Re-host, re-platform or replace: Which public cloud approach is right for your business?

Digital transformation continues to create opportunities for UK businesses. As uncertainty remains the mood of Britain, companies are prioritising transformation programmes to ensure continued growth. Many see digital transformation as key to becoming more competitive and a necessity to keep up with a rapidly changing business environment, and for many the cloud is critical to its success.

For years, CIOs have been caught in an 80/20 IT spending trap: 80% of the budget going to ongoing support, leaving only 20% for new initiatives. Cloud users on the other hand only allocate about 69% to ongoing support, opening up 31% of budget for innovation. The understanding of what can be achieved with the extra budget for innovation and alignment between the CEO and CIO is crucial for firms to fully embrace the cloud and its potential.

To help inform CIOs on their cloud strategies, I will address the four of the six Rs for public cloud adoption – rehost, re-platform, re-factor and replace – as there is a great deal of clarity to be gained from an intricate look at each of these migration strategies.

The additional Rs – remain and retire – are not detailed below. While they are integral to the decision-making process, they do not strictly require migration as an action. A company will come across these options if:

  • There is no business justification to migrate applications to the cloud (remain)
  • Applications that are duplicated or redundant require turning off (retire)

The methods outlined below will provide guidance on which strategy will be the most appropriate for your company’s individual business needs.

Rehost – the “lift and shift”

In a typical scenario, the first step is Rehosting. This method involves minimal risk and effort for moving traditional data centre workloads to the cloud. Rehosting entails the as-is move of existing applications and services that may be running on bare metal or virtual machines in a traditional data centre, to virtual machines running on the cloud. This move may also involve the virtualisation of the existing environment into containers beforehand, or as part of the migration to the cloud activities.

Primarily rehosting dramatically reduce infrastructure and operating costs. Using this method of cloud migration organisations will find that applications are easier to re-architect. This will benefit the organisation long-term as it will encourage a cloud-first approach for the company and develop skills within the business.

Re-platform, re-factor, replace

Due to the similarities in the nature of the transformation we’ll next consider these migration methods as one group.

Re-platforming provides some immediate, modest cloud benefits without much risk. The strategy involves making a few cloud optimisations during migration. Common cloud services such as load balancers that can be leveraged during migration to reduce the number of virtual machines, configurations and operational processes to be migrated without changing the existing application. Making some cloud-friendly modifications to the application during migration makes it possible to reduce the risks by avoiding migrating fragile scripts and configurations to the cloud.

Re-factoring is a method of transforming a non-cloud application into a cloud-native application. Cloud-first migration strategy alters everything about the application: the components, the application code and the data itself. This strategy is driven by a businesses’ need to add features, scale, or performance that would otherwise be difficult to achieve in the existing environment.

Although this is certainly the most expensive option for cloud migration, if organisations are looking to boost agility and improve business continuity this strategy would be most beneficial for long-term.

Replacing can be the most simple and safest method of running services in the cloud. Migrating through vendor applications such as AWS Marketplace, businesses can avoid much of the effort involved in setting up in the cloud.

For example, enterprises can refresh their application stack smoothly by replacing software through cloud procurement frameworks such as AWS Marketplace.

Whilst there are a number of risks associated with the Replacing method, it offers a business the most opportunity to mix and integrate components that have been migrated via another method. Such risks include mismatching the re-configuration of the new service, onboarding of procurement team on procedures for buying applications.

The benefits of cloud

Choosing the right migration strategy can help your business reap the benefits of the cloud. While the business case benefits of an initial “lift and shift” rehosting can deliver OPEX and long-term infrastructure ownership savings, the additional steps can deliver even bigger benefits.

Re-platforming, refactoring and replacing will improve the cloud-nativeness of IT environments, achieving further and potentially the full business case benefits of OPEX and CAPEX through automation. In turn, this approach will enhance the ability for timely innovation through the use of native services at minimum cost and effort.

Taking the decision to move applications or entire services to the cloud can be a bold step change to a company. However, a cloud-enabled business model is the stand-out way for a business to innovate and discover new opportunities. It is an incredibly exciting time when a company decides that it plans to migrate to the cloud. Each businesses’ cloud strategy is unique to them but follow the same set of principles. Each cloud migration journey presents itself as a business development opportunity for each company to expand and develop, constantly evolving and advancing its business.

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Enterprises rethinking their Oracle relationships, argues Rimini Street

The majority of Oracle customers are 'currently or actively planning to reduce their spend' with the software giant citing cost, maintenance, and aggressive sales tactics, according to a new report.

