The dynamic nature of the cloud means that change is a constant when it comes to modern cloud-based infrastructure. Delivering modern applications to end users, therefore, is a constantly shifting challenge. Delivery automation helps IT Ops teams ensure that apps are providing an optimal end user experience over hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud environments, no matter what the current state of the infrastructure is. To employ a delivery automation strategy that reflects your business rules, making real-time decisions based on a combination of real user monitoring, synthetic testing, APM, NGINX / local load balancers, and other data sources, is critical.
Monthly Archives: October 2017
How unified cloud communications can benefit productivity and customer satisfaction
Productivity, customer satisfaction and business success are the three key benefits to cloud communications, according to a new study.
Research from analyst firm IDC, which surveyed 805 mid-sized businesses and enterprises around their communications strategy, found companies who use both unified and contextual cloud communications saw a 47% improvement in speed to market for products and services, 42% improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty, and a 34% reduction in costs.
As is often the case with research such as this, respondents were put into four buckets depending on their journey. Communications ‘powerbrokers’ are at the top of the tree and sophisticated users. This means they use text and voice messaging to automate delivery of notifications and are much more likely to say their communications are effective as a result. 96% said their frequency and timeless of comms was effective, with 100% saying it for the quality of their customer-facing interactions.
Communications ‘respecters’ have started moving to the cloud and are planning more, while ‘skeptics’ are unsure of its benefits and, at the bottom rung, communications ‘unaware’ have little knowledge about the process. For those in the ‘unaware’ category, only 15% automate text and voice messaging, while even fewer (12%) say their customer-facing communication is effective.
Is this a result of a younger, digitally native workforce aiming to drive through changes? IDC says possibly, but adds a caveat.
“Digital natives may completely disrupt an industry, but companies need to look at this as an opportunity to conduct business and engage customers in new ways,” said Mark Winther, group VP of telecom custom solutions at IDC. “Our data clearly shows that cloud communications enable businesses to quickly adapt and transform and, as a result, not only survive but actually thrive in their respective industries.”
The study was sponsored by Vonage, a cloud communications software provider. You can find an executive summary of the research here.
Google Cloud’s impact on Indian businesses
India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and a substantial part of it is driven by the IT industry. While India is known as the software capital of the world, what is relatively unknown is the demand it is fueling for cloud services. In fact, the public cloud services market is expected to grow by 38 percent in 2017, amounting to a total of $1.81 billion this year. In 2016, it was only $1.32 billion. By 2020, these numbers are expected to reach $4.1 billion.
These numbers show the rapid strides that India is making in the cloud industry. So, it’s little wonder that all major cloud services companies are making a beeline to this country.
Google Cloud is one of the early entrants into the Indian market and it is continuing to expand its presence here. Already, it has helped many companies to make the transition to cloud services. A case in point is Hike Messenger. This company was India’s own version of the popular Whatsapp messaging service. It is estimated that there are about 100 million registered users for this app and more than one billion messages are exchanged every day. Recently, this company has expanded its services and is offering new ones like Hike Wallet and Hike News.
This company runs on the Google Cloud Platform. In a Google summit held in India, the Vice-President of Engineering and Technology at Hike Messenger, Vishvanath Ramarao, said that there is a 30 percent increase in speed after Hike migrated to the Google Cloud Platform. He further opined that Google Cloud gives Hike the flexibility to scale with efficiency, thereby reducing their time to market.
Besides Hike, it looks like other Indian companies have also gained immensely by using Google Cloud. Some examples include Ashok Leyland, Delhivery.com, Royal Enfield, Tata Sky, Walnut and more. Such high adoption rates has helped Google to register almost a 3X growth over the last 12 months.
Currently though Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the leader in the Indian cloud market, followed by Microsoft Azure. Google stands third in terms of both market share and revenue.
To take on competition from these two players and also to get a larger slice of the prospective Indian cloud market, Google is taking many proactive steps. One of the important measures is to setup a cloud region in the Indian city of Mumbai by the end of this year. This way, it’s customers can enjoy low latency and fast speeds. Both AWS and Azure have local datacenters already, so Google is a little late here.
Also, it’s moving actively to have a role in government and banking projects, in addition to building a diverse cloud ecosystem geared for Indian businesses.
Let’s see how much of these translate into higher revenue and market share for Google.
The post Google Cloud’s impact on Indian businesses appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
A Wild and Crazy Touch Bar!
My colleague, Alex Sursiakov, wrote an excellent blog post on the Touch Bar™. In his post, Advanced Touch Bar Customization with Parallels Desktop, Alex detailed an advanced way to implement Touch Bar button sets, which gives the user many additional design options that are not available using the Touch Bar customization features built into Parallels […]
The post A Wild and Crazy Touch Bar! appeared first on Parallels Blog.
[session] Offshore Development – How Not to Screw It Up | @CloudExpo @MobiDev_ #API #Cloud #Analytics
What is the best strategy for selecting the right offshore company for your business?
In his session at 21st Cloud Expo, Alan Winters, U.S. Head of Business Development at MobiDev, will discuss the things to look for – positive and negative – in evaluating your options. He will also discuss how to maximize productivity with your offshore developers.
Before you start your search, clearly understand your business needs and how that impacts software choices.