All posts by Business Cloud News

cloud video, IBM, M&A, News & Analysis, Ustream

IBM buys streaming service Ustream to boost its cloud video portfolio

IBM2IBM has announced another cloud video acquisition with the intention to purchase video streaming service provider Ustream. The new acquisition will become part of IBM’s Cloud offering to enterprises. Financial details were not disclosed.

Ustream has developed a cloud model to support live and on-demand video streams. It currently has 80 million viewers per month from customers including NASA, Samsung, Facebook, Nike and The Discovery Channel. It has a San Francisco base and a development office in Budapest, Hungary with data centres in California, Amsterdam and Tokyo.

The newly-formed IBM Cloud Video Services unit is now comprised of IBM’s R&D labs and acquisitions such as Clearleap, Ustream, Aspera and Cleversafe, as well as its own R&D inventions.

In December BCN reported how IBM had bought video service provider Clearleap which aims to create APIs for every type of device on which video can be watched. The unit will offer video services including open API development, digital and visual analytics, management and a promise of consistent delivery across global industries.

In addition IBM’s R&D has led to 1,000 patents of its own in areas such as visual analytics and indexing and searching large collections of videos and digital images.

The foundation of the Ustream portfolio is the open Ustream Development Platform which helps clients to create custom video apps to run video on any device and embed video into any application. IBM will integrate Ustream’s development platform into Bluemix to allow clients to provide distinct video services to developers.

The Ustream portfolio includes Ustream Demand, which lets marketers collect and automate leads into marketing workflows and Ustream Align, for secure internal employee communications. Ustream Pro Broadcasting offers large scale live video streaming.

Unit General Manager Braxton Jarratt said IBM estimates there is a target market for cloud-based video services and software worth a potential $105 billion, because companies now communicate with customers and employees through video, webcasts, conference keynotes, training and customer care. Since video is expensive to manage and provide, Upstream’s understanding of how cloud computing can help rationalise costs is invaluable, according to Upstream CEO Brad Hunstable. “We’ve built a video platform that is easy-to-use, yet incredibly scalable and powerful. It is these qualities that made us an ideal addition to IBM’s portfolio,” said Hunstable.

Alibaba, AliCloud, Big Data, China, News & Analysis, Nvidia

AliCloud launches 20 services under brand name Big Data Platform

dataAlibaba Cloud Computing (Alicloud) is to launch 20 new online services to the Chinese market under the brand name Big Data Platform.

The new application service range caters for activities in the data development chain, including processing, analysis, computing, machine learning and big data hosting. Around 1,000 developers are expected to be developing services with AliCloud in the next three years.

The plan is to use all the data-processing capacity and data-security skills that the Alibaba Group has accumulated in ten years of running the world’s biggest ecommerce platform, AliCloud president Simon Hu told reporters at the launch. “That data becomes a resource and a service that we can provide our clients,” said Hu.

Meanwhile, AliCloud is working with US chip specialist Nvidia to develop China’s first GPU-based, high-performance computing cloud platform. Along with offering clients GPU-accelerated computing services AliCloud aims to remove the data bottlenecks that handicap many chinese companies, according to Hu.

The Nvidia GPU-based services could also improve the computing capacity of many of Alibaba’s typical users in China, such as manufacturers and distributors, said Hu. “Right now, AliCloud mainly serves internet companies, but our next step will be to also provide cloud computing services to traditional industries such as manufacturing to remove the computing limitations that these companies may face,” said Hu.

The new launch puts AliCloud in direct contention with big data service supplier Data Mall, a start-up that recently launched an online mall for big data assets. The Data Mall cloud offering helps service providers and independent researchers to trade intelligence and market information. Consulting firm Guan Zheng Hang Seng says the Beijing Datatang owned Data Mall service now has 460,000 users supplying raw data to its platform.

A study by Forrester Research forecast that the enterprise cloud service market in China will be worth $3.8 billion by 2020, more than double its estimated size of $1.8 billion last year. According to Forrester analyst Charlie Dai AliCloud now has the Chinese market’s biggest range of public cloud services and alliances with service providers.

