Category Archives: Cloud Services

Cloud Services, Cloud Technology, Collaboration

IBM’s Internet of Things + Partnership With The Weather Channel

Last fall, IBM announced their Internet of Things (IoT) Foundation service on its BlueMix cloud-based platform. This news was overshadowed by the announcement this week that they plan to invest over $3 billion to build a dedicated IoT unit consisting of over 2,000 consultants, researchers and developers over the course of the next four years.

 

Along with this news, IBM announced that they are building a cloud-based platform to assist clients and partners to enhance real-time data and insights from various sources directly to business operations. In a separate announcement they said they would be partnering with The Weather Channel for an IoT service, as The Weather Channel is adding IBM as its cloud services provider.

 

twc app

 

The IoT foundation already has offered developers a set of APIs to simplify data access from Internet-connected devices. The new service includes IoT Cloud Open Platform for Industries (new analytics services offered directed at developing and delivering vertical industry IoT apps for cloud customers), BlueMix IoT Zone (new IoT services to support integration of IoT data into cloud-based apps) and the IoT Ecosystem (expanding partnerships with existing chip, device and industry partners to confirm the secure and easy integration of data solutions and services to their cloud platform).

 

The Weather Company, parent company of The Weather Channel, runs its weather-data-services-platform on Amazon only. They capture more than 20TB of data per day in order to drive their predictions accurately. The use of IBM’s cloud platform shows how the cloud market is heating up. The CIO/CTO of The Weather Company says they believe in multi-cloud stories, so cloud-based businesses or applications need to be built in an agnostic manner. This is the reason why they have been on a three-year journey to integrate IBM’s SoftLayer to power opportunities beyond what AWS could do alone.

 

The data from the Weather Channel’s WSI (B2B) will be made available to IBM IoT ecosystem customers so that they can make decisions about supply chains and customer buying patterns with accurate up to minute forecasts. IBM creating a dedicated business unit means that they can bring more focus and scale IoT opportunities. IBM feels that it is the right time for IoT to become the mainstream source of innovation across various industries.

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Cloud computing, Cloud Hosting, Cloud Server, Cloud Services

Hewlett-Packard Announces New Cloud Service: Helion Rack

HP announced recently a new preconfigured package of software and hardware targeted towards enterprises who want to adopt the cloud but also keep their computational resources in-house: the Helion Rack. It is designed to aid companies adopt a private cloud much faster.

The use of a private cloud allows organizations to use cloud services on an internal network. However, creating a private cloud network can be quite difficult, taking organizations months to do. With Helion Rack, HP creates each system in its facilities then sets it up at the customer’s location. There has been much done to secure the system and tune it for maximum performance.

Helion Rack is based on open source software; specifically HP used OpenStack for infrastructure services. HP is a large contributor to the OpenStack project, and therefore has expertise on hand to help with any issues. OpenStack is also used for HP’s Helion Public Cloud service.

hp-helion-neutron-openstack

On the platform services side, HP used Cloud Foundry software, also open source. HP has also installed their Helion Development Platform, which is simply a set of development tools. For the hardware, HP went with ProLiant DL servers, which includes storage and network components.

Helion Rack is a great platform for developing new applications, specifically those that will run on a cloud infrastructure. It is also designed to deal with heavy workloads like data analysis and hosting. Helion Rack will be available starting in April and pricing is based on configuration starting with a system that can support 400 virtual machines.

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Cloud & IT Management, Cloud Services

Survey Shows New Opportunities Due To Evolving Cloud Technology

The cloud computing market has greatly evolved in recent years, and many are viewing it as a mainstream and established way of handling part of doing business. A recent survey sponsored by Microsoft and conducted by 451 research found that 70 percent of the opportunity of the 1,700 cloud and hosting customers around the world focuses on application hosting, managed data services like backup and disaster recovery, and security. It also found that IT organizations want cloud solutions that go beyond their infrastructure needs.

