OVH, a French cloud and hosting provider, has announced it has raised €400 million (£351m) to help follow through on its global expansion strategy, saying the addition of JP Morgan helped ‘reflect its position as a global player in cloud computing’.

The funding accompanies a previous €250m round from KKR and TowerBrook late last year, with the company saying it generated revenues close to €400m in 2016/17.

“This new financing provides us with an increasingly robust banking pool, renewing confidence in the group’s international strategy and positioning,” said Nicolas Boyer, chief financial officer of the OVH group. “We will continue to implement our strategic plan through international deployment, consolidation of our position in the digital market, acceleration of our growth among enterprise customers and by reinforcement and structuring of our organisation to take full advantage of market opportunities.”

The company currently operates 20 data centres across four continents, with more than one million customers worldwide. Alongside its European and North American bases – including Montreal, Toronto, Newark and New York – OVH has recently opened its doors in Australia and Singapore.

Regular readers of this publication will recognise the company from its continued impressive showings in reports from Cloud Spectator, an analyst firm which aims to rank cloud providers on both price and performance, from vCPU to memory and block storage. The most recent of these reports, issued last month, saw OVH take top spot overall, ahead of 1&1.

The month before, VMware announced it was to sell its vCloud Air business to OVH for an undisclosed amount. The vCloud Air US and European data centres and customer operations will be transitioned to OVH, with the rebranded service set to be known as vCloud Air Powered by OVH. 

Exclusive It is still early days for the potential of blockchain technologies to become apparent – yet according to Jeremiah Owyang, founder of industry advisory group Crowd Companies, blockchain is already showing its worth in the legal and supply chain industries.

Owyang, founder of Altimeter Group, has for the past three and a half years at Crowd Companies been helping organisations navigate the choppy digital waters of the ‘collaborative economy’. The latest project is a report on the business models of blockchain, written alongside Jaimy Szymanski, a research contractor at Crowd Companies and fellow Altimeter alumnus.

Owyang gives a very recent example to explain how and why the report came into being. Keynoting at a business conference in Cincinnati last week, he asked the audience whether they knew what blockchain and was and how it could impact their business. The near silence spoke volumes.

“While tech entrepreneurs and the crypto community understands and sees the opportunity, traditional, large companies are unsure of what it is and how it applies to them,” he tells CloudTech. “Sensing this market opportunity, we took on the challenge to explain blockchain to many industries.”

The 21-page report looks at 10 different industries, from energy to education and from food to pharmaceuticals. The legal industry, and the supply chain – adding transparency and accountability where the middlemen call the tune at a large cost in the latter – go ‘hand in hand’ with where blockchain is proving its value, says Owyang. “They’re also foundational underpinnings to most other industry applications that we’ll see in the long-term,” he adds.

“Using blockchain to store and validate data among multiple third parties, and execute contract terms accordingly, offers the greater opportunity for immediate disruption.”

The report also offers six cautions, with one of the more eyebrow-raising of these around the speed of verifying transactions – or, rather, the lack of it.

Listening in the audience at a blockchain event last Autumn, this reporter heard speakers discuss the benefits of Bitcoin and the technology underpinning it. Edan Yago, the CEO of Epiphyte, explained how his company helps banks, the great bastion of trust, and distributed ledgers, get along. He described how the problem of trust was being solved “like a liberal arts problem…in an entirely non-scalable way.”

Blockchain will help users send payments to other countries without incurring charges, Yago argued. Yet as the report reveals, while it can take up to 15 minutes to verify a transaction on blockchain currently, Western Union conducts 39 transactions per second. It is an “operational hurdle”, as David Thompson, Western Union EVP global operations and chief technology officer, puts it.

This will improve, however, according to Owyang, who added that the blockchain startups he spoke to in Cincinnati confirmed it was currently a weakness. “Verification speed will improve over time, and many financial institutions and partners are continually testing pilots on blockchain to see how fast transfers can occur while still maintaining their standards of security,” he says.

“In order for verification speed to get to where it needs to be, we’ll see not only the backend technology evolve but also partners working together – companies, government – to ensure legal and governance hurdles are overcome. In the meantime, companies are achieving greater speed of transactions and verification on blockchain by utilising private, permissioned chains.”

A graphic produced by Crowd Companies outlines the market opportunity (click the graphic to expand), while you can find out more here.  

Read more blockchain news at https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/.

As one company in the cloud monitoring space announces funding, another goes a different route: Microsoft has confirmed it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israel-based Cloudyn.