The study, published by enterprise software support firm Rimini Street and titled 'Why Enterprises are Rethinking Their Oracle Relationship and Cloud Strategy', explored respondents' relationships with Oracle as well as appetite for its SaaS offerings.

More than three in five (61%) of those polled said the high cost of software and features was a key roadblock for their Oracle usage, while 58% cited the high cost of annual maintenance and support and 21% bemoaned Oracle's aggressive sales tactics and audits. 

Meanwhile, of those who are planning to move to Oracle's infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings, 70% have opted to move to competitors Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, according to the report. Four in five (80%) said they were either unsure or were not interested in Oracle's SaaS capabilities, with more than half (53%) of these saying their current applications met business needs and that there was 'no justifiable business case.'

This makes for interesting reading – but it needs to have the appropriate context. Rimini Street's raison d'etre is to offer third-party support for customers looking to navigate the entangled world of enterprise software, whether it is Oracle, SAP, or Salesforce. Over the better part of a decade, however, the company has been involved in a legal wrangle with Oracle around copyright infringement. In March, the Supreme Court ordered Oracle to pay back $12.8 million to Rimini Street, with the latter having had to pay almost $100m in a ruling back in 2016.

"Don't be fooled by third-party support providers like Rimini Street," Oracle's dedicated page reads. "Your business deserves an innovative, long-term IT roadmap, with critical software security patches. Get the protection you need with Oracle's trusted, secure, and comprehensive support."

It is also worth exploring this in the context of market share. Oracle's predominant marketing message over the past year has been around its autonomous database. The company's events frequently focus on comparing against AWS and, in terms of infrastructure, Oracle continues to sit well behind the top three players. Yet the company still has many top-tier clients, including, for a long time, AWS. In November AWS CEO Andy Jassy took to Twitter to note his company was stepping up its move off Oracle's data warehousing suite.

"Oracle licensees are feeling empowered to execute on their own business-driven roadmap for the future that is guided by what their business requires, rather than based on where the vendor wants them to go," said Seth A. Ravin, CEO of Rimini Street in a statement. "By choosing Rimini Street's premium level support, our clients are able to focus more time, budget and resources on driving business transformation and competitive advantage versus being held back by the ongoing costs and resource requirements of a vendor-dictated roadmap."

You can read the full report here (email required).

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Microsoft unveils preset services for AI and Blockchain


Bobby Hellard

3 May, 2019

Microsoft has announced a slew of developer technologies and services for Azure ahead of next week’s Build conference in Seattle.

The company will roll out preset services for AI, IoT, mixed reality and blockchain with the aim of putting advanced capabilities into the hands of developers.

“It’s an incredible time to be a developer,” said Scott Guthrie, executive VP at Microsoft’s cloud and AI group. “From building AI and mixed reality into apps to leveraging blockchain for solving commercial business problems, developers skillsets and impact are growing rapidly.”

“Today we’re delivering innovative Azure services for developers to build the next generation of apps. With 95% of Fortune 500 customers running on Azure, these innovations can have a far-reaching impact.”

The Azure services start with a set of AI technology packages aimed to help developers and data scientists apply AI to any workload. There’s a new service being launched for Azure Cognitive Services called “decision”. It delivers users a specific recommendation for more informed and efficient decision-making.

This category includes Content Moderator, the recently announced anomaly detector, and a new service called “Personaliser”, which uses reinforcement learning to provide users with a specific recommendation to enable quick and informed decision-making.

AI is also being added to Azure Search with the general availability of the cognitive search capability. Microsoft said this will enable customers to apply Cognitive Services algorithms to extract new insights from their structured and unstructured content. On top of this, there is a new capability to store AI insights gained from cognitive search to make it easier to create visualisation or machine learning models.

Machine learning services have also been tweaked with an Azure DevOps integration, automated advancements and a visual machine learning interface that provides a “no-code” model creation and deployment service with drag-and-drop capabilities.

Last year Microsoft announced Azure Blockchain Workbench, which is a UI for developers to create blockchain application on a preconfigured Azure-supported network. Adding to that, the company is launching Azure Blockchain Service which is a fully managed consortium network that offers built-in governance for common management tasks, such as adding new members, setting permissions and authenticating user applications. This follows the announcement that JP Morgan’s Ethereum platform, Quorum, will be the first ledger available in Azure Blockchain Service.

While it sounds great, there’s also a touch of déjà vu about it; in April, Google announced very similar preset AI services for developers, which itself, followed Amazon Web Services launching similar at AWS Re:invent in November. AWS also announced blockchain services back in November.

While Microsoft is still far behind AWS, the biggest cloud company around, it is one of the fastest growing cloud providers; recently the company reached the $1 trillion mark thanks in part to its cloud growth.

