​Slack, Facebook, and Microsoft have all advised their employees to work remotely following the spread of the coronavirus to the west coast of the United States.

The request comes after Google sent home most of its 8,000 staff in Dublin after an employee showed flu-like symptoms on Monday. Meanwhile, Amazon has reportedly asked its employees to test their VPNs to ensure that they would manage the possibility of working remotely on a massive scale.

In a statement to their staff, Slack’s senior vice president of people Robby Kwok announced that the company would be shutting down their San Francisco offices until Monday.

“On March 5, we learned that a San Francisco-based Slack employee was notified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they were in an area with potential COVID-19 exposure while traveling overseas,” he said.

Although the staff member was not confirmed to be suffering from the coronavirus, the company announced that they would be closing the premises for deep cleaning and urged employees to work from home on Friday.

Facebook and Microsoft have also instructed their San Francisco Bay and Seattle area staff to work from home. Microsoft announced in a statement that two of its employees in Puget Sound were diagnosed with COVID-19.

Earlier this week, the UK government revealed in its report that, due to the coronavirus, it expects up to a fifth of the UK workforce to be off on sick leave at the same time.

The shutdown means that the tech industry’s labour force is working from home on an unprecedented scale. While last year’s CIPD Job Quality Index reported that 54% of the UK’s workforce works flexibly, in the face of recent developments, that number is now expected to increase significantly.

Organisations across the world are now having to face the very real prospect of office closures, forcing the entirety of their staff to work remotely. As such, many companies will need to ensure that their staff are able to access systems from home, including ensuring that all relevant employees have virtual private networks installed and that they can access company intranets.

Hard disk manufacturer Western Digital has appointed David Goeckeler to serve as its new CEO after its former chief Steve Milligan announced his intention to retire late last year.

Goeckeler will leave networking giant Cisco to join the firm as its new leader, having served as executive vice president and general manager for its networking and security business. This division has been valued at $34 billion.

One of his last actions with Cisco was overseeing the release of smart troubleshooting functionality for monitoring applications in January, at the firm’s flagship Cisco Live event.

Western Digital’s former CEO announced he was retiring in October having been with the firm since 2002 and having occupied a leadership role since 2013. He also occupied senior roles with Hitachi from 2007, before rejoining Western Digital in 2012 when it acquired the company.

​Migrating office IT infrastructure to the cloud is an increasingly popular choice for SMEs keen to save on in-house hardware. However, the old office phone system is still there, squatting like a toad in a corner of the comms room, or bolted to the office wall like a brutalist homage to greyish-blue plastic.

This tutorial will show you how to get rid of your old PBX and deploy an open source VoIP solution on the cloud platform of your choice, using Ubuntu 18.04, Asterisk 13, and FreePBX 14.

The first thing you need to do is choose a cloud provider, and set up a virtual network there. If you’ve already migrated some of your IT infrastructure to the cloud, you probably already have this in place, but if not, you’ll need to set it up before starting this tutorial. We used Azure, which is reflected in our screenshots. However, these instructions are platform-agnostic.

Access to this virtual network can be either via a site-to-site VPN from your office to the virtual network via your cloud provider’s VPN service, or directly to the public IP of the new PBX server. Either way, your office internet connection will need to have a static IP address.In this tutorial, we’ll be connecting directly to the public IP of the PBX. VPN users will need to adjust the SIP NAT settings accordingly.

With a virtual network prepared, we can start building a cloud PBX.

Step 1: Deploy Cloud VM

Deploy an Ubuntu 18.04 virtual machine with a single NIC connected to that virtual network. If you generate new access keys for this deployment, make sure to save them somewhere safe, and document their location and pass phrase, as well as the username needed to log in. Via your cloud provider’s management console, assign it a static public IP address and set up a security group associated with this IP address. The default rules in the security group will block direct access to the server from the internet.

Even if your office phones will access this PBX via a VPN, it’ll still need a public IP address in order to communicate with the trunk provider. We’ll cover setting up a trunk later in this tutorial. For now, add an access rule to the security group allowing connections from your office IP address on TCP ports 22, 80 and 443.