The move will help Azure customers manage and optimise their cloud usage, as a blog post from Jeremy Winter, director of program management Azure security and operations management confirming the news explained.

“This acquisition fits squarely into our commitment to empower customers with the tools they need to govern their cloud adoption and realise the strategic benefits of a global, trusted, intelligent cloud,” Winter wrote. “Cloudyn capabilities will be incorporated into our product portfolio that offers customers the industry’s broadest set of cloud management, security and governance solutions.”

In a ‘message from the CEO’ missive, Cloudyn chief exec Sharon Wagner added: “When we started this journey, our goal was to build a great company, attract the best and brightest talent and provide the best business management solution for all clouds. We have strived to help our customers be their company’s cloud heroes, and hope we have succeeded.”

The news comes in the same week that CloudHealth Technologies, a Boston-based cloud service management provider, announced series D funding to the tune of $46 million (£35.8m). Unlike Cloudyn, however, CloudHealth’s open stance is to move towards IPO.

As a result, the space is certainly heating up. Mindy Cancila, Gartner research director, was quoted in a recent article saying that “interest in cloud management tools is very high right now.” This publication featured Cloudyn as far back as 2012 – the company was founded the year before – as one of the ‘cloud 300’ companies of movers and shakers in the then-relatively nascent industry.

Back then, as this blog from author Ray De Pena noted, Cloudyn only supported AWS, with Microsoft integration arriving later that year. Wagner told De Pena that his company could provide 41% cost reduction through price optimisation and ‘rightsizing’, restructuring assets for the highest value. In comparison, Winter noted one US-based Fortune 500 customer of Cloudyn had seen a 286% return on investment with regard to their cloud efficiencies.

The acquisition move was not unexpected by those inside the industry. In April, Israeli publication Calcalist reported (Hebrew) that Microsoft was negotiating the acquisition of the cloud monitoring and cost optimisation provider at a cost of between $50 million and $70 million.

Financial terms of the deal however were not disclosed.

Equinix and Digital Realty have extended their leads in the colocation market, according to the latest note from analyst firm Synergy Research.

The updated note comes after Equinix officially completed the acquisition of 29 data centres from Verizon, a move first announced in December last year, as well as Digital Realty and DuPont Fabros announcing their intention to merge.

Synergy argues the Equinix and Verizon combination accounts for 13% of the overall market – including both retail colocation and wholesale – with Digital Reality and DuPont Fabros hitting 9% share. The latter has wholesale colocation as its primary driver, with the former entirely retail-based.

NTT, the third placed player, has just over 6% of the market overall, while the next largest vendors, KDDI/Telehouse, China Telecom, and CenturyLink/Cyxtera, have just over NTT’s share between them.

APAC continues to be the fastest growing region, with the four quickest growing companies – China, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia – all in the region. NTT leads in APAC, with Equinix and Digital Realty top in Europe and North America respectively.

“The aggressive growth of hyperscale data centre operators and other cloud and hosting companies is helping to drive demand for data centre footprint across all regions, while many enterprise customers require their data centre operators to span multiple metros and countries,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research. “These fundamental market drivers mean that colocation is increasingly a market where scale and geographic scope determines success.

“Equinix and Digital Realty were already growing much more rapidly than the overall market, and these deals will help them to further distance themselves from the competition,” Dinsdale added.

CloudHealth Technologies, a Boston-based cloud service management provider, has announced a $46 million (£35.8m) series D funding round with the company all set to go public.

The funding round was led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Meritech Capital Partners, and existing investors .406 Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners, taking overall funding to $86m across four rounds.

The company provides a platform that sits on top of other cloud tools, enabling organisations to better understand their cloud costs, whether it is by department, team, application, or business group, and allocate accordingly. Customers include Pinterest, Dow Jones and Imgur.

CloudHealth is clear in its position that the next step from here is towards IPO, although writing in a company blog post, CEO and co-founder Dan Phillips explains how the path to going public is ‘rarely a straight line’.

“Not only are we looking to be part of that elite club [of public Boston technology software companies], but we are also looking to capitalise on a unique set of market conditions and opportunities that have unfolded with the advent of cloud computing,” Phillips wrote.

“Not many companies have the opportunity to be the leader in a disruptive market with exponential growth and become the anchor company at the centre of the Boston software technology ecosystem for decades to come.”

