90% of organisations have reported a lack of skills in multiple cloud disciplines and that the deficit has doubled over the last three years.

The lack of public cloud platform expertise is also driving organisations towards managed service providers.

While cloud computing has accelerated digital transformation, forcing companies to invest more in IT teams and systems, it’s also created more niche and specialist jobs and functions.

This has resulted in a widening gap where certain cloud roles are not being filled simply because not enough people have the skills for it, according to a report from 451 research.

‘Demystifying cloud transformation: Where enterprises should start‘ is a pathfinder paper, commissioned by Dell’s Virtustream.

“While enterprise companies are astutely aware of the breadth of cloud options available to them today, they are looking to cloud managed services partners to bridge their own in-house skills and resources gaps, and for access to their deep expertise across cloud assessment, planning, migration and domain experience,” says Melanie Posey, research VP and GM for 451 Research’s Voice of the Enterprise.

According to the report, skills shortages in areas related to the cloud are in platform expertise, DevOps, cloud architecture and security. These were seen as challenges to both cloud transformation and adoption as businesses struggled to find skills and resources in-house.

As such, businesses are increasingly looking for outside expertise where managed service providers are filling that gap. Rather than attempting to find and match employees to specific operations within public and private clouds so that they work in a holistic manner, businesses are favouring third-party support to manage the entire lifecycle of their migration and digital transformation.

Nearly two-thirds of organisations that currently use cloud also use some type of managed service, with 71% of respondents suggesting that managed services will be a better use of their money in the future.

What’s more, a strong majority said that managed services free internal IT staff from mundane chores, enabling them to focus on more productive and strategic activities in IT generally.

IBM has announced the opening of a Quantum Computer Centre in New York that will provide quantum computing over its cloud network.

The centre will be home to the tech giant’s 14th quantum computer, a 53-quantum bit, or qubit, model that will form the data-processing element of the service.

IBM said this will be the single largest quantum computer system available for external access. For context, Google has a 72-qubit computer, but, so far, hasn’t let outsiders run programs on it.

Despite the technology still being largely experimental, IBM has already worked on a number of potential case studies with major clients. According to Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, the firm’s strategy is to move quantum computing beyond isolated lab experiments and into the hands of tens of thousands of users.

“In order to empower an emerging quantum community of educators, researchers, and software developers that share a passion for revolutionising computing, we have built multiple generations of quantum processor platforms that we integrate into high-availability quantum systems,” he said.

“We iterate and improve the performance of our systems multiple times per year and this new 53-qubit system now incorporates the next family of processors on our roadmap.”

To start, ten quantum computer systems have been put online through IBM’s Quantum Computer Center. Its fleet is now composed of five 20-qubit systems, one 14-qubit system and four 5-qubit systems. Five of these systems now have a Quantum Volume of 16 – a measure of the power of a quantum computer – demonstrating a new sustained performance milestone.

In the next month, this portfolio of quantum computers will grow to 14 systems including the new 53-qubit quantum computer.

Earlier this month IBM announced a partnership with applied research organisation Fraunhofer Gesellschaft to study quantum computing in Germany. The tech giant hopes to be a hub in the country as the technology accelerates.

What’s more, IBM is already working on potential use cases with partners, such as bank J.P. Morgan Chase, which has proposed a quadratic speedup algorithm that could allow financial analysts to perform option pricing and risk analysis in near real-time.

The tech giant is also working with Mitsubishi Chemical to develop a quantum computing process to understand the reaction between lithium and oxygen in lithium-air batteries, with the hope that it could lead to more efficient batteries for mobile devices and cars.

Microsoft and The Walt Disney Studios have announced a five-year partnership to pilot new ways to create, produce and distribute content on the Azure cloud platform.

The aim of the partnership is to help accelerate production and post-production processes and bring more Disney content from “scene to screen”.

The current landscape for the film industry is heavily in the shadows of Disney, with it relentlessly releasing Marvel movies and ‘live’ remakes of its own back catalogue.

What’s more, the company is launching a streaming service to take on the likes of Netflix, called Disney+, and now has greater demand to create more of its own TV shows.

“By moving many of our production and postproduction workflows to the cloud, we’re optimistic that we can create content more quickly and efficiently around the world,” said Jamie Voris, CTO, The Walt Disney Studios.