Step 2: Install dependencies

Log in to your new virtual machine as a normal user – not as root, even if your cloud provider allows it – via ssh, and run the following commands to update it and install some required software and dependencies.

sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade -y sudo apt install tasksel -y sudo tasksel install lamp-server sudo apt install sox mpg123 ffmpeg lame mongodb -y

FreePBX version 14 and earlier are built for php5.6 and do not support the newer php7 that Ubuntu 18.04 ships with. To get it working, we need to add the php5.6 repository and install php5.6. Run the following commands to add the repository and install and enable php5.6 on the PBX.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php < /dev/null sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade -y sudo apt install php5.6 php5.6-cgi php5.6-cli php5.6-curl php5.6-fpm php5.6-gd -y sudo apt install  php5.6-mbstring   php5.6-mysql php5.6-odbc php-xml -y sudo apt install php5.6-xml php5.6-bcmath php-pear libapache2-mod-php5.6 -y sudo a2dismod php7.2 sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif php5.6 sudo a2enconf php5.6-fpm sudo update-alternatives –set php /usr/bin/php5.6 sudo update-alternatives –set phar /usr/bin/phar5.6 sudo update-alternatives –set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar5.6 sudo sed -i ‘s/www-data/asterisk/’ /etc/php/5.6/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

Next, we’ll add the official node.js repository and install node.js from there. While node.js is available from the standard Ubuntu repositories, a more up-to-date version is required for FreePBX.

sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash – sudo apt update sudo apt install nodejs -y

Step 3: Add a swap file (optional)

Whilst some people would argue that you no longer need a swap file, Linux is generally happier with one and Asterisk will warn you that it’s missing every time you log in.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/swapfile bs=1M count=2048 sudo chmod 0600 /var/swapfile sudo mkswap /var/swapfile sudo swapon /var/swapfile sudo echo /var/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0 >>/etc/fsta

Step 4: Install Asterisk

Install the Asterisk VoIP PBX package. By default this will also install the sound files for English, but if you need other languages you’ll have to install those separately. As an example, we’ll add French as well. To keep things simple, we’re using the version from the default Ubuntu repository, rather than using a third party repo to get a newer version.

sudo apt install asterisk -y sudo apt install asterisk-core-sounds-fr -y

Step 5: Configure Apache

To configure the PBX, we’ll install the FreePBX web GUI. We’ll be using version 14 of FreePBX. However, before we can do that we need to change a few Apache settings. Run the following commands to setup Apache for FreePBX:

sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo sed -i ‘s/\(^upload_max_filesize = \).*/\120M/’ /etc/php/5.6/cgi/php.ini sudo sed -i ‘s/www-data/asterisk/’ /etc/apache2/envvars

Now open /etc/apache2/apache2.conf in your preferred text editor and go to line 170. Remember to use sudo to edit this file as root. We need to change the override permissions for the webserver root directory so that FreePBX can use rewrite statements in htaccess files without causing errors. Find the section that looks like this:

<Directory /var/www/>         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks         AllowOverride None         Require all granted </Directory>

Change the AllowOverride value from None to All, so that it looks like this:

<Directory /var/www/>         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks         AllowOverride All         Require all granted </Directory>

Now restart Apache and PHP with the following commands:

sudo service apache2 restart sudo service php5.6-fpm restart

Step 6: Download and install FreePBX

We’ll be using the latest release of FreePBX version 14. Download and unpack it:

cd ~ wget http://mirror.freepbx.org/modules/packages/freepbx/freepbx-14.0-latest.tgz tar xvzf freepbx-14.0-latest.tgz

This will place the FreePBX installer into a directory in your home folder called “freepbx”. Go to this directory and install FreePBX by running the following commands. You can safely ignore the PHP warning it generates. The installer will ask you to provide multiple responses relating to install locations and database setup. Just press enter each time to accept the default value.

cd ~/freepbx sudo ./install sudo rm /var/www/html/index.html

That last command removes the default index file that was installed with Apache. This is no longer needed as the FreePDX package provides its own PHP-based index file.

Step 7: Initial setup

For most of the remaining steps, we move away from the command line, and configure the system using the FreePBX web front end. Open your preferred web browser, and go to the public IP address of your new PBX.

