All posts by Business Cloud News

BYOA, Identity management, M&A, News & Analysis, Software as a service

LogMeIn acquires LastPass for $125 million to create remote access giant

Remote working SaaS company LogMeIn will acquire password management service provider LastPass for $125 million to bolster its position in identity and access management.

LogMeIn already has a strong position in cloud-based remote login and LastPass is best known as a password manager with an emphasis on enterprise, so it’s easy to see how the two product portfolios complement each other. The combined companies will be in a position to offer a wide range of remote access tools and services.

“LastPass has a great business, a beloved and award winning product, millions of loyal users, and thousands of great business customers – they are synonymous with the category,” said Michael Simon, LogMeIn’s Chairman and CEO. “We believe this transaction instantly gives us a market leading position in password management, while also providing a highly favourable foundation for delivering the next generation of identity and access management solutions to individuals, teams and companies.”

“LogMeIn and LastPass share a great common vision on reshaping identity and access management in ways that not only increase productivity but also improve security for individuals and companies, alike,” said Joe Siegrist, CEO of LastPass. “The striking commonality between our businesses, our products, and cultural DNA make this a great fit for both teams, and we believe a great win for our customers.”

In the rationale behind the move there was much talk of BYOA (bring your own app), which LogMeIn has identified as a key trend. Essentially this means remote workers using whatever tools they see fit and IT managers having to work out how to accommodate them – much as has happened with BYOD (bring your own device). LogMeIn’s strategy is to be the default BYOA enabler.

Alibaba, AliCloud, Datacentre, News & Analysis

Alibaba announces second Silicon Valley datacentre

AlicloudAliCloud, the cloud computing arm of Chinese internet giant Alibaba, has announced the opening of its second datacentre in Silicon Valley.

This is the fourth new datacentre opened by AliCloud this year alone, and its ninth in total.Most of them are at various locations around China, but the company plans to extend its international footprint to other parts of Asia, as well as Europe and the Middle East before long.

This new Silicon Valley site will service the needs of west coast US customers, providing a bunch of cloud services such as: Elastic Compute, Analytic Database, Key-Value Store, Open Storage and Virtual Private Cloud.

“Our data centers are typically located in key innovation and commerce hubs around the world, where we expect growing demand for cost-efficient cloud computing and big data analytics services,” said Ethan Sicheng Yu, VP of AliCloud. “Our second U.S. data center is situated in Silicon Valley which is the epicentre for technology innovation world-wide.

“AliCloud is focused on building a comprehensive and holistic global ecosystem that offers world-class cloud computing and a nuanced understanding of local requirements. We expect to welcome more partners and customers onto the AliCloud platform as we extend our global reach and continue to deliver outstanding value for our cloud computing infrastructure services.”

Dell, EMC, M&A, News & Analysis, Storage, VMware

Dell said to be considering EMC acquisition

Dell serversComputing giant Dell is in advanced talks to buy storage company EMC according to a WSJ report, citing the inevitable people familiar with the matter.

A full acquisition seems unlikely since EMC is around double the size of Dell if you compare its $50 billion market cap with the $25 billion is cost to take Dell private. More probable would be for Dell to keep just the storage part of EMC, while spinning off VMware, which is mostly owned by EMC.

Another report from Re/code, which was itself acquired from the WSJ by Vox Media earlier this year, insists only the storage part of EMC has ever been on the table. It also makes the point that Dell would have to add significantly to its current debt pile of $12 billion to fund any deal.

If this move did go ahead it would set a new record for the value of tech-only M&A, topping the $37 billion Avago is paying for Broadcom. Dell is increasingly been moving towards enterprise IT, and away from PCs, since it was taken private by its founder. It has often been outbid by the likes of HP for in enterprise IT acquisitions in the past and EMC may be viewed as a relative bargain, having failed to recover its dotcom bubble highs.

IBM, IoT, Webinars

Forecasting Cloud’s Place in the Internet of Things

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Date: Thursday, October 22, 2015

Time: 04:00 PM British Summer Time

Duration: 1 hour

Data is no longer contained within the walls of a data center. Devices or “things” need to share data with the same quality of service whether they are in remote corners of the world or in major metropolitan areas. Flexibility, speed, and security area all required elements for real-time data analysis in IoT projects and any company wanting to transform with the Internet of Things; as a result, the Internet of Things is becoming the primary application for cloud computing.

In a recent study from IBM and Business Cloud News, we learned that nearly two-thirds of respondents agree companies that are slow to integrate cloud into their IoT solutions will fall behind the competition. Learn more about current trends and future growth opportunities as data, engagement, and cloud all converge around the Internet of Things.

  • See how the Internet of Things is becoming the primary application for cloud computing
  • Review your readiness to integrate cloud and IoT solutions

REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR

HP, HP Helion, hybrid cloud, White Papers

Developing a winning hybrid cloud strategy

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The 2015 BCN Annual Industry Survey revealed two thirds of enterprises plan to implement multiple cloud services over the next 18 months, but adopting a hybrid cloud strategy can be far from straightforward. As a result there is often a gap between intention and strategic readiness that can lead to considerable strain on the IT resources of a company.

