Monthly Archives: June 2016

Opinion, outsourcing, Private Cloud, Public Cloud

Should Public Cloud be Synonymous with Outsourcing?

Marathon runners taking the position for the start of raceI caught an internet meme the other day that said, “The Cloud is just a computer somewhere else.”  But is that true?  Is the cloud really all about outsourcing your infrastructure to somewhere or someone else?

Popular opinion seems to indicate that’s the case.  But I would argue otherwise.

The cloud is a way of thinking.  Consider the ease with which you can swipe your credit card and walk away with a virtual infrastructure in the cloud.  Pay for what you need now, and scale out to meet your growing demands as your business or projects expand.  Who could say no to that?

In my experience as an IT leader and solutions architect, this is what the cloud is really all about.  Self-service provisioning; elastic, pay-as-you-grow infrastructure; and a service-driven operating model with all-inclusive, per-VM pricing.

If we take that perspective, we see that the cloud is not just about outsourcing.  In fact, all IT leaders should aspire to deliver the same agility, elasticity, and efficiency of the cloud model – whether their infrastructure runs on-premises or “in the cloud.”

With that said, this has not always been feasible or easy.  Traditional IT infrastructure is costly, complex, and rigid.  It simply doesn’t provide the same level of efficiency and agility as public cloud providers can deliver.  And that’s no surprise.  Early in their history, pioneering service providers and technology giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, discarded the old IT model and built their own infrastructure based on key design principles of software-defined, scale-out, and x86 commodity hardware.

Until now, visionary IT leaders who sought to deliver a cloud operating model on-site had little at their disposal.  But that is changing.  Breakthroughs in on-premises infrastructure like hyperconvergence are making it possible to bring the benefits of the cloud on-site, avoiding the tradeoffs of outsourcing their infrastructure and core business applications to the cloud.

In many ways, hyperconverged infrastructure delivers the same efficiency and agility of cloud.  It’s based on the same design principles noted above – x86 commodity building blocks, software-defined, and linear scalability. However, hyperconverged infrastructure also provides the performance, protection, and resiliency enterprises require – all while reducing complexity and costs.

In fact, in a recent independent study, focusing on the cost-effectiveness and three-year total cost of ownership (TCO) savings of hyperconvergence and the public cloud, hyperconvergence vendor SimpliVity was compared to public cloud vendor Amazon Web Services. The study found that SimpliVity’s hyperconverged infrastructure solution offers a TCO savings of 22% to 49% when compared to Amazon Web Services. This shows that cost is no longer a barrier to creating a private cloud. Enterprises can choose what best suits their workloads, public or private.

Overall, with hyperconvergence, enterprises can now outsource to the public cloud or decide to stay on-premises, all the while maintaining the agility, elasticity, and cost-effectiveness of the public cloud.

Written by Rich Kucharski, Vice President of Solutions Architecture at SimpliVity

AWS, Docker, Microsoft Azure, Public Cloud

Cloud and software jobs surge over last 12 months

New productRackspace has released the findings from its annual analysis of the IT job market which highlighted demand for positions in and around cloud computing are rising at a healthy rate.

Vacancies for AWS engineer roles increased by 125% over the last 12 months, where are those advertised for Microsoft Azure competencies also increased by 75% in the same period. The rise in job focused on tailoring cloud solutions for individual companies, and also migrating from legacy technologies, supports previous research and claims that cloud computing is penetrating the mainstream marketplace.

“Our industry moves so fast that we can’t rely entirely on traditional forms of education from schools and universities to fill skills gaps,” said Darren Norfolk, Managing Director for Rackspace in the UK. “Therefore, technology companies have a responsibility to address these shortages by growing and fostering talent through on the job training and experience.

“I expect the rise in demand for cloud related jobs to continue as a growing number of businesses adopt a multi cloud strategy, using platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Openstack and AWS. The highly competitive recruitment market for skills in these areas means that managing the platforms in-house could become more costly than it has been in the past.”

