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For the vast majority of IT decision makers, cloudy offices fit their organisations like a glove. That’s one of the key findings from a study released by software vendor BetterCloud, which found 95% of the almost 270 respondents agree that Office 365 and Google Apps suit their workplace needs well.

Comparing the two, however, is something which is too tempting to resist. 44% of Google Apps users say that system fits their needs ‘very well’, compared with 39% for Office 365, while Google also comes out on top for users who complain about poor suitability; 1% compared to 6% of Microsoft users. Putting all the figures together, 40% say their cloud office solutions suit their company ‘very well’, with 55%, 4% and 1% going for ‘well’, ‘poorly’, and ‘very poorly’ respectively.

The report also, as one would expect, digs in to the key pain points and benefits of moving to cloud apps. Again, it appears Google has the slight advantage. More Office 365 users (57%) cited security as a key issue compared to Google Apps (37%), while integration with current business systems is also more of a headache for Microsoft houses (29% and 22% respectively).

Whether security is better with Google, or whether it is just less of a hot button issue for its customers, remains to be seen. Yet there is an interesting development in this report. Previous surveys from BetterCloud argue Google is the more likely home for smaller businesses compared to the more enterprise-focused Microsoft. This study, however, focuses solely on medium to large enterprises – so one would expect security to be especially vital.

Elsewhere, more than half (54%) of respondents reported needing less effort with their storage management or data recovery plays, while more than two thirds (67%) say they get things done more quickly with migration to the cloud. This positivity was the key point of the report’s conclusion.

“Cloud applications are at the heart of the evolution of IT,” the report notes. “This is causing a shift in the skills of IT professionals and is changing the jobs they are doing.

“The use of cloud applications is impacting the culture in organisations broadly, and in IT departments especially,” it adds. “Offloading applications to the cloud frees technology administrators from mundane tasks and enables more innovation, while at the same time users become empowered and more productive.”

You can find out more about the report and download it here (registration required).

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Hyper-converged all flash infrastructure vendor Gridstore and application lifecycle management platform provider DCHQ have merged to launch HyperGrid, which is claimed to be the industry’s first ‘hyper-converged infrastructure as a service’ (HCIaaS) offering.

To translate, the new HyperGrid product aims to combined hyper-converged infrastructure with a pay as you consume pricing model. “HCIaaS is the first solution that bridges the needs of traditional and cloud-native developers with IT operations, delivering an AWS-like environment for your enterprise that enables complete DevOps”, the press release trumpets.

DCHQ, now HyperForm as part of the move, aims to manage existing enterprise and cloud-native applications seamlessly across any cloud or container infrastructure, including VMware, OpenStack, Azure and AWS among others. Amjad Afanah, CEO and co-founder of DCHQ, says the company is ‘thrilled’ to be part of the HyperGrid technology. “HyperGrid solves a real pain point for our customers struggling with innovation in the digital economy,” said Afanah.

“Our combined platform will dramatically simplify IT operations and help enterprises deliver applications faster and cheaper than going to the public cloud,” he added.

“Customers are demanding that vendors deliver app-centric, app-optimised, and app-aware infrastructure as a service with no upfront cost,” said Namiran Teymourian, chairman and CEO of HyperGrid. “They want to be able to use their choice of hypervisor, container or bare metal and they want the ability to build, deploy, update and manage applications at the push of a button.”

Hyper-converged is evidently an area in which vendors increasingly like to play; take Dell, whose takeover of EMC has recently been approved by shareholders, shuffling the pack and reselling EMC, VCE and VMware, as well as its own products. According to a recent Computer Weekly report, Nutanix, Maxta, Atlantis, Scale, and Simplivity are among the challengers in the market.

You can find out more about HyperGrid here.

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A survey of 200 IT professionals surveyed by IT and cloud operations provider NetEnrich has revealed that 70% are using containers today, but integration with existing IT environments remains a challenge.

The research found that while seven in 10 use container technology, with another 21% of respondents indicating they plan to move soon, more than half (55%) admitted integrating containers into current IT systems was the biggest issue. Security concerns (53% of respondents) and managing containers to avoid sprawl and cost overruns (47%) were also highly cited, along with a lack of experience in managing container technologies (42%).

The latter was a particularly interesting point; two thirds of respondents describe learning the likes of Docker, Kubernetes and Mesos as ‘moderately challenging’. CoreOS (33% of respondents) was the most popular main container technology, ahead of Kubernetes (32%), Docker (25%), and Joyent (11%).