You’ll be presented with the initial setup screen, as shown below. Enter an admin username, password and email address, and make a note of the username and password somewhere secure. It’s also a good idea to set the system identifier to the same value as the hostname you chose for the virtual machine. This avoids any confusion that might arise from the PBX having a different name at command line than it does when using the web interface. Finally, click on the Submit button in the bottom right to close this screen.

Step 8: First login and module configuration

Once you’ve completed the initial setup process, you’ll be taken to the login screen. Click on FreePBX Administration and log in using the admin username and password you chose earlier. As this is your first login, you’ll be asked to set the system locale and timezone. Set them to the correct values, and click on the submit button.

Once this is done, you’ll be taken to the system dashboard. This is the landing page when you login to the interface, and presents you with information about the current system state.

Along the top of the page are various drop-down menus for administering the system. Note the Apply Config button at the top right. This is used to commit and activate changes made in the web interface to the PBX. It’s only shown when there are uncommitted changes. Don’t click on it yet.

The first thing to do is to update the FreePBX modules. Mouse over the Admin menu at the top left, then select Module Admin from the menu. Click on Check Online to populate the list and see if there are any new module updates available. Once it’s finished, click on the Upgrade All button on the right, above the module list. This flags all modules with available updates ready for upgrading.

Towards the top left of the module update page is a list of repositories. We will only be using the pre-selected standard repository, not the extended or unsupported ones.

Now click on the process button towards the top right. On the next page, click Confirm and wait for the modules to be updated. Once the process completes, click on the Return button at the bottom right corner of the progress box that popped up when you confirmed the upgrade. This will take you back to the module admin page.

Step 9: Basic module installation

The default installation of FreePBX only comes with the core modules. For a basic office PBX, we’ll need to install a few more to set up some standard office features. From the list of modules available, select the following and click on the Download and Install button.

From the Admin section, select the Backup and Restore module From the Applications section, select the Ring Groups and Calendar module From the Reports section, select the Call Event Logging module

With those four selected, click the Process button, and confirm the install on the next page. Once complete, click on return to close the status window and go back to the module admin page one more time. Click on Check Online again, then install the Time Conditions module from the Applications section in the same way you did the previous modules.

Step 10: Advanced settings menu

Mouse over Settings at the right-hand end of the menu bar, then select Advanced Settings from the drop-down menu. Scroll down to Dialplan and Operational. Locate the Country Indication Tones setting and set it to the correct value for your country. Then scroll down a little way, still within this section, and locate the SIP Channel Driver setting. Set this to “chan_sip”. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Submit.

Next, mouseover the Settings menu again and select Asterisk SIP Settings from the menu. On the General SIP Settings tab, locate the NAT Settings section and click on the Detect Network Settings button to automatically fill in the correct NAT settings.

If you are connecting to the PBX via a VPN from your office to the cloud network, then you will need to add your office IP ranges to the list of local networks here.

Next, click on the Chan SIP Settings tab. At the top of the options, set NAT to yes, then scroll down the page until you reach the Advanced General Settings section. Set the Bind Port value to 5060 and the TLS Bind Port value to 5061. Scroll down to the bottom and click Submit in the bottom right.

Step 11: Adding extensions and a ring group

Next, we need to set up some extensions. We’re going to use SIP, the most common extension type used for both VoIP desk phones and softphones. Mouse over the Applications menu and select Extensions from the drop-down. Click on the Add Extension button and select New Chan_SIP Extension.

Enter a number and display name for the new extension, and make a note of the extension number along with the “Secret” value. You’ll need these, as well as the IP address of the PBX, to configure your phones. You can leave the Outbound CID value blank as, in this case, it’ll be set by the trunk when we configure it later.

Next, click on the Voicemail tab, enable voicemail and set a password. Voicemail is optional, but it’s useful to have at least one extension with it enabled as a failover destination for unanswered incoming calls.

Now go to the Advanced tab, locate the NAT Mode option and set it to “Yes – (force_rport,comedia)”. Finally, click the Submit button at the bottom right. Repeat this process for each new extension number you need to add to your system. We used three digit extension numbers, but you can use any length you wish.

