Let’s do a visualization exercise. Imagine it’s December 31, 2018, and you’re ringing in the New Year with your friends and family. You think back on everything that you accomplished in the last year: your company’s revenue is through the roof thanks to the success of your product, and you were promoted to Lead Developer. 2019 is poised to be an even bigger year for your company because you have the tools and insight to scale as quickly as demand requires. You’re a happy human, and it’s not just because of the bubbly in your glass.
Now how does one turn this visualization into reality? You start by setting yourself up with the right technology to succeed. Behind every great cloud app is a fleet of powerful cloud monitoring tools that provide insight and direction for improving your product. This is the ticket for turning 2018 into the year of your dreams.
Monthly Archives: December 2017
The truth about unified communications – and why MSPs can’t ignore it
Some managed service providers are reluctant to offer unified communications because they think it’s a lot of time-consuming deployments for an on-premises VoIP system. Well, we have good news: hosted VoIP is here. With the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) model, it only takes a good internet connection for your clients to start enjoying a stable, cost-effective business phone solution. Making a profit offering unified communications is easy.
When customers are looking for a unified communications solution, they want to manage computer-related communications and phone capabilities altogether.
Let’s take a few examples.
1) An organisation wants to make sure missed calls are always followed up
The business owner needs a business phone system with voicemail. Also, each employee must be notified by email when someone leaves a message on their voicemail extension. Unified communications provide that integration between phone and email.
2) A company wants to better manage communications costs for mobile employees
The business owner needs every call made from the company phone system. But, some employees are always on the move. A unified communications solution will help roaming staff call from the company phone system using an internet-connected smartphone or laptop. These features are called WebRTC (or Virtual Phone) and Softphone.
3) A business wants to keep using fax, but wants to cut expenses on fax machine and paper
With unified communications, fax service is integrated to email. This feature is called virtual fax. So, sending and receiving fax can simply be done through the user’s mailbox. There is no fax machine needed and a fax message is only printed when required, from the email.
A good VoIP solution will provide all unified communications features to respond to every business need.
Unified communications as a service is the new trend
Cloud solutions offer a business flexibility because they can stream expenses for better control. If your customers have already adopted subscription-based services like email, productivity applications and online CRM platforms, there’s nothing to stop them from considering Unified Communications as a Service for their business phone needs.
Customers want to be free from heavy hardware costs and they’re willing to go to the cloud. So, why keep offering a solution that can only be deployed on-premises? If you’re willing to stay competitive and keep your business sustainable, you have to give your customers what they’re looking for. Failing to do so could spell the end of your business.
Today’s buyer is more aware than you think
Maybe you’ve been offering on-premises VoIP and you’re comfortable doing it. Are you planning to attract more clients? Or, do you have a plan to renew your current clients’ contracts? Even though things look good now, you can’t be sure they’ll stay that way.
Today’s buyer is a lot more savvy. Before they decide to make a purchase, most business owners will do a lot of research to compare your Unified Communications offering with others on the market. By the time they’re ready to buy, they’re well aware of their business phone options.
Be smart when adding unified communications as a service to your offering
You have to offer hosted VoIP because that’s what your customers want. But you also have to understand their expectations so you can choose the right UCaaS provider. Don’t choose a provider based on price alone.
Here’s what your business phone customers are expecting from a unified communications as a service provider (in no particular order of importance):
- Good voice quality
- Network integration
- Good pricing
- Mobility
- Flexible billing
- Interesting features
- Security
The post The Truth About Unified Communications and Why MSPs Can’t Ignore It appeared first on SherWeb.
Amazon Web Services opens second Chinese data centre region in collaboration with NWCD
It appears Amazon Web Services (AWS) is continuing a presence in China after all: the company has announced a strategic technology partnership with Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology (NWCD), opening a second data centre in China in the process.
The AWS China (Ningxia) region, which offers two availability zones at launch, complements the Beijing region Amazon already has. Like the Beijing region, which is operated by Sinnet, the Ningxia region will be operated by NWCD.