Cumulus Networks, Funding, News & Analysis, Sendachi

Cumulus Networks gets $35 million funding for switch tech that inspired Facebook

cloud storm rainCloud infrastructure hardware inventor Cumulus Networks has received a $35 million round of funding to develop its version of specialised version of Linux aimed to make data centre hardware run better.

Venture backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Wing Venture Capital and a new investor, Top Tier Capital. The valuation of Cumulus has fallen, however, since it received its last round of funding in 2014 when it received $36m.

Cumulus has edited Linux so that it boosts cheaper switches from bog standard manufacturers to perform on a par with high end kit from the likes of Cisco and Juniper. Facebook is among the data centre users that have used the software to customise their own switches and avoid paying six figures for kit. Cumulus wrote software for the Facebook-led Open Compute Project, a collaboration which led Facebook’s engineers customer build their own proprietary switches.

With 375 customers, include 9 companies in the Fortune 50, Cumulus is aiming to extend its switch boosting technology to IT organizations in all industries. Cumulus has supplied service providers Axcient, DreamHost and NephoScale, video company Ooyala and customer experience management software company Medallia.

CEO JR Rivers says that Cumulus now aims to help customers use its Linux system in a variety of operating models, by simplifying their move to a streamlined operating model of open networking. California based Cumulus Networks started in 2010 and by January 2014 was in partnership with Dell.

Meanwhile another venture aimed at helping corporate IT departments to create better software, Sendachi, has been launched with $30M of initial funding.

Seandachi is a merger of two DevOps firm, London based Contino and US-based Clutch and was launched with a $30 million investment commitment from venture financier Columbia Capital.

Sendachi aims to help catalyse the deployment of new services. “We don’t train internal teams in an abstracted way, we participate with them, showing them how by executing their real-world work. It’s not academic, it’s absolutely practical,” said Sendachi CEO Steven Anderson.

News & Analysis, NFV, OpenStack, Virtualisation

Openstack targets telcos with NFV push

Digital illustration of Cloud computing devicesA new report indicates that there could be a boom in network function virtualisation projects this year, with NFV the second most popular subject of research after containers, reports Telecoms.com.

According to a report from the OpenStack Foundation, only container technology is under closer scrutiny than NFV by technology buyers and decision makers in the world’s enterprises and service providers.

The paper, Accelerating NFV Delivery with OpenStack, reports on the findings of the foundation’s most recent user survey, in which 76 per cent of those questioned identified an important telecoms function that had to be addressed through virtualisation. Of the OpenStack user base 12% were traditional telcos and another 64% were companies that now include telecoms as part of their roster of services, such as the categories of cable TV and ISP companies, telco and networking and data centre/co-location companies.

By comparison, an OpenStack user survey in 2014 suggested its user base of telcos was much smaller, the Foundation says, and only an elite of global telcos, such as NTT and Deutsche Telekom, were investigating NFV use. Since then there has been a surge in interest, it reports, with

increasing numbers of telecom-specific NFV features, such as support for multiple IPv6 prefixes, being requested or submitted by OpenStack users.

Container technology information is even more sought after than NFV, according to OpenStack, but the two issues are not mutually exclusive. Sources have speculated that the technologies may be used in tandem as OpenStack is the foundation of rationalising the hybrid nature of most telco’s infrastructure.

According to the paper’s executive summary OpenStack could provide cost effective route to the creation of private clouds without vendor lock-in, since proprietary hardware is becoming associated with NFV.

“While the interoperability between NFV infrastructure platforms that use OpenStack is still a work in progress, the majority of configurations surpass expectations,” concluded the paper co-authored by Kathy Cacciatore, the OpenStack Foundation’s Consulting Marketing Manager.

Financial Results, IBM, News & Analysis, Quarterlies

IBM Q4 figures indicate painful cloud transition

IBMAnalysts have warned that IBM faces a transformation that could make it a leaner operator – and potentially meaner one for staff.