Looking to further that growth the company also announced services to address emerging markets such as hybrid cloud and edge computing. These include an Azure SQL Database Edge, which is an engine optimised for lower compute requirements with built-in AI. There was also IoT Plug and Play, a service to connect IoT device to the cloud to deploy them at scale.

For mixed-reality development, the company is making it easier to create for HoloLens 2 with a HoloLens 2 Developer bundle, which provides the community of mixed- reality developers with access to tools to help them build and run mixed-reality experiences across a range of devices.

AWS announces availability of Amazon Managed Blockchain service

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the market availability of its Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) service, which is designed to help companies develop and manage scalable blockchain networks.

The platform extends its support to thousands of applications and millions of transactions via open source frameworks, such as Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. Those intending to permit multiple parties to perform transactions and maintain a cryptographically verifiable record of them without the need for a trusted, central authority can easily setup a blockchain network across multiple AWS accounts with the help of AWS Management Console.

Rahul Pathak, general manager, Amazon Managed Blockchain at AWS, said: “Customers want to use blockchain frameworks like Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum to create blockchain networks so they can conduct business quickly, with an immutable record of transactions, but without the need for a centralised authority. However, they find these frameworks difficult to install, configure, and manage.

"Amazon Managed Blockchain takes care of provisioning nodes, setting up the network, managing certificates and security, and scaling the network," Pathak added. "Customers can now get a functioning blockchain network set up quickly and easily, so they can focus on application development instead of keeping a blockchain network up and running.”

Last month, VMware announced its integration with Digital Asset, which operates the open source DAML language to construct smart contracts. As part of this collaboration, VMware is integrating the DAML with its VMware Blockchain platform. In 2018, VMware introduced its first, own blockchain project called Project Concord at the VMworld event.

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5 reasons you should attend the UK Cloud Summit

2 May, 2019

It’s now less than a month until the UK Cloud Summit takes place in London so if you haven’t already registered for the event, now is the time to sign up.

This two-day event is a must-attend for those looking to find out how to start driving or continue to drive business success using cloud and related technologies. 

“Discover new, disruptive technologies fuelled by the cloud (Infinite Possibilities), explore ways that they can benefit from category leading cloud solutions (Infinite Ecosystems), and grasp the challenges of transforming their business in the digital economy (Infinite Growth),” said Scott Murphy, director of cloud and advanced solutions and Ingram Micro in the UK and Ireland.

“You’ll learn about the extraordinary shift that’s taking the channel in a bold, new direction. Where the unknown becomes known. Where your business can leap forward in cloud enablement, and where the infinite potential becomes infinite reality.”

So, if you’re still thinking about attending the summit – which takes place on 21 and 22 May at the Landmark Hotel in London – here are some compelling reasons to attend:

1)Hot topics discussed and debated

There’s even more to talk about now the summit is in its third year. That’s why we’re pleased to have the event running across two days rather than one.  By expanding the duration, it means we can do even more topics justice.

Indeed, there are 18 sessions across the two days, with three learning tracks – Infinite Possibilities, Infinite Ecosystem and Infinite Growth – so that we really can quench your thirst for knowledge.

There will be plenty of talk, as well as answers to questions around cloud generally, AI, analytics, BI, blockchain, cyber security, IaaS, IoT, SaaS, XaaS and more.

2)Feast on more than just information

While we know the main reason you would want to attend the summit is to feed your hunger for knowledge, we also know how important it is to relax in between the two days.

It’s also important we take time to reflect as individuals and as an industry collective on our achievements and successes.

That’s why, this year, we will be hosting a luxury gala dinner in the spectacular Grand Ballroom. In addition to a delicious dinner in a fantastic setting, we will also host our first partner awards and recognition ceremony.

3)Myths debunked

The world of technology innovation moves at a rapid pace and it can be very easy to get swept along in the sea of hype. But jumping on the next big thing for the sake of it rather than with a reasoned business case can be a very dangerous thing indeed for businesses.

That’s why, in addition to talking about myriad of benefits on offer, we will also be talking honestly about the challenges and how you can best overcome them or navigate your way away from them altogether.

4)Networking opportunities galore

More than 350 like-minded individuals will be attending the event. That’s a fantastic opportunity to network, exchange ideas and opinions and bounce ideas off of one another.

It’s very often the connections made through networking opportunities like this that really give you the insight and additional support you need to drive your business into its next phase of success.

5)World-class speakers

This year’s event is hosted by Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF). He’ll be joined by some really engaging keynote speakers who will all give their perspective on the world of cloud. That’s in addition to some really enticing breakout sessions that offer deeper dives on certain subjects.