Software development is another area which has demonstrated healthy growth as the number of vacancies for individuals who have Docker expertise has risen by 341%, though this is down from the 991% increase which was reported in the 2015 findings. The accelerated rate in which new technologies are penetrating the market and being implemented by companies throughout the world is seemingly too fast for in-house resource to be trained on these competencies, leaving hiring new employees the only option for some. Docker expertise is now the second most sought after job function in the IT world, according to the research.

DevOps as a practise would also appear to be have accepted in the business world, as the number of roles grew 53% over the last twelve months, following a 57% increase from the findings last year. The rise in roles would appear to be an indicator DevOps has not been integrated within the IT ecosystem, though it may still be considered too early to be mainstream.

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Public cloud usage skyrockets but financing could be better, argues research

(c)iStock.com/yipengge

While this publication has been examining the futures of the private and hybrid clouds – and naturally found both to be in demand – a new piece of research from Cloud Cruiser has found that the same is true for the public cloud, fuelled primarily by big data and analytics.

The study, which polled almost 200 respondents at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Global Summit last month in Chicago, found that 92% of respondents were currently using a public cloud, while even more (95%) believe public cloud usage will grow further. Of that number, 40% believe their company’s use of public cloud will go up by 25-50%, compared to 38% for 10-25% and 17% for less than 10%.

Not surprisingly, more than half (54%) of those polled said they used AWS as their only cloud environment. Of those that were using more than one cloud, 27% were using Microsoft Azure, 12% were using Google Cloud Platform, while 22% were combining AWS with a private cloud. Yet 14% of respondents – presumably those who were at least exploring the idea – said they were not using Amazon’s services.

Not surprisingly, the majority (59%) of those who are using AWS say they are deploying it for development and testing purposes. Big data and analytics (31%) was second on the list, ahead of sandboxes (30%), customer facing applications (25%) and backup (19%). Only 2% of those polled said they were using AWS for eCommerce.

Yet the research also found that organisations can be profligate with regard to their cloud spend. Almost a third (31%) admitted they do not proactively manage their cloud usage, with custom systems (25%) the most popular ahead of vendor-issued tools. Perhaps it’s little wonder; only 18% described sorting out cloud bills with finance as ‘easy’, compared to ‘just okay’ (40%), ‘challenging’ (39%), and ‘horrible’ (3%).

Naturally, this is the point where you would expect to read about Cloud Cruiser’s new product that helps customers with financial issues – and you would be correct, with Cloud Cruiser 16 being essentially a ‘smart meter’ for multi-cloud environments. This publication has covered similar ideas in the past, not least Springs.io, whose ‘reactive servers’ don’t just stop at pay as you go, meaning that theoretically users will pay for 1GB of output if a 4GB server is lightly used.

“IT teams are under tremendous pressure to deliver cloud services as quickly as possible to the business. The reality is they can only move at the speed of finance,” said Cloud Cruiser CMO Deirdre Mahon. “If business, IT, and finance stakeholders cannot view the same real-time dashboard showing exactly what cloud services are being consumed by whom, services will come to a screeching halt.”

augmented reality, Consumer Tech, Microsoft, Mixed Reality, News & Analysis, virtual reality

Microsoft opens up mixed reality platform to partners and competitors

Virtual RealityMicrosoft has announced it is opening up its Windows Holographic platform to partners, in an effort to drive forward its vision of mixed reality.

The vision of Window Holographic, the platform which currently powers the Microsoft HoloLens offering, is to create a platform where various different devices and experiences can create a hybrid reality environment, merging the physical and virtual worlds. Devices struggle to integrate currently due to the number of different user interfaces, interaction models, input methods, peripherals and applications. Microsoft is hoping Window Holographic can be the answer to this challenge, despite the fact a number of the devices would be in direct competition with Microsoft HoloLens.

While Microsoft is not the only company to have developed a virtual reality headset, it is one of the very few who have built support for mixed reality into their OS. In opening up the idea is to give developers the freedom to create virtual reality experiences which can operate on a broader range of devices, including smartphone-based systems such as Google Cardboard or expensive PC-tethered headsets such as Oculus Rift. Once the VR and AR evolution branches out into social media and other outlets, there will be a requirement for a common language.