IBM’s reported on revenue of $22.1 billion for Q4 of 2015, down 9% compared to the same quarter last year, indicate that its cloud and analytics sales growth is failing to offset declines in traditional business. The $4.5 billion earnings on that revenue, however, were better than expected by Wall Street analysts.

Total cloud revenue for the IT vendor and cloud service hybrid was $10.2 billion, but its as-a-service sales were $4.5 billion. According to IBM it has a run rate of $5.3 billion for cloud delivered as a service and its analytics revenue was up 7% on the same period in 2014.

With IBM now generating 35% if its sales income from cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security it’s in the middle of a painful turnaround which has led to a prolonged period of underperformance, according to Wall Street analyst Kulbinder Garcha at Credit Suisse. Large parts of IBM’s traditional business are being cannibalised by the Cloud, warned Garcha. The sales of hardware, operating systems and non cloud services are still a significant part to IBM’s vital functions, said the analyst, since they account for more than 40% of IBM’s business.

As enterprises move to the cloud, there is a danger they will migrate to one of the big three cloud suppliers with IBM still in transition, said analyst Clive Longbottom, service director at Quocirca. However, enterprises may prioritise the value of IBM’s consultancy skills over the lower prices of the top three cloud service providers (AWS, Googe and Azure) according to Longbottom. “I still believe that IBM will remain a major force in the IT world, it just has to make sure it positions and messages itself effectively to its existing customers and to its prospects,” said Longbottom.

There is still a danger for IBM staff as the company enters a stage of metamorphosis. “IBM’s cost of sale for cloud will be lower than its cost of sale for hardware, operating systems and software in the old world, which is good for the company. “However, this will also result in a lot of excess human resource fat in the company,” said Longbottom. “Expect redundancies leading to a far leaner IBM in the future.”

acquisition, CRM, M&A, News & Analysis, Outbox, PwC

PWC buys CRM and sales automation specialist Outbox

PwC is to acquire technology consultant Poland-based Outbox Group, a cloud-based CRM and sales automation specialist.

The addition of 250 employees from Outbox, a partner of Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and SAP, will raise PWC’s headcount of technology specialists to almost 3,000 across EMEA. The acquisition agreement, signed on 31 December 2015, is expected to formally complete by January 31 2016.

Formed in 2005, Outbox provides consultancy over CRM, customer experience and marketing automation to 150 customers including Sky, Vodafone and Inmarsat. The Warsaw-based consultancy has now completed 250 CRM projects and has international offices in the UK, Germany, France and the Czech Republic.

The potential market for customer experience, CRM and digital is estimated at €6 billion according to PwC’s UK and EMEA Consulting Leader, Ashley Unwin. “This acquisition represents an investment in emerging markets and establishes centre of excellence for customer and digital capabilities within PwC in Europe,” said Unwin.

UK-based Outbox managing director Nicholas Mobbs will join PwC as a partner. “We are excited to join a leading consulting brand and combine business advice with user experience, marketing automation and CRM skills and services,” said Mobbs.

In other PWC news, cloud computing is contributing to a confidence crisis among enterprise chief executives, according to PWC’s global chairman Dennis Nally. Speaking at the 2016 Davos World Economic Forum, Nally said the cloud-based integrated global economy means that the world’s hot spots can instantly transmit end to end instability across the world.

Quoting the results of PwC’s 19th Annual Global CEO Survey, Nally said there were two outstanding sentiments among the survey group of 1,409 CEOs in 83 countries. The global economy and geopolitical tensions, the top two concerns, are interlinked now that technology acts as a lightning rod between hot spots, according to Nally. “We all know how integrated the global economy really is and not looking good is how I’d put it,” Nally told CNBC.

Microsoft, News & Analysis, non-profit

Microsoft donates $1 billion of cloud services to non-profit groups

Microsoft1Microsoft has announced that it will give non profits groups $1 billion worth of cloud services in a in a three year charitable scheme designed to ‘advance the public good’ and solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

The majority of the provisions will be free or discounted cloud services, namely Azure computing power and data storage and Office 365 corporate programmes and other products. The voluntary groups, charities and non-profit organisations will have a global spread, according to Microsoft President Brad Smith, writing on the company blog.