 

451 research

 

The need for these types of services is particularly high when cloud providers can drive more business by delivering custom integrations, disaster recovery and service-level agreements that are personalized for the organizations needs.

 

Many businesses that utilize cloud services have a hybrid public-private system. This will give cloud service providers the opportunity to increase revenue by providing value-added services to the customer. Cloud service providers can also gain a reputation and become trusted cloud advisors.

 

With many businesses already using cloud services or evaluating a deployment plan, it isn’t enough for service providers to have many data centers available at a low price. Trust, uptime, security, performance and technical expertise are what separate competitors. Providers need to be able to align their own values with their customer’s values.

 

The survey also found that the decision making regarding cloud services is increasingly moving away from the IT manager and towards the higher level management. Chief Information Officers (CIO’s) and Chief Technology Offers (CTO’s) are the ones leading the transition to the cloud. Just over half of the survey participants claimed this to be true in their organization.

 

You can download the survey results on the Microsoft Website.

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Cloud Services, Cloud Storage, Google

Nearline: Google’s Low-Cost Cloud Storage Service For Cold Data

Google is launching a new cloud storage service that is expected to change how many companies of any size view online storage. Google Cloud Storage Nearline allows businesses to store data they or their customers do not often need, and for a low cost of $0.01 per gigabyte at rest.

 

Unlike other cloud storage services where it can take very long to retrieve your data, Google promises that on Nearline your data will be available in only three seconds. They believe the gap between the cost of online and offline storage must decrease according to their director of product management for the Cloud Platform team, Tom Kershaw.

 

Businesses may need or want to keep all of their records for as long as possible. Once they have been moved offline however, it becomes difficult to quickly find the desired record. Google is hoping to blue the line between cold storage and online storage so that businesses do not have to delete or move their files to more complicated storage locations.

 

The low cost of this storage service, which is competitive with Glacier by Amazon, is due to the fact that Google is able to host all of its data on a single system, regardless of location. This is unusual for a cloud storage service because historically, service providers have built two separate systems. The hardest thing about offline storage is transferring the data between these two systems.

 

Nearline uses the same system as the rest of Google’s storage products, including the same encryption and security features. They also share API’s with the standard storage service. It is expected that early adopters of this service will use it primarily for photo, video and document storage.

 

In order to reach a broader market, Google has partnered with many storage companies, most notable Iron Mountain. This partnership will allow users to send in their hard drives and have the securely uploaded onto Nearline.

iron mtn

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Cloud computing, Cloud Services

HP: New Server Line For Cloud Computing

Many computer technology companies have already begun to shift their focus to cloud computing, and Hewlett-Packard is among them. HP has recently said that they are creating a server family whose purpose is to build systems for cloud providers.

 

This move is part of a joint venture with Foxconn, which was announced last year, to create cloud-optimized servers. Since the announcement, HP has been making servers with the Taipei based electronics company, and it now has a name: Cloudline. They have also announced several server products.

 

foxconn

 

Cloud based servers are designed for hyper scale environments with thousands of servers. HP’s systems are based on standards-based principles and use rack-scale computing. With this system, functions previously located in the server, such as cooling and power, are now part of the rack. They will likely be used in multi-vendor situations.

 

HP is planning on using Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), which is an open management platform, along with other systems that provide a uniform way to manage hardware. The hyper scale x86 server market has been growing fast, which has led to an increase in numbers of original design manufacturers (ODM).

 

HP’s partnership with Foxconn puts it on the same level as the low-cost providers but HP can also leverage its breadth, reach, and services it can add.

 

The cloud hardware appeals to enterprise clients, like financial firms trying to build out a cloud network, and HP is trying to adapt their services and products to meet this demand.

 

mmmm

 

HP will begin to take orders at the end of the month, after announcing their OpenStack systems at the Open Compute Summit. The systems available use Intel Xeon E5 v3 processors and come in five configurations, including a two-socket (2P) server sled configuration and 1U configurations. No pricing has been announced.

