All posts by Business Cloud News

Cisco, Cisco Elastic Services Platform, ESP, NETCONF, News & Analysis, NFV, SDN, Telco Cloud

Cisco promises breakthrough software for cloud-scale networking

Network ExpansionCisco claims it has invented a way to integrate and simplify web scale networks to make them twice as cost effective and much more scalable.

The networking vendor has worked with the world’s top hyperscale web companies to help service providers create faster simpler clouds from its IOS XR network operating system using popular IT configuration and management tools.

By making networks more programmable they can create a form of liquidity in cloud services that will allow providers to pool and converge their data centres and wide area network (WAN) architectures, it claims.

As a result of its collaboration, new features will appear in Cisco’s IOS XR software which, it claims, would halve the cost of running today’s network over the course of five years (under the present circumstances) by doubling network efficiency and performance.

However network running costs for cloud operators are expected to soar in future due to predicted surges in data demand. Total global data centre traffic is projected to triple by the end of 2019 (from 3.4 to 10.4 Zettabytes), according to the Cisco Global Cloud Index figures for 2014-2019. With 83% of total data centre traffic expected to come from the cloud by 2019 the improvement in manageability will help to rein in soaring costs, according to Cisco.

The investment in IOS XR will also help cloud and data centre operators to make a smoother, less expensive, transition to cloud-scale networking in future, Cisco claims.

Cisco IOS XR software, which is currently run over 50,000 live network routers, will benefit from a number of technical improvements, including new modularity, more service agility and higher levels of automation convergence with third-party application hosting.

Cisco said its software development kits and the DevNet Developer Program Cisco will encourage service providers to create large-scale automation and predictable network programmability, with higher levels of visibility and control. The aim, says Cisco, is to cater for any data model, any encoding method and any transport method.

“The network is cloud computing’s final frontier, at technology, people and process levels,” said Laurent Lachal, senior analyst of infrastructure solutions at analyst Ovum.  “It needs to be built for scale and ruthlessly automated.”

EMC, hybrid cloud, News & Analysis

EMC announces new protection for data as cloud hybrids become the norm

Storage vendor EMC has created a new product range to protect data as it moves in and out of the various parts of a hybrid cloud.

On Tuesday it announced news products and services designed to integrate primary storage and data protection systems across private and public clouds. The aim is to combine the flexibility of public cloud services with the control and security of a private cloud infrastructure.

The new offerings carry out one of three functions, characterised as tiering data across diverse storage infrastructures, protecting data in transit to and from the Cloud and protecting data once its static in the cloud.

EMC says that by integrating its VMAX systems through new improvements to its FAST.X tiering systems it can make it cheaper for customers to prioritise their storage according to the expense of the medium. The new additions to the management system have now automated the tiering of public clouds and cater for both EMC and non-EMC storage systems.

The new levels of protection for data, as it travels in and out of the cloud, is provided by

CloudBoost 2.0. This, claims EMC, will work with EMC’s Data Protection Suite and Data Domain so that private cloud users can move data safely to the cheaper media in the public cloud for long-term data retention.

Once resident in the public cloud, data can be better protected now as a result of new Spanning product features, which can cater for different regional conditions across the European Union. Spanning Backup for Salesforce now offers better SaaS data restoration options so it’s easier restore lost or deleted data. Spanning’s new European data destination option will also aid compliance with European data sovereignty laws and regulations. Meanwhile, the Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) offering for private clouds now has better capacity management, secure multi-tenancy and a dense shelf configuration that EMC says will ‘dramatically’ cut the cost of ownership.

Meanwhile, EMC also announced a new generation of its NetWorker data protection software.  NetWorker 9 has a new universal policy engine to automate and simplify data protection regardless of where the data resides.

“Tiering is critical to business in our own data centres,” said Arrian Mehis, general manager of VMware Cloud practice at Rackspace, “and in the data centres of our customers.”

ENDS

AWS, Cloud Storage, Gemalto, NetApp, News & Analysis, Storage as a Service

Gemalto and NetApp to create secure cloud storage hybrid for AWS customers

Cloud storageSecurity vendor Gemalto and NetApp are to jointly create an integrated, encrypted key management system for securing data for Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers. The aim is to save time and improve security for end users, by simplifying the process of securing virtual data.

The two vendors, both AWS network partners, are to blend Gemalto’s SafeNet Virtual KeySecure and NetApp’s Cloud ONTAP as a unified service to be offered on the AWS Marketplace.