Those of you using a site-to-site VPN to access the PBX will instead want to set the NAT mode for your extensions to “No – (no)” instead.

With that done, click on the Apply Config button at the top right, and wait until the “Reloading” message disappears before continuing below.

Go back to the Applications menu and select Ring Groups from the drop-down. Click on Add Ring Group. On the next page, the main details you need to fill in are the ring group number, the group description, and the extension list. Extensions can be easily added to the list using the User Quick Select drop-down to the right of the Extension List box.

It’s best to use a different length number for ring groups than for extensions, as it clearly distinguishes them for the users. We’ll use four digit numbers for out ring groups, but you can use however many digits you want.

Lastly, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on the “Destination if no answer” box. Select Voicemail from the list of options, and choose which extension’s voicemail box unanswered calls should go to.

Step 12: Add a trunk and outbound route

In order to make and receive calls, the PBX will need a trunk. VoIP trunks are available from many different providers. Which one is best for you will depend on your requirements and budget.

Mouse over the Connectivity menu, and select Trunks from the drop-down menu. Click Add Trunk and select the correct type to match your VoIP trunk provider’s offering. In this case we will be using a SIP trunk, as those are the most common type.

Under the General tab of the Add Trunk page, choose a name for your trunk. If you plan on having multiple trunks from different VoIP providers, it helps to name each trunk after its provider. Set the Outbound CallerID and Maximum Channels values as per the values supplied by your trunk provider.

Next, click on the SIP Setting tab and input the details provided by your VoIP trunk provider. For the inbound and outbound trunk names, we used the trunk name we provided on the general tab, with “_in” and “_out” appended.

Next, we need to add an outbound route for making calls outside of the PBX. We’re using the traditional prefix method, in this case prefixing a number with a ‘9’ to get an outside line. You can alternatively program the PBX to determine whether a number is internal or external based on matching the pattern of the number, but that’s more complicated, as you have to know all the possible number patterns that your users might dial.

Mouse over Connectivity on the menu bar and select Outbound Routes from the drop-down menu. Click on Add Outbound Route. On the Route Settings tab, give the route a name and select the trunk you just created from the drop-down list for Trunk Sequence for Matched Routes.

Next, click on the Dial Patterns tab and fill in the dial pattern. Set the prefix to ‘9’ and put a full stop in the “match pattern” box. This will match any number you dial that starts with a ‘9’, and strip that leading ‘9’ off. So to call 0343 222 1234 – an outside line – you would actually dial 90343 222 1234. Finally click on Submit at the bottom right.

Step 13: Add outbound routes to emergency services

All phone systems must be able to make emergency calls and prioritise them over normal calls. To do this, a special emergency outbound route is created.

Once again, mouse over Connectivity on the menu bar, select Outbound Routes from the menu, then click on Add Outbound Route. On the Route Settings tab, give the route a name like “Emergency” or “999”, set the Route CID to your geographic phone number, as provided by your VoIP provider, and set the route type to “Emergency”.

This last step gives calls to emergency services priority over other routes. In the event that all channels are in use when someone places an emergency call, the PBX will drop another call in order to free up a channel for the emergency call. Set the Route Position to first, above your normal outbound route.

Next, click on the Dial Patterns tab and set the values shown in the image below. These will recognise calls to 999 and 112, with or without the outside line prefix.

Step 14: Adding inbound routes

To receive calls from outside, an inbound route must be defined. This tells the PBX where to route incoming calls based on the number called (referred to as DID) and the caller ID (CID).

Mouse over Connectivity on the menu bar and select Inbound Routes from the menu. Click on Add Inbound Route. On the General tab, enter your main office phone number in the DID Number box, without any spaces. Enter it in the same format that your VoIP provider used when they gave it to you. Add a description for this inbound route in the box provided at the top of the section. At the bottom of the section, set the destination to the ring group we created earlier, then click the Submit button at the bottom right.

Click on the Apply Changes button at the top right to commit the new configuration entries to the PBX.

Step 15: Add cloud firewall rules for your phones and trunk provider

In order for the phones and the VoIP trunk provider to communicate with the PBX, we will need to add some access rules to the cloud provider’s firewall settings for this virtual machine.