In terms of benefits, improving flexibility for IT infrastructure was the most highly cited, according to 63% of those polled. Overall IT cost savings (53%), increased sped for developers launching code (51%), and greater responsiveness to business needs (40%) were also noted.

“The results of our survey indicate that container adoption is on the rise and leading to cost savings and efficiency gains for many IT organisations,” said Chris Joseph, vice president of product management and marketing at NetEnrich. “However, companies are still grappling with issues such as integration, security and management when it comes to container tech.

“This will likely continue until the skillsets of internal IT staff catch up to the market. In the meantime, companies are benefiting from the support of outside consultants and service providers,” Joseph added.

The research confirms trends that have been apparent for some time; container technology is infiltrating the enterprise, but with teething problems attached. Writing for this publication in April, MongoDB’s Mat Keep argued the key to getting the most out of each technology. “These are not technologies that were designed with a grand plan,” he wrote.

“Going from solo performer with a few containers to conducting a whole ‘orchestra’ is a big step but as containers become more widely adopted it will become standard. Play around now so you can get familiar with the different options and know which one will help you solve your business problems.”

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Even though almost three quarters of the major UK councils say they use cloud technologies for data storage in some capacity, almost half say they are yet to formulate plans to use cloud computing.

That’s the main finding from not for profit IT service provider Eduserv, in responses provided by the top 100 councils in the UK. 44% of those polled said they did not have a strategy or IT policy in place – and of that number, only 15% say they are exploring or considering a cloud policy.

63% of councils say they have two or more on-premise data centres, and a third use no external data centres. Only 10% have a pure cloud IT model, while 93% hold all but a negligible amount of data on-premise.

Worryingly, more than a quarter (27%) of councils approached by Eduserv said they could not provide a full breakdown of where their data was held. The overall sense of the findings provide a complex landscape for councils. “Information management maturity is still relatively low in local government, which needs to be addressed in the move to digital delivery,” said Andrew Hawkins, Eduserv public sector director.

Jos Creese, Eduserv principal analyst, argues the results are not especially surprising, but more can be done. “As cloud use becomes more ubiquitous, local authorities cannot afford not to have plans to ensure that it is used safely and with controls in place to ensure data is managed in a way which reduces risk,” said Creese.

“From a strategic perspective, the prevalence of on-premise IT shows that the majority of councils are still poorly positioned to exploit digital change in a way which generates both service and financial benefit,” added Creese. “If councils are to go down this path then it will be critical to address the apparent lack of clarity around where data is stored which emerged from our research.”

Writing for this publication last month, Hawkins argued organisations in the public sector needed to provide cultural, budgetary, and technical readiness before fully committing to cloud migration. “You can’t move to the cloud until you understand fully the shape of your current IT estate and the applications which support the organisation,” he wrote. “Mapping these will allow you to understand areas which are compatible and incompatible with a cloud operating model ahead of time.”

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Box, Citrix, Dropbox, and Egnyte represent the leaders’ section in the latest Gartner enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) Magic Quadrant.

The 2016 rankings show an interesting correlation year on year; Dropbox and Egnyte move from the challenger and visionary sections respectively, while the overall number of vendors, 13, represents a step down from 16 last year. VMware AirWatch, CTERA Networks and Acronis fall off the niche player section this year, while EMC fell off altogether – partly down to the firm’s acquisition by Dell for $67 billion (£43.7bn) in October last year.

“We’re proud to be recognised as a leader, and this recognition underscores our company vision, product innovation, and our commitment to helping drive customer success,” wrote Thomas Hansen, global vice president for revenue at Dropbox in a blog post. “We’re honoured to be recognised by Gartner as a leader in this rapidly growing and highly competitive global market.”

For Egnyte, placed in the leaders’ section, the concept is validation not just for them but for the space overall. “In today’s rapidly evolving digital workplaces, businesses need to maintain flexibility, security, and performance in dealing with their data,” said Vineet Jain, Egnyte CEO. “Hybrid solutions, like Egnyte, are unique in having an open architecture that allows businesses to customise their digital workplace, enabling secure access to their data via any storage, any applications, and any device.

“With this level of customisation and freedom, hybrid has become a popular choice for both IT and end users,” Jain added.

In June, Egnyte announced the launch of Egnyte Protect, positioning the firm away from the traditional EFSS bucket but evolving its market strategy. “We see ourselves as a content intelligence platform,” Isabelle Guis, chief marketing and strategy officer, told CloudTech. “EFSS has great benefits to be a service used by the line of business, but also be of interest to IT.