This Business Cloud News Whitepaper, in association with HP investigates the factors both driving and inhibiting hybrid cloud deployment, looks at how resources will be managed across platforms and explores the right mix of skills to manage applications, platforms, networks and systems in a hybrid environment.

These are some of the key issues that need to be tackled by CIOs if they are to take a central role in preparing their IT organisations for a hybrid world.

Download the report now to find out what tools, technologies, and skills are required for a successful hybrid cloud strategy.

Fill in this short form to download the Whitepaper – Fields labelled with * are mandatory. By downloading this whitepaper, BCN may pass your details to the sponsor and use your information in future to provide you with targeted BCN promotions. You can opt out of these at any time.








Accenture, cloud platform, Consulting, News & Analysis

Accenture enhances its Cloud Platform

Business consulting firm Accenture had released an enhanced version of its Accenture Cloud Platform, designed to improve its ability to help with the governance and control of cloud applications.

Accenture Cloud Platform exists to help companies manage their cloud service portfolio in a flexible and scalable way. It covers both public and private cloud resources and integrates with technologies such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Accenture claims the latest tweaks reduce the time to implement new cloud solutions, improve the cost efficiency and optimization of IT, and enhance the governance and control of cloud management.

“Organizations of all sizes are increasingly adopting As-a-Service operating models as they look for greater operational agility, and doing so requires the right cloud management tools,” said Jack Sepple, MD of, Cloud and Security at Accenture.

“This release of the Accenture Cloud Platform improves organizational capabilities to manage cloud sprawl, reducing the time needed to deploy cloud resources while providing a greater ability to innovate and integrate new solutions into the cloud quicker than ever.”

Accenture is being quite proactive around the cloud these days, having acquired Cloud Sherpas last month to boost its cloud consulting offering, especially for companies looking to make their initial transition. The fact that this announcement coincides with Amazon’s AWS re:Invent event is probably not a coincidence.

Amazon Web Services, AWS, Infrastructure as a Service, News & Analysis, Platform as a service, Rackspace, Software as a service

Rackspace ups AWS functionality and support, becomes authorised reseller

AWSManaged hosting provider Rackspace has announced a ramped up suite of products featuring enhanced support and functionality with Amazon Web Services.

The agreement with AWS, announced at re:Invent in Las Vegas this week, will see Rackspace launch managed service offerings including tools, expertise, application management and operational support for AWS Cloud. “Fanatical Support for AWS” is the core service offering featured as part of the agreement, with three beta offerings supplementing the managed service – Managed Security for AWS, Compliance Assistance for AWS and Managed Cloud for Adobe Experience Manager.

Through Fanatical Support, Rackspace tells its customers to “leave the heavy lifting to us” as it claims to take care of migration, architecture, security and operations for companies looking to adopt AWS for application hosting.

Rackspace has also become an authorised reseller at AWS, as well as a managed services partner, and has joined the AWS Partner Network. CEO Taylor Rhodes spoke about the announcement on the company’s blog page.

“Over the past year, more and more of them [customers] have told us that they love Rackspace expertise and Fanatical Support, and would like to get it for the workloads that they prefer to run on AWS,” he said. “We have spent the past several months working with those customers and with AWS, to create the best managed-service offering on that platform.”

Rhodes went on to say that AWS adds to Rackspace’s existing commitment to support a number of other platforms.

“We help businesses tap the power of the cloud without the pain and expense of managing it all themselves,” he said. “We have gone deep on support for platforms such as OpenStack, Microsoft and VMware. Our success in leading the managed cloud market for those technologies has been validated by industry experts such as Gartner, and most importantly, by our 300,000-plus business customers.”

Finally, Rhodes then highlighted how Fanatical Support has evolved with today’s announcements, and how it will benefit various customer segments.  He claims it will appeal to businesses that have desired AWS integration with existing Fanatical Support functionality; for rapidly growing businesses needing to outsource some IT functionality in order to reallocate technical resource to other areas; and for customers new to both AWS and Rackspace.

Meanwhile, AWS’s VP of worldwide partner ecosystem Terry Wise, welcomed Rackspace’s increased integration and functionality of AWS.

“We’re pleased to see Rackspace support AWS customers and achieve membership in the AWS Managed Service Program,” he said. “A growing number of businesses who want the benefit of the AWS Cloud will find value in working with AWS Managed Service Partners like Rackspace. We have been impressed with Rackspace’s commitment to include beta customers in their AWS managed services offerings, along with certifying a large number of their technical staff.”

Cleversafe, hybrid cloud, IBM, News & Analysis, Storage, Storage as a Service

IBM acquires storage vendor Cleversafe in hybrid cloud play

IBMEnterprise IT giant IBM has announced it will be acquiring object-based storage software and appliances vendor Cleversafe to boost its storage and hybrid cloud offering.