“Through this innovation partnership with Microsoft, we’re able to streamline many of our processes so our talented filmmakers can focus on what they do best.”

Disney’s StudioLAB, a technology hub designed to create and advance the future of storytelling with cutting-edge tools and methods will run with Azure to help speed up content processes.

However, the partnership will also have a third-party supporting it, with global media tech firm Avid working closely with both companies. Avid already has a “strategic alliance” with Microsoft, working on media workflows in Azure, including collaborative editing, content archiving, active-backup and production continuity.

“The cloud has reached a tipping point for the media industry, and it’s not surprising that The Walt Disney Studios, which has its heritage based on a passion for innovation and technology, is at the forefront of this transformation,” said Kate Johnson, president of Microsoft US.

“With Azure as the platform cloud for content, we’re excited to work with the team at StudioLAB to continue to drive innovation across Disney’s broad portfolio of studios.”

Salesforce has launched cloud services targeted at manufacturing and consumer product goods companies as part of its ongoing efforts to take on SAP and Oracle.

The SaaS specialist is aiming to bring ground-level teams, sales and operations, closer together for the benefit of the customer.

In order for manufacturers to provide a seamless customer experience, they need something that helps them better understand customer needs, according to Cindy Bolt, SVP and GM at Salesforce Manufacturing. What’s more, they need to do so while improving visibility across the entire business, from logistics to marketing. 

“In the manufacturing industry, changing customer and market demands can have a devastating effect on the bottom line, so being able to understand what is happening on the ground is imperative for success,” she said.

“Manufacturing Cloud bridges the gap between sales and operations teams while ensuring more predictive and transparent business, so they can build deeper and more trusted relationships with their customers.”

The aim of Manufacturing Cloud is to address challenges around predicting demand and managing warehouse costs. It does this by collating sales agreements and forecasting tools, potentially enabling sales, operations and accounts teams to generate stronger projections.

The Consumer Goods Cloud, though, is aimed at field reps working from more brick and mortar businesses. For this, it is equipped with tools intended to streamline store operations by keeping stock, pricing and promotional information aligned with the business expectations.

“Retail execution remains one of the most important pieces of a consumer goods brands strategy, but so much opportunity is wasted if the field rep doesn’t have the data and technology needed to make smart decisions,” said Salesforce retail and consumer goods GM and SVP John Strain. “Consumer Goods Cloud provides these field reps with the tools they need to be successful on the ground while helping build both business opportunities and stronger relationships with their retail partners.”

Slack is rolling out the ability for customers to keep their data in Europe with Data Residency, the company has announced.

The first will be in Frankfurt, Germany, before rapidly expanding across Europe.

Until now, Slack customers had their data stored within the US, but with its rapid adoption around the world, the company has recognised this is not always suitable for data regulations and companies outside the States.

So its introducing Data Residency, which is currently in beta, as Ilan Frank, head of enterprise product at Slack told IT Pro.

“It went live on Wednesday, our first customer is already live in beta right now,” he said. “This will be the case for the next three months, but in December we will be making this generally available.

“It should be completely invisible to the end-user and that is what we hope to gain from the beta. The biggest question with something like data residency is performance, so we are optimising that and expect to see no visible latency change for the end-user.”

The rise of cloud computing has transformed how companies use and store data. Businesses around the world are creating their own internal policies for where data can be stored, while governments and third-party regulators are enforcing data residency requirements.

For Slack, it’s more about its own growth and user experience, particularly as the company has become one of the go-to communications platform for startups.

“This goes along with our increased popularity in large enterprise companies,” added Frank. “We are seeing a lot of demand for Slack in large and regulated companies. And with that, the demand for finely granulated controls, an increased focus on security and enterprise.”

The data for this initiative is user-generated, which includes messages, posts, files and searches, and will be stored at rest within the desired data region and whether in transit or at rest, will be encrypted.

Microsoft has acquired Movere, a cloud-migration specialist, for an undisclosed fee.

The Seattle-based company will add its expertise in public cloud business transitions to Azure as Microsoft look to continue to grow its partner ecosystem.

Movere, formerly known as Unified Logic, launched in 2008 as a consulting company, moved into the cloud migration space after undergoing one itself.