“Imagine wearing a VR device and seeing your physical hands as you manipulate an object, working on the scanned 3-D image of a real object, or bringing a real-life holographic representation of another person into your virtual world so you can collaborate,” the company said on its blog. “In this world, devices can spatially map your environment wherever you are; manipulating digital content is as easy and natural as it is in the real world.”

The platform will offer a holographic shell and user interface, perception APIs, and Xbox Live services. The team are now collaborating with a number of organizations including Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, HTC, Acer, ASUS, Dell, Falcon Northwest, HP, Lenovo and MSI to create a hardware ecosystem which will support the virtual reality experience.

The mixed reality market is expected to be an area of healthy growth during the next few years, with industrial applications one of the most lucrative areas. The market itself is estimated to be valued in the region of $450 million by 2020, though the consumer market is expected to be slightly constrained by various factors including price, battery life and image latency.

“With Windows 10, we’ve been on an incredible journey with our partners, and today we usher in the next frontier of computing – mixed reality,” said Terry Myerson, EVP of Windows and Devices.

data centre, Datacentre, News & Analysis, Singapore, Smart city, Smart Nation

Singapore tests out its green finger on data centres

Location Singapore. Green pin on the map.Singapore has continued its drive towards becoming the worlds’ smartest nation by announcing trials for a Tropical Data Centre (TDC), which could potentially reduce energy consumption in data centres by up to 40%.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the government body responsible for the development and growth of the infocomm sector, will conduct the PoC with the aim of creating a data centre which can operate in up to 38 degrees Celsius, and humidity levels of up to 90%. Data centres are generally cooled to temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius, and operate efficiently in humidity of between 50-60%. The PoC will be conducted with simulated data, creating various different ‘live’ conditions such as peak surges or transferring of data.

The trial is part of the IDA’s Green Data Centre Programme which was launched in 2014 and aims to create a more energy efficient data centre, as well as guidelines for more sustainable computing, through the implementation of emerging technologies. Partners of the programme include Dell, ERS, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei, Intel, Keppel Data Centres, The Green Grid, and Nanyang Technological University.

“With Singapore’s continued growth as a premium hub for data centres, we want to develop new technologies and standards that allow us to operate advanced data centres in the most energy efficient way in a tropical climate,” said Khoong Hock Yun, Assistant Chief Executive of the IDA. “New ideas and approaches, such as raising either the ambient temperature or humidity, will be tested to see if these can greatly increase our energy efficiency, with insignificant impact on the critical data centre operations.

“To create new value in our Smart Nation journey, we need to embrace an attitude of experimentation, to be willing to develop new ideas together, and test the feasibility of progressive and positive technological advancements that has a good possibility to enhance our industry’s competitiveness.”

The IDA has run a number of initiatives over recent years in its quest for Singapore to be named as the world’s first ‘Smart Nation’. The country already received an impressive number of accolades including world’s fastest broadband nation by Ookla and the top and fastest-changing digital economy, according to Tufts University. Singapore is currently being impacted by a number of global trends including population growth, emissions and mobility, which are driving the efforts towards a smart nation.

Singapore is one of the most densely populated nations in the world, with nearly 8,000 people per square kilometre, with these number expected to rise. This is having a substantial impact on the emission levels, traffic, mobility, employment and energy demands on the city state. Singapore’s response has been to create a nation state which is driven by big data and analytics technologies, and next-generation connected and sensor networks. The new initiatives have seemingly had a positive impact on innovation within the city as the number of start-ups has increased from 24,000 in 2005, to 55,000 in 2014.

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BlackBerry’s IoT Platform | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #InternetOfThings

Internet of Things (IoT) is the in thing that no sane company would neglect. BlackBerry after its recent smart phone is also into IoT and has a complete platform. Main vertical applications targeted are automotive and asset tracking for now.

Here is about the platform in Blackberry’s own words.

“The BlackBerry® IoT Platform is here to give you that control, providing a cloud-based solution that lets you build and manage IoT applications and devices in a secure, efficient, and scalable way.”

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