Other beneficiaries will include universities that qualify for free Azure services. There is also a plan to invest in organisations that supply Internet connectivity to the developing world. The goal of the new program is to make 20 investments in 15 countries, Smith said.

Initially Microsoft aims to serve 70,000 non profit organisations over a three year period beginning immediately. The target is to increase Azure’s use at research universities and achieve a 50% extension on an existing programme that already reaches 600 academic institutions.

Microsoft’s new philanthropic arm and its business development unit are to collaborate on ‘white space’, investing time and money in order to make use of unused television airwaves, aggregating the frequencies to create the networks for Internet connectivity.

In an example of how the new scheme could work, Microsoft has funded Kenyan organisation outfit Mawingu (the Swahili word for cloud) which provides Internet connectivity to schools and small businesses in areas without electricity supplies. Microsoft CEO Nadella visited Mawingu in July to as part of the publicity for the release of Windows 10.

The news comes a month after Microsoft rebranded its charity work as Microsoft Philanthropies and CEO Satya Nadella is currently at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The timing of the announcement could raise the profile the company’s cloud service businesses. Academia, a key segment branding software and tools among students and educators, is dominated by Microsoft rivals Apple and Alphabet, according to Bloomberg.

“The most fundamental way we advance our mission is through technology that reaches people through the market,” said Smith, “part of the history of the company was to make sure our technology was reaching everybody.”

Adobe, Analytics, Enterprise IT, News & Analysis, Retail, Software AG, Wipro

Adobe, Software AG and Wipro show how cloud can manage retail detail

Three major retail technologists have unveiled how the cloud could make retailers more responsive.

German retail technology specialist Software AG has launched a cloud based Smart Store Monitoring systems to give retailers the word from the high street in real time. By interpreting large volumes of data streaming in from sensors, tills and apps in their brick-and-mortar stores, it will help them react quicker to market conditions in the stores and instantly avert problems.

The instant insights could help retailers see how in-store promotions are working and make timely interventions to boost their impact. The intelligence will also help retailers work the Internet of Things (IoT) to maximum effect and move staff to busy areas when needed, according to Oliver Guy, Retail Industry Director at Software AG. The cloud based technology could “persuade marketing managers to fine-tune promotions on the fly and improve their response to different consumers in a particular location,” said Guy.

That calls for more flexible management of the flow of data, which would be enabled by the cloud and the IoT according to Guy. “To benefit from the store’s shifting purpose and growing shopper expectations, retail managers must be able to track, monitor, analyse and optimise all in-store activity in real-time,” said Guy.

Though retailers are optimistic about the value of IoT three common technology barriers were cited in the report: blending a disparity of data sources, choosing the best response to events or expectations and dealing with mass data diversity in real-time.

Software AG claims its Digital Business platform solves these problems by connecting all IoT-enabled data sources, briefing store staff and head-office merchandisers, instantly adjusting

signage and other automated store peripherals and modelling predictions to take pre-emptive action – such as staff or stock replenishment – to nip problems in the bud.

A Wipro study conducted with Planet Retail, which said 82% of retailers it interviewed feel that investments in digital technology and operational improvements would help them target customers as individuals. Those who fail to react to feedback and hyper-personalised offers and promotions will fall behind, it said.

To this end, Adobe has added new services to its Marketing Cloud to help retailers improve the customer experience. The additions include new ‘shoppable media advancements’, advanced push notification and extra Adobe Experience Manager Screen options.

A new emphasis on data-driven remarketing means retailers can connect consumers’ behaviour online with contextual data. Acting on this intelligence they can create user-defined remarketing triggers, such as an email, push notification or SMS, to increase the likelihood of purchase. If a consumer views women’s footwear for several minutes, for example, the retailer can send an email highlighting that product and incentivising the customer with a discount.

Big Switch, Funding, News & Analysis, SDN, Virtualisation

Big Switch Networks wins $48.5M to bring SDN to telcos, data centres and enterprises

Network Function VirtualisationSanta Clara based software defined networking vendor Big Switch Networks (BSN) has won another $48.5 million to bring its bare metal networking fabrics to new markets, reports Telecoms.com.