Nimesh Davé, executive vice president of global cloud at Ingram Micro will be joined by other industry luminaries such as:

  • Alexis Conran, TV presenter and former conman, best known for presenting The Real Hustle
  • James Chadwick, director of channel sales at Microsoft
  • Ronan McCurtin, vice president of northern Europe at Acronis
  • Richard Agnew, vice president of EMEA at Code42
  • Tim Britt, head of UK channel at Dropbox Business
  • Scott Murphy, director of cloud and advanced solutions at Ingram Micro
  • Leigh Schvartz, head of cloud and MSP offerings at Fujitsu

 

Google to offer ‘auto-delete’ for web tracking history


Bobby Hellard

2 May, 2019

Google has said it will offer its users an option to automatically delete their search and location history after three months.

The company already allows users to manually delete data from products such as YouTube, Maps and Search, but it will soon provide a tool that automatically deletes it after a minimum of three months.

Users will be able to increase the time range to 18 months and any data older than that will be automatically deleted from their accounts on an ongoing basis. These controls will be for location history and web and app activity and will be available “in the coming weeks” according to Google.

“We work to keep your data private and secure and we’ve heard your feedback that we need to provide simpler ways for you to manage or delete it,” Google said on its blog.

These new data management tools comes a day after both Microsoft and Facebook announced features for users to have greater control over their personal data. It highlights a growing trend of companies that offer digital services making an effort to show responsibility with data privacy.

But, as many will point out, these same companies have come under greater scrutiny recently for the way they collect and use personal data. From data breaches to violations of their own data privacy policies, each company has a large rap sheet when it comes to vague terms and conditions or the collection of data without user knowledge.

In August, Google claimed that Chrome’s incognito feature allowed users to browse privately, but a study from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, found that the company could still monitor and record the sites a user visited.

When it comes to controversial data policies, however, Google isn’t the worst offender. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed the extent of Facebook’s improper data sharing policy, the company has gone from one data related issue to the next.

Currently, the social network is under investigation from the Irish Data Protection Commission, the US FTC and has already been fined £500,000 by the ICO – which it has appealed.

Microsoft introduces native VMware support for Azure


Adam Shepherd

30 Apr, 2019

VMware has expanded its presence in the public cloud, with the news that Microsoft will be introducing native support for VMware workloads to Azure.

The announcement was made at Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who took to the main stage alongside VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and Dell Technologies CEO and founder Michael Dell.

“In my close to 30 years of working in technology, I’ve never seen a trend like digital transformation,” Nadella told attendees. “It’s just phenomenal to see that and what is fueling that, or what is needed in order to fuel that is great infrastructure; the flexibility with which people can get at the infrastructure, the compute that is needed, the storage that’s needed, the networking capabilities that are needed in order to drive that business forward.

“And so I’m really thrilled and pleased to announce the availability of Azure VMware solutions, which brings all of the VMware capabilities natively to Azure and to Azure customers so that every customer has that infrastructure: the best of VMware, as well as the best of Azure.”

Azure VMware Solutions will allow customers to run VMware workloads in native environments, utilising VMware tools like vSphere, vSAN, vCenter and NSX. These workloads can be ported directly over to Azure with no refactoring necessary, enabling organisations to cut down on migration and deployment time.

Built using VMware Cloud Foundation, the Azure VMware Solutions have been developed in partnership with CloudSimple and Dell subsidiary Virtustream, but will be sold by Microsoft as a first-party product.

The announcement marks a turning point in the so-called ‘hypervisor wars’ between VMware and Microsoft’s competing virtualisation product, Hyper-V, indicating that Microsoft may have abandoned its ambition to make Hyper-V a sizeable player in the industry.

“It’s interesting because I’m sure Microsoft would have liked the world to be Hyper-V,” said Phil Mogavero, the vice president of HDC partnerships for channel vendor PCM. “Some of it will be Hyper V but I think for VMware really to be truly legitimate, it has to be on Azure. And I think for Microsoft to truly be legitimate it’s got to have VMware vSphere capability within Azure. So I think it’s a good move.”

It also means that Google Cloud Platform is now the only one of the major public cloud providers that does not support VMware, following the introduction of VMware on Azure a number of years ago.

In addition to Azure VMware Solutions, the three companies also announced further integrations across various products. For example, VMware’s Workspace One platform will now integrate with Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory, allowing customers to manage their Microsoft 356 and Office 365 deployments with Workspace One. Similarly, Microsoft’s recently-announced Windows Virtual Desktop platform will also be supported by VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure, with early previews expected by the end of the year. VMware and Microsoft are also reportedly working on more general integrations, such as between Azure Networking and VMware NSX.