The SafeNet Virtual KeySecure for NetApp Cloud ONTAP (SKNCO) service promises to make storing and encrypting data and applications much easier for companies using virtual environments. The system will pay for itself, claim the vendors, through the productivity gains and raised levels of security created when users enjoy more governance over their stored data.

The SVKNCO creates these benefits, it’s claimed, by centralising management and making it easy to create customisable security policies for data access in the cloud. It achieves this by combining NetApp’s modern storage infrastructure with Gemalto’s SafeNet key management. The hybrid of the two systems can protect customers’ data and encryption keys against unauthorised access, while giving them the most cost effective storage options at all times.

It’s about creating top levels of security, but not at ‘any cost’ according to Todd Moore, VP of Data Encryption Product Management at Gemalto. “AWS users can now turn to NetApp to manage, store and protect their data more confidently, while completely owning their encryption keys,” said Moore.

Meanwhile, data centre infrastructure vendor Nutanix has also announced that its Community Edition is to be made available for AWS customers. The free software tool aims to help AWS customers speed up the evaluation process when weighing their options for buying infrastructure.

Avere, Azure, Enterprise IT, hybrid cloud, Microsoft, News & Analysis

Avere-Microsoft joint effort enables Azure hybrids

server rackEnterprise storage vendor Avere Systems is to work with Microsoft so that its Virtual FXT Edge filers can be used with Microsoft Azure.

The hardware maker, which specialises in creating storage devices that caters for hybrid cloud set ups, says the two vendors are collaborating to make it easier and cheaper to get the qualities of the cloud from IT infrastructure that is situated ‘on premise’.

The system aims to simplify the task of creating a system for providing computing power, memory and storage on demand for enterprise IT staff who are not specialists in running cloud services. The Avere technology is designed to make data that is held on network attached storage (NAS) more readily accessible to Azure, so that users don’t experience any latency.

The rationale is that many companies want the liquidity of cloud computing but are not allowed to move their data off the company premises, according to Avere. Its solution was to invent a ‘virtual NAS’ system that is easy for an enterprise IT department employee to install and manage. Meanwhile the system is sophisticated enough to provide multi-protocol file access (including NFS and SMB) and clusters, making it powerful enough to deliver high availability, scalable performance and capacity.

As hybrid cloud systems become the de facto standard for enterprises, it’s important that they are easy enough for IT department employees to manage, according to Nicole Herskowitz, Microsoft Azure’s Senior Director of Product Marketing, Microsoft Azure.

By adapting the system to work smoothly with Azure, enterprise IT department managers can deploy thousands of Azure HPC instances on-demand to crunch data with low latency and no data migration. This means businesses can tap into hyper-converged infrastructure of Azure with ease, without breaking the bank, Avere claims.

“At Avere, we’ve been dedicated to shattering the myth that organizations can’t have enterprise NAS performance in the public cloud,” said Rebecca Thompson, VP Marketing of Avere Systems, “with Microsoft we’re helping enterprises harness the computing power of Microsoft Azure, which is used by 57% of Fortune 500 companies for big data applications.”

Colt, Getronics, M&A, managed cloud, News & Analysis

Getronics buys Colt’s Managed Cloud business

IT services provider The Getronics Group has bought Colt’s Managed Cloud business to add it to a portfolio that includes Getronics, GWA and Connectis. Service provider Getronics said it will now extend the range of offering to a client based it previously serviced on behalf of Colt.

The deal includes the acquisition of Colt’s cloud technologies and support services across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, India, Romania and Switzerland. The Getronics family of companies will now run the managed cloud services supplied to Colt’s customer base, using Colt’s own network, voice and data centre capabilities.

Colt Managed Cloud has 600 customers across multiple verticals including financial services, media and government. It employs staff working across operations, transition and engagement, presales, service management and support functions.

The Getronics Group, owned by Aurelius since its acquisition in 2012, has previously acquired the Spanish application services divisions of Thales, Telvent and Steria Iberica and NEC’s unified communications direct sales and services divisions in four countries. The Colt Managed Cloud was named as a market leader in Cloud enabled Hosting for three consecutive years by analyst Gartner, in its Magic Quadrant reports.

The Getronics Group has 6,000 employees in 18 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific & Latin America. The IT service provider division of the group has had a long running arrangement with Colt to run its services to its clients and the deal represents a formal transfer of ownership, according to Getronics CEO Mark Cook. “Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to offering the latest, best of breed IT services to our customers. We are looking forward to welcoming the transferring customers and employees into the Getronics family in the new year,” said Cook.