“On our journey to cloud, we made mistakes that cost us valuable time and resources that we didn’t have,” CEO Kristin Ireland said in a blog post. “As we spread our wings in the cloud, we realised the cloud was the embodiment of Movere.”

From there, the company became a vehicle for digital transformation, and crucially, of interest to Microsoft.

“There is an enormous amount of energy and enthusiasm about the possibilities for what Movere and Microsoft can do together to continue to bring deeper value (and data!) to customers and partners alike,” Ireland added.

Microsoft has firmly established itself as the number two in the cloud infrastructure market. The tech giant said it was committed to providing its customers with a “comprehensive experience” for migrating their existing applications and infrastructure to Azure.

“Movere’s innovative discovery and assessment capabilities will complement Azure Migrate and our integrated partner solutions, making migration an easier process for our customers,” said Jeremy Winter, partner director for Azure.

“We believe that successful cloud migrations enable business transformation and this acquisition underscores our investments to make that happen.”

This is the third Azure-based acquisition in recent months; in July, Microsoft snapped up BlueTalon, a software company that focuses on data-centric security and hybrid data environments. A month later, it acquired jClarity, a software company that specialises in Java installations.

While it still trails behind AWS, Microsoft’s cloud business is growing fast. The company reported Azure revenue grew 64% in the last quarter, while sales of AWS rose by 37%.

Google and Dell are teaming up to take on Microsoft with two enterprise-ready Chromebooks, according to reports.

Dell is launching Chrome OS takes on a pair of its popular business-focused laptops in the form of the Latitude 5400 Chromebook Enterprise and the Latitude 5300 2-in-1 Chromebook Enterprise.

Both of these computers will be the first machines to fall under Google’s new Chromebook Enterprise line, which will see the search giant and partner hardware makers keenly target Chromebooks at business use. While Chromebooks aren’t unknown to the business world, they haven’t taken the market by storm, with Microsoft dominating in the enterprise arena and Chromebooks finding more use in the education sector. 

But Google hopes to challenge Microsoft in a more comprehensive manner with the Chromebook Enterprise line, with Dell helping lead the charge. 

“Chromebook Enterprise is a game-changer for businesses looking for a modern OS that provides end-users with speed and productivity while offering IT the comprehensive security they need,” said John Solomon, vice president of Chrome OS at Google. “As a longtime global leader in the enterprise, Dell Technologies has a deep understanding of end-user and IT needs and is a natural fit to bring powerful devices with the benefits of Chrome Enterprise to businesses worldwide.”

“IT administrators want to give users choice when it comes to OS, device, and when and where work gets done, but they struggle with the growing number of unmanaged devices in their environments,” said Jay Parker, president of the Client Product Group at Dell. “By adding Chrome to Dell Technologies Unified Workspace, we’re giving IT the power to offer a consistent and secure experience for everyone, no matter the OS they choose. And best of all, users get the flexibility to choose the devices and use cases that fit their needs.”

For the two Latitudes models, Dell will bundle in its cloud-based support services, which allow admins to have greater control over how these Chromebooks are deployed within their business. This should help IT admins integrate the Chromebooks into existing Windows environments and manage them through tools like VMware Workspace One.

The Latitude 5400 will have a 14in screen and start at £449, while the 13inch the 5300 13inch 2-in-1 has a starting price of £699. Both can be configured with Intel’s 8th Gen Core i7 processors, up to 32GB of RAM.

Some of the largest tech companies in the world, such as Google and IBM, are joining forces to advance confidential computing and cloud security.

The aim is to build trust and security for the next generation of cloud and edge computing with open-source technologies and an agreed set of standards for protecting data.

The Confidential Computing Consortium has been brought together by the Linux Foundation and includes Alibaba, Arm, Baidu, Google Cloud, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, Swisscom and Tencent.

Confidential computing focuses on securing data in use, rather than current approaches which often address it while in storage or transit.

“The earliest work on technologies that have the ability to transform an industry is often done in collaboration across the industry and with open source technologies,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation.

“The Confidential Computing Consortium is a leading indicator of what’s to come for security in computing and will help define and build open technologies to support this trust infrastructure for data in use.”

A key part of the project will be to provide a fully encrypted lifecycle for sensitive data, which the Linux Foundation called the most challenging step. But confidential computing could potentially enable encrypted data to be processed in memory without exposing it to the rest of the system. This, the foundation said, could reduce visibility for sensitive data allow for greater control and transparency for users.