Earlier this year, a report from Byron Deeter, of Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), affirmed that IPOs in the cloud space were drying up, although this was offset by M&A activity going through the roof. Only five companies – Apptio, Blackline, Coupa, Everbridge, and Twilio – went public last year, with this year seeing Cloudera, MuleSoft and Okta all take the plunge.  

Could 2018’s first name be provisionally pencilled in therefore? Phillips told CloudTech in a statement that there was ‘no definitive timetable’ at the moment but noted the IPO market ‘is showing some positive signs, so it’s something we’ll continue to watch’.

“At this point we’re focusing more on hitting our short-term goals – continuing to capitalise on the market opportunity we have ahead of us,” he said. “Right now, we’re focusing on scaling our business in every way – expanding our product line, our geographical footprint, our partner portfolio and our talent base. This latest round of funding gives us the ability to continue to execute on our plans.”

(c)iStock.com/ngkaki

Box and Microsoft have announced an expansion to their partnership – with machine learning as part of the potential benefits.

The two companies will align on sales efforts – co-selling Box with Azure, for instance – with the former using the latter as a ‘strategic public cloud platform’.

Yet it is the machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) aspect which leapt out most. The references in the press materials were all shrouded in modal verbs like ‘might’ and ‘could’, but video indexing – using natural language processing to generate metadata and power advanced search – was referenced.

“From leveraging Azure’s footprint of 40 data centres worldwide to help customers keep their data stored in-region, to taking advantage of Azure’s AI technologies – like video recognition – we’re incredibly thrilled to be exploring other innovations for customers,” wrote Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, in a company blog post. “We’ll be working with Microsoft to jointly deliver these solutions, and more, to customers over the coming quarters.”

The initial reference was to Box Zones, a product launched last year which enables in-region data storage, which is currently available in eight countries. Yet as the release puts it, “over time Box intends to leverage Azure’s global footprint to expand Box Zones coverage to many more regions while also giving customers choice and flexibility in local storage options.”

Earlier this month, Box launched Box Drive, which aims to combine “infinite access to the cloud with an intuitive, natively integrated desktop experience that is familiar to hundreds of millions of people today in enterprises all over the world.”

American Airlines is moving critical applications, including its customer-facing mobile app and check-in kiosks, to IBM’s cloud, the latter has announced.

The move builds upon the two companies’ partnership, first announced last year, with the airline also moving workloads and tools such as its Cargo customer website to the IBM cloud.

The two companies have agreed to rewrite applications to IBM’s cloud platform as a service (PaaS), as well as establishing a cloud-native architecture. American Airlines will work with IBM Global Services to help create applications through a micro-services architecture, DevOps, agile methodology, and lean development.

“In selecting the right cloud partner for American, we wanted to ensure the provider would be a champion of Cloud Foundry and open source technologies so we don’t get locked down by proprietary solutions,” said Daniel Hendry, VP customer technology and enterprise architecture at American. “We also wanted a partner that would offer us the agility to innovate at the organisational and process levels and have deep industry expertise with security at its core.

“We feel confident that IBM is the right long-term partner to not only provide the public cloud platform, but also enable our delivery transformation,” Henry added.

IBM has helped several companies – in particular airlines – with their digital transformations of late. Earlier this month it was revealed that Singapore Airlines was using various apps to help increase productivity and customer experience, while United Airlines and Finnair are also using IBM to provide iOS apps to devices and employees.

“American Airlines is embracing IBM Cloud as a true business enabler to lead the way in innovative customer experiences,” said David Kenny, SVP IBM Watson and Cloud Platform. “It is the foundation of American’s digital transformation and enables the airline to take its delivery speed to the next level with increased scalability, performance and agility to improve business processes and customer experiences at the same time.”

If you’re looking for a place to put your data, then Ireland may be the best port of call, according to a new report from BroadGroup.

The report, issued this morning, argued the Emerald Isle’s status in the EU, as well as its ‘low corporate tax environment’, make it an attractive proposition. Connectivity is also a strong point, with the first direct submarine cable system from Ireland to France – bypassing the UK – expected to be launched in 2019.

“Active government support for inward investment by hyperscales from companies such as Amazon and Microsoft has resulted in the construction of massive facilities around Dublin,” the company notes. “Even now authorities are seeking to identify potential land banks for new large scale data centre facilities in Ireland, which indicates that the supply of more space will continue to enter the market.”

While Amazon and Microsoft have facilities in Dublin, another company looking to move business over to Ireland is Apple. According to Silicon Republic, a court decision on the €850 million Apple data centre looking to be built in Athenry is expected later this week having been postponed due to a shortage of judges.

