEO Meg Whitman claimed that the success of the company was a consequence of a strong product offering. “Our portfolio is truly the best we’ve had in years and is driving strong customer traction,” said Whitman, who claimed the company was in better shape for the cloud, describing it as ‘agile and nimble’. In January BCN reported how HPE is faced with making 72,000 more redundancies this year, according to IT market watcher Trip Chowdhry at Delaware-based Global Equities Research.
The results created earnings of 41 cents per share in HPE, exceeding the expectations of Wall Street analysts, who reportedly expected non-GAAP earnings of 40 cents a share. While Wall Street had estimated HPE’s revenue to be $12.68 billion, the unexpectedly good revenue figure was marginally higher, at $12.7 billion.
According to HPE, the earnings for the next quarter could be as high as 43 cents a share.
Whitman told analysts that HPE is in a much better position, being the main infrastructure provider for SAP HANA with double the number of shipments of its nearest competitor. Another important deal, with Canadian comms company Rogers, helped HPE establish its credential as a leader in creating hybrid cloud infrastructures for enterprises as the move away from their existing traditional IT systems. In January BCN reported how hybrid cloud management is the main focus of HPE’s cloud strategy.
Meanwhile, HPE’s networking revenue showed 62% growth on the same period last year. This was attributed to the acquisition of wireless networking specialist Aruba Networks in March 2015, which has created record revenue from China revenue performed well in other regions. “We are seeing strength in China,” said Whitman. Aruba also grew double digits at an operational level and the vendor enjoyed demand for HPE’s switching portfolio to complement Aruba’s wireless offerings.
Enterprise group revenue was up 1% on the equivalent period in 2015, at $7.1 billion. Networking revenue grew by 54%, through Aruba’s wireless tech sales, however server and storage sales declined, falling by 1% and 3%. More worryingly perhaps, enterprise service revenue is also in decline, falling by 6% to $4.7 billion, while software revenue dropped by 10%.
BT beefs up Cloud of Clouds security with Palo Alto Wildfire
BT is to install a cloud-based breach prevention security system from Palo Alto Networks (PAN) into its global Cloud of Clouds, writes Telecoms.com.
Under the terms of a new BT-PAN agreement, BT’s existing Assure Managed Firewall service will now include PAN’s cloud-based WildFire malware prevention system, described as a ‘key component’ of the security specialist’s Next-Generation Security Platform. In a statement, BT said the installation is part of a long term plan to roll out stronger protection for its cloud-based applications as it aims to encourage enterprise customers to benefit from its Cloud of Clouds.
Though enterprises are keen to embark on a digital transformation, security concerns continue to hold them back, according to Mark Hughes, CEO of BT Security. The most obviously profitable use cases for cloud computing, such as big-data analytics and access to more cloud based applications, are the very attractions that cyber criminals are most likely to target. In the rush to provide greater levels of security telcos and cloud service providers face an investment protection challenge, Hughes said.
While enterprise customers need to access these applications quickly and securely, they must also find future-proof tools that can go with the cloud and won’t have to be expensively replaced in a few years time. “Enterprises need security that can protect them against targeted and increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks. They need a tougher lining around their cloud services,” said Hughes.
Palo Alto Networks will provide intelligent security monitoring and management services to the BT Assure portfolio of security services. The Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform includes a Next-Generation Firewall, Advanced Endpoint Protection and a Threat Intelligence Cloud.
BT recently won two new cloud service contracts with the European Commission worth £24 million, bringing its total of EC contract wins to four in 12 months, BCN reported in January. With data security an increasingly sensitive issue with the EC (as reported in BCN), BT has taken on a challenging brief to provide public and private cloud services across 52 major European institutions, agencies and bodies.