The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed.  The completion of this transaction is subject to regulatory and competition clearances and compliance with local labour laws.

3PAR, Flash, HPE, News & Analysis, Storage, Storage as a Service

HP launches 3Par flash storage – building block for all flash data centres

HPHewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has launched new flash storage devices which it claims will bring the day of the all flash data centre and lighting fast cloud services closer.

The HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage systems will be the data storage blocks in the flash data centres of the future, its claims. When all the memory, storage and processing of data is run on flash technology, data centres will create the most competitive environment possible for cloud services, according to HPE.

HPE has also integrated 3PAR StoreServ with its new HPE StoreOnce and HPE StoreEver product lines to ensure protection and retention keep pace with demand. It is this integration which will speed the progress of modernising data centres, according to HPE, because it means that new and mixed media types can work together in the same array while maintaining performance and enterprise-class resiliency.

Earlier in November the Storage Performance Council testified that a new world record speed was achieved by the 3PAR StoreServ 20850 all-flash array. HPE claims it produced better performance levels than the rival EMC VMAX 400K, but at half the price.

Among the new HPE offerings are a 3PAR Flash Acceleration system for Oracle, 3PAR Online Import software and support for 3d NAND drives.

The Flash Acceleration drive could makes databases perform 75% quicker while enabling legacy systems like EMC VMAX to remain in place, claims HPE. This, it says, is half the price of upgrading the legacy storage system.

3PAR Online Import software makes it easier to move off hard disk drive (HDD)-bound legacy storage, such as EMC, HDS and IBM XIV, and onto flash. Support for 3D NAND drives means that solid state drive (SSD) technology can be installed cheaply.

HPE claims it can save the massive expense involved in buying pure flash systems by creating a flash-optimised design that supports both file and block storage as well as a secondary tier of HDDs.

HPE also announced new systems to help customers as they move away from traditional backup silos in favour of integrated flash array and application data protection.

“Organisations want game-changers like flash without introducing risk,” said Manish Goel, HPE’s general manager for storage, “to meet those demands, Hewlett Packard Enterprise simplifies flash storage from the entry to enterprise.”

acquisition, Datacentre, Equinix, Europe, News & Analysis, Telecity

Equinix cleared to buy Telecity but must sell London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt facilities

datacentreThe European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of data centre operator Telecity by rival Equinix. However, to assuage anti competition concerns, Equinix had to agree to sell off a number of data centres in Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt.

BCN reported in May that Equinix and TelecityGroup agreed to the $2.35bn takeover in which US-based Equinx would buy all issued Telecity shares. The acquisition gives Equinix a stronger presence in the UK and would extend its footprint into new locations with identified cloud and interconnection needs including Dublin, Helsinki, Istanbul, Milan, Stockholm and Warsaw. Equinix provides colocation services in 33 metropolitan areas worldwide. Telecity operates data centres in 12 metropolitan areas in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Turkey.

However, the activities of Equinix and Telecity overlap in the four EEA metro areas of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Paris.

In a statement issued by the EC Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager said the growing economic importance of cloud services makes it crucial to maintain competition between data centres. However the deal does not necessarily stifle competition, Vestager said. “The Commission is satisfied that the commitments offered by Equinix will ensure that companies continue to have a choice for hosting their data at competitive prices,” said Vestager.

The Commission has concerns that the concentration of data centres controlled by one vendor could lead to higher prices of colocation services in the Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt metropolitan areas. The remaining competitors in these areas are unlikely to be able to match the competitive pressure currently exercised by Telecity, it had concluded, and new players would have faced significant difficulties to enter the market due to the high investment and deployment times needed.

To address the Commission’s concerns, Equinix submitted commitments, offering to divest a number of data centres in Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt.

Enterprise IT, IT, News & Analysis, procurement, UK

Our cloud ambitious are frustrated by barriers, enterprises tell Hitachi

Network servers

An overwhelming majority of enterprise decision makers want cloud services, but practically all of them are blocked from adopting it, according to new figures released by Hitachi Data System (HDS).

HDS recently announced the results of a study the IT growth issues in UK enterprises. In the research it surveyed 200 UK IT decision makers at companies with over 1000 employees in a bid to discover the issues that cause “innovation inertia”.

HDS reported that a large majority (81%) of IT leaders say their companies aren’t set up for the digital age. It also established two other pieces of evidence for a growing clamour for cloud services, with 75% of IT leaders complaining that they can’t make informed investment decisions and 90% of the study group confession that their organisation is at risk of being outpaced by digitally-born brands.