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cloud security, Cloud Services

Cloud Security Alliance Announces Cyber Security Guide

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), European Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), and TU Darmstadt has published a step-by-step guide for the attainment and security of cloud services. This report stems from ENISA’s 2013 report on governmental cloud use. This report details framework modeled into four phases, nine security activities and fourteen steps. Every member nation who follows this guide will, according to its authors, define and implement a secure government cloud. The authors used four nations as case studies to base their recommendations on: Estonia, Greece, Spain and the United Kingdom.

 

The focus of this report is what type of security framework is suitable for government clouds and how to execute them. If an infrastructure is fit for government use, then it is also fit for private company use as well, so long as it does not cost an excessive amount of money. Currently, there are very few European Nations who have the ability to adopt and execute cloud computing. Many in the private sector however have already begun to implement the cloud, yet it will still be many years before full execution is achieved.

 

Governments that have already been working with the cloud have adopted several cloud deployment models. Community and private clouds are the most popular, with hybrid and public clouds also being utilized. Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are the most common cloud service model, and Platform as a Service (PaaS) will likely become more important moving forward. Of the e-government services that use the cloud, email was at the top of the list with other services, such as backup and archive, Identity as a Service (IDaaS), office applications, and citizen participation, follow on the list.

 

Security and privacy are the two key technology requirements for the aforementioned services. The UK government has taken drastic steps to overhaul the security classifications for government data to make it easier for service providers to construct more secure systems. Many corporations have heavily invested in complex data classification systems that have become an inhibitor to business. Simplification could make it easy to build a secure system without complicating the data classification.

 

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However, security is not an easily resolved issue. For example, Germany has very strong privacy and security regulations. Because of this there has been quite a few service providers trying to build data centers there in order to hold German company’s data. The UK government has been making moves towards a similar position. A recent survey of parliament members in the UK found that many thought the idea of government data being stored in off-shore centers was inhibiting a greater use of cloud computing.

 

The next part of the guide covers the roles, logic model, and the plan, do, check and act phases of security framework. It points out how inputs, activities and outputs relate to risk profiling, architectural modeling and the security and privacy requirements. Many of these steps are no different than steps IT managers take when outsourcing systems or working with system integrators. However, in the guide the outsourcing focused on entire systems while cloud focuses on services.

 

The next section focuses on applying the steps from the previous section to government applications. They apply them to the four governments mentioned at the beginning of this article as a case study. The study proves that while in its simplest form, the cloud is about commoditization and common approaches, but in real applications there can be more than one way to solve a problem.

 

In conclusion, the report comes to some very important conclusions. The report does not say that it is urgent for the EU to adopt the suggested security framework. However without a coherent framework across all of the European Union, there will certainly be gaps in security that hackers can easily exploit. Also, this means that companies who wish to work in different EU nations need to continue to have a complex network, and sometimes even conflicting government requirements. It is now up to EU leaders to ensure than comprehensive standar

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Cloud computing, Cloud Services

IBM’s Cloud Services

IBM has been restructuring its business to accommodate better growth opportunities by boosting profitability and focusing on new ventures. This includes expanding their cloud services. Recently, IBM announced their hybrid cloud technology, which extends client control, visibility, and security into the private cloud as well as allow developers to work across any IT cloud. By 2018, the company hopes to see $40 billion in revenue from services such as the cloud, big data, security, etc.

 

Cloud computing gives way for convenient, on-demand access to a shared pool of computing resources, such as servers, storage, applications and services. These can quickly be released with minimal effort on the managerial or service provider side. Cloud computing is made up of three main services: software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). SaaS is expected to grow the fastest, followed by IaaS, though all three categories are going to be in high demand in the near future. Growth is expected due to the global demand for technology-based services. The global cloud computing market is expected to reach almost $200 billion by 2020.