The networking specialist, which has now received $93.5m since its launch in 2010, aims to use the new cash injection to fund more R&D and to create news sales and marketing channels in the Europe, Asia Pacific, the UAE and the US.

Investors from Morgenthaler Ventures, Silver Lake Waterman, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Accton, CID Group and MSD Capital put the cash up after hearing how the company achieved 300% growth last year. Its two technology inventions have found three popular use cases among telecoms carriers, data centre companies, service providers and enterprises.

BSN offers clients a Big Monitoring Fabric and a Big Cloud Fabric, both of which are based on bare metal software defined networking principles, with a centralised product-specific controller managing a network of bare-metal Ethernet switches. The controller, the managed switches, and the links connecting to them form the network fabric. BSN defines the software for a centralised controller running on industry standard servers and the operating system that runs on the bare-metal Ethernet switches. The Big Monitoring Fabric, which connects networks with monitoring tools and Big Cloud Fabric, which provides software defined management of switching fabrics in data centres, have won telco and data centre clients in the US, APAC and EMEA. Its main vertical markets are telcos and IT, financial services, government, service providers and higher education.

In addition to the extra funding, BSN announced that it has recruited former NetApp CEO Dan Warmenhoven and venture capitalist Gary Morgenthaler, who have both steered companies through the transition that comes with rapid expansion.

According to IHS Research, the percentage of users of software defined networking in enterprise communications will grow from 6% to 23% in 2016. It also estimates that spending on data centre networking will reach $13 billion in 2019, up from $781 million in 2014.

“Nobody can ignore the advantages of software defined networking,” said Shawn O’Neill, MD of one Big Switch’s venture partners Silver Lake Waterman.

Big Switch is fundamentally changing the economics of data centre networking and SDN, claimed  another investor, Mike Volpi, a partner at Index Ventures. “This financing will fuel significant go-to-market acceleration and geographic expansion,” said Volpi.

Actifio, hybrid cloud, News & Analysis

Actifio claims Global Manager will slash costs of managing hybrid cloud data

cloud storm rainVirtualisation company Actifio claims its new Global Manager can create the same savings for hybrid cloud managers that its earlier systems achieved in product data management.

Actifio’s virtualisation technology inventions aim to cut costs by preventing the endless, expensive replication of massive data sets by each different DevOps team across an enterprise. The new Actifio Global Manager (AGM) offers enterprises and service providers a way to manage data more efficiently across the full lifecycle of applications in hybrid cloud environments.

Actifio claims it can scale thousands of application instances associated with petabytes of data deployed across private data centres, hybrid and public clouds. After an early access programme with 100 beta testers, Actifio has launched AGM on general release, targeting web-scale environments.

Users are evolving to multi-site, multi-appliance environments and use public cloud infrastructure like Amazon AWS as part of their data centre. At the same time data migration, load balancing and migration become increasingly fraught and expensive, according to David Chang, Actifio’s Senior VP of Solutions Development.

The new AGM system will allow companies to save on storage by obviating the need for petabytes of duplicated data, improving on service levels, cutting capital and operational expenses through software defined storage, load balancing, simplifying capacity management, deepening the integration of systems and giving managers a better view of their virtualised estate, according to Actifio.

By helping clients to ‘scale up from one to multiple instances’, Actifio said, its AGM system will manage thousands of applications, petabytes of data, independent of hardware infrastructure or physical location. This, it claims, makes for a painless application data lifecycle across private, public or hybrid cloud infrastructures.

After validation testing of Actifio Global Manager and its RESTful API this year, beta tester Net3 Technologies, a cloud service provider, is building it into its automation platform. “Now we can scale and manage the data infrastructure of clients more easily,” said Jeremy Wolfram, Director of Development at Net3 Technologies.

“Actifio Global Manager unshackles the infrastructure dependency and makes it faster and easier for our largest customers and service provider partners to access and manage their data at global web-scale,” said Actifio founder Ash Ashutosh.