BroadGroup suggests that Dublin is somewhat overlooked in terms of clout compared with its European neighbours. The city is currently the seventh largest market by third party metres squared space in Europe, but the presence of webscales should account for Dublin to be re-classified as a tier 1 hub, alongside London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.

You can read the full report here (paid).

More than half of respondents in a survey from Oracle say moving to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has significantly cut their time to deploy new applications and services, while three in five claim it is easier to innovate through it.

The study, conducted alongside Longitude Research and which surveyed more than 1,600 IT professionals across nine countries, also found IaaS had significantly cut ongoing maintenance costs for a majority (54%) of those polled.

Naturally, the more organisations are using IaaS, the more confident they are of its success. 56% of experienced users agreed with the statement that IaaS ‘provides world-class availability and uptime’, compared with 49% of established users, 45% of recent adopters, and only 29% of non-adopters. For the statement ‘IaaS provides world-class speed’, it was similar, with 52% of experienced users and 25% of non-adopters respectively.

When it came to more negative perceptions surrounding IaaS, the UK came out on top. 57% of respondents grumbled that IaaS was ‘not secure enough for most critical data’, compared to only 39% in Germany, while 55% and 43% respectively were concerned over losing control of on-premises systems.

“When it comes to cloud adoption, there has always been a case of perception lagging behind reality,” said James Stanbridge, vice president of IaaS product management at Oracle. “Cloud is still relatively new to a lot of businesses and some outdated perceptions persist.

“We are now seeing high levels of success and satisfaction from businesses that are saving money, cutting complexity and driving exciting innovation thanks to cloud infrastructure,” Stanbridge added. “Those resisting the move need to challenge the perceptions holding them back because the longer they wait, the further ahead their competitors will pull.”

The push for Oracle towards IaaS will not be a huge surprise given the company has said it is an important focus for them. Speaking to analysts following the impressive $1.36 billion cloud quarter results last week, Larry Ellison said that during the current fiscal year, the company expects both its IaaS and PaaS (platform as a service) businesses to ‘accelerate into hyper growth’. SaaS revenue hit $964 million in the most recent quarter, compared to PaaS and IaaS with $397m.

You can read the report here (UK-centric).

Oracle’s cloud revenues continue to go in the right direction – with Larry Ellison predicting its PaaS and IaaS business will outperform SaaS in time.

Total cloud revenues for the company’s most recent quarter hit $1.36 billion (£1.06bn), or 13% of overall revenue, compared to $859 million and 8% this time last year. SaaS contributed 70% of the overall total with $964m, compared to PaaS and IaaS with $397m.

Speaking to analysts after the announcement, Ellison, Oracle’s CTO, said that in addition to the company’s ‘demonstrated strength’ in SaaS – again calling out Salesforce – the company had turned a corner in IaaS and PaaS. “During this new fiscal year, we expect both our PaaS and IaaS businesses to accelerate into hyper growth, the same kind of growth we are seeing with SaaS,” he said, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

An example of this was last month, when AT&T agreed to move thousands of its large scale databases to Oracle’s IaaS and PaaS. Ellison promised the deal was ‘just the beginning’, while CEO Mark Hurd added that even if the deal provided no revenue Q4, it was a “very strategic win as a reference to all of our customers about the modernisation of databases and the movement of them to the cloud.”

While cloud revenues go up, on-premise has fallen year on year. Total quarterly on-premise revenue was $7.52bn, down from $7.58bn this time in 2016, making total revenues at $10.89bn, up 2.7% from $10.59bn this time last year.

The rhetoric echoes what was said at the previous quarter’s results in March. At the time, Hurd said that if trends continued, it would be ‘just a matter of when we catch and pass Salesforce in total cloud revenue’. Ellison said this time around: “The reason we are confident that we will pass Salesforce is because we have a three-fold SaaS application suites for ERP, for HCM and for CRM including financials, procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, human resources, payroll, marketing, sales and service. Salesforce in contrast only competes in three of these nine market areas.”

Yet the figures don’t lie. Earnings Forecast Focus, writing in Seeking Alpha, said this quarter represented a ‘turnaround’ for Oracle. “I expect annual revenues to grow by double digits as soon as next year,” the blogger wrote. “Given that this growth will be attributable to cloud, this will also result in margin expansion and thus higher profits.”

You can read the full Oracle earnings report here.