 

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The three services previously mentioned are interconnected and dependent on one another in order to provide a cost effective solutions for clients. Most cloud services are providing a multitenancy structure, which represents a shared infrastructure with many locations in a topology that leverages advantages of remote access to deliver new businesses and services. SaaS software is positioned on the internet. A software company licenses an application to customers through a subscription based model. Another approach that recently popped up is one that gives users free access to the most basic functions, and requiring payment for more advanced ones. IBM has 120 SaaS offerings that cover a wide array of capabilities. They cover everything from big data analytics to human resource administration.

 

IaaS delivers on-demand cloud computing infrastructure through the use of secure IP-based connectivity. Clients can buy resources such as servers, software and data center space as a fully outsourced on-demand system. IaaS is based on creating a virtual version of something, and users are responsible for managing the applications, data, and middleware. IBM’s lead IaaS service is based on a global cloud infrastructure called SoftLayer. This program provides different machine virtualization services that can run both advanced operating systems and analytics software. This program is based on a pay-as-you-go model.

 

PaaS is the most complex layer. PaaS is a computing platform that allows creation of applications of software fast without the complexity of buying and maintaining it or its infrastructure. The software created is then delivered over the internet. In this layer, IBM has the Bluemix platform, which offers developers a single solution environment to develop and deploy application across many domains.

 

Cloud services have come to the front end of companies of all sizes that are looking to improve their business through the use of IT solutions or services. The advantage of this approach is the scalability and accessibility of new applications, resources and services. Also, the initial cost of this method is lower. IBM’s cloud service vision allows customers to subscribe not only to standalone applications, but also to interact with Softlayer’s infrastructure with ease as well as on-site applications and SaaS offerings. IBM has invested over $1 billion to expand their footprint in cloud centers that are accessible to every major financial network around the world. These investments should lead to big revenue in the

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Cloud Services

Intel and Alcatel-Lucent Announce Their Cloud Mobile Network

One year ago Intel and Alcatel-Lucent, a network builder, formed a wireless partnership, and now they are ready to unveil their plan to move the mobile network from the cell tower into the data center. On Monday they revealed a new networking architecture called vRAN.

 

vRAN moves the processing that drives the mobile network to the cloud, and its servers are running on Intel Xeon processors, which Alcatel-Lucant runs many of the functions of the networks as software on. This concept is being called Cloud-RAN (RAN meaning radio access network), and it has the potential to change how networks are built.

 

index

 

This move is an apprehensive one, due to the highly distributed way mobile networks are designed. All of the processing power of mobile networks is at its fringes, and most of its expense, right under the radios that transmit signal to our phone. Carriers make the most to maximize the capacity of these base stations so they can handle the large demand for mobile data and voice at peak times.

 

Cloud-RAN would most the baseband processing into a central data center, and carriers could allow capacity to cell towers as needed. It is more efficient to build a network this way, and it could end up with more reliable and faster mobile service for customers. Rather than maxing out cell sites capacity and dropping LTE connections, Cloud-RAN could increase capacity at congested sites.

 

However, there are some limitations of the Cloud-RAN. Data centers will need to be close to the towers that they serve. Alcatel-Lucant and Intel have managed to push this distance to more than 100 kilometers, or 62 miles. This is far enough to build a virtualized network of thousands of cells.

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Cloud computing, Cloud Services, Cloud Technology

Tech Companies Competing To Be The Leader In Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a technology that allows centralized data storage and online access to computer services and resources through remote servers and networks. Many technology companies have begun to transition from IT resources into cloud computing and are competing to become the world leader. The better-managed companies will be able to make this transition more successfully than those who lack decent management. Here is a description of what some tech companies are doing to make this transition.

 

Cisco

cisco

Cisco’s transition into the cloud has allowed the company to grow further than its traditional routers and switches. Cisco has seen a dramatic increase in earnings from data relevant products and services. They also reported that its Unified Computing System data platform had a surge in users. Cisco is transitioning into software-defined networks (SDN), which will force current models to change their models. However, this will take a long time.