“We decided that the highest demand for now was content governance,” Guis added. “That’s what our customers were asking for, and that compliments very well our enterprise file sync and share.”

Box was considered by Gartner analysts at the top for completeness of vision, while Citrix was placed as the best for ability to execute. 

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IT spending has long since been shifting from traditional IT offerings to cloud services – and according to the latest prognostication from Gartner, more than $1 trillion (£759bn) of IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud in the coming five years.

The aggregate amount of ‘cloud shift’ in 2016 is estimated by Gartner to hit $111 billion, going up to $216bn by 2020. Business process outsourcing – with the cloud segment of course being business process as a service (BPaaS) – has a cloud shift rate of 43%, with a cloud shift of $42bn out of a $119bn overall market size. Application software (SaaS), comparatively, has a cloud shift of 37%, compared with system infrastructure (IaaS, 17%), and application infrastructure software (PaaS, 10%).

“Cloud-first strategies are the foundation for staying relevant in a fast-paced world,” said Ed Anderson, research vice president at Gartner. “The market for cloud services has grown to such an extent that it is now a notable percentage of total IT spending, helping to create a new generation of startups and ‘born in the cloud’ providers.

“As organisations pursue a new IT architecture and operating philosophy, they become prepared for new opportunities in digital business, including next-generation IT solutions such as the Internet of Things,” added Anderson. “Furthermore, organisations embracing dynamic, cloud-based operating models position themselves better for cost optimisation and increased competitiveness.”

Angelo Di Ventura, a director at IT services provider Trustmarque, argues there is ultimately no one-size-fits-all model for making cloud work for a business. “A combination of dated licensing models not designed for cloud, a lack of compatibility of existing business applications and the intricacies of cloud integration all pose questions for today’s organisations,” he said. “The transition from an internet-enabled business to a digital business running in the cloud represents a huge jump for the majority of IT departments, whose existing infrastructure is designed for ‘business as usual’ operations.”

Back in 2013, Gartner argued that service led solutions – SaaS, IaaS, PaaS – will begin to displace more traditional sourcing methods by 2015. Among more recent research, Gartner assessed that the global CRM software market totalled $26.3bn in 2015, up 12.3% from the year before.

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Microsoft cited the strength of its cloud portfolio on the firm’s ‘customer momentum’ as it reported a $3.1 billion (£2.4bn) net income for the quarter ending June 30.

Revenue was $20.6bn GAAP, with operating income at $3.1bn. Office commercial products and cloud services revenue grew 5%, heavily driven by the Office 365 side, while Office consumer products and cloud services grew 19%.

For Azure, revenue grew 102%, with Azure compute usage more than doubling year on year, while the install base for Microsoft’s enterprise mobility suites grew almost two and a half times year on year. The company claims its overall user base in the wider context of enterprise mobility is 33,000; figures from earlier this month, when Microsoft rebranded EMS from Enterprise Mobility Suite to Enterprise Mobility + Security, put the number of EMS customers at more than 27,000.

“This past year was pivotal in both our own transformation and in partnering with our customers who are navigating their own digital transformations,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement. “The Microsoft cloud is seeing significant customer momentum and we’re well positioned to reach new opportunities in the year ahead.”

Microsoft’s strategies and manoeuvres are of course never out of the press, but the firm’s planned acquisition of LinkedIn, slated at $26.2bn, in June was evidently the biggest. This was inferred by Amy Hood, EVP and chief financial officer. “This fiscal year we invested in innovation and expanded our market presence in key product areas and geographies,” she said. “I am pleased with the execution from our sales teams and partners this quarter who delivered a strong finish to the fiscal year.”

Last week Microsoft secured a major victory when a federal court ruled the US government could not force the tech giant to hand over information stored in other territories, overturning a two-year-old previous judgement. Analyst figures argue Microsoft is in clear second place in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) bracket, although significantly behind Amazon Web Services.

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The airline industry has traditionally been ripe for technological innovation – and a couple of examples have hit CloudTech’s inbox with regard to how different providers are currently utilising big data and cloud.

Boeing has announced an agreement with Microsoft to build a cloud-based platform for its range of analytics tools, aiming to transition many of the airline’s commercial aviation applications into the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Among the applications ready to move into the cloud include real-time information on purchasing and leasing aeroplanes and engines, as well as route planning, managing inventory, and maintaining fleets. The airline claims that through use of its apps by customers, crew scheduling costs have gone down by as much as 7%.