However, HDS has released statistics to BusinessCloudNews that reveal that even more of the study group are prevented from applying cloud solutions to these problems, with 86% of respondents saying they experience barriers to cloud adoption. The main blockages, according to Hitachi, are security concerns (reported by 50% of the study group), data protection concerns (39%), budget constraints (28%) and legacy technology restrictions (20%).

“It’s not surprising that IT leaders feel concerned,” said Bob Plumridge, EMEA CTO at HDS, “the digital evolution feels scary because they are having to throw out every theory and intuition they have.”

In response HDS has a launched additions to its flash portfolio in order to improve the performance of cloud infrastructure and remove any performance doubts from nervous cloud buyers. The new offerings include an all-flash Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) F Series, enhanced models of the Hitachi VSP G series offerings, next-generation Hitachi flash modules with inline data compression (FMD DC2) and enhanced Hitachi Automation Director and Data Centre Analytics tools for improved response times and greater effective capacity.

Enterprise IT, fintech, News & Analysis

FCA aims to clarify fin-tech cloud legality issues

Money cloudA new guide from The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has helped clarify some of the legal issues surrounding financial technology and could lead to a boom for cloud service providers catering for the money markets.

The draft guidance briefs readers on the key areas regulated firms must consider when researching into outsourcing to the cloud and covers regulatory issues, data protection and security and business continuity. It also includes a section on how to manage risk and how to ensure regulators have effective access to data.

In the guide the FCA concludes there is “no fundamental reason why cloud services (including public cloud services) cannot be implemented, with appropriate consideration, in a manner that complies with our rules”.

Cloud outsourcing can help improve competition in the financial services sector, the regulator said, because it can “increase the ability” of financial services providers to renew their IT systems more efficiently. Greater choice and innovation in outsourcing should deliver “commensurate benefits for firms and consumers,” says the guide.

The FCA warns about the risks of outsourcing to cloud providers, however, and it briefs financial technology buyers to be vigilant on where data is stored and to check hidden sub-contracting arrangements which may obscure data residence arrangements.

The regulator advises that financial services companies must establish if and how their cloud contracts are governed by UK law and subject to UK court jurisdiction. Even when UK courts do not have jurisdiction financial service companies will have to ensure that their auditor and the FCA have “effective access” to their data, to the cloud provider’s business premises and even to the company’s Human Resource vetting procedures and audit trails. Although the definition of business premises includes head offices, operations and data centres, regulated firms do not have to ensure they have access to all of their cloud provider’s premises.

Writing on the Out-Law blog of law firm Pinsent Masons, fin-tech legal expert John Salmon said the FCA guidance is a “positive recognition that the financial services sector can move ahead with plans to use cloud services as long as appropriate safeguards are put in place.”

The FCA’s guidance is open to consultation until 12 February 2016.

“The consultation period over the next few months will provide a good opportunity for businesses affected to set out clear views about how existing regulation can be addressed in a way that enables cloud products,” said Salmon.

App creation, App Stores, News & Analysis, Tibco

TIBCO launches code-free cloud app builder

AppsSoftware vendor TIBCO has launched a new system that it claims will allow users to build cloud applications without any knowledge of languages or programming.

The Simplr tool is an attempt to extend the consumerisation of IT, as witnessed in mobile apps, to enterprise cloud computing, according to TIBCO CTO Matt Quinn. The system is designed to give business cloud subscribers the same user experience they may get from their phone, according to TIBCO. The barrier to productivity gains, however, is that it’s currently impossible to provision infrastructure and organise resources without knowledge of several computing languages and operating systems. TIBCO Simplr is a new business service built on a ‘no-code’ principle, it says.

The beta version of the system has been made public for cloud users to conduct free trials.

Personal automation allows the non-programmer to easily create a ‘recipe’ (as TiBCO calls it, i.e a simple set of instructions) for automating tasks. This might mean setting up a system for taking an input of sales leads from a Salesforce application then creating an instruction to filter out leads on a distinct set of criteria and having that data automatically flowed into a Google apps spreadsheet.

Another user-defined application might involve a marketing executive creating several questionnaires using a variety of systems such as Surveymonkey, Wufoo and TIBCO Formvine. The user could then set up a ‘recipe’ that forms a set of instructions to compile the emailed survey answers and automatically enters the results into relevant parts of a Google sheet.

Other potential self-made applications could move files from Box to Dropbox and Google drive, or swap sales leads between Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.

“People have become accustomed to great app experiences on their personal devices, and they want their business applications to provide that same level of speed, quality, configurability, and ease of use,” said Quinn.