This curious relationship is further expanded in this statement from the press materials. “While the cloud services offered in both AWS China regions are the same as those available in other AWS regions, the AWS China regions are isolated from all other AWS regions and operated by AWS’s Chinese partners separately from all other AWS regions,” the company notes. “Customers using the AWS China regions enter into customer agreements with Sinnet in Beijing and NWCD in Ningxia, rather than with AWS.”
The reason behind this is due to various restrictions China puts on technology companies. As a CNBC report put it, Chinese firms “usually can fully own and control data centres and cloud-related services around the world without foreign equity restrictions or technology transfer requirements, but foreign cloud companies in China don’t enjoy the same environment.” In May, the country’s new cybersecurity law took effect, putting more pressure on organisations.
As an example of the former, last month Sinnet announced in a regulatory filing it was buying part of Amazon’s cloud business in China to help “comply with China’s laws”. The news forced AWS to deny it had sold up in the Asian country.
To give an idea of the cooperation involved, the press materials included a statement from He Jian, secretary of Zhongwei Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. “We have developed a close collaboration with AWS based on mutual trust, and are delighted that our region is now offering highly resilient, high performance data centres to enterprises across the nation,” said He.
“The second AWS region in China is part of AWS’s ongoing commitment to offer best in class cloud technologies to Chinese customers,” added AWS CEO Andy Jassy in a statement. According to the company, customers on board with the new region include Lenovo, Samsung Electronics and Xiaomi.
In October, analyst firm Synergy Research released a note which put more meat on the bones regarding the Chinese market. “The difference between China and all other countries is striking,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy, at the time. “The markets for cloud services and for data centre infrastructure are truly global in nature and in all regions they are dominated by US-headquartered companies, but China stands out as the one huge exception.
“Going forward, it is difficult to see US companies making too much headway in China, but there is no doubt that some of the Chinese companies will have an increasing impact in countries beyond China,” Dinsdale added.
[video] Actionable Network Intelligence with @Infoblox | @CloudExpo #DX #Cloud #DevOps
“Infoblox does DNS, DHCP and IP address management for not only enterprise networks but cloud networks as well. Customers are looking for a single platform that can extend not only in their private enterprise environment but private cloud, public cloud, tracking all the IP space and everything that is going on in that environment,” explained Steve Salo, Principal Systems Engineer at Infoblox, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 21st Cloud Expo, held Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Continuous Monitoring for Your Hybrid Cloud Systems | @CloudExpo #AWS #SaaS #Cloud
Cavirin Systems has just announced C2, a SaaS offering designed to bring continuous security assessment and remediation to hybrid environments, containers, and data centers. Cavirin C2 is deployed within Amazon Web Services (AWS) and features a flexible licensing model for easy scalability and clear pay-as-you-go pricing.
Although native to AWS, it also supports assessment and remediation of virtual or container instances within Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or on-premise. By drawing on a comprehensive library of curated industry guidelines, control frameworks, and best practices, Cavirin promises to keep a wary eye on your hybrid cloud security and help you harden it against real and potential threats.
[slides] Continuous Deep Learning for Visual Systems | @CloudExpo @CalSci #AI #ML #DL #Cloud
In his session at 21st Cloud Expo, James Henry, Co-CEO/CTO of Calgary Scientific Inc., introduced you to the challenges, solutions and benefits of training AI systems to solve visual problems with an emphasis on improving AIs with continuous training in the field. He explored applications in several industries and discussed technologies that allow the deployment of advanced visualization solutions to the cloud.
What Is an Enterprise Health Cloud? | @CloudExpo #Cloud #BigData #Analytics
Digital transformation has changed the way users interact with the world, and the traditional healthcare experience no longer meets rising consumer expectations. Enterprise Health Clouds (EHCs) are designed to easily and securely deliver the smart and engaging digital health experience that patients expect today, while ensuring the compliance and data integration that care providers require.