You need to open ports 5060-5061 and 10000-20000 for both TCP and UDP protocols from the IP addresses of your trunk provider and your office. This rule will allow the phones and the trunk provider to communicate with the PBX properly. Refer to your cloud provider’s documentation for details on how to configure the firewall.

Capacity and costs

Your VM requirements, and therefore your costs, for the cloud PBX will depend entirely on your requirements. A basic PBX for an office with only a few staff won’t need much in the way of resources, and could run happily on a low-power virtual machine with a single core and 2GB RAM.

However, if you have several hundred users making a large number of simultaneous calls, then you’ll need a significantly more powerful virtual machine with much more memory. Likewise, site-to-site VPNs vary in price depending on your requirements.

Don’t choose a larger virtual machine than you actually need, and don’t use the site to site VPN features unless you really need them. Only provision what you actually require, and you’ll keep your costs to a minimum.

Please could you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do?

I am a lifelong technologist with a global perspective, having worked for 30 years in multiple roles for enterprise IT teams, as a leading industry analyst, and with several software vendors across Europe, US, and Asia-Pacific.

Currently, I work at Splunk as a strategic advisor, learning from research, customers, thought leaders, so I can advocate and lead innovative product development internally; and advocate and advise customers and others externally at conferences, in journals, and directly with technology and business leaders.

How would you describe the UK Cloud Awards in a nutshell?

Best in show! The UK Cloud Awards offer a revealing look at how IT is driving UK businesses forward and recognises ‘the best of the best’ in excellence and innovation.

What appealed to you about becoming a judge for this year’s UK Cloud Awards?

As a newbie to the UK Cloud Awards, I was particularly excited just to learn from all the entrants, and see the innovation and expertise they are bringing to the industry.

Beyond that, I was also attracted by the opportunity to leverage my own experience and expertise in cloud, digital, automation, and more to help recognise modern leaders who are making a difference to how businesses benefit from technology.

What are you most looking forward to about being involved in this year’s awards?

Without a doubt, I am most looking forward to learning about the amazing developments, innovations, and especially the business impact that this year’s award nominees are bringing to the UK, and to the world.

This year’s awards have had a bit of a makeover, with new categories and some other tweaks. Tell us why people should be getting excited about all of that/the awards?

Today, every business is a technology business – and not just a cloud business, or an IoT business, or a digital business. Today, every technology matters – it may be a new DevOps approach that tips you over the edge to beat your closest competitors; it may be a collaboration project that drives customer satisfaction to record levels; it may be a big data analytics outcome that delivers new sales and builds revenue; and so on.

It is not enough to have excellence in just one area, so this years’ awards recognizes that technology differentiation matters across the board, by shining a light on outstanding achievements across many different technologies and methodologies.

Do you have a category/categories you’re most excited about?

I am most excited for the Digital Transformation Project of the Year, the DevOps Project of the Year, and the ML/AI Project of the Year categories. Digital Transformation is a buzzword-made-real that is changing not just the IT industry, but really is changing the worlds, so I have high expectations to be amazed by entrants in this category. I have been deeply engaged with DevOps for about a decade – almost as long as anyone – but love to keep learning from practitioners, so I expect to learn from this category.

With my work, I am heavily focused on how businesses bring data, analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to everything from IT Ops/App Dev and cyber security to BI to Edge and IoT, so I expect to be fascinated to see the innovative developments in this category.

What are you looking for when you’re reading an entry? How can people make sure theirs stands out?

I will certainly be looking at how innovative or differentiated the entry is, but primarily I will look for the impact that the project, technology, or approach has had on business goals – or for non-profits, on constituent or member outcomes. We can all deliver new technology, but innovation is much more than having a good idea – imagination without execution is merely hallucination!

For me, it is not enough to demonstrate how amazing a technology implementation is per se, entrants must show why it mattered. If they can show – especially in real, measurable ways – how their entry has delivered on specific, important, business-level goals, they will have a much better chance of getting a vote from me.

What would you say to those thinking about entering but haven’t fully decided to do so as yet?