IBM will integrate the Cleversafe portfolio into its IBM Cloud business unit. The growth in the amount of unstructured data companies are looking to process, coupled with the need to find a balance between on-premise and cloud storage deployments, has created the demand for more storage options and greater flexibility, according to IBM.

“Today a massive digital transformation is underway as organizations increasingly turn to cloud computing for innovative ways to manage more complex business operations and increasing volumes of data in a secure and effective way,” said Robert LeBlanc, SVP of IBM Cloud. “Cleversafe, a pioneer in object storage, will add to our efforts to help clients overcome these challenges by extending and strengthening our cloud storage strategy, as well as our portfolio.”

“IBM is an innovator and leader in cloud and storage and we’re excited about the opportunities that lay ahead once this transaction closes,” said John Morris, President and CEO of Cleversafe. “Together with IBM we can extend our object storage leadership position to address the broadest set of workloads for clients with the most expansive set of object-based solutions.”

The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but Cleversafe employs 210 people so the size of the acquisition is likely to be in the tens of million dollars.

Incidentally IBM has also announced a new mobile cloud security solution aimed at enterprise, which is a combination of products from both companies.

“More employees are using mobile devices to be more productive. At the same time, data and apps are moving to the cloud. The changes are exciting, but security needs to be top-of-mind,” said Steve McGaw, CMO of AT&T Business Solutions. “Trusted collaborators like IBM are helping us better address changing business models. Together we’re giving options to deliver highly secure mobile access to cloud apps and data.”

Amazon, Analytics, Avere, AWS, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Elasticsearch, News & Analysis

Amazon enhances AWS with new analytics tools

AWSOn the eve of its AWS re:Invent 2015 event internet giant Amazon is positioning itself for a run at the business intelligence market.

Already announced is the Amazon Elasticsearch Service, is a managed service designed to make it easier to deploy and operate Elasticsearch in the AWS cloud, on which more later.

In addition the WSJ is reporting the likely launch of a new analytics service, codenamed SpaceNeedle, which is set to augment AWS with business intelligence tools. The reported strategic aim of this new service is to both strengthen Amazon’s relationship with AWS customers and allow it to broaden its total available market.

Back to the Elasticsearch service, BCN spoke to Ian Massingham, UK Technical Evangelist at AWS, to find out what the thinking behind it is. “This service is intended for developers running applications that use Elasticsearch today, or developers that are considering incorporating Elasticsearch into future applications,” he said “Elasticsearch is a popular open-source search and analytics engine for use cases such as log analytics, real-time application monitoring, and click stream analytics.”

Apparently Wikipedia uses Elasticsearch to provide full-text search with highlighted search snippets, as well as search-as-you-type and did-you-mean suggestions, while The Guardian uses Elasticsearch to combine visitor logs with social network data to provide real-time feedback to its editors about the public’s response to new articles.

Expect more AWS news as the re:Invent event gets underway. Already Avere Systems has unveiled Avere CloudFusion, a file storage application for AWS, that aims to provides a cloud file system to leverage Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) with the cost efficiencies of Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), all with the simplicity of network-attached storage.

Intel, Internet of Things, Linux, M2M, News & Analysis, Open Source, Wind River

Wind River announces upgraded IoT software platform

internet of things farmingEmbedded tech vendor Wind River has announced an upgraded portfolio of IoT software development tools for the internet of things (IoT).

The wholly-owned Intel subsidiary made the announcement at the Embedded Linux Conference in Dublin this week, and claimed to bring added flexibility and interoperability to its open-source platform, Wind River Linux 8. It also says it’s thrown in improved user experience and scalability for addressing IoT, stating that a combination of its virtualization services also allows customers to begin developing apps for IoT platforms within minutes of set-up and installation.

Speaking on the development of the upgraded platform, which will underpin a number of Wind River’s existing technology profiles, general manager of OS platforms Dinyar Dastoor is proud of the work the firm’s doing in driving the development of IoT.

“Wind River Linux allows customers to extract vast amounts of business intelligence and value from their data, and supports devices of all sizes, architectures and industries – from general purpose and high-performing real-time devices to carrier grade, virtualization, and highly secure military applications,” he said. “With the latest version of Wind River Linux and our updated Open Virtualization profile, we are delivering a versatile and robust Linux offering to the market that is ideally suited for the development if IoT devices.”

Wind River’s Linux platform is born out of the Linux Foundation’s Yocto Project, a hardware-agnostic an open-source collaboration project designed to provide templates, tools and methodologies for implementing tailored Linux systems on any embedded product – hypothetically ideal for IoT products, software and infrastructures. Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation’s executive director, is looking forward to the company’s continued participation with the project, based on its extensive contribution thus far – Wind River has so far contributed more than one third of the lines of code used by Yocto.

“Wind River continues to do important work with the Linux community, as well as foster open-source innovation,” he said. “We look forward to the company’s ongoing contributions to the Yocto Project, and their market success with products like Wind River Linux.”

Visit Europe’s leading IoT event – Internet of Things World Europe – in Berlin on 5 – 7 October 2015