Jikku Venkat
[video] @AndiMann’s Data-Driven Decisions | @ClodExpo @Splunk #DevOps
DevOps promotes continuous improvement through a culture of collaboration. But in real terms, how do you: Integrate activities across diverse teams and services? Make objective decisions with system-wide visibility? Use feedback loops to enable learning and improvement?
With technology insights and real-world examples, in his general session at @DevOpsSummit, at 21st Cloud Expo, Andi Mann, Chief Technology Advocate at Splunk, explored how leading organizations use data-driven DevOps to close their feedback loops to drive continuous improvement.
Cisco to acquire Cmpute.io to help companies ease multi-cloud deployments
Cisco has announced its intention to acquire Cmpute.io to help organisations get the most out of their multi-cloud deployments.
The acquisition, which is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco’s 2018 fiscal year, was announced on Cisco’s blog, with Rob Salvagno, head of Cisco’s M&A and venture investment team, writing that the addition of Cmpute.io’s technology will “help customer optimise their cloud consumption to ensure optimal business value.”
Longer-term industry watchers may remember Cmpute.io in its previous life as Batch.ly. The company offers four paths to cloudy application optimisation; instance right sizing, putting instance types with the right application based on performance; cost and time saving; as well as availability, automatically balancing application workloads across instance categories.
This is by no means the first cloud-based buy made by Cisco this year. 2017 has seen the acquisition of SD-WAN provider Viptela, for $610 million back in May, while October saw $1.9 billion splashed out for cloud collaboration provider BroadSoft.
The importance of managing multi-cloud environments continue to be a hot button issue for organisations. A research study from BMC Software released last month found that for the majority of IT decision makers polled, current multi-cloud management approaches needed rethinking.
According to the research, cost optimisation was the most popular reason to go multi-cloud, ahead of increased agility and risk mitigation. “With a multi-cloud strategy, customers need to budget, buy, and consume differently,” added Salvagno.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Why the overall cloud opportunity moves far beyond the public cloud
If you want to appreciate the full extent of the cloud computing phenomena, then you need to comprehend the ongoing impact to the IT ecosystem. It's been fueled by a disruptive series of innovations that have enabled software developers to accelerate the speed of digital transformation.
The cloud delivery and consumption model has revolutionized the entire IT industry. But the cloud opportunity extends well beyond the public cloud – which makes up less than half of all cloud-related spending today – and includes private and hybrid clouds, as well as managed cloud services, cloud-related professional services, and hardware and software infrastructure for building clouds.
Cloud computing market development
In its first forecast of the 'whole cloud' opportunity, International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that worldwide whole cloud revenues will reach $554 billion in 2021 – that's more than double those of 2016.
"The most obvious takeaway from this forecast is that the shift to the cloud consumption model – in all its forms – is a mass movement, and will continue to be such over the forecast period," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC.
The past few years have produced a steady stream of innovative new services introduced by the major public cloud service providers, including blockchain services, IoT back-end data services, encryption services, serverless computing services, and even new computing hardware services.
IDC expects the pace of innovation on public clouds to continue and, more likely, to accelerate. Similarly, IDC expects to see a steady expansion of enterprise workloads on the cloud as cloud service providers and their partners focus on new deployment scenarios for these workloads.
Despite lingering concerns about security, vendor and technology lock-in, and interoperability, IDC believes that cloud computing will continue to dominate and transform enterprise computing for years to come.
Key highlights from the IDC forecast include:
In 2016, public cloud services accounted for 41 percent of all cloud-related spending. By 2021, this figure will increase to 48 percent. And, when spending on hardware and software that enables public cloud services, and managed and professional services around the cloud are included, these figures rise to 65 percent and 68 percent, respectively.
Spending on managed and professional services around cloud adoption are, collectively, the second largest opportunity in the whole cloud market, accounting for 31 percent of all cloud-related spending in 2016 and 2021.
The hyperscale datacenters operated by cloud service providers are dramatically altering the market for infrastructure hardware and software. By 2021, cloud service providers will account for 76 percent of cloud-related infrastructure hardware and software spending.