Why wait?! You cannot win if you don’t enter! Even to make the shortlist will be a major source of inspiration, not just for managers, not just for marketing, but for the teams of individual contributors who did the hard work, likely over many months or even years, to make your project a success.

So, if you are not going to enter for the amazing prizes, for the accolades of your peers, for the management recognition, or for the opportunity to market your win to customers, do it to show the hard workers who made your project possible that this is an achievement you are proud of, and which you want to show off to the world.

Do you have a standout cloud moment from 2019?

Not one single moment, but I would cite the number and severity of major breaches of cloud-based data that have thrown some cold water on the raging fire of cloud computing. This continues to be something our industry needs to address.

Security, privacy, compliance, governance – these should be job #1 for any business. Customers are demanding it, but too many cloud providers are not living up to their promises. It is up to the cloud customers to make that change and make security a priority.

​Oracle is preparing to cut more than a thousand jobs across locations in Europe as part of a wider restructuring following several turbulent months.

The software giant may slash up to 1,300 staff in Ireland, as well as possibly Amsterdam and Malaga, with employees invited to reapply for their roles, according to the Irish Times.

This comes following its inconsistent financial results, with second-quarter revenues for the 2020 fiscal year, which closed 30 November 2019, falling short of analyst expectations.

Staff based in Ireland were invited to an all-hands meeting with managers on Wednesday afternoon, according to the report, in which they were told about the plans. 

An unnamed spokesperson told the Irish Times that the company would continue to rebalance resources and restructure teams as Oracle’s cloud business grows. IT Pro approached Oracle for confirmation but the company declined to comment.

The company has undergone several staffing fluctuations over the last year or so, with the latest round of layoffs coming almost exactly a year after the company cut approximately 350 roles in order to remain close to AWS’ cloud model.

The wider ambitions meant cutting back staffing in areas such as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) unit, as well as its infrastructure as a service (IaaS) business aimed at compute, storage and network resources.

The latest round of up-to-1,300 job cuts could affect employees working across its sales, business development and solutions engineering units. 

The firm’s second-quarter 2020 financial results saw revenue from its cloud and on-premise licensing business drop by 7% to $1.1 billion, while cloud services and license support revenue rose 3% to $6.8 billion.

The news comes in contrast with the company’s ambitions set out in October last year, with Oracle’s executive vice president for its OCI unit Don Johnson outlining plans to hire 2,000 additional workers.

The hires were expected to feed into the expansion of its cloud computing services as the company attempts to compete more strongly against the likes of Azure and AWS. These jobs would be added in the US and India at the firm’s software development hubs.

Please could you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do?

I have been in the IT industry for 20-plus years with 10-plus years in the cloud space. As part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), my role is to promote and amplify the amazing work we do in hybrid cloud.

I am creative by design and I’m never more happy then when I am building content that wins the hearts, minds and where possible, the souls of our audience.

How would you describe the UK Cloud Awards in three words?

Forward-thinking, inspirational, prestigious

What appealed to you about becoming a judge for this year’s UK Cloud Awards?

The UK Cloud Awards have been very kind to me as a previous winner, but more so I love their passion for creating a better industry.

What are you most looking forward to about being involved in this year’s awards?

I can’t lie, I love reading the entries. It’s fascinating to learn about how businesses are challenging the status quo and creating amazing new outcomes by leveraging the cloud. This is digital transformation at its best.

This year’s awards have had a bit of a makeover, with new categories and some other tweaks. Tell us why people should be getting excited about all of that/the awards?

Winning an award at this event will bring more success than the award itself. Winning (and even being a runner up) will showcase your business in front of some of the most important people in the industry. It’s win-win.

Do you have a category/categories you’re most excited about?

The geek in me makes me gravitate to transformational projects so it has to be Internet of Things (IoT) Project of the Year.

What are you looking for when you’re reading an entry? How can people make sure theirs stands out?

Video is king! For me, the more you invest in your entry, the greater chance you have of showing the judges just how good you are. I have seen amazing use cases fail due to a low-quality entry. Invest in this initiative like it’s the best customer you could ever win, it will pay dividends for years to come.

What would you say to those thinking about entering but haven’t fully decided to do so as yet?

Why wouldn’t you want to make your business more famous?