“Boeing’s expertise and extensive aviation data resource, coupled with Microsoft’s cloud technology, will accelerate innovation in areas such as predictive maintenance and flight optimisation, allowing airlines to drive down costs and improve operational efficiency,” said Kevin Crowley, Boeing vice president of digital aviation. “Together, two companies that changed their industries are teaming up to accelerate the digital transformation of aviation through the use of analytics-based applications, cloud technologies, and large-scale integration.”

Elsewhere, Ryanair is using visual analytics to improve route management, reservations, and in-flight services. The low-cost flight provider is working with data analytics provider Qlik to build an overview of its business, and according to Shane Finnegan, senior BI developer at Ryanair, the use of two Qlik products – Qlik Sense, for easy to digest data visualations, and QlikView, for more in depth analytics – has helped in identifying and addressing issues much closer to real-time.

“Ultimately, we want to find the best ways to make our customers happy on-board, while being able to offer them the lowest fares on the market – and Qlik gives us the foundation to make educated decisions which will make that notion a reality,” said Finnegan.

Ryanair is looking to expand its initial collaboration with Qlik to potentially feature improving in-flight retail, as well as better targeted flight offerings, optimising the supply chain by understanding the anticipated group of passengers on a given flight.

Cloud and big data is not the only area in which airlines – and airports – are trying to take advantage. Delta has started to implement improvements around the Internet of Things (IoT), predominantly around the manufacturing and maintenance of planes, while Miami International Airport has launched the MIA Airport Official mobile app, which gives contextual information to passengers based on their location around hundreds of beacons installed at the airport.

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Enterprise cloud software provider Box is working with cloud communications provider RingCentral to unify its global enterprise communications in order to save up to $900,000 per year.

Box will deploy RingCentral Office, the comms vendor’s flagship UCaaS (unified communications as a service) platform, as well as planning to utilise RingCentral products which integrate with both Google for Work and Salesforce. RingCentral notes that the openness of its platform, as well as its ‘robust’ set of APIs, helped Box come to its decision.

“As we add more employees and offices in different locations, we require a solution that consolidates our entire enterprise communications in the cloud for voice and web meetings and offers the agility to grow. RingCentral addresses this while delivering a very high standard of reliability, security and quality to successfully run our global business,” said Paul Chapman, Box CIO.

“Not only have we reduce the operational headaches of managing multiple, single point communication solutions, but we’ve also cut costs by 80% since moving to RingCentral, and we’re on track to save $800,000 to $900,000 per year,” he added.

Last month RingCentral announced a strategic partnership with Google in order to target medium to large enterprises’ productivity needs. The target for the two companies’ fire, as the press release clearly notes, is Microsoft’s collaboration ecosystem, which naturally encompasses Outlook, Office 365, Skype for Business, and much more.

Speaking to this reporter, RingCentral senior manager of product marketing David Van Der Steen argued the unified comms landscape is still lacking in technology to really gain buy-in. “Vendors need to focus on a robust, elegant and delightful to use application that allows users to seamlessly transition between various communication channels and devices at will,” he said. “The first vendor to execute on this vision will realise massive rewards through viral user adoption and the resulting increased demand from IT buyers.”

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A short research note from analyst house IDC argues how enterprise acceptance and adoption rates are driving strong growth of public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

According to IDC forecasts, public cloud IaaS revenues are set to more than triple, from $12.6 billion (£9.5bn) in 2015 to $43.6bn in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of 28.2% over that period. The public cloud IaaS market grew 51% in 2015, according to IDC, with that growth expecting to slow after 2017 as enterprises get over the hump and move towards cloud ‘optimisation’ rather than exploration.

IDC also predicts that four in five IT organisations will be committed to hybrid architectures by 2018, arguing hybrid represents the ‘optimal path to public cloud IaaS adoption’. Previous research, from Veritas Technologies last month, argued the need for greater security and information management in hybrid cloud is vital, as almost three quarters of enterprises are adopting multiple cloud strategies.

“Public cloud services are increasingly being seen as an enabler of business agility and speed,” said Deepark Mohan, IDC research director of public cloud storage and infrastructure. “This is bringing about a shift in IT infrastructure spending, with implications for the incumbent leaders in enterprise infrastructure technologies.

“Growth of public cloud IaaS has also created new service opportunities around adoption and usage of public cloud resources,” Mohan added. “With changes at the infrastructure, architectural, and operational layers, public cloud IaaS is slowly transforming the enterprise IT value chain.”

In terms of vendors, IDC not surprisingly advocates Amazon as the leader by some distance, followed by a long tail of rivals. Their figures argue that more than half (56%) of overall revenue figures in 2015 went to the top 10 providers.