 

IBM

 imb

IBM’s cloud revenue shot through the roof last year, and this month its investors are planning on discussing the next steps to take for its hybrid cloud options. IBM hopes to make all the separate clouds act as one. They believe hybrid cloud arrangements are more appealing to companies and enable connections between new wave Web applications and traditional backend operations.

 

Oracle


oracle 

Oracle’s earnings from cloud growth grew by almost 50% last year. This includes their Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) services. Oracle’s focus has been on growing their cloud business, and its been showing. Mark Hurd, the CEO of Oracle, recently said that within 5-6 years cloud applications will take up to 60% of the total enterprise application market due to the development speed of new functional and easy upgrades.

 

VMware

 vmware

VMware was late to the cloud transition because they were profiting from server virtualization. This creates multiple operating systems on a single computer server. In 2013 they began to transition into the cloud and quickly started to distribute its own products. Like IBM, they went with the hybrid cloud idea so businesses could use private and public clouds depending on the level of security they want. They updated their vSpehere platform and the foundation on which its cloud service is built on in order to provide the hybrid cloud resources without change to any standard customs the customers use.

 

Workday

 workday

Workday builds and provides cloud applications for finance and human resource departments and is one of the fastest growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud space and big data business. Their revenues have been consistently increasing by more than 50%.

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Cloud computing, Cloud Hosting, Cloud Server, Cloud Services, Cloud Technology

Contemplating the Cloud

Cloud computing is being adopted at an exponential rate, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) arrangements being the leader. In the corporate sphere, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is leading. IaaS offers virtual hardware, storage capacity, and network connections. Another type of service is the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) which allows users to build applications on the internet.

 

Utilization of the cloud promises savings, flexibility, and ease, which is why many companies have begun to implement it. There are some big decisions to make before they can successfully apply cloud computing. These include: public, private, or hybrid clouds; cost-benefit analysis, and risk assessment.

 

cloud puzzle

 

Scenarios

When a company is considering a SaaS arrangement, the motivation is hardware or software upgrades. Usually a company has an old on-site application and they need to upgrade because the old system is running out of support. Since the cost of an upgrade may be comparable to a replacement, cloud computing should be seriously considered. If they opt for a private cloud, they are the only tenants and they own the license or software. This may be favorable for a company who wishes to cut costs and runs a tight IT division. A public or hybrid approach would be better suited for a company who experiences spikes in application usage or who wants their resources spent elsewhere.

 

Prominence of SaaS

SaaS has become the leader in the market for customer relationship management, supply chain management, payroll benefits, time and attendance, and ERP software. Since 2000, it has grown from being virtually nonexistent to accounting for just over half of all software deals last year. SaaS is beneficial for small companies due to its replacement cycle of only two to three years versus nine years with licensed software. Next, companies look towards IaaS and PaaS.

 

ERP Resistance

ERP systems are the last thing to be sent to the cloud. Integration of applications, data stewardship and governance all has higher priority than replacing or updating ERP systems. This is because ERP systems are high customized. Manufacturing companies have been the most resistant to adopt ERP SaaS solutions because the customization and integration it requires make it difficult for on site cloud systems to compete. Other highly regulated industries have also been reluctant to implement cloud arrangements due to burdensome compliance requirements.

 

Capital vs. Operating Expenses

One factor to consider when looking into cloud arrangements is capital vs. operating expenses. Cloud arrangements are more attractive to companies whose performance is measured return on assets deployed. On the other hand, regulated companies aren’t interested in cutting fixed assets, so they might be more likely to hold onto their data centers and other IT infrastructures and build out private clouds within these systems to reduce operating expenses. New companies and startups will most likely implement SaaS applications.

 

Other Considerations 

The cloud could potentially impact worker productivity, security issues, privacy issues, interdependency, and compatibility with other applications. Issues can arise when a security breach occurs, when the contract ends, and ownership issues. These risks need to be evaluated individually to come to the best conclusion for the specified use of the cloud.

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