Do you have a standout cloud moment from 2019?

The industry changing its narrative and coming to the realisation that we live in a hybrid cloud world.

What are your top three cloud predictions for 2020?

Containerisation will continue to dominate.

AI use cases will be more pervasive than ever before.

Social media platforms will have more accountability to protect society.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Third-party endorsement of your businesses success (i.e. winning an award) is one of the most powerful marketing tools you will ever have. Take advantage of this amazing opportunity to raise the profile of your business and become the one that everyone else aspires to be.

Please could you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do?

I am an AWS Solution Architect and Consultant working for Managed Service Provider (MSP), Ensono. Ensono serves mid-tier to large enterprises. I help enterprises understand the opportunities cloud has, and then move workloads into or grow workloads within AWS’ cloud. My background spans traditional managed hosting, DevOps tooling and advisory, and Fintech. I enjoy seeing the progress that cloud can bring.

How would you describe the UK Cloud Awards in three words? 

Commending Cloud Creativity

What appealed to you about becoming a judge for this year’s UK Cloud Awards? 

In addition to the splendid party, I wanted to hear the innovations and results that have been delivered in 2019. I can then use this inspire those I speak with in my day job.

What are you most looking forward to about being involved in this year’s awards?

The quality of submissions last year was high. I’m looking forward to more stories of innovation and collaboration and I’m hoping for some that don’t just take a bigger share of the market but make the market bigger.

This year’s awards have had a bit of a makeover, with new categories and some other tweaks. Tell us why people should be getting excited about all of that/the awards? 

This year we’re focusing less on products (three categories) and more on successful projects (ten categories) and recognition for outstanding contributions (five categories). This means, to be recognised, it’s about what the people managed to achieve. We want to recognise those who’ve made the biggest and most innovative strides in progress; Afterall productization can only come after a successful pilot.

Do you have a category/categories you’re most excited about? 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an area where we see technology enter our day-to-day world. This year we have a new category ‘IoT project of the year.’ I hope to learn how these sensors can be used to improve life on the spinning rock we call home.

What are you looking for when you’re reading an entry? How can people make sure theirs stands out? 

When I read an entry I’m looking for a good story: what was the problem and how did you know there was one? Why should we care? What were the challenges to overcome it? What roles were played and who made up the team? Finally, what measurable outcome was there and what lays ahead in the sequel? Sending marketing material off the website usually does not achieve this.

What would you say to those thinking about entering but haven’t fully decided to do so as yet?

Putting together an entry that explains what you’ve created, why it was hard and what outcomes were achieved, for whom is the basis for many a good sales pitch. Crystallising this into a concise and moving piece will not only offer the chance of industry recognition but it’ll arm you internally with getting more backing for future projects, thereby extending out the ‘DevOps ripple of progress’.

Do you have a standout cloud moment from 2019?

Personally I particularly enjoyed my time with the CIF and the Containers and Functions as a Service webinar. From a technology perspective, I was excited to see AWS release its ‘serverless’ Kubernetes offering AWS ECS Fargate, in doing so, taking out more ‘undifferentiated heavy lifting’ shortening the cycle from idea to delivery.

What are your top 3 cloud predictions for 2020?

1. AWS provides a fully-integrated Disaster Recovery as a Service, manifested through a check-box in the console (or API of-course)
2. Hyperscale providers will continue to hope their customers align with a single hyperscale cloud; the market (driven by compliance and risk mitigation) moves towards multi-hyperscale cloud, those savvy enough use Kubernetes to do this. Google takes the ground as the secondary site for these differentiator workloads (being the Kubernetes mothership).
3. AWS’ CEO Andy Jassy’s love for Vintage Rock spills out of the Re:invent AWS keynote into the AWS re:play party with the Eagles returning from retirement…

Is there anything else you would like to add?

All too often in technology, I see great work where it’s hard to prove it made a measurable impact. When you start a project (or write about a successful project), find some data which gives a base-line: ideally, it’s quantifiable, it could be qualitative (surveys even). For advice and inspiration read (or listen) to Nicole Forsgren’s / Jezz Humble / Gene Kim book ‘Accelerate’ Note there are free chapters on Google books.