The Confidential Computing Consortium aims to bring together hardware vendors, cloud providers, developers, open-source experts and academics to influence technical and regulatory standards and build open-source tools that provide the right environment for education.

The big tech firms announced they are already planning to make open source project contributions, such as Intel with its Software Guard Extension and Microsoft with Open Enclave SDK.

The proposed structure for the Consortium includes a governing board, a technical advisory council and separate technical oversight for each technical project.

“The Open Enclave SDK is already a popular tool for developers working on Trusted Execution Environments, one of the most promising areas for protecting data in use,” said Mark Russinovich, CTO, Microsoft.

“We hope this contribution to the Consortium can put the tools in even more developers hands and accelerate the development and adoption of applications that will improve trust and security across cloud and edge computing.”

Content and file management cloud service Box has unveiled a set of features for admins to control access to shared content called Box Shield.

This will include “intelligent” threat detection capabilities and safeguards to prevent accidental data leaks and the misuse of shared files.

The rapid rise of cloud computing has led to greater collaboration, both internally and externally, for most businesses which has resulted in a greater risk of security breaches.

Popular collaboration platforms like Slack have also recently announced more advanced security controls in recent weeks and Box Shield is following that trend.

“Box Shield is a huge advancement that will make it easier than ever to secure valuable content and prevent data leaks without slowing down the business or making it hard for people to get their work done,” said Jeetu Patel, chief product officer at Box.

“With Box Shield, enterprises will receive intelligent alerts and unlock insights into their content security with new capabilities built natively in Box, enabling them to deploy simple, effective controls and act on potential issues in minutes.”

According to the company, Box Shield prevents accidental data leaks through a system of security classifications for files and folders, which can be operated manually or automated. Account administrators can define and customise the classification labels to suit their workflow.

Shared links can have restrictions, with labels that control who can see it both internally and externally. This is also the case for downloads, applications and FTP transfers. There’s also limit controls on collaborations, restricting non-approved members to edit or share certain content.

Box Shield will also come with functions to detect abnormal and malicious behaviour from both internal and external potential threats. This is a machine learning-based service that detects anomalous downloads, suspicious sessions and locations where a compromised account is detected.

“At Indiana University (IU), sensitive information changes hands thousands of times each day on our campuses with over 100,000 users and thousands of collaborators around the world,” says Bob Flynn, manager, cloud technology support at IU.

“With the introduction of Box Shield, we can apply native data classifications and design policies aligned to our own business and compliance rules. By protecting content with precision, we can help IU reduce risk without compromising speed and collaboration.”

Box Shield is in private beta at the moment, but it is due to become generally available in the Autumn.

Microsoft has acquired software platform jClarity in a bid to drive more Java workloads to Azure.

The deal will see jClarity’s AdoptOpenJDK project move to the Azure where its data science teams will add its expertise to Java projects.

AdoptOpenJDK is a community of Java users, developers and vendors, which includes the likes of Amazon, IBM, Pivotal and Red Hat. The organisation is an advocate of OpenJDK, the open-source project which forms the basis of the Java programming language and platform.

Microsoft said that it had seen an increase of large-scale Java installations on Azure, particularly with platforms like Minecraft and Adobe.

“At Microsoft, we strongly believe that we can do more for our customers by working alongside the Java community,” the company said in a blog post. “The jClarity team, with the backing of Microsoft, will continue to collaborate with the OpenJDK Community and the Java ecosystem to foster the progress of the platform.”

Microsoft said that more than half of compute workloads on Azure run on Linux, making it a great platform for open-source software, which includes Java.

For jClarity, the team will continue to work out in the open in various Java communities, its CEO, Martijn Verburg said in a blog post. But the company is anticipating a greater contribution to the Java community with the support of Microsoft.

“It’s always been jClarity’s core mission to support the Java ecosystem,” Verburg said. “We started with our world-class performance tooling and then later became a leader in the AdoptOpenJDK project.

“Microsoft leads the world in backing developers and their communities, and after speaking to their engineering and programme leadership, it was a no brainer to enter formal discussions. With the passion and deep expertise of Microsoft’s people, we’ll be able to support the Java ecosystem better than ever before.”